What precisely is a texture? The expression texture in Photoshop submits to an photo that is used  on top of your own photo that when accustomed via merge modes or cloudiness imparts a “texture” on your photo. The “texture” doesn’t have to be of a material texture, in reality it may possibly be almost everything, as well as a different photo. Usually though textures will be photos, but it might be a picture of clouds, rain drops on a windshield, bubbles, stream reflections, etc. That’s the exquisiteness of using textures, because they can be everything and joint noticeably to make a extensive variety of diverse looks.

For this tutorial we will be using Photoshop CS4, an original image, and a couple of textures. To obtain your own textures you can create some of your own, or otherwise, try out on flickr or deviantArt for accurately thousands of free textures. In this case we will be using a paper, and a bokeh.

The Original Image

We choose this photo because of the gloomy mood of the focus and sufficient unenthusiastic space. (more…)

It may seem like a rather strange thing to consider, to design your home or a room in your home like a casino. You would certainly not consider it to be opulent if you think of the online casino websites where you can play free casino slots. However, there is something to be said of the fun of this sort of website that could partially inspire a design. However, what would be very elegant is to think more along the lines of a sophisticated Las Vegas casino. Admittedly they do have their own selection of rather more tacky designs, but there are also a great number of grand hotel casinos which have some simply stunning design features. Lots of thought and money have gone into designing some of these buildings and it is from there that you can draw real inspiration.

If you have ever been to Las Vegas and visited the Bellagio, Paris, Venice or any of the more high end casinos, you will understand what I am describing. The beautiful buildings and the sophisticated feel that they have are really something else. These buildings are designed to bring in the very wealthiest of people, either those that are already well off or those that have won significant amounts playing in the casinos. They have some top designer clothes shops and the very best attractions, which need top class designs around them to set them off.

You should choose your best casino and use that design to base yours on. You do not have to stick to the design exactly but pick out your favourite features. Try to work out why they are your favourites and then use that to perhaps come up with new ideas based around them. If you have not been to a Las Vegas or other elegant casino, then you could look online for pictures to see if they inspire you. It will not be the same as the real thing as you will not be able to see the detail or absorb the atmosphere in the same way. However, it will still give you an idea of what they look like and hopefully that will inspire you. You will be surprised at how they look, if you have never seen one and how hard the designers work to make each building stand out from the others and each to look more attractive. Even if you only take away a few ideas, you could end up with a completely unique design. (more…)

When it comes to Valentine’s Day you have a plenty of design possibilities, from e-cards to website adaptations. But now and then it can be a little tricky when trying to solve from where to start. Also you may don’t have enough time to produce what you had in mind entirely from scratch. That’s way we are here, to try and help you as mush as we can.

In our little tutorial for Valentine’s Day, we are going to design beautiful Valentine’s Day wallpaper with a lot of love, heart and passion. But without further ado, we are going right into working mode, to get this tutorial quick & ease.

This is what we are making, and we are just few steps away from it.

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If you are already long time in this business, then you surely follow the trends and adapt to them, because your customers require you to be innovative, regarding, reliable, and above all to look perfect. Of course, it’s not a big secret, but for those who are just entering the field it can be of crucial importance in order to start already caught the right rhythm. We are on the brink of a new era of digital design, and is a mightily important to jump into the train at the right time, as soon as tomorrow because the competition will not wait.

We share with you the newest trends that will definitely shine in full splendor this year. Many trends can already be seen on the most innovative presentations, which is the best indicator that if you follow the best you will become one of them. Of course, not all trends exist in the market, but if your eyes wide open, we hope that you will not miss a single important thing in this year which has just started. (more…)

Is it from space? Is it a prop from the latest Star Wars movie? No, it’s the future of game controllers from the likes of Razer and Saitek!
In a bid to launch the most intuitive, interactive and futuristically-designed gameware, we take a gander at three of the most space-age designs from the companies that have turned their hi-tech vision into a gaming reality.

Gaming headset

A product of wonder from industrial and product designers at E3design, this gaming headset is modest in design yet state-of-the-art in capability. Using the latest transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) technology, the headset passes low-level electrical currents through very specific areas of the players head – not as scary as it sounds, we promise you!
The device has already been given the thumbs-up by WIRED magazine, The New York Times, NewScientist and Gizmondo, while fans posting on Reddit’s tDCS forum claim the Foc.us headwear improves their response times, in-game ability and mood.

Gaming glove

For the ultimate gaming experience, there’s no better hand-wear than the P5 gaming glove in collaboration with Inition. As well as offering a comfortable and ergonomic design, the glove aims to provide gamers who don’t spend a lot on their devices, a full 3D experience – but without the alarming price tag.. It is lightweight, fully adjustable (for small to large hands), and encourages intuitive play. Enjoying some downtime from your fast-paced gaming lifestyle? The P5 also doubles-up as a mouse. Joys.

Wireless gaming

In this weird and wonderful world of wireless, any in-game device that lets the user control their character without the need for wires, controllers and button-pushing always scores highly on the futuristic scale – and the Hydra from gaming powerhouse Razer is no exception.
As one of the first devices to hit the motion sensor PC controller scene, the Hydra uses magnetic motion sensors to allow the player to control the game using their hands only. You may look like you’re trying to use ‘the force’ while at your monitor, but who cares? You can swing your sword, wield your shield and throw a (virtual) punch with more accuracy than ever before!

It’s Christmas time of year so we are going to show you how to easily in few steps create beautiful Christmas tree to decorate your desktop.

This tutorial is very simple and straightforward, and you shouldn’t have any difficulties to create beautiful Christmas tree. All you need is to do is to start your Photoshop and we can begin.

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If you are short on cash and can’t quite afford the price tag of software such as Photoshop, fear not, as there are plenty of free editing programs available that will do just the job.

Here are our top three programs for budding photographers:

GIMP

Available for PC and Mac, the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is often referred to as the free alternative to Photoshop. As an open-source application, it is run by a community of volunteer developers who maintain the product. With GIMP you can get professional level editing and retouching tools, making it the closest free app to Photoshop currently available. If you are used to Photoshop, it may take a while to adjust to the GIMP program.

Paint.NET

Using Microsoft Paint as its muse, this program was originally developed by college undergraduates mentored by Microsoft. The alumni of the program continue to maintain this free replacement for Microsoft Paint, which has surpassed the original program with advanced features and increased functionality. Although not maintained as well as other free editing programs, this is a good alternative to Photoshop.

PhotoScape

This program allows you to organise your most-used features, as well as customising the toolbar. Other than image editing, PhotoScape also lets you create:
– Slideshows
– Animated GIFs
– Capture screenshots
– Combined images
– Split images

PhotoScape is a great mix of basic and advanced tools and also converts RAW images to JPEG from DSLRs and other more advanced cameras.

Although this program is free, you will be treated to ads recommending other software. This won’t infiltrate your computer with adware but can be pretty annoying; however this is the price you pay for free software.

You might want to look at the standard of camera you have and consider updating to something with a few more bells and whistles. This will get your picture looking great without the need of too much editing. Clifton Cameras offer a great selection of digital SLR, compact system and digital cameras ranging from beginner to professional.

Depending on your photography skill levels and the quality of your camera, these free tools could be exactly what you’re looking for when editing. Nothing on the market fully compares to Photoshop, but these three free alternatives come pretty close with a large number of features.

Building an app is not only an expensive thing, but is also a very hard, and if you are a beginner in that field it can certainly be very stressful. You already know that there are many freelancers online who can build you a basic app for less than $10,000 (or that is something they say), but you can also go different road and create an app all by yourself with a help from apps specially designed for building a high-quality app without spending a fortune.

1. MainStreet Apps
MainStreet Apps gives small businesses a do-it-yourself, cloud platform to build apps by needs of their customers. Process is very easy and straightforward, so you don’t have to be some kind of a computer wizard. The minute you are finish your app, MainStreet Apps does the whole thing further from hosting your data in the cloud to reviewing your app and uploading it to the app store.

2. AppMakr
AppMakr is a totally free do-it-yourself application that can build robust, native apps for iOS and Android without any coding knowledge. There are no hidden costs and additional requests so you can build a dozen apps. Along basic things it contains push notifications, HTML 5 functionality, high-resolution picture galleries, live updates, and branding and design customizations. (more…)