|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 5:28 pm
I did this as a journal entry awhile ago, and thought it might be useful for someone here. I'll update it at some point.
Oh and I didn't know where to put it...
.................
For all us poor starving artists, a list of various graphic/web-related stuff to make our lives easier. I am not responsible for these sites, nor am I a creator of anything listed. I have, however, used PSP, Flaming Pear's products, Alien Skin's products, and a whole host of other stuff for years, if notated then these companies have earned my trust by providing quality software and support. Oh, and my notes are for Windows users only. Mac users? Uhm....
If you're under 18, get your parents' permission before downloading/installing anything.
.................
A list of free editors by Freebyte
Gimp- Windows 2000 or higher; Mac OS-X. (Not used.) Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop image compatible.
Ink Scape- Windows, Mac, and Linux. (Not used.)
Paint.NET- A replacement for MS-Paint, I have no idea what OS's this is compatible with. (Not used.)
IrfanView- Haven't tried it, but the site also offers plug-ins and addons. What they do? Dunno that either.
Apophysis Fractal Creator v. 2.02- Creates beautiful fractals with ease. No heavy computations required.
Terragen ™- Creates 3-dimensional landscapes. Very customizable, small, and doesn't require tons of RAM.
Pixbook- A free photo editor with album storage feature. You can also upload to their site and order prints cheaply (if you're in the U.K.).
Google SketchUp: (Windows XP/Vista or Mac OS X 10.4+ only) a truly unique and free 3D modeling program, SketchUp has been developed and tweaked for children with Autism to use so they can express themselves. The controls seem very simple to use and can do a myriad of renderings, from buildings to objects, you might want to give this program a try!
Photobucket has a free image editor built in (no download) that also allows you to change aspects and add objects.
Picnick.com free in-browser online editor.
Paint.Net For Win XP and higher, a very powerful editing tool.
Free Online Image Editor In-browser program that lets you crop, edit, change attributes and a host of other manipulations. Also does animation cells.
GifSUN In-browser compiler pre-made animation cells and puts them together.
Ultimate Paint Standard Only has about 20 filters built in, but still, it's free and easy to use.
unFreeze allows you to compile any amount of images and turn them into an animated gif.
My Theme Animator absosmurfly beautiful in-browser animation tool that allows transition effects, landscape attributes (water, snow) and other animations to be added to a single image. Also does slide shows.
.................
Image Converters:
Tube-Ex: Don't have Paint Shop Pro? No problem! This free little program will convert those pesky .psp/.pspimage/.tub files into .png's for you with ease. (The .png format is supported by nearly every graphics program out there and features a transparent background.)
Telegraphics' Paint Shop Pro Format will also convert those PSP files. It's donation-ware, which means if you like it, donate five bucks. If not, don't.
(*Note: PSP v9 and higher can read Photoshop's .psd files.)
.................
Avatar and Smilie Makers:
Txt2Pic Choose from pre-made avatars and edit them with an in-browser program.
2 Blibs tiny pre-made avatars can be glittered, animated, and altered.
Frost Jedi lets you add text and tweak smilies.
Smilie Generator oodles of options.
Mazeguy Smilies yup, another one.
.................
Banners, Blinkies, and Signature Makers:
(*Contains the copyright tag of the site.)
NP Hero.*
(They got a lot of bad rap for a poor decision to allow a log-in screen to appear for users of their blinkies/cursors so the user would know Neopets changed the page coding specs. This was done, not out of malice, or out of trying to get people's passwords, but rather to get their attention. TNT will freeze if they find the Log In screen appears on your page. (Auto Loggers are prohibited in the T.O.S.) Gaia will not, to my knowledge.
Absolute Web Graphics Archive: Some really nice settings.
Cool Archive: Really basic, but they can be imported to your graphics program of choice and spruced up.
Acid Fonts free Xara 3D logo maker demo.
Siggiez Banner Maker and version 2.
Online Siggy Maker
Glitter Maker * adds site URL to image.
3D Text Maker by the Animation Factory.
Cool Text has been around for eons. Great stuff, lots of settings and even free fonts.
Linux Envy pretty basic banner maker.
Flaming Text has also been around forever. They started with basics and some snazzy flaming banners, but now they have glitters and tons of other stuff! w00t them!
GrSites Logo Maker nice options.
Banner Generator.org just what it says.
Userbar Maker what's a userbar you ask? This:
Rainbow Arch really cute stuff, but you'll have to animated it with a program or online service.
Glitter Text Generator wasn't displaying the image when I re-tried it, but it used to work?
Glitter Graphics.us * displays a site tag on image.
..........
Web Dollz:
Doll Palace Couple Maker The Doll Palace has a lot of various generators. But this is the only couples generator I've found online. Kudos and mass props to them!
Elouai's dollz are very unusual, including a horoscope set. A must try!
Cooking Games lots of one-click doll dress up games. A few doll designers in various styles.
Dollz Mania cute!
Drag and Drop Land it's strange, but it's dollz... And I take it back, apparently they have a couple maker too (on same page), but the dollz are small...
Soup Faerie.com's doll maker.
..........
Free Web Coding Programs:
Coffee Cup Software makes (in my opinion) the best of the best HTML editor out there. They have a trial version and a free version. I would recommend buying the full version if you have the money, but if not, go here to the free version if you're looking to code a lot. It's easy to use, and requires only basic knowledge of coding and code rules (parameters), making it great to teach yourself with. There's tons of options.
And since I can't say this a lot about software compaines, I want to say this right now...: I've dealt with CoffeeCup for a number of years, they have always treated me as a valued customer, with respect and kindness. A very rare find. And again, the best darned HTML editor you can get.
Compatible with IE, Firefox, Opera (last time I checked), and probably several others. Has great snippet saver and DHTML library. Includes j.script too.
Absolute Web Graphics: They won't write your site, but they'll give you everything you need from buttons to banners and menu generators.
Glassy Button Designer
POQ Bum huge list of generators for web sites, including scripts to protect your images.
..........
Odds and Ends:
Fodey.com really odd collection of image generators ranging from talking squirrels to newspaper clippings to chibi ninjas and more.
Scrolling LED Generator
The Generator Blog Okay, so this really belongs in my humor folder, and how it got into Graphics I have no idea, but I might as well share it with you. This site has generators that do nothing functional, but they do make you laugh. From anagrams (okay that could be functional) to generating a fake page of the Anarchist Cookbook every time you load the page, this site rocks!
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 12:32 am
Plug-Ins for Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop: (Most are free.)
***Note: If you get a missing file error in Paint Shop Pro, you need to download Msvcrt10.dll, which tells PSP how to run some files. Unzip it into Windows/System for Windows 95/98 users, everyone else will install it into Windows/System 32.*** (Apparently the forward slash doesn't work on Gaia Journals...)
The Associated Press' Complete Guide to Using PaintShop Pro Tubes in Photoshop can be found here.
Moon Designs Filter Tutorial- featuring 20/20, Sinedots, Ulead Art Texture, Flaming Pear,
Alienskin (EyeCandy, Xenofex, etc.), Filters Unlimited, The Plugin Site, Grafo Maniac, Filter Factory, & Andrew's Collections tutorials.
Simple Filters- Everything from a seamless tile (the Diamond filter) to various wraping techniques. Non-adjustable settings, but free and easy to use.
Flaming Pear- Offers a free pack of various filters, but if you have the extra cash, you might want to consider their paid products, such as Super Blade Pro, Solar Cell, Lunar Cell, Mr. Contrast, and also Flood. Just a huge series of great things.
DC Filters- For 25 years, DC Filters has gone beyond Free Ware to the concept of 'Care Ware'. They want you to use their filters to make things of beauty (or things that please you, which is the same in any case). Really great filters.
Cybia Digital Resource Studio Great pack of filters that do some really nifty stuff.
Sinedots- Pattern generator. Does some very nice work, but the installer is in Dutch (I think), so you'll have to copy the files into your plug-in folder, then use the Assign Path.exe for the folder to auto-dectect the location of the plugin.
Taronites- offers a series of great plugins, designed to do different things. Only NormaliZe, Field Fixer, and HSL are free. Photoshop only.
Telegraphics- Free, ultra cheap, and donation-ware plug-ins for both Photoshop, other Adobe products, and Paint Shop Pro. Mac and PC supported, most often, with lots of good, cheap, and useful stuff.
The Plugin Site- Thousands of free plug-ins for various effects for use on various platforms (PC vs Mac) and on various programs. (Was that various enough?)
The Plug-In Site's Resource Page has a lot from additional plug-ins to frames. Their How To page will give you info on how to use plug-ins, plus additional tutorials.
Groan Zone They have one filter called GZ (or maybe Groan Zone?). It's along the lines of what Andrews offers, but it's interesting, and it's free. Therefore, it's here!
Tutorials:
Multipurpose:
Photoshop- The Basics
Good Tutorials.com- Everything from Photoshop, and 3D Studio Max to Maya, CSS (among HTML and coding).
Crystal XP- From animating graphics to Photoshop and loads more.
Glitter Methods- From how to make your own glitters to pre-made templates.
Auburn Angels Graphics: Glitter tutorial and templates for you.
MoonStars Glitter Templates and animation guide.
Blackwolf's glitter fills. (Premade templates.)
Glitterizer's glitter fills. Really unique, though some do not tile seamlessly.
Kayla's glitter fills. Very nice collection.
Blinkie Maker- With full animation tutorial and 'how to make blocks'. Plus help with fonts/sizes (dithering is a pain in the butt for most fonts).
The Plug-In Site offers Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro tutorials on many things.
Basic Painting Techniques written for Photoshop, this tutorial on basic coloring and lighting principles is a must read for any graphic artist.
Epilogue Art Tutorials and Resource Center excellent site! There's a great guide to Digital painting.
............................................
JASC/Corel's Paint Shop Pro Tutorials:
PSP Online- Amazingly enough, this site has over 20-thousand tutorials. What do they have? Simply put, yes. And a lot of it.
PSP 7 Resources- How to make picture tubes (images with transparent backgrounds) and how to make picture tubes with multiple images so that one image comes up at a time, though multiple images are in the same file. Really useful! (The rest of the site is pretty much offline...)
Cathys Corner- PSP version 6 and higher. Too many tutorials to list.
Fly By Night Graphics- Again, way too many to list using various versions of PSP.
Karens Kreations- For PSP 7 & 8. Many many tutorials.
PSP 5 Tutorials- For PSP 5 & 6. Includes tips on picture tube management, and how to make stained glass lamps.
Dreamwork Designs- Triple Border and Recipe Card Tutorial along with other useful resources.
Moon Designs- For PSP 8 and 9 only-- from making your own sparkles to season stuff to making a multi-layered frame.
State of Entropy Webgraphics offers tutorials from PSP 7.4 and higher.
Tiny Crafts PSP 101 great site to get started on!
............................................
Photoshop Tutorials:
Photoshop- The Basics
Digital Media- Covering everything you want to know, from A to Z; including add-on programs or plug-ins.
Photoshop Support.com features guides to all Adobe products.
More coming soon!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 7:41 pm
Paint Shop Pro Resources:
Picture Tubes:
Specific Types of Tubes:
Betty Boop Tubes- Just what it says.
Rosebuds and More- Nothin' but flowers. Lots and lots of flowers. Including the background....
Stained Glass
Jade Cat Tubes- A few tubes, many Valentine or love-themed.
Graphics Galore- Moon Tubes. (Most of the rest of the site is down, so I doubt that a link back to a dead site is required....)
Thundercats Fans- Thunder! Thunder!! Thundercat Tubes!!!! HOOOO! *chortles* (You only thought I was strange...) They also have Photoshop graphics.
Syrleya Design- Lovely frames.
Fantasy Inspirations- Snowglobe bases, accents, and frames. (Use your pop up blocker young paddlemeharder.)
Tubes by Fly- Helloween collection. (Other areas of the site are gone...)
Wings of the Dragon- Five pages of fantasy related tubes.
Animal Tubes: Just what it says.
Misc and Collections:
LuxurysTubes- 15 categories from Alphabets to Text Bubbles. Very nicely done and useful.
Cathys Corner- Mouse/hand drawn tubes. Some very lovely flowers.
Annies Angels- Tons of tubes. No really, tons and tons of tubes.
CCDs Tube Haven- To quote the page: There are currently 79 tube categories
and 3553 tubes to pick from smile .
Crystalex Graphic Design- From Poser-made tubes to hand drawn and cut outs, this site's got a lot.
Eddas Tubes- From flowers to food; holidays to birthdays and celebrations, and lots in between. (Have your pop-up blocker on.)
GºthiC MºMs place- In whatever language German people speak in. (Just kidding.) It is in German or perhaps Danish, or maybe Swedish (I think), but pretty easily naviguessed. Just keep clicking and remember to keep your pop-up blocker up. Great and beautiful tubes though and well worth the effort.
Karren Kountry Tubes- Not to be confused with Karen's Korners, these tubes are all hand drawn. (Some show it....)
Mars Design Tubes- A plethora of tubes and categories.
Open Directory- Tubes page. Many links are down, but some still work. Eventually I'll go through the page and add the pages.
Corels Tubes Page- They even bought JASC's tubes and are trying to pass them off as Corel's own....
Lots of Links- A link page full of links. (The site it came from didn't have tubes.)
Newbie Hangout- Tons and tons of tube links. Literally thousands.
State of Entropy- Various tubes for various versions of PSP.
SusieQs PSP Tubes- Huge source of tubes. Direct linking to the site from tube rings or top sites is not allowed.
YMV13Plus- Animals, Floral, People and Decorations. Frames can be found here.
Siggiez- Cows, Crocks and basins, and three pages of odds and ends with drop shadow effects.
Vixies Tube Links- A huge collection of tubes. (Note, some pages may not work.)
Start Pagina- A collection of tube sites. (Some links may not work.)
Bella Luna- Many beautiful tubes, though her stained glass tubes are here.
Ivy Cat- A collection of various tubes.
Wizard Pygals Tubes and Collection- Hugely massive list of many many *many* tubes. Not all links work.
Tube Territory- By a wonderful lady Tristan. You'll see tons of tubes, including quite a few of my own. If you stop by, please sign her guest book and say 'hi', she's a great lady to talk to!
PSP Toy Box- Several categories of tubes, all made from clip art. (A series of filters should fix that...)
Friends of Stationary Lots of beautiful tubes, but be careful, some of them are copyrighted by the original artist and should not be here.
Dazz's Tubes: Small collection of tubes.
Jade Cat has four pages of misc tubes.
............................................
Poser, Renderosity, Daz, and 2 and 3D Tubes:
PSP Tube Depot: Large collection of 3D tubes, though you'll find hand drawn and image tubes also.
Anita Creations: Offers a changing selection of nice tubes that can be used for non-commercial use.
Butterfly Web Graphics: Some really nice and diverse styles.
Graphic Allusions: Some very lovely and not so lovely tubes.
Outlaw By Design- Several free pages of Pose-made tubes. There are useage restrictions, so check the site's rules. Also, the contents change often.
PSP Tub: Small collection of free tubes. Very nice though!
Online Graphic Solutions: Stylish and unique!
TataLinn Designs: Some very unusual tubes, and some very useful ones as well.
Diddas Smovs: Interesting and unusual, I'm sure you'll find a lot of uses for these. Beware though, the site's navigation sucks.
Anna Lee- Tubes created with Poser (a 3-D rendering program that my poor computer can't presently run). Tubes change frequently.
Crystalex Graphic Design- From Poser-made tubes to hand drawn and cut outs, this site's got a lot.
Angels Tubes- Albeit a strange set up for her tubes, but a very nice collection for 3D and Poser-made tubes.
PC Graphic Solutions this lady has talent! Tons of different subjects with great attention to detail. Simply beautiful. (Note, some may be a bit risque.)
............................................
Graidents:
Karens Kreations
Ymv13Plus
GRS Gradient Texture Maker
............................................
Brushes:
Paint Shop:
Gails Brushes
Photoshop:
Free Vector Graphics
............................................
Masks:
Ymv13Plus- From Fleurs to flowers to scenic and holidays, these are some very nice masks.
More coming soon!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 10:25 am
Free Images, Stock Photos, Clip Art, and other Public Domain images:
*note, to avoid infringing on rights, make sure that there are no people in the images you use.
Also, check each web site's policies on usage and terms just to be sure.
Photos:
Public Domain Photos 5000 non-copyrighted photos for you to use depicting a plethora of subjects.
Free Public Domain Database
Public Domain Pictures
US Agricultural Research Gallery Yup, they're public domain.
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) 57,000 quality photos of free. Every so often, you'll find a set of donated images that do have copyrights, but few and so far between it's just silly.
Gimp-Savvy.com over 27,000 images. Just WOW!
NASA: Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth Not all are public domain, but the vast majority are. (Not all NASA images are public domain either...) They even offer a Photoshop Tutorial or two!
Additional NASA Galleries: Great Images in NASA, NASA Image Exchange (NIX), Visible Earth.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Open Photo 3000 photographs some are copyrighed or have useage restrictions, but not many.
Library of Congress: Prints and Photographs Online Catalog The Prints and Photographs gallery has a majority of copyright free images. Some, however, are not.
Public Domain Photos small gallery.
US Fish and Wildlife Service Digital Media Library a few are copyrighted. The image info will tell you.
US Geological Survey's (USGS) sites: Digital Data Series DDS-21, Earth Science Photographic Archive.
Wikipedia's sites: Wikipedia razz ublic domain image resources, Wikimedia Commons.
FreePhotos.se
Public Domain Photos8 beautiful high res images!
Free Stock Photos comprehensive list of sites offering free stock photos.
Clip Art:
Noetic Clipart: Lots of stuff, including tacos!
Young Oxford Encyclopedia of Science: Free for non-commercial use.
HassleFree Clipart: Lots of stuff.
Cool Archive: Lots and lots of stuff!
Flaming Text Tons of stuff.
WP ClipArt massively huge selection.
Best Collection of Clip Art really large database.
About.com Big Clip Art List of Everything!!! ooooohhh!!! Ahhhhh!!!!
Free Vector Graphics has some really great stuff! I'm quite fond of their Grunge series.
Subject-Specific:
Andy offers a lot, web sets, help with coding, but she has some lovely public domain butterflies.
Annes Fantasy Gifs: From way back when the web was new and images were hard to come by, the vast majority of these are public domain. (Note, they're also small.)
Aon Celtic Art: Free Celtic art for all your Celtic needs. (Link back required.)
Betty Boop Graphics Archive: 'cause everyone loves Betty.
Christmas Graphics
Thomas Nast Santa Claus Pictures beautiful turn of the century images.
Graveside Graphics Not sure if it's still maintained, but run by a lovely lady who features spooky, gothic, and pagan graphics.
Medieval Clip Art
Nintendo World Report These are copyrighted by Nintendo (among others), but hey, they're freakin' cool.
Deannas World of Unicorns not all images are public domain, but she has a vast amount of medieval and out-of-copyright images.
Misc Collections:
Kims Image Collection: Lots of stuff made from clip art and photos.
Glori Anon's graphics are very nice, and there's a huge array of them.
WebWeaver lots of nice stuff, including faeries!
Spots Free Graphics has a lot of stuff, including Pagan-related graphics.
Heathers Animations
Free Galaxy of Gifs
Web-Related:
(Note, I find I use web backgrounds more as textures than backgrounds!)
Absolute Web Graphics Archive: Thousands of web-related graphics.
All Free Backgrounds: Huge selection listed by color, they also offer buttons and more.
Lady Lavendar Creations bordered backgrounds of fantasy-related stuff.
Free Buttons great site, lots of styles and colors!
Apple Blossom Art over 500 background images. (Note, don't download the screen savers.)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
