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• Specifically Software
  by Gracey

  Link listing of free software relating to graphics and imagery. These are either freeware, open source or donationware – not free trials….

  Link listing of free software relating to graphics and imagery. These are either freeware, open source or donationware – not free trials. Some are “light” or free versions of a full-version software. As with anything, PLEASE READ THE TERMS OF USE and Licensing for each thing you download. Just because it is free that doesn’t always mean you can use it for commercial outputs. I have not tried all of these personally, so I can’t give you recommendations on their functionality; the graphic/paint programs I have used (some I still use for certain things) may have notations of my opinion. Many of these are available for both Mac and PC, but you’ll have to go check at the link site yourself – make sure you check the system requirements before you install anything, and be sure you have an up-to-date antivirus. I have accessed all of these links and downloads with no warnings, but it pays to be safe. One last thing…if you use free software and find it useful, please donate to the creators (or upgrade to the paid version if they have one at reasonable cost). Donations are how we can encourage free software makers to continue making the software free. GRAPHICS & PHOTO Editing Ivy Generator NEW – not really an editing program, but it generals fairly realistic ivy for use in your collages or other imaging. Artrage2 (free version & paid version is only $25 – freeware version is somewhat limited but good for basic art) Artweaver (decent simple painting program with variety of drawing styles and supports layers and transparency – good for creating patterns and texture) Cenon for mac or linux (haven’t used this since it won’t work on PC, but it looks interesting and I’d love to try it) Gimp (one of the most powerful open source image editors with an interface and functions similar to Photoshop) ImageMagick Inkscape Vector Graphics program (a bit of a learning curve with this; similar in function to Adobe Illustrator) Paint.net (drawing and paint program; supports layers) Pixarra’s Twisted Brush Free Edition Pixia Drawing & Painting) Photofiltre – this is free, the studio version is 29 euros (the studio version supports layers and transparency and has many functions similar to Photoshop) Project Dogwaffle Free Version Serif DrawPlus Skencil Vector Graphics Smooth Draw Nx PANORAMA MAKERS Open Source Panorama Tools Autostitch Canon Panorama Stitch PanoGuide FRACTAL PROGRAMS Fyre – random image generator. This is pretty cool. NEW (the software isn’t new…the listing is :D) Apophysis Chaoscope Double Fractal Endlos Fractal Explorer Fractal Forge Fractal Studio Fractint Gnu Xaos Mandala Explorer Tierazon Specifically for Mac – fractals Spangfract / Spanky’s Fractals for Mac Listing IMAGE CATALOGUES/ORGANIZERS Lightbox Picasa WEB-BASED IMAGE EDITORS (thanks to Jo Obrien for this link – there’s ten image editors here that are web-based) 10 Web Editors 3D SOFTWARE Amabilis 3D Canvas Anim8or Art of Illusion Blender Bryce 5.5 Daz3D Studio POV-Ray Serif 3D Plus SketchUp sPatch Terragen trueSpace from Caligari Wings 3d World Creator and Buttonmaker by Inet 3d Add-ons, Utilities and Models (listed on Verchi forums) General Use For Bryce and Blender For Daz3D, Poser and Others The above links are to 3 forum threads (stickies) elsewhere – the lists were compiled by me for that forum (which is now defunct, but still accessible), and includes plugins, add-ons and utilities, and links to sites where you can obtain things like free models for 3D and free textures. Please be sure to check the model downloads for licensing terms. If you are unsure about using a model in a sellable product, email the modeler – they are usually very good about responding. Mostly they don’t want you sell or give away the model/mesh, but will usually allow it’s use in a rendered image for sale. If the license doesn’t state that it is available for commercial use, please don’t use it without contacting the owner first. A simple email from them will act as a license for your renders. If they don’t allow it, please don’t do it. Other Useful Utilities PC Inspector Smart Recovery – recover image files from memory cards Startup Control Panel For those who want to control what programs load on startup, but aren’t sure how to do it, this small control panel applet is a useful tool. (I’ve loaded this onto both my daughters’ computers because they don’t understand how to stop the unnecessary programs from loading. This little program was easy to explain to them.) Those who understand computer maintenance and techs won’t need or want this, since you can do the same from your control panel. Startup Monitor A small program that monitors your startups and notifies you when any program/file registers itself to run at startup. RunAlyzer, FileAlyzer, RegAlyzer – from the makers of Spybot S&D RunAlyzer / Gives an overview over many relevant system settings, intended to replace the Tools section currently integrated into Spybot-S&D. FileAlyzer / FileAlyzer allows a basic analysis of files (showing file properties and file contents in hex dump form) and is able to interpret common file contents like resources structures (like text, graphics, HTML, media and PE). RegAlyzer / RegAlyzer is a tool to browse and change the registry. Office Software Open Office.org (comparable to MS Office) Floppy Office (a software package containing a dozen applications. The entire thing will run from a thumb drive, a floppy, or your computer. A very small download for those with connection issues. Contains a useful ftp client.) Computer Security & Antivirus Software How to Remove Antivirus XP, Antivirus XP2008, Antivirus XP2009 (there have been a spate of infections of this nasty, so it seems helpful to include this link, which also includes appropriate software downloads). How to Remove VIRUS ALERT (ditto the above) Spybot Search & Destroy – variety of functions including cleanup of malware, adware, browser protection, system internals and other uses. HijackThis – helps remove browser hijacks, homepage hijacks, identify & remove malware, adware, trojans etc. NOTE: do not use this on your own if you don’t know anything about computers. If you need help to identify and clean up computer infections go to What The Tech (formerly TomCoyote forums) and post your problem in the appropriate forums. If you need help or explanations, bmail me. A-squared – very good anti-trojan. They also have pro versions of the anti-trojan, as well as anti-malware. Malwarebytes – a variety of useful anti-malware tools. Tried and true; I’ve used some of these quite often to clean up other computers. Adaware Free – adware removal tool (other tools available, though not necessarily free) AVG Free Antivirus – Free antivirus & browser protection. I’ve read some minor complaints about false-positives with this, but I’ve been using this for about five years with no complaint. I also install this on every computer I clean. One thing to note about some OEM software installed on new computers – products like Norton & MacAffee: the subscription for free virus signature updates will often run out after a year or two – be sure to check yours if this is what you use. This happened to both of my daughters – thinking they had antivirus software. Avast Free Antivirus – another decent freeware antivirus I’ve used. ThreatFire (formeryly known as Cyberhawk): “ThreatFire is different. It does not rely on signatures, but instead constantly analyzes your computer’s behavior to detect and block any malicious activity. ThreatFire protects immediately so you know your PC and your valuable data is always secure.” Rather than listing all of these available products (which there are many – but be careful, because some will cause more harm than good to your computer) here’s a trusted site where there’s a decent listing of helpful programs: Freebytes Guide to Free Anti-virus/Anti-malware Pacs Portal A fairly large listing of computer start-up programs (.exe files) and what they do, or what they are used for, and whether or not your computer needs them to load on start-up. It also lists start-ups for trojans and malware which makes this site extremely helpful in identifying the files that loading in your processes. There are also some drawing & paint programs in the free/open source category available specifically geared to children in age ranges from 4 or 5 to 10 or 12. Encourage the artist in your children from a young age. Tux Paint Drawing for Children Smooth Teddy LAST BUT NOT LEAST Here’s a site that I check every day. I’ve gotten a couple of pretty decent programs from here. They offer a licensed software download for free, every day. To get it licensed you must download and install it on the day it’s given away – and you need to follow the activation instructions in the downloaded zip file. Give-away-of-the-day There are two drawbacks here: most of the time the software offered is of no use or interest to me personally (that doesn’t make it bad, it could be that stuff offered is very useful to someone else), and secondly…if your computer crashes or you buy a new one, the software license can’t be recovered or transferred to another computer. There are, however, times where the software will be offered again at a later date. NOTE: you can’t always trust the thumbs up/thumbs down ratings. A lot of people will give the software a thumbs down because it’s of no interest to them. I’ve been following this site for about six months, and I have a number of programs I use (including Business Cards MX3.9, Wondershare’s WebVideo Author, Sound Editor Deluxe, A2 Antiwaremalware, Moyea Flash Video MX, Acoolsoft Powerpoint to Video Converter, Photo Story Gold, iSpring Pro, Wondershare’s Photoo Collage Studio and their Flash Slideshow Builder, and Dogwaffle’s “PD Particles”) and like from them, along with 3 games. You can scroll through some of the previous give-aways on the main page to see the variety of stuff they offer. On the weekends, they offer a free game give away on their sister site Game-give-away-of-the-day This is not a complete listing of all freeware available, but it is fairly representational of what’s available, from the simple to the more complex. If anyone has links that fit these categories, please feel free to add them in the comments section, or bmail them to me and I’ll add them into the body with a notation of who submitted them. / __________ One of the reason’s for this compiled list is that I find myself frequently pointing people to links for software of this nature. I just thought it would be easier to keep it one place.

• RedBubble Post Card - Everyone's an artist
  by RedBubble

  Hello fellow bubblers, I thought it might be useful if we tried to give you an insight into the ‘mind of RedBubble’ – every now and th…

  Hello fellow bubblers, I thought it might be useful if we tried to give you an insight into the ‘mind of RedBubble’ – every now and then. To give you an understanding of what makes us tick. One of the key ideas underpinning RedBubble is that ‘everyone’s an artist’. Let me restate part of our very first journal post “People are inherently creative. Deep down, most of us love to come up with new ideas, express who we are, or take a different perspective on the world around us. This is particularly true of children. Remember chalk on the footpath, crayon on the walls, or a painting stuck proudly to the fridge with a magnet. Kids love stories, they love learning about new things, they ask obvious yet somehow overlooked questions. So why don’t many of us focus on our creative interests as adults? Is there something about the process of growing up that changes us, that convinces us to be serious and sensible? Do we lose the ability to be creative? Or does it just get buried amidst the responsibilities, worries and priorities of adult life? Look closer, though, and you’ll see sparks of creativity in adults everywhere. Since starting our RedBubble journey, we’ve been amazed at how many of our close friends have “confessed” to a secret creative hobby, a little spark of creativity that few else know about. Look at the statistics and the picture is clearer still. Over 2.5 million Australians regularly take part in some sort of creative or cultural activity. Almost 90% do this entirely for free, for the simple enjoyment of it. A fortunate few earn a living from it, but most keep their creative spark alive in their own time and without sharing it with the world. RedBubble was founded with a burning desire to improve this situation. And there are some major social and technological trends helping us out.“ We openly want to embrace a wide variety of material on RedBubble, from a wide variety of people – from professional artists to emerging artists to people just discovering their artistic side. We don’t want to place more limits or barriers in the way of people – life has enough barriers – so we’ve tried to keep RedBubble as open as possible. This is why we haven’t placed any upload limits on the site and why we don’t vet content before it’s published. We’ve recently received feedback from the community that such an open approach has meant people might be encouraged to post ‘anything’ to RedBubble. Our thinking is that RedBubble should be the place for your best work and over the next short while we’re looking to update the site to further encourage this behaviour. But we don’t want RedBubble to become an elite only site – we don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. - Peter

• Black and White Tutorial
  by Elvina-Mae Farkas

  OK, many people ask me how I get my black and white photos done, and most of the time I try my hardest to explain it all through a reply …

  OK, many people ask me how I get my black and white photos done, and most of the time I try my hardest to explain it all through a reply email. But recently a bubbler bubblemailed me and asked, so THIS time I figured I’d draw one up. So 4 hours later and I think Im done. WARNING: LARGE LARGE LARGE FILE!! WILL TAKE A WHILE TO DOWNLOAD But once downloaded, I suggest that you right-click and SAVE, so you dont have to come back each time. =) And another thing – sorry if there is incorrect spelling, punctuation etc. I didnt read over it! OKIE DOKIE – so for starters, pick a image you would like to turn into black and white. Ive made this tut to suit a portrait photo. You can do it with landscape, etc. Just with some common knowledge of where to edit and put things. Shouldn’t be too hard! So here is my orginal: / This is a photo of my mate Tristan. Pretty plain photo of him sitting in the car, on our way to the races. =) HERE WE GO! WOO-LAH! I also just edit to get rid of his moles, etc. That might be my next tutorial – haha! Hope this helps guys! Feel free to comment if you need help etc. I’ll try and do my best to answer them for you!

• Adding a Quick link from your profile to your Bubblesite
  by Paul Gibbons

  I have started work on my new bubblesite as most people are doing the same I thought it maybe a good idea to put a quick link to your bub…

  I have started work on my new bubblesite as most people are doing the same I thought it maybe a good idea to put a quick link to your bubblesite on your profile for people to easily follow. The steps are pretty simple: Navigate to edit your profile and in the About you box below any writing you have done enter the following code (star) which makes the text bold / then the words Quick link to my Bubblesite / space / then a “(speech mark) / then the word here / followed by a *(star) and a “(speech mark) then a :(colon) next the tricky bit navigate to your bubblesite and copy the address from the address bar at the top of your browser eg mine is http://spottydog06.redbubble.com/ and insert after the :(colon) without a space! Then click Save Changes please note do not enter spaces where I have not told you to! It should now look like this…..... Quick link to my Bubblesite here* Oh if you have followed the steps above and it works, take a look at my site and leave feedback on anything you like. Hope this has helped. Paul ps I hope the code I entered dosnt totally screw up this journal entry lol ok the star didnt quite work, glad I wrote the word star :) ps the star symbol is on your mumber pad and used as the multiply symbol ;)

• A dream !!!!
  by micmac

  When I had an email from RB 2 weeks ago ,I couldn’t beleive it,one of my pic was going to be edited in «Gaïa the living planet»…after …

  When I had an email from RB 2 weeks ago ,I couldn’t beleive it,one of my pic was going to be edited in «Gaïa the living planet»…after a while I just thought it wasn’t true ,but YES ..IT’S TRUE….thank you so much…..one of these two pics was chosen…...yaaaahouuuuuuuuuuuuu !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• How To Photoshop: Navigating the Program
  by Brittany Kinney

  Hey all, / Below are a list of easy keyboard commands for Photoshop. I’m using a regular PC (Windows) but if you use a mac, all of the con…

  Hey all, / Below are a list of easy keyboard commands for Photoshop. I’m using a regular PC (Windows) but if you use a mac, all of the controls will be different…and because I don’t have a Mac within reach, I can’t get the commands for that. Sorry Mac users! Control + N = Opening a New Canvas / Control + O = Opening a new project from a different file (such as a photo) / Control + Z = Undo very last action; nothing past that. / Control + Alt + Z = Undo past actions; infinite. / Control + Shift + Z = Redo an action (that is, if you have already undone an action.) / Control + Shift + F = Fade… (This is a VERY useful tool that I just discovered about 2 minutes ago…For example, you draw something a little too light…do this command then you can make the brush stroke’s opacity darker! Again, VERY useful!) / Control + X = Cut / Control + C = Copy / Control + V = Paste / Control + Shift + V = Paste Into (Don’t know exactly what this does for sure yet but, apparently it’s useful?) / Control + I = Invert (makes a negative [or positive] of the image selected) / Control + A = Selects the whole canvas / Control + Shift + D = Reselects the part that was once selected, then deselected. / Control + D = Deselects the canvas / Control + – = Zoom Out / Control + + = Zoom In And there’s plenty more but these are the basic necessary keyboard commands for Photoshop. -Brittany

• Photoshop CS3 (and CS2) Brushes
  by bchrisdesigns

  I just wanted to share some really cool brush resources for those of you interested in adding some plugins to your Photoshop software. I…

  I just wanted to share some really cool brush resources for those of you interested in adding some plugins to your Photoshop software. I have used some of them and they rock! All are freeware and some cite that you must give a link back to them in order to use them. The following is a comprehensive list of ALL of the websites where I have downloaded brushes from. Any of my pieces that feature a brush from one of these sets will be linked back to this journal for proper crediting. Brush gurus: 50ml Brushes Seishido Pixel Chick Damned in Black Dubtastic Juuichi Aquired-taste Photoshopsupport.com’s Brush Page I hope you all find these as useful as I have! If you need help installing these, check out my Photoshop Tip #1: Where to get brushes? journal entry. These are my pieces which use any of the above dingbats/fonts (will add as I create more):

• Photo Editing Help
  by Jo O'Brien

  If you haven’t already noticed, I am completely and utterly useless with photo editing and manipulation. I take photos, I don’t make them…

  If you haven’t already noticed, I am completely and utterly useless with photo editing and manipulation. I take photos, I don’t make them. BUT… I am starting to think it could be a bit of fun to mess around with some of my shots. So I googled Photoshop only to find out that it costs a hell of a lot of money and considering I might play with it once and decide it’s not for me, I don’t think that idea is going to work. I don’t really know what I’m asking here? Can anyone suggest a more budget concious way of finding out if I’m into the whole photomanipulation thing? Should I take a class? Or is there a free trial of something I can download? Or something else? Bear in mind I am the most extreme kind of amature with this kind of thing. I clap my hands if I successfully crop something! Your advice? P.S. I’m a goody two-shoes and don’t go in for pirated software.

• A Must See......
  by Paul Vanzella

  ....you gotta check out Lindsay Blamey’s new website – packed with beautiful, contemporary, thought provoking art for your new interior d…

  ....you gotta check out Lindsay Blamey’s new website – packed with beautiful, contemporary, thought provoking art for your new interior design space, home or office… please have a wander and enjoy the mind of Lindsay Blamey – Join the mailing list via the site to find out about upcoming news and collections – this man is going somewhere!!! www.lindsayblamey.com

• Black Label Edition
  by LittleHelen

  I have created a second home for my Blue Room patrons. And would like to show the rest of you…if you are interested in having a look ;)...

  I have created a second home for my Blue Room patrons. And would like to show the rest of you…if you are interested in having a look ;) / Basically my intention is to use redbubbles feature system to promote our artists and to create extra traffic through their portfolios via a blog. / There will be many more features added as I go. What you see is two days worth of work…I have so much more to do. :D Take a look at Blue Room @ Wordpress Oh here’s a Blue Widget you fidget…please feel free to add us to your site, Facebook, MySpace etc :D

• Scott Robinson: T-SHIRTS to SKATEBOARDS to DJ GEAR!?
  by jumpy

  What happens When Skate art meets DJ Gear Welcome to the Mixmax… / a nifty 2 channel analogue mixer for those on a budget. Offerin…

  What happens When Skate art meets DJ Gear Welcome to the Mixmax… / a nifty 2 channel analogue mixer for those on a budget. Offering inputs for 2 CD decks and 2 turntables plus microphone talkback. At a trifling $139 RRP the mixmax has been designed to hook up with the new CDJPRO CD Player providing a snappy DJ setup for minimal layout. / Brisbane skate graphic svengali and Redbubble vector extraordinaire Scott Robinson has provided a unique one off design lending his edgy street graphics to the mixmax in a limited edition face plate. When i asked Scott what he thought about designing a DJ Mixer he told me / “I thought it was great, Really very different than anything I`d done before.. I wondered how it would be received really.” Wait no more Scott because the MIXMAX is available this summer from Lightsounds and all good DJ gear outlets. MANY thanks go to Scott for the first in a series of original artist faceplates on E-Systems Pro DJ gear. JumPy

• Oficially Published - Book Signing at Astoria Sunday Market
  by Carrie Glenn

  JUST RELEASED – “ARTISTS OF THE WEST” COFFEE TABLE BOOK / By Skamania Mines Publishing !http://images-0.redbubble.net/img/art/size:ul…

  JUST RELEASED – “ARTISTS OF THE WEST” COFFEE TABLE BOOK / By Skamania Mines Publishing / This beautiful collectors edition, hard cover book includes 171 full color pages of works of art that were juried into the book from artists living in or near the Western United States. This unique coffee table book features four bold and impressive works of art from Washington County resident and artist Carrie Glenn. The unveiling and first book signing was at the Lofted Lair Gallery in St. Helens, Oregon in June of 2008. Your chance to meet Artist Carrie Glenn is at the Astoria Sunday Market on July 27th 2008, from 10-am to 3-pm. Carrie will be available to sign the newly released “Artists of the West” coffee table book featuring her artwork. Books will be available for purchase at the Astoria Sunday Market Carrie Glenn Studios and coming soon to Amazon.com The Astoria Sunday Market / / Map of the Downtown Astoria Area / A Selection of Carrie’s original artwork and paintings as well as signed, limited edition prints will be available for sale on July 27th, at the Astoria Sunday Market Show. Carrie’s work has been juried into numerous art shows throughout the North West such as the “Ocean Shores Fine Arts Show” the “Lake Oswego Fine Arts Show”, and shows and sells in online galleries like RedBubble.com and Zazzle.com See for yourself why Carrie has earned the title “The Painter of Life”. The detail in her superb drawings and incredibly varied range of artistic talent puts Carrie Glenn at the top of up and coming artists to collect! For any additional information on the event, you can contact Carrie at: carrie@carrieglennstudios.com Written By Robin Mann

• Post-Processing and ReSale of Photography and Artwork
  by Stephen Mitchell

  After viewing a few works around RB tonight, I felt compelled to determine two things: ^1. If it is legal to use, edit, or alter pho…

  After viewing a few works around RB tonight, I felt compelled to determine two things: 1. If it is legal to use, edit, or alter photographs of other professional or nonprofessional photographers or artists. This includes photographs of paintings. / 2. If it legal to resell imagery/photographs of other professional or nonprofessional photographers or artists. I was unsure if it were legal/appropriate to make a profit from a composition, montage, mosaic, or crop parts of an original photograph. I viewed a lot of interesting ‘images’ that comprised of montage, mosaic and composition work , and asked: “Is it truly legal to sell this without the permission of the original photographer or artist?” I’ve seen a few montages that incorporate record-covers into interesting circular formations. It looks nice, but is it legally allowed to be sold? There’s no question you can create it and store it on your own computer, but can you sell it to others if you are not the originating artist? Your work might be original … but the images used to create it are someone else’s! A lot of googling, reading, researching has gone for the past THREE HOURS. Verbal debate with my wife on the matter was interesting. We both agreed and disagreed on a number of issues. Thus, I had to compile the list of sites we read through… These web sites may help you to determine if ‘imagery’ may or may not be able to be sold through Redbubble: 01. Legal Pitfalls in Taking or Using Photographs of Copyright Material, Trademarks and People / This one is VITALLY important we all read, specifically Section 1.5 / 1.5 Will you do something that actually constitutes an act which the copyright owner has the exclusive right to make? / As indicated earlier, photographing a copyright work is considered a way of reproducing the work, and this is an act which the copyright owner has the exclusive right to do. This is why you may need to get prior permission to include a copyright work in your shot. Some other activities that only the copyright owner has the exclusive right to do (and for which you may need permission) are: / 1. Making prints of a work, scanning it into digital form, photocopying it, copying digital works, etc.; / 2. Making a collage from several different photographs or images; / 3. Adding new artistic elements to an existing work (e.g., colorizing a black and white picture); / 4. Photographing someone’s work and then displaying the photo to the public (e.g., exhibiting the photo in a gallery, supplying copies to the public in postcard form, putting it on a website, sending it to customers via email, etc.). 02. Publicity Celebrities and Photographs … 15 Minutes of Fame Is A Property Right By Andrew Hudson, PhotoSecrets.com 03. Business of Scanning Art and reselling , Photo.net, July 2004 04. The Law for Photographers: Do I Need Permission? An Introduction to the Legal Aspects of Travel Photography , By Dianne Brinson, copyright attorney for PhotoSecrets.com 05. Copyright : It Costs You Nothing 06. Digital Manipulation of Photography 07. What is Copyright Protection 08. The Australian Commonwealth Consolidated Acts … Copyright Act 1968 09. All of Andrew Nemeth’s Articles and Essays . These make great reading. I started writing this article at about 10.00am. It’s now 1.40am, and my mind is filled with new information that has revolutionised my thoughts about photographing people in public places! 10. Privacy Laws, Commonwealth of Australia Before you react, I don’t mean to be a killjoy. / I applaud the amazing efforts and creativity of the people that spend time producing their work. But I also want you to know what is appropriate and fair use of intellectual property on the internet. You might find yourself in a lot of hot water if you don’t take a read of the websites listed above! So take care when you the following statement on a web page, in a book or wherever … “All images and content on these pages are the exclusive property of name of artist. They may not be saved copied reproduced or used for any reason without written permission from name of artist.” Take care when you present the image of a celebrity within your montage. They may not appreciate you making money at their expense. Would you like to go up against Bono, dollar for dollar? I suspect he can afford bigger lawyers. This post also is a follow up piece to the previous article of a similar nature Laws Against Defacing Art

• Photoshop Tip #1: Where to get brushes?
  by bchrisdesigns

  Okay, so you’ve seen some amazing work online and wondered where the artist got all those astounding background effects or how they did t…

  Okay, so you’ve seen some amazing work online and wondered where the artist got all those astounding background effects or how they did that cool layered effect. Well, as surprising as it may sound, some of those effects were done using a very common Photoshop preset: Brushes. You may be asking yourself, don’t I already have brushes installed with my Photoshop CS3 (or CS2) software? Well, yes, you do. But those are the basics. There are a ton of awesome people out there in internet land who are making additional brushes (and other plugins) for you to use with your software. These plugins are very easy to download and install. I will try to give you a short rundown of what to expect when installing these brushes. For more information as to how to use them or for more detailed installation information or installation for a MAC OS, please consult the very wonderful Photoshopsupport.com, a very neat index of everything Photoshop! (Please note: The following instructions are very, very simplistic because I wanted even the novice Photoshop user to be able to use these tools. I know there are a bunch of different ways to do these things (even some that are easier), but I wanted to put it in basic terms without all the fancy language and extra steps because I remember how it was when I first started teaching myself to use the Adobe programs. Plus, this is not intended to be a full fledged tutorial.) The first step is to download some really cool brushes from an online provider. Some brush sets you will have to pay for, others are free with some restrictions, and others are completely free. Make sure you read the website’s policy before you use them. You can view my Photoshop CS3 (and CS2) Brushes journal entry to visit the websites where I have downloaded most of my brushes from. Most of them have free areas or are completely free and all you have to do is link back to them. Once you have chosen the brush set to download, simply download it to your computer. Because the files are normally saved in a Zip file, I start off by downloading the file to my Desktop first and then moving them over after (this is to avoid confusion). However, if you feel comfortable unzipping them right into the proper file, then by all means go-ahead-with-your-bad-self! After you have downloaded the Zip file to your Desktop, you will need a program (such as WinRAR, which is what I use) to unzip the file. At this point, you may be asking where you unzip the file to? Well, inside the Zip file may be a read me (.txt) file and other junk (which may be of interest to you) and there should also be a brush (.abr) file, which is the one you want to unzip. You can unzip the brush file onto your Desktop and then move it over manually, or you can unzip it to the Photoshop directory itself. Regardless of which method yo use, your ultimate goal is to get that .abr brush file into a specific folder in your Photoshop program’s file. For brushes, the file you will want to place your .abr brush files into is the “Brush” file within the “Presets” file. So, how do you get there? Open your My Computer and find the drive which has the folder “Program FIles”. Now, open “Program Files” and then find the folder labeled “Adobe”. Next, open the “Adobe” folder and you will see ALL of the Adobe programs, which are installed on your system. Locate the “Adobe Photoshop CS3” (or CS2) folder and open it. Find the “Presets” folder and open it. Finally, you will see a folder called “Brushes”. Open it. You can now see ALL of the brushes that are installed to use with your Photoshop program. This “Brushes” folder is where you want to place all of your downloaded .abr brush files. So, the quick breakdown to find the “Brushes” folder is: Program Files >>> Adobe >>> Adobe Photoshop CS3 (or CS2) >>> Presets >>> Brushes Once you have unzipped the files or drag-and-dropped them into this file folder, you can close the folders. You will also need to re-start your Photoshop program in order for the brushes to be finalized and installed and ready for use (sometimes, you have to re-start your computer as well). After you have re-booted your software, open a blank file and click on the “Brush Tool” or simply press its keyboard shortcut ( B ) to activate it. Now, right click anywhere on the page and your brush palette should appear (this is where you control the brush size/hardness, etc.) and in the upper right hand corner you should see a little black triangle with a circle around it. Click on that little triangle/circle icon and…. whaaaaa-la! Your newly installed brushes are there just waiting for you to experiment with them! All you have to do is click on a preset and it will ask you if you would like to load those brushes. Click “Ok” and they will appear in your brush palette waiting to be used and abused! So, go have fun with your new brushes and get creative! The last step, of course, is to add your comments below! Add your brush tips (pun intended) below so that we can all learn from each other! Cheers!

• Edit a work from the public view
  by Dave Pearson

  Last week PigleT and me were chatting about how annoying it is that you can’t edit a work on Red…

  Last week PigleT and me were chatting about how annoying it is that you can’t edit a work on RedBubble from the public view of the work. Diving into your art or clothing list to find the work, or hacking on its URL, can be a real pain. I then got to thinking that a Greasemonkey script could be the way to go, although this would have the downside that it would only work with Firefox (not that I see that as a downside). PigleT then had the cracking idea of using a bookmarklet. Smart idea because it would work with most browsers. And then we did the usual thing and let the good idea stay just like that: a good idea. And then I saw this thread and that got us going again. I tried one way (and failed) and PigleT tried another and it worked, but only for art. I then hacked it a little and made it work with art, clothing, journals and writing. The end result can be found over here. And it works. And works well. And solves a really annoying problem. There’s a couple of issues, not least of which is the fact that any number of strange things could happen if you used the bookmarklet while viewing something other than a public view of one of your works. Think of this as a feature rather than a bug. Edit: If you’re a Firefox user, and you have Greasemonkey installed (or are happy to), then this approach might be more to your taste.

• Exhibition Info... Opening Night June 1st 2007
  by Paul Louis Villani

  Hope all of you don’t mind if a place some info about my upcoming exhibition here? I’d be rapt if you popped in and said “G’day”! I’ll be…

  Hope all of you don’t mind if a place some info about my upcoming exhibition here? I’d be rapt if you popped in and said “G’day”! I’ll be easy to spot out on opening night, I’ll be the big bloke running around like a headless chook! Just tap me on the shoulder and we’ll have a chat! / Anyway here’s the info… “A Genesis of a Collection” / Paul Louis Villani and Brunswick Arts Space / Invite you to be a part of the… / OPENING NIGHT CELEBRATIONS! / FRIDAY 1st JUNE 2007 – 6pm to 9pm / 2a Little Breese St. Brunswick 3056 Melways Ref: 29G6 / Ph: 9383 2263 or Visit www.brunswickarts.com / If you would like more information please send email to pvillani@bigpond.net.au Exhibition will be open to the public from Friday June 1st until Friday June 29th 2007. Thursday & Friday 11am – 5pm. Saturday & Sunday 12pm to 5pm. There will over 50 original photographic works on display. Oh and on opening night… there will be food and drinks supplied (Thanks to my Mums!) If you would like to know more about me, please view my press release at… http://www.seekingmedia.com.au/news.php?newsid=60&PHPSESSID=0bf03af8890c2e97ebfc849512cc8087 / . /

• Comment or No comment?
  by Paul Gibbons

  Thanks to everyone for the feedback on my photographs, I was trying to work out how is the best way to reply. On the comments in my bu…

  Thanks to everyone for the feedback on my photographs, I was trying to work out how is the best way to reply. On the comments in my bubble? or in a comment box for the person who has left a comment on one of their pieces of work. Both seem to work except if I comment in my own bubble the person won’t know I have replied, if anybody does leave a comment I will certainly look at their bubble and leave comments when I can. Does this make sense? It would be nice to have a box on the front page for comments of a general nature to be put or maybe that would make this just like myspace or any of the other social networking sites and I do not think that is what redbubble should be about. So I am not really sure of the correct way to respond to comments but since there is a will, I will find a way. I have always used natural effects in my photography that is apart from the occasional use of a filter, I have never altered an image with my computer apart from cropping a little here and there. I have decided to invest in Adobe Photoshop CS3 and also a memory upgrade for my computer to prevent it performing like a sloth with a severe case of lethargy when I edit my masterpieces. Watch this space..

• Laptop advise please
  by Leah Highland

  I will soon be in the market for a laptop. / I have been told that not just any cheap laptop will make do for the type of work I’ll be doi…

  I will soon be in the market for a laptop. / I have been told that not just any cheap laptop will make do for the type of work I’ll be doing. / I will load CS2 and a few other photo editing programs I own along with all of my photography and manips. / Any suggestions? / Thanks in advance, Leah

• My thoughts on using photo manipulation
  by Jo O'Brien

  See here for a recent heated discussion RE photoshoping of google images…

  See here for a recent heated discussion RE photoshoping of google images. I try to think in terms of how I would feel if someone used one of my photoshop-free images, tweaked it and put it back up as their own. Personally I would be wrapped and honoured if someone used my work to create something new, but I would just feel used if they didn’t really make anything new out of it and slapped a filter or two on it and then called it their own. It’s a matter of how much time and energy I put into creating the image against how little time and energy the modifier put in. I’d feel a bit ripped off. I think it’s good manners to ask for permission to use someone’s work, however I strongly believe the orignial artist has an obligation to set their terms before the modifying artist begins doing their thing. It’s a matter for the two artists to decide upon. For example, if someone said “I’m learning how to use photoshop, do you mind if I muck around with your photos” I’d say go ahead. But then I’d also feel oblidged to discuss whether they want to onsell the finished product and give a sense of what I would be happy and unhappy with. I am very very open to collaborating and sharing of work but I do think people have to give credit where credit is due and not take advantage of the hard work of somebody else. It is difficult to actually set a strict guideline or rule on this because it poses questions such as “How changed is changed enough” which can only be answered by the individual. I hope these reasons shed some light on my headspace. I would play with someones image and display it and say “look at what I learned how to do” but I would credit the original artists and I would not sell the new piece without permission. The example above was based on what I would do if the artist was an unknown and I was using a google image- in that case, yet again I would display my talents and say ‘check this out’ but without permission I would not sell it. I do not use photoshop and if I did learn how to use it I doubt I would sell my photoshoped work. I am almost certainly in the minority when I say this- but I see photo editing as one form of art and photo taking as another. Often the 2 cross paths but I can also see them as mutually exclusive talents. I don’t particularly want to be known as a creative and talented photo editor or manipulator so I wouldn’t sell edited work even if it were 100% my own. But that’s just me.

• edit with new jewellery!
  by Imogene Munday

  so yeah..pictures XD only of the two necklaces though because i’m lazy first: pearl (real), wire, superglue, silver chains (2), beads ...

  so yeah..pictures XD only of the two necklaces though because i’m lazy first: pearl (real), wire, superglue, silver chains (2), beads / second: buttons! ribbon, big beads XD knots, clasp / third: wire, superglue, fake pearls, silver chain, clear + silver beads / fourth: hairclip, ribbon, 3 pearls (real), silver beads, superglue / /

• Editing Tips and Techniques for my work, Rocky Passage
  by Jennifer Woodward

  Click here for details

  Click here for details

• screen colours
  by Tony Middleton

  Hey everyone, / Just a couple of queries for those out there….I shoot all my stuff on Fuji Velvia which is just an exceptional film for…

  Hey everyone, / Just a couple of queries for those out there….I shoot all my stuff on Fuji Velvia which is just an exceptional film for colour richness,saturation and fine grain – some of the originals look quite spectacular even.Then I scan them and re-size/adjust them to try and match the original which at the time i either have projected or on a light table in front of me. I only want my work online to be equal to that of the originals, I’d hate to think of someone buying my work and it being a misrepresentation of it. / So….the question being…is there any one out here in ‘Bubble-land’ that can put me on to a free monitor/screen colour calibration URL,program or bar chart ? / I have black and white bar scales and everything loooks perfect, so I am essentially just chasing a colour calibration check to verify everything… thanks for any advice or comments, tone :)

• Coming up: Update of RedBubble
  by Christiaan

  hehe I just found out how to link images in text, thanks to “w…

  hehe I just found out how to link images in text, thanks to webgrrl’s nice journal entry And I read that you can also edit journal entries, but not yet comments. So lets see… Yep, editing works easily and nicely. So why cant we edit comments yet? I hope this will come in thursdays RB website update too! Smileys are maybe a good thing not to have as standard option since all these texts with lots of smileys might make the site look less professional, and if people want to use smileys, they can always still use text smileys ofcourse! :) I wonder how RB will make the international payments work. Payments to a skype account? Or directly international bank transfers? Via IBAN number? I have updated my payment info in that respect already, hope to be able to also sell images as of may 24th!

• Limited Edition Holga and Diana Cameras
  by Kara Rasmanis

  Check these out…. i want the Diana witht he ring flash http://www.lomography.com/whitestripes/buy “The “Jack” Limited Edition Hol…

  Check these out…. i want the Diana witht he ring flash http://www.lomography.com/whitestripes/buy “The “Jack” Limited Edition Holga Camera For Jack White, we’ve got a custom Color Flash Holga Starter kit and Fisheye Adaptor lens. Created in the 1980’s, the Holga is an all-plastic icon of camera design. The White Stripes edition supplies a Fisheye Adaptor for incredible 180-degree super-wide images, and an exclusive collection of plastic filters for a hectic range of color-drenched effects and For Meg White, we’re thrilled to introduce a custom Diana+ camera and Lomography Ringflash. / The Diana+ is a faithful reproduction and a loving homage to the classic Diana, (the original 1960’s all-plastic cult camera) with a bit of new Lomographic magic tossed in.