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January 2007 1) Swirl Brush Set 2) Seamless Textures 3) Border Videos 4) Video Feedback 5) Print Selection Quick Tip ----------------------------------------------------- Swirl Brush Set ----------------------------------------------------- Well, after a break over Christmas, I'm back with a jam-packed newsletter for you! To start things off this month, I've made a free Swirl Brush Set for you. Take a look at some examples, and grab the download here: http://www.easyelements.com/photoshop-swirl-brush-set.html ----------------------------------------------------- Seamless Textures ----------------------------------------------------- On top of the free brush set, you can also find 80 free seamless textures new to the site. These are great for creating backgrounds or covering 3D surfaces. Get the textures as well as some ideas on using them here: http://www.easyelements.com/seamless-textures.html ----------------------------------------------------- Border Videos ----------------------------------------------------- In my last newsletter I mentioned that I'd be starting to add video tutorials to the site. I've had lots of feedback since then, which you can read about in the next section. I'm pretty sure that the technical issues have been resolved now, so why not check out a couple of the new videos, and see what you think. You can find a video tutorial on creating simple line borders here: http://www.easyelements.com/simple-line-border.html And one on creating slightly more complex jagged borders here: http://www.easyelements.com/jagged-border.html ----------------------------------------------------- Video Feedback ----------------------------------------------------- Setting up video tutorials has been quite challenging technically, and so I've been gradually making several changes to the way I produce the videos to try and resolve the problems people have been experiencing. I received well over 100 comments on the sample video I released shortly before Christmas, so thank you for contributing so generously! Most people were really positive, and everyone seems to like the idea of video tutorials. By far the most common problem mentioned was the complete lack of sound, or that the sound was extremely quiet. This was actually a problem between my microphone and soundcard, and should be resolved now. Some people reported loading errors, or display problems, especially on Macs. These should also now be resolved, but if you find they're not the please do let me know. Largely the display issues and the other few that you mentioned to me were due to software incompatibilities, so I've now purchased some more professional software to make the videos with. This should resolve any further problems. Several people asked if I could make the videos using Photoshop Elements 5. I thought this over, and decided that this is probably wise in the interests of keeping the videos as current as possible. Don't worry if you're using and older version though, the steps are probably almost identical between versions! Most people reported that the pace of the videos was quite acceptable, although some people noted that with my English accent, I should probably try and speak slowly and clearly! So I will! :) The longer the videos, the larger the files, so I will also try and keep the file size small for dial-up users. Hopefully whatever your internet connection speed you'll find these video useful. I'm really glad everyone liked the idea so much. I've had several people remark that this is such a good idea for 'visual learners', and so I'm confident that more and more videos will be added as time goes on. ----------------------------------------------------- Print Selection Quick Tip ----------------------------------------------------- Let me squeeze in one last quick tip to finish. I had a question over Christmas about printing just a certain section of an image. For those of you that have ever wanted to be more picking with your printing, this is a really useful tip: http://www.easyelements.com/print-selection.html ----------------------------------------------------- That's it for this issue! I hope YOU found YOUR newsletter useful! Please do contact me with any requests for the February edition of Elements Express, as all these requests go into the making of my next newsletter. Any other comments or requests for this newsletter? Just let me know via my contact page here: http://www.easyelements.com/contact.html Until next time! Kind Regards, Robert Redwood. |
