Finally the day has come when I get to take part in creating a video game! Phull is a side scrolling shoot 'em up and it's up to you to assist him in saving the galaxy! The game is not done yet but is nearing completion. We hope to finish it within the next week or two.

In the mean time you can watch some beta footage. A lot has changed since this video was made so keep that in mind, but it does give you a good idea of what to expect.

Stay tuned for the official release!

Halloween is just around the corner and I thought it would be fun to celebrate by creating a zombie. For this Illustration I used a bunch of different patterns, I got them all at BG Patterns, which is a very useful and fun tool for creating patterns. I hope you like it and have a Happy Halloween!

I recently discovered a little gem on the internet.
Paper Critters is a sweet little Flash based tool that allows you to create little "Paper Critters." It's probably for a younger audience, but if you are a child stuck inside an adult's body like me, you should love this! It's easy to use with a ton of options and tools to help you create a critter that's all your own, it even lets you upload your own photo if you want to create something more complicated in Photoshop.

I recently had the privilege to redesign Utah Diners Guide. It's a really useful tool that helps you find restaurants in Utah and they offer all sorts of discounts and coupons. If you like food (and who doesn't?) be sure to check it out!

No I don't have a son, and he is not missing. My friend Will Robertson and I relaunched our website though. It has all of our short movies and crazy antics! Check it out at: www.givemebackmyson.com

There have been a few instances in my day where I had the wonderful task of editing someone else's .psd (Photoshop) file. When I opened up the file I was totally lost! I didn't know what any of the layers were so I had to play the eyeball game. (turn the layers on and off one by one until I find the layer I want) Something I thought was so obvious clearly isn't to some people! ORGANIZATION!

So back to Preschool we go:

Labeling Layers

I know some of you are thinking that's way too annoying, but if you are like me you're going to want to do this. Why? Because, for the most part, I don't like to merge my layers. My friend Will always bugs me about this, "Dude, just merge that crap!" Well guess what happens if you merge those layers and later on you need to change it? Huh? Major Ownage! All you have to do is double-click the layer name and enter in a description. Simple, I dare say... easy!

Grouping Layers

It gets worse! Some Photoshop files have hundreds of layers. What's a designer to do? Well there is this neat little feature in Photoshop that allows you to group layers into folders. It's simple: select all of the layers you want to group together and then press (Ctrl+G). WAIT! Before you move on, now you need to label that group... remember? The other way to do this is to press the little folder icon at the bottom of the layers panel.

That's it, that's all I'm asking. Just organize your files, do it for me, more importantly, do it for yourself.

I'm mad, I am mad at all of the people, this could be you, who aren't washing their hands! Every time I go to a movie and make a stop at the restroom I count maybe 4 or 5 guys who take a leak and then leave the bathroom to meet back up with their significant other. It's because of you that I have to hold a piece of tissue to open the door and then throw it away in the trash as I quickly step out the door trying to not let it touch me.

Which brings me to another point, All restrooms need to have a garbage by the door for this reason. It's not easy to open the door with my foot and sometimes I don't have the time to wait for someone to walk through the door so I can sneak my way outside. Better yet, why don't they just make all restroom doors open from the inside so I can just shove the door open with my foot?

I think from now on when I see someone leave the bathroom without washing their hands I am going to follow them and inform their date, wife, gay lover, who ever it is, that they seem to have neglected to wash their mitts. SICK!

Today I'm going to share just a few of the many wonderful shortcuts that I use in Photoshop to increase my productivity. If you aren't using these, it's about time you started!
Reminder: If you are using a Mac, Ctrl = Cmd and Alt = Opt.
1. Decrease and Increase Brush Size: When you have your brush tool (B) selected use the ( [ / ] ) keys to change the size of your brush.
2. Cycle Screen Modes: Sometimes it can be hard to work with large files, switching between different screen modes will save your life. Use the (F) key to cycle between them.
3. The Hand Tool: This tool also helps you move around in a large document. The (H) key will switch to this tool. Personally though I like to just hold the space bar down.
4. Zoom With The Scroll Wheel: If you hold (Alt) While moving your scroll wheel, Photoshop will zoom in/out. Hold (Ctrl) and Photoshop will scroll left/right.
5. Fill with Foreground and Background: The way I like to fill objects is by using (Alt+Backspace) to fill using the foreground color. Then use (Ctrl+Backspace) to fill using the background color.

That's all for today, let me know if this has been of any use to you.

The other night I was watching tv when I saw a movie trailer for Superhero Movie. My sweetheart said to me, “Why do they keep making these movies?” That is a very good question, why? I think it's because people keep going to see these no good for nothing parodies! So let me break it down for you, If you find yourself having the urge to fund ANY of these parody movies do us all a favor and STOP! I don't want to see any more of these movies (if you can call them that) made, so stop seeing them and hopefully this guy will stop making them. Thank you.

I was at work yesterday when it suddenly occurred to me that I was having trouble finding the files I needed to use on my computer. Why you ask? Well at some point I lost sight of what was truly important to me. A CLEAN DESKTOP! Those of you that know me would know that if you moved a pen on my desk, I am most likely going to know that is was moved, and I will interrogate you to find out why you moved it. You could say I am somewhat of a clean freak; I like to think of myself more as organized rather than an obsessive compulsive psycho.

After I realized that I had let my desktop get a little… out of hand, I decided to do something about it. After feverishly deleting files I didn’t need anymore and placing files in their corresponding project folders, I had moved down from about 100 items on my desktop to 15. I was so proud of my achievement that I gathered everyone around the office to show them just how beautiful it was. They all seemed to be impressed at just how excited I was about this. I don’t think they really cared.

Now that my desktop was beautiful I came up with an idea to prevent that from ever happening again. Seeing as how I am a graphic designer I decided to take things into my own hands and create myself a desktop background. Not just any background mind you, this was a background that had a designated box on the left with just the right amount of space to fit 4 icons across. So now when this black area gets full of icons I simply clean it up in a matter of seconds, and best of all I know where everything is without having to read through hundreds of icons on my desktop.

Do yourself a favor, keep your desktop clean. At least do it for me.

Also, if you want some really off the wall backgrounds visit this site.