Make a Frame
page oneI have a pdf tutorial posted on how to make a wood frame with a beveled mat. In it, it gives instructions on how to use the Photoshop wood frame action to make a very plain frame. It also gives step by step directions on how to use your own frames (if you knew how to make them), and those found on free graphics sites.
At that time, there was a site, PSP Tips and Goodies, offering a large number excellent frames. However, that site seems to be gone, and I haven’t found anybody else offering comparable quality or selection. Therefore, I am going to show you how to make fancy frames of your own.
This tutorial is fairly complicated, and involves many steps, so please pay close attention, and don’t skip anything.
Start by choosing File > New, and creating a white document large enough to hold the frame you want to make. Save it with a suitable name, such as frame1, or a more descriptive name if you plan on making many different frames.
Choose the gradient tool in the toolbox. In its options bar, choose the linear gradient.
Still in the options bar, click on the gradient thumbnail (not the little arrow—the large thumbnail just to its left)
This will open the gradient editor dialog box. If it’s not already selected, choose the foreground to background gradient. It’s the first one, in the top left corner.
For Gradient Type, leave Solid selected. Leave smoothness at 100 %. Next, look at the gradient bar at the bottom of the page.
Notice the things that look like little houses, under the bar. These are color stops.
When you click on a color stop and select it, it looks like the one below.
You’ll notice that the ‘roof’ of the little house becomes black when the stop is selected.
We will be working only with the stops below the gradient bar. The stops above the bar control the gradient’s transparency, but we won’t be using them.
To start, click on the left-most color stop. With it selected, click once on the color square
to bring up the color picker. Note that you can also access the color picker by double clicking the color stop, itself.
In the color picker, find the RGB values. Type in 9 for all three values. You can press Tab to jump to the next box after typing in the value. Be sure and press Tab after the third one, too.
Click OK to exit the color picker.
Place your cursor right under the gradient bar, just to the right of the color stop you just recolored (the left-most stop). Click once to add a new stop.
With that new stop selected, once again, click the color square, or double click the color stop, to open the color picker. This time, enter RGB values of 73, 73, and 73. Click OK to exit the color picker. Now, click in the Location box next to the color square. Enter a value of 4 %.
Please note that color stops can also be moved by dragging. In this case, I want you to reproduce a particular gradient, exactly, so it’s much easier to use the Location box.
Continue clicking under the gradient bar, adding new stops, recoloring them, and relocating them with the values shown below. These are from left to right, and include the two we have already created. Be careful not to skip any.
In addition, between the eleventh, and twelfth, as well as between the twelfth and thirteenth, I want you to relocate the color midpoints. These are the little diamond shaped icons that show up to the left and right of any selected color stop.
When you select a color midpoint, it turns black. You can either drag it, or place it by typing a value in the Location box, as we’re doing with the color stops.
Okay, here are the values for all the stops I want you to add, starting from the left end of the gradient bar, and including the two already entered. Note that the final color stop already exists, so you won’t have to add it, or relocate it, but it’s color needs to be changed.
- RGB - 9, 9, 9. Location - 0 %
- RGB - 73,73,73. Location - 4 %
- RGB - 40, 40, 40. Location - 8 %
- RGB - 111, 111, 111. Location - 18 %
- RGB - 11, 11, 11. Location - 21 %
- RGB - 6, 6, 6. Location - 30 %
- RGB - 6, 6, 6. Location - 33 %
- RGB - 63, 63, 63. Location - 35 %
- RGB - 63, 63, 63. Location - 40 %
- RGB - 81, 81, 81. Location - 42 %
- RGB - 8, 8, 8. Location - 44 %
- RGB - 0, 0, 0. Location - 66 %. Now, select the color midpoint on this stop’s left, and set its location to be 92 %.
- RGB - 78, 78, 78. Location - 70 %. Select the color midpoint on this stop’s left, and set its location to be 80 %.
- RGB - 30, 30, 30. Location - 84 %
- RGB - 50, 50, 50. Location - 100 % (the end).
The completed gradient bar, with all stops in place is shown below.
Click on New to add this gradient to your
gradient presets. Click on OK to exit the dialog box. You can try and
Save your custom gradient, permanently, before leaving the gradient editor,
but it’s much easier to use the Preset Manager to do this. As it
is, your gradient will be lost if you have to delete your preferences
file, or if you reset the gradient tool to its defaults.
To save the gradient properly, choose Edit
> Preset Manager. From the Preset Type drop-down menu, choose Gradients.
In the palette, click on your new gradient’s thumbnail. It should
be the very last one in the palette. Shift click on any other gradients
that you’d like to save with your custom set. Then click on Save
Set, and name your set. Then click Save.
Any time you want to load your set, click
on the little arrow in the upper right corner of the gradient
tool’s options bar pop-up palette to access the palette menu
and find the list of available sets. To add your set to the current gradients,
rather than replace them, choose Append in the alert box that appears
after you select your set from the menu. If you do choose Replace, you
can get the defaults back at any time by choosing Reset Gradients from
that same menu.
Note that after creating and saving a new
set, it will not show up in the Gradient menu until you have closed and
reopened Photoshop. Individual custom gradients will show up immediately
as the last thumbnail in the default gradients palette.
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Make sure the Info palette is showing and that its units of measure are what you prefer—pixels, or inches. To change the units, click on the arrow in the palettes upper right corner and choose Palette Options.
Now, make a new layer by clicking on the New Layer button at the bottom of the Layers palette. Press Alt, and double click the new layer to rename it. Call it Left.
With this new layer selected, choose the rectangular marquee tool, and drag a vertical selection that is as long as, or longer than the longest side of the frame you want to make. Make a note of the width that appears in the Info palette. It is absolutely critical that all sides of a frame be of equal width, both for appearance, and so that the corners align. If you make a mistake anywhere, or want to recreate this frame, the width is what you’ll need to redraw the frame.
Make this first frame edge vertical, even if the longest side of your frame is horizontal. That way it will match what I did. The sides will end up in the right place in the end.
With this long, skinny selection active, choose the gradient tool in the toolbox. Pick the linear gradient from the options bar. Choose the gradient we just made from the pop-up palette.
It’s the last one, in the last row.
Precisely from the left side of the active selection, click and drag to the right with the gradient tool . Magnifying the image will make it much easier to click exactly on the selection edge. While dragging straight to the right, press the Shift key to make sure you drag straight across. Release the mouse button at the other side of the selection, as exactly as you can manage. Then release the Shift key.
With the Left layer selected, go to the Layers palette menu and choose Duplicate Layer. Name this one Top. Choose Select > Deselect, or press Ctrl-D to deselect the frame edge.
With the Top layer selected, choose Edit > Transform > Rotate 90° CW. Choose the move tool, and move this layer so that the corner overlaps the Left frame. Zoom in on the corner, and, with the move tool selected, use the arrow keys to position the corners precisely. You want to move this:
to be lined up, exactly, like this:
Move the Top frame up and down to make sure it is exactly lined up with the Left frame behind it, at the top.
Next, select the polygonal lasso tool. It’s hidden under the regular lasso in the toolbox.
With the Top layer selected, click once, directly on the upper left corner
of the frame.
Drag diagonally down to cross precisely over the inner corner. Don’t click
right on the inner corner. It’s too easy to bite off a smidgen of the frame.
Be safe, and click a little bit in the clear, while making sure the selection
line crosses exactly over the inner corner.
That line is the only one that needs to be precise in this selection.
Click to create a wide selection, circling, clockwise to include all of
the overlapping portion of the top frame which is to the left of the line
we just selected.
When you are over the point where you started, and see the little circle
next to the cursor, as shown above, click to close the selection. Then
press the Delete key to remove the excess part of the Top frame.
With the Top layer still selected, go to
the Layers palette menu and choose
Merge Down.
Here’s what we have so far. Please note, that this frame, and most
fancy frames have an inner and outer side. You can see that the gradient
steps are different on the outside edge from those on the inside edge.
Therefore, you need to pay a little bit of attention when copying, and
rotating the sides in the process of making your frame. You would notice
right away, in any event, because your corners wouldn’t line up.
I’ll show you how to make the other two sides, next.
Continue on page two
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Copyright © 2004 by Jay Arraich.
All rights reserved.
All photographs copyright ©2004 by Jay Arraich
jay@arraich.com
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