Author: Brant Wilson

I'm the editor-in-chief of Bittbox.com. I'm a designer and developer by day, and a writer and musician when the feeling strikes. I enjoy vintage advertisements and puzzles with an absurd amount of pieces. Follow me on Twitter.
Photoshop: How To Make An Awesome Grungy Paper Texture From Scratch

Photoshop: How To Make An Awesome Grungy Paper Texture From Scratch

Many of you might remember my Free High-Res Grungy Paper Textures I gave away a while back. I had a lot of requests for a tutorial on how I actually made those textures, so I here we are. Fire up good ‘ol Photoshop, have a scanner handy, and let’s dive in. Ready-made grungy paper textures…

How to Convert Photoshop Layer Effects into Separate Layers
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How to Convert Photoshop Layer Effects into Separate Layers

Most users of Photoshop should already know about layer effects. These are the extra little tidbits added onto layers via the small “fx” icon in the lower-left corner of the layers palette. Using these effects you can build a number of extra features like shadows, gradients, bevels, and a whole lot more. Converting different effects…

28 Free Illustrator Brushes for making Swooshes and Swirls
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28 Free Illustrator Brushes for making Swooshes and Swirls

This is a brush set meant for making your own custom swoosh, swirl and curl designs. I have a tutorial on exactly how that process works that you can read here. This isn’t the only way to make swooshes, but it should help you get started, to say the least. I’m continually fascinated as to…

Photoshop 101: How to Create Unique Texture Without Using Brushes
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Photoshop 101: How to Create Unique Texture Without Using Brushes

We’ve given away lots of stuff here on BittBox, mainly textures and brushes. The truth is, many of the textures are manufactured using recycled images I already have hanging around on my hard drive. I want to share one of my favorite ways to quickly add a little extra to a rather uninteresting texture, without using…

The Difference Between Layer Masks & Clipping Masks in Photoshop
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The Difference Between Layer Masks & Clipping Masks in Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is one of the more complicated programs because it can be used for a wide array of purposes. But once you nail down the fundamental tools it becomes a lot easier to envision how you might create certain effects in future work. One of the confusing ideas that often trips new users is…

How to Make a Repeating Shape Pattern in Illustrator

How to Make a Repeating Shape Pattern in Illustrator

Here’s a great Adobe Illustrator tip I wanted to share with you all.  It just so happens that if you hold down the “tilde” key on your keyboard, you can get a neat effect using any of Illustrator’s drawing tools. Holding down the tilde key, (the little squiggly line above the tab key, left of the…