#3 Going back to Kindergarten with Filters

Well here goes my next post.

This week, I became a little kid again and touched everything I could put my hands on. By that, I mean that I looked at everything Photoshop had to offer. I played with all of the filters,  tools, blending styles, etc, but I didn't think much about everything. I was just window shopping, seeing what would look good with what I would want to do. Some of the effects that I could make looked good, so I took a note of them here. Later, when I start making long animations, I can come back here and figure out what to do when I want to have a certain style.

I'll first write where to find the effect, then I'll write what one could do with it. Again, these are just effects I like. They're not everything Photoshop has.

Filters

Filter --> Filter Gallery... --> Artistic Folder --> Cutout

Self Explanatory. If applied to a picture, it will turn it into a sort of collage-looking thing. It makes the picture look like it was drawn. I could use it as a shortcut for making backgrounds, because it keeps the "animated film" style.

Filter --> FIlter Gallery... --> Artistic Folder --> Glass

Also Self Explanatory. This filter would, like Cutout, help with making the background, but I could also add it to an illustration instead. It takes a picture, then it puts an imaginary 'window' in front of it, creating ripples and bumps in the photo.

Filter --> Distort --> Wave...

This probably can do a lot more, but this filter could create a cool broken TV look. You know, like when the image looks barely coherent and it's getting wavy, then pixelated. It'd be hard to animate though, because it only changes the image. There's no option to animate it... Like every other filter.

Filter --> Blur --> Lens Blur...
There are a lot of blurring options, and all of them have a slight difference as to what they do. Lens blur, for me, would be the most ideal to use. There are a lot of small things you can change to the type of blur within this option, and it blurs an image like how a camera would blur its image.

Filter --> Noise --> Add Noise...
To those who know what noise is in movies, then you probably know why I would choose this. When selected, it adds a grainy, realistic look to the image. It adds more tone/feeling to the image, in my opinion.

Filter --> Render --> Lighting Effects...
I don't really know how to explain this. With this effect, you can highlight an area, and it'll turn brighter. The rest of the space will turn darker. It's like adding a 2D spotlight to the image.

There are probably more filters that I would want to use, but I was just testing all of them out with a picture I found in google images. Maybe some of the effects were made to better work with illustrations.

I want to make a gif for every post to keep honing in my photoshop skills. Sorry if I give seizures to anyone. This one was at 15fps.