Stuffs

Collection of Illayaraja Songs & Tamil Songs

2011-12-06T21:59:00.001-08:00

Illayaraja Collection Torrent Download

Tamil Songs Collection

Note : The size of these torrents are quite large . However , you can select what you want to download and what to skip under the files tab in BitTorrent by right clicking and selecting 'Don't Downlaod' for files or folders you don

Ford approved 65-66 Mustang convertible body shell now available

2011-11-04T04:10:00.000-07:00

Ford approved 65-66 Mustang convertible body shell now available:
One of the most iconic and frequently restored of all mustangs is the first generation cars from 64.5 to 1966. The problem with restoring one of these old cars is that many of them have long since succumbed to rust and damage from the decades on the road. That leaves a bunch of folks that would like to have a fully restored Mustang sitting in the garage out of luck. A company called Dynacorn International is now making a fully licensed Ford Mustang convertible body shell.

The body is a 100% reproduction of the original 1964.5, 1965, and 1966 convertible body and comes complete and ready for you to paint and install the interior and drive train into along with other parts. The idea is that the restorer can use this body and swap over parts to build a complete car rather than trying to weld and fix body damage or rust.

The new body can be used along with other Ford approved Mustang restoration parts to build a completely new Mustang if that is what the builder wants to do. The new body is made with better materials and techniques than the originals making a car built using these parts stronger than the originals. This company already makes body shells for the 67-68 and 69-70 fastback mustangs too. The price for the new convertible mustang body starts at $15,000.

Relevant Entries on SlashGear.com

Ford approved 65-66 Mustang convertible body shell now available is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2011, SlashGear. All right reserved.

21 Places To See Before You Die

2011-10-22T20:08:00.000-07:00

21 Places To See Before You Die:

No matter how advanced our cities and technology is, eventually we get tired of all the noise, stress and crowd of the city and want to be in the nature.

Humans have transformed Earth beyond recovery, but luckily not everything is lost yet. Beautiful mountains, blue water lakes, magnificent oceans with fabulous islands – our planet has many breathtaking places and awe-inspiring sceneries just waiting for you to discover them.

However, life is short, and the funds are limited, so we have to narrow down the selection. Knowing that you are just another lazy panda, we’ve done it for you!

We’ve picked 21 most amazing places in the world, however it is said that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, so you may as well have your very own personal list of places to see before you die.

1. Antelope Canyon, USA

Bamboos for: James Marvin Phelps , Rob Inh00d

Antelope Canyon is the most-visited and most-photographed slot canyon in the American Southwest. It is located on Navajo land near Page, Arizona. Antelope Canyon includes two separate, photogenic slot canyon sections, referred to individually as Upper Antelope Canyon or The Crack; and Lower Antelope Canyon or The Corkscrew. The Navajo name for Upper Antelope Canyon is Tsé bighánílíní, which means “the place where water runs through rocks.” Lower Antelope Canyon is Hazdistazí, or “spiral rock arches.”

Antelope Canyon was formed by erosion of Navajo Sandstone, primarily due to flash flooding and secondarily due to other sub-aerial processes. Rainwater, especially during monsoon season, runs into the extensive basin above the slot canyon sections, picking up speed and sand as it rushes into the narrow passageways. Over time the passageways are eroded away, making the corridors deeper and smoothing hard edges in such a way as to form characteristic ‘flowing’ shapes in the rock.^[1]

2. The Phi Phi Islands, Thailand

Bamboos for: Jo@net , Goianobe , CX15

The Phi Phi Islands are located in Thailand, between the large island of Phuket and the western Andaman Sea coast of the mainland. ^[13] Classic beaches, stunning rock formations, and vivid turquoise waters teeming with colourful marine life – it’s paradise perfected. ^[14]

3. Santorini, Greece

Bamboos for: MarcelGermain , Maggie & David

Santorini is perhaps the most fascinating and most talked about island of Greece in the Aegean. Only the name of the island is enough to unfold in mind pleasurable connotations, volcanic landscape, gray and red beaches, dazzling white houses, terraces with panoramic sea views , stunning sunsets, wild fun. All this, together with remnants of lost civilizations discovered in the volcanic ash justify the epithets with which visitors identify Santorini and fairly is called, magical, indescribable, astonishing. ^[3]

4. Maldive Islands

Bamboos for: iujaz , aquabumps

The Maldives lies in two rows of atolls in the Indian Ocean, just across the equator. The country is made up of 1,190 coral islands formed around 26 natural ring-like atolls, spread over 90,000 square kilometers. These atolls structures are formed upon a sharp ridge rising from the ocean, making way for their secluded uniqueness.

Maldives has deep blue seas, turquoise reefs, white sandy beaches and palm trees. It is also a place full of character, where its people have long spent their days languishing in the very essence of idyll living. While it is the perfect place to sit on a beach and watch a sunset with a cocktail balanced on your hand, it is also a geographical marvel, knowing that there are thousands of fish swimming around the vivid corals just a few feet away from where you sit. ^[4]

5. Machu Picchu, Peru

Bamboos for: Tati@ , szeke , magnusvk

Machu Picchu stands 2,430 m above sea-level, in the middle of a tropical mountain forest, in an extraordinarily beautiful setting. It was probably the most amazing urban creation of the Inca Empire at its height; its giant walls, terraces and ramps seem as if they have been cut naturally in the continuous rock escarpments. The natural setting, on the eastern slopes of the Andes, encompasses the upper Amazon basin with its rich diversity of flora and fauna. ^[5]

The Incas started building the “estate” around AD 1400, but abandoned it as an official site for the Inca rulers a century later at the time of the Spanish Conquest. Although known locally, it was unknown to the outside world before being brought to international attention in 1911 by the American historian Hiram Bingham. ^[6]

6. The Great Wall of China

Bamboos for: Francisco Diez , topgold

The Great Wall of China, one of the greatest wonders of the world, was listed as a World Heritage by UNESCO in 1987. Just like a gigantic dragon, the Great Wall winds up and down across deserts, grasslands, mountains and plateaus, stretching approximately 8,851.8 kilometers (5,500 miles) from east to west of China. With a history of more than 2000 years, some of the sections are now in ruins or have disappeared. However, it is still one of the most appealing attractions all around the world owing to its architectural grandeur and historical significance. ^[7]

7. Iceland

Bamboos for: shchukin , Stuck in Customs

Fire and Ice offers a stunning portrait of this island of extremes, where some of Europe’s biggest glaciers cozy up to some of the continent’s hottest volcanic springs. ^[8] Every season has its own unique charm and there are always opportunities to experience new things, discover beauty and be mesmerized by the freshness and colours of nature. ^[9]

8. Bora Bora Island

Bamboos for: kenyai , jsmoral , Pierre Lesage

Bora Bora emerged from the waters 3 millions years ago. Like all the other Polynesian islands, this volcanic island slowly sinking in the ocean. It currently presents particular geological characteristics ranging in between a high island and an atoll status. Island has unforgettable turquoise lagoon – where a multi-color aquatic fauna (sting & manta rays, sharks, tropical fishes) can be observed by outrigger canoe, boat or diving explorations. The coral reef includes a string of islets and gorgeous white sand beaches surrounding the main island. ^[10]

9. The Wave, Arizona, USA

Bamboos for: Alaskan Dude , DIVA007

The Wave is a sandstone rock formation located in the United States of America near the Arizona and Utah border on the slopes of the Coyote Buttes, in the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, on the Colorado Plateau. Nearly 200 million years ago, this region was a sandy desert where huge dunes migrated across the landscape pushed by seasonal winds. Prevailing winds of that ancient Jurassic time can be determined by examining the cross-bedding (layers) in the sandstone. What we see today are some of the original crossbedded dunes shaped into dramatic landforms and exposed by erosion from eons of runoff. The spectacular ribbons of various colors called Liesegang Bands, were formed by movement and precipitation of oxidizing materials such as iron and manganese by ground water[1]. Thin veins or fins of calcite cut across the sandstone, adding another dimension to the landscape. ^[11]

10. Petra, Jordan

Bamboos for: ralwic , rwoan

Petra, the world wonder, is without a doubt Jordan’s most valuable treasure and greatest tourist attraction. It is a vast, unique city, carved into the sheer rock face by the Nabataeans, an industrious Arab people who settled here more than 2000 years ago, turning it into an important junction for the silk, spice and other trade routes that linked China, India and southern Arabia with Egypt, Syria, Greece and Rome. ^[12]

11. The Cave of Crystals, Naica Mine, Mexico

Bamboos for: ourfunnyplanet , nicole_denise

The Naica Mine of the Mexican state of Chihuahua is a working mine that is best known for its extraordinary selenite crystals. The Cave of Crystals (Cueva de los Cristales) is a cave approximately 1,000 feet (300 m) below the surface in the limestone host rock of the mine. The chamber contains giant selenite crystals, some of the largest natural crystals ever found.T he selenite crystals were formed by hydrothermal fluids emanating from the magma chambers below. ^[2]

12. Moraine Lake, Canada

Bamboos for: A tea but no e , T.P Photographie

Moraine Lake is a glacially-fed lake in Banff National Park, 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) outside the Village of Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada. The lake does not reach its crest until mid to late June. When it is full, it reflects a distinct shade of blue. The color is due to the refraction of light off the rock flour deposited in the lake on a continual basis. ^[15]

13. Grand Canyon, USA

Bamboos for: carbonboy , paigeh

The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. A powerful and inspiring landscape, the Grand Canyon overwhelms our senses through its immense size; 277 river miles (446km) long, up to 18 miles (29km) wide, and a mile (1.6km) deep. ^[16] Nearly two billion years of the Earth’s geological history have been exposed as the Colorado River and its tributaries cut their channels through layer after layer of rock while the Colorado Plateau was uplifted. ^[17]

14. Berry Head Arch, Canada

Bamboos for: Rexton

This magnificent sea arch is located on the Spurwink Trail, along the East Coast Trail. To get to the arch, find the East Coast Trail trailhead at Port Kirwan. From here, it is about a 4.75-mile one way hike to the arch. The hike is moderate but extreme caution is required at points where the trail skirts the edge of some rather high cliffs.^[18]

15. Monument Valley, USA

Bamboos for: Wolfgang Staudt

Monument Valley (Navajo: Tsé Biiʼ Ndzisgaii, meaning valley of the rocks) is a region of the Colorado Plateau characterized by a cluster of vast sandstone buttes, the largest reaching 1,000 ft (300 m) above the valley floor.^[19] Monument Valley provides perhaps the most enduring and definitive images of the American West. The isolated red mesas and buttes surrounded by empty, sandy desert have been filmed and photographed countless times over the years for movies, adverts and holiday brochures. Because of this, the area may seem quite familiar, even on a first visit, but it is soon evident that the natural colors really are as bright and deep as those in all the pictures. The valley is not a valley in the conventional sense, but rather a wide flat, sometimes desolate landscape, interrupted by the crumbling formations rising hundreds of feet into the air, the last remnants of the sandstone layers that once covered the entire region. ^[20]

16. Plitvice, Croatia

Bamboos for: korom , mpancha

The stunning Plitvice Lakes National Park lies in the Lika region of Croatia. The park is surrounded by the mountains Plješevica, Mala Kapela, and Medveđak, which are part of the Dinaric Alps. The 16 blue-green Plitvice Lakes, which are separated by natural dams of travertine, are situated on the Plitvice plateau. ^[21] The lakes are renowned for their distinctive colors, ranging from azure to green, grey or blue. The colors change constantly depending on the quantity of minerals or organisms in the water and the angle of sunlight. ^[22]

17. Preikestolen, Norway

Bamboos for: Today is a good day

Preikestolen or Prekestolen, also known by the English translations of Preacher’s Pulpit or Pulpit Rock, and by the old local name Hyvlatonnå (“the carpenter-plane’s blade”), is a massive cliff 604 metres (1982 feet) above Lysefjorden, opposite the Kjerag plateau, in Forsand, Ryfylke, Norway. The top of the cliff is approximately 25 by 25 metres (82 by 82 feet) square, almost flat, and is a famous tourist attraction in Norway. ^[23]

18. Pamukkale, Turkey

Bamboos for: Le Grand Portage , pic fix , RICCIO , sterol.andro

Pamukkale, meaning “cotton castle” in Turkish, is a natural site in Denizli Province in southwestern Turkey. The city contains hot springs and travertines, terraces of carbonate minerals left by the flowing water. ^[24] It is Turkey’s foremost mineral-bath spa because of its natural beauty: hot calcium-laden waters spring from the earth and cascade over a cliff. As they cool they form dramatic travertines of hard, brilliantly white calcium that form pools. ^[25]

19. Socotra Island, Yemen

Bamboos for: over-logging , Soqotra (Yemen)

Socotra is one of the most isolated landforms on Earth of continental origin. Socotra is considered the jewel of biodiversity in the Arabian Sea. The long geological isolation of the Socotra archipelago and its fierce heat and drought have combined to create a unique and spectacular flora. Botanical field surveys led by the Centre for Middle Eastern Plants indicate that 307 out of the 825 (37%) plant species on Socotra are endemic, i.e., they are found nowhere else on Earth. ^[26]

20. Carerra Lake

Bamboos for: Feffef

Shared by Argentina and Chile the deepest lake in South America is famous for its trout and salmon fishing. The waters of General Carrera Lake are beautiful, a glittering combination of emerald, turquoise, aquamarine and azure. The marble protrusions stretch along a beachside and are around 300 meters in length. The waters of the lake have slowly impacted upon the marble and, in their infinite patience, have created something of enormous, almost bewildering beauty. The rock manifests different tones which are dependent upon the natural impurities within the marble. Although the white banks, of immense purity are predominant blue and pink marble banks can also be seen due to the presence of other minerals within the rock. ^[27]

21. Hey, wait, there’s only 20 places here! Which place will you suggest to be the 21st?

21 Places To See Before You Die originally appeared on Bored Panda on September 28, 2011.

Possibly related articles:

Mankatha Review

2011-09-14T12:34:00.000-07:00

Mankatha ...sexiest movie of this year . Ajith is in his most sexiest outlook (salt n pepper). The story is quite simple but the screenplay and dialogues are heavy. Venkat Prabhu as usual has rendered the movie in a very stylish way ,the intro song is superb . Yuvan's background score is outstanding and different from rest of his works .Ajith's character is grey shaded to the core , and that is what is so cool .The script is original in every kind . However , you can find some scenes inspired from movies like Italian Job , Oceans 13 . The main stuff I loved was the bloopers at the end of the movie .It was nice to see Ajith having fun during the making . On the whole , Mankatha is one of a kind . It is straight-forward ,strong, witty, funny, sexy and cool . It is one of my favorite movies .

Mankatha Review

2011-09-14T12:26:00.000-07:00

A 30 Piece Showcase of Typography in Logo Design

2011-09-02T02:44:00.000-07:00

A 30 Piece Showcase of Typography in Logo Design:
Eye catching, creative logos are important for all brands; it is the visual representation of a company reflecting products and services. Designers have started to use typography in logo design; this has very quickly become a lasting design trend.
When creating a typography logo, a good typeface must be used. Take into account word/letter spacing, legibility and shape. Once done correctly they look beautiful and are recognizable, standing out amongst hundreds of logos featuring similar meaningless shapes or standard fonts.

A good typography logo design can successfully represent your company, brand and effectively communicate your businesses personality, individuality and essence.
So for today’s showcase we have hand-picked some amazingly simple yet effective and powerful logo designs that are based on typography.

About the author
Alex writes on behalf of UK printing company Print Express, who specialise in online postcard printing, business cards & posters. When he’s not admiring other logos, he spends his spare time learning to code.

Get the stock images and vectors you need for your designs on Stutterstock

Want to advertise here ? Contact us

Design Study : 20 Interesting Logos with Hidden Messages

2011-09-02T02:36:00.000-07:00

o
A logo is of great importance to a company and symbolizes the culture and spirit of your enterprise. A successful company logo can brand your product or business in a much better way. Consequently, the logo should be exquisitely designed and capable of communicating specific values and ideals in an instant.

A good logo should be as simple as possible so that customers can remember it easily. On the other hand, the simple logo should convey the spirit and meaning of your company or services at the same time. Therefore, to design a superficially simple logo with hidden messages is a good choice in logo designing. One of the most popular techniques used in logo designing to create hidden logos is using negative space.
Regarding several famous logos with a hidden meaning, some of the most memorable that I can recall include the FedEx Logo, Baskin Robbins logo and Carrefour logo. Now, let’s appreciate 20 interesting logos with hidden messages together. I’m sure you will feast your eyes on the amazing logo designing tricks and get some inspiration from them.

1. FedEx

I think you have seen this design thousands of times before. You can see an arrow between the letters “E” and “X” which perfectly use the negative space.

2. Mira

Besides a human face in the logo, what else have you seen? Yes, two dog faces. The black negative spaces on the left and right side create two dog faces using a smart method.

3. Hide

This is a perfect example of negative space. The “D” has been carefully hidden in the “HIDE”. At first, the word “HIDE” can be read with the small “D” in white, but if you watch closely, the black space shows a “D” as well.

4. Amazon

This famous logo is extremely clean and simple but this arrow might not look like more than a smile to you. Before, coming to any conclusions I would like you to know the concept behind this…it says that amazon.com has everything from a to z and it also represents the smile brought to the customer’s face.

5. Marriage

The two mirrored “R” letters look like two lovers who are hands in hands, which just symbolizes the core of the marriage.

6. Heart beats

Two musical notes are bent in a way to make a heart and headphones. The softness of this logo expresses “Love for Music”.

7. Countercurrent

As you can notice, the negative space between the four arrows makes another arrow that goes the opposite direction. It signifies the meaning of Countercurrent logo.

8. Shit Talking

This is such a weird but funny logo. It denotes to quotes that are shaped in a way to create a toilet seat in the middle, while signifies the name of the logo.

9. Old Drunk

Although the logo design may look like a plump man standing, but if you watch closely, he is holding a wine glass that can be seen in the negative space in the middle.

10. My Fonts

At first glance, it may not look so impressive, but if you observe this hidden logo, the letters “My” shows a human hand.

11. Zoorganic

This hidden logo has two messages concealed using negative space technique. Under the wings of the eagle you can see a horse and a wolf.

12. Safehands

Safehands is ideal logo for finance and consulting. It uses the negative space to create the S and the $ sign by showing the two hands coming in together.

13. Hands Up

This hidden logo is a tricky one to understand. If you observe the letter “U”, you will see that it shows a person with his hands up.

14. Embrace Beer

This logo design uses the negative space technique to hide two beer bottles between the letter “B”. The letter B also creates an “E”.

15. Truce

This logo is also a perfect example of using negative space, in which the word “truce” fits within itself when flipped upside-down.

16. Hidden Cork

This hidden logo shows a wonderful play on the letters “h” and “c” to create a wine glass. Looking vertically, it also spells out ‘h’ and ‘C’. Also hidden in the glass is a cork.

17. Strength

Strength logo design uses a combination of illusion and negative space to incorporate a hidden meaning. The hidden faces are noticeable on the left and right side of the eaten apple.

18. Raven

This creative logo designed for a Dutch financial advice company looks like 3 ravens, but the negative space in between contains yet another raven.

19. Galant Shoes

This logo has a circular black crescent which just symbolizes the brand “G”.

20. I Here There

This hidden logo has two meanings. Reflection of the word “1here” creates the word “there” below to complete “1here there”.

100 Amazing Typographic Portraits

2011-06-13T00:09:00.000-07:00

100 Amazing Typographic Portraits: "

We want to show you some incredible typographic portraits, the literal meaning for typefaces on this article. Enjoy"

Caroline Andrieu - Art

2011-04-01T09:52:00.000-07:00

Ou Caroline Andrieu dans le civil, en plus d’être la directrice artistique chez Condé Nast, cette jeune femme taquine sévèrement le crayon dans un style plutot réaliste mais irresistiblement maitrisé et séduisant…
"

15 Handy Facebook Tips/Tricks

2011-04-01T09:51:00.000-07:00

F15 Handy Facebook Tips/Tricks: "

Guys at Facebook are working very hard to make your social communication more convenient and easy. Someone can ask ‘what new things can they create, if a lot of different stuff was invented long ago”? The answer is – a lot of! In this post we present you very useful and handy tips you might have missed. They might be very helpful if you want to stay connected better with your friends."

Elodie

2011-04-01T09:50:00.000-07:00

Elodie: "
Les illustrations pleines de vie de Elodie.

"

Ian Kim

2011-04-01T09:49:00.001-07:00

Ian Kim: "
Le portfolio de IAN KIM avec quelques merveilleuses pépites inside et qui travaille actuellement pour le studio Buck.

"

Create an Underground City in Photoshop – Psd Premium Tutorial

2011-04-01T09:49:00.000-07:00

Create an Underground City in Photoshop – Psd Premium Tutorial: "
In movies, filmmakers often use matte paintings when the backdrop of a scene can’t or doesn’t exist in real life. In this Psd Premium tutorial, author Ed Lopez will demonstrate some advanced matte painting techniques by creating an underground cave city with Photoshop. This massive tutorial, which includes over 400 screenshots and almost 3 hours of video will show you how you can create your own matte paintings or photo compositions using stock photography, computer generated images, and even some manual painting. This tutorial is available exclusively to Premium Members. If you would like to take your matte painting skills to the next level, Log in or Join Now to get started!

Detailed Video Instruction

This tutorial includes 14 videos that demonstrate the process of creating this project in detail so that you can better understand the techniques that were used in each step. Below is a clip from one of those videos. To view more clips you can Log in or Join Now!

Professional and Detailed Instructions Inside

This tutorial also includes full text and screenshots of each step. Premium members can Log in and Download! Otherwise, Join Now! Below are some sample images from this tutorial.

Final Image

Psd Premium Membership

As you know, we run a premium membership system here that costs $9 a month (or $22 for 3 months!) which gives members access to the Source files for tutorials as well as periodic extra tutorials, like this one! You’ll also get access to Net Premium and Vector Premium, too. If you’re a Premium member, you can Log in and Download the Tutorial. If you’re not a member, you can of course Join Today!

Philip Brunner

2011-04-01T09:48:00.000-07:00

Philip Brunner: "
Le travail de Philip Brunner.

"

Trust in elements — Xavier Bourdil

2011-04-01T09:47:00.001-07:00

Trust in elements — Xavier Bourdil: "
Bonne mise à jour de Trust In Elements, le portfolio de Xavier Bourdil, un Digital Pistolero parisien !

Une navigation très agréable avec une séparation claire des commandes et des travaux persos, et surtout pas mal de nouveaux jolis visuels a se mettre sous la dent ! Alors, on fonce !

"

Michael Spoljaric

2011-04-01T09:47:00.000-07:00

Michael Spoljaric: "

Now Portland based graphic design Michael Spoljaric’s career path can be traced back through Attik, the Phantom Research Foundation, R!OT Manhattan, Spontaneous and now Nike where he works on the basketball account and is responsible for these excellent illustrations that I ran into on a trip to NY this summer.

"

The HANGOVER 2 Trailer . Its hilarious .

2011-04-01T09:42:00.000-07:00

Logo Design Trend Showcase: Retro Emblems & Badges

2011-04-01T09:39:00.000-07:00

Logo Design Trend Showcase: Retro Emblems & Badges: "
I’ve noticed the retro/vintage style theme in logo design is becoming an increasingly popular trend. This showcase pulls together a range of great looking logo designs based on the emblem or badge theme. Most often using a circular format, these logos use a mix of texture or intricate vector patterns to produce a creative and overall super-cool design.

McFly

Sailors and Fishermen

Windfall

Xen Strength

Pandaroo

Harbor Stone Construction Company LLC.

Safer

Designers Against Child Slavery

Dunbar’s Cyclery

Bert’s Records

Baggie’s Brew Pub

WallPepper

Doc’s Catering

Schodzone

Let It Grow Organik

Schu-Shine Inn

Zigwicks

FRESH01

Web Machine

Wheatlys

Health & Beauty

Bike Community

Betty’s Fish & Chip Shop

44 Printworks

Chess for the Mess

Selfmark

Montana’s Tree & Lawn Service

Hampton Rustic

DBushell Does Design

Campus Groupie

Falanx

Autodetailer

Old Pistons

Blended Milkshakes

Native Grounds Coffee

Keith Home Made Cakes

Giardini dopo la Pioggia

Doctor Jivago

Jim Clancy, Marine Rep.

Rio

Fun in the Run

ST Paul Lutheran School

The Big Top Fashion Show

SDFRA

Hypnotic Design

Van Hoof & Wilson Adventure Company

Panozzo MPLS

Dusted

Lone Star Olive Oil Ranch

Tre Mac N’ Cheese

Resources to create your own retro emblem logo

Fancy having a go at creating your very own retro style emblem or badge logo? I’m sure these handy resources from various design and tutorial blogs will help out:

Create a Detailed Vector Emblem Badge in Illustrator

Intricate Patterns in Illustrator

Design a Grungy Circular Logo

Design a Print-Ready Beer Label in Adobe Illustrator

Motohiro NEZU

2011-04-01T09:33:00.000-07:00

Motohiro NEZU: "

Motohiro NEZU is an LA based graphic designer and illustrator who is churning out some nice pop art influenced works including some tasty drippy vector portraits of famous basketball players.

"

Photo Retouching Tips And Tricks In Photoshop

2011-04-01T09:32:00.000-07:00

Photo Retouching Tips And Tricks In Photoshop: "

Two weeks ago we published the first part of Photoshop tips and tricks for photo retouching. Today, we’ll be presenting the rest of the article. We hope that these techniques will be quite useful for your workflow. You may know some of them, but hopefully not all of them. We have had articles on various tools in Adobe Photoshop but this one is focused more on the techniques rather than the tools provided. Please note that all images used in this article were purchased and are used according to their licenses.
Here is a short overview of the techniques we’ll be covering in this follow-up:

Defining Colors

If you want to redefine the foreground and background colors, use the Eyedropper tool to select the foreground color, and then switch the position with the background color, maybe by using the shortcut X, and pick up the next color. But there is an easier way. First, define the foreground color just as you’re accustomed to, but then define the background color by holding the Alt/Option key. Instead of changing the foreground color, you’ll redefine the background color with just one click.

Define foreground and background colors.

Controlling Folders

Folders give structure to layers, which is especially important if you’re working on demanding compositions. Folders are often collapsed, so you can’t see the contents at first sight. This conserves space but it’s not always desirable. If you want nested layers to reveal their contents and offer a quick overview, hold the Control/Command key and click on one of the triangles to expand. All folders at the first level will expand. You can collapse them again using the same trick. To expand all nested folders inside the folders as well, hold the Alt/Option key as well as the Control/Command key.

Hold the Control/Command key to expand the folder.

Split-Toning Effect

Create two new gradient maps via Layer → New Adjustment Layer → Gradient Map. You could, for example, create a gradient from dark-blue to beige and another from dark-brown to white. To change a gradient, click on it to open up the “Gradient Editor” dialog box. There, click on your chosen color patches and open up the color picker via the “Color field.”

Blending Options: This Layer
Confirm with “OK,” double-click the layer with the second gradient map and, under “This Layer,” move the right slider to the left. To make the transition a little smoother, click on the slider while holding down the Alt/Option key and move it to the right. Confirm with “OK.”

Split-Toning Effect

Flexible Vignette

To create a non-destructive vignette, go to New Adjustment Layer → Levels. Darken the image completely by, for example, setting the Highlights down to 80. Now use the Brush tool with black color to paint the light center into the layer mask. Instead of using a brush to paint the area, you could use the Elliptical Marquee tool and fill the selection with black.

Adjustment Layer: Levels
You can use the Move tool to adjust the vignette’s position any time, or blur it using the “Gaussian Blur.” You can also increase or decrease the darkening. To do so, open the Levels Adjustment dialog box again.

Skin Retouching In Camera Raw

Again, open a photo in Camera Raw (for example, by using the right mouse key from Bridge and clicking “Open in Camera Raw”). In general, you can use the Spot Healing Brush tool and all other tools and sliders to improve the image. When you’re happy with it, hold the Shift key and click on “Open Object.” The image will be put on a new layer as a Smart Object.
You could also click the blue link at the bottom of the screen, which opens the “Workflow Options” dialog window. From there, you can control some other settings as well. Make sure to check the “Open in Photoshop as Smart Object” checkbox, and then confirm with “OK” to open the images (without having to holding Shift).

Here, layers are smart objects.
Right-click on the layer and choose “New Smart Object via Copy,” and then open the Camera Raw dialog box again by double-clicking the layer icon. Set the “Clarity” value to -100 and confirm with “OK.” Hold the Alt/Option key and click on the “Create Layer Mask” button, then use a soft brush to paint over the optimized skin. Use the opacity slider to control the amount of retouching.

Here is optimized skin with the help of Camera Raw.

Setting Lights

If you want to do some virtual re-positioning of your strobes, then neutralize the shot first. Go to Select → Color Range, and set Select option to “Highlights.” Copy the selection content to a new layer by hitting Control/Command + J. Activate the background layer again, and select the “Shadows” this time. Bring those to their own layer, too, with Control/Command + J, and then set the blending mode to “Screen” and the highlights to “Multiply.”

Highlights and shadows
Reduce the opacity to about 30%, depending on the image content. “Shadows/Highlights” might also help. On a new layer, filled with a neutral gray and its blending mode set to “Overlay,” paint in the desired light quality with the Dodge and Burn tools. Alternatively, add a new layer and set its blending mode to “Soft Light” or “Overlay” and, with a low opacity brush, paint black and white on this layer.

The lights were neutralized a bit.

Distinguished Paleness

For a distinguished paleness, copy the background layer and set its blending mode to “Screen.” Use Image → Adjustments → Desaturate or “Black & White,” then “Shadows/Highlights” to increase the effect. The exact adjustment options can vary according to your image content.

Here’s the layer after creating the mask.
The effect will cover the entire image unless you click on the “Create Layer Mask” button while holding the Alt/Option key, and then paint the pale areas with the brush tool and white color. You can control the effect’s strength with the opacity slider.

Distinguished paleness.

Dodge And Burn Look

Copy the reduced layers to a new layer with Shift + Control/Command + Alt/Option + E, and then set the blending mode to “Vivid Light.” Use Control/Command + I to invert the layer content, and apply Filter → Blur → Surface Blur with a radius of about 70 pixels and a threshold of 40 levels. Press Shift + Control/Command + Alt/Option + E again, delete the layer below, and set the blending mode to “Overlay.” Apply a “Gaussian Blur” to make the contours a little softer, and then click Image → Adjustments → Desaturate.

Dodge and Burn Look

Bright Eyes

To make eyes appear brilliant, click on New Adjustment Layer → Exposure. Fill the layer mask with black (or invert the mask), and paint with white over the irises and with black over the pupils. Set the blending mode of the adjustment layer to “Luminosity.” Increase the exposure in concert with the gamma value to give the iris structure more contrast. Also, try changing the “Offset slider.”

Create beautiful eyes with exposure.

The Orton Effect

With the Orton effect, sharp and blurred versions of a photo are mixed together. Copy the background layer with Control/Command + J, and click on Image → Apply Image. Change the blending mode to “Screen” and click “OK.” Copy the current layer again with Control/Command + J. Apply a Gaussian Blur to this copy by clicking Filter → Blur → Gaussian Blur. The value will depend on the size of the image. The shapes should always blur slightly. Set the blending mode for the layer to “Multiply.”

The Orton effect creates contrast and depth.

Optimizing Lasso Selections

Many users (even professionals) prefer the Lasso Selection tool to the Path tool for uncomplicated selections. To switch to the Polygon Lasso tool for a short stretch, hold the Alt/Option key while working. To switch back to the regular Lasso tool, just release the Alt/Option key while depressing the mouse button.

Switching between the Lasso and Polygon Lasso tools is easy.
It often happens that, during a zoom, you hit the edge of the work area while making a selection. Just keep the space bar pressed to switch to the Hand tool, and you can quickly change the displayed image section.

Aligning Layer Contents

Some areas in Photoshop are hardly ever noticed. This is one of them. If you activate the Move tool, you’ll see some mysterious symbols to the right called Align tools, in the option bar next to Auto-Select and the Transform controls (which are basically equivalent to Free Transform).

Align tools
If you activate just one layer, the Align tools won’t do anything, but if you select two or more layers by holding the Control/Command key, then you can align the layer’s contents with these buttons. Choose from options such as “Align Top Edge” and “Align Vertical Center.”

Restoring Selections

Often, while in the middle of working on a tricky selection, you’ll accidentally deselect it by clicking once too often. You can restore the lost selection by pressing Shift + Control/Command + D. This will get the ants marching again. You can also undo (Control/Command + Z) the action, and even perform multiple undos with Control/Command + Alt/Option + Z.
By the way, you can hold the Alt/Option key to subtract elements from the selection at any time, or hold the Shift key to add to the selection. Pressing a combination of both keys creates a selection intersection. Important selections that you might need later can be saved by going to Select → Save Selection.

Restore lost selections.

Nokia will be able to customize 'everything' in Windows Phone 7, but likely won't

2011-04-01T09:31:00.001-07:00

Nokia will be able to customize 'everything' in Windows Phone 7, but likely won't: "

Stephen Elop, in his financial and strategy briefing continuing Nokia's marathon Capital Markets Day, just posed an interesting rhetorical question: will Nokia be able to 'customize everything' on Windows Phone 7 in order to differentiate itself? 'Yes!' was Elop's ebullient proclamation, though he quickly pulled it back to say that Nokia likely won't make extensive use of this freedom to tailor Microsoft's OS. Instead, the company will be cautious and seek to maintain compatibility rather than pushing the boat out too far in tweaking the underlying software. That's a major shift for Microsoft, who forbade HTC from skinning Windows Phone 7 with Sense, something the Taiwanese company would surely have loved to do, and limited it to the introduction of a self-contained Hub. Now Nokia's saying it -- perhaps exclusively -- has been given the liberty to play around inside WP7 to its heart's content. We'll see how important that turns out to be whenever Nokia delivers its first device bearing its new smartphone OS. An insider tip tells us the current plan is to introduce such a handset by the end of 2011, potentially based on current hardware. Who's ready for Xbox Live on a future version of the N8?

Inspiration - The Work of Designer of Paul Watmough

2011-04-01T09:31:00.000-07:00

Inspiration - The Work of Designer of Paul Watmough: "
For this week’s inspiration, we have the work of British designer Paul Watmough. He’s been in the industry for a long time, and has worked with some big names. He’s got a very cool, and diverse style. I’m also a big fan of skateboard related design, so that’s a plus for me! :) Here is a bit more about Paul from his site:

I am an Art Director / Creative Designer living in Hamburg, Germany. With eleven years industry experience, I have worked on and directed large scale international campaigns, developed brands for market leaders and been a representative and event organiser at many respected lectures and fairs around the world. Additionally, I have attained a long list of recognition from books, magazines, web reviews and my industry peers.

Terrific Illustrative Type by Alex Beltechi

2011-04-01T09:22:00.000-07:00

Terrific Illustrative Type by Alex Beltechi: "
Alex Beltechi is a graphic designer and illustrator from Romania.
One of his stronger areas of expertise – as you can tell from the following pieces – is experimental typography.
His unique blend of (usually) clean lines and grungy textures brews a pixel-perfect typographic illustration every time that are always a pleasure to look at.
A lot of Alex’s work is produced for personal and experimental purposes, while some pieces are made into tutorials or sold as stock files.
If you like what you see, you can follow Alex on Twitter, and check out his other work on either his Behance or Flickr profiles.

This post was put together exclusively for WDD by Callum Chapman, the man behind Picmix Store and Circlebox Blog.
What’s your favorite illustrated type piece here, and why? Would you like to see more experimental type like this out in the real world, such as in advertisements?

If you find an exclusive RSS freebie on this feed or on the live WDD website, please use the following code to download it: O1Rs1S

Get The Ultimate Creative Bundle (worth $1500) for just $49

Source

"

Best from the web and design In January 2011

2011-04-01T09:21:00.000-07:00

Best Of Web And Design In January 2011: "

The start of a new year a great month for the design community to kick off the year with a ton of great articles, tutorials and freebies been released throughout this month. January there was a lot of news including the revealing of the HTML 5 logo which reminds of that web 2.0 type of effect, will the web 2.0 effect be reborn again in 2010 I wonder.

Illustrator Tutorials

Design a Sexy Pin-Up Girl Character in Illustrator

Follow this step by step guide to create a sexy vector pin-up girl character design. This will start the process with a hand drawn sketch, then draw and manipulate the vector linework in Illustrator before adding colour and shading to bring the character to life.

How to create poker chips

In this vector illustration tutorial, you’ll be learning how to draw a colorful stack of poker chips in Adobe Illustrator CS4 using intermediate-level techniques. Follow along the tutorial to learn how to utilize basic shapes to draw a stack of poker chips from scratch in vector format.

How To Create a Beautiful Vector Portrait in Illustrator

Quick Tip: How to Replace the Spine in Illustrator Blends

In this Quick Tip you will learn some practical and creative uses for Replacing the Spine in an Illustrator Blend. From mathematically placing elements, to making decorative ornaments, you’ll find a variety uses for this great tool.

Photoshop Tutorials

Design a futuristic 2011 wallpaper

We couldn’t start the new year without a Photoshop tutorial on how to realize a high-style 2011 wallpaper! Let’s create together a futuristic type treatment in 16 easy-to-follow steps. We will deal in particular with layer masks and light effects. Also I will show you the power of layer styles and how they can be used to realize awesome text effects.

Creating a surreal bird

In this Photoshop tutorial,you will be making a monochromatic scene with the subject being a bird in flight with smoke surrounding its body. We will be using a high contrast stock image that we will manipulate and combine with smoke brushes.

Learn To Create A Safe Illustration

In this tutorial I’ll be walking you through the process of creating a Safe Illustration. We’ll be using a number of tools in this tutorial so there’s plenty to be learned.

How to draw iphone 4 illustration

n this tutorial, you will draw a realistic-looking iPhone 4 using Photoshop. We will use various techniques that involve the Pen Tool, Photoshop shape tools, and layer styles to create this ubiquitous Apple mobile device. We will be intent on getting the details right to ensure that our end product looks as real as possible.

Web Design Articles

10 Principles for Keeping Your Programming Code Clean

A common issue in almost every profession that can drive people completely insane is having to continue from what somebody else started. The main reason for this being the fact that everyone has different ways of working, and sometimes these self-induced habits can be just downright messy.

Are Current Web Design Trends Pushing Us Back to 1999?

In 1991, a groundbreaking and forever influential album was released by a then-unknown band called Nirvana, led by guitarist and lead singer Kurt Cobain. When that album appeared on the music scene, it was during a time when rock music was, in many respects, dead. Not to say that rock albums weren’t selling; for about a decade prior to that time, the rock music scene was dominated by Glam metal bands (also known as Hair metal bands) like Def Leppard, Warrant, and Poison.

7 Exciting Web Development Trends for 2011

At the end of December, you read Andrew’s list of the hottest technologies, tools, and resources to come from 2010. Today, we’re going to look forward, and take a peek at some exciting emerging technologies and trends.

10 Things You Can Do to Become a Better PHP Developer

PHP is probably the most popular web development language right now. At least 20 million domains use PHP and it’s the language used on major sites such as Wikipedia and Facebook as well as in some of the world’s biggest open source projects like WordPress and Drupal.

Tips and tricks becoming better designer

Title of this article not only reveals the nature of the content but also shows the importance of the content. These tips and tricks are very essential to go ahead in the field of designing. This is a very vast, important and competitive field in which you have to move yourself very scientifically on technical grounds so you can get the best from your efforts.

Freebies

Squared Plaid Illustrator And Photoshop Pattern

A sweet plaid pattern design which is great to look at. A really vibrant pattern set with a lot of uses of the different shades of colours. This pattern resembles are Burberry fabric type, this pattern could be used in some pretty awesome ways i just hope you all enjoy it put it to good use.

Exclusive Freebie: 27 High Resolution Watercolor Textures

Are you looking to add a splash of color to your latest project? We have the perfect freebie for you. Today, we are releasing a set of 27 high resolution textures for you to use in your work for free.

Free Texture Tuesday: Grungy Starbursts

Starburst textures for your downloading pleasure. I’m sure starbursts are not an unfamiliar concept to most of you, but I put a little “weathered” feel to these. Hope you enjoy them

The History of Science Fiction [Unfreakingbelieveable Infographic]

2011-04-01T09:18:00.001-07:00

The History of Science Fiction [Unfreakingbelieveable Infographic]: "
I know, I know… unfreakingbelievable isn’t a word, is it? It doesn’t even matter because you’ll forget all about that when you see this mind-blowing insanely well put together infographic on the history of science fiction. You could literally spend 30 minutes staring at this thing and still not capture all the information. You could probably learn more from this infographic than from twenty years of watching science fiction movies.

I still can’t decide what I’m more impressed with, the way this information is illustrated or the facts themselves. The extra crazy part is, I don’t know who made this so I can’t give credit to any one specific person. I know it is on Scimaps, but that’s all I’ve got. It looks like it was created in 2009 by someone with the word “Shelly” in the name, but there simply isn’t enough to go on.

Whether you are into Lord of the Rings, Aliens, Star Trek, or any of those obscure movies you thought you were the only one that liked, you will enjoy this. Sit back, relax, and get ready to be schooooooled! “Science fiction deal with improbable possibilities, fantasy with plausible impossibilities.” ~Miriam Allen de Ford

Click Here For The Full Image

Via: [Nuclear Toast]

A High Quality Grungy Paint Stroke Photoshop Brush Set

2011-04-01T09:18:00.000-07:00

A High Quality Grungy Paint Stroke Photoshop Brush Set: "

This is a high quality paint brush stroke. This brush set was a pleasure to create its a really grungy brush set which is available for free download. The brush set contains 5 high quality brushes worth downloading and having in your design arson. I hope you enjoy the brush set and would love to hear your feedback.

License Details

The brush pack made available for free download “paint stroke Brush Set” is licensed under the creative commons license. Which means these brushes can be for personal and/or commercial purposes.

Preview

File type: .abr
Compatibility: Photoshop
Size: 218KB

61 Eye-Catching Examples of Spring Photography

2011-04-01T09:17:00.001-07:00

61 Eye-Catching Examples of Spring Photography: "
As spring is on the way, i wanted to put together some awesome spring photographs that have captured the beauty of flowers, cheerful birds, butterflies and trees. How photographers can escape such beauty of spring, filled with colors and life. Even myself i started photography in spring season, to capture the moments of this beautiful and inspirational period.
Here i have collected some eye-catching examples of spring photography. Enjoy!
You may also be interested in the following related posts:
60 Cool Examples of Winter Photography
18 Astonishing Examples of Waterfall Photography
50+ Amazing Examples of Macro Photography
50 Beautiful Photographs Of A Cloudy Day
40+ Amazing Examples of Bokeh Photography

1. ballycroy

2. Eredel

3. pjeastboldre

4. irfangillani

5. marielliott

6. Pimthida

7. FreakyPhoto.be

8. CatTheNinja

9. bartoszwozniak

10. www.Hibiskus-Wunder.de

11. ajpscs

12. AllHarts

13. bowtoo

14. meg nicol

15. JarkkoS

16. kiwi photo lover

17. satosphere

18. r-h-b

19. Candace Van Assche

20. Toshio

21. gamany

22. Stuart Axe

23. M. Longfellow/ CapeMayX

24. vgane

25. Kiwi~Steve

26. alephnaught

27. Roger B

28. ravi_gogte

29. jmvnoos in Paris

30. SharpeImages.co.uk

31. Rachael Ashe

32. Mister Oy

33. Hamilton Images

34. alphazeta

35. white_shadow_photog

36. MapleRose

37. NewNatenobate

38. BeBitzY

39. xofox

40. Night-Guardian

41. taiyoh-hana

42. Dee-ehn

43. triggertracker

44. olorinthewhite

45. Jay-Cougar-Prints

46. Canon-Girl

47. Phillip Riggins

48. claudiabem

49. linda yvonne

50. ravi_gogte

51. Rana Pipiens

52. NCWench

53. jungle mama

54. _Inez

55. Don3rdSE

56. Martin_Heigan

57. Peggy Collins

58. {Dan}

59. taiyoh-hana

60. jungle mama

61. NeslihanBAZ

650+ Free Watercolor Photoshop Brushes

2011-04-01T09:17:00.000-07:00

650+ Free Watercolor Photoshop Brushes: "
In this post we have put together more than 650 watercolor photoshop brushes to spice up your designs. If you like watercolor brushes you might also want to check out some of our previous posts below. Enjoy!

500+ Watercolor Brushes for Photoshop

Design Inspiration: Watercolors

WG Watercolor Brushes Vol1 (20)

Free Hi-Res Watercolor Photoshop Brushes (18)

Free Hi-Res Watercolor Photoshop Brushes Set II (20)

Free Hi-Res Watercolor Photoshop Brushes (38)

watercolor brushes (20)

Watercolor Textures: Photoshop Brush Pack (25)

Watercolor II (9)

Paint Killer (6)

Watercolor I (10)

100 brush strokes

Social Media Grungy Watercolor Brushes (42)

Watercolor Brush Pack (14)

Watercolor Brush Pack (7)

Watercolor Brush Pack (10)

Soft Watercolor brushes (8)

WG Dry Paint Strokes (10)

40 Free High-Res Acrylic Paint Photoshop Brushes

Free High-Res Watercolour Photoshop Brushes Set 1 (7)

Free High-Res Watercolour Photoshop Brushes Set 2 (7)

Watercolour Brushes Set 2 (20)

26 free “destroyed” watercolour PS brushe

22 WATERCOLOR BRUSHES

HIGH RESOLUTION WATERCOLOR BRUSH (9)

watercolor brushes (20)

WaterColor Reloaded (83)

WaterColor EXTREMUM (41)

Watercolor Splatters (32)

30 Outstanding Free Hand Drawn Fonts For Your Typography Artworks

2011-04-01T09:16:00.001-07:00

30 Outstanding Free Hand Drawn Fonts For Your Typography Artworks: "
The handwritten letter is always associated with feelings and emotions. When writing with a pencil instead of a computer, you have the opportunity to express your moods and feelings that the reader can better imagine. Since in our daily lives more and more frequently in the correspondence and work use computers, it is possible to use various hand-drawn fonts that can be used for creating a loving letter or e-cards and postcards and making them more personalize than writing with traditional Ariel typeface. Moreover, handwritten fonts increasingly are being used in Web design, creating blog layouts with creative designs created from folded paper texture, and text wrote with hand-drawn fonts. Therefore, this article brings together 30 amazing hand-drawn fonts that you can download for free and use it on your web or graphic design work.
JaneAusten
A popular cursive-like font that’s free for personal use and has been downloaded over 2.2 million times!

Toms Handwritten
A clean, easy to read handwritten font. This version is free for personal use or you can download a polished version with all of the special characters from here.

Tiome Handwritten
Another clean, non-cursive handwritten font that's also free for personal use and has been downloaded 22,000 times.

Handwritten Crystal
A neat and easy to read handwritten font, slightly bolder than most normal fonts. This font is free for personal use, or $30 for commercial, and has been downloaded over 62,000 times so far!

Shark Handwritten
Another easy to read handwritten font. This one has a little extra character and creativity put in the the "f" than some of the other fonts that look similar. Shark Handwritten is free for personal use and has received over 13,000 downloads so far!

Standard Nib Handwritten
This font runs a little smaller than average, but is very crisp. It's free for both personal and commercial use and has already received over 14,000 downloads!

JellykaEstreya's Handwriting
The uppercase letters along with the y's and f's make this font a little fancier than some of the other handwritten fonts, and it also runs quite a bit smaller than most of the other fonts. Jellyka is a little closer to an autograph signing font than a standard handwriting style. But with over 1.7 million downloads and being free for personal use, it's quite popular!

Honey Script
A clean and easy to read cursive font that's totally free. No wonder it's been downloaded over 1.2 million times!

Dawning of a New Day
Another crisp, legible cursive font that's free for personal use and has been downloaded over 50,000 times!

Christopherhand
This font is very close to normal penmanship and is free for personal use and has had over 1.2 million downloads. But the author asks that if you're going to use it for commercial use to kindly send him something from your town, like a bottle of tequila.

Fineliner Script
Another cursive font that's easy to read thanks to the wide lettering. This is a script that's free for both personal and commercial use and has been downloaded over 237,000 times!

Arsenale White
This is a cursive font that's a little edgier and a little sloppier than some of the other cursive fonts, though it's still legible. It's free for personal use and has had over 186,000 downloads!

Pastel Crayon
A fun font to go with if you're targeting a younger age group. Its non-cursive style and waxy textured lettering will elicit memories of your youthful years and give your project a fun, creative edge. Free for personal use and downloaded over 87,000 times!

Rolina
Another fun font that's clean and easy to read. The circle-dotted i's and the slightest touch of sloppy, or rushed, handwriting help give this font a little extra character and edge. It's totally free for personal and commercial use and has over 128,000 downloads.

James Fajardo
The tight and skinny lettering are what helps set this font apart from the rest. It's also free for both personal and commercial use and has been downloaded over 664,000 times!

Designer Notes
Wide and rounded lettering help make this font fun and easy to read. It is a Public Domain and GNU GPL license that has been downloaded over 188,000 times!

Kids Written
Here's another fun, youthful looking font that will remind us of the days when we were told to take a nap, not scolded for it. This font's free for personal use and has received over 126,000 downloads.

Post-it Penscript
Just as the name suggests, this looks like the stereotypical font you'd find on a note stuck to your computer monitor or the refrigerator. Free for personal and commercial use and has over 187,000 downloads!

Extrafine
This font combines the youthful style and the crayon-like texture that we saw in some of our previous fonts and rolled it all in to one. This font is free for both personal and commercial uses and has been downloaded over 125,000 times!

TrashHand
I’m not sure where the name of this font was derived from as it seems very clean and easy to read. And the fact that it’s free for both personal and commercial use and has been downloaded over 181,000 times makes me think it’s far from trash!

Denistina
A cursive font with a hint of a rushed writer to it. I think this is another one that would work well for using as an autograph-type font. It's free for personal use and has over 97,000 downloads!

Yesterday Again
This is a rare find in the cursive font line, one that is slightly messy but still easy to read. A very well done font that's free for personal use and has received over 97,000 downloads.

Daisy Script
Another fun cursive script that's fairly easy to read and totally free for personal and commercial use. It's easy to see why it's been downloaded over 278,000 times.

Lovitz
A hybrid between regular font and cursive, the playful, curly letters allow this font to give off a fun, quirky sort of vibe. It's free for both personal and commercial use and has been downloaded over 190,000 times.

Simpsonfont
As the name suggests, it's inspired by the longest running TV show and popular cartoon. It's free for personal use and has been downloaded over 231,000 times.

Zeyada
Another unique spin on a cursive and normal font hybrid. This font is free for personal use and has been downloaded over 31,000 times.

Vanilla Twilight
Easy to read thanks to close, but not too tight, perfect spacing of the letters. This font is free for personal use and has over 7,000 downloads.

Ah The Monster Is Coming
Another playful font that gets its character from the cleverly dotted i's and filled in o's. It's free for personal use and has received over 76,000 downloads.

Prophecy Script
Here's another script that fits in to the category of sloppy cursive writing that's still legible. It's free for both personal and public use and has received over 171,000 downloads.

All Hail Julia
Here's a creative, fun and kind of childish cursive font. Despite its sloppy sort of nature, it is still fairly easy to read. All Hail Julia is free for both personal and private use and has had over 59,000 downloads.

You may want to take a look at the following related articles:

50 Adobe After Effects Text Effects Tutorials

2011-04-01T09:16:00.000-07:00

50 Adobe After Effects Text Effects Tutorials: "

After Effects is Adobe’s product for creating motion graphics and visual effects. It’s amazing what you can create with Text Effects and some knowledge, A visually appealing text that is both original and creative draws attention and leaves a deep impression on anyone who sees it. Thanks to the internet, anyone who is interested in the art of typography can conveniently pick up relevant skills from the numerous After Effects tutorials online. We’ve put together a list of 50 of the best After Effects Text tutorials we could find to help you stay up to date on the latest trends and techniques.
"

80 Photorealistic 3D Car Models

2011-04-01T09:15:00.000-07:00

80 Photorealistic 3D Car Models: "

Car modeling is one of the most popular topics in the 3d sphere. Today CG artists have reached a very high level in creating realistic 3D artworks. Their masterpieces are so true to life that sometimes you aren't able to get whether you're looking at a photograph or a computer-generated render. We are pleased to offer you a collection of the top 100 photo-realistic 3d car models."

42 Creative Logos With Human Expressions

2011-03-27T02:32:00.000-07:00

42 Creative Logos With Human Expressions: "
Logo designing is very important part because it gives the company or product a recognition and distinguish it from others. Deisgners do look for inspiration before starting a Logo project, therefore today we have compiled a list of 42 creative logos with human expressions.
We would like to know, which logo is best in this list. You can let us know by leaving comments.
You may also be interested in:
Top 15 Logo Design Inspiration Galleries
Using Negative Space Effectively In Logos
50 Burning Logos – Amazing Must See!
40 Beautifully Designed Bird Logos
50 Beautiful And Creative Logos With Heart
The Branding Difference – More Than Just a Logo

"

Wallpaper Download

2011-02-20T02:44:00.001-08:00

http://www.ziddu.com/download/13884830/SplitSecond.jpg.html

Wallpaper Download

2011-02-20T02:42:00.001-08:00

http://www.ziddu.com/download/13884830/SplitSecond.jpg.html

Best way to play Bluray videos on PS3

2011-02-20T02:28:00.000-08:00

This is the best method to play bluray files on the ps3 .Here's a video to describe the procedure .

SlashTHREE’s New Site Design Version IV

2011-02-20T02:27:00.000-08:00

SlashTHREE’s New Site Design Version IV: "
We always love seeing successful redesigns on the web especially if it compliments the artwork at hand. Obviously sometimes there are sites that redesign their templates, but end up making it worse than it was. Someone on twitter mention the other day that, “You shouldn’t try fix something that isn’t broken.” That is a very true statement, well let me get back on track here, you are here to look at the new SlashTHREE website, well let’s see what the team over there came up with.

The slashTHREE staff began working on the version four project back in 2009, a year after the release of its version three. The version four project was visualized to be much more than just a new web design, but also a huge step forward for the slashTHREE collective. Two years later, slashTHREE is proud to bring you version four.

The New Design

Wireframes

I think the SlashThree guys did a great job at reinventing there site, don’t you?

Full post on Behance

"

Enjoy Bluray movies via usb on Samsung TVs - Tips & Tricks

2011-01-16T10:00:00.000-08:00

One of the best features of Samsung's Plasma TVs is the ability to play video files directly from a USB memory stick or hard drive. This feature is alternately referred to as USB Movie 2.0 or Wiselink. Sure, you could buy a TV without this and then add on something like WDTV or Roku but that's an added expense and one more remote to clutter things up. Samsung has done a great job of integrating the media player into the TV. However, the manual doesn't explain everything as clearly as it could, so I've written down some of the problems and solutions I've encountered.

The TV supports a variety of video file formats, such as AVI, MP4, MKV, and VOB. These are really just "containers" for audio and video information, so just because you have one of these files there's no guarantee that the TV will play it. Within the container, the audio and video is stored using a codec. Common video codecs are Divx, Xvid, and MPEG4. Common audio codecs are AC3, MP3, and DTS. You can use software like VLC to tell what codecs were used to create a particular file.

Not supported audio codec

MKV has become popular with high definition material (720p, 1080p). However, the most common problem when you try to play an MKV file is that the video works but the error message comes up: "Not supported audio codec" and there is no sound. Most of the time, this is because the audio was encoded with Digital Theater System (DTS) which the TV doesn't support (Samsung didn't want to pay the license fee). You can easily fix this by reencoding the file to Dolby Digital (AC3) using PopCorn Audio Converter.

Dialog is not in English

MKV files often contain more than one audio track. However, the TV has no way to select between the tracks, so if the default audio track is not the one you want, you can't change it while you're watching. First, open the file with VLC to make sure there is an English language track in the file. Then, open the file in MKVmergeGUI (part of MKVtoolnix) which will allow you to select exactly which audio track you want, and create (aka "remux") a new file that has only that audio track.

It is possible that a file could have both problems - DTS audio and a primary non-English track. In that case, first remux a new MKV using mkvmerge with only the audio track you want. Then, run it through the DTS to AC3 conversion.

The TV won't display subtitles

Just as an MKV file can contain more than one audio stream, it may also contain subtitles, however the TV doesn't support this subtitle format. First, extract the subtitles from the file using MKVExtractGUI. Then, run the output through Subtitle Workshop to convert to SRT format which the TV supports. Make sure you name your new SRT file exactly the same as your MKV file (except for the file name extension, which will obviously be different: .SRT versus .MKV) and put it in the same directory as the video file. Then, you can activate the captions using the CC button on the TV's remote control.

Archiving your DVDs to a hard drive

With 1TB hard drives available for under $100 now, you might want to backup your DVD collection. This would allow you to play any of your movies off the hard drive without having to search for the discs. However, if you try to just copy the files off your DVD and play them on the TV, you probably won't get what you're expecting, even though the TV supports VOB files. The file may not play at all, or the video will start and end in weird places. This is because the DVD menu also contains instructions on where the video should start and stop, but the TV doesn't know how to read that data. The solution is to use DVDShrink to remaster the DVD and extract just the video you want. This will work for both a movie that is one big file as well as a DVD with TV shows on it, where you want a separate output file for each episode. Put the DVD in the computer and start DVDShrink. Select the Re-Author function and then select the various video tracks that you want to extract. Select Backup to copy those files to your hard drive. Now you can open each of those VOBs will be a self-contained video file that the TV can recognize.

105 Fresh Photoshop Typography Tutorials

2011-01-05T21:26:00.001-08:00

105 Fresh Photoshop Typography Tutorials: "

I am a great fan of Photoshop and its tutorials and I keep exploring for more cooler tutorials online. In this post I have rounded up 105 fresh typography tutorials that can make you wanna try them all. This is in continuation to our last post 101 Top Typography Tutorials which had featured the best typography tutorials. Go ahead and try them all.

1) Creating Retro Folded Typography Using Photoshop

2) Create A Gold Ornamental Text In Photoshop

3) Design a Nice Shining Text Effect

4) Elegant Typography on Vista Background

5) Create This Dazzling 3D Text Effect in Photoshop

6) Nice 3d text effect in photoshop

7) Create Awesome Splashing Water Text Effect in Photoshop

Folded Text Effect Tutorial

9) Create a Harry Potter Style Text Effect in Photoshop

10) Tron Legacy Tutorial

11) Easy Casino Style Sign in Photoshop

12) Floral 3D text Effect

13) Inception Poster with Repousse in Photoshop

14) Make yourself an Amazing Typographic Portrait

15) Create Awesome Text Made of 3D Blocks

16) Create a Funky Retro Wavy Text Effect in Photoshop

17) Create A Modern 3D Text Effect

18) Create Glossy 3D Text using Xara 3D & Photoshop

19) Create Stunning 3D Text in a Grungy Landscape

20) Quick Tutorial: Create a Reusable Retro Type Treatment

21) Playing with Inflate in Repoussé in Photoshop CS5 Extended

22) Colorful Plexi Text Effect using Photoshop

23) Create Colorful 3D Text Effect in Photoshop

24) Create an awesome broken plate typography effect

25) Create a realistic folded paper text in Photoshop

26) Design Glowing Particle Text Effect with Liquify Filter in Photoshop

27) Create a Funny Wooden Type Treatment in Photoshop

28) Create Elegant, Glassy, 3D Typography in Photoshop and Illustrator

29) Make a Retro-Space Typography Poster with Colorful Lights

30) Create a Futuristic, Grungy Metal Text Effect in Photoshop

31) Create Eye-Catching 3D Tech-Style Text Effect

32) Cool Text Effect with the Puppet Warp Tool in Photoshop CS5

33) Create A Pictorial Text Effect

34) Elegant 3D Text Effect in Photoshop

35) How To Create a Gothic Blackletter Typographic Design

36) Create a 3D News Paper Chopped Effect

37) Create Super Glossy 3D Typography in Illustrator and Photoshop

38) Smashing Your Creative Block – Photoshop Tutorial

39) Design a Slick 3D Ice Text Effect

40) Use Google Sketchup and Photoshop to Create 3D Typography

41) Create a Stunning City Skyline Made of Text

42) Grungy Rusted Carbon Fiber Text Effect

43) Make a 3D Colorful Abstract Text Effect

44) How to Create Cool Water Effect Typography

45) Cool 3D Text Effect

46) Simple Light Type Effect In Photoshop

47) Text on foggy window

48) How To Create Great Typographic Wallpaper In Photoshop

49) Jelly Text Effect In Photoshop

50) Make a glossy, glowy, fancy 3D logo – Photoshop tutorial

51) 3D Grunge Text Tutorial With Illustrator and Photoshop

52) Incredibly Realistic Water Text in Cinema 4D and Photoshop

53) Chained Text Effect

54) 3D Type with Repoussé in Photoshop CS5 Extended

55) Create An Amazing 3D Effect In Photoshop

56) Create A Cool Clouds Text Effect In Photoshop

57) Super Easy Neon Style in Photoshop – Screencast

58) Cool 3D Effect In Photoshop

59) Create Liquid Filled Glass Text in Photoshop

60) Create A Techno Effect

61) Learn to Create Collage Typography

62) Graffiti with Photoshop

63) Create an Awesome Shadow Effect For Text in Photoshop

64) Glittering Text Effect

65) Dazzling Woven Text Effect

66) Plasma Cut Text With Shooting Sparks

67) Killer 3D Poster Design with 3DS Max & Photoshop

68) Create Astonishing Nightclub Themed 3D Typography

69) Design a Brilliant Product Advertisement

70) Create Black and White Floral Typography in Photoshop

71) Create A Cool Explosion Effect

72) Create an Extruded Glossy 3D Text Effect in Photoshop

73) Create A Cool Displaced Text Effect

74) Build A Clean Image Out Of Text

75) Create Vibrant Typography in a Rough Cartoon Style

76) Create a Steam Powered Typographic Treatment – Part I

77) Ridiculously Realistic Scorching Fire Effect!

78) Colorful Glow Text Effect

79) Awesome Floral Type in Fireworks and Photoshop in 5 minutes

80) Create Dynamic and Textured 3D Text with Perspective in Photoshop and Illustrator

81) Realistic Chrome and Glossy Plastic Text Effect

82) How To Create a Realistic Golden “Bling” Text Effect

83) How to Create Candy Cane Typography with Photoshop and Illustrator

84) How to Create a Realistic Chrome Text Effect

85) Create A Spectacular Text Effect

86) Create A Simple 3D Text From Scratch

87) Create a Stunning Text on Wild Fire Effect

88) Fuzz/Furry Text Effect (Works great as Grass!)

89) Glittery sparkles effect

90) Brick Text Photoshop Tutorial

91) Light Beam text effect !

92) Quickly And Easily Create The Popular Inked Style Typography

93) Design a Halloween Pumpkin Patch Text Effect

94) Create an Atmospheric Under-Water Text Effect

95) Falling Off the Wall Text Effect – Photoshop Tutorial

96) Make Illustrious Type Using Airbrushing Techniques

97) Burnt Wood Text Effect – Photoshop Tutorial

98) Create a fancy neon text effect in photoshop

99) How to Create 3D Text Blocks in Photoshop

100) Create Awesome Glossy 3D Typography

101) Create Smoke Text

102) Create A Cool CS5 Styled Lettering

103) Create a simple logo in photoshop

104) Create A *Bling Bling* Simple Gold Text Effect

105) Create Typographic Art using Illustrator and Photoshop

81 Fresh Free Fonts For Designers

2011-01-05T21:26:00.000-08:00

81 Fresh Free Fonts For Designers: "

Typography plays an important roll in all designers life, let it be a newbie or a pro! Everyone got to have a good understanding for the usage of fonts. Well, in this post I have my recent favorite list of fonts that can be used in any design let it be print or web. Go ahead and enjoy!

1) Cube font

2) Kilogram Font [Download]

3) Alt Matey [Download]

4) St Marie [Download]

5) Deibi [Download]

6) Hattori Hanzo [Download]

7) Glow In the wind

8 ) Piron Font [Download]

9) Lobster [Download]

10) Matilde Font [Download]

11) Ripe [Download]

12) Qub Font [Download]

13) Unite [Download]

14) Dan Font

15) Gradualism [Download]

16) Juice Font [Download]

17) False Positive [Download]

18) Hetilica Bold [Download]

19) HVD Comic Serif [Download]

20) ROKE1984 [Download]

21) Code [download]

22) Color Lines [Download]

23) Medio [Download]

24) BADABUM [Download]

25) Tercio [Download]

26) Doughboy [Download]

27) Just Me [Download]

28) Null [Download]

29) LL Rubber Grotesque [Download]

30) Alt Retro Typeface [Download]

31) Sean’s Other Hand [Download]

32) Ribbon Alphabet [Download]

33) Raw Street Wall [Download]

34) Pinpression Typeface [Download]

35) Age Font [Download]

36) Thunderball [Download]

37) Soraya [Download]

38) Happy Phantom [Download]

39) Modo [Download]

40) Quadranta [Download]

41) Paper Boat [Download]

42) Dekar Font [Download]

43) Knarf [Download]

44) Slimbo [Download]

45) Rounded [Download]

46) Sketchetik [Download Registration Required]

47) Alice

48) Circuitry [Download]

49) Val Stencil [Download]

50) Nadia [Download: PC / Mac]

51) Bada Bing [Download]

52) Solgas [Download]

53) Monkey Love [Download]

54) Palm Of Budha [Download]

55) Whiskey Town [Download]

56) Lot Font [Download]

57) Marcelle [Download]

58) Dreamforge classic [Download]

59) Trashco [Download]

60) Home Boots [Download]

61) Black Casper [Download]

62) League Script [Download]

63) Oval Font [Download Free Demo]

64) Flaminia Type System

65) Junction [Download]

66) Chunk [Download]

67) Goudy Bookletter [Download]

68) Raleway [Download]

69) Caprica [Download]

70) Portal Font [Download]

71) Patagonia [Download]

72) Smudgers [Download]

73) Eight One [Download]

74) Squair [Download]

75) Ultravioleta [Download]

76) Advent [Download]

77) Zag Font [Download]

78) File Font [Download]

79) Mod Font [Download]

80) Quad Type Face [Download]

81) SAF Font [Download]

10 Super Creative STOP Motion Videos

2010-12-28T06:47:00.000-08:00

35 Highly Detailed Photosho Tutorials in 2010

2010-12-28T06:16:00.000-08:00

35 Highly Detailed Photosho Tutorials in 2010: "

Photoshop is the tool of choice for most designers,there maybe other powerful graphic editor that offer similar functionality, this post is unique in the way that it showcase some awesome and well written Photoshop tutorials that have been created so far from the beginning of 2010 will help you learn fantastic ways to improve your skills and amplify your artistic know-how.

Make Colors Pop: Mingling Color Scales in Photoshop

2010-12-28T06:15:00.001-08:00

Make Colors Pop: Mingling Color Scales in Photoshop: "

Pick up any magazine, or sift among the movies at the video store, and we often see black and white images with elements in color. Advertisements, comics, films and more set apart people, objects, just about anything as a way to draw our eyes to exactly what the artist wants us to focus on. This is usually done in Photoshop by adding color to black and white photographs. This often produces a retro hand-tinted effect.

What if we want more organic natural color to leap out from the grayscale? The answer is not to add color to black and white, but rather to add black and white to color. We will also use filters and layer effects to insure that we manipulate the color spectrum to set the tone we are looking for.

Do You Hear Me, Butterfly?

First we’ll show the basic technique to add black and white. Using this photograph provided by Elisa Boomhower, we’ll make this butterfly leap off the screen.

First, we l go to Layer/New/Layer so we can paint over our image. Next, in the layer palette, we set the layer style to Color from the dropdown menu leaving the layer opacity at 100%. As the new layer is painted over, we can see the shades of gray take hold.

Once we have our flora and fauna in black and white, we go to Layer/Layer Mask/Reveal All. The foreground color on the brush tool should still be black and then we set the brush to a comfortable size to work up close to draw that colorful creature back out.

It is essential we take a deep breath, use a steady hand and be patient. We have to zoom in and make sure we get those little butterfly legs and the very edges of the wings in color while not going outside the lines on the flower or the grass in the background. If there’s a slipup it’s no big deal, simply change the foreground brush color to white to correct the errant cursor strokes and keep on colorizing. When our creature is completely set apart from the background, its natural hues should stand out. After we return what Mother Nature’s paintbrush gave, the finished product should look like this.

Now that we have the basic technique down, we will incorporate it with other effects to get something a little more abstract going on.

Turning a Gray World Purple

Below is a stock photo by Brittany Lincoln that we will use not just to make color stand out, but also bleed out into the surrounding water. For this the purple veil will be what is brought out for the effect.

Before we use the layer techniques and masks incorporated on the butterfly, we must first get the veil’s color to stand out a bit more. Go to Layers/New Adjustment Layer/Color Balance. We make the purple more rich by first, checking the “Preserve Luminosity” box and next ramping up the sliders for red and blue in “Midtones” up by 50 each. Finally we will have the veil ready to go after increasing the red and blue by 50 in “Shadows.”

“But,” you say. “You made the girl in the pool totally pink. What’s up with that?” The model’s extremely rosy complexion isn’t going to be a factor because we going to make a new layer and set the style in the layer palette to Color, just as we did with the butterfly photograph earlier,then paint it black. When we’re done we will have an apparently grayscale picture of our lady in the pool. Next we add that layer mask set to Reveal All, take a deep breath and patiently bring the fabric’s color back out.

Now, we need to do something a little differently compared to the straightforward emergence employed in the butterfly photograph. We see fabric just below the surface as well as parts at the far left where some of it is submerged next to parts floating on top. Keep your brush opacity set to 100% to bring out what’s above the surface but bring the brush opacity down to 20% to colorize what we can see in the water, as well as the reflection in the pool. Make sure you smoothly blend the transition points where the veil meets water by enabling the airbrush function.

When we’ve sweated enough blood making sure our pixels are straight, and have all the purple we need to emerge, our Lady in Liquid Mourning should look something like this:

The veil is set, so now what? We made the veil’s color more vibrant so it gives the impression it is almost as alive as the model wearing it, then we added our grayscale layer. We carefully brought the purple back out in another layer, making sure that even the reflection and the submerged fabric were also in color. Now we are going to make the pigment stain the gray water around it. First, we add another layer, set to Soft Light and make sure it is above the background and Layer 1.

Working in Layer 2, we’ll use our eyedropper tool to take a point sample from the veil-not too dark, but not to light either.

Now that we have our correct foreground color we are ready to make it diffuse into the water. Our paintbrush is set to 100% opacity on normal with airbrush enabled. We set the brush size big and fat to 300 and gently paint over the water in front of the model, making sure to also add the color around the model’s chest, just above the water also. For good measure we also paint a little of the water behind her to further enhance the bleeding purple effect. Next, we break out the eraser tool, set the opacity to 15% on airbrush and go over the edges of the purple field to make the diffusion a little more random.

Once we have diffused the color into the pool, our picture is almost complete, and looks like this:

Really, this picture could stand alone as it is, but purple is a rather somber color and the pool is a rather happy place, at least for those of us sweating it out in July. We’re going to finish this one off by going to Filters/Sketch/Water Paper, then setting the Fiber Length slider to 15, Brightness to 60 and contrast to 80.

When we have done that, our Lady in Liquid Mourning is complete.

We learned with this exercise that eye-popping combinations of color and grayscale can be achieved by not just adding color, but by adding black and white. We also are empowered to use the techniques above, along with other tools available to us in Photoshop, to set mood and tone in our designs after we highlight desired elements in a picture.

Whether creating more abstract pieces as we did here, or in professional designs, we are sure to create a lasting impression with anyone who is looking.

Make Colors Pop: Mingling Color Scales in Photoshop is a post from: Spoonfed Design

40 Beautiful and Creative Typefaces and Custom Fonts

2010-12-28T06:15:00.000-08:00

40 Beautiful and Creative Typefaces and Custom Fonts: "

Typography can be more than just words, much more. Typography is a form of art that is nearly limitless, and is a field where expression is a key factor, and originality is crucial. When I say nearly limitless, there is only one true limit; and that is the fact that typography always needs to be legible. Here are 40 beautiful and very creative typefaces, as well as a few awesome custom fonts.

Destructive Vintage TyPO experiment

Rolka

Six Degree

Eyelash Typeface

viki font

Typo-graphic Dope

Cubic

Colo

Cube

Smoke + Type

Blou

in Love

isometrica / type experiment

Cellula Font

Toast Font

PVC Pipe font

Hirsute

A1 paper cut illustration

Exablock

mambo

Dealer

Knife

Pinza

romantique

MadPacman Font

Akimoto typeface

Highheel Typeface

Hairy 5ive Type

Blossomwell

“God Leave Me Alone” typography

Water Weight

Hoax

Mari typeface

Chumbitos

NUMEROBOTS FONT

Blue Plastic Cup Font

A4

NRC Next.One

Money Typography

Kvant

70 Stunning Examples of Cityscape Photography

2010-12-28T06:14:00.000-08:00

70 Stunning Examples of Cityscape Photography: "

When you think of a city, the word beautiful usually isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Good urban photography will turn a gross city into a breath taking image, and here are 70 examples of images that do just that. All these images are extremely colorful and very dramatic. You will notice many trends throughout the examples, such as use of HDR and images using reflections. Also, you will see that many of these images are taking at night or dawn, because the light from the buildings are brought out.

The following are 70 stunning cityscape and urban photographs that capture the beauty of the city. If you enjoy this post, give it a Digg and Stumble, or leave a quick comment.

Free Camouflage Patterns for Illustrator & Photoshop

2010-12-28T06:11:00.000-08:00

Free Camouflage Patterns for Illustrator & Photoshop: "

Download this pack of military camouflage patterns to create infinitely repeating camo backgrounds for your designs. Each camouflage pattern is available in vector format so it can be used at any size imaginable, as well as a JPEG format for everyday use in Photoshop.

Most of the camo patterns I found on the web either didn’t repeat as a tileable pattern, or were just made of unrealistic blobs, so I decided to have a go at creating my own camo pattern files and share them with you all. These camo swatches are based on the popular patterns used by the US military during the 80s and 90s, as well as the more modern digital type pattern currently in use today.

Each file comes in vector and raster format. To use in Adobe Illustrator, just drag the graphic into the swatches palette, then add this swatch as a fill to any object. To use the JPEG files in Photoshop, go to Edit > Define Pattern. This pattern can then be used along with the fill tool or the layer style options, such as Pattern Overlay.

Woodland camouflage pattern

Desert camouflage pattern

Urban camouflage pattern

Digital camouflage pattern

Download them all!

Want the whole lot? Download the Zip file to grab JPEG and vector variations of each camo pattern.

Download the camo patterns package

Technology: Use Your 3D Printer To Print Edible Food!

2010-12-28T06:09:00.000-08:00

Technology: Use Your 3D Printer To Print Edible Food!: "

I know what you are thinking, and yes, this is nuts. However, it’s nuts and it’s true, so if you are into new technologies, you will love this! We often talk about how technology is moving at the speed of light, and this is a perfect example of that. This is something that wouldn’t have even been conceivable a few years ago, but a team in the Cornell University’s Computational Synthesis Lab (CCSL) is very close to having it all figured out. The technology is definitely available now to make this possible.

Using a 3D food printer, you will soon be able to print hot steaming food right at your dinner table. Instead of using regular ink cartridges, you will use food ink cartridges. For example, there would be a chocolate cartridge, a flour cartridge, and even a raw foods cartridge if you wanted to print some really healthy food one evening. You would even be able to customize your food’s taste and texture depending on what you prefer. If you like your steak cooked medium-rare, you will be able to adjust the setting to make it perfect. Whether you like your green beans crunchy or soft, or your eggs runny or scrambled, you will be able to simply adjust a setting before cooking… err… printing. You will even be able to print the perfect piece of sushi.

As crazy as this may sound, imagine for a moment the positive impact it would have on our environment. According to BBC, “You can imagine a 3D printer making homemade apple pie without the need for farming the apples, fertilizing, transporting, refrigerating, packaging, fabricating, cooking, serving and the need for all of the materials in these processes like cars, trucks, pans, coolers, etc…” Imagine being able to email that recipe right to someone’s printer for them to hit print and eat for dinner. The idea of “treating someone to dinner” just got a whole lot different. This is not just a design concept conceived by a creative designer, no, this is here, and it’s developing as we speak. You can read all the technology details here.

[via BBC]

Create a Dark & Grungy Digital Art Piece in Photoshop

2010-12-28T06:06:00.000-08:00

Create a Dark & Grungy Digital Art Piece in Photoshop: "

Follow this step by step design process for my recent digital art piece, Vogue. The design combines textures and distressed elements to create a dark and beautiful theme. Learn how a range of Photoshop techniques pull together the various elements to create the final design.

Vogue combines the beauty of the female model with a range of grungy/dark textures and abstract elements to create an eye catching and interesting design that blends the two contrasting themes.

View the final Vogue design

Open up Photoshop and import a nice base texture to form the background of the design. This particular concrete texture is from LostandTaken. Adjust the Levels to darken the tones of the texture file.

Next we’ll need to source a stock photo as the main subject of the design. This rather lovely female model image is courtesy of Katanaz-stock. Find the channel with the darkest tones and drag that layer to the ‘new icon’ to duplicate that particular channel.

Adjust the Levels of the duplicated channel to really blacken out the majority of the image, but keep an eye out for the edges becoming pixelated or distorted as the contrast increases.

Use a mixture of the Burn tool and a black brush to fill the centre areas of the image black. CMD-Click the channel thumbnail to load the selection, then toggle off the visibility of the duplicated layer and turn back on the original RGB channels.

Go to Select > Modify > Contract and enter 2px in the options box. This will help avoid clipping a thin white outline around the subject. Make a copy and paste it into your main design document.

Zoom in and check the edges for any unsightly white clippings. Use the Burn tool to remove these tiny white patches so the model sits seamlessly on the background.

Source a stock image of an ink splatter and paste it underneath the model layer. Change the blending mode to Multiply to render the white areas transparent.

Use some watercolor Photoshop brushes to add more distressed black areas around the model, particularly around the edges of the black clothing.

Add another ink splatter image to the skirt area to blend this portion of the model into the background.

Add a layer mask to the model layer and use a range of distressed Photoshop brushes to erase out portions of the model to seamlessly blend the black areas with the dark ink textures to give the impression that the model is emerging from the grungy elements.

Use the Polygonal Lasso tool to draw a thin diagonal selection over the design. Press CMD+Shift+C to Copy Merged and paste back into the document. Move this new selection to offset from the original to create an abstract effect.

Erase out the hard edges using a grungy brush on a layer mask to limit the offset effect to the model’s body.

Create a series of other offset effects across the design each at a different size and thickness.

Switch over to Adobe Illustrator to create a simple triangle shape with the pen tool. Copy this shape and paste it into the Photoshop document.

Randomly rotate and scale multiple copies of the triangle to create a series of shard elements. Position groups of shards to flare from behind the model.

Change the blending mode of the shard to Overlay. The overlay effect alone isn’t quite powerful enough, so duplicate the layers and adjust the opacity of the new layers to give the shards more prominence.

Draw more rectangular selections across the document, but this time give them a white fill. Change their blending modes to Overlay, adjust the opacity and erase out the edges with a layer mask.

Use a large grungy brush to add a red fill to the lower portion of the design. Change this layer to Color Dodge and lower the opacity to leave a very subtle colour cast.

Add an area of blue to the top corner, followed by a strip of purple in the centre. Change these layers to Soft Light and adjust their opacities to create more subtle colour casts.

A grungy white brush stroke in the centre of the canvas set to Overlay will brighten up the details in this otherwise darker portion of the design.

Press CMD+A to Select All, CMD+Shift+C to Copy Merged and CMD+V to paste in a copy of the whole design at the top of the layer stack. Go to Filter > Other > High Pass and adjust the settings so the details are just visible from the grey backdrop.

Set this high pass layer to Linear Light at around 50%. This layer really sharpens up the design and brings out the tiniest details. Add a layer mask and erase out portions around the edges to create subtle changes of focus.

Use some long brush strokes to create a border around the canvas to frame the design. Set this border to Soft Light at 65%.

Finish off the design with a title. Here I’ve added the title ‘Vogue’ in suitably beautiful Bodoni font and set the layers to Overlay. A few highlight brushes help add some pretty sparkles to the text.

Download the source file

Blog.SpoonGraphics Design Tutorials: Greatest Hits 2010

2010-12-28T06:05:00.000-08:00

Blog.SpoonGraphics Design Tutorials: Greatest Hits 2010: "

2010 has been a another good year for me. As I’ve declined my number of client projects in order to spend more time working as a ‘blogger’ I’ve been able to put more time into writing tutorials, making them more in-depth and detailed. It’s fab to see my tuts helping people out and gaining exposure on the web. Here’s a roundup of my ‘greatest hits’ this year according to StumbleUpon ‘thumbs up’ stats. Surprisingly a few of the most popular were topics I never expected to do so well, and on the contrary some posts I put some real sweat into never seemed to take off in comparison!

Thanks a bunch to all my subscribers, Access All Areas members and anyone who has taken the time to read one of my articles or tutorials in 2010. A special thanks goes to anyone who has tweeted, stumbled, Dugg or voted on one of my posts – It’s these social interactions that really help my blog grow. More ‘likes’ means more traffic, more traffic means more advertisers, more advertisers means I can spend more time having fun creating these design tutorials, which I hope you all find useful or entertaining.

So here goes with my Greatest Hits compilation. I’d love to know which post was your favourite in the comments. Did any tutorial in particular help you out or inspire you?

Create a Bright Vector Snowboard Design in Illustrator

2010-12-28T06:04:00.000-08:00

Create a Bright Vector Snowboard Design in Illustrator: "

Follow this Adobe Illustrator tutorial to create a cool snowboard illustration. We’ll build up the design with an array of bright shapes, trendy lines and patterns to produce a bright and funky vector composition. The final design will then be mocked up on a handy snowboard deck template to show off the design in all its glory.

View large scale snowboard design

A typical snowboard deck comes in at 64x12inches, but with the design being created in vector format we can easily scale this to 32x6inches to ease the strain on our processors. Create a new Illustrator document at the appropriate dimensions and select CMYK for the Color Mode.

One of the first steps is to plan out a colour scheme for the design. I’ve picked out this cool palette from ColourLovers which has a good mix of bright tones as well as a dark blue which would work perfectly as a background. Select the rectangle tool and click on the artboard. Enter the dimensions of 32x6inches and align the rectangle with the Align palette. Press CMD+2 to lock this element to avoid accidentally selecting it.

Elsewhere on the document create a small square, note the dimensions, then Copy (CMD+C) and Paste in Front (CMD+F). Hit the Enter key to bring up the Move options and input the same value as the square’s height in the vertical field. Press the Paste in Front shortcut then CMD+D to repeat the move transformation until you have a row of four squares.

Fill each of the four squares with a swatch from the colour palette, then with all four squares selected click the ‘new’ icon at the bottom of the Brushes palette. Select New Art Brush in the subsequent options box.

Make sure the direction arrow is flowing across the squares, then click OK to create the new brush.

Use the Pen tool to draw a zig-zagging path across the design. Hold Shift to constrain the angles to 45 degrees. Add the newly created brush as the path’s stroke.

With the path still selected, go to Effect > Stylize > Round Corners. Enter a Radius of around 1.5inches to transform the angles into smooth bends.

Continue drawing a couple more lined paths with the same round corner styling. Decrease the stroke weight to create thinner paths.

To transform the paths into solid and editable shapes, select each one and go to Object > Expand Appearance.

Use the Direct Selection Tool to tweak the edges of each coloured strip so each one ends at a different point. Keep the Shift key held to constrain to that 45 degree angle.

Draw a circle on the artboard and add a thick stroke. Aim to match the weight of the stroke perfectly with the size of the coloured strips. Use the Direct Selection Tool to delete out the top and right points to leave a quarter-circle.

Zoom right in and match up the curved strip with the straight strips. Extend the straight edges after the curve by continuing the path with the Pen tool.

Cool effects can be created by varying the stacking order of each strip, and overlapping the colours so they seem to seamlessly flow between each path.

Elsewhere on the document draw a small circle and fill it with a colour from the design’s colour scheme. Draw a slightly larger blank square around the circle and align the two perfectly. Select both objects and drag them into the Swatches palette.

Use the Blob brush to fill a selection within a closed area of the design and add the newly created swatch as a fill. The swatch will repeat to create a repeating pattern swatch. Repeatedly press the shortcut CMD+[ to send the pattern underneath the linework.

Draw a series of filled circles on one end of the design and merge them all together with the Pathfinder tool.

Draw a long thin rectangle elsewhere on the artboard, then duplicate it by dragging while holding the ALT and Shift keys. Press the shortcut CMD+D to create a series of lines.

Select the series of rectangles and go to Object > Compound Path > Make. This allows them to be used with the Pathfinder in the next step.

Draw a circle in the centre of the rectangles, then use the Intersect option from the Pathfinder to clip the rectangles to the confines of the circle.

Use copies of these circle graphics in various colours to decorate the design. Alter the stacking order using the shortcut CMD+[ to allow the circles to creep in from behind other objects.

Study the design for blank spaces or gaps and fill them with various shapes and graphics. A few simple circles overlapping over areas of the same colour can create a cool effect.

Sticking to the simple 5-colour palette will allow same colour elements to blend together and balance the design with the same series of colours flowing across the whole board.

When the design is complete, group all the elements together. Don’t forget to press CMD+Alt+2 to unlock that background rectangle. Add a blank rectangle over the design and align it centrally with the artboard.

Select the group of elements and go to Object > Expand Appearance to convert any remaining paths and strokes to solid objects.

Select both the group of elements and the blank rectangle then hit the Crop option from the Pathfinder palette to trim everything down to size.

That leaves one completed snowboard deck design. Paste the design into a template supplied by your printer to finish off the artwork as a print ready file. In the meanwhile, we can mock up the design using the handy Snowboard template from Nunosk8.

Download the source file