Why I choose "Wacken Metal Music Festival"?

In this post I will talk about my interest in Wacken Metal Music Festival. Actually, when I was sixteen years old, I’d started to listen to heavy metal and rock music. I was so excited about metal band which were lots of them around the world and they were increasing more and more.

In Addition, I’ve been listening to Metal and rock music since long time ago and after a while I’ve found out that listening to music is not enough for me and I need to go gigs, live music and concerts as well. However this can’t be happen for me because I don’t have enough money and opportunity to be in these events.

Moreover, I search a lot about these metal music events, and saw many live concert DVDs from internet and my computer. I saw that there is huge big fan of metal music that goes to these concerts and festival all around the world and they’re increasing more and more. So I am interested in these events too. Like listening to metal music alive with my comrades and friends is an awesome experience for me and them as well.

“Open Air Festival” is an annually event which is for all kinds of music style and in this event you don’t need to spend or pay any fee for it because as its name, this festival is free for all. “Wacken Metal Music Festival” is an “Open Air Music Festival” in Germany which is usually for Metal and Heavy Metal Bands from another country especially from U.S.A that come to Germany to play their best songs and new songs for their fans. As I wrote down the name of my favorite bands in my E-Wallpaper like “Amon Aamarth, Six Feet Under, Soulfly, Darkthrone, Dimmu Burgir, etc”.

Finally, I decided to choose this festival for my E-Wallpaper Assignment because I love to be in this concert every year and I wish I could be in Wacken Festival in 2011. 

So why not? At Least I could design my important assignment for festival which I love the most. Also, I can show my friends that I really like this festival and maybe I can find more friends who are interested in this music and we would go to this festival together someday.

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Assignment One - E-Wallpaper For Wacken Metal Festival

Hey guys, this is my E-Wallpaper design for Wacken Metal Music Festival. In this Tutorial I will show you how you can use Layer Styles, Blending Modes, Working with Path Option to make selections and using Brush and Color in creative modes. Also you will learn how to put Layers into separated groups.

Click to this thumbnail for seeing ORIGINAL SIZE in another TAB

First you need to create new image in A4 size. Then set the foreground on Black and by paint tool click on image, so the background color will turn into black color. Then open your image from your hard drive and follow first step.

Step 1

In this step you need to change the brightness to -50 and contrast to +30. For this step you need to go Image > Adjustment > Brightness/contrast… (Figure 1-1)

Figure 1-1: change the brightness and contrast by adjustment.

Then you must go to Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen and make sure that the whole part of image seem as sharp as possible.

Step 2

For this step we must crop the girl and put it in the A4 with black background. For selecting the girl, I use Quick selection tool because it is one of the new tool in CS4 and CS5 for Photoshop. Also you can use Lasso selection tool for this selection. The important thing in selection is to clean and fix your selection edges. For doing this, after selection, go to Select > Refine Edge. For me, I changed Radius to 30 and Smooth to 30 and make sure check mark the Smart Radius, click OK. (Figure 1-2)

Figure 1-2: select an object, do refine edge and duplicate it into new image with black background

After pasting the girl body into new A4 with black background, because of original tutorial which was started with subject with black background and it was the same layer so after adding my subject to A4 I will Flatten Image by going to Layer Option. Then I will make a duplicate layer from my background layer. you must now use pen tools and draw an outline over her body but as tutorial said you don’t need to worry about finding details but you must be careful about outline inside the area which is not part of his body especially around her arms and guitar. Then save the outline in Paths option as “outline”. (Figure 1-3)

Figure 1-3: Save Path after using pen tool

Step 3

Create new layer, name it Color Fades. In Layer option, set Blend Mode to Color Burn. Then select the path that you saved it in step 2 and in Path Option click on Load Path as a selection. For loading as a selection, you must click on Make Selection… in Path Option. (Figure 1-4)

Figure 1-4: Make selection from path Option.

In this part, select a default circle-shaped Brush with Soft Edge and make the size nearly 550 by Using Light Blue, Yellow, Pink, and Greens. Brush slowly on the girl’s skin using single click to add subtle delicate color to the shadows already present. (Figure 1-5)

Figure 1-5: By using Brush Tools and Light color you can brush the girl’s skin.

Step 4

Now, Make another Layer and name it “Color Fades Background”. Then click on the path “outline”, make another selection by this path and choose Menu > Select > Inverse. By clicking on Inverse it will deselect the current subject inside selection and select all around the last subject that we’ve selected already. Then you can open your background picture which you wanted for this design and open it by Photoshop, then Select All and click Edit > Copy. After this go to your design image and select Edit > Paste Into. Also name the new layer after copy to “Background Design”. Again use Brush Tools and this time you will brush around the girl’s body with the same color and same size of brush. Also for matching the girl’s mask with new background I erase a little around the girl’s body. (Figure 1-6)

Figure 1-6: Paste new background, using brush tools around the body and refine edge and eraser for erasing a little around the body

In addition, you can duplicate “Background Design” Layer more time to show the image color effect more. Finally you must merge all duplicated layers together from Layer Option > Merge Down. Then change the opacity of merged layer to 15% - 20%. (Figure 1-7)

Figure 1-7: merging duplicated layers together to get image like this.

Step 5

Next, you must make a new layer and name it “Diagonal Lines”, by clicking on Polygonal Selection Tool. Create Diagonal Lines from the bottom of subject to the top right edge of image. Then with Brush Tool, paint inside the same technique as you did on the girl’s body using pink and yellow. (Figure 1-8)

Figure 1-8: Draw Diagonal Line, change it to selection, fill it with light colors

Step 6

Now create new layer and label it “Stars, Wires”. Next choose Layer > Layer style > Outer Glow. Set the Blend Mode to Color Dodge, the Opacity to 100%, Noise to 0%, and use a solid pink color (#F19AC2), Ensure that Technique is set to softer, Spread to 0, and Size to 18. (Figure 1-9)

Figure 1-9: Create New Layer, Change the Layer style to Outer Glow.

After that, choose a default Soft edge circle Brush with the Airbrush turned on at or around size 12. Click randomly all over the background to create a sky with some beautiful stars. Try clicking and holding to utilize the Airbrush feature and create a larger star. (Figure 1-10)

Figure 1-10: using Brush to create some beautiful stars around subject.

Step 7

Now by using the same brush, I will create the wires which are more like lightning bolt and they start from the right hand of girl and continue until the middle left center of picture. Also you can increase the size of brush and make another beautiful lightning bolt. (Figure 1-11)

Figure 1-11: Using Outer Glow in Layer Style to create this beautiful Lightening Bolt

Now create new Layer and name it “Wires Behind”, then go to path and create new selection of girl’s body and go to Menu > Select > Inverse, so you can use the same technique behind the girl’s body this time. As the tutorial says by doing this you can add another dimension to picture. (Figure 1-12)

Figure 1-12: Again using Outer Glow and draw some Lightening Bolt behind the Girl’s body

Step 8

This step is my favorite because instead of tutorial which doesn’t add any title or typeface into design, I will use some interesting font with horror design and some brush for background. First I downloaded some font from internet and used of them for my wacken music festival. Then I choose nice Layer style onto my typeface layer and made it more interesting. (Figure 1-13)

Figure 1-13: Using Layer Style and Blend Mode for making an interesting effect on fonts

Next, you should add a rectangular background to this title to let it be seen more clearly because of the dark color of font. So let’s make another layer and name it “Title Foreground” and choose Rectangular Marquee Tool, and draw a rectangular selection around the title and then fill it with white color by using Paint Tool. Then, you must change the Blend mode to Overlay. But as you will see, around the rectangular is too straight and it won’t be too creative. For making it nicer, I downloaded some good and abstract brush and then used it on this foreground title and made it like an old building’s wall behind my title. (Figure 1-14)

Figure 1-14: Using Layer Style and Blend Mode on my font and design Background.

Then I made another layer for the name of the bands that will play in this festival for the year 2011 and I will use the same technique as last step with some changes in foreground and background layer and new fonts for each band. Then it became like this. (Figure 1-15)

Figure 1-15: The same technique and using some new fonts for each band.

Then I will add the address of the festival and also another type of logo for my festival. And the same before I will use some dirty brush on foreground of my typeface and make it bloodier and darker. Finally, I will put my layers in groups by order. For putting layers in group first hold down Ctrl Key in keyboard and Left Click on your layers, then click Ctrl+G on keyboard, they will automatically go into one group folder and Photoshop name them by order too. (Figure 1-16)

Figure 1-16: Hold down Ctrl on keyboard, choose your layer; click Ctrl+G to move them into new group

Overall, this is my last design which is for Wacken Metal Festival.

Click to this thumbnail for seeing ORIGINAL SIZE in another TAB

Opeth - Hope Leaves Found at abmp3 search engine

Tutorial Source : Computer Arts : Unleash the full power of Adobe's Creative Suite (257 page)
Expertise Provided by : Chuck Anderson
you can contact Chuck at
website: www.nopattern.com
Email: nopattern@nopattern.com

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Effects On Multi-Layers

In this Tutorial, I will show you how you can do any filter and blend mode on Multi-Layers in layer option. Not only it is not difficult to do but also it helps you to do lots of effects on your layers and still images at the same time.

First, create a new image form Menu > File > New. Then open any image that you want to edit by Photoshop. Click on your image then in layer option click on Duplicate New…. (Figure No.1-1)

Figure No. 1-1: Create Duplicate New Layer.

Another option will show up after clicking duplicate new…, the in Document Part you must choose the destination of layer which will be duplicated. For me the destination is “select Multi-layers.psd”. When you click OK, selected layer will be duplicated in destination image. Do this part for 3 times. In destination, you must have 3 duplicate from this still image. (Figure No.1-2)

Figure No1-2: Duplicate Layer Option.

Now click on your destination image, which “select Multi-layers.psd” is mine. Click on Create a new group. (Figure No.1-3)

Figure No.1-3: Create New Group.

Then you must click All 3 duplicated layers by press “Shift” key on keyboard and then select layers one by one. After that Drag all selected layers into the group that you made. (Figure No.1-4)

Figure No.1-4: Drag selected Layers into your group by mouse.

Finally, you can select your group and choose any filter or Blend Mode and test it by yourself. all image whose layers are in this group will affected by your filter or blend mode and so on at the same time.

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Mirror Close-Face

Hey guys, how about playing with mask like a crazy Photoshop driver. Ok in this tutorial I’m going to show you how you can make a nice mirrored and manipulated close face just by some simple examples. It’s not that simple as I told you, but it should be after more practicings. For continue this one, at least you must know a little about layers and masks.

First of all, open your close face photo by Photoshop. Then Duplicate your photo and make another layer by duplicating. Click on layer that you made and then choose (Menu > Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal). Now you must add “New Layer Mask” to this layer. (Example No.01)

Tip: For faster duplicating layer, you can drag the layer to icon “Create New Layer” at the bottom of layer window.

Example No.01: Make new Layer, Duplicate Layer, Flip image horizontally

Now click on “Gradient Tool” and in the Gradient option bar, go to Gradient Option and Gradient Editor. (Example No.02)

Example No.02: Gradient Editor

In Gradient Editor, in lower portion, you will see two arrows. These are called color stops. (Example No.03)

Example No.03: Color stop alter the characteristic of the gradient.

The closer you move these together, the sharper transition between the colors of gradient will be. For the stop color on the left, click on it and set the location 48% and for the one on the right, 52%, (example No.04). Also you can save it as new gradient color or just click OK.

Example No.04: Reposition the stop for a harsher transition between colors.

Now click on mask then draw the gradient from left to right. And take a look at your image. (Example No.05)

Tip: In mask, by having most one whole side mostly white and the other mostly black, the white side is mostly revealed and the black mostly hidden, showing the face beneath and resulting in mirror effect.

Example No.05: Image after using gradient on mask.

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Abstraction

In this tutorial I’m going to show you how can you draw a nice and beautiful abstract shape in Photoshop. Also I was shocked about something like this, because I didn’t know about this ability before.

First you need to create new page (Menu > File > New). Then choose your option manually. Then you need to make a new layer in layer option at right of workplace. (Example No.01)

Example No.01: Making New Layer

After clicking “Layer 1”, click on “Paint Tool” and choose “black” from swatches and then click on photo. The color will turn to black. Again make new layer which will be named “Layer 2”. Click on “layer 2”, after that choose “Rectangular Marquee tool” and draw a column shape selection at center of photo. (Example No.02)

Example No.02: make “layer 2” and draw a selection shape

Then Click on “Gradient Tool” and choose any range of color from gradient option. I choose gray color for “Linear Gradient” and I will click at center of selection inside the photo. (Example No.03)

Example No.03: First choose “Gradient tool” and then fill the selection area with “gray Linear Gradient”.

Now you must on (Menu > Edit > Free Transform) or press buttons “Ctrl+T”, after that the selection lines will change into transformation area.

Example No.04: Changing the selection area to “Transformation Area” by pressing “Ctrl+T”

So you can Right-Click on this area and choose “Warp”. By choosing “Warp” the transformation area will change into another small selection which every one of them has its own two arms for changing the shape. As you can see in Example No.05, you can change the direction and the shape of selection area to anywhere that you want. By this ability, you can create lots of beautiful abstract shape by just click on this special option in “Free Transform” menu. (Example No.05)

Example No.05: change the direction of every arm can move a selection to any direction.

For background color you can choose any color that you want. But first you should change the transparency of the layer. For changing the transparency you need to choose “Screen” mode at top of “Layer Option”. Deselect the photo, then choose your color from “Swatches” and click on “Paint Tool” and then “Layer 1”. Now by clicking on photo the color will change to that one you chose before. (Example No.06)

Example No.06

Finally, you will see a beautiful abstract with nice color which you made by Photoshop. Also made a copy from my shape and change them horizontally by "Free Transform" and combine the layers together.

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Assignment One - "Wacken Open Air Festival" Project

In this Photoshop tutorial, we'll learn how to use the Displace filter and a displacement map to add an interesting texture to a person's face in a photo. The displacement map will allow us to wrap the texture around the shape and contours of the face, rather than having it look like we simply pasted a flat texture on to the photo.

Wacken Open Air (W:O:A)
source: From Wikipedia

Wacken Open Air (W:O:A) is one of the leading summer open air heavy metal music festivals. It takes place annually in the small town of Wacken in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany. With 80,000 festival visitors, and including personnel a total of roughly 82,500 attendees in 2010, it attracts all kinds of metal music fans, such as fans of black metal, death metal, power metal, thrash metal, gothic metal, folk metal, and even metalcore and hard rock from around the world.

The festival was first held in 1990 as a small event for local German bands. By 1998 the event had become the major festival on the European metal calendar and has included over 70 bands from all over Europe, North America and Australia. W:O:A is usually held at the beginning of August and lasts three days, during which the festival-goers camp on several large camping grounds surrounding the actual festival area. The 70 or more bands perform across four separate stages over the course of the event.The 2009 edition set a sales record; it sold out on 30 December 2008. All 70,000 tickets were sold over 200 days before the opening of the festival. 

Review of Wacken Open Air 2010
Source : Review Stream

This year's trip to Wacken Open Air was my second. My debut as a W:O:A virgin was in 2009. Wacken is the greatest metal festival in northern Europe and it is really quite massive. Some say 85.000 ticket holders.
The camping grounds are huge which means there is plenty of room for tents and camps. The music area is however not that large and it actually becomes a problem at some of the greatest crowd pleasers like Iron Maiden and Slayer. They really should value comfort for the crowd higher than cold profit which I know will never happen.

Livescenen is the buscompany that I travelled with just like the year before and they do a very professional and great job. The first evening they even hosted a great BBQ party and there's a lot of cool metalheads and guides travelling every year. If you are going from Denmark I will surely recommend to go by bus with Livescenen (unless of course you have your own autocamper with built in electricity, tv, bath, toilet and air-con...) This year I was aboard the special Iron Maiden bus mainly filled with hardcore Maiden Denmark fans. It certainly ensured great music all the way to Wacken!

Immortal blew me away (again.) There is something so dark and cold and beautiful about their black metal that simply hits me deep within. I've only seen them live twice (Roskilde 2003, Wacken 2010) and both times I've been in a trance. This time they mostly played newer stuff especially from their excellent 2009 album "All Shall Fall". Most impressive was however the song "Beyond The North Waves". It was the first song that I ever really connected with on an Immortal album, so to hear this live was more than I'd ever dared dream about. This concert alone was worth all the pain it involves surviving a week at a festival (obviously mixed with a lot of joy and fun.)

Cannibal Corpse was without a shadow of doubt the funniest gig. Their leadsinger Corpsegrinder is a bastard in his very own class and he threatened to break everybody's necks if he didn't see some more (devil)horns. He banged his head like a fucking propella and it was so much fun witnessing this insane display of pure aggression and extreme energy from the entire band. Obviously the crowd were very much into it as well. Quite an experience and so are some of the lyrics.

Iron Maiden was too crowded and they played way too many newer songs for a festival gig (but sadly enough only one from "The Final Frontier"), Alice Cooper couldn't sing (on the day) and the soundlevel was way too low, Slayer was way too crowded to even bother. W.A.S.P., Mötley Crüe, Arch Enemy and 1349 all played good gigs that were enjoyable. I saw a few more gigs than these but let's just stop here.

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