By Melinda Rainsberger

More and more, designers, illustrators and coders are being asked to animate. Animation adds energy to a brand and heightens a customer’s emotional response. The software to do it is reasonably priced, and Internet connections can now deliver high-quality video. For these two reasons, animation-based advertising is booming on the Web. The makers of a small phone application might even devote a great deal of their budget to a Web animation that explains how the application works. However, animation adds a level of complexity that not everyone is equipped to immediately take on.

Animation is a time-based medium. It has the elements of not only height, width and depth, but also time. In this way, it is more like a website or catalog: it can change from moment to moment. But the difference with animation is that the time element is entirely under the designer’s control, and the viewer is just along for the ride.

Of course, organization is important. But audience profile, screen size and delivery method can greatly influence the visuals and your workflow. In this article, we’ll go over a few guidelines on how to start organizing your animation projects, as well as some tips and tricks to create a leaner and cleaner workflow.

1. Storyboards

Storyboards provide the best means of planning an animated project. They allow you to plan your composition and timing quickly before jumping into the final animation. They let you quickly determine all of the key elements before creating the final renders. This is also the best stage to trim down and make edits. Animation is a time-consuming medium, and you don’t want to give yourself any extra work. Try to define the 10 most important images of you piece, and then add and subtract boards to find the right level of detail to convey the scope of your project.

The first 10 boards are highlighted. The other boards are there to clarify or smooth the transition from one moment to the next.

Sound is another element to consider at this stage. It can give your project a backbone for timing. If you are able to purchase commercially-produced music, do this before you start animating, and then make your images follow the beat of the music. You could also use a song with the right mood and timing as a temp track and then have a musician create the final sound based on your animation.

2. Folders, Naming, Sequencing

Folders

Everything for the project should be kept in one folder. Most animation programs do not paste files into the animation, but simply point to the media. If a file is moved, the program will have a hard time locating the original file and might not display it. Different production houses have different systems, but generally they will sort their files into these folder and sub-folder categories:

• AEP or Flash project files
• Graphics/illustrations
  • Hi-res (screen size or larger)
  • Lo-res (screen size or smaller)
  • Storyboards
• Photos
  • Hi-res (screen size or larger)
  • Lo-res (screen size or smaller)
• Sound
• Text docs

• (Scripts and documents that you may have received from or given to the client.)

This folder structure is very detailed. But not only will you be able to find something easily, but anyone else who comes into the project will also be able to navigate the file structure easily. At ad firms and commercial animation studios, other people may enter the project in process. They have to be able to help you, not fight to learn an unconventional organizational system.

Names

If you can, use some sort of coding system to indicate which project a file belongs to. This way, if it does get separated, you can locate it easily. You might use similar graphics for several projects. For instance, a globe is a common image that I use a lot because I do animations for GPS Web apps. They all look different, so the generic label “globe” would not tell me what the globe in a particular file looks like. Here is an example of a coded naming system:

• ADV_globe_all.ai

or

• Goloco_globe_NE.psd

The code will depend on whether your client’s name is long or short. Short names can be used in their entirety, but abbreviating long names into an easy-to-remember code helps.

Sequencing

If you plan to display one image after another, numbered file names can speed up your workflow. Most animation programs recognize numbers and will line them up one after another if you number them properly. Examples are:

Traditional frame-by-frame animation:

Carousel of images:

Photo slideshow:

Mouths for lip syncing:

Title sequences:

Because of the high volume of frames in animation, use a three- or even four-digit naming system. Spacing, underscores and dashes do affect how programs understand the files. Below are examples of correct and incorrect numbering:

Correct:

• face_001.jpg
• face_002.jpg
• face_003.jpg

Incorrect:

• image1.jpg
• Image_02.jpg
• image__003.jpg

Lower numbers should have zeros placed before them (so that number 1, for example, appears before number 10). Programs like Photoshop and Adobe Bridge can help with the batch renaming process.

3. Vector And Bitmap Graphics

Vectors have an infinite resolution, which is great for animation. Whether you use bitmap or vector, the images should be 72 DPI and RGB.

Computer and television screens both use these specifications. 72 DPI is the only DPI for video, and higher and lower quality videos will differ only in aspect ratio. Adobe programs have been constructed for a cooperative workflow; the names you give layers in Illustrator and Photoshop will carry over to AfterEffects and Flash.

In Illustrator, put elements that you want to animate separately onto separate layers and not paths.

4. Photos

For best results, resize your photos and bitmap images. If you will be zooming into your pictures, make them bigger than your overall frame size. If you will zoom in by 50%, then the dimensions need to be only 150% bigger than your overall frame.

If we want to zoom in on this character, we will need to make him bigger than the overall screen size, otherwise he will look pixelated.

If the images will be smaller than your screen, shrink them. Because all of the images are dynamically loaded, this will reduce the rendering time. Small images load faster than large images, so re-scaling before animation is a best practice.

Our thumbnails here will never be more than 50% of the screen size. Scaling elements to the appropriate size in Photoshop saves time later when rendering.

This may be a little confusing, but it is important; because rendering can take hours, and a bit of resizing can save an hour or two of rendering time and make a lot of media more manageable. Digital cameras all take pictures at 3000 pixels wide or more, but the largest video frame is only 1920 pixels wide.

5. Composition And Color

This is where knowing your delivery method and audience comes in handy. Images intended for a theatrical release won’t necessarily work on a smaller screen, and vice versa.

Screen-Size Comparison

Small objects can be too tiny in a Web video and become unreadable. Most Web videos use a smaller range of sizes so that the audience can properly view the elements. Elements that are too small on the Web can cease to be recognizable. A hairline turns into a line of pixels and a pupil becomes a black hole.

Web Scale

In any medium, color is important, but especially on the Web, where it is essential for creating contrast and guiding the viewer’s eye. Think of your composition as a set of shapes rather than characters and scenes, and you’ll be able to more easily produce effective graphic compositions that can be read at a variety of scales.

Using Color to Emphasize Elements

The area of greatest contrast is between the light-yellow shirt and dark-green bushes. The eye is naturally drawn there. However, consider those with color-blindness. Colors that “pop” for most people might not someone with impaired color perception. Throwing a quick desaturation filter over the project will highlight the weak areas of your color scheme.

Incorrect Use of Color Contrast

Though the orange and blue are complements and do attract the eye, they are the same value on the grayscale. By desaturating the image, we see the grayscale value of the colors. Someone with color-vision issues would not see this area as being the most distinctive.

6. Aspect Ratio And The Web

Most Web videos have a 16:9 aspect ratio (i.e. widescreen). Services like YouTube or Vimeo encourage this format. There are many “standard” sizes, but the most useful two are HDV/HDTV 720 and HDV 1080.

Both formats are widescreen, and both have square pixels. Computer monitors have square pixels, which means viewers will see a true representation of your final image. Programs like AfterEffects can simulate other screen types, but if your project is for the Web, make it work with square pixels.

If you are doing a project for broadcasting, consult your client, the venue or the broadcaster that will be presenting it. They all have different sizes and specifications to adhere to.

7. Where To Type

Animation programs have their own typography tools, or you can create your own in a program such as Illustrator or Photoshop. With Illustrator, you don’t have to worry about your text being too small or large because it will be a vector image. You can infinitely scale the type without losing quality or increasing rendering time.

For ornate titles or long scrolling credits, laying these out in a program designed for text is best. AfterEffects and Flash can do pretty much anything Illustrator can do, but in them you will not be able to see when text runs off the canvas, which makes it difficult to plan scrolling or zooming credits without constantly moving the text or rescaling to get a better view. Illustrator and Photoshop allow have more sophisticated tools for outlining and customizing the style of your type.

In addition, designing in Illustrator or Photoshop lets you focus on the design of the type. You can more fully concentrate on making your typographic design cohesive and interesting.

For small bits of text, though, you can type directly in the animation program.

8. Pre-Rendering

Creating “Proxies” is a great way to reuse elements and cut down on rendering time. They allow you to render a single layer or many layers. If the elements are finalized and you don’t need to change them, you can render them as a single video file with an alpha channel. You can even render animation with an alpha channel.

A field of twinkling stars becomes much simpler with pre-rendering. The field of stars can then be combined and pre-rendered again, thus making one video file of a starry sky that is easy to use again and again.

Most animation programs can handle video, as well as Photoshop and Illustrator files.

Programs such as AfterEffects easily handle alpha channels without any rasterization or dithering. This is especially useful if the elements have a lot of rendering-intensive filters. Effects such as layers are dynamically loaded into each frame. Video is usually 30 frames per second, so a simple blur filter will render hundreds of times in just 10 seconds. If you think about how long it takes to put a filter on a layer in Photoshop, you have some idea of how long it takes for the same filter to be applied to many frames in Photoshop.

1 second to render an effect x 30 frames / second x 10 second = 5 minutes of rendering.

You can also duplicate any animation or layer and use it over and over again. This makes kaleidoscopic animation much easier, and pre-rendering cuts down on rendering time. Programs such as Flash are good at nesting and handling “instances” of the same animation, but the equivalent in AfterEffects is pre-rendering and using a new video layer.

Flash and AfterEffects both have features that allow you to take complex animations and reduce them to a single layer.

Complexity can be built from a few simple elements with spectacular results.

9. Organize For Your Future Self

First, create a group in your project with the “Timelines,” “Scenes” or “Compositions” that are the final renders. This way you, or anyone, will be able to easily locate and render them again. Most video and animation programs have a bin or library and allow for easy internal folder creation.

Second, have a good incremental naming system for renders. Very often, the “final” render is not really final. Using numbers or letters, the computer will automatically order the files for you; and again, anyone will be able to figure out what was the last render. Your_project_final_Final_FINAL_v4.mov won’t clarify anything for anyone. In AfterEffects, movie files are named after their Compositions. I put a “v” at the end of each one so that I can easily insert the right number just before I render. When making Web versions, I change the “v” to a “w” to indicate that this is the Web version. A list of renders would look something like this:

• CI_TCfIH_edit_v1.mov
• CI_TCfIH_edit_w1.mov
• CI_TCfIH_edit_v2.mov
• CI_TCfIH_edit_w2.mov

Computers like numbers, letters and order. Exploiting this proclivity frees you up for more creative endeavors. Because animation can take up thousands of files, organization is critical.

10. Incorporating Live Action

If you need to incorporate a green screen or other live action footage, shoot in an HD format if possible. These tend to have larger aspect ratios than standard television sets, which leaves room for some cinematic tricks later when you’re working in the animation program.

We won’t get into lighting, editing or shooting in this article. But once you’ve mastered this considerable set of skills, you can bring those elements into your animation and make your live action elements interact with the animated ones.

Web videos, like the ones on YouTube, are 640×360: well below standard video HD sizes. This means you will have “extra” video. By filming your live-action with a locked-down (i.e. non-moving) camera, you will get the best of both a steady shot and a perfect pan. Simply insert your footage into a slightly smaller composition and animate its position. Motion also guides the viewer’s eye and highlights certain parts of the screen. But panning the camera can make it hard to line up live-action and animated elements.

These images are shown to the correct scale. We could shrink the large video even more for better framing.

11. Have Fun And Experiment

Animation programs are a combination of two to three smaller graphic design programs plus a video editor. They have a wide range of effects, tools and capabilities. Only by playing around with it will you really learn what the program can do. However, only by trying something you’ve never done before will you find out what you’re truly capable of (i.e. turn it up to 11).

(al)

This is our weekly Twitter Design News Round-Up, a collection of fresh design related resources that we have shared via Twitter in the past week.

Just in case you are not one of our Twitter followers, click here: twitter.com/speckyboy, and you’ll be kept up to date with loads of design news and resources.

As always, if you have any cool links that you would like to share, do not hesitate to share them here: Submit News. Thanks to everyone that has been emailing.

Good Reading: Web Design Criticism: A How-To from Smashing Magazine

Good Reading: Designers: How to Search For, Hire, and Work With a Web-Developer from Noupe.com

Good Reading: How Much Do Standards And Trends Dictate Your Web Design? from Pelfusion

Inspirational Showcase: 70+ Fresh and Inspirational Single Page Website Designs from Instantshift

Inspirational Showcase: 55 Inspirational Original White and Light Web Designs from readactor.com

Tutorial: Quick Tip: Highlight Author Comments in WordPress – The Right Way from AEXT.com

Tutorial: Speed Up with CSS3 Gradients from CSS Tricks

Tutorial: Rotated Background with Slide Up Menu using JQuery and CSS from thatagency.com

Tutorial: Capture the Perfect Panning Shot Every Time from photo.tutsplus.com

Tutorial: Create a Stunning Retro Futuristic Typography from RichWorks

Tutorial: Burnt Wood Text Effect – Photoshop Tutorial from Visual Swirl

New Free Web App: Picmeleo Online Photo Editor

Freebie Download: Free Star Wars TrueType Font from Airopia

Freebie Download: Update: Social Media Icons from WebdesignerWall

Freebie Download: Google Nexus One, Android GUI PSD Packs For Designers from Cheth Studios

Freebie Download: Free Web UI Wireframe Kit from Fuel Your Interface

Freebie Download: Gesturecons – Multi-Touch Icons

Previous Twitter News…

Twitter Design News Roundup N.26 »
Twitter Design News Roundup N.25 »
Twitter Design News Roundup N.24 »
Twitter Design News Roundup N.23 »
Twitter Design News Roundup N.22 »
Twitter Design News Roundup Archives »

We took the results from Darren’s Poll about What Blog Platform Do You Use? and displayed it in our infographic to present a more convincing argument. As of now, there are a total of 3476 bloggers who participated in this poll, and you can see the results in our Infograph.

WordPress.org got the majority of the votes and WordPress.com was on third place in user choice. If you need help distinguishing between the two platforms see our infograph about Self Hosted WordPress vs. Free WordPress.com.

Our pick in the Best Platform is ofcourse WordPress.org, and we have mentioned a few reasons why you should use WordPress. But if the reasons in the infographic is not enough for you, then you should check out our fully detailed post about Why You Should Use WordPress.

Feel free to post a comment below about which platform do you use, and why you use it.

Once again, all thanks goes to Darren Rowse of Problogger for letting us use his data to create this interactive graphic for our users.

Which Blogging Platform Should You Use? (Infographic) is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

Related posts:

1. Self Hosted WordPress.org vs. Free WordPress.com [Infograph]
2. Ultimate Guide to Upgrade WordPress for Beginners [Infograph]
3. WordPress 2.8.5 – Hardening Release

(Click on the Image for Live Demo)

Features

1. Logo changer: add your logo url & the size of the logo
2. Stylesheet Changer: the three styles are built into a drop down for you
3. Google analytics: add your code into the box and it’s automatically added into your site
4. Timthumb options: Activate timthumb’s image resizer and also choose the width/height
5. RSS Feed options: add your feed url and feedreader name to get the rss box to show up and allow email sign ups
6. Twitter options: Add your twitter name, choose how many tweets to show & choose the twitter section title
7. Advertisements: 300×250 in the sidebar, 300×250 on single post pages, 468×60 on the single post pages (and under the first post on every page), 125×125 ad block in the sidebar

Download Now

Note to Designers: You can also submit your free WordPress themes for us to review and share with WPBeginner’s audience. Use our Make a Suggestion form.

Guerrilla v2: Free WordPress Theme by Giant Themes is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

Related posts:

1. YouAre WordPress Theme for Free
2. 15 Great Looking Free Portfolio Themes for WordPress
3. Free Notepad Theme for WordPress by N.Design Studio

Typography plays an important role and is an integral part of any design; be it print or web. Sometimes, when there is no room for images, typeface is all you’ve got to give the audience an idea what the whole thing is all about.

Here we have compiled a list of some outstanding and beautifully designed FREE and FRESH 50 Sets of Social Media Icons such as digg icons, stumbleupon icons, reddit icons, twitter, RSS feed icon, facebook icons and more, so that you can use them on your blog and website. You can also use them in corporate designs as well, Kindly feel free to share your comments with us.

You are welcome if you want to share more free social icon sets that our readers/viewers may like. Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at SmashingApps.com just subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter and do not forget to become our fan on facebook as well. Click on the images to go from where the images has been taken.

Hand Drawn Social Media Icons

Vector Social Media Icons

The icons are designed in 32px and 16px vector format. With the vector format, you can scale the icon to any size to fit with your design or use it in high quality print materials.

Social Icons Vector Set

Here is a new free social icons vector set, which consists of 16 popular icons, available in both vector and PNG (64×64 pixels) format. Free for any use

Free and Exclusive Icons: Brown Social Icon Pack

In the pack, you will find 12 glossy polished icons in different size variations: 32×32px, 64×64px and 128×128px for maximum flexibility. All files are .PNG format and are mainly brown-colored especially for all you brown fanatic bloggers that like to share posts over the social networks nowadays.

Free Social Network Icons from IconShock

Included icons are for following services. Digg, StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter and Delicious.

Fluzzy Twitter Icon Set

Another high quality free Twitter icon set

Social Trucks Icons

There are 10 colorful, spacious and unstoppable social trucks at a whopping 512×512 px resolution for you

inFocus Simple White Social Media Icons

Free Grass Textured Social Bookmarking Icon Set

Circular Social Media Icons Repack

Social Trucks Icons

There are 10 colorful, spacious and unstoppable social trucks at a whopping 512×512 px resolution for you

inFocus Simple White Social Media Icons

Social Network Icon Set

These Iconshock icon set comes in 6 different sizes: 12×12, 16×16, 24×24, 128×128, 256×256 and 512×512 covering social various social network logos like Blogger, Delicious, Facebook, Flickr, Linked-in, Reddit, RSS feed, Stumble Upon, Technorati and Twitter.

Latte Art Social Icons

Four social icons for Facebook, RSS, StumbleUpon and Twitter available as 128×128, 64×64 and 48×48 PNGs.

Free Furry Cushions Social Icons Set

A Free Sophisticated Premium Peel Over Icon Set

Silver Button Social Media

Glossy Orange Orb Soc. Media

New & Free Social Media Icon Set For Your Blog

Extreme Grunge Social Icons

This high quality, hand made, icon pack is full with 20 Extreme Grunge Social Media Garments. Each icon is in .png format with transparent backgrounds, sized at 256×256px. Icons are free for commercial and personal use.

Free Set of 25 Icons from TurboMilk

This set of 25 web icons in 3 sizes was created by Eugene Artsebasov and the illustrious Turbomilk team!

Beer Cap Social Icons

Featuring the PNG goodness you’ve come to love in 3 sizes: small (48 px), pint (64 px) and pitcher (128px).

Old Bottle Crowns Icon Set

This set contains 20 200px x 200px PNG files that you can easily resize and edit for your website design.

Social Cubes – Exclusive Vectortuts+ Free Pack

If you’re looking for high-quality social icons for your next web project, then check out these icons. This set of 18 high quality freebies is available to download today! Enjoy!

Free Social Media Icon Set: Chrome

This set includes 19 social networks along with a standard RSS icon in PNG format.

108 Glowing Neon Social Media

108 Glowing Neon Social Media Icons, 512px * 512px Free for personal and commercial use

Gummy social icon set

This icon set consists of 12 social icons, in PNG and EPS format as well.

Free Set of Social Media Icons

In this set, you will find 23 different icons that is perfect for content-centered websites such as blogs, news sites, etc. You will find PNG, ICO, and BMP file formats of various sizes (up to 512×512px) for ultimate flexibility and usability.

T-Shirt Social Icons

Available in two durable materials, PNG and EPS, at the comfortable size of 128×128 pixels.

Amazing 3D Social Icons

A brand new set that consists of 20 3D icons in PNG format (64×64 & 128×128pixels).

Social Icons Made of Wood

Here’s another social icon set from webtoolkit4.me. This time the theme is wood. The set consists of 11 icons in PNG format (64 x 64). It’s free for both personal and commercial projects.

New free social icons sticker set

Tabbed Social Media Icon Set

81 Pixel perfect Social Media Icons

108 Black Inlay on Steel Social Media Icons

Nuovo set Social icons

Social and Web Icons

Social Media Comment Bubbles

Extended set of social icons

Location: Free Social Media Icon Set

Set of social icons no.2

Icons Cloud

Aquaticus Social Icons

Social Media Mini Iconpack

Social Network Icon Pack

Page Peel

Social Bird Iconset

Twitter Bird Icon Set

Polaroid icon set

Twitter icon set

Café Icon Set

Free Social Media Icons

Free Set of Social Media Icons – Rivet Social

Folder Style

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The gap between the desktop/laptop and the mobile device is becoming smaller and smaller, it has never been a better time for mobile app development – The market is huge, very lucrative and highly profitable. Our ever growing appetite for more powerful and better mobile devices has pushed the demand even higher for ever more powerful and better applications to accompany them.

The expectation on the apps UI design is just as demanding. The design has to not only be consistent with whichever mobile OS you are developing for, it also has to be distinctive enough to be unique. And yes, we do love a well designed app.

In this post we are sharing 14 free mobile application development icon sets. For the most part the icons below can be mainly used for the iPhone or Android, there are even some Symbian icon sets, but for the life of me I could not find a single free icon set for BlackBerry development. Anyone know of any?

Android Icons

This Android developer icon set includes 30 .png menu icons plus the additional source files (.eps) for further customization.
All of the icons are distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license. Feel free to use them in any form in you projects or even remix them.

130 Glyphish iPhone Icons

The Glyphish icon set have designed and carefully optimized specifically for use on toolbars and tab bars in iPhone apps, but would also be perfect for Android Development.
The 130 icons are 24-bit .png images are about 30×30 pixels for tab bar icons and about 20×20 pixels for toolbar and navigation icons.
These icons have been shared under a Creative Commons Attribution license.

160 iphone Toolbar Icons (The Working Group)

There are 160 clean and simple toolbar icons in this set designed specifically for the iPhone, with a source .psd file for futher customisation.
These icons have been released inder a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license. You may use the icons for both commercial and non-profit purposes, as well as modify them until your hearts content.

iPhone Toolbar Icon Set (app-bits)

This set of 64 icons for the iPhone toolbar that contain beautiful shaded portions to give added depth and to highlight the icon features.
These iconshave been licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. So, don't edit the icons in any way without permission but you can freely use the icons for commercial or non-commercial work.

Android Developer Common Icon Set

The design and style of these icons have been based on some of the icons that are contained within the Android SDK. In total there are 24 .png Glyphs with the option of the following sizes: 16×16, 24×24, 32×32 and 48×48 pixels.
Despite the restrictive appearance of the screenshot, these icons are completely free.

Android Developer Common Icon Set II

This icon set contains icons designed for use in the Menu, Lists, Tabs (selected and unselected) or Dialogs, with the correct sizing sorted into appropriately labelled folders.
In total there are 15 glyphs all in .png format.

Gesturecons – Multi-Touch Icons

These vector based icons have been created to help in the design, development, implementation and promotion of multi-touch interfaces. You can use Gesturecons inside of your applications in order to demonstrate to users how to complete actions or prompt them to interact with an application when they approach it. You can scale them to any size and alter them in any way you wish.
Within the download package there are 52 high resolution vector icons entirely scalable and alterable (.pdf, .ai, .eps file types.).
This work is free to use and is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Free iPhone Toolbar Icons (PixelPressIcons)

These icons have been developed specifically for iPhone developers, completely free for anyone to use commercially under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Canada license. You may use or modify these icons in any way as long as you credit www.pixelpressicons.com.

108 Mono Icons (Minimal Icons)

There are 108 simple icons included in this set. The icons are avaliable in 32×32 px .png (transparent background) format.
This icon pack comes with 108 gray icons, but you can easily customize the color. In Photoshop, use layer styles and apply Color Overlay to customize. In Fireworks, simply apply Filters → Adjust Color → Color Fill and choose your color!

30 Free Vector Icons (Dezinerfolio)

In this icon set there are 30 free vector icons with an apple touch and feel about them and perfect for mobile app development. The download contains the .psd source file.

TOKEN Icon Set

The TOKEN iconset includes 128 unique icon designs, available in both dark and light variants. The download package contains both .ico (256×256, 32×32 and 16×16) and .png (128×128) formats. There is also a .psd file including the layer styles for each reolution.

Web UI & Button Set

This set has not been specifically designed for mobile developement, but could be easily used. The set contains the following elements in three distinct styles: glossy, satin/light gradient, and single-color. The satin/light gradient set is available in 7 different colors (which you’ll find all of in the psd file).

Mobile Icon Set

This mobile Icon Set includes Phone Call, Photos, Messages, Calculator, Wireless, Calendar, Settings, Contacts, Notes and Map all with the sizes: 128, 64, 48 and 32px.
You are free to use these icons for Personal and Commercial Projects.

478 Free SVG Vector Icons – The “Seven” Icon Pack

All you Symbian theme developers out there you will love this resource. In this original “Seven” style icon package you will find essential Nokia Carbide files, as well as 478(!!!) original fully vectorized icons for theme development.
On the web site they say you will need a password to the .zip file is (which is zomggimmeyoicons), but when I downloaded them I never needed one.

You might also like…

The Top 50 Web Development Icon Sets from 2009 »
8 Free Pictogram Icon Libraries and Collections »
40 Fresh and Free Icon Sets for Web Designers and Bloggers »
35 Original and Creative Free Twitter Icon Sets »
50 High Quality Free Icon Sets in PSD Format »
50 Social Service and Bookmarking Icon Sets for Bloggers »
50 of the Best Ever Web Development, Design and Application Icon Sets »
42 Amazing Photoshop and Illustrator Icon Design Tutorials »
96 of the Best Ever Free Icon Sets – For Web Designers, Developers and Bloggers »
35 Free Icon Sets for your iPhone – Pimp it Up! »
30 Amazing Free Vector Icons, Buttons, Stickers, Banners, Labels and Speech Bubbles »
Free Icon Set for Designers – The Go Green! Icon Set (108 Icons) »

  

Photo manipulation is an art that requires lots of patience along with the expertise in Photoshop and other photo editing tools. With your creativity and imagination, you can manipulate any photograph the way you want! Now it’s all about your imagination and using Photoshop’s effects and other tools cleverly.

You simply have to experiment with different effects to see what feeling they give you as having expertise in Photoshop can help you greatly in producing amazing results. Here we’ve compiled a list of 40 great photo manipulation tutorials that would astonish you!

Photo Manipulation Tutorials

How to Create Glass Transparency in a Cute Photo Manipulation
In this tutorial you’ll learn how to incorporate glass into your work. We’ll learn a good technique for incorporating glass transparency into photo manipulations, while placing a cute, pirate hamster on the high seas. Let’s start!

Design a Surreal Desert Scene in Photoshop
In this tutorial artist is going to show you how to create a surreal time-themed photomanipulation using Photoshop. The name of this photomanipulation is “Time Guardian” and it was originally created by Mariusz Karasiewicz

How to Make a Melting Camera Scene
In this tutorial, we’ll use the Layer Mask Tool and Liquify filter to “melt” the camera. Artist recommends you work with a tablet for this one (it makes your work easier), but if you don’t have one it is also possible to go through this tutorial. Let’s start!

Blend a Planet Transparently into a Photo Manipulation
In this tutorial Artist will show you how to use different blending modes to blend flying hairs easily and to make semi-transparent planet. He will also show you different techniques of adjustment to get the most realistic results in your photo manipulations!

Making of the Imaginary Paint Dancers
Artist came across the amazing set of Paint Tossing freebies from Media Militia the other day and thought that he must create some artwork with them. So he visited my favorite Mjranum’s stock gallery again and done up this tutorial. Hope you will like it.

Robot Woman Photo Manipulation
If you want to take your photo manipulation skills to the next level, then we have an awesome tutorial for you. Learn more at the jump!

Alien Invasion
A step by step and detailed tutorial, you will find it very useful and interesting.

How to Create a Steampunk Style Illustration in Photoshop
Go simultaneously backward and forward in time with this Steampunk tutorial. The main focus, aside from the style of course, is fusing elements from different sources together to create a cohesive whole. There are many tricks to this end and we shall be looking at light sources, shadows, and image grading.

Create a Cyborg With Photoshop
In this tutorial you’ll discover how to incorporate mundane, everyday objects into a photoshop cyborg manipulation. Combining household objects with 3D renders is a technique that can and does have interesting results.

How to Create a Mythical Creature Photo Manipulation
If you want to take your photo manipulation skills to the next level, then we have an awesome tutorial for you. Learn more at the jump!

How to Create a Chilling Photo Manipulation in Photoshop
In this tutorial artist will show you how he created a fantasy photo manipulation called “You Can Not Frost The Time” with using several Photoshop tools such as Color Range, different blending modes, and more. Let’s get started!

How to Create a Fantasy Landscape Photo Manipulation
In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a fantasy landscape using some simple and easy techniques. Everyone with basic Photoshop skills can succeed to recreate this simple image using the most important thing in this kind of photo manipulation – the right stock. So let’s go!

How to Create a Fallen Angel on Fire Photo Manipulation
If you want to take your photo manipulation work to the next level, then we have an exciting tutorial for you. We’ll work with fire and other images to create this fantasy scene. Learn more at the jump!

How to Create a Dark Emotional Photo Manipulation
This is a tutorial with a simple idea: to create an emotional photo manipulation. Following this tutorial, you will learn how to blend different images to make a dark atmospheric background, modify the dress of the model, apply makeup, paint hair, blend different objects in the background, and more – all to create a moody illustration. So, let’s start!

How to Create a Surreal Photo Manipulation with Twisting Water
In this tutorial, we’re going to create a fantasy photo manipulation mixing different images and learning to use and modify the stock images in a creative way. The idea is to get a compact image that looks absolutely real, and at the same time, absolutely impossible!

Photo Manipulate a Falling Angel
Learn how to combine several photos to create a dramatic ‘fallen angel’ scene.

Animal King Photo Manipulation
In this photoshop tutorial, you’ll learn how to mash up a series of photos in a highly creative poster based on a famous painting from the 1800’s. Let’s get started!

Design an Epic Fantasy Scene with Photoshop
In this tutorial we are going to create a photo manipulation inspired by Valhalla.

Create an Explosive Cover with Precise Photo Manipulation Techniques
In this tutorial, we’re going to make a creative illustration in a style meant for a video game cover or sci-fi book cover. We’ll create this with mostly photo manipulation techniques. With some cool Photoshop options you can turn all the photos you chose, into one stunning looking explosive cover.

Design a Dramatic and Surreal Rainy Scene with Photoshop
Learn all about how to manipulate images and combine them to create surreal scenes, in this case a rainy scene. Also, numerous details are covered in this tutorial such as adding highlights, shading, excellent photo-manipulation techniques, and more. Learn all about it at the jump!

The Making of Mystic
In this tutorial Nik Ainley walks us through the process of making a spectacular image. This tutorial focuses on the big picture steps taken to create this image. You’ll learn some incredible techniques in this tutorial, and get a view into how Nik creates beautiful photo-manipulation based images. Let’s check it out.

Fantastic Disintegration Effect inspired by Watchmen in Photoshop
In this tutorial artist will show you how to create the disintegration effect using brushes and the blur filter. It’s really simple and you will be able to create nice designs using this sort of trendy style of effect.

Making of the Magical Heroes
In this tutorial We will be creating a game poster with magical theme. This tutorial shows how to draw a sword from scratch and also introducing some of the latest high quality brushes on the internet.

Create amazing water-drenched photomontages
Nik Ainley shows you how to make a splash, blending two very different images to create this amazing underwater effect, complete with a dissolving figure of a man.

Torture a Man and Stitch himup
Transform a man into a torture victim with a couple tricks and some basic tools.

Creating a Glowing Sphere in An Inverted Image
Learn how you can create an interesting image by adding in some simple Photoshop effects and by inverting its colors! Inverting an image can sometimes produce unexpected results, and in this tutorial, you’ll learn and practice Filters – Liquify, Blur and Lens Flare tools to create additional effects and elements to make it more stunning.

How to Create a Mystery Photo Manipulation in Photoshop
In this tutorial artist will show you how to create a mystery photo manipulation using Photoshop brushes, different blend modes, and more. Let’s get started!

How To Create A Ripping And Tearing Poster Effect
In this tutorial we are going to turn a flat, artificial poster into something that looks as if it’s been hanging around on the wall for a long time.The initial poster was created using techniques that we have covered in previews tutorials. As you can see, it’s a brash image that looks nothing like a real poster.

Mysterious Hollow Dark landscape
A step by step and detailed tutorial, you will find it very useful and interesting.

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. We’ll use some relatively simple techniques to give this image a semi-realistic, stylized feel. Let’s get started!

Scared Photomanipulation Tutorial
This tutorial will be a little different than all the other tutorials. Here artist will teach you some basic things about Photomanipulation.

How to Create a Slice of Nature Photo Manipulation
Today artist is going to show you how to put together a complex tree illustration. The idea for this tutorial is to show a workflow from concept to finish, not just so you can copy this illustration, but so that you can take the ideas behind it and use them for any design you have. It’s not just the finished design but the process we are after.

Self-initiated abstract art
In this tutorial artist will show you how – with a little time on your side – you can overcome the common myth of low budget work, creating an impressive piece of abstract work using Photoshop.

Dreamy photo effect
In this tutorial we will take a photo and use different color adjustments and something like pattern floral brushes to make it better or to make a different mood to our picture. So let’s go.

Dazzling Dance Photo Manipulation
In this detailed and lengthy Photoshop tutorial, you will learn how to combine photos and add special effects to turn a normal photograph into a stunning artwork. You will also learn several tricks to reduce your Photoshop document file size and number of layers and layer styles.

How to Create a Fantasy Scene with Death
In this detailed tutorial you will learn how to create a fantasy scene with death.

How To Create a Futuristic Sci-Fi Scene
In this tutorial, artist will guide you through the steps to create a futuristic sci-fi scene. We will transform original pictures using Photoshop tools that will help to give the image a more spectacular look.

Create a Colorful Woodpecker and Tree Scenery
This tutorial is intended for everyone who is beginning at digital drawing/painting, if you like drawing and Photoshop then you are the perfect candidate to follow this tutorial.

Create a Beautiful Lonely Fantasy Fairy
This tutorial will explain how to make a beautiful fairy from a single source image. We’ll go over each step on how to make the feathers, the hat, the background, the grass and the mountains.

How to Create a Severed Arm in Photoshop
In this tutorial we will be learning how to create a severed arm with fleshy stumps and strings of sinew. This will be created by using some basic Brushes and Layer Masks. Let’s get started!

Other Useful Resources

• Photo-manipulation Tutorials
• 30+ Most Wanted Photo Manipulation Tutorials in Photoshop
• 18 Fresh Photoshop Photo Manipulation Tutorials
• 60 Elegant Photo Manipulation Tutorials

  

The design profession is full of happy folks, and understanding why so many designers enjoy their work is not hard. But not all are so happy. If you’re not careful, the joy of getting paid to pursue your passion can be tainted by the less joyous realities of the professional world.

You see, no matter how skilled you are as a designer, unless you are equally prepared in professional matters, your prospects will be limited and your circumstances compromised. This is true whether you work freelance, for an agency or in-house with a company.

Every week I hear from designers who are struggling to come to terms with these realities. Unhappy with their current circumstances, they write to ask for advice on improving their lot. Usually, they either claim not to understand how things got so bad, or they lay the blame somewhere other than at their own feet. In every case, however, the sole cause is their poor choices and lack of professional acumen. It needn’t be so.

Design is craft, but no matter how skilled you are as a designer, unless you are equally prepared in professional matters, your prospects will be limited and your circumstances compromised. Image source

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Professional Diagnosis

Here, I’ll paraphrase a few emails I’ve received from designers seeking advice. For each, I’ll diagnose the situation, explain in no uncertain terms what should have been done to avoid the situation and suggest a strategy the designer can follow to improve their circumstances.

These circumstances are not uncommon. Many of you reading this are likely experiencing similar problems… or may at some point in the future. I hope that the information, advice and strategies presented here will help you avoid these and other problems.

1. From A Freelance Designer

Question: “I recently graduated from design school and have started freelancing, and I’m wondering how you get clients? How do you get your name out there?”

This person may just as well have jumped out of an airplane and then asked, “Now, how do I go about finding parachute? Oh, and should I land somewhere specific? How exactly do I do that?” Even so, this lack of foresight is quite common. The immediate lesson is that you shouldn’t become an independent professional with little to no professional experience, with no prospects and knowing little to nothing about the business.

Fresh out of college or design school, you’re not a professional; you’re a technician (by definition, the opposite of professional). For the next few years you should be acquiring the skills, knowledge and understanding required of a design professional. The place to do this is in the company of peers and under the wings of mentors: at an agency or in house with a company. The successive lessons and built-in support system inherent in these environments are essential to a designer’s professional development.

The way to “get your name out there” is to establish a pattern of excellent work and a reputation for integrity over several years, while you let your agency or company carry the burden of acquiring clients and running the projects. If you are any good, in time you will earn the respect of your peers and superiors, establish a good reputation (spread by word of mouth) and acquire professional acumen. If in that time you make any effort at all to share your work and thoughts with the wider design or business community, your name will become known (through word of mouth and your portfolio or blog), and your reputation will be built on substance rather than on social marketing’s smoke and mirrors. This would be the appropriate time to embark on a freelance career.

As a freelancer, you’ll be running the whole show. So, you’ve got to be an ace at finances and budgeting; at speaking with and converting potential clients; at knowing what to discuss in order to weed out unsuitable potential clients; at preparing all manner of legal and project-specific documents, writing proposals, project management, intra-project client communications (and being the confident, unflinching pro in the face of every client request, question and distasteful situation); at dealing with dozens of types of unforeseen issues without hesitation; at maintaining tax information and constantly preparing various tax and business forms; at marketing, preparing and maintaining your own branding and identity, with its various elements; and at knowing how to begin and conclude all kinds of projects confidently. Oh, and you’ll also need a constant flow of interested potential clients.

If you’re not confident and accomplished in all of these areas, then you’re not ready to be a freelance designer.

Freelancing is only suited to seasoned professionals. Pursuing a freelance career as your first step in the profession is almost always a foolish move. Professionalism is maintained by habit. If your first step is a misstep, you’ve set a poor tone for the work ahead. Unless you immediately correct your mistakes, the habits you’ll develop will be clumsy and unprofessional.

The way to “get your name out there” is to establish a pattern of excellent work and a reputation for integrity over several years. You need to be good at whatever it is you are doing. Image source

2. From An Agency Designer

Question: “I’m not very good at the discovery meeting with clients. I’m never really sure what to ask or how to figure out what sort of design they’re looking for. My project manager or C.D. usually ends up asking most of the design questions. What’s the best way to handle this situation?”

This is a common issue for designers at agencies, especially those with little experience. Luckily, an agency is a good place to gain experience and competence. But the question signals a few issues that require attention.

First of all, design questions are not really appropriate during the discovery process. Granted, specific branding constraints may need to be defined and understood, but the design you will craft will come not from the client’s judgment and understanding of design but from yours alone. The design will be your articulation of what they need, based mostly on their business aims, the website’s purpose, their customers’ needs and expectations, the end users’ specifics, etc. In fact, if you ask no design questions at all, you’re probably on the right track.

Imagine for a moment that you’re a physician trying to determine the best course of treatment for your patient. In that situation, you would not ask the patient what he thinks should be prescribed. Instead you would inquire about his symptoms, history, environment, physical needs (e.g. is he a pro athlete, or does he simply need to be able to get around normally?). The answers to these questions will define the constraints and indicate the appropriate course of action. Your patient’s opinion on what prescription would be appropriate is likely irrelevant; he came to you because he lacks the ability to help himself.

Go into the discovery meeting prepared. Before the meeting, learn as much as you can about the company, its history and its past and current activities. Script a list of questions—some specific to this client and some appropriate for any client—to get the ball rolling. These questions will serve as a springboard to more in-depth discussion, which in turn will flesh out what you need to know.

One more thing: you’re the design professional and it’s your responsibility to conduct the project successfully. You (not the PM or CD) should be driving the discovery. Use your time at the agency to improve your discovery skills, taking on more responsibility with each successive client. Reflect on each project’s discovery process, and look for ways to improve the process and your questions. With time and effort, you should become competent in this essential part of the design process.

3. From A Freelance Designer

Question: “Some of my clients expect three or four (or more) comps from me. But that’s a lot of work, and I would prefer to show just a couple. Should I just charge more if they want more comps? How do some designers get away with just one or two for all of their clients?”

These are interesting questions, and they beg a couple more:

1. Why is this designer allowing his clients, who are not designers, to set the number of design comps?
2. Why is he letting quantitative preference rather than qualitative necessity frame his understanding of the issue?

Good design is not found by picking from a pack of arbitrary options, but is rather the result of deliberate, contextual choices. Taking a scattershot approach to design is in no way effective. Your clients may not appreciate this, but you certainly should! Your responsibility is to ensure that your clients don’t shoot themselves in the foot.

The only person who knows how many design options are appropriate is you: the designer who is engaged in the process. And in almost every case there is one best design solution. Sometimes another compelling direction is worth considering and presenting to the client, but this cannot be known until you have fully engaged in the process, conscious of the parameters specific to that project.

In most cases, you’ll explore a host of options during the design process. A thorough exploration will cull a majority of the trials, leaving only the most appropriate and compelling candidate(s)—one or two. These and only these design options should be shown to the client. Inferior designs should never be presented, even to fulfill a request for more options (options for what: mediocrity?).

As a freelance design professional, or even as an agency designer, your responsibility is to define how many design options to present in a given situation. If a potential client insists on a less effective and less professional process, do not agree to work with that client. Compromise never brings excellence and has no place in design or professionalism. If you become comfortable making this sort of compromise, other compromises will also become easy for you. Your clients deserve and are paying for more than a compromised design.

4. From An Agency Designer

Question: “I seldom get to meet my clients before I present design comps to them. By that point, the projects almost always become a tiresome series of re-workings of my original ideas. How can I change this?”

One wonders what these original ideas were based on if the designer has never met the clients. If so, either 1) this person is at the wrong agency, and/or 2) this person lacks the professional understanding or the backbone to insist that she decide how the agency should structure design projects and client-designer interaction.

Relationships are built on trust, and trust is born of experience and understanding. Your client cannot trust someone they have never met and who they know nothing about. So, when designs are presented by someone the client has never met, no wonder the client is a bit reticent and inclined to second-guess the designer’s decisions. These and the ensuing problems are all a result of the designer’s failings. Yes, it’s on you. Always.

As the designer and an aspiring professional, you must insist on driving the design process. This means that you must be the one to meet with the client in the beginning. If a project brief is required, you must be the one to create it, based on your direct conversations with the client and his team.

If your agency has a process in place that prevents you from fulfilling your responsibilities, your options are either to change the process or to find a better agency. Anything less relegates you to an irresponsible practice in an unprofessional environment. Hopefully, this is not acceptable to you, because it would erode the habits you are professionally obliged to cultivate.

5. From A Freelance Designer

Question: “I love to design, and I think I’m pretty good at it. But I’m not comfortable talking to clients. Whenever I’m on the phone or in front of a client, I get very nervous. I think my nervousness makes me seem less capable, and I’m pretty sure I lose some of my client’s confidence. What can I do to correct this? Should someone else do the talking?”

Effective communication is one of a designer’s most important jobs. Every communication, whether by email or phone or in person, is an opportunity to demonstrate value and win confidence. And if you don’t demonstrate value, you’ll seldom win confidence. Like designer #1 above, you may simply not be prepared to be a freelance professional.

If you fail in communicating, no matter how skilled a designer you are, you won’t get the chance to ply your skills very often, and seldom for the best clients. The best clients are those who invest complete trust in their designers. That trust must be earned before any actual designing happens (see designer #4 above).

And no, someone else should not do the talking. The design professional’s job is to show confidence when dealing with clients. No one else can communicate your value or win trust for you. The reason clients distrust those who do not communicate with confidence is because this trait signals other incompetencies. This may sound harsh, but it’s a fact: if you’re not confident, it is because you lack capability (whether professional competence, design skill or perhaps vocabulary)… and you know it. Address this void, and your confidence will shine through.

If you lack confidence in conversation, start to address this deficiency immediately or find another calling. Otherwise, you may have a bright future as a production artist somewhere, but not much of one as a design professional. Design professionals are experts at every aspect of interacting with people.

Confidence aside, it goes without saying that excellent vocabulary is an important component of effective communication. People judge you by your words, as well they should. Knowing this, your professional responsibility is to work on your vocabulary, just as you work on your design ability: daily.

Professionalism

Skill in design is only part of what defines a competent professional. Professionalism is also measured by integrity, preparedness in handling and interacting with clients, and breadth of understanding in the myriad of issues that will confront you in the course of working with others (whether clients, co-workers, employees or others). Professionalism is also measured by how well you uphold ethical standards in making the difficult decisions in every area of your work.

Talent and skill can make you a technician; and a technician is, as we noted, not a professional. For context, think of traditional professions: lawyers, doctors, architects. The enormous responsibility they are entrusted with, and their ability to carry out that responsibility across the scope of their work, makes these people professionals. Thus, an able professional would not be troubled by the questions posed in this article. Rather, they would know precisely how to proceed or how to circumvent these issues. If you have any of these questions, you may not be prepared to be a design professional.

Professionalism is also measured by integrity, preparedness in handling and interacting with clients, and breadth of understanding in the myriad of issues that will confront you in the course of working with others. Image source

All of these situations result from designers believing that being a good designer is good enough. This profession has little room for those who lack a professional’s integrity and broad understanding. Designers who are willing to compromise and simply accept the faulty decisions that are handed to them have had their profession stolen from them. These designers have no business working with clients who pay good money for professional service.

Be better than this. Your first step to success is to assume your rightful responsibility for everything that involves you. Dissatisfied with the flawed structure at your agency? You chose to work there; change your circumstances. Frustrated by your perpetual lack of prospects and stalled reputation? Sounds like you’ve got deficiencies to address. Overwhelmed by the challenges and complexities inherent in freelancing? You probably started freelancing without sufficient preparation.

Fix it. You fix it. It’s all on you.

Designers: you get paid to do what you love. How great is that!? But this fortunate and enviable situation leads to fulfillment only if you take full ownership of your profession. Otherwise, you’re carrying a time bomb. When it goes off, your career will either falter or be blown to smithereens. Don’t let this happen to you. Educate yourself. Have the courage and integrity to habitually make good choices so that you enjoy a long and happy career as a design professional.

(al)

© Andy Rutledge for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | 96 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
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