Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. For those of you who are using Photoshop version
CC and later, I'm going to show you how to create this great jig-saw puzzle effect using
a free plugin from Adobe, as well as how to create this retro, Formica pattern background.
Please note that this particular plugin is not work on versions earlier than CC.
If your version is earlier than CC and are thinking of upgrading, click the link in my video's
description for a 20% discount. Open an image you'd like to make into the puzzle. I downloaded
this image from Shutterstock. I provided this image that we'll make into a pattern later.
Its link is located in my video's description or project files.
Go to Window and "Browse Extensions Online".
The "Adobe Add-ons" page will open. If you're not already signed into
your Creative Cloud account, Adobe will ask you to sign in. Scroll down and click on "Photoshop" at the left.
In the "Search" field, type in "puzzle" and press Enter or Return.
Click "Free Puzzle Pieces".
When this page opens, click "Install". Minimize or close your Browser.
Whether you're on Windows or a Mac, locate and open your "Downloads" folder.
You'll see a zip file that says," Puzzlepieces".
Double-click it to open the file and open the "Puzzle Pieces" folder.
Click "Puzzle.atn". Immediately, in the Actions panel, you'll see a set of actions,
"named, " Puzzle". If you don't see the "Actions" panel, go to Window and "Actions".
I"ll expand the panel, so we can see more of the 20 actions in the set.
Each action will cut out between 2 and 192 puzzle pieces on separate layers. There are
separate actions for different aspect ratios and sizes within them.
For this example, I'll click 96 pieces on a 12 x 8 inch puzzle, however,
you can choose whatever you like, but whatever
you choose, we want to crop our image to that size. Open your Crop Tool and type into the
width and height fields the same size as listed in the action you chose. Make sure you type
in "in" for inches. Make its resolution 150 pixels per inch.
Make sure "Delete Cropped Pixels" is checked. Click the check-mark to crop your image.
To fit it back onto your canvas, press Ctrl or Cmd + 0.
Click the Play button to play the puzzle action.
Notice the action is creating individual layers that will comprise this particular puzzle. Since
the puzzle I chose for this example has 96 pieces, there'll be 96 separate layers created
in my Layers panel. You can see the selections of each puzzle piece being created by the
action. When it finishes the last puzzle piece, this message will appear. It's telling us
that we can adjust the bevel and drop shadow of all the puzzle pieces and by clicking "Continue",
we should look at the top left puzzle piece as a visual reference for all the pieces.
If we want to make adjustments to the bevel and/or drop shadow, we can do it here in the
Layer Style window. In this case, I'll leave their settings as is, so I'll click OK.
Instantly, all the pieces took on those attributes for their bevels and drop shadows. Now that we
made out puzzle, it's time to make space all around it, so we can add our background behind
our puzzle. Go to Image and "Canvas Size". Your canvas size is presently the same as
your Image size. I'll add 7 to 8 inches all around the puzzle. We can always crop it down
later if we want. Then, click OK.
To see your entire document, press Ctrl or Cmd + 0.
Open the retro, Formica image I provided. To make it into a pattern, open your Move Tool and
go to Edit and "Define Pattern". Name it whatever you'd like and click OK. Open back your puzzle
document and in the Layers panel, scroll to the bottom. Make your background active and
click the Adjustment layer icon. Click "Pattern" and click OK.
As you can see, the Pattern adjustment made that one panel into an entire pattern.
To see more of the Layers panel,
drag its bottom down. Let's start re-positioning individual puzzle pieces. make sure "Auto
Select" is checked. This automatically activates the corresponding puzzle piece that we click on.
Go to "View" and make sure "Snap" is not checked. If it is, just click on it to deactivate it.
Drag one of your puzzle pieces from its position.
To angle it, open your Transform ssing Ctrl or Cmd + T.
Go to a corner and when you see a curved, double-arrow,
rotate it to an angle you like. Then, press Enter or Return to accept it.
Continue these steps for other puzzle pieces that you'd like to reposition.
If you want a particular piece to be on top of other pieces,
drag that particular puzzle piece to the top of the Layers panel.
Continue to move pieces until your happy with their positions and angles. Next, we'll add
a drop shadow to the entire puzzle. First let's group all the puzzle pieces into a folder.
To do this, drag the slider to the bottom of the Layers panel and make the bottom puzzle
piece layer active. Drag the slider to the top and Shift-click on the top layer to make
all the puzzle pieces active. Press Ctrl or Cmd + G to place all of them into a folder.
Click the "fx" icon and click "Drop Shadow".
Change the Blend Mode to "Linear Burn" and the Opacity to 40%.
Uncheck "Global Light" and for the Angle, type in 90.
Make the Distance: 12 pixels and the Size: 15 pixels.
Click "Bevel & Emboss". The Style is "Inner Bevel", the
Technique is "Smooth, the Depth is 100% and the Direction is "Up". Make the Size: 4 pixels
and uncheck Global Light. Make the Angle approximately 143 degrees and the Altitude: 30 degrees.
Make the Highlight Mode: Linear Dodge the Opacity: 80%. The Shadow Blend Mode is Multiply
and its Opacity is 50%. Then, click OK.
Next, we'll angle our puzzle in perspective.
Make a composite snapshot of your entire image by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E on Windows
or Cmd + Shift + Option + E on a Mac.
Zoom out of your document by pressing Ctrl or Cmd and the minus key on your keyboard.
Go to Edit, Transform and "Perspective".
Go to a bottom corner and drag it out until you like its perspective. Then, press Enter or Return.
To crop your image, open your Rectangular Marquee Tool and drag a rectangular selection
over your document. Go to Image and Crop. Then, fit it back onto your canvas.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. Thanks for watching!