Wednesday, May 19th, 2010
In this tutorial, I will show you how to create a camera application that captures the user webcam image and saves it as a JPG file. Let’s see how!
Launch Flash and create a new document. Set the stage size to 600x350px, #F6F6F6 for the color, and the frame rate to 24fps.
This is the interface we’ll use, a simple background with 3 interactive elements, Save, Discard and a Capture button. The dashed rectangle is a guide to show where the webcam image will appear.
Continue to the next steps to see how to create it.
Select the Rectangle Tool (R), set the stroke size to 2, color to #CCCCCC and change the style to dashed.
Create a 318x238px rectangle and set its position to x: 141 y: 41.
Use the Rectangle Tool to create a 46x22px #BABABA rounded rectangle with a corner radius of 1.
Duplicate the shape and reduce its size to 44x20px. Fill it with a gradient background #ECECEC to #FFFFFF.
Lastly, we’ll add a label to each button, select the Text Tool (T) and label the buttons Save and Discard. This is the format I used: Avenir 85 Heavy, 13pt, #555555.
Create a 600x30px #DDDDDD rectangle and place it in the bottom of the stage.
Using the Rectangle Primitive Tool, create a 20x20px #7BBBF9 rounded rectangle with a corner radius of 3, and center it in the bottom.
I’ve added a minimalistic icon created from simple shapes.
Create a new ActionScript Class and save it as Main.as in your class folder.
package {
The package keyword allows you to organize your code into groups that can be imported by other scripts, its recommended to name them starting with a lowercase letter and use intercaps for subsequent words for example: myClasses.
These are the classes we’ll need to import for our class to work, the import directive makes externally defined classes and packages available to your code.
import flash.display.Sprite; import flash.media.Camera; import flash.media.Video; import flash.display.BitmapData; import flash.display.Bitmap; import flash.events.MouseEvent; import flash.net.FileReference; import flash.utils.ByteArray; import com.adobe.images.JPGEncoder;
In order to save the captured image, we’ll use a class which is part of the as3corelib. Follow the link and download the library.
The extends keyword defines a class that is a subclass of another class. The subclass inherits all the methods, properties and functions, that way we can use them in our class.
public class Main extends Sprite {
In this example, the Main class inherits all the methods and properties of the Sprite Class.
Next, we’ll declare some variables. Add this below the class declaration, read the comments in the code to know more about what they are and do.
private var camera:Camera = Camera.getCamera(); //An instance of the camera object, necesary to use the webcam private var video:Video = new Video(); //Used to display the live video from the webcam private var bmd:BitmapData = new BitmapData(320,240);//Creates a new BitmapData with the parameters as size private var bmp:Bitmap; //This bitmap will hold the bitmap data, which is the captured data from the webcam private var fileReference:FileReference = new FileReference(); //A file reference instance used to access the save to disk function private var byteArray:ByteArray; //This byte array instance will hold the data created from the jpg encoder and use it to save the image private var jpg:JPGEncoder = new JPGEncoder(); //An instance of the jpg encoder class
The constructor is a function that runs when an object is created from a class, this code is the first in execute when you make an instance of an object or runs using the Document Class.
public function Main():void {
At start, the buttons will have no use, so let’s hide them.
saveButton.visible = false; discardButton.visible = false;
A Listener registers a function to be called when a specific event occurs. This code adds the listeners to the buttons, the first parameter is the event type and the second one is the function that will be called when the event occurs.
saveButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, saveImage); discardButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, discard); capture.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, captureImage);
The next lines of code are used to detect if the device running the application has a camera, if a camera is detected the code will run, if not, a trace message will appear.
if(camera != null) { //Code goes here } else { trace("No Camera Detected"); //Add your own action } <h3>Step 16: Add Camera Image to Stage</h3> If a camera is detected, the following code will execute: <pre class="javascript">if(camera != null) { video.smoothing = true; //Removes pixelated image from the webcam video video.attachCamera(camera); //Adds the webcam input to the video object video.x = 140; //Video position video.y = 40; addChild(video); //Add video to stage } else { trace("No Camera Detected"); }
This function is called when the save button is pressed.
It passes the current image in the video to the bitmap data object, creates a bitmap using that data and adds that bitmap on top of the video. After that, the capture button is hidden and the action buttons shown.
private function captureImage(e:MouseEvent):void { bmd.draw(video); bmp = new Bitmap(bmd); bmp.x = 140; bmp.y = 40; addChild(bmp); capture.visible = false; saveButton.visible = true; discardButton.visible = true; }
The next function is used to save the image to disk.
First, it uses the jpg.encode() method and saves the resulting data to the byte array, then the fileReference object is used to display a save dialog where the user can rename the file created (although a default name is set).
Once the dialog is shown the bitmap on top of the video is removed to reveal the webcam video, and lastly, the action buttons are hidden and the capture button becomes visible again.
private function saveImage(e:MouseEvent):void { byteArray = jpg.encode(bmd); fileReference.save(byteArray, "Image.jpg"); removeChild(bmp); saveButton.visible = false; discardButton.visible = false; capture.visible = true; }
The captured image is shown when the capture button is pressed, but what if we don’t want to save that image?
That’s where the discard button comes to action. The following function removes the bitmap on top of the video and sets the buttons to its original state.
private function discard(e:MouseEvent):void { removeChild(bmp); saveButton.visible = false; discardButton.visible = false; capture.visible = true; }
We’re done writing code.
Go back to the Fla and in the Properties Panel, Class textfield add Main as value. This will link this class as the Document Class.
You’ve created a great application to take pictures using the user webcam, it’s your job to perfect it adding new functionality, like adding some effects to the captured bitmap data for example.
I hope you liked this tutorial, thank you for reading!
For beginners and professionals, test king offers free resources including Testking 640-802 study guide and Testking 642-813 live domes so you will learn about cool web applications.
Tags: actionscript, app, cam, coding, Flash, freebie, image, tutorial, Tutorials, webcam
Posted in Tutorials | 10 Comments »
Monday, May 17th, 2010
Our second free XHTML theme is a fact, in case you’ve missed the first one please grab it here. The template is unique in it’s layout and is enhanced with Javascript. This is a perfect theme for any designer.
Photoshop files are included to edit the logo and section headers along with all the necessary fonts. This theme is also Cross-browser and is compatible with all main browsers.
Included are some guides on how to edit the theme, be it the HTML or the Javascript elements. If you require any support, leave a comment below and we’ll help you out.
This Free XHTML Web template has been made available by Matthew Leak. So be sure to add a Thanks to this post if you like it and why not follow the guy on Twitter for a healthy dose of design related randomness?
If Want to learn digital media art for your web project then subscribe for Testking 646-363 online training and get up to date Testking 350-018 design tutorials and Testking 642-515 video demos for step by step learning.
Tags: business, corporate, CSS, design, download, graphics, Inspiration, resource, web design
Posted in Resources | 11 Comments »
Saturday, May 15th, 2010
Hi! First of all, I want to thank all visitors and contributors for making tuttoaster.com such an awesome community. Since we’re getting quite a lot of unexpected traffic each day, we’ve decided to get started with some huge improvements to tuttoaster.com.
And because You are all very important to us, and we would appreciate every bit of feedback from the community, we would love to gather feedback from you’ll. When you have anything you want to add or want
to remove or when there’s something bothering you, please send us a note and we’ll definitely consider it.
The new design will have many usability improvements, a new, clean, and amazing look and, best of all, we’re switching to a new and faster VPS server. There’s another surprise going on behind the curtains; we can’t tell you too much about it, but it has something to do with the launch of the redesign.
Screen-shots of the new design.
Development has started. Only we can’t give you an exact end date, but we’ll keep you posted about the progress. Thanks for all the support and help!
Tags: business, corporate, css3, design, graphic, Inspiration, redesign, Resources, server, tutorial, Tutorials, vps, web design, Wordpress
Posted in Articles | 4 Comments »
Friday, May 14th, 2010
This tutorial describes a way to design a semi-realistic home theatre room using only the basic tools of Photoshop. The aim of this tutorial is to aid the beginners of Photoshop in the designing process. A lot of basic tools are used in this tutorial and also some simple techniques to turn a simple concept to a beautiful design.
Ok, open Photoshop; go to File Menu then ‘New’. Set the Width -800 px, Height-500 px. Change the name to ‘Home Theatre Room Design’. Click OK.
In this step we are going to create a new gradient. This gradient gives the design a beautiful look. We are going to add this gradient to the wall and the floor at the same time. Ok let’s now start our gradient creation.
OK. Select the Gradient Tool. If you are a keyboard lover you can activate it with the key ‘g’. Use ‘Shift+g’ to toggle between the Gradient tool and the Paint Bucket Tool.
In this step we are going to create a new gradient. This gradient gives the design a beautiful look. We are going to add this gradient to the wall and the floor at the same time. Ok let’s now start our gradient creation. OK. Select the Gradient Tool. If you are a keyboard lover you can activate it with the key ‘g’. Use ‘Shift+g’ to toggle between the Gradient tool and the Paint Bucket Tool.
Click on the Default Gradient in the Tool Options Bar to edit it.
Now the Gradient Editor Window opens. Here we are going to edit the Default Gradient; by changing its colour and saving it for future purposes.
Ok, this is the Black to White Gradient; now let’s change its Black Colour to another colour. First click on the Black Colour Stop indicated as 1. Its colour is displayed in the box indicated as 2. Click on the Colour to edit it.
Now the Color Picker Window opens. Just change the RGB values to R-68, G-29,B-32 and press OK.
You will be returned to the previous screen. Now let’s change the Colour of the other colour Stop. Click on the White Colour Stop, and then Click on the White Colour Box to edit the colour.
Now change the RGB values to R-195, G-156, B-157 and Click OK.
Now we get this Window. Change the Name to “Cool Gradient”, and then Click on ‘New’ and Finally Click on ‘OK’ to Save the Cool Gradient for future purposes.
Ok. It’s done. In the next step we are going to design the Wall and apply this Cool Gradient.
First we are going to draw a Rectangle Shape then add a gradient and noise to it to make it realistic.
Let’s start with setting Foreground Colour to White. Press ‘D’ on the keyboard to reset the Foreground/Background Colour selector tool to its Default settings. Now Click on the Arrow with Two Heads to Switch FG Colours or BG Colours. Now the Foreground Colour is set to White. You can also use the Keyboard Shortcut ‘X’.
Now select the Rectangular Shape Tool.
On its Tool Options Bar select the option ‘Shape Layers ‘to activate it.
Now draw a large Rectangle starting from Top Left towards the Bottom Right. BUT LEAVE SOME SPACE AT THE BOTTOM. In that space we are going to draw the floor later. So it is a good idea to leave space for the floor.
Now we get a Shape layer. Double click on the layer to open the Layer Style Effects window.
In the Layer Style window we activate the Gradient Overlay option by clicking it. Now Click on the Drop –down box of Gradient Sub-Option and Select the ‘Cool Gradient’ that we have created earlier.
Now change the values as shown in the following image. Opacity-100, Reverse- Enabled, Align with layer- Enabled, Style- Radial, Angle -12(minus 12), and Scale- 96. Click OK.
You will get this screen…
Now we are going to add some Noise to this Beautiful Gradient for a realistic look. To add Noise to the layer we use the Noise option in the Filter Menu. But before that we should change the Shape Layer to a normal Layer. Ok now click on the Layer 0 and then add a New Blank Layer by clicking on the New Layer Icon.
Now a blank layer, Layer 1 is created. Then Right Click on the Shape 1 layer
From the Menu select the Merge Down option.
Now the Shape Layer is changed to a Normal Layer. Then we go to the Filter Menu and Click on the Noise then Add Noise..
The Add Noise window opens. Set the Amount as 1.3 % and Activate the Gaussian option by clicking on it. Now press OK…
You will be presented with the following image.
Ok we are going to add an Outer Glow to the layer. It is to give a little texture to the space where the Wall and the Floor meet. Now Double Click on the Layer 1 to open its Layer Style window. Change the values as shown below. Change the Opacity-47 %, Size-2 px and finally Click on the Yellow Box which is the Colour of Glow.
In the Colour Picker window Change the RGB values as R-144, G-105, B-107 and Click OK.
In the Duplicate Layer box change the name into ’floor background’ and click OK.
OK now the ‘floor background’ layer is created. Then we move the ‘floor background’ layer below the ‘layer 1’ layer. Click and drag the layer as shown in the image.
For better handling, it is a good practice to name every layer we create. So let’s change the name ‘layer 1’ to wall. Double click on the ‘Layer 1’ text to change its name.
Another good practice in the design process is to move similar layers to a group. It avoids a lot of confusion and saves a lot of time. Also keep an eye on the name of the group. The name should be descriptive about the contents inside the group. We have created a Wall layer and Floor Background so far. Now let’s create a group and move the wall layer to the group. There are 2 ways to create a group and move layers into it. Let’s get familiar with the first way. The folder icon towards the bottom the layers (shown within red circle) window is the button to create new Groups.
Click on the button to create a new group. Ok now ‘Group 1’ is created. Then Double Click on the ‘Group 1’ text to change its name.
Change the name to ‘Wall Layers’. And move the ‘Wall ‘layer’ to the ‘Wall Layers’ group.
Ok now let’s learn the second method. In fact it is the better and time saving method. In this method you select a layer and click on the Folder Icon with the SHIFT key pressed to create a new group. Photoshp will create a new Group and move the layer you have selected earlier to the group at the same time. Time saving!. Ok let’s practice it. Click on the wall layer, press SHIFT on the keyboard, and holding the SHIFT key Click on the Folder Icon to create a new group.
OK if you get the correct result, change the name of the group to ‘Wall Layers’ as we have done in the previous step. Now click on the Floor Background layer then press Ctrl+ T on the keyboard or go to the menu Edit->Transform->Scale.
The transform box appears around the layer. We are going to just move the layer towards the bottom of the image. Click on somewhere inside the Transform Box, the cursor changes its colour to Black, now just drag towards the bottom.
You will get the following image….
Now we are going to draw a rectangle shape and fill it with some subtle tile texture in order to give the floor some perspective. You should draw the rectangle from outside the image area as shown in the following image. Later we can skew the rectangle to give the layer some perspective. If the rectangle exceeds the boundaries of the image area it will be easier to skew the layer.
Ok now we are going to add some texture to the floor. Go to the Filter menu then Patchwork.
For applying this filter we should first rasterize the layer. Click ok to Rasterize the layer.
Set the Square size to 1 and Relief to 0 and click ok.
Now the rectangle gets filled with the texture. For adding a Perspective to the rectangle we are going to skew the rectangle. Press Ctrl+T on the Keyboard or go to the menu Edit->Transform->Skew.
A transform Box will appear around the rectangle with Control Points. We can skew the rectangle to any direction using any of these control points. Ok now click and drag the bottom left Control point of the transform box to move that part of the rectangle towards the left side. The bottom left control point is shown within a red circle to make it clear.
Now click and drag the right bottom control point towards the right side. The control point is shown in red circle.
You will get the following result.
Now it’s time to give the rectangle some layer effects in order to make it look realistic. For that double click on the Shape 1 layer.
The layer style window opens. Click on the Gradient Overlay Option to activate it. Change the opacity to 77%. Select the Cool Gradient from the Gradient Drop Down box. The Reverse option should be enabled. Set the Style as Radial, angle to -10, Scale to 150% and also the Align with Layer Active. Click Ok to apply the setting to the rectangle.
Now change the opacity of the shape 1 layer to 75%.
You will be presented with the following image.
As I have said earlier grouping similar layers is an important matter in the designing process. So let’s create a new Group. But before that you should Change the name of the Shape 1 layer to’ Floor tiles’. Just double click on the Shape 1 text to edit it. Type ‘Floor Tiles’ in that space.
Ok now Select the Floor Tiles layer and the Floor Background layer together. Then press the Shift key on the keyboard and holding the Shift Click on the Folder icon to create a new Group.
Now photoshop creates a new group and moves the 2 layers we have selected earlier to the group. Now rename the Group to Floor Layers.
In the next step we are going to design the LCD TV.
Press ‘D’ on the keyboard to change the foreground and background colour to the default.
Change the foreground colour to r-124, g-86, b-88
Select the rectangle shape tool…
Draw a rectangle as shown in the following image…
Double click on the newly formed shape 1 layer.
Click on the Drop shadow option and change the settings as shown in the image.
Now click on the Stroke option and change its values.
You will get this image…
Now we are going to add a glass like effect to the inner area of the lcd tv as in the real life. Press‘d’ in the keyboard to set the fg and bg colours to the default.
Select the rectangle shape tool from the tool box and then set the style option to none by going to its options bar.
Now draw the rectangle starting from inside of the border as shown in the following image.
You will get this image….
Now double click on the shape 2 layer to open layer style window. Click on the ‘gradient overlay’ to activate it. Then change the settings as shown in the following image.
Then click on the ‘Gradient’ drop down box and select the ‘foreground to background’ grandient.
After selecting the gradient click on the gradient to edit the gradient.
Click on the white colour box to change the colour..
In the colour picker window set the rgb values as r-58,g-55,b-55 and click ok..
Now click on the stroke option and change the setting as in the following image.
Select the ‘Cool Gradient’ we have created earlier from the Gradient drop down box and change its angle too.
You will come to this image.
Change the foreground colour to R-124, G-86, B-88. Select the Rectangle Shape tool and draw another rectangle as shown in the following image.
Now press ‘Ctrl+T’ in the keyboard to transform the shape. The transform box appears around the layer.
Right click somewhere in the image, and select the option ‘Skew’ from the menu.
Now click on the’ bottom right’ control point……
And move the point towards the left a little.
Right click again and select the option ‘Warp’
Now click on the ‘top right’ control point and move towards the right side a little bit. Do not move the control point too far. A little movement is enough. You will get a result as shown in the following image.
Now double click on the Shape 3 layer.
Click on the gradient overlay option and change the options as in the following image. Change the gradient to ‘White Black’.
You will get this cool result….
Select all the shape layers and click on the folder icon to create a new group. Change the group name to ‘tv layers’.
Ok it’s done. Now let us move to the last part of the design. In this part we design speakers and place them accordingly in order to enhance the perspective of the design.
Select the rectangle shape tool and draw a rectangle like this…..
Press Ctrl+t on the keyboard to transform the layer. Right click within the transform box and from the Transform menu select the ‘Skew’ option.
Now click on the bottom left control point and move towards the right direction then click on the bottom right control point and move towards the left.
Your result will look something like this ….
Again right click and this time click on the option ‘warp’
Ok now move the four control points towards the outside a little bit.
You will get this result….
Now change the name of the shape layer to ‘Speaker right side’.
Again select the ‘rectangle shape’ tool and draw another rectangle as shown in the following image.
Press Ctrl+t and right click within the transform box and select the option ‘Skew’.
Move the ‘bottom left’ control point only towards the right side.
Again right click and select the option ‘warp’.
You will get this……
Now double click on the layer in the layers palette. Then the layer style window pops out. Select the gradient over lay option and then go the gradient drop down box in the right pane of the window. Select the Black White gradient.
Then the Black White gradient appears in the Gradient box. Just click on the gradient to edit it. You will get the following image. We are going to change the white colour into a subtle red tone. Click on the white colour box to change the colour.
Now the colour picker window opens. Just change the RGB values into R-209, G-196, B-197 and click ok.
You will get this result….
Full view.
Ok lets change that layers name into ‘Speaker left side’.
Draw another rectangle using the rectangle shape tool as shown in the image.
Double click on the layer to open the layer style window and change the ‘inner shadow’ settings as shown below.
Then click on the gradient overlay option, go the gradient dropdown box and click on the ‘arrow sign’ to view its more options. Here you can see the ‘metals’ option towards the bottom of the menu. Just click on it to add the metals gradient.
Photoshop will ask to replace the current gradients. Just click on the append button.
Now we have appended the metals gradient to our gradient box. Select the ‘steel bar’ gradient.
Now the steel bar gradient will be displayed in the gradient box. Just click on the box to edit the metal gradient. You will be presented with the following image. Here we are going to change the location of the black colour stop. Click on the black colour Stop.
Now enter the value 41 in the location input box. You can see that the black colour stop moves to the new position in real-time.
Also set the location of the white stop to 75% and the right most black colour stop to 95%. Click ok to apply the changes. You will be presented with the previous screen. Change some other values as shown in the following image.
When all went well, you get this cool result…
Now in the layers palette, just change the name into ‘speaker bar’.
Select the ‘ellipse shape’ tool from the tool box and draw an ellipse.
Change its name into ‘Speaker base’ in the layers palette.
Double click on the layer. In the layers style window select the gradient overlay option and change its values as shown in the following image.
Now click on the ‘Stroke’ and change its values too…
Just draw another ellipse using the ‘ellipse shape’ tool as shown in the image. Change its name into ‘base shadow’ in the layers palette.
Double click on the ‘base shadow’ layer. Activate the Drop shadow effect and set these values…
Now select the gradient option. Change the values as shown in the following image. Click on the gradient to edit it. Change the value of the first colour stop into rgb 0,0,0 respectively. For the second colour stop set the RGB values as R-61, G-52, B-52. (The detailed method to edit a gradient is explained in previous chapter s). After editing the gradient also set the following values.
Finally click on the ‘Stroke’ option and set these values…
you will get this screen…
Ok now we are going to move the two layers to the base of the bar. But before that you should change the layer order of the layers in the layers palette. The ‘Base Shadow’ layer SHOULD BE below the ‘Speaker Base’ layer. Ok If you have changed the position correctly you can now move the layers together to the base of the bar as shown in the image….
Ok. For a realistic result we can make the base look reflective. Just right click on the layer ‘Speaker Bar’ and click on ‘Duplicate’. Change the name into Speaker bar mirror and click ok.
A new shape layer will be created. Press Ctrl+T to activate the Transform tool. The transform box appears around the image. Move the top middle control point towards the bottom side of the image.
Now move the cursor to the inside area of the Transform box, the cursor changes to a black coloured one. Click and drag to move the image to the bottom a little bit.
Now you get this…
Now it is the time to add some subtle details to the speaker. Just double click on the layer ‘Speaker Left side’. The layer style window opens. Change the opacity of the gradient overlay to 78%. Click ok.
Now photoshop asks whether to rasterize the shape. Click ok to rasterize.
Now go to the Filter Menu then Click on the Option ‘Noise’ then ‘Add Noise’. In the noise option window change the amount to 20%, select the ‘Uniform’ and ‘Monochromatic’. Click ok to apply the settings.
Now you can see a subtle detail is added to the speaker. Ok then we can design the rest of the speaker. Select the ellipse tool and draw three ellipses as shown in the following image. But the size of the ellipses should be in the descending order. That is the second circle should be smaller than the first circle and so on …
In the layers palette rename the first ellipse as ‘Round 1’ second ellipse as ‘Round 2’ and the third ellipse as ‘Round 3’. Now double click on the ‘Round 1’ layer. In its layer style option window apply the following settings. First one is the ‘Inner Shadow’ setting.
Gradient overlay option…. Gradient is set as ‘Black White’
Stroke option…. Here too the gradient is set as ‘Black White’.
Check it out.
Now right click on the ‘Round 1’ layer and select the option Copy Layer Style
Now Right Click on the ‘Round 2’ layer and click on the option ‘Paste Layer Style’.
This is the result…
Repeat the same procedure for the Layer ‘Round 3’. You can see the result in the following image. Now it is the time to move all the Circles to the centre region of the speaker. Select all the ‘Round’ layers in the layers palette. You can use Shift key in the keyboard to select more than one layer. After selecting all the layers, press ‘v’ in the keyboard to activate the ‘move’ tool. Now move the ellipses to the centre of the speaker.
This is the result…
Select the entire round and the speaker layers together. You can use the Shift key to select multiple layers. Now click on the folder icon to create a new group.
Photoshop will create a new group and move all the selected layers to it. Now change the group name into ‘Speaker 1’.
Then right click on the ‘Speaker 1’ group and select the ‘Duplicate Group’ option.
In the duplicate group window leave the default name as speaker 1 copy and click ok.
Press ‘v’ in the keyboard to activate the ‘move’ tool. Then just drag towards the right side. The layers within the ‘speaker 1 copy’ group start to move to the right side. And the following image is the result.
Right click on the ‘ layer 1 copy’ group and select the option ‘duplicate’. Now change the name to ‘Speaker 2’ and click ok.
Using the move tool drag the image to the position shown in the following image.
Ok now right click on the ‘Speaker 2’ group and click on ‘Duplicate’. Change the name to ‘speaker 2 copy’ and click ok.
Now using the move tool move the layer to the left side as shown in the following image.
You can of course change the position of each speaker using the move tool. I have changed their position a little bit and over all it is good.
That’s all folks!! Please remember that this tutorial is for beginners only with very little understanding of the basic tools in photoshop. Feel free to download the source files and don’t forget to share.
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Tags: design, graphics, Photoshop, resource, Resources, tutorial, Tutorials, web
Posted in Tutorials | 1 Comment »
Thursday, May 13th, 2010
If you’re looking for inspiration, whether it be for digital art, web design or print design, concept art is always a good place to find it. Packed full of vivid color schemes, interesting patterns and various characters, game concept art can be a great way to give you a head start when coming up with new ideas.
This post showcases a lovely collection of 35 indescribable 3D game artwork pieces from across the DeviantART galleries. What’s your favorite?
Illustration for CCG, 6 days to complete in Photoshop.
Personal concept art, completed in Photoshop CS3.
Concept art for personal project, completed in Photoshop using a Wacom Intuos graphics tablet.
Card art for the Legends of Norrath OCCG. Completed in Photoshop CS2 using a Wacom Cintiq 12WX.
An additional illustration for Hero of Sparta from Gameloft. Matte painting completed in Photoshop.
Dominance War competition entry.
Post apocalyptic US harbour after a battle. Approximately 20 hours to complete using a graphics tablet in Photoshop.
Poster artwork for an online game. Completely in Photoshop CS3 using a Wacom graphics tablet.
Card artwork for the Legends of Norrath OCCG. Completely in PHotoshop CS2 using a Wacom Cintiq 12WX.
Took about 10 hours to complete in Photoshop CS3 with a Wacom Graphire graphics tablet.
Painted for marketing materials for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King.
Painting for the Erlikhan Game Project, took approximately 25 hours to complete in Photoshop CS2 using a Wacom Intuos A4 graphics tablet.
Created using 3DS Max, Photoshop, xNormals, Zbrush, Crazybump and UDK (Unreal Developers Kits).
Completed in Photoshop CS2 using a Wacom Intuos A4 graphics tablet, taking roughly 20 hours to complete.
Illustration for the Dominance War IV contest.
Erlikhan the War Chief. Completed in Photoshop CS2 using a Wacom Intuos A4 graphics tablet, taking approximately 25 hours to complete.
Continuing the journey, he arrives at the bridge… Completed in Photoshop CS4.
Piece for the Erlikhan game project. Completed within 25 hours using a Wacom Intuos A4 graphics tablet and Photoshop CS2.
The first rider unit for the Erlikhan army. Completed in Photoshop CS2 using a Wacom Intuos A4 graphics tablet.
A lose concept inspired by several games and movie scenes. Created in Photoshop.
Second rider for the Erlikhan army. Completed within 25 hours using Photoshop CS2 and a Wacom Intuos A4 graphics tablet.
A poster for an online game (MMORPG) called Xuan Yuan. Completed using a Wacom Intuos graphics tablet in Photoshop CS2.
We offer testking HH0-120 tutorials for beginner as well as advance users to learn how to create effective web designs. Download the testking 1z0-007 tutorials and testking 117-201 demos to learn how to develop website.
Tags: artwork, black, branding, designer, games, graphic, graphics, illustration, Illustrator, Inspiration, resource, showcase, white
Posted in Inspiration | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010
Last week we went through the process of designing an awesome minimal web design in Photoshop. If you haven’t read part 1 then you can view it here. In part 1 we created our site design making use of the 960 grid system to keep the site layout really clean and tidy. Now, let’s look at coding up our Awesome Minimal Web Design PSD into semantically-correct XHTML and CSS.
In this tutorial we’ll be making use of CSS3 and the new features it brings to Web Developers. We’ll be making use of the: text-shadow and background gradient syntaxes.
Here’s the finished design concept to rejog your memories. The final design mainly consists of 3 different colours. A clean grey background, a sharp red top menu and footer and a nice white background for the content. The overall design is nice and clean and uses subtle shadows on text / links to give them a little depth and style.
The first job is to slice up various images that make up the design and can’t be recreated using CSS. The first being the logo. We could use @font-face for the logo but due to heavy licensing restrictions on web fonts it’s safer to just export the logo as PNG.
Once every graphic being used in the design has been exported we’re left with a collection of PNGs and now we can begin building the structure of our website.
Create a new HTML file (index.html) in a directory of your choice and create the basic structure of the site in the head (<head></head>) of the document include the Doctype, links to stylesheets and also add the page title. After the closing head tag (</head>) open the body tags (<body></body>).
Change the background colour of the website by adding a simple background-color statement in the CSS
body
{
background-color: #e8e8e8;
}
The first part of the design at the top is a simple header that stretches the full width of the browser window. The logo is placed inside <h1> tags as there’s no other title on the page and the navigation links are placed into an unordered list (<ul>). Because it’s the “Work” page we’re developing, the “Work” link will have the active class and the contact link will have an extra contact class to remove the margin on the right to keep it in line with the 960 grid system.
We can create a nice linear gradient for our navigation using a spot of CSS3. Three browser-specific syntaxes must be used in order for it display in Webkit Browsers (Chrome, Safari…) Firefox and even Internet Explorer (yes! this CSS3 technique actually works in Internet Explorer) We then use the colors/styles from the Navigation in the PSD to create the navigation links on our site adding some text-shadow on our links for some depth and then we float them to the left so they ‘sit’ side-by-side next to each other.
If you’re unsure on how to use the gradient and text-shadow syntaxes in your CSS then head over to www.css3.info
#header
{
width: 100%;
height: 90px;
border-bottom: 1px solid #c0150b;
/* Chrome, Safari */background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(#ee271a), to(#d70e02));
/* Firefox */ background: -moz-linear-gradient(top,#ee271a,#d70e02);
/* IE */ filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient(startColorstr='#ee271a', endColorstr='#d70e02');
}
#header #headercontent
{
width: 960px;
margin: 0 auto;
padding: 35px 0px;
}
#header #headercontent #awesome
{
background-image: url('../img/awesome-logo.png');
background-repeat: no-repeat;
height: 0;
width: 0;
padding: 17px 0px 0px 120px;
margin: 0px 0px 0px 50px;
overflow: hidden;
display: block;
float: left;
}
#header #headercontent ul#nav
{
float: right;
margin: 0px 50px 0px 0px;
}
#header #headercontent ul#nav li
{
float: left;
}
#header #headercontent ul#nav li a
{
font-family: arial;
font-size: 12px;
color: #fefefe;
text-decoration: none;
text-shadow: 0px 1px 0px #88130e;
padding: 37px 22px;
}
#header #headercontent ul#nav li a:hover
{
text-decoration: underline;
background: #c0150b;
}
#header #headercontent ul#nav li a.contact
{
padding-right: -45px
}
#header #headercontent ul#nav li a.active
{
text-decoration: underline;
background: #c0150b;
}
Remember in the PSD where we added a subtle gradient in the ‘gap’ between the header and the content?
#top-gradient
{
background-image: url('../img/gradient-seperator.png');
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-color: #e8e8e8;
height: 40px;
width: 100%;
}
Now we need to begin creating our content container so add the following in your HTML file below div#top-gradient
Give it a little styling…
#content-container
#content-container
{
width: 960px;
height: auto;
margin: 40px auto 0px auto;
background-color: #ffffff;
border: 1px solid #dbd8d8;
}
Add the following to your HTML inside the content-container div.
Hello, I'm Matthew Leak. A standards compliant Freelance Web Designer and Developer based in Manchester, UK and I Love clean and Minimal Web Design.
Now we need to style it. The #intro div will contain the width and margins of the intro text and the actual text styles will be placed inside #intro p. Now because we’ve got two a sentence with two colours, we’ll be adding the red colour to #intro p span and then “Hello” will be wrapped around <span></span> tags.
#content-container #intro
{
padding: 61px 50px;
border-bottom: 1px solid #dbd8d8;
}
#content-container #intro p
{
font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif
font-weight: normal;
font-size: 17px;
color: #555555;
text-transform: uppercase;
text-align: center;
line-height: 25px;
}
#content-container #intro p span
{
color: #fd2d15;
}
All of the portfolio slider elements will be contained in a div with an ID of #slider. Unordered Lists (<ul>) are used to position the two navigation arrows and the macbook slider. If we were to add Javascript then we would target each element seperately, so make sure you give each element it’s own unique ID. The images inside the slider (the portfolio entries) will be contained in <li> tags inside ul#slides.

Now that we have the HTML structure of our slider, it’s time to add some styling. The slider div is given a width of 960px and then we style each of the navigation arrows separately. The previous arrow is moved into position by floating it left with a left margin of 50px and the next arrow is moved into position by floating it right with a right margin of 50px. Both arrows are given a top margin of 100px to position them vertically. The margins are placed in <li> and the actual arrow images are contained in the a tags of the <li>
#content-container #content #slider
{
width: 960px;
height: auto;
position: relative;
}
#content-container #content #slider ul#slidernav
{
display: block;
list-style: none;
position: relative;
}
#content-container #content #slider ul#slidernav li
{
}
#content-container #content #slider ul#slidernav li a
{
display: block;
width: 119px;
height: 119px;
text-indent: -9999px; /*removes the text from inside links */
}
#content-container #content #slider ul#slidernav li#prev
{
float: left;
margin: 100px 0px 0px 50px;
}
#content-container #content #slider ul#slidernav li#prev a
{
background-image: url('../img/arrowprev.png');
}
#content-container #content #slider ul#slidernav li#prev a:hover
{
background-image: url('../img/arrowprev-hover.png');
}
#content-container #content #slider ul#slidernav li#next
{
float: right;
margin: 100px 50px 0px 0px;
}
#content-container #content #slider ul#slidernav li#next a
{
background-image: url('../img/arrownext.png');
}
#content-container #content #slider ul#slidernav li#next a:hover
{
background-image: url('../img/arrownext-hover.png');
}
Now that our arrows are in position, we need to add styling to the actual macbook and the portfolio entries it contains. We style ul#slides by giving it a width of the image (580px) and add the top and bottom margins. Our portfolio entry doesn’t quite fit inside the macbook so we need to add some padding to the ul#slides li elements to move the entries into place.
#content-container #content ul#slides
{
background-image: url('../img/macbook.png');
background-repeat: no-repeat;
width: 580px;
height: 318px;
margin: 61px auto 61px auto;
list-style: none;
}
#content-container #content ul#slides li
{
padding: 20px 0px 0px 100px;
}
With our Portfolio slider firmly in place, it’s time add some project details. All of the text will be wrapped around a div with an ID of project-info which will contain the width and margins, but each separate column of text will have the same CSS class and also a name class that will just be for reference eg: project-details info – All the styles will be contained in the .info class. At the end of the HTML for the project text we’ve added a clear div which helps create a clean separation between this #project-info and #author-info
Client
Matthew Leak
Freelance Web Designer and Developer
Project Details
Clean & MNML Bespoke Website Design
Semantically-correct XHTML & CSS
http://blog.matthewleak.com
A Few Words
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. In iaculis nisl turpis, vitae pretium diam." - Matthew Leak
With our HTML structure in place we need to add some styling to #project-info. Each ‘column’ will have the same styles so we just apply generic styling to to the a and p tags and each column will have a header (<h2>) with the same style.
#content-container #content #project-info
{
width: 960px;
margin: 61px 50px 61px 50px;
}
#content-container #content #project-info .info
{
float: left;
width: 230px;
margin: 0px 80px 0px 0px;
}
#content-container #content #project-info .info h2
{
font-family: georgia;
font-size: 16px;
font-weight: normal;
color: #fd2d15;
text-transform: uppercase;
padding: 0px 0px 5px 0px;
}
#content-container #content #project-info .info a
{
color: #fd2d15;
text-decoration: none;
}
#content-container #content #project-info .info a:hover
{
text-decoration: underline;
}
#content-container #content #project-info .info p
{
font-family: arial;
font-size: 12px;
color: #393939;
line-height: 18px;
}
If you go back and look at your HTML structure again you’ll see that extra styling has been added to the testimonial class to remove the right margin. So we’ve added margin-right: -80px to cancel out the margin-right: 80px style. If we didn’t do this then the testimonial would extend outside the project-info div, which we don’t really want.
Our author-info div has the exact same styles as the project-info div, so we can just copy and paste the project info styles and replace #project-info with #author-info. Remember to add the clear div before the closing author-info div tag.
This time we’re using “bio” as our generic class.
#content-container #content #author-info
{
width: 960px;
margin: 61px 0px 61px 0px;
border-top: 1px solid #dbd8d8;
padding: 61px 0px 0px 0px;
}
#content-container #content #author-info h2
{
font-family: georgia;
font-size: 16px;
font-weight: normal;
color: #fd2d15;
text-transform: uppercase;
padding: 0px 0px 5px 0px;
}
#content-container #content #author-info .bio
{
float: left;
width: 230px;
margin: 0px 80px 0px 0px;
}
#content-container #content #author-info .bio a
{
color: #fd2d15;
text-decoration: none;
}
#content-container #content #author-info .bio a:hover
{
text-decoration: underline;
}
#content-container #content #author-info .bio p
{
font-family: arial;
font-size: 12px;
color: #393939;
line-height: 18px;
}
The footer can be added quickly by copying the styles from #topmenu. The only thing that needs to be edited is the width. Change the width from 100% to 960px
#content-container #content #footer
{
width: 960px;
height: 90px;
border-bottom: 1px solid #c0150b;
background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(#ee271a), to(#d70e02));
background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #ee271a, #d70e02);
filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient(startColorstr='#ee271a', endColorstr='#d70e02');
}
Now we need to style the text inside the footer. All text will be inside p tags so the first thing that we style in the footer is the p tag. Float the copyright text to left and float the “Take me to the top” text to the right.
#content-container #content #footer p
{
font-family: georgia;
font-size: 10px;
color: white;
text-shadow: 1px 0px 0px #000;
}
#content-container #content #footer #copyright
{
float: left;
padding: 40px 0px 40px 50px;
}
#content-container #content #footer #copyright a
{
color: white;
text-decoration: none;
}
#content-container #content #footer #copyright a:hover
{
text-decoration: underline;
}
#content-container #content #footer #top
{
float: right;
padding: 40px 50px 40px 0px;
}
#content-container #content #footer #top a
{
color: white;
text-decoration: none;
}
#content-container #content #footer #top a:hover
{
text-decoration: underline;
}
Head over to the W3 XHTML validator. Copy & Paste your HTML mark up and validate it by direct input. Everything should be fine and that’s our awesome minimal web design in a fully functional website! (minus the scripting).
In Testking 70-649 tutorial you’ll learn the use of CSS3 and new features of web design. Learn how to create inspiriting design using Testking EX0-101 video and Testking 642-832 study guide.
Tags: coding, slicing, tutorial, valid, validation, web design, xhtml
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