" Spatial Variations-2"
By APIK

Introducing Repoussé: Photoshop CS5 Extended Brings Awesome New 3D Features
By Corey Baker

It’s taken some time, but we’re finally to the point where creating 3D graphics in Photoshop has become a reality.

Repoussé (pronounced ruh-poo-sey) is a French term meaning formed in relief. This terrific new CS5 feature will allow you to extrude, revolve, twist, and bend virtually any shape you create - even text. You can create multiple objects to generate shadows and reflections. It’s like having a 3D application right inside Photoshop. The best part is you don’t have to be a 3D expert to take advantage of these features. [ Note: If you’re using an older computer, be patient as it will take some time to render each choice that you make.]

In brief, A Repoussé object can be created in several ways. In the 3D panel (Window>3D), the Source menu allows you to choose the type of source from which the Repoussé object will be created. You can choose a Selected Layer, including a text layer (hooray!). In fact, the selected layer has to either be a text layer or contain a layer mask in order to create the Repoussé object. Other options include a Work Path or a Current Selection (the File option is for importing an object that’s already in a 3D format.) Just remember you need to have an active layer with something on it for the 3D to take effect. You can also create a Repoussé object by selecting a layer in the Layers panel and going to 3D>Repoussé.

It sounds relatively simple, doesn’t it? Now, I’ll admit that 3D in general still carries the stigma of being super complicated, but I can honestly say that this new feature has done a great job to help ease the Photoshop artist into the world of 3D without requiring hours of training. Of course, having a basic understanding of 3D is certainly a big help and will get you up and running a bit faster, but even if you have little-to-no experience, you’ll be creating eye-popping 3D images in not time at all.

Source: For more information check out: Photoshop User Magazine; and Adobe Help

QUOTES:

"The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra."
::: Jimmy Johnson :::

"Face what you think you believe and you will be surprised."
::: William Hale White :::

Call for world's most distinguished digital artists!

MOCA: Museum of Computer Art Announces the Digital Art Summer Festival 2010

ENTER THIS GLORIOUS EVENT BEFORE TIME RUNS OUT --
This is another of our prestigious events, an international exhibit, competition and sale of fine digital art and photography in our Brooklyn NY gallery, including exhibit of all art in our virtual online museum. This is a wonderful opportunity for artists to advance their careers and expose their art to a sophisticated New York audience.The show will be heavily promoted and a full-color catalog of the show will be available. This is not a restricted event but is open to all digital artists and photographers.

You can submit your own printed art on canvas or paper or we will print your art professionally on a state-of-the-art HP printer. Click here for full information, prizes, dates and fees.

"Travel" By Afanassy Pud

Create a Vision Board
By Martha Beck

STEP ONE:

Seek out images that are unfamiliar. Your mind can’t do this, but your primitive self can. Just page through a magazine (and walk through the world) noticing things that trigger physical reactions: a heart thump, a double take, a gasp. The only responses involved should be these:
“Oooooh!”
“Aaaahhhhh.”
“Whoa!”
“!!!!”
“???”

These “thoughts” register in your stomach, your heart, your lungs -- anywhere but your head. You can’t produce them in response to cultural clichés or abstract ideas. Nor can you always know why your body reacts to an image. Wondering, then finding out , is one of the most delicious things about assembling a vision board.

For example, as I rummage through my current collection of images, my body is utterly unmoved by photos of mansions or people in designer clothing. What interests it are the pictures of an abstract sculpture, a dried leaf, and (overwhelmingly) a map on which the migratory route of the Springbok Antelope is shown in red!!!! Go figure.

Though it makes no logical sense, I know from experience that gluing these pictures on one big page will begin catalyzing something beyond my mind’s capacity to calculate or conceptualize. If you’re not already accumulating images that rock your world, stay alert. Whenever you find them filch them.

STEP TWO:

Most folks master Step One easily, gathering new and interesting images by the bushel. Step Two of making a vision board requires something trickier: not thinking. This is a counterintuitive process. To do it you must relax completely and let your mind go blank. You don’t concentrate on the result you want, in fact, you concentrate on not concentrating at all. Slowly your mind follows.

Assemble the images randomly, haphazardly, with little or no conscious reflection -- and see what results. Observe what you have compiled without over thinking it, just let it be. Attempt to purely capture emotion and feeling.

This is exactly what you should do once you have created a vision board… Stop thinking about it. Lose it. Recycle it. The biggest mistake aspiring reality creators make is continuing to push something they’ve already set in motion. Don’t use results-oriented energy to consume you.

The purpose of a vision board is to focus your attention -- briefly. After that, the less mental strain you feel, the sooner good energy will happen. That initial intense focus on feeling helps us to create “search images,” and by relaxing, we increase our chances of noticing the things we seek. Then it’s time for the trickiest step of all….

STEP THREE: BE STILL AND STILL MOVING.

Making a vision board helps not only with creative focus, but also with managing life’s reality. It is not, however, a substitute for elbow grease. Magical co-creator or not, you still have to do the stuff. For example, I want to be better at social media - you know, all that Faceplace, Twootle, Googler stuff. So I put a headline on my vision board: Social Media Genius. I tried reading blog posts and signing up for all sorts of new online accounts, but I was making zero progress. Two weeks later, I was working on my laptop in a bookstore when a man with a kind face asked me if I like my computer. He turned out to be a social media specialist and an extremely nice guy, and I hired him to be my social media genius. He’s brilliant, he’s motivating, and he’s kicking my ass, teaching me how to accomplish my goals. I wanted the Force to give me fish; instead , it sent an expert fisherman to teach me.

This is the zone of reality creation: regularly picturing delights that don’t yet exist, emotionally detaching from them, and jumping into action when it’s time to help make them happen. In T.S. Elliot’s words, “still and still moving,” with every step I take I seem to be matched by a universal mystery, which obligingly, incredibly, creates what I can’t.

So that’s the 411 on vision boards, but please, don’t believe me. Try it yourself. Do it as a lark, a hobby, a physics experiment. While you’re oohing and aahing, cutting and gluing, I may be dreaming. If I am, please don’t wake me.

Six Steps to Taking a BIG Step
By Jessica Winter

So you’re eager to move outside of your comfort zone -- but you can’t find the exit ramp, you have no directions, and your destination is hazy. Fear not, brave explorer! We’ve got the road map to your next adventure, whatever it may be.

Get your bearings
A great leap is about fulfilling passions that already burn inside you. According to Margaret Moore of the McLean/Harvard Institute of Coaching, she suggests that you draw up a list of five to ten things that make you thrive.

Visualize, visualize, visualize
When you put aside a few minutes each day to create a mental picture of your adventure, you start believing it’s going to happen, and belief fuels action. Close your eyes and conjure it: what does that beautiful, profitable studio look, sound, and smell like? Research shows that this mode of “outcome stimulation” increases the chances of achieving your goal. Even more effective is “process stimulation,” in which you picture then mundane tasks required to reach your dream, making a checklist of sorts. If you go that extra step beyond writing the to-do list and actually visualizing doing all of those tedious things, you’re more likely to get them done. It’s not sexy, but it works.

Consult the masters…
Track down the role models, experts with credentials, “reverse mentors” (younger folks who might have unexpected wisdom to share), and “transcenders.” Jonathan Fields, author of Career Renegade describes a transcender as “those people who are a little punk rock -- they’re flexible and creative and they’ve figured out how to break free from the box that they’re stuck in.” The advisers can offer both practical tips and inspiration.

…And ask for well wishes
Seek advice and encouragement from the people who know and love you best. “For the most part, our family and friends want to give us permission to change,” says life coach Debbie Ford, coauthor with Deepak Chopra and Marianne Williamson of the Shadow Effect. “So ask for it. Maybe they want to be adventurous with you.”

Think holistic
Search for little bursts of surprise and excitement in all areas of your life, Moore says, “you create an entire mind-set for change” -- exactly what any adventurer needs. Finding novel sensations in the everyday hit’s a mental reset button. It recharges your batteries, so you have more energy for bigger challenges. “It could be as easy as trying a new cuisine, a new route home, or a new position in bed,” says Temple University professor Frank Farley, PhD, who studies risk taking. Bonus: people who are most open to change are also the most resilient in the face of setbacks, Farley says.

Find comfort in discomfort
“Remember it’s suppose to hurt; you’re suppose to feel sore,” says Ford. She’s not talking about just physical aches and pains of the couch potato turned triathlon competitor, but also the mental and emotional uneasiness of the would-be business owner or aspiring artist. “accept that you’ll never get rid of self-doubt,” say Todd Kashdan, PhD, associate professor of psychology at George Mason University and author of Curious?. “an adventurous person will always have moments of feeling like a fraud -- it’s a sign that you’re creating new roles for yourself, that you’re evolving, It means you’re doing great, passionate work.”

Source: O Magazine, June 2010

"Glass City: Hope" By Kolja Tatic

This page posted 14 June 2010
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