What we need are needles. Needles and baubles. The problem is that as the branch part of the Christmas tree is wrapped round, the needle texture needs to be wrapped round as well. Here is one possible solution using the all powerful PhotoShop. I've started off by copying the branch outline from Illustrator and filling it with green.
Use Image -> Canvas size to make sure that the canvas is exactly square.
Add a new layer for the needles.
Choose the Dune Grass brush in the brush presets list and set the brush size to around 50 pixels. Set the foreground colour to a light green and the background to a dark green.
Sweep the brush over the new layer to completely cover it in grass.
Add a small drop shadow in the layers window using the setting above.
Click on Filter -> Distort -> Polar co-ordinates. This is the step that neatly wraps the effect round for you.
With the Move Tool, move the new layer so that it is centred over the centre of the branch and resize it if necessary.
Create a blank layer above the needles layer. Select the new layer and the needles layer and select Merge Layers. This flattens the drop shadow effect into the needles layer.
Click to select the branch layer. Use the magic wand tool to select the branch outline. You should see the marching ants round the outline.
Select the needles layer. (Layer 2 above) Click on Select -> Invert selection and delete the excess needles.
That's it! Add the baubles - perhaps the subject of another tutorial!
Print out and assemble.
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Time to make the Paper Rock model move! My plan is a to add a pendulum drive and hopefully make the head nod up and down and perhaps make an arm strum on the guitar strings. To that end, I need a box into which to fit a mechanism. A loudspeaker cabinet seems the most fitting.
I'm still planning the mechanism. So in the meantime, I'm working on artwork. Here, I'll show how I created the texture effect for the front grill of the loudspeaker cabinet. My starting point is the net of a box 90mm x 85mm x 46mm as an Illustrator file. I've picked a blue-grey for the background colour. I'll be adding the grill texture to the top square of the box. Follow the directions below to complete the texture. Members can download the completed file for free.
Start by drawing a square over the front of the box 5mm smaller all round than the size of the box front. Fill the new square with a radial fill graduating from light grey to dark grey. Add a 3 point off-white border stroke.
Having created the grill background, time now to create the holes in the grill. Start by drawing a small black circle, top left in the grill.
Select the circle the copy it once by <shift><alt> dragging it so that the new circle is roughly half a diameter from the first. Repeatedly press <cmd>d (<ctrl>d on a PC) until the full row of circles is complete. Select them all and group them by clicking <cmd>g.
Select the row of circles. <alt> drag it down and to the right to create a second row of circles between and below the first. Select both rows and again group them.
Select the double row of circles.
<Shift><alt> drag it downwards to create a new double row equally spaced with the first. Repeatedly <cmd>d until you have more than filled the whole box front with rows of circles.
Select all the rows and group them together into one giant group.
Zoom right in then select the circles and <alt> drag them to create a second set of circles.
Select the lower set of circles and set their fill colour to white. Move them just slightly right and down. This will simulate light catching at the bottom edge of the holes in the grill.
Zoom out to take a look!
Group both layers of circles.
Draw a rectangle above your original white rectangle.
Select the circles and the top rectangle then click on object->clipping mask->make. This will make a clipping mask using the top rectangle and will hide any circles that are overlapping the edge of the box.
In true Marshall Amp style, type out the chosen name for your speaker cab. Make three copies and colour them as below. In the objects below the grey writing is at the top of the stack, the black at the bottom.
Drag the white over the black with the overlap shown.
Drag the grey onto the other two and group all three together.
Drag the text onto the grill and resize it if necessary. Quite an effective speaker grill I hope you agree!
Print out and put together the parts.
I'm hoping there will be enough room inside the cab to fit a pendulum and drive linkages. If not I can stack a couple of cabs on top of one another or add an amplifier head.
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A bit of PhotoShop work today. As part of the giraffe model I need some giraffe textured pelt. After a bit of experimentation this is what I have come up with.
Create a suitable size document. I use 1000x1400 pixels. Change the background layer to Layer 0 by double clicking it in the layers palette then fill with orange.
Set the foreground colour to a light cream suitable for the lines between the colour patches.
Next choose Filter -> Texture -> Stained Glass...
Choose appropriate numbers for the cell sizes and border thickness.
Set the light intensity to zero.
Click Okay.
Use the Magic Wand tool to select the cream border lines.
Invert the selection using Select -> Invert. The orange areas will now be selected.
Create a new layer of just the orange patches by clicking
Layer -> New Layer -> Via Copy
Change the layer names as appropriate. (Always good practice!)
Fill the bottom Borders layer with cream.
Choose the patches layer.
Use the Magic Wand tool to re-select the cream border.
Invert the selection again.
Shrink the section with Select -> Modify - > Contact. (I used 15 pixels)
Soften the edges of the selection using Feather.
Select -> Modify -> Feather (I used 5 pixels here.)
Fill the selected areas with a dark brown colour.
Re select the outside of the orange shapes.
Add a little noise. Filter -> Noise. This will give the next filter something to work on.
Use the Crystallize filter to coarsen the texture a little.
Filter -> Pixelate -> Crystallize
Add a fur effect with the motion blur tool.
Filter -> Blur -> Motion Blur...
That's it!
Save out the file as a .jpeg file and drop it into Illustrator. Then all that is needed is to cut it to size with a Clipping Mask
And here is the result.
I'm rather pleased with it!
Right. Off to take #1 daughter for a driving lesson. Hold on to your hats!
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