15 Sep 2007,
Jay Hilgert
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!
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13 Sep 2007,
Jay Hilgert
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.
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13 Sep 2007,
Jay Hilgert
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.
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12 Sep 2007,
Jay Hilgert
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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12 Sep 2007,
Jay Hilgert
Another nice font release from Gyom over at Last Soundtrack has hit the web. I’m a loyal fan of Gyom because he consistently releases great fonts, and all he requires for a commercial (full) license is a donation in the amount of your choosing! To me, Birth of a Hero seems to be geometric and grungy at the same time, which could prove quite useful in certain applications. See what you think, and maybe download it and keep it in the bag for later.
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11 Sep 2007,
Jay Hilgert
Its that time again. Illustrator Brushes! You might recognize a few of these from this free vector set. These are some foliage Illustrator brushes I used to make the that set of freebies, along with a lot of new ones. So, theoretically, you could take these brushes and make your own set of free foliage vectors. The possibilities are endless with this set because I also included the simpler brushes that the more complex ones are comprised of. I also included AI, SVG, and EPS, for InkScape users, or anyone else who doesn’t use Illustrator. Don’t forget to play with your stroke size to get your most desired results! Download below.
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10 Sep 2007,
Jay Hilgert
Designfruit is a great little website with some very high quality (hi-res) Photoshop brushes and vector art available. The brushes are free and the vectors are 12.99 US. If you haven’t had the pleasure of stumbling upon this site before, It’s definitely worth a stopping by. You’ve probably seen some of these brushes before, and might not even know it yet.
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