Obsidian Dawn

Fallen Autumn Leaves Transparent PNGs

2009-11-05T20:07:45Z

Today’s release is a set of various photos of fallen autumn leaves as transparent PNGs. It can be used in any program that will support *.PNG files. (Photoshop, GIMP, PSP, and many more) These images are extremely high resolution, with the average being about 2300×2000 pixels @ 300 dpi.

Included are various types and colors of leaves, all picked up from the freshly fallen multicolored autumn foliage. You’ll find some red, orange, brown, and even some purple-ish leaves within, all on transparent backgrounds.

To use them, it’s as easy as opening up the file and copy/pasting into your own design.

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© Stephanie for Obsidian Dawn, 2009. | Permalink | 15 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: All Programs, Images, Nature, PNGs

Glitter -n- Smoke Photoshop & GIMP Brushes

2009-10-21T04:15:42Z

This set of Photoshop & GIMP brushes is composed of various dustings of glitter and smoke. Several types of glitter, several types of smoke (some cloudy, some swirly), all mixed together. I’ve also provided a few brushes of the smoke on its own, so that you can use it that way, too. (I’ll be coming out with an actual smoke brush set one of these days, but I’m still working on that.) These would work great for space scenes, as the dust looks like various space nebulae. They’d also work great for fantasy (pixie dust, magic, etc etc).

They are all extremely high resolution, with an average size of about 2200 pixels.

To get these to look like they do in my preview image, use the brush on its own layer and then apply an “outer glow” with a strong, bright color.

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© Stephanie for Obsidian Dawn, 2009. | Permalink | 17 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Brushes, Designs, Fantasy, GIMP, Photoshop, Sci-Fi

Flower Vectors Photoshop Custom Shapes

2009-10-02T21:57:45Z

Still working on painting that book cover & its promotional images, hence the slow updates. Things will start picking up around here again now, though.

This is a set of Photoshop Custom Shapes composed of various flower shapes in vector designs.

Not sure how to install and use shapes? Check it out here!

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Rolled Paint Photoshop & GIMP Brushes

2009-09-26T16:05:48Z

This set of Photoshop & GIMP brushes is composed of various shapes of rolled paint – the kind that you roll on with a paint roller, that is. It includes several single rolled strokes, many put together, and also includes some that you can paint your own paint strokes with. This just includes the kind of textures made from a regular roller – no special effect kinds of paint here. They are all high resolution, with an average size of about 2300 pixels.

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© Stephanie for Obsidian Dawn, 2009. | Permalink | 20 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Brushes, GIMP, Markings, Photoshop

Scratchout Photoshop & GIMP Brushes

2009-09-26T16:06:16Z

This set of Photoshop & GIMP brushes is composed of various scratches. They could be used for all kinds of things, from creating an erased blackboard kind of effect to anything that you need to put a scratch texture on. They are all high resolution, with an average size of about 2500 pixels.

This is a fairly large download (almost 55MB).

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© Stephanie for Obsidian Dawn, 2009. | Permalink | 31 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Blemishes, Brushes, GIMP, Photoshop

Speech Bubbles Photoshop & GIMP Brushes

2009-09-26T16:06:42Z

No, I haven’t disappeared off the face of the earth. I’ve been out of town a bunch, though, hence all the quietness and lack of releases. I’m also currently working on painting a book cover, and under a pretty tight deadline, so I haven’t had a lot of free time. Expect things to pick back up in another week or two.

This release has been requested several times now, so I thought I’d finally get around to making a set.

This set of Photoshop & GIMP brushes is composed of various shapes of speech bubbles. It comes with both the bubble shape itself and a second brush for adding an outline to that bubble, if you so desire (see the preview image for what I mean).http://www.obsidiandawn.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=1936 They are all high resolution vectors, with an average size of about 2000 pixels.

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© Stephanie for Obsidian Dawn, 2009. | Permalink | 21 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Brushes, GIMP, Photoshop, Vector Brushes

BannerSnack & Tech/Gears Contest Winners

2009-05-27T17:13:10Z

First off, I’m finally announcing the winners of the Tech/Gears Contest winners from last month. Here are the winners and their prizes. They will be contacted (or have already been contacted) shortly.

Tech/Gears Contest

First Prize
Winner: Italian Statuary, by Jo
Prize: Five free commercial licenses of your choosing & a free copy of the Obsidian Dawn Compilation CD

Second Prize
Winner: Future Primitive, by Shannon
Prize: Commercial licenses for the Tech & Gears brushes, and a copy of the Obsidian Dawn Compilation CD

Third Prize
Winner: The 7 Deadly Tech Sins, by Lazaros
Prize: a copy of the Obsidian Dawn Compilation CD

BannerSnack Contest

For the BannerSnack contest, 3 winners were chosen randomly from the comments using Random.org. The winners were Tammy, Mary, and Katrie. They will all be emailed shortly with their BannerSnack premium codes!

Thank you to all who entered!

Transferring – Please Bear With Us!

2009-05-20T18:17:20Z

So, you may have noticed that Obsidian Dawn has been going through some strange times lately. Sometimes it’s up, sometimes it’s down, sometimes the downloads weren’t working, and now it’s back to how it should be, minus some comments. What in the heck is going on, you may ask?

Well, it’s about time that we moved to a dedicated hosting account, and that’s just what’s going on. From now on, Obsidian Dawn won’t be sharing bandwidth with anyone…. so we should be running much more smoothly from now on, and without many hitches. However, while this transition period is going on (and while I learn the in’s and out’s of the wonderful world of dedicated hosting), you may notice some odd goings on.

So, please bear with us for now, and thank you so much for your patience!

Note to those of you that commented on the BannerSnack post: If your comment has disappeared, HAVE NO FEAR! I saved them all, so even if it isn’t showing up under the post anymore, you will still be entered into the contest. Feel free to re-post if you’d like, but it isn’t necessary (and won’t double your chance of winning, since there’s only 1 entry per person).

Creating Faux Bokeh Backgrounds in Photoshop Tutorial

2009-09-13T18:34:15Z

This tutorial will walk you through how to create a faux bokeh background in Photoshop. For those of you that are unsure about what bokeh is, it is a Japanese term used in photography. It is used to describe the qualities of the area of a photo that is out of focus, and is used to help draw your eye to the subject of the photograph. Some pretty cool things happen with bokeh, too. Especially where lights or heavily lighted areas are concerned. Have you ever looked at a photograph or been watching a movie, perhaps where it was dark out, and the lights in the background are all blurry, but instead of just being blurry they appear as these odd gatherings of circles and/or polygons? I didn’t notice it all that often until I started looking, and now I see it everywhere!

You’ll need to grab my Bokeh Photoshop & GIMP Brushes to follow along with this tutorial. This tutorial is specifically geared toward Photoshop users. If you’re a Photoshop Elements or GIMP user, you should still be able to follow along, though the steps may not be exact for you.

Let’s get started!

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Bokeh Photoshop & GIMP Brushes

2009-09-26T16:07:15Z

This comes from several requests that I’ve gotten in the last few months. Some of you will know what bokeh is, and some may not. But ALL of you have seen it at one point or another, as long as you look at photographs or watch movies. Check out the preview image below for a visual example.

Bokeh is a Japanese term used in photography. It is used to describe the qualities of the area of a photo that is out of focus, and is used to help draw your eye to the subject of the photograph. Some pretty cool things happen with bokeh, too, and that’s what these brushes will help you to create. Also, keep your eye out for a bokeh tutorial that I’ll be coming out with, hopefully in a few days.

This set of Photoshop & GIMP brushes is composed of various bokeh designs. It comes with several brushes for painting your own bokeh, as well as some that are already put together into scattered groups like the ones you see in my preview image. Some are circles, some are polygons, some are more blurry than others. They are all high resolution, with an average size of about 2000 pixels.

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© Stephanie for Obsidian Dawn, 2009. | Permalink | 43 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Brushes, Designs, GIMP, Markings, Photoshop

BannerSnack Flash Banner Creator Free Giveaway Contest

2009-05-25T20:33:41Z

As a big “thank you” to all of you loyal Obsidian Dawn resources users out there, we’re offering 3 FREE Premium Plus Subscription to BannerSnack. And it’s easy. Read on!

As an aside, I haven’t forgotten about those of you that entered Obsidian Dawn’s first contest – those winners will be released soon!

So, what IS BannerSnack, you might ask?

BannerSnack is an online tool that allows you to create watermark-free flash banners – without needing to know or understand Flash programming! Here’s some of BannerSnack’s features:

It contains tens of transitions, effects and filters that will enable you to easily create text and image animations.
It has editable banner templates.
It works like a presentation software.
No flash programming is required.
It works 100% online.

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Grass Transparent PNGs

2009-09-26T02:37:17Z

If any of you out there still have links to me under my old URL (www.brushes.obsidiandawn.com), I’d really appreciate it if you could change them to the base domain (www.obsidiandawn.com). Thanks so much!

This set of various photos of grass as transparent PNGs can be used in any program that will support *.PNG files. Photoshop, GIMP, PSP, and many more. These images average about 2500 pixels (square-ish) in size @ 300 dpi.

Included are various clumpings of grass, as well as a few blades of grass on their own. They all have a transparent background, and can be very easily copy/pasted into your own work. There is also a large grouping of the grass that I’ve already put together in various layers for you, for use as a foreground. You can use them on their own, layer them to give them a bit more depth, etc. etc.

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© Stephanie for Obsidian Dawn, 2009. | Permalink | 27 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: All Programs, Images, Nature, PNGs

Grunge -n- Swirls Photoshop & GIMP Brushes

2009-09-26T16:07:40Z

Here’s a set of Photoshop & GIMP brushes composed of various grungy shapes intermingling with some pretty swirls. You’ll find shapes like a skull, butterfly, several “strips” of grunge, some circles, rectangles, corners, as well as some top and bottom frames or borders. They are all extremely high resolution, with an average size of about 2300 pixels.

Some of these are vectors, while others have some softer, grungy edges. This is a fairly large download. Enjoy!

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© Stephanie for Obsidian Dawn, 2009. | Permalink | 24 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Brushes, Designs, Markings, Photoshop, Vector Brushes

Wacom Intuos4 Tablet Review & Contest Update

2009-04-05T05:00:25Z

Just a quick post to let you all know that I’ve done a review for Photoshop Support on Wacom’s newest tablet, the Intuos4.

Any of you that use tablets out there should really check out my review – and then go buy yourself an Intuos4! It’s well worth the upgrade, moreso than any other time in Intuos history, I’d say.

You can check out my Intuos4 review for Photoshop Support here!

I probably should have chosen some different brushes for my very first contest. Something with glitter or swirls, perhaps, rather than the Tech & Gears brushes. As such, I’ve not gotten nearly as many entries as I would have liked. I’ll fix that for the next contest. But, in the meantime, here’s what I’m going to do. I’ll keep the contest open for one more week, and also let you all use the Gears Transparent PNGs, as well. You can enter as many times as you like. I’ll keep the entries up through next weekend, so you must submit it by Sunday, April 12th at midnight. Read more about the Obsidian Dawn’s Tech & Gears contest here!

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Stonework II Photoshop Patterns

2009-08-31T17:55:24Z

A set of Photoshop & GIMP patterns composed of various stonework textures. The reference photos were taken from walls, but would certainly work equally well for stonework floors. These are all entirely seamless and extremely high resolution, with most of the images averaging around 3000 pixels in width.

These are mostly made up of the tan toned stones. If you’re looking for more tones, of the more gray variety, check out our Stonework PS Patterns. (There is no image pack available for this set yet, but it will be available under the images section soon!)

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© Stephanie for Obsidian Dawn, 2009. | Permalink | 15 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Patterns, Photoshop, Textures