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Posts tagged 2010
Best of the Web – December 2010
Dec 31st
As you know, each month, we round up some of the best Photoshop-related content from around the web. This month, there were some excellent Photoshop tutorials, articles, and freebies to choose from; including some awesome Tron-inspired typography tutorials, beautiful holiday patterns, and some fantastic inspirational and educational articles. So please take a moment to review our favorites from December 2010.
Tutorial Wrap
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Tron Legacy Tutorial
Tron Legacy was probably the most anticipated movie of 2010. The design community has been eagerly awaiting this sequel to a 1980’s classic for a long time. In this tutorial, Abduzeedo demonstrates how to create the Tron Legacy logo using Photoshop, Cinema 4D, and Illustrator.
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Create a Colorful Aged Poster With Special Lighting Effects
This cool tutorial from Tutorial9 demonstrates how to create a cool retro-cosmic poster design using textures and adjustment layers.
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Peak of Dawn – Beginners Manipulation Tutorial
This basic photo manipulation tutorial from Psdbox demonstrates how to use brushes and lighting to add a female model to a beautiful grassy scene.
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Create a Vibrant Conceptual Photo Manipulation in Photoshop
This very unique tutorial from Pixel Tango demonstrates how to create a really cool, vibrant photo manipulation using several elements. The result is something surreal and kind of creepy.
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The Enchanted Forest – Fantasy Photo Manipulation
Creating fantasy photo manipulations can be a lot of fun. This tutorial from Pure Romance88 demonstrates how to take several stock images and combine them to create a bright and glittery scene in Photoshop.
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Create a Dark & Grungy Digital Art Piece in Photoshop
This tutorial from Spoon Graphics demonstrates how to combine a female model with a range of grungy, dark textures and abstract elements to create an eye catching and interesting design.
Free Downloads
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Vintage Wallpaper Textures IV
Vintage wallpaper textures can be a welcome addition to any design. High resolution textures are even better because they can be used for print or web. This set of vintage textures from Lost and Taken is part 4 of a really nice set of textures that you can download and use for free!
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Free Icon Set for Web Developers: Coded
While Psdtuts is no longer focused on web design, we realize that many of our readers are web designers and can use icons in their work. This set of icons for web developers can make a really nice addition to your design arsenal.
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Free Candy Cane Patterns
Christmas is already several days behind us but hey, there’s always next year. This set of Candy Cane Patterns from Echo Enduring can be used as a background or as part of an illustration for your holiday designs next year. Enjoy!
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Christmas Seamless Photoshop And Illustrator Pattern Set 2
Did you download the set of candy cane patterns above and realize that you still need more Christmas-themed patterns for next year? This set of seamless Christmas patterns from Creative Nerds might do the trick.
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Free Vector Repeat Patterns – Christmas Santa Hats
So you downloaded the candy cane patterns and the Christmas patterns listed above and you’re still not satisfied? This set of Christmas Santa Hat patterns from Pattern Head has to satisfy you. If not, you’re out of luck because those are all the ones we’ve got listed this year. Happy holidays!
Articles and Inspiration
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Awesome Illustrations and Sketches by Mike Henry
If you browse through the design community enough, eventually you will be able to tell the difference between a good and great illustrator. Mike Henry is certainly a great illustrator. This round up on Abduzeedo showcases some excellent examples of Mike’s work. Definitely check them out!
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Design Inspiration: Text Art Showcase
When most people think of text, most of them probably don’t have the works featured in this showcase in mind. Here, Vandelay Design showcases some beautiful works of art using text as its main feature. Enjoy!
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20 Excellent Examples of Photo Manipulation
Photo manipulations are always fun to look at. Sometimes, they can be confusing, other times, hilarious, often creepy, photo manipulations are always a hit amongst the design community. This showcase from Web Design Ledger is a lot of fun. Take a look.
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Farming Out Extra Work: Thoughts and Considerations
Have you ever thought about farming out some of the work you don’t have the time or desire to do? This article from Design Shack explains their thoughts on hiring some help for your design business.
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20 Magnificent Dark Fantasy (Landscape) Digital Painting for Your Inspiration
Dark, fantasy digital art is a favorite amongst many designers. This round up from Psd Vault showcases some really nice digital paintings to help keep you inspired. Enjoy!
Our Favorite Photoshop Tutorials of 2010 on Psdtuts
Dec 28th
Wow! Another year has come and gone. 2010 is coming to an end and 2011 is quickly approaching. 2010 was a great year for Psdtuts. Sure, we had some ups and downs but we managed to finish strong with a few of the strongest months we’ve ever had in terms of traffic. We published a lot of content in 2010 so I decided to go through the archives to find some of my favorite tutorials from 2010; choosing only 1 tutorial from each month, and share them with you here. What I found were some awesome lessons on matte painting, drawing, typography, and layout. Please take a moment to review some of my favorite tutorials from 2010 and feel free to share your favorites in the comments.
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How to Create a Serene Panorama from Multiple Photographs
In this tutorial, we teach you how to combine multiple stock photos into a single, coherent scene in Photoshop. We’ll start off with a single panoramic photo, and integrate two others along the way. We will also look at ways to make the final result look more dynamic and appealing with a few adjustments layers. If you’re looking to improve your photo manipulation skills, this tutorial should prove very useful!
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Use Photo Manipulation and 3D Layers to Design a Surreal Cover Art Illustration
Clients often ask designers to create impossible scenarios, weird landscapes and surreal images for their projects; images that wouldn’t be possible in real life. It’s situations like these where photo manipulation becomes a powerful design tool. In this tutorial we will show you how to design a CD cover using several photo manipulation techniques, how to keep critical text layers editable for future changes and how to render a quick mockup using the Vanishing Point filter.
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Use a Tablet to Create Stunning Comic Book Fan Art Illustrations
The best digital drawings or paintings in Photoshop are often a result of a well though out sketch, a talented artist, and a strong understanding of Photoshop and the tools that it provides. This tutorial will review some tips and tricks when working with a digital tablet and Photoshop. The artwork we will use is a fan art illustration of the Knights of the Zodiac character, Capricorn Shura (Masami Kurumada).
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How to Create an Incredible Typographic Illustration – Part 1/2
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. In this two-part tutorial (Part 1, Part 2), we’re going to learn how to turn a simple proverb into a complex typographic illustration that achieves a level of realism without actually using any photos. Yes, we’re going to build this idea from the bottom up.
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Create a Realistic Panoramic Matte Painting in Photoshop
Matte paintings are images commonly used in the film industry to create the illusion of an environment that would otherwise be too expensive or impossible to build. In this tutorial we will show you how to turn a single stock photo into a realistic panoramic scene. Click to enlarge the image.
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Perspective Basics: A Draw-Through Technique, With a Spaceship
In this tutorial you will learn how to polish your knowledge of perspective with a simple but very useful technique widely used by concept artists and professionals in the entertainment industry.
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Create Beautiful Abstract Female Art in Photoshop
Sometimes, all it takes to create a stunning piece of art is a stock photo, a bit of creativity, a great idea, and some time. This tutorial will demonstrate how to create a piece of art "Beauty of Gold."
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Create a Cosmic-Inspired Dreamy Scene in Photoshop
This tutorial will demonstrate how to use stock photography, 3d elements, and various techniques to create a cosmic-inspired dreamy scene in Photoshop.
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Create a Fantasy Girlbird Illustration in Photoshop
What is more fun than mixing people with animals? The results can often be cute, funny, or even a bit disturbing. This tutorial will demonstrate how to create a fantasy bird girl illustration using digital painting and photo manipulation techniques.
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Draw a Pirate Character in Photoshop
Character design might be one of the most fun things that you can do in Photoshop. This tutorial will demonstrate how to draw a pirate character in Photoshop.
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Free Psd Premium Tutorial: Create a Mixed Style Collage
This tutorial by senior author, Mark Mayers demonstrates the process of exploring new styles of illustration by re-mixing existing elements with new ones. This method of working is a great way to quickly develop your own style and inject some individuality into your artwork. It’s also a fun way to learn and refine new techniques.
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Create a Spiral Telephone Cord From Scratch With Photoshop
Given the right tools, Photoshop can make just about any task easy. This tutorial will demonstrate how to create a still life telephone scene from scratch using the smudge tool.
Best of Tuts+ – November 2010
Dec 2nd
Did you know that there are now ten Tuts+ sites and the Tuts Marketplace? If you didn’t get a chance to check them out in November here’s a look at the top three from each site!
Aetuts+ – Adobe After Effects Tutorials from Beginner to Advanced.
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Unfold A Magical Pop Up Book Simulation – Day 1
Every child loves the magical Pop Up book with every page turn bringing a new 3d scene to life. In this two part tutorial we’re gonna bust out some serious math to pull off this interaction between layers. Enjoy the tutorial… and if something pops out to you, let me know
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Engage In A Harry Potter “Priori Incantatem” Duel – Day 1
This is the first of a 3-part series on how to replicate the Priori Incantatem effect from the Harry Potter films. In this part, we will take a look at matchmoving our shot and using the data to create a 3D camera inside of After Effects, as well as starting to create the particle animation. Along the way, we’ll also go through a few quick tips on how to speed up workflow by using expressions to automate animation.
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Enough Lower Thirds To Feed A Small Country
In today’s tutorial, we’ll create a quick lower third just using some masks and layer styles. We’ll then talk about how you can totally rock your workload with a handy little script found over on aescripts.com.
Cgtuts+ – Tutorials & Articles on all aspects of Computer Graphics.
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An Intro to Valve’s ‘Source SDK’
This November we posted an exclusive three-part series by Ben Henry showing how to get started with the incredibly popular ‘Source SDK’ from Valve. Part one took a look at the very basics of the software, whilst the later 2 parts’ look at adding textures and entities allowed you to go on and complete your very first level! Valve’s software is widely-regarded as some of the greatest on the planet, and the Source SDK is no exception. With further parts covering how to import models from other packages coming soon, this is one series the gamer in you won’t want to miss!
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Construct a ‘Microcosm’ Using Blender 2.5 – Render & Comp
In his brand-new, advanced Blender 2.5 tutorial, Frederik Steinmetz showed us some of the amazing tricks and techniques used in creating his CG ‘Microcosm’ scene! The four parts covered a huge amount of topics including modeling, particle and hair simulations, texturing and lighting, but this final part covering rendering and completing the final composite wrapped up the series in an awesome way! It’s just another amazing example of what you can do with free software and comes highly recommended!
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Recreate the ‘Cut & Paste’ Winning Scene in Modo
Finally this month on Cgtuts+ we have the first post to the site by industrial-design wizard Adam Ohern. Adam’s incredible modeling skills have earned him a CV featuring the likes of HP, Black & Decker & Bose Corporation and we’re thrilled to welcome him to our network. In this tutorial, Adam walked us through his winning entry in this year’s Cut And Paste contest, and it was a masterclass in quick and efficient modeling. We can’t wait to see what Adam comes up with next!
Nettuts+ – Web Development Tutorials
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The 30 CSS Selectors you Must Memorize
So you learned the base
id,class, anddescendantselectors – and then called it a day? If so, you’re missing out on an enormous level of flexibility. While many of the selectors mentioned in this article are part of the CSS3 spec, and are, consequently, only available in modern browsers, you owe it to yourself to commit these to memory. -
How to Create an Awesome Image Preloader
How often do you find that images in a website load gracefully; the kind where a loading icon first appears, and the image then fades in, once loaded? This technique can greatly boost the performance of your website. If you’re not already familiar with this method, you’re in luck! Today, we’ll create a preloader plugin for your projects. Intrigued? Let’s get started!
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30 Kick-Ass Premium WordPress Plugins and Themes
The WordPress platform is an integral part of the Envato™ ecosystem. Regardless of whether you need a hand with design or development, the Envato™ marketplaces have you covered! You can purchase premium WordPress plugins and templates to hit the ground running with each new project.
Today, we’ll review only a handful of the newest and most popular templates and plugins on sale at CodeCanyon and ThemeForest.
Psdtuts+ – Adobe Photoshop Tutorials
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Free Psd Premium Tutorial: Create a Mixed Style Collage
This tutorial was great because we gave all of our readers access to a premium tutorial written by senior author, Mark Mayers that demonstrates the process of exploring new styles of illustration by re-mixing existing elements with new ones. This is a great tutorial to help you learn and a fantastic way to get started with Psd Premium!
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Speed Up Your Photoshop CS5 Workflow by Making Your Own Custom Panels
Speed up your workflow with the power of custom panels in Photoshop. In this tutorial, we will turn multi-stepped commands and tasks into one-click solutions. No programming skills needed.
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Quick Tip: Create Liquid Filled Glass Text in Photoshop
Layer styles are a powerful tool in Photoshop that allow you to quickly create effects that you can then apply to additional objects. This tutorial will demonstrate how to use layer styles to create a liquid filled text effect in Photoshop.
Vectortuts+ – Vector Tutorials
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Community: Totem Project 2
After the fantastic response to Vectortuts+ Totem Collection 1, I’m happy to present Vectortuts+ Totem Collection 2! Part two has some great pieces to look at, including a few submissions from our Vectortuts Flickr Group. You can still take part in this fun project! Check out our second totem, and how to get involved in future Totem Projects, at the jump.
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Creating a Maneater Vector Girl through Collaboration
In this tutorial you’ll see a collaboration between two vector artists. Ashley S. Benson will be responsible for the initial composition layout and coloring while Sharon Milne (me) will be refining and adding further detailing to the collaboration. You’ll learn techniques from both artists and learn some helpful collaboration tips.
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Create a Realistic, Burning Sparkler Using Adobe Illustrator
In this tutorial we will create a photorealistic image of a sparkler. We will learn how to create vector textures using the standard bitmap filters. We’ll create complex lighting from two light sources using gradient fills, Blending Modes, and Clipping Masks.
Tuts+ Marketplace Tutorials
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Find, Pitch and Win Your First Web Design Client
This 47 page PDF minibook takes you through the process of positioning yourself in the web design market, identifying some potential client, writing a brilliant proposal and winning your first contract. The download includes the full minibook in PDF format, and a sample proposal in Microsoft Word 2007 format (and also as a PDF ) for you to edit and adapt to use as you wish!
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Unlocking Drupal 6
Drupal is renowned for being a complicated CMS to get to grips with. This 17 page, 23 step tutorial will show you how to take this CMS and unlock its true power, without touching a line of code. I walk you through from to download the modules to getting a full product-management system running. You will learn the techniques required to create your own unique content types and how to display that information in any way you place.
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How to Make Your First iPhone App
Millions are being made on apps by every day people. Learn insider tips to make your idea a reality. No programming skills necessary! This book is a MAJOR shortcut for those who are looking to get into the app business quickly and enjoy success with their idea.” says Jen Gordon, owner of app studio Clever Twist. “We’ve been creating apps since the app store opened up and have seen all aspects of what it takes to have a profitable app!
Phototuts+ – Photography and post-processing tutorials
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70+ Fantastic Firework Photos (And How to Shoot Them!)
It’s November again, and for those of us who live in England, that means Bonfire Night! It’s the perfect excuse to let off some fireworks and build a massive fire (something you do really need an excuse for…). For us photographers it also happens to create the ideal opportunity for beautiful, and perhaps unforgettable, photos!
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An Introduction to Indoor and Studio Flash Photography
Today we’re going to delve into one of the most important aspects of photography – lighting. We’ll begin with a background as to why lighting is so important, discuss the traditional three-light setup, and then move on to illustrate a number of different lighting techniques (and the associated results)!
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5 Professional Photography Website Services Compared
Getting a photography business off the ground can be exhausting and expensive. Most professional photographers have both a website and a portal that allows clients to view photos, make prints, buy albums and more. So how do you get all these goodies, and how much is it going to cost you?
Today we’ll introduce you to each service, describe their basic features and how they compare to the other options and give you a look at their pricing plans so you can decide which is best for you.
Activetuts+ – Flash, Flex and ActionScript tutorials from beginner to advanced.
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Quick Tip: Create a Contact Form with SMS and Email Alerts
In this Quick Tip, I will show you how to build a contact form using PHP and ActionScript 3. We’ll learn how to pass variables from Flash to PHP and alert the owner by sending either an email or an SMS text message.
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Creating Pixel Art in Flash Using Pixel Tools v2.0
This is an introduction to Pixel Tools v2.0. We’ll download the tools, install them, then use them to draw a cheeky snowman!
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Open Mike: Capitalization
UpperCamel, or lowerCamel? This is Open Mike, a series of discussion posts to throw the cat amongst the pigeons. These posts are all about you — we want to hear your opinions, ideas, and thoughts. Due to popular demand, this Open Mike includes a poll to help us analyze opinion, so let’s hear what you have to say about capitalization..
Mobiletuts+ – Tutorials & Articles on Mobile Phone Development.
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Titanium User Authentication: Part 1
Welcome to part 1 of 3 in my little series on authenticating users with Titanium. Titanium is an open source cross compiler that allows you to write iPhone and Android (soon to be blackberry too!) applications using Javascript. No Objective-C required! We will be using PHP as the server side language in this tutorial and my database will be MySQL.
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iPhone and iPad Design Templates and How to Use Them
There is a lot of “process” that goes into designing for mobile devices, but sometimes you just wanna jump in and get your hands dirty! This post is designed to give you the tools you’ll need and the basic design and technical requirements to get you up and running quickly.
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Beginning iOS Development: Building Fortune Crunch
Welcome to the second in our series of Beginning iOS Development tutorials. This tutorial will demonstrate how to build the FortuneCrunch application previously shown in our “Introduction to the iPhone SDK” post. In addition to being in a video format, this version has been updated for iOS4 and has much more detail on the various steps involved in crafting the application. Viewers can expect to become familiar with the Xcode and Interface Builder workflows, how to customize buttons and respond to button events, and fundamentals of Objective-C and Cocoa-Touch. A written transcript is also provided with this post.
Audiotuts+ – Audio Tutorials
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Quick Tip: Super Quick Parallel Compression
There’s no denying that parallel compression is a great way to pump up just about any group of instruments. The technique involves creating a parallel stream of audio, compressing the hell out of it and mixing it with your original signal. It tends to work especially well with drums and percussion.
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How to Work Out Songs by Ear, Part 1 – Basix
A budding guitarist – or even a relatively, uhm, budded one – could very easily and quite understandably get the idea that the ability to learn music by ear is some rare ability, bestowed only on those with uncommon talent, deep theoretical knowledge, years of experience, or some combination of the three.
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Are the Volume Wars Killing Music? Which Side are You On?
The party is in full swing, your iPod is plugged into your biggest and best speakers, and you’ve just hit Play on your grooviest party mix playlist. The bass is thumping, the crowd starts to move, and so far the neighbors don’t seem to mind. Then something happens. This song sounds so much quieter than the other ones. People start to sit down. What a crappy song! Would you like to be the producer responsible for that track? No way! And thus the Volume Wars came into being.
Webdesigntuts+ – Web Design Tutorials
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Understanding the F-Layout in Web Design
As the next part of our Web Design Layouts series, today we’re going to examine the “F Pattern Layout”; Rather than trying to force the viewer’s visual flow, the F-Layout gives in to the natural behaviors of most web surfers and it uses scientific studies to back it up. This tutorial will walk you through the principles of the F-Layout, why it works, and how you can create your own
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30+ Awesome Free Fonts for Kick-Ass Web Designs
As we examined last week in our Font Replacement Review, new technologies have liberating web typography from the ordinary web safe fonts to a truly wide open horizon of new and bold and imaginative typefaces. It’s easier than ever to include your own custom fonts in a web design using various font replacement technologies. Today, we’ll review over 30 fonts that are worthy of your own font library.
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The Web Designer’s Guide to Font Replacement Methods
Fed-up with Arial? Tired of Times New Roman? Font-replacement methods have improved dramatically over the past 2 years, but it can be often hard to sort out the different methods if you’re not constantly reading about it. This article will discuss various font replacement techniques that are out there right now. We’ll look at the pros and cons of each, the issue of font licenses and the best font resources on the web so you can start using them in your own web designs.
Best of the Web – November 2010
Dec 1st
As you know, each month, we round up some of the best Photoshop-related content from around the web. This month, there were some excellent Photoshop tutorials, articles, and freebies to choose from; including an incredible casino-style sign tutorial, some beautiful chrome layer styles, and some fantastic inspirational and educational articles. So please take a moment to review our favorites from November 2010.
Tutorial Wrap
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Easy Casino Style Sign in Photoshop
Have you ever been walking down the street, driving down the freeway, or sitting at a stoplight and seen a design on a billboard that you wanted to use in your next project? In this tutorial, Abduzeedo demonstrates how to create an effect similar to the one in the movie Burlesque.
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Rose Bouquet Splash Effect
Adding a splash effect to photographs has become a popular effect recently. In this tutorial from ALFOART, author Alexandra Fomicheva demonstrates how to achieve this effect on a photo of a bouquet of roses.
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Modern Warfare Design in Photoshop
Modern Warfare is a popular game. This tutorial from Layers Magazine demonstrates how to achieve a “Modern Warfare” look using a few simple steps.
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How To Create a Tessellating Geometric Poster Design
You might be surprised how easy it is to create some really nice seamless patterns. This tutorial from Spoon Graphics demonstrates how to create a trendy geometric pattern using some simple shapes.
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Creating a Cartoony Print-Ready Business Card in Photoshop
Creating a design meant for print is a bit different than creating one meant for a screen. This tutorial from Spyre Studios demonstrates how to create a cartoony print-ready business card in Photoshop.
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Planet X Matte Painting in Photoshop
In the movies, it is often impossible or too expensive to film in a certain location. Under these circumstances, filmmakers will often create matte paintings or digital representations of these scenes to be used as backgrounds. In this tutorial, Abduzeedo will demonstrate how create a sci-fi matte painting.
Free Downloads
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Free Technometal Chrome Styles
Chrome styles. Always fun, always useful, and often elusive. This set of chrome styles from Giallo86 on Deviant Art work very well, and better than most. Definitely give this set a download and try them on for size.
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8 Sun Brushes
Adding lens flares to your designs without using Photoshop’s default lens flare plugin can be a difficult task. This set of 8 sun brushes from Brusheezy makes adding lens flares to your designs a breeze.
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12 Tea Stained Paper Textures
Paper textures are always nice to have lying around. This set of 12 high resolution tea stained paper textures are very nice. Give them a download and take a look!
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Shining Sparkles
Looking to add some sparkles to your holiday designs? Download this set of brushes from Brush Lovers and apply them to your designs with just a few clicks.
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Hand-Drawn Abstract Sketches: Photoshop Brush Pack
You don’t need to be able to draw to add a hand drawn look to your designs. Just download this set of brushes from Design Instruct and apply them to your project without much effort at all.
Articles and Inspiration
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35 Amazing Digital Paintings
Browsing the work of others is a great way to improve your own skills. Take a look at this fantastic showcase from Vandelay Design featuring 35 amazing digital paintings.
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Creative and Effective Package Designs
Product packaging is often the first thing your customers see. This showcase of creative and effective package designs from Noupe features some excellent examples of package designs.
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A Collection of Photo Manipulation That Will Amaze You
Photo manipulation is an art that few designers ever fully master. This showcase of amazing photo manipulations from Naldz Graphics will truly inspire you!
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How to Design the Perfect Business Card
This post will discuss how a thoughtful, well-designed business cardcan help your company give a good first impression and send the right message. It will then take a look at elements to include in your design and the different approaches to take.
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Where Have All The Comments Gone?
Is the design community still full of thriving conversationalists? Or has it devolved into simple praise or judgment of the post in question. This article from Smashing Magazine discusses this in detail.
Best of Tuts+ – October 2010
Nov 1st
October saw the launch of the latest Tuts+ sites, Webdesigntuts+. Edited by popular Themeforest author Brandon Jones, probably better known as Epicera. There’s already a lot of great content on Webdesigntuts+ and we all look forward to seeing more and more in the coming months. Aetuts+ Editor Adam Everett Miller created a fantastic video called “Faces of Envato” from footage shot at the Chicago meetup, check it out! And read on to see the best of Tuts+ from October
Mobiletuts+ – Mobile Development & Design
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Learn Java for Android Development
This tutorial series is an indepth introduction to the Java programming fundamentals necessary for writing Android applications. Our goal is to prepare those already familiar with one programming language, such as PHP or Objective-C, to become comfortable working with Java.
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Beginning iOS Development
This tutorial series is meant to teach those with no prior Objective-C experience how to develop applications for the iOS SDK. This series is currently being developed and released, so subscribe via RSS or e-mail to watch all the posts!
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Mobile Development Toolbox: A Complete Kit for Getting Started
This post is a massive collection of tools and resources for jumping into the mobile development scene. Grab a pot of coffee, because going through all the links will be a trip, but it will be well-worth the time!
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Understanding Visual Hierarchy in Web Design
Visual hierarchy is one of the most important principles behind effective web design. This article will examine why developing a visual hierarchy is crucial on the web, the theory behind it, and how you can use some very basic exercises in your own designs to put these principles into practice.
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How to Start Using jQuery Sliders in Your Web Designs
jQuery sliders offer a simple, elegant way to display content without giving up valuable real estate on your web page. They have skyrocketed in popularity and can be used in a variety of ways. Let’s go over the popular styles, choosing a slider and integrating one into a demo site.
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Choosing the Right Font: A Practical Guide to Typography on the Web
Typography is an huge field. People devote years of their lives to this ancient craft, and yet there’s always something new to learn. In this article, I’ll be reviewing the major points that you should consider when selecting a typeface for a website.
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Make Some NOISE! Jumbotron Noise Meter
Have you ever been to a sporting event and seen a “noise meter” appear on the big screen? Even though it is rarely ever an actual functioning noise meter, it always gets the crowd riled up. So let’s take it to the next level and really give them an animation to cheer for!
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Work On Developing Your Running “Form”
The effect we’ll try to remake is inspired by the motion graphics created for Pacha. (watch video). We’ll use the Trapcode Form plug-in and two source clips to create the shapes. The clips are just one example. I used two png sequence rendered in Curios Labs Poser. You can use all the footages you want.
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Who’s Who in the World of Design and VFX Studios II
As a sequel to our last look at studios as a whole, and not just their demo reels, today we’ll look at their achievements, awards, how long they have been around, and you will learn quite a bit about who makes your films and television commercials.
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How to Build an RSS Reader with jQuery Mobile
In conjunction with the jQuery conference in Boston, John Resig announced and released the highly anticipated jQuery Mobile. Though currently in an alpha state, the framework is fantastic.
Today, we’ll dive in, and build a simple Tuts+ RSS reader, using PHP and jQuery Mobile. When we’re finished, you’ll have the ability to add this simple project to your iPhone or Android phone with the click of a button, as well as the skills to build your web apps!
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How to Build a Kick-Butt CSS3 Mega Drop-Down Menu
Often used on e-commerce or large scale websites, mega menus are becoming more and more popular, as they offer an effective solution to displaying a lot of content while keeping a clean layout. In this tutorial, we’ll learn how to build a cross-browser, awesome CSS-only drop-down mega menu, using nice CSS3 features.
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How to Create a Safari Extension from Scratch
Safari 5, the latest version of Apple’s web browser, introduces extensions. Safari extensions are small add-ons that you can use to expand Safari’s capabilities, built using simple HTML, CSS and JavaScript. In this tutorial, you will learn the basics of extension development by creating a simple extension using Safari 5′s Extension Builder.
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Combine Stock Photography to Create a Sleepy Japanese Village in Photoshop
We often talk about what an incredible tool Photoshop is to create imaginary scenes from stock photography. In today’s tutorial, we will create a sleepy Japanese village in Photoshop by combining several stock photos. Let’s get started!
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Create a Cute Twitter Bird Icon in Photoshop
Today, we will demonstrate how to create a cute Twitter bird icon in Photoshop. Let’s get started!
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Captivating the Cinema – How Art Influences Film
The movies have always been one of the great escapes for humanity. A source of entertainment, stress relief, and most importantly of all, art. Every person appreciates different qualities of a movie in different ways, these days people are increasingly appreciating visual effects and movie based art. The purpose of this article will be to touch on the masterminds behind the visual effects in movies.
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7 Important Lessons From a Real-Life Engagement Shoot
Discussions of theory are great, but sometimes nothing beats a little on-the-job experience and insight. Today I’m going to take you with me on one of my real-life client shoots to see what we can learn. We’ll go over lots of dead-simple and practical tips that you can use to drastically improve the results of your next engagement shoot. Let’s get started!
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The Basics Of Mesmerising Moon Photography
Moon photography can be one of the most fun, yet one of the most aggravating, projects to tackle. If you are endeavoring to take your own photos of the moon and are looking for a little help in getting started, this article will shed some light on the mysteries of moon photography and help jump start your efforts.
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Creating a Stylish Cinematic Photo Using Camera RAW & Photoshop
In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to add a cinematic style to any of your photos using Photoshop and a Camera RAW file. It only takes a few minutes and is easy to follow however well you know Photoshop. We’ll be walking you through the process step-by-step in both a tutorial and video format!
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AS3 101: OOP Introduction – Basix
Object-Oriented Programming is a bit of a hot topic. More and more programming languages are cropping up that support it (Ruby, for example), and more and more languages that previously didn’t support Object-Oriented Programming (OOP for short) have been released with versions that do, like PHP and ActionScript. Some languages only work if you utilize the whole OOP thing to begin with, like Java and Objective-C.
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Smart AS3 Video Loading with GreenSock LoaderMax – Free Active Premium!
This week’s Active Premium tutorial is a cracker! The best news is that we’re making it available to all Activetuts+ readers to give non-members a taste of Premium goodness. Read on to find out more and download the tutorial.
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10 Flash Things You Can’t Do With HTML5
You could almost hear the collective gasp when Apple announced that it was no longer going to be supporting Flash on its upcoming devices. Like a scene from Monty Python’s Holy Grail, it seemed the bell had tolled for Flash and designers and developers were going to be dragged into the street to await the body wagon.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The reality is that Flash is far from dead..
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Create an Amazing Pulverize Effect with Houdini – Initial Setup
In his second amazing Houdini tutorial, Alvaro Castaneda walked us through how to completely pulverize characters and objects using Side Effect’s Houdini 11. This first part dealt with setting up the basic node-network whilst part 2 finalized the effect; art-directing the dynamics to ensure the final look was the one we wanted. Houdini is an amazingly powerful piece of software, and is used regularly on both commercials and feature films. This tutorial is a great example of just how creative Houdini can allow you to be.
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Six Ways to Create Condensation in 3DsMax – Scatter, PArray & PFlow
In this very popular 2-day tutorial, Christian Pop showed us 6 different ways to create condensation effects in 3DsMax. Part 1 looked at the Scatter compound object, the easy-to-use PArray particle system and how to manually paint on the condensation using the powerful ParticleFlow particle system, whilst part 2 covered thinkingParticles, the new Object Paint, and the fr Wet Shader. Knowing multiple ways of completing the same task is a vital part of 3D Design, and this tutorial is a perfect example of just that.
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Modeling from Photographic Reference in 3DsMax
In this Article/Tutorial, Pratik Gulati taught us how to reproduce a model from a reference image – even if you don’t have any information on the camera used! Starting with a lesson covering the different types of perspective, the post proved incredibly popular, and although it’s aimed primarily at 3Ds Max users the techniques covered are easily applicable to other applications as well.
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Using Dr. OctoRex’s New Graphical Editing System
I’ve decided to explore some of the choice new features of Reason 5 and Record 1.5 in a series of screencasts. These will be bite sized videos giving real time exempts of what can be achieved with the newest instruments in both apps.
This screencast concentrates on the new editing system in the fantastic Dr. OctoRex. I hope you enjoy my ramblings and let me know if you have any requests for future screencasts.
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Guitar Tut: Open String Runs
Here is the first of Toby Pitman’s guitar tuts. I’ve been looking forward to these! In this video guitar tutorial we’ll cover the basics of open string runs. It’s like having a sustain pedal for your guitar!
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14 Top Tuts on Mastering – Tutorial Wrap-up
Mastering is a large and tricky topic. Many opt to hire a professional mastering engineer, others decide to do it themselves. We’ve recently covered a lot about mastering on Audiotuts+ – from Mo Volans’ series on Mastering Elements to Björgvin Benediktsson’s interview with Michael Romanowski. Here are 14 Top Tuts on Mastering.
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Learn to Create a Variety of Beveled Lettering
In this tutorial I will showcase three different approaches, which result in three different beveled lettering styles. Starting with my least favorite, and least complex, working my way to a style of beveled lettering that accomplishes an extremely polished and professional look.
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Make a Mailbox Icon Using Adobe Illustrator
Attention! This icon was not created solely for educational purposes. You can see the working process of real designing! We are going to use various professional techniques to create this icon, and I will give you many useful tips along the way. So, letÕs get down to work, experts!
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Using Stock References in the Creation of Vector Art
Historically, artists have used live models and landscapes as a base for their work. In the digital age, stock photos are easily accessible and widely used in all forms of art and vector art is no exception. In this article, weÕll look at how useful stock is to the vector artist.
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How to Build a Newspaper Website with a Grid: New Premium Tutorial
learn how to utilize a grid to create a simple newspaper-like website. Along the way, youÕll learn helpful techniques, such as easy ways to target IE7 and IE6 with only a single character, using the 960 grid system, and even using CSS3 to create columns! ItÕs an hour long; ready to dig in?
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SOSFactory Style Mascot Design in Photoshop
This is the most detailed tutorial about drawing and coloring characters SOSFactory has ever made. Seriously, this one condenses all the tutorials in my blog. This tutorial is for advanced users, perfect for those who have already practiced with some of my tutorials but still want to go further.
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Make an Excellent Rocktobunny Vector Sticker
Popular in most cities around the world, stickers such as these can be seen almost everywhere you look. In this tutorial you will learn how to use the pen tool to make a perfect outline and some special tips and tricks on how to achieve a dynamic character style.
Webdesigntuts+ – In depth articles and tutorials on web design.
Aetuts+ – Adobe After Effects Tutorials
Nettuts+ – Web Development Tutorials
Psdtuts+ – Adobe Photoshop Tutorials
Phototuts+ – Photography and post-processing tutorials
Activetuts+ – Flash, Flex and ActionScript tutorials from beginner to advanced.
Cgtuts+ – Tutorials & Articles on all aspects of Computer Graphics.
Audiotuts+ – Audio Tutorials
Vectortuts+ – Vector Tutorials
Tuts+ Marketplace Tutorials
Best of the Web – October 2010
Oct 31st
As you know, each month, we round up some of the best Photoshop-related content from around the web. This month, there were some excellent Photoshop tutorials, articles, and freebies to choose from; including some amazing photo manipulation tutorials, texture and brush packs, as well as some fantastic inspirational articles. So please take a moment to review our favorites from October 2010.
Tutorial Wrap
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Create a Flowery Natural Peace and Harmony Composition
Photoshop gives us an endless number of tools to use in our designs. This tutorial from Creative Fan demonstrates how to combine, textures, brushes, stock photos, 3D elements, as well as lighting and photography to create a flower power illustration in Photoshop.
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Create a Surreal Digital Portrait
Digital Painting is often called the “Last Frontier” of graphic design. Digital artists continue to innovate in new directions. This tutorial by Ratinan Thaijareorn on Digital Arts demonstrates how to paint a surreal digital portrait using several elements including a tiger.
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Army Squirrel Photoshop Manipulation Tutorial
Squirrels are harmless, cute, and fun woodland creatures, right? Not this one. This tutorial from Psd Box demonstrates how to create a badass army squirrel that will eat you for breakfast!
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Create a Fantasy Gladiator in Photoshop
One of the most exciting things to do in Photoshop is to create a new and unique composition using several different stock images. This tutorial from WeGraphics, demonstrates how to create a hard-bodied fantasy gladiator illustration in Photoshop.
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Create Black and White Dramatic Storm Scene
Black and white compositions are often more dramatic than their color counterparts. This tutorial from Psd Deluxe will demonstrate how to use Photoshop and Poser to create a dramatic mythological Poseidon illustration.
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Create a Cosmic Space Girl 3D Photo Illustration
The cosmic style is a popular technique with contemporary designers. This tutorial from Creative Fan demonstrates how to combine several elements to create a cosmic space girl illustration.
Free Downloads
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Fire and Smoke PNG Stock Pack
Adding fire and smoke to your designs isn’t always an easy task. This set of fire and smoke PNG files includes several fire and smoke images that include transparent backgrounds so that you can easily drop them into your designs.
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Watercolor Textures: Photoshop Brush Pack
Watercolors are always nice to add texture and color to a design. This set of Photoshop brushes from Design Instruct allows you to easily add a water color effect without getting your desk all messy.
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Free PNG Credit Card, Debit Card and Payment Icons Set (18 Icons)
This set of icons from Smashing Magazine makes it impossible to leave your credit cards at home. It includes 18 credit card, debit card, and payment icons for you to drop into your designs.
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Six Free Dirty Paper Textures
You can find paper texture just about anywhere on the net, but good ones can be hard to find. This set from Lost and Taken includes 6 dirty paper textures for you to drop into your designs.
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High Quality Free Photoshop Milk Brush
Got Milk? This set of free high resolution Photoshop brushes from Creative Nerds does! It includes several really nice brushes perfect for adding a splash of milk to your designs.
Articles and Inspiration
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Badass Marvel and Tron Crossover Illustrations
What could be cooler than mixing Tron and Marvel Comic Book characters? I can’t think of much. This inspirational post from Abduzeedo showcases some truly badass Marvel and Tron crossover illustrations.
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25 Awesome Photo Manipulative Artworks Fresh From the Design Community
This post from Psd Vault showcases 25 awesome photo manipulations from the design community. Check it out!
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The Reality of Stock Art in Design
Does stock out make you a better designer or just a lazier one? This post from DesignM.ag discusses how to best utilize stock art in your designs.
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Inspiring Drinks Labels: Positive Reasons for Turning to the Bottle
Are you bored in your design job? Why not have a bottle? Or at least a look at some awesome drink labels showcased on One Extra Pixel.
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Digital Illustrations Made With Type
Most people think of text as something that supports the artwork in some way. But what if text was the artwork? This inspirational post from Abduzeedo showcases illustrations that were made with type. Very cool!
Designing The 2010 Cleveland Browns Season Tickets
Oct 6th
Is everyone ready for some football? Today, we have a special treat for you. Chris Modarelli, Art director and Senior Designer for the Cleveland Browns has taken some time from his busy schedule to walk us through the process of creating a season ticket design for the Cleveland Browns. Let’s get started!
Step 1
The first thing I did was to create a grid pattern that will contain several images. In this case I chose several images of Browns fans. This grid allowed me to plan the placement of those images. At this point, if needed, you can allow for bleeds.
Step 2
Gather the background images you want to use. Once the grid was created and all the photos where gathered, I placed each photo into the PSD in it’s own layer. Using the "Marquee" tool, I selected around a different grid box for each image. Clicking the "Add Vector Mask" at the bottom of the layers palette, I masked out the unneeded portion for each image. I continued the same process until each square in the PSD was full.
Step 3
After all the squares where filled, I flattened all the layers to create just one final layer for all the football fans. The reason why I did this is that we are going to need to apply an effect to this layer later.
Step 4
I then turned off the "All Football Fans" layer and added the CMYK breakdown of our Pantone orange as a separate layer called "Background Color".
Step 5
Next it was time to select the player shot. In this case I used our Pro Bowl player Joshua Cribbs. I used the pen tool to isolate the subject and put him into a separate layer.
When picking the photography I needed to make sure that the pose was strong enough to be visually appealing and also able to carry the graphic techniques being applied to it. The image also needed to allow for the information area in the final layout, therefore the important part of the image needed to be contained in the upper portion of the player photo. The other criteria I set for myself was that the players needed to be wearing our brown home uniforms. This not only made sense for tickets, but it also allowed for a better result. For example, images with larger areas of solid color work best – as opposed to an image with a bunch of detail. It is trial and error to find the right images to make this really work well and for each ticket I probably created 3 that did not work as well for various reasons.
I should mention that although I may make suggestions on who to use for the tickets, those final decisions are not up to me.
Step 6
Now you need to begin to arrange your layers. Make sure the "Background Color" layer is on the bottom in your layers palette. The next layer above your background is your object – in this case "Josh Cribbs." Finally make sure your "All Football Fans" layer is at the top.
I also turned on the "Background Color" and color corrected the "Josh Cribbs" image using the "Background Color" layer as my guide when tweaking the orange in the player image.
Step 7
I then made a copy of the "All Football Fans" layer and called it "All Football Fans 2. This new layer needs to be above the "Josh Cribbs" layer. Set this layer to "Overlay" in the drop down menu in the layers palette with 100% opacity.
Step 8
In this layer you’ll more than likely need to mask out portions of the image, that you might want to show more clarity or detail. In this case I did so for the face.
Step 9
Now turn on the top layer called "All Football Fans" and set the layer drop down menu to "Normal" with a 20% opacity.
Step 10
I found these settings to be ideal for the look I was trying to achieve, but depending on what you are doing and the images and colors you use, you may need to change them. Make any final adjustments based on your design. And flatten the layers.
Step 11
Now open a new InDesign document and place your PSD into the new document leaving some room at the bottom for the ticket stub portion of the ticket.
Step 12
I then created the metallic foil area of the ticket, which included the game number. Since foil is added to the tickets after the printing process, I used magenta as a placeholder for the foil and made sure to let the printer know that the magenta area represented the foil and should therefore not print.
Also indicated are the section, row and seat numbers in black. This is also as a placeholder. This information is variable and therefore cannot be created with foil.
The dashed cyan line also does not print and indicates the ticket stub perforation.
Step 13
Next, I began to add the information for the stub. The section, row and seat numbers are variable, which means they are different for each ticket. So the information I included was just a placeholder. The barcode is also a placeholder that I created with several vertical lines.
Step 14
I then placed the team logos made available through the NFL and the "Cleveland Lives Football" logo, which I designed in Illustrator.
Step 15
Finally, I placed the rest of the needed information including another fake barcode as a placeholder. The price is also variable based on seat location.
Conclusion
One of the most important things when designing a ticket is to remember that they are not only cool to look at, but they need to serve a real purpose – to allow admittance into a stadium. If any information is unclear, too small or not there, you’ll not only have upset gate attendants and fans – you’ll be out of a job. You cannot let your great design ideas lead you away from the objective of a ticket – no matter what Photoshop techniques you use.
The final step in ticket design is the delivery system; in this case it was a box that held the tickets, a special season ticket holder exclusive hat and a season preview book. I hope you enjoyed this simple, yet effective Photoshop tutorial.
Editor’s note: the Photoshop and InDesign document used to create this design cannot be made available to the readers of this site. As you know, we always try to include these items for our Premium members. In this case, however, we are unable to do so because that file is owned by the Cleveland Browns and features player photos and other assets that cannot be freely distributed – even if properly watermarked.
The Faces of Envato – Chicago Meetup 2010
Oct 5th
Back in September, Envato held our first ever meetup in Chicago. During that time, the Envato staff got to get to know each other face-to-face for the first time. It was awesome to get to know the people that we have worked with so closely in person. Aetuts Editor, Adam Miller put together a fun video montage of some of our work sessions. Hopefully, this short video will help you put a face to some of the people responsible for managing some of your favorite Envato sites.
The Faces of Envato
Best of the Web – September 2010
Sep 30th
As you know, each month, we round up some of the best Photoshop-related content from around the web. This month, there were some excellent Photoshop tutorials, articles, and freebies to choose from; including some excellent tutorials demonstrating the power of the Displace filter in Photoshop, some excellent free icons and Photoshop brushes, as well as some fantastic articles that will help improve your design skills and efficiency. Please take a moment to review our favorites from September 2010.
Tutorial Wrap
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Playing With the Displace Filter in Photoshop
The displace filter in Photoshop is a very powerful tool. This tutorial from Abduzeedo demonstrates how to make brick wall made of cloth.
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Create Beautiful Surreal Photo Effect via Cloud, Star and Vexel Hair in Photoshop
There are lots of ways to create surreal effects in Photoshop. This tutorial from Psd Vault demonstrates how to utilize several techniques to create a really nice cosmic scene.
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Add a Realistic Reflection Using the Clone Stamp Tool
Most people use the clone stamp tool to help clean up photos but did you know that it also has some other practical uses? This tutorial from Psdtop demonstrates how to use the clone stamp tool to add a realistic floor reflection.
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Two Simple Techniques To Help You Master the Pen Tool
Most new designers struggle, at first to learn how to use the pen tool. This short tutorial from Spoon Graphics demonstrates how to use the pen tool in Photoshop and Illustrator.
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Photoshop and Illustrator Interaction
Photoshop and Illustrator repeat many of the same functions but there are a few things that Photoshop can do much better than Illustrator and vise versa. This tutorial from Layers Magazine demonstrates how to utilize both programs to save time.
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Tips on Using The Filter Gallery
Filters in Photoshop can help you do lots of things. This video tutorial from The Digital Photography Connection demonstrates how to use the filter gallery in Photoshop to help make your design experience a bit simpler.
Free Downloads
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iCandies Icon Set: 60 Free Icons For Your User Interfaces and Apps
Looking to spruce up your interface designs? This set of 60 icons from Icon Eden and Smashing Magazine includes a ton of high quality icons available in several sizes and formats.
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16 High-Res Decorative Frame Pictures
Sometimes it’s a lot easier to just take a picture of something than it is to create it from scratch in Photoshop. This set of 16 High Resolution Decorative Picture Frames from Think Design Blog can be used to add dimension and character to your photographs.
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7 Shining Brushes
When you need to add a bit of shine or sparkle to your designs it is always nice to have a handy set of brushes in your library. This set of 7 brushes available from Brusheezy can be used to add a bit of flare to your compositions.
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8 Colorful Grunge Textures
Grunge textures have a ton of purposes in design. This set of 8 colorful grunge textures from Lost and Taken can be used for just about any purpose. Give them a download and see what you can create with them.
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25 Apocalyptic High Resolution Rust Textures
Rust can be beautiful and disgusting all at the same time. This set of 25 high resolution rust textures from Colorburned is beautiful and elegant. Give them a download and use them to destroy your clean and perfect designs.
Articles and Inspiration
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Photoshop Patterns: Ultimate Guide
Patterns in Adobe Photoshop are wonderful for incorporating interesting repeating elements in your design. Patterns are easy to use and make, yet can have a significant impact in your compositions. This guide from Design Instruct will explore the use, creation, and management of Photoshop patterns through a hands-on approach.
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Gorgeous Packaging Designs and Concepts
Packaging design is all around us. This post from DesignM.ag features a handful of beautiful packaging designs, from music EP’s to snack food products and alcohol bottles to disposable "take out" coffee cups.
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Why Sketching And Wireframing Ideas Strengthens Designs
It is always a good idea to sit down and plan a design before you even attempt to open up Photoshop. This article from Spyre Studios explains how sketching and wireframing can improve the quality of your designs.
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Project Budgets and Secrets
With the year coming to an end, it’s time for businesses to reflect on the previous year and decide what worked and what did not. This article from the Design Cubicle explains the importance of budgets when working with clients.
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How to Set Up an Effective Mobile Office
One of the best things about mobile technology is that it breaks the mold of the traditional office. All you need to do your work these days is a laptop and a wireless connection. This article from Six Revisions explains how to set up an effective mobile office.
Tuts+ is Taking Part in Blog Action Day 2010
Sep 29th
Did you know that Collis and Cyan founded Blog Action Day in 2007? Though the event is now run by Change.org, Blog Action Day is still dear to our hearts here at Envato.
This year, we’ll be joining thousands of other bloggers on October 15th and posting to raise awareness about clean water and water conservation. We’ll be sharing a whole bunch of great tutorials and articles that raise awareness about clean water while teaching you something awesome, or inspiring your creativity.
Who don’t you join the Tuts+ Network in taking part in Blog Action Day on your own blog? Learn more or register your blog today.
Stay tuned for our Blog Action Day posts on October 15th!
