I have written some Illustrator tutorials in which I've used the Blend Tool to create swirls and other shapes, but I have never used it to create a text effect. Then we received this email suggestion from one of our readers quite a few months ago asking us how to create that effect. I really like the text effect and decided to give it a try.

More than two years ago, I created an image of a digital bokeh using Pixelmator that became incredibly popular on the Internet. I easily created the image using Pixelmator’s filter, which was new at the time, called Defocus. I simply applied the filter and added a gradient overlay layer to create the effect.

In 2008 I came up with a technique using the Brush Tool in Photoshop to create a digital bokeh effect. Then I mixed it with some gradient colors blended all together. The effect has become quite popular so I decided to upgrade a little bit the effect.

In this tutorial, I will demonstrate how to create a very nice abstract effect, using the super cool Travelator filter. I will make use of some of the Quartz Composer filters in order to show the many different exciting effects that can be achieved with them.

Step 1

Open Pixelmator and create a new document. Let’s go ahead and use a size of 1920×1200 pixels.

Last year I wrote a tutorial called Incredibly Realistic Water Text in Cinema 4D and Photoshop where I created a text made out of water. I had to use Cinema 4D to create a 3D object then I imported this 3D file in Photoshop where I mixed with some stock photos.

Adobe has just released the CS5 family and you can download the trials including the new Photoshop CS5 Extended. With this new version we have the Repoussé feature which allows us to create 3D objects in Photoshop.

Sometimes we seek an exactly type of inspiration like web inspiration for example but there are times where the unexpected can do some good for your brain. This collection is full of great images that are quite unexpected and pretty awesome at the same time, so what you waiting for? Check them out!

The new Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended is about to be released, it was announced already and among the new features there is one really special that is the Repoussé. This new feature or tool will allow us to create 3D objects extruding texts, selections, paths and layers masks.

A few weeks ago watched Clash of the Titans. The movie was okay, I have to admit, I was expecting much more, but it was awesome to see some huge monsters and mythologic creatures battling in this epic movie.

The wallpaper of this week is a really cool image created by Adolfo Correa, a 21 years old, student of Graphic Design from Santiago, Chile.