My most recent photoshop manipulated pics. Munson Creek Falls in Oregon and a Volkswagen Squareback. I’m thinking of finding one of these for sale after I pay off my current car.
Click on them to view full size.

How great is this ad?! Unfortunately I do not have this yet, and probably won’t for a while. A friend of mine just ordered from Adobe, so I hope to test this out soon! This was created by a group that call themselves Art Snob Solutions and you can view some -behind the scenes- pics of their creation on FLICKR.
View and read all the details on CS4 from Adobe HERE.
Read CNET’s Review HERE.
Read PC WORLD’s Review HERE.

I wanted to pass along a bit of info/awareness on a few upcoming movies that look to be great. Let’s hope.
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First up we have a remake of 13 Tzameti! Great Film! I highly recommend seeing the original now.
The remake will feature 50 Cent, Mickey Rourke and Jason Statham starring opposite Sam Riley.
Hmmmm, not sure about that lineup, but I guess we will see. For now, check out the trailer for the original:

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A Smokin’ Aces prequel has just been greenlit from Universal! I’m a big fan of this movie. It was just a bunch of senseless guns a blazin’, but I think the great cast and cameos make it a strong action movie.

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Judd Apatow’s next project is called Funny People.
It will star Adam Sandler, Seth Rogan, Jonah Hill, Eric Bana and Jason Schwartzman!
Adam Sandler plays a 42-year old comic named George Simmons.
Seth Rogen plays Ira, a 25-year-old deli counter worker and aspiring stand-up comedian who performs for free at a small LA stand-up club.
Ira lives with two roommates, an aspiring comedian who has just been accepted to become an Improv regular named Leo (Jonah Hill) , and a sitcom star who likes to gloat about his newfound salary named Mark (Jason Schwartzman).
If this is even half as funny as Pineapple Express, I’m going to love this movie!
We’ll have to wait till July 2009 for this though!
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Ridley Scott is working on his next sci-fi film!
It’s called Forever War based on the 1974 book of the same name.
He intended to directly follow up Blade Runner and Alien with this, but there was problems with the rights.
““I first pursued ‘Forever War’ 25 years ago, and the book has only grown more timely and relevant since,” Scott says. “It’s a science-fiction epic, a bit of ‘The Odyssey’ by way of ‘Blade Runner,’ built upon a brilliant, disorienting premise.” -via Moviemind
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Last, but not least, we have No DO or The Beckoning.(outside Spain)
This will be directed by Elio Quiroga who directed The Cold Hours.
” Shot in Spanish with substantial high-tech effects, “NO-DO” is a horror story in which a woman sees ghosts. The explanation to their appearance lies in an old NO-DO newsreel (i.e., one of the state-sanctioned documentaries made during Franco’s regime).

The film speculates around the little known “Secret NO-DOs”, made in the 40s for the Catholic Church in Spain. It is told that those confidential films were used by exorcists to document supernatural events using a special film emulsion designed for this purpose. Some “Secret NO-DOs” are rumored to be stored in subterranean vaults in the Congregazione del Santo Uffizio, Rome, but its existence is officialy denied by catholic church leaders.”-via Twitch

Throw this into the mix for your Halloween party!
I planned on starting this a long time ago,but I procrastinated and decided to start this yesterday. Took a few hours, but most of that was just finding the material I wanted. The production isn’t perfect since it was rushed, but overall I think it came out pretty good.
If anyone actually listens to this, let me know what you think!
Head over to ZSHARE.NET where you can listen to it and/or download it for yourself!

I just stumbled upon this really great site called WAYBACK MACHINE-The Internet Archive. It has over 85 billion web pages archived from as far back as 1996! Ever wonder what your favorite web site looked like 5 years ago? You can type in the url and go back in time. Viewing Ebay from 9 years ago brings back memories for me. I think that was my most visited site back then.
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On a similar note, Hitwise released the 20 most visited sites in the United States. Yahoo is doing quite well.
Here is the top 10:
1 www.google.com 6%
2 mail.yahoo.com 4.70%
3 www.myspace.com 4.01%
4 www.yahoo.com 3.88%
5 mail.live.com 2.14%
6 www.ebay.com 1.61%
7 search.yahoo.com 1.48%
8 www.facebook.com 1.20%
9 www.msn.com 1.08%
10 www.youtube.com 0.93%

I was on a Metal/Core kick for quite a few years, but when a lot of bands just started sounding exactly the same, I started getting into electro, nu-disco, insert your own danceable music genre name here, etc etc. From time to time though, I still need my Hard Music Fix and I think you do as well. Here is my gift to you today: The track entitled “EBB AND FLOW” from Misery Signals’ new album, “Controller”.
08-ebb-and-flow

MS are from Wisconsin and formed in 2002 with vocalist Jesse Zaraska.
They released “OF MALICE AND THE MAGNUM HEART” which is one of the best metal albums ever created. Certainly in my top 10 of ALL TIME. The two guitarists in the band play some of the best odd time signatures ever heard in metal.

Jesse left soon after that release and Karl Schubach signed on and they then released the album “MIRRORS”, which is another top notch-almost perfect-metal album produced by Devin Townsend.

They have now just released “CONTROLLER”, and Karl has changed his vocal style and the amazing, crazy time signatures aren’t as prevalent. I’m Still warming up to it.
Visit Their MYSPACE and/or Preview all three albums right here courtesy of Amazon Mp3!

There is a TON of “streetwear” brands out there.  I can’t even keep up anymore. If you consider all the people who also use online services to get their designs printed on tees, then there is no way to keep up anyway.

A lot of great ones and some not so much, but in my first “inspirational” post I wanted to put the spotlight on my two favorite brands, Imaginary Foundation and Grn Apple Tree. I own quite a few tees from each. They both use excellent and original imagery, artwork, and typography. I feel there is no better brands to look to for great inspiration.

IMAGINARY FOUNDATION:——————————

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GRN APPLE TREE:—————————————————————-

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Here’s a nice video preview of Grn’s new fall line.

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These are just a small sample of their designs.
Please visit their sites for more info and t-shirts.
GRN
IF

I’d say that this is a big deal for anyone that strives for good SEO techniques when building websites.
It looks like Google has changed their minds on the relevancy of Yahoo and DMOZ links.
There used to be a point on Google’s Webmaster Guidlines page that said something like:
“Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!, as well as to other industry-specific expert sites.”

Google’s John Mueller has commented:”I wouldn’t necessarily assume that we’re devaluing Yahoo’s links, I just think it’s not one of the things we really need to recommend.”
Another new step in the ever changing world of Google SEOing.

Deke McClelland throws all kinds of tips and shortcuts at you faster than you can process them! Very funny video. Every photoshop nerd has to see this! Deke is a poplular author, lecturer, blogger, etc on all things photoshop. “Deke is an Adobe Certified Expert, a member of the PhotoshopWorld Instructor Dream Team, and a regular speaker for the Photoshop Fling cruise seminars.” You can see the video at THIS LINK.(O’reilly Digital Media)

After doing this little picture above, I figured I would do a roundup of tutorials and resources for comic book effects,coloring,fonts, and more. Hope you find these useful.
First I’ll begin with photoshop effects to make your images look they came right out of a comic book.

This Photoshop Roadmap tutorial is the most popular way of creating the comic book effect.

PSHERO shows you their way of creating the effect. Slightly different than most you will find on the net.

This Tutorial will give you more of a newspaper comic strip look.

Pop Art Effects from VECTORTUTS MELISSA CLIFTON

Here is one more way to do this from TUTORIALS ROOM.

Heres a great, easy way of adding shadows to your photos for a comic book feel.

Yet another way to give your photos the dotted pop art look.

Comic book inspired art from PHOTOSHOP TALENT users.
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Now here is a few guides on coloring with Photoshop.

Comic book and graphic novel coloring from TUTHQ.

Photoshop coloring a manga style drawing.

Photoshop coloring
your 3d renders.

Lizkay has a few tips on coloring your drawings with Photoshop.

Here’s a way to use real life textures to color your images.
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Chris Wahl is a great illustrator that uses photoshop to color his drawings.(Like the Audrey Hepburn above) Visit his blog for more samples of his work.

Great walk-through on doing a comic book style poster from GOMEDIAZINE.
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Here are a few sources for more than enough comic book fonts!

Blambot is probably the most popular spot for comic fonts. Both free and pro.

Dafont has A TON of free comic fonts.

Urbanfonts

Superman
fonts including krypton language!
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MAC USERS: Check out this great application from Plasq called Comic Life to start creating your own comics! Check out THIS POST on Mac360 for more in depth info.
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And last but not least, here is a simple comic drawing animation walk-through.
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Care to add to the list? Leave your suggestions in the comments!