At Audiotuts we’ve seen the return of the Workshops (keep them coming, guys), and enthusiastic support for our weekly competition. And you’ve continued to ask for more tutorials on music theory. We’ve heard you. Finally, a new, exciting Tuts+ initiative is just around the corner. Stay tuned.

Audio Plus

Our Plus Program offers tutorials that go into even more detail than our freebies, spilling the beans on the techniques used by professionals in the field. We also give subscribers exclusively commissioned sample and loop packs which you can use freely in your commercial compositions.

Subscribing to Audio Plus you’ll also get access to exclusive Plus content from all other participating Tuts+ sites, now including Ae Plus. $9 will unlock the doors to high-end video training, tutorials, source files and sample, brush and vector packs worth hundreds of dollars.

Interested in winning yourself a Plus subscription? Stay tuned for an announcement in the near future.

• 

  Plus Members Now Have Access to Ae Plus

  Now that we’ve added Aetuts+ to our Plus family, Plus members will begin to receive weekly bonus tutorials and AE project files for Aetuts+. We hope you’ve also been enjoying your access to exclusive tutorials, video lessons, source files, brushes, audio samples and vector packs from Nettuts+, Psdtuts+, Audiotuts+ and Vectortuts+. Thank you so much for supporting the sites and helping us to cover costs – with mounting bandwidth, content and management expenses, these sites would not exist without their Plus members!

  Visit Article

• 

  The Recording Artist’s Workflow: From Writing to Mastering – Audio Plus

  In this week’s Audio Plus content, Joel Falconer teaches you how to optimize the process and flow of a recording project, enabling you to use your time in the studio more effectively.

  Visit Article

• 

  How to Create the Elements of a Drum ‘n’ Bass Track – Audio Plus

  In this week’s Audio Plus content, Andy Slatter shows you how to design a reese bass sound from scratch, how to make a custom drum kit and program a classic D’n’B drum pattern, and edit some vocals to produce a cool timestretched effect. While the screenshots of this tutorial are taken in Cubase 5, the techniques are transferable to other DAWs. The emphasis is more about the plugin synths and effects, which are all freeware.

  Visit Article

• 

  An Introduction to Creating Beats – Audio Plus

  In this week’s Audio Plus content, Ryan Leach teaches you how to put a good beat together by use of two examples—one using regular kit sounds, and the other with electronic sounds.

  Visit Article

• 

  The Secret Of Recording Great Sounds – Audio Plus

  In this week’s Audio Plus content, Bobby Owsinski texplains how technique trumps equipment when it comes to capturing great sounds.

  Visit Article

Workshops

• 

  Workshop #8: Galactic Love by NewNobility

  At Audiotuts+ we irregularly put up a reader track for workshopping and critique (find out how to submit a track). This is how it works: you upload your song, and every couple of weeks we’ll publish one here and step away from the podium. The floor is yours to talk about the track and how the artist can fix problems in and improve upon the mix and the song.

  Visit Article

• 

  Workshop #9: Desire by Dave White

  At Audiotuts+ we irregularly put up a reader track for workshopping and critique (find out how to submit a track). This is how it works: you upload your song, and every couple of weeks we’ll publish one here and step away from the podium. The floor is yours to talk about the track and how the artist can fix problems in and improve upon the mix and the song.

  Visit Article

Open Mic

• 

  Open Mic: Tell Us About Your Rhythm Track Techniques

  The rhythm track gives life to a song, and hours and days can vanish trying to tweak them just right. There are a bunch of ways to produce rhythm tracks. What is your favorite?

  Visit Article

• 

  Open Mic: Tell Us About Your DAW of Choice

  Digital audio workstation software is the central hub of music production. Which program do you use?

  Visit Article

• 

  Open Mic: Tell Us About the Music-related Sites You Regularly Visit

  The Internet is a great place to keep up-to-date, learn and network. If you’re reading this you probably visit the Audiotuts site regularly. What other music-related sites do you find helpful?

  Visit Article

• 

  Open Mic: Tell Us About the Monitor Speakers You Use

  Music only sounds as good as the speakers you play it through. What monitor speakers do you use?

  Visit Article

Better Rhythm Tracks

• 

  How to Create Grooves with Edited Drum Loops

  It’s often pretty straight forward to create and program a basic beat. The real challenge comes when we try to introduce a groove that gives our track soul and character. This tutorial looks at how we can build a groove using existing loops in our library without using them in their entirety. The result is an original groove that often feel as if they have been ‘played’.

  Visit Article

• 

  How to Create the Elements of a Drum ‘n’ Bass Track – Audio Plus

  In this week’s Audio Plus content, Andy Slatter shows you how to design a reese bass sound from scratch, how to make a custom drum kit and program a classic D’n’B drum pattern, and edit some vocals to produce a cool timestretched effect. While the screenshots of this tutorial are taken in Cubase 5, the techniques are transferable to other DAWs. The emphasis is more about the plugin synths and effects, which are all freeware.

  Visit Article

• 

  How to Use Logic Pro 9’s Drum Replacer

  Drum replacement is a tool that comes in handy when recorded drums just won’t work with the rest of the track. Whether that’s because of a badly placed mic or the wrong kit was recorded, technology has made it easy to swap in some more appropriate samples while retaining the dynamic characteristics of the original recording. I’ve long wished that Logic would adopt drum replacement abilities like those Pro Tools has, and with Logic Pro 9 it did — and it does it much better, too.

  Visit Article

• 

  An Introduction to Creating Beats – Audio Plus

  In this week’s Audio Plus content, Ryan Leach teaches you how to put a good beat together by use of two examples—one using regular kit sounds, and the other with electronic sounds.

  Visit Article

• 

  Drum Replacement in Logic

  The basic rhythm track drives the song forward, and everything else
  builds upon it. You may have written your song on an acoustic
  guitar and laid that down first, but drums are usually the backbone
  of a song, keeping everything well structured and grooving. But what
  if you don’t know how to record drums? Or you end up with
  someone’s recording that’s so bad that you’d rather tap pencils
  on your desk. Drum replacement may be an option.

  Visit Article

Using Synthesizers

• 

  11 Soft Synths to Add to Your Rack

  Synthesizers are amazing instruments. I used to love watching videos of Vangelis, Rick Wakeman, Keith Emerson and Jean Michel Jarre play their racks of synths in the 70s and 80s. Their arms would jump from keyboard to keyboard with practiced precision, their fingers hitting buttons, moving sliders and changing patches between phrases.

  Visit Article

• 

  How to Make a Trance Lead Synth in Reason 4

  Reason 4 is a brilliant synth-creating tool. The Thor Polysonic Synthesizer is one of the most powerful synths about and this tutorial will explain the basics of using it to create a massive trance lead synth patch.

  Visit Article

• 

  A Basic Guide to Subtractive Synthesis (Part 2)

  This is the second part in a series of screencasts about subtractive synthesis. In this part we take a close look at modulators, LFOs and external controllers. Hope fully these two tutorials will give you a basic all round knowledge of a standard subtractive synthesiser.

  Visit Article

DAW Techniques

• 

  Using Automation in Pro Tools 8

  Automation is an important tool for creating polished mixes. You can use it to fix problems, introduce and enhance effects, and to vary the mix levels throughout different sections of a song. If you haven’t learned to use automation in Pro Tools 8, you’re missing out on a lot of functionality.

  Visit Article

• 

  How to Layer Sequences to Create Depth and Pace

  A simple pattern can sometimes sound a little dry and clinical. The answer often doesn’t lie in reprogramming the sequence or using heavy effects processing. A more simple approach can be using one or two extra synths layered with your original pattern. This can add depth and pace to the whole piece and often make the part more exciting.

  Visit Article

• 

  How to Group Tracks in Pro Tools 8

  Dealing with sessions that are fairly track-heavy can be a difficult process — even a song with as few as ten tracks gets a little tough to manage. Grouping is a feature of Pro Tools 8 that makes it easier to deal with sections of your project in bulk, saving you time and yielding more accurate results.

  Visit Article

• 

  Quantizing Audio with Logic Pro 9’s Flex Time

  Logic Pro 9 introduced the “Flex Time” feature which is a set of tools for manipulating audio rhythm and timing data the way you would edit MIDI. I’m going to be covering Flex Time in detail and how you can use it in detail, but in this tutorial we’ll get our feet wet with some basic audio quantization.

  Visit Article

And More

• 

  Secondary Dominants and How to Use Them

  For this tutorial we’re going to explore the idea of Secondary Dominants and how they can be used to create tension and release in more harmonically complex and interesting ways. We’ll discuss what they are, some of the different ways they can be used, and then show some examples from real music.

  Visit Article

• 

  How to Use the Pioneer SVM-1000 Audio-Video Mixer Part 1

  In this video tutorial Johnathan Lewis shows us what the Pioneer SVM-1000 mixer can do and how it works.

  Visit Article

• 

  Top 8 Songs about Climate Change

  “Climate change is now widely recognized as the major environmental problem facing the globe.” (UNEP) Global warming and climate change are an important and controversial topics. They have raised strong feelings on both sides of the debate. Where do you stand?

  Visit Article

• 

  iTunes for Composers

  iTunes is a straightforward and simple application for organizing and listening to music. You probably don’t need someone to explain to you how it works. But there are a few unique features of iTunes that a lot people don’t take advantage of. If you’re a composer/producer/songwriter with a lot of music to keep track of, getting the most out of iTunes can vastly improve your workflow.

  Visit Article

• 

  Will Online Music Production Ever Take Off?

  I spend more of my time working online every year. I communicate through Gmail, Twitter and Facebook online. I write documents and balance spreadsheets online. I take notes and highlight important information online. I keep my appointments, tasks and contacts lists online. And I can access them from any computer I happen to be using – as long as it’s online. Will I ever be able to do that when producing music?

  Visit Article

Aetuts+ – After Effects Tutorials

• 

  Simulate a Realistic Sniper Scope Perspective – AE Plus

  My tutorial deals with a VFX shot that’s easy to attempt but hard to master: A convincing looking sniper scope view.
  I will outline the assets that I provide in Photoshop and the principles of accomplishing the intended outcome. In After Effects I’ll make use of pre-compositions, motion tracking and some easy expressions. For clarity’s purpose I’ll get into details about optical phenomena when necessary.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Form a Unique Transition

  In this tutorial we are going to reveal how to create a cool particle transition between 2 videos using Trapcode Form. We will cover the importance of layer maps while using this plugin as well as how to create a stylish displacement of the particles.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Making Your Color Scheme a Whole Lot Kuler!

  Adobe Kuler is a great resource for color themes that is perfectly integrated in all Adobe CS4 software – except for After Effects. But this has changed now.

  Continue Reading

• 

  The Best Sound You’ll Ever See!

  Satya is back with a new tutorial that will help you look as good as you sound. This technique has many options so sit back and learn how to create an attractive visual generated from your audio spectrum.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Terminate Your Footage With Expressions

  Sep 21st in VFX by Ben McEwan If you’re wanting to help to save Sarah Connor then maybe this tutorial will give you an insider’s perspective on what to do. Ben McEwan has created a 3 Day Series crammed full of useful expressions to create the UI found in the Terminator.

  Continue Reading

Nettuts+ – Web Development Tutorials

• 

  11 Classic CSS Techniques Made Simple with CSS

  We’ve all had to achieve some effect that required an extra handful of divs or PNGs. We shouldn’t be limited to these old techniques when there’s a new age coming. This new age includes the use of CSS3. In today’s tutorial, I’ll show you eleven different time-consuming effects that can be achieved quite easily with CSS3.

  Visit Article

• 

  20 HTML Forms Best Practices for Beginners

  Working with XHTML forms can be somewhat daunting; they not only use some niche HTML elements, but also blur the line between static content and user interaction. Let’s review some things to remember when creating your next form.

  Visit Article

• 

  Search Engine Optimization 101

  Your website may be top notch but what’s the use of an online presence if no one can find it? In this quick start guide to search engine optimization we’ll review an assortment of tactics to increase your page ranking.

  Visit Article

• 

  How to Design and Code a Flexible Website

  In this tutorial, we’re going to be designing and coding a simple blog-style web-page. We’ll pay special attention to making our design flexible and accessible by using clean and simple XHTML and CSS. This tutorial is aimed at beginners, and anyone looking to improve the accessibility of their web designs.

  Visit Article

• 

  Getting Clean with PHP

  Data security is important and often undervalued by designers, developers, and clients alike. Since PHP 5.2.0, data sanitization and validation has been made significantly easier with the introduction of data filtering. Today, we’re going to take a closer look at these filters, how to use them, and build a few custom functions.

  Visit Article

Psdtuts+ – Photoshop

• 

  Render a Cereal Box Cover from Scratch Using Photoshop’s 3D Tools

  Hi everyone! This time I’ve got for you a fun tutorial, we’ll create a cereal box design from scratch, using only Photoshop. We will render several fruit flavored cereal loops using the Photoshop’s CS4 Extended 3D tools, apply textures to the loops, bump the surfaces and mock-up them into a real 2D image. Are you ready?

  Continue Reading

• 

  Create a Big Air Event Poster with Photoshop and Illustrator – Psd Plus Tutorial

  We have another Psd Plus tutorial exclusively available to Plus members today. If you want to take your Photoshop and Illustrator integration skills to the next level, then we have an exciting poster design tutorial for you. Learn more at the jump!

  Continue Reading

• 

  Create an Intense Movie Poster in Photoshop

  Designers love to be critical about movie posters, and while you may think you have better ideas about how to sell a movie to an audience, how many times have you actually tried doing it? In this tutorial, we’re going to create a poster for a fictional movie called “Fugitive.” The movie is meant to be a suspenseful thriller that features one’s escape under the cover of darkness, despite man’s attempt to capture the lone hero. Thin and cheesy plot? Check. Awesome opportunity to better your PSD skills? You got it!

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Create Eroded Metal Text with Photoshop

  In this tutorial I’ll show you how to create an eroded metal text effect. Throughout this tutorial we’ll make use of various drawing techniques, channels, and patterns.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Add Fantastic Color to 3D Text – Part I

  This is the first part of a two part series. Part two will be released tomorrow. In this piece you will learn how to bring a simple text to life and place everything in fantastic, colored and glowing 3D space. Some neat techniques covered here will allow you to bring your art to the next level. Don’t miss it! There are two parts to this tutorial: Part I and Part II.

  Continue Reading

Vectortuts+ – Vector & Illustrator

• 

  How to Create a Golden, Vector Compass in Illustrator

  In this tutorial I will take you through the steps and techniques of creating a golden compass. For this tutorial I’ve used just Adobe Illustrator and a heavy dose of ingenuity.

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Create a Yellow Submarine Icon with Gradient Meshes – Vector Plus Tutorial

  We have another great Vector Plus tutorial available exclusively for Plus members today. If you want to learn how to use gradient mesh, pattern brushes and other advanced Illustrator tools to create a shiny submarine, then we have an awesome tutorial for you. Learn more about this tutorial at the jump!

  Continue Reading

• 

  Build a Promotional iPhone App Website Wireframe in Fireworks

  Fireworks is a great tool for creating a wireframe and while it doesn’t work perfect with Photoshop, you can export over there and then build off your wireframe. We’ll cover the design process of creating a wireframe for an iPhone application website in Fireworks. For those of you not familiar with this program, it will be a good jumping off point for using it to wireframe your web design projects. This is a multi-part series and will be fun! Here is Part I of and Part II.

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Create a Caramel Ripple Effect

  In this tutorial, we will create a hot chocolate caramel effect using some distort tools and the 3D revolve tool. This is a simple and effective technique to obtain a quality vector ripple effect quickly. Here we go!

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Create an Energy Saving Bulb in Illustrator

  Here we’re showing how to create an energy saving bulb with the help of the Illustrator’s Mesh Tool. At the beginning it could be quiet hard to work with, but if you get used to it, it’s fairly simple.

  Continue Reading

Activetuts+ – Flash, Flex & ActionScript Tutorials

• 

  Create a Unit Converter Application for Flash Lite Enabled Devices

  Flash Lite is an implementation of the Flash runtime for mobile phones, consumer electronic devices, and Internet-connected digital home devices. According to Adobe, the number of Flash Lite shipped devices will reach 1 billion in 2009 and more than 2.5 billion by the end of 2010, so if you are a Flash Developer it is important to know how this technology works and how it differs from Flash Player for the desktop.

  In this tutorial I’ll guide you through the basics of Flash Lite using the 1.1 version; sacrificing features, but ensuring compatibility.

  Visit Article

• 

  Build a Mini Golf Game with ActionScript 3.0

  In this tutorial I´ll show you how to create nice Mini Golf Game with ActionScript 3.0. We´ll work with Event Handlers, Functions and also the Timer Object which is a really cool feature in AS3.

  Visit Article

• 

  AS3 101: Loops

  Welcome back to AS3 101, the fifth edition! At this point, you should be comfortable with the concepts of variables, functions, conditionals (branching), and Arrays. Not only should you be comfortable with the concepts, but you should also be fluent in how ActionScript 3 implements these concepts.

  For this fifth episode, we’ll be adding to that catalog of skills the various looping structures found in AS3. You’ll find some dependencies on the information learned in AS3 101 Part 4, on Arrays, so if you’ve skipped that one or need a refresher, please review that tutorial before continuing with this one.

  For our final project, we’ll combine loops and arrays, to make a simple shoot-em-up game.

  Visit Article

• 

  Improve Your Memory With an Away3D Game

  In this tutorial we’ll build a 3D memory game. Along the way we’ll look at adding variables and mouseEvents to Away3D objects. Let’s get started..

  Visit Article

• 

  Build a Photo Viewer Using Flex and the Flickr API

  In this tutorial you will learn how to use the as3flickrlib library to create a Flash Flickr photo viewer.

  Visit Article

Phototuts+ – Photography & Post-Processing Tutorials

• 

  Photography Kick-start Guide: Adjusting Your Camera’s Settings for the Photo You Want

  Cameras vary in terms of functions offered. There are differences from one brand to the next and even from one model to another of the same brand. By necessity, this tutorial will have to generalize but let’s try to de-mystify some of the more common settings found on cameras today, what they mean (to the camera) and how to use them.

  Visit Article

• 

  Mastering the Art of Black and White Photography

  In the early days of photography, photographers had no choice but to shoot in black and white, as it was the only available medium. Then, in 1936, the invention of kodachrome gave colour photography to the world. But black and white photography didn’t die off, instead it flourished. Modern black and white photography at it’s best is art, and many photographers regard it as the purest form of photography.

  Visit Article

• 

  Freezing Time: 80 Inspiring Examples of High Speed Photography

  In our last roundup, we covered a selection of amazing HDR images. This time we move onto something completly different, with stunning high speed photography. These images freeze time, and allow us to observe scenes that the naked eye would struggle to capture. It’s definitely worth a look for some great inspiration!

  Visit Article

• 

  8 Tips for Taking Sports Photos Like a Pro

  Are you looking to shoot better sports photos, and make an impact? Sports photography presents you with many opportunities to capture dramatic and vivid imagery that will last a lifetime. No other medium presents you with heart-pounding action, vivid color patterns and unique shooting opportunities.
  The steps and guidance featured in this tutorial cover a broad range of areas – from perfecting shutter speed, to making sure you don’t miss the action.

  Visit Article

• 

  How to Photograph Waterfalls

  Waterfalls are some of the most beautiful natural features you will ever get the opportunity to photograph. But though they can look simply stunning, photographing waterfalls is not easy to do well. How do you avoid your photos being too dark? How do you deal with clipping in the water? How do you compose your photos to capture the authentic beauty of the scene?
  In this tutorial, nature photography expert Steve Berardi shares his best tips for photographing waterfalls.

  Visit Article

Cgtuts+ – CG Tutorials

• 

  Model and Texture a Posh Living Room Scene in Maya

  In this tutorial you will go through the process of modeling and rendering a Living Room in Autodesk Maya. You will also learn to use Mental Ray (along with the new architectural materials), create realistic fur, and implement studio lighting to create nice and soft shadows and highlights.

  Visit Article

• 

  Using Splines to Add Detail to Your High-Poly Model in 3ds Max

  Splines are an often-overlooked aspect of 3ds max when it comes to game art. Most people know that you can use a spline for a wire – but you can also use it for things like grooves, whole objects like handles, and even text! In this tutorial, we’ll take a look at some of these advanced ways that splines can be used to save a lot of time on tasks that would otherwise have to be done by hand.

  Visit Article

• 

  Create a Rocky Video Game Terrain in Blender

  In this series of tutorials you will learn how to create a finished environment for Blender’s Game Engine. The main focus of the series will be texturing and lighting, with the use of some custom 2d filters to enhance the result.

  Visit Article

• 

  Model a Photorealistic Swiss Army Knife in Modo

  Subdivision modeling is an extremely powerful tool that can allow you to add high levels of detail to your models in a relatively short amount of time. In order to use it effectively, however, one must know when, and more importantly, when not to use it. In this three part, beginner to intermediate tutorial series, professional Modo artist, Matt Braeley, will demonstrate how to model a photorealistic Swiss Army knife, using polygonal and subdivision modeling in Luxology’s Modo 302.

  Visit Article

• 

  Build an Advanced Drifting Car Rig in 3ds Max

  In this advanced level tutorial, you will learn all of the steps necessary to build a fully functioning car rig in 3D Studio Max. This rig features working suspension, steering and body roll, as well as some functionality for drifting and powerslides. You will learn how to set up internal functionality through links, constraints, expressions, and parameter wiring. The final result will be a robust rig with easy, and accessible controls.

  Visit Article

Audiotuts+ – Audio and Music

• 

  Introduction to Polyrhythms

  The usage of simple, common time (4/4 time signature, where there are four beats to a measure, and each quarter note gets one beat) is pervasive in Western popular music, including rock, blues, country, folk, pop, and various forms of electronic music including many sub-genres of house and trance music. The four-on-the-floor mindset can be difficult to escape, but every musician and composer can benefit from a study of rhythm that includes a wider variety of time signatures and rhythms.

  Visit Article

• 

  How to Design Reeses and Hoovers

  Have you ever wondered how your favourite dance music producers create those amazing sounds that make you jump on the dance floor? Well, it usually takes a lot of experience and a huge amount of time spent on experimenting and processing sounds a ridiculously high number of times.

  But it’s quite hard to reach the stage of experimentation if you don’t even know the basics behind some kind of sounds often heard in dance tracks. This tutorial will teach you how to design from scratch a DnB trademark, the reese bass, and how to reproduce the infamous hoover sound, introducing you to the technique of resampling.

  Visit Article

• 

  A Beginner’s Introduction to Home Recording

  Home recording technology seems to get better and cost less every year. It puts power in the hands of ordinary people. You’ve probably found this article because you want to get into home recording.

  Most of our tutorials here at Audiotuts are at the intermediate or advanced level. And that’s OK, because you won’t be a beginner forever. But we do have some more basic tutorials and articles aimed at the beginner. This article will refer to many of them, and hopefully give you an overview of what’s involved in getting into home recording.

  Visit Article

• 

  A Basic Guide to Subtractive Synthesis (Part 1)

  This screencast is the first tutorial in a series on synthesis. This first installment shows a basic guided tour of Subtractor in Reason and covers oscillators, filters and envelopes.

  Visit Article

• 

  Is the Public Capable of Recognizing Quality Music?

  Can the average music listener recognize quality? Can they distinguish a virtuoso from a mediocre musician? Can they recognize a “hit” that will still be esteemed a masterpiece in a hundred years? Does “popular” mean the same as “quality”?

  Visit Article

Here is a summary of the last month, and some thoughts about the next. And stay tuned for an announcement of a new Tuts+ initiative starting this month.

• Tell us about your music listening habits.
• Tell us where you store your source files.
• Tell us about your recording studio.
• Tell us whether you use your production computer for other purposes.
• Tell us where you buy your music.

What was the highlight at Audiotuts+ in September for you?

Hit the jump and learn to the max!

Phototuts+ – Photography Tutorials

• 

  7 Tips for Taking Travel Photos Like a Pro

  Travel photography seems so simple. What could be easier than traveling to an exotic location in a beautiful country with a camera and a handful of memory cards and taking some amazing photos? But, when you arrive at your location, you find that it’s a lot harder to take a decent travel photo than it looks. In this tutorial I’ll be sharing seven key tips for taking professional-looking travel photos you will appreciate for years to come.

  Day 1 Continue Reading

• 

  Create a Stunning High-Key Portrait Photo

  Creating weaponry effectively in a next-gen workflow requires detailed knowledge of a variety of very specific skills and tools. In this four part tutorial you will learn how to create a combat knife suitable for use in next-gen games.

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Shoot and Post-Process Professional HDR Photos in One Day

  In this tutorial you will learn the simple secrets of crafting a shoot sequence for HDR and creating professional quality HDR images in both Photomatix and Photoshop (depending on your weapon of choice). Not only will you learn an efficient workflow, but you’ll also learn the theory behind Dynamic Range. This lesson is taught by Peter Tellone, a professional photographer specializing in HDR landscapes.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Photography Kick-start Guide: How Your Camera Works

  Most photography tutorials, including most of the ones you’ll find here on the Tuts+ network of web sites, assume a certain base level of knowledge. But what if you’ve only just decided you want to make the leap into taking photos with manual settings?

  In this tutorial you’ll start to begin to learn the fundamentals of photography – fundamentals that will allow you to start reading and using more advanced tutorials, and manipulating the manual settings on your camera. Here we cover exposure, how the camera works, the shutter, focus, light, depth of field and ISO.

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Use Flash With a Slow Shutter to Create Motion and Ghosts

  Though the still photo is a beautiful thing, it does have its weaknesses – especially when it comes to portraying movement. In this tutorial you’ll learn how to faithfully capture movement by taking photos that use flash and a slow shutter speed. You’ll learn about recommended gear, how to choose appropriate subjects, setting up the shoot, dealing with lighting and choosing the best settings on your camera.

  Continue Reading

Cgtuts+ – 3D Tutorials

• 

  Model a Photorealistic Boss Tu-2 FX Pedal in Modo

  In this two-part tutorial you will learn how to model the Boss Tu-2 FX pedal using Luxology’s Modo 302. Taking advantage of Modo’s workflow enhancing toolset, the model will be highly detailed, and suitable for close up renders from any angle.

  Day 1 Day 2

• 

  Next-Gen Weapon Creation

  Creating weaponry effectively in a next-gen workflow requires detailed knowledge of a variety of very specific skills and tools. In this four part tutorial you will learn how to create a combat knife suitable for use in next-gen games.

  Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4

• 

  How to Export 3D Camera Data from Cinema 4D Into After Effects

  When it comes to motion graphics, exporting camera data from a 3D program to a 2D compositing program is one of the most important techniques you could know. In this tutorial, you will learn the basics behind getting Cinema 4D and After Effects to talk to one another, including using exporting tags, using the camera data in After Effects within 3D layers and effects, and how to set up and tweak your render for the best results.

  Day 1

• 

  An Introduction to Fluid Simulations in Blender

  Learning to simulate realistic fluids in any 3d app is always a challenge, but Blender’s sophisticated solver allows for some very rewarding results.

  In this introduction to Blender fluid simulations, you will learn the basics of how to set up a fluid simulation in Blender with an obstacle, and a few fluid set ups to give you an idea of some of the other things that you can do with Blender fluids.

  Continue Reading

• 

  An Introduction to 3Ds Max: Polygonal Modeling

  In the first part of the series, professional video game artist, Kaleb Aylsworth, walked you through many of the key skills that you will need to get started modeling in 3ds Max. Now, in the second part, he will demonstrate how to apply the things that you have learned by using them to make a low-poly version of Guy van der Walt’s “Retro TV Set”. You can see some more examples of Guy’s work at his portfolio website, Plasticboy.

  Day 1 Day 2

Nettuts+ – Web Development Tutorials

• 

  8 Regular Expressions You Should Really Know

  Regular expressions are a language of their own. When you learn a new programming language, they’re this little sub-language that makes no sense at first glance. Many times you have to read another tutorial, article, or book just to understand the “simple” pattern described. Today, we’ll review eight regular expressions that you should know for your next coding project.

  Visit Article

• 

  Design and Code Your First Website in Easy to Understand Steps

  In this tutorial, we’re going to design and code our first website in simple, easy steps. This tutorial was written for the beginner with the hope that it will give you the tools to write your own standards-compliant websites! It’s a brand new week; maybe it’s time to learn a new skill!

  Visit Article

• 

  30+ PHP Best Practices for Beginners

  PHP is the most widely-used language for programming on the web. Here are thirty best practices for beginners wanting to gain a firmer grasp of the fundamentals.

  Editor’s Note: The “Best Practices” series has been my baby for three articles now. However, due to my focus on the CI video series, I’ve decided to hand off this next entry to Glen. Having said that, I’m not very good at keeping my mouth shut! I thought it might be fun to sporadically add a few rebuttals to his tips. I hope he doesn’t mind!

  Visit Article

• 

  6 Ways to Improve your Web Typography

  Typography on the web is anything but simple, and for many, it is a troubling mystery. Today, we’re going to review six ways that web designers and developers can improve the typography of the sites they create.

  Visit Article

• 

  A Crash-Course in Advanced CSS3 Effects

  Webkit is one of the few – if only – browser engines that really embraces advanced CSS3 effects. Unfortunately, this presents somewhat of a double-edged sword. We get to play with all of these amazing effects – such as CSS masks, reflections, transitions, animations, scaling, etc. – yet, we can’t truly implement them into our projects until more browsers provide support. With all of that said, it’s important to be on the cutting edge of what’s possible.

  In today’s video tutorial, we’ll review a bunch of different neat effects that can be used in Safari 4, Chrome, and for all iPhone development

  Visit Article

Audiotuts+ – Audio Tutorials

• 

  How to Use Multi-band Compression in Mixing and Mastering

  In some of my recent tutorials I have been breaking down the processors used in a typical mastering chain into individual subjects. So far we have looked at buss compression, M/S processing and stereo enhancement. In this tutorial we are going to look at multi-band compression.

  Visit Article

• 

  36 Audio Interfaces Under $1000

  Most computers come with a sound card with line and mic inputs, and many people use these when starting out with audio recording. But if you are serious about the quality of your work, you should avoid them. They have inferior audio to digital converters, and often produce a good deal of noise. You need to choose a professional audio interface that allows you to plug in your mics and instruments, and connects to your computer through a USB, Firewire, PCI or PCMCIA interface.

  Visit Article

• 

  Advanced Drum Editing in Kontakt

  I created this tutorial to serve two purposes. First off, I feel that there is a distinct lack of proper in-depth Kontakt tutorials. This tutorial teaches you everything you need to know to get started with Kontakt 3’s amazing Group editing. Second, I find that there are plenty of threads out there where someone will ask “How do I get my drums to sound like ____?” (Usually Squarepusher). I feel that group editing is the quickest, yet most hands-on way of creating incredible, glitchy beats without relying on VST effects as a crutch (and therefore avoiding sounding like anybody who else who uses Plug-in X).

  Visit Article

• 

  How to Configure Your Axiom Control Surface with Logic Pro 9

  MIDI controllers with control surfaces are quite common and affordable these days. They can control just about any aspect of your DAW, but their strength is in allowing you to control the DAW while at the keyboard as opposed to being used for a mixing session after tracking is finished. Since the Axiom doesn’t come with any Logic presets, let’s take a look at how to configure all those buttons, faders and knobs from withing Logic.

  Visit Article

• 

  How to Layer Hip Hop Drums in FL Studio

  Although it is often seen as a signature move of Hip Hop producers, customizing drums through layering is a technique used by artists in every genre, and it allows you to have fresh, new drum sounds that will energize your productions. Using simple tools and sounds you already have, you can expand your sound palette. In this tutorial, Sean Duncan gets us started.

  Visit Article

Psdtuts+ – Photoshop

• 

  Create a Mixed Media Masterpiece – Psd Plus Tutorial

  If you want to take your photo hand crafted textures into Photoshop and create a high-quality mixed media illustrations, then we have an exciting tutorial for you. Learn more at the jump!

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Create a One-of-a-Kind Twitter Background in Photoshop

  If you’re on twitter and reading this blog, chances are you’ve already customized your profile with a cool twitter background. In this tutorial, we’ll create one of our own around a central mascot: a highly detailed twitter bird, that you’ll have to draw yourself! Get ready to do much more than clicking in this artistic tutorial!

  Continue Reading

• 

  Manipulate Smoke to Create Hyper-Real Images

  Learn to apply the Warp Tool effectively and a few other tricks to make smoke look like a skull. This technique has a variety of outcomes and works well with water, clouds and a whole bunch of other stuff. This is probably more for intermediate users, as I guide you through the process well, but not every Warp Grid point handle move. Let’s get started!

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Create an Original Pin-Up Girl in Photoshop

  In this tutorial, I will be taking you through the steps that I do when creating a cartoon pin-up. I will start off with thumbnails and continue on to the final image. Along the way, I will be sharing with you my techniques and thought process when it comes to creating an original image with Photoshop. Let’s get started!

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Create a Fallen Angel on Fire Photo Manipulation – Psd Plus Tutorial

  If you want to take your photo manipulation work to the next level, then we have an exciting tutorial for you. We’ll work with fire and other images to create this fantasy scene. Learn more at the jump!

  Continue Reading

Vectortuts+ – Vector & Illustrator

• 

  How to Create a Mesh Flower in Illustrator

  In this tutorial, we’ll explain how to create a flower with Illustrator’s mesh tools and opacity masks. With these tools you have a high-degree of control and can create realistic looking illustrations. Let’s get started!

  Continue Reading

• 

  Create Illustrated Type from Sketch to Vector – Vector Plus Tutorial

  If you want to learn how to combine illustration and typography, then we have an awesome tutorial for you. Learn more about this tutorial at the jump!

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Create a Rainy Window Vector Background

  Using the Symbolism Tools, plus a bit of Gradient Mesh, learn to make a realistic window covered with raindrops. This is an advanced tutorial that assumes a fair amount of Illustrator experience, but everyone should be able to follow along. It can be done with earlier versions of Illustrator, but takes full advantage of newer features in CS4. Let’s get started!

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Illustrate a Brain Icon for OSX and Vista

  In this tutorial, I will show you how to create a cartoon style illustration of a brain, then how to convert the image for use as an icon for OSX and Vista. I’ll discuss some points about detailing for icon design as well. Let’s get started!

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Create a Radial Mesh in Illustrator and Make a Vector CD

  Ever wonder about creating Radial Mesh in Illustrator? Yes, now you can and it will reveal more possibilities to you in Illustrator. In the first part of this tutorial you’ll learn how to create a Radial Mesh in Illustrator (without using any 3rd party plugin), and in second part we’ll create a Vector CD using that radial mesh method. So let’s do it!

  Continue Reading

Flashtuts+ – Flash, Flex & ActionScript Tutorials

• 

  Create an Attractive Digital Clock in Flash

  ActionScript 3.0 is a very powerful language, capable of creating anything from simple and light utilities to full-featured desktop applications.

  In this tut, we’re going to create something simple, a basic and good looking digital clock in Flash.

  Visit Article

• 

  AS3 101: Arrays

  In this installment of AS3 101, we’ll spend the entire tutorial exploring a single type of data available to most programming languages: the Array.

  Arrays are ways to keep lists of values. Arrays are useful to keep an arbitrary number of related items grouped together, and can represent complex data structures though nesting. In ActionScript, Arrays have quite a bit of flexibility and functionality, as we’ll see. After the usual abstract introduction, we’ll apply what we’ve learned (whilst also learning some more along the way) by building a rather simple puzzle game.

  Visit Article

• 

  Make Your Flash Logo Bling with Alpha Gradient Masking

  In this tutorial we’ll look at how to create a logo which incorporates alpha gradient masking in its animation. I’ll explain some tips and tricks on how to get it working and avoiding some common problems.

  Visit Article

• 

  Using AMFPHP with AS3 and CodeIgniter

  It seems that the AMFPHP project has now been laid to rest, unfortunately it never made it past the 1.9 beta version and nor did the tutorials. However, Adobe didn’t give up on it that easily and with the new Flex compilers they’ve included the AMF3 object encoding!

  Good news for all you Flexers, but it’s a different story for all you AS3′ers. Flex allows you to quickly and simply build a service that will interact with your AMFPHP code, but you have to get your hands dirty with AS3. So, I’ve decided that it’s time there’s a decent set of classes out there that help Bob build a site with AS3 using the AMFPHP gateway.

  And to throw some more dirt into the mix, we’ll be integrating AMFPHP with CodeIgniter so that we have a fantastic PHP framework for the backend.

  Visit Article

• 

  Create Your Own Adobe AIR Application with Flash

  In this tutorial we’ll create a Twitter Reader application, fed from your own Twitter updates. We’ll look at some of the features of the nativeWindow class, how to sign it and make an install package.

  Visit Article

Aetuts+ – After Effects Tutorials

• 

  How to Create a Palmticular Tree

  In this tutorial, Vincent introduces a few of the new features in Particular 2 with the creation of a growing palm tree. Put on some sun screen and enjoy!

  Continue Reading

• 

  Creating a Tracked Head Wound

  In this tutorial Mathias shows that corner pin tracking can do much more than just replacing some pictures on a wall. We are going to compose a wound on a moving head and use the Mocha tracker in combination with his script MochaImport. Trust me, this is so much easier than creating a real head wound!

  Continue Reading

• 

  Create the “My Paper Mind” Effect

  This tutorial will teach you how to recreate the “My Paper Mind” effect done by Javan Ivey, but with the environment in mind, Nicolas has come up with a way to save some paper (as well as about 3 days worth of paper cuts!) It is all done in After Effects without any third party plug-ins. Enjoy!

  Continue Reading

• 

  Recreate Mac OSX Intro Video with C4D

  As the penultimate nugget of goodness in our Mac Lover’s Week, Satya created a 2 day tutorial that everybody will enjoy! In day 1, he will walk us through Cinema 4D and how to create the 3d text in this effect.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Make a Glitchy Interface Animation

  This tutorial will teach you how to recreate a stylized Glitch Interface Animation that resembles a high tech control system, with an analog monitor startup. Anthony Errisuriz provides his step by step process for creating this amazing effect with design from Illustrator and animating in After Effects.

  Continue Reading

This month we celebrated Envato’s third birthday with a bang! Our Tuts+ Birthday Bundle and iMac competition were unbelievably successful, and we had gifts for you too – a Audio Plus Birthday Bonus tutorial for Plus! members, and free Plus! downloads for the rest of you who are wondering what you’re missing out on.

Here is a summary of our August tutorials:

Cgtuts+ – 3D

• 

  How to Create a Video Game Dumpster: The Complete Current-Gen Workflow

  As technology evolves, the tools and requirements for creating current-gen game art are constantly changing. In this tutorial we will learn the current game art workflow in its entirety, from the low-poly model all the way to final game-ready asset. We will create a realistic grimy dumpster suitable for any urban setting.

  This mammoth video training series features over 194 minutes of video instruction on all aspects of game art creation, including creating the low-poly and high-poly models, the UVW unwrap, baking normal maps from high-poly, and creating diffuse, specular and detail bump textures.

  Visit Article

• 

  Create Amazingly Realistic Renders Using Advanced Render in Cinema 4D

  Maxon’s 11th release of Cinema 4D introduces significant improvements to Advanced Render. AR 3 now uses two new algorithms (Irradiance and Quasi-Monte Carlo), making it much easier and faster to get clean, and beautiful renders than ever before. In this tutorial we will learn how to take advantage of these amazing new features!

  Visit Article

• 

  Sculpt, Model and Texture a Low-Poly Skull in Blender

  Normal maps are widely used in games to make low poly models look high poly. In this tutorial you will learn how to create a high res Skull model, generate a normal map from that model and learn how to apply this to its low poly version.

  Techniques covered in this tutorial include multires sculpting, baking a normal map, baking ambient occlusion and applying the maps to a low poly model.

  Visit Article

• 

  Model, Sculpt and Texture a Demon-like Monster in 3ds Max and ZBrush

  This is a multi-part tutorial on creating a Demon-like ‘Lok Warrior’ with realistic muscle anatomy. On the first day of this tutorial we created a base mesh for our character using poly modeling. On the second day, we took the mesh into ZBrush and sculpted the intricate muscle anatomy. On the third day we will texture the monster.

  Day 1, Day 2, Day 3.

• 

  Create a Spectacular Crash Animation With Maya Dynamics

  It is always great to learn new animation tools and techniques that can help you to bring your creations to life. In this tutorial we will learn how to use Maya’s powerful animation, dynamics, and camera tools to create an explosive crash effect between two vehicles.

  Day 1, Day 2.

Aetuts+ – After Effects

• 

  War! Or How to Create a 3D Particle Generated Video Display

  Wes comes back with another adrenalin fueled piece that is sure to become an Aetuts+ favorite. Using Trapcode Form as the basis to display video, he shows how to use the audio reactors built in to form to achieve something very very cool.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Create an Effect Inspired by the Bourne Ultimatum End Credits Sequence

  In a very clever use of Trapcode Particular, this tutorial shows us how to create an effect that is inspired by the Bourne Ultimatum end credits sequence.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Create a Split-Flap Type Display

  Split-Flap-What? It’s the term used for displays that are found in train stations and airports, where they typically display departure and/or arrival information and do that cool flipping of letters to display the new information.

  This tutorial does not show how to create the effect from scratch but instead it is a tutorial to explain how to use the project file created by Mattias Peresini who runs the totally awesome mattrunks website which has incredible tutorials for After Effects in French. We are very happy to have Mattias doing his first English tutorial for us here at Aetuts+.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Create a Sci-Fi Movie Title Sequence

  This tutorial covers the creation of a space-like si-fi title sequence from scratch. Michael shows us how you can easily create a visually interesting and impressive title animation with some simple title cards and text animation. The tutorial uses the Twitch plugin from Video Copilot, though a similar effect could be obtained by manual keyframing.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Create a Surprising Billowing Cloth Reveal

  It’s amazing how much pseudo-3D you can do in After Effects today. This tutorial will focus on using a new plugin that brings 3D bicubic deformations to layers that allows you to truly bend and twist layers in 3D space. If you are familiar with 3D packages, this is true displacement as opposed to just bump mapping.

  Continue Reading

Nettuts+ – Web Development

• 

  24 JavaScript Best Practices for Beginners

  As a follow-up to “30 HTML and CSS Best Practices”, this week, we’ll review JavaScript! Once you’ve reviewed the list, be sure to let us know what little tips you’ve come across!

  Visit Article

• 

  20 Tools to Make the Life of a Web Developer Easier

  Developing a well-rounded aesthetically pleasing website can be a daunting task even for the most seasoned web developer. You must identify current trends and standards and determine ways to incorporate them into your designs. Luckily, there are many free tools which are available that can help you speed up your efforts and work in a more efficient manner. Below are 20 tools which are sure to benefit all developers.

  Visit Article

• 

  Outside the Box Navigation With jQuery

  Just about every website uses the regular navigation concepts we’re all used to. After awhile this can get pretty boring, especially for designers who thrive on creativity. While mimicking the OS X dock and stacks isn’t new, it’s certainly not common.

  Visit Article

• 

  10 Essential SQL Tips for Developers

  SQL is yet another essential language for developers wishing to create data-driven websites. However, many developers are unfamiliar with various aspects of SQL; so in this article, we’ll analyze ten essential tips.

  Visit Article

• 

  Build a Custom CMS Using PHP and MySQLi: New Plus Tutorial

  In this video tutorial, we’ll be building a custom Content Management System (CMS) using PHP and MySQLi. We’ll start off by pulling our content from a MySQL database and then build a CMS admin panel to manage our content. For easy content management, we will be using TinyMCE as our editor. I hope you enjoy the screencast. Join today!

  Visit Article

Flashtuts+ – Flash, ActionScript, Flex

• 

  Animate a Continuous Quad Run Cycle With Flash

  In this tutorial we’ll create a quad run cycle. The animation will be created using simple lines. Along the way we’ll cover a bit of work flow and animation theory, then near the end we’ll use Motion Tween and ActionScript to move the animal across the screen.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Create an Apple Inspired Flash Preloader

  Preloaders are a must have in your Flash applications. They tell the user that the program is running but can’t show any contents until they’re sufficiently loaded. In this tutorial I’ll help you create an Apple inspired preloader MovieClip and teach you how to display some loading information. All this using Flash and ActionScript 3.0.

  Continue Reading

• 

  50 Flash Twitterers Worth Following

  There’s no denying how useful Twitter can be when it comes to trawling the web for content. With that in mind, here’s a quick roundup of 50 twitterers who tweet some of the most useful Flash-related content around.

  (It goes almost without saying; if you have any more who deserve a mention, we want to hear them!)

  Continue Reading

• 

  Using the YouTube Player API with ActionScript 3.0

  Though more and more of us are developing with AS3, certain technologies remain in AS2. This forces us to find fast, simple ways to use these technologies within our projects. One such technology is YouTube.

  The current YouTube player is still in AS2 and until it’s updated to AS3, we have to create a wrapper to allow us to load videos into our projects. Remember, stealing the FLV feed is against YouTube’s terms and conditions, so let’s do it the right way using the chromed or chromeless player.

  Continue Reading

• 

  AS3 101

  Pads are an extremely useful device for all styles of music, allowing for warm, calming, uplifting, sad, ominous, or even threatening effects. This tutorial shows you one simple way to create your own unique pads.

  Creating your own pads is yet another way to help build a custom library and develop a personal voice. And by having more control over the various elements that make up your pad, you have more freedom to add subtle layers of complexity and imperfection for an organic sound.

  AS3 101: Variables, AS3 101: Functions.

Audiotuts+ – Audio and Music

• 

  How to Use Saturation Effectively

  Saturation is an often misunderstood process, sometimes written off as basic distortion effect, too subtle for most uses. While this isn’t entirely inaccurate, saturation has a lot to offer and can impart a true analog flavor on our mixes if used correctly. Most saturation plug-ins are pretty simple devices, but the real key to using the effect is understanding how it works. Let’s take a look at the process in detail and then we can go through a few examples of a few saturation plug-ins in action.

  Continue Reading

• 

  A Guide to the Electric Guitar

  This article is a general overview of the electric guitar. We cover the woods, acoustic sound, construction, necks and fretboards, pickups and hardware and show you how to purchase and maintain an electric guitar that you’ll love for years to come.

  Continue Reading

• 

  7 Places to Find Inspiration for Songs

  Where do you find inspiration? It is as intangible and elusive as a ghost. You know when you have it, and can’t manufacture it when you don’t. Without it, creative work is a chore, and often a fuitless one. With it, magic happens.

  The question of where inspiration comes from interests me, and over the years I’ve kept notes about where the inspiration for successful songs has come from. It has been found in many and varied places. Most of all, it comes from real life – especially from sincere insights into life truths, and emotional responses to events and relationships. Some artists seem to have discovered ways to help the creative process, and inspire inspiration.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Working With the Intangibles of a Mix — Audio Plus

  In this week’s Audio Plus content, Bobby Owsinski teaches us how to set about creating a mix that works beyond the basic techniques of getting levels right. This tutorial is about planning the mix and creating the balance that makes everything come together. Bobby is the author of many best-selling audio books including The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook — this is a tutorial of expert advice that’s not to be missed!

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Use Reverb to Create Your Own Pads

  Pads are an extremely useful device for all styles of music, allowing for warm, calming, uplifting, sad, ominous, or even threatening effects. This tutorial shows you one simple way to create your own unique pads.

  Creating your own pads is yet another way to help build a custom library and develop a personal voice. And by having more control over the various elements that make up your pad, you have more freedom to add subtle layers of complexity and imperfection for an organic sound.

  Continue Reading

Psdtuts+ – Adobe Photoshop

• 

  Making Sense of the Warp Tool – It’s All About the Lines

  Every now and then a project comes along that challenges me to use one of Photoshop’s tools more than ever. This particular image was part of a series of ads I was working on with photographer Richard Radstone for a clothing line based in Colombia, South America. he challenge with this one was to wrap an accordion around the palm tree like a giant snake.

  Continue Reading

• 

  It’s Time to Create a’Neo-Constructivist’ Poster with Photoshop

  Constructivist graphic design is often associated with communist politics and propaganda, but it’s more than that, Constructivism is about using bright colors, playing with lightness, perspective, geometrical forms, besides photomontage techniques and digital collage. This time I’ll dare to name this tutorial a ‘Neo-Constructivist’ design. It’s time to get started!

  Continue Reading

• 

  Illustrate a Sensitive Subject Using Poser, Cinema 4D, and Photoshop – Psd Plus Tutorial

  We have another Psd Plus tutorial exclusively available to Plus members today. If you want to take your illustrative skills to the next dimension, then we have an exciting tutorial for you. Discover how to use Multiple 3D programs to create a composed render, then use Photoshop to add texture, polish, and refinement!

  Continue Reading

• 

  Creating a Spy Fly Photo Manipulation

  Welcome to a new Photoshop based tutorial. This time I’ll try to describe the main steps in creating a dead robot fly. Before we get started, I would like to thank Hortensiu Milstein (Personal Portfolio) for the great collaboration. We decided to make this tutorial a year ago, but the lack of time postponed the realization of this tut. This piece was actually created for a contest and off course the first prize was the result. The concept of this illustration was to take a picture and be creative, use parts of that image and create something unique. So, let’s get to it!

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Create a Moka Express Icon

  The staple of every Italian breakfast is home espresso coffee, brewed with the iconic ‘Moka Express’ pot. In this tutorial, we’ll create a Moka entirely from scratch using shapes, layer effects and a bunch of productivity-enhancing tips. We will then proceed to turn our design into a Leopard and Vista-ready professional icon. So get your coffee mugs ready and let’s start brewing!

  Continue Reading

Vectortuts+ – Vector & Illustrator

• 

  How to Create a Rocketing, Vector Aircraft Shuttle

  In this tutorial, we’ll be creating a illustration of a speeding aircraft shuttle. It’s going to be all vector, but along the way we’ll use blends, and other techniques that give this rocketing aircraft an interesting look. Let’s get to it!

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Create a Stinking Zombie Flesh-Eater in Illustrator

  In this tutorial, I will show you how to create a cartoon zombie in Illustrator. Starting by creating a fresh corpse, we will then ‘yuck’ it up using a number of techniques. Let’s ‘rip’ this one apart!

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Create a Smokin’ Western Type Treatment in Illustrator

  In this easy tutorial, I will show you how to create a western type treatment primary using Illustrator’s Effects. Using the effects from this tutorial, you can easily apply them to other type treatment and logos. Let’s get started!

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Design a Custom Newspaper Icon – Vector Plus Tutorial

  We have another great Vector Plus tutorial available exclusively for Plus members today. If you want to learn how to craft a custom newspaper icon in Illustrator, then we have an awesome tutorial for you. In this tutorial, Jonathan takes us through the process of using Illustrator’s tools to construct this icon. Learn more about this tutorial at the jump!

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Create a Fun, Illustrated Skateboard Design

  Today we are going to be making a skateboard design. I will show you how I turned a funky looking character into the skateboard you see. The great thing about skateboard designs is that there are no limitations whatsoever. You can make a skateboard design about anything you want and let’s learn how!

  Continue Reading

GraphicRiver – Modern Web UI Set

FlashDen – AS2 XML Free Photo Gallery

AudioJungle – Audio Logo Pack 04

ThemeForest – ‘Nice & Clean’ Site Template

VideoHive – Float

Psdtuts+ – Adobe Photoshop

• 

  How to Turn Humdrum Photos into Cinematic Portraits

  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!

  Continue Reading

• 

  A Comprehensive Introduction to the Type Tool

  Who doesn’t know the Type Tool? This is maybe one of the most powerful and useful tools of Photoshop. We’ve all used it at least once, but do you know all its potential? That’s why I decided to write a comprehensive guide about Photoshop’s Type tool, including do’s and don’ts of the most important features of this tool.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Create an Out of Bounds Fantasy Illustration

  Here is another illustration I have worked on with Toma Alin Gabriel. Worked on this piece with a lot of images and I would also like to thank the photographers for giving us permission to use their stuff. In this tutorial, we will take you through the process of creating a fantasy scene, make water pour out of a painting, make some sort of a absorption effect and end up with a really nice looking color. The main idea behind this surreal illustration is that we are actually in a painting and the painting on the wall is the real world, the world where our vulture tries to escape.

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Illustrate Type Using Cinema 4D and Photoshop – Psd Plus Tutorial

  We have another professional Psd Plus tutorial exclusively available to Plus members today. If you want to take your Photoshop 3D type skill to the next level, then we have an exciting tutorial for you. Discover how to render shapes into C4D to create mechanical looking pieces that you can use to construct awesome typographic works with!

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Create a Hellacious Flaming Skull in Photoshop

  In this tutorial, we’ll go through all the steps of creating a flaming skull in Photoshop. We’ll be using some images we shot ourself of flames, and a stock Designious vector skull to get us started. This tutorial covers some relatively simple steps and some clever photo manipulation techniques. Let’s get to it!

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Create Super-Malleable Effects with Colorful Lines

  These days colorful lines are one of the most malleable effects you can easily create in Photoshop. They simply fit everywhere and can look really awesome. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create these fantastic colorful effects using only Photoshop. I’ll show you how to compose illustration with these effects. Let’s get to it!

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Create a Grunge Style Illustration with Stains

  Inspired by the article “18+ Sources of Inspiration from Coffee, Ink, Blood and other Stains,” by Steven Snell, I decided to show my personal way of creating stain based designs in Photoshop. In this tutorial, we’ll grab a picture, apply several filters to it and obtain a monochromatic stain, which combined with stain brushes and a texture will transform into an eye-catching grunge result. Let’s get it started!

  Continue Reading

• 

  Creating a Touching Story Scene in Photoshop

  I worked on this illustration especially for you with Ciursa Ionut, he is the founder of PSDBURN where he writes Photoshop tutorials. He started working in Photoshop many years ago when he began to utilize this great tool all the time. In this tutorial, you are going to create a story scene using photo manipulation and a lot of color adjustments.

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Apply Textures to Uneven Surfaces

  Applying texture to a flat surface, or flatly applying a texture across a whole image (as a means to age it or degrade it) is simple stuff. Realistically applying a texture to an uneven surface is much more hands-on (more so than simply overlaying a texture and changing the Blending mode).

  Continue Reading

• 

  Design Cool Game Graphics Using Displacement Maps – Psd Plus Tutorial

  We have another great Psd Plus tutorial exclusively available to Plus members today. If you want to take your game design skills to the next level, then we have an awesome tutorial for you. Discover how to use Photoshop tools to blend graphics, textures, and a Cinema 4D creature into an awesome game cover design. Learn more about this informative and advanced tut at the jump!

  Continue Reading

Vectortuts+ – Vector & Adobe Illustrator

• 

  How to Create a Vector Illustration and Prepare it for Micro-Stock Sale

  This tutorial details a professional workflow for creating vector illustrations and prepping the artwork for these sites. I’ve also included a bunch of time-saving tools and tips as well. Let’s get started!

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Illustrate a LeBron James Cartoon Character

  Hello fellow vector artists, I am a cartoonist/illustrator who specialized in retro style vector cartoons. You can find more of my work and books at my web site. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how I use Adobe Illustrator to create vector cartoons.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Learn a Professional Workflow for Illustrating a Comic-Style Header Image

  In this tutorial, we’ll review a professional workflow for illustrating website header images in comic style, which are destined to integrate into Wordpress themes. This is a great way to make your blog stand out and get promoted on the top web design galleries. Let’s get started!

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Create an Alarm Clock Icon

  With simple shapes and gradients, this easy tutorial will show you how to create an alarm clock icon. We’ll be using Illustrator CS4 for this tutorial, but those of you with older version should be able to follow along as well. Let’s jump into this tutorial, which beginning illustrators will find especially useful!

  Continue Reading

• 

  Accentuating with Color in Vector Illustration – Vector Plus Tutorial

  We have another great Vector Plus tutorial exclusively available to Plus members today. If you want to learn how to control your shading and coloring with your vector art, then we have an awesome tutorial for you. Learn a professional workflow for creating color controlled vector illustrations, along with numerous other techniques!

  Continue Reading

• 

  How To Make A Skateboard For Digital Printing – Vector Plus Tutorial

  We have another great Vector Plus tutorial exclusively available to Plus members today. If you want to learn how to create skate graphics with Illustrator CS4 techniques, then we have an awesome tutorial for you. Learn how to create skate graphics with shapes, lines, and patterns, and mount them on a board, then prep for digital printing!

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Create Exploded Isometrics

  Exploded isometrics are my subject in this third and final tutorial on the topic of isometrics. If you have not read either of the first two tutorials on isometrics, then I suggest you start with them: Basic Isometrics and Orthographics and Advanced Isometrics Using the SSR Method.

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Create Cartoon Characters from Everyday Objects – Vector Plus Tutorial

  We have another great Vector Plus tutorial exclusively available to Plus members today. If you want to learn how to create novel cartoon characters, then we have a fun tutorial for you. Learn how to create characters from everyday objects that work great for illustrated cartoon style posters!

  Continue Reading

• 

  The Mechanics of Comics

  As an audience we accept comics for what they are; a medium, conveyors of information. What we less often realize is the technicality and process of how that information has been communicated to us. This is a good thing. When the artist gets it right, the comic book reader becomes immersed in what’s being told – not how.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Create a Milk Bottle with a Funny Cow Label

  In this tutorial, we’ll explain how to create a 3D milk bottle. We’ll also cover how to create and apply a cute cow label to it. Let’s have some fun with this one!

  Continue Reading

Nettuts+ – Web Development

• 

  How I Can Code Twice as Fast as You

  We’re all familiar with text expander programs; though I would surmise that the percentage of us who use them when coding is quite low. To change things up a bit, today I’m going to you how to create custom text-expander scripts that will save you a great deal of time. If you’re unfamiliar with such programs, you must watch this! After reviewing the screencast and tutorial, I’d love to hear how you save time when developing.

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Add Variables to Your CSS Files

  Let’s try something different on nettuts+ today. Any designer who has worked with large CSS files will agree that its major weakness is its inability to use variables. In this article, we will learn how to implement variables by using PHP and Apache’s URL rewrite mod.

  Continue Reading

• 

  The 13 Most Essential Plugins for WordPress

  WordPress is a very powerful and flexible blog/content management system, but the thousands of plugins really help to extend the basic functionality. Here are 13 essential plugins that you should immediately install after finishing the WordPress installation.

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Build a Super Duper News Scroller

  This week, we’ll learn how to combine PHP, SimplePie, and jQuery to build a simple news scroller widget for your website. It’s much easier than you might think; so let’s begin.

  Continue Reading

• 

  10 Challenging but Awesome Flash Techniques

  These days, most Flash developers know how to circumvent the multimedia platform’s short-comings and properly utilize its strengths. Here are some very clever Flash techniques that you can apply to your site, making them more useful, beautiful and unique.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Design a Beautiful Website from Scratch

  Have you ever wanted to design a beautiful website but just didn’t know how? To be honest, a few years ago, that happened to me too. While browsing the web, I saw so many nice looking websites and wished I had the skills to create such designs. Today I can and I’m going to teach you how to do so too! Essentially, it requires a few Photoshop skills and an eye for detail. Through this tutorial, I will point out these tiny details which make a website design look beautiful. Fire up Photoshop and let’s get going!

  Continue Reading

• 

  20 More Excellent AJAX Effects You Should Know

  Back in October we wowed you with 20 Excellent Ajax Effects You Should Know. The post went on to become one of the most popular ever published at Nettuts+. This time around we have twenty more equally excellent Ajax effects for you to know and love.

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Become a Freelance Web Developer

  Have you ever wanted to be a freelance web developer? Whether you’re working for the man or developing as a hobby, there are some tried and tested tips you can use to ease yourself into the life of a freelance web developer – even if you only do it part-time.

  So today we’re going to go over how to actually become a freelance web developer, and all that goes with it.

  Continue Reading

• 

  The Best PSD to HTML to Wordpress Video Series Available: New Plus Tutorial

  Since I began running Nettuts+ nearly a year ago, the number one tutorial request I’ve received is for a PSD to WordPress screencast. Today, we’re releasing a complete series on our Plus site. Over the course of fourteen videos, I will personally teach you how to take a PSD design and convert first to HTML, and then to a dynamic WordPress site. This was a massive undertaking; I hope you’ll consider signing up if it interests you.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Fun With CSS Shapes

  I bet a bunch of you don’t realize that we can create the illusion of shapes by using 100% CSS. By utilizing the border property in creative ways, we can make some really interesting polygons. In this week’s screencast, we’ll figure out a way to create speech-bubbles without resorting to background images.

  Continue Reading

Flashtuts+ – Flash Design & Development

• 

  Build an Efficient Flash Decalsheet System

  I came up with the idea of creating what I call Flash DecalSheets from the stickers that come with model airplanes and have been using “Decals” to skin my own Flash applications ever since. A DecalSheet is basically one large image (.JPG, .PNG, or .GIF) that gets cut up into smaller images called ‘Decals’, which are Bitmaps and can be used anywhere DisplayObjects would usually be used.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Build a Dynamic Flash and XML Slideshow with Scripted Transitions

  Content updates in Flash can be difficult and time consuming due to the many steps involved. Simply reading content from an XML file means that importing new assets and recompiling the swf is no longer necessary. This tutorial will cover dynamically loading images from an XML file and then deal with inconsistencies in image dimensions using the GreenSock Tween Max animation library.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Create an Impressive Magnifying Effect with ActionScript 3.0

  In this tutorial we’ll create a magnifying glass effect, demonstrating use of the displacementMapFilter. The effect can be achieved in a relatively short space of time and with very little code.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Smoothly Animate a Character Using Motion Tweens

  In this tutorial we’ll see how we can create a caricature, split it into different layers then arrange the pieces properly as graphic symbols. Finally we’ll look at how easily we can smoothly animate the caricature by using motion tweens. This is a lengthy tutorial, so let’s get started!

  Continue Reading

• 

  Create a Dynamic Slideshow Using ActionScript 3.0 and HTML

  In this screencast I’ll show you how to create a dynamic slideshow using ActionScript 3.0 and how to grab the images from an xml file. We’ll keep the FLA empty except for the path to our Document Class and also create a custom class that will act as the engine for the slideshow. This is a file you can use over and over again, I hope you find it useful!

  Continue Reading

• 

  Build a Dynamic Flash Gallery with Slider Control

  In this tutorial, we’ll create a gallery which displays all image files in a given directory. A slider is used to browse easily through the images.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Create a Rain Effect in Flash Using ActionScript 3.0

  In this tutorial we’ll create a dynamic rain effect using ActionScript 3.0. The effect can be customized in many ways by just changing a few lines of code. Let’s get started!

  Continue Reading

• 

  Build a Dynamic Guest-book with XML and ActionScript 3.0

  Guest books are a great thing to enhance the online experience your viewers receive. The ability for the viewer to talk to you and others, respond to questions you’ve raised, comment on your work or just to socialize means a guest book is a must have for most web sites. Let’s see how we can build our own guest book with ActionsScript 3.0, XML and PHP.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Create an Attractive Flash Video Player

  In this tutorial FlashDen Top 100 author flashjunkie shows you how to create a slick Flash video player without typing a single line of code. The video player allows you to pause, play, scrub through video and adjust volume. We hope you enjoy this screencast tutorial!

  Continue Reading

• 

  Setting Up a Flash Development Sandbox

  Welcome to part one of the Flash Development Sandbox Tutorial! In this tutorial we’re going cover ActionScript development outside of the Flash IDE. As much as we would like to put it off, the day is coming closer and closer when we will no longer be able to write complex applications in Flash and will be forced to choose a different editor.

  Continue Reading

Aetuts+ – Adobe After Effects

• 

  Create an Elegantly Handwritten Text Reveal

  In this tutorial you will learn how to animate a handwritten text sequence with ink bleeding through the paper to create an elegant old-world style title reveal.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Create a Stunning Website Demo Presentation

  As our world moves more and more onto the internet there are lots of websites that are worth showing off. In this tutorial Markus shows us how to create a clean and elegant solution to show off your favorite site.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Dunk Your Logo in a Wave World

  Adam brings back his charm in this tutorial that is all about the rarely used Wave World plugin. You will learn all the ins and outs about this plugin that can even do 3D!

  Continue Reading

• 

  Create a Breakup Into Particles Logo Transition

  A very popular request is how to make a logo breakup into particles and reform into another logo. There’s many ways to achieve this and most of them require a full 3D application, but in this tutorial we learn how to achieve it all in After Effects using a 3D particle systems and a few smoke and mirrors.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Create a Stormy, Electric Type Reveal

  This tutorial gives a different twist on how to use the powerful Form plug-in. Learn how to use it to create a mysterious and electric type reveal.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Create a Breathtakingly Awesome Rain Scene

  In this massive 2 part tutorial inspired by the work of Pierre Michel, Alex Verlan shows us how to create the dramatic slow motion rain drops falling scene entirely within After Effects.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Create an Ethereal Morphing Letter Canvas

  Once in a while a new (or in this case very rarely used) technique appears on the scene and suddenly you start seeing it everywhere. Well we have a feeling that this is going to be one of those. In this tutorial Satya shows us how to use the built-in radio waves plugin to create an incredibly beautiful and ethereal animation of morphing letters.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Animate Type the Old-school Way

  It’s easy to get excited over the latest plugin or technology, but that inevitably leads to stuff that all looks the same. So to get something new and original, sometimes you just need to go Old School! Before computers, the way to produce type animations was to get creative with some props and a camera. Lloyd shows us how to use some reflective paper and a camera to capture some very fresh type animation. Of course he will also show you how to use After Effects as a finishing tool to bring it all together; this is Aetuts+ after all!

  Continue Reading

• 

  Create a Mysterious Smoky Logo Reveal

  In this fun tutorial, Adam walks us through the write-on effect as well as a new way to implement trapcode’s particular to create the popular simulation of an appearing wisp of smoke. He shows us some options to this effect as well how to customize any logo apply these principles in any way you wish.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Design an Awesome 80’s Inspired Title Animation

  We are very happy to welcome Nick Campbell (aka The Greyscale Gorilla) to the Aetuts+ family. He’s an incredibly talented designer and a fantastic teacher. In his first tutorial for us he shows us how to create this awesome 80’s style title animation. He covers a whole bunch of awesome little tips that are sure be useful on any After Effects project.

  Continue Reading

Aether 8 CAT 00

From the Author:Unreleased Ambient Electronic Music

$8 – More Details & Audio Preview

nexus

From the Author:Grinding & Waving | Long length Full Track | BPM 100 | Main track + III Variations.

$8 – More Details & Audio Preview

Mi Casa

From the Author:Nice soft chillout loop, with brazilian touch, electronic drums.

$8 – More Details & Audio Preview

SolidBeats – Clear Blue Skies

From the Author:It’s all about harmony here folks. Imagine yourself laying down on your back on fresh-cut green grass with a straw in your mouth and just looking up towards the sky day dreaming away.

$10 – More Details & Audio Preview

Smoke

From the Author:Acid Jazz sound loops, sound very suitable for film, video, sites and galleries of images.

$5 – More Details & Audio Preview

EpianoRelax

From the Author:Relax loop.

$8 – More Details & Audio Preview

Lament of a fairy

From the Author:Melancholic, fairy tale, sad, imaginary, dreaming, piano, melody.

$8 – More Details & Audio Preview

Solidbeats – Aqua

From the Author:Another relaxed ambient tune from me. Loopable.

$8 – More Details & Audio Preview

ADG3_sadPack2 : Spotted Gems

From the Author:A slightly sadder, calm, light, tranquil relaxed loop, with a piano melody and classical guitar notes dancing along in harmony.

$6 – More Details & Audio Preview

jazzMatazz

From the Author:A bgLoop with an airy, jazzy groove feel. Can be looped.

$8 – More Details & Audio Preview

A Jazz Afternoon

From the Author:Soft melody using guitar solo. Sensual, intimate and flowing. A soothing jazz piece for any project use. Mellow and soothing ambient, like walking down the street in a lazy afternoon.

$6 – More Details & Audio Preview

Lounging in the sun

From the Author:An small older trip hop, hip hop feeling loop with a very chill vibe and atmosphere, makes you zone out.

$6 – More Details & Audio Preview

AudioAddicted: Atmosphere

From the Author:Relaxing, dreamy, calm, serene ambient track for your flash movies and commercials. Features piano, thin drums, mellow bass, and filtered synth pads. Includes .mp3 and .wav file. This file loops.

$10 – More Details & Audio Preview

Distant Horizon

From the Author:A soft ambient, flowing tune, punctuated with a soft melodious beat.

$10 – More Details & Audio Preview

ADG3 : ambientPack5 : Aqua Vitae

From the Author:The Water of life – A new age holistic, spiritual journey of soothing, tranquil contemplative meditation.A great track for calm and peaceful atmospheres.

$8 – More Details & Audio Preview

Piano Nature II

From the Author:Gentle, delicate piano accompanied by singing baby birds.

$6 – More Details & Audio Preview

Sadness

From the Author:Piano, Strings & Ancient flutes mixed with a calm breakbeat.

$10 – More Details & Audio Preview

Starlight Sunset

From the Author:A deep, warm and very rich ambient instrumental track, based around jazz chordings with live guitar and bass. It is written in 4 bar sections, so has a number of theoretical loops within itself. Good for setting a slightly darker deeper mood.

$6 – More Details & Audio Preview

Neon

From the Author:Simple loop sweet and refined ambient sound good for video, film and web site.

$6 – More Details & Audio Preview

Cosmic Constellations II

From the Author:We have not seen true beauty until we fly amongst the stars…

$8 – More Details & Audio Preview

Peaceful Retreat

From the Author:Sit back and let the sound wash over you. Chilled percussive, filtered beat sound with minimal bass.

$6 – More Details & Audio Preview

Solidbeats – Farewell

From the Author:Another loopable ambient / Chill out tune of mine…

$8 – More Details & Audio Preview

Timeless Meadows

From the Author:A place with meadows where time does not exist…

$3 – More Details & Audio Preview

Void

From the Author:Soft & dreamy | Medium length loop | BPM 65.

$8 – More Details & Audio Preview

Cafe Window

From the Author:Watching the world go by through a coffee house window…

$3 – More Details & Audio Preview

Downtempo Candy #1

From the Author:Downtempo loop. Suitable for websites, films, tv, videos, flash animations…

$5 – More Details & Audio Preview

Breathe

From the Author:This song is intended for meditation. It was made repetitive intentionally to make one focus on breathing. It can be used for other open atmospheric things too. It has been used for Qi Gong for example.

$8 – More Details & Audio Preview

Lunar Blue

From the Author:Slow motion aquatic journey…

$6 – More Details & Audio Preview

Ominous Piano Atmospheres

From the Author:Spacious and moody ambient short piano piece.

$8 – More Details & Audio Preview

Why do we allow it

From the Author:A deep, thoughtful and creative new age-ish piece that would go well in an emotionally charged flash work or video.

$10 – More Details & Audio Preview

Get Updates on Great Files via Email and Twitter

Lately we’ve been thinking about how our buyers can get better updates on the latest and greatest files, after all our marketplaces have in excess of 15,000 files on them these days! So we’re happy to offer a few new ways to get updates:

• Via Twitter:

  Follow us on Twitter @audiojungle for a daily awesome file as well as general links to awesome After Effects tutorials, news and chatter!

• Via RSS Feeds:

  And of course you can just grab RSS feeds for the major categories on our sites including Music, and Sound

• Via Weekly Emails:

  We’re starting a new weekly email which just focuses on great files for each marketplace. You can subscribe to the AudioJungle email list below

And finally if you’re after tips on how to use stock effectively – i.e. so it doesn’t feel like stock! Check out a neat blog called Stock in Action.

Icons by SmashingMagazine and Kailoon

Vectortuts+

Vector & Illustrator

• 

  Design a Print-Ready Accordion Fold Document in Adobe InDesign – Vector Plus Tutorial

  We have another great Vector Plus tutorial exclusively available to Plus members today. If you want to take your InDesign skills to the next level, then we have an awesome tutorial for you. Walk through the creation of an Accordion Fold Document InDesign document. This tutorial is targeted at the beginner to intermediate level designer. Delve into the details of numerous settings and learn a professional workflow for exporting documents for print. Learn more about this informative layout tut at the jump!

  Continue Reading

• 

  How to Create a Stylized Vector Grasshopper

  In this tutorial, we’ll explain how to create a create a grasshopper based on an image. We’ll review how to trace the needed parts and alter them in order to make the little guy look good in all his vector glory. Let’s get to it!

  Continue Reading

• 

  Make 3D Yet Flat Looking Shopping Basket Icons

  Shopping for a new icon? Look no further. Learn how to create a custom shopping basket icon for your next web design project. We’ll combine 3D qualities with a flat look. You’ll need a firm understanding of Adobe Illustrators tools to complete this tutorial.

  Continue Reading

• 

  50 Insanely Good Vector-based Web Designs

  Implementing bright and crisp vector graphics into your web designs can really add some visual kick. This collection of 50 insanely good vector-based web designs showcases the best examples of vector use including landscapes illustrations, abstract collages and character/mascot designs.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Interview with Veerle Pieters

  “Veerle” does the name rings the bell? I am sure many of you will reply with affirmation! Yes, you are right, today we bring to you interview with incomparable Veerle Pieters, a web and print designer based in Belgium who runs her prolific studio, Duoh! along with Geert Leyseele. She is also the author of a popular design blog.

  With a initial background in graphic design and print, before she got involved in web design, she has a well rounded education which has made her one of the most versatile designers in the industry. So lets have a chat with this talented designer whose dream is to make the interweb a better place.

  Continue Reading

Nettuts+

Web Development

• 

  5 Ways to Instantly Write Better CSS

  Sure, anyone can write CSS. Even programs are doing it for you now. But is the CSS any good? Here are 5 tips to start improving yours.

  Visit Article

• 

  Creating a “Filterable” Portfolio with jQuery

  If you have worked in your field for a while, there is a pretty good chance that you have a rather extensive portfolio. To make it a little easier to navigate, you will probably be tempted to break them into different categories. In this tutorial, I will show you how to make “filtering by category” a little more interesting with just a little bit of jQuery.

  Visit Article

• 

  How to Build a Login System for a Simple Website

  In today’s video tutorial, we’ll be building a login system with PHP and MYSQL. Many, many features will be covered; including MySqli, Prepared Statements, jQuery, Classes, Sessions, Cookies, etc. I bit off more than I could chew for today’s screencast. So, I’ll be creating a Part 2 in the next couple of weeks in order to improve our system even further.

  Visit Article

• 

  Top 50 Wordpress Tutorials

  As a web developer, you can broaden your potential client base and add value for existing clients by listing ‘Wordpress’ as an area of expertise. Of course, unless you want to bluff your way through jobs, you’d better have the skill to back-up that claim. This collection will help.

  Visit Article

• 

  What You Must Know About the New Safari 4 Beta

  Apple released Safari 4 Beta last Tuesday, for both Mac and Windows users. The updated browser received a UI update, many major improvements under the hood, and plenty of new features to play with. The new browser passes the ACID2 and ACID3 tests with a score of 100, and contains a few next-generation technologies that web developers will love, once we can take advantage of them. Let’s take a look at what’s new.

  Visit Article

Aetuts+

After Effects Tutorials

• 

  Create a MoGraph Urban Jungle, Day 1 + 2

  In this tutorial Naim Alwan ventures outside of After Effects for a little bit of 3D Matchmoving to create this stunning Urban Jungle effect where vector graphics are perfectly tracked to some city footage. In day 1 you will learn how to do a track using Boujou (although any matchmoving software will work for this) and then import and apply that information in After Effects successfully.

  Visit Article

• 

  Create a “Light-tastic” Logo Reveal Animation, Day 1 + 2

  In this 2 part tutorial AETUTS editor Lloyd Alvarez gets his hands dirty with a little expression math to create some beautifully organic light streaks that are used to reveal the AETUTS logo. In part 1 Lloyd breaks down the science behind creating a simple expression that drives the light streak emitter and shows you how easy it is to create infinite variations with ease.
  .

  Visit Article

• 

  Create a “Day After Tomorrow” Inspired Instant Freeze Effect

  In honor of Oscar’s week we have another movie VFX shot inspired tutorial. A frequently requested theme is the effect of something being frozen very quickly. This tutorial will explain how to achieve this effect as well as a cool camera lens frost over and crack.

  Visit Article

• 

  Create a Rhythmic ‘Beat-shake’ Effect

  In this tutorial you’ll learn how to make moving geometric shapes shake and shudder as if they’ve been moved by the vibrations of a beat. You’ll learn how to sync this effect to music and create the building blocks of a stunning and futuristic music video.

  Visit Article

• 

  Create a Dreamy Logo in the Clouds Animation

  Markus is back to show us how to use a particle generator to create 3D clouds and use them as a transitional device to reveal a logo.

  Visit Article

Psdtuts+

Photoshop

• 

  Create Destructive Black and White Lettering with a Dramatic Splash Effect

  Today, I’m gonna take you into the beauty of black and white design. We’ll make some expressive lettering, which includes thoughts connected with a central word. We’ll turn standard text into a stunning, destructive illustration, and give it a final unique look. So, let’s rock this one and learn all about the cool techniques included here!

  Continue Reading

• 

  Create a Three-Color Illustration for Screen Printing – Psd Plus Tutorial

  We have another great Psd Plus tutorial exclusively available to Plus members today. If you want to take your Photoshop print skills to the next level, then we have an awesome tutorial for you. Discover how to use Photoshop’s channels for screen printing. Delve into advanced issues such as trapping and detailed steps on how to use Photoshop for a professional apparel workflow. Learn more about this informative and stylish tut at the jump!

  Continue Reading

• 

  Splattered Vector and Photography Mash Up

  Mixing Vector work with Photography is a great way to produce a fun and colorful art style. This approach is used in a variety of projects from club flyers and CD Artwork through to high-end advertising imagery. Expanding on the comprehensive guide to the Pen Tool by Ian Yates, we look at creative ways of implanting the tool. This tutorial should convince those of you lacking the confidence to draw within Photoshop to do so with style.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Create a Magic Night Themed Web Design from Scratch in Photoshop

  The past days I was looking for inspiration in famous old paintings, and got interested on “Starry Night” of Van Gogh and thought: Can I apply this to web design? And the answer is Yes! Then after several hours of work, here’s my tutorial for you, an artistic web design depicting a “Magic Night” concept.

  Continue Reading

• 

  Create a High Flying Snowboard Illustration

  We all know the typical “flying snowboarder through the air” photo. Add a lens flare, and you’ve got it made! In this tutorial we’re giving the ol’ concept a spin by using wavy lines that suggest motion and paint splatters for snow. Let’s get to it!

  Continue Reading