by heathenx
In this tutorial I will draw a rather simple ice pop (or popsicle) in Inkscape v0.47.
A very special thank-you goes to Christian (of Chrisdesign) for providing me with this tutorial. Again, he has done all of the hard work for me. How nice is that? 
Here’s the color palette for the tutorial.
by Richard Querin
In this episode, I demonstrate how to apply a more realistic looking texture to an object using Inkscape 0.46.
Using typography as an example, and with the help of The Gimp’s Render Cloud tool, I show how to turn a ho-hum texture into something a little more natural looking. While I show an example with text, you could use this sort of treatment with any sort of object you’d like to apply a texture to. Even more generally, using a cloudy mask like this is only one solution. You could generate all kinds of other masks in something like the Gimp (or your bitmap editor of choice) and other sorts of effects to your textures.
I also show how to create a faked spotlighting effect using simple ellipses, gradients and blurs, which can make the drop shadows a little more convincing but it all depends on what you’re after.
The font I used for this episode is called League Gothic and can be found at The League of Moveable Type. And of course, for the cloud mask you can download the Gimp at gimp.org or install it from your repository if you don’t already have it.
Hopefully over the next little while I can get more up to speed on Inkscape 0.47 and all it’s new features. For now though, 0.46 will do. 
I hope everyone has a great holiday season and we will undoubtedly see you in 2010!
by heathenx
In this screencast I will illustrate how to make a bottle cap using Inkscape 0.47.
I want to thank HayTay (which I think I pronounced KayTay in the screencast…oops!) from the TalkGraphics.com forum for giving me the inspiration for this episode.
Also, big thanks to Scott Kirkwood for developing a new key status monitor for Linux.
by heathenx
In this special episode I will use Blender and Inkscape to create a vitamin bottle with decal. I’ll be using Blender 2.49b and Inkscape 0.47pre4.
I must warn our Inkscape viewers out there that is episode serves as a bit of a special one. There is a lot of focus on Blender. I won’t get into the habit of doing this in the future. Inkscape should be our focus on this website. Of course I won’t ever rule out using Blender again but I doubt very much that I’ll make another modeling screencast. For those out there that wanted to see this specific episode…this one’s all for you.
I want to give very special thanks to Kernon Dillon of BlenderNewbie fame and Jonathan Williamson of BlenderCookie, CGCookie and Mavenseed fame. I learned how to add a decal to a model from Kernon’s tutorial here. Jonathan’s tutorial on modeling a telescope was very helpful as well. For those looking for more screencasts on Blender then I highly recommend those websites. These guys will get you up and running in no time.
Also, I want to thank Richard for our new intro animation and the funny disclaimer. We weren’t quite sure if we wanted to do something special for the milestone episode 100. In the end we went with whatever took the least amount of time and effort. It’s to be expected, isn’t it?.
by heathenx
In this screencast I will illustrate how to make a tilt-shift miniature photo using Inkscape 0.47pre4.
The final image in this screencast is a little hard to see so if you want to take a look at something better then take a gander at this picture.
Also, check out Tilt-Shift Maker for an even faster way of making these images. Have fun.
by Richard Querin
In this episode, I demonstrate a few simple text treatments using Inkscape 0.46.
Nothing too technically challenging here, just a few treatments I’ve done on text in the past that I find valuable. Hopefully it will help spur people to use typography more in their designs.
At the start of this screencast I point to a great web site called The League of Moveable Type. While they only have a few fonts on there at the moment, they are committed to providing a collection of high-quality open source fonts. I commend them for that. Thanks to Troy for pointing me to that site. I’ve already found a couple of fonts there that I’ve used in some of my projects.
by heathenx
In this screencast I will demonstrate how to pattern along a path to make retro style curves in Inkscape 0.46.
I apologize for the piss-poor quality of this screencast. I rushed it because I was being rushed. Unfortunately, I’m not going to have a lot of time to screencast in the next week or two so it was either today or not at all. Good enough will have to do.
by Richard Querin
In this episode, I demonstrate how to use Inkscape’s Axonometric Grid feature to create some simple isometric illustrations.
Note: Tom pointed out in the comments that I didn’t really explain how to get a rectangle (or text etc) onto that isometric plane. I used a simple technique for the text in the intro to this episode which I didn’t explain in the video. It’s quite useful when you’re creating diagrams. So I’ve decided to point to a PDF file I’ve created explaining this technique. It’s actually very easy. Thanks Tom. Here’s the tutorial pdf file.
While most of you won’t notice much difference in the video (hopefully), apart from some final transcoding to ogv and flv formats, I put this one together using Blender. So you might notice a short fade out to black at the end and a short cross fade between the sped-up intro and the main screencast. I’m really a big fan of editing video in Blender and it was nice to see that I could do the video editing with it. As my skills improve hopefully the end results will get better.
Also arguably noteworthy is the fact that I used my Snowflake mic to record the audio on this one. It’s still far from perfect (it sounds a little overmodulated to me at times), but I think it’s better than the noisy hum-ridden Logitech headset that I’ve been using. I’m definitely going to tweak the positioning of it.
If anybody’s interested in attending the Ohio Linux Fest on September 25,26 in Columbus, both Heathenx and I will be there. Drop us a note in the comments if you’ll be attending and maybe we can meet up.
**** Note: I think there is something wrong with the streaming OGV file. The flash version plays fine (in non Firefox3.5 browsers) but when viewing the streaming ogv file in FF3.5 it seems to stop right after the inital 12 sec intro. At least on my machine. I’d really like others to fill me in on whether or not the streaming ogv file played correctly in their FF3.5 browsers for them.
**** Update: I’ve temporarily made the streaming version Flash for everybody so it should stream fine now. We’ll switch it back once we get it fixed.
**** Update 2: Heathenx has saved the day and corrected the problem. It’s now ogv and working fine.
by heathenx
In this episode I’ll take a look at creating a coffee stain in Inkscape v0.46.
by heathenx
In this screencast I will demonstrate how to pull Inkscape, Blender and Gimp together in order to produce some artwork. I will be using Inkscape 0.46, Blender 2.49a, and Gimp 2.6.6.
I have been wanting to screencast Blender along with Inkscape for quite sometime now. I tried to keep this tutorial rather simple for the sake of the screencast but I’m pretty sure the real artist in you can take the fundamentals and expand on it. I have to say that combining Inkscape and Blender artwork is rather fun and once you get the hang of Blender then you might find yourself in it all of the time. Here’s an example of a Blender bottle that I modeled from an Inkscape sketch. The bottle was rendered out of Blender and brought into Inkscape where I had added a 2D label. Spic and span.
I would like to thank Christian from Chrisdesign for giving me the inspiration.
If you want to examine the files that I used for this screencast then grab the archive from here.
Update: Sorry everyone. I forgot to attach the Stereofidelic font that I used. It can be found here.
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