Page 184 - Enhancing CAD Drawings with Photoshop

4386.book Page 168 Monday, November 15, 2004 3:27 PM

168 CHAPTER 5 PRESENTING PLANS

Figure 5.32
Changing pattern
libraries within
pattern overlay

We’ll spend the next few steps in the Layer Style dialog box.
2. In the Pattern Picker, select the Concrete texture; hold your mouse still over the textures and
wait for the Tool Tips to appear and identify the textures by name. Concrete is the first swatch
in the second row; double-click the swatch, or click it and then click outside the Pattern Picker
to close it.

3. In the Pattern area, drag the Scale slider to 50% to decrease the size of the pattern showing on
the kitchen island in real time. If the dialog box is covering the kitchen island, you’ll need to
drag the dialog box out of the way to see the preview of the effect.

TIP You can use the Color Overlay effect to colorize a grayscale pattern. You can get extra mileage
out of this type of pattern library because grayscale patterns can generate textures of every color.
4. Click Color Overlay in the left panel; the controls on the right side of the dialog box change
accordingly. If you just checked the Color Overlay box, the controls may not have changed.
You also need to make sure that Color Overlay is the active effect (it is highlighted when
active) by clicking its name. Change Blend Mode to Overlay so that the pattern you overlayed
in the preceding step will show through.
5. Click the color swatch to open the Color Picker. Select a red hue that is half-saturated and half-
bright. Either click a point in the center of the color ramp, or type 0 for Hue, 50% for Saturation,
and 50% for Brightness in the H, S, and B text boxes. Click OK to close the Color Picker. To tone
down the color overlay a bit, drag the Opacity slider to 75%.

Drop shadows add an illusion of depth to an otherwise two-dimensional floor plan. Because
you are essentially faking shadows in Photoshop (rather than casting them with light sources
as in a 3D program), be aware of how shadows appear in the real world. Shadows should be
softer and farther from tall objects; short objects should have harder-edged shadows that
remain closer to the object doing the casting.
6. Click Drop Shadow in the left panel to display new controls on the right side of the Layer Style
dialog box. Change Angle to 45°. To create a soft shadow that adds an appropriate amount of