2010
07.01
When it comes to content, June is just like every other month with tons of fantastic content to choose from. There are literally hours of 3D, typographic, and photo manipulation tutorials to work on; as well as some awesome freebies, high resolution wallpapers, textures, and fonts to wet your appetites. To wrap things up, take a look at some of the amazing inspirational and informative articles that cover a wide variety of topics.
Tutorial Wrap
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Layer Effects Explained
The author of this tutorial will explain how to put your own twist on creating a high fashion magazine cover. This tutorial covers the basic aspects of masking and layer effects but these simple tricks are extremely useful for any designer so this is a great tutorial to check out. The result looks very high quality and the lessons learned can be applied to a lot of other projects.
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3D Composition Using Sketching Techniques
Here we have a tutorial for our 3D composition fans, this tutorial covers creating a 3D figure and giving it some added shattering effects. Once you have done that you will learn how to bring it into Photoshop and then add some sketching effects to it. This is a good overall tutorial for those who enjoy working with 3D programs.
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Drawing a T-Shirt in Photoshop
This is a very cool tutorial because it explains how to make a realistic looking T-Shirt from scratch in Photoshop. This can be adapted into an icon and customized with any design of your choice so the
possibilities are endless once you start messing around with it. This is a great
beginners tutorial because it shows some basic techniques.
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Creating 3D Graffiti Text
We will now look at a cool typographic tutorial that focuses on taking your graffiti doodles from paper into Photoshop. The author will show you how to clean up your doodles and add some vibrant colors and scenery into your art. This is a great tutorial for those who enjoy typography, so if you are one of those people be sure to check this
quality tutorial out.
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Creating a Stunning Gallery Print
This tutorial focuses on printing your art as well as creating it which is an interesting take on a tutorial. The author explains what exactly you need to print out your art in terms of correct quality of images; the he goes into the creation of an interesting illustration that utilizes a bunch of different stocks. This is a great quality tutorial that everyone should try out.
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Simple Underwater Scene
Our last tutorial is a fairly simple one that gives off some very cool effects. The author shows you how to create an underwater scene using a brush set and nothing else but the basic tools of Photoshop. This is a great
beginners tutorial because it focuses on a lot of the important aspects of Photoshop. so if you think you’d like to try out this design then check out the tutorial.
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(FREE!) Download Picks
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Collection of Rust Textures
Rust textures can give any illustration a nice dark and grungy look, they are valuable when used correctly and this post gives us 50+ high quality rust textures. So if you are in need of some make sure to look through this pack and download the best ones.
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Fresh Free Fonts
Our next freebie is a set of fresh free fonts from Abduzeedo. This pack contains 4 very cool fonts covering 4 very different typographic styles. So check them out and add them to your font folder because
you’ll eventually use them.
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Professional Clean Fonts
This font collection focuses on the most professional and classy looking fonts. This pack gives us 35 of the nicest looking fonts, you will probably have seen some of them but the rest are very clean and can be used in many different ways so be sure to check this pack out.
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88 Amazing iPad Wallpapers
If you have purchased an iPad then you are probably in need of an awesome wallpaper, so check this post out because it rounds up 88 amazing wallpapers that will definitely spice up your desktop. And if you see something you like but don’t have an iPad just check InstantShifts’ post about the best desktop wallpapers and have some fun with it.
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Sumeco Wallpaper
For those without an iPad who are in need of a wallpaper don’t worry because we’ve got you covered. Abduzeedo featured an awesome wallpaper created by designer Theo Aartsma. Check it out, it comes in pretty much every resolution you can possibly think of so if you like it you can use it on whatever device you want.
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Wood Textures
Our last freebie of the month is a great set of 5 high quality wood textures. If the grungy rust didn’t do it for you, then check out these smooth as well as rough wood textures. They are high quality so you wont be let down if you check them out.
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Article Wrap
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5 Goals To Strive for With Every Site You Design
This article focuses on those who design websites and gives 5 great goals that you should strive for with every project. The goals range from creating user friendly sites to creating sites that a client can appreciate.
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Telling a Client “No”
There will be instances in a designer’s life where he will have to disagree with his client and say No to a prospective idea. This article shows you how to do it in the best way possible so you don’t lose your job and keep everyone happy.
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SlashTHREE Art pack
This is not an article but rather a piece of inspiration that is bound to get some ideas stirring in every designer’s head after viewing some of the illustrations included in SlashTHREE’s latest art pack. The circus theme brings forth a lot of color and imaginative imagery. This is a must see for everyone because of the great illustrations compiled in this post.
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Taking Photoshop’s Curves Beyond Highlights and Shadows
This interesting article focuses on more uses for Photoshop’s Curves tool. This can be a
powerful tool when used correctly and the article explains how you can utilize the tool to your full advantage. If you are a designer who uses the Curves tool often then you have to read this because it opens up a well of
possibilities when using Curves.
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10 Useful iPhone Apps for Designers
Designers that have iPhones should read this article and then proceed to getting a few of these useful iPhone applications. This article rounds up 10 of the best apps for a designer; some apps range from a Mobile Photoshop app, too a Font identifier. Make sure to check out all these cool apps if you are an owner of an iPhone.
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2010
07.01
June was a stellar month for Tuts+. Mobiletuts+ had recently launched and started off with some great iPhone and Andriod development tutorials. Creative Sessions focused on Digital Illustration this month and started gearing up for July’s Interface Design session. During June a survey was run across all of Tuts+ to give our readers the opportunity to provide some feedback, over 7000 people participated and one was lucky enough to win a $250 Amazon Voucher. Here’s a small sample of the best from Tuts+ this month!
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Personal Portfolio Flash Template – Active Premium
It’s time for some more Active Premium goodies, exclusively available to Premium members. This time, an XML-based Flash Personal Portfolio template is waiting for you to download; read on to check out the demo and find out more about subscribing to Active Premium!
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Advanced Character Customization for Flash Games
In this tutorial, we’ll delve into Flash game character customization. The result can be used to provide players with the ability to create a unique character, beyond the basic dress-up options of most games. We’ll learn how to let the user add custom colors to different parts of our character, how to add hand-drawn designs to the character’s clothing, and how to modify a basic walking animation that uses the player’s changes.
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Interview with Chris Gross, Plus (Winner Announced) SourceMate License Giveaway!
SourceMate is a new plugin for FlashBuilder which promises to add a lot of “missing” features some of us have taken for granted in other IDEs.Read on to hear SourceMate Architect Chris Gross answer some questions about the product, plus find out how you can win a free license!
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Create A Growing Text Animation – Quick Tip
This is a quick tutorial showing an animation idea if you ever need to animate lots of photos with tag lines. I’ll touch on “Beam” and “Auto-Trace” within After Effect and get you started on creating your own beautiful project!
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Fluidic Designs Using Particular
This tutorial is based on the Hyundai i45 tv commercial. The effect is rain falling in the shape of various designs, onto a vehichle. The tvc uses a real-world rain rig with a computer driven water delivery system, however we will be showing you how to create the same effect using only After Effects and Particular.
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41 MORE Killer Typography Works
I know, I know, I am a day late, but I have quite a good reason… Thank you all for the well wishes, and since I love our readers so much, I was able to finish up this week’s article just for you guys. It’s another roundup of some amazing works of typographical art, that I really think that you are gonna like! You might see that I included one from the comments of last week, so if you have something that you think is worthy… stick it in the comments!
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How to Make the Synth Sound from Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance”
In this tutorial we are going to cover how to create Lady Gaga’s famous synth sound from “Just Dance”. Despite all the advancements in sound synthesis, sometimes the best sounds are the ones that are most simple. In fact the basis for the entire sound is one simple square wave!
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Open Mic: Tell Us About the Tuts You’d Like to See on Audiotuts+
What specific topics would you like to see covered in tutorials? Do you prefer written tuts, screencasts, or a mix? And what general areas would you like to see covered: DAW techniques, music theory, how to play an instrument, how to create specific sounds, how to make money with music, something different? Do you have any other suggestions? What can we do to keep you happy and make your day?
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So You Think You’ve Finished Mixing? A Guide to Preparing Your Mix for Mastering
You know what it feels like to finish a mix. Having spent hours, possibly days, perfecting your track to the nth degree, it feels great to finally have a song to be proud of after all the hard work and effort. But what if you took your mix just that little bit further. Before the crucial mastering stage, there are some very simple, and often overlooked, practices and techniques which can be applied to your mix in order to make sure your track stands out from the crowd and better yet, your final master is as good as it possibly can be.
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Model and Texture a Water Tower in 3ds Max – Day 1
In the first part of this tutorial, the modeling and texturing process is covered in detail, starting with the creation of a proxy model inside of 3ds max. During this stage we will block out the tower structure using simple geometry and then go through the process of adding resolution and detail, creating an aged weathered look. We’ll make use of some simple poly modeling techniques as well as Max’s paint deformation tools to create the desired effect.
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The Cgtuts+ E3 Games Roundup!
Being in the CG realm of creativity, I know a lot of you are probably really into games, and probably even have worked on a few of them. I decided to make a nice list of a lot of the games mentioned or announced this past week at the E3 conference, so you can stay up to date, whether or not you followed it.
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Composite a 3D object into video footage with Boujou, Maya and After Effects
Matchmoving is a visual effects technique that allows the insertion of computer graphics into video footage. In this tutorial we’ll start by taking a look at how we can track our footage using Boujou. We’ll then jump into Maya and use that tracking information, along with a custom HDR image, to create and render a 3D object which we can insert into the scene. We’ll then use After Effects to composite the 3D object into the original video. The techniques used in this tutorial can be applied to almost almost all of your 3D integration shots.
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Introduction to iPhone SDK Development
Mobiletuts+ will be covering all major mobile platforms – iPhone, Windows, Android and Blackberry. This tutorial looks at development with the iPhone SDK. You will learn information about the iPhone platform, how to setup and configure your development environment, and the steps necessary to create a simple fortune cookie application!
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Introduction to Android Development
Mobiletuts+ will be covering all major mobile platforms – iPhone, Windows, Android and Blackberry. Today we’ll be taking a look at Android development: explaining why people have choosen to work with Android and providing an overview of the Eclipse IDE and its Java, DDMS and debugging perspectives. Finally, you’ll learn how to get started making your first Android app!
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HTML5 Apps: Positioning with Geolocation
At the heart of every location-based application is positioning and geolocation. In this tutorial you will learn the geolocation capabilities of HTML5 and the basic principles needed to take advantage of them in your next HTML5 app!
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The 10 HTML Tags Beginners Aren’t Using
Let’s go back to the basics for this one. Everyone reading this at least knows what HTML is. I believe that, no matter what experience level someone has, reviewing the foundation can help increase knowledge. It also helps to hone skills, especially with the constantly evolving technologies that drives the Internet.
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Inspiration: 40 Unique Footer Designs
For this week’s stream of inspiration, we’ve collected forty fantastically creative and unique footer designs.
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How to Authenticate Users With Facebook Connect
Lately, there’s been quite a fuzz about lazy registration. It turns out that the less the user has to think, the higher the conversion rates are! What a thought! If everybody seems to have a Facebook profile, why not add a one-click user registration? I’ll show you how to do that today.
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7 Items You Never Thought to Bring to a Shoot
Today, we’re taking a look at some of the less-obvious items that you may not consider bringing to a photo shoot. Some are tiny things, others are big – all of them will help to make any photography shoot go far smoother!
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The Ultimate Beginner’s Introduction to Exposure
Today we’ll be walking through the concept of exposure, right from the beginning. This article won’t befuddle you with complicated numbers and jargon, but it will help you feel more confident with your photography and understand a core concept that’s a vital piece of the photography jigsaw.
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DIY: How To Make a Professional Softbox for Under $2
Nowadays a softbox needn’t be all that expensive – you can get nice results for $100 or even less. But what if there’s a way of making it much cheaper, with the same results? That’s what we’ll be explaining in this DIY tutorial; how to make a softbox with professional results for less than $20.
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Create a Cosmic Love Goddess With Photoshop CS5
Photoshop CS5 includes several new features to help improve your workflow. In today’s tutorial we will demonstrate how to create a cosmic love goddess using some of Photoshop CS5′s new tools including the Refine Edge Feature which really helps to streamline the process of masking and removing objects from their background.
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Design a Multimedia Website Layout in Photoshop
First impressions do count! Stunning our viewers with a visually compelling portfolio is one of the most important things that a designer can do to court a new client. Today we will demonstrate how to use photos, brushes, and textures, and 3D objects to design a creative multimedia website layout in Photoshop. Let’s get started!
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More Than 620 Bokeh Background Textures
As I’m sure you already know, textures can come in very handy; whether you’re using them to subtly add interest to your work, or in full-blown, award-winning photo manipulations. Bokeh is the term used to explain the blur, or the aesthetic quality of the blur in photography, and is usually seen in good quality macro shots, in the areas that lay outside the depth of field.
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Create a Detailed, Vector-based iPhone Illustration, Part 1
In this tutorial you will learn how to create a photo-realistic iPhone illustration and every single icon you can find on the iPhone touch screen. That’s 18 icons! With so many fantastic tips and tricks we’ve broken the tutorial into two parts, in part two you will learn how to make the remainder of the icons and finish your illustration. Let’s get started!
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Quick Tip: A Simple Way to Create Vector Fog
In this tutorial, you will learn how to make a simple yet effective smoke-like illustration. Using this technique you can make smoke, fog and clouds in just a few easy steps. Let’s get started!
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Inspiration: 35 Amazing Vector Landscapes
Landscapes aren’t necessarily the first thing that come to mind when one thinks of vector artwork. After all, landscapes are often very nuanced and hold a wide variety of shapes, colors, and patterns that can be difficult to mimic in a vector image. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some incredibly talented vector artists out there creating beautiful landscapes, some of which are almost photo-realistic (especially if viewed from a distance).
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Realistic Vecyor Motorcycle Portaits
Every semester, in my Illustrator classes, my students always want to know how I create the Motorcycle Portraits I am known for. I often give them a brief explanation, but I have never really sat down and described the process in detail…until now. My approach to getting a “realistic” look in my work is a bit tedious, but I think you will agree that the end results are well worth it. Enjoy!
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The Making of Lost – Part 1
A key to succeed in following this tutorial series is to experiment. I will be teaching the basic techniques but in order to create a strong composition and attractive shapes, you will need to alter the settings, change/redo splines and experiment with other effects. Patience and determination are mandatory skills for any artist. So let’s get started!
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Scratching your Niche Market
As opposed to discussing just the specific techniques used to target a precise niche market, I would like to start off with a few overarching thoughts. I will cover some basic, yet very useful principles to keep in mind for the bigger picture (Get it? ‘Bigger picture,’ like your career – hehe), and then supply a case study of how I have used them in my work.
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18 Smokin’ Hot Business Card Designs
A good business card design is an essential tool in any freelancer’s arsenal. When you’re at a function networking, meeting new clients, or your work comes up in a conversation, your card is the anchor to make sure the discussion doesn’t come to nothing.
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5 Ways to Fire A Client
There are just some clients who you no longer want to work with. It could be that the client in question is difficult to work with or it could be more a matter that you’ve moved on from the type of work you’ve been doing for that client. Whether you’ve only done a little work for the client or you’ve been together a long time, it’s never easy to fire a client. Not only do you have to get past the freelancer’s natural reluctance to give up money, but you’ve got to make the break in such a way that the client will still speak positively about you to other prospective clients.
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15 Inspiring Home Offices
Is there such a thing as the perfect home office? From my personal opinion, I’d say that your own office is the perfect one. Then again, this all depends on what we have, what we use and if we’re pleased with it. I’m not even close to satisfied with my office yet, but I’m working on it.
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