I f
ound an amazing tutorial on creating a snappy little graphic for simulating an embossed gold seal. Very nice, even for a guy like me who has very limited graphics skills. Whipped this together in no time.
http://www.brownbatterystudios.com/sixthings/2006/04/05/rapid-fire-2-golden-seal/
For those times when a graphic editor is required, and Photo Shop or other such applications are not available, this remarkable online graphics application may just fit the bill.
This is a great technique to use when creating banners and header graphics;
http://www.learnwebdesignonline.com/introfireworks/gradient-masking.htm
(Excerpted from Jake Ludington's Digital Lifestyle, 2007-11-08 www.jakeludington.com)
LineTracer – Vector Conversion
If you're a great freehand artist and want to get your drawings on your computer, scanning is an obvious solution. Scanning only gets you a gigantic image file of your drawing; it doesn't get you a way to work directly with your drawing. To manipulate your drawing you need to convert it to a vector format first. LineTracer offers a free solution for taking hand drawn sketches and converts them to EPS format vector images. You scan your drawing at 200-300dpi, then import that scanned image into LineTracer. The simple interface supports cleaning up the drawings you made before conversion, by defining all the tracing points of your lines. The EPS file is then compatible with applications like Adobe Photoshop Elements, Adobe Illustrator, and Flash. [Windows 2k/XP/Vista $0.00]
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