Archive for October, 2009

Grunge Cement Texture Pack

Posted by admin

This Free Texture Pack is for use in your personal and commercial projects, and can be used without attribution. It may not be redistributed.

This texture pack contains 12 high resolution grunge cement textures, free to use in commercial and personal projects.



In this Photoshop Tutorial, you’ll learn how to design an old vintage radio using simple shapes, gradients, patterns and textures.

Materials Needed:

Step 1

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Start by creating a new document (Ctrl+N) 700×700 in dimension. />

Step 2

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Make a radial gradient backround from center to any corner, using colors #d2934c and #38240d.

Step 3

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Create a new layer (Ctrl+Shift+N). Using the Rounded Rectangle Tool (U) with 10px radius, draw a rectangle. Then go to layer’s Blending options and use gradient overlay from #161616 to #3a3a3a.

Step 4

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Now let’s use our paper texture. Copy it above all the other layers. Be sure it covers the rectangle. Then Ctrl+click the rectangle layer’s thumbnail. Then inverse the selection (Ctrl+Shift+I) and press delete. Change blending mode to overlay. You should have something like this now.

Step 5

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Create a new layer. Again use the Rounded Rectangle tool but this time make a smaller rectangle with 5px radius. In layer’s blending options use the linear gradient overlay with these colors: #563a1c; #61442b; #563a1c; #c18c5f.

Step 6

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Repeat Step 4 but this time Ctrl+click the previous made 5px rectangle’s thumbnail and set the paper texture’s blending mode to Soft Light.

Step 7

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Create a new layer. Take the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) and draw a few pixels smaller rectangle than the previous one. Use gradient from #c18c5f to #563a1c.

Step 8

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Repeat Step 4 – Ctrl+click the previous made rectangle’s thumbnail and set the paper texture’s blending mode to Soft Light.

Step 9

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Create a new layer. Draw a few pixels smaller rectangle than the previous one. Go to it’s blending options and set an inner shadow and the wooden pattern as shown in the picture.

Step 10

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Let’s make the wooden panel shine a little bit. Create a new layer. Ctrl+click the rectangle layer we created before (so that you select the entire rectangle we will be adding the highlight to). Then take the Elliptical Marquee tool and while holding Shift+Alt, drag it over to make a selection like in the picture. Then use a white to transparent gradient from right to left and change the opacity to 13%.

Step 11

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Create a new layer. Draw a smaller rectangle and change the blending options as in the picture. Use the pattern from source files. Use colors #7b4f28 and #b27d52 for the gradient.

Step 12

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Create a new layer. Using pencil tool, draw two 1px lines using #120c04 for the dark one and #67482c for the light one.

Step 13

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Now let’s make the radio knobs. It’s basically gonna be just a bunch of circles with different gradients and blending options. For each of the circle create a new layer. Then group all these layers (select the layers and press Ctrl+G) and duplicate the group. Place them as in picture.

Step 14

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Now we’ll add a few more details. Create a new layer. Draw a thin rectangle, fill it with #3b260f and above it in a new layer a smaller one, fill it with #d9a15b. Add inner shadow to both of them.

Step 15

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Duplicate the previous 2 layers 2 times and slightly change the position of the smaller rectangle.

Step 16

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Let’s make the radio shine a little bit. Create a new layer. Using the pen tool, draw a shape like in the picture. Then left click-make selection and fill it with white. Change the opacity to 35%. Duplicate this layer and make it 2 times smaller (Press Ctrl+T and scale it down). Then duplicate both of these layers and put them on the other side of the radio.

Step 17

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Let’s add a base for the radio. Create a new layer. Using 10px rounded rectangle tool, draw a rectangle, fill it with #1e1209 and place below all the other layers.

Step 18

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Next let’s add some pixel-perfect details. Take the pencil tool and draw 1px white lines around the radio. Use a large, soft eraser to erase the ends of the lines. Change the opacity to 27%

Step 19

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Let’s make the background more interesting. Create a new layer above background layer and with the Rectangular Marquee Tool select a bit more than half of the whole image and fill it with gradient from black to transparent. Lower the opacity to 31%.

Final Result

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Now to finish the thing, let’s make a nice reflection. Merge all of the radio layers, except background. Press Ctrl+A then Copy (Ctrl+C). Press Alt+Ctrl+Z till all the radio layers come back and then paste (Ctrl+V). Flip the layer vertically and Using a round soft brush, erase it’s bottom. Lower the opacity to 20%.

Conclusion

Well, I hope you learned something new from this tutorial. Using these simple techniques you can make great looking icons. Here are a few other examples.

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Download the Free PSD



We’ve done it again. We’ve gathered the best links in the creative community and put them in cool little post here on Tutorial 9. Here’s the best of September.

Photoshop Tutorials

Design a Slick 3D Ice Text Effect

3D text effects are becoming more and more popular. Andrew Houle does an excellent job in this tutorial; showing how to use Photoshop and a bit of Illustrator to make beautiful end result.

Create an Intense Movie Poster in Photoshop

This excellent tutorial from PSDTuts helps you learn how to manipulate ordinary photos. The end result is a gloomy, dark and striking movie poster.

How to Create Retro Art in Photoshop

Excellent tutorial that incorporates a different array of techniques, including the creation of objects with the pen tool, that for sure will polish your photoshop skills.

Design a Stylish Retro Game Boy Poster in Photoshop

Remember those things called Gameboys? This is also a hybrid tutorial that uses Illustrator and Photoshop to make a really cool looking, retro Gameboy poster.

Create a Promotional iPhone App Site in Photoshop

This is an excellent tutorial; start to finish. Sean Hodge takes you step by step to create a lovely iPhone app site in Photoshop. His tutorial covers not only the layout, but also those small effects that are often overlooked yet essential.

Illustrator Tutorials

How to Design a Skate Deck with a Cool Skull Pattern

This great tutorial walks you through making skulls with basic objects, creating an Illustrator brush and using a clipping mask. A whole bunch of skills that you can learn all in one.

Zee Logo in Illustrator

This great tutorial shows you how to make a logo from scratch. You learn how to use the grid in Illustrator to create the custom typeface of Zee and then use a little bit of Photoshop to give it those extra touches.

Create An Awesome Space Rocket Avatar in Illustrator

Excellent Icon tutorial. It includes all those little effects that give an icon its…umm…icony look. You’ll learn how to use the Gradient Mesh Tool(that I personally stay away from. I know, I know. I shouldn’t) to make a great end result. Plus, you can download the end file to take a closer look.

Combine Illustrator Patterns with Photoshop Masks for Instant Visual Appeal

This great tutorial walks you through making skulls with basic objects, creating an Illustrator brush and using a clipping mask. A whole bunch of skills that you can learn all in one.

How to Create a Golden, Vector Compass in Illustrator

As with any icon design, it’s all about the detail.This is an excellent tutorial, using only Illustrator, that includes all the small details. Understandable for a person with any skill set.

Web Tutorials

How to Code a Signup Form with Email Confirmation

This tutorial, helps you create a user signup form that adds a user to a database, and then sends out a confirmation email.

Sproing! – Make An Elastic Thumbnail Menu

The guys over at Build Internet made this awesome tutorial on how to make elastic thumbnails with a little bit of HTML, CSS and Jquery.

Beautiful Post Thumbnails: Top Examples & Best Practices

Liam Mckay wrote this great article about how to make excellent thumbnails. Our very own David Legget is called, “A true master at making interesting post thumbnails”. I’m sure we would all agree.

Non-UX Designers Can Pay Attention to User Experience Too!

An excellent article that explains a simple point: you don’t have to be a user experience designer to make smart, user-concious decisions.

Freebies, Inspiration & Resources

Curiosity: Free October 2009 Calendar Wallpaper

Franz Jeitz, as with every month, has design an awesome calendar wallpaper. It comes in every possible resolution; even with an iphone version. The pack comes with calendar and non-calender versions.

Steed-A Hand Drawn Font

Steed is part of Kyle Steed’s rebranding process. It’s a hand drawn font, that he so kindly has made available for download in vector format.

Arrows Pack – 182 Vectors + 182 Brushes

As the title suggests, this is a massive pack! It includes 182 arrows in vector format(EPS) and brush format(ABR). An extensive pack with every arrow that you could possibly imagine.

Inspired Guide: The Coolest 30 Wordpress Themes Out in September

Looking for a great Wordpress theme? InspiredMag has a great round-up of new themes that came out in September.

Big Time Eye Candy from Creattica

This is an amazing post that gathers some of the best uploads on Creattica that are sure to inspire.

Inspired Talks – 10 Simple Ways to Instantly Boost Your Inspiration

We all need some inspiration from time to time. This brilliant article from InspiredMag helps get the creative juices flowing.

Get Featured in Creative Bookmarks

If you’d like to be featured in the next volume of Creative Bookmarks, simply send us you’re tutorial, resource, or article link before the end of the month. If we think it’s a top notch link, we’ll be sure to share it with all of our readers!