Faze One Studio » resources

Anti Spam - Masking Your Email

Benjamin Doolittle — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 04:32:36 +0000

Here is a very valuable way to stop spam bots from raking your emails while allowing you to still have an active email link. I’ve had a lot of spam and its mostly because of unmasked links that are on my site a few months have passed since applying this to my site i have almost no spam…

This script needs to be embedded in your or where appropriate:

This is the html link:

ben[at]fazeonestudio.com

Sample: View Link

Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts

Photo Border Tutorial

Benjamin Doolittle — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:22:23 +0000

Since I’m pretty far behind on my tutorials, I thought id post an easy one to get the juices flowing. This as is a very quick and simple tutorial using layer select option.I will be working on a collection of these borders and well as a few other resources for photographers and designers. I did have a few sets of vector art for free and soon we will have some in the shop available for purchase, so look forward to some new samples from that and if you like you should buy!

Here is the border template, i have included three in the bottom of this post.

STEP 1: Load your border template.

STEP 2: Now load your selected image and place it under the border template
STEP 3: To cut away the edge, Press and hold Ctrl, then right click on the border template, This will make a selection of the template.
STEP 4: Go to Select and then Inverse, Cut the new inversed selection

You should now have a border effect, : )

Click image to Download full res.

Grunge Effect, Web Round-Up

Benjamin Doolittle — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 07:11:53 +0000

50 Dirty, Filthy Grunge Photoshop Effects, The grunge movement in design combines rips, tears, decay, smears and scratches to form a dark and gritty result. Here we’ve collected fifty of the best ever Photoshop grunge tutorials for your enjoyment and education.

1. Old Poster

2. Grunge Type Photoshop Tutorial

3. Urban Style Art Work

4. Add Texture to Improve Artwork

5. Urban City on a Grunge Background

6. Easy Photo Grunge Effect

7. Creating Dirty Grunge Text in Photoshop

8. Antique Ace Of Spades

9. Making a Grungy Business Card

10. Old college Effect Poster

11. The Dark Knight Grunge Wallpaper

12. Gigposter Design: The New Sex

13. Designing Ultra SceneXCore Apparel!

14. Grunge Portrait

15. How to Create a Grunge Web Design in Photoshop

16. Design a Unique Grungy Website Layout

17. Create an Artistic One Eye TV Man in a Grunge Vector Design

18. Awesome Grunge Text Effect

19. Design a Grungy Floating Island

20. Music Logo on a Grunge Background

21. The Ultimate Grunge Design Tutorial

22. Create a Grunge Construction Box

23. Distressed Effects in Photoshop

24. Create Your Own Movie Poster

25. Create a Wicked-Worn Vintage Pop Art Design

26. Decaying metal Sign

27. Graffiti stamps

28. Making of Urban

29. The Louis Daguerre Effect

30. Grunge Rubber Stamp

31. Trendy Geometric Lines

32. Ripped and Torn Edges

33. Grunge Borders

34. Creating Old Paper With Custom Brushes

35. Create an Impressive Mock-up of a Grunge Box

36. Photo Transfer Edge Effect

37. Custom Hang Tag

38. Dark Grunge Photo Effect

39. Hero Header Part II

40. Virtual Duct Tape

41. Freakish Zombie in 11 Steps

42. Music Band Website

43. Building Textures from Scanned Art

44. Grunge Layer Styles

45. Getting Dirty in Photoshop

46. Grunge Design Effect

47. Post Processing Your Photos

48. Worn look Tutorial

49. Make it Worn

50. Retro Grunge Poster

Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts

Grungy Poster - TUTORIAL

Benjamin Doolittle — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 06:16:15 +0000

This tutorial will show you how to change your images into a cool dirty grunge design, which could be used for posters, prints, CD covers, etc.

Here is the final image,

STEP 1: Open a new document in Photoshop

Make sure the Background contents is Transparent. I used 800×600 px size. You can use any size for this tutorial, but if you plan to make a printed poster I would recommend that you would use a much larger size.

STEP 2: Create your shade background

Fill your canvas with a dark gray, I used #383838. Then select the brush tool and use a large blurry (hardness=0%) and use a slightly brighter color, I used #6b6b6b, to brush at random spots in the canvas. You can also use the gradient tool to achieve this.

STEP 3: Insert your image into the canvas

…Either by dragging or pasting. It is better to use an image with a very simple background and where to main person or subject sticks out. I used this image:

STEP 4: Go to Image>Adjustments>Brightness/Contrast…

Use the following settings: Brightness: -30, Contrast: +40. These number do not have to be exact because your original image might already have a high contrast. So if these numbers are too high, use my example difference to come up with a good number.

STEP 5: Change Blending mode

Select the layer of your image and change the Blending mode from Normal to Darken (this option can be found in the top of the layers window).

STEP 6: Select the Custom Shape tool from the Tools window

Select the layer of your image and change the Blending mode from Normal to Darken (this option can be found in the top of the layers window). Then select the ‘Registration Target 2′ shape from your default custom shapes. This is the shape which resembles sun rays. Make sure the shape color is White.

While holding Shift, create the shape on the canvas in a way that the main subject of your design is around the center of the rays.

Then Right click on the shape layer you have just created and select ‘Rasterize Layer,’ and move this layer right under your image layer in the layers window.

STEP 7: Erase the rays from under your image subject

Since you want the rays to go AROUND the subject and not ON them, select the Eraser tool and use a small blurry brush (hardness=0%) to get rid of the rays that show on the subject of your image. Then select a grungy or dirty brush for your eraser, and erase a little here and there around the rays. I used this Grunge brush set.

STEP 8: Add more Grunge

Create a new layer (on top of all layers). In this new layer use a different grunge or dirty brush and select the color black to add some grunge on the sides of the image or wherever you find it fit. For this step, I used this Spray paint brush set.

STEP 9: Add Hue/Saturation Layer

Select the ‘Create a new fill or adjustment layer’ button which is the little half black half white circle button in the bottom of the layers window, and choose ‘Hue/Saturation…’ Use the following settings:

You should now have something similar to this:

STEP 10: Add Gradient Map Layer

Once again select the ‘Create a new fill or adjustment layer’ button (half black half white circle button in the bottom of the layers window) but this time choose ‘Gradient Map…’ Then click on the gradient to edit the colors. In this step you can choose any variation of colors to determine the gradient map of your design.

Here are the colors I used along with their gradient Locations (right to left):
#7b0300 at 0%, #a00000 at 2%, #ff7e00 at 38%, #f7ff2a at 100%

STEP 11: Add Border Shadow

Create a new layer. Then Select All (ctrl+A) and go to Edit>Stroke and use the following settings and make sure the color is Black:

Then go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and set the radius to 42.0 pixels. Change the Opacity of this layer to 56%.

You are done!

I added text and some more simple effects finish it off, the font used is Impact. Remember, you can play around with the gradient colors and get some very cool results. You can also add brushes and patterns here and there as I did below and achieve a more complex look.

If you want learn how to achieve that halftone pattern in the background, check out the Halftone Pattern Brush Set.

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HTML Cheat Sheet

Benjamin Doolittle — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:50:25 +0000

This is a very handy tool for beginners while learning the lingo. Print it out and paste it up beside your computer, you’ll be glade you did. I’m still trying to memorize most of them. Familiarize yourself with them and embed them into your .

~Click here for full image ~

Short hand guide to Web Ranking

Benjamin Doolittle — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 01:07:31 +0000

Owning a website is a cool thing in itself, but it’s even greater if you’re able to welcome a lot of visitors to it. One of the most effective ways to accomplish this, is by making sure your site is easily found through search engines like Google.

In contrary to what the SPAM flooding our inbox is promising (”submit to 500 search engines!”, “Guaranteed Top Rankings!”, “Free beer included!”), there is no quick and dirty way to accomplish this. On the other hand, the secrecy and vague terminology used by dedicated Search Engine Optimization bureaus are mostly a means to mask there’s nothing secret or difficult about optimizing your website for search engines. Let’s give it a quick start…

About search engines

The two biggest search engines worldwide are Google (used by Google / AOL) and Overture (used by MSN / Yahoo). Google fills it’s database mainly by letting robots automatically crawl and index the web. The Overture database is mainly filled through affiliate programs. That will cost you, so let’s focus on Google for now. Google is the cooler one anyway…

A bot visit

You can request a Google robot visit at www.google.com/addurl. The robot will browse your site and index it’s contents. Expect to have to wait for a couple of weeks before this will happen. Also, always list your site at www.dmoz.org. This is Google’s web directory and, next to the google robot, an important source of the google search API.

Get your keywords

Your website is not ranked as a whole. Keywords are used to determine the relevancy of your website for particular subjects. So, before building your site, make sure you have a relevant set of keywords. Check competing websites for keywords / search terms and use the good ones for yourself. When can get an indication on the frequency people search for a certain keyword (and alternatives to it) . You can find synonyms for certain keywords at www.thesaurus.com.

Place your keywords

The most important elements to insert keywords into are the URL (domain name + path + filename) and title of your web page. Also, a low-level URL (www.mysite.com/page.htm) is considered more important than a higher level URL (www.mysite.com/subdir/anothersubdir/page.htm). Notice how every new site has it’s own title in the title bar and how every item’s html file is named after its title. These tricks make you score!

It’s also important to use your keywords in the body of your site, frequency (a lot) and proximity (close to each other) are important. The higher in a page, the more important a keyword is considered to be. Text in headline (h1 or h2), bold or caps is considered more important than regular text.

Check your keywords

Once you think you have found the right keywords and you’ve written your text so that these keywords appear all over the page, it’s time to check out how your site is doing. At googlerankings.com you can check your position in Google for the keywords you have chosen. Top of the ranks? Great! Not even close to it? Don’t worry, here are some tips to improve your rankings.

Tech and formatting tips

First, make sure your site, especially your homepage, is frequently updated. Google seems to like frequently changing websites, this might be why weblogs tend to score very well at Google.

Second, make sure to have a lot of incoming and outgoing links (especially to and from big, relevant, high-quality websites). If something can be a link, make it a link! By doing so, Google will rank you pages higher as others who are not that embedded. This link relevancy system is called Google Pagerank. You can check out your pagerank at pagerank.net. Pagerank works on a scale from 1 to 10. If you have a rank of 1 or 2, you’re likely to be way down the search results. If you have a higher rank, your site will appear at the top of the search results, even if there are a lot of competitors for your specific keywords or business.

Third, make sure your site is clean and correctly formatted, preferably in web standards / xhtml. Avoid certain technologies the Google robot doesn’t understand. Don’t use a frameset for your website. Robots may skip frames or only index the upper one (refering will be a mess anyway). Avoid javascript or Flash menus, only a.href links are followed by a robot. Additionally, all javascript and comments are skipped by search robots.

For the same reason, full-flash websites should be avoided if search accessibility is important (actually, if ANY accessibility is important). If you do feel the strong need to use Flash, all you can do is to make sure you have a keyword descriptive URL and page title.

Some last remarks

Google simply puts a 30 days block upon sites that use trivial keyword tricks (hidden text/div or text in the same color as a background), so don’t bother trying this kind of stuff. Detecting and catching a robot with javascript or IP cloacing or using linkfarms to boost your Pagerank are considered even more illegal. They could get you put out of the ranking for good.

Just remember that a robot will be optimized over and over to be able to judge web pages the way a human does. In the end, if you make sure your site is clean and accessible and your content is good and relevant, web surfers will find you and bytes will flow.

Of course this article only covers the rough basics of search engine optimization. If you feel like I have missed out on something, or you’ve got an excellent hint to share, please feel free to post them in the forum! The diagnostics guide from GoogleRankings.com is a great resource for more information.

Here is a sample of the meta tags, use a max of 255 words per meta tag. This is what the fuss is about so get to know it.

Faze One Studio

Parent Photography Strategies

Benjamin Doolittle — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 16:31:14 +0000

For parents who would want to capture the best moments of their children, professional photography lessons wouldn’t be that necessary, all they have to do is to learn about certain photography technicalities and observe the attitude and mood swings of their children.

Parents should bear in mind that when trying to photograph their children, they should be ready for occasional tantrums and crying. When this happens, let the child calm down by giving them something that would catch their attention like a toy.

Younger children like those tots under 5 years old are not very conscious or aware of the camera but this doesn’t mean that they are very interested in the ‘photo shoot’. To get their attention, make sure that you have something that will get their attention.

OTHER CHILD PHOTOGRAPHY STRATEGIES

Portraits—especially of children—never fail to evoke feelings to anyone. If you’re a budding professional child photographer, it would be better if you’ll have a brief background in child psychology and you better to create your own strategies by now.

Here are some strategies you can work on and try to reinvent over time:

Strategy no. 1: Prepare for the best and the worst.

Before the actual day of the shoot, make sure that you pay a visit to the house of the family to give you an idea what kind of child/ren you are going to deal with. It is also advisable to meet them personally and memorize their names to create familiarity.

You can also have a sort of ocular inspection around the area so you can picture the ideal background and set up mentally. Before leaving for the actual photo shoot, double check all the necessities and equipment you will need.

Strategy no. 2: Practice the power of smile.

Being friendly or possessing a friendly aura will draw children nearer to you. Smiling will also make them more comfortable dealing with you throughout the shoot.

Strategy no. 3: Impress them your “gears.”

Get children’s attention by impressing them with stuff they don’t know yet. Since they are generally inquisitive, you can get their attention by letting them touch and “play” with some of your simple photography equipment.

Strategy no. 4: Set the background.

Although a photo studio would give you all the comforts you need in doing your job, this wouldn’t ensure a good result for children photography. It would be best if you set a backdrop or location where children can roam around and express themselves freely.

Strategy no. 5: Back to basics with the natural approach.

Do not force a setting or set up where the child is not comfortable. It is best to photograph children in their best elements like riding their own bike or doing some art stuff. These natural settings would be more vivid in the coming years compared to those taken in a stiff and formal environment.

Strategy no. 6: Know the clothing basics.

Days before the shoot, tell the parents to show their kids what they will be wearing. This would ensure the comfort of the child during the shoot.

Strategy no. 7: Bring your best and the most appropriate photography equipment.

Make sure that you bring the best equipment to produce best results. Basics include digital or film SLR camera, variety of lenses, studio lights, flashgun, spare batteries, and compact flash or rolls of film.

Strategy no. 8: It’s all in the light.

Aside from having a good subject, make sure that you set up a good lighting because it will greatly affect the overall outcome of the photo.

Strategy no. 9: Be an “image capturer.”

Always be on guard to capture the best moments throughout the shoot. Always have your finger on the shutter button while your eyes are near the camera.

Strategy no. 10: Always focus on the “window of the soul.”

Needless to say, photographs where the eyes of subjects are tuned into camera produce the best photographs ever.

New Design ~ Doolittle Productions

Benjamin Doolittle — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 07:57:42 +0000

Its been a while in the making but i finally got my main site pimped out at www.doolittleproductions.com have a look and tell me what you think, I’ve had about ten designs for DP, and so far i think this one is the best. I’ll look to see if the wayback machine has any older versions of what it used to look like, When i built my first layout i just used a photoshop page made the page looked how i wanted it then sliced it up, but doing this created a few hundred images , that all have to load before you see the whole page. Gradually i learned about CSS and optimization and by trial and error I’ve learned the fundamentals …

You’re Kidding ~ First Vector Pack ~ Available Now

Benjamin Doolittle — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 21:40:57 +0000

YES! We are proud to announce the first Vector pack from Faze One Studio, This pack is called You’re kidding it has 16 images. A bit of a snag before x-mas delayed the release, but however we have been able to finalize a plan to release our vector packs. If you are a subscriber to this blog you will receive extended samples of our newest Packs.

Buy : You’re Kidding Download Sample : You’re Kidding Sample (Format .AI)

Subscribe to blog to receive extended download sample…

Design Color Chart

Benjamin Doolittle — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 04:14:33 +0000

Colors Chart
Here is a list of not commonly used browser colors… Even though they are not so-called “safe” colors such as #000000 or #CCCCCC, they do display properly in all major browsers. The colors are gathered in groups of three, in case you decide to make use of one color, you will have a two similar hues that will match and look good in your design.

Colours Chart

	#aeb196			#f9f226
	#888b60			#fed813
	#56593c			#af9526

	#9e9e9e			#6b8965
	#757575			#576a42
	#464646			#3b4c28

	#fbce3d			#c96416
	#e0be52			#a1530e
	#c5ac47			#7e410b

	#b7d97b			#cbc3ac
	#748f58			#a7a08d
	#52653d			#898371

	#727272			#f9221f
	#5b5b5b			#db0400
	#343434			#880002

	#39ffd7			#d4eab9
	#2ecfaf			#a1b584
	#1a7e6a			#6d8958

	#35652e			#e1dac7
	#284c22			#a9a38b
	#142711			#8e876b

	#a40005			#288d99
	#8f0006			#20788e
	#5b0000			#145d80

	#c7cec6			#e20185
	#b2b9b1			#a50262
	#909889			#6b013f

	#d5edef			#d8c79c
	#b7dfdf			#a59561
	#80b5b9			#827143

	#d5dd3a			#c7d6db
	#97b903			#97b7b6
	#729e0d			#77939e

	#9c967c			#5bac12
	#7b7461			#548710
	#645d4a			#3d640b

	#dfeddc			#4a7071
	#d5e1d3			#35595a
	#bccfb7			#203f40

	#979ea4			#dcd4ad
	#888f99			#c2b98b
	#6b727a			#a59a64

	#7cf1fb			#dce1e5
	#5eb6c2			#c5ccd2
	#366f76			#acb5be

	#be7f1e			#e7d9d6
	#915b13			#d4bdb9
	#623307			#b99690

	#59626b			#e8bf65
	#494c55			#c2993f
	#2f3237			#8e6919

	#f4c9fa			#9437c3
	#d89de1			#7a22a7
	#bf7fc9			#5c0f83

	#e7a59a			#9884ed
	#ca8174			#7662cd
	#a75a4d			#5a46ae

	#d5a3ef			#8b565a
	#b57dd1			#743c40
	#8a53a6			#592327

	#02d5d8			#d07620
	#01a4a6			#b26011
	#00696a			#8c460

Font Collection — Font Bank

Benjamin Doolittle — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 20:45:31 +0000

More free tools for your designer’s toolbox, this time we cover fonts. We have scoured the web for you to digg out the very best freebies we could find…Enjoy

Preface Light™ - Nick Shinn’s reaction to Helvetica.

FF Clan™ Narrow Bold - Grab a very useful member of a very large group. This piece of FF Clan is free to try for a limited time.

Lacuna - Comes with two full versions and full charcater set.

MW Code - By Hiroki Tanaka.

Samba - Designed by Heinrich Lischka

BD Sirca - From Buro Destruct

District Thin - Free from Phil’s Fonts

Ubuntu - The ubuntu logo type face.

Kontrapunkt - won the Danish Design Prize in 2004.

071 MKSD - From maniackers design

Share - A corporate font for TYPO3

Vera Sans Mono - from Bistream

Baskerville Old Face™ - (Elsner+Flake®)

ATF Antique - First released by the Barnhardth Bros. & Spindler type foundry in 1842.

Union

SlabtallX - by Manfred Klein

Petitlatin - by Manfred Klein

Dirty Ego - Plus more grunge fonts at misprinted type

Note: If you know another free site and you dont see it listed feel free to post a link.

Faze One Studio » resources

Anti Spam - Masking Your Email

Related posts

Photo Border Tutorial

Related posts

Grunge Effect, Web Round-Up

1. Old Poster

2. Grunge Type Photoshop Tutorial

3. Urban Style Art Work

4. Add Texture to Improve Artwork

5. Urban City on a Grunge Background

6. Easy Photo Grunge Effect

7. Creating Dirty Grunge Text in Photoshop

8. Antique Ace Of Spades

9. Making a Grungy Business Card

10. Old college Effect Poster

11. The Dark Knight Grunge Wallpaper

12. Gigposter Design: The New Sex

13. Designing Ultra SceneXCore Apparel!

14. Grunge Portrait

15. How to Create a Grunge Web Design in Photoshop

16. Design a Unique Grungy Website Layout

17. Create an Artistic One Eye TV Man in a Grunge Vector Design

18. Awesome Grunge Text Effect

19. Design a Grungy Floating Island

20. Music Logo on a Grunge Background

21. The Ultimate Grunge Design Tutorial

22. Create a Grunge Construction Box

23. Distressed Effects in Photoshop

24. Create Your Own Movie Poster

25. Create a Wicked-Worn Vintage Pop Art Design

26. Decaying metal Sign

27. Graffiti stamps

28. Making of Urban

29. The Louis Daguerre Effect

30. Grunge Rubber Stamp

31. Trendy Geometric Lines

32. Ripped and Torn Edges

33. Grunge Borders

34. Creating Old Paper With Custom Brushes

35. Create an Impressive Mock-up of a Grunge Box

36. Photo Transfer Edge Effect

37. Custom Hang Tag

38. Dark Grunge Photo Effect

39. Hero Header Part II

40. Virtual Duct Tape

41. Freakish Zombie in 11 Steps

42. Music Band Website

43. Building Textures from Scanned Art

44. Grunge Layer Styles

45. Getting Dirty in Photoshop

46. Grunge Design Effect

47. Post Processing Your Photos

48. Worn look Tutorial

49. Make it Worn

50. Retro Grunge Poster

Related posts

Grungy Poster - TUTORIAL

Related posts

HTML Cheat Sheet

Related posts

Short hand guide to Web Ranking

About search engines

A bot visit

Get your keywords

Place your keywords

Check your keywords

Tech and formatting tips

Some last remarks

Related posts

Parent Photography Strategies

Related posts

New Design ~ Doolittle Productions

Related posts

You’re Kidding ~ First Vector Pack ~ Available Now

Related posts

Design Color Chart

Related posts

Font Collection — Font Bank

Related posts