Category: Tutorials

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iPhone Game Friday: Free Games

It could be argued that all the best games in the App Store cost money, however we’re going to dispel that myth in this issue of Game Friday. Our roundup this week focuses solely on the free games available for the iPhone including Jet Fighters, Warships and Sudoku 2.

Like always, if you have a game you want reviewed, please let us know!

Sudoku 2

Sudoku 2

Sudoku 2

Sudoku, the Japanese number puzzle game that exploded in popularity a few years ago, has no shortage of games available for the iPhone. Sudoku 2 is definitely one of the best of these, combining some lovely graphics with Open Feint integration.

The game is slightly forgiving, awarding you a correct solution if you complete the puzzle with less than three errors. Notes can also be added to each square, so that you can easily work out what can still be placed there and hints can also be given if you get stuck. You can pay for Sudoku apps that do less than this and as a time killer, there is no puzzle game better.

Price: Free
Developer: Finger Arts 
Download: App Store

Rollercoaster Extreme

Rollercoaster Extreme

Rollercoaster Extreme

For those of you who downloaded Waterslide Extreme from Barclaycard, you’ll know exactly what to expect from Rollercoaster Extreme, essentially the same game but on a rollercoaster rather than a waterslide. The game includes 8 tracks around New York City, utilising the accelerometer to steer your cart down each course, collecting speed boosts and dodging obstacles.

The faster you go, the higher your score and you can collect a badge on each level to demonstrate your riding ability. The cities look fantastic, especially for a free game that you don’t even explore and there is replay value for those wanting to improve your score.

Price: Free
Developer: Dare Digital 
Download: App Store

Jet Fighters

Jet Fighters

Jet Fighters

A text-based massively multiplayer fighter game, Jet Fighters pits friends against each other as rival squadrons do battle on the iPhone. Join a squadron, train up your pilot and complete missions in order to level up your fighter.

Money earned in assignments can be used to upgrade your weapons and armour and there is months of battle to be had as you try to dominate the skies. For those of you who get very involved in these games, honour points can be bought for anything up to 4000 for $100, but these are optional extras and the game functions fine without them.

Price: Free
Developer: The Godfather 
Download: App Store

Bubble Explode

Bubble Explode

Bubble Explode

Bubble popping games can either be very enjoyable, or just a button bashing mess whereby you can gain a high score without really knowing what you are doing. Thankfully Bubble Explode is one of the former, where you clear matching colours that are touching in order to score points. If the screen fills up you lose the game.

There are some interesting elements not found in other bubble games, such as bonus points for certain shapes, and a variety of game modes that increases the lifespan of the app. An Ad-free version is available for $0.99, but if you aren’t that fussy, this version is well worth a look at.

Price: Free
Developer: Spooky House Studios 
Download: App Store

Warships

Warships

Warships

Battleships is a classic game that has appealed to many generations of children and adults and Warships aims to extend that love to the iPhone generation. Featuring multi-player Bluetooth capability you can challenge your friends to battles to determine who rules the seas. You can also take on the computer in three levels of difficulty, however the AI programming leaves a little to be desired and could do with being improved.

Unfortunately, you often find that the computer knows more that it should appear to and this does impact on the game’s enjoyability. However, there are three different game modes to try, including God Mode where you have just 34 shots to defeat your enemy on a giant board. Best played with a friend, but still ok for a quick game alone.

Price: Free
Developer: Edovia
Download: App Store

What Have You Been Playing?

We always appreciate your feedback and suggestions for other games so please let us know what you have been playing in the comments below.

New Higher Envato Marketplace Rates!

For four years the Envato Marketplaces have helped authors around the world earn an income selling their digital wares. Along the way we’ve grown from one marketplace to seven, with more on the way. We’ve gone from hundreds of members to hundreds of thousands. Items from our marketplaces have appeared in projects for companies big and small, all around the world. And most importantly of all, we’ve had thousands of authors cash out earnings, ranging from a bit of money for a big weekend to sums in the tens of thousands of dollars a month!

It’s been an amazing ride, and here at Envato along with our commitment to growing AppStorm, we are completely committed to making our marketplaces the best around. That’s why I’m very excited today to announce that as of the end of September we are rolling out some dramatically improved rates for all our exclusive authors!

As the sites have grown, so has our revenue. As we increase in volume and size we’re able to push back more and more to the authors. This is in fact our third rates increase now, and it’s always a really happy day when we get to make the changeover and start putting more money in author’s hands.

New Author Rates on Envato Marketplaces

50-70% with a $75k scale

The new rates, which go into effect at the very end of September, will see new exclusive authors get 50% of every sale out of the gate, with their commission rising up to 70% as they sell more. The volume of sales needed to get to 70% has been dramatically reduced from the old $300,000 mark, down to just $75,000. While that’s still a lot of money, it will mean dozens of our existing authors will suddenly catapult up to the highest rate and every author will see a big increase to their earnings.

If you’re wondering just how much people sell on our marketplaces, perhaps a stat will help. Our top seller across the marketplaces has sold just shy of a whoppingly huge half a million dollars in gross sales! That’s an enormous amount of money, most of which happened in under a year.

Lest you think that’s just for the biggest marketplaces, in fact on every single one of the seven marketplaces, we have authors whose take home earnings are in the four figures each month! So that’s authors selling not just on ThemeForest, our marketplace for websites, but also the marketplaces for graphics, video, audio, 3D, Flash and code and scripts.

How much could you make selling your work?

Envato Notes – new Community Blog!

Envato Notes!

You can get the full details of the big Envato Rate Increase on our brand new Envato Community blog – Envato Notes.

Notes, which launched just last week, is going to be the hub of the entire Envato / AppStorm community with news about our sites, interviews of people who work on our sites, tips, giveaways, competitions and much more.

If you haven’t seen it already, I highly recommend heading over to Envato Notes and subscribing to the feed!

Happy Birthday Authors!

So on the fourth anniversary since our first marketplace FlashDen first hit the web, I’d like to take a moment and say Happy 4th Birthday to all our authors. Thank you so much for choosing to sell with us. Thank you so much for being a part of our amazing community. Thank you for helping us make the Envato Marketplaces what they are.

One More Thing …

With the Birthday Bundle now finished, our massive rates change announced, well … to borrow a line from Mr Jobs, there’s just one more thing. Next week, I’ll be back with a very exciting announcement – a whole new Envato Marketplace! Yep it’s one heck of an August for us here at Envato, so stay tuned for even more big news!

Woohoo!!!

How to Search Engine Optimize WordPress

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to making your website easily accessible to search engines, and helping them understand and read the content so that they can rank it high up in their index.

SEO is a huge topic and I won’t go deep into it. This article is primarily targeted to people who own and operate a WordPress blog. Some of the tips mentioned are of course general SEO methods used on all kinds of sites. Other tips and tools focus on WordPress, which has become the preferred blogging tool in the past few years.

Let me know if I’ve missed something by adding your comments. These tips primarily focus on how to search engine optimize WordPress installations, as opposed to off-site SEO (getting and building backlinks).

SEO Factors

1. Title tag

Title tag or the article title is one of the most important SEO parameters. That is what appears as the title of the post in search engine result pages (SERPs) and hence you should make sure that it’s relevant, has keywords, is neither too long nor too short, and accurately conveys what the content is all about.

2. Meta description

The meta description for your blog or a blog post is a short description that appears below the content title in SERPs. If the description is precise and informative, a user is more likely to click on the post title and hence end up on your site.

3. Content

Content, obviously, is the heart and soul of SEO. Great content can attract attention and links, and hence search engines would prefer showcasing it too. Plus, it is what your readers would like to read, isn’t it?

4. Keywords

Having a general understanding of keywords (words, sentences, or phrases) relevant to the content on your site and how to use them properly always helps.

5. Web host

The web host is what your site calls home and where the Googlebot comes knocking on the door whenever you publish articles. Hence, be careful while choosing a host for your site.

6. Site loading speed

Site loading speed is something bloggers recently started focusing on when Google announced that it would be treated as one of the ranking factors. The faster your site loads, the better.

7. Robots.txt

Robots.txt is a text file on your server that tells search engine bots what to index and what to skip. It’s better to create one and place it in your root directory. Here’s a guide to create a simple robots.txt file.

8. Sitemaps

A sitemap is basically a list of pages or URLs that the search engine’s crawler can access. Ideally, you should have both XML and HTML sitemaps on your site. WordPress users can use Google XML Sitemaps plugin to create an XML one.

9. Permalinks

The default permalink structure in WordPress isn’t that good. You can customize permalinks according to your preferences and for better search engine optimization.

10. Headings and Post Slugs

Headings and sub-headings in an article are important for readers as well as for search engines. Use them wisely. Regarding post slugs, you should make them short and keyword-rich (don’t overdo it though).

SEO Tools

1. Plugins

WordPress bloggers have this advantage when it comes to SEO. They can select from a wide range of SEO plugins that are built for WordPress. Some of the popular ones are All in one SEO, Platinum SEO, and Robots Meta. There are many more.

2. Google Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tools let you know if Google is able to successfully crawl your blog, and about other issues it might encounter with your site. Upload your sitemap in the webmaster dashboard to get started. It is recommended though that you do it only after your site has some content.

3. Browser Extensions

There are a lot of browser extensions that help you to analyze your WordPress blog and optimize it better for search engines. SEO Site tools for Chrome and SeoQuake for Firefox are two of them that I use myself.

4. Google Adwords Keywords Tool

The Google Adwords Keywords Tool can show you the keywords relevant to your article along with the number of times they are searched for every month.

5. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a must-use tool for WordPress bloggers. Apart from showing general traffic stats, it’ll tell you what search engine keywords are driving traffic to your site, which you could further capitalize on.

Other SEO Tips

1. Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs refer to a chain of links that directs a visitor back to the main page. You could install Yoast Breadcrumbs for WordPress to get them on your blog.

2. 404 pages

404 or “Not Found” pages shouldn’t be ignored. Use them to lead the visitor to other parts of your blog. Here’s a guide to creating great 404 pages for WordPress.

3. Images

When it comes to images, you need to keep in mind mainly the alt and title tags (apart from relevancy of course). Descriptive alt tags are recommended by Google.

4. Linking

Linking to your own blog posts as well to other blogs not only provides more information to your readers, but is a good SEO step too. Do it as often as possible.

5. Anchor text

Anchor text refers to the text on the page which is being linked to a different page. The more connected the text is to the link, the better it is for your blog and the other page.

How Much Should You Focus on Search Engine Optimizing?

If you are newbie when it comes to WordPress and SEO, you might find all this a bit overwhelming. Well, SEO is a time-consuming process so I won’t say that you could get it done quickly. But here’s the thing: Don’t consume your days tweaking your site just for the search engines. You should instead focus on producing great content and building relationships.

While SEO is important, it depends on the content and not vice-versa. If the content is good and you can promote it well, it will attract links automatically.

Hope you found the above on-site optimization tips for WordPress useful. Do share your SEO tips in the comments.

How to Hire Your First Employee

Hiring your first employee is an important step. This is the first person you’re letting into your closely guarded domain and exposing to the inner workings of your startup, fueled by your passions – however organized, chaotic, or quixotic they may be.

Avoid stumbling out of the starting gate. Here’s how to hire your first employee.

Create a compelling job description

Before dwelling on how to hire an employee, think about where your business is today and where you want it to be tomorrow, and a year from now, says Bryan Janeczko, founder of Wicked Start, an online portal for budding entrepreneurs. Even if you’re not consciously thinking of “tomorrow,” you expect to go somewhere, or you wouldn’t be hiring someone. Determine how you expect this first hire will fit into your strategy. Whether the role is an administrative assistant, an operations director, or a sales manager, this person will be your partner in building your business.

Give some serious thought to the kind of talents needed for the open position. Will the person need to create order out of chaos? Remain calm and cheerful when faced with angry clients or customers? Be able to analyze situations quickly and turn on a dime? Write down a few of the necessities for the position, remembering that if you can find the person with the talent, the training you provide will produce a much more valuable employee, explains Sue Thompson, a business consultant and coach with Set Free Life Seminars.

To stand out from other ads and attract top talent, start your description with why your business is so amazing, why you started it, and why you need to make this critical hire. Then, write the job duties and responsibilities followed by requirements, such as educational experience.

Turn to trusted hiring sources

Posting your job is an important part of the hiring process. Casting too wide a net will yield lots of noise and wasted energy. Reach out to trusted friends and business associates first. Consider paid postings in industry journals, resumes from Monster.com, Yahoo!Hot Jobs, advertising on craigslist.org, among others. If you still haven’t found your gem, you can hire a recruiter, though it won’t be cheap (25 percent or more of the first year’s salary!), it can help you your first time around.

Avoid legal minefields

Once you’ve rounded up promising candidates and are ready to start the interviewing process, legal issues abound. Ideally, the employment application form has been reviewed by your legal counsel to assure it passes legal muster, says Philip Mortensen, a partner with the law firm of Barton Barton & Plotkin. Whether on the application itself or during the interview, a general rule of thumb is that the employer (you!) may not ask any questions the answer to which might reveal the protected class (age, religion, sexuality, etc.) of the applicant.

For example, consider possible age discrimination. The employer cannot ask the applicant’s age, but the employer is also forbidden to ask questions that might reveal the applicant’s age. Tread lightly; asking what years someone attended various schools could reveal an age range.

If a candidate starts talking about things like ethnicity, religion, age, and disabilities, don’t ask specific questions about those elements, says Catherine LeBlanc, a recruiter with Spherion Staffing Services.

It’s probably a good idea to consult legal counsel to develop a series of standardized questions. See what resources your state has. For example, the New York Pre-Employment Inquiry Guide published by the New York State Division of Human Rights spells out what an employer can review with a candidate, as well as permissible and impermissible forms of questions.

You don’t have to be shy about asking certain things. LeBlanc says,

You do want to be sure the applicant is eligible to work legally in the United States. You can ask about their last position, reasons for leaving, reliable transportation, salary expectations … have they ever been convicted of a felony? …Say that the position requires X, are you able to perform the duties?

Make sure the person is a “fit”

Although some people focus on whether or not they “connect” with a candidate, it’s imperative to remember this person is here to do the job you outlined in your description, and ultimately help build your business. You are not seeking a new best friend. Stay objective. Have an advisor or mentor interview the candidate as well, suggests Janeczko.

Craft some questions for your interviewees that require a specific answer to the kind of talent you need. For instance, if you need a receptionist who is unflappable, professional, and smart, ask candidates to describe a time when they had to deal with an irate visitor, suggests Thompson. If you need an assistant who you want to manage your entire life, ask candidates to explain a previous position or situation where they did the type of tasks you describe.

“They should respond immediately with an example that satisfies you. Don’t let answers such as ‘Oh, I do that all the time,’ or ‘I did that frequently at XYZ Company.’ The folks with the talent love to tell you how they worked things out, and they’ll provide you with information. Choose from these candidates,” says Thompson.

She adds, “Know that a candidate doesn’t necessarily have to have the perfect resume and background – seek the talent. All the other stuff will come with training and on-the-job training.”

33 Books To Reference On Your VFX and Mograph Journey

    How many books are in your library? I have some of the top rated books for our industry for you guys to pick and choose from depending on your interests! Whether you are into motion graphics or matchmoving… there is something here for everyone!

    • Matchmoving: The Invisible Art of Camera Tracking by Tim Dobbert

      If you are looking for a great book to get your started in matchmoving as well as something you can keep with you for a long time on shoots to come, Tim Dobbert’s book has basically everything there is to know when it comes to everything from setting up shots to solving cameras.

      View Book

    • The After Effects Illusionist: All the Effects in One Complete Guide by Chad Perkins

      This book is kind of like Chad Perkins’ Lynda.com training DVD After Effects Effects, but in book form. The book goes through each and every effect included with After Effects CS4 and teaches you how to use it, and how you could possibly apply it into a real world situation.

      View Book

    • The Visual Effects Arsenal: VFX Solutions for the Independent Filmmaker by Bill Byrne

      Bill Byrne takes years of visual effects experience to show you how to make some of the hottest effects used in cinema, from color correction to chopping arms off! The provided disk also comes with all the project files so that you can follow along in your application!

      View Book

    • After Effects Expressions by Marcus Geduld

      Expressions are kind of scary, I’ll admit… thank god there is a book out there that can teach you everything you need to know about expressions in After Effects. Marcus’ book is 448 pages chock full of expressionny goodness complete with a disk with project files so you can examine the expressions for yourself!

      View Book

    • Filming the Fantastic: A Guide to Visual Effects Cinematography by Mark Sawicki

      This book deals on the simple idea of eliminating the phrase “we’ll fix it in post.” Why waste time fixing it later, when you can do it right the first time? Learn techniques on doing in camera special effects and cinematography to create plates that you can later composite together for better video!

      View Book

    • Adobe After Effects CS5 Visual Effects and Compositing Studio Techniques by Mark Christiansen

      Mark Christiansen has been writing this book for years, each time updated with the newest version of After Effects. It has become one of the must have books for an After Effects artist to have, because there is always something new to learn from him. This version is to be released October 2nd 2010

      View Book

    • The DV Rebel’s Guide: An All-Digital Approach to Making Killer Action Movies on the Cheap by Stu Maschwitz

      A favorite book for anyone who has ever made a super low budget to no budget film is The DV Rebel’s Guide. Stu, the creator of tools like Magic Bullet Looks, wrote this book to help those that have a hard time penny pinching to get a amazing film out of little to no money.

      View Book

    • Greenscreen Made Easy: Keying and Compositing Techniques for Indie Filmmakers by Jeremy Hanke & Michele Yamazaki

      Editor of Microfilmmaker.com Jeremy Hanke and Toolfarm’s own Michele Yamazaki have this amazing handbook for people working in green screen. It goes through everything from plugins, to making homemade greenscreen, to what apps to use, and tips and tricks for getting good mattes when you are compositing.

      View Book

    • After Effects Apprentice, Second Edition by Chris and Trish Meyer

      Chris and Trish Meyer are undoubtedly legends in the After Effects world. Their book, the After Effects Apprentice takes you through all you need to know if you are getting started in our app of choice, complete with a disk with video tutorials and project files!

      View Book

    • Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects, 5th Edition, Fifth Edition: Essential and Advanced Techniques by Chris Meyer and Trish Meyer

      Now in it’s 5th Edition to reflect CS5, this massive 768 page book deals in all you need to know for making motion graphics. Subjects include mastering 3D space, all the 3D effects in CS5, working with Photoshop, keying, mattes, roto, basically anything you need to know if you are going to be working on motion graphics.

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    • Adobe After Effects CS5 Classroom in a Book by Adobe Creative Team

      If you have been in college you have probably been required to get this book to learn After Effects. It is made by the Adobe Creative Team as a collective effort and serves as the jumpstart for learning, using, and understanding After Effects.

      View Book

    • After Effects CS4 for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickPro Guide by Antony Bolante

      This book from Antony Bolante is a great book for people of all walks of life, whether it be graphic, web, or video production how they can use After Effects CS4 in their workflow to enrich their projects and integrate their other applications.

      View Book

    • After Effects for Flash / Flash for After Effects: Dynamic Animation and Video with Adobe After Effects CS4 and Adobe Flash CS4 Professional by Richard Harrington and Marcus Geduld

      If you are a Flash user and have never messed with After Effects, this is the book for you. Learn how you can use both apps harmoniously to create some amazing motion graphics, and integrate these two applications together in your workflow.

      View Book

    • Flash + After Effects, Second Edition: Add Broadcast Features to Your Flash Designs by Chris Jackson

      This book is more for learning how you can use After Effects in your Flash animations to make better and more compelling work in Flash. If you have the Suite and have both programs, if you are only limiting yourself to Flash, you are really missing out.

      View Book

    • After Effects and Photoshop: Animation and Production Effects for DV and Film, Second Edition by Jeff Foster

      This is another book trying to unify the Creative Suite’s apps, Photoshop and After Effects to create a better, faster workflow when it comes to dealing with graphics, visual effects or filmmaking.

      View Book

    • Adobe After Effects CS5 Digital Classroom by AGI Creative Team

      In 16 lessons, this book will teach you thoroughly how to use After Effects what effects do what, and how you can use the program to make your video woes much easier. This book is due out November 8th 2010.

      View Book

    • The Video Collection Revealed: Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, Soundbooth and Encore CS5 by Debra Keller

      I love these books that preach about how to use your apps together for better workflow. Too often we get hung up on trying to do everything in one application. This book teaches you about Premiere, After Effects, Soundbooth and Encore and shows you a great workflow for using them together in your production pipeline.

      View Book

    • Compositing Visual Effects: Essentials for the Aspiring Artist by Steve Wright

      This was published back in 2007, but all the same techniques still hold true. This book is a great stepping stone for beginning visual effects artists that want to learn and understand how visual effects shots are made and composited together.

      View Book

    • The Green Screen Handbook: Real-World Production Techniques by Jeff Foster

      This is an amazing resource for those working heavily in the green screen world of video. Jeff Foster explains everything from setting up your green screen to matchmoving a virtual set! This 384 page monster is sure to be one that you put in your backpack every shoot.

      View Book

    • The Art and Science of Digital Compositing, Second Edition: Techniques for Visual Effects, Animation and Motion Graphics (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Graphics) by Ron Brinkmann

      This is a great book going through 17 case studies on hit Hollywood films like The Golden Compass, Sin City, Lord of the Rings, and Revenge of the Sith, just to name a few. Take an in depth look at how shots from these movies were put together to create such realistic imagery.

      View Book

    • Professional Digital Compositing: Essential Tools and Techniques by Lee Lanier

      No matter what application you are using, this book will apply to it. Color Theory, stereoscopy and CG integration are just a few of the things covered in this book. Whether you are a Motion, Shake or After Effects user, you will learn a lot from this book.

      View Book

    • The VES Handbook of Visual Effects: Industry Standard VFX Practices and Procedures by Jeffrey A. Okun and Susan Zwerman

      Just like the title says, you will learn some of the best practices and procedures from some of the huge names in the visual effects industry. Co-authored by members of the Visual Effects Society, you get many different perspectives and ideas on how to do things in the visual effects world.

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    • The Visual Effects Producer: Understanding the Art and Business of VFX by Charles L. Finance and Susan Zwerman

      Instead of focusing on the art of visual effects itself, this book focuses on the business of being a producer instead. Learn how to manage clients, crew and vendors, along with planning out scheduling, budgeting, and all the other woes that come along with being a producer.

      View Book

    • VFX Artistry: A Visual Tour of How the Studios Create Their Magic by Spencer Drate and Judith Salavetz

      If you have ever wanted a look into how studios like Digital Kitchen, Prologue and Trollback create their amazing pieces of art, look no further. This book showcases how certain videos were produced, what went into them, and what was needed!

      View Book

    • Digital Compositing for Film and Video, Third Edition by Steve Wright

      This book is great for the compositor faced with challenges like badly shot footage, mismatched lighting and the like. Now in it’s third edition, this book contains new chapters on stereoscopy and CGI integration of elements.

      View Book

    • Motion Graphic Design: Applied History and Aesthetics by Jon S. Krasner

      if you have ever wanted to delve deep… I mean, REALLY deep into motion design, investigating the theory, history and whatnot of how it has come to be an artform, this is by far the best book for you.

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    • How to Cheat in Motion by Patrick Sheffield

      In this non-app-specfic book Patrick shows you how to do some nifty, easy, and dirty little tricks that the pros use with little or no effort at all to enhance the look of your projects!

      View Book

    • The Art and Technique of Matchmoving: Solutions for the VFX Artist by Erica Hornung

      Whether or not you want to learn it, matchmoving is going to end up being a tool in every artist’s arsenal. Erica’s new book, gets you up to speed on the newest technology, theory, and practices when it comes to matchmoving.

      View Book

      • Coming Soon…

    • How to Cheat in After Effects by Chad Perkins

      Chad Perkins’ brand new book is full of a bunch of quick tips that save you a ton of time and basically works as a cheat sheet for hundreds of tasks inside of After Effects. This book is due out October 4th 2010

      View Book

    • BBC VFX: The History of the BBC Visual Effects Department 1954-2003 by Mat Irvine and Mike Tucker

      This is a great book that showcases the last 50 years of visual effects used on the BBC. There has been some amazing shows, movies, and other programming that is unforgettable. This book spotlights all those and shows you what went into them. This book will be available January 1st 2011!

      View Book

    • Motion Graphics with Adobe Creative Suite 5 Studio Techniques by Richard Harrington and Ian Robinson

      Yet another book showcasing how you can use different applications from the Creative Suite in your workflow, this book by Richard Harrington and Ian Robinson shows you how to use Illustrator, Photoshop and of course After Effects to create spectacular motion graphics. Pick up this book October 3rd 2010!

      View Book

    • Creative Motion Graphic Titling for Film, Video, and the Web by Yael Braha and Bill Byrne

      We, as motion artists get asked a lot to create title sequences… what better of a place to find inspiration than a book dedicated to teaching that!? This book features tutorials and interviews on how and who created some of the most inspiring titles sequences in the most famous blockbuster movies! This book will be out October 1st 2010!

      View Book

    • Design Essentials for the Motion Media Artist: A Practical Guide to Principles & Techniques by Angie Taylor

      Aspiring motion artists be on the lookout! This book is a crash course on the designer’s side of looking at creating motion graphics. Learn to think like a designer, analyze color palettes and typography… make educated decisions when it comes to the way you want things to look! This book will get you up to speed on it. Book drops October 29th 2010.

      View Book

      • If you enjoyed this post, please give it a vote on Digg or a stumble to say thanks!



How To Trace a Sketch with a Vintage Comic Style


You can find the vintage comic style in newspapers, magazines, and in animation. In this tutorial you will learn several techniques for tracing a sketch, including how to make custom brushes, how to combine shapes and brushes and how to combine multiple brushes. You will also learn how to simulate shadows with a hatching technique.

Continue reading “How To Trace a Sketch with a Vintage Comic Style”

How to Move Audio Between DAWs

This three part screencast looks at how to successfully export and move your audio from an existing project in one DAW to another. Here I have used Logic Pro 9 and Cubase 5 but you can use the techniques shown here in literally any two applications.

I cut the process up into three parts because it would of been 15 minutes long in one piece and you all would of fallen asleep. Apologies if I pick up the pace a little as I go but I realised I might be talking for an hour or so if I didn’t wrap it up! Anyway I hope this is helpful to you and please let me know if you have any suggestions for future screencasts.

Part 1

The original project is prepped for export.
View a high resolution version here.

Part 2

The correct settings are applied and the initial parts exported.
View a high resolution version here.

Part 3

The freshly exported parts are brought into Cubase and checked.
View a high resolution version here.


Workshop #113: Unity by Stuntmen

At Audiotuts+ we regularly put up a reader track for workshopping and critique (find out how to submit a track). This is how it works: you upload your song, and every week or so we’ll publish one here and step away from the podium. The floor is yours to talk about the track and how the artist can fix problems in and improve upon the mix and the song.

This track has been submitted for your friendly, constructive criticism. They have put their track (and their heart and soul) in your hands to learn and get useful feedback.

  • Do you enjoy the song or track itself? Does it have potential?
  • Can the arrangement be improved?
  • How did you find the mix? What would you do differently?
  • What do you enjoy about the rhythm track? What can be done to improve it?
  • Is the choice of instruments relevant and effective for the style/song?
  • Are the lyrics (if any) effective? Does the style, arrangement and genre of the song suit them?
  • Can you suggest any specific techniques that might improve the track?
  • Do you have any other constructive feedback?

Unity by Stuntmen

Artist’s website: musicproduction-and-djing-lessons.blogspot.com

Description of the track:

The track was put together to inspire people to become one unity (come Together), but this is just the instrumental and the vocals will be recorded soon, ENJOY!

Download audio file (StuntmenUnity.mp3)

Terms of Use: Users can stream the track for the purposes of giving feedback but cannot download or redistribute it.

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Author Interview: Meet Mo Volans

We have some amazing authors at Audiotuts+. Besides being incredibly talented at making and producing music, they’ve made the choice to share their knowledge with the rest of us. And that’s not an easy thing to do – they take hours out of their busy days and nights to sit down and write step-by-step tutorials so that we can learn to do what they do.

We thought a lot of you might be curious to find out more about them. What do they do? What have they accomplished? What do they drink? So we’ll take some time over the next weeks and months to pull back the curtain and let you see. Today we meet Mo Volans.

1. What do you do professionally when you’re not writing for Audiotuts+?

Well to be honest my job is pretty diverse. I contribute a lot of copy to magazines especially Music Tech mag and Music Tech Focus. I also do a lot of online training and teach one to one.

I still try and spend as much time as possible making music, although I have moved away from making so much house music these days and am concentrating more on downtempo stuff for TV and Film. Other projects in the studio include mix down and mastering, when it comes down to it this is still what I know best.

2. Tell us about your studio.

My studio went through a huge transformation about a year ago. I had a large amount of hardware, especially in the form of expensive synths. I also had a lot of DSP driven plug-ins. After realising this stuff was actually slowing me down to some extent, mainly due to wiring, recording, saving patches etc. I decided to strip things down. It’s been really liberating and I’m now running a completely native system, a TC interface and my trusty Dynaudio BM6A’s.

I think a lot of artists and engineers are at this point now and people are starting to realise less really is more. The native software is so amazing now that you can pretty much get anything done ‘in the box’. I’m lucky enough to be in a position where I have just about every software title and plug-in on the market and I have to say … we are living in exciting times!

All this said, I am in the process of buying an Aphex 230 channel strip as I need something to process the huge amounts of screencasts I’m producing. Although plug-ins do a great job, running my audio through software once recorded is just proving to be too time consuming.

3. Have you had any interesting projects this year?

I’ve been working on some really interesting music projects that are still under wraps but apart from that it’s been great to be involved with all the Major Application Focuses at Music Tech mag. We’ve covered just about every Major DAW (some twice!) and I’ve contributed around 25 pages to each one.

I’ve also just become a trainer at Macprovideo.com and produced my first series of screencasts for them. This has been a great experience and they have been really welcoming. I’m very happy with the result, it concentrates on the Kong drum designer in he newly released Reason 5. Feedbacks been good and I’m already working on my next title for them. You can actually check out my first set of videos here.

4. Tell us about some of your biggest audio-related successes.

Well, I’d say having my material included on the CSI:NYC shows has been a great experience from a personal point of view but other than that, I’d say playing top of the bill at the Las Vegas music conference, remixing the Shapeshifters, hitting the UK top ten with a remix of the Three Degrees and producing Tears for Fears have all been memorable moments!

5. What do you do for fun?

Well these days there doesn’t seem to be much time for that! But I love to spend time with family and friends. Also I’m a huge fan of movies and slightly fanatical in that area.

Recently though I’ve become a bit of a keen competition archer, really didn’t see that one coming but thats what makes life fun I guess!


Exclusive Freebie Pack – 25 Ink Brushes


Ink droplets are probably one of the coolest types of Photoshop brushes. Mostly because of how intricate they look in use. They are created when you drop ink into water and then photograph them. Today, we have a set of 25 ink brushes to give away for free. Feel free to use them in your designs.

Exclusive Brush Pack – 25 Ink Brushes

There are 25 High Resolution Photoshop Brushes in this pack. The license allows you to use these brushes in your commercial and personal projects. See the download file for details. Below is an example of what type of brushes are included in this set.

sample

This exclusive set of Photoshop Brushes was created by Stefan Surmabojov. We are very excited to partner up with him on the release of this set of freebies.

pack

Modelling the Audi R8 in 3Ds Max, Day 2 – Premium Tutorial

On day 2 of this amazing tutorial series, Madhan continues to walk us through how he modelled this photorealistic Audi R8 using 3Ds Max. This second part (6 videos in total including an updated reference image pack) concentrates on completing the overall body work, after which we begin to add in the details. This tutorial series is a must-watch for any artists looking to expand their portfolio and learn the sought-after art of car creation in 3Ds Max! Can’t wait to get started? Login to Premium, become a Premium member, or learn more after the jump!

Step by step car creation

Follow freelance CG artist, Madhan, as he walks us through the modelling workflows he uses to create stunning, photorealistic car models such as the Bugatti Veyron, previously featured on the site, and the Audi R8 shown above. An expert in pushing a programs basic toolset to it’s limit, Madhan_2005′s tutorial is a must-have for any artists interested in either vehicle or product design.

Want to Join Plus?

The Tuts+ network runs a membership service called Premium. For $9 per month, you gain access to exclusive high quality screencast tutorials, downloadable content packs, and freebies at CGtuts+, Psdtuts+, Vectortuts+, Audiotuts+, Nettuts+ and Aetuts+! For less than the price of a movie, you’ll learn from some of the best minds in the business all month long!!. Become a Premium member today!

Don’t miss more CG Premium tutorials and content packs, published weekly – subscribe to Cgtuts+ by RSS.

5 Tips to Increase Brain Power

The human brain is said to be the most advanced and capable machine. After all, it’s humans who created super computers, isn’t it? That said, your brain needs a bit of oiling if you want to keep it healthy and deliver a better performance. Here are five tips to increase brain power:

1. Solve Puzzles, Play Games

Playing a game of Sudoku or attempting to solve a difficult crossword sets your brain cells in action. Doctors often advise people who report focus problems to play a video game for few minutes everyday to boost brain’s ability to focus on one thing at a time.

2. Consume Almonds and Other Brain Food

Some food items help in improving brain power. Almonds does it, I know. Many other do as well. Research and find them out. Then? Eat them, obviously.

3. Meditate

Meditation is easier said than done.  But if you could include it in your daily routine and practice it diligently, it would go a long way in giving you a better memory and – overall – a better brain.

4. Imagine…

…positive situations and outcomes. That’s what Napolean Hill said in Think and Grow Rich isn’t it. Imagining good things and filling your brain with positive thoughts has to have a good effect on the brain itself.

5. Follow a Sleep and Wake up Routine

One day you are night owl and other day, you wake up at 5. This randomness of your sleep pattern is neither good for your body nor for your brain. Sleep sound, wake up fresh and try to stick to a routine (at least on weekdays ).

What else do you recommend to boost brain power?

Making Ideas Happen with Scott Belsky: Book Review and Interview

Creativity is a commendable quality. Good ideas are very valuable, and a person with repeated sparks of genius is priceless. But, even the most creative ideas amount to nothing if they’re not organized, established and executed. That’s where Scott Belsky, author of Making Ideas Happen can empower you with the follow-through needed to bring your intangible ideas into reality.

Belsky believes that “creative professionals — defined as those who generate (and sometimes execute) ideas for a living — constitute what is likely the most disorganized community on the planet.” It’s a bitter pill to swallow but also a difficult point to refute: Many of us are in the habit of forming great concepts, but few of us can say that we’ve gotten the most out of our ideas. Often, before our ideas come to full fruition, we interrupt ourselves with the next great idea. Scott considers creativity the “catalyst for brilliant accomplishments, but also the greatest obstacle.” The good sides of creativity are obvious, but few of us have considered – or addressed – the self-sabotage that can occur with idea schizophrenia.

Scott’s book and his newly-launched website, Behance, offer the tools and methods needed to recognize your best ideas and execute them to full fruition. Rather than offering lofty, fortune-cookie advice or old, tired adages, Belsky provides what’s really needed, a game plan to make the most of what’s in our minds.

Belsky’s execution philosophy is centered around ” The Action Method,” which helps those of us with creative tendencies live and work with a bias toward action.” Few of us have perfect organization, but Belsky contends that nobody is doomed to be permanently disorganized:

“Far from being some stroke of creative genius, this capacity to make ideas happen can be developed by anyone. You just need to modify your organizational habits, engage a broader community, and develop your leadership capability.”

Disorganization or self-interruption can often happen when faced with a new idea that seems better than the last. The choice presents itself – continue with your current idea, or start developing your newer, seemingly better one. Whether or not your newest idea is truly your best, continuing to shift from one plan to another will leave you with nothing but unfinished projects and unrealized potential. This could leave even the most brilliant thinkers with scatterbrained, piecemeal projects, none of which have flourished to their true potential.

To prevent a long trail of unfinished projects, Belsky teaches us to transition smoothly between creative conceptualization and executable logistics. He suggests that “any successful creative entity must be comfortable alternating between these two creative phases: ideation and execution.”

I had an opportunity to discuss Making Ideas Happen one-on-one with the author. Scott shed some light on how to implement these strategies in our typical, imperfect working conditions:

WorkAwesome: In Making Ideas Happen, you describe two sequential phases, “ideation” and “execution.” Sometimes it’s hard to know when to transition from one to the other. How do we know when an idea is fully developed and ready to be pursued?

Scott Belsky: Execution actually starts before an idea is fully developed. In the era of “rapid iteration” and prototyping, it is important to starting taking quick actions to test out the concept. For example, an early action during idea development may be to launch a survey or complete a mock-up. The notion of making “ideation” completely non-actionable doesn’t make sense to me.

Innovation is a constant effort to conceive solutions and act without conviction for the purpose of testing.

WorkAwesome: You’ve described how creativity can be a catalyst for great accomplishments, but also a huge obstacle to progress. Have you encountered businesses that are overly fearful of the risk involved with new ideas? Have you found others that are overly receptive to new ideas?

Scott Belsky: Yes, I have observed individuals and teams on both sides of the spectrum. The challenge often revolves around the incentives for generating ideas and taking risk. Bureaucracies often have an intolerance for failure and thus diminish the incentive to take risk and create something extraordinary.

WorkAwesome: Besides disorganization, what other factors can hinder a creative individual from executing his ideas?

Scott Belsky: Many other factors! But a few that come to mind include the inability to source effective feedback and support from others, difficulty leading a team, and falling victim to the gravitational force of operations that sucks our energy away from long term creative projects.

WorkAwesome: How do you begin applying The Action Method in a typically disorganized, actionless setting?

Scott Belsky: Quite simply, start asking the question, “now what?”

Start capturing the stuff that starts with verbs and keep it separate from your notes and other materials. “Call XYZ” “Redraft ABC and send to X” – you get the idea.

And then, with the mindset of looking for, capturing, and revering the action steps…start to measure how you spend your time and energy.

With this “Action Method” lens, you will begin to question your decisions and the value of meetings. In the book I talk quite a bit about how to navigate work and life with a bias towards action. I believe doing so is the competitive advantage in any creative career.

The methods and ideas in Making Ideas Happen are a unique asset to those looking to make the most of their efforts. Possibly thousands of great ideas per day are distorted into mediocrity or forgotten altogether due to ineffective follow-through. According to Belsky, the initial epiphany is only the first step in a much longer effort towards true idea fulfillment:

“Creative people are known for winging it: Improvising and acting on intuition is, in some way, the haloed essence of what we do and who we are. However, when we closely analyze how the most successful and productive creatives, entrepreneurs, and businesspeople truly make ideas happen, it turns out that ‘having the idea’ is just a small part of the process, perhaps only 1% of the journey.”

Friday Photo Critique #47

Friday Photo Critique is our weekly community project, where we publish a photograph submitted by one of our wonderful readers, then ask you all to offer constructive feedback on the image. It’s a great way to learn more about photography, express your viewpoint, and have your own image critiqued!

Quick Ground Rules

  1. Play nice! We’ve deliberately chosen photographs that aren’t perfect, so please be constructive with any criticism.
  2. Feel free to offer any type of advice – composition, lighting, post-processing etc.
  3. You can also link to photographs that you feel offer a great example of this type of image shot exceptionally well.

Without further ado, here is this week’s candidate for Friday Photo Critique!

The Photograph

Photo Critique

Photographer: Kyle Boyington

Please let us know what you think in the comments – how would you have approached the scene or taken the photo differently? A massive thank you to everyone who commented last week.

The most constructive and helpful comments will be featured on the site. Interested in submitting your own photo? You can do so here!