Manic Monday

Hey hey. Well after a little bit of illness at the back end of last week it’s great to be back in front of the ‘puter.

Here’s my pick of what’s come to my attention over the last couple of days;

Out Now

Podcast

Pixel Perfect – 130 Create Iron Man Armor with Photoshop Textures

The uniform of Iron Man contains a lot of metallic detail. In this episode, Bert Monroy focuses on recreating a single piece from Iron Man’s arm.

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Online Magazine

Photo360 Online Magazine

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“We’ll help you get the best pictures from your camera whether you’re shooting with a mobile phone or a DSLR. And the best thing about Photo360? It’s completely free!”

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On The Web

digitalArtform – Screen Modes

If you just step through the blend modes without knowing much about what’s actually happening, this might be helpful. A great list of links to video tutorials.

abduzeedo – 45 Great Tilt-Shift Photographs

Abduzeedo always has great stuff and this Sunday he posted a collection of one of my favorite types of photography, Tilt-Shift.

TipSquirrel posted a Top Tip for creating Tilt-shift, see it here.

Lynda.com – Photoshop CS4: Image Adjustments in Depth with Jan Kabili

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“This course offers a detailed look at the techniques photographers and designers use to master image adjustments in Photoshop“

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Photo Manipulation Photoshop Tutorial

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The reason I like this tutorial is that it uses easy to get photos to complete the final design and describes each step really well.

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And that’s Monday. Have a great day and all being well, I’ll see you tomorrow.

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“Mixed Bag” Monday

** WordPress has been a little naughty today and no matter how I format the text and pictures it’s doing what it likes anyhoo. So, I have done my best but it it all looks a bit ‘wonky’ today, my apologies **

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To miss-quote Fry and Laurie;

“Mondays, love them or loath them, you can’t help but loath them”

For the first time in a long time I really didn’t want to get out of my bed today, I’m glad I did though or I wouldn’t have known about these goodies, enjoy.

Out Now

Podcast

PixelPerfect – 129 3D Moonlit Landscape

Create a moonlit landscape using simple 3D effects, lighting, and traditional filters.

Pixalicious – Episode 69: Photoshop Magic

In this episode, Creating a new layer, working with filters, adding a layer style, extending the canvas, using the Text tool, aligning layers.

On The Web

Tutcast – Photoshop: Change Brush Sizes Tip – Covering the basics, this tutorial shows us how to change the brush size from the keyboard.

Naldz Graphics – Create a Lighting Effect Scene – A really well laid out tutorial with a nice result.

Gisele Jaquenod – Photoshop Craft Tutorial: Wooden Photo Frame – Nice frame tutorial that might be handy for some of our scrap-booking readers.

Outspoken Kate – 5 New Photoshop Actions – Save time and learn from these really nice actions.

Photoshop Daily – Model Shots – Finally, if you’re looking for some model shots for practice, Photoshop Daily has a nice little set

Have a great Monday, see you tomorrow for “Tuesday Top Tip”

Manic (June Already?) Monday

I hope you’ve enjoyed the weekend as much as I have. BBQ season is in full swing now, long may it continue!

Anyhoo. Today’s blog is the usual Monday mish-mash of stuff I’ve come across over the weekend. So, lets get on with it so I can get back to the sun… I mean work… work in the sun..

Out Now

Podcast

Pixel Perfect – Masking Tricks and Reflections

Working with the on going Times Square project Bert Monroy shows us some great techniques.

 

 

 

On The Web

I like it when I hear that my Photoshop ‘skills’ are transferable to other applications. So this really excites me! I’m no coder and honestly, I know I shouldn’t even try because it wont stick in my head, layers and groups, that’s my language.

Flash Catalyst

Here’s the officail blurb;

Adobe® Flash® Catalyst™ is a new professional interaction design tool for rapidly creating user interfaces without coding.

• Transform artwork created in Adobe Photoshop® and Adobe Illustrator® into functional user interfaces.
• Create interactive prototypes with the ability to leverage them in the final product
• Publish a finished project as a SWF file ready for distribution
• Work more efficiently with developers who use Adobe Flash Builder™ 4 to create rich Internet applications (RIAs). Designers use Flash Catalyst to create the functional user experience then provide the project file to developers who use Flash Builder to add functionality and integrate with servers and services.

 

Sounds cool eh, here’s a bit of an introduction from Edge magazine

 

Removing Glasses With Photoshop

I’ve not seen a tutorial on removing glasses before so this was a nice way to discover this site. Not just Photoshop tutorials either; Dreamweaver, Flash, Illustrator, Fireworks, Bridge and GoLive too.

You can follow TutVid’s Nathaniel on Twitter too.

 

          

          

AdobeTV

AdobeTV goes from strength to strength and has become a regular haunt of mine.

Among the gems I came across is a video that I’d seen before the release of CS4 but had forgotten all about. It’s another ‘will I ever use it?’ type things, but hey, it’s pretty cool!

Check out Russel Brown talking about 3D Mesh From Grayscale.
 

BrushKing
Also added to the Links bar this weekend another cool collection site. As the name suggests, it’s brushes.

 

 

PhotoshopDaily posted some cool stock photo’s over the weekend. Great to practice re-colouring or digital ‘pimping’.

 

 

 

That’s it for today, see you tomorrow for Top Tip Tuesday!

Not So Manic Monday

Short and sweet today due to a rather painful back and the inability to sit at a desk.

Out Now

Podcast

 

 

PixelPerfect – Make Your Own 3d Coins

 

 

 

 

On The Web

 

Hairstyles-2 – Templates for Photoshop

Not something I have ever thought about before, but when I saw them I couldn’t wait to have a play. Uncle Rhett’s gonna love his new Photoshopped hair-do

 

 

 

 

Adobe Photoshop CS4: Crop and Straighten

There are a few functions in Photoshop that I forget about, this is one of them. Very easily explained here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to create a stylish mad lady in photoshop

I didn’t even think I wanted to create a stylish lady until I saw this tutorial.

 

 

 

Ok my friends, all being well I will see you tomorrow. Have a good Monday.

Monday Bits 'n' Bobs

Did a brave thing at the weekend and went to Outside for almost all of it. I found that many people use more than 140 characters to express themselves and still insist on talking to you even if you hold up a sign that says ‘Away’ or ‘Busy’. Anyhoo, here’s today’s round-up.

Out Now

Podcast

 

Creative Cow – Photoshop for Video 

In this episode of Photoshop for Video, Richard Harrington looks at the overlooked patch and healing tools to fix problems in your graphics and images.

 

123 Create Fabrics in Photoshop

Learn how to create textiles and fabrics using Adobe Photoshop.

On The Web

 

I haven’t mentioned PlanetPhotoshop in a while, so here is a reminder. This neat site has a little of everything, tutorials, forum and competitions. Its also the web-home of ‘Prince’ Cory Barker.

 

 

 

If re-touching is your thing then Retouch PRO forum community might be worth your time. Lots of helpful people with a well structured board.

 

Lorri Freedman’s Photography Blog has a nice tutorial on creating an action.
(Am I the only one that still goes as quickly as I can because it’s ‘recording’?)

 

 

 

I think I may have a problem, I can’t help collecting fonts…

Studiowhiz.com has a nice collection of 12 ‘Flower Fonts’

 

 

And Finally

Thank you to everyone that has contacted TipSquirrel, it’s great to hear from you.

Have a great Monday, all being well, I’ll see you tomorrow.

Manic Monday

It’s been a long and difficult weekend so it’s good to get back to ‘normal’. Monday is often a manic day here so here come a more than usual cobbled together blog post.

Out Now

Podcast

 

PixelPerfect : Lightng for 3D Models

 

Architects and engineers will love this episode about 3D lighting. Bert demonstrates how to add lighting to a 3D model car.

 

 

Adobe Creative Suite Podcast : Learn How Mask Clear Objects Like Glass

In this episode special guest Russell Brown shows how to mask a clear object, a glass and make it look realistic on a different background.

 

 

Turorial

No strangers to the pages of this blog, today’s tutorials come from Janinealogy  and Pursuing Photoshop

 

 

 

Janinealogy takes last weeks Dave Cross’ restoration challenge and shows just how well it could have been done.

Once again, very well written and explained.

 

 

 

Opening two windows of the same image is demonstrated here and already there’s a couple of comments suggesting that the navigation panel is a better alternative. 

You won’t know unless you know both ways, so head over and check out Mitzs’ tutorial.

 

To Buy

 

 

Instant 3D gratification.

 

3D Invigorator is legendary within the video and film industry for its high quality images and its time saving workflow features. Now this popular 3D design tool is available for use in Adobe Photoshop.

 

 

 

 

A Photoshop Mousepad

“You’ll have the Photoshop shortcuts always at hand, whenever you need them.

The shortcut list is divided into categories which facilitates finding the ones you need. The pad contains shortcuts for file management, brushes, most popular tools, layers, masks, selections, color adjustments, transformations, adjustments and many other aspects of Photoshop use. Therefore you’ll probably find here everything you need!”

 

Resorces

 

 

Fire Photoshop Brushes

Always good for a bit of drama, here’s a set of fire brushes.

 

 

 

 

And there we are, thats Monday ‘in the can’. Have a great day. See you tomorrow.

Manic Monday (ooo-wee-ooo.. I wish it was Sunday)

I thought I would use Monday to give my pick of what has come to my attention over the weekend. 

My Quest

I have been trying to find someone, anyone, that has used the content aware scaling in a real world situation. Only one so far, for resizing a photo to a standard print size. Is that the only use for this enhancement? Drop me a note if you have found  another use, and used it!

Things to Do

PlanetPhotoshop, the home of Corey Barker, have a  forum that runs a Friendly Tutorial Challenge starting on Sundays. This week is making a textured photo frame. Really nice use of an alpha channel. 

Speaking of Mr Barker, a video of his was posted at Layers Magazine.com, 3D Reflections on Video

Say Anything Caption/Photoshop Contest: Be Funny, Win A Free Movie Title Says it all

Freebie at Colorburned

 

Free Stuff

Colorburned have more great give aways, this time 53 Hi-Res Paint Brushes, a great set.

 

 

 

 

Adobe Tutorialz - Amazing Spiderman

 

Tutorials

AdobeTutorialz posted a great tutorial called The Amazing Spiderman. Not the most useful of tutorials for the final image, but the techniques used are very well explained and worth a look through.

 

From PhotoshopSupport

Create A Photoshop Action To Watermark Your Images – Photoshop Tutorial

Always a handy skill to have

 

 

Inspiration : 

Quite Brilliant

I’m afraid I can’t tell you anymore about the artist as I don’t speak Russian. Some stunning images on the site.

Laurent Batailley

Laurent Batailley's Portfolio is worth a look

 

 

Things To Buy

These have been around for a little while, but i never tire of them. 

Photoshop and Illustrator Magnetic boards. 

 

Photoshop and Illustrator Magnetic Boards

 

Happy Monday everyone. See you all Tuesday!