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Frequency: Free July 2011 Calendar Wallpaper

Franz Jeitz — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 12:13:33 +0000

This post is part of the free calendar wallpaper series. Each month I create a new wallpaper featuring the current calendar. Looking at the same image over and over again is not very stimulating. Hence having a new desktop background each month should help getting your creative juices flowing. The July 2011 Calendar Wallpaper is entitled “Frequency”. This desktop background uses a lot of vibrant colours and textures to really make it pop. Many of the details have been hand drawn in Photoshop, while the main elements have all been assembled in Illustrator using a mix of gradients and blending modes. It is very reminiscent of the ever popular retro futuristic design style. By the by, if you’re interested in the different stages of creating the design you can see a few shots on Dribbble. As always I hope that you like it. Please consider sharing it on any social networks. Thanks!

Frequency: Free July 2011 Desktop Wallpaper

contains 1 .zip file – 2 Versions, 4 Resolutions, 9.1 Mb

The following resolutions (both calendar & non-calendar versions) are included:

2560×1440
1920×1200 (suitable for 1440×900)
1600×1200
1280×1024

Frequency: Free iPhone Wallpaper

Resolution: 640×960 (Retina Display), Format: JPG

Frequency: Free iPad Wallpaper

Resolution: 1024×1024, Format: JPG

Free Hi-Res PS Brushes: Rolled Paint Set 2

Franz Jeitz — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:57:42 +0000

Freebie Time! I’m thrilled to release another 10 Free High Resolution “Rolled Paint” Photoshop Brushes. As promised earlier this is the 2nd set of the hugely successful Rolled Paint PS Brushes collection. These brushes are between 2470px to 2500px large which makes them ideal for both print and web projects. As always these hi-res Photoshop brushes are free for commercial and personal use. I will be releasing the source textures at a later date. For now I hope you enjoy these and that you can put them to good use. Feel free to leave your comments and share these if you like them.

Hi-Res Rolled Paint Photoshop Brush Set 2 Preview & Download:

contains 1.zip archive – 1 .abr file, 10 Brushes, 33.4 Mb

Free Hi-Res PS Brushes: Rolled Paint Set 1

Franz Jeitz — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 18:20:20 +0000

It’s been a while since I last published high resolution PS brushes. Finally I’ve found time over the weekend to create some more and I’m very happy to release this new set containing 10 Free High Resolution “Rolled Paint” Photoshop Brushes. The brushes are between 2400px to 2500px large which makes them ideal for both print and web projects. The small previews don’t do them justice, you have to download to see the fine detail. It was great fun getting messy with water colours and a rubber paint roll. The brushes can be used to quickly grunge up any design giving it a more organic feel or to create distressed borders. Alternatively you can vectorize them and use as a scalable mask. The possibilities are endless and I hope you can put them to good use. As always these hi-res photoshop brushes are free for commercial and personal use. I will be releasing the source textures shortly as well as part 2 of the set. Enjoy!

Hi-Res Rolled Paint Photoshop Brush Set 1 Preview & Download:

contains 1.zip archive – 1 .abr file, 10 Brushes, 29.3 Mb

Giveaway: Win 5 yearly subscriptions to Azigos

Franz Jeitz — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 14:00:56 +0000

It’s with great pleasure that I present the latest giveaway contest. Thomas Beal, the man behind BrushKing.eu, recently launched his latest project: Azigos is a Premium Photoshop Brushes Service full of awesome resources. Kindly as he his he offered 5 1-year subscriptions to be given away to my lovely readers (yes, that’s you). All brushes are compatible with Photoshop version 7 up to CS5 so everyone can put them to good use. Head on over to Azigos to check out the great Photoshop Brushes on offer.

Here’s how you enter for your chance to win a 1-year subscription to Azigos:

Leave a comment stating your favourite type of Photoshop brushes
Only comment once
Please use a valid e-mail so that we can contact you
Spam comments will not be eligible
5 winners will be chosen at random
Contest ends in 7 days, on Wednesday 15th September 2010 at 23:59 GMT (London)
Winners will be announced in a separate post

Good luck everyone!

Photoshop Tutorial: Create the Sky Logo Typography Lightning Effect

Franz Jeitz — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:33:33 +0000

This tutorial will teach you how to recreate the lightning effect used in the recent Sky logo version. While you can see this type treatment on posters around the UK I first discovered the beautiful glossy typography in their ads on TV. I loved it instantly so I decided to write a tutorial on how to create this type effect in Photoshop. A little knowledge of the program is required, though I believe you should be able to follow the step by step instructions whatever your degree of expertise.
You will learn tricks about selections, blending modes and colour overlays. If there’s any questions please feel free to leave a comment and I’ll do my best to address the issue. I hope you enjoy it.

1. Document Setup

As always we’re gonna start by creating a new document. Make it 1440px by 900px large and fill the background with black.

2. Insert the Text

Next we will enter the text. Choose a word you like, I went with “skyline”. The font I used is called “Diavlo” which can be downloaded for free here. If you wish you can use a different font, just make sure it’s a bold one and make it relatively big and centred. Use the screenshot below as reference. Don’t worry about the colour, it’s not important.

Next we’re gonna add the following Layer Style to the text. Notice that the Fill Opacity is set to 0 so that the colour of the type is obsolete. Next add a White Inner Glow to the type layer.

3. Prepare Inner Highlights

After you’ve added the layer style your text should look similar to mine. Next step is preparation for the inner highlights. First you have to select the pixels of the text. In order to that you simply hold cmd (ctrl on Win) and click on the layer in the layers palette. Then go to Select > Modify > Contract and choose 5px. Hit OK.

4. Add Highlights to the Text

Now that we have the new selection contracted by 5px we will create a new layer on top of all other layers. Call it “highlights” and fill the selection with black (Shift + F5). Now you can deselect by hitting cmd (ctrl) +D.

Finally set the opacity to 0 and add Bevel and Emboss to the layer using the settings shown below.

5. Colour me up

Finally it’s time to add some colour to the design. Create a new layer on top, set the Blending Mode to Soft Light and the reduce its Opacity to 50%. Then choose a large circular brush with 0% hardness (shortcut for the brush is simply B). Paint over the text with all kinds of different colours until you’re happy with the flow. The second image shows you how my colour layer looks like in normal blending mode with 100% opacity. Use it as a guide.

Since the colour is still pretty weak we’re gonna duplicate the layer. Easiest way is to hit cmd (ctrl) + J. Change the opacity to 40%. If you wish you can paint over some areas with different colours if you wish to make any amends. Play with it until you’re happy.

6. Add more Depth to the Text

At this stage I realised that the text still looked too flat for my taste and I decided to give it some more depth. To do so all I did was duplicate the “highlights” layer. I also duplicated the text layer and changed its layer style as shown below. It’s these subtle changes that add to the overall feel of the text effect. I could have told you at the beginning to duplicate the layers, but I wanted to give you a better insight into the process. You might like the effect as it was before, it all comes down to personal preferences.

If you followed the steps carefully (and if I didn’t make a mistake) then your image should look similar to this one.

7. Final Tweak: Playing with Patterns

Last but not least we’re gonna overlay a line pattern. I made it easy for you. Here’s the png that you can download: . Open it in Photoshop and go to Edit > Define Pattern. Call the pattern “diagonal lines” in the dialogue box. Now go back to your tutorial file. Create a new layer on top off all others. Set the Blending Mode to Soft Light and the Opacity to 80%. Fill the new layer with the “diagonal lines” pattern. Change the opacity setting of the layer to your liking.

Hit cmd (ctrl) + T to enter the transform mode and select Warp Mode. Using your mouse drag some anchor points around to distort the pattern slightly. You can use the image below as reference. Once you’re happy with it simply hit Enter.

8. That’s it folks

So there we go. You’ve now learned how to easily create this shiny lightning text effect in Photoshop.

Free Hi-Res Splatter Photoshop Brush Set

Franz Jeitz — Thu, 06 May 2010 14:41:00 +0000

With pleasure I release the latest PS brush set containing 17 High Resolution Paint Splatter Photoshop Brushes. The brushes are between 2440px to 2500px large which makes them ideal for both print and web projects. It was great fun to create these splatters and splashes. All you need is a straw, watercolours and thick paper to make your own. As always these hi-res Photoshop brushes are free for commercial and personal use. Using splatters, drips and splashes is a design trend which doesn’t seem to fade anytime soon so I hope that you can put the brushes to good use.

Hi-Res Splatter Photoshop Brush Set Preview:

contains 1 .abr file – 17 Brushes, 13.7 Mb

Free Hi-Res Clouds Photoshop Brush Set 1

Franz Jeitz — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 09:36:25 +0000

This set contains 17 High Resolution Clouds Photoshop Brushes. The brushes are between 2176px to 2500px large which makes them ideal for both print and web projects. While the volcanic ash caused great disruption for air travel it allowed me to shoot these cloud photos without any plane trails in the sky. As always these hi-res photoshop brushes are free for commercial and personal use. I hope you can put them to good use. Enjoy!

Hi-Res Clouds Photoshop Brush Set 1 Preview:

contains 1 .abr file – 17 Brushes, 26.3 Mb

Plain Fabric Textures: Free Hi-Res Photoshop Brush Set 1

Franz Jeitz — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 11:03:08 +0000

Last week I released the Plain Fabric Textures Set 1 and today you get the 12 High Resolution Photoshop Brushes that go with them. The Plain Fabric brushes are between 2300px and 2500px large which makes them ideal for both web and print projects. There’s textures of different fabrics, such as wool, denim, cotton and synthetics. Use them grunge up your designs and give them a more organic feel. I encourage you to combine different brushes to get even more random results. As always you may use these Plain Fabric Photoshop brushes for personal and commercial projects. I hope you enjoy them.

Plain Fabric PS Brushes Preview:

contains 1 .abr file – 12 Brushes, 54.0 Mb

Photoshop Tutorial: Create a Spiral Galaxy in 5 Easy Steps

Franz Jeitz — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:14:44 +0000

This tutorial will teach you how to create a Spiral Galaxy in Photoshop using nothing but filters and simple transformation tools. The tutorial is aimed at beginners and you’ll learn techniques involving different transformation modes, the clouds filter, selection option and using blending modes. Should you run into any trouble feel free to leave a comment to enquire about it. So lets get started.

1. Document Setup

Open a new document, 1920px by 1200px and fill the background with a dark grey #131313.

2. Render Clouds

Create a new layer. Select the Elliptical Marquee Tool and set Feather to 50px. Draw a circular selection as shown below making sure there’s some space from the top and bottom. Hold down Shift to make a perfect circle.

Press “D” to set Foreground and Background colours to Black & White. Go to Filter > Render > Clouds. Set the new layer’s Blending Mode to Soft Light.

3. Create Spiral

Hit Cmd + T (Ctrl + T) to enter the Free Transform Mode. Switch to Warp Modes and choose Twist. Set the Bend to -100%.

Duplicate the layer (Cmd/Ctrl + J). With the new layer selected repeat the twist transformation (using the same settings) 2 times. Your image should look similar to the one below.

Select the bottom layer (Galaxy Spiral BG) and reduce the scale it down from the centre to about 87%.

4. Add Colours

Create a new layer on top and set its Blending Mode to Soft Light. Use a large, circular brush with hardness set to 0 to add some colour to the galaxy. Use the Ereaser to delete any colours outside the galaxy.

5. Give it some Perspective

Select both Spiral layers (hold down Cmd while selecting) and enter the Free Transform mode (Cmd/Ctrl + T). Hold Cmd/Ctrl and select the anchor points to distort the galaxy. Use the image as guideline.

6. Extra Bit: Add Pattern Texture

To finish off we’re gonna add pattern texture to the design. Create a new layer on top. Use a simple Black & White checkered pattern. (Mine can be downloaded here. Open the jpg in Photoshop and go to Edit>Define Patter). Fill the new layer with the pattern and set it to Multiply at 70% opacity. That’s it.

7. Final image

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial! I encourage you to play around with different colours and patterens as well as applying these techniques to different designs.

11 Free Scaffolding Grunge Vectors & How-To

Franz Jeitz — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:16:09 +0000

This set of 11 Free Scaffolding Grunge Vectors was specifically created with large print designs in mind, but they can be used in web projects too. It’s a common technique to slightly destroy large type in ads and other print campaigns. Using vectors for this purpose is ideal as they can be scaled to any size without loss of quality. All vectors were made using images of scaffolding which were then traced in Illustrator. I’ve also included a short tutorial on how to make the most of these excellent freebies to grunge up type.
Don’t stop there though. Let your imagination wander and get creative. As always these freebies are free for use in both personal and commercial projects.

Previews:

How to Destroy Type with Grunge Scaffolding Vectors:

While this tutorial uses Photoshop the same techniques can be used in Illustrator too. As always we start by opening a new document (white background) and using a bold font write the text “Grunge me up” in solid black.

Next step is to import one of the Scaffolding Grunge Vectors into the document. The easiest way is to simply drag it from Illustrator into Photoshop. Place it as a Smart Object on a layer above the text layer.

Using the layer styles of the Smart Object use a Color Overlay with the background’s colour (white).

Your text should now look similar to the image below. However the text is now too destroyed and barely readable for my taste.

In order to tone down the grunge effect copy the Smart Object and place it above all layers. Change the color overlay to the text’s colour (black).

Select both Smart Object layers, right-click and select “Create Clipping Mask”. This will confine the scaffolding images to only the text.

Select the top layer Smart Object (black colour overlay) and choose Free Transform (Cmd+T). Move, Rotate and Scale the Smart Object until you’re happy with the level of grunge.

This is the finished text. I hope you enjoyed this short tutorial.

Download Scaffolding Grunge Vectors:

contains 1 .eps file – 25.2 Mb