Monthly Archives: November 2014

The Card Workshop – Tutorial Video & Resource Pack

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Hi Folks,

Further to my advanced notice, ‘The Card Workshop – Tutorial Video & Resource Pack’ is now available.

Following on from the recent tutorial videos and resource packs showing you how to make your own calendars and how to unlock the full potential of Smart Photo Editor, this video shows you how to create your own cards, birthday cards, get well cards, sorry your leaving cards…and so on. The international A4 paper format was chosen for the purposes of the tutorial, but viewers are encouraged to make their own templates as required.

Here is a TASTER of what you can do with the kit:

anigif

It is quite important to download the ‘Resource Pack’ that supports this Tutorial Video – just click on the link below:

The Card Workshop Resource Pack

Tutorial Video

Hope you find these ideas useful and the video enjoyable.

Kind regards

Andrew

Learn to Unlock the Full Potential of SPE – Part 1 & Part 2 – Video Tutorials

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As a result of creating my recent Calendar Templates, I thought it was time to UNLOCK some of the deeper potential of SPE. I saw that it was possible to go in directions not necessarily explored before through the use of the Fantastic SPE features, such as the Composite Feature. As I explored the possibilities I was AMAZED to realize that, with the aid of a ‘HELPING’ hand, SPE users could take much more control of outcomes and stamp their own personality on their own artwork results. The ideas that are  behind my approach are probably best suited to users who have a good working knowledge of Smart Photo Editor.

The ‘Helping Hand’ comes in the form of a resource pack of over 500 MB of graphic images, backgrounds, overlays, and so on.

To LAUNCH my new approach, I’ve created two Advanced Tutorial Videos (with more to follow) and made available a large amount of resource material under the title ‘Creative Kit One’ (more packs to follow in the future).

The tutorial videos (Part 1 & 2) are aimed at experienced users of Smart Photo Editor – therefore only the KEY elements of processes are shown. It is assumed that the gaps can be filled through the viewer’s pre-knowledge, experience & understanding. It is an ADVANCED tutorial

The videos aim to UNLOCK some of the deeper potential of SPE and are supported by over 500 MB of graphic resources created by me from scratch in a variety of drawing & paint programs. Especially in the ‘Backgrounds’ folders, further processing took place using existing SPE Effects from a variety of contributors including me – to these contributors, I would like to offer my thanks.

The resources referred to in the video can be downloaded here:

CREATIVE KIT ONE zip file

Gary and Adelaida from Anthropics have kindly set up another approach to downloading the resources that will give you more choice – thanks to both Gary and Adelaida! The new ‘Gallery Style’ link is shown below:

CREATIVE KIT ONE – GALLERY STYLE

NOTE

You may use these resources freely for personal or commercial use. No need to link to my Blog, nor acknowledge use of my work. Adapt them to suit your own needs.

After downloading the resources it might be wise to create a folder called, ‘Creative Kit One’ and organize it similar to mine containing 14 resource folders:

* 7 x 5 Frames
* A4 Backgrounds
* Colored Satin Overlays
* Colored Textured Overlays
* Distressed Colored Overlays
* Film Border Colored
* Gradients
* Graphics
* Multi-Colored Overlays
* Paint Marks
* People Silhouettes
* Solid Colors
* Square Backgrounds
* Watercolor Overlays

Learn to Unlock the Full Potential of SPE – Part One

Learn to Unlock the Full Potential of SPE – Part Two

To get the BEST from this video it is important to view Part 1 – ‘Learn to Unlock the Full Potential of SPE – Part 1′. Part 1 is the KEY tutorial that UNLOCKS a fuller appreciation of the POWER of Smart Photo Editor.

Make Your Own Calendar – Free Templates

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I had hoped to create effects to produce calendar pages at the request of users, but unfortunately SPE doesn’t really support the concept of having a fixed size image in which your original image can be posted. I tried all sorts of ideas, but eventually decided that it might be better to to use the Composite Feature, which in fact, gives users more control.

To accompany this Tutorial Video are 8 sets of ‘Calendar’ templates that can be downloaded by clicking on the link shown below each example template.

1. Calendar Crumpled Paper 1-28

Calendar Crumpled Paper

2. Calendar Black 1-29

Calendar Black

3. Calendar Pink 1-30

Calendar Pink

4. Calendar Watercolor 1-31

Calendar Watercolor

5. Calendar Leaf Skeletons 2-28

Calendar Leaf Skeletons

6. Calendar Pastel Splatter 2-29

Calendar Pastel Splatter

7. Calendar Torn Denim 2-30

Calendar Torn Denim

8. Calendar Spilt Paint 2-31

Calendar Spilt Paint

You can download the Masters here:

Calendar Master Blanks

Here is the Code Template:

Code Template

Hope you find the video & resources useful.

Regards,

Andrew

Presentation – New Effects by Andrew Buchanan

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This video introduces my latest series of effects called ‘More effects from me’ numbered 001-100.

It is a presentation video not a tutorial video – it merely shows each effect in the series applied to the same BASE image which is an original photograph of mine that has been processed in Smart Photo Editor to simplify it slightly and limit color variation. The effect used is one that I often use to create base images and it is Penningtons7’s ‘Watercolor’ effect. You should note that the effects are ARTISTIC ones and are offered to use creatively to produce artworks rather than to simply enhance photographs. There are unlimited ways in which these effects can be used and I look forward to see how they are used by others.

Although I applied each effect at a click without any adjustments whatsoever, the effects have a host of parameters that can be altered using sliders including hue, saturation, exposure, contrast, brightness, vibrance, gamma and so on…and many of them have merge sliders to adjust how the different textures within each effect interact with each other. Experimentation should reap boundless rewards. I look forward to using them myself.

The core structure of each effect was created by me and involves multi-textured blends with textures mainly created digitally by me. Occasionally, I used existing SPE effects (including my own) to add to the core structure and from about 071 to 100 I made good use of existing effects to polish off mine. I acknowledge the use of other contributors effects as elements of some of my new effects – I did not record which effects I used, but it will be apparent that I have used a number of border effects towards the end of the series. So thanks to all the contributors in general and more specifically to the contributors whose effects I have used.

I made a PDF document to support this video and to help make the effect series more useful to users. Click on the link below to download:

Effects’ Catalogue

Kind regards,

Andrew