Best of the Web - April 2009

The month of April had a heavy dose of inspiration, from a great compilation of Omega Code Artwork, to a couple packs of amazing
Photoshop wallpapers. This post should have every designer inspired and hit with an abundance of great idea’s for future artwork. And like always, we also have some great freebie’s and informative tutorials for all designers alike.

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April 30, 2009 | Filed Under Html, Photoshop, Print Design, Web Design, Web Trends | Comments Off 

Build Up a Menacing Stormy Scene in Photoshop - Psd Plus Tutorial

We have another professional Psd Plus tutorial exclusively available to Plus members today. If you want to take your Photoshop scene design skills to the next level, then we have an exciting tutorial for you. Discover how to create moody themes with skill and precision. Learn more about this tutorial at the jump!

Learn Precision Scene Design Techniques in this Psd Plus Tutorial

Creating scenes from multiple photos is extremely common, and a good way for people to use and improve their Photoshop skills. Unfortunately though, there are lots of aspects that get overlooked, such as keeping track of the light source, matching color hues, or maintaining order in the composition. In this tutorial, we’ll look at all that and more.

Plus members can Log in and Download! If you’re not a member, you can of course join today! You can view the final image preview below or view a larger version here.

Precise and Detailed Instructions Inside

This tutorial takes you through each step in creating this high-quality stormy scene. Plus members can Log in and Download! Otherwise, Join Now! Below are some sample images from the tutorial.

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PSD Plus Membership

As you know, we run a premium membership system here called ‘Plus’ that costs $9 a month (or $22 for 3 months!) which gives members access to the Source files for tutorials as well as periodic extra tutorials, like this one! You’ll also get access to Net Plus and Vector Plus, too. If you’re a Plus member, you can log in and download the tutorial. If you’re not a member, you can of course join today!

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April 29, 2009 | Filed Under Html, Photoshop, Print Design, Web Design, Web Trends | Comments Off 

FaveUp Redesign Launches on Creattica.com

The web can be a great source for inspiration and in the last couple of years we’ve seen a heap of great galleries for website design in particular. But there’s so much more stuff to be inspired by, that’s why today we’re launching Creattica.com a gallery of great design and inspirational imagery that includes not just websites, but logos, business cards, posters and Photoshop art!

The new Creattica site is in fact a redesign and repurposing of our venerable FaveUp gallery that was in need of a bit of love and attention. So we’ve ported all the old content over to give the new site a flying start in its new super suit of Creattica awesomeness!

Features!

We’ve kept some elements of the old FaveUp site, but given it all a new look and feel which is more open and friendly and also a lot more usable. The site features:

  1. User Accounts & Profiles
    To submit and rate items you now create an account on Creattica.com which gives you a user profile to personalise!
  2. Larger Fullsize Images
    To accomodate categories like Posters and Photoshop Art, we’ve expanded the fullsize images to 880px x 540px, plenty of space to be inspiring!
  3. A Better Voting System
    OK so the old voting system was pretty dubious and in fact if you clicked the vote button many times in a row really quickly you could score lots of points. So we’ve thrown it out and changed to a 1 vote per user system. You simply add your vote to anything you like and items with lots of votes get more views!
  4. Browse by Popularity Today, This Week, This Month and This Year
    You want to browse popular items, but you also want fresh content, not the same old popular items over and over. So we’ve added browsing tools to let you choose how fresh you want your content so you don’t keep seeing the same old stuff!
  5. Descriptions on Items
    Sometimes you want to mention a bit more about an item, the work that went into it, where a viewer can learn more about it or the creator, so we’ve added description fields to items that allow HTML.
  6. RSS & Email Feeds for Individual Categories
    Almost 6000 people are already subscribed to Creattica.com (through the old FaveUp feed) and that’s great, but what if you want to subscribe only to a specific type of item? Well now you can! Every category of item comes with its own RSS feed ready for either your feed reader or email inbox.

New Categories + More Coming Soon

My favourite new thing about the new Creattica.com site is that it’s now really easy to add new categories of content to the site. So today I added two new sections:

Visit Creattica Now

More Envato Redesigns On Their Way

If you enjoy redesigns, you’ll be excited to know we have a redesign of both FreelanceSwitch and the entire Envato Marketplaces coming soon. FreelanceSwitch is quite far into development so should go out the door sometime in May and is a major update (and will finally get a theme on that forum!!) The marketplace redesign is in a much earlier state but promises to be absolutely gigantic!

Speaking of redesigns, as you may know I’m the sole designer at Envato at the moment. But lately we’ve gotten a bit too big and I’m always falling behind. So I’m looking for a web designer to join our team in Melbourne, Australia. If you’re an awesome web designer living in Melbourne, who loves having the best job ever, email me (collis[at]envato[dot]com, subj: "BEST JOB EVER").



April 28, 2009 | Filed Under Html, Photoshop, Print Design, Web Design, Web Trends | Comments Off 

Create an Asian Inspired Illustration with Impact

While creating things from scratch is an awesome way to showcase your style and technique, using stock photos is an easier way to add impacting detail to your work. To be able to do all that, we’ll be using various ways to separate photos from their backgrounds, manipulating them and altering the overall lighting, contrast, and color balance to finish off this complex illustration.

Final Image Preview

Here’s what we’ll create today. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below.

Introduction

When it comes to creating this sort of work, it’s all about building your piece step by step.

I started out by wanting to use a model photo. I wanted a simple and impersonal posture and found this asian model on istockphoto. It’s the photo that gave me my theme, so I started looking for things I could use with that.

I decided to focus on Japanese culture, so bonsai trees and pagodas were an obvious choice. Wanting to include some kind of floral theme, I found enough orchids on sxc to use as an important part of the piece.

As a first attempt, I used mostly the same resources as in the final version, but made one crucial mistake -working at a small scale. While the document size was not at all small, the large overall size of the elements made the piece cluttered and too in your face. It was an easy fix: Crop Tool, select all, drag the box out a bunch, out with (some of) the old, and in with (a bit of) the new.

While all the objects in my first attempt seem to be fighting over hierarchy, the second piece spreads out all the elements, so that they all lead to the central part, the model’s face. Her dark hair also makes it easy to draw attention, so I avoided using too many dark shades of colors in any other parts.

From a compositional point of view, the piece has clusters of colors that eventually balance out: Blue water at the lower left; blue sky at the top right. Red flowers and monument on the left; red large pagoda on the right. They strike a balance because they are all grouped in a two by two order.

Any imbalance in color will ultimately become a focal point, and whether or not it conflicts with what you want the viewer to be looking at, is up to how you plan your piece.

Rather than spending time beforehand, I created this balance along the way. Once I included an element, I was sure to create its counter measure. Slowly, the piece developed itself into what it is now. It’s an organized improvisation that you refine with every step forward.

A good way to see if your piece is balanced well compositionally, not only chromatically, is to desaturate it. Here is a black and white version I made using a Channel Mixer set to Black and White with a Green Filter (RGB). It will show you if certain parts are too dark or too light and help point out any unintentional focal points.

Step 1

First, get this istockphoto and open it in Photoshop. If you’re keeping my document settings (listed later), buy the large format version. In this step, we’ll separate the model from the background. Unfortunately, it’s red, which will interfere with her lipstick, makeup, and even skin tone if not handled properly.

It’s nothing we can’t fix though, so open the photo in a PS document. Double-click on the background layer and name it something to turn it into a regular layer. Use the eyedropper tool (I) to select the photo’s background color and go to Select > Color Range. Use an appropriate fuzziness that will cover as much of the model as possibly. Don’t worry about part of the face showing up, we’ll take care of that in the next few steps.

Step 2

Open your channels menu (Window > Channels). Inside you will see all the available channels of the image. The red channel contains all red pixels, and the other two correspond to their own colors. The RGB channel is all in one.

In an ideal case, the background of the photo would be a green screen. If so, it would be better to make a selection of the green channel, instead of using a Color Range Selection. In case you want to combine channels, or make them interact somehow, go to Image > Calculations. There you can add, subtract or blend mode a channel on top of another.

Step 3

Enter Quick Mask Mode (Q). A new channel will now appear, which is our quick mask. Make all the other channels invisible (RGB, R, G, B). You’ll now see a silhouette of the model - the one created with the Color Range Selector.

Step 4

All the white areas represent a selection, so we need to make sure that the inside part of the silhouette is completely black. Grab the brush tool (B) and paint with black inside, to cover any white sections.

Step 5

Exit Quick Mask Mode (Q) and click on the small icon in the layers menu to make it a mask.

Step 6

Now open a new Photoshop Document. It’s a (very) odd size: 28.45 cm by 17.64 cm at 300 ppi (3360 px by 2084 px). Bring in the cut out model. We’ll now do a little touchup. Add a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer) and make it a clipping mask (Command + Alt + G).

Step 7

Add a Curves adjustment layer too.

Step 8

To simulate an overexposed look, we’ll add glows on lots of elements. Double-click on the model’s layer to add a few layer styles. Use the settings below.

Step 9

Cut out this flower with the Pen Tool and place it behind the model. Add the appropriate layer style.

Step 10

Duplicate it and add a few more.

Step 11

Add some above the model too.

Step 12

Download this photo, cut it out and place it behind the model. In a new layer underneath the flower, paint a red glow. Change its colors by following the next step.

Step 13

Add these Adjustment Layers: Hue/Saturation and Selective Color, using the settings shown below.

Step 14

Duplicate the red orchids and move them to the other side. Change their colors with these Adjustment Layers and add a blue glow on top.

Step 15

Find the “model” layer and create a few new layers as a clipping mask. Paint a shadow from the flowers on her right shoulder, a light glow on her head and fill her pupils with black (paint with a black, soft brush).

Step 16

Get this eye photo and make a selection of it with the Marquee Tool. Feather it (Select > Modify > Feather) and copy it in a new layer. Place it on top of the model’s pupil, duplicate it and place it on the other side. Don’t flip the second eye, rather free transform it (Command + T), warp it and move the center of the grid until the pupils correspond with the model’s previous eyes.

Step 17

Add an Adjustment Layer for both of the eyes.

Step 18

You could chose to leave this out, but I wanted a more impersonal look. Paint a light green soft dot over the iris on a separate layer.

Step 19

Now get this istockphoto of a bonsai tree and get ready to go mad separating it. Some things are great to have isolated on white. I’d rather have this one on a different color. Highlights are more difficult to select than alienated colors because you’re selecting white, you can (and will in this case) heavily interfere with the object’s own highlights. Select white as your foreground color, and go to Select > Color Range. Use the settings shown below - don’t forget to tick the Invert box.

Step 20

Go to the Channels menu, press Q, make the quick mask channel visible and other invisible. Use the brush tool (B) on white to paint in areas that have dark accents and should be entirely white, like the bark and portions of the foliage. The brush should be about 95% in Opacity.

Step 21

Once the tree mask is completely white, press Q again and add a layer mask. To do this, you need to double-click the background layer and transform it into regular layer.

Step 22

Simulating the same overexposed effect, add some blend modes to the tree.

Step 23

Duplicate the tree, flip it and place it behind all the other layers.

Step 24

Get this photo and isolate it just like the bonsai tree. Add a Levels Adjustment Layer to make it brighter, and thus more faded into the background.

Step 25

It’s time for a background. Get this photo and place it behind all the layers. Erase anything that goes past the Pagoda’s roof (toward the right side).

Step 26

Add a white large glow with the brush tool (B) on the top left side, and fade out the horizon’s mountains in the same way.

Step 27

Now add a Gradient Map Adjustment Layer and make it a clipping mask for the scene.

Step 28

Add the photo again on the other side, with the same Gradient Map applied.

Step 29

Now trace this photo with the Pen Tool and copy its selection in a new layer. Most importantly, keep both layers (which includes the background you copied it from) and position them in the document. Add a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer for the copied layer, as a clipping mask. In the screenshot below, the background photo is not visible.

Step 30

Make the background photo visible and add a Gradient Map Adjustment Layer. Also, erase all the sides and leave the bottom in so that it creates a reflection on the other water photo.

Step 31

Download this stock photo and this one as well. Trace, copy, and place them in the scene. Add blending modes just like you did on the flowers.

Step 32

We’ll now make a few color adjustments in the following few steps. Select the top of layer of the entire document, and make a few Adjustment Layers. First, a Curves and Hue/Saturation.

Step 33

There are quite a few ways to change the colors in any given piece in Photoshop. You can use a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, Channel Mixer, Photo Filter, Color Balance, Selective Color, etc. My personal favorite is the Gradient Map, and it’s what we’ll use right now. To create one, go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map. After creating one, select the proper gradient from the menu, and drag the layer’s Opacity to 20%.

Step 34

Add another Gradient Map, but with a different gradient and a different blending mode for the layer, use Overlay.

Step 35

And as a final element, I wanted to add some kind of personal graphic. Create an elliptical shape (U) that’s much larger than the document shape. Its color is irrelevant.

Step 36

Double-click its layer to add these blending modes. The first thing to do is to drag the Fill Opacity to 0 in the Advanced section of the Blending Options menu (first thing you see).

Step 37

After adding those, add a few more across the layers with different colors. To change to a different color, edit the Drop Shadow from the previous step.

Final Image

Finally, I added a few soft white glows over the branches to give it more realistic lighting. With that, the piece is now finished. Thanks for reading, everyone!

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April 28, 2009 | Filed Under Html, Photoshop, Print Design, Web Design, Web Trends | Comments Off 

How to Turn Humdrum Photos into Cinematic Portraits - Screencast

“There are a plethora of ways to treat a portrait for a myriad of uses, but that is for another feature. Let’s tackle adding drama or a cinematic quality to a regular, humdrum portrait. Let’s even throw in a little bit of faking HDR. That way if you work on a project that requires a stunning shot without the stunning photography, you’ll be able to cobble something together using your mad skillz!” - James Davies

Here is a link to the written version of the tutorial How to Turn Humdrum Photos into Cinematic Portraits and the video version is below.



April 27, 2009 | Filed Under Html, Photoshop, Print Design, Web Design, Web Trends | Comments Off 

Tim and Bram Vanhaeren Interview

Tim and Bram Vanhaeren are in a very interesting situation. They are two brothers who are both interested in graphic design and both share an immense passion for art. They have a strong brotherly bond that shows off in their artwork, where one brother is weak the other will help. In this interview, the two brothers talk about their outlook on design and the positives and negatives of working with each other. This is an interesting read, so lets get to it!

1. Welcome to Psdtuts+, please introduce yourself. Could you tell us where you’re from and how you got started in the field?

Tim: I’m Tim Vanhaeren, a 21 year old Belgian based graphic design student. I’m currently in my last year of Cross-Media design in the College University of Antwerp. And I started experimenting with Adobe Photoshop when I was 15 because I wanted to create my own so called sigs (aka signatures), which were really popular in the online gaming world back then. From that moment I never really stopped improving and developing my graphic design skills and style.

Bram: I’m Bram Vanhaeren, the two year younger brother of Tim. I’m in my first year graphic design in Karel-de-grote University in Antwerp. And I got in the design world the same way as my brother did. Only I was 13 back then. Since then we’ve been pushing our limits.

My Chaos

2. “Two brothers, two designers, two styles, two visions. Blended into one” Please describe in detail what exactly we get visually when you two blend your skills?

Even though we’re brothers we’ve always been doing our thing separately which eventually lead to two quite different styles. We both use different effects, techniques even software. Our individual work is just quite different from each other. So when the idea came up of launching one portfolio for the two of us, we also thought it’d be cool to finally try do some work together.

Mix up our styles, work together on one piece, share ideas, etc. And what you get visually is a mix that’s quite hard to describe. I think in general you can say Bram’s input has mostly a lot of his drawing skills involved and Tim on the other hand tries to use his photo manipulation experience as creative as possible to finish it all up.

After Skool Special

3. Tim, what would you say is your favorite design from Bram and why? Bram, what is your favorite design that Tim has made and why?

Tim: Ow this is a hard one. In general I like it when Bram tries to work with a strong concept. If I really need to pick one I’d say: Unknown. I just love all the details in it. I know he worked quite a while on this one. And I know the awesome stocks by Mj-Ranum make a big difference. But what my brother did with it… I know back then when he shown me the work I thought it was some kind of collaboration with someone. I couldn’t believe it was all my little brother who did this. And actually there’s a quite strong concept behind it to. So yeah that’s totally my favorite!

Bram: My favorite design from Tim would be Now You Live. It’s a rather old work, but it still give me this free feeling. With this work he really brings out this concept of enjoying your life, to accept life as a gift and make the best of it. Even though his design skills weren’t that good back then, he still managed to share this feeling. It has quite an impact on me. When I look at it I’m like, Hell yeah! Lets go for it. Love it!

NOTHING

4. Is there ever any sibling rivalry between you two when creating your designs? Do you guy’s ever compete to see who’s design will come out better?

Haha, we’d say there’s not. But we guess this might be one unconscious reason to start a portfolio for us both. So we can share the recognition and the respect we get together. But really we’re very glad when one of us get an extraordinary offer or anything like that. And actually we’ve never really competed - only back in the very beginning with “Sig Of The Week” contest. But that doesn’t really count. We’re more then just brothers. We share so much together. We’re both into athletics for more then 12 years. We share the same passion for art and music. Yeah we love each other including our younger brother Stef! Haha! So no! No rivalry between us!

Do Not Trust

5. What are the benefits and disadvantages to teaming up with your brother?

Tim: Like we described before. Bram is a better drawer then me. And when I get a job request that involves quite some drawing or typographic work I definitely bring my brother into the project. In quite some ways we fill each other’s weaknesses. Also we spare quite some time, definitely when we’re talking about web design. Bram designs - with some feedback from me and I code it. Simple! And oh yeah, it’s just a lot more fun! I actually don’t see any disadvantage. Maybe when we can’t agree on which concept we’re going to use on a particular work. But to be honest we haven’t come across that problem yet. I love working with my little brother!

Bram: Yeah Tim’s described that all quite well. What I’d like to add is that when I’m stuck with some kind of project I can always count on my brother’s vision on it. We do not only fill each other’s technical weaknesses, but also our different perspective on things can result to more and new ideas.

My Freedom

6. In terms of your designing careers where would you like to be in 5 years? Will you both open up a studio, or work separately?

We’re actually dreaming of starting up our own design studio together in a couple of years. That’d be really awesome! But of course we both want to get some experience in the business first by working in a design company. We’ll see what happens. I’d be really cool to get our own business running. Just do what we like, work together and make a living of it.

Just A Fragrance

7. How does your style differ from your brothers?

Bram: I’d say: I’m the stupid one and my brother is the smart one. He knows what he’s doing and I’m just like following my instincts and hope it all looks nice at the end of the road.

Tim: Haha, yeah! In some way I have to agree with that. But I guess every designer has some quite abstract idea before he starts and eventually it gets all distorted and changed along the design process. But yeah Bram doesn’t start with any idea at all. He starts with something like totally brainless and forms his concept along the process.

Order Is Chaos

8. Thanks again for providing Psdtuts+ with this opportunity to interview you. Any final thoughts for our readers?

No! Thank you!!! I guess this must been said like tons of times but… to all designers out there: Keep it fun!

88 Ghosts

Where to find Tim & Bram on the Web

Men of The World

Love For

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April 25, 2009 | Filed Under Html, Photoshop, Print Design, Web Design, Web Trends | Comments Off 

Professional Tips for Improving Photoshop’s Performance

In this tutorial, we’ll take a look at the Photoshop Preferences to increase our Performance. With more and more features and important improvements, Photoshop gets more effective than ever. On the other hand, depending on the Photoshop version, features for working with 3D imagery, motion-based content, and advanced image analysis, greatly increase the requirements of both Graphics and Hardware.

There’s nothing worse than being detained from your workflow because of performance deficit. That’s why you should check out this tutorial to work more efficiently without wasting your time and improve your workflow and designs!

What you’ll learn

First, we’ll take a look at the Photoshop requirements and the basics on how to increase performance without touching Photoshop. Later we’ll jump into Photoshop and take a look at the Preferences and how to set them up wisely. Since I’m currently working and experimenting with the new Photoshop CS4 version, all settings or images apply to the latest version. There could be some minor differences to other releases, but most of these tips are all-purpose. Let’s take a look at what you’ll learn:

Table of Contents:

  • Basics - update your drivers, improve your OS by defragmenting and optimizing your system.
  • Photoshop Requirements
  • Which version should I choose
  • Photoshop Preferences
  • Tips and links
  • Conclusion

Basics

The first thing which comes to one’s mind is the CPU, Memory and Hard disk, but with the current release Adobe designed new features to additionally take advantage of your display card’s GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) to accelerate performance. New features like: Smooth display at all zoom levels, Animated Zoom tools, Rotating the Canvas, the Pixel grid or the possibility to move colors matching to the GPU, require additional performance and adjustments.

Preparation

The first thing to do, is to update your display card’s driver and DirectX since we are working with images, motion graphics or 3D objects. Unfortunately, we don’t have much control over the Video-RAM, but we can update the drivers to help the system utilize the given power.

A clean and ideal system and up to date operating system is a must-have. The second step is to defragment your hard drive and close all unnecessary processes other than Photoshop. Most of the time you can’t even see any difference or increased performance, but you can use the built-in monitoring tools (MAC: Activity Monitor, Windows: Task Manager) to experiment, control and understand what happens.

Making sure the basics are properly processed, should give us a good foundation before jumping into Photoshop. You can take a look at the different tools and resources which I think should help you get started.

Photoshop Requirements

It is obvious, that your PC or Mac should definitely meet the standard requirements. This tutorial won’t help you increase performance where no performance is available. Instead, we’ll try to allocate memory, set scratch disks, change the properties in different sections and monitor our processes to make use of wasted performance. Nowadays, it shouldn’t be a problem to find, buy and work with a decent system, so we won’t talk about hardware and what system to choose. But feel free to leave a comment, if you have any questions.

With different Photoshop versions to choose from, you should think about why you are using the current version or why you want to upgrade to a specific version. If you are only working with still images and don’t plan or need to integrate 3D objects or any other special features, you should think about getting the standard version. On the other hand, users who work in these areas should consider buying or upgrading to the extended version. Each version has special requirements besides the general requirements, which will later affect the performance on your system.

Photoshop Preferences

Now it’s time to jump into Photoshop. The default configuration are neither bad, nor perfect. Each one of us has different needs and a different workflow, that’s why we’ll take a look at all the different settings to make sure each one of us is happy.

Since some features are not necessarily required like the Zoom or smoother Hand moving feature, we’ll try to disable different features or plug-ins to reduce the launch time, optimize other preferences and make the most of our RAM and even more. Open the Preferences by going to the Photoshop menu (Mac) or Edit > Preferences (PC) and let’s start.

After the Preferences Window opens, you’ll find a simple and easy to choose list on the left side. These are the different sections that we’ll work off. You can access these sections from the General Preferences Window as we did or by selecting them directly by going to Edit > Preferences > Section (Windows) or Photoshop > Preferences > Section (Mac).

General

The first General section helps you configure some of the more common features that affect the workflow. You should spend some time experimenting with these settings to find the best solution for you. The flick panning is a good example. Although it’s a cool feature, it’s not necessarily speeding up your work. You can simply disable the features and later enable them whenever you want to use them. Note, that the changes take effect the next time you start Photoshop.

Color Picker

Let’s you choose between Windows, Mac or Adobe Color.

Image Interpolation

Let’s you choose between Nearest Neighbor, Bilinear or Bicubic, which focus on different ways of constructing new data points within the current range.

Options

Some of these features heavily rely on RAM. Try to experiment with the options to keep a little dynamic while disabling unimportant features, which are intended to catch one’s eye instead of being useful.

History Log

History Log is disabled by default, but it could be useful in some cases. By enabling it, Photoshop will log all your steps while working and save them in an external file. This could be interesting for tutorial writers or anybody who wants to track one’s workflow. Note, that this feature will require additional RAM.

Interface

This section provides different options for interface style and management. By playing with these settings, you can style, dynamically open, close or move different panels or palettes.

General

These options help visualize the interface for easier navigation and better understanding.

Panels & Documents

If screen size doesn’t permit you to display all needed panels at the same time, you should choose to remember panel locations and close or collapse your panels when clicking away. That way you’ll increase your workspace. Note, Photoshop needs to store the information in the RAM which will affect the performance.

UI Text Options

Let’s you choose your Interface language and font size.

File Handling

File Saving Options

Each time you save a file, Photoshop adds additional information or even small thumbnails for better compatibility and preview. The more information you add to your file, the bigger it will get. You can set the options to Ask for better control. Photoshop will then ask you what to do before saving your file.

File Compatibility

You can additionally experiment with the options for RAW-files and Version Cue. The Camera RAW Preferences provide useful options like the RAW-file Cache size or TIFF / JPEG Handling. You should spend some time experimenting with these settings considering your Camera and workflow.

Version Cue

If you want your projects to be compatible to Version Cue, you should enable the feature, otherwise disable it for smaller file size.

Recent Projects

At the bottom of this section, you’ll find an option to set the the number of projects you want to be listed in the recent file list (File > Open Recent).

Performance

Our main focus in this tutorial is the performance. So far, we were able to increase performance slightly. This is the place where we can boost our performance dramatically. Setting everything to the maximum isn’t the best solution. Therefore, read the following paragraphs which should help you decide.

Memory Usage

The first and easiest way of increasing Photoshop performance is allocating more memory to Photoshop by moving the slider to the right. RAM is one of the main requirements besides your processor speed and hard disk space. Depending on your system, Photoshop will be able to work with up to ~1,6GB Ram (32-Bit) or up to ~3,2GB (64-Bit).

Most of the modern PC Systems are 64-Bit ready, so if you ever wondered why you can only use ~1,6GB (32-Bit) or 3,2GB (64-Bit), though you have 4GB or more, you should consider an upgrade to a better OS and the 64-Bit version of Photoshop. As you can see, upgrading your RAM only increases performance when working with the proper OS and Photoshop version. When planning an upgrade, always remember that your OS and other processes need RAM too.

History & Cache

By default, Photoshop saves 20 history states. It is difficult to weigh whether you should decide in favor of history states or performance. If this is the first time you’ve heard about the history states or rarely use them, you can set it to 5 or 10. Other users should keep an eye on their workflow to find the best level.

You should consider Image-cache, when working with high-resolution images. Caching Images decreases time needed for updating the image while working in different zoom levels. Photoshop creates images with lower resolution which are used to update quickly. The higher the Cache level, the more levels Photoshop will create for you to display. Which will require more RAM. You can set your value between 1 and 8. I recommend using this feature when working with high-resolution images. When working with smaller images, it’s not necessarily required.

Scratch Disks

When your computer doesn’t have enough RAM to perform an operation, Photoshop uses free space on any available drive to save special files. Photoshop provides the functionality to set up to four scratch disks, which are similar to virtual memory.

By default, Photoshop uses your primary hard disk as the scratch disk. You should change that, because it can slow down performance if your operating system uses it to for its virtual memory needs or space is limited. You should prefer internal hard disks instead of external or removable drives, but make sure you set the scratch disk to a defragmented hard disk which has plenty of free space and high revolution.

Photoshop requires at least 1GB of free disk space, but more is better. With a maximum of 64 EB you should be able to boost your Performance using scratch disks, that’s for sure. In most cases one or two extra drives should be sufficient, but investing in a powerful RAID systems should definitely increase your performance when working on bigger projects with huge file sizes.

GPU Settings

Photoshop automatically detects your display card. If it is OpenGL compatible, Photoshop will give you the option to enable OpenGL Drawing. By clicking on Advanced Settings, you’ll have additional options for better OpenGL control.

Advanced Settings

The Advanced Settings window should give you an insight on what the GPU is capable of and what its tasks are.

Cursors

I’ve never touched this section and I think I’ll never change the appearance of the cursors. I don’t think this will affect the performance, instead this is just an extra option Adobe offers designers to customize their Photoshop appearance.

Transparency and Gamut

Transparency Settings

Allows you to select a transparency grid size and to choose a color scheme for the transparency grid which shines through your layers.

Gamut Warning

As soon as an image moves out of the CMYK color space, this color will mask the specific areas.

Units and Rulers

Units and Column Size

This section allows you to change the different measurements for units, types, rulers or column size. For example, change your type measure from points to pixel or vice versa. Depending on the final output, you should prefer pixels for screen output or pica, inches or points for print.

New Document Preset Resolutions

When creating a new document, Photoshop asks you what resolution to work with. You can set the default values here.

Point / Pica Size

Choose between PostScript or Traditional.

Guides, Grids and Slices

You can’t create high quality designs and layouts without using guides, grids or slices. They help you align and measure your designs perfectly. Different Images with different colors could cause problems detecting the guides in the image. This sections gives you some options to customize your guides, grids and slices for better visualization.

Plug-Ins

Each time you launch Photoshop, it loads Plug-Ins and presets with it. Some of them are useful, some not. We can temporarily disable Plug-Ins which we rarely use and enable them at a later time whenever needed. To disable a plug-in, navigate to the Plug-Ins folder inside the Photoshop install folder and then insert a ~ in front of the plug-in name.

Plug-Ins Folder

By organizing your Plug-Ins in folders, and adding them to this section will, it will ensure better control and better performance. You can later disable the whole folder instead of searching for the single Plug-Ins.

Extensions

Adobe Kuler is one of the cool extensions integrated into Photoshop. By disabling these options, Kuler won’t be able to connect and download the color schemes from the Kuler network. If you aren’t using any of the extensions, you can disable this feature and save some RAM in the background.

Type

This sections of no importance for any notable increase in performance, but offers options for Quotes, Text types and Preview sizes. This is another section where I wouldn’t change anything. You could change the size of the Font Preview Drop-down menu, but that could cause delays.

Tips and Links

Thumbnails and Snapshots

Each layer has its own Thumbnail to preview what’s on the layer. You can change the size of the thumbnails or even disable them. I wouldn’t disable them, but if you are working on a slow system with less RAM you should definitely consider smaller thumbnails.

In addition to the History states, Photoshop offers Snapshots which are very useful, but they are stored in your RAM which makes Photoshop slower. Again, if you’ve never used this feature, then you can disable it.

Layers and Channels

The number of layers and alpha channels in your file can also impact on the size of your file or the time needed to save it. By deleting empty layers or merging them together, you can minimize your file size and the time needed for saving and opening the files.

Fonts and Styles

If you like to add hundreds of Fonts to your library, Photoshop will require more time to load all the fonts while it starts. It’s better to clear out unused fonts. You should try out some font management utilities like Suitcase (Windows and Mac OS) or Font Agent (Mac OS). This also applies to brushes, gradients, custom shapes, styles, patterns and other freebies you download. Clearing your lists will definitely help shorten launch time.

Conclusion

I hope this tutorial was useful for you. Feel free to leave a comment, if it helped increase performance on your system. I’ll try to answer your questions, should there be any. Thanks.

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April 24, 2009 | Filed Under Html, Photoshop, Print Design, Web Design, Web Trends | Comments Off 

50 Inspirational Quotes on the Art & Science of Design

Simple quotes can hold timeless and moving lessons. As designers, we’re lucky to have an exceptional pool of people who have spearheaded the industry over the years, crafting clever insights based on years of experience. Other contributors to this list aren’t designers at all, but have given an outsider’s fascinating insight into the world of design.

Our hope is that these quotes will hope you approach your workday with a sense of inspiration and focus on what you really want to achieve.

We want these quotes to help as many designers as possible, so if one of them really strikes you, make sure to tweet it to your designer friends!

1. James Randolph Adams

Great designers seldom make great advertising men, because they get overcome by the beauty of the picture - and forget that merchandise must be sold.

2. Milton Glaser

The real issue is not talent as an independent element, but talent in relationship to will, desire and persistence.

3. Charles Eames

Design is an expression of the purpose, and it may (if it is good enough) later be judged as art; design depends largely on constraints and it is a method of action (there are always constraints and these usually include ethic).

4. Douglas Adams

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

5. Milton Glaser

To design is to communicate clearly by whatever means you can control or master.

6. John Maeda

If there were a prerequisite for the future successful digital creative, it would be the passion for discovery.

7. Kate Krebs

Waste is a design flaw.

8. Clement Mok

Design, in its broadest sense, is the enabler of the digital era - it’s a process that creates order out of chaos, that renders technology usable to business. Design means being good, not just looking good.

9. John D. Berry

Only when the design fails does it draw attention to itself; when it succeeds, it’s invisible.

10. Jorge Frascara

Good graphic design solutions to communication problems can improve the flow of information in society and, therefore, substantially and positively affect education, social well-being and the daily enjoyment of life. In addition, good graphic design solutions can also have a positive economic impact.

11. David Hockney

Art has to move you and design does not, unless it’s a good design for a bus.

12. Scott Adams

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Design is knowing which ones to keep.

13. Freeman Thomas

Good design begins with honesty, asks tough questions, comes from collaboration and from trusting your intuition.

14. Milton Glaser

There are three responses to a piece of design – yes, no, and WOW! Wow is the one to aim for.

15. Stanley Morrison

Type design moves at the pace of the most conservative reader. The good type-designer therefore realizes that, for a new fount to be successful, it has to be so good that only very few recognize its novelty.

16. Jenaiha Woods

Design is the contrast of the core of limitations therefore there are no boundaries. It is simply an interpretation of creativity.

17. Jeffery Veen

Designers can create normalcy out of chaos; they can clearly communicate ideas through the organizing and manipulating of words and pictures.

18. Adrian Frutiger

If you remember the shape of your spoon at lunch, it has to be the wrong shape. The spoon and the letter are tools; one to take food from the bowl, the other to take information off the page… When it is a good design, the reader has to feel comfortable because the letter is both banal and beautiful.

19. Jan Tschichold

Perfect typography is certainly the most elusive of all arts. Sculpture in stone alone comes near it in obstinacy.

20. Massimo Vignelli

I see graphic design as the organization of information that is semantically correct, syntactically consistent and pragmatically understandable.

21. Zuzana Licko

The most popular typefaces are the easiest to read; their popularity has made them disappear from conscious cognition. It becomes impossible to tell if they are easy to read because they are commonly used, or if they are commonly used because they are easy to read.

22. Adrian Frutiger

Helvetica is the jeans, and Univers the dinner jacket. Helvetica is here to stay.

23. David Carson

If you have no intuitive sense of design, then call yourself an “information architect” and only use Helvetica.

24. Alexander Gelman

Any good typeface can be completely destroyed when misused or extensively overused. Helvetica seemed to sustain a beating like no other. Still fresh, still popular, Helvetica is king.

25. Paola Antonelli

Designers may be the true intellectuals of the future.

26. Erik Adigard

Design is in everything we make, but it’s also between those things. It’s a mix of craft, science, storytelling, propaganda, and philosophy.

27. Steff Geissbuhler

I have never designed a logotype without first trying it in Helvetica. It is still the most versatile, classic and readable of all typefaces.

28. Michael Ian Kaye

What a graphic designer tries to do is make sure the typography is emotionally consistent with the brand.

29. Massimo Vignelli

The life of a designer is a life of fight. Fight against the ugliness. Just like a doctor fights against disease. For us, the visual disease is what we have around, and what we try to do is cure it somehow with design.

30. Roi James

Great design is all about details. With innovative material selection, sensible construction techniques and modern aesthetics one can craft a unique design language that sets a new standard.

31. Frederic W. Goudy

Anyone that would letterspace blackletter would steal sheep.

32. Eric Gill

There are now about as many different varieties of letters as there are different kinds of fools.

33. Wolfgang Weingart

Berthold is still a good typeface, but even Berthold has some less than attractive features, and then I just cut them off because I didn’t like them.

34. Luke Wroblewski

Visual organization is the deliberate prioritization of meaning within a visual design. It’s the process of applying the principles behind perception - how we make sense of what we see - to illuminate relationships between content and actions.

35. Jeff I. Richards

Creative without strategy is called ‘art’. Creative with strategy is called ‘advertising’.

36. Serge Zuev

The original idea makes design distinctive, function makes it work and quality adds value.

37. Don Newgren

Design is intelligence made visible.

38. John Maeda

Skill in the digital age is confused with mastery of digital tools, masking the importance of understanding materials and mastering the elements of form.

39. Paul Rand

It is no secret that the real world in which the designer functions is not the world of art, but the world of buying and selling.

40. Linda van Deursen

Grids do not exist in a vacuum. They exist in relation to the content. We never start with a grid. We start with an idea which is then translated into a form, a structure.

41. Steve Jobs

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.

42. Richard Grefé

Design is the intermediary between information and understanding.

43. Nolan Bushnell

The ultimate inspiration is the deadline.

44. George Santayana

Graphic design is the paradise of individuality, eccentricity, heresy, abnormality, hobbies and humors.

45. Hans Hofmann

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.

46. Jon Franklin

Simplicity, carried to an an extreme, becomes elegance.

47. Edward R. Tufte

Confusion and clutter are the failure of design, not the attributes of information.

48. C.W. Ceram

Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple.

49. Jim Jarmusch

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it.

50. Robin Mathew

Design is where science and art break even.

April 23, 2009 | Filed Under Html, Photoshop, Print Design, Web Design, Web Trends | Comments Off 

Wolves Digital Painting Screencast by Jonathan Woodward

Jonathan walks us through an illustration he did of wolves, sharing some solid-gold tips on the digital illustration process along the way. Jonathan also talks about his journey to becoming a professional illustrator.

This video is a speed painting with commentary. You’ll see some great digital painting in this screencast by Jonathan Woodward, created exclusively for Psdtuts+.

April 22, 2009 | Filed Under Html, Photoshop, Print Design, Web Design, Web Trends | Comments Off 

How to Create a Surreal Fantasy Scene - Psd Plus Tutorial

We have another professional Psd Plus tutorial exclusively available to Plus members today. If you want to take your Photoshop photo-manipulation skills to the next level, then we have an exciting tutorial for you. Discover how to combing a plethora of images, while controlling lighting, shadows, and color!

Learn Complex Photo-Manipultion Techniques in this Psd Plus Tutorial

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to assemble a surreal illustration using stock images. Attention to detail and observing how light reacts in the real-world is the key factor when combing multiple photographs – all of which have different degrees of light, shadow and color. You’ll make extensive use of adjustment layers to blend them together. You’ll also learn some great photo-manipulation techniques along the way, like using selections to create realistic snowfall.

For the complex cut-outs such as the animals it’s worth investing, or at least trying a demo of Fluid Mask, which provides comprehensive and easy to use tools that make easy work of isolating difficult areas such as fur. The Fluid Mask website also has some great video tutorials.

Plus members can Log in and Download! If you’re not a member, you can of course join today! You can view the large version here.

Precise and Detailed Instructions Inside

Plus members can Log in and Download! Otherwise, Join Now! Below are some sample images from the tutorial.

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PSD Plus Membership

As you know, we run a premium membership system here called ‘Plus’ that costs $9 a month (or $22 for 3 months!) which gives members access to the Source files for tutorials as well as periodic extra tutorials, like this one! You’ll also get access to Net Plus and Vector Plus, too. If you’re a Plus member, you can log in and download the tutorial. If you’re not a member, you can of course join today!

Also, don’t forget to subscribe to the Psdtuts+ RSS Feed to stay up to date with the latest Photoshop tutorials and articles.

April 22, 2009 | Filed Under Html, Photoshop, Print Design, Web Design, Web Trends | Comments Off 

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