Kumail.H.T`s Blog

7 Photoshop Blogs Everyone Should Read

kumailht — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 12:20:56 +0000

As a web designer, Photoshop is of course one of the most important elements to your success. There are so many different twists and turns within this program and always ways you can improve your performance. To keep fresh with your skills and to help with problem solving as you work in Photoshop, it can be quite helpful to follow some of the most informational blogs out there. Here we look at some of the top Photoshop blogs that can be of great assistance to the web designer.

1. Photoshop Tutorials Blog – This site provides tips and guidelines on everything there is to know about Photoshop. Through the video tutorials that have been created and posted, a web designer can troubleshoot problems that they are having with Photoshop or even pick up some helpful tips about features they aren’t currently using.

2. Photoshop 101 – Through the specially created categories laid out on this blog, you can find help at your fingertips. If you are in need of help in a certain area or hoping to learn more about a new feature or topic, you can quickly and easily find the information that you need. This can be a real time saver for somebody as they learn all about the ins and outs of Photoshop.

3. Photoshop Roadmap – If you are looking for help on text effects for Photoshop, this is the place to go. There are a number of tutorials and examples provided to allow the designer to stay on top of this important feature and gather the insight they need to become knowledgeable and effective. This site provides a real life depiction and tone that draws the web designer in.

4. Blog Designed – At Blog Designed, they’ve done the work for you in gathering the top tips and tutorials on Photoshop out there. They keep current with the trends and the tutorials to ensure that no web designer falls behind. Rather than poking around the web on your own to gather tips of the trade that may be of help to you as a web designer, they put them all in one easy to read place.

5. Photoshop Support – Not only can you find the usual tutorials that you may be in search of on this blog, but you can even keep up with the latest news. You can learn about the newest versions, updates, and even find discounts on this comprehensive blog. This is a bit more corporate in nature than the other blogs, but nonetheless full of useful information to the web designer.

6. Website Tips – If you are looking not only for tutorials and tips, but also useful forums then this is the place to go. You can network with other web designers and bounce ideas off of each other when it comes to Photoshop tips. Along with that interaction also comes the same helpful information that you would expect, but it makes for a nice mix here.

7. Digital Pixels – From the Photoshop novice up to the expert, there is something of value on this blog. Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about Photoshop is on here along with a review of some excellent features and ideas. This can be an extremely helpful site for the web designer hoping to learn more or gather ideas related to Photoshop.

Learning all about Photoshop and finding any related information can help to keep a web designer current and fresh. By utilizing the blogs above you can find helpful tutorials, excellent tips, and network with other web designers that just might be able to offer you a tip or two along the way.

About the author

Mary Ward is a freelance author and writes about design job topics, such as how to choose among web design colleges, artist career tips, and more.Similar Posts:

Major redesign on the way!

kumailht — Wed, 13 May 2009 03:10:45 +0000

You might have noticed the lack of posting and the quietness of the blog, well I have been working on a redesign and all I can say is get ready to be surprised.

I don’t have a clear launch date in mind but I just need to get my design coded and integrated with wordpress, then its party time

I am also working on a Tutorial website as some of you who are following me on twitter already know. The website is InkscapeMag.com and the design is currently going through wordpress integration. If you would like to stay updated on the launch, please follow me on twitter and you will be the first to know. If you don’t use twitter, send me an email with the subject “inkscapemag-subscribe” and I will personally let you know.

Stay tuned as there is lots to come Similar Posts:

Freebie: The Pixel Icon Set – SVG included

kumailht — Sun, 10 May 2009 16:09:14 +0000

I made this little icon set in Inkscape and felt like sharing it. You may use it for personal or commercial purposes, just don’t abuse your right, you may not resell or redistribute this pack.

Click to Download the Icon SetSimilar Posts:

The ultimate list of really amazing design related lists

kumailht — Sat, 02 May 2009 04:10:36 +0000

It is very common to see Top 10 this list, Top 10 that list, They all are very informative and heavy on content and give you the strongest urge to bookmark. These lists when combined form the epic bookmark so what are you waiting for, Ctrl + D to bookmark.

Next, I am planning on making a list of lists that list amazing lists confused? so am I. Well, I wont waste any more of your time, start surfing and bookmarking as this should take some time.

Typography

Free Fonts

Paid Fonts

30 Fonts That ALL Designers Must Know & Should Own

Other Resources

Icons

Free Icons

Resources

Textures

Free textures

Resources

Inspiration

Other Resources

Wordpress

Tips & hacks

Plugins

Themes

Other Resources

Want to customize your own theme without learning php, here is what you always wanted

Content Management Systems

Other Resources

Design Education

Similar Posts:

Amazing Ubuntu Linux themes, Icons & Walls to give your desktop a Fresh Look!

kumailht — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 06:39:29 +0000

I couldn’t stand using Windows 7 because of the reasons stated here (which I installed because of photoshop in the first place) any longer, I am sick of adobe for being so bloated and dumped photoshop for Inkscape and Gimp which I have come to love. Only chance I use photoshop again is if I buy a mac or if adobe provides a Linux version, until then I am a Linux Designer!

One of the biggest issues with Ubuntu on the front end is its theme, which is an easy fix. Installing a theme is as easy as changing your wallpaper in Linux, it really is!

(easy install) - This shows that you can install the theme as easily as shown below. If it doesn’t have (easy install) you might require some extra packages installed or might need some messing around and will need some experience so if you are new, make sure you get the easy install themes.

A quick intro to installing themes in Linux, It will take a minute

How to install a theme or an Icon pack

See the install button up there, just click on that > browse to your theme archive & select it > Open it > Thats it!

How to install a Login Theme

Select the Local Tab > Click “Import” > Browse to the GDM Login archive file > Select your newly imported theme and your done!

Lets start with the wallpaper packs

Themes (GTK 2.0)

Dust Theme (easy install)

Dust Sand (easy install)

T3K

Case

Murrina Studio

Flower Power

Radial

Dots – For Emerald

Icons Sets

You can install an icon set in the same way as you install a them, the only diff is that only the icon set will be installed. To use an icon set, click on ‘customize’, go to the icon tab, and select your icon pack, its will be applied immediately.

Oxygen Icon Set (easy install)

Just type “sudo apt-get install kde-icons-oxygen” in the terminal without quotes and you are done. If you dont like using the terminal, you could use the synaptic package manager (system > administration > synaptic package manager) , search for “oxygen” and mark the “kde-icons-oxygen” for installation. I bet the terminal is faster!

Snowish (easy install)

This is a really good icon set and really goes well with the dust theme.

Micro (easy install)

I am currently using this set, its very well designed. I would recommend installing oxygen or snowish as a fallback incase it doesnt have a particular icon.

GDM Login Themes

I have explained how to install a login theme at the start of the post, be sure to check it out if you need help.

Intrepid Ibex (easy install)

eGDM (easy install)

FreeSansGrrl (easy install)

Wooden (easy install)

About Me

I am an tech enthusiast, I love Linux, Inkscape, Apple, & the Internet except a few weird stuff on there. I am also working on a few web startups so you could and should follow me on twitter and subscribe to my blog. I wont bore you, promise!Similar Posts:

Want to create an Open Source Web based OS for Netbooks? Join Us!

kumailht — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:21:48 +0000

Xenon is a web-based “cloud” system designed to run all the programs you’d expect a computer to perform, such as wordprocessing, instant messaging, and browsing the web aimed at netbooks. Me and a friend had started this project a few months back and are now looking for more people to join the project and make this a reality.

The advantage of the system is that it can run on extremely low-end hardware, such as netbooks, tablets, PDAs, and kiosk PCs. This way, computers can become very cheap and still be able to do most tasks expected of them.

Dan Dart originally started the project, wanting to create an intuitive user interface as he noticed a need for this as netbooks are becoming more popular. The main aims of the project is to create a system that is fast and efficient, very easy to use, portable, using web standards and to make it as less resource demanding as possible.

Find out more at xenon.kumailht.com

Who do we need

We would like you to join us in our efforts to create this open source netbook operating system. Whatever your area of expertise, we would like to take you on board.

The skills that we need currently are:

Designing
Advertising
Programming for the Web (XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, MySQL)
Linux low-level system development (eg creating a system from source, packaging)
Sponsors

How to apply

All you have to do to apply to join the project is to email Dan:

dandart@googlemail.comSimilar Posts:

Would you buy Photoshop if released on Linux – Cast your vote

kumailht — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 09:25:45 +0000

The title says it all, I would like to get an estimate of the number of users who would purchase adobe software if it were available on Linux.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I tried out Windows 7 to verify the hype surrounding it and found it very lacking when compared to Linux or OSX. The only reason I have to continue using windows is Adobe Photoshop which I dont really like to be perfectly honest. I want to find out if there are enough buyers for Adobe to consider a Linux version.

Please cast your vote *once* and post a comment if you choose other.

Similar Posts:

A Linux users review on windows 7

kumailht — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 07:28:36 +0000

I have been a linux user for quite some time and I loved my stay, although I needed photoshop and had to shift back to Windows (cs2 didn’t work with either crossover or wine on linux for me). Since I dont really like Xp and Vista after using Ubuntu, I decided to give Windows 7 a try.

After getting hold of the ISO I found out that my burner didn’t work, how was I supposed to know that it didnt work, I haven’t used that darn thing in a year. I needed another install method so I used a usb that was lying around. I did a little research and found out that I needed vista to make the usb bootable, so I was stuck there. I could have waited a few hours and go over to my neighbors house to do the install, but I don’t have that kind of patience. I spent around 4 hours figuring out how to make the usb bootable using the other PC which had xp installed, all of which failed.

Its really late and I am dead sleepy, but I decide to use my recovery disk to install vista and then make the bootable usb and install 7, I know that’s pathetically long and sad but I was desperately in need of photoshop and vista sucks up too much ram while xp simply sucks. An hour has passed and my recovery discs failed to work, i tried them twice.

I gave up and decided to install xp. I am now in Xp and it occurs to me that I can install 7 from the usb once the OS is running and I was right. If this would have occurred to me a little earlier, I would have saved a day of hard work. Now 7 is installing and I feel so proud of myself, it was like winning a battle.

Long story short, I installed windows 7 Sorry you had to read the long story first.

First impressions

Unlike previous versions of windows or Ubuntu, 7 had a very lively start up animation and booted up pretty fast, fastest of all others in my case. The colors were very refreshing and was a welcome change when coming from Ubuntu. Major interface changes like the taskbar which shows only the icons make me wonder why it took so long to come up with that solution. I found it easier to use, more manageable and a much simpler way to manage windows.

There have already been a lot of reviews regarding new features which I will not waste your time with here, I want to address the more subtle changes that make this a great OS.

What I like about Windows 7

Updated Apps

Some of the apps have been given a visual and feature overhaul which were very welcome. The ribbon interface which has been integrated is a pleasure to use, It simplifies the interface and makes it very easy for less experienced users to use the application. Paint, Wordpad, WMP, Calculator have turned into actually usable apps.

The calculator has become much more useful and has prettier interface.

Maximizing

By dragging the window towards the top end of the screen, you can mazimize it. By dragging it down, you can minimize it. I like using this feature from time to time.

Faster

It has a faster boot time, shutdown time, login time, than vista, probably the same as xp. It doesn’t seem to slow down if you stay away from resource hungry apps. I have noticed an increase in file transfers too.

Font Management

Font management has radically improved over previous versions. You can easily install any font by right clicking and selecting install. You can show and hide fonts without deleting them, so you now see only those fonts that are needed. Each font family is grouped together, this really cleans up a lot of mess.

Taskbar

The taskbar is a great addition, it saves a lot of space & time.

PreInstalled Codecs

Windows Media Player had quite a few codecs installed which saved me quite some time, although it wont play many formats like mp4 & mkv.

What I dislike about windows 7

No wmp taskbar view

I have the habbit of watching videos while working. In xp, vista, or ubuntu, I could very easily accomplish that, in 7 I cant. This is a huge disadvantage.

Crappy font rendering

I really missed using the amazing rendering of fonts ubuntu used to provide. This is a great disadvantage, especially for a designer.

Lacking compatibility of the taskbar with firefox

The tabs in IE show up as diff windows and allows you to select any tab, the same does not work in firefox which makes this feature worthless.

SLOW SLOW SLOW

Some things like boot etc are faster but there are many other things that are really slow, like wmp, explorer, start menu, search, sidebar, image viewer. If you have a GB of ram and a dual core 2ghz proccessor, you should be able to accomplish everyday tasks . With snow leopard coming out, and ubuntu working on a faster version, 7 doesnt stand a chance – speed wise.

Too slow for Netbooks

I dont see windows 7 working well on netbooks, it is just not fast enough. I would much rather use a customized version of Ubuntu which works smootly rather than 7 with all its issues.

Hardware support

I had and have problems with my touchpad, mic, webcam, all of which were instantly supported in Ubuntu.

No built in Antivirus

Wouldnt it be crazy if your Acer laptop had a problem and you called Dell customer support, Why should I have to buy an Antivirus software from avast or symantic when the problem is with windows. If I spend my hard earned money on a copy of windows, I expect a product that works without any addons or 3rd party products.

Conclusion

Even though windows 7 is a great visual upgrade, has quite a few features, and has a lot of hype surrounding it, I am not convinced that it is any better than Ubuntu or OSX and I will be shifting back to Ubuntu as soon as possible. Windows 7 is what Vista should have been, it is simply Vista service pack 3 and it does not deserve to be sold with that ridiculous price tag.

What do you think

Let me know what you think, do you think Windows 7 is a fad and overhyped, looking forward to your comments.Similar Posts:

10 Effective ways to set your blog apart from the rest

kumailht — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 10:16:03 +0000

Nowadays it takes more than just hard work for a blogger to stand out from the rest. As more and more bloggers crowded the blogsphere and write about the same topic, you need to be dissimilar and set your blog apart from the rest to success. While you had probably started a blog after reading Kumail’s post “All you need to know about starting a blog”, here’s a list of 10 crucial ways to build a successful blog and stand out from the rest.

1. Choose a memorable blog name

A blog name is where the readers start to know you. It should be catchy and be able to deliver the right blog image to your readers. A memorable blog name is also easier to be promoted via word of mouth.

2. Good blog design and layout

Visual impressions count. Web surfers, blog readers especially, are interested in websites with good layout and design. I understand that not everyone has the artistic touch to create an award-winning blog designs; but you should at least make sure your blog is well designed and user friendly with minimal clutter.

3. Write eye catching headlines

Aside from your blog’s visual design, the headline is always the first thing that gets your readers attention. A catchy headline attracts people to read further. Study shows that 80% of blog readers stop reading after the headline. So if you wish to make your blog stands out from the rest, polish your copy writing skills and write good headlines.

4. Reveal your personality

Revealing more about yourself and getting personal with your readers are always effective to expand your blog readership. When you get personal and let your users know who you are, they get the feeling of communicating with a human rather than their computer screen. They will be more likely to listen to you and react to your posts rather than skim through them, get the info and get out. Your readers are more likely to follow your blog (as well as recommending you to their friends) when they get to know you more in person.

The personal touch goes a long way in helping your blog even if you are a high profile blog with a corporate background. You could always give them a behind the scenes overview of your blog of twitter or communicate about issues related to your blog in the forum. What ever you do, make it personal but not too personal as too loose your readers interest. Get the right balance and you will feel the difference.

5. Be consistent

Think of a blog as you would think of a magazine – will you subscribe to a magazine because it is resourceful for just one month? No! To maintain and accumulate readership, you need to write consistently. When I say consistent, I am not only talking about the no. of articles per month, I also mean the quality of the articles that you publish. You have to keep up and maintain the quality.

6. Get your own domain and hosting

I couldn’t stress enough how important it is to host your blog on its own domain and hosting. It’s difficult to create an outstanding brand image for a blog with subdomain from Blogger.com or WordPress.com. A domain will cost you 9$ a year, thats 0.75$ a month, thats 0.025$ a day, thats 0.001$ an hours, I think you get my point or do I have to go further

It cost less than $5/month nowadays to own a shared hosting account and I am sure most bloggers can afford it. In case you need advice in term of which web host to go with, read my personal hosting reviews here. The least you can do is get a domain and let it be hosted on wordpress.com

7. Don’t just be about the money

Want your blog to stand out from the crowd? Then think about your readers before money.

Too many blogs are just about the money and little care about the readers. Many bloggers pile up advertisement and dishonest product reviews in their blog before they gain sufficient readership. When you put profits before the readers – you are actually chasing the readers away. So next time when you have a decision to make, ask ‘Will this benefits my readers?’ before asking ‘Will this bring in profit for me?’.

8. Express your opinion (even if it will create fights)

Sometimes, picking up a fight can be a good strategy to stand out from the rest. Understand that it’s o-k-a-y to have a stance against the crowd when you have a different opinion. You might get attacks for being different but controversy gets people talking and that’s a good thing for your blog publicity. It is your opinion and you have every right to express it.

9. Write link baiting blogpost

A link baiting blogpost is the kind of content that attracts attention and links. Link bait can be used as a powerful viral marketing strategy and you increase your blog SEO scores when readers link to you. One simple way to write link baiting blogpost is by compiling multiple resources into condensed, cumulative articles. Think about the articles you read in digg.com front page – 150 tools for…, 56 quick tips for a better…, 89 online resources to help you…, 23 ways to …, these are the best examples of link baiting blogposts.

10. Leverage images to add value to your blog

Graphics and images, when used strategically, are your best partner in pulling readers attention. No, it doesn’t mean that you should hang up 15 flashy gif files on every single blogpost. It means that images (photos, flow charts, comics, and graphs) should be used whenever it’s related to your blog content.

As the wise said: A picture is worth a thousand words – if your idea can be presented better in form of image, why not?

This guest post is brought to you by Jerry of Web Hosting Secret Revealed. Jerry inspects and reviews web hosting services based on his own usage experience, you can read more about his work at his blog.

Want to write a Guest post on my blog? shoot me an email at kumailht@gmail.com

Similar Posts:

Freebie: Vector cell phone icon

kumailht — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:33:14 +0000

I have always wanted to try making a product in Inkscape so I designed my cellphone in Inkscape. Have fun with it, I am not sure how but I am sure you can find some way to creatively use it. I would love to know how you plan to use it if you have a second to spare, and also send in your requests for possible future freebies.
License: You are free to use this for personal or commercial purposes. You may NOT resell it or use it for illegal purposes.

You can download the file from here: http://www.filedropper.com/cellphone_3Similar Posts:

Write a Guest post for my blog

kumailht — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:38:37 +0000

Please note that I can only except quality submissions and if it does not meet my standards, I cannot post it. Please dont get discouraged by this, but I dont want you to feel disappointed if this happens. That being said, here are further details.

What am I looking for?

I’m looking for articles related to design, software, linux, business, or what ever you have seen me cover. Not sure if the topic you have in mind is appropriate, just send me an email and I will assist you.
I am looking for posts of any length – as long as they’re helpful to readers I don’t mind if they are long or short.
I’m not looking for posts with lots of self promotion. You’re welcome to mention what you do with a link, but please dont use referral links, or spamy content.
The content should not be published elsewhere in whole as it will cause SEO issues.

How to Submit Your Post

Just email me with showing your interest in writing a post with details about the post you want to write and a little summary. I will give you login details to my blog so you can write the post.

I get quite a lot of traffic considering the age of the blog. My visitor count varies from 20000 – 30000 per month, and this no. is increasing with time. The better the post, the better the traffic, the more exposure you will get.

If you have further questions, let me know in the comments.Similar Posts:

I just updated my blog design, anybody noticed?

kumailht — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 03:32:14 +0000

I just updated the typography and layout of my blog. The fonts, spacing, and a lot of other details have been tweaked,

Below is the older design.

I am also working on a completely new design and approach for my blog & portfolio. Any comments? suggestions? pretty please!

After the redesign I plan to post more regularly, atleast once a week. This will give me more time to write even better posts. I am also running out of ideas for new posts for the blog, I really need your help! , tell me what you would like me to write about so I can make this blog a better place.

To update you on the GUI Design Competition, the design is ready and is being coded by an excellent team at Fecoding . These people are awesome at coding and if I were you I would definitely give them a call for my coding needs.

One of my other projects named Xenon OS which is a light weight web based OS designed for netbooks. You can learn more about it here.

If you have not already heard, I joined twitter and am loving it. twitter.com/kumailht

Enough about me, whats up with you?

Similar Posts:

I finally joined Twitter, I know what you’re thinking

kumailht — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 12:34:32 +0000

I know its 2009, but twitter was blocked in dubai in the start [I also know that is ridiculous]. It was unblocked later but by then I thought it was too late to join. I obviously changed my mind about that and started “tweeting”. Its a pleasure to say everything in just 140 chars.

Do all of you have twitter? If you do, leave your twitter url by, I would love to follow my readers. If you dont, taking the plunge is not that hard, its like a secondary miniature blog.

Here is my twitter url http://twitter.com/kumailht , do follow me.

I am getting the feeling that I will soon be very addicted to this mini blogging phenonemon. Stay tuned for some totally awesome updates.Similar Posts:

Windows 7 may give Ubuntu a tough time

kumailht — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 06:17:09 +0000

Microsoft has started to do some actual work which might do some serious damage to Linux. Windows 7 is coming out with some pretty impressive stuff and I am pretty inclined to try the beta out. I haven’t done any actual testing but reviews have got me caught up on it. It might be worth using if MS keeps at a good pace.

If it is indeed faster, less annoying and better looking, Ubuntu will need to outdo them or it will be loosing a good number of recent converts due to Vista’s “you know what” problem.

I wont be paying for Windows 7 anytime soon, but I will think twice before removing it if it comes preinstalled.

I had already talked about a few reasons to dislike Ubuntu and some features it could implement.

BTW, after checking out the Windows 7 website, I started liking Ubuntu again. Way to go, you almost changed my mind with a crappy website, atleast hire a good designer for gods sake. Part time bloggers who wrote reviews about it are better marketers than M$ is, did the 60 billion in revenue run out?

Give me your views on the situation, do you think Microsoft might actually for once in a whole lot of years come out with a product worth its price tag downloading. Similar Posts:

28 Everlasting photoshop tutorials

kumailht — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 12:02:40 +0000

The funny thing about tutorials is that there are soo many of them you dont know where to start. I remember having a bookmark folder filled with 1000+ tutorials and I said to my self “I cannot possibly complete even half of them”, so I started filtering the ones I knew I would never do and finally ended up with a hundred after hours of labor. Out of those hundred I only did 28 of them which I think were the best of my collection.

I choose these few brilliant tutorals as they teach you how to accomplish different techniques and styles with ease. These are the tutorials which helped me become a photoshop ninga, HeeeYa!.

Instead of bookmarking them for a disastrous filtering someday, I challenge you to actually follow and learn something out of it, its now or never.

Advertising & Product Design

Interesting and sleek Phone Advertising wallpaper
This tutorial guides us through a very detailed process of how to make a very interesting and sleek Phone Advertising wallpaper.

Amazing Nike AD
Creating an AD for a company like Nike is a dream come true for most designers, at least get prepared if they ever hire you.

How to render a sketched car
Emre Husmen shows us how to render a sketch in photoshop. You will need a little photoshop experience before you start with this tutorial so check out the other tutorials before you get to this one.

Create a mobile phone styled like the htc touch diamond
We know you love creating your own secret product and wished it went on production. Why not start now. You can learn how to create realistic product mockup’s and concept designs.

Designing a product
If your favorite secret hobby is creating apple rumors on the Internet, this tutorial should give you the feel of creating realistic mock ups of products to come.

Design a Professional Laptop Advert
This tutorial will teach you how to manually create your own vanishing points, and how to use these techniques to create an awesome screen explosion effect – something that is sure to dazzle your viewers!

Retro & Vector with a touch of grunge

Creating a vector composite effect from a photo
This tutorial will demonstrate how to take an image, in this case a woman’s face, and give the appearance that it is entirely composed of vector shapes. Along the way, we’ll use some fairly basic techniques, including clipping masks and displacement maps, to achieve a unique effect!

mix cool retro curves into your photographs
Mixing retro geometric shapes in photos can result in excellent artwork, here’s how to do it.

Design with swirls
If you cant get enough of swirls and want to take it to the next step by making your own swirls, you are in for a swirly ride.

how to create a delicious green apple illustration
In this tutorial, I’ll be showing you how to draw a shiny green apple. We’ll have a look at various painting techniques throughout this tutorial. It will be fun and you’ll learn something new.

how to make a bangin woofer embedded in wood
In this tutorial, I’ll be showing you how to draw a shiny green apple. We’ll have a look at various painting techniques throughout this tutorial. It will be fun and you’ll learn something new.In this tutorial, we’ll illustrate a woofer and make a simple wood texture for the background. We’ll place the speaker so that it appears to be inside the wood texture. Also, we’ll create screws that appear to hold it in place. Put some good music on and lets get working!

create an impressive mock up of a grunge box
Learn how to create impressive mock-up designs. In this tutorial, you will learn how to use the Vanishing Point Filter to get quick and professional presentation results. The final result is a realistic looking box that looks well-worn, as if it were shipped worldwide. Use these techniques to create other mock-ups in your design work as well.

Detailed compass icon
In this tutorial we’ll be controlling shadow and reflection to add realism to the illustration. As with any icon design, it’s a combination of the overall design and subtle details that gives quality results.

A glass of beer
In this tutorial, we’re going to draw a beer glass with some beer in it. We’ll create the shiny curly glass with reflection, put some beer in it, add some bubbles, and finally we’ll make the shadow and the reflections. Meanwhile, I hope you’ll have some fun and learn some cool techniques too.

Vintage letter
It seems everyone wants to learn how to make something look vintage or grungy. In this tutorial, I go over how to create a fifties love letter with stamps, bent corner, and a a retro border using the brush engine, rectangle tool, layer styles, blend modes, and several intermediate techniques that are sure to propel you skills to the next level.

Image Manipulation

A perfect lie
This tutorial goes through 2 very common techniques to find a good “flawless” skin method.

Ultimate makeover
This article will guide you through a series of steps to strong improve skin tones, modify shadow and light patterns to increase the impact, and enhance the eyes and hair to create a striking portrait

Compositing with adjustment layers
Compositing with Photoshop is one part technique and two parts imagination. In the example below, he has created a dark and mysterious scene with a young girl paused in an eerily calm storm.

digitally collage a camouflage paper jacket
This tutorial demonstrates how to control the placement of patterns to blend an image into the background, as camouflage. It also shows how to make that same pattern pop out and mold into realistic texture in other areas of the design. Let’s take a look at a work flow to achieve this effect.

Turn an ordinary horse into ROBOHORSE
Tada Tada ! Robohorse is coming for the rescue. this is a great tutorial and you can use this technique to create your own robo(whatever). It is probably the most time consuming but the end result is well worth it.

Typography

Text on fire
Flames are particularly hard to render in Photoshop, but in this tutorial I’ll show you how to use a photograph of fire to set text to the match. We’ll render the look on a nice dark background with a gorgeous text effect to complete the image.

Grass text effect
In this tutorial we’ll create a rather cool-looking grass-text effect using a photo of grass, the Pen Tool and a bit of patience.

Space & Beyond

Space and planet
The techniques below will show you how to create an image similar to the final result I have obtained below although the image below took 3 hours to paint with allot of fine detail work, you will still get the idea.

Eclipse effect
A relatively simple tutorial with a stunning outcome.

Creating a planet with only a texture
Using just one texture in Photoshop, you can make a planet that looks somewhat realistic.

Painting

Skin painting
This is an amazing tutorial which explains how to paint skin in photoshop.

Create a Nature Inspired Painted Background in Photoshop
If you ever wanted a painted background for your website or blog, this tutorial will give you just that.

Effects

Mr. Water Man
Learn how to turn a normal man into water man.

About the author

Kumail.H.T is a professional Web & Graphic artist, you may visit his portfolio or blog to learn more. He is also hosting a Graphical User Interface design competition in a few weeks, you can learn more about it here.

Similar Posts:

Whats wrong with this button in Google reader

kumailht — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 14:37:07 +0000

Every time I decide to subscribe to a blog I have to go through the most unintuitive page ever.

When a user finds a blog he wants to subscribe, and if he uses google reader to do so, he will be asked whether he wants to add it to “google reader” or the “google homepage”. They dont give you an option to save you selection. So a user who only uses google reader will have to go through this page every time before he gets to the reader. In my opinion, they should provide the option to save where they want to add the feed.

First of all, where did they get the button from!!

Instead of saving the option, which option the user wants to use, they just ask you every time you subscribe. If you are like me and subscribe to a lot of blogs, this easily becomes fustrating.Similar Posts:

1000 reasons to hate Ubuntu Linux

kumailht — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 19:25:02 +0000

If you want to be successful in life, you have to use criticism to your advantage. Instead of looking at this list as a 1000 ways to hate desktop Linux, you can look at it as a 1000 ways to improve desktop Linux.

I wanted to start out with 10 reasons, but doesn’t it sound so much cooler as 1000. I also figured I should keep the heading “A 1000 reasons to hate desktop Linux”, but we all know that if you want to get dugg up you have to use the magic word Ubuntu .

Here’s the deal, everyone posts their own 10 reasons to hate their distro/version of desktop linux. I will post my own reasons, and by the end of 99 comments we will have a really huge list of reasons to hate Ubuntu. You didn’t think I was stupid enough to blabber on for a 1000 reasons, did you?

My reasons are based on the default install. The first impression a user gets by using the live cd or by booting it for the first time is very important. Just so you know I dont hate ubuntu, In fact compiling this list was extremely hard as its an amazing OS. But a lot of people hate ubuntu and other linux distros and I need to know why.

1. Its UGLY! From boot to desktop, it is very lacking aesthetically.

2. Limited screen estate. When I start browsing in firefox, the 3 panels in ff + the window bar + the 2 panels ubuntu has by default leaves me with very less horizontal space.

3. Crap default home page in firefox. I really think they could earn from the home page if it was well built and had links to other google services too.

4. Needs simplicity and polishing. Check out the screen savers, there are so many and most of them are not worth looking at. They feel like they have teleported from windows 95. I suggest you keep only a few good ones that are of reasonable quality. Other than that a few small annoyances can greatly effect the experience of a new user, like the extremely ugly icon of the Xsane image scanner in the graphics menu is intolerable.

5. Slow boot & shutdown times. Once loaded, Ubuntu needs to be more snappy like fedora or arch.

6. Ugly website, probably one of the worst sites I have seen. How do you expect someone to download the OS after the impression given by the website.

7. Crappy support for, webcams, microphones & networking. [I have to say they have improved on the networking part in Intrepid]

8. Buggy – standby, hibernate, lock screen, switch user, power manager, and probably a lot more that I didnt notice.

9. When copying from one folder to my back up drive, I cannot update the folder on my back up drive. In vista there is an option to merge folder and overwrite any newer files. In ubuntu i have to delete the folder on my drive and then paste the updated folder, this is annoying when you are transferring 100gb of data.

10. No screenshots in add/remove programs, have to go check out the website and search through the screenshots. It should also mention the download size which it doesn’t.

Here are my two cents, its time to give me yours. Let me know what you hate about Ubuntu or any other desktop linux for that matter.

If you have not already heard I am also organising a graphical user interface competition which will take place in a few weeks. You can learn more about it here.Similar Posts:

Did someone beat Google at design

kumailht — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:01:44 +0000

Google has an excellent philosophy, they keep it simple. I use Google everyday and love minimal design more than anyone else, but when a company as large as Google stops enhancing their designs, we have a problem.

When Google got into the scene, Yahoo was the king of the jungle. Google had a weapon to hunt, it was simplicity and a powerful search algorithm. Yahoo was shown real competition by two geeks in their garage.

It is true that no matter how good looking an interface, the power of search will always win, but how long do you think will it take for a smarter mathematician to make a better algorithm in his garage. It is just a matter of time and that day does not seem to be very far.

In my opinion Google needs to prepare for rainy days. It has the money and the staff to get better, why not spend a little more in the design department.

Enhancing the search interface isn’t exactly an easy job, but these guys at RefSeek have done a great job.

I am not saying that this is the absolute best but it is indeed an improvement and I am certain that there will be more to come in the future.

The above snapshot shows how much more pleasant it is to look at RefSeek’s design than Google’s.

I might be wrong and this is only my opinion, if so please correct me. I would like to hear what you have to say, so send in your comments.

If you have not already heard of the Graphical User Interface Competition I am hosting in a few weeks, you can learn more about it here. I am looking for sponsors for this event, if you are interested you can contact me at kumailht@gmail.com

Similar Posts:

10 Blender 3D tutorials worth a look

kumailht — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:56:31 +0000

Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.

I have always wanted to learn a 3d program to extend my capabilities and a little 3D in our designs can take your designs to another level. There is no harm in learning something new so I will list a few good tutorials that I will use to learn my way through blender. If you have any resources that you would like to share, please leave a comment.

Extensive Guides

Blender 3D Design Course

The Blender 3D Design course is intended to offer students an introduction to the world of computer generated 3-D modeling and animation. As an introductory course, it provides a basic understanding of the skills and techniques employed by 3-D designers in a wide range of applications.

Noob to Pro

This book can be seen as a series of tutorials arranged to help new users achieve expertise in Blender. The tutorials will increase in difficulty but enable intermediate users to quickly advance into whatever tutorial most suits their knowledge and continue along the sequence. We’ve made concerted efforts to accommodate everyone.

Tutorials

I would recommend going through one of the guides above to understand the basics before you move on.

Modeling 3D Logo form a 2D Image

this tutorial will help you transform your 2d logo into a 3d work of art.

Making of Grapes

An excellent tutorial describing how to create grapes. I am definitely doing this one.

Making of Jaguar MK2

This is a short overview of the process of making a detailed model of a car.

Water texture tutorial

Walks through creating a water texture in Blender based on observation.

Landscapes Tutorial

Quickly model complex outdoor landscapes within Blender.

Head Modeling in 3D – Must Read

To follow this detailed tutorial you should have at least a basic knowledge of working in 3D environment.

Toon Shading

This tutorial presents the techniques that I use to achieve a toon style render directly in Blender without any post production in another program. In this tutorial we will modify a basic Blender scene of a simple flower pot to look toon shaded by changing the lighting and materials.

Making A Chess Board In Blender

This tutorial teaches you how to Make A Chess Board in blender.

Similar Posts:

Does wordpress need a better comment system

kumailht — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 21:05:07 +0000

The default comment system has a flaw, it does not encourage a new user to participate quickly and painlessly. Here is a comment system on the loose that is worth a look.

I recently installed the IntenseDebate plugin which enhances the Wordpress comment system and found the features very interesting. IntenseDebate enhances and encourages conversations on your blog and build your reader community.The company behind Wordpress Automattic had bought Intense debate a while ago and it is very likely that will be integrated with Wordpress once it has reached its expectations. You can test the plugin below in the comments section, NO login required.

When a new user reaches a random blog and has a quick look at a bunch of comments and has to make a quick decision whether he wants to read further. Most users including me have a lot of blogs to read in their news reader which might be more interesting so chances are he will skip the comments to read the next post.

What I have noticed with the intense debate functionality is that it is very similar to the way the digg comments work and I have to say that the comments on digg engage a user in to spending more time on the comments page instead of skipping to the content. The reason this is true is that threaded comments allow discussions and voting allow the user to skip spam and worthless comments. This allows the attention deficit Internet users to quickly skim through the comments without wasting a lot of time.

How can they improve

Separate trackbacks from comments as most users are not interested in who is linking to the post and if they are, they can have a look at them separately. Keeping them together makes the interface look cluttered.
Keep it minimal on advertisements and clearly mention that login is not required to comment if it is disabled. Most advanced bloggers like taking full control of how their blog looks and subtle advertisements can scare them away.
It also displays when the comment was added, for example it might say 1 week ago. I think it would be better if it were displayed besides the name, for example >> Avatar >> Name >> 1 week ago. And linking it to the comment itself is not really needed and just complicates stuff.
Allow the admin to disable the login function easily. Most blogs don’t require the user to log in and this could drive away potential users as most users scan pages and a login button would just make them think that he might need to sign up.
Once it is ready for wide adoption they can integrate it into wordpress and improve the default system.

Final Thoughts

IntenseDebate looks very promising and has a bright future ahead. I really liked the comment system and also integrated it with my blog, you can check it out below. Do let me know what you think of it and what features or changed you would add.

If you liked this post you might want to subscribe or just check out a few similar posts.Similar Posts: