The Blue Jackal

The Blue Jackal

(watch the 2D animation movie at the end of this page)

Once upon a time there lived a cunning jackal in the forest.

One day, driven by hunger, he came to a nearby village in search of food. Seeing him, a group of dogs began barking and started chasing him. 

The jackal fled in panic and dashed into a tub of blue dye that was kept outside a dyer's house. When he came out, he became blue in colour. Thinking that he was not the jackal they chased, the dogs dispersed.

When he returned to the forest, all the other animals ran in fright when they saw him.

The blue jackal told them that he was sent by the Gods to rule the forest and if they did not obey him, the Gods will punish them.

All the animals accepted him as their king. They built a stage for him and brought food for him everyday.

One day a group of jackals were passing by the forest. They lifted their heads and howled.

The blue jackal could not restrain himself and started howling too.

When the other animals saw him howling, they looked at him angrily and started growling.

The blue jackal fled from there and thus his reign ended.

Watch the 2D animation movie "The Blue Jackal".

Light Streaks Wallpaper Tutorial in Photoshop

We are going to make a light streaks desktop wallpaper in Photoshop.

Light Streaks Desktop Wallpaper

1. For making this wallpaper you will need Photoshop, any version would do, CS3 or higher. First, launch Photoshop and create a new document. 

File--New or Ctrl+N

The dimensions should be 1920x1080 px, this gives an HD output. 75 ppi resolution is enough and choose RGB color mode.

2. Now select the Gradient tool (G) and choose a black and white gradient and both colors must have 100% opacity. Use shift while dragging the gradient tool. Make a linear gradient like the picture below. Double click on the background layer to unlock it.

3. Now, go to Filter--Distort--Wave

4. Select the settings as shown in the picture below.

No. of Generations: 10, Type: Square

You should get something like this.

5. Double click on the layer you just created and choose Gradient Overlay from the Layer Styles. Click on the small arrow next to Presets and select Spectrum. Choose the first one.

6. Change the Blend Mode to Linear Burn, Opacity: 65, Style: Reflected, Angle: 0 and click OK.

7. Create a new layer and repeat steps 2, 3 & 4 and change the blending mode of this layer to Soft Light. This will add some shine to our light streaks.

8. Now, create a new layer. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) and draw a small rectangle and fill it with black color. Keep the rectangle selected and go to Edit--Define Brush Preset. A new brush will be created. Now you can delete the layer containing the rectangle.

9. Select the brush you just created and go to 

Window--Brushes (F5). 

Brush Tip Shape--Spacing: 160%

Shape Dynamics--Size Jitter: 100%, Angle Jitter: 16%, Roundness Jitter: 67%, Minimum Roundness: 38%

Scattering--Scatter: 596%, Count: 1

Resize your brush using ( [ ) & ( ] ) and click in your wallpaper to add tiny rectangles like I did.

10. Use a good font (Arial and size:200pt) to write your name or a quote and set the blending mode to Overlay. Now, double click on the text layer to access Layer Styles. Select Outer Glow--Blend Mode--Linear Light, Opacity: 75%, Color: ccffff, Spread: 8, Size: 7 and click OK.

Your Light Streaks Desktop HD Wallpaper is ready. :) 

Happy Bengali New Year

Happy Bengali New Year

Subho Nabobarsho

Ruby in Illustrator Tutorial

In this tutorial I will show you how to make a sparkling ruby or gemstone in Adobe illustrator. This can also be used for making icons.

Launch Adobe Illustrator and create a New RGB Document. I took 640x480 pixels with 75 resolution.

Start by creating a Square with the rectangle tool (M) .

 Now Rotate it to 45 degrees. Select the line tool (\) and draw two straight lines crossing one another at the centre of the square. You may use the align tools to make it perfect. 

 Select everything and click on the live paint bucket tool (K) so that all the four parts can be colored separately.

Use the following color table.

Select a separate color from the color table to fill the four parts of the ruby.

Next, copy the square and paste in front and resize it to give some depth to the ruby. Expand and ungroup it and delete the lower two triangles.

 Create a Gradient like the following picture with gold (#R=209, G=181, B=96) and black.

Set the blending mode to screen and angle to 45.8 degrees

 Apply this gradient to one triangle.

Now select the colored triangle and reflect it vertically.

 Create a square at the middle of the ruby.

 Color the small box by using the gradient shown below.

To add sparkles, select the star tool, click anywhere and an options box will appear. Use the following settings.

Your sparkling ruby is ready.