zorlen

Unfortunately the two files, after being compressed by 7zip, is still like 14 MBs (uncompressed the 2 files are I think 28 MBs). So that means that I can't make an attachment with the files. I'm going to have them hosted on my Ripway account so you can download them that way, but they're doing an update currently so I can't upload anything at this time. Sorry about this, but it might be a while

hmmm.... I haven't tried making my own brushes quite yet. But you are right, it would be nice to be able to create an image wholly of your creation, brushes inculded. When I get around to learning decent techniques I'll write another tutorial. If I do and there's too many images for a single post, I'll break it up into two posts so you don't have to click a link to see the images(I'm really sorry about that but the board apparently restricts the amount of images in a single post.).

Go ahead. Would you like the .psd for either of them so you can work with the layers as well?

Thanks for the criticism. One person can't find all the mistakes. I have no idea how that bevel effect came about, because I know I never placed a bevel in there. I agree with you about the stars. I'm really going to have to tweak them, or at least experiment with them to get a better effect. I know that I will increase the spacing on the brush however so I don't have to move my mouse a milimeter to avoid brushing too much As for the "dirty" background, I can not stand backgrounds that are a single, unbroken color. I had to do *something* to break up the monotony of the black, however subtly. Not everyone may agree with that, but it was what I did. Also, I am glad that you liked the nebula and the smaller planets used to emphasize the scale and depth of it. That's my favorite part of the image too :(So then, for everyone out there, don't be afraid to give negative criticism about things that I make. As long as you make it *constructive*, it really isn't negative, simply pointing out flaws to keep in mind for future iterations. Go ahead, tell me what you don't like and as long as it is polite, as was geist's, then it will be welcomed.

Ok, after reading your comments about the planet I posted earlier, I decided to use it to make a space scene. It's not very big but it is a wallpaper size, 1024x768 so you can use it as a wallpaper. This also contains my first attempt at a nebula which I feel turned out well despite being all one color. So, lets see how you people feel about this wallpaper(Click Here!) so I can get a feel as to what direction I need to turn this time

Hmm, I never considered using CSS only for layout before. I am definately going to have to try that out. If you haven't guessed, I'm one of the table users, but this CSS solution has intruiged me. I'll probably start experimenting once I update my website a few times.

Yeah, sorry about that, but there were so many images there that it wouldn't let me post it without linking to them instead of simply showing them. But I'm glad that you like it :(As to where I learned it, I simply folowed a simple tutorial about using brushes, but it was one that didn't elaborate on the steps so I had to learn through a lot of trial and error. Eventually I came up with a method that worked better than the tutorial and I continued building on that. What I just posted is the compilation of about 6 months of experimenting. I made sure to provide as much detail as possible to help you really get a grasp of what I did so you could try to replicate, master, and then build on what I've just shown because that is the learning process right there.

Alright, For my first tutorial I'm going to show you how to make the background of my sig: The brushing techniques shown here can also be used for all kinds of brushing, not just abstract. So if you don't like abstract as much as say grunge then you simply use grunge brushes instead of abstract ones But anyways, On to the Tutorial! Step One: This is the easiest step in the tutorial. Open Photoshop and create a new document of a sig size, I used 400 by 125, and have the background transparent. You don't have to set the background transparent but it's easier to manipulate it, for example you can't use layer styles on the "background" layer which setting it as transparent bypasses that. Now then, take you paintbucket tool and fill it in with black. Here's what you should have: Image1 Step Two: Now here's the fun part, Time to get brushing! Grab your brush tool, set the foreground color to white and ready your favorite abstract brush set. If you don't have any, Deviant ART is a great place to find some. Now, create a new layer by pressing Ctrl+Shift+N and make a few brush strokes. Don't do too much! 2 or 3 will sufice if the brushes are between 200-400 pixels big. This is where what I do and what you do will start to diverge, so don't try to get exactly what I get. Here's what I have so far: Image2 Step Three: Continue Brushing! After using a brush about 2 to 3 times, create a new layer, Ctrl+Shift+N remember, and grab a new one. Here's a series of images to show the developement of my sig: Image2 Image3 Image4 Image5 Image6 Ok! I'm not done brushing yet, but it's getting a little bright, don't you think? Go to Layers->New Adjustment Layers->Brightness/Contrast to create a layer that will alter the, you guessed it! (I hope), brightness and contrast. After darkening the image it now looks like this: Image7 I'm still not done brushing, but I'm really close. After 2 more layers of brushing and another Brightness/Contrast layer, I now have this: Image8 Kinda cool, huh? but it's missing something... I know! On to the Next Step! Step Four: Time for some color! For this we will be using a different adjustment layer, Color Balance. To find them, go to Layers -> New Adjustment Layers -> Color Balance. Here you can adjust the colors using 3 different sliders. There are also 3 different tone ranges that you can adjust here, Shadow for the darker tones, Midrange for the midrange tones, and Highlights for the lighter tones. Experiment with different settings for the different tones to get your image just right. Here is how mine's looking so far: Image9 Much better! but it doesn't seem quite finished yet... It needs some more definition... Time for the next step! Step Five: It needs a border! This is a really really easy step. Underneath your color balance layer(s), which should be on top to color the whole document, make a new layer and set it's blending mode to Darken or Multiply, and then fill it with white. You shouldn't notice a difference because darken/multiply doesn't show White because they make the darker features of the layer show on top of the layers below, so white doesn't get shown. Now, go to Edit -> Stroke... and use the following settings(you will do the stroke 3 times on this layer by the way): First Stroke: 3px, Black(#000000), Inside Second Stroke: 2px, something lighter than black, Inside Third Stroke: 1px, Black(#000000), Inside Here is how those settings dressed up my image: Image10 Dosn't that look more complete? Now, for the final step! Step Six: Add any text/images that you feel like adding. Your text will want to be placed above the border layer(the one with the strokes from the previous step) While images tend to blend better after lowering the saturation and placing under the top-most layer of brushing(The reason you haven't had to merge anything down). After you get an image that suits your fancy, Instead of using "Save As..." Were going to use "Save For Web..." because the quality control is much better. And now your Done! Here's my finished product from earlier: Final Image Before I finish, here are some extra tips that can really help out: 1. Play around with all of the adjustment layers to get a feel for them and what they do. This will greatly enhance the quality of your work. 2. Be sure to save a PSD of your image with all the layers intact so you can update it and make changes easily. If you forget, your stuck with that image for good. This is especially true if you make graphics, like sig banners, for others. 3. Try not to completely desaturate the image you add. 75% desaturation can allow for great image blending and enough of the original color to maintain the integrity of it's original detail. Alright, sorry about the length but it's easier to learn from a detailed tutorial with images than a vague one without. I hope that this helps you with your own graphics projects, large and small!

I only have the first KOTOR for the PC, but you can bet that I'm going to guy KOTOR 2 when I have the money. I don't know about you guys, but I have seen KOTOR 2 for the PC on store shelves, so it IS out for the PC. Either that or it was just one of those pre-order boxes but it didn't seem that way. Now that I've said my piece its time to fry some not so innocent dark jedi

Wow, I don't know how you guys missed this one. http://www.pixel2life.com/ - You'll find literally thousands of tutorials here for most graphics programs and other useful areas such as HTML, C++ and .ASP.

I think that the problem is that those missing 8 GBs is unpartitioned space. I had a similar problem with my 30 GB harddrive showing up as a 2GB harddrive. The only problem is that I haven't used any method of repartitioning other than reinstalling the OS. Also, the discrepancy between the listed GB and actual GB (the round-up numbers) is because the companies list a KB as 1000 Bytes while in reality a KB is 1024 Bytes. As the harddrive size grows in size, the listed and actual capacity grows further and further apart because that 24 Byte difference adds up really, REALLY fast. I hope this helps somewhat.

Ok, here's another image using that planet in a wallpaper size. It contains my first attempt at creating a nebula and a different method of creating a star field. Click here to see it. What do you guys think of this one?

The ones on Deviant art are amazing, that's where I found the tutorial on how to make them. Alyn` is the person that wrote the tutorial for it, and his work is amazing. With the way my 4th planet turned out, it won't take too awfully long before I can make imagesresembling his work on a smaller scale.But thanks for the feedback. Having others point out your mistakes makes improvement easier and faster.

That planet was done all in photoshop, no 3d editing involved. It's not too terribly work intensive, so if you don't take the time to tweak everything to perfection it should only take about 20 minutes to half an hour. I really didn't tweak too much but it still took me about an hour, hour and a half to complete. Glad that you guys liked it AS for the starry background that was just trown in there to break up an otherwise monotonous background. Now that I got the planets down fairly well I can elaborate on the backgrounds.

Amaya - This is a freeware alternative to Dreamweaver. It is a WYSIWYG editor, meaning that What You See in the editor Is What You Get in the browser, just like Dreamweaver's Developer Mode. Pricelessware.com Nothing but a giant list of useful free software. A definate must see site for free stuff.

Popups are mindnumbingly annoying, but thankfully they're a preventable evil. I use Firefox so there are very few popups and nowhere near as much spyware, adware and other malignant crap that can infest your computer. With Adaware, AVG and Firefox I have no problems usually. Of course there's the random popup here and there or when I visit certain sites (such as photobucket.com) but they're few and far between and easily remedied with a quick click. For those of you with internet exploder, I'd suggest Panicwares' popup stopper, or whatever it's called; I haven't needed it since I switched to firefox.

hmmm... I haven't played this in a while. I tried it out not long after it was first released, but back then I had a P3 processor and I think an ATI radeon 9200 SE Now my computer should handle it fairly easily seeing as it gets an average of 50 FPS in half life 2 with high settings I don't really remember much about it though except that it was very VERY dark so I couldn't see anything and that the Medic exam is similar to civilian First Aid courses lol. So I might pick it up again depending on how it has advenced since then.

Hey everyone. I've been surfing around on the intarweb recently and found a very nice tutorial on how to make realistic planets, and after my 4th try I think I got the hang of it. Click here to see it. I personally believe that it looks real enough. It's far from perfect but not bad for 4th try right? What do you guys think?

Trust me. Natural Selection is one of the better HL mods out there. I like to think of it as almost a first person Starcraft. Here, stratagy is key. I won't go into detail because Magestic frog already did so, at least on the NS maps. With version 3.0 there's combat maps now. These maps, which have the co_ prefix, are much faster paced than the classic mode and also more accesible to new people. In combat maps there are only a few structures and no more can be built. The maries start with their Command chair and an armory or two, while the Aliens, known as the Kharaa only get a single hive. As you kill things and/or damage the hive or Command chair, you get experience. When you "level up" you will get a skill point to invest in the upgrades from the classic mode, such as stronger weapons, better equipment, jetpacks and constant resupply for the marines and new evolutions and abilities for the Kharaa. In most servers, the level cap is 10, so you can't get everything, and some upgrades coist more than one skill point, ie heavy armor, jetpacks, focus, the ability in your 4th slot and the race evolutions. Some servers have server mods that can raise the level cap and and extra abilities for more diversity. There are even marine vrs marine combat maps, though I'm not sure about kharaa vrs kharaa.All in all, Combat mode is fun for a quick fix while classic mode is for the depth of stratagy and rewarding experience. Well, that was my two cents, I hope this helps.