Making a Calendar 2011 using Gimp or Photoshop

To create a calendar in Gimp it's really easy - there's a couple of scripts you can download here or there.

It's easy afterward to customized and get any look you want.

Below I opted for a "grunge" look, therefor I used the Downcome font then added some textures, some dirty spots and then applied a "Tear off" effect (that you can find here)

Here's below January 2011 which looks like the it has been printed on potatoe's sack.

There's a similar method for Photoshop you can find at : http://psd.tutsplus.com/tutorials/designing-tutorials/create-a-calendar-using-scripting-in-photoshop/

Originally found on 100 Best Photoshop Tutorials of All Time that Yield Professional Results

Mon beau sapin (2)

Before Christmas I was mentioning a French website launched for charity (to help children having presents on Christmas eve) - it turns out the project was a complete success and the author has gathered around 60,000 euros and wants to express a big THANK YOU !

See her message on her website Mon beau sapin (in French obviously)

Picasa for Mac: Free download from Google

A bit late for a christmas gift ...

Good news everyone, Picasa for mac is available for download.

Picasa for Mac: Free download from Google

It was already available for Windows and Linux - and because of iPhoto (?!) there was no version for mac users.

Playing the DM again

First of all, Happy Xmas nice reader and today I will share with you some fun you can have with the map editor of Wesnoth - Yes, it's brilliant -

If you ever played "Dungeon and Dragons" as a GM (Game Master) or DM (Dungeon Master as they called it back then) you know how painful it is to draw good looking maps ... But here on the left is one hell of a campaign map done in less than 15 mn ... now you just have to add number and put legends to the map -

in (1) a lonely wizard that might join the group
in (2) a tavern where the group will get valuable informations and tips and might even trade some equipment
in (3) a bunch of mercenaries up to no good
in (4) a local warlord with a quest - one of his lieutenant has disappeared while exploring a cave in the south ....

Xmas mix - contact sheet

Almost same result as in the previous post - but this time, the left picture was produced by a Gimp's script.

link to Robin Gilham's script
http://registry.gimp.org/node/120

Works perfectly -

You just have to copy the file contactsheet.py in the plugin folder (/home/username/.gimp-2.4/plug-ins) and make sure it is executable.

Then you'll find in the Toolbox window under "Xtns/Batch/Contact Sheet"

Openclipart Xmas mix

Little experiment today with a few opencliparts related to Santa and Xmas

the picture on the left was generated
from 8 cliparts with the following command (using the great tool imagemagick)

montage -label %f -frame 5 -geometry +4+4 *.png xmas.jpg


Here's the link of the various clipart : [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

www.monbeausapin.org

Hi, just a little announcement - www.monbeausapin.org has been launched by 2 French artists and the goal of this website is to collect money for the red cross.

So "poor" kids that don't like christmas time ; because they don't receive any gifts, or presents and that make them even more sad because everyone else does (or so they think) ... will have a chance to enjoy it as the next guy.

Christmas is a tough, stressful period ... but doesn't have to be like that.

So just go visit the website, post comments, see for yourself...