Archive for September, 2007
The folks over at the Go Mediazine blog just released a set of 2 High-Res Watercolor Textures for everyone to feast on. You can never have too many textures, and these are 2 good ones. (jpeg format) While your there, be sure to check out the rest of their freebies section, and they have some great design tutorials as well.
I don’t know if this would be as useful to you as it is for me, but I leaped for joy when I discovered this little Illy CS3 feature. If you deal with client-delivered vector artwork, this could make your life a ton easier. By selecting any or all of the artwork and then clicking “New Color Group” from the Swatches Palette Options, Illustrator will extract all of the colors in your selection, and add them to your swatches in a nice, neat little group! Detailed instructions below.
If you’re a CSS-savvy designer and you wouldn’t mind owning an iPhone, I have some good news. The kind souls over at CssMenuMaker.com have just announced a contest where users can submit accessible CSS menus, and the best design will bring home a free 4G iPhone! I’ve agreed to help judge the contest. (I won’t be competing because of a previous Apple.com purchase, if you know what I mean) If you are a talented web designer, you have nothing to lose. You can’t win if you don’t submit!
I’m going to walk you through a technique to create vintage looking 3d stars in Illustrator. You guessed it, 100% vector. By the time we’re done, there will be 0 (zero) effects, or filters. You will have a very useful vintage star vector on your artboard, and a new skill to go with it. With vector art gaining ground every day because of its long-term value and versatility, new vector art styles are constantly emerging. I’ve seen quite a few of these 3D style shapes that seem to ‘pop’ out at you being used in many different applications. As always, it’s not quite as hard as you would think. You might just need a little shove in the right direction. Ok, lets make one ourselves!
Have you ever installed a font you just downloaded, and had to restart Photoshop to see it in the list? Me too. I install fonts all the time, (while I have Photoshop open) and it’s not only annoying, but a waste of time to have to restart the entire application, just to see the new font you just installed. You can avoid restarting if you click “Reset Character” in the Palette options of the Character Palette after you install your new fonts.
I found this little gem on Digg.com other day and, sadly enough, it’s only received 5 Diggs in 48hrs, so I felt obligated to inform. It’s always nice to find a cheat sheet, and even better when it includes both Mac and PC versions, But I was truly amazed to find Photoshop Shortcut Cheat Sheets for every version back to Photoshop 5! For Both Platforms (PDF). If you like to improve your workflow or just learn more in general about Photoshop, you should download the cheat sheet for your version, or at least bookmark the site. www.morris-photographics.com Thanks Morris! Designers are always looking to save time.
If haven’t had the chance to see it yet, BittBox just got a new (custom) login page. Thanks to the kind souls over at BinaryMoon, it’s now relatively easy to make a custom skin for your WordPress login page that won’t get over written during an upgrade, because it comes in the form of a plugin! (BM Custom Login) If you have a WordPress blog and want to give your users a better sense of visual connection between login and reading, this is a great way to make your site look a little more professional, and a step above the masses.
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- New Post: http://t.co/yq8XkgjK
- New Blog Post: How To Create A Set Of PS Brushes From A Single Texture Photo: Creating Photoshop brushes is rath... http://t.co/ljZ39pJf
- New Blog Post: Free Texture Tuesday: 5 Split Wood Textures: http://t.co/GcEkrC6z
- New Blog Post: Freebie Friday: 6 Abstract Lines Brushes: Happy Friday everyone! Today I’m releasing this set of... http://t.co/xhCZBTPq
