Mathias Verhasselt really has talent in designing stunning visuals. Below are some of his sensational works. Go here to view the rest of his works. I feel like looking at stills from Eragon, LOTR and Star Wars when admiring his work of art. Good stuff, Mathias!

Mathias Verhasselt
Amazing computer graphics

Hey guys!!! I found this really really cool javascript from dynamicdrive.com that allows you to make snow fall from your website. As you can see, snow is already falling from this website! weeEEEeeeee… Superb Stuff! Merry Christmas!!

Great stuff for your website and blogs! Anyways, here’s how it’s done.

Step 1

snow.gif <—- Right click on this image and “Save As”. Upload into your webserver.

Step 2

Copy the text below and paste it entirely below your index’s tag. Change the URL path to the snow image accordingly and you are done! Have fun with the snow, yeah.

<script type=”text/javascript”>

/******************************************
* Snow Effect Script- By Altan d.o.o. (http://www.altan.hr/snow/index.html)
* Visit Dynamic Drive DHTML code library (http://www.dynamicdrive.com/) for full source code
* Last updated Nov 9th, 05′ by DD. This notice must stay intact for use
******************************************/

//Configure below to change URL path to the snow image
var snowsrc=”snow.gif”
// Configure below to change number of snow to render
var no = 10;
// Configure whether snow should disappear after x seconds (0=never):
var hidesnowtime = 0;
// Configure how much snow should drop down before fading (”windowheight” or “pageheight”)
var snowdistance = “pageheight”;

///////////Stop Config//////////////////////////////////

var ie4up = (document.all) ? 1 : 0;
var ns6up = (document.getElementById&&!document.all) ? 1 : 0;

function iecompattest(){
return (document.compatMode && document.compatMode!=”BackCompat”)? document.documentElement : document.body
}

var dx, xp, yp; // coordinate and position variables
var am, stx, sty; // amplitude and step variables
var i, doc_width = 800, doc_height = 600;

if (ns6up) {
doc_width = self.innerWidth;
doc_height = self.innerHeight;
} else if (ie4up) {
doc_width = iecompattest().clientWidth;
doc_height = iecompattest().clientHeight;
}

dx = new Array();
xp = new Array();
yp = new Array();
am = new Array();
stx = new Array();
sty = new Array();
snowsrc=(snowsrc.indexOf(”dynamicdrive.com”)!=-1)? “snow.gif” : snowsrc
for (i = 0; i < no; ++ i) {
dx[i] = 0; // set coordinate variables
xp[i] = Math.random()*(doc_width-50); // set position variables
yp[i] = Math.random()*doc_height;
am[i] = Math.random()*20; // set amplitude variables
stx[i] = 0.02 + Math.random()/10; // set step variables
sty[i] = 0.7 + Math.random(); // set step variables
if (ie4up||ns6up) {
if (i == 0) {
document.write(”<div id=\”dot”+ i +”\” style=\”POSITION: absolute; Z-INDEX: “+ i +”; VISIBILITY: visible; TOP: 15px; LEFT: 15px;\”><a href=\”http://dynamicdrive.com\”><img src=’”+snowsrc+”‘ border=\”0\”><\/a><\/div>”);
} else {
document.write(”<div id=\”dot”+ i +”\” style=\”POSITION: absolute; Z-INDEX: “+ i +”; VISIBILITY: visible; TOP: 15px; LEFT: 15px;\”><img src=’”+snowsrc+”‘ border=\”0\”><\/div>”);
}
}
}

function snowIE_NS6() { // IE and NS6 main animation function
doc_width = ns6up?window.innerWidth-10 : iecompattest().clientWidth-10;
doc_height=(window.innerHeight && snowdistance==”windowheight”)? window.innerHeight : (ie4up && snowdistance==”windowheight”)? iecompattest().clientHeight : (ie4up && !window.opera && snowdistance==”pageheight”)? iecompattest().scrollHeight : iecompattest().offsetHeight;
for (i = 0; i < no; ++ i) { // iterate for every dot
yp[i] += sty[i];
if (yp[i] > doc_height-50) {
xp[i] = Math.random()*(doc_width-am[i]-30);
yp[i] = 0;
stx[i] = 0.02 + Math.random()/10;
sty[i] = 0.7 + Math.random();
}
dx[i] += stx[i];
document.getElementById(”dot”+i).style.top=yp[i]+”px”;
document.getElementById(”dot”+i).style.left=xp[i] + am[i]*Math.sin(dx[i])+”px”;
}
snowtimer=setTimeout(”snowIE_NS6()”, 10);
}

function hidesnow(){
if (window.snowtimer) clearTimeout(snowtimer)
for (i=0; i<no; i++) document.getElementById(”dot”+i).style.visibility=”hidden”
}

if (ie4up||ns6up){
snowIE_NS6();
if (hidesnowtime>0)
setTimeout(”hidesnow()”, hidesnowtime*1000)
}

</script>

Dynamic Drive
Christmas comes early.

Now as the web progresses towards WEB 2.0, more and more websites are becoming cooler. The common designs are chromatic colours and rounded edges.

Nina’s website has all the info a person need to make great stuff out of Photoshop. One common example is the chroms button effect. Lucky for us, Nina made her tutorial free so we may be able to learn from her. Here are 8 pictures taken from her chrome article give a better description.

• Figure 1



• Figure 2



• Figure 3



• Figure 4



• Final

During my university days, I used to photoshop my pictures too. I remembered that I was still a newbie who didn’t know much about exposure. All I knew was how to on the flash when it is dark and play with the zoom. So, as expected, some pictures were too dark and some were a little blurry. After reading a bit about the world of Photoshop, I got hold of version 9 and started playing with it. My favourite tool was the healing brush and patch tool. Nina has this tutorial to show us how it’s done. Here are several pictures to show the step by step process.

• Here’s the original picture



• A good skin part is selected to replace the saggy eyes.patchtool_left.jpg



• Here’s where magic happens. The saggy eyes are no longer saggy!



• See the difference?

We can actually use this nifty tool to patch up almost anything from pimples, to freckles and even add a bit of hair! Have fun with her site! It’s great stuff! Thanks Nina!

Free Photoshop Tutorials
Nina’s collection of photoshop tutorials