Fun and Games - Developing Your Own Maze with Photoshop
As any Photoshop user can tell you, any kind of graphic or design utility that once seemed too complicated all but the most experienced designers is now within easy reach of everyone. Adobe Photoshop software allows you to create nearly any image, graphic, or effect you can dream up with just a few clicks of the mouse. One fun creation you can make in Photoshop is your own maze. Not only is it fun, but also creating your own maze is also easy for even novice Photoshop users.
To get started on your maze, the first step is to create a new document in Photoshop. You will want you canvas size to be at least 600 pixels by 600 pixels. Create a layer within this new canvas that you title “maze” or something else easy for you to identify. Next, click on “view” in the main menu, then from the drop down menu, select “show,” and then “grid.” Now you will have a guide within which you can draw the lines for your maze.
To draw those lines, you will need to turn on your line tool. Do this by opening your tool bar and selecting “line tool.” You will now need to decide on the thickness or “weight” of the lines in your maze. Click on “weight”, which is at the top of your menu bar, and set your desired weight. Getting the right thickness may take some trial and error on your part - experiment until you get the thickness you had in mind. As a rule of thumb, anything smaller than 3 pixels is probably too thin for a maze. You should also now decide if you want your lines to be solid or if you want them to be pixilated (or dotted). If you want the lines to be solid, tick the “anti-alias” box under “weight.”
At this point, you should re-open the maze layer of your new document. You are going to start drawing your maze on this layer. To do this, use your line tool to create the line you want. Holding the “shift” key down while you are drawing will allow you to create straight lines. The grid you create earlier will help you manage your maze. Since you are free drawing the maze, it may take several attempts to get all the proper dead ends and to make the start point and the end point connect correctly. Before you save your maze, make sure it really does have a solution. Many people find that sketching out their mazes on paper first, to get their ideas together, lets them create their maze on the screen more easily. Once you have completed a working maze, turn off the grid feature. All that should be visible now are the lines of your maze, and it is ready to use however you want.
These steps will let you create a basic maze, but of course you can jazz up your maze in a number of ways. You can change the colors of the maze, or make it appear 3-D. You can replace your lines with images, like rows of corn or shrubs. Your imagination is your limit!
Designers use their Photoshop mazes in many ways, from web site designs to children’s activity books and worksheets. How you plan to use your maze will of course determine how difficult you make your maze, and what kind of additional graphics you use. Like all Photoshop applications, it takes practice to get a steady hand to draw mazes. Put the time in, and soon you’ll be creating mazes that will stump everyone!
