Recent posts (or lack thereof)

Hey everyone...

This post is party-worthy, in my opinion, for the sole reason that I haven't posted anything in a reeeeeeeally long time. They say that people read and stick to blogs that have relatively frequent and interesting posts.

If so, I'm screwed.

School can take a toll on your blogging activities, and I have had a lot of school lately. Trying to get caught up in my pretty pitiful algebra grade (:P) is rather difficult for someone like me, who doesn't have a very mathematical mind at all.

Anyway, enjoy this blog, have fun, don't party too hard. See ya later. Read more on this article...

The Truth About Audio Editing

This is probably the funniest(and truest) thing I have read in a very long time.
I found this great article on the No Media Kings blog(which is amazing, by the way), about making your own boom stand. My favorite part reads..

"3. Eloquence over abundance. This tip is simply a matter of opinion. Too many sounds effects and other novel noises will suck. Simple as that. When you are tempted to add that comic slide whistle, conjure up images of desktop publishing in the eighties. We all know the effects of too much clip art and too many fonts."

This is very true. I have friends that edit things that look like they jumped directly out of those annoying educational videos from two decades ago. It is very annoying... Read more on this article...

Blog of the Week: Daily Designs

Hello everyone (or anyone, really). I have decided to make a new weekly posting series called Blog of the Week. Here I will post interesting blogs, from the popular to the obscure.







Alright, lets start with Daily Designs. This blog was started and currently maintained by a friend of mine from the gimper.net forums, Stanley. It focuses on delivering the daily dose of inspiration to you as a designer, as well as tutorials, useful websites, and information about various graphic designers.

So far this blog has been quite successful, accumulating over 1000 unique hits as of the time of writing of this post.

If you need a blog to add to your daily rounds on the 'Net, definitely add this one to your RSS reader. Read more on this article...

Standards, please!

Ah, looks like time for a rant post. To be honest, I have been planning this post for ever, just never quite got around to actually writing it. So here we go...

Standards, as you all know, are very important, especially in the constantly shifting environment that is the World Wide Web. Unfortunately, there always seems to be a company or a piece of software that will try as hard as possible to combat standards with their own proprietary technology. It sounds ridiculous, idiotic, and silly, but it's completely true.

As it happens, I have to tell you about something that has happened to me recently at school (and, in fact, is still happening, as this is a year-long project). My Algebra class has been assigned this year-long project, where we research and write about a famous mathematician (who has been assigned to us by the teacher), a mathematical concept, and a mathematical symbol. This project takes the form of an MS Sharepoint "wiki". Sounds simple enough, and it is. The problem is the fact that the school system is using MS Sharepoint Server for all of its teachers' websites. To me as a student its OK, as long as I don't try to edit my page with something other than Internet Explorer... but I have Firefox. That means that when I click the "Edit" button on my page, it gives me a box with mangled, proprietary HTML, and when I try to upload an image to the Image Library, I simply can't. Now all this is not a problem (I threw the HTML into KompoZer cause I didn't have the patience to screw around with all that disgusting code). But it's all very unnecessary and annoying. Why do I have to download another program to my computer just to do a school project?? Cause Microsoft wants to expand its market share? Come on. Even though this is more of the school's fault than Microsoft's (it's actually completely the school's fault), why not just let other browsers access the simplified editing page, and make everyone happy? Forget it, man...

Just wanted to get that off my chest, as they say. Hope you don't hate me.

Ta ta for now.. :) Read more on this article...

Almost Sad

This is almost sad..



Yes, its AYBABTU... Yes, I'm a bit behind everyone else.
I just wanted to point out the apparent hilarity of the fact that the Human voice is Microsoft Sam. It seems like something I would do when designing a game.

Hmmm... Read more on this article...

Change is a cliche..

..but that's what I'm all about, am I not??

Alright, so my decision to completely refocus this blog might be for the worse; I really don't care. I decided to refocus this blog to be more general, more personal. See, I don't really feel like writing about graphic design anymore, although graphic design will certainly be one of the topics discussed here.

SO, there you go. Enjoy my incomprehensible gibberish.. Read more on this article...

Putera Aladin Blog

I have recently started following a delightful blog, Putera Aladin, maintained my an acquaintance of mine from gimper.net, Starlight86. The site blows my mind. Its design is fabulous, the tutorials superb, the author is a creative machine. I highly recommend checking PA out, you are bound to learn something. Read more on this article...

Guitarist

Alrighty, new deviation. Here you go.


Hidden Identity -- Guitarist by ~el-lama on deviantART Read more on this article...

Grungy Dancer Man

Latest artwork! Not really that new, but it's the latest.


Grungy Dancer Man by ~el-lama on deviantART Read more on this article...

Blog Update

Alright
I'm not sure if anyone's even reading this, but if you are, we haven't died. Just sorta busy, and everyone's forgot about this blog.

OK so while we (I) were (was) gone (wow, like half a year), new things have happened. We made some new artwork. The GIMP has finally reached version 2.6. Go check it out.

I love it.

Also, just as I am writing this post, I decided to do some housekeeping and revamp the site a bit.
YEAH.
If you have suggestions, please feel free to email me. Read more on this article...

Vector Car

I think this explains itself.


Vector Car by ~el-lama on deviantART Read more on this article...

Our Deviant Arts

Lamaz and I made deviantArt accounts. Please check them out and comment on our artwork!
Lamaz1928
El Llama

Thanks! Read more on this article...

IWarp Alien

I found this hilarious tutorial where you make yourself look like an alien using IWarp.
Read more on this article...

Happy New Year

I just want to wish everyone a happy new year 2008!!!! Read more on this article...

GIMP 2.4.3

New bug-fix for 2.4. YAY!!!
http://gimp.org/downloads/ Read more on this article...

Great Color Chart

This is a really easy to find if you do a quick search, but I just fell in love with this chart!!! It tells you Hex codes and RGB codes for any color you want!
Link: Here Read more on this article...

130 Ultimate Web 2.0 Gimp Gradients--SGlider12

Hey everyone! SGlider12 did the Gimp community a huge favor by converting all these Web 2.0 Gradients! Here's a link, and if you want to give thanks, visit her blog here!
Here's the Gimper.net topic for ya. Read more on this article...

How to Create Cool Signatures

A TUT on how to make a cool signature.
1. Open Gimspter (GIMP)
2. Go to File>New then change the width to 400 and the height to 150. (This is the requirements for most forums)
3. (optional, but if u add it, it looks supa cool) This feature is called flames. It adds affect to almost everything. But who knows, maybe it just to cool for you. To add flames go to
Filters>Render>Nature>Flame.
4. Now you should see a screen pop-up.
Pick a flame you like by hitting randomize. Once you have picked a flame you like, change the camera angle by hitting the camera tab. Adjust zoom, X, or Y.
5. It may take a wile to load your flame if your signature is big, so be patient. Once its loaded, it should look similar to this.
8. Yes its dul, but lets color it!!!! This is the fun part.....go to colors>colorize and choose your COLOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YAY!!!!
9. Now add a picture!!!!!! FUN!!!! To do this, pick a picture from google image or somewhere else and put it in a -NEW- gimp window. Edit it, and then paste it in your sig.
10. Ok, your done....simple sig. Here are a few products...

Thanks for reading :D:D Read more on this article...

Sparkling Text Tutorial

This is something I came up with just a few minutes ago. It won't wow anyone to the point of hiring you to do graphic design for them, and it isn't animated, but I think if you tweak it a little you can come up with reasonable results.

Open any sized document. The size depends on what text you want or on the rest of your project. I am using a default 420x300.


You have that open, so type your text on the canvas.


Now to make it sparkly, go to "Filters">"Noise">"HSV Noise..." and change the settings around until you get something you like.



Now to make a starlike sparkle go to "Filters">"Light and Shadow">"Sparkle" and play around with the settings until it looks good.



I know its a bit hard to see in the pictures, but if you click the images, it will be clear. Thanks for reading my blog!
(C) 2007 El Llama Read more on this article...

Splatter Wallpaper

This is just a bunch of splatter brushes in color!
Read more on this article...