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Posts tagged Best
Best of Tuts+ in January 2012
Feb 1st
Each month, we bring together a selection of the best tutorials and articles from across the whole Tuts+ network. Whether you’d like to read the top posts from your favourite site, or would like to start learning something completely new, this is the best place to start!
Psdtuts+ — Photoshop Tutorials
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Create a Pimped Out Truck Using Photoshop and Point and Shoot Photos
Making modifications to your car or truck in Photoshop can be a lot of fun. In this tutorial we will demonstrate how to create a pimped out truck modification using photos taken with a simple point and shoot camera, with no advanced lighting setup. Let’s get started!
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Create an Elephant Sundae Using Photo Manipulation Techniques
Photoshop is great at seamlessly combing photos to create an entirely new scene. In this tutorial we will create an elephant sundae using several stock photos. Let’s get started!
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The Incredible Digital Art of Michael Oswald
In this article we will be featuring the work of Michael Oswald. Oswald is a digital artist with a unique style. His technique involves a combination of photo manipulation and digital painting techniques and the results are often stunning. Let’s take a look!
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Sublime Text 2 Tips and Tricks (Updated)
Sublime Text 2 is one of the fastest and most incredible code editors to be released in a long time! With a community and plugin ecosystem as passionate as this one, it just might be impossible for any other editor to catch up. I’ll show you my favorite tips and tricks today.
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An In Depth Analysis of HTML5 Multimedia and Accessibility
In this tutorial, youll learn how HTML5 helps to provide you with several ways of presenting your media content to users. As a result, youll increase the availability of your media to users with different
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Writing an API Wrapper in Ruby with TDD
Sooner or later, all developers are required to interact with an API. The most difficult part is always related to reliably testing the code we write, and, as we want to make sure that everything works properly, we continuosly run code that queries the API itself. This process is slow and inefficient, as we can experience network issues and data inconsistencies (the API results may change). Let’s review how we can avoid all of this effort with Ruby.
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How to Illustrate a Microscope in Illustrator
The microscopes is a symbol of our civilization. Throughout this tutorial on how to illustrate a vector microscope you’ll take advantage of numerous Illustrator tools. You will learn how to use blends, art brushes and 3D rendering in Adobe Illustrator. Let’s get started!
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Create a Picture Gallery in Illustrator
This work is a common project created together with Iaroslav Lazunov and Alexander Egupov. We have used 3D rendering, Blends, Opacity masks, making this three-dimensional stage with vanishing points. Learn every step in how to create this picture gallery work.
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Important Resources for Learning How to Design Typefaces and Full Fonts
If you’re serious about creating a typeface design, then you’ll need some solid resources to get started. Learn effective typeface design workflows, how to take an initial spark of an idea from sketch, through Illustrator, into Fontlab, and then work your creation into a complete and custom font design. Here are multiple tutorials that show you how to create fonts in Illustrator and Fontlab, and you can also dive into articles that describe the foundation of quality type design with ample inspirational examples.
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A Beginner’s Guide to Pairing Fonts
Pairing fonts can be a challenge. Selecting two or more fonts which work well is one thing – selecting two which work together to achieve your typographic aims may have you reaching for the aspirin. Let’s see if we can alleviate any headaches. This guide will help you get started with font pairing for the web.
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Design a Series of Smart Banner Ads in Photoshop
With the continuous growth of the Internet, online marketing has gotten bigger every year, and along with it, the advertising industry. One major factor in all this craziness is buying and selling ads.
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Twitter Bootstrap 101: Introduction
Twitter’s Bootstrap is an excellent set of carefully crafted user interface elements, layouts, and javascript tools, freely available to use in your next web design project. This video series aims to introduce you to Bootstrap; taking you all the way from downloading the resources, to building a complete Bootstrap-based website.
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HDR: Love it or Leave It?
There are few techniques in the photography world that divide our community as much as HDR. High dynamic range images, or HDR images, are a special type of composite image that combines several images at different exposure settings in order to create an image with increased dynamic range. The look provided by HDR is loved by many, and disliked by perhaps just as many. In today’s article, we’re going to take a better look at what HDR is, and get some opinions from photographers using HDR.
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Inspiring Images of Cars and Motorcycles
Cars and motorbikes have been around for 100 years. Throughout the century, they have looked beautiful, satisfied our need for speed and become a symbol for thrill seeking. Today, we’ll look at photos ranging from brand new Ferrari’s to classic muscle cars.
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Quick Tip: GIMP Portable – Take Your Editing Software With You
While a number of smartphones now offer photo editing basics (and a plethora of apps to expand things even more), the portability of a solid photo editing program has been hard to come by. Photoshop is a monster in regards to space requirements and its ability to work on any system where it is not expressively installed. Picasa can be fairly ‘lightweight’ but lacks many of the more advanced photo editing tools. So what about GIMP?
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Modeling, UVmapping And Texturing A Low Poly T-Rex In Blender, Part 1
In the first tutorial of 2012 you’ll learn how to create an awesome low-poly dinosaur using Blender and Gimp. In today’s post artist Karan Shah will walk you through the entire modeling process step by step, and show you how to create an optimized model suitable for use in any game engine.
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Create A Realistic Explosion In Maya Using Maya Fluids
Today you’ll learn to animate and shade fluids, understand all of the major attributes, learn how adding fields will allow you to gain better control over your simulation, and how to light and render the final animation.
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SpeedTree To UDK: The Complete Workflow, Part 1 Creating The Tree
Due to the shear number of polygons often required to make believable 3D trees, creating realistic ones for use “in-game” can be a challenging, time consuming task. SpeedTree from IDV aims to change all that with it’s intuitive UI, ease of use and powerful toolset. Making believable trees and plants has literally never been easier!
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Dominoes” CameraTracker and Cinema 4d Case Study – Day 1
In this tutorial we’re going to go over the principle functionality of CameraTracker from The Foundry, learning basic workflow, optimizing results, aligning the ground plane and exporting this data from After Effects to Cinema 4d.
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Make An Amazing Motion Reactant Flame – Tuts+ Premium
Using just a few video elements of torch flames, we composite a burning hand by using a series of null objects and expressions to drive a time lagged displacement effect to simulate fire burning from a moving source. We use the Puppet tool for the distortion and throw on some tracked lighting effects and a displacement map for the Heat. This principle can be used to add realistic, fluid motion to any tracked object.
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Key Tips To Becoming A Successful Video Freelancer
Youve watched thousands of tutorials. Youve put in countless hours and spent many late nights working on personal projects. Youve finally come to the conclusion that this may just be something you would like to do for a career. It can seem a little intimidating at first, because how are you going to convince someone to pay you to do this? Up until now youve been your only client. How do you get more? Im going to share my insight and experiences on how to successfully launch your freelance career this year!
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Free Professional Quality Audio Unit Plug-ins for Mac
Lets face it, software is expensive. While there are hundreds of free plug-ins available online, more often than not two problems will arise: One, most of them are for PCs leaving us Mac users feeling left out. Two, most of them are vary poor quality.
While I do agree with the saying, “The tools are only as good as the artist,” I also believe the opposite is true; that at some point the artist can only be as good as his tools are.
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Quick Tip: Drum Processing Part 4: Tips and Tricks
This short series of quick tips is designed to give you a good overview of the audio processing techniques involved in creating a professional sounding drum beat for use in house, electro and breaks in Cubase. In this final part we will look at a few ways to add even more life to your drums.
Here is a sample of the type of beat you could expect to end up with at the end of this series of tips: -
Quick Tip: Use the Doubling Technique for Quick Drums
It’s 3:30 in the afternoon when your phone rings. The head of a music library is calling and she needs your help. They have a commercial for an A-list client that needs music, and they want you to submit an entry. You’ll get ,000 if you land the gig.
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Create a Microphone-Controlled Flash Game: Code
In this mini-series, we’re creating a spaceship game where the main control is via the microphone: shout louder to make the ship fly higher. So far, we’ve created all the required graphical elements for the game. Now, it’s time to work on our code. We’ve got a lot to do, so let’s get started!
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Why Bother With jQuery? A Guide for (Former) Flash Developers
If you, like many Flash developers, are looking into using HTML5 for your web apps, you’ll almost certainly have come across jQuery. It’s a very popular JavaScript library, used by a large percentage of the most visited websites – but what’s all the fuss about, and should you use it?
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An Introduction to the HTML5 Gamepad API
As HTML games begin to gradually increase in popularity, vendors are starting to introduce some exciting new APIs to make gaming that little bit sweeter for both us developers and our end players. One of these is the GamepadAPI, which allows you to connect your good old console gamepad into your computer and use it for browser based games, plug and play style. Let’s dive in!
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The Rise of HTML5 in WordPress
2011 was a big year for the advancement of HTML5 in the web development community. It became pretty widely adopted, especially for the mobile web. There have been major projects that help developers use HTML5, like Paul Irish’s HTML5 Boilerplate (technically 2010, but popularized in 2011) and books galore!
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Reusable Custom Meta Boxes Part 3: Extra Fields
In Part 1 and Part 2 of our custom meta box template tutorial series, we learned how to create a field array to loop through and create a custom meta box with your standard fields. Now let’s throw in a bit of JavaScript for some fancy, but highly useful fields.
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The Ultimate Quickstart Guide to Speeding Up Your WordPress Site
Give your site a boost! Implement crucial optimization techniques that will improve not only your ySlow score, but your Google rank too. In this tutorial we will cover all aspects of W3 caching, ySlow, Google page speed, CSS sprites & htaccess rules, to achieve a high ySlow score like i have done on my blog.
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iOS SDK: Creating an Awesome Carousel
Engage your users with stunning carousels. We’ll look at how easy and clean it can be to implement scrollable, interactive carousels in your iOS applications. With high configurability, you can have 3D, flat, rotating, and endless scrolling arrays for data, images, or buttons.
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PhoneGap From Scratch: Introduction
Want to learn how to use PhoneGap, but don’t know where to get started? Join us as we put together “Sculder”, not only a tribute to an excellent science fiction TV series, but a fully-fledged native mobile application for the believer in you!
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Mobile Flash is Far From Dead: Setting the Record Straight
In light of recent announcements from Adobe, there has been a lot of confusion over the state of the Flash Platform – specifically in regard to Flash content on mobile devices. This article seeks to clarify many of the misconceptions that exist by addressing the main points of confusion around these announcements regardless of the initial, monumental, and absolutely unbelievable blunders from failed public (and private) relations messaging and general marketing surrounding these announcements.
Nettuts+ — Web Development Tutorials
Vectortuts+ — Illustrator Tutorials
Webdesigntuts+ — Web Design Tutorials
Phototuts+ — Photography Tutorials
Cgtuts+ — Computer Graphics Tutorials
Aetuts+ — After Effects Tutorials
Audiotuts+ — Audio & Production Tutorials
Activetuts+ — Flash, Flex & ActionScript Tutorials
Wptuts+ — WordPress Tutorials
Mobiletuts+ — Mobile Development Tutorials
Best of the Web – January 2012
Jan 31st
As you know, each month, we round up some of the best Photoshop-related content from around the web. This month, there was some excellent Photoshop tutorials to choose from so please take a moment to review our favorites from January 2012.
Photoshop Tutorials
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Ice Cube With Cherry Inside
In this tutorial AlfoArt will explain how to create an ice cube with a cherry inside.
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Realistic Letterpress Effect in Photoshop
This tutorial from Abduzeedo will explain how to create a realistic letterpress effect in Photoshop.
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Sharp Fold Text Effect
This tutorial from textuts will explain how to create sharp folds in text with Photoshop.
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Create Hand-Drawn Animation
This tutorial from Computer Arts will explain how to create hand-drawn animation using Photoshop’s animation features.
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Create an Awesome Cinemagraph in Photoshop
This tutorial from Net Magazine will explain how to create an awesome cinemagraph in Photoshop.
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Making of "The Confrontation"
This digital painting tutorial from on CG Arena will explain how to create a ôconfrontationalö artwork in Photoshop.
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Super Easy Pewter Style Metal Text Effect in Photoshop
This tutorial from Spoon Graphics will explain how to create a metal style text effect in Photoshop.
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Making of "Fishman"
This tutorial from 3D total will explain how to create a stunning ôfish manö using 3DS, Zbrush, and Photoshop.
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How to Hold a Stylus
This tutorial from Ctrl+Paint will explain how to properly hold a Wacom stylus.
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Sneak Peek of Photoshop CS6 and Camera Raw 7
This video by Photoshop Sr. Product Manager Bryan O’Neil Hughes gives us a sneak peek of what Photoshop CS6 and Camera Raw 7 will look like.
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Easy Wax Seal in Illustrator and Photoshop
This tutorial from Abduzeedo will explain how to create a wax seal in Photoshop and Illustrator.
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Love Me – Photoshop Manipulation Tutorial
This tutorial from PSD Box will explain how to create a love themed photo composition in Photoshop.
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Making Of "Discovering a Muse"
This digital painting tutorial from 3D total will explain how to create this beautiful painting in Photoshop.
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Useful Photoshop Layer Styles Tips and Tricks
This article from Inspiration Feed will show some excellent layer style tips and tricks.
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Painting Effects with Adobe Camera Raw
This hidden gem video from Photoshop Sr. Product Manager Bryan O’Neil Hughes will explain how to give your work a painted effect using Camera Raw.
Best Selling Photoshop Add-ons from GraphicRiver
Jan 24th
Every once and a while we like to share a little love with our sister Marketplace – GraphicRiver. Plenty of Marketplace authors have cut their teeth here on Psdtuts+ and have gone on to develop outstanding portfolios. Here is our rundown of some of the best selling PhotoShop add-ons available for sale at GraphicRiver. Take a peek, get some inspiration and start selling your own Photoshop add-ons!
1. Elegant Glass Text Effects & Styles
8 Transparent Layer Styles & 3 Elegant Glass Text effects created by using them in combination. Works great for Icons and Buttons too!
2. 8 Tileable Paper Texture Photoshop Patterns
16 .PSD files (1400px * 1024px) with 2 layers – a pattern layer and a radial gradient top layer to create the same effect as in the preview image.
3. Pressed – Letterpress Photoshop Styles
Save time by using pre-built great looking styles in Photoshop! This is a set of 5 letterpress Photoshop styles – they will make your text look as though it’s been pressed into any color background. With each of the 5 primary styles, there are 3 styles based on your text size: Small, Medium or Large. In all there are 15 styles.
4. 3D Map Generator – Photoshop Action
Create your own 3D maps with only one click! Every shape is possible and delivers a professional result. Ideal for web graphics, infographics or presentations.
5. Dimensions – 3D Generator Action
The Photoshop Action ‘Dimensions’, helps you to generate whatever you want (text, image, shape, etc,) in 3D.
6. 22 Vintage Letterpress Photoshop Actions
These 22 actions make it simple to create that vintage wood type letterpress look. Simply select the layer and hit play! Complete with 11 different textures and 2 sizes of each. Great for print or web! Works on ALL layer types (text, vector & raster).
7. New Photoshop 3D Text Styles
Easy to change the text: just click on the text with the type tool and change it.
8. PROActions Bundle – Photoshop Film & Special Effects
These actions are not simple, filter-playing actions. The steps they take have been studied and thoroughly tested, making these actions true image enhancers. The results of these actions are realistic re-creations of traditional effects, without any gimmicks.
9. 3D That!
You want to create 3d images but don’t have the skills to use any 3d modeling program/software? But you do have to skills to install a Photoshop Action and click the play button? Well, then you are the perfect candidate to use this amazing easy to use Photoshop three-dimensional (3D) action!
10. Premium Photoshop text styles
6 high detailed text styles – clear glass #1, #2, metal, gold, tin and chrome. Works with thin and bold fonts. Some text effects used two piled up layers.
Best of Tuts+ in December 2011
Jan 1st
Each month, we bring together a selection of the best tutorials and articles from across the whole Tuts+ network. Whether you’d like to read the top posts from your favourite site, or would like to start learning something completely new, this is the best place to start!
Psdtuts+ — Photoshop Tutorials
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Create a Festive Cocktail Using Photoshop’s 3D Capabilities
For many of our readers, this time of year is filled with family, friends, and celebration. In this tutorial, we will explain how to create a festive cocktail using Photoshop’s 3D capabilities just in time for your New Year’s celebrations. Let’s get started!
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Create a Dark, Conceptual Photo Manipulation With Stock Photography
In this tutorial we will be teaching how to integrate elements from different sources to create a realistic photo manipulation with dark and conceptual elements. You will learn some lighting and blending techniques as well as some interesting post-production tips. Let’s get started!
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Create High-End Action Figure Packaging – Tuts + Premium Tutorial
With collectables, the packaging of the product is often as important as the craftsmanship of the product itself. In this two-part Tuts+ Premium tutorial, author Tim Kyde will explain how to create packaging for a high-end 1/6 scale action figure. Part 1 of this tutorial will explain how to shoot your own photography and create a print-ready outer sleeve and inner packaging for our action figure. This tutorial is available exclusively to Tuts+ Premium Members — Join Now to get started!
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Wrangling with the Facebook Graph API
Have you ever wanted to learn how to make your applications more social with Facebook? It’s much easier than you think!
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From Idea to Market: How We Built Gradient
Retracing the steps you’ve taken is a helpful way to understand how well you’ve executed your vision – whatever that might be. What could you have done better? What should have been avoided? Today, I’ll share what we’ve learned (and are still learning) while crafting Gradient. It’s an experience that has changed everything for us.
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Should You Learn CoffeeScript?
I’d imagine that I represent a large portion of the web development community. I’m very intrigued by CoffeeScript; I’ve even learned the syntax and used it in a few demos. However, I haven’t yet taken the plunge and used it in a real project. It comes down to this one question for me: is CoffeeScript something that is truly worth investing time and effort into learning?
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Outstanding Tutorials, Quick Tips, Articles and Interviews from Vectortuts+ in 2011
As the year comes to an end and we pack up our vector tools for some well deserved rest and relaxation, let’s take a look back at some of the best and most inspiring Vectortuts+ articles and tutorials for 2011.
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Community Project: 2012 Calendar Design Project
Vectortuts+ loves Illustration and discovering new talent, so today we are proud to be launching a new community project that combines both, the Vectortuts+ 2012 Calendar Design Project. The best thing is, you can be a part of it! Find out how to get involved, at the jump.
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Quick Tip: How to Create a Watercolor Background Using Adobe Illustrator
In this tutorial we will learn how to create Watercolor Background using a Gradient Mesh, tools of deformation and Blending Modes. The techniques which are described here allow the creation of complex textural backgrounds in a simple and effective way.
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A Year in Web Design: How the Experts Saw 2011
“What did you find most memorable about the world of web design in 2011?” That’s the question I posed to some of our industry’s shining stars last week. One word cropped up more than any other (can you guess?) and everyone had plenty to say. See for yourself after the jump, and let us know what rocked your boat in 2011!
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Get Into LESS: the Programmable Stylesheet Language
I don’t like CSS. Plain and simple. It makes the World go round on the web, yet the language is restrictive and hard to manage. It’s time to spruce up the language and make it more helpful by using dynamic CSS with the help of LESS.
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Say Hello to the HTML Email Boilerplate
Figuring out html email will test the patience of any human being. A seemingly small formatting issue will inevitably arise and you think to yourself, “self, I’m a world class web developer type person schooled in the latest and greatest html5/css3/whatever, I can tackle this with plenty o’ keystrokes to spare.”
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Tips to Get Started with Still Life Photography
There arent many photographic practices that date back further than still life photography. When photography originated, it was necessary for exposures to be quite long, so photographing static objects was the ideal subject matter. However, as the technology developed, the fascination for capturing still life has remained and is still one of the most viable photographic professions today.
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Is It Worth It? Some Gear Buying Advice
A lot people believe their photography will improve “if only…” With the holidays approaching, a lot of avid wanna-be photographers, amateurs, and professionals will be making wish lists for gear that they erroneously believe will make them better photographers. There are many forums, YouTube videos, and articles pandering how camera/lens/light/brand/voodoo doll will make your photos better. Today, we’ll examine that idea.
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Superb Photos of Paths and Stairways
“Follow the Yellow Brick Road,” an infamous movie quote inspired by a pathway to a land of dreams. Wherever your paths take you and whatever amount of stairs you have to climb, its always worth it to see whats at the end, but more importantly to enjoy the journey. Today’s collection gathers dozens of images of paths and stairways, images that symbolize something different to every person.
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Freebie: Epic 3D Character Model Of Pyro From Team Fortress 2
Today we’re super excited to bring you this amazingly detailed character model from Cgtuts+ regular Shaun Keenan. Shaun has re-created “Pyro” from Valve’s hit game Team Fortress 2 in glorious detail, and is making the model available to the Cgtuts+ community for free!
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Digital Matte Painting And Projection Basics: From Photoshop To Maya To Nuke, Part 1 – Tuts+ Premium
This Tuts+ Premium tutorial series covers a variety of basic techniques for both creating and projecting matte paintings using Photoshop, Maya and Nuke. The first part of the tutorial will cover how to approach the creation of a matte painting, the research and background knowledge you need, the concept, and finally starting to create your matte painting in Photoshop. Log in or Join Now to get started!
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Create A Flying Paper Animation In 3D Studio Max With Thinking Particles
In this tutorial by Cristian Pop, you’ll learn how to create a nice flying papers effect in 3d Studio Max using the power of Thinking Particles. We’ll start by creating the paper shapes and materials, then move into Thinking Particles to set up the rules and look at how we can combine them to create the flying paper effect.
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How To Track Footage That Is Out Of Focus
In this tutorial we are going to take a look at a simple, but interesting idea. The main point will be to show you how to work with footage that is out of focus making if difficult to track. After we track it we are going to attach the camera interface elements and fake some depth of field to create the illusion that they are floating in space and shift in and out of focus like the rest of the scene.
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DIY – Create A Camera Dolly Completely From Scratch
Ever wonder how to get smooth footage from your video camera? Today you will learn how to build a Camera Dolly that will help you acquire this type of footage. Get out those dusty power tools, buy some cheap supplies at your local hardware store, and you’ll be on your way to capturing some amazing footage in no time!.
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How To Create A Dr. Who Time And Space Vortex – Tutsplus Premium
In this tutorial well be creating a Time & Space Vortex (like that used in Doctor Who) completely inside of After Effects. We will be using Trapcode Particular and Trapcode Shine to create the vortex. I will then teach a vital Expression that drives the camera and completes the Effect. Once you have mastered the effect, you can personalize it to create whatever Time-Tunnel you desire! All of Time and Space awaits you…
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Drum Compression: Get Your Attack and Release Times Correct
Compression can be a tricky one to get your head around, and even if you’ve got your head around the threshold and ratio settings without the attack and release times being set correctly it will always be difficult to get the desired effect. This quick tip will outline a really handy trick I learned from a friend a few years ago which allows you to get your attack and release times just right. It’s primarily designed to work on drums but the same principles will apply to any percussive sound.
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Quick Tip: Punchier Drums with the New York Compression Trick
Ever have a mix where you wish the drums were bigger, more energetic, more in-your-face? I first heard about this technique in Bobby Owinksis, The Mixing Engineers Handbook, and it has since become a staple in my bag of tricks. The technique is a more aggressive take on parallel compression that can really add punch to your mix.
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D Mixing Part 6: Depth
In this segment of our mix down tutorial, we are going to begin to look in depth into depth. Depth within any mix and listening situation is paramount to proper sonic understanding. Much like we see in 3D, we hear in 3D and taking out any one of these dimensions only serves to create a flat and unnatural sound. As such, the most common tools which give the illusion of depth (reverb and delay) become an important and necessary part of mixing.
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Getting Started With EaselJS: A Flash-Like Interface for the HTML5 Canvas
There’s been some resistance from Flash developers to our new HTML5 content. In this article – aimed at experienced AS3 coders – we’ll look at EaselJS, a JavaScript library that makes working with the HTML5 canvas very similar to working with the Flash display list.
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AS3 Quick Tip: Hacking the Event Flow
Sometimes you may find yourself needing to modify the behavior of a component for a user input event. This article will explain how to do so by modifying the event object in-flight, before it’s processed by the component. That’s right, you can lie and cheat. In code.
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in Flash and Web Apps: A Retrospective
With the year 2011 at a close, it is time to reflect upon some of the major industry events of the year. A lot happened… we’ll pick out some of the bits and pieces that will be most interesting to browser app and game developers from the world of industry, web, runtimes, operating systems, mobile, and more!
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WordPress 3.3 “Sonny” Is Finally Here! What’s New?
The latest and greatest version of the WordPress software — 3.3, named ’Sonny” in honor of the great jazz saxophonist Sonny Stitt — is immediately available for download or update inside your WordPress dashboard. We’ll be covering lots of the new features of 3.3 this week, but for now, go and great the latest version! As we’ve mentioned before, it’s the best way to keep your WordPress site safe and stable.
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Getting Loopy – Ajax Powered Loops with jQuery and WordPress
In this tutorial, we give you a starting point for creating AJAX interaction in your blog. We follow a step by step process, showing you how to load posts based on the viewers page scroll. The tutorial covers enqueueing scripts, setting up an AJAX handler, how to get a file outside of WordPress to use WordPress functions and access the database, and logic for loading posts on user page scroll.
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Saintly” Practices that All WordPress Developers Should Strive For
Here on Wptuts+, we talk a lot about the ‘how’ and less about the ‘why.’ Of course, we are a tutorial site, so that’s the goal, right? Well, as a followup to last month’s article on the “Cardinal Sins of WordPress Plugin Development“, today we’re going to look at a few practices that, if every developer followed, would make the world a better place (well, at least our world!).
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Getting Started With Kindle Fire Development
The Kindle Fire is the new touchscreen and e-book reader from Amazon. This device has generated a lot of buzz, and for good reason! It is currently the best selling Android tablet, with millions of units already sold. This tutorial will teach you how to begin making apps with the Android SDK specifically targeted for the Kindle Fire.
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iOS 5 SDK: Storyboards
Storyboarding is one of the most exciting new features about the iOS 5 SDK. Take a look at the wealth of functionality offered by Storyboards in today’s iOS 5 SDK tutorial!
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Titanium Mobile: Build an Image Uploader
This tutorial will demonstrate how to build a custom progress bar by creating an image uploader with Titanium Mobile. Specifically, the demo project will allow you to select an image from the device photo gallery and upload it to a remote server for storage. Both the Titanium Mobile code and the server-side code will be explained. Now, let’s get started!
Nettuts+ — Web Development Tutorials
Vectortuts+ — Illustrator Tutorials
Webdesigntuts+ — Web Design Tutorials
Phototuts+ — Photography Tutorials
Cgtuts+ — Computer Graphics Tutorials
Aetuts+ — After Effects Tutorials
Audiotuts+ — Audio & Production Tutorials
Activetuts+ — Flash, Flex & ActionScript Tutorials
Wptuts+ — WordPress Tutorials
Mobiletuts+ — Mobile Development Tutorials
Happy New Year!
We’d like to wish all our readers a very Happy New Year! Why not take a look at our Holiday Wishes post to see a video message from the Envato HQ team, and find out more about what you might have missed over the Christmas period.
We hope you’ve enjoyed everything that we’ve had to share this year, and look forward to publishing thousands more top-quality tutorials, articles, freebies, and resources in 2012.
Thanks for being part of the Tuts+ community!
Best of the Web – December 2011
Dec 31st
As you know, each month, we round up some of the best Photoshop-related content from around the web. This month, there was some excellent Photoshop tutorials to choose from so please take a moment to review our favorites from December 2011.
Photoshop Tutorials
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Christmas Night Magic Scene With Flying Santa
In this tutorial from Alfoart you will learn how to create a beautiful holiday card using a few stock photos in Photoshop.
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Photoshop Matte Painting Tutorial: Mountains
In this tutorial 3D Total will explain how to create a matte painting using video opened in Photoshop.
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Glossy Snow Globe Text Effect
In this text effect tutorial on Textuts you will learn how to create a glossy snow globe text effect in Photoshop.
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How to Create a Photo Manipulation of a Wolf in Stormy Weather
This tutorial from PhotoshopTutorials.ws will explain how to take several photos and combine them into one composition.
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Making Of ‘Ibaloy Warrior’
This tutorial from 3D total will explain how to create a detailed warrior using digital painting techniques.
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Paint a Multilayered Surreal Portrait
This tutorial from Digital Arts will explain how to create a surreal portrait in Photoshop.
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Candy Cane Text Effect Using Illustrator and Photoshop
This tutorial from Design Instruct will explain how to create a candy cane text effect using Photoshop and Illustrator.
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How To Intensify Your Landscape Photos in Photoshop
This tutorial from Spoon Graphics will explain how to enhance your landscape photos in Photoshop.
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Paint Bucket: How to Avoid a Messy Edge
This beginner’s tutorial on Ctrl+Paint explains the best way to paint inside the lines using the paint bucket tool.
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Working With Photoshop’s History Panel, Snapshots, and the History Brush
This tutorial from Adobe’s Julieanne Kost will explain how to work with Photoshop’s History Panel, Snapshots, and the History Brush.
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Make Your Type Pop With Layer Styles
This tutorial from computer arts will explain how to use layer styles to make your text pop.
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Dozens of New Timesavers
In Photoshop CS5, Adobe released several tweaks to features that many users had been asking about for a while. This video from Photoshop Sr. Product Manager Bryan O’Neil Hughes will explain some of these tweaks.
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Photo Manipulate a Surreal Apple Habitat Scene
This tutorial from Psd Fan will explain how to create a surreal apple habitat in Photoshop.
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How to Create A Detailed Cassette Tape in Photoshop
This tutorial from WeGraphics will explain how to create a detailed cassette tape icon in Photoshop.
Best of Tuts+ in November 2011
Dec 2nd
Each month, we bring together a selection of the best tutorials and articles from across the whole Tuts+ network. Whether you’d like to read the top posts from your favourite site, or would like to start learning something completely new, this is the best place to start!
Huge Improvements to Tuts+ Premium
As many of you know, Tuts+ is accompanied by an online educational membership called Tuts+ Premium. We’re very excited to announce that the membership has received a huge upgrade, including a new library of courses, 27 top-selling educational eBooks, member forums, and a completely redesigned UI.
You can check out all the changes here, and find out about all the fantastic new content available!
Our new premium website is a drastic improvement over the old system. It includes a slick and polished user interface and presents all of our tutorials the way that you would expect, from within your browser. We are now providing courses and ebooks from within Tuts+ Premium to make it even more valuable. So what are you waiting for? Head over to the new Tuts+ Premium site and let us know what you think.
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Create Detailed Vintage Typography with Illustrator and Photoshop
In this tutorial we will demonstrate how to customize a typeface in Illustrator and then use Photoshop to create a stunning vintage detailed typographic design. Let’s get started!
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Realistic Portrait Retouching With Photoshop
Today’s designers and photographers need to have a varied skill set that sets them apart from the pack. One common skill that both can use is portrait photography retouching. This tutorial will make you a more effective retoucher and help keep your portraits looking clean and realistic. Subtlety is – going too far will only make the results noticeable. The best comment you can get after presenting a final image is "I didn’t even notice you did that". Let’s get started!
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How to Paint Clouds With Photoshop
Photoshop is an excellent tool for manipulating photographs but it can also be used as a means to create stunning digital art. This tutorial is part of a 25-part video tutorial series demonstrating everything you will need to know to start producing digital art in Photoshop. Digital Art for Beginners, by Adobe Certified Expert and Instructor, Martin Perhiniak will begin by teaching you how to draw in Photoshop. At the conclusion of this series you will know all you need to produce your own concept art and matte paintings in Photoshop.
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How to Create a Sublime Text 2 Plugin
Sublime Text 2 is a highly customizable text editor that has been increasingly capturing the attention of coders looking for a tool that is powerful, fast and modern. Today, we’re going to recreate my popular Sublime plugin that sends CSS through the Nettuts+ Prefixr API for easy cross-browser CSS.
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Days to Learn HTML and CSS: a Free Tuts+ Premium Course
If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to build websites and web apps, HTML and CSS are the first skills you should learn. They are so fundamental that we believe everyone has the right to learn these skills for free.
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Dig into Dojo
Maybe you saw that tweet: “jQuery is a gateway drug. It leads to full-on JavaScript usage.” Part of that addiction, I contend, is learning other JavaScript frameworks. And that’s what this four-part series on the incredible Dojo Toolkit is all about: taking you to the next level of your JavaScript addiction.
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How to Create a Vector Stamp Set in Illustrator
In the following tutorial you will learn how to create a vintage, vector stamp set in Adobe Illustrator. Learn how to build a stamp illustration, shape by shape. We’ll construct the stamp border vector shape, highlight the edges, create the branding, and give the vector postage stamp a vintage texture, and final illustrator stamp effect. Let’s get started with making this vector stamp in Illustrator and then transform this into a vector stamp set.
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Create a Vector Bamboo Forest with Blends, Brushes and Profiles
In today’s tutorial you’ll learn how to create a bamboo vector illustration with the help of custom art and pattern brushes, blends and profiles on strokes in Adobe Illustrator CS5. Vector bamboo is an excellent element to use in your work to give a classic Japanese fine art print feel, for use as bamboo forest art background in a larger illustration, and to make your vector pictures stand out with stylish bamboo art. So let’s jump straight into it!
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Massive Collection of Vintage Vector Graphics: Floral Borders, Corners, and Frames
Welcome design rockstar, today you’re in for a real treat. We have a massive collection of vector graphics compiled for free download today. We’ve assembled vintage vector floral graphics that have antique floral borders, classic ornate corners, and decorative frames.
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Bring Your Forms Up to Date With CSS3 and HTML5 Validation
Let’s look at how to create a functional form which validates users’ data, client-side. With that done, we’ll cover prettying it up using CSS, including some CSS3!
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Design a Clean Launch Email for a Mobile App
During this tutorial we’ll be using Adobe Photoshop to create a unique and clean email, announcing the launch of a new mobile app. We’ll look at using smart objects, clipping masks, warping text, and even examine the psychology of our users.
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Financial Best Practices for Web Design Freelancers
A lot of web designers start their careers as employees for larger design firms. However, it seems inevitable that most designers will at least consider going out on their own as freelancers, either for side jobs or full time. One major key to any successful freelancing career, though, is to stay on top of your finances.
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Amazing Animal Photos
Animals are, without a shadow of a doubt, a fascinating photography subject. They’re at their most intriguing when they’re unpredictable and wild, allowing you to capture something of their very nature. This collection is a look at some outstanding shots of animals, of every kind, in the hope that it inspires and encourages you in your endeavors to immortalize something of the creatures with which we share our existence.
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The Best Way To Learn Sports Photography
Whether you’re a sports fan or not, it’s hard to deny the huge popularity of sports in modern culture. In today’s tutorial, instead of giving you tips about directly shooting sports, we’re focusing on giving you tips on learning how to shoot it. We hope you enjoy this new approach.
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The Camera Swap Survival Guide
In photography circles, you run into two types of people. Those who love their gear and those who would just as soon forget about. I love making photographs, but I also love cameras and the other gear used in the process. Therefore, I love camera swaps and flea markets. The variety of tools available for our craft is astounding and frankly overwhelming. But I’m here to help. I’ve been going to swaps for 12 years. I’ve been ripped off more times than I care to admit, but after all this time, I’m finding more treasure than fool’s gold. So today, I’ll guide you through the jungle that is the camera swap.
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Facial Animation With Morph Targets In Cinema 4D, Part 1 – Cg Premium Content
In this new two part Premium tutorial, Aleksey Voznesenski will give you an introduction to mesh animation in Cinema 4D, in this case a face with the use of the pose morph tag. We’ll also actually model the character, add materials, do some lighting, Faking GI is always fun, and then animate the little bugger.
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Making Of: The Abandoned Lobby in Maya and Mentalray, A Lighting & Rendering Overview
In this overview tutorial, author Pratik Gulati will give you valuable insight into Lighting and Rendering a scene in Maya using Mentalray. Using his “Abandoned Backyard Lobby” image as a basis, Pratik will discuss how he approached the Lighting setup and walk you through the render settings for achieving a very realistically lit interior scene with Mentalray.
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Quick Tip: Creating A Simple 3D Puzzle In Maya
In this quick tip, author Abed Ibrahim will show you a great way to create a simple 3D puzzle in Maya. Although simple in approach, this valuable technique can be used in a variety of projects, ranging from very simple puzzles to extremely complex scenes, or even animations.
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Design A Fantastic Floating Card Logo Reveal – AE Premium
In this tutorial we’ll break down a project I created called Motion Cards. We’ll create 3 scene’s in which we’ll animate some falling customizable placeholders that will be re purposed using Trapcode Particular for a dynamic logo reveal.
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Regenerate Like A “Time Lord” From Dr. Who
In this tutorial, we’ll be creating a regeneration effect, inspired by the Doctor Who TV show. I say inspired by, because it’s not screen-accurate, but we’ll be using AE’s built-in tools, alongside some stock footage, VCP’s Optical Flares and Trapcode Particular to pull off a pretty convincing regeneration.
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An Apple Box At Its Core
In today’s video, I’ll talk about the Apple Box… a rectangular multi-purpose block used on production sets dating back to practically the beginning of film. This video is for exposure more than anything. A year ago, I didn’t even realize those boxes had a name, and now I end up pretty much using them at least once on every shoot I do. Hope you enjoy it.
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Why You Should Use Metering Tools while Mixing and Mastering
Last AES convention I met a manufacturing rep for a very prestigious equipment company. He was demoing a piece of equipment for me, showing me all the great knobs and buttons that it had to offer. Then he said something along the lines of, ’We don’t include a screen for these things since you’re supposed to mix with your ears.” That’s when I took my exit stage left. I think imposing a viewpoint like that is just plain wrong.
Obviously, you’re supposed to mix with your ears, but I don’t think looking at meters is going to destroy your mix. -
Adding Flavor to Chords -” Sixth Chords -” Basix
Today we are going to cover how to add some flavor to your chords and compositions using sixths in both major and minor. Just like the 7ths chord tutorial, we will approach this chord concept from the ground up and look it from all possible angles. If you have heard of these types of chords but never knew exactly how they were constructed then this tutorial is for you. We will cover everything from basic structure to different voicings of the chords and try to apply them in a creative context. The sixth chords are waiting, you ready?
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Podcasts that Musicians Should Subscribe To (And Why!)
Rather than listening to music as I drive, shave and garden, I regularly listen to podcasts. That way Im not just being entertained, but educated as well. In this post we introduce you to the Top 20 podcasts musicians should subscribe to.
A podcast is like a radio show, only distributed via RSS over the internet. Some are professionally produced, but many are done by amateurs. Most are about a particular interest or topic. And there are a ton of them on music and recording -” some featuring indie music, others exploring music technology, and many explaining techniques for playing and recording music. In this article we’ll focus on the podcasts that teach you about producing music, and not the ones that help you discover new music. Maybe we’ll cover those in a future post. -
TimelineLite Ultimate Starter Guide: Introduction
TimelineLite is the ultimate tool for creating elaborate and precise sequences of scripted animation. It is an integral part of the GreenSock Tweening Platform that allows you to make the most of TweenLite and TweenMax. This series of screencasts will walk you step by step through everything you need to know to take your AS3 tweening skills to the next level.
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Getting Started With Scoreoid
Games are becoming ever more popular, especially casual games on mobile devices and tablets. In these games, the importance of leaderboards is multiplied – and game developers need a simple cross-platform solution for this. In this tutorial we will cover Scoreoid and how it can help you with game development.
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Effectively Organize Your Game’s Development With a Game Design Document
Have you ever dived right in to developing a game, but found yourself having to constantly change aspects of the design or the gameplay due to a lack of planning? You should consider using a game design document: a guiding vision of the game as a whole, pulling together ideas and plans for the design, development, and business sides of your game.
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Cardinal Sins of WordPress Theme Development
We talk alot on this site about tips and tricks for getting what you want out of WordPress… but today we’re going to take a step back from the technical stuff to look at some practices, bad habits, and coding faux pas that would be better left in our past. So, forgive the heavy-handed post title (haha!), we’re about talk bring up 5 surprisingly common practices that are blemishes on the platform.
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DIY WordPress Framework Part 4: Using the Framework as a Boiler Plate
Last time we used our framework as a child theme, creating a totally new theme that depends on the framework. Today we’re going to use our framework as a boilerplate, copying the folder and making edits right to it.
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WordPress Monthly News: November 2011
For some, WordPress is a livelihood whereas, for others, it’s just for fun. Nonetheless, anyone involved with WordPress needs to stay on track with the latest developments in the blogging world. This is our monthly article covering the latest developments in the WordPress world from news to the latest new kick-ass themes on our marketplaces.
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jQuery Mobile 1.0
The official release of jQuery Mobile 1.0 was recently announced, and this tutorial will provide you with an overview of how this popular framework can assist you in your cross-platform and web based app development!
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Building a Caterpillar Game with Cocos2D
In this series, we will be recreating the popular Atari game Centipede using the Cocos2D game engine for iOS. Centipede was originally developed for Atari and released on the Arcade in 1980. Since then, it has been ported to just about every platform imaginable. For our purposes, we will be calling the game Caterpillar.
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Android SDK: Using the Text to Speech Engine
This tutorial will teach you to give your applications a voice with the Android SDK text to speech engine!
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10 Free Apps for Working with Video
Video has become a must-have for every website or blog aiming to enhance its presence online. It’s a common practice that video-related orders are often assigned to freelancers, and these are not only simple video editing tasks, but the preparation of how-to’s, demos, screencasts, video embedding and distribution as well.
Here is a roundup of the most popular video software and services recommended for freelancers’ everyday use.
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30 Top Facebook Apps for Business
Facebook is a good place to communicate with friends and get new job offers. Freelancers should not miss an employment opportunity on Facebook. The social network app section is a real treasure box with multiple handy applications.
These are some of the best Facebook applications that help freelances boost their productivity, enhance their business pages, show off their portfolio and attract new contacts. Since many freelancers work with social media as experts, account managers and analysts, the list below has both apps for personal profiles and Facebook pages.
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The Latest Google Update is Fantastic News for Freelance Writers
On November 3, 2011 Google published a new article on their blog informing readers that fresh new content is now being seen as highly valuable on their blog or website. This “freshness update” is a new addition to Google’s “Caffeine web indexing system”.
Now blog owners who update their sites regularly will be rewarded with a higher search engine ranking. Let’s look at how freelance writers can put this new update to use in their business.
Psdtuts+ — Photoshop Tutorials
Nettuts+ — Web Development Tutorials
Vectortuts+ — Illustrator Tutorials
Webdesigntuts+ — Web Design Tutorials
Phototuts+ — Photography Tutorials
Cgtuts+ — Computer Graphics Tutorials
Aetuts+ — After Effects Tutorials
Audiotuts+ — Audio & Production Tutorials
Activetuts+ — Flash, Flex & ActionScript Tutorials
Wptuts+ — WordPress Tutorials
Mobiletuts+ — Mobile Development Tutorials
FreelanceSwitch — Articles and Resources for Freelancers
Best of the Web – November 2011
Nov 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 and articles to choose from so please take a moment to review our favorites from November 2011.
Photoshop Tutorials
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RAWZ Light Effects in Photoshop
This tutorial on Abduzeedo explains how to create some futuristic-looking light effect text in Photoshop.
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Observing Color: Relativity
When painting digitally it’s important to understand how the color picker works. In this tutorial from Ctrl+Paint you will learn a bit about color relativity.
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Special Effects Text
This tutorial on Layers Magazine shows how to create some special effects text in Photoshop.
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Create Delicious Cookie Text Using Photoshop
This tutorial from PhotoshopTutorials.ws will explain how to create cookie text in Photoshop.
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Making of The Futuristic City
This tutorial on CG Arena demonstrates how to create a a fantastic futuristic city in Photoshop.
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How to Create a Vintage Circus Poster with the Photoshop Puppet Warp Tool
This tutorial from WeGraphics will explain how to create a vintage circus poster using the Puppet Warp feature in Photoshop CS5.
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Putting A Bend On An Image
This tutorial from The Digital Photography Connection will demonstrate how turn a flat photograph into a bended photo laying on a flat surface.
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Design an iPad app UI
This tutorial from Computer Arts will explain how to create a basic iPad app UI in Photoshop.
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How to Paint Your Worn-Out Shoes in Photoshop
This tutorial from Naldz Graphics will explain how to create some custom sneakers in Photoshop.
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Easy Image Access with Mini Bridge
This quick video from Sr. Photoshop Product Manager Bryan O’Neil Hughes explains how Mini Bridge can be used to save time in Photoshop.
Articles and Inspiration
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An Open Letter To Adobe Systems
Adobe recently changed its upgrade policy. In this open letter from NAPP President, Scott Kelby, he pleads for them to reconsider.
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Should I Be a Designer?
Is passion and interest enough to choose design as a career choice? This thoughtful article from Isaac Gube on Design Instruct ask that question.
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Incredible Typographic Works by Peter Tarka
This post from Abduzeedo features the incredible typographic works of Peter Tarka.
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Design Inspiration: Amazing Matte Paintings
This article from Vandelay Design showcases some excellent matte paintings for your inspiration.
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A Showcase of Still Life Digital Paintings
This article from Noupe showcases some fantastic still-life digital paintings.
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30 Fantastic Transparent Business Cards
Looking for some ideas for your company’s next business card design? This article from DesignM.ag showcases some fabulous examples of transparent business card designs.
Best of Tuts+ in October
Nov 1st
Each month, we bring together a selection of the best tutorials and articles from across the whole Tuts+ network. Whether you’d like to read the top posts from your favourite site, or would like to start learning something completely new, this is the best place to start!
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Photo Effects Week: Create a Fantasy Miniature World in Photoshop
This week we are celebrating the launch of PhotoDune, Envato’s new stock photography website with a series of photo effect and photo manipulation tutorials that showcase the images from our new marketplace. In this tutorial we’ll demonstrate how to create a miniature world using some interesting techniques. Many of the photos used in this tutorial are available for free for Psd Premium Members. Let’s get started!
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Photo Effects Week: Create a Cutout Photograph in Photoshop
This week we are celebrating the launch of PhotoDune, Envato’s new stock photography website with a series of photo effect and photo manipulation tutorials that showcase the images from our new marketplace. In this tutorial we will demonstrate how to create a cutout photo using simple selections and advanced transformations. The photos used in this tutorial are available for free for Psd Premium Members. Let’s get started!
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Create a Stitched Text Effect for an iPad Wallpaper
In this tutorial we will show you how to create a custom stitched text effect for an iPad Wallpaper. Let’s get started!
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Stop Nesting Functions! (But Not All of Them)
JavaScript is over fifteen years old; nevertheless, the language is still misunderstood by what is perhaps the majority of developers and designers using the language. One of the most powerful, yet misunderstood, aspects of JavaScript are functions. While terribly vital to JavaScript, their misuse can introduce inefficiency and hinder an application’s performance.
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The Intro to Rails Screencast I Wish I Had
Isn’t it funny how most “introduction to Ruby on Rails” screencasts are overly simplistic, and rely on generators like scaffolding? The teacher typically follows up the tutorial by stating that most Rails developer don’t use scaffolding generators. Well that’s not much help then! I’d like to give you the tutorial I wish I had. Along the way, we’ll also rely heavily on test-driven development to build a simple app.
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The Best Way to Learn PHP
Learning something from scratch is almost always an arduous affair — you simply have no idea as to where to start, or not to start, to kick things off. I loathed learning about the idiosyncrasies of C++’s syntax when all I wanted to learn were some darn programming concepts. As I’m sure you can agree, this is a less than ideal situation.
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Free, Vintage Graphics: Flourish Vector Ornaments
Wow, if you’re looking for high quality free vector graphics, then you’ve landed on the right article. We’ve roundup up a massive collection of free vector flourishes. These graphics are composed of a wonderful mix of vintage elements, floral ornaments, swirly design mixes, and are all made of beautifully curved vector art.
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Beginners Guides to InDesign
InDesign is a powerful design program with so many tools and features it can a bit tricky to find a topic to begin with. With this in mind, we’ve put together a collection of beginner guides on various InDesign topics like the best way to create a new document, how to import text and images and even useful advice on what to do when a document is corrupted and how to make comments and track changes.
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How to Color a Cute Character using Graphic Styles
Coloring a character sketch can sometimes take much longer than anyone expects. With a few layer tricks and Graphic Styles, I will show you how to create a character that is quick to ink, easy to edit and a breeze to re-color. Let’s get started!
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Design a Static Admin Bar in Photoshop
Let’s whip up a simple, yet effective ‘static admin bar’ in Photoshop. We’ll take a selection of UI elements, and design their various states, ready for building in HTML and CSS.
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A Smarter Twitter Page in Under 15 Minutes
Today we’ll design a smart, vintage modern background to welcome visitors to your Twitter page. We’ll go over some layout considerations, then dive into Photoshop. Have fifteen minutes spare? Let’s go then!
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Build An Innovative Portfolio Site Using Alternative UI/UX
Paul J Noble’s awwward winning, uniquely designed portfolio site has caught the eye of many people, and not just clients either. Today he’s going to follow up on the design stage of this tutorial, and demonstrate how it’s coded up.
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Strapping Up: A Look at Camera Straps
Ever stop to think about what is holding your camera when your hands aren’t? Lots of photography tutorials focus on cameras, lenses, and lighting. Even bags and filters get a lot of press. However, there is one important piece of equipment that gets neglected and choosing the wrong one can be a literal pain in the neck. So, we’re going to take a look at various camera straps and how they indirectly impact your photography.
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Fantastic Photos of Reptiles and Amphibians
Today’s photo collection is a tribute to all things scaly, slimy, or perhaps even both. We have gathered one hundred impeccable examples of reptile and amphibian photography. Whether these creatures are swimming in ponds or slithering underfoot, numerous talented photographers have found them to be the perfect subjects for many beautiful compositions.
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Finishing Your Photographs: Picking Your Medium
Photographers spend a great deal of energy capturing the best image possible and ensuring the image or print is faithfully reproduced. We may not, however, spend as much energy thinking about how to finish a photograph – print, frame or store it – and archive the image.
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The Making Of “Yuki Machi”
This is a walk through from start to finish of how I made my “Yuki Machi” scene. This tutorial is intended for beginners and students who are making the switch from creating and building assets to creating whole scenes and environments. Ill take you through the processes and techniques I use and show you the challenges l face when making larger sets.
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Freebie: An Amazingly Detailed Dodge Tire Model
Need some sweet rims for your next vehicle model? Well you’re in luck! Because Ivan Momchilov is giving away this epic Dodge tire model, complete with a set of highly detailed brakes. For you 3d Studio Max users out there, Ivan has included scene files for 2010,2011 and 2012! And for the non Max users, we have it available in .obj format as well, making it super easy to import it into your software package of choice. This model’s free to all, so download it today!
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Modeling and Animating An Xpresso Driven Clock In Cinema 4D
Today we’ll take some time (did you get it?) to model and animate a clock in Cinema 4D using only Xpresso. We’ll model the clock from a basic cylinder and add some simple materials and lighting to the scene. Once we have the model complete, we’ll begin animating the clock with Xpresso and add some user data to have more control over our final animation.
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How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Overview
This is a quick overview of Aetuts+’s “How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet” Series. We will be posting a new chapter every day or so for the entire month of October. There are 17 parts total so check it regularly!
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Use Real Lights To Motivate Simulated Lights in After Effects – AE Premium
This demonstration is about shooting a translucent object, in this case a crystal illuminated by a match, and compositing that object with stock footage of dramatic fire. Finally, we’ll be simulating similar lighting effects in After Effects to reveal a logo.
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Create And Composite A Mobile Phone App Demo Template
In this tutorial you will learn the workflow on how to set up a scene for an animated pack shot of a phone in CINEMA 4D and composite it in After Effects. Perhaps you have developed a revolutionary iPhone app that you want to show off to the world, or maybe you just want to learn the basic workflow of compositing 3D passes in After Effects. Either way I hope this tutorial will help you along the way.
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Of My Current Favourite iOS Apps
As you may have already realised Im a pretty big fan of all things Apple. Not only do I utilise Apple computers in my production process but I also lean pretty heavily on IOS-based devices in the studio.
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Vocal Loop Effect in Reason
In electronic dance music, DJ’s often loop tracks to cheer up the crowd. In your music productions, you can also use this effect to create an uplifting effect for what’s to come. This tutorial shows you how to create such a loop effect on vocals, using Reason 4.0.
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Adding Flavor to Chords – Major and Minor 7ths – Basix
Today we are going to cover how to add some flavor to your chords and compositions using 7ths in both major and minor. It is surprising how many people know how to play them but do not really understand how they are built and function (guitarists I am talking to you!).
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Create a Flexible XMPP Chat for a Member-Based Website With Flash and PHP
We’ll be looking at how to create a XMPP chat application that can be used in many different scenarios. You’ll learn how to integrate an external database with Ignite Realtime’s Openfire Jabber Server and how to use the XIFF library to create custom XMPP extensions that can be used to send custom data across a network.
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UI Design for Developers: Introduction
Designers vs. developers – it is an argument as old as computers. The truth is, though, neither can live without the other. A brilliant UI design is as worthless without functionality as is the best piece of code with an ugly, unusable frontend. In this first post on UI Basics for developers, I am going to try and lay out some simple ground rules that devs can follow to make sure their apps, templates and prototypes are as beautiful as the code itself – and usable to boot.
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AS3 101: Events – Basix
For this chapter of AS3 101, we will be diving into the mechanics of the Flash event system. If you’ve been following along so far, you’ll have seen events in use, dating all the way back to the first episode of the series. The editor and I felt that it was time to write up something to be formally included in the curriculum, so if you’ve ever seen those lines of code about adding event listeners or dispatching events, and not quite caught on, then this is the tutorial for you.
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WordPress Cheat Sheets: Theme Anatomy Model
Next in line for our WordPress Cheat Sheet series, The Basic WordPress Theme Anatomy Model! If you haven’t seen the first posts in this series, this is a new batch of these quick pocket guides that you guys n’ gals can download, save to your phones for a fast reference, or even print out and keep next to your desk while you’re working on customizing WordPress to do your bidding.
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WordPress Theme Development Training Wheels: Day One
Ready to learn how to make your first WordPress theme? This tutorial series will take a step by step approach, making use of a "learning theme" affectionately known as WordPress Training Wheels, to help teach the subject. This series will take the absolute WordPress newbie through the basic steps necessary to convert any HTML template into a fully functional WordPress theme.
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WordPress 3.3 is On the Horizon! Beta 2 Release Notes
WordPress is evolving quite faster than ever, and every update gets all excited (especially those who make a living on it). WordPress has released it’s 3.3, Beta 2 version just 2 days ago for testing. This update is focused on more improvements, refining and making things faster and better. Today, we’re going to round up what’s coming in the next big version.
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First Look: iOS 5 SDK
iOS 5 has been officially released, and iOS developers are eager to begin making use of the many new features available in the iOS 5 SDK. In this article, industry gurus Brandon Trebitowski and Collin Ruffenach reflect on the opportunities, efficiencies, and most exciting features of the latest SDK. This post is a must read for all iOS SDK developers!
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iOS 5 for Web Devs: Safari Mobile Updates
Native iOS developers aren’t the only ones with something to be excited about when it comes to developing for iOS 5. A new version of Safari Mobile was released alongside the latest operating system, and mobile web developers now have many new features to experiment with. Get up to speed on the changes in this article!
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iOS 5: Fixed Positioning and Content Scrolling
Two of the most celebrated enhancements to Safari on iOS 5 are fixed positioning and content scrolling support. This tutorial will teach you how to take advantage of this change and what the implications are for stop-gap JavaScript libraries like iScroll.
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Keys to Setting Your Rate Based on Experience
There is no one set strategy for setting your rates, which is why the process can be so confusing for freelancers. Basing your rates off regional competitors’ prices is a very smart tactic, but I think many freelancers forget about something important when putting together rates, and that is their value.
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5 Rarely Remembered Rules for Building Your Freelance Brand
Having a strong brand can be a game-changer for your freelance business.
Good brands command respect and establish a reputation. They establish your presence in the marketplace. When questions arise like “where can I find a good freelance writer” or “where do I go to get my website redesigned” … strong brands immediately come to mind.
So how do you build your brand? What rules of branding should you follow? -
7 Ways to Tell a Client He’s Wrong
Telling a client that he is, in fact, wrong can be the hardest thing you ever have to do in your freelance career. It’s not something that we generally consider to be a healthy step: it can lose you a client pretty quickly if not handled properly.
Even if a client accepts that he is incorrect about something, it may still be harder to work with him in the long run.
Psdtuts+ — Photoshop Tutorials
Nettuts+ — Web Development Tutorials
Vectortuts+ — Illustrator Tutorials
Webdesigntuts+ — Web Design Tutorials
Phototuts+ — Photography Tutorials
Cgtuts+ — Computer Graphics Tutorials
Aetuts+ — After Effects Tutorials
Audiotuts+ — Audio & Production Tutorials
Activetuts+ — Flash, Flex & ActionScript Tutorials
Wptuts+ — WordPress Tutorials
Mobiletuts+ — Mobile Development Tutorials
FreelanceSwitch — Articles and Resources for Freelancers
Best of the Web – October 2011
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 and freebies to choose from so please take a moment to review our favorites from October 2011.
Photoshop Tutorials
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Create a Light Textured Web Design in Photoshop
This tutorial from Design Instruct will explain how to create a textured web design in Photoshop.
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Create a Glowing Superhero
This tutorial from frequent Psdtuts author, Kervin Brisseaux will show how he created a glowing superhero illustration in Photoshop.
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Ctrl+Paint Unplugged: Introducing the Pencil
This video tutorial from Ctrl+Paint will explain how to hold your pencil when you are drawing your illustrations.
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Photoshop Hidden Gem: Automated Lens Correction
In this tutorial, Photoshop Senior Product Manager Bryan O’Neil Hughes shares how common lens artifacts like distortion, chromatic aberration and vignetting can be easily corrected with Photoshop CS5.
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Ask Dave Podcast: Get Square Corners on a Stroke That’s Outside (Rather Than Inside)
Let’s be honest, Photoshop does not handle strokes very well. This tutorial from Dave Cross explains how you can tweak Photoshop to produce square cornered strokes that appear outside your shapes.
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How To Create Repeating Texture & Pattern Images
This tutorial from Line25 will explain how to create repeating textures and patterns in Photoshop. A great tip for anyone who works in web design.
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The Quick Change Artist
This tutorial from The Digital Photography Connection will explain how to alter the color of a woman’s outfit in Photoshop.
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Flaming Car in Photoshop
This tutorial from Abduzeedo will explain how to create a flaming car in Photoshop.
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Design a Dark, Moody Movie Poster
This tutorial from Psd Fan will explain how to create a dark movie poster in Photoshop.
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Create a Leatherback Book Icon in Photoshop
This tutorial from PhotoshopTutorials.ws will explain how to create a leatherback book icon in Photoshop.
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How to Develop a Handmade Illustration with Photoshop
This tutorial from Design Instruct will explain how to create a hand-drawn illustration from a photo in Photoshop.
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Create a Typography Based Blog Design in Photoshop
This tutorial from Line25 will explain how to create a basic, text-based blog layout with Photoshop.
Articles and Freebies
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Hyperrealistic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Dave Rapoza
This article on Abduzeedo features some amazingly life-like Teenage Mutant Ninja Tutorials by Dave Rapoza.
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15 Free Vintage and Stained Paper Textures
This collection from Lost and Taken includes some fantastic vintage stained paper textures.
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Illustration Inspiration for the Weekend
This round up from Noupe showcases some excellent illustrations for your inspiration.
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Amazing Tribute Artwork: Remembering Steve Jobs 1955-2011
This tribute of Steve Jobs on DesignM.ag includes some touching illustrations and photographs that honor a man who contributed so much to the world.
Best of Tuts+ in September
Oct 2nd
Each month, we bring together a selection of the best tutorials and articles from across the whole Tuts+ network. Whether you’d like to read the top posts from your favourite site, or would like to start learning something completely new, this is the best place to start!
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Create Animal Textured Typography
In this tutorial we are going to create fun, realistic, animal textured, 3D typography in Photoshop using CS5′s Repousse tool. Let’s get started!
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Create a Detailed User Interface for an iPad Application
In this tutorial we will show you how to design a detailed user interface for an audio-themed iPad application. We will design this application using a retina display resolution and will make use of Photoshop’s shape layers and layer styles. Let’s get started!
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How to Apply Light, Shading, and Shadow to Round Objects
Photoshop is an excellent tool for manipulating photographs but it can also be used as a means to create stunning digital art. This tutorial is part of a 25-part video tutorial series demonstrating everything you will need to know to start producing digital art in Photoshop. Digital Art for Beginners, by Adobe Certified Expert and Instructor, Martin Perhiniak will begin by teaching you how to draw in Photoshop. At the conclusion of this series you will know all you need to produce your own concept art and matte paintings in Photoshop.
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Ways you can be Sure you’ve Married a Geek
Everyone knows that when you get married, your life changes. When Jeffrey and I recently tied the knot, we were advised by the older and wiser that the first year of marriage is the hardest. But so far, it has been fantastic. Dont get me wrong; just because married life is proving to be bliss does not mean there havent been any of those aforementioned changes. Recently, I realized that the ’married life changes” that I am adjusting to are all coincidentally related to the fact that Jeffrey is a web developer, a.k.a Geek.
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Is Conference Pricing Out of Control?
You’ve surely experienced the letdown of registering for a conference, only to find that it costs ,000 (or more) to attend (not including travel expenses). Isn’t that a bit extreme for two days worth of training? Then again, is that the only way the conference organizers can cover the high cost of planning such an event? Let’s see…
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The Best Way to Learn JavaScript
Learning something new is scary. For me, the biggest issue with picking up a new skill is that I don’t know what I don’t know. Given that, it’s often useful to find a plan for learning whatever you’re interested in. That’s what this post is: your blueprint, your roadmap, your plan of action for learning JavaScript! You don’t have to worry about finding the best resources, sorting out the bad ones, and figuring out what to learn next. It’s all here. Just follow it, step by step.
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Free, Vintage Vector, Medieval Heraldry Graphics
It’s free vector graphics time, my favorite hour of the day! We’ve roundup up a truckload of heraldry graphics available in EPS, SVG, AI and other vector formats for free download. These medieval packs are composed of emblems, crests, shields, dragons, knights, helms, armor, swords, flourishes, banners, and all sorts of vintage design elements. Whether you’re designing a stylish brochure for your favorite client or your personal portfolio website, these graphics could add the perfect stylish touch your project is needing.
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Top Tips and Secrets from Talented Vector Artists
Today we share top tips and secrets from talented vector artists, which can help add insight into their processes and can give us the advice we need to improve in our own artwork.
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Playing with Stationery Art Brushes and the Live Paint Bucket
In today’s tutorial I’m going to show you how to create some line art style stationery art brushes. You’ll then learn to combine them with the Live Paint Bucket to create a typography piece.
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A Beginner’s Guide to Successful Conversion
Converting visitors into valuable users is arguably the most fundamental element of managing a website. We’re going to take a closer look at conversion, discuss what it is, cover some common pitfalls, and tackle improving your site’s conversion rates.
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Sign-in or Register: Form Design From Scratch (Day 1)
We deal with web forms all the time; when we log in to YouTube, Facebook, or any other web service, we have to get through a login or sign up process. Often this can be difficult because some forms are too long, or too cluttered. We’re going to build a stylish, straightforward login form, and today we’ll be looking at the Photoshop side of things.
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Weekend Freebie! The Aureus Landing Page (PSD)
I originally designed the Aureus Landing Page for ThemeForest. However, I changed my mind and decided to share it with all of you guys instead – I love giving back to the design community!
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More than 60 Amazing Examples of Black & White Portraiture
The life of the monochrome portrait contains a rich history dating back to the birth of photography itself. Upon the invention of the camera, it was the portrait that took precedence. The opportunity to capture fellow man in a moment in time on film was finally a reality. So when put into context, appreciating the continued importance and wide scale exploitation of black and white portraiture today, it’s clear that the art is not lost and has survived the test of time.
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Travel Portraits: Methods for Making a Connection
If you love to travel and take photographs, you have likely come across the dilemma of what to do when photographing people. Most see it as a catch 22. If you ask permission (as I believe is proper) then the person is not being ‘natural’ as they were before you asked, doing whatever it was that caught your eye. If you snap away, you risk being seen as rude and offending your subject which, for one reason or another, you thought of highly enough to take a photo. So what to do?
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FlashMasters: Off-Camera Flash
Off-camera flash holds a tremendous amount of potential. With the ability to remove the flash from the same axis as the camera, off-camera lighting gives a photographer more creative options than ever before. Today, we’re going to learn about getting started with off-camera flash.
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The Warrior” – Part 1
In this tutorial you’ll go through the entire character creation pipeline using Zbrush, Maya, UVLayout and Photoshop. We’ll go through the whole process of creating the “Warrior” character including texturing and rendering with Metalray. This tutorial is divided into 8 parts and in the first part, we’ll start blocking out the character in Zbrush using Zspheres.
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Create A Realistic Candle & Flame In 3D Studio Max
In this tutorial, regular author Chandan Kumar will show you how to create a realistic candle and flame in 3d Studio Max. The candle’s flame will be made entirely in 3dsmax using built-in tools, rather then expensive third-party plugins! Let’s take a look!
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An Introduction To Vue 9 xStream – Day 1
When you first start using a new software package, you’re a little bit lost. As you don’t really know where to start, what the options and parameters stand for, what the buttons do, etc… This tutorial series was made to introduce you to the best software for creating Natural 3D Environments, that software is: Vue 9 xStream. We’ll take a in-depth look of every aspect of Vue 9, starting with the user interface and working up to very complex environments!
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Kaleidoscope Of Dancing Veggies Using Echospace – Day 1
Today’s tutorial is on how to create a colorful motion graphic piece meant for a food show or cooking program. With the often forgotten Trapcode Echospace you can turn as many photos as you want into one cheerful looking animation. I feel this two part tutorial has principles that could carry over into endless unique results. I hope you enjoy the tut!
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A Look At Hollywood’s Biggest VFX – Part 1
This is a brief introduction of some of the most unbelievable Visual Effects in Hollywood’s biggest movies. This “Part 1″ will describe the making of movies: 2012, Avatar, Alice in Wonderland and The Lord of the Rings.
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Walking Through 3d Text – AE Premium
In today’s tutorial we’re going show how to create the super popular effect of having a person walk right through a 3d logo or text. We’ll cover shooting tips, matchmoving principles, and a whole lot of other helpful info to pull this shot off right! We’ll also show you a way to create this effect without using ANY expensive 3rd party plug-ins!
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Dubstep for Beginners – Part 1: The Drums
With three equally important focal points, this tutorial series will initiate you each of these areas of dubstep and how to start producing your own grooves. This first tutorial will focus around the drum beats and what makes the dubstep beats unique. Get ready for some head nodding grooves!
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How to Get The Most Out of Your Drum Loops
I’m really bad at creating beats. I prefer to use a real drummer, and when that isn’t an option, I try to use loops. When I’m sketching ideas for a song, trying to create an arrangement and such, I like to throw a few loops into the DAW and play over that. I’m really bad at using a metronome or a click track so a drum loop is a much more comfortable option for me.
After I’ve recorded the rough chords and arrangement into my audio program I like spicing up the drum tracks a little bit. Logic Pro makes this easy for me as they have all sorts of different loops and corresponding fills I can use. I usually throw some loops together to create a somewhat fluid arrangement and then create from there. I don’t really end up using those drum loops because I always want to record some actual drums instead, but during the creation process, using loops can really help. -
Do Artists Really Need Managers Anymore?
Over time the music industry has been constantly evolving and managers have continued to play a pivotal role in the accomplishments of the artist they represent. But do artists really need managers anymore?
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Learn HTML5 With This Simple Avoider Game Tutorial
In this tutorial (the first of a series), you’ll learn the basics of HTML5 game development with JavaScript and the
<canvas>element. You don’t need to have any programming experience, or even any HTML experience (apart from this one article). Let’s get started! -
Exclusive Freebie: Tr.ace(), an Excellent AS3 Debugging Utility
We’ve got another Activetuts+ Exclusive Freebie for you! This time, Matt Stuttard (aka MSFX) is offering you his brand new debugging utility, Tr.ace(), which adds some very useful extra features to Flash’s
trace()function. Read on to find out more, and to download your copy.
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An Introduction to FlashPunk: The Basics
Learn the basics of how FlashPunk works – an amazing library to save you time and help you create the perfect game!
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Customizing the WordPress Dashboard For Your Clients
Have you recently started using WordPress for your client’s project and want to further impress your client with better packaging? This article will focus on packaging WordPress so that, in just few minutes after completion of a project, it will feel more unique to the client and not have the generic feel.
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Developing BuddyPress Themes – Part 1 : Working with the BuddyPress API and Loops
Last month, we looked at the basics of BuddyPress and how you can use it to increase social networking in your projects. The response was great and many requested theming tutorials. So, in this three part series, we’ll explain some core elements of the BuddyPress API and unpack how to create a custom child theme that will survive both BuddyPress and WordPress updates.
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Steps to Securing Your WordPress Installation
WordPress is open source which means that everyone, including hackers with a malicious intent, can scour the source code looking for holes in its security. That is why I’m going to show you some good precautionary steps to take to protect you, your WordPress and most importantly, your users.
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Android Futures: Preparing For Ice Cream Sandwich
The next major version of the Android SDK, codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich, is due out within the next couple of months. While were waiting for the release, here are some quick tips to future-proof your applications.
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Full Screen Web Apps
One of the first problems encountered when building a mobile web app from scratch is the amount of space consumed by the browser’s address bar. This tutorial will demonstrate how to reclaim the screen real estate otherwise lost to the address bar while accounting for orientation changes, content height problems, and internal document links.
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iOS SDK: Adding a Table of Contents to an iPad Reader
This is the third installment in a series on creating an iPad PDF reader for the book The War of the Worlds. In today’s tutorial, I will demonstrate how to add a Table of Contents to the project. In doing so, I’ll cover working with plist files, layering subviews, basic UIView animations, and manually creating interface components.
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Top 10 Free Online Storage Apps
Cloud computing oppens new opportunities for freelancers. One of them is free online file synchronization and storage. Nowadays you can sync your PC files and manage your documents on the go. Share files with your employer or other freelancers. Make an online backup or roll back to previous file version. All these actions are possible with modern online file sharing applications.
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5 Ways to Find Freelancing Virtual Assistants
As a freelancer, I’m not really in a position to hire someone as a full-time employee and pay all the payroll taxes and other expenses that go along with such an arrangement. Hiring someone on a contract basis, like a virtual assistant, for just those hours that I need her, is the simplest solution. From there, it becomes a matter of finding the right virtual assistant.
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7 Sins of Website Copywriting That Send Prospects Fleeing
Remember: your website is your virtual salesperson. The design is the way that salesperson is dressed. It makes the first impression. But the copy are the words coming out of that salesperson’s mouth: that’s what will make or break the sale.
When a prospect is looking at your site, they have a question in their mind: “Do I want to hire this person?” Your copy’s job is to make sure the answer is “Yes!” as often as possible.
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