IrfanView: A Free Alternative To Adobe Bridge

This is a quick tutorial showing the use of IrfanView as a free alternative to Adobe Bridge. IrfanView Thumbnails can display PSD files as thumbnails, help organize your images, display thumbnails of text files and allow for full preview of PSD files without opening Photoshop. It is a great tool for digital artists or anyone with a large library of photos.

Steve

The Post

This sketch was done with graphite and charcoal on smooth Bristol paper. I haven't done any real sketches in charcoal though I have always liked the smooth gradients and rich dark tones that I have seen others achieve. 

How To Combine Video Clips with Authoring Works 4

In this tutorial I use Authoring Works 4 to convert and combine two video clips at the same time. I have found AW4 to be very useful over the years and indispensable at times where no other application will work.

Steve

How To Convert and Combine Video Clips

This is a video tutorial I did recently and I wanted to add it to my site archive.  If you have seen it just ignore it, but if not, check it out and let me know what you think.  It covers the use of freeware to convert various video types and then combine them into a single file.

Steve

Site Update

I just up dated the site to load faster and reorganized some things to remove clutter. I also redesigned the portfolio page and fixed the links to open in separate tabs.

WIP "Alien In a Hostile Land"

"Alien in a Hostile Land"
At least that is the working title so I can easily find it at a later date.  This WIP (Work In Progress)  is a personal project that didn't really start with a brief.  I normally try to make a point to create a brief for all projects in a simple text format .  Then I add progress notes of what to work on next.  This way I have a to do list of items to proceed with when I work on it again.  Instead of using Bridge with Photoshop to track or browse files, I use IrfanView Thumbnail Viewer (that installs with IrfanView) because it is a very light weight app.  It will allow me to also open the files in any external editor.


In this case, the parts just started to come together. It started with me doodling in Photoshop with a simple soft brush, opacity controlled by pressure, working on a value sketch (gray scale only) to see what I could find within the scribble.  The technique is similar to looking at a cloud and finding a shape within it. In a short time I had created a little alien in perspective.  I cleaned up the silhouette a bit, added texture, rim lighting and a very simple "throw-away" background shown below.

"Alien Invader"