Tutorialized Plus

How to remove the author / date posted from Joomla articles?

2011-12-12T23:23:00.000-08:00

Step 1. From Joomla's admin panel go to Content - Article Manager:

Step 2. Click on "Parameters" from the top-right menu.

Step 3. A box will appear with all configurable options including author / date posted. Simply set to "Hide" any of the options you'd like disabled.

How to make 3D Wheel and Rim in 3D Max

2011-11-10T02:38:00.000-08:00

This tutorial is based on Wheel and rim making that how to make wheel in 3D Max. This tutorial explains the 3D model processing of Wheel in very detailed approach. This modeling is not difficult we are making this with very basic and common techniques. Hopefully you will like this and learn from this.

Creating a Colorful Business Card in Photoshop

2011-11-09T09:19:00.000-08:00

Every Designer definitely needs a Business Card or Information card of some sort, even if it’s just a piece of paper with your name and number on, ok well not just a piece of paper. A designer has to brand him/her self with uniqueness to catch a clients eye.
I have written a tutorial that is really simple to follow to create yourself a really colorful and vibrant business Card.

FINAL PREVIEW

Information about the cards:
Bleed Lines: 3mm and 1.5mm
Color Palette: PANTONE CMYK EC
Size: 90mm x 50mm at 300dpi – 1063px x 591px – 300dpi

Step 1:

Fill your background layer with any dark color, I used a Dark Grey(#1c1b1c) to Soft Grey(#343434) Radial Gradient, but you can seriously fill the background with any dark color. You should have something like this below.

Step 2:

Now that you have a background to work on, we will be moving on to the more time consuming steps, the Circles. Create a New layer(Shortcut: Ctrl + Shift + N) or (Layer>New>Layer) go to your toolbar and select your Ellipse Tool(Either press U or go to your Rectangle Tool and Click and hold down the mouse button till a little menu appears and select your ellipse tool.) Next we will be making 3 different sizes of circles, so first draw a Circle on your canvas; hold down Shift to make sure the circle is symmetric. Make sure you have a decent size circle for your first one; the first one is the largest circle of them all. Choose the color you want for your main circle, I chose white and for some I chose pink, it can be any color you want though.

Step 3:

Now that you have your big circle do the exact same thing as you did in Step 2 but, just make the circle a little bit smaller than the previous one, be sure to select the color that you want for that circle too. When you are done with creating your medium sized circle repeat Step 2 again and create yourself a small circle, choose the color that you want as well. You should have something like this below.

Step 4:

Now you have your circles that you can work with, here comes the lengthy part in the entire process. Choose a circle and select its layer, duplicate that layer and stack the circle with another color, now do the same with your other size circles as well. You Duplicate the Layer by hitting(Ctrl + J) or (Right Click on the layer and click Duplicate). Like I said this does take a while so be patient. Play around with the layers, changing their placing and visibility etc, Stacking the circles does take quite a while, Once you have proceeded to stacking quite a few circles, I would recommend adding some depth to them, so right click on one of your layers and click Blending Options. Choose Drop Shadow and Use the settings I have displayed below.
Without Drop Shadow:

Drop Shadow Settings:

With Drop Shadow:

Step 5:

Now that you have a nice stacking of circles, I want you to group all the circle layers. Create a new group by going to Layer>New>Group – you will see a folder appear in your layers tab now select all your circle layers and drag them into your new group. This helps to organize your different layers, especially if you are working with a big quantity of layers. Once you have grouped your circles, Right Click on the group folder and click Duplicate Group, now you have a duplicate of all those stacked circles, so now you move that around and rotate it or bend it, to fit to your scene, repeat that step a few times by duplicating the group and then moving it around to fill up your entire work space. This Is the outcome I got after Step 5. You don’t have to worry about the guide lines, just make sure everything inside of the guidelines are filled.

Step 6:

Time to work on the back of our Business Card. Go to File>Save As and save your file in a folder of your choice (Make sure you save it as a .psd). Now hide all your previous layers that you have created except the background. Go to Layer>New Fill Layer>Pattern – Name your pattern and hit OK – you will see that the background is suddenly covered in a pattern. Follow the Diagram I have below to find the Correct Pattern that I used for this Business Card called (Stone, it is a 80x80px repetitive pattern) You can hover over the texture to see its name. When you have found the Texture you just hit OK.

Step 7:

In this step we will be doing two things, we will be adding a Gradient Map and the Text. Select your top layer and go up to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Gradient Map – The default should be Black to White, or White to Black. Make sure that your Gradient map Is Black to White and hit OK. Go to you Blending Options and set the Layers Blending Mode to Multiply. This will increase the contrast and decrease the Brightness. Now grab your Text tool or just hit ( T ) Click on the canvas, I selected the font Square721 BT with a size of 28pt(Points) and used this for the Name. Next I used Arial with a size of 11pt(Points) for the Job (Freelance Designer) I lowered the opacity of the layer down to 50% and lastly I used RNS Serial with a size of 7pt(points) for the Description(design.print.web) I also lowered the opacity of the layer down to 15%

Step 8:

In this step I used two of the groups of stacked circles, I made two of the groups visible and positioned them on the sides of the business card, so that they support the flow of the overall card, It gives you the feeling that the front Business Card’s circles wraps around the card and ends up at the back.

FINAL:

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that you learned something from it.

source:http://creativeoverflow.net

Blueprint Style Text in Adobe Illustrator

2011-10-10T22:45:00.000-07:00

1 START WITH THE TEXT
Begin by setting your text. Select the Type tool (T) in the Toolbox and click on the artboard to set a text object. In the Control panel, set the font to Arial Black and the text size to 285 pt. Enter one or two lines of text using any word(s) you like. We have simply typed in “HOUSE WORKS” on two lines. We also typed four spaces before “WORKS” and tightened up the tracking by selecting all the text with the Type tool and pressing Option-Left Arrow (PC: Alt-Left Arrow) a few times.

2 ADD STROKE; FILL WITH WHITE
Select all the text with the Selection tool (V). Near the bottom of the Toolbox, click on the Stroke option to make it active. Go under the Window menu and choose Swatches to open the Swatches panel. Then select the blue swatch in the Swatches panel, as shown here, to set the stroke color. Set the Stroke size to 5 pt in the Control panel. Now simply set the Fill color to white.

3 COPY TEXT; SWAP FILL AND STROKE
Copy this text to the clipboard by going under the Edit menu and choosing Copy. Then, go under the Edit menu again and choose Paste in Front. This will paste the copy directly over the original, so you won’t see any change. (Trust us, it’s there.) Then, swap the Fill and Stroke colors by clicking the bent double-headed arrow next to the Fill and Stroke color swatches in the Toolbox. Set the Stroke to None. All you should have is a blue fill and no stroke. Keep this object selected.

4 APPLY SCRIBBLE EFFECT
With this object still selected, go into the Effect menu, under Stylize (in the Illustrator Effects section), and choose Scribble. This is one really involved effect. At this point, you can either use the settings shown here or you can experiment to see the different results you can get. Keep an open mind—you may discover a really cool effect. Click OK when you’re done.

5 DRAW BLUE LINE ABOVE TEXT
Next, select the Pen tool (P) in the Toolbox and click a point just above and to the left of the text. Hold the Shift key and click a second point to the right of the text. Set the Stroke color to the same blue color we used for the text. Then in the Control panel, set the Stroke size to 7 pt. Lastly, select the line and position it right along the top edge of the top line of text.
Note: If you can’t see the stroke, make sure the Scribble effect isn’t applied to it in the Appearance panel.

6 COPY BLUE LINE THREE TIMES
Press Command-C (PC: Ctrl-C) to copy this line, and then press Command-V (PC: Ctrl-V) three times to paste it three times. Drag a copy to the bottom of the first line of text and then drag copies to the top and bottom of the next line of text (as shown here). This will give us the baselines illustrating the straightness of the letters. Offset the lines from each other so it doesn’t look too symmetrical.

7 ADD ADDITIONIONAL LINES AND ARROW SYMBOL
Use the Pen tool to create similar blue lines along the sides of some of the letters to enhance the blueprint effect (set the Stroke to 5 points to match the stroke on the letters). Open the Symbols panel under the Window menu. In the panel’s flyout menu, go to Open Symbol Library>Arrows. Drag-and-drop the third arrow onto the artboard. With it still selected, go into the Control panel and click the Break Link button. In the Object menu, select Expand Appearance. This will turn the Symbol into a regular object. Set the Fill to the same blue we’ve been using and resize as necessary.

8 ADD ARROWS, DOTTED LINES, AND NUMBERS
Arbitrarily place arrows on the lines that you drew in Step 7. Just copy-and-paste numerous copies of the arrow and drag them into place. Use the Selection tool to vary the size and rotate them as necessary. Now add some small, meaningless numbers around the text to give the idea of measurements. Then add some simple, dotted lines using the settings in the Stroke panel, as shown here. We also used the Pen tool to draw an additional element to our original arrow.

9 CREATE BLUE BOX AND MASK WITH BLACK BOX
Select the Rectangle tool in the Toolbox and draw a box over the entire graphic. Set the Fill color of this box to—you guessed it—blue. Now draw another box right over this blue one that’s slightly inset and set the Fill color of this box to black (make sure the fill is R:0, G:0, B:0 or C:0, M:0, Y:0, K:100). So you should have a black box on top of a slightly larger blue box. Select both boxes and open the Transparency panel under the Window menu. In the panel’s flyout menu, choose Make Opacity Mask. The black box will mask away the blue box.

10 ADD GRADIENT MESH TO MASK
We need to do a little more work on the mask, so make sure that the mask thumbnail is highlighted in the Transparency panel (indicated by a thick, black line). Select the mask shape and go under the Object menu and select Create Gradient Mesh. Enter 6 for Rows and 6 for Columns. Set the Appearance to Flat and Highlight to 0%. Click OK. (Did you know that you could have a gradient mesh mask?)

11 CHANGE POINTS ON THE GRID TO WHITE OR GRAY

Using the Direct Selection tool (A), select various points of the mesh and set their colors to white or any varying shade of gray to allow all or some of the blue to come through. The mask works similar to that of a layer mask in Photoshop where black will completely mask a shape, white reveals everything, and gray will show some transparency. The goal here is to give the effect of the blue powder on a blueprint. Note: Make sure the Fill is active in the Toolbox.

12 ADD TEXTURE

The last thing is the texture. Use the Rectangle tool to draw another box approximately the same size as the mesh (make sure you’re back in art mode and not mask mode in the Transparency panel). Set the Fill color to an off-white like this one shown in the Swatches panel. Go under the Effect menu, under Photoshop Effects, and choose Texture>Texturizer. Set the Texture to Sandstone, the Scaling to 100%, and the Relief to 3. For the Light direction, choose Top Right. Click OK. Then go under the Object menu, under Arrange, and choose Send to Back. This will finish the effect of blueprint paper.

Final Image

Source:layersmagazine

How to Create a Caramel Ripple Effect in Illustrator

2011-09-29T22:59:00.000-07:00

Final Result

Step 1

Create a new document of approximately 600px by 580px size. Next, with the Line Segment Tool (backslash), draw a line of 600px length and stroke it with CMYK values: C=40, M=65, Y=100, and K=35.

Step 2

Select the line and go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Zig Zag. Enter the values as shown in red below. This will make a wave like effect as seen in liquids.

Step 3

The waves generated in a liquid vanish as they move outwards. For this, we will use some distortion. Select the line and go to Object > Envelope Distort > Make with Warp (Alt + Shift + Command + W). In the Warp Options, select the Fish effect with 50% bend. This will make the desired wave with vanishing ends.

Step 4

Select the wave and expand it using Object > Expand.

Step 5

Next, we will add a drop bounce effect. With the Direct Selection Tool (A), select the first anchor and drag it upward. With the Add Anchor Point Tool (+), add a couple of anchor points and adjust the handles to get the result shown below. You will see a King Cobra like anatomy. Keep a backup copy of this figure as we will use it later for the reflection.

Step 6

The base for our caramel effect is ready. Next, select the figure and go to Effect > 3D > Revolve. Click on More Options and enter the values as shown in the red regions below.

Step 7

Now we will add some reflection to the bouncing drop. Grab the backup copy of Step 5 and reflect it horizontally using Object > Transform > Reflect. Next, delete the region shown in red using the Direct Selection Tool (A).

Step 8

Select the reflected figure and go to Effect > 3D > Revolve. Enter the same values as in Step 6. Change the Shading Color to Custom and assign a white shadow.

Step 9

Position the shadow graphic in line with the bouncing drop. Next, adjust its Transparency to 20% and reduce its height to match with the perspective of the overall graphic.

After suitable positioning of the shadow, the final caramel effect will look like the one below.

Conclusion and Scope

The techniques covered in this tutorial are an effective use of built in Illustrator Tools. The Zig Zag, Warp and the Revolve Tool yields the ripple effect in less time and effort.
Below is a water ripple effect that I have created using the same technique. A mixed use of distort and warp options often yields creative results. We just need to experiment with them. I hope you enjoyed this quick and easy tutorial.

Source: Vector.tuts+

How to Make Tooth Paste in 3D Max

2011-09-26T02:21:00.000-07:00

Tools used:
Standard Primitives, Polygon Modeling, Loft.

Step 1:

Create cylinder from standard primitives with following parameters.

Step 2:

Convert this object to poly.

Step 3:

Select the vertices and adjust
the shape.

Step 4:

Select the following face with Polygon and apply bevel.

Step 5:

Use bevel and inset .

Step 6:

Select the following face of the
object and apply extrude.

Step 7:

Turn on swift loop for add segments.

Step 8:

Add segments to tighten the edges of the objects.

Step 9:

Turn on the nurms for meshsmooth.

Step 10:

Shape up the following vertices.

Step 11:

Press (M) key for material editor.
Change the following Parameters.
Drag and drop the material on the Object.

Step 12:

Change the second material.

Step 13:

Scroll down the 2nd material slot and apply Image based reflection .

Use this image:

Step 14:

Select the object go to the modify
for polygon.
Turn on polygon and select
Following faces of the object.
Drag n drop the material on the
selected faces.

Step 15:

Select another material slot for Graphics.

Graphics used:

Step 16:

Select these faces
Turn on the (show standard
map in viewport) button. To
view the map in the viewport.
Drag n drop the material.

Step 17:

Adjustment of graphic map
While selecting the following
faces go the modifier list.
Apply uvw map for adjustment.

Step 18:

Try to adjust the map by moving
gizmo and following parameters.

Step 19:

After adjustment of graphic map of select object’s faces with
uvw map.

Step 20:

Create line for paste.

Step 21:

Draw line from left view.

Step 22:

Go to the top view port.
Select the line and go to the
modify panel.
Turn on the vertex and adjust the
line.

Step 23:

Create circle from the shape.

Step 24:

Select the line and open the
compound object panel.

Step 25:

Click on the get shape button then select the circle.

Step 26:

Select the loft object.
Go to the modify panel.
Open deformations and click
on the scale.
Scale deformation window will
appears.
Click on the Bezier point to insert
the points on the scale line.

Step 27:

Insert points and adjust the following scale line.

Step 28:

Create cylinder with following parameters for cap.

Step 29:

Convert this object to poly.
Select the following face and hit delete.

Step 30:

Select the following faces .

Step 31:

Extrude the following faces.

Step 32:

Go to the modifier list and apply
shell for wall thickness.
Adjust the following parameters

Step 33:

Go to the modifier list again and apply taper .
Adjust the following parameters.

Step 34:

Open material editor again and create following material for paste and cap.
Apply white material on the cap.
Blue on trhe paste.

Step 35:

Create plane for ground base.
Create and apply following material
on the plane.

Step 36:

Go to the standard lights and create sky light with following parameters.

Step 37:

Finally render the scene using (F9)
key.

Final Result:

Color Blending Technique in Photoshop – Tutorial

2011-09-26T02:00:00.000-07:00

In this post i’ll show how to use color blending technique. This is a very simple and effective technique. I hope you will enjoy this tutorial.

[1] Open the image in Photoshop. For example I’m using this image. You can download of your own Choice.

[2] Now Go to Image > Adjustments > Color Balance (CTRL+B), Set Color Levels of each Tone Balance as shown.

Now You Have Something like that

[3] Save this given image or make it own by mixing gradient colors.

[4] Now Put this image on your document on top and change its layer style to Overlay and Lower its Opacity to 55% as shown.

Its Done.

Thanks For Reading.

Source - premium psd

Create “Cool” Typography Using Paths in Photoshop

2011-09-20T03:35:00.000-07:00

In this tutorial we will demonstrate how to create some "cool" custom typography. Let’s get started!

Tutorial Assets

The following images were used during the production of this tutorial.

Working with Paths

We will use the circle path and parts of it and stroke them with brush. Pick Ellipse Tool (U) and choose Path option on the properties panel. This way you will create circle path and not the shape. Hold Shift and create a perfect circle.

Pick the Brush tool (B). Use big, hard edges brush. Press F5 to get brush properties panel. Set Spacing to 10% and uncheck Shape Dynamics.

Create a new layer, and with Brush tool choosing press Alt + Enter. That will stroke the path with your brush properties.

Pick the Direct Selection Tool (A). Note that no one of the anchor points are selected, click on the path between the two anchor points and click delete. Create a new layer, pick the Brush Tool (B), pick darker color and press Alt + Enter to stroke the path you just created.

Pick the Pen Tool (P) and add anchor points on the path as shown below.

With Direct Selection Tool (A) select and delete the extreme anchor points of the path.

Pick the Brush Tool (B), pick darker color, create new layer and press Alt + Enter to stroke the path.

As you see we just cut parts of the original circle path by deleting anchor points. That lets us to make nice clean shapes and create interesting effect. This is the base technique of the tutorial. Make sure to always create a new shape on new layer. Another note: after you delete one anchor point, all other points will be automatically selected, so for choose another single anchor point you should click ones outside of path to unselect all points, and when select one point with Direct Selection Tool (A).

Step 1

Create a new document 1600 pixels wide and 1200 pixels high at a resolution of 72 dpi. Fill the “Background” layer with black with dark violet gradient #392354 – #593b70.

Pick the Ellipse Tool (U) and choose Path option on the properties panel. Hold Shift and create a circle. Go to the Paths panel, duplicate the Work Path, name it "Base" and then duplicate it again. Keep the "Base" shape and work with copy.

Now we will create letter “C”, using Pen Tool (P) add two anchor points, and then delete the anchor point between them.

Pick the Brush Tool (B) size 80 px. Create new layer and press Alt + Enter to stroke the path. Make sure not to delete this path, we will need it later.

Go to Paths panel, select the “Base” path, duplicate it and move the copy path to the right, it will be letter “O”. To move path use Path Selection Tool (A).

Brush (B) > New Layer > Alt + Enter.

Duplicate the “O”.

Now create the "L". Place rulers to mark the "Base" path height. Pick Pen Tool (P), holding Shift create a path.

Brush (B) > new layer > Alt + Enter.

Do the same to create the second part of “L”.

Now arrange the layers as shown below, each letter in separate folder.

Step 2

Now we have all the letters, we start to make layered shapes inside each letter. Use clipping mask for each new layer. Choose "C" path from Paths panel, duplicate it, and start cut and stroke it. Use shades of gray for now, we will add colors after.

Let’s splash some colors! Choose the “C” layer and add Gradient Overlay Layer Style. In the blending options uncheck Blend Clipped Layers as Group and check Blend Interior Effects as Group. Gradient #ff0096 – #c20049.

Apply Gradient Overlay for each shape as shown below. Pay attention for angles of the gradients.
1. #ffd200 – #e900ba
2. #4a6d00 – #b1d603
3. #4a6d00 – #eaf900
4. #00dbef – #c8db00

Grab a large soft-edge brush, set opacity to 50%. Create new layer under each shape and draw shadows with black color.

Select the "C" path again, and make it smaller (Path Selection tool (A) and then Command/Ctrl +T to transform). Use size 40 brush to stroke it on new layer. Add gradient (#fb3a7e – #442b5d) and place it under upper shape.

Do it again to create another small shape. Gradient #e80079 – #ff6481.

Also move the first small shape under second big shape, and add Drop Shadow layer style for both small shapes we just created.
We are done with "C" for now, just 3 more letters to go!

Step 3

Now repeat similar steps for all other letters, you can experiment with paths and create different shapes. Use same gradients we apply to "C" shapes to keep uniform colors composition. You also can follow my steps of course.

After I finished the "O" shapes, I realized I didn’t like the dark shape at the bottom and I deleted it.

Second "O." Repeat Process

The “L”. Now it’s really easy.

Step 4

Now we have all 4 letters, lets place them in nice round composition. Use Free Transform Tool (Command/Ctrl + T) to rotate and place each letter.

Let’s add some shine to the letters. Create small path, stroke it with size 15 px hard brush, and paint a white dot by single clicking of brush.

Add white shine for all letters as shown below, set some of the shapes layer style to Overlay and different opacity.

Step 5

Create some pieces around the letters. Color them with various gradients we used for the letters. Easy way to do this: Right click on layer > Copy Layer Style, then select the new shape layer, right click > Paste Layer Style.

Step 6

Pick Polygon Tool (U), make sure it’s a shape, and not a path. Set Sides to 3, and in Polygon Options check Smooth Corners.

Set Foreground color to #754a9a, and create few triangles with different sizes around the letters.

Pick Ellipse Tool (U), set foreground color to white, and create various circles around the letters.

Color them with various gradients we used for the letters. Set some of the circles layer style as shown below: Gradient stroke and set layer fill to 0%, to see only the stroke of the circle. Select another few circles, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, and set radius about 2.6 pixels.

Step 7

Let’s take care about background. Using a large soft brush draw on the new layer above background layer with color # ff02ea.

Set layer style to Soft Light.

With smaller soft brush draw some shadows with black.

Set layer style to Soft Light.

Step 8

Create new layer above all other layers, press D to set foreground and background color to black and white. Go to Filter > Render > Clouds.

Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise. Check Uniform and Monochromatic, and set Amount about 26%.

Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Set Radius to 0.5 pixels.

Set layer style to Color Burn and opacity to 20%.

Step 9

Pick Rectangle Tool (U) and holding Shift create a black square. Rotate it 45 degrees. Pick Path Selection Tool (A), hold Alt + Shift and move the square, you will create the copy of the shape. Duplicate the shape like this few more times, until you getting the pattern all over the canvas.

Step 10

Now add some flowers. I found these on Deviantart, they are transparent pngs, so all you need to do, just drag and place them on the canvas. Add to each flower Drop Shadow layer style. I also blurred one of the flowers.

Step 11

The final touch. Create new layer above all the layers. Set foreground color to black. Pick Gradient Tool (G). Select the Foreground to Transparent gradient. On the gradient properties panel select Radial gradient and check Reverse. Draw the gradient from the middle of the canvas to the edge. Set layer style to Soft Light.

Set layer style to Soft Light.

Final Image

Sparkling Stars Night Effect 3D Max Tutorial

2011-09-20T00:10:00.000-07:00

This tutorial "Sparkling Star Night Effect" walks you through how to set up a procedural night sky with twinkling stars. We will be creating a opacity material with noise maps, and using an phase animated noise behind this to illuminate the stars. To edit the star size and brightness, you should play with the noise size and high/low settings on the individual noise map.

How to Create a Quirky Twitter Bird in Corel Draw

2011-09-19T23:55:00.000-07:00

Learn here how to create a this bird using a few techniques in Corel Draw. Successful completion of this tutorial requires an intermediate knowledge of Corel Draw. We think it’s easy as there is no need for Art school sketches that are usually needed in the first step. Let’s get started!

Final Image Preview

Below is the final image we will be working towards.

Step 1

Create new document, whatever size. A4 is fine. Draw the shape of the bird’s body using the Free Hand Tool and make it nice with the Shape Tool. This part requires a bit of creativity

Step 2

Color the shape blue. Then Copy the shape and paste in the same place. Now using the Up Arrow key, move the second shape 4 pixels up. And then change the color of the second shape to a lighter blue. For better a effect use the Radial Gradient Fill Tool with a lighter to darker blue. Still the first shape should be darker to get that dark line at the bottom.

Step 3

Copy the shape and place it in the white area. Copy it again and paste it. Then make it a bit larger and put it over the smaller one (green on pink example). Using the Back Minus Front option Cut the shape off. Then change it to blue (or use the gradient that we did in last step). And place it on our main shape.

Step 4

Do the same again but cut a smaller, thiner part. Those steps are needed to add some light effects, which make it more 3D.

Step 5

This step uses only one simple option: Intersect (marked by red box, shown below). Just as in the steps above, select two object and Intersect. You will get the shape that both object share.
This technique is an easy way to get shapes that you want in many other situations. In the picture below, notice that we used circles on the main shape, then the eye, then the eyeball, etc. Be sure to apply a radial fill to the eye as shown above.

Step 6

Do the same thing again. This time create the bottom part of the bird (that’s the way birds are built, a white patch makes the bird look more real).

Step 7

Coming back to using the Back Minus Front option. Cut off the shape of the first eyelash. Than copy, paste, resize, and rotate to put them together. Now copy the whole thing and paste in place, change to a darker blue, rotate a bit, and move it to the back. Lastly, group it and place it on the bird.

Step 8

To draw the legs and nose you need to use the Free Hand Tool and make it nice with the Shape Tool. In this step, we want to show you how using the same color, but in different brightness, adds more depth and dimensionality.

Step 9

This must be the easiest step because you do do not have to be exact. Just draw away and create some jagged shapes for the eye. The more uneven the better.

Step 10

Now let’s make the wings. In the image below, you can see again how we cut the shape out of the circle using different circles. Then we rounded the corners a bit using the Shape Tool. Also, we added some light effect, just like in Step 4.
Place the wing on the bird. Also, Copy and Paste In Place the same wing, but change color to gray, move to the back, and move to the left a bit. That gives the effect of the second wing on the other side of the bird (you can see tiny gray part near the legs).

Step 11

We’re almost done. The hat is a simple thing drawn using the Freehand Tool to create the shapes shown below. They each were given different brightness, fills, and a radial gradients was placed on the white stripe to add 3D.

Conclusion

Place the hat on the bird. Add a dark blue ellipse under the hat (some kind of shadow of the hat). And our Quirky looking twitter bird in vectors is done!

Source:-http://vector.tutsplus.com

Design a business card in Photoshop

2011-09-19T00:07:00.000-07:00

Document Business card size:
- 3.43" x 1.93"
- 87mm x 49mm
- 1028 x 579 pixels
Create rounded rectangle using Rounded Rectangle Tool.
Fill it with light color. In order to create volume effect I used Gradient Overlay Layer style effect in this image.

Make a new small rounded rectangle and apply Distort transformation to the right bottom corner.

Helpful Links

Merge created shape with big rectangle just like in the example below.

Draw small rounded shapes just like in the previous example using distort transformation.
Load selections for these shapes (ctrl+click)
Cat out selected areas from grey shape. You may remove layers with selected shapes after this.

Apply deep red color for created shape.

Place fireworks image into a new layer.
I've used image from here.

Choose screen Blending Mode for this layer.

Load selection for red shape, go to Select > Inverse.
Return to "fireworks" layer and remove superfluous areas.
Add Vector Mask, and fill it with black and white reflected gradient.
Opacity 75%.

Create a new rectangle. Fill 0%
Apply the following layer style effects.

Add text, apply gradient Overlay and drop Shadow effects to it.

And here is result! Click for larger view!

Contact Form Validation in Dreamweaver

2011-09-17T03:17:00.000-07:00

In Dreamweaver there is a very simple and easy way to apply form field validation and in this article I will so you exactly how to achieve this.

Step 1: Create the form with your required fields.

This is a simple html form which I am going to use for validation.

Step 2: Apply the validation to the form elements

When your form will be ready then go on Window Menu and select Behaviors from there. A window will be appear on your side panel there will be some other tabs like "Attributes", "Tags" and "Behaviors". Now select the Submit Button and click on "+" sign under the Behaviors tab. A window of behaviors will be open and you will find different behaviours which you can use for different tasks. Select "Validate Form" now.

Step 3: Select required validations for fields

This dialog will be open when you will select Validate Form behavior. Here you will see all text fields which you have used in contact form. Now select one by one field for validation and apply checks from under the "Fields" area. Here you will find following checks.

Value Required: Check this if you want user must enter this field
Accept: Here you will see different radio buttons with captions
- Anything: User can enter anything.
- Number: Only numbers will be entering.
- Email address: This check will be for email validation
- Number from: You can specify range of numbers.

Step 4: Test applied validation

After you have applied the Validation that you require, Save the Document and test it by not entering in anything into the fields. You should get a pop up box like this.

There we have it, you can now apply form validation to your Contact Forms.

Source:- Tutorials Palace

Create Smokey Typography step by step

2011-09-17T00:53:00.000-07:00

Final Image

This is the final image that we’ll be creating:

Images/Files Used

Here is a list of images and files used in this tutorial:
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1114780
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1111544
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1080080
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1063678
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/345436

Step 1

Open up a new document (600X250px) and create a new layer called ‘black background’. Fill your entire canvas with black.

Step 2

Now add some white text to the center of your canvas. I used the font ‘Gill Sans’ set to bold.

Step 3

Now duplicate your text layer. Select your original and rasterize it (layer>rasterize>layer). Then apply a motion blur to this layer by going to filter>blur>motion blur. Set your angle to 90 and your blur strength to 20. Finally reduce your layer’s opacity to 60%.

Step 4

Now paste in an image of some smoke. Make sure that you find an image of smoke on a black background, and if there is any color to your smoke go to image>adjustments>desaturate. Then change your layer’s blend mode to ‘exclusion’.

Step 5

Now select a large, soft eraser brush at a low opacity (around 10%) and erase the edges of your smoke image.

Step 6

Now repeat the same technique with another smoke image.

Step 7

Add some more smoke, being sure to erase parts of each image until things are looking good.

Step 8

Now paste in another smoke image, and set your layer blend mode to ‘multiply’. Then go to image>adjustments>levels and set your input levels to 0, 1.00, 100.

Step 9

You’ll notice that this layer now hides some of your previous smoke layers. To fix this grab a soft eraser brush and erase around your letters, exposing the rest of your smoke.

Step 10

Now if you remember we created 2 text layers earlier and rasterized the first one. Now it’s time to rasterize the second one. Once you have done this grab your smudge tool, and set your brush size to 40px and your strength to 60%. You want to start smudging the tops of the letters of your top text layer. To achieve a nice smokey effect, don’t simply smudge upwards, but make small circular smudging motions.
Also reduce this text layers opacity to 75%.

Step 11

Select your paintbrush tool and apply the settings shown below in your brush palette.

Step 12

Now paint over your text on a new top layer. To make your scattered brush marks more obvious duplicate your layer and merge it down with the original. Then apply an outer glow blending option to your layer (settings below).

And We’re Done!

I really hope that you enjoyed this tutorial, and as always I’d appreciate your comments.

10 Useful SEO Tips for Joomla Website

2011-09-17T00:41:00.000-07:00

Joomla (CMS) is in high trend in web design these days. Using Joomla, you can create and manage websites on your own without any help of webmaster. As we are already aware of the fact that the main focus during website creation should be to make it SEO (search engine optimization) friendly, so it is very important to optimize your Joomla website for search engine h5ke Google.
Below mentioned are best Joomla SEO tips and these tips will help you to get your website into higher rank in Google.

Whenever you are deciding the title of your article, you need to keep in mind that this tittle will be in the tittle tag of Joomla and moreover in in-site h5nks. So it is very important to choose the title of article very carefully, keeping the trends of search engine in mind.
Use anchor text in your article as inbound h5nks using the keywords which you want to be in ranked in search engine ranking results.
Try to get more and more external sites h5nks to web page of your website. But always keep the quah5ty in order to increase the page-rank of web page of your website. For that, create quah5ty content web page with help of Joomla to get bound h5nks.
It is better if the age of site is more, so keep extending your domain registration because registration of spam sites is not done for longer period and having higher age of your website increases trust on website and helps increasing page rank also.
Never forget the h5nk popularity within the website. Use in-site h5nks to navigate from your one webpage to another. You can use site map for that in your home page. If there are so many web pages in your website, then that will also increase your page rank.
This is good if you get so many inbound h5nks from other website to your web page but you need to assure that you are getting quah5tative inbound h5nks. Quah5tative h5nks means h5nks from external website having high page rank and h5nk from related field also.
Keywords of your content are very useful. It can increase the page rank of your web page. For that, write the quah5ty content and then find out the keyword density in your content. From keyword density, pick up top two or three words and add them to the meta keywords. It optimizes the web page for the particular keyword.
Smaller sites usually have higher ranking in Google but generally, size of file is not responsible for ranking in search engines. Always optimize the images you have in your website. Joomla developers need to keep this point in mind while working on Joomla websites.
When you are working in Joomla and want your website to be search engine friendly, make use of clean URL with few parameters.
There comes error pages h5ke 404 or file not found, in your screen. It happens when connection does not build up with the destined server and displays 404 error. Mostly people forget about this error page. Error pages should always be utih5zed by placing text h5nks to site pages.

These are few tips for working with Joomla and put your website in the higher ranking of search engine. Utih5ze these tips to get your website in higher ranking in search engines and increase your page rank also.