As you know, each month, we round up some of the best Photoshop-related content from around the web. This month, there were some excellent Photoshop tutorials, articles, and freebies to choose from; including some fantastic photo manipulation tutorials, gorgeous textures, and a couple amazing releases from two top design collectives. So please take a moment to review our favorites from January 2011.
Tutorial Wrap
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Create Dramatic Meteor and Burning City Effect in Photoshop
Have you ever wanted to learn how to depict a disastrous meteoric impact, like in the movies? If so, than this tutorial from PsdVault is the one for you. This tutorial will demonstrate a burning city and a flaming meteor.
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Create an Amazing Abstract Heart Surreal Photoshop Tutorial
Creating abstract works of art is very popular. Most-likely because you can do just about anything with it. This tutorial from Creative Fan demonstrates how to take a single photograph and create a surreal piece of art from it.
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Radar Icon in Photoshop
At some point, most designers have to create their own icons. This tutorial from Abduzeedo demonstrates how to create a slick radar icon in Photoshop.
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How To Give Your Photos a Vintage Polaroid Effect
People are always asking how they can apply a vintage Polaroid effect to their photos. There are an endless number of techniques to create this effect. This tutorial from Spoon Graphics will demonstrate yet another way to create this popular effect.
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Photoshop Reflections 101
Reflections, in design, have been around for a while but it was Apple who popularized this effect. There are lots of ways to apply a reflection to your design but not every application is appropriate. This tutorial from Design Shack demonstrates how to apply a reflection, and how not to.
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Manipulation Secrets 3 – Shading and Lighting
Understanding shade and light is one of the most important aspects to any composition. This tutorial from PsdBox will demonstrate how to apply light and shade to your next Photoshop composition.
Free Downloads
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Midpoint and Column Generator Panel for Photoshop
Finding the midpoint on your Photoshop canvas can be annoying and frustrating. Most people do this by selecting the background, hitting Command/Ctrl + T and then by adding guides that intersect the midpoints. GuideGuide is a custom panel that you can install into your Photoshop installation that will do this automatically.
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19 Vintage Book Texture Elements
On your bookshelf, old rough-looking books can be an eye sore. On your computer, they can make or break a design. This set of 19 book textures from Lost and Taken are really nice and can be used to make just about any design look old.
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27 High-Res Playdough Textures
Everyone loves Playdough, right? If you’re reading this round up you’re probably a bit too old for it. Well, not anymore! This set of 27 high resolution Playdough textures from Think Design Blog will allow us all to play with this fun childhood toy and apply it to our designs.
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Freebie: Texture Pack 6 – Grunge
This set of 6 grunge textures from Echo Enduring was created by combining several images into one. The result, is a stunning set of grunge textures that you can use in your work.
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Cracked Concrete: Texture Pack
The best way to apply a concrete or stone texture to your work is to take a photo of concrete or stone and insert it into your design. This set of cracked concrete textures can be used to add texture and dimension to your next urban design.
Articles and Inspiration
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Beautiful Alcohol Related Advertisements & Designs
People have been advertising alcohol since its beginning. These advertisements, showcased on DesignM.ag, take things to a whole new level. Check them out!
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How Blogging Makes You A Better Designer
These days, it seems like every designer has a blog. Are all these blogs helpful? Do they make us better designers? This article from Van Seo Design says, yes!
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15 First-rate Photoshop Brush Sites You Should Know
Finding the right brush for a project isn’t easy. There are lots of Photoshop brush sites out there. This article from Hongkiat points out 15 first-rate Photoshop brush sites.
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DepthCore: Mirror Chapter
DepthCore is one of the design community’s predominate design collectives. In January, DepthCore launched its latest chapter, Mirror. Lots of beautiful works to check out here.
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SlashThree Paradigm Shift Exhibition
SlashThree is another one of the design community’s predominate design collectives. They also launched an exhibition of their own in January. Lots of great inspiration here, as well.