Making Die Faces in Photoshop Cs4

here's how i made die faces for a yahtzee program i am writing using photoshop cs4 ...


1. open photoshop cs4 and create a new image being 70px wide by 70px high.

2. change ruler to use pixels instead of the default of inches.

3. create a grid by dragging guides from the ruler in 10px increments.

4. create layers for background color and for a pip. i chose a compass naming schema for each pip and began with the center.

5. making sure you on on the pip layer you just created, create a circle in one of the grid squares using the elliptical tool in the toolbox.  the circle should "snap" right in; however, if you wanna be uber sure the circle is placed perfectly in the square, you may wanna wiggle your cursor cross-hair and line it up with a corner of the grid square. don't worry if the circle looks a bit clunky.

6. create a 2px wide stroke on the outside of the circle

7. let's move on to the background color so we can see what's going on with effects when the time comes.  fill the background layer with a color of your choice.

8. staying on the background color layer, let's add layer effects for a round die face.  just double click on the layer (not on the layer name) and viola!  in the layer effects window, check mark bevel and emboss.  by default, contour will also be check marked; however if it is not, check mark it. i set the shading angle to 150 degrees and the shading altitude to 50 degrees. oh, and the style is inner bevel ... everything just as pictured.

9. next, i switched to the pip layer and selected the inside of the circle using the magic wand from the toolbox.  then, i filled it with white.

10. it's time for the layer effects for the pip.  i added shadowing to the layer.

11. now that the pip layer is complete, i create 8 more duplicate layers.  i understand all 8 more were not necessary, but forward looking into making dominoes, i created all compass directional pips :)

12. i then visited each pip layer and nudged the duplicated pip in the layer into the grid square accordingly using the free transform tool in the toolbox.

13.  by hiding layers and saving each as a .jpg, i easily created faces for a standard six-sided die for my program!

here are the completed dice ... if you like'em, you may have'em if *and only if* you say the majik words :o) (kudos where you use'em as well)

Zazzle.com ... Assholes

i purchased a shirt for my son, dylan, from zazzle.com back in december ... the shirt was kinda expensive (it was merely a t-shirt) and i bought the "wrong" kind (according to dyl). the shirt was supposed to be a "black ops" shirt - from the video game. i bought a different "black ops" shirt; it was the kinda black ops that has nothing to do with the video game.

anyhoo, during checkout, i swear i unchecked the box to be on thier mailing list. first of all, i think it's kinda cheezy to have it marked by default to begin with (illegal in some states, if not all). yet, i rec'd spam/junk/crap/garbage marketing email from them anyway. i replied "unsubscribe" a bunch of times and also unsubscribed via the web.

oh yeah, on top of all that crap, this company had a coupon. just like i unmarked the box for subscribing to their shitty mailer, i entered the coupon code to expedite shipping for the same price as standard ($8ish bucks... for a freaking t-shirt). low and behold, i saw no evidence of the coupon on my confirmation. i quickly emailed the company after my order and the bastards didn't get back to me for two days. at that point, the order had shipped and their lame-ass response to applying the coupon was that they couldn't and that i should've in checkout (um, duh, i did).

do yourself a favor and NEVER go shopping there.

Drivers in Bethlehem Using Cell Phones While Driving Statistics

I take periodic smoke breaks at work and have a chance to people watch for about 5-10 minutes about 4 times a day ... not a lot considering it's during an 11 hour shift without a lunch break. I work in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania by the intersection of Broad and Wood Street and the Post Office is across the street.

Today, I counted all of the vehicles that drove along on Broad Street (both directions) during each one of my breaks today that (a) had drivers talking on a cell phone, (b) were not gov't or work vehicles (except for one odd-ball worth noting) or (c) for other reasons. Here are the results:

9:00 a.m. - 9:05 a.m. ET: Out of 18, 6 were on a cell phone while driving

11:45 a.m. - 11:55 a.m. ET: Out of 50, 1 on a cell phone while driving and 3 with a nice layer of ice on the hood and roof; a cop car was in the area for the first 14 (cell law may have skewed result); 1 jaywalker; 2 nose-pickers

2:30 p.m. - 2:35 p.m. ET: Out of 33, 4 were on a cell phone while driving and vehicle and an additional 1 was on a cell phone while driving a bigger box truck (first and only one all day)

4:45 p.m. - 4:52 p.m. ET: Out of 71, 5 were on a cell phone while driving; 1 guy was tying his neck tie driving hands-free ... literally

All Times Above: Out of 172, 16 were on a cell phone while driving - not inc'ing the box truck driver; at least 1 was on a cell phone while driving each of the 4 time spans; many that were not on a cell phone while driving had passengers in the car or were older (guesstimating > 65); all that were on a cell phone while driving were solitary in the vehicle

Sad, considering Bethlehem banned cell phone usage while driving in August ... although, they are not enforcing it whatsoever and there are absolutely no signs for out-of-towners to heed instead of common sense.