User:LegoAlchemist/Photoshopper's Talk Bubble Images for Dummies

Hello, all. You have stumbled across LegoAlchemist's Photoshopper's Talk Bubble Images For Dummies page. Basically, this is a tutorial on how to make your own talk bubble image. An archive of these images can be found here.

Photoshop not included

Notes

The program used in this tutorial is Adobe Photoshop CS2. Older versions of Photoshop may not be compatible with this tutorial, but newer ones such as CS4 probably will. Please enjoy!

Days Style Bubbles

So you want to make a talk bubble image, huh? You've come to the right place. In this tutorial, you can learn how to make your own Days Style Talk Bubble Image. This tutorial is fairly easy to get down. Plus, it's fun!

For this tutorial, you will need the image to the left. It is a blank version of a Days Style Talk Bubble.

First, open Photoshop. Then open your blank Talk Bubble image and the character you would like to make a talk bubble out of. For this example... we'll use Ventus. An advantage to this image is that Ventus already has an invisible background. Your images are open... but Ventus is too big!

That is no big deal. Just drag the Ventus picture onto the blank Talk Bubble Image with the tool that looks like this: PStool1 To know that it will work ahead of time, the Blank Talk Bubbble Image will be surrounded by a black border.

Of course, the image is too big! You'll only be able to see a part of Ventus at this point. If you expand the window, you'll see Ventus surrounded by a line. (If you don't see it, click on PStool1 again. If you still don't see it, make sure the "Show Transform Controls Box is checked (See left))

Then, grab one of the corner boxes and just drag it down to size. It doesn't have to be perfectly strait looking, but don't have something lopsided! That looks bad!

Okay, now all you need to do is crop the image a bit. For this, all you need is the eraser tool: PStool2

Just carefully erase along the black line, using the edge of the tool. You might need a big brush size for this. (to increase or decrease the brush size, there is an adjustment bar in the left hand corner of the screen) Until you get something like this:

You're almost done! All you need to do now is crop the image. To crop, click on the following tool: PStool3 When you drag the curser, it will form a box. Drag the curser across the desired image area so that it is inside the box. The section you intend to crop should appear in a dotted-line box with the outside of it shaded. If you missed a little bit of the image, just drag the box over so that the whole image fits. The right click and select "Crop" to crop the image.

Very important: DO NOT "SAVE" THE FILE! CLICK "SAVE AS" AND SAVE IT UNDER A DIFFERENT NAME. You will lose your blank talk bubble image!

And now you're done! Save the image in a place you'll remember and upload it to the wiki!

Here's the finished product:

Good work. You made a talk bubble image! Be sure to place it under the correct category on this page so we can keep track of it!

A good way to keep track of your talk bubble images is to save them all in a folder. And maybe categorize the folder with more folders. Here's mine:

It is very convenient!

Custom BBS Style Bubbles

Another great style of Talk Bubble Images is the Custom BBS Style Image. These are a little more complicated, but they look great! The only difference between this one and the Days Style Bubble is the solid black border (as opposed to the pixelated one) and a customizable background. This style was first made by Ataradesu, but it has become very popular on the wiki.

The image to the left is the one you'll need to get started.

Of course, the first step is to open Photoshop. Now open the blank BBS style talk bubble image, and the desired character you want to sprite. For this one, we'll use Riku.

Now unlike the Days Style Tutorial, a problem arises. Riku's background isn't invisible! If you try to stick him in the bubble without getting rid of it, he'll entirely block the bubble. So now we have to get rid of the Background. Since all we need is his head, we'll just use the Magic Eraser tool. To find the magic eraser tool, click and hold the click over the PStool2 tool until you see a list. On the bottom of the list, you'll see "Magic Eraser Tool". Click on that, and your eraser mode will switch to this. (to change back, simply repeat the process but click "Eraser" instead) The tool will look like this: PStool4 Now, just click on the white space, and it will all disappear! To know that it has become invisible, you will have a checkered background.

Note: The Magic Eraser tool method may be easy, but it does not always work. You see, Photoshop is stupid, and may accidentally erase some of you image, especially if a part of your image is white (or whatever background color it is). To avoid this, you can do it manually with the eraser tool. This is slower and more difficult, but better looking (depending on how good you are with the tool).

Now you're ready to make the Image! Simply do the same thing you did for the Ventus Image. Use the PStool1 tool to drag Riku over the Blank Talk Bubble. You'll see the thick black border to know that it's working. Then drop Riku into the Blank Bubble, but of course he's too big.

Expand the Window to see Riku's image silhouetted by a dotted line. (If you can't see it, click the PStool1 tool again)

Now just grab the box in the corner of the dotted line and drag Riku down to size, so that he fits in the Bubble Image nicely. Once again: Don't stretch him too far! It will look bad!

Now here's the tricky part... sort of. Make sure that the "Layers" Window is open. This window will allow you to view the layers on your image. To open it, click on "Window" at the top of the screen and scroll down to "Layers". It should pop up on the side.

Now, go to the window that just opened ("Layers") and look for the "Layer 1". "Layer 1" is, in this case, Riku's layer, or in your case, whatever image you;re using. "Layer 0" is the Blank Bubble Image. Anyway, If you can see the little symbol of an eye next to "Layer 1", click on that. Riku will disappear from the image! Don't worry, you didn't delete him, he's just invisible now. To de-invisify him, simply click on the blank square where the eye used to be, and he'll come back.

Very important now. Click on the "Layer 0" that you see in the "Layers" box. Now, you'll need another tool. The Magic Wand tool: PStool5 Using the Magic Wand tool, click on the Solid gray area inside the Bubble. The selected area should be in a moving dotted line. Now right click and select "Select Inverse". Now everything except the gray area will be selected.

Now, this is even more important: Click on the "Layer 1" in the "Layers" box. The Riku one, without Deselecting the area you selected with the magic wand. Everything will be ruined if you don't do exactly as I just said. Now de-invisify it by clicking on the empty box in the "Layers" window where an eye should be. It should now look like this:

Don't worry, if it looks like that, nothing is wrong! It's perfect. Make sure the moving dotted line is around the outside too, otherwise you messed up, and will have to repeat the steps shown above again.

Now, take your eraser tool PStool2 and carefully erase the bottom half of the image. This is important, because if you do more than that, you'll erase Riku's head too. And then it would ruin the picture. If you did it right, it should look like this:

Great! You're almost done. Well, technically, you could just be done now, but that's no fun, huh?

Let's Stylize the background! This is why the BBS Style Talk Bubbles are so fun. For this Example, We'll switch to Kairi, because... well... on the Riku one, you really can't see the background. (my bad) We'll use a prepared Kairi bubble as an example.

First, Select the Solid Gray area from before (you can probably tell where it is without having to invisify the layer by now) Now, you have several options. You can use a custom image to put in the background, or you can have a solid color on the background, or you can have a gradient background with two colors. Since the Gradient one is easy and fun to learn, I'll focus on that one. Select the Gradient Tool on the toolbar (if you can't find it, look at the example to the right) Now, pick two colors that you want for the image. For Kairi, I'll use two shades of pink.

Drag the Gradient tool line across the image. If you did it right, You'll get something like this:

And now you're done!

Very important: DO NOT "SAVE" THE FILE! CLICK "SAVE AS" AND SAVE IT UNDER A DIFFERENT NAME. You will lose your blank talk bubble image!

Save it somewhere you'll remember and upload it here on the wiki!

Here are the finished products:

Good work. You made a talk bubble image! Be sure to place it under the correct category on this page so we can keep track of it!