Create a Sleek Illustration that Fades from Line Art to Color

Author: Gavin Steele

In this tutorial, you will work with a few images you chose and you will create a nice looking illustration. The idea behind this illustration was to create a war between reality and line art. I tried to make this one simple, but at the same time to make it look good. I hope you enjoy the tutorial and try it with your own tools and stock – Constantin

This is how the final image will look like!

Click for Large view. File size 6MB. 2200×3000 Poster Resolution

Read more for the video tutorial:

Somebody Else’s Phone: Would you look through it?

Posted by Tim Leberecht

If you found somebody else’s phone, would you look through it? That’s a rhetorical question. Of course! Your phone is your life, at least if you’re under 25, and there’s nothing more interesting than the “lives of others.”

The advertising firm Wieden + Kennedy London translated the idea of “cellular oversharing” into a much gushed-about ad campaign for Nokia. “Somebody Else’s Phone” depicts the lives of three twentysomethings through their text messages, multimedia messaging service, and pictures, and it essentially creates a new story format: the phone novel.

Fusing scripted content with real-life audience interaction, the campaign runs in 10 different languages, following the characters’ evolving storylines through a 24-7 feed of content, across three time zones, over 6 weeks.

Nice idea, though the blog of marketing firm Luon comments, “Sometimes it feels a bit like trying too hard. The advertising-tries-to-be-socially-smart thing, where it’s not clear what is real and what is fake.”

But that’s exactly the point. Fake authenticity–I’ve already written about “Mad Men” on Twitter in this context–is a burgeoning trend. Fake is fine, as long as it feels real. We’ll see more of it in 2009.

Netflix made a streaming deal with Samsung

Posted by Martin

Netflix Inc. has reached an agreement with Samsung Electronics Co. to bring movies from the Internet to television sets through Samsung electronics devices, including new products that also play movies in the high-definition Blu-ray format. The deal is the latest in a series of efforts by Netflix, the Los Gatos, Calif., company that pioneered DVD rentals delivered by mail, to position itself for a future in which movies are delivered entirely over the Internet. Samsung, the big Korean electronics manufacturer, will allow users of two new $400 products, the BD-P2500 and BD-P2550 Blu-ray disc players, to access video through a Netflix Internet video service that currently offers more than 12,000 movies, television shows and other titles.

The Samsung products are already on sale, though early users of the products will have to connect them to the Internet to download new software that makes them compatible with Netflix’s service. Future versions will have Netflix access built in. Terms of the relationship between the two companies weren’t disclosed. Netflix has already struck deals to offer its Internet video service on devices that include a Blu-ray disc player by LG Electronics Inc., the Xbox 360 videogame console by Microsoft Corp. and a set-top box manufactured by a startup Roku Inc.