GraphiCult

Be Insured!

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 12:44:00 +0000

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If you call Statefarm or another insurance company, they will attempt to sell you just the insurances they offer. And while Statefarm may offer cheaper home insurance quotes, their car insurance may cost more than Mercury. Therefore, you should never stick to one company when purchasing insurance.

On our site, you will be to access quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc. All you have to do is pick the plan that works for you!

Our customer service agents are standing by to help you purchase Life Insurance, Car Insurance, Health Insurance, and/ or Home Insurance in Los Angeles. Our website will guide you to many compatible insurance offers.

Call their toll free number: 1-800-475-6840 or visit their website: Auto Insurance Los Angeles

MyMovees - Watch Movies & TV Episode Online

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 01:20:00 +0000

Great news to all movie buffs! You can now watch your favorite movies & TV shows at the comfort of your own home. MyMovees.com lets you watch the latest blockbuster movies right in your PC, anytime, anywhere! Plus, they have a vast archive so you can conveniently watch any movie may it be recent or old with just a click of a button.

watch movies

Government Ad Photoshop Disaster

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:58:00 +0000

For quite some time i've been noticing these ads in Yahoo!, not surprising since it'll be election season next year. It looks like the gov't has been spending some money on online advertising, whatta way to spend public funds, as if we're not gorged already with all those Ads we see on TV. Anyways, i think they should fire their Graphic Artist. Look at the Ad below, both the old man and Pres. Arroyo are looking at diff. directions, and what's with the fake smile Madame Pres?

Another ad.. the same fake smile.

And I find it funny how the headline below is juxtaposed with the Ad.

I'll be practicing my right to vote for the first time next year and I do hope it goes to someone worth it, i don't want to settle for the lesser evil or lesser the good.

AKO MISMO ang SIMULA! L.o.L. Although they (ABS-CBN) have an obvious presidential bet, i like their tagline.

Let's Vote Younglings!

Braving Asia's Longest Zipline

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:42:00 +0000

I'd like to share this video of me and colleagues conquering ZipZone - asia's longest zipline at the Dahilayan Adventure Park, Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon. The cable's 840-meter long with a 100-meter vertical drop. It was really extreme, 2 minutes of adrenaline rush!!

And here are some pictures:

More to come!!

My Own Cartoon Hero

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:10:00 +0000

Here's a character i made for a TShirt collaboration at DBH, it's for the benefit of the typhoon Ondoy & Pepeng victims. If this gets printed together with the other designs, Please Purchase!!! =) Besides, this is to aid those who are in need and you get to have an awesome Shirt!!

Anyways, his name is Tarshee, he's a Tarsier and an exceptional archer (duh!) ehehe.. here's the original sketch and the final output respectively.

Will post updates with the shirt soon, so stay tuned! =)

Finalist for the Philippine Blog Awards 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:32:00 +0000

Wasn't expecting this at all! My blog is one of the finalists in this year's Philippine Blog Awards [Best Blog Design Category]! I'm ecstatic! Considering that my blog is barely 2 months old this is a major feat for me.

Just making it to the list is such a great honor. =) Thank you PBA!

Click here for the full list of finalists.

Holloween TShirt Design

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 11:42:00 +0000

I have another design up for voting in DBH. This design was inspired by the famous scene in the movie The Excorcist, the only difference is that the man is dragging a sack, leaving a trail of blood.

Click the image if you want to vote. =)

South Park Less Toony Version

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 06:53:00 +0000

Here's a really cool artwork depicting the South Park kids in a less cartoony fashion. I wasn't able to find the source though, one link led to another and so on (you know how it works).

click to enlarge

I haven't watched the series yet, since it's unavailable through cable TV. Though back in high school i was able to watch the movie, and it was knockout funny! So, here are the characters & their less toony versions:

Damien, Token & Pip

Timmy, Clyde & Cartman

Stan, Kyle & Kenny

Jimmy, Thomas & Butters

Craig & Tweek

Who's your fave character? My vote goes to Kenny! Don't ask why. =)

Update:

I found two more versions which are as awesome as the ones above!

South Park Anime

Source

South Park in Real Life

Source

Funny Caricature

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 04:45:00 +0000

Uh-oh! Little Missy doesn't seem so happy, what more when she sees her caricature!?

I think the artist was drawing what her future self would look like. LoL

Magazine Covers Then & Now

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:43:00 +0000

Here's a compilation of magazine covers from the early 1900s in contrast with their recent versions. I'm surprised to know that most of these magazines are almost, if not, a century-old.

American Girl

1927

2007

Cosmopolitan

1940

2007

Country Home

1932

2007

Fortune

1930

2007

Good Housekeeping

1909

2008

Ladies Home Journal

1949

2009

Popular Mechanics

1905

2009

Redbook

1940

2008

TV Guide

1949

2006

Vogue

1915

2007

So which do you like better, the Old or the New? I think it all boils down to personal taste, i like most of the old cover designs and i admire the skills of the artists/editors/publishers back in the days where they didn't have the convenience brought about by computers. Wish they could bring back the artistry instead of all the "photoshoppery"!

Another DBH T-Shirt Design

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 10:01:00 +0000

I have another design up for voting in Design by Humans. Click the image to vote. ;)

Liquify Filter Tools

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 16:15:00 +0000

One of the most commonly used image manipulation tools in Photoshop is the Liquify Plug-in. It features 8 different image-distortion tools. Let me demonstrate the effects of these tools by using this sexy image of Megan Fox (wink, wink).

If you want to tag along, open an image in PS then go to Filter>Liquify or press Shift+Ctrl+X.

Here are the Liquify Tools:

Wrap Tool - Freehand distortion

Turbulence Tool - Ripple effect

Twirl Clockwise/Counter-clockwise - Self explanatory

Pucker Tool - Shrinking effect

Bloat Tool - again, self-explanatory

Pixel Shift - Compresses the image to the left while
pressing downwards, to the right if otherwise

Reflection Tool - self-explanatory

So now you know how fashion magazines make their models super skinny, just remember not to overuse it. =) And that's a wrap!

An Atheist, a Christian & a Scientologist

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 17:17:00 +0000

I just wanna share this hilarious comic strip from Dueling Analogs.

Why can't we just get along?! LoL.

Power Puff Girls Anime Manga Version

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:23:00 +0000

I haven't been that prolific lately so i wanted to post something special. I spent an hour thinking of something interesting but to no avail. I ended up eating and sat down with my younger sister who was watching the Power Puff Girls, this got me thinking... what would they look like when they're all grown up??

I wanted a fight scene, but i just went ahead and drew whatever was on top of my head, so below was the sketch that i did, it's and overgrown Mojo Jojo gripping a post-pubescent Blossom.

I scanned it and spent 2 hours coloring and adding some details.

And below is the finished product, click image below to view it full size.

And that's it for this post! See yah!

How to Make Your Own Caricature Part I

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:53:00 +0000

In this tutorial i'll share some basic tips on making your very own caricature. The primary tool that we'll be using is the Pen Tool one of the most powerful tools in PS, you may also refer to this article for further reading.

1. Create a new file and paste the portrait you want to draw. For this tutorial i'm using Megan Fox!
2. Adjust the opacity to 50% (upper right of the image below).
3. Select the Brush Tool (B) and choose the Hard Round Brush, size 5px.
4. Create a New Layer on top of it (Ctrl+Shft+N), you can name it Trace, because that's what we'll be doing, tracing the portrait down to the smallest details.
5. Select the Pen Tool (P) and start tracing, after you finish tracing a certain part, right-click then select Stroke Path, make sure Simulate Pressure is checked, then click OK.
6. Continue tracing the other parts, some parts require bolder lines, so switch back to the Brush Tool and change the size of the brush, after that go back to the Pen Tool and trace again.

It may not look much in the beginning, but as you go on and add more details, it'll start resembling your subject.

If you want a more detailed tutorial in using the Pen Tool, Click here.

7. Here's how it'll look like once you finish tracing all the parts of the face.
Remember to include the distinguishable marks (mole, wrinkles, clef chin, etc.), so that it'll look more identical to the person you're drawing.

Below are the different brush sizes i used for tracing various parts of the face.

Here's the half-finished product:

So that's it, basically what we did was to make a blueprint of our caricature. On the second part of this tutorial, we'll start with the coloring. Till then!

Menu Design

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:22:00 +0000

Here's a recent project i just finished. I designed this menu for a steakhouse, the color palette is based on the interior of the restaurant, which is rust & brown.

The Clipping Mask tool came in handy with this project, 'coz all i had to do was determine the placement of the panes and i just clipped pics to each pane so that i can easily move it without distorting the entire layout.

The best part of this project was eating/tasting everything that's in the menu which were all DEEElicious!! Perks y'all!

Amazing Motion Sculptures

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 16:10:00 +0000

These amazing sculptures are by Peter Jansen, European artist extraordinaire. His sculptures depict the human body in motion.

Thomas Flair

Arabesque

VanAnaarBeter

Pretty neat huh?! For more of his works, visit his online portfolio here.

How to Isolate Specific Color Shades in Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 08:21:00 +0000

In this post i'll teach how to isolate specific colors using the Color Range feature in PS. Like the posters below of the movie The Spirit, you notice that shades of red are emphasized on an otherwise black&white photo.

1. Open the image you want to edit.

2. Go to Select>Color Range>Click Reds on the drop down box.

3.It'll automatically highlight the areas which is of the specific color shade you chose.
4. Copy & Paste (Ctrl+C & Ctrl+V), it should create a new layer. Click the base layer (Layer 1) and go to Image>Adjustment>Desaturate (Ctrl+Shft+U).

Just flatten the image, Layer>Flatten Image then adjust the contrast to get the desired effect. And there you have it!

Link Exchange

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 01:51:00 +0000

Blogroll

Chibibo- Portfolio and Blog - Chibibo is a portfolio of T-Shirt Designs and a Blog of various articles in regards to Technology, Health and Softwares.

Demilane - A Blog of Rogelio Calamaya

IT Support Services - Outsourced IT management services from Managed Networks.

If you're interested in exchanging links with GraphiCult, please comment on this post with your site Name, URL & description and post a reciprocal link to my website in your links page.

Inglourious Basterds Movie Poster Effect Tutorial

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:57:00 +0000

I'm an avid fan of Quentin Tarantino films, and i wouldn't wanna miss Inglorious Basterds once it hits the cinemas here in PH, it's topbilled by Brad Pitt & Diane Kruger. For more info on the movie, click here. Anyway, let's go on with the tutorial..

I really like the grungy look on these promotional teaser-posters and it's not that hard to achieve this effect.

The above images are a copyright the Weinstein Company

Let's start off with the raw materials, i got these images from stock.xchng which offers free stock images.

Concrete background:

Splatter effect:

1. Create a New File, with the Concrete image as your background and the Splatter effect on top of it. Change the blending mode of the Splatter layer to Darken (highlighted below) and change the Hue/Saturation (Ctrl+U), see settings below.
2. Go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Gradient Map, click OK (Step 1 on the image below) and Select the Black,White gradient (Step 2), click OK then make sure the Blending Mode is set to Multiply. (This layer should be on top of the Splatter Layer).
3. Create a new Layer(Ctrl+Shft+N), select the Gradient Tool (G) and following the settings highlighted below. Click on the center then drag the pointer to get the effect below. Set the Blending option of this Layer to Overlay.
4. Create another Layer, and Select the Brush tool and choose the Rough Round Brush Tool, lower the opacity, you may follow the settings below. Paint on the Layer randomly, particularly on the sides.

5. Go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur, set the angle to 90 & distance to 500+.
6. Go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise>Set the Amount to 60%+, make sure Monochromatic is checked.
7. And We're Finished! You just need to add your cropped pic above the 1st gradient Layer.

taaddaahhh!!!

And that's the end of this tutorial! Hope you liked it :)

Another Shirt Design for DBH

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 07:25:00 +0000

I made another entry for DBH. The inspiration for this design, believe it or not, is a sliced onion, 'twas supposed to look something similar to this:

But i just couldn't help it, i duplicated the layers, changed the blending modes, altered the composition, etc. and i ended up with something that looks like an xray. hehe.

Speed of Light

Art should be spontaneous right?!

Miss Venezuela Wins Miss Universe 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 03:28:00 +0000

Ms. Venezuela, Stefanía Fernández is the new Miss Universe, crowned on August 23 in the Bahamas. Venezuela is the first country to win the coveted title back-to-back!

Congratulations!

Check out her Wiki page here.

Free Favicon Host : ICONJ.com

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 15:47:00 +0000

Having a unique favicon is significant since it serves as the identifier of your website, especially when your site's bookmarked. Blogger has this default favicon that i was planning to change since last week, but i just couldn't find a free file host that supports .ico files.

For those who aren't familiar with what a favicon is (i just knew about it 2 weeks ago, hehe), it's the small icon on the tab or address bar before the page title.

If you're like me who relies on free webhosting, ICONJ is the answer. Just create a favicon and save it as a jpg file or any common image format (gif, png), upload it and they'll convert it to .ico, and they even host the file for free! The best part is you don't need to sign-up, it's so good & easy i just had to blog about it! ;)

The Most Embarassing Facebook Post EVER!

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 11:24:00 +0000

This is the funniest Facebook blooper yet. Poor Tracy, didn't know that status updates are being broadcasted to her network. She should learn that there's no such thing as privacy in the internet. I feel bad for her, imagine the humiliation, but this made me LoL big time!

Click to enlarge.

Neat & Simple Website Header Tutorial

noreply@blogger.com (Don) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 08:10:00 +0000

The header plays a vital part in a website, because it's where the Logo, Main Menu & other essential components of the blog/website are placed. It's what the visitors notice first, and its aesthetics create the initial impression of what your website is about. In this tutorial, i'll share some tips on how to create a neat & simple header that's suitable for both corporate and personal websites.

1. Create a new file, then add a new layer (Ctrl+Shft+N) name it Base.

Click the Rounded rectangle tool (U), and the settings should be the same as the ones highlighted below. Then Create a rectangle with the appropriate width.

2. Right click on the Layer & select Blending Options, or just double-click. Then check the options for Gradient Overlay & Stroke, below are the settings:

3. Create another Layer on top of the Base layer (name it Highlight) and Select the Ellipse Tool (U).
The ellipse will serve as the highlight of your base layer. Make sure the settings are the same as ones highlighted below:

Set Blending Mode to Overlay and Opacity to 30%. Right-click on the Layer and duplicate it, Select the Move Tool (V) and tilt the duplicated layer, do this one more time and you should end up with something like this:
4. Create another Layer and select the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M), and make a rectangle that covers 3/4 of the base layer .

Select the Gradient Fill Tool (G) and choose the Black&White Gradient. Click on the middle of the marquee & drag it downwards, after that set the Blending Mode to Overlay.

5.Place the Logo on the left side, select the Text Tool (T) and type the contents of your menu. Right-click on the text layer and click Blending Options, check Outer Glow and copy the settings below.

6. Create another Layer for the input field, select the rounded rectangle tool & make a search field. Take note of the settings below, make sure your foreground color is White.

7. Again, create a new layer, choose a light foreground color (i chose yellow), You'll just need to create a smaller rectangle for the Search Button, right-click on the Layer & copy the settings below:

8. As a final touch for the header, I used the image below and blended it with the Base Layer, make sure the image is placed on top of the Base Layer and below the other Layers (Highlight, Text & Search Field).

Determine a good placement for the image and set the blending mode to Luminosity.You should get an effect similar to the one below:

9. Just trim the edges by using the Eraser Tool (soft brush).

And now you have your very own sleek header!