Each month, we bring together a selection of the best tutorials and articles from across the whole Tuts+ network. Whether you’d like to read the top posts from your favourite site, or would like to start learning something completely new, this is the best place to start!
Psdtuts+ — Photoshop Tutorials
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Create a Battlefield Scene Using Stock Photography in Photoshop
By combining the right photography in Photoshop you can create just about any scene that you want. In this tutorial, we will create a battlefield using several stock photographs. Let’s get started!
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Quick Tip: How to Draw Realistic Eyes in Photoshop
The eyes are one of the most important elements in any character or portrait illustration. In this tutorial, we will show you how to quickly draw realistic eyes in Photoshop using digital painting techniques. Let’s get started!
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Create a Humorous Photo Manipulation Using Animal Photography – Tuts+ Premium Tutorial
How does a hippo take a bath? In this Tuts+ Premium tutorial, Stephen Petrany will show you how to create a humorous photo manipulation using a handful of stock photographs. The result will depict a hippo taking a bath in an unexpected and funny way. This tutorial is available exclusively to Tuts+ Premium Members. If you are looking to take your illustration skills to the next level then Log in or Join Now to get started!
Nettuts+ — Web Development Tutorials
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Visual Studio: Web Dev Bliss
Developers are a picky bunch, almost to the point of superstition and voodoo magic, when it comes to their tools. If you take into account the countless number of things we use to build apps (Node, Grunt, Fiddler, LESS, EC2 etc.), it’s no wonder why, once we find a nice combo, we guard it like a squirrel with his last nut. And it makes sense, since your development environment is pretty darn important to your success.
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Important Considerations When Building Single Page Web Apps
Single page web applications – or SPAs, as they are commonly referred to – are quickly becoming the de facto standard for web app development. The fact that a major part of the app runs inside a single web page makes it very interesting and appealing, and the accelerated growth of browser capabilities pushes us closer to the day, when all apps run entirely in the browser.
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Better Workflow in PHP With Composer, Namespacing, and PHPUnit
In this video tutorial, we’ll again focus on workflow. Specifically, we’ll use Composer’s built-in autoloading capabilities, along with namespacing, to make for an elegant testing experience. We’ll also review a handful of PHPUnit best practices, as we get setup with these tools.
Vectortuts+ — Illustrator Tutorials
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How to Create a Colorful Parrot using Gradients in Adobe Illustrator
You’ll learn how to create volume in vector illustrations using a few colors per object. I’ll be bringing a sketch of a beautiful tropical bird (macaw) to life using vectors and then start the coloring process.
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Quick Tip: How to Draw Facial Expressions to Show Emotion
In this Quick Tip I will be showing some useful guidelines you can follow to create the base of a head with facial features, following that up with quick tips on how to shape the facial features to create an expression/show emotion!
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Quick Tip: How to Create a Set of Bubble Gum Buttons in Illustrator
In the following tutorial you will learn how to create a set of bubble gum inspired blog buttons by using Drop Shadows and the Appearance panel in Adobe Illustrator. We’ll go through each step and show you variations in the symbols and how to add text.
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Our Top 20 Vector Tutorials and Articles of 2012!
As 2013 is under full swing, we’re looking back at 2012 and showing you our Top 20 favourite and most popular vector tutorials and articles of the year. You may have missed something or you may just be curious what made the list, either way let’s check out what the Top 20 are!
Webdesigntuts+ — Web Design Tutorials
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Optimizing Content for Search Engines and Users
So far during this session weve talked about various technical measures that can be taken to optimize your website for search engines. But whats perhaps even more important is the content of your pages. Today we take a look at how we can optimize our content not only for search engines, but also for users.
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The Best Way to Learn HTML
Learning a new skill is often intimidating at first; knowing where to start, who to listen to, what to ignore – it can be a difficult process to get moving. That’s what this post is for. It will help you plan out what to learn and in what order, hopefully making what seems like a big hurdle much lower, keeping you interested and encouraging you to carry on learning!
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Quick Tip: Using Images as Fullscreen Faux-Gradient Backgrounds
In this Quick Tip I’ll show you how to create a nice looking gradient background, using any image and a couple of lines of CSS. What’s more, I’ll talk about performance and explain the background-attachment property as we go along.
Phototuts+ — Photography Tutorials
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Tips for Shooting from a Helicopter
I hope you will have the opportunity to shoot photos from a helicopter once in your life. It is a fun and amazing experience, especially for those of us who enjoy flying. While you may have noticed a video by the high-profile photographer Chase Jarvis showing how he got ready for a shoot hanging from the side of a helicopter, chances are your own experience will not be anything like that. It might be a scenic flight over your local city or maybe while on vacation. It might even be for an assignment.
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Capturing Portraits, In Flight and Hands On Photos of Birds
Birds of prey have fascinated me since I was a young boy. When we were out in the countryside my dad would spot them, point them out to me and tell me which bird it was, and I just couldnt get over how beautiful and dangerous they were. This fascination remains with me today, and I still get excited when I see the birds in the wild. Like any wildlife, they can be difficult to photograph, so here are a few tips on how to make your shoot a successful one.
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Understanding Color Theory for Digital Photography – Tuts+ Premium
We have another Photo Premium tutorial exclusively available to Premium members today. In this tutorial, we’ll be diving into color theory. Learn more after the jump!
Cgtuts+ — Computer Graphics Tutorials
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From Maya to Source Engine: Creating a Game Ready Team Fortress 2 Hat
Today we’ve got an exciting new tutorial for all you Team Fortress 2 fans and Mod enthusiasts where you’ll learn how to Model, Sculpt, Retopo, UVMap, Texture and Bake your very own ‘Americana’ inspired hat for use in TF2 using Maya, ZBrush, Nex, xNormal and Photoshop.
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Designing and Animating a Birch Tree in Maya using Paint Effects
Trees, plants and other forms of vegetation can go a long way in adding additional detail and a level of believability to any scene. And what was once considered to be an extremely difficult, time consuming task, has been made considerably easier with advances in modeling tools such as Maya’s Paint Effects.
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Advanced Poly Modeling – Tassimo T-65 Home Brewing Station: Part 1
In this new tutorial series focused on product modeling and rendering, we’ll create the Tassimo T-65 Home Brewing Station from Bosch. Starting in 3d Studio Max we’ll use a few simple blueprint images to do a block-out of the base, and then begin the process of breaking down and refining the model using more advanced poly modeling techniques to create the final High-res asset. Later lessons will include UVMapping, Texturing, creating V-Ray materials and finally building a suitable studio lighting rig and rendering out the model with V-Ray.
Aetuts+ — After Effects Tutorials
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Create a World Traveler Animation to Show Where in the World You’ve Been
In today’s tutorial, we’ll be taking a look at mapping layers accurately upon a sphere, then we’ll create a line that travels between the mapped layers using expressions. Because of the 2.5D nature of After Effects, there are some interesting technical challenges to solve along the way.
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Ways That You Can Get Better in 2013
The ball has dropped, the confetti has been swept up, and everyone is back at work. I have a feeling that a lot of New Years Resolutions have been broken already. Now Im not a big fan of all the New Years celebrations, but there is one thing I really enjoy doing, and thats putting together my new Demo Reel for the year.
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Compositing Fundamentals – Overview of Selections
In this tutorial we’ll take a look at selection methods within a compositing environment and discuss the importance of understanding them. Although its aimed at someone just starting out in the world of compositing, the more experienced artist will also find some valuable information. After a brief overview, and in order to bring greater clarity, we will implement the various selection methods in a test project.
Audiotuts+ — Audio & Production
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A Different Approach: Producing “America Dreaming” for Tracii Guns
America Dreaming is the title of this great song I produced for Tracii Guns, guitarist and founder of Guns N’ Roses and iconic leader of L.A. Guns. It features the Italian band J27. The single will be released and available, both in US and Italy, in 2013. This article describes my experiences and approach recording and producing the project.
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What You Can Learn from the Vocal Production of Katy, Gaga & Ke$ha
Hyped up, overproduced girl pop. Love it or hate, but you can’t deny the amazing vocal sounds these producers and engineers come up with. It obviously all starts with ’the talent” but there is more to the vocal sound than you think. A quick listen on the radio won’t educate you on the depth of these vocal productions. This article will give you a few examples and tips you can take away from the songs of Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Ke$ha.
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How to Transform A Mono Audio Track to Stereo
How do you turn a mono recording into stereo? There are many ways, and in this tutorial we’ll cover one traditional technique – virtual double tracking. It avoids stereo enhancement plugins, and I used it effectively in a recent live Jazz recording session.
In this tutorial we transform a piano from mono to stereo using Logic Pro. But the same technique can be used for any instrument or vocals, and works in most DAWs.
Wptuts+ — WordPress Tutorials
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Practical Tips for Aspiring WordPress Developers
On Wptuts+, we talk a lot about how to achieve certain things using WordPress, how to apply practical tips within WordPress projects themselves, but one overlooked area of working with WordPress is bringing aspiring developers up-to-speed on how to quickly get started with building WordPress-based products.
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Improving Your Work-Flow – Separate Your Mark-Up From Your Logic!
In this tutorial I’m going to explain a technique that allows you to utilize a template file for all of your HTML needs! No longer will you need to ‘echo’ strings from inside your functions, or worry about dropping in and out of PHP just to output some mark-up.
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Adaptive Blog Theme: Page Templates
Not all content on a blog is in posts. We need page templates for archives, a page template that’s full width, and we’re even going to go over a more sophisticated template that deals with a contact form and validation.
Mobiletuts+ — Mobile Development
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Learn iOS SDK Development From Scratch!
Interested in learning native iOS SDK development? Now is the perfect time to get started! Mobiletuts+ is pleased to announce an in-depth, fully updated, complete session on how to become an iOS SDK developer!
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Learn Android SDK Development From Scratch!
Interested in learning native Android SDK development? Now is the perfect time to get started! Mobiletuts+ is pleased to announce an in-depth, fully up-to-date session on how to become an Android SDK developer.
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Debugging in iOS – Essential Tips
Whether you are trying to figure out why your array has 3 objects instead of 5 or why your game plays backward since the new guy started, debugging is an essential part of the development process. At the end of this article, you’ll have an understanding of the most important debugging facilities available to you and how to use them to help squash your bugs in less time.
Gamedevtuts+ — Game Development
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New to Gamedevtuts+? Start Here.
Welcome to Gamedevtuts+! This site is dedicated to game developers, and we host tutorials, tips, and articles about game design, coding, and working in the industry. Whether you’ve never made a game before or you’re a long-time developer looking to learn something new, this guide will help you find the best of our content.
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GAM: How to Succeed at Making One Game a Month
You can make a dozen games this year. Sound impossible? It’s not. Try this simple game development methodology from someone who has pulled it off and see for yourself that 12-in-12 is a reasonable goal.
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Build a Space-Based Shoot-’Em-Up in Construct 2
In this detailed five-part tutorial series, I’ll show you how to make a frantic side-scrolling shoot-’em-up, complete with multiple levels, parallax scrolling, lots of enemies, power-ups, and even a boss battle. We’ll make the whole thing with the free Construct 2 gamedev tool, meaning you don’t need any previous programming or game development knowledge. Let’s get started!
Mactuts+ — Mac & OS X
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Quick Fixes to Common Mac Problems
As Mac users were used to not having to frequently troubleshoot our computer problems. However, that doesnt mean that our Macs dont misbehave from time to time. In this first of a two-part tutorial, well detail five quick fixes to your Macs most common problems.
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Taming the Elephant: Awesome Evernote Tips and Tricks
Out of the box, Evernote comes with some pretty robust syncing tools for all your note-taking needs. If you haven’t dug in to all Evernote can do, though, you might not be aware of everything on offer or just how well you can integrate Evernote into your workflow. From automation to advanced searches, we’re going to make Evernote start working harder for you.
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Ways to Bring Back Web Sharing in OS X Mountain Lion
With the introduction of OS X Mountain Lion, a feature that didnt make the cut was Web Sharing. It may not have been widely used but for developers it served as a quick way to host a website. Lets take a look at three different ways to bring this feature back.
Crafttuts+ — Craft & Handmade
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How to Create a Stunning Ombre String Art Word
Forget the brown and orange swirly patterned string art from the ’70s – this string word art is a fun, contemporary and low-cost way to add art to your walls. Random geometric shapes, an ombre effect and the inclusion of type make this string art right on trend. It looks fantastic, can be completed in an afternoon and doesn’t require artistic ability – just follow the step-by-step instructions and you’ll have a gorgeous new art piece ready to hang. This tutorial includes a printable template so there’s no need for you to do the tricky bit of calculating and measuring for the nail placement. It couldn’t be easier!
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Create Your Own Stunning Crystallized Bridal Sash
Congratulations, you’re engaged! And now comes the fun part – creating your dream wedding. There are loads of accessories to think about – from your veil and shoes to your headpiece and earrings. If you’d like to keep costs down and bring a beautiful handcrafted element to your bridal attire, you can make your own bridal sash. It could become a family heirloom in years to come! In this tutorial, you will learn how to create your own crystallized bridal sash that will be “the perfect one” for your wedding day.
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How to Carve Your Own Beautiful Stamps
Carving your own stamps and printing by hand is easy and you can achieve lovely results, even if you think you have no artistic ability. Its a simple way to customise and transform almost anything. This tutorial shows you how to carve a stamp from an eraser as well as ideas on how to use your stamps and how to create patterns with them.
FreelanceSwitch — Freelancing
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Twitter: To Schedule or Not To Schedule?
In this article, I look at the cons and pros of scheduling. Admittedly, I favor a mix of scheduled and live tweets. For me, scheduling a tweet is similar to scheduling a blog post. It’s convenient for you, as it saves you time, and it’s convenient for your audience, as it spreads your tweets across the day.
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How to Structure a Creative Agency
The danger of not clearly establishing structure is that you can easily wind up in situations where you need to pay someone for time in which they did no work or did the same work that another person had already completed. Putting a solid structure and clear workflow in place that shows how different tasks pass through your business processes are necessary for an agency to grow.
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Top 15 Books for Improving Your Freelance Business
As a freelancer, I often forget that there are valuable books out there in addition to all of the online reading I do. Recently, though, I’ve taken back up the art of reading a book, rather than just blog posts. And I’ve found a world of knowledge I had been sorely missing.
Tuts+ Premium – Premium Tutorials
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Working with Text in Photoshop
Working with type in Photoshop is never as straight forward as we think, so in this course Howard Pinsky will first teach you the basics of type and then on to more advanced effects that can be accomplished, such as 3D effects, chrome text effect and much much more. So if you have been struggling with how to use type effectively in Photoshop, then struggle no more!
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Go Portable with jQuery Mobile
In this course, we’ll review the widgets that come with jQuery Mobile, and how they can be initialized and configured. We’ll focus on the data-attribute method of using the framework, and learn how we can use it without having to write a single line of JavaScript or CSS.
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Create a Misty Landscape Using 3D Renders and Stock Photography
When working on a matte painting in a production environment, you will likely be provided with either a 3D render or a photo to use as a base for your artwork. In this tutorial, we will combine photo manipulation with digital painting to create a misty landscape. This tutorial includes both written and video content. Let’s get started!
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