Author: James Qu

Abstract Effect, is basically design that does not have any specific purpose or meaning. I always enjoy them mainly because I feel they’re the ones that really give me maximum freedom, and particularly useful when it comes to adding some final touch-ups for any other type of design.

In this post, I will showcase 8 Elegant, Really Cool Abstract Photoshop Tutorials to boost your creativity and beautify your design. I personally have tried all these and I think they’re really well written and practical. Those effect can be applied to a wide range of works, including photo effect, web graphics and any other designs.

Try them out, and see if you can master them all :)

Welcome to the 12th volume of “Creativity Fine-Tuning: Best of PSD Vault Flickr Group”, which is a showcase I run fortnightly here on psdvault.com featuring some fantastic, highly-creative design works in the PSD Vault Flickr Group.

Hope you enjoy those works as much as I did and find them inspirational! Meanwhile, if you have some cool designs and would like to share them here, you can simply join the PSD Vault Flickr group.

In this tutorial, I will show you the processes involved in creating this beautiful, fantasy-styled surreal ancient ruin and coastal island scenary in Photoshop. Hope you enjoy it!

Along the way, we will go through a variety of technqiues such as layer blending, image adjustments, a bit of matte painting skills and filter effects. This is an intermediate level tutorial so some steps can be a bit tricky.

Practices always make thing easier for the future, so go ahead and have a try :) Oh by the way, the server migration is now complete, everything should be back to normal now!

In this tutorial, I will show you how you can utilise the amazing power of image adjustment layers to make colour, contrast and lighting change for any chosen image in Photoshop, by walking you through the design process of this man jumping scene.

The reason I put up this basic tutorial is that lately I have receive some requests from people wishing to learn some techniques involved in using adjustment layers.

Along the way, not only I will be using image adjustment layers techniques, but also I will show you some skills I use to create break-apart effects, pen tool and layer blendings. Have a try!

Always beautiful to look at, unqiuely presented on every person on this planet, Human Eye is an element being used over and over again by designers for a varieity of works. Lately, I have seen a lot of photo manipulations done fucusing on a single Human Eye, and frankly, I really enjoy those works and am amazed by the imagination and inspiration that those works provide.

Therefore I decide to collect 30 Stunning, Absolutely Magical Photo Manipulations Focusing on Human Eye from deviantArt.com and share them with you guys, hopefully you enjoy those works as much as I did!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to design this chilling and icy text effect in Photoshop. Yesterday and today are both really hot in my city (suppose to be winter right now here!!), so I though I can make something to cool myself down :)

Along the way, we will be practicing a lot of layer blending technques, applying texture, selection technique, and an interesting method to create snowy/foggy effect. Have a try!

In this tutorial, I will show you the processes I use to create this fantasy style, really cool distant desert city scene with an awesome energy ray blasting through the sky in Photoshop.

Along the way, we will be using tons of layer blending techniques, and I will show you how to merge the images together effectively and efficiently. We will also explore skills such as masking, filter effects and various custom brushsets.

This is an intermediate-level tutorial, have a try!

In this tutorial, I will show the steps I took to create this really cool, watercolour style “City on Cloud” Artwork in Photoshop. I was experimenting the new brushsets and textures I downloaded today and thought I could combine them together and see what result they can bring :)

Along the way, we will be using a lot of photo manipulation techniques such as masking, filter effects, layer blending options, and custom brushsets.

This is an intermediate tutorial and some steps can be a bit tricky, but why not have a try :)

Welcome to the second Free giveaway contest here on PSD Vault! This time we have Fanurio, which is company that develops time tracking and billing software for freelancers. They are generous enough to give away 3 free licenses to 3 lucky readers of PSD Vault, valued at US$59.00 each. For more details about the software, simply hop onto their website!

To enter, simply leave a commnet below and let us know why you would like a copy of Fanurio Time Tracking App. 3 Winners will be randomly selected based on this software to ensure fairness.

This contest will end at 9:00PM, Australian Eastern Standard Time (GMT +10:00), 11th of August.

Welcome to the 11st volume of “Creativity Fine-Tuning: Best of PSD Vault Flickr Group”, which is a showcase I run fortnightly here on psdvault.com featuring some fantastic, highly-creative design works in the PSD Vault Flickr Group.

Hope you enjoy those works as much as I did and find them inspirational! Meanwhile, if you have some cool designs and would like to share them here, you can simply join the PSD Vault Flickr group.

In this tutorial, I will show you the processes I took to create this really cool, golden flame text effect with soft smoke texture and some layer blending skills in Photoshop. I was recently invited to write a Photoshop tutorial for webappers.com and this is what I came up with :)

Along the way, we will using the technqiues such as layer blending options, selection tools, applying layer masks and more. This is an intermediate level tutorial so some steps can be a bit tricky, but why not have a try :)

In this tutorial, I will show you the method I use to create a stylish, clean and shining button for your website in Photoshop. This method is extremely simple with no more than five steps, yet it’s very effective since you can use the button for a wide range of occasions.

Along the way, the tools we will be using include the shape tool, layer blending options, brush and eraser tool. This tutorial is suitable for beginners as the steps are quite easy to follow in my opinion. As for advance Photoshoppers, I would love to hear you the methods you use to achieve such effect, just drop me a comment below.

Have a try, let me know if you have any problem, I will try my best to help you out :)

Hello and Welcome to the new Interview section I set up here on PSD Vault! In the section, I will publish a series of interviews I have with some turely amazing web and graphic designers around the world, and share their experiences and stories with the readers here. It’s also my wish to help promote those fine designers at international level, based on the decent amount of traffic PSD Vault generates on a daily basis.

In this first interview, we have Elena Savitskaya – an Amazing and Aspiring Graphic and Web Designer from London, UK. I came across her work from flickr and was immediately impressed by the skill and talent displayed in those works, not to mention that her work has been featured on Advanced Photoshop Magazine!

Here goes Elena’s story, hope you enjoy this interview and if you wish, check out Elena’s website for more!

You may have already heard of this application called “Cinema4D” – For those who hasn’t, it’s a “commercial, cross-platform, high-end 3D computer graphics application, produced by MAXON Computer GmbH of Friedrichsdorf, Germany. Noted for its flexible interface and ease of use, it is capable of procedural and polygonal/subd modelling, animating, lighting, texturing and rendering.” – From Wikipedia.

Cinema4D, together with Photoshop, is able to produce some visually stunning designs that simply can not be created seperately in each application. In this post, I will show you 20 Astounding Artworks Demonstrating the Combined Power of Cinema4D and Photoshop from DevaintArt. Although most of them are abstract designs, they’re absolutely amazing and I’m sure they will inspire you deeply!

In this tutorial, I will show you the processes I used in creating this horror style text effect with Dirt and Splatter Texture in Photoshop. I’ve got the inspiration from the game “Prototype” title typography and decided to have a bit experiment with it myself.

Along the way, we will be using a lot of layer blending options, image adjustments, selection techniques, custom brushsets painting and filter effects. This is an intermediate level tutorial and beginners may find it a bit tricky to complete, but why not have a try :)

In this tutorial, I will show you a rather useful technique I use in Photoshop to make perfect human selection, which requires the combination of channel mask and the quick selection tool available in Photoshop CS3.

I have received a number of emails lately in regards to this topic and I have decided to post this short tutorial with a step-by-step guide for beginners. Once you master this skill, you can apply it to pretty much every human image you want to selection/extract.

Meanwhile, if you have any tips/tricks about making selections, you’re more than welcome to share your experience with us, just drop a comment below :)

Welcome to the tenth volume of “Creativity Fine-Tuning: Best of PSD Vault Flickr Group”, which is a showcase I run fortnightly here on psdvault.com featuring some fantastic, highly-creative design works in the PSD Vault Flickr Group.

Hope you enjoy those works as much as I did and find them inspirational! Meanwhile, if you have some cool designs and would like to share them here, you can simply join the PSD Vault Flickr group.

If you have been a PSD Vault reader for some time, you might have already sensed that I’m a fan of space artworks – having written numerous photoshop tutorial about planet creation, nebula design, and many other similar space concept tutorials :)

I love the fact that space art always conveys a sense of mystery, and the endless boundary to be pushed and discovered. For me, those space artworks are also a source of inspiration, because they always help me when I’m lack of creativity and imagination.

In this post, I will include 30 Incredible, Simply Stunning Space-Themed Artworks that I collected from deviantArt.com. Hopefully those works will inspire you as they did for me and boost your creativity!