Tutorial - Creating Overlays

Overlays are digital files, in general JPG or PNG used to add texture and change the look of your pictures. You creating your own overlay you can use it to make your own background papers.

1.     Start Adobe Photoshop.

2.    Create a new document and make it 12”x12” or 3600x3600pixels at 300DPI.

3.    Select the color you want your text to be.  For overlays I usually use a grey color, this make it easier when I want to add color to the overlay. For the purpose of the tutorial I will use black.

4.    Select the T from the palette bar on the left

5.    Next pick the font you want to use and the size.  For the purpose of this tutorial I choose Arial 36pt

6.    Click on the blank space where you will be creating your overlay

7.    Then type I space space space space School

8.    Now click on the arrow in the palette on the left side

9.    Move the text to the upper left hand corner

10.    Then from the layers palette on the right hand side Right click and select duplicate layer, click OK

11.    Move the new layer (which is directly on top of the previous layer) over to the right of the first I School

12.       Duplicate and move the layer 3 more times until you have the entire row filled



13.       Next select Layer->Merge Visible. 

14.    Then from the layers palette on the right hand side Right click and select duplicate layer, click OK

15.    Move the new layer (which is directly on top of the previous layer) below the first line of I School

16.    Continue duplicating the layers and moving them down until the entire page is filled.

17.       Merge all of the layers into one layer Layer-> Merge Visible

18.       Select the splat (shape icon) from the left palate and choose a heart

19.       Click on the I School document and draw a heart between I and School

20.    Click on the Layers Palette on the right hand side, right  click and choose Rasterize layer.

21.    Duplicate the heart layer and move it to the next I School, continue until one line is complete (remember you will need to click on the Arrow on the left hand palette to be able to move the layer)

22.  From the layers Palette click on the I School layer to make it invisible



23.    Click on one of the Heart layers and select Layer->Merge Visible

24.    Turn back on the I School layer

25.    Duplicate the Heart layer and move it down until the entire page is filled.

26.    Turn off the I School Layer

27.    Click on one of the Heart layers and select Layer->Merge Visible (you should now have two layers)

28.    Turn back on the I School Layer

29.    To save as an overlay you will need to save each layer as a PNG file. To do this just hide one layer and then click on save, it will save the visible layer.

30.    You are now ready to add color to the layers.  You can use the previous Tutorial Using Overlays if you need help with this.

Here is an example I did with mine.

You can also get the pdf of this here at 4shared.

For those of you that don't use Photoshop there is a PNG of the Overlay included with the PDF.