Heavy Metal

We must recognize that technology can only be as versatile as we are. That is to say, our imaginations and our needs are the true limitations to technological progress. We have, in a stunning and rather overwhelming manner, allowed for technology to pervade and to seep into almost every aspect of modern life. From medicine to entertainment to manufacturing and everything conceivable beyond and between, our modern industrial complex owes a great deal to the technologies that we have developed over the past few decades. As such, it goes without saying that we have all of these wonderful tools and toys due to the ingenuity, genius, and toil of a large group of people, from concept designers to programmers to those who physically manufacture the gadgets. We must realize that it was not magic or divine fate that provided us with our modern tech landscape, that it was indeed other people. We must also realize that we cannot limit ourselves to what we already have.

Ingenuity and innovations are cornerstones of the technological experience. Without the presence of either of them, we would probably be nowhere near as advanced a society as we currently are. As such, it will do us a world of good to maintain and foster these creative cornerstones, if only to ensure continued success and prosperity. Even in graphic design can we see the merits of versatility and innovation. Take the juggernaut Photoshop, for instance. Would it be as notable and as popular as it is if it were not also incredibly versatile and useful for a wide range of situations? Probably not, in fact. Learn just how you can apply this concept of versatility in a new tutorial at Photoshop Atoms.

Full Potential

We are able to do amazing things with today’s technology. This is a point you have no doubt heard a thousand times before, both on this blog and elsewhere in your everyday wanderings. That does not make the statement any less true, and does not detract from the true power of its meaning. However, there is something interesting to take note of here. When you truly take a look at how technology in general shapes our society, one glaring piece of knowledge can be gleaned, and that is this: it is never truly just one piece of technology, or software, or just one little gadget that is responsible for our stance as a society. No, it is not just the computer that allowed us to become an internationally-united people. The computer was certainly the medium, an important contributing factor, but you are forgetting a few things if you think that it acted alone. You are forgetting the software, the coding and programming languages that shaped the Internet. You are forgetting, as well, the sites that have allowed us to stay connected.

The point is, the full potential of a certain piece of technology cannot be known if you do not evolve past it. The Internet was an offshoot of the computer, and has allowed us to share and experience information and art in ways never before thought possible. The World Wide Web has changed the course of human history forever, and it was a group of technologies acting in concert that brought about such a fundamental alteration of our culture. The same reasoning can be applied to art as well, specifically at the points where art and technology meet. Photoshop has allowed graphic designers to create worlds unknown to humans, but its uses do not end here. To learn how to design a graphic software interface, please visit Photoshop Atoms. 

Branching Out

Contrary to every single thing you might think of when you hear the phrase ‘comfort zone,’ the aforementioned is not always the best place to be. In fact, it can be a downright destructive and limiting aspect of everyday life. Think of it this way, if you will: you are a writer. Every day, you work on perfecting and honing your craft. You are finding your voice and your style and everything is working itself into place. You are on a constant pace, and are working steadily. Now, eventually you will come to find that you have defined exactly what your sensibilities are, to find that you have perfected a certain form. Where is the thrill? Where is the accomplishment? If you are constantly mired in the same genre or form or style of writing, where is the artistic achievement? The fact of the matter is, staying within your comfort zone limits personal and professional growth. It is time to break out.

When it come to web development, there are a variety of tools and options available. Depending upon exactly what message you wish to convey and to which audience you wish to convey it to, you can literally do anything you wish. The main aim of this is to get your message out to the masses through a new and exciting medium. However, there are a few ways to do this effectively. There are all manner of programming languages and development suites available for you to utilize and learn. One of those is Adobe Dreamweaver. What, you thought that Adobe was all about Photoshop? Incorrect. In fact, the CS5 suite is one of the most widely-praised creative suites on the market today. Learn more about this wonderful development tool here.

Vanish

They say that ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder.’ That is, beauty is highly subjective. Each person on the planet, individually, has a different idea of what true beauty might be. If you think about it, it is probably good that we do not all have the same taste in what we find attractive or arresting to look at. As such, we must contend with the fact that this general taste disparity will inevitably be a divisive thing. You cannot please everyone all of the time, and you will have people that agree with you and people that think that you cannot be more wrong about what is beautiful. Learning to deal with this is a huge developmental step for most people, and as an artist can be a sign of true growth in the craft. It can be a grounding fact, one that keeps you from getting too much of a big head, can put you on the path of proper confidence in your work. So, will you take that plunge?

As such, we currently have great tools at our disposal that allow us, as graphic artists of any ilk, to shape the world to our personal standard of beauty. We can form and mold and craft anything we can imagine to look exactly how we picture it. It is a fascinating thing to behold, truly, but sometimes we need more help than we realize. Take, for instance, a photograph of a family. Perhaps it is the annual Christmas card. Perhaps the family dog got itself in the shot without anyone realizing it. If you cannot seem to reshoot the picture, what is the alternative? Well, a tool in Photoshop known as Vanishing Point can be of great use at this juncture. For more information, please visit Photoshop Atoms.

Correcting Flaws

Technology is all about helping to make things more manageable. For instance, it is vastly more efficient, comfortable, and sensible to take a cross-country trip by automobile, train, or aircraft that it is to, say, walk or to take a horse-and-buggy. As such, we often forget that the aim of all of these wonderful gadgets that we surround ourselves with is to make things a bit simpler. Of course, the more complex and specialized the technology becomes, the more and more it moves away from the scope of everyday tasks. Yes, the fact that automobiles have an efficient assembly-line manufacturing process does aid in your everyday life, but unless you work at an auto plant this point is moot. As such, we can see that on an everyday scale, technology helps us to live more manageable, comfortable, and productive lives.

Of course, we expect our everyday technologies to improve and make more efficient our everyday lives. And, indeed it does. The software that runs your car can tell you the temperature, the air level in your tires, and just how far away any obstacles might be when you are in reverse. Getting a bit more specific, we notice just how computer software shapes the world around us. Take graphic design for instance. Now, it goes without saying that nobody is perfect. We make mistakes everyday, and from these mistakes we learn lessons. Now, it stands to reason that technology and software can help us learn from these mistakes. With photo correction tools, Photoshop can help cover the flaws of any graphic designer in the world with a few simple processes. For more information, pleas visit Photoshop Atoms.

Keeping Sharp

The most important thing to remember when implementing a design of any sort is clarity. Aside from any purposeful aesthetic choices or an artistic reason to blur the edges a bit, it is absolutely important to be clear. You want a sharp, crisp image. You want your design to shine through, to be seen and understood by as many people as possible. Your audience will be fickle, will be unforgiving. People tend to forgive a less-than-stellar design aesthetic if the image quality is high and if the design is at the very least relatable and crisp. However, very few people (especially in this era of high-definition everything) are willing to forgive a poor quality picture or video or advertisement. Even if the message is a completely esoteric, even if the message is banal and trite, a good design can work wonders and move mountains. It is vital to keep this in mind at all times.

However, when working in the digital realm, there can sometimes be a disparity between the quality of your design’s component parts. That is not even to speak of the differing quality of images that can be found on the Internet, the combination of which might cause an unwanted visual dissonance. No, we are talking a disparity in quality between the various tools of the trade and how they are applied to the design. In an effort to maximize both your quality and your message, a little editing and polishing is in order. Photoshop can be an extremely effective tool for cleaning up and sharpening an image. For a more detailed tutorial on how to do this, please visit Photoshop Atoms.

Standing Out

When encountering something new, your best course of action is to always gain a little knowledge of things. Take it apart, both in a metaphorical and physical sense. Understand the basics of whatever it is you are working with. Get to know how it works, why it works, why it is important, and how its rudimentary parts combine to form the whole. Once this is done, not only are you slightly ahead of the curve, it will be that much easier to jump right in and work. We have been introducing you, our audience, to the basics of Adobe Photoshop for a few weeks now. Yes, it has been an interesting and fun little jaunt, so to speak. However, it is not without an ultimate purpose. We want you to learn about this powerful program and understand a bit about what can truly be done with it. Now that you have, it is time to put your knowledge to a bit of a test and see how you operate.

Graphic manipulation is not the only thing that Photoshop can allow users to do, but it is far and away its most popular feature. With uses in industry, advertising, entertainment, and other areas, photo manipulation in Photoshop is second to none. Today, we are taking a look at a very simple way to make your photo or advertisment stand out: make the eyes pop. No, not in a literal sense. Assuming that whatever it is you are working with features a human face, you are immediately going to be drawn to the eyes. With this method, you can make the eyes that much more alluring, and in turn you can make your ad or photo that much more effective, that much more memorable. For a detailed tutorial, please visit Photoshop Atoms.

Self-Aware

It is incredibly easy these days to be amazed at some of the things technology has made it possible to do. Not only can we eradicate illnesses, travel from continent to continent in less than 24 hours, and communicate with one another instantly, we have an astounding armory of gadgets with which to achieve our goals. We have devices that can fit in the palm of our hands but that we entrust with keeping track of the intimate details of our lives. With these little devices we are able to pinpoint our location on the surface of the planet with a margin of error of about ten feet or so. We can communicate face-to-face with someone half a world away without delay or lag of any kind (although that will happen from time to time). We can do amazing things, and that is only counting the consumer electronics market. When you get specialized, that is when things really start to get exciting.

Take graphic design, for instance. Far away are we from the days where a charcoal pencil and simple canvas were our primary avenues for graphic expression. Today’s software allows us to craft a world all our own. The most famous is, of course, Adobe Photoshop, which allows us to do literally anything we please as long as it can be imagined. One of the more tedious aspects of this program had to do with removing an element from a picture and filling its spot in with an extended environment. A process that used to take artists hours or even days can now be achieved with the click of a mouse thanks to Photoshop’s new Content-Aware feature. For more information, please visit Photoshop Atoms.

Far Far Away

And, so, we come to the end of yet another week. Because the weekend is upon us once again, we thought it would be prudent to do something fun and a little out of the ordinary. Now, chances are very very good that you are at least, in the most rudimentary way, familiar with the science fiction phenomenon known as Star Wars. Indeed, an entire generation of filmmakers, writers, and science fiction fans the world over look to this film series as more than just a few movies and a some toys. They see it as a way of life, almost quite literally. The story of Luke Skywalker’s quest to defeat the tyrannical Galactic Empire is one that has been told in all manner of media for decades, and the legion of fans amassed in that time period can almost be measured in billions. Today, we are going to take a look at how to create, in Photoshop, one of the staples of the Star Wars world: the lightsaber.

Now, if you were to ask any sci-fi fan which object or prop they wish were a real object, nine times out of ten you would receive the answer ‘lightsaber.’ The dominant weapon of the Jedi order, the lightsaber is essentially a sword with a beam of laser energy for a blade. Now, the main challenge in creating an this in graphic form is lighting. Lightsabers, in the films, give off a great deal of light. You will need to keep in mind that certain surfaces, including the hilt of the lightsaber itself, are bound to reflect the light. For a more detail analysis and tutorial, please visit Photoshop Atoms. Also, may the force be with you.

Special Effects

Picture this: you are sitting in a crowded, cool, packed movie theater. You are minutes away from seeing the next movie that will go on to define “blockbuster” for years to come. You have your popcorn, soda, and candy at the ready. Maximum enjoyment is almost a scientific certainty at this point. The movie begins at a break-neck pace and never lets up. The charming lead character and his rogue sidekick chart out across the galaxy on a dangerous mission. Intrigue, mystery, and adventure are found at every turn. The damsel-in-distress is saved from the shadowy antagonist with an agenda all his own. You enjoy your time at the movies, and perhaps tell your friends to go see the exciting feature as soon as they can. Yes, you got great enjoyment out of the story. But what truly drew you into the movie. More often than not these days, the answer to that question is special effects.

The advent of computer-generated imaging (CGI) and computer-aided design (CAD) have done untold wonders for the film community and the graphic arts community at large. Like never before, artists are able to design, build, and render whatever it is they dream of on a computer. Entire worlds and civilizations can and indeed have been created. Of course, special effects work best when used to bolster the story, but that is a discussion for another day. Photoshop, which can also be used in CGI film work, has an array of effects that help the artist to make an iconic image. For more information, please visit Photoshop Atoms.