Wow, I Got Smashed!

Yes, we can...
Here's one from the "Stick to it, you can do it" Category... Way back in March of this year Smashing Mag started featuring stunning desktop wallpaper created by amazing artists and designers working on the web. I was hooked on Smashing since they rolled in the Fall of '06, and they really crank-out great articles, resources, how-to's, fonts, tools and all sorts of stuff that really does "make your life easier" if you work on the web (or if you geek-out just for fun, huh?).

In March I was so inspired by the amazing artwork that I took on a personal challenge to try and see if I could get Smashed too at some point — and I set out to try and make some decent desktop wallpapers whenever I had time. Finally, in November I submitted a wallpaper just to see if my stuff would rank, but that set wasn't chosen (the calendar was too difficult to see). No biggie I figured, and I churned-out another set for December just for chuckles, submitted them and went about my boring routine just as I always do and thought nothing of it...

Feelin' Pretty Good Now
I returned from a rare, and invigorating brief traveling jaunt and checked my email and deleted my typical SPAM messages (sorry: it's actually large enough, I don't need a mortgage or a mail-order bride, and I don't need an expensive watch, etc.) and then did my typical web surfing and feed reading. Then, I remembered I had submitted my wallpaper, and went to see if the fine folks at Smashing had posted for December with my fingers crossed and there I was, SLAM I got Smashed and it was a great feeling. Nice.

One Ant and One Giant Rubber Tree
Here's what made the grade, and I called it "Violet Night" because it sorta sounded good and seemed to make sense at the time. I dressed it up in some fancy phrases to make it seem like I actually had a concept when in fact I was really just messing around with Photoshop.

I think I can, I think I can!
I think I'll try to do something again next month since it's really kinda fun and I like rubbing pixels with some of the best on the web — makes me feel like I am somebody, really. Maybe I'll actually get some traffic and a few ad clicks on this stupid blog after all these years. That's another long-winded long-term goal, but I've stopped holding my breath waiting for a check from Google.

Check out all the fantastic stuff they've got at Smashing Magazine, and add them to your feeds — heck, why not try and submit your stuff? It's good for you and 100% natural without all the weird side effects, fast talk and fine print...
:-D

Smashing Magazine: Nov '08 Calendar

I finally set aside some time to make an effort to submit something to Smashing Magazine for their monthly roundup of stunning desktop wallpapers. I haven't had a lot of spare time lately, but then who really has any idle time these days right? That said, I was able to churn this set out, and I hope they select it for inclusion in their November, 2008 collection. Earlier today they already had 53 submissions and I'm sure they're all really juicy and beautiful. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Anyway, the basic concept is:

Falling forward...
The cold North Wind blows
Remaining leaves of frozen bitter branches
Carry the old towards the new.

+ 1920x1200

+ 1680x1050

+ 1600x1200

+ 1280x960

All of the ones in this set have a calendar. I wanted the color palette to be monochromatic: dull, dark and dreary like a cold November night. I figured I'd start with something simple and see if they include it, then make more time next month and do it again if they do. I have a bunch of my other desktop wallpapers available on my flickr account if you are interested in some of my other stuff.

Quick Review: Adobe Photoshop Express

Birth of The Cool, Again.
Adobe recently launched their Photoshop Express Beta [Px]. It's a Flash-based photo manipulation and online photo album application – and it definitely has the "wow" factor and several "cool tool" aspects to it. The best thing is, it's FREE, and you get 2Gb of free storage!

The interface is logical and intuitive and looks a lot like Lightroom, and in terms of interaction, things generally work the way you anticipate them to. Overall, it's a very impressive tool, but it certainly isn't "Photoshop on the web" as many rumors had purported. The rumors set our expectations way too high, even though we all knew it wouldn't be the case. In general, the user experience is reasonable-to-good but it falls short on a few points. Oh, and it's got that "Web 2.0" cool too...

Chicken or egg(s)?
I've used a good handful of the web-based photo tweaking tools that are out there, and things are definitely getting better with the latest stuff I've seen. I think that Picnik has been the best (and the only full featured one for a time) in my opinion, but now Express poses a bit of competition. I'm a HUGE fan of Picnik [http://picnik.com] and its extensive array of features make a lot of sense for most of the basic photo manipulation stuff I need and use regularly. I plan to do a posting on Picnik soon for comparison. Obviously, the thing that makes Picnik so awesome and one of the things that sets it apart from all of the other tools, is that it works seamlessly in conjunction with Flickr (and MySpace, FaceBook, PhotoBucket, and Picassa) or you can upload photos directly from your computer. This is one of the best things about Picnik.

The first thing I noticed about Express [Px] is that it won't save my login credentials so I have to type 'em in every time I log in (Firefox 2.x) and this just really gets to me. Unfortunately, this is more common than it should be. It's a Flash/Flex or Firefox thing I think, and Blogger used to do that too but it's since been fixed (EntreCard still doesn't work correctly, and this limits my drops because of the sheer "frustration factor").

This kinda bugs me because I have to add my photos to yet another service. Bummer. One thing that sets Express apart from other online photo editing tools is the capability to make a Photo Album from photos you've uploaded to your account, and then it's really easy to share them.
Example [Px] Albums:

Nature Album 1



Ice Hockey

Screen shots & Features...

Photoshop Express got some very cool editing features, and a bit of the "goofiness" as well. Simple stuff like rotate appear when you rollover an image, and you're brought into editing mode to do other tweaks.

Some of the obvious features are: crop, auto-correct, red-eye removal, exposure, touch-up, and saturation. You can tune the white balance, highlight, sharpen or add soft focus.

You can also use effects like "pop-color", hue, tint, black & white, or have some fun with "sketch" (this is very rudimentary compared to some Photoshop actions), or "distort" which is kinda goofy and I haven't found a real use for it just yet. It reminds me of the old Macromedia tool (I think it was "Goo", but I can't remember the name at the moment).

Overall, Adobe Photoshop Express is a very cool online tool, but there's room for improvement. It's definitely one to add to your arsenal, and I'm interested to see what they have planned next.

Give Photoshop Express [Px] a shot, and share an album or two and let us know what you think...

Adobe Creative Suite 3 is...

...well, there have been lots of rumors and the hype-ball is rolling. Abobe has now made an announcement that they will be making an announcement on March 27th. Great. Did anyone actually think they did not have plans to upgrade this product line? Good PR I guess...

>>Creative Suite 2 Product Info

Read the announcement on the "Official" Adobe blog...

Adobe Creative Suite 3 To Be Announced March 27th
The wait is nearly over! We can now confirm that Adobe Creative Suite 3 will be announced March 27, 2007. The company is celebrating the launch at an event in New York City that will be webcast live at 3:30pm ET. During the webcast, Adobe will reveal the features and suite configurations that make this the largest software release in Adobe's 25 year history.

Details on how to view the webcast will be available on Adobe.com later this week.

EDITOR'S NOTE: We are announcing Creative Suite 3 on March 27th. However, the software will not ship until later in Spring 2007.

Item #76b: Random Interface elements.

User Document and a Mockup for AspenCloud.com

This one has a bit of a "dry and chalky" feel to it -- and it has a nice silky powdered look to it.

The inner-glow is too strong though, and the bevel is too sharp on top. It also needs a name/data area on the bottom to get to the next level.

The perspective of the bottom-right corner is a bit off too.

NEW UPDATE 03/06/07:

Mockup for AspenCloud (www.aspencloud.com)

i digg photoshop

Fiddling with Photoshop

I'm finally getting back on track and starting to do fun stuff again. I gave myself a challenge to do a quick exercise and create a Photoshop file that makes it easy for me to pump out sized icons and other artwork as "sets".

The idea was to make it easy to open the file, churn out some artwork based on a current need (someone needs a particular icon or whatever), and then create a set of similar stuff in a consistent style. I'm also working on getting faster with the process. Here's one example...