Finding the sneakers I need: June 2010

Wednesday 30 June 2010

Lucas

Lucas Kessler

HOUSTON/WASHINGTON, June 30 (Reuters) - Waves and wind spawned by Hurricane Alex disrupted cleanup efforts from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill on Wednesday while a senior US official said a relief well intended to plug BP ...

Hurricane Alex Threatens Mexico, Texas Coasts ABC News

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Hurricane Alex could slam into northeast Mexico Wednesday night CNN

Charles

Charles Vernon

Hurricane Alex Threatens Mexico, Texas Coasts ABC News

Hurricane Alex could slam into northeast Mexico Wednesday night CNN

How to Play Casino Games Online

People love playing games online, and many get addicted to them. Casino games are very popular and playing them online has become a great pastime for many. There are games such as roulette, keno, slots, blackjack and video poker, just to name a few. The following will help you learn how you can play casino games online.

Instructions

Step 1
Decide whether you want to play for free or use money. Obviously, if you decide you want to gamble you should always be prepared to lose, so don't put in more than you can afford.
Step 2
Download anti-virus protection--this is a necessity.
Step 3
Find sites. There are sites where you can play for free. Some are listed in the resource section.
Step 4
Open an account if required. Most of the time it will be for a free account, but some sites require you to deposit money to play. These are good and bad sites, since you have the chance to win--or lose.
Step 5
Download software, if necessary, to play on the site. Some sites require you to download their software even to play online, Make sure you computer has enough hard drive space.
Step 6
Decide which game you want to play. This will also help you to choose which site you want to play at. There are numerous sites and you have to narrow it down somehow.
Step 7
Play your game. Have fun especially if you are on a free site. If you have chosen to play for money, watch your money and try to quit when you are ahead or at least when you have broken even.

How to Play Casino Games Online

Emmanuel Snider

High doses of caffeine can increase muscle power and endurance, researchers from Coventry University said in a news release.

The scientists said the work could have an impact on how caffeine is used in sports.

"A small increase in performance via caffeine could mean the difference between a gold medal in the Olympics and an also-ran", said lead researcher Dr. Rob James.

Caffeine is not currently listed by the World Anti-Doping Agency as a banned substance, according to a news release on the new study. Before 2004, there was a level of caffeine athletes could not exceed.

The study tested muscle use in mice at both maximal and sub-maximal levels. Maximal is efforts such as sprinting or weight lifting; sub-maximal covers everyday activity and sports at lower intensities.

A high does of caffeine boosted performance by about 6 percent during both types of activities. Researchers said that effect could be similar in people.

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Louisa Jenkins

The 2-year-old son of former NFL QB Randall Cunningham died on Tuesday after a woman found the child floating in a backyard hot tub.

Las Vegas police Lt. Dennis Flynn told the Las Vegas Review-Journal the death appeared to be an accident.

Cunningham was not home at the time of Christian Cunningham's death, the paper said, but was en route back to Las Vegas.

The former NFL QB is a pastor in Las Vegas. He played in the NFL for 16 season from 1985-2001.

-- Sean Leahy

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Kenton Scruggs

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Monday 28 June 2010

Thad

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Spoon Graphics | Latest Blog Entry

Recreate the Epic 80’s Metal Text Effect in Photoshop

Posted: 28 Jun 2010 12:00 AM PDT

It’s funny how trends reappear through the years. The bright and shiny chrome text effect could be found everywhere in the 80s, then it disappeared altogether when people realised how hideous and gaudy it was. Recently though, this text styling seems to be making a comeback in the world of digital art as the 80s generation are implementing inspirations from their childhood into their designs and artworks. Follow this tutorial to recreate the epic metal text effect for yourself, making use of modern day digital design techniques in Photoshop.

View full size artwork

80s chrome metal text research

WWF Wrestling, Metallica’s Ride the Lightning album, Robocop, Amiga games and Transformers are all examples that I can relate to. As a little initial research, collect a few logos and graphics to refer to when creating your own text effect. Look closely at the colours used, the style of text and what seems like a desert landscape in the reflection of the text.

We’ll begin in Illustrator for the first couple of steps to lay out our type. Set out the wording of your choice in an appropriate font and convert the text to outlines (CMD+Shift+O). Here I’m using the font Viper Squadron, and the word ‘Epic’.

With the shapes selected, go to Object > Path > Offset Path. Enter 3mm in the options box. Right click on the objects and select Ungroup.

Add a couple of basic gradient fills to the two shapes to make it easy to identify them. A sky blue to white on the inner shape and a red to blue gradient on the outline will do the trick.

Draw a temporary rectangle around the text, then select this along with the outer shape. Paste the objects into Photoshop. Repeat the process but this time with the inner shape. The temporary rectangle will maintain the proportions between the two objects when copied through to Photoshop.

Double click the inner shape layer and begin adding some layer styles. Start by replacing the fill with a Gradient Overlay. Use dark blue (#426bc7), light blue (#719cff) and white (#ffffff) swatches and run the gradient vertically from the top.

Next, add a soft Inner Glow using a mid-blue (#76a5cd), set the opacity to 100%, blending mode to Normal, size to around 8px and add a 2px stroke to accommodate the stroke in the next step.

Add a 2px stroke in white, then set the alignment to the Inside and blending mode to Color Dodge. Adjust the opacity to around 60%.

Hold the CMD (Mac), or CTRL (Windows) key while clicking the thumbnail of the inner-text layer to load the selection. Grab the Rectangular Marquee tool and hold Alt while dragging a selection across the upper portion of the text, leaving just the lower half selected. Fill this with white on a new layer.

Double click the layer to open up the layer styles and add a vertical gradient running from dark indigo (#261528) to mid-indigo (#241e53) to white (#ffffff) to a very light indigo (#b6b4c7).

Zoom right in and draw a circular selection at each end of the reflection gradient layer on each letter.

Use the rectangular marquee tool to remove the middle portion between each circle. Repeat the process on every other letter.

Load the selection of the reflection layer, then go to Select > Modify > Contract. Enter 2px to reduce the mask size to accommodate the stroke, then inverse the selection (CMD+Shift+I) and delete.

The text is beginning to develop some definition with the gradients and stroked outlines. Now let’s start work on the chamfered edge.

Zoom in and draw around each edge of the outer outline with the Polygonal Lasso tool. Close the path by cutting diagonally across the outline at each corner. Fill each edge with white on individual layers.

Add a simple black to white gradient on one of the shape layers. Right click the layer and select Paste Layer Style, then select all the other layers and paste the same layer style.

The gradient is running in the wrong direction on the horizontal shapes, so tweak each one by adjusting the angle of the gradient fill.

Repeat the process on every other letter. Aim to contrast black against white on each shape to highlight the diagonal edge lines.

CMD-click the layer of the original outline shape and fill a new layer with white. Then CMD-click the original inner shape layer and delete this selection from the fill.

Replace this white fill with a blue (#283891) to red (#f07b71) gradient using the layer style options.

Change this layer’s blending mode to Linear Burn to allow the gradient overlay to replace the colour of the white to black gradients underneath.

Dab a few spots of white across the text to add a variety of highlights and tones. Load and inverse the selection of the text layer and delete out the excess from the highlights layer.

On a new layer, draw some 1px white lines across the straight edges of the text to act as highlights.

Add a layer mask to the highlighting lines layer and erase out the ends of the lines with a soft brush.

Find a stock lens flare and paste in multiple copies to highlight the edges and corners of the text.

Load the outer text selection and fill a new layer with white. Add a Noise filter (Filter > Noise > Add Noise) with the settings 10%, Uniform & Monochromatic. Change this layer’s blending mode to Color Burn to allow the texture to interact with the text.

The text effect is just about complete, but let’s finish off the design with a subtle background. Use some Subtle Grunge Brushes to add some background texture to the design. Reduce the opacity down to around 30%.

Dab some large spots of colour above the texture layer, but below the text. Use samples of blue, red and purple from the outer edges of the text.

Change the blending mode to Color Dodge at 80% to allow the colours to interact with the textured background.

Finally add a soft Drop Shadow to the outer text outline layer to anchor the text with the background.

Download the source file

Friday 25 June 2010

ONLINE CASINO

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Spoon Graphics | Latest Blog Entry

This Week’s Favourites – June 25th 2010

Posted: 25 Jun 2010 12:00 AM PDT

In this week's roundup of creative goodness, we have a collection of useful iPad apps for designers, a stunning digital art tutorial, a compilation of fresh Illustrator tutorials, a Photoshop icon design tutorial and a detailed illustration walkthrough.