Hybrid Genesis;

Busy for a bit...

2008-10-11T18:43:29Z

Just a little note....

I'm back in the freelance world right now, and I just received a web-design job today... so I will be quite busy for the next 2 weeks or so, and afraid that I might not be around here much.. but I will try to post when I can..

My apologies for this, I haven't been working at all in the past year or so, and it's time to go back to work seriously. Please don't worry because I will still create and share goodies with everyone.. just that I might not be able to respond to you as quick...

I hope all is well with everyone - Thank you so much for friending and watching this community and all your support!! I really appreciate it!!

P.S. BTW - I recently installed a new guestbook on my site... will you fill it up for me? *heeeee* :P I had one a few years back and it was so full of wonderful messages... Now it seems like if I don't have any visitors there.. (I know it's not true.. just saying that it seems like it cos my gb is so empty... lol) Thanks, lovelies!

Yours truly,
~Thia

Icon Brushes

2008-09-17T21:39:34Z

Sharing some random masking brushes for icons. I hope you'll like them!

>>> DOWNLOAD THIS SET(.ABR & .JPG) <<<

This set is password protected. I'm experimenting with different ways of sharing my files so I can keep track of the downloads from my server. My apology for the inconvenience.
Please comment to this post if you download it, and I'll PM you back with the password, and make sure you have your messaging options open to receive it and not restricted to 'friendsonly' - or make sure you have your email notifications turned on for I will have to screen my reply to your comment.

If by any chance you're not a livejournal user, please comment here with your email address. Thank you in advance!

xoxoxo
~Thia

HGX Membership Changes

2008-09-11T23:22:01Z

I made some changes on the HGX (exclusive)membership fees. I've been contemplating this in the past few weeks since I noticed that my new server provider is very generous. So I had to do something again. :P I reduced everything down to about 40% cheaper than they were before.

Last year I had to increase the prices due to the amount of bandwith used on the site and the heavy traffic that it had. I also had some issues with HGX where it was receiving too many new members than what I had liked to have - more members, more exposures - which I didn't want at all. I even found out that a few older members were trying to hack and steal some of the exclusive goodies to share freely somewhere else. So ... something drastic had to be done. Increasing the prices meant to make people think more than twice to join. And it worked. I started to only receive one or two applications every month - which was good for me but I realized now that it's kind of unfair to most people.

I love sharing - I honestly wish that I'm fortunate enough to share everything freely. But unfortunately, I have my own financial situation to worry about and I'm not able to afford sharing my work freely all the time - especially with the interests that this website has received over the past 5 years. I wish I could erase this exclusive membership thing from the site. But it means that I have to sacrifice so much of my time and money for... nothing other than self enjoyment. But I can't do that. I'm 'unemployed' at the moment - people have lost faith in me and I know full well that it's all my fault. With having a new addition in the family last year, everything is just so much harder - physically, emotionally and of course financially. People think that I'm insane to have 4 kids already, yet I know some of them are just jealous cos I'm such a cool and hip mommy. :P I can only do things on this computer at night time till dawn comes telling me to get up and busy with the kids. Some nights I don't sleep at all. 2 hours there, 1 hour here.. I'm screwed, for sure. So unfit it is scaring me lately, to be honest. :(

Anyway, because I know now that my hosting provider is so awesome, I can reduce the fees by about 40%. Still not happy about it because I wish I could bring it down even more.. *sighs* Someday, maybe. This will hopefully be better for some of you... I just hope that from now on people would respect me to keep everything for themselves and not try to steal from me and the site again.

Please check here if you're interested

Current members, your time will be extended - you should know me by now that I tend not to deactivate them until a few months after they're expired - because I don't think it's a big deal at all. And most time I slack a lot. So yeah, no worries. your time will be active a lot longer than what it says on your STAT on the site when you're logged in. When I do get the time to edit them, I will do that. :)

Well, thanks for reading and for continuing your generous support towards my work. I really appreciate it, and will always always be grateful to you all!

xoxoxo
~Thia

TEXTURES

2008-09-09T19:29:15Z

I have some new freebies :
- 1 Icon Textures Set
- 8 Misc. Textures.

Previews:

- Icon Textures Set#15 - DOWNLOAD THIS SET

- 8 Misc. Textures please click thumbnails to download

I hope you'll enjoy the new textures! :o)
- Comment if you download these, please?! thank you in advance!
- Credit back is not necessary but greatly appreciated!
- Thank you for friending/watching this community.

ETA. HG is updated - Other freebies are available from the main site.
xoxoxo
~Thia

Text Wrap

2008-09-08T21:37:07Z

How do we do this kind of text effect in Photoshop?

Just type your text, then click the 'CREATE WRAPPED TEXT' button - the options' window will appear and you can play around with the many effects it offers.

Helpful?

xoxoxo
~Thia

HGX CHALLENGE ; clarifications & sample

2008-09-07T07:09:37Z

Hi all, I'm very happy to know that there are quite a few people responding to the challenges that I posted in the last post. I've also received a few entries, already! Thank you so much, guys! Some people also have been emailing with questions of things they're not so sure about. So I thought I would clarify a few things that you might not understand regarding the challenges.

First, my main goal is to give you all a glimpse to what or how I do things when it comes to digital art. I want you to try doing the same things that I do when I create something. So I give you limited things to start with - the same with whenever I start something. My PS would be bare and it will be filled slowly while I create. I use everything that PS offers in default to make something, imitate effects, etc. And this is why it is fun. The process takes ages, but it's very satisfying. Why? Because in the end of one creation, I will end up with so many new brushes, textures, patterns, shapes, etc. While creating, I will be defining new presets to use later for more art.

Okay, so enough of that. I just wanted to tell you why I started these challenges. To inspire you and myself, to expand our skills and knowledge in using our program to design.

You see how I used the many shapes (customs, circles, etc.) Also the brushes that I provided for this challenge. You can see the yellow and blues. You can also see many typography/text in there. I also used a few artistic filters just to add the whole textured effect on the background. I used the Burn, Smudge, Blur, Lasso, Pen, Shape, Text, Selection tools and many more. Everything was done from scratch.
Took me probably about 2 hours to complete this one texture. There are about 30 something layers. I had a blast making it and in the end all I could think about is to make more with different themes, etc.

So, What do you think? Up for the challenge? No time limit, just have as much fun as you can and take as long as you want! :D

Now I will make more and crop them as icon textures! *yay* more goodies to share! :D:D

xoxoxo
~Thia

Challenge #1

2008-09-04T17:44:42Z

HGX CHALLENGE #01_a - Texture Art

Goal: is to create a Texture Artwork using the resources provided by this community, which specifically created for this challenge.

Guidelines:

Please RESET all tools and presets in your program (ie. Photoshop) for you will only need to use the defaults for this project.
You may or may not use the texture base provided. But you may not use other premade textures created by others. So, make your own base if you want.
You have to use only the premade brushes provided with this project (as well as the defaults).
You may use only the default filters, patterns, shapes, etc. for this project.
Size no bigger than 1024x768 dpi.
You may submit more than one artwork.

Must Haves:

Colors: yellows and blues
Shapes
Brushes (of course)
Typography

Notes: Be creative as always and have fun!! Don't limit yourself even if you only have limited resources. This is a way to practice your own ability and imagination. Imitate something that can be created using what you have in your program. You can use other colors, but you must include Blues and Yellows somewhere in it. Theme is open to all, so you can make something retro? or vintage? or techy? or a bit of everything, maybe? Somewhere in it, you also need to have some Typography. Small text or large text or even artsy text designs?

--------------------------------------------------------

HGX CHALLENGE #01_b - Fannish Wallpaper

Since I don't want to restrict the challenge only to those who want to make textures, I also have another challenge using the same resources to create a fanart or wallpaper.

Guidelines:

If you did the Challenge #1_a, you may use your creation with this challenge.
You may only use the default tools in your progam as well as the premade resources provided for this project and no other premades.
Choose any fandom you would like to use for this project - no restrictions at all
Size no bigger than 1024x768 dpi.
You may submit more than one artwork.

Must Haves:

A frame
Typography

Notes: Please choose any fandom you like for this. You can only use the premade resources that I provided specifically for this and no other resources. We want to see what you can come up with just using the limited resources you're given. Most importantly, Have fun, yeah!?!?!

Since this is the first time for this community to have this type of activity, I won't set any due date... I will wait until I get enough entries and I will announce the closing date for it. So it'll be open for everyone to participate in.

Submission details: Please email your entries to my inbox, hgx.livejournal@gmail.com wheneever you have them ready. If you need any help with anything, please don't be afraid to ask me. I will try to help you as much as I can and will try to reply to you as fast as I can. You can post your creation on your journal and just send me the links to them so I can go take a look and grab them to show everyone else in this community.

PRIZES: I don't really like making this as a real contest, choosing who makes the best things, etc... I want this to be a way of learning to expand your creativity and imagination as well as helping me to find some inspiration. Whoever participates in this, will get something from me or this community one way or the other. If I think your work is exceptionally good, I will try to contact you and make some kind of a deal with you .... I don't know what it will be yet, but we will talk. You might get to request something from me, who knows?! *winks*

---------------------------------------------------
DOWNLOAD THE PROJECT-PACK01;
zipped 28 brushes (.ABR & .JPG formats) ; 2 large textures.
---------------------------------------------------

Anyways!!! I hope someone will participate. I hope this is not something that is totally lame that you would just laugh at... I hope this is something that can inspire you in a way... So please enjoy and have fun!! :D I will be posting some of my 'creations' based on this challenge too! It's really fun!

HG is Online!

2008-08-31T01:09:06Z

After many months not able to upload the site, it is finally back online. There are a few sections unfinished, but all the freebies are available to be viewed and downloaded.

As always, let me know if some stuff don't work properly. Thanks so much for your patience, everyone. Muchly appreciated! I hope the new layout is easy to view and navigate.

xoxoxo
~Thia

HGX BRUSHES

2008-08-30T03:38:57Z

I just uploaded 3 new sets of large brushes at HGX. All exclusive members can grab the sets through the main login page here.

Thank you for your patience! Please let me know what you think of the new sets whenever you have time to send me some feedback, I'd love to hear it! If you have suggestions on what effects you'd like me to do, please let me know and I'll try to make them for you. Your thoughts are always welcome and appreciated!

Here's a preview:

Coming up next : Art Challenge!!!!

xoxoxo
~Thia

this and that

2008-08-12T05:57:46Z

Thought I had disappeared, have you? I haven't got a computer for the past few weeks and only been able to get on my brother's comp to see what's up here and there. Besides that, life's been insane.. to the point where I have no energy to even be on a computer. I guess I'm just too old for this thing..

Thinking to make this community more alive.. but you and I know that it won't happen only with me doing things around here. So what should it be? should I make some activities around here? like..... create a wallpaper with this and that? anyone interested in something like that happening here? of course since this community is only featuring my resources, the activities would have to include my resources in a way... so what do you think? any suggestions?

I just feel unmotivated... I need help from somewhere else to motivate me to do things around here...

Oh oh... I also have this idea... to make this place more interesting.. which also includes creating things using my resources. Would any of you members of this community, who loves making resources as well, be interested in posting your creations using MY resources - to be shared as more resources for others - you will be credited as a re-creator of my resources.. with one rule, you can only, ONLY share them in this community. No where else on the web... so if you have created some textures/brushes using only my resources and would like to share them as well with the world, you can only share them here... does that make sense? Do you think it's a good idea?

Basically for you who are interested in creating/sharing, you will get posting access in here, and you will agree to my terms on conditions, of course. I just think, it would be great to make this community more alive.. as I know sometimes I don't have time to be around at all... so if anyone else would like to do this, I would love to go through with it.. it's more like having co-resource creators around here.. but since it's specifically about Hybrid Genesis, why not do it only with using HG resources... the idea of 'recycling' my older work doesn't sound bad at all. But only with my permission.. yeah?

If this sounds interesting to anyone, do email me on hgx.livejournal (at) gmail.com . then after brainstorming, we'll write down the proper guidelines for this in the community's profile so everyone will understand what things are about around here... sounds good?

Other suggestions are welcome!! I need interaction so I can feel 'included' online.. I've been around here for too long that everything seems to fade away with time... excite me, please? I just need that push to feel that I'm still wanted around here.... cos as I'm getting older, everything I do feels so old too.... heee. Hope that I'm making sense..

I do love you guys a lot and appreciate everything that you all do for me. I want to work with you and make something exciting around here..
Thank you for watching and joining this community - most importantly for leaving me your feedback/comments... Your support really means a lot!! I hope you know that?!

Much love,
~Thia

HGX .. is BACK!!.. & some new HGX TEXTURES!

2008-07-05T02:54:55Z

After many nights and days working on the sites.. finally HGX is ready to be re-opened. It is now on its own subdomain, it is an individual site that you can visit directly without having to visit HG first....

I also would like to apologize for the long delay in putting it back up... to my lovely members, your patience and support is & has always been greatly appreciated!! I've disappointed you all in the past and I hope you'll give me another chance to improve myself in bringing HGX and everything that's exclusive back to you more often from now on. I have plenty that I have planned, some even are already in the works for you. I hope you all will enjoy the new HGX!!

~~~> HYBRID GENESIS XCLUSIVE <~~~

If you have trouble accessing anything, please email me straight away so I can try fix the problems for you.

New Additions:

Thank you so much for your never ending support!!!

xoxoxo
~Thia

TEXTURES

2008-07-04T09:55:00Z

I made these 2 textures based on a request.. I know that I have this 'grid' effect as brushes in some of my brush sets that I made in the past. I didn't really want to look through the 1000s of brushes & textures that I have in my HD just to find this effect so I thought I'd make new textures with similar effect..

Sample textures used in a picture:

The textures:
1. .... 2.

I didn't host them on my site because I'm still kind of working on the files up there. I will include these two on the site as well later, of course. I hope you'll find them useful and to 'you' who was looking for it, I hope that it is almost like what you're looking for.

Enjoy!

xoxoxo
~Thia

ICON TEXTURES

2008-06-30T17:25:51Z

As promised, although took me ages to actually post these, here are the new sets of icon textures for you all. I made them like... ages ago... but you know me.. such a snail, I am. :p I hope you'll like them and find them useful!

...---- Download Image Pack ----...

...---- Download Image Pack ----...

. Please comment if you download these .
. Credit back to me by linking to Hybrid Genesis would be lovely and greatly appreciated .
. t h a n k y o u s o m u c h .

xoxoxo
~Thia

HG is....

2008-06-03T16:58:23Z

Just a heads up.. I haven't really slept for the last few days, working my butts off in putting these sites back up.. HG and HGX will be two different sites.. even if it's still very much connected. While rebuilding everything I've been in a dilemma ... HG is ready to be opened again.. but HGX isn't.. so I'm bouncing from one to the other trying to complete them all at once..

I can say that if something like this ever happen again, I would give up. No more of this, really. I'm so so tired. Of course I've lost a lot of HGX members because of this. It's not a good thing. I actually thought of closing HGX for good because I really HATE having to do this, having to explain to people who have supported me kindly why the site's down.. over and over again. I keep having to apologise to people .. letting them think I'm such a bad person.

GAH!

So anyway.. I'm around, on it, every day and night whenever I can get on this computer.. I had to bribe my kids to entertain the little ones so I can sit here a little longer...

Hopefully, in a few days.. everything will be online again. The good thing is, the HGX database is DONE! All members are entered and active.. so I just need to complete the site right now.
I've added 2 new sets of icon textures in the freebies section.. but I'll post them up here tomorrow maybe.. when I feel sick of working on the site. ;o)

Back again soon, I hope. Take care, all!!

xoxoxo
~Thia

HG PATTERNS

2008-05-27T00:20:10Z

Today's goodies are : 2 sets of HG Patterns (25 patterns in each set)

Preview:

>>>> download the .jpg & .pat files here <<<<

>>>> download the .jpg & .pat files here <<<<

. Please comment if you download these .
. Credit back to me by linking to Hybrid Genesis would be lovely and greatly appreciated .
. t h a n k y o u s o m u c h .

xoxoxo
~Thia~

TEXTURES & Site updates

2008-05-23T05:13:14Z

Hello everyone! I'm so sorry that it's been a while since the last time I updated. With the site's being down for a few weeks, etc. I've also been busy with the family while rebuilding the site again. Hybrid Genesis has been moved to a new server, I have most of the site and contents back online, though it's not fully complete yet. So I'm keeping it offline for now, at least until I have everything ready.

As for HGX - it's taking me longer to do since I had to rebuild the datatbase again.. and it's still going slowly.. My sincere apologies for this inconvenience. Don't worry though, everything will be back again and you'll get some kind of compensation for it being offline for ages. If you've applied just before the site went down, please be patient.. you will get your membership and will be notified as soon as everything ready. I'll try my best to make it up to you all!

____________________

ICON TEXTURES & 4 misc. TEXTURES
. Please comment if you download these .
. Credit back to me by linking to Hybrid Genesis would be lovely and greatly appreciated .
. t h a n k y o u s o m u c h .

Preview:

>>>> DOWNLOAD zipped image pack here<<<<

To download, right click SAVE AS..... :O)

xoxoxo
~Thia

HG - Moving Server

2008-05-04T23:38:16Z

If you noticed, HG has been down for the last few days. I found out that it's been hacked by some irresponsible idiots who obviously hate me.

I'm moving the site to a different server and hopefully will be back online by the end of this week. It takes a while to upload all those files again. That site's really big.

As for HGX - EXCLUSIVE MEMBERSHIP
While trying to retrieve my database from the server, I found out that they managed to delete some of the memberships. The last time I updated the database was probably about a month ago.. just before I lost my internet access. But when I read through my long list of members, the last membership on the list was dated September 2007. This means, I've lost all memberships that were added and activated since then until March 2008.

This will take me a long time to fix.. since I have to re-build the database on the new server, and then add the memberships again one by one.

Special extensions will be given due to this inconvenience.

My big apology to you all for this mess. I'll try to rebuild HG as fast as I can. Thank you for your understanding.

P.S. i have to be in the hospital all day tomorrow for my son.. so yeah, put this kind of emergency in to mind that I have kids to take care of, the site probably will be down for a while.. Though I do hope by the end of this week I'd be able to upload ALL contents up online and make updates in this community while working on the site.

Thank you so much for your patience, support and kind understanding.

Sincerely,
~Thia

HGX TEXTURES;

2008-03-26T00:55:57Z

I apologize for the lack of updates due to some health issues we've been having lately. I have a set of LARGE textures to share with my HGX members. Please login to the site if you want to grab the set. Be warned that it's a big file - 11+MB.

Hope you'll find them useful somehow. Thanks for watching this community and my site. your support always means a lot!

xoxoxo
~Thia

HGX Extras; Photography

2008-01-27T20:18:42Z

Well it's time for adding the extras to HGX. I've been doing a lot of photography work lately, then also playing around with them in Photoshop. While doing all that, I thought it would be so neat, I think, if I made my photography resources available for downloads too. So here the first set of extras that I'm going to share with my HGX members.

FOR: Photo dimensions: 5 x 7 in (300dpi)
PNG trasparent files + 1 PSD file for Polaroid frame, finish photo effect included, all handcrafted in Photoshop.
Filesize: 9 MB

these samples are in GIF format. Quality is low

Please HGX members log in to the site, this set can be downloaded under the EXTRAS section. Please don't forget to read my update/blog in there too. I have a reminder for some of you.

Well, I really hope you'll find these frames useful, and that you'll enjoy using them. Please leave me comments/feedback, since they're good for the inspiration. Your activity in responding to me surely will give me the push to create more! So I would really appreciate your thoughts on any new goodies I create...

Thanks in advance everyone!

xoxoxo
~Thia

ICON TEXTURES #11

2008-01-27T02:33:10Z

30 New icon textures based on some abstract doodles I did today.

>> Download zipped .JPG files here <<

Please use these access details:
USERNAME: hgtextures
PASSWORD: freeaccess

Please comment if you take the set.
A credit back to me if you decide to use my work.
Please friend this community to keep up with my site/goodies updates.

Thank you, I hope you'll like the new textures!

xoxoxo
~Thia

HGX TUTORIAL; Icon Coloring #1

2008-01-18T05:59:37Z

As requested by one of my lovely members, here is ONE of the few basic coloring techniques that I use in my icons.

The specific icon that this tutorial was requested for was this one:

In this tutorial I created this icon, using a different version base image. (I had to use one from a screencap site since I didn't have any caps on my HD)

Using the same steps in the tutorial and more, I also created these:

I also provided all the .PSD files of those icons for you to download and take a look. :) I hope they'd be helpful!
ALL HGX MEMBERS please login to the site to read/download them.

Please leave me some feedback if you have some minutes to spare. I'd love to hear it! Thanks so much.

xoxoxo
~Thia

11 HGX TEXTURES

2008-01-10T05:58:58Z

Just uploaded a set of 11 Large Textures for my HGX members.
Please LOGIN to download the set.

I hope you'll enjoy the new textures!! Thanks for your patience and support, as always!

xoxoxo
~Thia

A quick post

2008-01-04T02:20:39Z

letting you all know that I have been super busy with all the holidays craziness, relatives moving, etc. But I have some updates, just need to actually find the time to sit here and do it. But it's nearly impossible since the kids been taking all my time from doing anything on this computer.

hopefully tomorrow I can do some real updates. Sorry for being inactive in the last few weeks. It's just madness all around at home.

oh and hope you all have a fantastic year!!
xoxoxo
~Thia

HGX PATTERNS

2007-12-16T15:48:18Z

Well, previously I posted all my HGX patterns individually. But I think making them into sets will be a lot easier. These first 3 sets aren't my only HGX patterns, as you all members know. But these are the first 100+ that I've made into sets. I hope this won't confuse anyone.
There are about 30+ patterns in each set.

HGX MEMBERS - please login to the site if you want to grab these. Let me know what you think, please? I hope they can be useful!

Textures are coming up next!
Thank you for your support, everyone!

*hugs & kisses*
~Thia

HG PATTERNS

2007-12-16T02:16:59Z

Just uploaded new patterns; 20 patterns in a set.

Use these access details to download them:
Username: hgpatterns
Password: freeaccess

__Download zipped .jpg & .pat files__

__Download zipped .jpg & .pat files__

Please comment if you take, I hope you'll like the new patterns!

Next up: HGX goodies!

xoxoxo
~Thia