As look forward to the new year 2009, we thought we’ll show you the most popular tutorials we published in 2008! We hope that you enjoyed reading these as much as we enjoyed writing them.

Flash ActionScript Tutorial

The most popular tutorial which was published in 2008 was our famous Flash XML Image Gallery, with close to 100,000 page views on its own, this tutorial teaches you in a detailed step-by-step guide how to create a Flash XML image gallery using ActionScript 2.0 which you can update and configure by manipulating the XML file.

Creating a Basic Flash Website is probably the most sought after subject ever, our tutorial will teach you how to create your first full-Flash website using ActionScript 3.0.

3D Studio Max Tutorial

Another basic tutorial which was viewed thousands of times is the tutorial on how the poly modeling technique  to create a fine pen in 3D Studio Max. This technique could be utilized in all sorts of projects.

This tutorial will teach you an advanced technique for creating a missile animation that tracks a target object by using the Particle Flow Source System.

Photoshop

Learn how to create your own Patters Using Photoshop and then apply it for the Paint Bucket, Pattern Stamp, Healing Brush, and Patch tools, as well as in the Layer Style dialog box.

Create funky Rich Flame Swirls using the Blur and the Shear Distort Filters. 

Website of the Year

Out of the 12 selected “Website of the Month” winners, we are blown away by the awesome website of Samuel Eschiavo. It won our hearts by its innovative concepts and nice integration of video, vector graphics, and sounds.

These were our ultimate highlights of the year 2008, we wish you a happy new year and the best of luck in 2009!

(You can view our last year’s list here)

Oman3D interviewed Tayseerah Al Baram, a Omani photographer and a board member of the Omani Society for Fine Arts to learn more about her experience as a female photographer and as an active member of the Omani Society for Fine Arts and the Omani Photography Club. Click here to read the entire interview text.

Oman3D recently interviewed Ronald Hollett, the Creative Director of Business Development at TBWA\ZEENAH, Oman’s leading advertising agency. Read the full interview text here.

Oman3D recently interviewed Anna Mair, an American freelance photographer living in Oman. Anna’s photographic work has been on NationalGeographic.com and she won first place in the Apex Oman Today Photography Competition. Anna’s first solo exhibition, “I:Woman:Flower”, will be held on the 7th to 21st of February 2008 at Bait Al Baranda museum in Muscat. We interviewed Anna to learn more about her experience living as a mother and photographer in Oman. Click here to view the Interview with Anna Mair.

2007 was a good year, we had a lot of fun at Oman3D this past year writing tutorials, learning new tips, and sharing artwork with many of our members. We thought that we will make this post on the last day of the year to share with you our most popular tutorials of the last year, the best interviews we published, and our most favourite winner of the Website of the Month Award.

Flash Tutorials

Creating a Simple Flash Website

Our most popular tutorial ever is probably the simplest one we have written. Viewed more than a 111,000 times in the last 12 months, the tutorial on how to create a simple Flash website teaches you in the easiest steps how to create a multi-page Flash website using keyframes, buttons, and basic ActionScript.

Creating a Dynamic Portfolio in Flash

This tutorial taught many of our readers how to load external assets (images and text) to create a rich interactive portfolio that looks good and is easy to maintain.

3D Studio Max

Texturing In 3D Studio Max (Using UVW and Unwrap UVW Maps)

Ever wanted to learn how to bring life and colour to your 3D models using advanced texturing techniques? UVW and UVW Maps are probably one of your best solutions and we told you everything you needed to know to start using it for your own projects.

Creating a Realistic Looking Object Using V-Ray In 3D Studio Max

This is one of the very first 3DS Max tutorials we ever published and it is still being viewed hundreds of times on daily basis. This tutorial will teach you how to use the V-Ray renderer to create ultra realistic objects in 3DS Max.

Photoshop

Painting Nemo In Photoshop

Advanced painting skills using very simple tools, not many people can tell the difference between the original and the painting.

Drawing a Car Lineart in Photoshop

Learn how to create stylish line art by tracing over real photographs using the pen tool, it is a very simple process and anybody can learn how to do it.

Interviews

Oman3D interviewed two talented Omani artists in the year 2007, the first was fine painting artist Her Highness Sayyidah Latifah Al Said, and the second was documentary photographer Hani Macki.

Website of the Year

K11 Studio

We gave the award for the Website of the Month to 12 different websites in 2007, our most favourite website of these 12 was K11 Studio, a very nicely done Flash website that feature excellent animations and rich interactive experience.

We would like to end this year by thanking all of our readers and forum members for visiting Oman3D. We wish you all the best of luck in the 2008!

Oman3D recently interviewed Hani bin Habib bin Abdul Nabi Macki, an Omani photographer working in financial services in the UAE. His photoblog was selected by Gulf News as one of the best in the region and his work has been used in promotional campaigns, regional letters, and the Global Calendar of the HSBC bank. Read the interview here.

Oman3D had the honour of interviewing the young Omani artist Her Highness Sayyidah Latifa Al Said of the Omani Royal Family. Latifah held her first exhibition for her painting artwork in December last year and had appeared in various Omani publications. We interviewed her to learn more about her artwork and her experience as an Omani artist. Read the interview here.

Knowledge Oasis Muscat held its annual gaming conference eGames on the 10th and 11th of December with a focus this year on mobile gaming and serious gaming (gaming for training and educational purposes). The sessions of the conference were delivered by expert speakers from Sun Microsystems, Ericsson, Yahoo!, and various international game development firms, British educational institutes and Omani mobile operators.

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Oman3D recently interviewed university lecturer and product design hobbyist Majid Almadi. Learn more about Majid and his work in our latest feature here.

Nabhan Abdullatif is an Omani graphic design student in the Applied Science University in Jordan with a passion for arts, comics and graphic design. We have interviewed Nabhan to tell us about his experience as a graphic design student and to learn more about the nature of his course. We hope that individuals who are considering the study of graphic design find this interview helpful. You can read the interview at this link.