Over the last years Adobe Photoshop’s developers have been integrating some powerful 3D tools. Many of them require you to import a model from a 3D software or to gain profound knowledge of the software and its terminology. If you wish to move forward a little faster, then take a look at the following plugins.

Swift 3D PS

Manufacturer: Electric Rain
Web: www.erain.com
Price: $149.00
Target group: Pros
Compatibility: Photoshop CS4 Extended 11.0.1
File size: 46.5MB

After installation of Swift 3D you will probably go to the filters item and look for the plug-in. But in this new version, everything is different: You have to open the Swift 3D PS plug-in by clicking on Windows > Extensions >Swift 3D PS. A window will pop up that can be moved to the other palettes at the right-hand side of your desktop in order to allow a seamless integration with Photoshop.

The basic functionalities include both text input and the creation and modification of basic shapes, such as spheres, dice or pyramids. If you go down, you can also select a material, such as a bitmap graphic or a certain glossy color. In this place you have the option to modify the light atmosphere or you simply open a finished object from the model libraries. The plug-in features numerous helpful settings and preferences. You will even be able to create simple animations. The import of Illustrator or Flash helps you to benefit from a fluid workflow even between different software components.

AV Bros. Page Curl Pro 2.2

Manufacturer: AV Bros.
Web: www.avbros.com
Price: $79.00
Target group: Newbies
Compatibility: Photoshop as of CS3
File size: 3.1MB

The Page Curl Pro plug-in helps you to create page curling and folding effects. At the first glance this does not seem to be of any interest, but this plug-in is the leading filter plug-in in its area of activity. This becomes evident when you see the results: You can turn pages, create folded flyers, or slightly bend a sheet of paper. Thanks to the various possibilities offered by this plug-in, you will be able to achieve your goal quickly.

First of all, select either Curl (to obtain a curling page effect) or Fold (to obtain a folding page effect). Then, use the controllers to adjust the position, orientation, strength and distortion. You can even modify the back of the sheet (color or photo) as well as the opacity and the limitation according to your own requirements. You can separately open further palettes in order to change the light atmosphere, to adjust the position within the 3D space or to texturize the surfaces of the pages using a Bump Map.

3D Invigorator

Manufacturer: digital anarchy
Web: www.digitalanarchy.com
Price: $199.00
Target group: Pros
Compatibility: Photoshop as of CS
File size: 11.5MB

The 3D Invigorator plug-in for Photoshop allows you to create 3D objects from an Illustrator file, a text or a basic shape. In order to ensure a smooth workflow, the plug-in takes advantage from non-destructive features such as smart objects and smart filters. When you’re finished designing the 3D object you can select from different rendering styles. You are thus able to create many different styles.

Once you’ve finished your 3D objects, you can rotate them and move them to any point in the 3D space. Another highlight of this plug-in is the option to create different lights and textures or to select them from the material swatches. The user interface has been designed highly intuitive and user-friendly. It allows moving the camera and the light source with the mouse. You will thus not need to enter any numeric data anymore.

3D Maker and 3D Shadow

Manufacturer: Lokas Software
Web: www.artistic-effects.com
Price: $19.95 / Freeware
Target group: Newbies
Compatibility: Photoshop as of CS
File size: 510KB/450KB

3D Maker allows you to create 3D graphical elements out of 2D drawings. The 3D effect is created using pixels from other parts of the graphic. The X and Y axle controls are fully configurable and allow you to turn the object according to your needs. If it’s too big, the zoom function helps you to adjust the size. If the border should be thicker, you can adjust this via the Depth value. And if you prefer to create a comic-style instead of a photorealistic graphic you can simply deactivate the Lightning button. Furthermore, the add-on allows you to move the light source, to reduce the strength or to modify the colors of shadows and lights.

3D Shadow is the perfect tool to create drop shadows that are difficult to create with Photoshop. Although there’s Drop Shadow in the Photoshop layer styles, you will be deceived by the limited possibilities offered therein. Not so with the 3D Shadow plug-in: Apart from the blurring effects, the visibility and the distances, you can also determine the X, Y and Z axles as well as the perspectives and two offset values.

3D Sphere Pro

Manufacturer: Richard Rosenman
Web: www.richardrosenman.com
Price: $29.99
Target group: Pros
Compatibility: Photoshop as of CS
File size: 497KB

The 3D Sphere Pro plug-in by Richard Rosenman allows you to create 3D spheres, such as planets, offering fully customizable form, rendering, transparency, masking and lighting properties. Once you have created your 3D object you can cover it with a color or a texture. But first of all, you have to use the ellipse button in order to transform the sphere into an ellipsoid or to modify its height using the Cone/Flat option.

Using the rendering option you can apply 60 methods in order to assign two colors to the object. Doing this, you can slightly adjust, move or rotate the size of your texture. You can also select a background color. The plug in provides you with 30 preset lighting options which makes this app even more complex

Craquelure 3D and Jama 3D

Manufacturer: Redfield Plugins
Web: www.redfieldplugins.com
Price: Freeware
Target group: Newbies
Compatibility: Photoshop as of CS
File size: 473KB

Craquelure 3D allows you to apply craquelure effects to 2D surfaces, thus creating a unique 3D effect. Two independent craquelure layers can be combined in order to achieve amazing effects. For each layer, a settings generator is provided that allows you to control the number, size, the angle and the shape. Each layer has its own Bump Map. You can perspectively distort the image using the Angle option. This even enhances the 3D effect. A Refraction as well as a Frequency option with a direct influence on the craquelures are available. And let me give you a word of advice: If you want to achieve a realistic outcome, adjust the Brightness control to a low setting.

Jama 3D also creates folding effects. These effects, however, are different from those created with Page Curl Pro or other plug ins. First of all, you adjust the direction and the strength of distortion using the hash. A controller allows you to perspectively distort a layer and to influence the light, saturation and brightness. The height of the folds is largely dependent on the direction of the shadow.

Further Resources

Google’s 3D gallery

Manufacturer: Google
Web: http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse

The Google 3D gallery, better known as Google 3D warehouse, is a free online repository for 3D models. Here you can share your model with other users and you can collaborate on other models, such as buildings, plants or everyday objects.

DAZ 3D

Manufacturer: DAZ
Web: http://www.daz3d.com/I/3d-models

DAZ 3D does not only provide you with a lively community and a 3D software, but also with some free or very cheap 3D models and add-ons which help you to achieve even better results. The different models also include hair, motions and poses, themes and many more…

Beauty Plugins and Software

Smoothing skin, making a nose smaller, brightening teeth – anyone who already had the opportunity to retouch photos in Photoshop knows that this can take up a lot of time. This software and plug-ins can help and save a lot of time.

Kodak Digital GEM Airbrush

Manufacturer: Kodak
Web: www.asf.com
Price: $79.60
Compatibility: Photoshop 5 up to CS4, Elements 1 to 4
File size: 6.6MB

No need for time-consuming masking and manual softening: The Gem Airbrush plug-in provided by Kodak automatically reduces small wrinkles and slightly smoothens the skin. The application recognizes harsh shadows and highlights and at the same time fully preserves details like fine hair. Therefore, it can also be used to reduce freckles and spots. Several control sliders allow you to customize the smoothing effects and intensity amounts at three levels of detail: fine, medium, and coarse. An interesting feature is the detail view located right next to the Before and After options.

CleanSkinFX

Manufacturer: Media Chance
Web: www.mediachance.com
Price: Freeware
Compatibility: – (stand alone)
File size: 523KB

CleanSkinFX is another application which can be operated without Photoshop. It automatically smoothes the skin of the object while preserving all the details and crispness of hair or the background. The Double Clean option creates a heavy retouched portrait and the Enhance pink option gently improves skin tones and also makes red spots on the skin less visible. Before and after images allow you to compare your reworked photo with the original. Although the interface is really simplistic and does not offer any options for adjustments the results obtained with this freeware are quite acceptable.

Portraiture

Manufacturer: Imagenomic
Web: www.imagenomic.com
Price: $199.95
Compatibility: Photoshop CS2 to CS4, Elements 4 to 7
File size: 3.6MB

Portraiture provides a powerful skin tone masking tool which allows you to smooth the skin tones without affecting any other areas of the image. All other structures maintain their sharpness. And if you are in a great hurry, then use the auto-mask feature. Numerous settings with auspicious names such as enhance: glamour or smoothing: medium invite you to try the functions and improve your images. If you want to further fine-tune the results, you can create the most optimal skin tones and smoothness manually. You can save your own settings and use them later on for similar photos. Portraiture is not only available for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements but also for Aperture.

ImageDoctor

Manufacturer: Alien Skin
Web: www.alienskin.com
Price: $199.00
Compatibility: Photoshop CS2 to CS4, Elements 5 or later
File size: 5.9MB

ImageDoctor by Alien Skin is another Photoshop plug-in that smoothes the skin. Select an area of the photo and use the Blemish Concealer to remove pimples and other blemishes. Although you can only change the strength and size of your selection, you will definitely obtain a smoother skin: The skin softener allows you to reduce pores. Smart Fill helps you to replaces undesired areas of a photo with an intelligent sampling of the nearby background pattern. Furthermore, the app offers you the option to remove dust and scratches and to repair JPEGs.

iCorrect

Manufacturer: PictoColor Software
Web: www.pictocolor.com
Price: $99.95
Compatibility: Photoshop CS2 to CS4, Elements 4 to 6
File size: 2.6MB

iCorrect allows you to instantly correct the white balance, exposure, and skin tone of any portrait. First of all, click on the black and white areas of the photos in order to set the white balance. Afterwards, control the brightness and contrast and last but not least adjust the colors. Skin tones play a crucial role for these steps as they should be natural and balanced. Once you have determined the perfect settings you have the opportunity to save them as Custom Settings in iCorrect. This is especially important if you want to edit a whole series of photos, such as wedding photos. The traditional problems caused by the heavy contrast of the bride’s white dress can thus easily be solved. The point-and-click interface is self-explanatory.

FaceFilter Studio

Manufacturer: Reallusion
Web: www.reallusion.com
Price: $59.95
Compatibility: Photoshop CS to CS4,
File size: 6.5MB

FaceFilter makes people smile. In Photoshop you can create the same effect using the Liquify filter or the Warp transformation. FaceFilter goes one step further. You can change and enhance whole facial expressions, open and widen eyes or adjust head proportions. Furthermore, the app provides you with the option to adjust skin tones and remove oily reflections. If you want to change the shape of the face you will have to set some markers onto the face, adjust the skin tone, if necessary, and select an expression such as Smile, Slim or Cool. If you want to create an unusual image, then apply some fun tricks to your photo. This category also provides you with unrealistic shapes such as Alien.

Face Control

Manufacturer: Redfield Plugins
Web: www.redfieldplugins.com
Price: Freeware
Compatibility: Photoshop 7 to CS4,
File size: 9.3MB

The Face Control is another plug-in that allows you to change facial expressions of people in digital photos. As you can read on the website, human, animal, alien, or any other faces are welcome to test the advantages of this software. This very easy-to-use freeware program provides one single slider control: If you move the slider to the left, the eyes become smaller and the face becomes bigger. If it is moved to the right the result evokes the image of a small child with huge eyes and a special head shape. Despite this simple control unit, the plug-in offers a very high quality.

PortraitProfessional 9

More than just a simple enhancing software

Portrait Professional by Anthropics Technology is a real specialist application that has been trained in human beauty. It allows you to easily remove red eyes, brighten teeth and eyes or reduce wrinkles. You might think that Photoshop offers you the same opportunities. Well, this is true, but if you wish to remove grease, sweat or unsightly shine from the skin or to adjust the lighting on the face in order to optimize the skin tone, you will be happy about the options offered by PortraitProfessional. These features also include options to remove pimples and other skin blemishes, to smooth and color hair and to change the eye color.

Manufacturer: Anthropics Technology Ltd.
Web: www.portraitprofessional.com
Price: $69.95
Compatibility: Photoshop as of CS (and stand alone)
File size: 29.3MB

Having all these features in mind, you could think this piece of software is an almighty application. And in fact, it is. But the above mentioned features are not enough: You also have different options to re-sculpt the subject’s face. You may think that it is a bit too much to change the whole character of the model. But, please, feel reassured: If you only enhance subtle features of the image, you just slightly enhance the appearance. Once you are satisfied with your settings, you can save and them for other images.

01 Load the image
Once you’ve opened the PortraitProfessional software, you simply click at the big start button and select a portrait you want to enhance. In order to assist the software, you will have to determine whether the model in the photo is male or female. To do this, you will only need to click at one of the two examples. Additionally, you can modify the orientation of the image and rotate it. Afterwards, the next stop will appear automatically.

02 Set markers
As PortraitProfessional is not able to automatically determine the most important characteristics of the face, you will have to set some markers around the eyes, the tip of the nose and the mouth. Once you’ve finished this rough selection, you will have to set more precise markers by contouring eyes, eyebrows, nose, and mouth. Furthermore, you contour the pupils and the shape of the face. As the software provides you with step-by-step instructions, this is much easier and faster as you might think.

03 Adaptation
The sliders on the right-hand side allow you to adjust the image according to your requirements. Try one or more saved slider instructions, such as remove wrinkles, or chose one of the preset eye colors in order to obtain a serious expression. You will achieve more targeted results using the face optimization controls. If you do not want to change the character of the model please adjust the shape of the face very carefully only. To widen the eyes, simply click at the eyes button.

04 Adjusting details
The skin control allows you to remove pores, shadows and wrinkles. You can also slightly tan the skin or reduce the oily appearance. The retouch and skin selection brushes help you to obtain maximum results. Eyes are a very important feature for portraits. In order to obtain more intensive eyes you should brighten the eye color, sharpen the eyes and adjust the colors. You can virtually apply lipstick and create shiny hair by marking these areas using a brush.

  

Today we are glad to release five grunge styles for Adobe Photoshop. These styles were designed by the german Photoshop artist Dirk Metzmacher and released especially for Noupe and its readers, including resources for textures, fonts and brushes.

You can load styles with the style palette. In case this window isn’t open yet, go to Window > Styles in the menu. Click on the little black arrow at the top right. The pop-up list lets you perform several actions regarding to styles. Pick “Load Styles…” to add another style to the current selection, or “Replace Styles…” to replace the current selection with another style.

You can active any of the styles by clicking its thumbnail icon. Any content of your layer (literally every single pixel) will be equipped with the style. That could be a drop shadow, a texture or a combination with more effects.

NOUPE (Grunge I)

Download: NOUPE (Grunge I)

Suitable Fonts: Trashed, Tiza, Amadeus

Matching Textures: Vintage Grunge Textures, Subtle Grunge Textures, Grunge Textures

Dirty Brushes: Stamps, Despirited Grunge Brushes, Vintage Grunge Brushes

Modify: 1. Texture > Snap to Origin, 2. Texture > Scale, 3. Color Overlay > Change Color, 4. Deactivate Gradient Overlay, 5. Inner Shadow > Change Angle

NOUPE (Grunge II)

Download: NOUPE (Grunge II)

Suitable Fonts: Dirty Ames, Bleeding Cowboys, Birth of a Hero

Matching Textures: Autumn Grunge Textures Set, Large Paper Grunge Textures, Grunge

Dirty Brushes: WG Splatter Vol1, Urban, Rust Grunge Brushes

Modify: 1. Texture > Snap to Origin, 2. Gradient Overlay > Change Angle or Gradient, 4. Drop Shadow > Change Angle, 5. Color Overlay > Blending Mode > Overlay / Opacity: 15%

NOUPE (Grunge III)

Download: NOUPE (Grunge III)

Suitable Fonts: Times New Yorker, BB Petie Boy, Marcelle

Matching Textures: Grunge Textures, Clean Grunge Pack, Color Grunge Textures

Dirty Brushes: Grunge, Ewanism Brushes, Grinder Sparks

Modify: 1. Texture > Snap to Origin, 2. Texture > Scale, 3. Deactivate Glow, 4. Drop Shadow > Change Opacity and Angle, 5. Satin > Change or Invert Contour

NOUPE (Grunge IV)

Download: NOUPE (Grunge IV)

Suitable Fonts: The King & Queen font, Amputa Bangiz Standard, Estrya’s Handwriting

Matching Textures: Grunge Textures, Rusty and Dirty, Textures 01

Dirty Brushes: Grunge Brushes 8, Splatter brushes, Grunge Brushes

Modify: 1. Texture > Scale, 2. Texture > Snap to Origin, 3. Drop Shadow > Change Angle, 4. Color Overlay > Change Color, 5. Add Bevel and Emboss

NOUPE (Grunge V)

Download: NOUPE (Grunge V)

Suitable Fonts: Everyday Ghost, NeoPrint M319, Scriptina

Matching Textures: Victorian Grunge, Grunge Background, Grunge II

Dirty Brushes: Light Grunge PS Brushes, Grunge, Room122 Sidewalk Series

Modify: 1. Texture > Snap to Origin, 2. Texture > Scale, 3. Color Overlay > Change Color, 4. Bevel and Emboss > Change Depth, 5. Drop Shadow > Change Color

  

Photo manipulation is probably one of the most popular application areas in which Adobe Photoshop is used extensively. One of the main reasons for that is its ability to blend real photos with vibrant colors and digital painting to emphasize some beautiful details which makes this software ideal for this kind of work. Here are 45 incredible examples of Photo manipulated images from extremely talented Photoshop artists.

Chog

by Jenny Leigh

by Fruit Manipulation

The Eye

Ups…Falling Letters

Baby dragon

Monkeyman

Monkeyman

Iron man

Chronoscape- thundersnow

Smog

Extravaganza

Zebrafrog

One bark two stings

Angry

by Jerico Santander

Platinum Conception

vertical turn

Desolation

Granulate Of Champion

Help

Sinutab: Nose

Dirty Jobs

The Fire Lord

Verkenner

Like a Bird

Fire Horse

Smoke On The Water

Between the Roots

The
Wing Collector

Worth Checking

  

Adobe Photoshop is probably one of the most popular graphic editing program used extensively. There is one simple reason for that. Photoshop is easy to learn and offer a variety of advanced tools to optimize and emphasize some impressive results.

In today’s post, you’ll find an assortment of new & high quality Photoshop tutorials that others have freely contributed to the design community for making your next photoshop effect.

How to Create a 3D Leaf from a Texture Photograph

In this beginners level tutorial, you will learn how to create a vibrant 3D leaf compilation from a single 2D photograph. You will be able to manipulate the object however you prefer.

Firefish Photoshop Tutorial

In this Photoshop Tutorial, you’ll learn how to design a mascot based on the Firefox logo, and mimic the fire effect using the pen tool and gradients.

Advanced Tutorial: Creating ‘Broken Link’

David Cousens explains how to create a stunningly professional work of art, in this advanced tutorial.

Fantastic Digital Painting Image in Photoshop and Corel Painter

Jill will show us how to create an amazing digital painting design using Photoshop and Corel Painter.

Creating an Abstract Watercolor Wallpaper

There are plenty of ways to create a Watercolor Effect in Photoshop. Some are very cheesy and you can easily tell that a simple filter has been used. In this tutorial, we will be using Layer Masking. It is one of the most fascinating and powerful Photoshop method, to use layer masks in your designs.

Create Smoke Effect on Grungy Wallpaper

This tutorial will teach you how to create simple smoke effect against a grungy background by using the Smudge and Warp tools.

Create a 3D Text Scene Using Photoshop

This tutorial will teach you how tocreate a realistic 3D text scene using Photoshop with a little help from Illustrator for the 3D text.

How to Create a Photo Manipulation of a Flooded City Scene

In this tutorial, we will learn how to manipulate a simple photo into a flooding torrent of a scene. You’ll use some relatively simple techniques to give this image a semi-realistic, stylized feel.

Colorful Spirograph Poster

In this great tutorial we will be learning how to create a Spirograph effect in Photoshop. Then we’ll learn how to use the effect to create a very stylish poster design with some smart typography and wait for it… rainbow gradients! So give it a try and I’m sure you’ll learn a bit.

80’s Style Design Using Photoshop

The 80’s have always had an iconic impact on Pop Culture. So, here’s a simple tutorial inspired by the 80’s.

Create a Furious Pink Panther Poster

How to create a poster of this new and improved pink panther using some great online resources, from Bittbox and the Go Media Arsenal.

Creating a Space-Helmeted Future Retro Illustration

I don’t know about you guys but I’m loving the work of Electrik Suicide and Sakke Soini at the moment. I’m going to call it Future Retro for the sake of this tutorial. I employed my take on the style in pitching a poster and overall look for a night at a local club. This tutorial goes over the meat and potatoes of it’s creation!

Create Smoke Text

A big thing that you see in graphic design at the moment is the use of smoke stphotography, these photos look really good but look a lot better when you mess about with them in Photoshop. Here we’ll be mixing type and a smoke image to create a really nice abstract wallpaper. This is just a quick tutorial but hopefully you’ll learn some new techniques so give it a go.

Horror Theme Text Effect

Design a Golden Flame Text Effect

In this tutorial, we will learn the process involved in creating this amazing golden flame text effect with soft smoke texture in Photoshop.

Create a Realistic Grunge Peeling Sticker

In this Photoshop tutorial, we will learn how to create a grunge peeling sticker effect in Photoshop. You will also be learning some basic to intermediate techniques which you can make use of in your future designs!

Create scorching Photoshop effects

Fake an image of a burning man in Photoshop with these flaming brilliant techniques from Fabio Sasso.

Design a Super Sleek Text Effect with Water Drop Texture

The steps in this tutorial to create a Super Sleek, eye-catching text effect with Water Drop Texture. This effect is simple but effective, and would be suitable for any water/rainy/ocean themed designs you’re creating.

Create A Retro Cosmic Design

This tutorial will teach you how to recreate the Retro Cosmic designs made popular by James White of Signalnoise. All you need is a copy of Photoshop and some time on your hands. In this particular example we’re going to create a retro cosmic rainbow but the techniques explained can be used in combination with any shape and colour.

How to Make a Dark, Post-Apocalyptic City Illustration

In this tutorial, we’ll change a full of sunshine, ordinary photograph into a gloomy image of the world after destruction of mankind. Using simple tools, we’ll turn lively streets into abandoned ruins overgrown with weeds. A number of stock images and a few little tricks will let us optimize our work and make this job more interesting and spectacular.

Letterpress Text Effect

A mini tutorial outlining how to create this effect in your own designs.

How To Create a Retro Apple Wallpaper

Follow these simple steps in Photoshop to create a homage to Apple, combining the retro striped Apple logo with a range of soft grungy textures to produce a detailed design with subtle touches of colour and tone.

How To Setup A Layout Grid In Photoshop

The Grid feature in Photoshop is a great tool to assist you with your layout designs, whether its design for the web or print. Adding a “Snap” lets you align objects very precisely along the lines of the grid. And rather than make a new grid each time you’re designing, you can set up grid preference that can be reused.

How To Correctly Use Bevels & Drop Shadows

People say it all the time, ‘If you want to be taken seriously as a designer, you cannot use the Bevel or Drop Shadow tools in Photoshop’. What most of these advice givers really mean to say, is that you should not use the default settings for these tools. Here I am going to show you a side-by-side comparison of the default settings and some custom settings after taking you through the tutorials to achieve the desired effects.

How to Make an Old Western Wanted Poster

In this graphic design tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a stylish Old Western themed Wanted poster using some excellent Photoshop techniques such as how to weather paper, how to create realistic nail heads, and more.

Create a Deep Grunge Text Effect

In this Tutorial we will learn how to create a deep grunge and cracked Text effect. We will also come across how to use textures for creating certain inspiring results in less than 10 steps!.

Making of Points of View

You Will Stand Alone Photomanipulation

In the tutorial you’ll learn to create a dark and creepy effect by blending various images together and adjusting several settings.

How to Create a Piece of Heaven in Photoshop

Learn how to create a piece of Heaven in Photoshop. This photo manipulation is inspired by the Metuzalem website.

Nice glow/fume effect coming from a cup

Learn how to make an awesome glowing light effect (along with sparkly bits) coming out of a cup.

Super Cool Watercolor Effect in 10 steps

Learn how to create another Watercolor effect using Masks and Watercolor brushes

Creating a Typographic Wallpaper

Learn how to create a stunning typographic wallpaper.

Give a Car Photo Super Slick Lighting Effects

Learn how to combine photos and brush strokes to give a car photo slick dusky lighting effects.

Create A Simple And Effective Retro Logo With a Soft Grunge Background

A super-simple way to create a nice retro logo with an appropriate background.

2 Ways To Create Realistic “Depth of Field”

In this tutorial we are going to learn how to create realistic “Depth of Field” in Photoshop. We are going to look at two different ways of doing it depending on what kind of picture you want to modify.

Digital Painting a High Tech Deer Scene

Creating A Customized Product And Label

I recently finished a brochure for a client where I had to take a vector piece of stock art and customize the look and feel to match that of the company identity as well as the brochure’s monochromatic style. This tutorial is based on the process used to achieve the final result.

Create a wood background

In this Photoshop tutorial, we are going to create a wood background. We are going to create the wood from scratch and turn it into a pattern. Then we will finish it off by adding some lighting and texture effects.

Create Vintage Style Photos

How to keep the good qualities of vintage-effects and throw in some beautiful clouds of color by utilizing the adjustment layers in CS4.

  

For months, we have been bookmarking interesting, useful and creative resources every designer is looking for, so you can now rest assured that you will have the necessary tools to get the job done.

Due to this phenomenally vast amount of vector packs, icons, fnts, brushes, patterns available, you can now add dirt, rust, floral effect, swirls, mold, oil stains in your artwork and to give it any look you want.

So in today’s post, you’ll find an assortment of top-notch Vector Packs, brushes, patterns, Free Fonts, Icon Sets and .PSD downloadable files that others have freely contributed to the design community.

Vector Graphic Packs

Doodles and Sketches

The pack comprises of a range of random pieces, including leaves, drops, bolts, arrows, hearts and textures.

Cute Vector Penguin

This Penguin was used for a plumbing website to bring a soft,cold and cuddly image for the brand.

Tropical Jungle Pack

It is a great design element to include for your adventure or tropical island themes.

milky-way donkey

Vector Decorative Ornament

Painting meadow

14 Exclusive Floral Stamps Vectors

Asmaa Murad, from Aivault, has created an awesome set of floral stamps for Vectips! I quickly got lost in creating scatter brushes, patterns, and more with the 14 Floral Stamps.

Wallpaper pattern Free Vector Graphic

Retro Pattern

Skeletons

Inside this pack, you’ll find close ups of bones, teeth, claws, rib cages, silhouettes, and even punk-ready illustrated skeleton characters.

Abstract Tree

Flower Vector

One super hot file of various botanical and flourish like elements.

Textures

Abstract Texture Pack 2

A large set of 10 stunning high resolution (2080×1544) abstract textures, free for both commercial and non-commercial use.

10 Grunge Book Texture

Floral

These textures were made in Photoshop by layering various grunge and paper textures together along with floral patterns.

10 High-Quality Free Brown Paper Textures

In this set, you’ll find 10 free and high-resolution brown paper textures which can be used in a wide range of ways.

Clouds

3 Grunge Textures from FreeStockTextures.com

3 hi-res grunge textures: concentrate, wall, rust, peeling, wood…

9 Spray Paint Textures

Icon Sets

Furry Monster Icon Set

This icon set comes from the Spoon Graphics Blog, they feature a set of four furry multi-colored monsters. The icons are compatible with both Macs and PCs. Along with the icons comes a tutorial showing how to create these furry monsters yourself.

50 Free and Exclusive Twitter Icons

The icons are provided in both raster and vector formats: The transparent PNG versions are 256×256, and also the Illustrator files are included so that you can resize the icons as needed. The icons are completely free for personal and commercial use.

Birdies: Cute Free Twitter Icons For Your Blog

A set of 12 beautiful and lovely Twitter icons. All the icons included in the set have clean shapes and neutral colors that can be used for various contexts, from a “Tweet it” button for your blogs to desktop wallpapers.

40 Cute Free Twitter Graphics: Badges, Icons & Buttons…

The set includes 40 Files in total of cute twitter graphics: Badges, Icons & Button. All in Transparent .png format. The buttons etc come with PSD files too so you can edit and re-size them as needed. The original characters come as a large High Res image which makes it very easy to scale down and use however you want.

Watercolor Free Icon Pack

Each icon is in .png format sized at 256×256px with transparent backgrounds. The 36 different icons have varying opaquness that allow the background and texture seep through the icons like watercolor on canvas.

Photoshop Brushes

Wet Paint Acrylic Photoshop Brushes

This Photoshop Brush Pack includes 16 High Quality, Wet Acrylic Paint strokes, all at super high resolution. Perfect for art projects, personal use, and commercial use.

46 Stunning High Resolution Photoshop Light Effect Brushes

In this set you will find a collection of 46 high resolution Photoshop light effect brushes. These brushes are perfect for creating cool mystical or cinematic looking light effects in your designs.

27 Grungy Film Photoshop Brushes

A set of 27 High Resolution Grungy Film Photoshop Brushes from those textures created by LostandTaken.

10 Free Hi-Res Waterlogged Maps

25 Fingerprint Brushes

These brushes can form great background textures, or even be the central focus of a design related to some sort of mystery.

Old Paper Brush

30 Free Photoshop Swirl Brushes

A set with 30 high-quality swirl Photoshop brushes with an average size 2000px. These brushes were created with Adobe Photoshop CS4 and also work with the version CS, CS2 and CS3.

.PSD Files

Curl Preview Border

This is a Photoshop .PSD File, with a curl preview border.

Windows 7 Box .PSD

Paperbag .PSD

lock PSD

Free Fonts

20+ High-Quality Free Fonts for Retro and Vintage Design

The fonts (20+) of this list are absolutely free and you can freely use these resources for your designs, click on the images below to download them.

Fresh Free Fonts #3

I will look forward to bring a lot of great fonts that will sure help you improve your typography work.

21 Best Fonts for Hand Drawn Style Web

60+ Free Fonts for Big, Bold and Beautiful Headlines

Soraya

Half serif, half sans serif. Capital letters A-Z, available only in Illustrator AI format.

40 Free Calligraphy Fonts

Art of beautiful, stylized, or elegant handwriting or lettering with pen or brush and ink. It involves the correct formation of characters, the ordering of the various parts, and the harmony of proportions. Here is a beautiful collection of 40 Free Calligraphy Fonts to download and use.

40 Fresh Free Fonts To Enhance Your Designs

A Collection of Fresh Free Fonts to Enhance Your Designs by which you can save money and focus on making great applications.

DVD Case Inlay

Inlay for an Amaray DVD case.

How to Create a Slick and Clean Button in Photoshop

This Photoshop tutorial shows you how to create a simple and clean “Web 2.0 style” button sprite with a rollover state. You’ll also learn how to set up the sprite using some basic CSS techniques (CSS background sprite and CSS text image replacement).

A .psd file is available for download.

Worth Checking Freebies

Tiled Ornamental Twitter Background

A free repeating pattern that is ideal to be used as a twitter background, created from some Victorian images from some books.

Old Vintage Paper Tag

The tag is in .PNG format with a transparent background, one with the text and one with it removed. Its great for adding it to web designs or photo manipulations.

Scandinavian-style simple patterns

The tag is in .PNG format with a transparent background, one with the text and one with it removed. Its great for adding it to web designs or photo manipulations.

Stylized Clouds

The theme of this pattern is a subtle blue sky and stylized retro clouds.