Header Tutorial

Ok, I figured that because there aren’t enough header tutorials out there … I would do one!! ^_^ Warning – very in-depth, but you’ll need a fairly good understanding of Photoshop to understand what I'm talking about. And I have trouble with explaining things … ^^ so if you get lost at all, feel free to ask! I’ll be happy to explain it to you. :D

We’ll be making this using Photoshop 7 (though I’m sure it’s easily translated)

Well the first thing I did is decided what images I was going to use. I choose to by the lovely anime artist Yurikin, this one and this one. I decided that because the first one had that big space on the left (because of her hair and … because I felt like it ^^;) I would use that as the main background picture, and the other picture as the decoration.

Open a new window in Photoshop at whatever size you want, and paste the image that is going to be your background. Adjust as necessary, making sure that you’ve resized the picture first if you have to. I flipped my image, because I can, by going to Image > Rotate Canvas > Flip Horizontal.

Depending on you’re image, it might not cover all of the space in your window, in which case we will have to do some adjusting. I created a new layer (Ctrl+Shift+N or Layer > New > Layer) and used the eyedropper tool to select one of the colours right at the edge of your image. I filled this layer with #F2BEFE, but you might have to use something different (depending on you’re image). Then I used the smudge tool and dragged the edge over to the side as much as I could without making it look too … odd.

This is what I have now. yea, I know it looks a little weird, but remember, we’re going to be adding stuff to the empty side, so never fear.


Then set to work on the second image (School Angel) – cropping, flipping and resizing it so that it will fit nicely onto the background. Crop and resize the second image to about 200x100, though it will depend on you’re using. Copy and paste this into the window with the header and move it to the bottom right hand corner.

Undo the cropping/flipping/resizing on “School Angel” so that you can do it again, but this time making the dimensions about 100x200. Paste it on top of everything and position however you like, but I suggest that this image be slightly further to the side, like mine is. Hopefully you understand?!

You should now have something like this

Now this header is rather boring, so lets add some colour, brushes and nice sparkly effects aye?!? Right click on the School Angel that is on the very top layer and select “Blending Options”, and a box should pop up. On the left hand side you will see a bunch of words with boxes beside them. Select the “Drop Shadow” at these settings:

Blend Mode: Multiply
Opacity: 75%
Angel: 120
Distance: 5
Spread: 0
Size: 5
And make sure the “Use Global Light” box is ticked

You’ll notice that with my image, each of the smaller images have drop shadows going in different directions. However, if you try to use the drop shadow effect on the bottom image, it wont work (unless you want the shadow to go in the same direction – which I didn’t.) so, to solve this problem, I created my own drop shadow. Create a new layer UNDERNEATH the two smaller images, but above the big layout picture. Then hold down the Ctrl button while selecting the image layer with your mouse. You should see that the curser will change and a selection of the picture will be selected. Press D and then Alt+Backspace and the selected area will fill with black. You can’t see it until you move it – so you’ll have to move it down and to the left slightly to make it noticeable. Like This

But that’s no drop shadow! I hear you say. Well, go to Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur and select a radius of 4 pixels. as you can see, it blurs the edges of the black box and makes it look like the images’ shadow! However, it is slightly lighter than the other images, so duplicate that layer (Ctrl+J) and set the opacity to about 15%. Now doesn’t it look cool?!

And now come the brushes! I used:
by some unknown source. Colour: #B70022 (ish)
On a new layer behind the makeshift drop shadow layer and above the background picture. As you can see, this is way to … blah! When you put it on the picture, so I used the Gaussian Blur again, this time with the strength on 2 pixels. I then duplicated this layer twice, then merged down twice getting this.

Set this layer to “Colour Burn”.

---

by some other unknown source. Colour: #9B55D8
I erased the bits that were sticking out/didn’t fit behind the images and set the layer to Hard Light. I also went to the Blending Options and gave this brush an Outer Glow (default options). However, I felt it was a little to much glow for my image, so I went back into the Blending Options and lowered the opacity of the glow. (this is up to you – if you don’t get what I mean, just leave it. XD)

I took this:
by _joni
And inverted it (Ctrl+I). Paste it on top of everything and set the layer to Screen, and erase everything that gets in the way. Then I lowered the opacity to around 85% because … I thought it looked better.

Do you have this yet!?</b>

Border!

I altered this border quite a bit, because I’m weird like that. First, I inverted it (so I can set it to screen and everything will be honky dory) and then set about cutting and pasting. You don’t have to do this, but I ended up with this.

Paste this on top of everything and set it to Screen.

Then come the textures! ^^ because it wouldn’t be a header if we didn’t have those! I used these:
1, 2, 3, 4

This section of the first texture I set to Overlay and erased some of the bits that were covering the face and eyes of the two smaller images.

I pasted the first texture on top of everything again, but I used a different section of the texture (this part in fact) and set it to Multiply at 30% Opacity.

The third texture – I first used a Gaussian Blur to make everything … less solid. Set it to Overlay and move it so that it’s where you want it.

Fourth Texture – another alteration of the first texture. Set to Soft Light.

Last texture: duplicated so that I could make it fit across the entire picture. Then I inverted it and then I used the Ctrl+Shift keys to select both of the layers with the “School Angel”. I got this and set it to Colour Dodge with the Opacity at 69%.

After ALLLLLLL that, this is what I came up with.

WOOT! The hard part is OVER! *wipes forehead* thank god! Now we can add text and tiny text … and that little decoration thingy underneath the text.

I typed “Fly My Angel” in Candy Sniper, size 30pt, Anti-alias on Smooth.
Then I added a Drop Shadow with these settings:

Blend Mode: Multiply
Distance: 0
Spread: 10
Size: 8

And set the layer to Overlay at 72% Opacity.

Now because the start of the text is very faded, I duplicated the text layer and Rasterize the layer. I then used the Marquee Tool to cut away everything except the “FL”. Lower the Opacity to about 50% so that it blends more in with everything else (and not like the first letters are popping up from the rest of the picture).

Then I added the Tiny Text in white (which wasn’t originally tiny … but I modified it and now it’s unreadable):
(on black so you can see it) by an unknown source
Set to Overlay and Duplicate

Finally, I also added this thingy:
in white and set to Overlay.

AND THAT’S IT!! ^^; I hope I didn’t bore you too much.

Oh, and I should also add that you should experiment with the textures and stuff that you have. copying straight from my tutorial would be very boring now wouldn't it?! and if you want to show me what you made with this tutorial, i would love to see!! ^_^