Top Tut points to top tutorials

I am always scouting about reading tutorials. In part it is because I teach and like to point students to resources but in part I just enjoy discovering good well written and illustrated tutorials. I recently added TopTut.com to my reader as they constantly dig out good tutorials. They describe themselves as being dedicated to web development and design, but have a look at Photoshop tutorials category and their most popular posts for a bit of reading.

 

Sample chapters on Photoshop and Illustrator

Peachpit often provide sample chapters of their books. The site houses such items as a sample chapter on using the Bridge in CS3 and the Photoshop Reference Guide by Matt Kloskowski houses a number of video tutorials. Unlock the True Power of Illustrator by Mastering Vectors written by Mordy Golding focuses on the pen tool. These are a few of the resources to be found at Peachpit so do explore a little particularly the blog

 

Adobe TV

If you enjoy learning software via video tutorials Adobe TV should be just your thing as you can learn by seeing a demonstration and following along. Needless to say presenters are experts from Adobe covering the company products

You will need Adobe® Flash® Player 9 and broadband to view them. However they can also be viewed in the Adobe Media Player. Since episodes are downloaded to your desktop this means those on slower connections can view the videos.

 

Dreamweaver Tutorials online

Adobe has a number of Dreamweaver tutorials and support materials on their site. Some of the material is good but students should be aware that Adobe houses tutorials for earlier versions of the software too.

How to Create a Website with Dreamweaver CS3 (Part 1) from Christopher Heng is another Dreamweaver tutorial which shows you how to set up a working website with multiple pages, including a main page, a feedback form, an About Us page, and a Site Map.

Enthos web has a Free Dreamweaver Tutorial section which is worth checking out

Vineyar Designs has provided some Dreamweaver CS 3 tutorials including setting up your site

Smashing magazine put together a huge list of Dreamweaver tutorials

Guides and Tutorials.com have a number of CS3 tutorials

 

More Illustrator and Photoshop goodies

Keeping up with and understanding new features in software releases is always a bit of a challenge. For those who are using Flash and Illustrator hand in hand Understanding 9-Slice Scaling explains the new feature that has been added to Illustrator CS3 which allows you to control a Movie Clip symbol to scale in a particular way.

Drawing in Illustrator is the first part of a series on drawing (including using the pen tool) by Jeremy of Sack Lunch

Pretty Circles is a Illustrator tutorial which is aimed at those new to the program. This tutorial on Nora’s blog is ideal if you are new to Illustrator and want to understand transparency better.

Bittbox has written a new tutorial Illustrator 101: Faster Font Selection

In Inspiration: Assemblage, Montage, and Collage Sean Hodge of PSDTuts, has “assembled some resources together that will encourage you to combine and unify elements. Review traditional concepts, look at current work, and get inspired by digital masters. Learn powerful collage techniques and how to apply them in your designs.”

 

More Photoshop and Illustrator goodies

Vector Guru has produced a tutorial on how to create a Retro styled background using Illustrator

Track 6 Design has published a tutorial on how to create textures in Vector images using Illustrator

Smashing magazine has created a Best of Adobe Illustrator Tutorials list. I have yet to check out all of the tutorials but what I have investigated looks good

Joanna Dacko has an intermediate level video Tutorial which is an Introduction to Smart Objects In Photoshop
This video tutorial from the Adobe Design Center demonstrates How to use the Live trace and Live Paint tools

Another video tutorial which demonstrates how to convert images to PDF using Adobe Photoshop CS3 and then how to protect them using Adobe Acrobat Professional 8

 

Design Tutorials and advice

Patrick McNeil of Design Meltdown has written a good series on the Principles of Design McNeil breaks design fundamentals down into the basic principles of emphasis, contrast, balance, alignment, repetition and flow, and then applies the theory to sample sites. Through the analysis of these samples McNeil makes his point.

Collis of PSD Tuts has listed 9 Essential Principles for Good Web Design. In the process Collis discusses leading the eye around the screen by using colour, contrast, position, design elements and the use of white space or negative space. Consistency, navigation, and orientation tricks like bread crumbing are covered including usability. The basics of typography, and layout are also touched on. That is a lot to cover in a short article. After each point, Collis has directed the reader to further sources which are worth delving into at a deeper level.

8 Web Design Mistakes that Developers Make from Wake Up Later briefly lists key attitudes to web design that lead to bad design. It is aimed at developers that turn their hand to designing but members of the general public would find it useful too.

 

More Photoshop and Illustrator goodies

Introduction to the photoshop layout is a video tutorial that is ideal for beginners to Photoshop introducing the user interface to those who are new to the program.

Stephanie of Obsidian Dawn has released some lovely Texture brushes hat can be used in Photoshop. They are created to be used as brushes ie actually painted into an image so the assumption is that you enjoy drawing. Its not quite the same a squishing paint about or getting mucky with pastels but almost as much fun! If you are a heavy user of Photoshop’s base texture brushes you will enjoy these.

Ladyvictoire has creates some Script brushes for Photoshop for Brusheezy
Diane Miller has written a tutorial on Changing Colors Selectively in Adobe Photoshop CS3

 

Keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop

Key Board shortcuts not only increase your productivity as they save you time but they also save your hands from problems caused  by over use of one set of muscles. Why do I say this? Any work practice that involves less mouse clicks is better from an occupational health point of view, because when you switch between key board and mouse you are using your hands in a different way.

These Power Shortcuts For Working With Layers in Photoshop mean you are moving your hands from clicking a mouse constantly to using the key board. It’s just a little thing but if you use a graphics program for hours on end it is these small work practices that can lead to either having a problem or not.

Of course I should add that the best thing you can do to protect your hands is take regular hourly breaks!

 

More Photoshop and Illustrator goodies

This tutorial by Barton Damer shows you how to create and use brushes in Illustrator to make  complex and intricate patterns

How to Change Your Designs Colors in Illustrator CS3 is a video tutorial on using the live color tool in illustrator, produced by Pixelpusher
Cloud image from Pixel Digest is a tutorial suitable for new hands to Photoshop. It shows you how to render a shape to look like a cloud. This beginner level tutorial introduces using shapes, feathering a shape, working with layers and using the render filter.

Photoshop Extended Animation 101, Part 1 briefly steps you through the animation features in Photoshop CS3 explaining  what a key frame, the basics of working with the time line feature, using the position property  of a layer and Animation 101, Part 2 examines the opacity and style properties and how these too can be animated before saving as a small video.