Category: tutplus

Want to start using WordPress? Then you’ve come to the right place! In this book you’ll be taken from the absolute basics up to a level where you’ll be able to have a site for your cafe, arts centre, personal business, blog or whatever you want to build a website for.

If you know you want a WordPress site but just don’t know where or how to get started, then this book is for you! No matter how far you want to go, WordPress for Mere Mortals will get you started on your own WordPress journey.

WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR

WordPress for Mere Mortals is a book for people who are mere mortals – just starting out on your journey up Mount Olympus (learning WordPress). I’ll take you from the absolute basics up to a level where you’ll be able to have a site for your cafe, arts centre, packaging business, blog or whatever you want to build a website for.

If you feel like having a website for your project is like reading The Odyssey in ancient Greek, this book is for you – a great way to start on your own journey with WordPress.

 

HEAR FROM THE AUTHOR

Hello, I’m Marc Thomas and I’m the author of WordPress for Mere Mortals. What’s really exciting about WordPress is that you can get started in just a few minutes and have a fully functional site – or if you want something more advanced, you can take your time and spend ages tweaking/grafting away at your site. It’s entirely up to you.

I’ve been working with WordPress for around about six years now and I’ve gone from using it as a very basic blog to using it for news websites, ticketing websites, arts centres and all kinds of other things.?You can be pretty sure that whatever level you are at, I’ve been at the same level as you at one time or another.

 

WHAT THE BOOK COVERS

We’ll start of with why WordPress is the tool for your project. Did you know 60% of the internet is powered by the WordPress platform? Everything from your neighbor’s blog about her dog Chuck to the Prime Minister of Great Britain’s website! WordPress is very diverse and you can do anything you want with it.

Then we’ll move on to some very practical guides about buying a domain name, finding a web host and choosing a theme for your site before we take a look at what a post is and how that’s different from a page.

We’ll also go through the process of managing all of the content on your website, uploading pictures. Then we’ll also cover stuff like how to embed video from YouTube. Finally, we’ll have a look at some plugins that will help super charge your site.

Sounds good?

If you want to fly like a pegasus, fight like a trojan and sing like Orpheus, this book is for you. It’s also for you if you’d like to use WordPress like a demi-god. Mostly the latter.

 

WHAT EACH CHAPTER COVERS

CHAPTER 1
Why would you build a website based on WordPress? Couldn’t you just hire someone to do it for you? Well, sure, but we’ll take a look at how you can save yourself a bunch of money and get a top notch understanding of how to run your own site.

CHAPTER 2
One of the biggest confusions is the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. In this chapter, we’ll take a look at all the intricacies and explain how you can buy a domain name, web space and get a WordPress site up and running in just a couple of hours.

CHAPTER 3
Most people spend a huge amount of time worrying about how they’re going to make their website look exactly like they want without knowing how to write all of that code that people are talking about – not to worry, WordPress made it super easy to change the way your site looks without knowing very much or even any code at all.

CHAPTER 4
Of course, it’s great to have a good looking site with a super cool name, but if you don’t have any content to go with that, you’re up the creek! This chapter will show you how to write posts and also fill them up with great pictures of your business or videos that you’ve created.

CHAPTER 5
Post and pages are another one of those confusing things that people get hung up on. There’s no need to worry, though! We’ll walk through all the differences and by the end you’ll know about when to use a page and when to use a post to publish your information.

CHAPTER 6
Now that you’re familiar with the difference between posts and pages, we should get acquainted with the differences between categories and tags. WordPress is really good at organising content – this is where you’ll get familiar with the inbuilt management system.

CHAPTER 7
Sometimes, you might want to include stuff in your WordPress posts like a menu for your restaurant, an image to sit on the front page of your website or, if you’re blogging, maybe some examples of the music you’re listening to. In this chapter, we’ll take a look at how you can do that using Custom Fields.

CHAPTER 8
Building on everything that you learnt in the last chapter, we’ll look at how you can assign an image to every post and then display that alongside your list of posts on the front page. We’ll also briefly look at the built in function that WordPress has to do this and discuss which way is best for you.

CHAPTER 9
Now that you’ve come so far on your journey of learning WordPress, you should just learn one more thing in order to have all the basics. Just like Themes can make your site look wonderful, plugins are little (or sometimes big) bits of code that help your site run wonderfully.

 

Download WordPress for Mere Mortals (Business)

Do you wish to learn how to make “Photoshop Killer Actions?” Grab this awesome tutorial that will take you to the “Promise Land.”

Or do you want to head straight to the “Promise Land” without passing through deserts? Grab the “Action Pack” of this tutorial.

PACKAGE DETAILS :

• Package name: HDR In-depth Tutorial | Charles Brown’s Look
• Software version: Photoshop CS5
• Copyright: Sept. 15, 2012
• Author: Charles Brown
• Items: PDF
• Complexity: Easy
• Info: Well-detailed
• Assets: None required
• Concept: Original
• Quality: Advance
• Execution time: 2 hours

Benefits:

1. -Knowledge: You will know the HDR Photoshop Top Secret
2. -Tools: You will have the action and all the tools for your future projects

Page sample 1:

Page sample 2:

*Synopsis:

I will be revealing to you a “Photoshop Top Secret” technique in
achieving an extraordinary “High Dynamic Range” effect you have never
experienced before through Photoshop CS5 Extended. I will go into details
in explaining how you can manipulate HDR Toning command and several
blending modes to achieve an intense and soft look HDR effect often used
by many renowned “Hollywood Photographers” in transforming flat images into
a high end HDR images for posters and several other digital mediums.
We will also be recording the steps in action so that you can use it countless
times for your future projects. This tutorial is advance but very easy to comprehend.
There are many pieces of software/plug-in for HDR and also lots of post processes but
this tutorial will reveal to you the hidden technique in Photoshop CS5 . Grab it now and
learn all the secrets.

We are determined to give you nothing but the best! Go for the best!

NOBLE VISITORS (Thank you for visiting!)

Download HDR In-depth Tutorial | Charles Brown’s Look (Adobe Photoshop)

This tutorial is taught by Conan Sinclair, a full time freelance animator working on cartoon and game projects in Australia. His first course on “Tradigital” Animation (using traditional skills in a digital environment) focuses entirely on Body Mechanics.

This six hour course is outlined below:

Part 1 – Body Mechanics Basics. This lesson teaches the basics of how to make your body animations look real. Even though in a cartoon world anything is possible, there’s still some “rules” to play by. You can’t have joints bending every which way, and that’s one of the things this part looks into. The second half of this lesson teaches a simple animation exercise by making a body move from one side to another.

Part 2 – Jumping is a great movement exercise where you can get an appreciation for weight.

Part 3 – Sitting and Standing. Think about how often a character on TV gets up or sits down in a scene. In your own animations, you’ll find this a useful exercise to add some movement to a scene where your characters might otherwise only be talking.

Part 4 – Walk Cycles. The next few lessons focus on every animators favorite (or possibly most dreaded) sequence: the walk/run cycle. Conan teaches his method of breaking these down into four manageable key poses, which he then adds in-betweens to.

Part 5 – Run Cycles. Runs are similar to walks in that you’ll learn to create four key poses of the cycle, but this time with a bounding motion to it, and the faster the run, the more of a lean is added to the character.

Part 6 – Advanced Movements. This final lesson converts our side view cycles into front view and three-quarter view cycles, which can be a real test for new animators. Conan also teaches a walk cycle with a “double bounce” movement.

Like all CartoonSmart tutorials, source files are included in every lesson.

Download Tradigital Animation Techniques – Body Mechanics (Techniques)

Displacement tutorial on how to make the abstract spheres in cinema4d with 30 materials in c4d file.
Diferent noise costumisations.
C4D file with all displacement noises.
Video tutorial 720p resolution.
Two video tutorials, first with abstract spheres and 2nd with the abstract image compositing in cinema 4d and photoshop.
Basic light tutorial setup.
All displacement features on a huge c4d file.
An explosion file in cinema4d to falow along.
Main files folder ( 2 video tutorials, 2c4d files explosion scene & displacement files and also the brushes file for the photoshop part )
hope you all like and rate.
Level of skills : begginer : )

Download Displacement Tutorial Abstract Spheres (Maxon Cinema 4D)

This tutorial is taught by Conan Sinclair, a full time freelance animator working on cartoon and game projects in Australia. His first course on “Tradigital” Animation (using traditional skills in a digital environment) focuses entirely on head animations: movements, turns, flexibility, dialogue, etc.

This four hour course is divided into five parts, outlined below:

Part 1 – The Basics – This first lesson covers basic animation techniques applicable to any program you choose to animate with, but Conan does spend some time early on teaching a few of the tools within Flash that he will be using throughout this series of lessons.

Part 2 – Head Turn Animations – Learn how to do a head turn animation, starting with two key poses, then work with timing, ease-in and out’s, and in-between frames.

Part 3 – Flexibility – Learn how to get more flexibility in your animation when going from one keypose to another (and this doesn’t just involve squashing and stretching the character)

Part 4 – Lip Syncing – This part covers dialogue animation using mouth shapes (or phonemes) and then the instructor brings in an audio file to sync an animation to.

Part 5 – Cleaning Up – This last part teaches how to clean up your animation, paint in a more polished, professional look to your frames, then include Layer effects to add a variety of styles to your final piece.

Like all CartoonSmart tutorials, source files are included in every lesson.

Download Tradigital Animation Techniques – Head Movements (Techniques)

This incredible 14 hour course has been divided in 6 Sessions:

Session 1: Getting Setup with Dreamweaver CS5 .5 or CS6 and an Intro to PhoneGap – Nearly 3 Hours!

PhoneGap is an amazing framework that will allow you to code in Dreamweaver CS5 .5, CS6 or other text editors and deploy to multiple devices. Throughout the entire multi-session series, we’ll be using the same code regardless of the device type, to interact with things like the Accelerometer, Battery status, Location, Camera, Contact Book, and so on. Our instructor uses Android for most of the first sessions, then uses an iPhone 4S for the final sessions.

PhoneGap Tutorial Video 1 : 56 Minutes – Introduction to the Series and Initial Setup. For Mac users we’ve included an alternate setup video detailing a minor difference.

PhoneGap Tutorial Video 2 : 1 Hour 40 Minutes – This nearly two hour video begins with a “hello world” app, and explores the accelerometer, detecting WIFI and other device specifics like name or OS version, how to initiate alert or confirmation popup menus, creating a stop watch function, and of course tons more about programming in general.

Session 2: PhoneGap’s Camera API , Events API , or GeoLocation API – Over 2 Hours

Choose your adventure! You can decide what you want to learn now.

PhoneGap Camera API Tutorial : 57 Minutes – Learn how to take a picture or use a picture from the camera library. Explore options like save-quality, allow simple editing before selection, encode as PNG or JPG , desired width or height, and more.

PhoneGap Events API Tutorial : 35 Minutes – We’ll look at event types, such as what to do when the device is ready, an app is paused, app is resumed, the network has gone on or offline, the user presses the back, menu, or search buttons (doesn’t apply to iOS), a call has ended, the battery hits a critical or low level, or the battery status has changed.

PhoneGap GeoLocation API Tutorial : 36 Minutes -Explore how to get the current location of the phone, and look at properties like latitude, longitude, altitude, accuracy, heading, speed, and more. Also learn how to watch for changes in the current location.

Session 3: Contacts API and Compass API – Over 2 Hours!

Again you can decide what you want to learn. There’s no viewing order to these…

PhoneGap Contacts API Tutorial : 1 Hour 52 Minutes – Learn how to create, clone, update, remove and find contacts in the devices contact database. Access properties of a contact, like name (first, last, nickname), phone number, email, address, IMS , organization, birthday, note, photo, category, and URL ’s associated with a contact.

PhoneGap Compass API Tutorial : 19 Minutes – Learn how to use the compass to detects the direction or heading that the device is pointed. Options to look at are the magnetic heading, true heading (relative to geographic North), heading accuracy, and time stamp when a reading occurred.

Session 4: Using Dreamweaver CS6 with PhoneGap and Storage API

Again you can decide what you want to learn. There’s no viewing order to these…

Using Dreamweaver CS6 with Phone Gap – 1 Hour: 2 Minutes – Learn how Dreamweaver CS6 integrates with the PhoneGap Build Service to compile applications in the “Cloud”.You’ll also learn how to get started with QR Codes (Quick Reference Codes) to find and install your app from the PhoneGap servers. Also discussed are many details about publishing your app for iOS, Android, Blackberry and other devices.

PhoneGap Storage API Tutorial : 46 Minutes – The Storage API gives you the ability to create a database on the client side rather than on a remote server. So you’ll learn how to populate a database, retrieve data, delete data, and everything else related to managing a database.

Session 5: Capture API and Media API

PhoneGap Capture API Tutorial – 1 Hour: 19 Minutes – This API allows you to capture an image, video, or audio. You’ll learn all the parameters involved with capturing these types of media (max duration, various modes, etc). You’ll learn how to store and retrieve the media. With these tools you could program your own voice or video recorder.

Also discussed are the quirks between capturing media on different devices.

PhoneGap Media API Tutorial- 53 Minutes – The Media API allows smooth playback of audio without slowing down your application. This is a better option than using HTML5 based audio or Flash Player audio, which could slow down your app, or in the case of Flash, isn’t available on the iOS devices. You’ll learn how to control your media with Play, Seek, Pause, Resume and Stop options.

Session 6: File API

PhoneGap File API Tutorial- 3 Hours: 38 Minutes – We’ve saved one of the longest tutorials for last. While most of the lessons you can watch in any order you like, our instructor requests you watch most of the previous ones first because he combines many different API ’s in this final lesson. With the File API you can access the device’s file directory. So you can search, read, write, upload and transfer files with this API , making it one of the most interesting ones. And worthy of an almost 4 hour lesson!

Final Application Project

As a final example, the instructor combines many of the PhoneGap API ’s into one amazing iPhone application (tested on an iPhone 4 & 4S) .The app has five tab buttons which navigate to:

– Contact Window: with buttons to trigger a text, phone call or email

– Voice Recorder: Playback a sound file you’ve recorded through the app

– YouTube Video Playlist / Player: Create a playlist of your favorite YouTube Videos

– Image Capture App: Take a picture from the device’s camera and insert it within another image. This could be the foundation of an amazing application. Perhaps a kid’s book featuring the child reading the book.

– Compass: Get the magnetic heading of your device

Download PhoneGap and Dreamweaver CS5.5 / CS6 Tutorials (iPhone)

Getting on top of your finances doesn’t have to be a headache. In Finance for Freelancers, freelance veteran Martha Retallick makes finance and accounting concepts fun and friendly!

You can download a sample of the book here.

HEAR FROM THE AUTHOR

Greetings from sunny Tucson, Arizona! My name is Martha Retallick, and I’m the author of Finance for Freelancers.

I wrote this book to make financial and accounting concepts fun and friendly. Since we freelancers are going to have to deal with these things, we might as well enjoy the experience, right?

Okay, I hear what you’re saying. You’re a creative person, not a numbers person. You’d do anything to avoid dealing with the financial side of your business.

Don’t worry, this will be painless. And you might even find yourself turning into a numbers geek. And why not? It’s your business that we’re talking about!

WHAT THE BOOK COVERS

INTRODUCTION : Why does finance have such a bad name?

Truth be told, a lot of creative freelancers don’t like to deal with the financial side of their businesses. This can lead to bills stacking up. Checking accounts going unbalanced. Invoices not sent. Clients not paying. (How could they possibly pay you if they don’t know what they owe?) And, worst of all, when someone asks how your business is doing, you have no idea. Does this sound like you? Well, Finance for Freelancers to the rescue!

CHAPTER 1 : Exactly what is finance for freelancers?

Learn exactly what’s involved in bookkeeping, accounting, and business funding. You’ll be very pleased to learn that your computer easily does the math for you. (Hey, they don’t call them computers for nothing!) And that it’s easy to train your brain to do the thinking and decision-making based on what your business numbers are telling you.

CHAPTER 2 : Bookkeeping Basics

Since creative freelancers are already quite used to dealing with computers, the notion of adding another software program or online service to the mix isn’t terribly frightening. The trouble with a lot of computer-based accounting software programs is that they’re way too bloated for us. This chapter shows you how to choose accounting apps that aren’t loaded with things we don’t need. It also walks you through key bookkeeping tasks like billing, making payments, and tracking time spent on projects.

CHAPTER 3 : Accounting Basics

It’s important to find and work with a good accountant, and this chapter will show you how to do that. It also guides you through the key financial reports for your business – and how you can make decisions based on what the numbers are saying.

CHAPTER 4 : Business Funding Basics

If you’re thinking of starting a freelancing business, where are you going to find the money to do so? Will you start an “I Hate My Job” fund and save part of every paycheck? And, as your job hatred increases, so does the amount that you save? Or are you going to seek loans from family, friends, and commercial institutions like banks? This chapter will help you decide.

CHAPTER 5 : The Joys of Getting Paid Promptly

One of the easiest ways to run into freelancing trouble is when the money isn’t coming in fast enough. And, sad to say, the blame for some of this trouble lies with the freelancer. The solutions? They’re discussed in this chapter.

CHAPTER 6 : The Joy of Taxes

American Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. is reported to have said that “Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.” The tax accountant’s corollary is “Don’t pay more than you absolutely have to.” This chapter discusses how you can handle the ongoing joys of filing tax forms, what to bring to a meeting with your tax preparer, and setting aside money to pay taxes.

CHAPTER 7 : Banking Your Money

Since the goal of being in business is to make money, freelancers will need a place to put their money. This chapter will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of large banks and small banks, online-only banks, non-bank institutions like credit unions, and online payment processors.

CHAPTER 8 : The Budget Blues

For many creatives, “budget” is one of “Don’t Go There” words. But we’re going there, and I promise that it will be a worthwhile experience.

CHAPTER 9 : Saving and Investing for Freelancers

As a self-employed professional, you’ll encounter quite a few sales pitches for investments. Some will be worth pursuing. Some aren’t. This chapter explains the difference.

CHAPTER 10 : How will being financially literate help you?

Face it, freelancers aren’t known as numbers people. Becoming one of them, even if it’s just from the perspective of knowing your own business’ numbers – and how to act on them – can take you a lot of places. This chapter shows you some of those wonderful destinations, and I’m sure that you will create many more.

OTHER RESOURCES

Here’s a collection of books, online communities, websites, and blogs that will help you become a freelancing financial ninja.

Download Finance for Freelancers (Business)

In Getting Good with PHP , Andrew Burgess will teach you everything you need to know about the basics of PHP . Even if you don’t have any programming experience under your belt, this easy-to-read guide will get you started with PHP in no time.

You can download a sample of the book here.

This book isn’t meant to be the super extreme, all-encompassing book which will make you become one with PHP . But if you know nothing at all about PHP and want to get comfy with it as quickly as possible, then I think this book is definitely for you. Although it won’t make you an expert, it will take you all the way to the advanced beginner state, getting you to a point where you’ll be comfortable writing PHP scripts for your own websites and ready to digest more advanced PHP topics.

Andrew Burgess has been a student of web development for eight years, and a teacher of it for almost four years. He’s a staff writer at Nettuts+, and staff instructor at Tuts+ Premium. He’s also the author of two other Rockable books: Getting Good with Git, and Getting Good with JavaScript.

Hear from the Author

Hey there! My name’s Andrew Burgess, and thanks so much for checking out my new book, Getting Good with PHP . If you’ve been wanting to learn PHP , I’m hoping you’ll find my book the perfect fit.

PHP is a somewhat controversial language: some developers sing its praises, while others decry its inconsistencies. But I think most would agree that PHP is the most widely used server-side language. Huge sites like Facebook and popular frameworks like WordPress all use PHP to work their wonders, and you’ll be on your way to doing the same after reading this book.

If you’ve tried to learn PHP before, but hit a mental wall, I think the conversational style of Getting Good with PHP will help. I can’t sit down with every one of you and spend a couple of hours teaching you PHP , but this book is the next best thing.

What the Book Covers

Getting Up and Running

Before we actually start learning PHP , let’s figure out exactly what PHP is, and why you should use it. Of course, to learn PHP , you’ll need to have it installed on your computer, so we’ll also walk through the installation process on both Windows and Mac.

The Nuts and Bolts of PHP

Next up, we’ll walk through the datatypes and operators of PHP . Datatypes and operators are the core of pretty much every programming language; having these under your belt will really make you feel like you’re beginning to grok PHP . We’ll also look at creating functions.

PHP ’s Control Structures and Built-in Functions

If datatypes and operators are the nuts and bolts, then control structures are the chassis of programming languages. `If` and `else`, `foreach` and `switch`, `return` and `require`: all of them play important roles in your understanding of PHP Fundamentals. Then, we’ll dive into PHP ’s massive library of built-in functions: as you’ll see, there really is a function for pretty much anything you might want to do.

PHP Forms and Persistence

PHP is useful for dealing with user input, so that’s what we look at next. Of course, the web doesn’t keep track of your website viewers, so PHP has several methods of preserving the visitor’s data. Then, of course, there are databases, which are great for storing user data for longer periods of time.

Security and Problem Solving

When you’re working with user input, you want to make sure that you don’t make place for hackers to exploit your site. While this isn’t quite “Security 101,” you’ll learn some helpful tips to make sure that the input you get from your users is what you expect, and not what you dread. Then, we’ll wrap it up with a discussion on how to fix things when they go wrong.

Download Getting Good with PHP (Web Development)

Learn how to create your own chat system using Node JS and Socket IO. These 3 videos will teach you the basics of using the Node JS and Socket IO libraries. You will learn how to emit and receive functions from the Client to the Server and Vice Versa. You will be taken step-by-step throughout the videos which will teach you how to create your own simple chat system.

Download Simple Chat with Node JS and Socket IO (JavaScript & AJAX)

When I first left my day job to become a freelance graphic designer, I quickly realized that there was more to it than i had thought.

I didn’t know how to run a business, how to find clients, or how much to charge. I wished I had a straightforward, practical guide that told me exactly what to do in certain situations.

Instead I spent the next few years toiling to find projects, being paid too little, and working too much.

If I had initially found some kind of mentor to go to for advice, I could have skipped ahead and saved five years worth of trial and error.

I’ve spent countless hours compiling a list of every mistake I ever made as a graphic designer that I could think of. There were a lot of “what not to dos”, but instead of just telling you what you shouldn’t do, I realized it would much more beneficial to also include what you should do.

This isn’t just a quick list of graphic design and business tips.

This guide contains over 110 pages of dos and don’ts, including real life examples and practical advice for each one.

Consider it like a handbook containing every successful designer’s best kept secrets.

Things You Will Learn

• The pitfalls of working for free to gain clients and exposure
• Whether to charge hourly or per project for your services
• How to balance work and play to avoid burning out
• Strategies to find new work
• What to do when you have an unhealthy client relationship
• Plus over 95 more dos and don’ts to help you become successful

Becoming successful in graphic design takes more than computer skills and a creative eye. You need to be a good salesperson and a savvy businessman (or woman), as well as know when to take a break.

I wrote this book as if I was talking to myself 10 years ago, and if you can relate to my journey of becoming a successful designer, then I know it will help you get there too.

Download 101 Dos and Donts of a Successful Graphic Designer (Design)

FREE LIFETIME OF UPDATES : You’ll get a free copy of this book every time we update it!

You can download a sample of the book here.

Includes Free WordPress Theme

Included with the book is a WordPress theme and other necessary files, so roll up your sleeves and let Joe take you through the process explaining what you need to do – and why you’re doing it – every step of the way.

 

Hear from the Author

“Hi, I’m Joe, the author of Building WordPress Themes From Scratch, and what started out as a simple, open source blogging platform has now become a super-powerful content management system (CMS) that can boast that it’s the most widely-used CMS on the Internet.

From the moment I first started using WordPress about eight years ago, I fell in love with it straight away and immediately started hacking away at it, learning the platform, making my own changes, and watching it grow over the years.

In this book, I plan to teach you how to use WordPress, as well as how to leverage the API to create your own custom themes, plugins, and content types. In other words, I will show you how to make WordPress your own.”

Who This Book is For

I’d like to say that this book is for anyone interested in WordPress, regardless of background. However, to keep it streamlined, I do assume that you have a solid understanding of HTML , CSS, JavaScript, PHP and MySQL.

I will be look­ing at converting HTML to a WordPress theme, building plugins, and more, all from scratch.

So, if you’d like to learn how to do all of this, then this book will be right up your alley!

What This Book Includes

Packaged with this book, you will find:

1. A fully functioning WordPress theme called ‘Director’. 
2. A set of PSD files for the Homepage, Directory Page, Blog, and Single Business Page.
3. A set of HTML files created from the PSDs. They will be used to create the ‘Director’ WordPress theme.
4. On top of the four pages created from the PSDs, the HTML folder also includes a /css/ folder for four CSS files: style.css, reset.css, master.css, and ie.css. Plus you also get all images used in the HTML template.

What This Book Covers

This book reads much like a long, multi-part tutorial, where I take you through my design process, explaining what I do (and why I do it) every step of the way.

Although it’s a fairly linear guide, my hope is that you can visit any main section of the book for quick reference. So, here’s what I’ll be doing:

1. Converting HTML /CSS to a Dynamic WordPress Theme

Included with the book is a PSD that I’ve transformed into HTML . The first part of this book will be taking the resulting HTML /CSS and converting it to a WordPress theme. Along the way, I’ll talk about the various theme pages we’re working with, the WordPress theme hierarchy, and of course, the WordPress Loop.

2. Creating a Custom Post Type

This, in my humble opinion, is one of the best additions to WordPress in recent releases. With the ability to make your own content types — each with its own theme template — you can take WordPress from being a CMS only limited to blog posts and pages, to a CMS that can manage any kind of content you can imagine. In this book, we’ll be creating a business listing type, which will allow us to create a business directory.

3. Theme Options and Widgets

With WordPress, you can make a theme your own by adding a ‘theme options’ page and custom widgets. In this section, we’ll make it very easy for people who use our themes to add their own cus­tomizations without delving into the code or creating a child theme.

4. Creating a Plugin

One of the most powerful facets of WordPress is the fact that it’s pluggable. We can add func­tionality to our installation of WordPress without changing the core WordPress files. There are vast directories of both free and premium plugins available that vastly expand the capabilities of WordPress. In this final section of this book, we will build our own plugin.

About The Author

Joe Casabona is a web developer, writer, and teacher. He hails from Middletown, New York and has been making websites since 2002. His good friend Stephen Mekosh introduced him to WordPress in 2004 and he’s been working with it ever since. Joe also writes for WordPress Tuts+ and the Appstorm network. Check him out at casabona.org or on Twitter at @jcasabona.

Download Building WordPress Themes from Scratch (Web Development)

This tutorial will serve as an introduction to the new realtime nature of modern web apps which can really set your web application apart from the crowd!

We’re going to create a small realtime web application with FuelPHP on the server, Backbone.js on the client and using the Pusher API for the realtime aspects.

The application we’ll be building is a modern take on my classic “Shoutbox” PHP demo application I originally wrote six years ago on Nettuts+, and covered again not long after in Ruby on Rails.

This time, it’s a Backbone.js take on the application and we’re bringing into the year 2012 with live syncing between users without refreshing the page!

An Overview:

We’ll be using FuelPHP to provide a Messages API to our application. We’ll have a REST API endpoint at /api/messages which will serve up the latest messages (“Shouts”) on a GET request, and will create a new message on a POST request.

Our front-end will use Backbone.js to provide a seamless UI and render the messages.

When the ‘Submit’ button is clicked, Backbone will create a new ‘Message’ model, causing the list of messages to re-render. The new message will be POSTed to the API where it will be added to the database.

Then, after a successful database save, we will use Pusher to send the new message out to everyone else using the application where Backbone will then add it to their collection of messages causing the list to be updated.

I recently implemented a flow similar to this for InventoryBase, a new web application I’m leading the development of. We use Pusher to provide our app with a Live Activity Feed and to push down new Tasks and Properties when they’re added by Clerks.

Download Realtime Web Apps with Backbone, FuelPHP & Pusher (Fundamentals)

PART TWO OF THE TWO -EPISODE TUTORIAL

In the second part of this tutorial, we’ll take the retouched image from the last episode, and now create a full fledged printer-ready poster!

You’ll work with color grading, image compositing, typography, layer styles and effects, textures, and setting up the file for a professional printer!

Download Create and Retouch a Beautiful Poster – Part 2 (Photo Manipulation)

PART ONE OF A TWO -EPISODE TUTORIAL

In this first part of the tutorial, we’ll be working with the photograph that we want in the poster.
We’ll be starting off with a wonderful image by Dan K Photography, and make it look as good as humanly possible.

We’ll be doing skin cleaning, adding missing bodyparts, retouching the hair, making eyes stand out, color grading, and much more!

Download Create and Retouch a Beautiful Poster – Part 1 (Photo Retouching)

Eight Hour Multi-Session Course on How to Illustrate Pin-Up Style Spokes Models!

Session 1: How to Draw the Head
Runtime: 3 Hours (with a 24 Minute Intro to SketchBook Pro)

Disney and Pixar-trained illustrator & animator Paris Christou teaches this fantastic eight hour course on how to draw and color the female form in elaborate detail. His practice subject is Cherry, a creation of his that has gained internet notoriety as an iconic cartoon model.

Paris will teach you the finer points of illustrating your own spokes-model or “pin up girl” which you could use for a variety of marketing needs: eye-popping email campaigns, website ads, a hostess who explains features of a game or application, and of course she could be a traditional pinup girl on a print poster or calendar for your company.

This course has been divided into sessions, with the first one focusing on the head. Before beginning though, you can watch an intro course on SketchBook Pro IF you want to draw in the same program as Paris.

Session Outline:

– Drawing the eye from different angles

– How to convey different moods with just the eye

– Drawing the lips from various angles with tips on cheek placement

– Drawing the nose and the importance of shadow

– Basic head shapes

– How to draw different hair styles

– How to put the facial features and hairstyle together with expressions

This video also includes an incredible real-time (non time lapsed) observation session where Paris draws various faces and hair styles with an ambient background audio track. You can practice along with Paris at your own pace during this part.

Session 2: The Body
Runtime: 3 Hours and 8 Minutes

This session Paris teaches what every good cartoon pin-up girl has in common: an enticing body shape with perfectly crafted arms, legs, hands and feet. And as every student of the female form knows, those extremities are often the hardest parts to draw correctly. An odd looking hand or foot can ruin an otherwise great pose. So Paris pays special attention to teaching those parts as well as the more curvaceous aspects of his model.

By the end of this session Paris draws 64 full body poses in real-time along with MANY more close up views of the hands, feet, arms and legs

Session Outline:

– How to draw the basic body shapes

– An anatomical breakdown of the body in side and front view

– How to draw the hands

– How to draw the feet

– How to draw the arms and legs

– How to draw the following pin-up poses listed below…

– 15 Standing Poses

– 14 Sitting Poses

– 12 Reclining Poses

– 14 Kneeling Poses

– 9 Back-view Poses

Session 3: Illustrating and Coloring the Finished Piece
Runtime: 2 Hours and 13 Minutes

This session creates the final masterpiece, which is obviously the expertly shaded image of Cherry you see adorning our sales page here. She does help advertise the product doesn’t she? And that aspect of this course shouldn’t overlooked. Creating a gorgeous spokes-woman to sell your product or pitch your idea is a great final goal for this session.

Session Outline:

– Putting everything together to sketch our final piece

– Creating the line-art

– Intro to Blending in Sketchbook Pro

– Coloring the line-art with technique #1

– Coloring the line-art with technique #2

Download Pin Up Girls Illustration Tutorial (Digital Painting)