Tutorial - How to weave string through alpha

[MelissaD]

Carol asked if I would mind putting together a tutorial on weaving stings through alphas. An example of this can be found in my page "Tomorrowland Speedway".


I was thrilled she asked, and I hope that this tutorial is easy to understand. I am going to offer it to you as a download, as well as post the images here. The kit I am using is my "Super Stuntman" kit. The program I am using is Photoshop CS3, but you should be able to alter it to fit your program.

To download this tutorial, click here: Weaving Tutorial
























This technique can be used with more than just weaving a string or ribbon through an alpha. You can weave then through frames and other elements as well. Get creative!

If you have any questions, feel free to post them and I will do my best to answer. As with just about everything in Photoshop, there are many ways to do this, and this is just to show you how I personally do this technique. I hope it helps!

[Carolc]

Melissa, this is awesome!

Your instructions are so clear and easy to understand – the screen shots totally help. I don’t have the same program you do (I have PSE), but I have a lot of the same tools. I am definitely going to try this out. Thanks so much for writing this out!

[hobbes130]

Great explanation thank you Melissa. I had figured out how to make things look as if they are weaving around objects but I had not figured out the way to shadow so now I can give this a try

In fact I had no idea what the burn tool was for - self taught on photoshop and there are so many tools I don't use.

I learnt how to do vignettes yesterday for a challenge on scrapmatters and I love that technique as well. Perhaps we should have a regular tutorial feature on here

[Carolc]

I'd love to have more tutorials on here! If anyone knows a special skill that they wouldn't mind sharing, we'd love to get a 'how to' on it. Does anyone have any 'how do you...?' questions? Maybe someone can help.

[hobbes130]

I'd love to see one on recolouring parts of the photo I am sure that the way I do is the most long winded way possible

I also really struggle with getting good extractions from photos I can do it but only really if they are going to be blended into a background or something similar they are never good enough to be a stand alone element in a layout.

[Carolc]

Those are both great ideas! I totally struggle with the recoloring tool. Every time I try to use it, it seems to just come out gray.

Is there anyone out there that could help us learn how to do these things?