Burning Up the Web - April Roundup
Tutorials
Creating trees in Illustrator
This is a great tutorial on creating a vector tree. It gives techniques on tracing a tree from a photograph as a starting point. Then shows you how to build up shadows and highlights with shapes and brush tools. It also explains using individual shapes for each leaf. Then it shows how to build the leafy areas of the tree into groups that have a natural feel. The final effect is a fun vector design that has a bit of realistic cartoon image style.
Swirl Mania In Illustrator & Photoshop
This tutorial covers quite a few ways to make swirls in Illustrator. I'm particularly interested in seeing such interesting work down with simple gradient meshes. Looks like a good way to get started with that tool, while achieving nice results. The swirls created are then brought into Photoshop as Smart Objects and the final rasterized illustration is created. It's a great tutorial that starts in Illustrator and ends in Photoshop.
Illustrator Tutorial: Disco Ball
This tutorial shows you how to create a simple texture and use it with Map Art and 3D Revolve to create a cool disco ball. The techniques used in this tutorial are really cool.
Create a Rotatable Globe in Adobe Illustrator
This is another tutorial where Map Art and 3D Revolve are used to create the graphic. In this case a map is turned into a globe. This month Chris also gives us a tip I wasn't aware of on Wrapping Text Around an Image in Illustrator.
Illustrator Pucker and Bloat Effect and more
Veerle shows us how to make some happy shapes with the Pucker and Bloat Effects It's an easy to follow tutorial with a fun result.
Creating Lips using Mesh tool
Asmaa creates some lips with basic shapes tools and shapes. Multiple screen shots show each step in creating this lips. This is a simple introduction to the Mesh Tool as well.
Freebies
Vector Wallpaper "Asian Girl" II
DaPino's Blog is an awesome resource for free vector graphics. This month has seen another surge of available graphics given away. This wallpaper design is made up of clean elegant vector goodness.
Vector Mustang
A really cool vector car is available over at Vecteezy. Great detail in this. It looks realistic at small sizes. If you download it you can see the vector shapes that make up the design at larger sizes. No Mesh used in the design.
Gold Wheel
A really cool vector car rim is available over at Vecteezy. Great detail in this. This one does use a Gradient Mesh. Super realistic and shiny. The artist did a great job.
Free Vector Series: Andys Paint & Textures
Some usable paint texture. Nice and rough. A couple of the textured have tiled patterns in them as well.
Articles
Inspirational Hyperreal Vector Artists and Images
This is a cool collection of Vector artists and artwork I put together for Smashing Magazine. Some of these artists use the Gradient Mesh Tool to create their work, others use flat shapes. Displayed in this article is "work that ranges from strong Hyperrealism to work that is more a stylization of reality." So, there is a wide range of work on display from artists with a talent for mixing realism with a heavy dose of style.
2 Big Announcements!
Collis launched a new tutorial site. This one is dedicated to web design, and it's called NETTUTS. Also, I took on the role of Editor at PSDTUTS. I'm really excited to be involved. I'd been a fan of the site since it first launched. It's great to be on board with Eden on this project.
Sergio Ordóñez Suánez Interview
Sergio has an inspiring story of entering the graphics field on his own as a freelancer. He has tremendous drawing skills, and a strong bright cartoon style. He works mostly in Photoshop, but does work in Vector as well. He wrote a tutorial on working in vector called Vectorial illustration with Illustrator. The interview covers his process and he gives business tips as well.
The Role of Sketching in the Design Process
"As a tool, or skill, sketching has its role in the design process. That role will vary depending on: The end product being created, the size and scope of the project, the individual designer's style, experience, and workflow, and the client's expectations. Find out more about how sketching is used in the design process within multiple design disciplines."
7 Principles of Effective Icon Design
This article is a good primer on icon design. If your looking for some advice on how to get started then check it out. It also points to some of the best resources on the web for the subject of icon design. I wrote this article for PSDTUTS.
Inspirational PDF Magazines
This is the first article I made the front page of Digg with. It got there in the Design category, of course. The article covers freely available PDF Design mags. One of them is Vectorika. I wrote a review of that Mag here on AiBURN, Inspiration: Vektorika Magazine. There are about twenty Mags pointed out in the Smashing article.
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Bunch! :D
There is a bunch of great links there. Thanks! :P
Markus
May 1st, 2008
yes cool stuff :P greez ...
yes cool stuff :P
greez ...
MAD_MAN
May 1st, 2008
Congrats!
Congrats on your position as Editor at PSDTuts! That's quite a responsibility I would imagine!
T9 David
May 1st, 2008
Tutorials
I'd consider writing some tutorials for this site.
Grant Friedman
May 3rd, 2008
Tutorial Writing
@Grant - Sounds great. It's cool to watch your progression. I like seeing your polished work and your experiments. I'll send you an email about writing tutorials here.
Thanks for stopping by everybody.
Sean Hodge
May 3rd, 2008
Congrats!
Hey Sean - I just wanted to say congratulations on becoming the PSDTUT editor! And great work with growing your blog's traffic.
mark @ mytropicalescape
May 27th, 2008
Thanks for stopping by
@Mark - Thanks for stopping by.
Sean Hodge
May 27th, 2008
Your tips rocks!
The tutorials are second to none. Keep up the good work.
SEO Singapore
June 2nd, 2008
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