Psdtuts+ Updates - Design Exercises to Get Your Creativity Ripped

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Design Exercises to Get Your Creativity Ripped Posted: 01 Nov 2011 09:30 AM PDT How does an athlete become an Olympian? Years of training helps to develop their form as grueling workouts build strength and endurance. They also educate themselves on their sport, taking advantage of tactics they’ll need in order to win. Lastly, they keep motivated by learning from every loss and blunder. Implementing the lessons they’ve learned creates a remarkable athlete whose success is a reflection of their hard work. As a designer, you can train your creativity to become just as ripped as the next athlete. Learn these quick exercises to develop your creativity and form. Why Designers Should Exercise Learning how to optimize your time is one of the best assets any new designer can learn. Taking advantage of free time to develop your craft is essential to your improvement in design. Traditional art professors often have their students draw subjects in timed intervals to improve time management, skill, and problem solving. Designers can easily do the same. The following are the potential benefits for keeping up a routine of design exercises: Learn how to come up with creative ideas faster. Learn how to weed out which ideas are wrong for a design project. Learn how to pace your time effectively before a project’s deadline. Discover your common design habits. Reduce or eliminate bad design habits. Design Exercises Here are three twenty-minute exercises to get your creative juices flowing. Each may require some prep time like traditional exercises. If you need to stop after an exercise, engage the left side of the brain with a non-creative activity like spelling your name backwards as a refresher. Do these separately at your pace or all together to set yourself up with a designer’s sixty minute total workout! Logo Design Logo design is one of those areas of the design industry that becomes a fundamental part of your learning experience. By creating your client’s identity, you are making a significant impact on their future marketing and promotional strategies. Therefore, it’s important that you are fully aware of your creativity’s influence upon your client. Preparation & Exercise Visit a popular crowdsourcing site for logo design. Don’t worry, you won’t be supporting spec work. It is, however, beneficial to practice with exercises that simulate actual client situations. Choose a logo design inquiry at random or briefly scan the list to find one you like. These sites often supply information on the client’s company background, industry, logo desires, and expectations. Once you’ve decided on the design inquiry of your choice and read the appropriate information, briefly take notes for reference. Now that you have a basic understanding of your faux client’s expectations, you can begin the exercise. Create as many logo concepts as you can in the allotted twenty-minute time frame based on the client’s needs. Roughly sketch all the ideas that are first coming to mind in relation to the original design inquiry. Keep in mind that you are developing a professional identity for your client, however, allow yourself to embrace the creativity that’s naturally coming to you. Typography Typography is a beautiful world of writing that truly allows text to come to life. Arranging words creatively leaves a distinct impression on its viewer. Preparation & Exercise Go online and research a list of famous quotes. You can always just make one up, but opening your mind to unfamiliar quotes will help to broaden your creativity. Once you’ve found a quote, open up Photoshop to begin the exercise on a single large document. Using the quote you picked, see how many different ways you can arrange the words creatively in the allotted time. Utilize different font types, colors, as well as layer styles to make each combination unique. Attempt to communicate the message of the quote through the arrangement of its letters and words. Photo Effects/Manipulation With photo manipulation you can let your imagination run wild by changing the emotions of your piece through the skillful use of Photoshop. Preparation & Exercise Of all the exercises, this one may take the most prep time. Go on a free stock photography website such as sxc.hu. Look for a photo (with the theme of your choice) that has either a clear foreground, middle ground, and background or a single subject you can work on. Once you’ve found the photo of your choice, download and open it in Photoshop. For this twenty-minute exercise, see how much you can manipulate the original photo two different times. Feel free to use any tool available in Photoshop, but since this is only an exercise try using just the image you selected. Manipulate its general composition, omit sections, change the color, or apply photo effects as you see fit. Feel The Burn? Post Workout Questions Now that you’re all sweaty from your design workout you can step back and admire your creative efforts. Here is a list of questions to follow up your exercises: How many ideas was I able to come up with in twenty-minutes? Was I distracted at all? By what? How did it affect me? Which ideas are the best/worst? Which ideas best communicate a message? Do I have any distinct habits when designing? Which? Which skills could I visibly improve upon to help my designs? You can attempt these exercises once a month to track your progression. These exercises test the quality of the creative ideas that pop into your mind when designing. Discover what’s stifling your creativity and you’ll ultimately be able to produce better work. How did you do? Are there any design exercises you can think of?

Best of Tuts+ in October Posted: 01 Nov 2011 06:00 AM PDT Each month, we bring together a selection of the best tutorials and articles from across the whole Tuts+ network. Whether you’d like to read the top posts from your favourite site, or would like to start learning something completely new, this is the best place to start! Psdtuts+ — Photoshop Tutorials Photo Effects Week: Create a Fantasy Miniature World in Photoshop This week we are celebrating the launch of PhotoDune, Envato’s new stock photography website with a series of photo effect and photo manipulation tutorials that showcase the images from our new marketplace. In this tutorial we’ll demonstrate how to create a miniature world using some interesting techniques. Many of the photos used in this tutorial are available for free for Psd Premium Members. Let’s get started! Visit Article Photo Effects Week: Create a Cutout Photograph in Photoshop This week we are celebrating the launch of PhotoDune, Envato’s new stock photography website with a series of photo effect and photo manipulation tutorials that showcase the images from our new marketplace. In this tutorial we will demonstrate how to create a cutout photo using simple selections and advanced transformations. The photos used in this tutorial are available for free for Psd Premium Members. Let’s get started! Visit Article Create a Stitched Text Effect for an iPad Wallpaper In this tutorial we will show you how to create a custom stitched text effect for an iPad Wallpaper. Let’s get started! Visit Article Nettuts+ — Web Development Tutorials Stop Nesting Functions! (But Not All of Them) JavaScript is over fifteen years old; nevertheless, the language is still misunderstood by what is perhaps the majority of developers and designers using the language. One of the most powerful, yet misunderstood, aspects of JavaScript are functions. While terribly vital to JavaScript, their misuse can introduce inefficiency and hinder an application’s performance. Visit Article The Intro to Rails Screencast I Wish I Had Isn’t it funny how most “introduction to Ruby on Rails” screencasts are overly simplistic, and rely on generators like scaffolding? The teacher typically follows up the tutorial by stating that most Rails developer don’t use scaffolding generators. Well that’s not much help then! I’d like to give you the tutorial I wish I had. Along the way, we’ll also rely heavily on test-driven development to build a simple app. Visit Article The Best Way to Learn PHP Learning something from scratch is almost always an arduous affair — you simply have no idea as to where to start, or not to start, to kick things off. I loathed learning about the idiosyncrasies of C++’s syntax when all I wanted to learn were some darn programming concepts. As I’m sure you can agree, this is a less than ideal situation. Visit Article Vectortuts+ — Illustrator Tutorials Free, Vintage Graphics: Flourish Vector Ornaments Wow, if you’re looking for high quality free vector graphics, then you’ve landed on the right article. We’ve roundup up a massive collection of free vector flourishes. These graphics are composed of a wonderful mix of vintage elements, floral ornaments, swirly design mixes, and are all made of beautifully curved vector art. Visit Article Beginners Guides to InDesign InDesign is a powerful design program with so many tools and features it can a bit tricky to find a topic to begin with. With this in mind, we've put together a collection of beginner guides on various InDesign topics like the best way to create a new document, how to import text and images and even useful advice on what to do when a document is corrupted and how to make comments and track changes. Visit Article How to Color a Cute Character using Graphic Styles Coloring a character sketch can sometimes take much longer than anyone expects. With a few layer tricks and Graphic Styles, I will show you how to create a character that is quick to ink, easy to edit and a breeze to re-color. Let’s get started! Visit Article Webdesigntuts+ — Web Design Tutorials Design a Static Admin Bar in Photoshop Let’s whip up a simple, yet effective ‘static admin bar’ in Photoshop. We’ll take a selection of UI elements, and design their various states, ready for building in HTML and CSS. Visit Article A Smarter Twitter Page in Under 15 Minutes Today we’ll design a smart, vintage modern background to welcome visitors to your Twitter page. We’ll go over some layout considerations, then dive into Photoshop. Have fifteen minutes spare? Let’s go then! Visit Article Build An Innovative Portfolio Site Using Alternative UI/UX Paul J Noble’s awwward winning, uniquely designed portfolio site has caught the eye of many people, and not just clients either. Today he’s going to follow up on the design stage of this tutorial, and demonstrate how it’s coded up. Visit Article Phototuts+ — Photography Tutorials Strapping Up: A Look at Camera Straps Ever stop to think about what is holding your camera when your hands aren’t? Lots of photography tutorials focus on cameras, lenses, and lighting. Even bags and filters get a lot of press. However, there is one important piece of equipment that gets neglected and choosing the wrong one can be a literal pain in the neck. So, we’re going to take a look at various camera straps and how they indirectly impact your photography. Visit Article Fantastic Photos of Reptiles and Amphibians Today’s photo collection is a tribute to all things scaly, slimy, or perhaps even both. We have gathered one hundred impeccable examples of reptile and amphibian photography. Whether these creatures are swimming in ponds or slithering underfoot, numerous talented photographers have found them to be the perfect subjects for many beautiful compositions. Visit Article Finishing Your Photographs: Picking Your Medium Photographers spend a great deal of energy capturing the best image possible and ensuring the image or print is faithfully reproduced. We may not, however, spend as much energy thinking about how to finish a photograph – print, frame or store it – and archive the image. Visit Article Cgtuts+ — Computer Graphics Tutorials The Making Of “Yuki Machi” This is a walk through from start to finish of how I made my “Yuki Machi” scene. This tutorial is intended for beginners and students who are making the switch from creating and building assets to creating whole scenes and environments. Ill take you through the processes and techniques I use and show you the challenges l face when making larger sets. Visit Article Freebie: An Amazingly Detailed Dodge Tire Model Need some sweet rims for your next vehicle model? Well you're in luck! Because Ivan Momchilov is giving away this epic Dodge tire model, complete with a set of highly detailed brakes. For you 3d Studio Max users out there, Ivan has included scene files for 2010,2011 and 2012! And for the non Max users, we have it available in .obj format as well, making it super easy to import it into your software package of choice. This model's free to all, so download it today! Visit Article Modeling and Animating An Xpresso Driven Clock In Cinema 4D Today we’ll take some time (did you get it?) to model and animate a clock in Cinema 4D using only Xpresso. We’ll model the clock from a basic cylinder and add some simple materials and lighting to the scene. Once we have the model complete, we’ll begin animating the clock with Xpresso and add some user data to have more control over our final animation. Visit Article Aetuts+ — After Effects Tutorials How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Overview This is a quick overview of Aetuts+’s “How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet” Series. We will be posting a new chapter every day or so for the entire month of October. There are 17 parts total so check it regularly! Visit Article Use Real Lights To Motivate Simulated Lights in After Effects – AE Premium This demonstration is about shooting a translucent object, in this case a crystal illuminated by a match, and compositing that object with stock footage of dramatic fire. Finally, we’ll be simulating similar lighting effects in After Effects to reveal a logo. Visit Article Create And Composite A Mobile Phone App Demo Template In this tutorial you will learn the workflow on how to set up a scene for an animated pack shot of a phone in CINEMA 4D and composite it in After Effects. Perhaps you have developed a revolutionary iPhone app that you want to show off to the world, or maybe you just want to learn the basic workflow of compositing 3D passes in After Effects. Either way I hope this tutorial will help you along the way. Visit Article Audiotuts+ — Audio & Production Tutorials Of My Current Favourite iOS Apps As you may have already realised Im a pretty big fan of all things Apple. Not only do I utilise Apple computers in my production process but I also lean pretty heavily on IOS-based devices in the studio. Visit Article Vocal Loop Effect in Reason In electronic dance music, DJ’s often loop tracks to cheer up the crowd. In your music productions, you can also use this effect to create an uplifting effect for what’s to come. This tutorial shows you how to create such a loop effect on vocals, using Reason 4.0. Visit Article Adding Flavor to Chords – Major and Minor 7ths – Basix Today we are going to cover how to add some flavor to your chords and compositions using 7ths in both major and minor. It is surprising how many people know how to play them but do not really understand how they are built and function (guitarists I am talking to you!). Visit Article Activetuts+ — Flash, Flex & ActionScript Tutorials Create a Flexible XMPP Chat for a Member-Based Website With Flash and PHP We’ll be looking at how to create a XMPP chat application that can be used in many different scenarios. You’ll learn how to integrate an external database with Ignite Realtime’s Openfire Jabber Server and how to use the XIFF library to create custom XMPP extensions that can be used to send custom data across a network. Visit Article UI Design for Developers: Introduction Designers vs. developers – it is an argument as old as computers. The truth is, though, neither can live without the other. A brilliant UI design is as worthless without functionality as is the best piece of code with an ugly, unusable frontend. In this first post on UI Basics for developers, I am going to try and lay out some simple ground rules that devs can follow to make sure their apps, templates and prototypes are as beautiful as the code itself – and usable to boot. Visit Article AS3 101: Events – Basix For this chapter of AS3 101, we will be diving into the mechanics of the Flash event system. If you’ve been following along so far, you’ll have seen events in use, dating all the way back to the first episode of the series. The editor and I felt that it was time to write up something to be formally included in the curriculum, so if you’ve ever seen those lines of code about adding event listeners or dispatching events, and not quite caught on, then this is the tutorial for you. Visit Article Wptuts+ — WordPress Tutorials WordPress Cheat Sheets: Theme Anatomy Model Next in line for our WordPress Cheat Sheet series, The Basic WordPress Theme Anatomy Model! If you haven’t seen the first posts in this series, this is a new batch of these quick pocket guides that you guys n’ gals can download, save to your phones for a fast reference, or even print out and keep next to your desk while you’re working on customizing WordPress to do your bidding. Visit Article WordPress Theme Development Training Wheels: Day One Ready to learn how to make your first WordPress theme? This tutorial series will take a step by step approach, making use of a "learning theme" affectionately known as WordPress Training Wheels, to help teach the subject. This series will take the absolute WordPress newbie through the basic steps necessary to convert any HTML template into a fully functional WordPress theme. Visit Article WordPress 3.3 is On the Horizon! Beta 2 Release Notes WordPress is evolving quite faster than ever, and every update gets all excited (especially those who make a living on it). WordPress has released it’s 3.3, Beta 2 version just 2 days ago for testing. This update is focused on more improvements, refining and making things faster and better. Today, we’re going to round up what’s coming in the next big version. Visit Article Mobiletuts+ — Mobile Development Tutorials First Look: iOS 5 SDK iOS 5 has been officially released, and iOS developers are eager to begin making use of the many new features available in the iOS 5 SDK. In this article, industry gurus Brandon Trebitowski and Collin Ruffenach reflect on the opportunities, efficiencies, and most exciting features of the latest SDK. This post is a must read for all iOS SDK developers! Visit Article iOS 5 for Web Devs: Safari Mobile Updates Native iOS developers aren’t the only ones with something to be excited about when it comes to developing for iOS 5. A new version of Safari Mobile was released alongside the latest operating system, and mobile web developers now have many new features to experiment with. Get up to speed on the changes in this article! Visit Article iOS 5: Fixed Positioning and Content Scrolling Two of the most celebrated enhancements to Safari on iOS 5 are fixed positioning and content scrolling support. This tutorial will teach you how to take advantage of this change and what the implications are for stop-gap JavaScript libraries like iScroll. Visit Article FreelanceSwitch — Articles and Resources for Freelancers Keys to Setting Your Rate Based on Experience There is no one set strategy for setting your rates, which is why the process can be so confusing for freelancers. Basing your rates off regional competitors' prices is a very smart tactic, but I think many freelancers forget about something important when putting together rates, and that is their value. Visit Article 5 Rarely Remembered Rules for Building Your Freelance Brand Having a strong brand can be a game-changer for your freelance business. Good brands command respect and establish a reputation. They establish your presence in the marketplace. When questions arise like "where can I find a good freelance writer" or "where do I go to get my website redesigned" … strong brands immediately come to mind. So how do you build your brand? What rules of branding should you follow? Visit Article 7 Ways to Tell a Client He's Wrong Telling a client that he is, in fact, wrong can be the hardest thing you ever have to do in your freelance career. It's not something that we generally consider to be a healthy step: it can lose you a client pretty quickly if not handled properly. Even if a client accepts that he is incorrect about something, it may still be harder to work with him in the long run. Visit Article

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