In this tutorial by designer Omar Aqil, we’re going to show you how to build your own world. No big deal, right? Before you get started, though, you’ll need to check out our previous lesson on Creating 3D Rendered Type in Cinema 4D. In that tutorial, we made a living “Planet Earth” logo, which will be used as the foundation here. (If you don’t want to incorporate the 3D text, you can skip ahead to where the other visual elements come in.)

You’ll also need to prep yourself with some good images of trees, rocks, mountains, clouds, animals, and sea life. Fortunately, we’ve created a Lightbox of all the images used in this tutorial, where you can find all the visual elements you’ll need. Or, if you want your world to have a different feel, just search through the Shutterstock library to find the landscapes and inhabitants that suit your sensibilities.

Continue reading ‘World Building: Creating a Composite Environment in Photoshop CS6’ »

Creating a marketing or promotional email is a lot like dating. After all, you’re courting your customers, so you’ll want to make a good impression, keep your audience engaged, and promote your best qualities.

No matter what your creative role is, understanding how communication can make or break things is key. Back up your enticing designs with equally powerful copy, and you’ll be on your way to a successful, long-lasting relationship. Here are 5 copy tips for creating emails that keep customers coming back for more.

Monsters in Love illustration by melaics

1. Find the Perfect Pickup Line

Continue reading ‘5 Dating Tips That Apply to Creating Emails Too’ »

Sure, there are many ways to create 3D text, but building the characters by hand is one of the coolest. Not that it’s simple: for this technique, you’ll need some rendering skills, a fair amount of patience, and Cinema 4D software. But trust us, the results will be worth it.

This tutorial by designer Omar Aqil will take you through all the steps of creating 3D rendered type, building a “Planet Earth” that looks as if it was indeed sculpted from the Earth itself. Follow along, and be sure to save your results. You’ll be needing them for Omar’s next tutorial too.

Continue reading ‘Advanced Tutorial: Creating 3D Rendered Type in Cinema 4D’ »

Dan Fletcher is the former managing editor of Facebook, and has written for Bloomberg and TIME magazine.

As I’ve mentioned before, images are consistently the most engaging content on Facebook. No other type of post gets as many likes and shares, meaning those with images usually receive the widest distribution. This is particularly important to keep in mind when constructing an ad campaign on Facebook. You might have a great offer and crisp copy, but without a compelling image, you won’t be nearly as successful.

For this post, I’m going to set aside introducing Facebook’s ad types and formats and focus instead on the types of images that will perform well in a campaign. Generally, though, this advice applies to nearly any type of advertisement you’d run on Facebook, from the smaller marketplace ads that appear in a user’s sidebar to the larger sponsored stories that appear directly in the news feed.

Continue reading ‘Secrets to Facebook Advertising: Where Image Is Everything’ »

Shutterstock has tons of fantastic patterns in its ever-growing image library, and as we’ve seen, there are some great projects you can do by choosing your favorites. In this enchanting craft tutorial, Shutterstock designer Kathy Cho shows you how to use printed patterns to create decorative milk-box shaped paper lanterns.

Follow along and learn how to make your own in a few easy steps, then use them as night lights, holiday decorations, or just bringing some extra style to your space. For this project, you’ll need some heavy paper, a number of downloaded patterns, an X-Acto knife, some ribbon, double-sided tape, and Christmas lights.

Continue reading ‘Craft Project: Make Your Own ‘Milk Box’ Paper Lanterns’ »

The clock is ticking, and your design still isn’t done. We’ve all been there, but we don’t always know how to handle the pressure. Keep these tips in mind, though, and you’ll have no problem staying cool in your next deadline crunch.

Castaway Businessman by Luis Louro

Continue reading ‘How to Avoid a Deadline Disaster in 6 Steps’ »

Yahoo’s acquisition of Tumblr gives the company a fast-growing social network of more than 100 million people and an added aura of cool. Tumblr’s users are a fiercely loyal crew — the service’s simplicity and visual elegance has attracted a strong community of photographers, designers, and other creatives. So what’s going to change for them?

According to Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, not much. In a conference call after the purchase, she said that Yahoo promises to “not screw it up.” She also paid homage to Tumblr’s unique brand of creativity, saying that the community “redefines creative expression.”

If you’re using Tumblr as a creative tool for your business, these are good things to hear. And if you’re not, this is the perfect time to get started. Right now, Tumblr’s usefulness to creatives is largely as a portfolio site or a place to show off new work. But it doesn’t yet offer many tools to help promote your business or find new clients — meaning there’s a big opportunity for Yahoo to build these tools out.

Continue reading ‘A Tumblr Primr: Why Yahoo’s Purchase Is the Perfect Jumping-On Point’ »

When it comes to creativity and inspiration, there are few people who have more of them than a pre-schooler. That’s why there’s a lot we can learn from kids when we want — or need — to reinvigorate ourselves and our work. So break out the Graham crackers and get ready for nap time. Here are five ways you should approach freelancing more like a five year old.

Child with Leaves by Denis Hsn Photography

Continue reading ‘Think of the Children: 5 Freelancing Lessons You Can Learn From A 5 Year Old’ »

Nothing moves faster online than an image. They’re catchier than text and quicker than video, easy to grab and share in an instant. Not only that, but imagery is also the rare form of communication that can transcend the language barrier — a strong image says just as much to someone in China as it does in the US.

For creative professionals who make a living from their imagery, these traits are both a blessing and a curse. It’s possible for your image to receive massive syndication overnight (Facebook worked with an interactive firm to create a series of visualizations of this phenomenon) but the original context often gets lost along the way.

So how can you make sure that you get the credit — and potential business — if one of your images goes viral? There’s no simple answer, but here are some of the strategies used on Facebook and other sites.
 
Continue reading ‘Tracking and Protecting Your Images Online: 4 Ways to Handle the Challenge’ »

As internet speeds have improved, we’ve gotten used to exploring beautiful, high-definition photography on large screens with little to no parameters. But as the mobile revolution changes the way we interact with the internet, we’ve had to adjust how these images are served for a host of smaller, differently oriented screens. While responsive design has done wonders for the ways we consume content, it’s often been a struggle to correctly display these images across all platforms.
 

Common Problems with Responsive Images

Making images “responsive” is actually a relatively simple process — just set a variable percentage width. For example, take a look at the screen shots and code below:

Continue reading ‘How to Use Responsive Images to Make Your Site Shine on Any Platform’ »