Welcome to this course on creating 3D Style boards in Photoshop basics
Lesson 1. Getting Started with Photoshop
For interior design, The options I like to use for setting up my Photoshop interface can all be found in the windows tab. It is the best point to start as we dive into Photoshop basics.
PALLETS AND PROPERTIES (Photoshop basics)
pallets (window)
I like to use is the layers palette, the tools pallet, my canvas and that’s pretty much it most of the time. We will get into the details of these in future lessons. But for now, just know this is the layout I will be using.
-layers palette (Photoshop basics)
is a palette that allows us to control which image will be visible above or below another, its essential in bringing the style boards to life and making them appear 3d.
-tools palette (Photoshop basics)
This is where all the action is, this is like our tool box that we take to work. Without it, we can’t do much at all. Overtime focus on learning the hot keys for these tools to speed up your workflow. Heres where to find a list of the default hotkeys https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/default-keyboard-shortcuts.html
canvas
This is the term i like to use when talking about my photoshop document, i guess i like to think of it as more of an art work that a document. call it what you want 😃
Properties within different Photoshop basics tools. This is where you can customize your tools to have different strengths appearances and much more. this is where subtleties can be tweaked to make your interior designs pop
Color Fg color you can choose a color by clicking on the top square. This will be the color that your tools, like the paint bucket, will use.
bg color
You can choose a color by clicking on the bottom square. This can be used to have a backup color that you may want to have handy without having to change the FG color over and over. It’s also useful when using the gradient tool, but we will get into that in a later lesson.
Color picker
With the paint bucket or paint brush tool selected you can hold ”alt” and sample any color within you interface including objects and images from your layers palette.
(SIMPLE tools and Shapes)
In design many times we can sum up ideas using simple shapes, the best way i like to use when creating simple shapes is a follows.
Marquee Tool- Squares, Circles (Photoshop basics)
This is a powerful tool when creating types of shapes, as you will see in the following tutorials we can create rooms we can create chairs and other furniture with just a few shapes.
The lasso tool (more organic selections like plants)
This tool can be used for hand-drawn detail work when removing certain areas from layers, when cutting out backgrounds from furniture images or when creating organic shapes like plants and other features within the interior design.
Paint bucket tool- fill your selection
Another very common tool you’re going to be using a lot is the paint bucket tool. as we mentioned before the paint bucket tool is super powerful when creating and designing anything from furniture to walls to coffee cups. it will come in handy a lot in the future.
keyboard SHORT CUTS, HOTKEYS
Another important skill i want you to take away from this lesson and to practice is to get to a point where you don’t have to think about the Photoshop software and are able to just focus on the fun part of designing your style boards. To learn ways to navigate around the interface without having to use onscreen buttons and menus. you can do this with a few simple shortcuts. So let’s look at a couple of my most commonly used shortcuts:
Zoom (magnifying glass vs shortcuts)
cmnd+ or cmnd- on Mac (just use Cntrl instead of CMND as a substitute if you’re on a PC.) you will be using this a lot when getting into the details of your designs.
Pan
If you hold down space bar you have the ability to pan. this is used constantly be sure to learn this one.
Tab
hide the pallets And tab to turn it back on. some folks get distracted by clutter, especially designers, I think its wired into our genetics or something. this quick hot key fixes that.
Recap
So one more time: cmnd or ctrl + _ for zooming Space bar and drag to pan. Tab to hide and unhide the pallets.
HOMEWORK (Photoshop basics)
So if you’re new to photoshop we have covered a lot of information. What id like to do for each of these videos, to make sure you grasp the new concepts I teach and progress along the way, Is to provide an exercise and a worksheet at the end of each lesson that goes over the tools we covered.
Homework:
So using the tools we learned in this lesson, let’s make a couple shapes in each corner of the canvas. Then let’s make a string of circles from one shape to another. Now I want you to zoom into the shape and follow a string of dots all the way to the other. This all may seem very rudimentary but mastering these tools will make your photoshop experience moving forward much easier.
coming up next:
In the next lesson, we will start designing and look at how to create a 3-dimensional room using 2dimensional planes. Be sure to subscribe to the channel and receive new tutorials every week that will help you master photoshop for interior design. Did you like this tutorial? Leave us a comment below.