March 2023 Wrap-up + Instant Custom Neon!!

Hey everyone,

Hope the month of March wrapped up nicely for you. Here's the latest at the lab!

1) NEW!! Texturelabs Neon Yard: Action for Photoshop

I’ve been putting some energy into building out a few more Texturelabs Tools that will show up on the next round of updates to the site. This one is pretty fun! A Photoshop Action to generate custom neon sign and shape elements:

My goal was to create an easy-to-use action for great results without churning out tons of confusing layers and folders. Let me know if you give it a test drive and have any feedback :)

Download the action (attached), and here’s a quick video to get started:

TEXTURELABS NEON YARD Action for Photoshop - Getting Started

The inspiration: About 9 years ago, I designed the title sequence for the movie Step Up: All In, creating a different custom neon sign graphic for each card. The final sequence was built in 3D using Maya, but I spent a LOT of time in Photoshop and Illustrator working on the designs. This action is based on the workflow I used to create all of the design comps.

2) Texturelabs Site Updates

Bit-by-bit progress on the site update, but it's underway! Some of the changes are above my pay-grade in terms of coding, but I’ve put together a huge list of ideas and updates for web-developer-guy to be working on.

Have any ideas for useful features on the site!? I’d love to hear em. So far, updates include:

• Search features, for individual sections and site-wide
• Additional features for the left-side category menu - including Collections like Black and White Grunge, Matte Textures, Paper Distress, etc
• Gallery section with tons of sample images and a few details about how they’re made; what textures are used, relevant tutorials, etc.
• Tools section with things like Ultrachrome Plugin and the Neon Yard Action above!
• Lots of typography and design tweaks. It’s looking sharp.
• Bulk download features. REALLY trying to get this one working - still wrestling with the functionality!
• Individual pages for every… single…. texture. You’ll still be able to download textures from the main page, but there will also be an info button for more details and a permanent home for each texture.

THE goal is for the Texturelabs site to be a rad resource for you guys. So absolutely, let me know if you have any thoughts or ideas and I will take it all into account.

As always, a huge thank you for being part of the project! More on the way…

Cheers, Brady