Website optimization is an important aspect of a web developers life, as website speed is a determining factor if visitors will stay. In this tutorial, we will look to one small aspect of website optimization, namely the use of image sprites. This will be done with the example of social media icons in svg, which we will render retina compatible with a .png fallback for IE8. What is an image sprite? Image sprites combine reusable images into one single image, thereby reducing the amount of http requests that have to be made. Using CSS and elements with a fixed height […]
My Writings
The harmony sketchtool is an online sketching tool which is just a bit different than many other sketching tools. Featuring brushes which react to each others proximity and to the speed of the cursor, it is a wonderful application to make artistic doodles and sketches. Harmony Sketchtool The harmony sketchtool is an very simple online sketchtool which means that you do not have to download anything. It has several brushes, but pity enough no eraser (there is a clear button though which clears everything in a single click). The background and brush color can be set up, and you can […]
Since WordPress is updated to 3.4, many people encounter problems with their figure captions in HTML5 themes. HTML5 themes are nice, but many still use the old way of implementing figure captions. There is however a solution which is fairly easy, and this will be explained in this article. Now the reason that I share it here is that I first had to delve through some WordPress Support Forum posts, Stackoverflow and websites promoting the wrong solution before finding the solution somewhere hidden in the haystack. Hence, I give props to Andidas for implementing figure captions the right way. The […]
As a Graphic Designer and Visual Artist, textures often come in handy. Also, if you are a 3d modeller or texturer and use programs such as Blender, Cinema4D or Maya, textures are often used. In this article I will share 19 free to use bunker textures. These can be used freely and even commercially, but may not be redistributed. These pictures were shot while having a photoshoot in a bunker. All the files are also available in a handy zip package: Download Textures
This tutorial describes in a few steps how to make a very minimalistic poster advert in Photoshop. It is assumed that you have some basic Photoshop knowledge. You’ll learn to apply some basic design principles, techniques on choosing the right fonts and masking photographs. This will be our final end-result. The total time of completing this tutorial will be around 1 hour. Clicking images will in many cases enlarge the image. As well I like to use as many shortkeys as possible, so they are always mentioned behind the action. The Braun logo and all its rights are property of […]
Even the blockbuster movie 2012 used the Physic Engine Blender is using: Bullit. In this tutorial we will discover some basics of the Physics and Game Engine possibilities within Blender, and make a small game where we can demolish a brick tower. It’s pretty addictive to destroy this tower with a small ball, using the arrow keys on your keyboard. This tutorial is made using blender 2.49 (32bit). Blender is an open source 3d-editor which can be downloaded from blender.org Level: Intermediate. Images will enlarge by clicking them. Hotkeys are given in order, so (S, Z, 20) means that you […]
Medieval or medievally inspired environments are widely used in Game Design, Texturing and Digital Art. While I was in Antwerp, I shot countless images from Medieval or Renaissance buildings. From these pictures, I derived a couple of textures which can be freely downloaded. These textures can be freely used, even commercially, but redistribution is not allowed. You can also download all textures in a single package. Download Medieval Textures
In this article, I give an overview of 7 websites on which you can find free HDRI-Maps to use in any of your 3D projects. HDRI-Maps are said to be images containing the light information of it’s captured light, and are great for creating realistic lighting in 3D rendering. What are HDRI-Maps? Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, uses the following explanation for HDRI: “In image processing, computer graphics, and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of luminances between light and dark areas of a scene than normal […]
Love, it is ony of the most common themes of music, paintings and many forms of art. And today, we are going to bring some love to Adobe Photoshop. In this tutorial you are going to make this beautiful wallpaper, using Photoshop. The outcome will be more or less as the image you can see in the results of this tutorial. The render was made in a 3d application, but this tutorial will stick to the parts that were done in Adobe Photoshop. This tutorial will be done in the ‘underlaying-layers-method’, which means that the tutorial will start with the […]
Recently I received a great collection of old hymn books from my neighbours. These books were so beautiful and had such beautiful, old paper textures. That’s why I took some pictures of them and want to share these textures with you here. These textures are great to use in graphic design work, digital arts and graphics and even texturing. They can be used freely, even commercially, but redistribution is not allowed. You can also download a zip package below. Download Old Paper Textures