Reducing Opacity To Create New Colours
by admin on 06/03/09 at 7:54 am
We’re going to create a design with a dark and moody feel now. Create a new document 500 pixels by 500 pixels with a black background. To prepare the colours we are going to use, draw a red (#FF0000) square on top of a black square and reduce the opacity of the top red square. Reducing it to different opacities gives the following colours:
| Opacity | Colour |
|---|---|
| 60 | #990000 |
| 70 | #B30000 |
| 80 | #CC0000 |
Draw a circle 400 pixels by 400 pixels with a fill colour of #990000 and no stroke. Copy and paste it, scale it down to 70% of its original size and give it a fill colour of #B30000. Move it over to the left 50 pixels. Copy and paste this circle, scale it down to 60% of its original size and change its fill colour to #CC0000. Move this circle over to the left 50 pixels. You should now have something that looks like this:
We need an object of interest to be the focal point. I used the letter ‘G’, size 150 in the Hirosh font and place it like so:
Give the letter a reflection by copying it and pasting it, clicking the Flip Vertical button in the Modify Toolbar:
Move the flipped copy down using the arrow keys while holding down shift (use just the arrow keys to move the shape one pixel at a time) until it is just below the original letter. Fade out the shape by clicking Command > Creative > Fade Image and select the 4th option along. You should now have:
The reflection is too bold so reduce its opacity to 30%. In the same Hiroshi font, but with a size of 40, type the word ‘Hiroshi’ like this:
Give the text a basic, soft rounded stroke 4 pixels wide with a colour of #B30000. Change the fill colour of the stroke to #800000. This gives you the final look:
