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Finally figured out how to get Marsedit to work with Expression Engine. Works pretty well, even my custom fields are showing up.

The trick is to add index.php back into Metaweblog API url string.

Currently I’m not supporting IE6.

I’m working on bugs that are only appearing in IE7. I hope to get those fixed soon.

It’s a pretty awesome game. The graphics are far beyond any FPS I’ve played on either xbox 360 or PS3. So far it was a well spent $65 bucks.

There are a few more tweaks to make but it’s pretty much ready to go Live.

This site used the awesome grid-a-licious js script developed by Suprb.

Introduction

I’ve experimented with several different ways of creating icons. This tutorial uses the method I find best for creating icons in Adobe Illustrator. Adobe Illustrator is a perfect tool for icon creation because its precise and flexible.

Step 1 Choose Icon Size

Where to start. I find it best to build the icon at the size it’s going to be, if its going to be 32 x 32 pixels then build the icon at that size. I know Adobe Illustrator can scale the icon but that can distort the pixels.

For this tutorial the size I’m working at is 32 x 32 pixels. Make sure to enable pixel preview in Adobe Illustrator.

Enable pixel preview mode.

In Illustrator, choose View / Pixel Preview. Illustrator displays the vector artwork as pixels.

A. Create a new document at 32 x 32 pixels.

Step 2 Basic Shape

Start by creating a rectangle using the rounded rectangle tool from the tool bar to create a rectangle at 30 x 25 pixels with a bevel of 5 pixels. ( See Image Below )

Step 3 Bottom Highlight

Next add a circle using the circle tool from the toolbar. The circle is then moved to the bottom of the rectangle and squished. ( See Image Below )

Step 4 Blur Highlight

The circle is then given a feather of 3 pixels. To feather a shape in Adobe Illustrator select the shape first, then go to the effects menu, next select the blur fly-out menu and final click on gaussian blur. Now change the color of the circle to a light yellow and change the transparency to 50 percent. ( See Image Below )

Step 5 Mask Highlight

Next we have to mask out the circle highlight so it doesn’t bleed out side the rectangular shape.

A. This is done by selecting the rectangle and copying it. ( command + c ) Now go to the windows menu select the transparency palette. Next select the blurred circle from the main work area.

B. In the transparency palette window click the fly-out arrow and select Make Opacity Mask.

C. Now double click on the black mask area to the right of circle in the transparency palette. This should activate the mask for the circle object.

D. Next paste the rectangle shape that we copied to memory by press command + p this will paste the rectangle in the mask window.

E. With the mask rectangle still selected fill the rectangle with black make sure that the check box for the clip option is unchecked and that the invert mask check box is checked.

That should do it. Your Transparency window should look like this.

Step 6 Top highlight

The next step is to add the top highlight, this is done the same way as in step 5 but with two differences.

A. Make a new rectangle with a bevel of 5 pixels and Align it to the top of the base rectangle. Don’t feather this rectangle.

B. Change the color of this rectangle to white and set the transparency to 50 percent.

C. Now copy the rectangle and add a transparency mask to this shape.

D. Paste the rectangle into the transparency mask by pressing command + p.

E. Instead of filling the mask shape with black fill the shape with a black and white gradient. Make sure the gradient goes from top to bottom.

The Transparency window should look like this:

Step 7 Add Gradient Chrome Reflection

Now we need to add the chrome reflection for our aqua icon.

A. Start by making an dark red rectangle in the middle of our base rectangle. ( See Image Below )

B. Next we need to add a transparency mask to the dark red rectangle. Make sure to add a black and white gradient fade to the mask object.

Your aqua icon should look something like this. ( See Image Below )

Step 8 RSS Text

For this step we add text to the icon.

A. Select the text tool and Type “RSS” and center in the button. ( See Image Below )

Step 9 Text Gradient (optional)

I want to have gradient fade over my “RSS” text.

A. Added a rectangle with a black and white gradient.

B. Copy the RSS text and then add a transparency mask to the gradient rectangle we just added.

Step 10 Conclusion

Congratulations we are done. Your Aqua Icon should look like this ( See Image Below ). Wow that’s more typing then I did in college. I have provided a link to the source illustrator file at the bottom of this page feel free to use the file as you want.]]> Tutorial 2009-02-26T07:15:35+00:00