A Graphic Designer's Top Ten Resolutions for 2005Written by Nashville
When we were still kids, we always looked forward to New Year’s Day to prepare our resolutions. Others really use these resolutions to guide them all throughout year. But I didn’t have that love for resolution-making. I know that I’ll not be able to live by it so I’d rather not take time to do such thing. Anyway, I’ve learned that a graphic designer named Judy Litt has come up with her top ten resolutions in graphic designing.As a graphic designer, Litt stresses more on productivity, marketability, time management, networking and knowledge acquisition. It’s not bad to set yourself a quota on number of designs that you need to finish in a matter of minutes as long as quality of design is not compromised. Also, it’s necessary to devise realistic and feasible marketing strategies from time to time. It’s also good to be a part of an organization with people inclined also in graphic designing for you to be more exposed and be more oriented in this line of work. As old cliché says, learning is a continuous process – this also deals with graphic designers. You should always know and learn latest trends in graphic design. Remember, we learn new things everyday. This will surely make you more effective in your craft.
| | The Art of Feathering in PhotoshopWritten by Nashville
Some people are startled on how wonderful images look with blurred edges. They certainly don’t know how easy it is to do it. It is called a feathered edge in Photoshop (PS). You can put in many feathered images together to get a wonderful collage that melts seamlessly together using Octagonal and Rectangular tool or Lasso Tools in PS. Feathering is one of most commonly used techniques when creating wallpapers. It is set by a radius measurement in pixels which means that it occurs in both directions or on both sides of selection boundary. Since it’s set by pixels, a feather value will have a very different effect on images of very different resolutions. The feathering effect to combine two or more images smoothly in PS is easy to be learned. As a start, it’s advisable to use two images. Here we go. First, create a new image of any size you want and paste image. It should be on layer 1. Now, here comes feathering effect. Choose Rectangular Marquee tool and you will see thing that says Feather. Once you have found it, change px to between 15-20. Then, select around one-third of image on left side and press delete. Now, you can see some of second image through first image. Using Selection menu, you can set amount of feathering you wish. Higher numbers, mean wider spreads of feathering. You can also set amount of feathering by using Options bar text entry field for "Feathering" in PS versions 6, 7 and CS. From here, just click QuickMask button if you wish to test your feather. Now, you can see feather in action. If you want an even clearer demo, double-click QuickMask button in tool bar; and in QuickMask dialog, set mask color to white; and Opacity to 80 to 90%. Keep selecting some parts of first image and press delete until two images are combined smoothly. That's it! You now have a feathered image.
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