Links

Here is a list of some of my favorite links to sites that have helped me professionally, inspired my creativity or cured my boredom. The links will be listed at the top and if you are curious to get my opinion I'll have it along with some short reviews below.

Link List:

armorgames.com
blender.org
cgtextures.com
deviantart.com
hulu.com
ninjakiwi.com
sixrevisions.com
soulpancake.com
sirmikeofmitchell.com
tetrisfriends.com


Armor Games

Armorgames is definitely one of the best flash gaming websites on the net right now; it showcases a huge number of extremely high quality games and yet is still one of the simplest sites you’ll ever use, not to mention it's free. Armorgames is all about increasing awareness for flash developers and making it easy to make money from your flash developing skills. This is great to see and it shows that there is real strength in the flash gaming scene where it is possible to mix business with enjoyable gaming.

armorgames.com

Blender

Blender is an all-in-one 3D modelling and animation suite. It can be used to produce computer-generated images and movies. It is open source freeware, so it costs nothing to use. 

Blender was originally developed by the Dutch company NeoGeo, then made available as a commercial product by a subsidiary, Not A Number. When NaN shut down, one of its founders set up the not-for-profit Blender Foundation and worked to raise funds to buy the rights to Blender. Consequently, Blender is now under the GNU General Public License which makes it open source and free for anyone to use. There are many other 3D modelling suites, but some of them cost thousands of dollars. Blender doesn't cost a single penny.

Blender is available for most platforms that are in use today. You can run it on Windows 98, ME, 2000, or XP; Mac OS X; Linux; Solaris; Irix; FreeBSD. The download is, at most, 5.9MB. This should take less than half-an-hour on a dial-up connection, and less than one minute on a broadband connection, so there's no reason not to download it if you're even remotely curious about it.

Most likely your first meeting with the Blender user interface will have you utterly clueless. Almost all of the controls are hidden in keyboard shortcuts and mouse gestures, so without an understanding it can be a bit intimidating. But, with the video tutorials at blender.org, you'll quickly find your way around the software and begin to see how user-friendly it really is.

It is incredible to me that Blender is free software. It is so full of features that it really puts to shame a lot of commercial software that asks money for the same product or less. Anyone who has ever wondered about CG should really devote some spare time to playing with Blender, and it is surely ideal for animation students who cannot afford to drop hundreds of dollars on modelling and animation software. Overall, this is a great product.

blender.org

CG Textures

I won't say that CG Textures is the best site on the web to find premium textures and backgrounds, but it is, by far, much better than many alternatives. Being in the art field for a few years myself, I understand the pain an artist has to go through for hours at a time trying to find perfect matching background textures. The whole collection of over 54,000 free textures and images are organized just perfectly to get you what you need and quickly.

One of the great attractions of the website CG Textures is its intelligent search engine tool. If you are looking for a red colored door texture, all you have to type is 'red doors' and in seconds you'll have a wide variety of high-resolution textures that suit your needs. Another great feature of the search tool worth mentioning is that if you want red doors but don't care for metal doors you simple type ‘red doors – metal’ and your search result will eliminate all the metal textures that you do not wish to see. And of course, you can always search them by texture numbers or file names as well.

Overall the site has been great for my uses, both professionally and personally. I would recommend the site to both professionals and hobbyists as a great bookmarked resource for texture needs.

cgtextures.com

deviantART

The evolution of the internet has afforded artists an opportunity for exposure that was once primarily the domain of those fortunate enough to have gallery representation. Today, many artists, whether they are working digitally or with traditional media, use web sites as their primary means of displaying and selling their work. In addition to the commercial advantages afforded by the internet, the graphic nature of both the computer interface and the web itself have opened up a whole new market to artists and designers.

Launched on August 7, 2000, by co-founders Angelo Sotira, Scott Jarkoff and Matt Stephens, deviantART is an international online art community devoted to providing its members a relatively unrestricted creative environment while simultaneously enforcing a "non-flaming, non-ripping and non-discriminatory" atmosphere. In the parlance of the site, artists are known as deviants and the works they create are deviations. The site is home to more than eleven million pieces of art and the community consists of over 1 million members worldwide. Sotira, a dot-com prodigy since his teens, currently runs deviantART full-time; the site earns revenue through the print services it offers to its members, a subscription program, and advertising.

deviantART is a wonderful resource for any artist who is looking for some feedback from fellow artists, a sense of community, and an inexpensive way to sell prints. A major value of the internet certainly lies in making such communities available to a far-flung group of people who might otherwise be toiling away in isolation, uncertain of whether or not they would ever have the opportunity to share their work with a wider audience.

deviantart.com 

Hulu

I am sure most people, at least in the states, know about Hulu at this point. But if you haven't been exposed to this free-streaming site I'll say a few words about it.

Being a graphic designer, I have spent many hours in front of a computer screen. Many times I would put a movie or television series on while I work. This is why Hulu has been amazing for me. It keeps me up to date on my favorite television series while keeping me awake during some pretty boring projects. 

Hulu allows you to quickly find your favorite TV shows and movies and watch them at your leisure, all while offering a wide variety of features that make it possible to customize your viewing experience just the way you like it. One of these features is the simple but effective design of the site. One of the major sins that other Internet TV services commit is to make the user interface look so cluttered and busy that it’s hard to know where to find what you want. Hulu’s design prefers simplicity, but still makes it easy to navigate and find all the options you want. It’s the perfect balance of simplicity and fully-featured navigation.

Another feature is the site's wide range of content. While some other sites might have a larger number of videos, other sites can’t boast of a wider selection than Hulu. With videos from most major networks, Hulu has managed to put together a video library that can cater to any interest. Even older series that are no longer on the air are available for viewing, whether you’re seeking a little nostalgia or proving you’re the ultimate Doogie Howser fan.

Don’t be deceived; Hulu doesn’t have everything. But it does have much more than you’d expect to find from a free site. If you haven't tried it give it a go. I promise you won't be disappointed.

hulu.com

Ninja Kiwi

Of course I would rather play a console or software game over flash games most of the time but if I do play a flash game Ninja Kiwi is my first choice. Ninja Kiwi is another great flash games site that offers a lot of games that are more fun than they may appear at first glance. Some of the more addicting games I have come across have to be Bloons, Zombie and Knight: Orc Assault. If you like point and click strategy games these are some of the best I have played. Aside from Ninja Kiwi's great site design and user-friendly interface it has one quality that keeps bringing me back to the site--they design many of the games that are posted. You can't find Bloons anywhere else other than buying the app for mobile devices and that is enough to bring me back to the site every other week or so. Give the site a try if you like simple games or if you are bored out of your mind--that is typically when I find myself on the site.

ninjakiwi.com

Six Revisions: 70 Excellent Photoshop Resources

Six Revisions is a website that publishes practical and useful articles for designers and web developers. They present exceptional, noteworthy tips, tutorials, and resources that the modern web professional will appreciate. The site was launched in February 2008 by professional web developer/designer Jacob Gube (who now functions as the Chief Editor of the site). Articles are written by talented professionals from around the globe, and a high emphasis on quality, comprehensiveness, and usefulness goes into each of the articles published.

Any graphic designer, at least those that are humble in their work, would tell you that they are always on the look for inspiration or great tutorials to help them expand their toolbox. That is why I love this site. This one post in particular has given me dozens of ideas over the past couple years on various designs of my own. Whether you are a professional or hobbyist this site some great tips for anyone interested in digital design.

sixrevisions.com


SoulPancake 

I'll let the creator of the site, Rainn Wilson, describe soulpancake.com in his own words. "SoulPancake is more of a mission than a website. It's a movement to wrestle with and chew on life's big questions. It's a way to explore why we believe the things that we believe. It's a place for you to talk about your soul and the existence of God. It's a space to engage in art, philosophy, creativity, truth, and beauty. And ultimately, SoulPancake is a community of people who are digging deeper to figure out what it means to be human and to experience this rich, strange, difficult, and awesome journey called life." 

My personal experience with the site has been up and down. Despite its attempt at urging people to take the highroad it doesn't seem to take with all posters. I suppose it's too much to ask for some people to debate in a civilized manner. I got a lot of people verbally degrading me for personal beliefs and I saw the same for others as well. For a site that seems to intent of bringing an element of tolerance for it's posts it does little to monitor bigotry within the site. However, for all the hate that is sometimes found in some posts there are ten or more posts that are tolerant of others' beliefs and want to have a genuine and civilized debate on topics. I would personally like the mods to be a little more involved on the site or perhaps allows posters to moderate their own forums. 

Overall it's a fun site for people that are interesting in interacting with people of varying views and opinions; fun for those that like civil debates. I actually learned a lot from some people. But don't expect the site to be as tolerant as it says it is.

soulpancake.com 

The Art of Mike Mitchell

Mike Mitchell is an American artist known for his pop surrealism and for leading the online grassroots movement in supporting Conan O'Brien during the 2010 Tonight Show conflict. He designed the "I'm with Coco" poster, which was based on a photo, that went viral on the internet in January 2010. The poster has been widely circulated and displayed on the web and at various rallies during the 2010 Tonight Show conflict and afterwards for O'Brien's The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour. He also designed a poster in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill depicting a dead SpongeBob SquarePants floating on a polluted sea, with the caption: "Who died in an oil spill because of BP". 


I love this guy's style. He is a huge inspiration in my own digital illustrations.

 
sirmikeofmitchell.com

 

Tetris Friend

Its just Tetris. No physics model, no three dimensions, no subversion of the concept. Tetris Friends is the official Flash implementation of the greatest action puzzle game ever made, from The Tetris Company​ itself. And it's perfect. "Simple, fun, free," just like it says at the top of the screen.This version of Tetris is very friendly indeed. Bright, clear visual and sound effects accompany your every move. The keyboard controls are completely customizable. A three-tiered strategy guide and a basic history of the game are just a click away. The history is biased toward recent Tetris products, and tragically, it doesn't mention Atari's brilliant arcade version, but it's still a nice touch.

I love Tetris and I love this site. I have no complaints. It's a great site and it's free.

tetrisfriends.com