Get Your Twitter On

Did you know that the NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) and Layers Magazine are on Twitter now? Do you Twitter? Well if you do, then this is your chance for worldwide fame…sort of.
Anyway, if you follow either NAPP News or Layers Magazine on Twitter, this is your chance to shine with this new design contest. The challenge is to design or re-design your Twitter home page. Now, I know that there limited features when it come to customizing your home page, but that’s where the real creativity comes in. Once you have completed a new page then simply post a link to it in the comments section of this blog post. The deadline for this little project is July 29, so have fun.

What will you win?
The first place winner will receive a copy of Scott Kelby’s Photoshop CS3 for Digital Photographers training DVD and a copy of Layers: The Complete Guide to Photoshop’s Most Powerful Feature by Matt Kloskowski.

Second Place will receive a copy of Illustrator Down & Dirty Tricks by Corey Barker, as well as the Illustrator Manifesto booklet and the Photoshop CS3 Hot Tips booklet.

Third Place will get one year subscription to Layers Magazine and the Photoshop CS3 Hot Tips booklet.

So get to it and have fun Twittering!!!

July 22nd, 2008 | Corey Barker | Blog | Comments (59)

Get The Wheels Turning

As you know Photoshop World is getting close. In fact, the early bird special is just 11 days away. This is your chance to save $100 off the full registration price, so hurry!
Signing up is important, however, I wanted to talk about another aspect of Photoshop World that I am always excited about and that is the Guru Awards. This is the contest to showcase your talent. There are seven categories to enter your work such as photography, artistic, photo-retouching, photo-restoration, commercial, photo montage and illustration. There are a host of prizes for the winner in each category and there is a best of show award. But more than the prizes, this is a chance to get your work seen by an audience of thousands and you never know what doors these can open. This contest is only for attendees and the deadline for entries is August 15, 2008. So look through your portfolio or get those creative wheels grinding and make your mark. Click here for the official rules.

July 21st, 2008 | Corey Barker | Blog | Comments (1)

A Fresh Perspective

So I just had to mention this because I was so impressed by it. Just the other day I watched a truly fascinating documentary, simply titled Helvetica. It is a story about the evolution of this pervasive typeface. The documentary examines Helvetiva’s origins and its implementation over the years as the standard font the world over, but more than that, it examines the way graphic design has changed over the past decades and how the technology has changed as well. Anyone that works in today’s design industry will find this a fresh perspective on how type influences our everyday lives, even when we don’t realize it. If you’re serious about graphic design, you should see this film. Find out more about this movie here.

July 18th, 2008 | Corey Barker | Blog | Comments (5)

Photoshop in the News?

In the news recently there was a published photo of an Iranian missile launch which has received tremendous scrutiny from the imaging community because it has obviously been retouched. The photo was worked on to make it appear as though there were more missiles than there actually were. With Photoshop being the main culprit in this, it has brought a famed image editor to cable television. Here is a clip from the Daily Show on Comedy Central. It’s a hilarious take on this and perhaps even a sign of the future of digital warfare or maybe someone is just having too much fun with Photoshop. Anyway check out the clip here and enjoy.

July 16th, 2008 | Corey Barker | Blog | Comments (0)

Another Interesting Blog

A couple weeks ago I stumbled across another rather interesting blog. It’s simply called The Pixar Blog and it covers various aspects of Pixar projects and personalities. Being the Pixar fan that I am I am always reading it to see what’s going on. In fact, one entry I found rather peculiar. This young lady decied to record herself watching the Wall-E teaser on her computer. She was so moved by what she saw that she literally started crying. Now I thought it was a good teaser but WOW! Here’s the kicker, that video got posted on YouTube and eventually got viewed by the higher ups at Pixar. They were so moved by how much she was moved that they invited her to the Wall-E wrap party at the Pixar facility. Click here to see the entry and the video there is also a link there that tells of her Pixar experience. From now on, I am going to record myself watching every movie trailer that comes out.

July 14th, 2008 | Corey Barker | Blog | Comments (6)

Photoshop World Early Bird Closing In

Yep, it’s that time again. Time to gear up for Photoshop World. Once again we’re off to Las Vegas. If there has ever been a good reason to go to Vegas, this is it. If you are planning on going you will really want to take advantage of the early bird registration which saves you $100 off the full registration price. This offer ends on August 1st. Now I know what you are thinking. You have plenty of time and you’ll get to it in the next week or two. Don’t wait. Do it and be done with it. It’s going to be a blast. There are all new pre-cons this time and the tech expo will be open all three days of the event. If you have never been be sure to check out the cool Photoshop World movie on the Photoshop World homepage. Here’s the link.

July 10th, 2008 | Corey Barker | Blog | Comments (0)

Interesting Blog…

Yes, I am blogging about a blog, but it’s a cool one. I came across this blog purely by accident last week while I was cyber-loafing. It’s a blog that is all about movie posters. It’s called PosterWire.com and it’s a really interesting site that talks about the various aspects of movie poster design — the artists, the filmmakers. They even have awards for different genres of film. The posts are few and far between but it’s still interesting stuff nonetheless. There are even some entries that talk about how Photoshop has become the choice tool for most, if not all, movie marketing. I, for one, bookmarked this site and will visit it often. Check it out.

July 8th, 2008 | Corey Barker | Blog | Comments (2)

Couple Monday Goodies

There is a new episode of the hilarious “You Suck at Photoshop” series or should I say, the award-winning series. Anyway this time takes a stab at Smart Objects. One of my most favorite Photoshop features and as usual you can expect the same raw humor delivered in his patented irreverent style. Isn’t t that what made it famous though. Check it out. Just don’t let your boss catch you.

Last week Scott Kelby posted a couple segments of a phone interview he had with attorney Ed Greenberg regarding the legalities of copyrights, model releases, shooting in public, etc. If you are a professional photographer, you may find this very interesting. Check it out here.

July 7th, 2008 | Corey Barker | Blog | Comments (0)

John Nack | Illustrator Stuff

Yesterday John Nack was the guest blogger over at Scott Kelby’s blog. For those of you that don’t know, John is the Senior Product Manager for Adobe Photoshop and he is definitely the one who is in the know when it comes to everything Photoshop. I was in California a few weeks ago with RC and we had the chance to sit and chat with John for a couple hours just talking shop. Super cool guy! Any check out his post here. Really interesting stuff. He even addresses the results of the poll that Scott took on features you would like to see in Photoshop.

A few people have been asking me if had any Illustrator tutorials online. The answer is yes I do. You can find them over at LayersMagazine.com. As this site is just Photoshop, the Layers site contains other tutorials using other apps in the creative suite. You can view my Illustrator tutorials here.

July 3rd, 2008 | Corey Barker | Blog | Comments (0)

Cool Mac Video + CDW Deals

This is cool. Somebody must have gotten really bored over a long weekend put together a rather clever little music video. The interesting thing is that it is done on a Mac…literally. They used the various Mac apps and even some Adobe apps (Photoshop) to edit together a music video right on screen. I simply can’t imagine how long this must have taken but it is just cool. Click here to see.

Right now if you upgrade to CS3.3 you get Fireworks and Acrobat 9. However, if you buy the upgrade at CDW you will also get a free month of Kelby Training (through July 30).
Now’s a great time to think about that upgrade!

• Call CDW at 888-491-4239 toplaceyourorder, or visit www.cdw.com/adobe
• Email a copy of your CDW invoice to cdwoffer@kelbymediagroup.com
• Once your CDW invoice is received, Kelby Training™ will email you a unique code—giving you unlimited access to its library of online classes for one full month.

July 1st, 2008 | Corey Barker | Blog | Comments (0)