BlogmyQuery – BMQ

It is always surprising how many fresh, innovative and always useful tools and resources appear from week-to-week from within the web design community. In this weeks design news round-up we take a look at four more cool and free new apps that may help you with your next web project.

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One of the most sought after resources for a web designer are high quality and, preferably, free CSS/XHTML/HTML web templates. And this exactly what we have for you in today news round-up: 5 New High Quality CSS and HTML Templates.

Schizo Octopus Website Template

This template has a fixed layout one page portfolio template with two columns with the download containing the Photoshop Files, XHML/CSS Coded template and also includes documentation.
Free for personal or commercial use. No need to credit.
Schizo Octopus Website Template

CSS Heaven 2

CSS Heaven 2 is a free CSS Template suitable for small business websites and blogs.
This template is released under GPL License.
CSS Heaven 2

Euphoria

Euphoria has been licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.
Euphoria

Template 6

This template could be used as a corporate website & blog, it contains: Two template pages , valid HTML & CSS and all of the PSD files.
Template 6

SilverBlog

SilverBlog is a minimal template suitable for blog designs that has been built with HTML5 and CSS.
It has been released under GNU GPL license.
SilverBlog

By Paul Andrew (Speckyboyand speckyboy@twitter).

Slideshows and image galleries are all the rage at the moment, there are loads of new techniques, plugins and tutorials cropping up everywhere. In this design news round-up we have chosen our favorites from recent weeks.

SIDEWAYS – jQuery fullscreen image gallery

Sideways is a simple, yet elegant fullscreen image gallery created with the jQuery and some simple CSS.
SIDEWAYS – jQuery fullscreen image gallery

Full Page Image Gallery with jQuery

In this tutorial you can learn how to create a stunning full page gallery with scrollable thumbnails and a scrollable full screen preview. The idea is to have a thumbnails bar at the bottom of the page that scrolls automatically when the user moves the mouse. When a thumbnail is clicked, it moves to the center of the page and the full screen image is loaded in the background.
Full Page Image Gallery with jQuery

Orbit: A Slick jQuery Image Slider Plugin

Orbit is a killer jQuery plugin that lets you create a simple, effective and beautiful slider for images of any size, and even includes some parameters for making awesome captions and a sweet timer.
Orbit: A Slick jQuery Image Slider Plugin

By Paul Andrew (Speckyboyand speckyboy@twitter).

Lately, Apple Keynote has been gaining popularity among designers as a wireframing and prototyping tool. Features like multiple slide masters, styles, grouping, animation and hyperlinks make it ideal for crafting interactive prototypes and UI narratives. Today’s freebie, Keynotopia, is a free set of interface elements for Keynote that makes it possible for anyone to create these prototypes in minutes. All elements are hand-crafted in Apple Keynote, and organized in nested groups for easier manipulation and customization. The templates can be used in Keynote 09 and 08 and are designed by Amir Khella.

Start with a blank presentation, and create a new slide for each application screen. Then copy/paste elements from the wireframe templates into your slides, and edit their labels, sizes and colors. To save time, group elements together, and use master slides to share common interface and navigation components across multiple screens. Finally, add hyperlinks to enable user interaction, and use slide transitions to create cool interface animations.

Voila! You now have an interactive prototype that you can test with users, share with team members, and present to stakeholders.

Download the set for free!

You can use the set for all of your projects for free and without any restrictions. You can freely use it for both your private and commercial projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. The set may not be resold, sublicensed or rented. Please link to this article if you want to spread the word.

• download the set (.zip, 6 Mb)
• step-by-step tutorial and guide
• release on developer’s page

[Offtopic: by the way, did you know that there is a Smashing eBook Series? Book #2 is Successful Freelancing for Web Designers, 260 pages for just $9,90.]

Screenshots

Containers and Dialogs. Large view.

Controls. Large view.

Navigation. Large view.

Galleries. Large view.

Social Web. Large view.

Browser window. Large view.

Application window. Large view.

Lightbox. Large view.

Badges and icons. Large view.

Motivation behind the design

Here are some insights from the designer of the set:

“The first time I’ve used Apple Keynote for prototyping, I was helping a friend create a product pitch for his startup idea. He didn’t have design or development skills, and I wanted to show him how he can quickly put together a click-thru demo in less than an hour, using his favorite presentation tool. He was impressed by the outcome, and I was equally impressed by Keynote’s simplicity and efficiency. I never went back to my prototyping tool since.

Keynotopia was created so that anyone with an idea can quickly test its potential, without having to spend time and money on design and development resources. It’s a simple proof that having the right mindset for prototyping is more important than buying expensive tools.

I also wanted to find a way to avoid writing UI specs. Using Keynotopia templates, I created prototypes that I annotated and shared with development teams, and the response was phenomenal! Time was no longer spent reading, staring at screenshots and imagining interactions; developers and testers were actually having fun playing with the prototypes and providing feedback. Design was finally catching up with the lean and agile development process.

I am constantly updating the website with guides, tips, and new prototyping templates.

— Amir

Thank you very much, Amir! We appreciate your efforts.

Related Posts

You may be interested in the following related releases:

• The Ultimate Free Web Designer’s Icon Set (750 icons, incl. PSD sources)
• Free Medical Icons Set (60 Icons)
• Yummy! Free Food and Cakes Icon Set (20 Icons)
• Quartz Icon Set (90 clean sharp icons)
• gCons: Free All-Purpose Icons for Designers and Developers (100 icons + PSD)

© Smashing Editorial for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: downloads, Freebies, templates, wireframing

In this tutorial, we’ll be creating an Autumn themed Calendar for this month of September. The style here is dark and grungy and the final result is appropriately titled the ‘The Fall.’ This being the season of falling leaves from trees. The techniques used to attain the final image are the application of Blend modes, the use of grunge brushes

Step 1

First off, open a new document Ctrl+N, and set its document size to 1280 x 768 px and the resolution to 140 dpi. The wood texture below was from www.mega-tex.nl. Drag wood texture into your working document window.

Step 2

Press Ctrl+U for the Hue/Saturation Dialog box and then reduce the Saturation to -42. This is to fade the wood’s colour a little. We don’t intend to make the colours of our composition too vibrant.

The result:

Step 3

Go to Filter> Render> Lighting Effects and set the Lightening parameters below:

The Lighting Effects result:

Step 4

Now to paint over the lightened wood texture with a grunge specific brush. Download a set of grunge brushes by ART-D. Select the ‘BB Grunge_9′ brush from the Brushes Palette and increase its size to 1166 px and the brush colour that is, the foreground colour to #1f1710.

Step 5

Create a new layer and paint just once over the wood image.

Step 6

Change the layer’s Blend mode to Soft Light.

Step 7

Create a new Curves Adjustment Layer by clicking on the fourth icon from the left on the Layers Palette or go to Layers> New Adjustment Layer> Curves. Drag the midpoint of the straight line downwards to reduce the brightness of the image slightly.

We have now a dark wood surface that appears to be whittling away. Name this layer ‘grunge.’

This is the arrangement of the layers on the Layers Palette so far.

Step 8

Set the Foreground colour to #322c28 and from the Tools Panel, select the Rectangle Tool (U) and on its Options bar, select the ‘Fill Pixels’ icon.The square to be
drawn would be automatically filled with colour.

Step 9

Double-click on the ‘block’ layer for a Layer Style and select the Drop Shadow style. Set its parameters as shown below:

The Inner Shadow Layer Style adjustments:

Step 10

Create a new layer and with the Brush Tool (B) selected, right-click to choose a new grunge brush – ‘BB Grunge_7 ‘and ‘BB Grunge_9′ to be precised. Set the brush colour to #262321 and reduce its opacity to about 85%. Paint on the block not minding if you exceed its boundaries and then on the layer, right-click to select a ‘Clipping Mask’ to ‘fasten’ the brush painting to the block.

Step 11

Select a Soft Round brush and change its colour to #181412. Paint over the block as shown below:

Step 12

Head on to Filter> Blur> Gaussian Blur and set the Blur Radius to about 45.5 pixels. *Note:when the effect has been applied, there’s no need to erase around the edges of the block where the blur might have spread. Finally, set the layer’s Blend mode to Soft Light.

Step 13

For a new layer, select the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) and draw a circle that just encompasses the lower right corner of the block. Use a White Soft Round brush with an opacity of 75% to paint within the circle. Press Ctrl+D to clear the selection.

Step 14

Apply a Gaussian Blur of a Radius of about 60%. This in effect, increases the light intensity at a point without affecting other areas of the image.

For this layer ‘light,’ reduce the blur’s opacity to 60%.

Step 15

We’ll now add text for the date by selecting the Type Horizontal Tool (T).With the Tool, drag to create a rectangular shape.

Step 16

On the Type Tool’s Options bar, choose the font type as ‘Agency FB‘; the style as ‘Bold‘; size to 24 pt and colour to black. Alternatively, these adjustments can be made on the Character Panel. Enable this if not visible already, by going to Menu bar and select Window> Character. Type in the numbers for the month of the September; hit Enter to go into the next row for another set of numbers and so on.

Step 17

For a new layer, type in the numbers “30, 31″ for the numbers of the previous date and “1, 2, 3″ for
the numbers of the next date (the text colour doesnt matter for now).

Step 18

To make the date correspond with the direction of light, we’ll add a Gradient to it. Double-click on the first date text layer and select a Gradient Overlay Layer Style. Edit the Gradient by changing the Color Stops to the colours show below:

Step 19

Reduce the Gradient’s Opacity to 85% and set its Angle to -72.

Step 20

Add a Drop Shadow style with the adjustments below:

Step 21

For the second date “30, 31, 1, 2 and 3″, add a Bevel and Emboss Layer style. Set its parameters as shown below:

Step 22

Still on the second date, add a Color Overlay Layer style and set its colour to #957f6fand reduce its Opacity to 85%.

The final result:

Step 23

Also type in the days of the week and on the Character Panel, set the font colour set to #181615.

Step 24

For the month and the year, type in “SEPT . 2010″ and the Character Panel set the font type to “Broken Ghost” (you can download it for free at dafont.com)and the font colour to #363535.

Below we have a font with uneven edges that tallies with grittiness of the whole composition.

The completed date for September:

Step 25

Select a Spatter brush for the brush and set its Opacity to 85% Erase a little the set of numbers last row and the last two numbers on the row before. The aim is to make the numbers appear scratched.

Autumn wouldnt be complete without leaves; these maple leaves were downloaded from www.sxc.hu.

Step 26

Drag any maple leaf you fancy into the main document window and use the Magic Wand Tool (W) to extract the leaf from its background. Just click anywhere outside the leaf and hit the Delete key to clear the selection and you’re done! You may have to use the Eraser Tool to clear any hint of white left on the leaf.

Step 27

Use the Move Tool (V) to position the leaf and with the Free transform Tool (Ctrl+T), you might have to scale the leaf down.

Step 28

For the ‘Maple leaf’ layer, add a Drop Shadow Layer style:

Step 29

Follow up with an Inner Shadow style making the adjustments below:

The result below:

Step 30

Select the Brush Tool as a grunge brush and paint just once over the leaf.

Step 31

Create a Clipping Mask for the layer by right-clicking it and selecting this option. Set the layer’s Blend mode to Soft Light and reduce its opacity to 70%.

Step 32

With the Elliptical Marquee Tool, draw a circle and fill with a white colour and deselect or you could just use a Soft Round brush with the appropriate size and stamp a white brush mark over the leaf.

Step 33

Have the round white circle blurred with a Gaussian Blur and set the layer’s Blend mode to Soft Light. Also erase around the leaf to clear any paint outside it.

And this is our Calendar for September. Like I mentioned earlier, its titled “The Fall.”

By David Ella Ella