Brave trailer

Since ancient times, stories of epic battles and mystical legends have been passed through the generations across the rugged and mysterious Highlands of Scotland. In "Brave," a new tale joins the lore when the courageous Merida (voice of Kelly Macdonald) confronts tradition, destiny and the fiercest of beasts.

Google to Sell Heads-Up Display Glasses by Year’s End

People who constantly reach into a pocket to check a smartphone for bits of information will soon have another option: a pair of Google-made glasses that will be able to stream information to the wearer’s eyeballs in real time.

Quick retouching steps

Every morning I have myself a nice cup of coffee, sit at my desk and find an interesting image to grace the cover of morguefile.com. This is one of the more fun parts of my day. After diving into our massive archive and finding a great photo I begin the process to crop and upload to the front page of the site. Before I upload the image, I usually repeat a few simple task to really make the image pop. Here are some very quick and basic steps to make your images look great using Adobe Photoshop. This takes literally takes seconds and will make a huge difference. While these instructions are specific to Photoshop, the fundamentals are the same.

 

First we have this great image of a plastic snowflake that I used one day for the cover. I really liked the image, it has a great feel and nice composition. You may notice it has a bit of a yellow tinge. This is from the tungsten light that gives the image a very warm tint or temperature. This may have been the desired effect of the image, it looks fine like this, but for the purpose of this article I will demonstrate how I changed it with a click. Its also worth noting on morguefile the images are raw material and leave any image correction up to the end user.

 



 

 

Simple, go to menu Image > Auto Color.

 



 

 

Bam! The temperature has been neutralized and the image became much cooler. There is still more you can do to alter the image color and tone, but this little step took all of 5 seconds and made a big difference.

 



 

 

 

Here we have another example of an image of a pencil and an eraser. Great image shot on seamless paper. The background is a little dark but lucky for us, there is an easy fix using levels and the white point.

 



 

 

go to menu Image > Adjustments > Levels.

 



 

 

When the levels dialog box comes up, click on the little white eyedropper on the right.

 



 

 

 

Now the fun part, click around the image and try to click on what should be the whitest point of the image. When you click on the background, the levels will shift all the values in the image to adjust to the new white point. When you are done click OK.

 



 

 

Easy! If you want to adjust a little lighter, click on a darker part of the white background. Just zoom in and keep clicking around until you find the right white spot. You will notice it will also adjust the temperature with it.

Tip: If you want to revert back to where it was, hold down the option key and the cancel button will become a revert button.

 



 

If this seems like a little too much work, you can always just go to menu: Image > Auto Contrast.  or click the Auto button on the levels dialog box. You will get close the same effect. After this I always hit the image with a menu: Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen  after I have cropped, maybe increase saturation, and then upload to the front page. These are the very basic retouching steps that retouchers will do right after they open and image to get started before the dive into rubber stamp world and make more advanced adjustments with tools like curves. Here are a few before and after examples:

 











 

25 billion apple apps

Download the 25 billionth app from apple and you could win a US$10,000 App Store Gift Card.

Tiniest ever transistor made from single atom

By achieving the placement of a single atom, we have, at the same time, developed a technique that will allow us to be able to place several of these single-atom devices towards the goal of a developing a scalable system

dropmark

Dead simple collaboration in the cloud. via swissmiss

iprolens

iPro Lens System Turns iPhone Into a Pro-Grade Camera, although it cost $200!

Photograph With Sound

Photographer Martin Klimas Paints Like Pollock With Sound

fauxgo

A fauxgo (fake logo) is a symbol or other small design created to represent a fictional company or organization that exists only on film.

New fotokoi website launched

Today we are announcing a new fotokoi.com. This new version of the site is a big improvement from the last version and chock full of new fun features. Check it out and tell us what you think.

10 Principles of the Logo Design Masters

vector tuts outlines ten solid-gold principles of world class logo design.

Pinterest infographic

Pinterest has emerged as the runaway social media hit of early 2012.

Erik Johansson: Impossible photography

Ted talk Erik Johansson creates realistic photos of impossible scenes. via petapixel

Daniel Kitson on bandcamp.com

Many, many, many years ago (possibly four or five) Daniel Kitson and Gavin Osborn wrote and performed their first story/song collaboration. They wrote it for Regents Park Open Air Theatre. They then toured it around Australia to modest success. After which they came home and recorded it in a little studio in Crystal Palace - South London. Now it can be yours on bandcamp.

Twelve Things You Were Not Taught in School About Creative Thinking

Great article with 12 points to help you embrace the creative process

Science off the Sphere: Knitting Needle Experiment

Astronaut and chemist Dr. Don Pettit does physics demos that are out of this world. Currently on board the International Space Station, Dr. Pettit presents fantastic physics that can only be demonstrated in micro-gravity.

Scalado remove

Photo tech firm Scalado has revealed its latest smartphone camera app, Remove. This app recognizes moving objects, and lets you remove them from a photo.

Photos of underwater dogs

Great photos from LittleFriendsPhoto of dogs underwater.

2012 World Press Photo Contest Winners

From bigpicture: By the numbers: 5, 247 Photographers, 124 Nationalities, 101, 254 pictures. Three hundred and fifty images by 57photographers of 24 nationalities were awarded prizes in nine categories.

Showcase Of Minimal Web Design

acrisdesign has a roundup of beautiful minimal web design for your inspiration which help you in designing your minimal web design.

Adobe CS6 sneak peeks

creativebits has the sneak peak of the new CS6 from adobe

Ten of the best online ads of January

http://wallblog.co.uk/2012/02/08/ten-of-the-best-online-ads-of-january/

Actors Inside Famous Costumes, Revealed

flavorwire shows us the actors inside some famous on screen costumed characters including Big Bird, Chewbacca and Alf.

Ice age Europe

Europe continues to be blanketed in snow as the cold snap which has so far killed hundreds across the continent shows no signs of stopping. Dailymail has a few images.

 

 

Digital illustrators and concept artist

Like most media industries in the digital age, Illustration and concept art have evolved considerably. 20 years ago creating illustrations on computer was unusual and difficult. Now, while it hasn't replaced traditional techniques, a computer, pressure sensitive table and some amazing software are common tools for many of today’s illustrators. Here are some tremendously talented artists who use digital as their prime medium. The traditional skills employed along with the computer skills shows that while digital technology has changed the illustration game forever, it is still a question of talent, training, and imagination that gives art its beating heart.Here are some tremendously talented artists who use digital as their prime medium.

 

Matt Dixon



Matt Dixon is a freelance illustrator and concept artist from the UK. Matt works exclusively digital. Recent clients include Electronic Arts, Hodder Children's Books, Sony Online Entertainment, Macmillan, Future Publishing and Blizzard Entertainment. He is also the author of 'The Fantasy Artist's Figure Drawing Bible', an instructional book aimed at budding character designers.

mattdixon.co.uk
mattdixon.deviantart.com

 

 

Lois Van Baarle



Lois Van Baarle Lois has lived all over the world, including the United States, Indonesia, France and Belgium. Upon finishing high school in 2004, she studied animation in Ghent for a year and then moved back to her home country, Holland, to study animation at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht. She is currently a freelance illustrator and animator in Utrecht.

loish.net
loish.deviantart.com
www.facebook.com/loish.fans

 

 

Craig Mullins



Craig Mullins went to Pitzer College in Claremont, California, for two years, and then studied at Art Center College of Design to study product design and illustration. He started out as a transportation designer and got a job at Ford in Detroit. There, he discovered that his design sense was a little bit too extreme for the car industry, so he returned to Art Center to study Illustration. Since then, he has worked on many projects as concept artist, illustrator and matte painter. He has moved to Hawaii, where he still lives today with his wife, his two daughters, and his cat.

goodbrush.com

 

 

Michael Kutsche



Michael Kutsche is an award-winning German artist based in Los Angeles, California. He is a self taught artist who works both in traditional and digital media. His work is best described as an astoundingly lifelike depiction of parallel realities, populated by odd characters reminiscent of movies, comics but also Flemish Renaissance Painting.

michaelkutsche.com/ 

michaelkutsche.blogspot.com/
facebook

 

 

Bobby Chiu



Bobby Chiu's art career started when he was seventeen years old, designing Disney, Warner Bros., and Star Wars toys at Thinkway Toys in Toronto, Canada. Bobby has since won a number of awards for his independent work. He presently works as an illustrator for film and teaches digital painting online at Schoolism.com, publishes art books, and works on other top secret projects.

www.imaginismstudios.com
schoolism.com
twitter.com/bobbychiu

 

 

Raphael Lacoste 



Raphael was the Art Director at Ubisoft on such titles as Prince of Persia and Assassin’s Creed, winning a VES Award in February 2006 for his work on the “Two Thrones” cut scene from Prince of Persia. Wanting to challenge himself in the film industry, Raphael stepped away from the game industry to work as a Matte Painter and Senior Concept Artist on such feature films as: Terminator Salvation, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Death Race, and Repo Men. As of 2009, Raphael has returned to the video game industry, working as a Senior Art Director for Electronic Arts and now Ubisoft.

raphael-lacoste.com

 

 

Jason Seiler



Jason went on to study fine art illustration at the American Academy of Art in Chicago for two years before beginning his professional work in earnest. Jason's humorous illustrations have been featured as covers and interior pieces for TIME, Business Week, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, MAD magazine and more. Jason is a freelance Illustrator, drawing and painting for magazines, books, advertising and private commissions. He also do character design for film and teach "Advanced Caricature" for schoolism.com

jasonseiler.com
facebook.com/jasonseilerillustration

 

 

Marko Djurdjević



Djurdjević was born in Koblenz Germany. As a child he exhibited a talent for drawing, inspired by cartoons such as He-Man. As a teenager, Djurdjević became influenced by American comic books such as Spider-Man, a foreshadowing of his later career as a Marvel Comics illustrator. At the age of 17, Marko began working professionally as an illustrator.

 

http://www.sixmorevodka.com
http://sixmorevodka.blogspot.com

 

If you know of any other digital illustrators you think should be added to the list, leave us a comment or drop us an email. Be sure to share this post on twitter or like us on facebook.

 

 

Nikon confirms 36.3 megapixel D800

Nikon's long-awaited FX-format digital thirty six megapixels SLR.

Corning's mind-blowing concept of a glass future

One day we could have high-tech walls made of touch-sensitive architectural display glass.

Perception in the advertising world

If  you have worked on advertising, this may amuse you.

Illustrations in Web Design

designm.ag of 40 Beautiful Illustrations in Web Design

Social Currency Unleashed

Will part of remaking the economy involve rethinking our currency, changing from money supported by governments to money supported by communities? And is Bitcoin the model for this shift, or merely a flash in the pan?

Follow us on twitter

Happy friday. if you haven't done it yet, follow us on twitter. Tell your friends, have a great weekend.

Tag The Mad Men Subway Poster

Madmen returns in March, and here in NYC subway system there are almost entirely blank ads for the show. Perfect canvas for new yorkers favortie past time, graffiti.

Shaolin monks

Tomasz Gudzowaty amazing photo essays including this one of Shaolin monks

 

Solar flares

Wired takes a look at the recent solar flares that have bombarded our planet and provided us with some spectacular photos, and they describe a little of the science.

Sandwich Artist

Creative culinary arts, the sandwich aartist.

Scientists Without Borders in Action Contest

Scientists Without Borders is hosting a contest to highlight your best photography, writing and videos on our website, on Facebook, and via our newsletter. Share you what you and your organization does to advance science without borders.

David Shevlino

Painter David Shevlino was born in Jersey City, NJ in 1962.  He is a graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the University of Pennsylvania.  He has exhibited his work nationally.

Winter photos

Here in New York, winter has seemed to pass us by, or maybe it just our winter decided to move to Alaska. If you are missing winter, here are some beautiful winter weather scenes from the morguefile  free photo archive. You can use them in your own projects, or send one to a friend. Stay warm!

 



By: ericpruis

 



By: gabrielrochette

 



By: mettem

 



By: mconnors

 



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By: mettem

 



By: orchid

 



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By: tinah

 



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By: mconnors

 



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