I have been given the project of recreating the image or or design shown below to use for 200 T-shirts in 3 different colors and sizes. I have no idea what Adobe software that would be better to use (Photo Shop, Illustrator) or how to even begin making this so that it is the right size, much less make the graphic itself. Should I put text on the T-shirt separate and then put the balloon graphic on (that I can hopefully make) separate or should I have this all in one graphic? I have no idea how I am even supposed to tell what the full dimensions for the graphic that will be put on the t-shirt. I have to have a printable graphic by Monday. Help
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This is a 15 minute job, even in Photoshop.
Make a elliptical shape layer
Select the Pen tool, and hold down the Ctrl (Cmd) key while dragging across the lower point to select it, and Alt (Opt) click that point
Select that point again, and drag it down to make it more like a balloon shape.
Use the Pen tool set to Shape with white as the fill collour, and on a new work path make a rectangle with concave sides
Select the brush tool, and load and select one of the Calligraphy brush presets. They don't have any size jitter as standard, so change size jitter to Pen Pressure (if you have a tablet)
On a new layer, make a nice ribbon effect brush stroke. Lazy Nezumi Pro is helpful if you have it, using one of its sine wave presets. Black is OK as the colour. You can change the colour by locking the layer's opacity, and using Alt backspace with your colour of choice.
Free Transform the ribbon layer to align with the balloon. Select all three layers and make them a Smart Object.
OK, you have your balloon master, and it vector other than the ribbon. If you want that to be vector as well, make a path and stroke it with the calligraphy brush. Maybe with Simulate Pressure turned on. Change the colour as above. Note, that once you stroke the path it becomes raster, so resize to the final output size and re-stroke. You can Free Transform work paths.
It is important that you copy the Smart Object using New Smart Object via Copy. This will let you edit them independently.
So make your copies and arrange them resizing if required. Then double click each SO in turn to open in a new window, and change colours, more the highlight etc. Add some more ribbon layers. Add the text. Job done.
Trevor can you look at this so far and tell me if I am doing this right? I did make the path for the ribbon using the pen tool as shown below but I don't seem to be able to give it the stroke with Calligraphy. I am a bit confused because you just stroked with the Calligraphy brush in one part of your instructions but then you say if I want to make the ribbon a vector I need to make a path with the pen tool and stroke it with the Calligraphy brush.
OK, you have your balloon master, and it vector other than the ribbon. If you want that to be vector as well, make a path and stroke it with the calligraphy brush. Maybe with Simulate Pressure turned on. Change the colour as above. Note, that once you stroke the path it becomes raster, so resize to the final output size and re-stroke. You can Free Transform work paths.
Am I also supposed to save the layers as a Smart Object before or after I make the path for the ribbon and use the stroke with the Calligraphy brush?
You need to keep it vector as much as you can. We can't see your entire layers panel (it is always a good idea to have visible in a screen shot, even if you need to undock it and drag into the image area. You can easily reset the workspace to return things to normal). But we can see a red shape layer, and another shape layer above it, which suggests you have it right. Your string layer is best placed beneath the balloon layer in the layer stack, so that the top is hidden and the flow uninterrupted.
But your balloon is a decent shape. Hey, why not spruce it up a bit with some layer styles? While the effects are raster, they will scale with the shape layers, and Smart Object so no problem.
Actually, I'm not so sure that works with the highlight, and if these are for printing t-shirts, that gradient wouldn't print well anyway
You said I need to keep it vector as much as possible. How do I do that?
Here is the whole screen and you can see layers now. I have the path for the ribbon but have not been able to stroke it with Calligraphy because it won't let me. I set it for that but when I go to stroke with Calligraphy my cursor turns in a circle with a line crossed diagonally in the center.
So my balloon should be more of a balloon shape? I know it's kind of mishapen. How can I work on making duplicate balloons with different colors and different colored ribbons if my layers are turned into a smart object?
As I originally demonstrated, the ribbon would be raster, but there is always another way.
Drag out a tall, thin, rectangle shape layer. Colour is not important, but black works well as a starter.
Use Free Transform, and click on the Warp icon (green highlight).
Then use the drop down on the left of the options bar, and choose the Flag preset (cyan highlight). You'll need to change the direction (red highlight)
Select the three layers and make a Smart Object
The SO is your master, so you need to make some copies, but it is important that you do this using New Smart Object via Copy. This is so you can edit each one independently. If you just copy the SO then editing one would cause all of the copies to have the same edit.
So here are a bunch of copies. They are all still red, but I have renamed them ready to edit
Double clicking a Smart Object opens it in a new window, like below. You need to select the balloon layer, and any of the Shape layers. You can then change the colour. Save this (Ctrl s or Cmd s) and close it (Ctrl F4)
Repeat for the other balloons. You might want to edit the position of the white highlight for variety. You might want to colour the ribbons.
Rearrange, and resize as required. You can resize them all at the same time to get to a starting position.
What I have done bellow is drag one of the ribbons from one of the balloons back to the master document, and copied a few times. I also flipped and resized some of them. You can see I didn't change the highlights. It seems to me that the light will be coming from the same direction for every balloon though. I am sure you know that the layer order controls what hides what.
Are you OK with the rest of it?
Hey Trevor I don't know how to do the rest. I am still new at this and I keep having projects fall into my lap that my boss wants our shop to be able to succeed in making for customers that ask us so I am the person that has to try and figure out how to make these various ideas come to fruition. The final use is going to be to print onto t-shirts and we are taking the image and using a heat press to put it on. I don't have a person who is printing it. I am the one who has to make it print ready.
I also would like to know how I turn the path that you show here into the stroke that you used under the Calligraphic brush.
https://forums.adobe.com/people/Brad+Lawryk wrote
Chances of you learning Illustrator enough to be able to do this in one weekend is unrealistic. You may be best off just checking Stock image sites like Adobe Stock and licensing an image that is close.
I think that's an excellent suggestion 
.
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