Presidia Creative

Electro-DJ Flier Tutorial

Jan 8, 2009 Tutorial

Today, it is my pleasure to feature the first tutorial on PresidiaCreative.  In this tutorial, we’ll walk through the creation of an electro/DJ house music flier.  We’ll start by adding color, then we’ll add some lens flares for lighting.  Next, we’ll add some shapes into the flier, and then import two images and blend them.  We’ll apply some final colorization, and then lastly apply text to help bring the flier together.

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Electro/DJ Flier Tutorial.

Final Image Preview

In this tutorial, we’re going to create a house music inspired flier by combining several images and applying some sleek lighting effects.
So what are you waiting for? Let’s get started.

First, get your images together. For the purposes of this tutorial, I’ll be using a picture of my friend Alexandru, and a picture of a scratcher disk from Virtual DJ.

Step 1 : Setup

Create a new document of 500×500 and use the paint bucket tool to fill the background layer with a dark color. In this tutorial I’m using #323232.

Let’s start from the top with the light effects. Select a standard round brush, increase the brush size to around 300px – 400px, and the Hardness to 0%.
Create a new layer, and with the brush, paint over the top with #61a6f3. Set the blending mode of this layer to Linear Dodge.

Create another layer, and repeat the previous step with different colors. For this case, I’ll be using a light blue and pink. Set the blending mode of this layer to Overlay.

Okay, well that looks good so far. Now let’s add the lens flare. This requires some imagination on your part for placing the exact point where the lens should be visible. Create a new layer, fill it with black, and set the mode to screen.  Next, go to Filter -> Render -> Lens Flare and place your lens flare on the colors.
Keep the lens flare somewhat small. Set the blend mode of this layer to Screen. Repeat the step again so that you have two flares, as I’ve done.

Step 2 : Lines and Circles

Let’s start to add the circles and lines. First, select the brush tool, set your foreground color to white and select a small soft brush.
Now select the ellipse tool and draw a circle on a new layer. Place it on one of the corners of your document as I’ve done.
Right click and select stroke path. Choose “Brush” and hit OK.
Now, select the pen tool, right click on the layer and click on delete path. There, you have a nice white circle!

Now, add more circles like that on the document. Do each on separate layers so you have control over each individual circle (this will allow you to tweak it later).
Lastly, add another last circle bigger than the others. In Layer Styles, add Outer Glow and set the color to white, the blending mode to Screen and the opacity to 75%.
Group the circle layers if you’re satisfied with the outcome.

Well, this looks kinda cool. Create new layers and start adding lines or extra circles as you see fit.
You can do the same technique as before to make circles, or you can use the Pen Tool and Line Tool.
It’s better if you do each individual object in a separate layer and later group them, so that it’s easy to get back when you make a mistake.

Remember, in Photoshop there is no exact way to make a design. You can use any method you wish to create the shapes.
Also, you could substitute different shapes into this design to suit your tastes.

Step 3 : Adding Images

Alright, let’s get going with the images. We’ll start with the artist. Crop the image of your artist and paste it onto the document. Resize it and place on the botton right corner.
Duplicate the layer, and set it invisible so that you will have a default image to go back to if you do anything wrong.
Click on the duplicated layer on the layers palette and press CTRL-SHIFT-U on the keyboard so that you have a black and white image.

Now, select the Burn Tool and darken bottom of the image and any other areas you desire.

Now, add the scratcher image, crop it and place it under the artists image layer.
Using the same technique as before, with Burn Tool, darken the areas you don’t want. For this image, I’m going to darken the middle and the bottom of the scratcher.

Now, let’s add the color layers over these images. First, with Rectangle Tool, add a black colored rectangle on the bottom of your document.
Right click on this layer in layer palette and select Rasterize Layer. Set the opacity of this layer to 50%.

Now, create a new layer, and make sure your forground color is set to white. Select a large soft bursh, and paint over the right bottom corner.
Play with the layer blending modes until you get something that looks similar to as mine. It might differ with the images you use but give a try.
When your done with it, create another layer, except this time paint it with pink.
Set the blending mode of this layer to Overlay.

Alright, we’re almost done, time to just add the finishing touches.

Step 4 : Adding Text

Alright, this is pretty simple, we’re just going to add some text. Depending on your flier, you might want to go with a creative font.
Add the name of your artist and anything else that you feel like, and remember to choose colors that will fit with the final image.
That’s it, you now have your house-inspired flier. Hopefully you enjoyed it and learned something.

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Tags: Alexandru, Background Layer, Blend Mode, Brush Paint, Brush Tool, Colorization, Different Colors, Dj House Music, Dj Music, Dj Tutorial, Dodge, Electro Dj, Exact Point, Flier, Foreground Color, House Music, Image Preview, Imagination, Lens Flare, Lens Flares, Light Effects, Lighting Effects, Lines And Circles, Paint Bucket Tool, Pleasure, Shapes, Social Networking Site, Step 1, Step 2, Virtual Dj