Channel  tutorials
Not much out there on channels - but these two cover the basic things to remember

http://www.planetphotoshop.com/working-with-spot-color-channels.html

Using a channel to isolate complex edge such as hair
http://www.youthedesigner.com/2008/03/10/adobe-photoshop-cs3-tutorials-extract-complex-shapes/

For the CD template click here
Actual CD template

From our class demo we started with a color file with multiple layers– then we converted that to gray scale WITHOUT merging the layers. From there we could pick and choose which layers. Turning on only the layers we wanted to be the same color and then going to the channels palette and duplicating the channel and making the “destination” a new file. It will automatically default to a multi-channel file

From the class demo remember that channels reflect what layers are turned on so you can build you multichannel file via turning on and off layers in a file that is grey scale

Here’s a few screen grabs building a spot channel file.

start with a color image with a variety of layers

Convert your layered color psd file to gray-scale - but do not merge layers

select the layers you want to show up in your spot channel - THEN duplicate the gray channel to a new file or a multi-channel file you already started

duplicate to a new file

double click on the spot channel to then define what color you wnat to use. The color can be any color either pantone or even CMYK build

This is a 3 channel image

When saving multichannel files for placement in other software for the safest outcome choose DCS, single file with single color composite, this will produce film for your spot colors, but give you a composite preview image

• BROWSE / IN TIMELINE
• « Class 6//Channels - a mystery solved
• » class 7// Almost there

• BROWSE / IN Class 6
• « Class 6//Channels - a mystery solved