Amazing Blog Design

Hey

After surfing the web as I do I have come across a really cool blog design. When I first saw it I was blow away. It seemed so unique and simple. Anyway if you head over to Cocoia, you can find all of the design. As well as this it is also quite a good blog.

Amazing iPhone/iTouch Wallpapers

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I can't remember where I came across this but it is one of the coolest sites for iPhone and iTouch wallpapers. I think some of these designs are really cool and I wish that some of these could be widescreen so I can put them as my main background.

If you head over to this site your can find all of them. They are updated every so often with new designs. Below is one of my favorites.

Creating An Apple Style Advert

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This is going to be a simple tutorial which will show you how to make an Apple style advert. Its pretty simple and fun to do. It only uses a couple of effects and as a result you can probably do this within an hour. The source pack is included here if you want all the materials.

Step 1) The first step is to create your canvas. I have chose a 600 pixel by 750 pixel canvas size. Chose any style you want. Colour the background in #2c2c2c.

Step 2) On a new layer create a rounded square. The corners are 30px in diameter. It can be any colour you want. Align the square with the centre of the canvas by selecting the two layers, clicking on the transform tool in the toolbox and then selecting the align center in the toolbar. After you have done this nudge, with the arrow keys, the square up. This is so you can add in some extra text at the bottom.


Step 3) Create a new layer again, in the layers palette (Window > Layers) right click on the layer and select clipping mask or you can go to Layer > Create Clipping Mask.

Step 4) On this layer fill it in with a back to white gradient. Move the markers closer together and move slightly to one side. Add this to the new layer. Slightly ignore the image below because I was going to do this as a layer style, but it didn't work with the later steps.


Step 5) Create three new layers. On each layer draw a circle with purple, blue or green in it. Let them overlap the edges and be different sizes. Draw the circles so if there was an imaginary triangle between the three the centre of this triangle is approximately centre on of the square, check out the images below for a better idea.

Step 6) Select a layer and apply a Gaussian Blur, increase the blur dramatically. Apply this to all three layers using the same amount of blur.



Step 7) Merge these three layers by selecting all three and going to Layer > Merge Layers. Change the layer to a clipping mask.

Step 8) Create a new layer fill this in black. Go to Filter > Render > Lens Flare. Select the default option and adjust the brightness so it appears a medium brightness.

Step 9) In the layers palette change the blending option to screen. Move and transform the layer so the bright part is in the centre of the coloured circles.


Step 10) Create a new layer, add a clipping mask. Draw in a black square at the top of the rounded square. Add in a small dark grey stroke of 1px to finish.


Step 11) Repeat this process but with white at the bottom.

Step 12) Add in the main image. I have chosen an Apple TV. A transparent .png can be found in the source pack. Insert the image so that it is centre.

Step 13) Create two new layers below the image, draw in a dark and light blue ellipse and add a large Gaussian Blur as before.

Step 14) Duplicate the Apple TV layer. Go to Edit > Free Transform. Select the flip vertical option, move the new image so that it lines up with the bottom of the original image.

Step 15) With the new image selected go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal all. On this layer add in a black and white gradient so that only the very top of the image is shown. This is also known as a reflected shadow.


Step 16) Finally add in text. I have used Lucida Grande. Change the colours so they fit and look good. The Apple logo was included in part of the font on a Mac and is found by pressing Option + Shift + K. It may be available on other operating systems, have a look at your font maps for more information.


Step 17) You can always finish it off by adding in some small images and extra text. Both of the images below are in the source pack. The very bottom part is a small area for the small print.


It looks quite effect and could definitely be used as an advert. It could do with some minor touch ups. But otherwise it is quite cool. You can download the source here which includes the final psd.

Designing A Magazine Cover

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This is going to be a simple tutorial to show you how to design a magazine cover in Photoshop. The topic is going to be about photography although you can change it to what ever you want. It is really simple to do and involves a lot of composition and not any advance Photoshop techniques. You can click on the pictures for the full version. The final .psd will be included at the end.

Step 1) The first step is to create your canvas. I have picked A4, although you can pick any size you want.

Step 2) Insert you picture. I have found mine from here. Insert you picture through copy and paste or File > Place. Resize your picture so the main focal point is the spiders head, there is plenty of resolution in the picture.

Step 3) Create a new layer. On this layer select all using Command + A. Go to Select > Modify > Contract, reduce the size by about 15 - 20 pixels. Reverse the selection using Command + Shift + I. Fill this selection with white using the paint bucket. This is used as a small white border.


Step 4) Working from the top down, insert some text. I have chosen Lucida Grande. Make the first half bold and the second half normal. It just adds a little to the effect. Add a drop shadow for that extra effect.



Step 5) Since "Photouser" sounds a bit dull I have added a small amount of text. Keep your colour scheme to a minimum of of about 3 colours.


Step 6) Add a small amount of text above the main header and a tag line below.



Step 7) Create a new layer above the current layers. Using the marquee tool to draw a small box along the top of the piece. Don't go into the boarder. Fill this with red.

Step 8) Using the rounded shape tool with a 40px corner insert a box that takes up the other half of the piece. Fill this yellow.

Step 9) Add in some text, add a small drop shadow to any text that since black. I have added 3 small ticks to give the list an extra feel.


Step 10) On a new layer draw a yellow circle. This will be used as a small sticker.

Step 11) Using the marquee tool cut a piece out of the circle onto a new layer. Use the transform tool to move this away from main circle. Use the paint bucket tool to colour this a light yellow.

Step 12) Use the transform tool to flip the piece. This is done by right clicking on the layer and selecting flip vertical.

Step 13) Add in some text. I have got a bit bored here so I have justed added in Lorem ipsum. Add a drop shadow to the circle parts to set it off.


Step 14) Continue working down the page. Add in some text. The larger part in white is size 20pt, the yellow mini text is in 12pt. The very small text is in size 6pt. Space the text out so it looks good.


Step 15) The penultimate step is to add in the big piece of text at the bottom of the page. This is done in a very similar way to the main text. Add in a small amount of text below. The image on the right is taken from here. Use the magic wand to delete the white background.


Step 16) The final step is to add in a barcode. I have taken one from here.


It looks cool and could probably be used on an actual magazine. You can find the source here.

I've Released A New Site

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This is just a quick post to say that I have released a new site. Its call Mac Tricks And Tips, and if you havn't already guessed is all about Mac Tricks And Tips.



I have spent a lot of time developing and messing about with the design and layout of the blog. It took me a long time getting the composition of the design right. The result have come out great. I've decided to do a Mac on since I love Mac's and use them all the time. I wanted to post and share all the tips and tricks I have found and developed over time and share them with people.

In the mean time expect a cool tutorial on designing a magazine cover. I was planning on doing it today, but it took a lot longer than planned. As a result I am going to have to push it back.

Creating Realistic Fur

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Animals have fur on them. But how do you make realistic fur. This tutorial is going to show you the simple steps needed to draw realistic fur in photoshop. It doesn't take long to do and the results are really good. There is only a few basic steps but the longer you take and the more detail you add the better it will become. You can download the source pack here with the .psd if you want to use it.

Step 1) Create your canvas. The bigger you make it the long it will take you to create a satisfactory piece. I have chosen for this exercise 500px x 500px.

Step 2) On the base layer scribble in the shape of your fur. It doesn't have to be neat, just a general shape.


Step 3) On two layers brush in with a soft brush two brown colours. Light brown on one layer, dark brown on another layer.


Step 4) Use the smudge tool with a medium size and a strength of 50% to smudge the colour layers. This is going to act as a base coat.


Step 5) On a new layer pick a dark brown colour. Using a 2-3px brush with the airbrush options on start to draw in the hairs. Don't scribble and draw every hair individually. If you want very straight hair draw straight lines, more curly hair is done by making the lines more wavy. I recommend using a tablet for this as the brush strokes would be more natural, as well as easier to do.


Step 6) Repeat this process again on a new layer with a darker brown. Concentrate on the darker areas with the dark hairs.


Step 7) It is starting to come alive. On a new layer again draw in light hairs in the light part of the canvas. Continue to do this with different colours and quantities of hair.



Step 8) The more time you spend the better you will get it to look. The more time and effort will definitely produce good results. Add in extreme colours such as black and white to get a good effect.


Really cool. I might spend some time on a bigger piece and see what the effects are. You can download the source pack here with the final .psd included.

Cool WordPress Themes Sites

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I like wordpress. The idea of having a simple solution for blogging is always appealing. If I would ever start again at blogging I would have chosen wordpress, but as it stands I am currently on blogger. Wordpress gives the advantage of offering unparalleled customization of your template. As well as this it is very popular so there are hundreds of hacks and mods which you can apply. One of the most popular things on wordpress as a blogging platform is themes which you can apply to your site. I have found some cool themes, which will be the topic of this post.

While searching the internet, as I do, I have come across hundreds of websites that offer "premium" themes. A premium theme to me is a design that is quality and not run of the mill. I have found two sites, that I have saved specially for you, that I think offer really good wordpress themes for and affordable price. I think they are top quality designs, you may think differently. The wordpress system has many websites that offer selling templates, the area is very competitive and as a result competition is high.

The first site I would like to mention is Solostream. I have enjoyed the blog posts that they put and as a result have been a follower of there developments. As a result they have released a lot of wordpress themes. If you look through there site there are some designs with fantastic layouts. There are a couple which are not so good. A bit of digging through the site returns some promising templates. They are a tad bit expensive for a couple of them but for the average theme they range in the price of $50 to $70. There are more expensive options if you want to resell etc.



The second site that I want to mention which has really cool themes is elite by design. I mentioned his site a couple of weeks ago. He has for sale his wordpress theme. I find his design really cool and as a result it is on sale. His theme is at $65 which seems to be the going rate for themes.



I just thought I would mention these as I love website design and these two sites seem great quality. I may put my theme up in the next couple of days as I have had a couple of people email about sharing it.

PicLens - An Amazing Firefox Plugin

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I was really impressed when I cam across this plugin for Firefox. I was blown away with what it can do, as well as this amazing design on it. Its called Piclens and it is a plugin for most browsers that offers many cool features to show off images while searching the internet.

In a nutshell it is very similar to the image you see of the AppleTV, this has since changed but you get the general jist of what it is. You can browse through the hundreds of images within a Google search, or from some of the other popular images sites such as flickr. You can see by the image below the amount of images you can see, each is a real image that can take you to the respective website.



You get lots of swooshy effects as you zoom back and forth. You do need broadband other wise your computer will lag behind a bit with the rendering.


You can zoom in by double clicking on an image, this a flickr image (which I think is really cool) you get the full res. It is very Mac like and seems to work really well. Clicking on the the arrow in the top left will take you to the respective image if you want to view it in its context.


It is well worth checking out, have a play and tell me what you think. It will make searching through hundreds of Google images a lot easier. Go to PicLens for more information and links to download.

Creating A Funky Text Background

Hey

I was messing around in Photoshop again and I came up with a rather cool background for some text. So i've turned it into a cool little tutorial for you to follow. It is basically a small stylized background for some text. The results are really cool. This tutorial does need a piece of paid artwork. I've used the Hoolanders set from Go Media Pack 2. If you scroll down you should be able to find it. It only costs $15 and is a great bargin since the vectors you get are really good quality. You can use any of the hoolanders sets, the newer set 9 looks really cool. If you are cheap you could always try the free pack. That includes a couple of hoolanders for use for free.

Step 1) As always with my tutorial the first step is to create your canvas. For this tutorial pick a rectangular size. I have chosen 1440px x 900px to match my screen resolution. Change the size to suit your needs.

Step 2) Apply a turquoise green background to the background layer as shown in the image below.


Step 3) The next step is to open up you hoolander, this is best done in illustrator, change its colour to a lighter turquoise green.


Step 4) Hide the background layer. Insert the hoolander into Photoshop thru a copy and paste. If you have inserted it from Illustrator the background will all ready have been deleted, otherwise you need to get your eraser tool out and delete the background. Shrink the shape with the transform tool (v).

Step 5) Put a rectangular marquee around the shape, being as tight as possible to the edges.


Step 6) The next step is to turn this into a pattern. The pattern will be used to cover the background. With the shape still selected go to Edit > Define Pattern. Enter a subtable name.

Step 7) Delete the shape layer it is not needed any more.


Step 8) Go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Pattern. Click through the messages and your canvas should now fill with the shape. If you don't like the sizes, go back and redefine the pattern.


Step 9) On a new layer insert a square rounded rectangle with 40px edges. The colour wants to be off white.

Step 10) Select both the new layer and the background layer and press V. In the tool bar at the top select Align Horizontal and Vertical Centers. This will align the shape layer to the center.


Step 11) Add a small drop shape, make the size large and the opacity medium.


Step 12) Going back to the hoolanders in illustrator, select to black vectors and paste them in Photoshop. Select as pixels when prompted. Move and transform them about.

Step 13) Right click on the layers and select clipping mask. Make sure the vectors are about the coloured square. This will cut the edges off as shown below.


Step 14) To finish off a couple of move vectors are going to be added to the background. In Illustrator select a couple of vectors and make them a dark green turquoise. Paste these into Photoshop. I've included an image of the vectors I have used and coloured as reference.


You want the vectors to be partially hidden, just the edges to be shown.


Step 15) The last step is to add some text. I've used Lucida Grande. Add colour and resize text as you would normally.


Looks pretty cool, and could easily be used in a magazine or brochure. If you want more ideas check out this other magazine design I have done.