Psdtuts+ Updates - Update: Tell Us How Psdtuts Has Affected Your Life: Win a Wacom Intuos 4 Medium Tablet

Update: Tell Us How Psdtuts Has Affected Your Life: Win a Wacom Intuos 4 Medium Tablet

Posted: 21 Jun 2011 08:00 AM PDT

Update: Since we have only received a handful of submissions, we have decided to extend the submission deadline for this until July 20, 2011.

When we published our first article back in September of 2007 we had no idea how successful this site could become. In fact, we weren't quite sure anyone would be interested in it. Since then, a lot has changed. We've grown from a small Photoshop blog to the largest Photoshop site on the planet. We've welcomed many new editors, authors, and readers to our site and have touched the lives of hundreds of thousands and possibly millions of people. Today, we would like to hear your stories. We want to know how Psdtuts has affected your life and we want you to share your story by uploading a video testimonial to our Facebook page.

I will be the first to tell you how Psdtuts has changed my life. When I left my 9 – 5 job, it gave me some much-needed income while I looked for a new position. When nothing panned out, Psdtuts gave me a part-time job assisting Sean Hodge, the previous editor, and finally, when I was promoted to editor, it allowed me to move to New York City to live with my girlfriend.

Now that I've told you how Psdtuts has changed my life. What's your story? Have we helped you land a job? Have we helped you with a key project? Have we helped you make a major life change? We want to know! To encourage you to share your stories we will give one of you a free Wacom Intuos 4 Medium Tablet (via Amazon).

How to Submit

To submit, record a video testimonial explaining your story. This can be done on your webcam or camcorder. Feel free to have fun with this video – edit it, add animation, music, graphics or whatever you need to do to tell your story. Just try to keep the video between 1 – 5 minutes.

Once you've recorded your video, upload it to our Facebook Page. Follow the instructions below to upload your video.

How We Will Award the Tablet

After we have reviewed all the entries, we will choose our favorite from all the submissions. While we may take the quality of the video into consideration when we award the tablet, ultimately, the most important factor for judging the videos will be the story that is told. So don't let your lack of video production skills get in the way of telling us how we’ve affected your lives.

Rules

You can only submit 1 video.
Avoid giving away too much personal information in your video. For example, don't tell us your phone number or street address. We will figure all that out later on.
Submissions will be accepted until July, 20, 2011
While this giveaway is open to all of our readers, Amazon may not ship to your area. If that is the case we will send you the value of the tablet via PayPal.
Terms are subject to change.

Upload Your Video

It’s a Bug’s Life – Inspiring Digital Art

Posted: 21 Jun 2011 07:00 AM PDT

Advertise here

Bugs come in all different forms. Most people use the term for pretty much all insects, and in this article we’ve handpicked some amazing digital art. These pieces have all been made by artists with great skill in many different disciplines. If you would like to take a closer look at digital art featuring bugs then please take a moment to review this article below!

Spider by Antonio Peres

This spider has great reflections and a lot of nifty details, such as the bulb that makes the body and the motherboard. A clean and well-made bug indeed.

Cockroach by Marcos Falcao Filho

This 3D creation shows what may happen when you’re not at home. Many great details, including lights and shadows, makes this a very nice

piece of art.

I Wish Upon a Firefly by DianePhotos

A photo-manipulation combined with some digital drawing. The mouse is shot by the artist and slightly retouched, while the glowing dragonfly is painted on a Wacom Intuos in Photoshop CS3. Nice mix of

two worlds.

Sureallistic Ant by OrestART

The Fractalius Photoshop plugin has helped the artist create this stunning ant image in CS4. These processes don’t require many steps, but with a good base image they can surely give spectacular results.

Mosquito Prototype by Catfishy93

This shiny mosquito manipulation shows good work through many details, such as the creative needle to show that it’s sucking blood and reflections on the wings.

Bug by Justin Stearns

This bug concept was made for a modeling class and shows a huge bug with an intimidating facial expression. The tiny person standing in front of it makes it quite powerful and dramatic.

Jungle Monster by Jonas Skoog

This image was created as part of a tutorial series and featured in 3DCreative Magazine. Well-made with many great details and nice lighting and textures. The mist-like air and the jungle-style background puts it in a realistic frame.

Awakashi by Mike Corriero

Here’s a suggestion of a bug from the future. The large finned Awakashi is a large perdatory insect that is blind with sensatory organs of the side of the body. Not only does the artist have a great imagination, he can definitely draw too!

The Bug by Satthuphancung

This bug is referred to by the artist as a quick drawing but still shows good knowledge of drawing through the wasp-like body with the stinger and a powerful jaw. The blue eyes are definitely the star of the image.

Explosive Bug by Scott Gearhart

Scott drew this bug for a Creature of the Week challenge. We don’t know how that went, but this one’s definitely a well-drawn piece. The light coming from the tail area lights up its feet in a very realistic way and the wings give a feeling of movement.

Metal Bug by OscarDaSlawter

This spider-like metal bug looks good towards the black background. It challenges your imagination by having some distance. The red glow is a nice touch along with the rust on the back.

Bug – Framed by Capnhack

This mechanical bug was modeled and rendered in Cinema4D. Many good details, such as lighting, shadows, reflections and the construction of the feet makes this stand out as a very nice image.

Diablid by Matt Mills

Mills modeled this creature in Maya and rendered it using Maxwell Render. It’s a very detailed model that is creepy and reminds us of a cute hedgehog at the same time.

Little Bug by Goran Delic

This little, digitally painted, futuristic bug on its cold blue background has quite a few good details when you take a closer look.

Robot Butterfly by Brett Anderson

This robotic butterfly with some similarities to a dragonfly was modelled and rendered in Modo. The bright grey body gives a clean futuristic look, while the glowing red eyes stand out as quite mystic.

Dragonfly by Imaginism Studios

This type of dragonfly was seen flying around in the beginning of the Alice In Wonderland movie. The head of a dragon makes a funny twist and it’s detailed and has a nice mood to it with the shadow and green background.

Fly by Greg Medendorp

This fly has a plastic look, almost as if it was a toy. It was originally created for a video-production class as part of a commercial for bug-ball. Ever imagined playing tennis with huge bugs? That’s what bug ball is all about!

Spider Bug Boss by Alessandro Briglia

This is one of the final bosses in the video-game Lair. The blur of the wings give a sense of motion and it all has a solid realistic look.

Wasp Front by Paul Blackham

Paul Blackham spent about a week with modeling, uv, paint and pose for this wasp. It won him a 2ndplace in a competition. He surely got many nice details in there, from the hairs on the body to the transparent wings.

The Chilling Ant by Harald Oesterle

Ever wondered what ants do when they have their day off? This funny chilling ant illustration has nice colors and nifty details. The use of light and shadows gives a feeling of sunset.

Hippie Ants by John Strieder

With the use of Zbrush, C4D and Fryrender, John Strieder has made a funny 3D piece of some hippie ants.

ANT-ology by Martin de Diego Sábada

This illustration has nice colors and good lighting/shadows. It’s a humorous illustration that shows skill and creativity.

Ant by Gauntle

Ants are definitely popular to draw, and with these guys we’re getting a funny clean illustration with great light/shadow. It actually looks as if they’re Photoshopping!

Little Andy by Matt Mills

This ladybug has been modelled in Maya and rendered with Maxwell Render. Notice especially the use of light and shadows, along with the colors.

The Lonely Armybug by ScorpeS

This one was made for a school assignment as far back as in 2004. The lonely bug (a praying mantis) thinks he’s a hero. Nice lighting and vibrant colors make this one a very nice piece of work.

Listen to Me, Alice by Raoxcrew

This piece won a contest. Alice in Wonderland has influenced and inspired many digital artists, especially after the Tim Burton version came out recently. We especially like the blue ambient colors and the shadows.

To Bee or Not to Bee by Arghavan Khosravi

This vector-bee was drawn in Adobe Illustrator 2. It has a cartoon-like look and a nice and subtle color scheme. The shadowing and the 3D look of the feelers almost makes it pop out of the screen.

Sudenkorento by Pete Revonkorpi

This boy that flies through a field on a dragonfly is surrounded by a nice color scheme and even has the wind in his hair. It has a calm look and a strong personal fairytale-like style.

Centipede by Steve Rae

This centipede has some nice vivid colors and stands out really well from the darker background. Nice lighting and shadows too.

Mosquito by Shakil Awan

This poor mosquito is caught in the limelight and seems uncomfortable. The artist has made a true character out of this one, with good lighting and great expressions.

Do you like bugs?

We hope you’ve been amazed and inspired by some of these artworks. Bugs in general may not be the favorite animals for most of us, but these artworks are definitely up to the challenge. We’d love to hear which piece is your favorite and why. Feel free to share links to your own bugs with us in the comments.

Free Graphic Tutorial

Wednesday, June 22, 2011