User Lookup Tutorial

So after many Many MANY requests for a tutorial on how to make our layouts, I decided to give it a try. Please keep in mind that this is my 1st tutorial EVER, so be kind ;)

Keeping that in mind, if you find any problems with the tutorial or can think of a way to improve it, please email me to let me know! If this tutorial is a success then I will eventually make them for the others types of layouts we make at TGB.

First thing you will need to use this tutorial is Abode Photoshop. It is possible to create these layouts with just about any other program (even MS Paint), but I use Photoshop, so thats what this tutorial will use. If you don't have Adobe Photoshop you can sometimes download a 30 day free trial here. It requires that you create an account, and the download is kinda hefty, but it's well worth the effort in the end (in my opinion!)

Once you have Photoshop all nice and installed, you will need to download this template file. Unzip it and open it up in Photoshop.

So now that all the technical stuff is over it is time to get creative - this is the fun part!

You screen should look somethings like this:



The area boxed in blue is called your Layers Section, the area box in green is called your Tool Section, and the area boxed in red is called the Menu Bar Section. I will be referring to these three areas quite often during the tutorial.

The Background

First up we will need find a suitable background to use. You can either use a solid color background, or a pattern tile background. The solid color option is super simple. Right now we have a solid white background. To change the color go over to your Tool section and choose the Flood Fill icon . If you don't see this icon, you probably have the Gradient Fill icon selected. To find the Flood Fill, right click on the Gradient Fill and then scroll over and click on the little Fill bucket. Now you need to choose your color. Select the top color swatch by double clicking it . Select your color, and click OK. Now go over to your Layers Section, scroll all the way to the bottom layer that is called 'background' and click on it. It will become highlight in blue.



Now go over to any part of the template that is white and fill it! The background should now be the color of your choice. You can do this as many times as you like until you are happy with the result.

To make a pattern tile background, you will either need to make or find a seamless background tile. We have some available here. I will be using the green and pink floral background. Open up the tile in a new window within photoshop. Save it! You will need it again later. Now go up to the menu bar and select Edit, then Define Pattern. A screen will pop up. Select OK.



Again, select the Flood Fill bucket, but this time go up to the menu bar and right at the left hand side you will see a drop down menu that says Foreground. Click on the down arrow and select Pattern. Right beside that you will see a little box. Click on the down arrow there and find the pattern you just created, it will be the last one.



On the template now go over to the Layers Section, select the Background layer, it's the last one. Now all you have to do is click anywhere on the white area, and your background should be one continuous seamless background!