Thank you to those that participated, I plan on having more in the future so be sure to check back often to see what’s going on.

I wish my updates over the holiday period were a little more consistent but it’s been a busy time and we’ve been out of town. I plan on getting everything around here back on track after the New Year. So, thank you to everyone that’s stopped by during this time.

Thanks to the awesome team at Go Media, gwipDesign will be holding it’s first giveaway. They have generously donated the Vintage Elements pack from one of their latest vector sets.

Entering is easy, just leave a comment below for a chance to win. For a bonus entry retweet the following on twitter.

gwip Giveaway – Vintage Elements Vector Pack. http://su.pr/2B9Oy6 Comment to win | @gwipDesign

Below is a sample of the vector pack up for grabs.

The Contest will run through Wednesday the 23rd so make sure to get your entry in now. I’ll select the winner using random.org and post the results on Christmas Day!

@texturezine 3 Free Cardboard Textures here.

@designfeed 25 Free and High Quality Grunge Textures http://bit.ly/6jZXCL

@callumchapman Nine Seamless and Grungy Amber Textures http://bit.ly/7vrBQp

@bittbox New Blog Post: Free Texture Tuesday: Grunge Frost: I want to do some winter-themed textures in the weeks leading up… http://bit.ly/8zR6Mv

@grungetextures Just added 10 new textures to the Mud, Clay and Earth Category – http://bit.ly/8jnej8

@TUTSKING 70+ Free, Amazing, High-Quality Wood Textures for Web Design: http://bit.ly/5gIeX1

@MediaMilitia New graphic design pack just released – Rust Textures -http://su.pr/2wRs96

I’ve used actions for a very long time in photoshop, in fact I couldn’t keep track of half of the actions I had set up within the last 5 years. But it wasn’t until more recently that I realized just how powerful an action can be. These actions can range anywhere from quick rotates to lengthy photo layouts that create the entire product from start to finish with only a couple of keystrokes from the user. Below I’ll cover a couple of the quirks that will hopefully help you while building your own.

In the screen shot above you can see the block to the left of the command in this action. This block turns the dialog on and off, anytime you set a command that can be controlled by the user you’ll see this option. By default they are turned off. This can be anything from “open” as shown above to layer opacity, filters, transforming images and so on. When the dialog is turned off the actions runs through with whatever commands you gave it, but when turned on the user has the option of changing these settings to their liking. This comes in really handy when adjusting colors, placing images, or setting levels. You can’t always depend on the original input to work with every image and that’s where this really helps.

In this image you’ll notice the first option is checked off and the second one is left blank. This will disable certain commands within your action. This will help when troubleshooting actions or creating long actions to include every possible element that you would want in your final outcome. In this particular action I set up a layout to have multiple options for a background in an image. I can then go back and control what option I would like to use for that certain image without having to create two separate actions that essentially do the same thing.

Here is a little quirk that I recently ran into while creating some photo layouts. The image above shows “set work path” in the action. When you’re recording an actions and running through your steps the action doesn’t record your work path while using the pen tool into the action. What you have to do is create your path as you normal, when you’ve drawn out the path select the palette options menu in the top left of the palette. In this drop down you’ll see the option to “Insert Path” click here and it will record your pen tool input into the action.

In this same menu you can also stop and start your action while working on it. This really helps if you just need to take a break or maybe to get something set up that’s needed for the action but that you don’t want recorded.

There’s always much more to learn when it comes to actions but hopefully this will set the ball rolling for some to start diving into actions and seeing what you can create. I hope I’ve shed some light on actions for some of you and please, feel free to ask questions if you would like help on something.

We’ll start off this week with a Holiday/Christmas theme, I’m sure a lot of you will be looking for some inspiration or resources during the next couple of weeks so I hope this will be of use to you.

@Colorburned Holiday Promotion: Receive 15% Off SymmetryWorks 5, the amazing pattern making software for Illustrator – http://bit.ly/5pX8TW

@rule29 Loving these old Christmas and toy catalogs…. http://tr.im/GDsb

@Vectips Vectips Weekly Vector Inspiration 47 http://j.mp/56p4TM

@macappstorm Christmas Giveaway every day in December – http://bit.ly/8M8UL1

@wFreelance Christmas Background http://bit.ly/8LJyaM #Freebies #Design

@jophillips How To Create Your Own Crumpled And Torn Wrapping Paper http://bit.ly/66lJ7x

@VECTORTUTS Candy Cane Pattern Brush – Vectortuts+ http://bit.ly/7mZFLU

@wFreelance Christmas Tree http://bit.ly/5HkSNT #Freebies #Design

@naldzgraphics New Post : 35+ Free Photoshop Brushes for Christmas Season http://bit.ly/5BGQdZ

@purplelemon Don’t miss this super fun Christmas Desktop Download! Purple Lemon Designs http://bit.ly/6qSMbx

And just for fun, here’s an entertaining read.
@patdryburgh Link: The Physics of Santa and His Reindeer – Very interesting article, however there is an answer as to how… http://tumblr.com/xie4galyz

First, I’d like to apologize for the long break. I’ve been out of town over Thanksgiving and it’s been quite busy around here. I’ve been playing around with Livebrush lately and it’s been a fun tool to have in the arsenal. If you haven’t already found it head over now to check it out!

This brush pack includes 5 brushes of various fractal snowflakes. Here’s a preview of what you’re getting.

Fractal Snow by gwip

As always these are free to use both personally and commercially, all I ask is that you don’t sell them as your own. Credits are always welcome but by no means necessary.

Click to download brushes.

I hope you enjoy! Click the image below for a preview.

Tiled brushes by gwip Design.

Click to download brushes.

I’ve had a few questions on ways to use Photoshop brushes, particularly the grunge brushes. While this may be common knowledge to experienced users, this post is aimed at new users and maybe give a different perspective of the brush palette to the more experienced users.

Start by setting your foreground and background colors to the main hues that you’d like your background to represent. Next, select a detailed, high res grunge brush. If you need a good brush you can download my set here or check out the many free brushes somewhere like Brusheezy.

Once you have your brush selected set up your brush palette as shown below. We’ll start with the Shape Dynamics. We’re really only concerned with the Angle here, this will assure that your brush has some variety too it.

Next is the Scattering, pretty self explanatory. Here we’re making sure the brush isn’t clumped together leaving big spots.

Now your Dual brush, here you’ll want to select another grunge brush of similar size.

To end we’ll set up the Color options, this is where you can play a little bit. You’re main concerns are the saturation and hue. This will give you the variance in color depending on what your looking for.

That’s it, we’re done setting everything up. All you need to do now is make a few quick swipes over your canvas and within seconds you’ll have a unique grunge background.

Click below to see what I ended with.

In total, there are five hi-res brushes and 3 images of different color variations. Here’s a sample of the download pack.

Download brushes and textures.

So be sure and tell your Marine Happy Birthday today.

Semper Fi!

Just right click to save.

I’ve got a couple of other wallpapers on DA if you would like to check them out head on over.
gwip Design Deviant Art