Last summer, my wife and I went to Los Angels to see my uncle. One afternoon, his wife Jennie and my wife went shopping. And Uncle Bog was taking a nap. So I was watching TV. Actually, I was watching weather news. Well, the weather man was saying it would be sunny all day. Wait, sunny? By the way, the weather man looked like Nicolas Cage.

The following tutorial shows steps to illustrate lightning bolts in the sky. It’s easy to design lightnings, using Adobe Photoshop CS2. In fact, we have done it before. (REF: Adobe Photoshop Creative Design #4: A Stormy Day). But such simple lightnings are unrealistic because lightning bolts are not branching out. This time, we use a Photoshop plug-in called Eye Candy 5: Textures from Alien Skin Software. By the way, this plug-in also runs with Adobe Fireworks.

The photo used in this tutorial comes from PD Photo. Continue reading →

Last night, I came back home really late. My wife was already at sleep. A cold front came down from Canada. So it was cold. I wanted to have a cup of hot cocoa. I looked for my favorite coffee cup and couldn’t find it. I spent another 10 minutes in vain. Eventually, I became very frantic. After another 10 minutes of search, I still couldn’t find it and had to resort to Plan B. What’s my Plan B? Adobe Illustrator… I went to my work room, started up my iMac and then launched Adobe Illustrator CS2. In a matter of 10 minutes or so, I managed to recover my favorite coffee cup.

The following tutorial shows steps to design a coffee cup, using Adobe Illustrator CS2. There is nothing special in this tutorial if you are a member and have seen video tutorials like ‘#16: Designing a 3D Wine Bottle’ from the Illustrator Basics for Dummies series. You just create a shape, rotate it and then create a label and paste it with 3D Revolve > Map Art. Continue reading →

I don’t know why, but we have strange customers from time to time. For example, there was an old lady who came to our office a few weeks ago. She brought a broken sand clock and said that she wanted to replace it with a new one. And she showed me a receipt from WalMart. “Umm, … You are at a wrong place, old lady,” I said. Then she stared at me. I didn’t know what to say. Eventually, I said that I could design a new one digitally using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop CS2. Then she nodded and smiled. Well, you know… As I always do, I launched Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop on my iMac. In a matter of 12 minutes or so, I created a brand-new sand clock for her.

The following tutorial shows steps to design a sand clock, using Adobe Illustrator CS2 and Photoshop CS2. Note that the screenshots below are extracted from a tutorial video with PNG compression. Therefore, their quality may not be the best. Continue reading →

We had a visitor from Boston the other day. He said that his company owns the tallest building. He showed me a photo. I said “Whoa… That’s a beautiful building.” But then… He burst into tears. I asked him if a deadly fire killed his beloved wife in the building or something. He actually said that prospective tenants decide not to move in when they see that photo. So I said “You could use some glare.” That honest opinion of mine seemed to turn him on. So he asked me to fix the photo. Not a problem! I just launched Adobe Illustrator CS2 and Photoshop CS2 on my iMac. In a matter of 5 minutes or so, I finished modifying the image. After I showed it to him, he seemed content and went back to Boston.

The following tutorial shows steps to create a scene of sunlight glare, using Adobe Illustrator CS2 and Photoshop CS2. The photo used in this tutorial comes from Webshots. Note that the screenshots below are extracted from a tutorial video with PNG compression. Therefore, their quality may not be the best. Continue reading →

On a winter day, I was emotionally exhausted and felt like getting away from everything. After stopping by a restaurant at the end of a road, I continued to drive till I reached a beach. And I then got out of the car and walked on the beach for a few hours, searching for the answer for my life. I sat and watched the waves that kept coming back. Then I realized something odd. A sand drawing appeared out of nowhere. I looked around, again, but there was nobody else at a winter beach. I shouted “Who the hell is doing this?” And I took a very close look at the sand drawing. It said MacHouse.

The following tutorial shows steps to create a sand drawing on a beach, using Adobe Photoshop CS2. The beach photo used in this tutorial comes from PD Photo. Continue reading →