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Comment to Win a Design Treasure from BundleHunt!

BundleHunt is a new project of Noura Yehia (the founder of Noupe) that provides designers with a wealth of resources for a fraction of the price. Bundle Hunt has offered to give free bundles to five readers of the Vandelay Design Blog!

Bundle Hunt offers $1,400 worth of resources for a ridiculously low cost of $49. The bundle includes the items shown below.

BundleHunt

We’re especially excited about BundleHunt because we have the privilege of being a part of it. The bundle includes 100 premium resources from our recently launched Vandelay Premier.

The bundle will only be available until August 16th. You can stay up-to-date by following BundleHunt on Twitter or Facebook.

Giveaway Details:

If you would like to enter to be one of the five winners please leave a comment on this post. On Saturday, August 7th the 5 winners will be selected at random. At that time the winners will be contacted by email and this post will be updated to announce the winners.

Good luck!

UPDATE: The contest is now over. Thank you to everyone who participated. The winners are:

  • Terri
  • Khaz
  • Eve
  • Hygor Budny
  • Justin Chmura

Win a Free eCommerce and Discussion Forums License Package from concrete5!

concrete5, an up-and-coming open-source content management system, has offered to give a lucky blog reader an eCommerce and discussion forums license package! The total value of these two licenses is $145.

Concrete5

I first came across concrete5 in last year while researching a post on content management systems, and I was very impressed considering it was a CMS that I was not familiar with. concrete5 is free and open source, but if you don’t want to download it and set it up on your own server you can also host it with them. Hosting plans start at less than $8 per month and go up to a dedicated server for $250 per month (free trials available). Their hosting accounts come with support, which may be helpful especially when using a CMS for the first time.

One of the main features of concrete5 is in-context editing, meaning you don’t have to go to a dashboard or admin panel to edit the text and images on the site. For working with non-tech-savvy clients, this can be a great feature.

Concrete5

Other noteworthy features include:

  • Automatic navigation menus
  • Track versions and compare differences
  • File manager with bulk upload and image manipulation using Picnik
  • Detailed permissions create editor groups, approve content, and see an audit trail
  • Drag-n-Drop content
  • Flexible meta data & vanity URLs for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  • Scrapbook lets you copy content and functionality from one part of your site to another
  • See more

The system is also well-documented. Their site includes a “basics” section that includes documentation (including videos) on the various features and how to use the system. There’s also a developer’s guide that includes all the information needed to get started working with the CMS.

Concrete5

The concrete5 community seems to be rather active with a forum, job board, and member network all located on the concrete5 site.

There is also a marketplace where you can buy add-ons, such as the eCommerce and discussion forums licenses being given away here. The marketplace includes add-ons developed by concrete5 as well as others from various developers. The marketplace also includes themes for purchase ($20 – $25), as well as a number of free themes.

If you’re looking for the right CMS for a specific project I recommend that you see what concrete5 has to offer.

The Giveaway Details:

The winner of this giveaway will receive a free license for the eCommerce add-on and the Discussion Forums add-on. To enter the giveaway please leave a comment on this post, and be sure to leave a valid email address so we can contact you if you win. On Friday, July 2 we will select the winner using a random integer generator, and this post will be updated at that time.

Good luck!

Add Motion To Website: jQuery Animation Plugins From 2010

In our niche it’s very important to be up to date with latest technologies and features available to impress new clients, show of in portfolio and add functionality more easily – using some advanced code snippets, plugins or hacks.

jQuery possibilities are growing rapidly and there are many people who play with code and discover some amazingcombinationsachieving effects you have never seen before!

You will find here many plugins which will help to add motion, 3d effects and animation to your website! This list will blow your mind away with possibilities – ready?!!!

1. AJAX-ZOOM – Image Zoom – Pan Gallery plugin

AJAX-ZOOM is a sophisticated image zoom & pan gallery plugin based on jQuery and PHP. With over 250 options it is very flexible and can be integrated into any website.

Download Now | View Examples

2. Image Rotator

Simply rotates an image by a certain degree or allows the user to rotate an image by dragging around a central axis.

Download Now | View Example

3. Cloud Zoom

The Cloud Zoom plugin is comparable to commercial image zoom products such as Magic Zoom. Compared to the popular jQZoom plugin, Cloud Zoom is smaller, has more features and more robust compatability across browsers.

Download Now | View Example

4. jQuery Before/After Plugin

Download Now | View Example

5. jQDock

Transform a set of images into a Mac-like Dock menu, horizontal or vertical, with icons that expand on rollover, and optional labels.

Download Now | View Example

6. Visual Lightbox – Create fantastic lightbox-style galleries and slideshows. jQuery LightBox Plugin.

Download Now | View Examples

7. Image Bubbles

Image Bubbles is a cool Flash-like effect that causes an image to bubble up and expand whenever the mouse rolls over it from within a series of images.

Download Now | View Example

8. jQuery Panel Magic

jQuery Panel Magic is a new take on website navigation. Using a matrix or grid style layout for your website, you can easily implement this plugin for small websites and web applications. It gives you more room for your design and provides a cool new approach to a sitemap.

Download Now | View Example

9. iCheckbox

Convert a checkbox or multiple checkboxes into iphone style switches.

Download Now | View Example

10. jqFancyTransitions

jqFancyTransitions is plugin for displaying your photos as slideshow with fancy transition effects.

Download Now | View Example

11. Images In All Size jQuery Plugin

Download Now | View Example

12. Text Effects

Download Now | View Examples

13. jCoverflip

jCoverflip is a jQuery cover flow widget that allows website administrators to present featured website content in a visually appealing manner. The widget is quick setup and is highly configurable, and can run as a Drupal Module or standalone.

Download Now | View Example

14. BxSlider

bxSlider is a jQuery content slider plugin that is light weight and easy to use.

Download Now | View Example

15. jScratchcard plugin

Download Now | View Example

16. jQuery Menu Style 1 – Drop Down Menu with Visual Effects

View Examples

17. Frame Animation Plugin for jQuery

Download Now | View Example

18. Cusor Hover Buttons

This plugin lets you create a two-layer button with one layer that follows the mouse. This method allows you to create some very professional effects on your site.

Download Now | View Example

19. jQuery carrousel

The core allows to create your own controls or effects. This plugin transform an “ul li” into an animated carrousel.

Download Now | View Example

20. 2D Transform

This plug-in utilizes the matrix filter in IE and the new CSS3 transform properties to 2d transform any DOMElement.

Download Now | View Example

21. jPhotoGrid

This plugin displays a list of image thumbnails in a grid and allows them to be zoomed open. It’s a cool and simple effect.

Download Now | View Example

22. jMagnify

jQuery jMagnify, plugin attach a ola effect to some text following the mouse position.

Download Now | View Examples

23. animaDrag: Animating Drag and Drop Plugin

Download Now | View Example

24. jOla

Download Now | View Example

25. Flight Board

This plugin sets a division to flip between text messages like a flight board at an airport. It alternates between two or more messages by flipping individual characters.

Download Now | View Example

26. 3D Cloud Carousel

This is a fast and cross-browser implementation of a 3d carousel – looks very nice, more like a Flash implementation. It can create dynamic reflections underneath the carousel items, is accessible and degrades nicely without JavaScript.

Download Now | View Example

27. 3D Feature Image Carousel

This plugin rotates images in a three dimensional (simulated) carousel. Optionally, all images can have a description element attached to them that pops up on an overlay whenever that image rotates to the center.

Download Now | View Example

28. Smooth Anchors jQuery Plugin

This plugin creates a simple animation for anchor links by quickly scrolling the page to the area where the anchor is at rather than just jumping right to the anchor like normal.

Download Now | View Example

29. HoverAttribute

HoverAttribute is a jQuery plugin that allows you to make (link-)elements more dynamic by making an attribute of that element show up on hovering.

Download Now | View Example

30. Expanding Grid

Creates grid system out of divs. On hover the active grid expands to ratio set by the config, fades out the background.

Download Now | View Example

Win 500 Premium Business Cards from UPrinting!

Our friends atUPrinting have offered to give 500 premium business cards each toeight readers of the Vandelay Design blog! If you’ve been wanting to impress potential clients with some high-quality business cards, this is your chance to get them for free.

UPrinting

If you’re not familiar with UPrinting, they are an online printer offering a wide variety of products including brochures, flyers, posters, calendars and much more in addition to business cards. They have templates to help you design yourbusiness cards online, and they offer custom printing services to meet your specific printing needs.

The Giveaway Details:

Eight winners will receive:

  • 500 premium business cards
  • Sizes: 2 x 3.5, 2 x 2 (square card) or 1.5 x 3.5 (slim card)
  • Paper: 14 pt gloss cardstock, 14 pt matte cardstock or 13 pt recycled uncoated cardstock
  • Full Color Both Sides
  • Free UPS Ground Shipping (U.S.)

Eligibility: Limited to US Residents only, must be 18 and above to enter

If you would like to enter the contest, leave a comment on this post. You can tell us why you would like the business cards, how you would use them, or simply state that you would like to enter. Winners will be selected on Friday, May 28th using a random number generator. This post will be updated to list the winners and the winners will be notified by email. UPrinting will provide the winners with instructions for claiming their prize.

Good luck!

Best Tutorials From Web To Learn Photo Retouching

Preview-photoshop-ultimate-roundup-os-retouching-tutorialsRetouching is very neccesary if youre a photographer. It can be pretty fun if you just want to try it out as well. In this article there are collected newest and best retouching tutorials from the web. Of course there are a lot more outside, but I believe you dont need them all. You can find anything here from the basic skin smoothening with gaussian blur to complex picture part extracting from background.

Tutorials are sorted in categories, so there shouldnt be any problem finding the right one for you. I didnt create this article for you to scroll down 100 same, old, basic tutorials and just tweet them further. I created it for you to find something useful for you, acutally read it and learn something.

Skin

1. Retouching Skin Tutorial

Learn the basic things to do when you need to smoothen someons skin a bit. If you arent familiar with the art of retouching, you should take a quick look into this.

Retouching-skin-photoshop-ultimate-roundup-os-retouching-tutorials

2. Superb Skin Airbrush Technique

This is pretty basic tutorial as well. If you didnt like the previous one, take a look into this and Im pretty sure you will understand the basics of skin smoothening.

Superb-skin-airbrush-technique-photoshop-ultimate-roundup-os-retouching-tutorials

3. Skin Softening Tutorial – High/Low Pass

Video tutorial learn how to smoothen skin tones, while retaining skin detail and texture using High Pass filter.

4.Create Action for Smooth Airbrushed Skin

In this tutorialyouwill seehow to create an action to use in your photos for simple retouching jobs using blurring techniques and grain filters.This is recommended only for beginners, because you cant replace retouching skills with an action.

5. Removing Skin Blemishes With The Spot Healing Brush

Learn how to ably use Spot Healing Brush Tool to remove blemishes and clear up ugly spot.

Removing-skin-blemishes-with-spot-healing-brush-photoshop-ultimate-roundup-os-retouching-tutorials

6. How to Get Perfect Skin

Litte bit more explained and advanced use of default retouching tools Healing Brush, Clone Stamp, Gaussian Blur.

How-to-get-perfect-skin-photoshop-ultimate-roundup-os-retouching-tutorials

7. Soften Skin with Surface Blur

Another easy, fast way to smoothen skin. You will see the difference between Surface and Gaussian blur here. Ofcourse this blurring doesnt replace work with Healing Brush Tool, but it aint so bad either.

Whole face

1. High-End Facial Retouching Video Tutorial

This is a video tutorial that’ll teach you to make the necessary steps in high-end fashion/skin photo-retouching on all of your photographs.

2. Correcting Reflective Make-Up

This video tutorial shows you one way to address reflective make-up on a model or in a portrait.

Correcting-reflective-make-up-photoshop-ultimate-roundup-os-retouching-tutorials

3. High Quality Portrait Retouching

In this tutorial youllbe demonstrated the level of editing that goes into removing any discrepancies in the skin.

4. De-Aging in Photoshop

See some of the common retouching tools in action.

5.Professional Photo Retouching Tutorial

Another tutorial to see retouching in action and learn something you didnt quote understand from writen tutorials.

Hair

1. Professional Hair Retouching

Learn not just how to change hair color, but also how to remove unwanted strands, work with shadows and highlights, boost image vividness.

2. Change Hair Color With Photoshop

This tutorial will show you how to change the hair color easily with Photoshop. You can experiment yourself with color tones to achieve different outcomes.

Change-hair-color-in-photoshop-ultimate-roundup-os-retouching-tutorials

Whole Photo

1. Professional Photographic Retouching Tutorial

In this video tutorialyou will be guidedinto acomplete, professional photographic retouching from start to finish. Additional to all the standart retouching techniques, youre also going to learn how to simulate realistic depth of field and how to enhance some photos areas.

2. How To Straighten Crooked Photos

In this Photoshop tutorial, we’re going to learn a quick and easy way to straighten crooked photos.

How-to-straighten-crooked-photos-photoshop-ultimate-roundup-os-retouching-tutorials

Face Parts

1. Easy Digital Nose Job In Photoshop

In this tutorial you’re going to learn how incredibly easy it is to give someone a digital nose job.

Easy-digital-nose-job-in-photoshop-ultimate-roundup-os-retouching-tutorials

2. How to Digitally Paint Lip Gloss

This tutorial demonstrates how to use digital painting with a drawing tablet to create the illusion of lip gloss on bare lips.

How-to-digitally-paint-lip-gloss-photoshop-ultimate-roundup-os-retouching-tutorials

3. Face Shaping

Learn how to change the shape of nose, chin, lips, eyes etc using Warp and Liquify Tool.

Quick Tips

1. Whiten Teeth in Photoshop

Learn how to quickly whiten teeth in Photoshop in just a couple of minutes.

Whiten-teeth-in-photoshop-ultimate-roundup-os-retouching-tutorials

2. Virtual Weight Loss in Photoshop

Learn how to use Liquify Tool to remove overwightusing Photoshop.

3. Removing Makeup in Photoshop

Really easy tutorial showing you how to get rid of the needless make up using just Brush Tool.

4. Eye Make Up

Learn how to easily apply make up to eyes. You can use this technique to other face parts as well.

5. Retouch Eyes

Learn how to hightlight eyes, apply a bit of make up to make them look beautiful, not hyperbolic.

Retouching-eyes-in-photoshop-ultimate-roundup-os-retouching-tutorials

6. Dodge and Burn Tool Retouch

Learn how tu use Adjustment Layers, Dodge and Burn Tool to achieve similar result if you would used something like Healing Brush Tool.

Dodge-burn-tool-retouch-tutorial-photoshop-ultimate-roundup-os-retouching-tutorials

8. Changing Eye Color

In this Photoshop photo retouching tutorial, we’ll learn a very simple technique for changing someone’s eye color in a photo using a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. This is basiccly the most popular way to change the eye color. After you get more familiar with other Adjustment layers, you can experiment with them too.

Change-eye-color-in-photoshop-ultimate-roundup-os-retouching-tutorials

9. How to Quickly and Effectively Clean Out Body Hair in Photoshop

Use Smudge Tool to quickly clean out body hair. This technique isnt nearly as good as Healing Brush Tool, but it can be a good time saver and sometimes the effect isnt so bad.

How-to-quickly-effectively-clean-out-body-hair-in-photoshop-photoshop-ultimate-roundup-os-retouching-tutorials

10. Applying a Realistic Tattoo

In this tutorial you willhave demonstrated an advanced technique to achieve a realistic tattoo.You will be using masks, adjustment layers, displacement maps, and several brushing skills will be applied.

Applying-realistic-tattoo-photoshop-ultimate-roundup-os-retouching-tutorials

11. Using The Red Eye Tool Non-Destructively

This photoshop tutorial will show you how to use Photoshop Red Eye Tool tool in a non-destructive way. You will alsosee you how to use the red eye tool to create a mask that you can use for any kind of red eye correction.

Using-red-eye-tool-non-destructively-photoshop-ultimate-roundup-os-retouching-tutorials

12. Healing Brushes

See how all of the Healing Toolswork.

Color Adjustments

1. Awesome Photorealistic Coloring Techniques

Awesome-photorealistic-coloring-techniques-photoshop-ultimate-roundup-os-retouching-tutorials

2. Fix Tone and Color with Levels In Photoshop

Learn how to use basic Photoshop Adjustments to make your photos look more professional.

Fix-tone-color-with-levels-in-photoshop-ultimate-roundup-os-retouching-tutorials

3. Simple Focused Lighting Effect In Photoshop

In thistutorial, we’re going to look at how to bring focus and attention to a specific part of an image using a simple and easy to create lighting effect.

Simple-focused-lighting-effect-in-photoshop-photoshop-ultimate-roundup-os-retouching-tutorials

4. Advanced Color Correction Tutorial

In this tutorial youre going to learn how to use Curves adjustment with concrete Channel. It is a more sophisticated technique of removing unwanted color casts

Advanced-color-correction-tutorial-photoshop-ultimate-roundup-os-retouching-tutorials

5. Add Dynamic Lighting to a Flat Photograph

In this tutorial, you will seehow to spice up a fairly dull and flat photograph. Its very easy and fast. Go from flat photo to a uniquely lit style.

Add-dynamic-lighting-to-flat-photograph-photoshop-ultimate-roundup-os-retouching-tutorials

6. Using the Selective Color Adjustment

This is a tutorial on how to use the selective color adjustment layer in photoshop to optimize colors and tones in your photos.

Landscape Retouch

1. Retouch a Damaged Photograph

In this Photoshop tutorial we’re going to improve the quality of a landscape photograph. Learn how to reduce noise, fix damaged areas and use Adjustment layers.

Retouch-damaged-photograph-photoshop-ultimate-roundup-os-retouching-tutorials

2. Improve Colors of Your Photo

Learn really basic Adjustment Layer techniques to achieve good looking result.

Improve-colors-of-photograph-photoshop-ultimate-roundup-os-retouching-tutorials

3. Landscape Retouching and Editing in Photoshop

A video tutorial on how to retouch landscape photos; includes information on brightness adjustment, sharpening, noise reduction, proper flattening, and artifact removal.

4. Professional Sharpening For Landscape Images

Learn how tu use Smart SHarpen Filter and get the effect done with blending modes.

Professional-sharpening-for-landscape-images-photoshop-ultimate-roundup-os-retouching-tutorials

5. Enhance Photography

Enhance many aspects of your photography such as saturation, contrast, sharpening techniques and finish of the final presentation with an extremely slick border.

Extracting From Background

1. Selecting & Extracting Hair – Masking Tutorial

One of the most challenging montage or masking jobs in the profession of post-production editing is the hair lift. Learn how to extract hair from background with masking.

Selecting-extracting-hair-masking-tutorial-photoshop-ultimate-roundup-os-retouching-tutorials

2. Background Replacement Tutorial

A tutorial showing you how to add backgrounds and textures to your existing images using Color Range and Layer Masks.

3. Advanced Selecting Hair

Watch step by step videohow to use channels to extract difficult image areas like hair.

4. Digging into Channels as an Extraction Tool

Learn how tu use channels as an extraction method. Again, the example is a portrait with hair in it, so you could see the power of this technique.

Digging-into-channels-extraction-tool-photoshop-ultimate-roundup-os-retouching-tutorials

Further Resources

  • 10 Free Retouching Photoshop Files
  • 70 Beauty-Retouching Photoshop Tutorials
  • 26 Professional Photoshop Retouching Tutorials
  • 50 photo retouching tutorials
  • 23 Professional Facial Photoshop Retouching Tutorials
  • Glenn Feron Portfolio
  • Greg Apodaca Portfolio
  • Nikos Vasilakis Portfolio
  • Euphoria