Hulk – new style

By Mihai Opariuc on January 18th 2009

Category: Tutorials

Hello and welcome to our 18th tutorial on AREA 1!

Here’s what can you achieve by following this tutorial:

First of all, download this (grunge background), this (rough diamond background), this (Hulk image) and this (Risingsun Brushes by Blazter).

Start by creating a new 800×600 px document/background color: #FAAE19.
See Screenshot 1.
Now, create a new layer & using the color #FFD267 and the brushes I provided click in the middle of your project.
See Screenshot 2.
Bring the image with Hulk to your project. Cut the black area around him using the Magic Wand Tool or Quick Selection Tool.
See Screenshot 3.
Duplicate Hulk. Set the blending mode of the first image with Hulk to Overlay.
Select your second image with Hulk and go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur – 5.
See Screenshot 4.
Bring the 2 images (Grunge background & Rough Diamond background) to your project. Put these 2 images above your other layers and change their blending mode to Overlay.
See Screenshot 5.
Create a new layer above all layers and choose the Paint Bucket Tool (G) with the color: #FFD267 (foreground color). Change its blending mode to color.
See Screenshot 6.

That’s it! Hope you like it!

Download the project, the brush, the images used in the project & the images from the tutorial here. (Size: 7.40 Mb)

Creating & decorating a 3D text

By Mihai Opariuc on January 11th 2009

Category: Tutorials

Hello and welcome to our 17th tutorial on AREA 1!

Here’s what can you achieve by following this tutorial:

Here’s the video tutorial:

Creating & decorating a 3D text from Opariuc Mihai on Vimeo.

Hope you’ll enjoy this tutorial!

You can discuss this tutorial on the forum, click HERE.

Google’s Search Engine Optimization Guide

By Mihai Opariuc on January 9th 2009

Category: Articles

The people from Google Webmasters launched a very good e-book called Search Engine Optimization Guide for webmasters. There’s explained what does Search Engine Optimization mean and what must a webmaster do to get a better place in the search engine.
The guide covers a lot of common areas like improving title and description meta tags, URL structure, site navigation, content creation, anchor text, and more areas that webmasters might consider optimizing. They are also giving you some advices for things to do or not to do on your website, some links to other resources that help expand the explanation of the topics in the guide.
They also say that they plan to update this guide at regular intervals with new suggestion regarding the optimizing of a website and more advices.

You can read more about this here and you can download the guide here (in .pdf format).

You can discuss about this on the forum, click HERE.

Creating a business card

By Mihai Opariuc on January 7th 2009

Category: Tutorials

Hello and welcome to our 16th tutorial on AREA 1!

You want a business card, don’t you? Of course. This is the most important element of your visual identity. It’s the first thing people see when they meet you.

Here’s a little tutorial that will help you to create your own business card. But remember one thing: it’s all about your imagination.

Here’s a preview of what are we making:

So, let’s get started!

Open your Adobe Photoshop and start a new project with the following settings:
Width: 3,5 INCHES / Height: 2 INCHES / Resolution: 300 pixels/inch
I have used #323232, as background color.
See Screenshot 1.

Select the Rectangle Tool (U) and draw 2 rectangles in the bottom part of our image, one smaller (the 2nd color which you’ll use in the project) and one bigger (with a darker color than the background).
See Screenshot 2.

On the top rectangle add a gradient with the form: darker color – brighter color – darker color, but not too dark. The angle must be 0.
See Screenshot 3.

Create a new layer, choose the Gradient Tool (G) with 2 colors: one color will be the same as the background and one color will be white. It should be a radial gradient.
See Screenshot 4.

Transform the background into a layer by right clicking on it and choosing Layer From Background.
See Screenshot 5.

Now merge the radial gradient layer and the newly created layer from background into one layer. You can do this by selecting the 2 layer and pressing CTRL + E.
Right click on the layer and go to Blending Options > Pattern Overlay. Choose a scan line pattern.
See Screenshot 6.

On the bottom rectangle layer type your telephone number with a darker gray to a brighter gray gradient and again to the same darker gray; your website written with the 2nd color that you’ve choose above, same with a darker – brighter – darker gradient and your e-mail, using the same gradient that you’ve used for the telephone number.
See Screenshot 7.

Bring your logo to our project. Right click on the layer and go to Blending Options > Drop Shadow.
See Screenshot 8.

Add the name of your company.
See Screenshot 9.

Write your name (go to Blending Options > Gradient Overlay – From white to a bright gray, Angle 0 & then go to Bevel & Emboss and add some little of this) and then write your occupation using the same gradient as above, but not the Bevel & Emboss.
See Screenshot 10.

Here’s my final result: Screenshot 11.

Download the project here. (Size: 1.81 Mb)

You can discuss this tutorial on the forum, click HERE.

218 Fonts Pack

By Mihai Opariuc on January 6th 2009

Category: Resources

I’ve downloaded some fonts that I use from dafont.

There are 218 fonts in this pack, available for download.

Click on the image below to see the list of all the fonts in this pack:

Download the pack by clicking here. (Size: 14.5 Mb)

You can discuss about this on the forum, click HERE.

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