April 2012

2000 Quality Design Resources (and Counting!)

Hey PSDFANs! Today I’m extremely excited to announce that our main network site FanExtra has surpassed 2000 exclusive design resources! It’s amazing to think back to the early days of our network when we offered just a few basic source files.

Now that our network is over 4 years old, and our members area is over 3 years old we can really see how much things have evolved.

Here are some notable milestones:

FanExtra Download: Dark UI Kit

You can view the UI Kit below, and can download the full web element pack via our FanExtra members area.

This FanExtra UI Kit pack contains 27 items. Each item is a smart object and is totally scalable. All layer styles are editable so you can fully customize this UI kit.

Members Area Tutorial: Create a Spooky Paranormal Photo Manipulation

Final Image

The result of this tutorial is shown below:

Photo Manipulate a Surreal, Gravity-Defying Desert Scene

In this tutorial, we will learn how to create an conceptual surreal photo-manipulation. We are going to learn the process of creating depth of field using a few advance tools. We are going to learn how to blend images so seamlessly that it would look like a single image using the Brush tool, the Eraser tool and several adjustment layers.We will learn how to create light and darkness to make the background look seamless. We are going to learn how to use textures and give life to our image, and we are going to learn how to create a moody, dreamy tone using a few adjustment layers and lighting effects.

Final Image

Are you an Xbox gamer? Love free stuff? Here’s your chance to win a copy of the Envato-marketplace-loving game Spoids.

Last week we let you know that the game uses a bunch of marketplace items. Well, they’ve taken their Envato support a step further, and have given us three copies of the game to give away. Thanks Spoids team!

Members Area Tutorial: Create a 3D, Textured Safe Illustration From Scratch Using Photoshop

Final Image

The result of this tutorial is shown below:

With so many designs and photo manipulation software in the market, one can easily get confuse with all these choices. On the other hand, there are also certain software that is crafted for only certain purposes, perhaps one would prefer a software that could solve most of your needs, instead of installing multiple software or programs for various different designing needs. There is after all one particular software that can answer to most of a designer’s need be it in photo manipulation, graphic design or other design purposes, introducing Adobe Photoshop.

Advertise here with BSA

Members Area Tutorial: Create a Wooden Record Deck Using Photoshop’s Vector Capabilities

Final Image

The result of this tutorial is shown below:

Our Tuts+ Premium service is getting better and better. We’ve now added eighteen video training courses with more coming every month. There’s also over thirty eBooks and some 800 premium tutorials. The whole pack is just $19 a month and is a fantastic deal. But if you take advantage of this jam-packed subscription in the next week we are sweetening the pot even further!

Impressionist UI is a huge User Interface elements pack that contains more than 300 web design elements. The examples of elements in this huge UI pack are: Edit Boxes, Tabs, Buttons, Notification Windows, Menus, fast solutions for the Menu tabs, Windows, Backgrounds, Graphics, Sliders, Informational blocks.

These elements are done in Photoshop using shapes, thus they are able to be zoomed without losing quality. Besides elements, Impressionist UI also packs with 50 styles that you can use to create your own shapes.

Impressionist UI also contains 200 (x3) icons, and these icons can be resized from 16x16px to any size you would think of. All the icons have been skillfully made using 16 pixels, by respecting real proportions; this is why they will always be spotted no matter the size whether it’s a favicon or a poster at the airport.

Advanced Tonal Correction Via Subject Specific Histogram Adjustments

The basic step in photo retouching is to correct overall tonal problems: darkening the shadows, brightening the highlights, adjusting the midtones. To do that, Photoshop’s Levels adjustment probably the most powerful tool. Usually, to correct the tonal problem, we just move the slider on Photoshop’s Level adjustment to the edges where the histogram begin. But it is not good enough, especially in cases where we want to focus only on some part of the image (the model for example). Because histogram represent the whole image, not just the model. So, in this tutorial, we’ll learn how to correct overall tonal problem by using Photoshop Levels adjustment tool in more advanced way, non destructive, to get the optimal results. Let’s get started.

Final Image

As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:

Apple has released the free, yes free, iBooks Author app. The OS X application is aimed at any author wanting to create any type of ebook.

Every time when we walk through the streets, or when we visit an event we see them; in fact we even find them in our mailbox as well. But we never gave them much thought, after all they were practically stuff into our hands, without taking so much as a glance we would probably stuff those brochures or flyers into our bags or toss them into the nearest trash can. Don’t get me wrong here, it’s not that we do not appreciate the work of others, but more likely because we received these brochures on a daily basis. By the end of the day all these brochure designs look pretty much the same, plain, boring and full of facts.

Each month, we bring together a selection of the best tutorials and articles from across the whole Tuts+ network. Whether you’d like to read the top posts from your favourite site, or would like to start learning something completely new, this is the best place to start!

Tuts+ Premium has just released a brand new course – “Producing Great Video,” containing more than two and a half hours of training. As you work your way through the 50+ easy-to-digest lessons, you’ll master the basics of video production.