8 Oct 2007,
Jay Hilgert
Again, this is a rather trivial Illy skill, but with a program as robust and sometimes mystical as Illustrator, you can often get something to work and never know why. Other times you can’t get something to work, something that seems like it makes a lot of sense, and all you are missing is a simple ‘bitt’ of knowledge to rid you of your frustrations. In this quick tip, we will touch on the importance of compound paths, as opposed to groups, when applying a single gradient across multiple shapes in Illustrator.
Continue Reading
4 Oct 2007,
Jay Hilgert
Part 11 of the Random Free Vectors series is here, and it’s watercolor brush strokes. My Hi-Res Watercolor Photoshop Brushes I & II were quite popular, so I thought I would make some watercolor vectors for a change. No, these are not the same shapes as the PS brushes. They are completely new and only available in vector at this point (EPS & SVG). Hope you like them, and remember, you can post your designs in the BittBox User Showcase Group on Flickr if would like to show us how you put them to good use!
Continue Reading
2 Oct 2007,
Jay Hilgert
Editing text in Photoshop can be a nuisance on the fly, but I have a quick productivity tip to make your life a little easier. There is really no need to use the Type/Text Tool to edit a text layer unless you only need to highlight part of the text, or a small part of a large body of text. If you deal with a lot of text layers in Photoshop that are, for example, a bullet point or a short sentence, or small paragraph, this is the tip for you.
Continue Reading
2 Oct 2007,
Jay Hilgert
There is a great set of Photoshop tutorials over at dennisplucinik.com that is probably worth a bookmark. I stumbled onto this little gem of a collection somehow and found a lot of the information very useful, if not now, maybe in the future. The tutorials are categories and include movie effects, photo manipulation, vector effects, digital coloring, and more. If you aren’t very advanced at Photoshop at this point, all the more reason to bookmark it and come back later.
Continue Reading
27 Sep 2007,
Jay Hilgert
As you might be able to tell by the title, this isn’t an advanced feature, but because of the wildly popular “Illustrator Quick Tips” I’ve been publishing, I’m starting a new series of simple, yet very useful tips aptly named “Illustrator 101.” (I will also be doing this for Photoshop, so keep an eye out for “Photoshop 101″ tips coming soon as well) Sometimes the simplest things can be the most helpful, so to kick of the Illustrator 101 series, we’re going to save ourselves some transforming headaches, and harness a simple scaling option in the Transform palette.
Continue Reading
26 Sep 2007,
Jay Hilgert
Part 10 of the free vectors is here, and it’s gears! I also included a bonus Illustrator brush set so you can make your own custom gears, if you feel the need. I had to make some brushes in order to make this freebie set, and I wouldn’t feel right with the brushes sitting on my hard drive when they would help you make your own custom gears (easily). Hope you like them, download below, brush installation instructions at the bottom.
Continue Reading
25 Sep 2007,
Jay Hilgert
For all of you who have been drooling over the much-talked-about graphics editor for the Mac, Pixelmator. . . wait no longer! The first version of Pixelmator (1.0) is out of Beta and has been released to the public. Head on over to Pixelmator.com and download a free trial, and remember, the price tag on this software is a mere $59. It may not be (and probably isn’t) as powerful as Photoshop, but it definitely packs more features than what $59 brings to mind.
Continue Reading
Twitter: bittbox