“Little Dream” Design Challenge

New tools in Photoshop CC can make your job easier. Learn how in this tutorial from Ted Chin.

We’ve collaborated with Ted Chin to bring you a fun design challenge. See contest instructions below.

A master at compositing images to create new worlds, Ted Chin uses Adobe Photoshop to bring his visions to life, and is constantly finding ways to do things more efficiently in his work. The latest Photoshop update has new tools that have enabled Ted to focus on perfecting his concepts while saving time on execution. “Instead of spending 10 or 20 minutes doing a task, now it’s just one click away,” he says.

To help other people find more time to work on their concepts, Ted is sharing three of his new favorite tools in Photoshop. These quick tutorials demonstrate how he uses them to speed up his process so you can do the same.

Content-Aware Fill

Content-Aware fill — the ability to select an area, then right click and let Photoshop fill it out with textures from surrounding area — is not entirely new. But previously, it was very difficult to control the results of the fill and where the textures and samples were pulled from. With the newest updates to Content-Aware Fill, you can select which textures and contrasts are being sampled. “It can help the AI to better pick out the textures and fill it out for you, so you end up with a better refined and defined result. It’s one of the coolest things about Photoshop’s Adobe Sensei technology,” says Ted.

Live Blend Mode

Blend Mode is a common design tool — often used for adding stars to skies or adding a moon at night, or any light sources like glow or shine. Ted uses it all of the time in his process. With the new Live Blend Mode, seeing your results is even easier. “Now, you can just hover your mouse over the different modes and see the result right away instead of having to click through and test each one,” says Ted. It’s a simple change, but incredibly valuable to maintaining a time-efficient process.

Select and Mask

Select and Mask is just like masking — only with Adobe Sensei technology. With this new update, you can select the prominent objects in your images in just one click. Then refine your choice further with selection tools or in the Select and Mask workspace. “This button helps speed up so many processes. I just want to make sure that everybody knows it exists!” says Ted.

With these three new tools, so many design tasks are simplified and accomplished faster. “Photoshop can be really simple to use,” says Ted. “By combining even just these three tools, you can produce something amazing.”

See more Creative Cloud tutorials at all skill levels to learn more about Photoshop and other Creative Cloud apps.

The Photoshop “Little Dream” Design Challenge

If you had an opportunity to create your own “little dream” world like Ted’s— what would it be? Share your original design on Instagram, Twitter, or Behance for a chance to win a one-hour tutorial with Ted and one-year Creative Cloud subscription.

How to enter:

Share your submissions by Dec 10, 11:59pm PT. See the full terms and conditions.

Need inspiration? Check out what Ted created of his dream world using the new Photoshop features:

Created by Ted Chin using Content-aware fill in Photoshop

Created by Ted Chin using Live blend mode in Photoshop

Created by Ted Chin using Select and mask in Photoshop