A couple of things before we start off however. I'm using Adobe Photoshop CS3, and would definately recommend getting it if you want to make some good shirts. I'm not saying you can't make a good shirt without it, but I don't have any experience in that field.
Whatever I write here, is in its entirety how I function, and how I do things. Others may do it another way, or find it easier to do so. This little bit of help isn't to be slated, you may add to it if you like, you may share your ideas, but if you happen to have a problem with what I write, either keep it to yourself, or PM me so we can abuse each other in private.
First off, the layout of Photoshop can be confusing. I know when i started out, i was rather lost on how to do anything! So to keep it simple, here's how my photoshop looks:
The left toolbar, which has all the tools you need to make your first shirt:
If you select one of these tools, the upper bar will change to show the options relating to that tool. So as we can see, I have the "Move Tool" selected, and it shows the relative options:
Opposite the left toolbar, we have what can be simply described as the right navigator/colour selector/layer viewer. Here you can zoom in, move about, choose colours, choose different layers to work on, and many more options.
Now that we know what, roughly, is what, we can go about starting a jersey.
Clicking
FILE - NEW will bring up this kind of menu:
You can input a name here for your file, and make sure that the dimensions are correct. 455 pixels wide, and 313 pixels high are what you need, and everything else you can just keep the same.
Clicking OK loads the new file, and you will have a background layer, probably of white (not that it makes a difference).
To keep it simple, just leave this layer as it is.
Now we need to know which parts of this white space to fill with colour so that the jersey looks right. To do this, we need to add a "plis" or in other words, the jersey's folds. There are plenty in this forum to be had, so find one, save it to your computer and open it up in photoshop.
If we now select the second tool down on the LEFT TOOLBAR (called Rectangular Marquee Tool) and click and drag a box over the entire area of the plis, we can copy (ctrl+c or
edit - copy) the plis.
Once copied, go to
Window and select the first file you made:
Once there, just paste the plis. (ctrl + v or
edit - paste). A new layer will appear over the background layer, with the plis in it.
Select (just left click) on the Background layer, and then click the "new layer" button. This will produce a new layer in between the background and the "plis":
On this layer we can make the shirt have colour!
Reselect the "plis" layer, and change it's blending to "multiply"
This way, the layers underneath the "plis" layer will show through.
Now you are ready to go back to "layer 2" and add some colour.
I usually choose one main colour I'm going to use, and paint bucket the entire layer:
Now you have an extremely basic jersey that you could use in a game.
Save now, and stay tuned for another update on how to:
Add more colours the easy way.
Add sponsors.
To add more colour, the hard option (or could be called - the way I did it!), is to add it in, either in another layer, or on the same one, pixel by pixel, using the paintbrush or pencil. This takes a LONG time, and produces some pixelated work that isn't all that attractive.
The easy way to do it, is to use the "pen".
Select the same buttons as are shown in that picture to get the same effects as I get. Or alternatively, use F1 to bring up the photoshop help file to gain a professionals advice!
In this case, I want to draw onto a new layer, so in the same way as before, select layer 2 and click new layer. Layer 3 should appear. Make sure that it is selected so that you are drawing onto that layer, and none other.
When using the pen tool, keep in mind that every left click will produce a new point, and every left click and hold will produce a "curved" point.
For the first example, all I am going to do is add a square shape.
Click 4 points:
And then finally click on the first point once more to join up the box:
Right clicking near to the pen lines brings up a menu. You can delete the lines if you are not happy with them, or can fill the area with colour by selecting the "fill path..." option.
This gives the option of filling the area with the foreground colour, or the background colour, or any colour, so it is advisable to select the colour you want prior to starting to draw for ease of use. (just select a colour from the right hand area).
Click OK to fill the path in. Once done, you can now right click again and delete that path.
And thats how you do simple shapes.
For more complicated ones, click and hold the left mouse button when selecting corner points, and you can bend the lines to make curves:
Holding down and dragging out the guiding lines for longer increases the curves. To get a grasp of the idea, its best to play around and gain experience through doing.
Remember to do every new colour addition on a new layer to prevent mistakes becoming irreversible.
Any questions, feel free to ask.
The Sponsors.
First off, with sponsors, think and look at actually professional jerseys. Look at how big their sponsor logos are, and put in some consideration before you go ahead and put a minor sponsor plastered all the way across your jersey. Saying that, having small sponsor logos may be effective for a team with a lot of sponsors, but if your team has just the one big sponsor, then sure, use it quite a few times.
Ok, to start with, have your jersey up and running. I'm using a random one I made:
And then we need some sponsors. THink about whom you want, and where you want them before you start.
In this case, I'm going to be using Wiggle as a co-sponsor, and INet as a main one. This is as well as the usual clothing sponsors, bike, equipment, foods, etc.
With a bit of luck, you can find some sponsors online via google's picture search. (Wiggle logo for example). Some will need editing prior to use, and some won't. My Wiggle logo will not:
If when loaded up, the picture has those hatched boxes in the background, it means that there is no background to the picture, so you can rectangle box select the whole lot and copy paste it onto your jersey. Pasting will produce a new layer. Which is what you want for ease of editing.
If you, however, find a sponsor with background, or extra bits you don't want, then do the following!:
Open it up in Photoshop as usual:
Select the magic wand tool. This will enable you to select different parts of the logo as you wish. Look at my settings on the upper tool bar to get a rough idea of what to do. When all parts are selected, again copy/paste will surfice to get it onto the jersey.
As we can see, it's far too large for the jersey, and we'll need to change that.
Select the move tool. And on the upper toolbar the "transform controls", so that a tick appears in the little box.
This will create a box around your image, or the layer you are on's image. When you move the cursor close to the box surrounding the image (from the outside) the cursor will change into a double-ended arrow. If you click at that point, the upper toolbar will change into editing that image. We can change the size of the image here, or the slant, or the rotation.
As you can see, I decreased the size of the image to 30%, when happy click the "tick" on the right of the upper tool bar. This will change the controls back to how they were before entering transform control. Using the up/down/left/right arrow keys move the logo into the right place. Holding down "shift" will move the logo faster.
Should be definitely very helpful for everyone new to jersey making.
