February 2011
Meet the Staff: The Psdtuts+ Team
Every week we’ll introduce you to an Envato staff member or team. This week we meet the Psdtuts+ team. This is taken from the Meet Our Team page on Psdtuts+.
Sometimes, it’s easy to forget that actual human beings create the content here on Psdtuts+. We are in fact real people, and not just Photoshop loving robots. In addition to numerous part time contributors, we have a team of talented and passionate artists creating all kinds of tutorials and content teaching illustration and design within the context of a Photoshop workflow.
Best Of Web And Design In February 2011
So February has finally drawn to an end the shortest month of the year and it really has felt like it this month has rapidly went by, nerveless this hasn’t stop the design community pumping out some great design tutorials with some great outcomes.
Creating Good Enough to Eat Typography
Creating Good Enough to Eat Typography
Resources Used In This Tutorial
Final Image
Here is a preview of the image that we are going to be creating:
Step 1
Create a new document (1000X600px). Fill your canvas with a radial gradient ranging from ffd800 to ffae00.
This Week at Envato – Explore Dozens of Envato Wallpapers
This week at Envato Nettuts+ surpassed 10,000 Facebook fans and Phototuts+ were featured on the BBC’s ‘Click’ technology show. We laughed at a new tumblog for devs, and collected every Envato wallpaper we could find on the Net. Details after the jump!
Here are the highlights from Envato Notes this week:
How To Get Vector Objects To Follow A Path In Illustrator
Another quick tip screen cast which will show you a very useful illustrator technique. This tutorial will allow you to get any vector elements to follow any path, i.e to follow the outside of a specific shape such as a square or may be circle a handy quick tip which takes less than a few minuet to do.
Tutorial Details
Difficulty: Beginner
Tutorial estimation time: 3 to 5mins
Program: Illustrator
Create an Awesome Space Age Composition
Create an Awesome Space Age Composition
Resources Used In This Tutorial
Final Image
Here is a preview of the image that we are going to be creating:
Step 1
Create a new document (1000X650px) and create a new layer called ‘background color’.
Fill your canvas with a linear gradient ranging from 110b64 to 5a2391.
Which Crazy Comment Personality Type Do You Have?
Do you run a blog—for Envato or yourself? Have you ever slaved for hours over an article or tutorial? Do you put your heart and soul and countless hours into your writing? Then FreelanceSwitch have a series of articles just for you.
What is the scariest part of writing for the Web? Reading comments. They can make you smile. They can make you cry. They can make you Roll On The Floor Laughing.
This Week’s Featured Authors
Congratulations to this week’s featured marketplace authors!
ActiveDen Featured Author: teskostudio
Our current featured author here on ActiveDen is teskostudio who joined in March 2009, has a portfolio of 4 items for sale and has racked up 116 sales!
View teskostudio’s Portfolio
31 Clean and Usable Icon Packs
32 Clean and Usable Icon Packs
Icons may be a small design feature, but often form essential parts of a design. A great icon can either provide a subtle design flourish, or be used more prominently in a logo fashion to promote a product or web app. The following post showcases some really professional, usable icon packs, which are sure to add a nice touch to your web designs. Many of the packs contain more icons than are displayed here, so be sure to go and explore your favorites and leave feedback for the authors!
Yusukek Amiyamane
This is a huge pack of small icons, all being available in the 16×16 pixels size, and the png format.
Meet the Staff: Ibrahim Rodríguez
Every week we’ll introduce you to an Envato staff member or team. This week we meet Ibrahim Rodríguez from Support.
What is it like working for Envato, and what are some of the jobs you’ve had with us?
I really love working at Envato. I started out handling anti-piracy matters in relation to content from Envato’s marketplaces. I did so for about a year and a half.
I couldn’t believe that I was working for the company producing awesome tutorials and resources which I was a frequent reader and follower. It was very strange and confusing at the very beginning because I didn’t think it was possible working smoothly and remotely from home.
20 Design Tutorials For Creating The Perfect Button
A recent obsession of mine within web design is paying attention to the finer details within a site such as a buttons. Web designers rarely pay attention to buttons therefore it can sometimes be overlooked, and designers can be unaware on how to create well designed buttons therefore we have listed 20 of best design tutorials which will equip you with great skills to create buttons.
Members Area Tutorial: Design a Heavily Textured Portfolio Website
Members Only Tutorial
This tutorial is available exclusively to our FanExtra members. In order to read the tutorial and download it’s original .psd source file you must sign up as a FanExtra member.
If you sign up today you get access to over 350 design files, including tutorial source files, members only tutorials, vectors, icon packs, texture packs and more!
Members Area Tutorial: Design a Heavily Textured Portfolio Website
Final Image
The result of this tutorial is shown below:
This Week at Envato – Would You Look Better as a Caricature?
This week at Envato we photographed our front door, and chose the winners of the Vectortuts+ Poster Design session. We turned Psdtuts+ editor Grant Friedman into a caricature – and I think it was an improvement. And we spent way too much time turning our Envato usernames into famous brands. Details after the jump!
Here are the highlights from Envato Notes this week:
25 Best Illustrator Brushes All In One Place
There’s a ton of great illustrator brushes a lot of designers tend not to use illustrator brushes, because they’re not aware of illustrator brushes because of the lack of decent brushes available to be used. This is a great post which will open your mind and educate you on brushes and how they could be potentially be used in illustrations.
This Week’s Featured Authors
Congratulations to this week’s featured marketplace authors!
ActiveDen Featured Author: satya4satyanm
Our current featured author here on ActiveDen is satya4satyanm who joined in March 2008, has a portfolio of 22 items for sale and has racked up 478 sales!
View satya4satyanm’s Portfolio
Basic Tutorial: Create a Stylized Valentines Poster
Basic Tutorial: Create a Stylized Valentines Poster
Today we’re going to create a simple, stylized Valentines Day poster. This tutorial is specifically aimed at Photoshop beginners, yet shows how some really basic techniques and composition can lead to some really stylish results!
Have a great Valentine’s day everyone .
Meet the Staff: The New Activetuts+ Writers
Every week we’ll introduce you to an Envato staff member or team. This week we meet the new Activetuts+ staff writing team. This was originally published on Activetuts+.
A couple of weeks ago we advertised for a new Staff Writer at Activetuts+. The response was phenomenal! We had a pile of submissions to wade through and the quality of all applicants was of such a calibre that we chose to take on four new staff writers! There’s a good chance you’ll recognise these guys, come and meet them..
Featured Site: Psdtuts+
Psdtuts+ is our most popular tutorial site – everyone wants to know how to use Photoshop. The site is run by Grant Friedman – learn more about him here.
Psdtuts+ is a blog that showcases some of the best Photoshop tutorials around – from beginner level up to advanced. Techniques are explained in a friendly, approachable manner.
Create a Striking Collage Fusing Ancient and Modern
Create a Striking Collage Fusing Ancient and Modern
Today we’re going to be creating a cool collage that fuses various photographic and textual elements to create a combination of ancient and modern styles.
Resources Used In This Tutorial
Final Image
Here is a preview of the image that we are going to be creating:
Thursday Theory: Common Web Design Mistakes People Keep Making
New Post Series: Thursday Theory
As many of you may have seen we’ve really been putting a lot of effort into expanding PSDFAN recently. We’ve been publishing more content than ever, including some really high quality tutorials and articles. We recently got featured on Adobe’s official Photoshop Facebook page, and our traffic has generally been growing and growing. Our popular 30 minute redesigns series is nearing it’s 50th week, and next week we’ll be publishing our 100th Texture Thursday!
Create A Speeding Car Scene With Light Effects In Photoshop
Create A Speeding Car Scene With Light Effects In Photoshop
Today we will be creating a composition that blends together various stock images to create a cohesive scene. In addition, we will be using some cool Photoshop tricks to add light effects to the design. Many of these techniques can be applied to your own unique designs – so let’s get started!
This tutorial is in part inspired by Pete Harrison’s awesome composition ‘Super Highway’. Check out his portfolio here.
This Week’s Featured Authors
Congratulations to this week’s featured marketplace authors!
ActiveDen Featured Author: jasnana
Our current featured author here on ActiveDen is jasnana who joined in November 2009, has a portfolio of 7 items for sale and has racked up 41 sales!
View jasnana’s Portfolio
Meet the Staff: Justin Stravarious
Every week we’ll introduce you to an Envato staff member or team. This week we meet Justin Stravarious, AppStorm writer and techie. This interview was originally published on Web.AppStorm.
The AppStorm network has an amazing team of editors and writers that are always lurking in the shadows of the AppStorm sites and are often missing a human element in the minds of our readers, mostly thanks to the disconnect the internet can create.
Create a Stunning Product Shot Using Professional Lighting Effects
Create a Stunning Product Shot Using Professional Lighting Effects
Today I’m going to teach you how to create some truly awesome lighting effects. Back when I was a Photoshop beginner I used to look at lighting effects like this and wonder how they could achieved. Quite simply they seemed out of my depth.
However, I’ll walk you through just how easy it is, with a bit of time and creativity. The techniques themselves aren’t overly complex. It’s essentially a combination of gradients, textures, masking, brushes, and adjustment layers. However, you’ll see in this tutorial how it’s the building up of these aspects which leads to great results. It’s not good slapping on a few lighting brushes and expecting your piece to really pop. You need to build up lots and lots of layers of effects, and make sure they these compliment each other, and are never overdone. Enjoy the tutorial!
Freebie Friday: Free Marketplace Files for February
Have you checked out the marketplaces’ free files for February? Download them while you can!
ActiveDen: AS3 Twitter Retweet Buttons with Retweet Counter
Members Area Tutorial: Create A Glamorous Digital Illustration With Photoshop
Members Only Tutorial
This tutorial is available exclusively to our FanExtra members. In order to read the tutorial and download it’s original .psd source file you must sign up as a FanExtra member.
If you sign up today you get access to over 140 .psd source files (and growing!), as well as our weekly members only tutorials and other content!
Members Area Tutorial: Create A Glamorous Digital Illustration With Photoshop
Final Image
The result of this tutorial is shown below:
This Week’s Featured Authors
Congratulations to this week’s featured marketplace authors!
ActiveDen Featured Author: golle
Our current featured author here on ActiveDen is golle who joined in January 2009, has a portfolio of 10 items for sale and has racked up 205 sales!
View golle’s Portfolio



























