Hello everyone this is Chris from Spoon Graphics
bringing you another video tutorial for Adobe Photoshop.
Today we're going to combine a few simple tools and techniques to produce an old and
distressed blueprint effect.
If you're a bit of a whizz with 3D design software, this effect is ideal for creating
cool technical drawings for your concept car, spaceship, or even character models.
Export views of the front, side and top, and maybe even a wireframe view to combine into
a cool presentation.
Alternatively, you could also find some existing real life technical drawings, like my example
of an F-16 fighter, or even create the effect from a photograph.
I'll show you these two examples in this tutorial.
The most realistic results are achieved if you can find an a real technical drawing to
work with.
I found a link to a whole bunch of aircraft data sheets via Wikimedia, which happen to
be in the public domain so you can use them to create cool stuff like this.
Open the PDF in Adobe Photoshop and select the page that has the imagery you want to
use.
Grab the Marquee Tool and draw a selection around the main portions of the page you want
to use and press CMD (or CTRL on Windows) and C to Copy.
Create a new document and paste in the graphic.
Select the Crop tool and enlarge the canvas while holding the ALT key to provide a little
padding around the edges.
Select the Background in the layers panel and set a blue hue such as #051340 as the
foreground colour selection.
Use the ALT+Backspace shortcut to fill the background.
Select the graphic layer and change the blending mode to Screen to render the white areas transparent,
then go to Image > Adjustments > Invert to switch the colours around so it's the linework
that shows up in white against the blue background.
Next we'll create a grid pattern to overlay onto the drawing.
Zoom in and use the Marquee tool to gauge the size of the grid squares.
Create a new document at your desired size, which in my case is 40x40 pixels.
Create a new layer, then turn off the background layer in this new square document.
With the Marquee tool still selected, draw a thin 2px selection running along the top
and left edges and fill them with white using the CMD+Backspace shortcut.
Go to Edit > Define Pattern, then give it a recognisable name.
Close this document to return back to the main blueprint effect.
Create a new layer, then go to Select > All.
Grab the Fill tool and change the setting in the header bar to Pattern.
Select your grid pattern from the list and click on the canvas to fill the entire layer.
Use the marquee tool to make a selection that matches the border around the technical drawing.
Go to Select > Inverse, then delete the excess grid pattern from around the edges of the
design.
Currently this grid pattern is a little too clean and intrusive.
Download my free pack of Dust and Scratches textures and open one of them into Adobe Photoshop.
Select All and Copy the texture, then return to the main blueprint document.
Add a Layer Mask to the gridlines layer, then hold the ALT key while clicking the layer
mask to edit its contents.
Paste in the texture, then hit CMD+T to Transform, and rotate and scale the texture to fit the
canvas.
Click the layer thumbnail on the left to exit out of mask mode.
Select the Layer Mask again, then use the CMD+I shortcut to invert its contents, followed
by CMD+L to open the Levels options.
Drag the shadows slider all the way over to the right of the histogram, then move the
highlights slider in the Output levels setting below towards the left.
Balance between the amount of distressing with the Input Levels and the overall impact
of the gridlines with the Output levels sliders.
To give the design the impression that it's an old print on paper, download and open a
paper texture into Photoshop.
Links to all the resources I'm using are in the description area below.
Copy and paste the paper texture into the document, then press CMD+T and scale and rotate
it to fit the canvas.
Go to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate, followed by Image > Adjustments > Invert, then change
the blending mode to Screen.
Turn down the opacity to adjust the amount of ageing this texture applies.
I went with 70%.
You get the best results when using real technical drawings, or 3D models where you can specify
perfect front, back and side views, but you can still make use of this effect with photographs.
In this example, I'm using this photo of a house.
You'll always have perspective, reflections and unwanted elements to deal with, but certain
shots still look pretty good.
Begin by desaturing the image, then go to Filter > Stylize > Find Edges.
Go to Image > Adjustments > Invert to make the linework white.
Grab the Pen tool and zoom right in to the document.
Draw a quick selection around the outline of the subject to remove it from the unwanted
background elements.
The path doesn't have to be perfect, and you might have to make up the outline in any areas
that are hidden within shadows, but follow it all the way back to the start point.
Right click and choose Make Selection with zero feathering, then copy this selection
into a new document.
Use the Crop tool to extend the canvas size to provide some space around the edges, then
fill the background with blue.
Change the blending mode of the house layer to screen to render the black areas transparent,
leaving just the white outlines.
Depending on the size of the document, you might need to create a new pattern swatch.
Visualise the size using the Marquee tool, then fill the top and left edges of a new
document with white.
Go to Edit > Define Pattern to create a new gridline pattern.
Create a new layer in the main document and apply the grid pattern using the Fill tool.
Open up a Dust and Scratches texture, then Select All and make a Copy.
Add a layer mask to the gridlines layer, then ALT+Click the mask to edit its contents.
Paste in and scale the texture to size.
Click the layer thumbnail to exit out of the mask, then activate the mask again.
Press CMD+I to Invert, followed by CMD+L to edit the levels.
Drag those Input and Output sliders to distress the grid lines.
Use the CMD+A shortcut to Select All, then with the Marquee tool selected, right click
and choose Transform Selection.
Hold the ALT key while scaling the selection inwards.
Zoom in and count the number of squares to check the spacing is equal on all sides.
Go to Select > Inverse, or hit the CMD+Shift+I shortcut, then fill this selection with black
in the layer mask with the ALT+Backspace shortcut to effectively erase the grid pattern around
the edge.
Inverse the selection again, then create a new layer.
Right click and choose Stroke and configure the settings to 5px, White, Inside.
Deselect to see a neat border around the edge of the gridlines.
Reduce the opacity if necessary to tone down the strength of this outline.
A similar outline can also be added to the actual blueprint graphic.
Double click the layer to open the Layer Styles.
Add a Stroke and configure the settings to 5px, Inside and the colour White.
Finish off this variant of the blueprint effect with the same paper texture, desaturated,
inverted and set to the Screen blending mode to allow the grungy texturing to show through
onto the artwork.
The final result is a cool blueprint effect you can use to create some great poster art,
or graphics as part of presentational design material for a product.
So I hope you find these tips handy in your future projects.
If you enjoyed the video or learnt anything new, click the subscribe button to stick around
for all my upcoming tutorials.
Have a browse through my channel and my Spoon Graphics website to find loads more tutorials
and free resources, otherwise thank you very much for watching, and I'll see you in the
next one!