04dsmith86

Does it have 5.1 support? Even if you don't have a surround system its always good to plan ahead. Also, why did you decide to go with the external? I've got an Audigy 2 ZS that I absolutely LOVE! It has the front I/O drive so I don't have to pull out my computer every time I want to hook up any MIDI, optical, coaxial, earphone, or mic devices. I forget how much I paid...I don't think it was very cheap though. Might be something to look into.Also, thanks for the idea mark. I've been meaning to clean up some recordings for a while...I'll check wavelab out.

Very nice! I was having trouble at first because I made the oval in a new layer. It needs to be on the same layer as the black background for the color adjustments to work. I ended up recording the action so I can flameify (new word) anything. I played around with it some more and came up with a blue flame effect. I added some smoke and text and voila, nice little text-effect. Here it is:

Simple Orbs with Photoshop

This is the method I've been using for about a year now. I came up with it myself but based it from what I was seeing all over the internet. There are many similar methods and some really good ones (check out the tutorial from moonwitch).

Ok, here we go.

1. Make a new file with a size of 400x400.

2. Make a new layer.

3. Create a circle with the elliptical marquee tool. (Hold down shift to make a perfect circle)

4. Fill the circle with a color of your choice. I used #336699.

5. With the circle still selected, make a new layer.

6. Fill it with a gradient that goes from white to transparent.

7. Use the marquee tool to make an oval at the top of the circle.

8. Invert the oval selection (control-shift-I).

9. Delete the selection.

10. Select the area around the main cirlce (probably layer 1) and expand (Select > Modify > Expand) it by 3 pixels, make sure you select the gradient layer (probably layer 2) then delete.

11. Blur the gradient layer by 3 pixels.

12. Now go into the blending options and add a black inner glow, a black outer glow, and a semi-transparent gradient overlay. I'll leave these settings up to you because it's mostly personal preference.

So there we have it!

I hoped you enjoyed this. You can also use a similar method with other shapes to create that reflective effect.

Great tutorial! I had to render the clouds a few times before finding one that looked good. Also, thanks for the idea of creating a brush Ky1e...I'll have to do that.

I layered a few using Linear Dodge and added texture, I think the result was a nice abstract pattern.

Nice. I had no idea there was such a program. Now I have yet another way to waste away my Sundays on my computer! Thanks for sharing.

Quick and easy tutorial on how to make realistic guts/brains/slime in Photoshop. I originally made the tutorial for deviantART here. Hope you enjoy!

Please contact me (shrooder@gmail.com) if you want to host/distribute this tutorial.