Night vision is the ability to see in a dark environment. Whether by biological or technological means, night vision is made possible by a combination of two approaches: sufficient spectral range, and sufficient intensity range. Humans have poor night vision compared to many animals, in part because the human eye lacks a tapetum lucidum.

1

Hi Kevin, thank you for this interview and welcome to Digital Art Empire, please tell us about yourself, your background and your work.

My name is Kevin Roodhorst. I’m a 20 year old self taught graphic designer from Holland with 6 years of experience.
I’m following a graphic design education in Amsterdam, when I’ve finished that I want to work for an
advertising agency or putting more time into my one work as a freelancer.

I started to work with Adobe software when I was 15 years old. What I did most of the time was follow
tutorials on the Internet and check out other designers. I started with making some CD covers and posted
them online on some websites, where I received a lot of positive reactions. At the age of 17, I got
my first paying assignment, a poster for a kick-boxing competition.
Now I’m 20 years old and I’ve worked for 22 different nightclubs. Flyers, posters and banners etc.
I’m featured in four Design Magazines: Advanced Photoshop, Digital Arts, Publish and  Computer Arts Magazine.
I also took part in creating labels for tobacco and drink companies.

2

Digital art being a big part of your life, where do you find all this time and energy? How do you balance your family and work life?

Just like you said its a part of my life! it isn’t difficult for me to make some time for designing. Im always designing. offcourse at school and
at home freelance asignments.

3

What are your tools of the trade and which software do you use?

I use a wacom bamboo tablet and a fast computer. The software I use is the adobe CS5 master collection and cinema 4d for 3d objects etc.

4

What project are you currently working on? Which project have you found most enjoyable and why ? What would be your dream project?

currently I’m not working on a personal project. Right now I’m really busy with some school projects. My favorite project is called ‘History’.
Because in this project I worked with typography for the first time. I dont really have a dream project, maybe a dream client? discovery,
National geographic, clothing of car brands.

5

I know you have a lot of influences, which are the designers who have given you enthusiasm and which blogs spur you on the most?

These are 2 designers who have some great art works:
The Hejz

Shinary Binary

inspiring websiteS:

inspiration 1

inspiration 2

6

What are your favorite areas in graphic design? And what do you look forward to the most?

Digital art is my favorite type of graphic design because the ideas are endless. I like to combine photographed objects with 3d renders.

7

What do you believe are the most important skills an aspiring designer needs to have?

I think the most important things are: composition and use of color, light and shadow.

8

Are you a self taught designer or have you been to a design school?

I’m following a graphic design education right now, but you dont learn such things as digital arts etc.
so you can say I’m self taught. I’m following a graphic design education because that is the best thing
to do if you want to work for am advertising agency.

9

Kevin thank you for this interview with Digital Art Empire, have you got any advice for up and coming digital creatives?

Keep practicing a lot and stay motivated. Focus on what you want most ! Thank you very much for the opportunity, really appreciate it !

Kevin Roodhorst featured in

- Abduzeedo Wallpaper Of The Week #110
- Abduzeedo Wallpaper Of The Week #117
- TutorArt.com Beautiful Works By Kevin.Roodhorst
- IT Plus Magazine – A Collection of Beautiful Designs by Kevin Roodhorst
- Itsdesigned.com
- Onlycreative.com.au

- Fourfifthsdesign.com
- Psd.tutsplus.com Interview
- Abduzeedo.com Interview
- Dailyinspiration.nl
- Designmodo.com
- Topdesignmag.com
- Art-spire.com

- Computer Arts Magazine Issue 180
- Advanced Photoshop Magazine Nr.23
- Publish Magazine Nr.2
- Digital Arts Magazine August Issue 2010

Please also check out Kevin’s Folio Here

You may also be interested in Kyle Lmabert who is a very accomplished speed painter who we did an interview with .

more info on speed painting

Its popularity on the internet was drastically increased with YouTube videos featuring fan-paintings by digital artists like Nico Di Mattia, Stephanie Valentin, Lauren Samara, Williams Shamir, Soulundone’s Art(Abdulla Sibaa). Technically these videos are not Speed Paintings, though they helped publicize the practice. An example of a traditional speedpainter would be the late Denny Dent, who made a name for himself painting 4′ x 6′ portraits of famous rock stars from start to finish during the course of a single song.

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I rounded up a selection that has a broad range of compositions concepts and appeal. Often with these 3D portraits you can see real emotion in the face, just like 2D artwork. It’s fascinating to see the best designers in the world working with such comprehensive and full applications and really pushing the boundaries of realism.

As you browse through this gigantic collection I hope you are inspired by what’s possible by anyone with enough patience and skill.

I have found once you get past the vast amount of technical sounding names when creating 3D work its actually more intuitive and easy to understand than some 2D programs because you can see the results so clearly. – Which reminds me keep you eyes peeled for more 3D S MAX tuts here at Digital Art Empire.

Please remember to subscribe via our RSS if you haven’t done so already: )

CSS level 3 is currently under development. The W3C maintains a CSS3 progress report. CSS3 is modularized and will consist of several separate recommendations. The W3C CSS3 Roadmap provides a summary and introduction.

Because not all browsers comply identically with CSS code, a coding technique known as a CSS filter can be used to show or hide parts of the CSS to different browsers, either by exploiting CSS-handling quirks or bugs in the browser, or by taking advantage of lack of support for parts of the CSS specifications.Using CSS filters, some designers have gone as far as delivering entirely different CSS to certain browsers in order to ensure that designs are rendered as expected.

Because very early web browsers were either completely incapable of handling CSS, or render CSS very poorly, designers today often routinely use CSS filters that completely prevent these browsers from accessing any of the CSS. Internet Explorer support for CSS began with IE 3.0 and increased progressively with each version. By 2008, the first Beta of Internet Explorer 8 offered support for CSS 2.1 in its best web standards mode.

Introductory articles and related resources.

The Power of HTML 5 and CSS 3

Get Started with CSS 3

Accessibility Features of CSS

Introduction to CSS3

A Marriage Made in Heaven? HTML 5 & CSS 3

Steve Smith on HTML5 and CSS3

CSS Advanced Layout Module

Six Questions: Eric Meyer on CSS3

CSS3 Opacity: Transparency of an Element in CSS

The css3 property opacity allows to change the transparency of an element. The property opacity needs a value in between 0.0 (equal to 100% transparency) and 1.0 (no transparency).

3 Gifts for User Interface in CSS3

Box-sizing let’s you change the behavior of the browser in calculating the width of an element. By default, box-sizing is set to content-box. With that set, it calculates width and height as specified by CSS 2.1, adding the border-width and border-height and the padding to the size of the box.

Text-shadow, Photoshop like effects using CSS

This produces the following text with a shadow 2px right and below of the text, which blurs for 2px: Users of Webkit (from Safari 3+), Opera 9.5, Firefox 3.1(pre-Alpha), Konqueror or iCab should see a grey drop-shadow behind this paragraph.

CSS3 Multiple Columns

Use CSS3 to create a set of columns on your website without having to assign individual layers and / or paragraphs for each column.

Multiple Backgrounds (CSS3)

<!– /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} @page Section1 {size:595.3pt 841.9pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –>

Thanks to the different values of the box-shadow, we can specify that the shadow is positioned to the left/right or top/bottom on the outside of the element, its gradient of blur and its color.

Rounded Corner Boxes the CSS3 Way

The technique is fiendishly simple, and I think we’ll all be a lot better off once the W3C stop arguing over the details and allow browser vendors to get on and provide the tools we need to build better websites.

Border-image: using images for your border

Another exciting new border feature of CSS3 is the property border image. With this feature you can define an image to be used instead of the normal border of an element. This feature is actually split up into a couple of properties border image and border corner image..

CSS3 Borders

CSS3 takes borders to a new level with the ability to use gradients, rounded corners, shadows and border images. Mozila, Firefox and Safari 3 have implemented this function, which allows you to create round corners on box-items.

CSS3 Colors

Super Awesome Buttons with CSS3 and RGBA

One of our favorite things about CSS3 is the addition of RGBA, a color mode that adds alpha-blending to your favorite CSS properties. We’ve kicked the tires on it a bit with our own projects and have found that it helps streamline our CSS and makes scaling things like buttons very easy. To show you how, we’ve cooked up an example with some super awesome, scalable buttons.

CSS Template Layout

The “Holy Grail” layout. Flexible content but fixed-width sidebars.

CSS 3: RGBA

Some parts of CSS 3 are implemented in some browsers, and you can use them today. One of the features that particularly interests me is RGBA colour which still has limited support, but is still worth looking at.

CSS3 Embedding a Font Face

Want to get away from ‘Web Safe’ fonts for some attractive headers AND do it without using an image? Use CSS 3 and embed a font-face!

Creating a polaroid photo viewer with CSS3 and jQuery

By combining the CSS3 Box Shadow and Rotate properties, this effect is relatively easy to create. When dragging a polaroid around, you’ll see the shadow. When it’s placed down, it’s rotated to the left or the right (random).

CSS3 Corporate Fun

The pushing of the buttons is simulated by adjusting the size of the top and bottom border. Also, top-level lists have a bigger border (“bevel”) in order to improve the understanding of hierarchy.

CSS3 Links Creation and Usage

Links are very vital for any web page to navigate through the site and so is also with CSS3. In CSS3 it is possible to handle links even more powerful and effectively as it is possible to handle various states of links which are link, visited, hover, and active states.

Tooltips with CSS3

Up until now, there were a few options in existence; ugly Javascript-based methods, or solutions that use blank anchor tags (for IE6 compatibility). Another possibility is to ignore IE6 altogether and make use of the hover pseudo class in conjunction with the parent element that contains the tooltip text.

Styling Forms with Attribute Selectors

Attribute selectors have been a part of the World Wide Web Consortium’s CSS specification since version 2 was finalised – that was in 1998. Sadly, support for attribute selectors hasn’t been widely available in popular browsers until very recently.

Using CSS 3 selectors to apply link icons

The first list item uses the general attribute selector to look for any tags with an accesskey attribute and display an icon to alert users to its presence:

Simple CSS3 rounded corners with support for IE

Rounded corners are a common element of web designs. Unfortunately, they have been frustratingly difficult to express in clean CSS / HTML. The long term solution is CSS3’s border-radius property, which is nicely supported in the current versions of Safari and Firefox.

The Shadow effect in CSS3

Shadow in website design is something that can be achieved by using CSS and images, to achieve shadow in CSS2 you would use images and positioning, it can be achieved but it usually means that you have to create multiple divs.

Liquid faux columns with background-size

Until the Advanced Layout and Grid Layout modules are implemented, we have to get by with the existing tricks of the trade. One of those is the use of faux columns, a background image which simulates equal-height columns. This is a good technique, but the drawback is that it only works with fixed-width columns.

CSS3 Wrappping

Wrapping is a vital property for proper display of contents in web pages for if wrapping is disabled then the user could not display and view long lines that goes outside the window boundary and thus becomes useless

CSS text shadows and background sizing

Together both CSS properties can add unique twists to everyday Web design with minimal effort. In this article I will explore both of these, showing how they work with some simple examples

A mock-up interface using CSS3 Colour

I recently posted a preview of the CSS3 colour module on my own blog, but avoided using any actual examples. This was because of the things that have been implemented, the true power isn’t really seen using a simple example.

Making an image gallery with :target

One of the selectors new to CSS3 is the :target pseudo-class, which can be used to apply rules to an element with a fragment identifier; that is, an anchor name or an id. For example, let’s assume you have a section heading with an id of ‘chapter_2′:

Stay on :target

In this article, I want to introduce you to a really powerful CSS3 pseudo selector called :target.

<!– /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} p {mso-margin-top-alt:auto; margin-right:0cm; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –>

Sign up for 642-165 training program and get some of amazing CSS3 Tutorials & Resources to learn graphic designing. Become expert graphic designer using 70-291 guide and 642-524 live demos.

Semantic code: put more in, get more out

IE7 is gaining market share and we can start to use more CSS3 selectors in our day to day code. Because of this, it’s worth a quick reminder that the more semantic we make our (X)HTML, the easier to implement the selectors will be.

The new design here at Digital Art Empire has already helped to increase the community interaction and general positive energy around the blog.

I’ve been able to make many online friends and acquaintances who have design blogs too ; they have all been refreshingly open and friendly .

I’m really grateful to the community of designers and bloggers who read my blog and help to make this site work . These are the people who I talk with regularly and help to make the community.

In no particular order thanks : )

Creative Fan

My Ink Blog

Rich Works

Smashing Share

Web Expedition18

aext.net

Web Design Fan

Design Informer

Web Design Mash

Creative Overflow

Circle Box

AcrisDesign

Little Box of Ideas

Fudge Graphics

Pixel Cloud

If I missed you out sorry , please leave a comment and we can connect : )

At the start of my journey I set out to see what would happen, having had some great successes making video tutorials for my You Tube channel I had high hopes, which happily I can say have been met.

After blogging part time since September last year and more seriously devoted since the start of this year I have seen a steady and faster than expected growth in the community here.

The growth after the start of 2010 has been doubling every month, and I put this down to publishing every day and writing good quality articles and tuts that get stumbled and tweeted. So, points to note if you own a blog are, consistently publishing and writing attractive content is a formula for success.

Over the weekend we had a massive traffic increase with 20 thousand visits over Saturday and Sunday , our monthy total was 62 thousand – this isn’t our usual stats as you can see , but they say you should celebrate all you victories. Most of this traffic came from stumble upon

The plan is to continue to write original tutorials articles and inspiring showcases whilst broadening the topics to include more 3D,code and web programs.

The new design –

I’d like to thank Kailoon for his amazing support whilst getting this site together and ironing out any little glitches

There will be a User link feed setup in the very near future so I’ll send out an email to all those who blog.

Header

The header is simple gorgeous , and reflects the quality of posts you can expect at DAE.

Sidebar

Nice large Rss & Twitter buttons with FB and email subs too. If you haven’t already please take this time to sign up – its absolutely free .

Footer

I really love the footer area and may well enhance it some more – it has our Flickr group and pulls posts from categories. Theres also a scroll to top button and link to our freebies.

Under the hood theres a php script called timthumb that auto resizes images making my life a lot easier.

The new logo

I wanted to say ‘Empire’ with the new logo , that was my overriding objective because it’s the unique selling point that no one else in the design/blog sphere has.

I originally had in mind a triangle and pillars like a Roman temple or forum , I took this idea to concept feedback and was reminded  to keep it simple. So after much drawing and redrawing I chose the wreath, which I think simply and subtly says ‘Empire’

Have your say – thoughts and feedback.

I look forward to hearing what you have to say , please feel free to point out any glitches – There are known issues in IE 7 and below – and some database errors that are being ironed out as I type . Overall I’m very happy with the design and will build up on the  success I have seen humbly and steadily : )

If you still need inspiration check out our archives.

Please remember to retweet and subscribe via RSS

Create light effects with texture

Add colourful, personal flare to your work by incorporating doodles and textures, writes Craig Shields.

Design an Underwater Omega Code Poster

Omega Code is a band that ran a massive design contest to create interest in their music, by allowing designers to use their unique triangle logo and compete to win the contest.

Magic lamp in the old room

Balance 3D with mixed media

Melt 3D elements with organic shapes in Photoshop for illustrations that leap off the page, writes Xavier Bourdil

Photoshop & Illustrator Tutorial: Create retro poster art

The retro aesthetic of the 1950s and 1960s is currently back in vogue and it’s set to be a great trend for 2010.

In this tutorial, you’ll be taken through, step by step, the creation of some custom brushes, and application of them to a stock image to create a matte dispersion effect.

Melting Girl in Photoshop

One of the best things in Photoshop, in my opinion, is that we can create all sorts of effects and photo manipulations mixing regular stock photos

Lost in Space Typography in Photoshop

So in this tutorial I will show you how to create an easy and super quick text effect in Photoshop. We will play with Brushes, Blend Modes, basic filters like Blur and Liquify, and also text.

Create a Funky Retro Wavy Text Effect in Photoshop

The purpose of this tutorial is to learn how to mask out an image so that it just shows through the editable text, making it friendlier to modifications later on.

Create a Vivid Themed Illustration Using Simple Hand-Drawn Elements

Drawn elements are certainly something that can enhance an illustration. Even if you’re not very good at drawing, you can still create a quality piece. All you need is a good idea and some Photoshop skills.

How to Make a Dark, Post-Apocalyptic City Illustration

Using simple tools, we’ll turn lively streets into abandoned ruins overgrown with weeds. A number of stock images and a few little tricks will let us optimize our work and make this job more interesting and spectacular. So let’s go!

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!

Create frozen liquid effects

Sergio Vichique shows how you can bring the coolest of effects to your illustrations.In this tutorial I will show you some techniques to give almost anything a liquid or frozen fluid effect. I’ll also reveal the easiest way to extract liquid images and keep them transparent.

Make an Inspiring Artistic Poster with Drawn Elements

In this tutorial, we’ll create drawn elements, use design brushes, bring them into Photoshop, and merge them into a unique poster composition that feels hand-made, stylistically unified, and personalized

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.

How to Create a Retro Boxing Poster in Photoshop

Creating a retrograde look is nothing new, but there are some things to keep an eye out for when mimicking Graphic Design from any decades past. We’ll be drawing inspiration from Poster Design from the 1960s, particularly Boxing Posters from that era. Let’s get started!

Soul Rebel Poster Tutorial

In this tutorial I will show how to create an awesome illustration that can be printed as a poster to hang it on your wall.

Creating a Space-Helmeted Future Retro Illustration

I’m going to call it Future Retro for the sake of this tutorial. I employed my take on the style in pitching a poster and overall look for a night at a local club. This tutorial goes over the meat and potatoes of it’s creation!

Create an Intense Movie Poster in Photoshop

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.

How to Create a Somber Composition in Photoshop

In this tutorial you will learn how to manipulate stock images and turn them into your puppets to express your desired feelings.

Photoshop Tutorial: Use lighting effects to make photos sparkle

From sparkles, pixie dust effects, coloured light spots and light beams, to using splatter effects as a form of lighting, it’s all here. Some of the tricks you’ll learn are created through cunning use of stock photography, while others make use of Photoshop’s built-in tools.

Photo Strip

This is a Photoshop tutorial on how to create a beautiful photo film strip.The warp tool will be used to create the twisting effect (so, you need Photoshop CS2 or above to complete this tutorial). With the completion of this tutorial, you will be able build a photo strip with your own photos or artwork.

Pop Art-inspired fashion illustration

Spots make the difference by offering a simple way to give your work a Ben Day-style Pop Art bent, as Gavin Dias demonstrates. Using dots to add tone and shading to your fashion illustrations is a fun and simple way of re-creating a 1950s Pop Art look.

Create an Out of Bounds Fantasy Illustration

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.

Self-initiated abstract art

Out-of-this-world work doesn’t require a brief, says JUN, just careful choice of source material, a few hours and a little imagination. Self-initiated work often means a lack of budget, but that doesn’t mean it can’t look good. It’s all left up to your imagination and creativity.

How To Create the Photo Manipulation “Brightness Tomorrows”

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to create a futuristic looking photo manipulation using some special tools, such as the Background Eraser Tool and how to blend pictures properly using Match Color Adjustments and Lighting Effects. So let’s start!

How to Create a Chilling Photo Manipulation in Photoshop

In this tutorial I will show you how I created a fantasy photo manipulation called “You Can Not Frost The Time” with using several Photoshop tools such as Color Range, different blending modes, and more. Let’s get started!

Fantastic Tree

Drawing Mircosoft’s XBOX 360

This tutorial is going to teach you how to draw a Mircosoft’s XBOX 360 console in photoshop using a reference image, simple techniques such as the gradient tools and the pen tool. You are expected to have some experience with both of these two tools to successfully apply and follow this tutorial.

How to Create a Super Shiny Pencil Icon

The Pencil is one of the visual metaphors most used to express creativity. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to draw a pencil icon. We’ll have a look at gradients, selection tools, and basic transform operations. Let’s have some fun with this.

Rendering a Striking Matchbox in Photoshop

This tutorial consists of creating a digital illustration in Photoshop of a box of matches. We’ll be creating the matchbox cover design, the striker on the matchbox from a pattern, and placing the cardboard texture on the box. We’ll also create the matches and align everything into a 3D perspective.

Army Swiss Knife Tutorial

Make an iPod Classic

You will be learning how to create an iPod classic but also you can use the same technique to make an iPod nano.

Design a Shiny Photorealistic Apple Remote

3D Mp3 Player

Designing Loox Pocket PC

How to create an interesting Pocket PC using only Photoshop.

LG LCD Monitor Icon

Creating A Vector Style MacBook From Scratch

This tutorial is quite a long one, so I would go get a drink now if I were you, OK we are going to make a MacBook Pro in Photoshop using shapes and different blending options, combining these two simple things we get a realistic vector outcome which can be used in many different situations, so…let’s begin.

Dark Angel Photomanipulation

In this tutorial i will show you how to design a grunge style photo-manipulation. You will learn how to blend different images into one composition.

Stunning Dragons Attack in Photoshop with 3D Features

In this tutorial I will show you how to create an sort of video-game style image with dragons, fire, smoke, robots and other crazy things.

How to Create a Fantasy “Mother Nature” Scene

This tutorial is about creating a fantasy scene called “Mother Nature.” We will use well chosen images, brushes and most off all our imagination in combination with Photoshop techniques to create an outstanding image. So let’s get started!

Classic Photoshop Tutorial: Master 3D type effects

In it, type-effects guru Nik Ainley shows how to create the above image. The key is to create the letters in a 3D package first as individual characters, then bring them into Photoshop for further post work.

Photoshop Tutorials: Easy Watercolor Painting Effect

In this Adobe Photoshop tutorial, we’re going to learn how to easily make a photo look more like a watercolor painting. This photo effect works best on images where maintaining rich colors and strong contrast is more important than keeping any fine details, since you’ll be losing a lot of detail with this effect.

Space Lighting Effects in 10 Steps – Photoshop Tutorial

Abduzeedo means abducted in portuguese, the spelling is not exactly that, it should be abduzido. But the whole idea for the Abduzeedo’s design is the space. I’m really fan of playing with this subject because we are sort of free to create whatever we want, and using Photoshop that really means everything.

Really cool Eclipse Effect in Photoshop

In this tutorial I will show you how I created the Abduzeedo’s footer. Some of the techniques I used here I took from other tutorials and also from another tutorial I wrote some time ago for PSDtuts Mix Cool Retro Curves Into Your Photographs. Besides, the design is inspired by the amazing work of James White, so I highly recommend you to check his work out.

The Magic Night

This lesson will show to you as by means of simple actions to create a beautiful and interesting collage.

Super Slick Dusky Lighting Effects in Photoshop

One of the best sites around for desktops has to be Desktopography. I’ve been inspired by their amazing work, so today we are going to put together a sunset image mixing some vector shapes and dusky lighting effects to produce a slick image that would make a nice album cover for a chillout mix!

Combine Renders and Light Effects for Awesome Results

In this tutorial, we are going to extract the ability of Photoshop tools to make an epic piece of digital art.  We’ll look at how to manipulate a pre-made render into the composition, as well as how to utilize blending modes, gradients and the liquify tool to achieve a brilliant abstract result.

Create a Dark and Surreal Poster Using Your Own Portrait

Today’s tutorial was inspirited by digital artist Rob Shields who graciously granted permission for us to use his work as inspiration. I chose his work titled “Keep me in the dark.” In this illustration it is essential that you use a tablet; especially for the doodles and the white strokes that will give the portrait a more detailed effect. Let’s get started!

Create a Cosmic Sci-fi Poster Design in Photoshop

I’m a great fan of sci-fi art. Have you ever seen a Metallica cd cover? Simply amazing. This kind of design inspired me to create a cosmic sci-fi scene. Today I want to show you how to create this image in Photoshop. This tutorial is for intermediate users who know how mask and selection tools work. We will use also a bit of Illustrator and Cinema4D. Have a try!

Create a Fantastic Abstract Fan Poster

In this tutorial, we are going to get creative with layering, lighting, and texture to build fantastic abstract piece. More specifically, we’re going to employ some unusual techniques to make a fan poster for the band Omega Code, but you’ll quickly see many different applications for what is taught here.

Photoshop Tutorial: Create a children’s book illustration

In this brilliant tutorial, Photoshop wizard Fabio Sasso puts layer masks and Photoshop’s built-in filters to good use to create a beautiful, enchanting image that wouldn’t be out of place in a children’s book.

Photoshop Tutorial: Create dynamic backdrop lighting

In this tutorial, Ricardo Ajcivinac shows how to recreate this brilliant image (which is also the cover of our Jan 2010 issue), and how to give your character art extra punch by using lighting and layer styles.

How to enhance your subjects with striking light effects in Photoshop

In this Photoshop tutorial I’ll show you a simple technique that can be used to enhance any kind of subject with stunning light effects. We will use in particular selection tools, gradients and brushes to achieve the result.

Super Easy Typographic Portrait in Photoshop

So in this tutorial I will show you how to create a really cool and super easy typographic portrait in Photoshop. We will use the Displace filter and some Blend Modes to achieve the effect. The whole process is quite simple but it might take you some time to add the texts and elements, but once you do that the rest is very straight forward.

his tutorial covers many advanced techniques, but not to fear, as Joe will walk you through step-by-step how to create it.  You’ll learn rendering, depth of field, dispersion, photomanipulation, and how to add the tiny details that all combine for a brilliant artwork.  So, let’s get started!

Egg Planet. Fantastic globe photo manipulation

Kung Fu Panda Wallpaper

3D cartoons one of the most popular fields in computer graphic nowadays, it has a lot of funs. In this tutorial I will try to create my own wallpaper on one of 3D cartoons ‘Kung Fu Panda’ using collage of graphic elements.
So, let’s start!

Create a Kill Bill Style Movie Poster in Photoshop

As you might have noticed from the other photoshop tutorials on this site, I am a bit of a movie buff and enjoy recreating movie posters. In today’s tutorial I am going to show you how to make a cool Kill bill style movie poster complete with bloods, swords, and girls.

“John Rambo” Movie-Poster Tutorial

Today we are going to recreate the original movie poster from the recently released (or let’s say unleashed) movie “John Rambo”. This poster is very simple but effective at the same time. We will use an original picture from the movie, which also the poster-designers seem to have used.

Iron Man View Interface Effect in Photoshop

In this tutorial I will show you how to create the Iron Man screen interface, I don’t even know if I can call it that way . We will use Illustrator to create some vectors and Photoshop to put everything together.

Design a Sin City Style Poster

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to create that effect in Photoshop, but this time we’ll use Illustrator to create the perspectives and text. I’ll walk through the process of creating the effect; However, it’s always good if you play around and test different settings to see how it works. That for me is the best way to learn.

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Looking at Business cards are always a great way to get inspired. As a designer they offer a rounded and cohesive graphic design project from layout to print.

Thank you to the artists who provided the materials.

Letterpress

Letterpress became increasingly popular amongst web designers especially with the release of Photoshop’s current logo which uses the letterpress style.

In the 21st century, commercial Letterpress has been revived by the use of ‘water-wash’ photopolymer plates which are adhered to a near-type-high base to produce a relief printing surface typically from digitally-rendered art and typography.

Here are 10 awe inspiring examples.

Metal

You may think these cards are gimmicky or belong to the funny business cards section but rest assured , they make a mark in the minds eye and you’re more likely   to keep showing your colleagues and friends. This is the goal of all advertising and design – to be remembered. They are virtually indestructible as business cads go – they don’t fade or tear. Enough about the cards lets have a look.

Here are 10 eye catching examples.

UV Coated

High quality business cards without full-colour photographs are normally printed using spot colours on sheet-fed offset printing presses. If a business card logo is a single colon and the type is another colour, the process is considered two colour.More spot colours can be added depending on the needs of the card. With the onset of digital printing, and batch printing, it is now cost effective to print business cards in full colour.

A business card can also be coated with a UV glossy coat (offset-uv Printing). The coat is applied just like another ink using an additional unit on a sheetfed press.

That being said, UV coats can also be applied as a spot coating – meaning areas can be coated, and other areas can be left uncoated. This makes the coated area extremely glossy and shiny in appearance.

Here are 10 stunning examples.

Tutorials

Here is a selection of the best tutorials from around the interweb, have fun creating your own.

A brief update : Here are some changes

1. No Ads

As you may have noticed there are no ads – on the sidebar – they are being replaced with more useful content for now. This is partly because we recently got accepted onto buy sell ads and are making sure the prep is done properly; and Partly because they weren’t generating enough revenue to be justified.

2. Facebook

Here is the link to my Facebook profile which is updated everyday – I answer every email and love to network.

There is also the  Face Book Fan Page which is massive amongst social media gurus .

3. Frequent Posts

There are more frequent posts here on Digital Art Empire, some of my regular readers will have noticed I’m posting every week day. This is set to continue for the whole of 2010 and beyond. Please ask either in comments or by email ( contact page ) what you would like to read more of . I know you enjoy tuts so I’m going to do at least one a week, increasing as I have the time.

We also ran a succesful competition last week and are running another one this week. This should become a regular occurance here .

4. Success and Popularity

In terms of our popularity it looks set to grow steadily again this year. I’m writing for My Ink Blog again this month so I’ll post that link when it’s up. This guest post helps to bring in readers and boost the overall exposure of Digital Art Empire.

Last week I featured a tut on good tutorials which was an overwhelming success, bringing in a whopping 2043 visits in ONE day. This helped to show me clearly the way Digital Art Empire should go – more tuts. This will be easy as I love the creativity of making them.

5. Twitter

The twitter followers are at 849 and there are some really good tweets going on there so check it out.

6. RSS

If you know about RSS please sign up, if not read this and then sign up here.

Thanks to Bruno Maia, for the twitter icon, Arturo de Albornoz for the Ad & woodleywonderworks for the earth.

Today I collected 25 of the most awesome Photoshop tutorials I could find from around the web.

These include a broad range of concepts  including manipulations , character design, UI design and some 3D effects.

There were a lot of good tutorials written last year so this list will save you from missing them, bookmark this and promote it on your favourite network.

1

Photoshop & Illustrator Tutorial: Create mile-high type art

In this tutorial, Fabio Sasso shows you how to achieve that glossy, detailed fantasy look through careful compositing, and control of layers and blending modes. You’ll extrude type in Illustrator and then composite on textures and other details in Photoshop.

2

Create an Abstract Sea on Land Illusion

I’m sure we can all agree we love new tutorials, I created this tutorial initially thinking I could create the effect of a destroyed landscape through glasses as a kind of alternate view of nature in the future after global warming.

I settled on an animal landscape and decided the best contrast is between sea and land . The viewer is supposed to be looking through the glasses in first person but I think it can look like a reflection in the lenses.

3

How to Create a Photo Manipulation of a Flooded City Scene

In this tutorial, we will learn how to manipulate a simple photo into a flooding torrent of a scene. We’ll use some relatively simple techniques to give this image a semi-realistic, stylized feel. Let’s get started!

4

Easy Star Light in Photoshop

The light effect we created here is nothing new, I’ve shown you how to create this quite a few times. However this time we played with patterns and the warp transform to add a very nice effect to the image. Once again I was inspired by a skateboard deck design and wanted to reproduce that in Photoshop. The whole idea of this tutorials is that we can play with the tool and learn at least something new.

5

How to Create a 3D Leaf from a Texture Photograph

In this beginners level tutorial, you will learn how to create a vibrant 3D leaf compilation from a single 2D photograph. You will be able to manipulate the object however you prefer. Let’s have fun with this display of greenery.

6

Create a Slick Business Card Design with Stunning Typography

Whatever profession you’re in, there’ll come a time when you’ll need your own business card. This graphic design tutorial will show you a way to create a standard two-sided business card design in Adobe Photoshop that you can take to your printer.

7

How to Create a Surreal Scene of Flying Bombs on Fire

In this tutorial, we’ll make a scene with flaming bombs pouring from the sky. This tut is made to show some down and dirty Photoshop tricks that beginners can quickly pick up. It also includes some relatively advanced techniques to help budding designers enhance their workflow. Let’s get started!

8

How to Create a 3D Text Photo Manipulation

In this intermediate-level graphic design tutorial, you’ll learn how to realistically superimpose a beautiful three-dimensional text object onto a living room scene with the help of Illustrator and Photoshop

9

How to Create Furry Text in Photoshop

In this tutorial we’ll be creating furry text using layer masks and some shadow effects for a 3D look. It’s pretty simple and fun to create and looks pretty cool. You can use this effect to learn new techniques in Photoshop, add to your portfolio or simply for fun. Let’s begin.

10

Photoshop: Hand Drawn Design

In case you haven’t noticed yet, the hand drawn style is one of the hottest design trends. Here is a quick tutorial to show you how to create a hand drawn design in Photoshop using the blending mode and alpha channel.

11

How to Create a Flying Land Illustration On Fire

This tutorial is a collaboration with a good friend of mine with Ciursa Ionut. This tutorial is about creating a fantasy illustration using some dragon images and a few cliffs for creating the land. We also add lava and fiery effects. So, let’s get fired-up for this one!

12

iPhone Gift Ribbon

This effect can be easily achieved with Photoshop Warp transform tool. Christmas is around the corner and I hope you may find this tutorial useful for upcoming projects.

13

How to Make a Dark, Post-Apocalyptic City Illustration

In this tutorial, we’ll change a full of sunshine, ordinary photograph into a gloomy image of the world after destruction of mankind. Using simple tools, we’ll turn lively streets into abandoned ruins overgrown with weeds. A number of stock images and a few little tricks will let us optimize our work and make this job more interesting and spectacular. So let’s go!

14

How to Create Remarkable 3D Text in Photoshop

In this quick and easy graphic design tutorial, you’ll discover a handy process for generating eye-grabbing three-dimensional typography with the help of Photoshop and some creative techniques.

15

How to Combine Digital Painting and Photo Manipulation to Create a Platform Environment

In this tutorial, you will learn how to combine digital painting and photo manipulation to create polished fantasy art. The process of combining digital painting and photo manipulation is a great mix. It truly allows you conquer the world with beautiful illustrations. Let’s get started!

16

Create a Simple Vibrant Light Effect in Photoshop

Starting away from the computer, we’ll use a few household objects to create some photographic resources. Then follow this Adobe Photoshop tutorial to manipulate the images with various tools and techiques to produce a vibrant design made up of intense light streams effect.

17

Cartoon Character in Photoshop

I have been thinking of doing a cartoon version of one of my favorite characters, Agatha Christies’ Detective Hercule Poirot, always portrayed as a strong willed and serious man. Doing such an intellectual and grumpy looking character in a cartoon fashion sounded like a funny idea to me. So I got my pencil and drew and colored it entirely on Photoshop CS3.

18

How To Create a Sleek Audio Player Interface in Photoshop

In this tutorial you’ll learn how to design a sleek audio player interface in Adobe Photoshop.

19

How to Create a Fantasy “Mother Nature” Scene

This tutorial is about creating a fantasy scene called “Mother Nature.” We will use well chosen images, brushes and most off all our imagination in combination with Photoshop techniques to create an outstanding image.

20

Photo Strip (Photoshop Tutorial)

This is a Photoshop tutorial on how to create a beautiful photo film strip, as seen in Apple’s iLife package design (’06 version) and DigitalMash website. The warp tool will be used to create the twisting effect (so, you need Photoshop CS2 or above to complete this tutorial). With the completion of this tutorial, you will be able build a photo strip with your own photos or artwork.

21

Create a Realistic Space Scene from Scratch with Photoshop

In this intermediate-to-advanced-level design tutorial, we are going to create a stunning space scene that has realistic-looking planets, stars, and lighting effects using a few innovative Photoshop techniques and some textures.

22

Combine Photo Elements to Create a Surreal Photo Manipulation

This Photoshop tutorial, you will learn how to use a variety of color, lighting, and cut and paste techniques to create a surreal photo manipulation. Combine your creativity with these Photoshop techniques to create your own photo manipulation artworks.

23

How to Make an Impressive Blog Layout in Photoshop

In this easy to follow web design tutorial, you will learn how to construct a beautiful, sleek, and professional-level weblog design using Adobe Photoshop that you can later use for your very own blog theme.

24

Patterned Line Photo Effect

A photo effect like this one is rather popular to make movie poster or something like that. I actually don’t know what is this effect name, so I just call it Line Patterned Photo Effect; base on the step of how to make it, the basic of this effect is a random line that blended in to the photo.

25

Beautiful Xmas Wallpaper in Cinema 4D and Photoshop

I decided to try and design my own candy cane typeface. I also used Photoshop to create the background and the whole composition.

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