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Have you ever tried to create a smooth selection using the Lasso tool? It’s just about impossible, right? (If it sounds like it isn’t, give it a try—open a new document, take the Lasso tool, and draw any random selection, and then look at the selection. It’s jaggy—not crazy jaggy, but it’s certainly not smooth.) If you were trying to create a selection for an interface design, or a realistic element of some sort, it would just be too jaggy to use. Here’s a tip:
(1) Press L to get the Lasso tool and draw around the area you want to use as your selection.
(2) Press the letter Q to enter Quick Mask mode (your selection will now be surrounded with a reddish hue).
(3) Go under the Filter menu, under Noise, and choose Median. As you move the Radius slider to the right, you’ll see your edges smooth out.
(4) When it looks nice and smooth, click OK then press the letter Q again to return to Standard mode, and you’ll have nothing but a nice rounded selection.
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Corey shows you how to re-create the graphic effect from the new Bourne Legacy movie poster. With an extra twist!
Corey has a cool trick for creating a flare brush and see how one effect can lead to another.
See how you can add some subtle touches to give that green screen studio shot the Hollywood treatment.
Corey shows how to create reflective holiday ornaments using 3D in Photoshop.
If you have a multilayer composition and you
want to apply an effect to all the layers at once, don’t flatten the layers–use a composite layer instead. Hide the layers you want excluded, and press Shift-Command-Option-E (PC: Shift-Ctrl-Alt-E). A new layer will be created at the top containing a merged copy of all the visible layers.
Another option is to create a new layer at the top of the stack and make it active. Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) each layer you want to include to make those layers active, as well. Press Option-Command-E (PC: Alt-Ctrl-E).
by Colin Smith