Setting up duplicate view of image in Photoshop

When doing high quality color work this becomes sort of a necessity since my Dell U2711 color profile is simply awesome.

You can open a duplicate view of the same image using Window > Arrange > New window for as shown:

Then you can work directly on your lovely Cintiq and view the outcome on an even better monitor.

It also helps to give another perspective on what you working on.

Wacom Cintiq 22HD with Ergotron LX arm

I got a Cintiq 22HD for various reasons (after trying the 24HD touch). But I really wanted a more ergotronic drawing position, so I got the Ergotron LX arm. Here is a tutorial I wished I had when I was making the decision.

Here is my final setup for drawing:

How to Setup

Take the Cintiq off the stand and place on a cloth:

Unscrew the mount:

 Notice the black washer:

 Split the mount to take it off the cable:

 Move the cables down:

 And now open your ergotron lx box:

 Mount the Erogotron using the four provided screws:

Mount it on the desk:

 Put the tablet on the desk mount:

 And you are golden:

 I prefer to have to dropped all the way down for added stability:

 Use as dual monitors:

 Later on I decided to remove the extension for even more stability and added desk space:

And we are in business:

Sketchbook Pro Pencil in ArtRage

By default the pencil that comes with ArtRage seems quite grainy:

The reason is the not the pencil. Its actually the canvas. You can get the sketchbook pro style canvas quite easily in ArtRage. Select Canvas Settings:

Remove all roughness and grain size. Then click New:

Save you file:

And then get cracking:

Enjoy!

Web Design Resources : Color

Coming up with a color palette for you design is one of the harder parts of web design or any graphic design for that matter.

Nowadays we live in a wonderful world of sharing and caring and here are two websites that deserve mention :

Color Lovers 

http://www.colourlovers.com/ This website seems to be the github of color. Definitely keep this bookmarked.

Adobe Kuler

https://kuler.adobe.com/ A great effort by adobe. Just sweet to browse through. 

Making game sprites with anime studio

Anime studio is a great software for rapid animation. I am in no way affiliated with the company ... just a fan :

It is great for character poses e.g. "thinking" pose:

And a "no you didn't" pose:

You can also add auto tweens between poses. And this is exactly what makes it great for making sprite sheets. You can export a sequence of pngs for your animation sequence and them combine them into a single sprite sheet png. Additionally it also has a great effects library support (smoke ... and ... blasts!).

I have known this for quite sometime but I just googled for it and a couple of interesting case studies came up.

Here is a video overview how you can use anime studio with GameMaker (tm) :

Here is a great game for apple iOS drawn with anime studio.

(Details : http://machineboy.com/blog/apps/2011/02/04/no-pain-no-game-making-your-first-iphone-game/)

Enjoy!