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[COVER 381 Going Mobile

People ere on the move arid they w~nt their content to move with them. If you have, a website that you haven't optimized for mobile devices, then you may be missing a huge part of your audience, So don't delay-turn to page 38 and get your content moving.

STORY]

-BrIan Fling

[FEATUHE]

321 Bring Your Podcast to Ufe

Peop Ie are consu ming video podcasts like never before. So how do you make your video podcasts stand out amOing all the others? Great content is a good start, but add in some professional-looking' graphics and high-quality sound, and you'll have your viewers glued to the ocrccn++Rlchard Harrington & M"rk Wci~c'

[TUTORIALS]

4B 1 Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2:

Quick and Easy Web Galleries-Chris Orwig

S2] Adobe Photoshop C54 for Photographers:

Disappaarinq Act-Sean Duggan

56] Adobe Photoshop C54 for Designers:

How to Make Your Next Website Design Pup-J,,<;ob Cass

601 Adobe Illustrator CS4:

A Really Cool, Swirly Border Design Effect -Cor",y Bark",r

66] Adobe II1Design C54:

Take Advantage of Conditional Text -Terry White

72] Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro:

The Art of Printing- Taz Tally

76) Adobe Dreamweaver CS4:

Add Depth and Dimension with Background Images andCSS-Janine Wamer

82] Adobe Flash CS4 Professional; The Third Dimension-lee Brimelow

aa ] Adobe After Effects C54:

Let the Games Begin-Steve Holmes

[COLUMNS]

181 Design Makeover:

Design Emergency-Jake Widman

22 J Artistic Expressions:

Where There'. light. __ -Bert Monroy

44] The Digital Camera:

Crop My Pictures and You're a Dead Man I-Rick Sammon

64] The Art of Type:

Dot Dot Dot-James Felici

861 Digital Video Solutions:

The Future of Digital Video-Rod Harlan

[DEpARTMENTS]

8] Letter from the Managing Editor 12] Layers News

16] Designer Spotlight 26] Instant Inspiration 30] The Digital Canvas

102] Tips & Tricks

104 J Creative Suite Q&A 122.1 Design Contest

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Drazenka Kimpel is a very talented self· taught designer and illlJstrator. Her illustrations have appeared in collector CIIrt books and digital art rna gazi n es around the world, and her list of clients includes the EPA. NTCA, and Broward Children's Center. Look for Drazenkas art throughout this issue of Layers. [Dratenka K;mp~ll;

[REVIEWS]

92 Corel Painter 11-Tami Fry-Pietsch

93 EasyCatalog for InDesign C54-David Creamer

93 Epson Perfection V300 Photo Scanner-Steve Baczewski 94 FreeSpin3D-cyndy Cashman

94 Joby Gorillapod FOcus-Dave Huss 916 Coloriage V.6.0-Daniel M. East

96 CopyFlow Gold-Jeff Gamet

98 HP Photosmart B8550 Printer-Dave HUES

98 Squeezebox Boom-Steve Baczewski 99 Warp1-Matcus Gedu!d

99 Sonicfire Pro 5: Scoring Edition-Daniel M. East 100] Topaz DeNoise v2.2-Dave Huss

100] BatchOutput Server-David Creamer

AJ Whenever you see this symbol at the end of an, article, it mea,ns there's either a.dditional material or a cownload ... for that story at www_!ay .. r~maga:z;n .. .com. So be sure to visit the webs it .. and cheCK it o.rt.

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Walll to keep up to date on the latest tutorials on the Layers website, find OIUt what's ~urTling, 'up in th" next issue 01 Lay!,,, nlagazifl!', and learn about hut new products and industry events? Visit the Layers website now and sign up for OUf monthly e-newslelter and the tio of the day

[LAYERS

TV]

Hosted by Corey Barker and Rafael "RC" Concepcion www.layersmagazine.CQm/tv

Be sure and join Corey end RC in their weekly video podcast. 'From <iller t.ips and tricks \0 full-blown tutorials. Corey and RC cover all of your favorite print, Web, and video app"

..

[NEWSLETTER]

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06

[TUTORIALS]

We're a~ways adding r ew tutorials to the La'yers website, so be sum to visit often. And don't forget to sign up for our graph ic s tip of the day and to read RC's daily bloq Living ill Layers, Here's a small sampling of some of the tutorials that you can fi,nd at the site now:

[pHOTOSHOp]

www.layersmagazine.comkategory/photoshop Strange Portrait in Ptvctoehop (Video), Learn how to use the Color Range command to create some very creative variations in your portra iI5.- Dave Cro S5

[ILLUSTRATOR]

www.layersmagazine.comkategory/illustrator

Cool Logo Effer;!s in Adobe IlIustratoriVideo); In this tutorial, Corey shows you how easy it RS 10 design a logo in lllustratcr using some clever techniques.e-Corev Barker

[INOESIyN]

www.layersma.gazine.comkategory/indesign

Having Fun with Frames in InDssign (Video); Our vary own Layers Tip of the Day guru demonstrates some timesaving shortcuts for working with frames in InDesign.-JeffWitchel

[FLASH]

www.layersma.gazine.comkategory/ftash

Video Filters and Blend Effects in Flash (Video): Learn how to combine alpha channel video in Flash with other video objects and then make them interact,- Tom Green

[OREAMWEAVER]

www.layersmagazine.comkategory/dreamweav@r Understanding Class Rules in Dreamweaver (1/jdeo); In this tutorial, Geoff breaks down working with class rules in C55, -Geoff Blake

[AFTER EFFECTS]

www.layersmagazine.comkategory/aftereffects Animated Butterfly in Alter Effects, Parts 1 & 2 IVideo,l,'ln this two-part tutorial, w@'11 teach you howto animate a layered image of a butterfly using AftN Effects CS4.-J. Schuh

[pREMIERE pRO]

www.layersmagazine.comicatf!gory/premif!rf!-pro Animate Llsing Keyframes in Premiere Pro (Video): learn how to create and edit animations in Premiere Pro C54 using keyfrarnes.e-FranklinMcfvlehon

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LFROM THE MANAC]INy ELJITOH] c us ts {j} M~.!N

on the move

MAKINCj SURE YOUR CONTENT IS AS MOBILE AS YOU

Raise your hand if you own an iPhone or similar device. Now raise your other hand if you surf the Web on your mobile device more than you do on yom home or office computer? I wouldn't be surprisec if you have both hands up right now {go ahead and put them down; peoplle are staring). 50 if you use a mobile device for everything from se erchinq the lnternet to watching podcests, don't you think there are lots of others out there just like you? And don't you want those people viewing your websites no matter where they Me or what device they'r€ using? If you answered yes to these questions, then it's time to jump on the mobile bandwagon-and we're here to help.

In "Going Mobi:le" starting on page 38, Brian Hing teaches you how to take your current Web content and create an app that will get you on as many mobile devices as possible. But Brian goes beyond just showing you how to port your content te mobile devices, he also shows you how to create a dean, easy-to-usa design that will bring your view" ers back time and time again.

In 'Bring Your Podcast to l.ife" starting on page 32, Richard Harrington and Mark Weiser ShOWiOU how to take a plain, everyday video podcast and turn it into a Hollywood block-

[ ... it's time to jump

UU,[eI, Okay, IlIdyl>e 1'111 e"a':J':J"""liIl9 just a oil, bu l lh"y do ,I, uw you huw to dUU '0111" professional touches to your podcast to take it to the next leveL Great content is, urn, great, but people don't want to sit through poorly produced podcasts with boring (or even worse, no) graphics and bod sound.

Now for some sad news: This issue marks the lest installment of the "DVS" column by Rod Harlan. Rod has been writing; lor the magazinE for the past 15 years (all the way back when the magazine was a local tabloid called Mac Today), But don't worry, Rod wil'l continue to act as our Dynamic Media Editor and write reviews 101 both the magazine and website, It's been a real pleasure working with Rod for all these years and l look forward to working with him in the future.

on the mobile band-

wagon-and we're

here to help.]

Did you happen to see our "instant Inspiration" column that launched last issue? The ide,", behind the new article is to feature an established (read kick-butt) designer in each issue and try to capture what tru~y inspires their creativity We also showcase their work, which, hopefully, inspires your own creativity. Last issue we profiled John Masse; this issue we're featurinq Jacob Cass, a young and very talented designer from Australia, In fact, he's so talented, we lad him write the "Photoshcp for Designers" column this issue, (You may recognize his name from the "Negative Space" feature that ran in the January/February 2009 issus.)

And as usuel, you'll find our regular columns, tutorials, and tips and trkks covering everything: from lllustrator to After Effects. Until next time, keep your content moving, keep looking for Inspiration wherever you can find it, and keep trying to make the world just a little better with a,11 0·1 your gm3t design 5

All my best,

{f21f.

Chris Mai:r Managingl::ditor

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LAYERS

The How-to Magazine for Everything Adobe~

vOLUME 5 . NLiMBH, 3 . p~INnD iN USA www.layersmagazine.ccm

EDITOR·IN·CHIii:F Scott Kelby

MANAGINC; EDITOR Chris Main ASSOCIAT'E EDITOR Mik" Macken,i" "S50('IAT', EDITO~ Barbara Thompson

ASSISTANT EDITOR I<s,c Stohenbach

TRAFFIC DIRKTOR Kim Gabriel

DYNAMIC MEDI'A EDITOn. CRAPHICS/N sws EDITO R

C ONrRlBU TI N G W RITERI

CREATIVE DIRECTOR PROD UCTION, MANAG ER A.SSOCIA.TE. DESIGr.IER ASSOC'IA IE. :DES I GN ER PROD"U eTIOND" I GN E R

VP.I"'LEI ADVERTISING COORDINATOR ADVERTISING [lE$IGNERS

D I RECTOR OF CI RC U LAT ION

P\JBLI$HER 8<EWTIVE ru su S H ER EJ,ll5lNffi MAriACcR.

CHIEf FINANCIAL OFFICER

DIRECTOR Of ""'B DEYEWPM,N,T ANO ~ROGRAMMING wrs PRODUCER WFFLHA.M

SUBSCRlntONI

Rod Harlan Aaron W""gH"

Steve Baczewski • Corey Barker Pe UO' Ba uer • Bru ce 6i ckn ell

Lee Brimelow • Cyndy Cashman lacob Cass • "Re" Concepcion

David Creamer- Dave Cross- Sean Duggan. Daniel EaSt, Laurie E.cell lames Felici . Brian Fling. Jeff Gamet Marell> Gedold . Richard Harringcon SteveH 0 I rnes ' Dave H uss ' Bert Monroy· Chri' Orwig. Tarn! Fry·

PI~ tsch • Rick sam men • T a> Ta lly [anine Wam,r· Ma,k W~iser

Tony White· lake Widma"

Felix Nelson Dave Damstra T,ffy Orlowski Chris!), Wi nter Dave Korman

Ke. i n Agren 813-433· 23 70

[eamne Jilleba377~n-863~ e.t. 215 Margie Rosenstein . Nicole Procunier tesl le M 0 n renegro

Ronni O'Neil

Scott Kelby David Moser Jean Kendra P."I Parry

Tommy Maloney Annie Cushing

lusnn Finley. Andn~'w I(Ul'"Z Fred Maya· Aaron We><ga.e

K"lby Media Group

:13 3 Do ugl as Road Eo"

01 dsmar, Fl 34677-2922 Phon e : 813·liB"SOlO www.kelby me diagroup.ccrn in fo@layErsrrogazine.com

S29.95 (U.S.) C.II (toll-free) 877·622,8632: subscribe o n lim at www,layers:m.~gazine,(om

COVER DESIGN Cover image courtesy of Drazenka Kimpel

CO,O~HON Produced using Adobe InDe,ign CS4.

Adobe Photos hop CS •. and Adobe lllusrraror CS4. Body copv is ser in Avenir. Headlines are set in Solex,

3D versions of (orali'Je. Mo~"erJ V5, Aliens, and Disney· Pool!', Up movie are wildly papular, Whar" me big deal? Our magazine has been 3D for year>. You can touch i~ Aip it.even rub it down if yo" wanr, Hmrn, ma~ we'll arrach sorne nerdy ... ahem, "0001'· glasses SO )'<lucan feel tf><> wIlol" 3D experien,,"as you read.

,!l.1I contents @ COPYRIc;iHf" 2009 Kelb~ Medta GrolJ,P', I~. All rights. reserved AA'j l..JS9: of th" OOfI~Bn.t~ of lhis publlcatlnn '1'it~ut ltJe wprl9s!. \!JI"jlt9:f1 psrrnlsslon or rna publisher is stric,t1y pt"o'Ilibtted, La}'NS magazine is an lncependent joomal rot affillateo with Adctlol::l svetems. 11tC:_ AMbe., :trIe ,Il(I1UbB :Jugtl. A-ct'Obat, Adobe Premiere, After EiiJects. Dreemweever, Flash, ntuenator. I.nOesigl'il, Ligillroom, and Pbotcsocp are either regi;stere~:r I r;ll!jem;;llrk.;s or lra(lemark;s. or A~ Sy.5te-m~ I:IlCQl"iJ)OfB ted en tile United States HId/or omer countries. All other trademarks are the property of thetr re-;$,pectliVe cwnere. Some 01 ,he: ViiiiW.s expreeeed b.y wnlribIJtQf5 m~ not be the repr'esen!.a.Live viell'£ of (he Publtsher. 'ISSr~ 1:554041:5X

[ 1 a y e r 5 n e w 5 ]
CjrapHICS DE'SICjn nE'WS • n E'W prODUCTS • DICjITaL VIDE'O nE'WS • OTHE'r STUfF lrnucsa makes big splash at Photoshop World

user-defined IouchRing that can be programmed to control up to four functions. Simply press the buttonin the rniddte of the ring: to switch between functions.

The new weighted pen stand also doubles as a handy storage compartment for pen nibs and nib removal too. Intuos4 is available in four sizes: small ·:$2291, medium ($349). large ($469), and extra larqe {$789)" For more information, visit www.wacorn.com.

With the new III tu 0,4, you 'lin ever lorge t wh" t fut'lctions yOLJ"'VC assigned youl"'" E'Kp I"c:ss Kcys_

Polyg:)nal Selection"! tool and Transform tool, and we think you'll agree that Painter is better than ever

Painter 11 is priced at $399 for the full version and $199 for the upgrade via digita'i download" The boxed version is available for $429 for the full version and $229 for the upgrade" To see what we rea Ily think, tu rn to page 92 for a fu II review of Painter 11" Better yet, if you'd like a chance to win not only a copy of Painter 11 but also a new Intuos4, turn to page 122 for the latest L;yers Back Page Design Contest.

12

At the recent Photoshop Wodd Conference and Expo in Boston, Wa corn in traduced their latest and greatest ta bl et, th e lntu 054. The new tablet features a Grip Pen with Wacom '5 new proprietary Tip Sensor technology. With just one gram of starting pressure, the tablet responds toan incredibly I'ight touch" Add that to the fact that Wacom has doubled the sensitivuty to 2,048 levels of pressure and users now have incredible control over their work in apps such "5 Adobe Photcshcp and Corel Painter

In other improvements, the Expres,sKeys now have iiluminated displays, so you'll never forget the functions that you assigned to the appltcationspecific key'S, and the displays immediately update as you change between applications" To make life e a Sf er fa r left"H1 a nd ed users, th e Exp re 5sKeys a re now on the same side of the tablet. Just rotate the tablet, plug the US B cable into the USB con nector at the top left; a nd chan ge the ori e ntati on of ti" e ill u min ated icons u,ing the driver ccftware. Theres abo a, new

Corel Painter

turns 11

Corel has cone it again with the latest version of their popular painting and illustration software. Corel Painter 11 includes 40 new and enhanced features ranging! from new crushes to color management. One of our favorite new features is tablet shift. When using any of the dry media (Chalk, Charcoal, Pens, etc.), you can I"!OW control the width of the brush simply by tilting your pen on your tablet. The more you tilt the pen, the wider the stroke.

Of course, the rnostirnportarrt thin'3 in any version of Painter is the brushes, and Corel has delivered 40 new hard media variants in cateqories ranging from Acrylic and Colored Pencils to Sumi-e and Watercolor. There's even a new Hard Media panel for customizing your own hard media variants. Included in these hard media variants are new markers, which emulate real-world rendering markers. And just like real markers, each additional stroke builds up and darkens the color"

The redesigned Colors palette now contains all color controls in one panel, including the sliders from the former Color Info palette The Colors palette is resizable up to 800 pixels, and the Mixer palette can be resized up to a whopping 1600 pixels" Throw in a new

HP redesigns the workstation

nside and out

Hewlett-Packard recently introduced the Z800., Z600, and Z400 Workstations, featuring bold stylinq, brushed aluminum side panels, and .integrated handles. The Z800 and Z600 sport [lew modular internal components that snap in and out for easy services bi lity,

Aimed at broadcast and video editors, 3D an irnation, medical irnag'ing, and engineers, the Z800's streamlined chassis, is 35% smaller than competing products and supports up to duallntel Xeon W5530 3.2-G Hz processors. With 12 DI M M slots, it's expected to handle up to 192 GS of 6-ch annal DDR3 1333"M Hz RAM someti me before the end of the year, as well as 7.5 TS of ha rd drive space. You can also add up to two NVIDIA FX 5300 video cards for even more power. Optionalliquidcoo'ling should be avsilable by the third quarter.

The Z600 is aimed at financial traders, design.ers and architects. video editors, and analysts. It can support up to two Intel Xeon X5570 2.93-GHz processors, 24 GB RAM, 4.5 TS storage, and a sing'le NVIDIA FX 4800 video card or dual NV~DI'AFX 1800 cards.

The Z4CJO-------.built for eng meers, designers. video editors, and power users-can be configured wiUh Intel Xeon 3500-series processors, 16 GS RAM, 6 TB storage, and a single NVIDIA Ouadro Fx 4800 video card or dual: NVIDIA FX 1.300s. All the new workstations include the new Intel Ouickl'ath Archite ctu re fo r a faste r con n ecti on between CPU and ch i pset,

Starting price for the Z400 is $969, Z600is $1,679, and ~he Z800 is $1 ,999. For more informa,tion on the new Z-Series. Workstations, visit wwwhp.com_ To see our review of the 2800 and Z600, visit www.layergn21gazine.com!category/reviews.

Public beta of Gridiron Flow now available

There has been a lot of industry buzz concerninq Flow, a visual workflow manager from Gridiron, the sarna company that brouqht [I,S 'Nucleo Pro for Adobe After Fffects. And now that Gridiron is offerina Flow as a public beta, you can find out for yourself what the buzz is all about.

Flow helps you stay organized without even t,ryi~g (we're sure <I lot of creative professionals like the sound of that), In one simple interface, you car view all your project files and versions, where they're located, and how they're related to any other files. Flow tracks all of your files in the background without your having to change the way you work. Missing an asset in your pr-oject? With Flow, you'll find it in a snap. Flow also performs file packaging, time tracking, and a lot more.

To learn more about R.ow and to dovvl1;load the public beta for both Mac and Windows, Visit www.qridironsoftware.corn,

~FLOW'

••

•• Upcoming Events

PHOT05HOP C54 FOR pHOTOCjRAfJHERS TOUR Philadelphia, PA (May t, 2009) Seattle, WA (June 12, 2009) www.kelby.raininqlive.corn

PHOTOSHOP [54 DOWN E.- DIRTY TRICKS TOUR

VVashington, DC (May 8,2009) Richmond, VA (May 27,2009) www.kelby:raininglive.com

PHOTOSHOP (S4 (REA-IVITY TOLIR May 13, 2009

Greater Columbus Conven tion Center Columbus,OH

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PHOT05HOP LICjHTROOM 2 LIVE TOUR

Denver, CO (May 20,2009) Portland, OR (May 22, 2009) www.kelby:raininglive.com

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May 28-30, 2009

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VELOCITY: WEB pERFORMANCE AND OpERATIONS CONFERErKE

June 22-24, 2009

Fairmont San Jose

San Jose, CA

http:// en, ore i Ily,conn/veiocity2009

HOW DE5I~N CONFERENCE June 24-27, 2009

Austin Convention Center Austin, TX www.howconference.com

SICjCjRApH 200g August 3-7, 2009

[me5t N_ i'vlorial Convention Center New Orleans, LA wwwsiggrJph,org/s2009

new S ]

Apple finally refreshes

the rest of their Macintosh line

Apple recently announced upgrades to the iMac, Mac mini, and Mac Pro, The new 24" ,i Mac now starts at just $1 .499, which was what the previous-generation 20" iMac started at {The 20" model, now start at $1,199 -J- Out 0'1 curiosity, we "i,ited the Appie online store "Old mexed out a top-of-the-line iMac to see what kind 01 goodies we could get and how much it would cost. A 24" iMac with a 3.06-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 8 GB of 1066-MH! DDR3 SDRAM, 1 TB storage, and an ATI Radeon HD 4850 512-MB video card would only set us back $3,249. (Of course, if we bought our RAM from someone like owe, we could save around $300 on the total price.)

According to Apple, the new Mac mini delivers up to five times better graphics performance usi ng the same NVIDIA GeFerce 9400M integrated graphiCS that was introduced with the aluminum unibody MacBO'ok family. For $599, you get 11 GB of rr ernory and a 120-G8 hard drive. For $799, you can get 2 GB of memory anda 320-G8 Irard drive. Both models ship with a 2-GHz lintel

Core 2 Duo processor, but for $150 extra, you can bump it up to' 2.26 GHz.

The new Mac P"Os use Intel "Nehalem" Xeon processors and a next·genlerati on system arch itecture that, accordl ng to' Apple, delivers twice the performance of the previous generatiO'n_ The new Macs start at $2,499 and ca n be confiqured with 'up to' two 2_93-GHz Ouad-Core Intel Xeon processors_ Each Mac comes standard with the NVIDIA_ GeFerce GT 120 graph'ics card with 512·M a GDDR3 memory but it can be upgraded to an ATI Radson HD 4270 512-MB card. (Oh, a nd if you're interested, there's still no option fer a Blu-ray drive on any of these new systerns.) For mere information, visit Wwvif..~pple.com.

Tiffen gets down

to the essentials

The T.iffen Company has announced the availability of Dfx Essentia I s. a selective ve rsicn of their professions I, awa rd" winning Dfx software. 'Fer $59.99, you. get 37 specialized filters and effects fer enhancing your digita.1 photos. The thumbnail previews in the Filter panel make it easy to see what an effect IO'OKS liike before applying it. and with the easy-to-follow, step-

by-step, vi:deo tutorial that comes with the software, you'll be up and running in no time. Dfx Essentials ships with hundreds of built-in presets, and yOll can create and save your own custom setups, as welL

Ofx Essentials is compatible with many file types, including RAW, and images can be saved as either TIF'Fs or JPEGs. For more information, visit www.tiffen.com .•

f \

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Hi

__ --------------------------[d raze n ka k i m p e I J

Drazenka Kimpel

Layers; Browsing through your galleries at your website, we see you've designed everything from CD-ROM packaging to logos to tradeshow booths? What commercial design projects do you find the most rewarding?

Kimpel: The most rswsrdinqand eniovable type of commercial design that I'm nvolvod with is the work I put into CD-ROM projects. It incorporates no, only packaging but irutia] storybcardinp. as well as interface design. For me, it provides an opportunity to complete a number of artistic cila,H.<r'ge' and make it all come tDgether into a o;"gl", product,

is a Croetien-bom, self-taught dig ital designer andilustrator. Her digital career began in the late '90s with the purchase of a Wacom tablet. Since then, she's been published in a variety of collector art books and digital art maqazines around the world. She has a diverse style and vision that she loves to incorporate in her images. There are two separate worlds in Drazenka's art life: the world of fantasy <Inc! the wor.ld of corporate m3rketina ce<;ign. Roth are feerling off each other, trying to create a perfect balance within the artist. Her list of chents include 'EPA, NTCA, Broward Children's Center, and Corinthian Development. LtC

Layers: You say there are two separate worlds in your art life: fantasy and corporate marketing? Do these worlds always remain separate? Do you ever try to incorporate your fantastical illustrations into your corpor~te work?

Kimpel: I try to keep those two worlds separate from each other, as they're very different in purpose and create a diverse balance in my workflow. Most of the corporate clients don't wish to be labeled with the Hair of fantasy, and that's understandable considering the seriousness

Layers; Can you briefly describe the creation p recess for yo ur illustrations? Do you start on paper, or is everything digital from the get-go?

Kimpe I: No matter if it's an illustration or design

project. I start off by putting mylins work on paper first. I need to envis i on th e com positi on and th e II ow 01 the ii n a I proj eet ts imperative th at

I h ave a st:rcf1g idea befo re I lay it down into a ny type of pe inti n 9 softwa re. W,ith ill ustration, the line work is almost always scanned into Photcshop and painted from there; but with design, the line work is used only as a very loose gui:deline. All the work is done digitally from start to finish.

Layers: What applications do you work with regularly? Do you have a favorite? KimpeL I work with Adobe Photcshop and Illustrator on a daily basis. Even though they are both very powerful as standalone programs. on occasion, I like to incorporate both of them in my illustrations. Haying said that, I think Photoshop is the "king" of all desigrl software

L;y"rs: We understand til at you have a couple of imeresting Ilobbies: collecting d a ssfc antique books and foreign currency. Do these hobbies proVide inspiration in your design and illustration work?

Kimpel: While foreign currency provides aesthetic and educational aspects, books are really the inspiration behind most of my work. I have a grEat appreciation for the written word. Not hilving the abiliity

[CONTACT Drazenka Kimpel www.ct .. ativedusr.com

" " "'

to wrn:e well myself, I'm amazed at the ability some writers have to paint the story with words. When I get artistic inspiration from a book, I put everything I see in those words on my canvas.

Layers: You say that you are a self,taught designer and illustrator? We're going to assume that you started out naturally talented, but how does someone go about learning design on his or her own?

Kimpel: It really is a tough question to answer. I've always had talent for art but some circurnstancesin my later life led me to the world of design, which was tougher to conquer. It took a great amount of persistence. I read a lot of tutorials on how to use certain software, subscribed to a few of the technology magazines, and paid attention to what the masters of design were dOin1g and how they were doing their job. I worked hard and graduailly built my knowledg:e, skills, and confidence .•

ALL rMAGES av ORAZEN KA KIM PEL

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[DESIgN MAKEDVER] JAKE {.J} WIDMAN

client:

Animal Medical Emergency Response System] [www.animalmedics.com

design emergency before

... when people see the AMERS vehicles on the street, they mistakenly assume they're ambulances for humans.

nimal Medical Emergency Response System {AMERS) oper-

call in 30 minutes or less, But they've sen! an arrbulanos as far away as Los Angeles to pick up a dog and transport it to veterinarv fa.ci1ities near Sacramento, a total trip 01 nsarly BOO miles.

The problem, Wctts says, is when people see the AMERS vehicles on th e street, th ey mistakenly assume they're ambulances for humans. Atleast twice a month, he says, they get fI'''gged down by police or citizens who want them to respond to an emergency. It's not only awkward for the AMERS personnel', who have to decline, but a threat to public safety becauseit can delay calling for a "real," ambulance. So he requested a new look for the vehicles, one that would identify them as providing services lor animals without diminishing the seriousness of their services. "We considered putting a picture of an animal on them," says Watts. "but we were afraid it might look I:ike a cartoon. H '" . .,1,0 wants to ma k", sure th e ,o",w design. projects "ccmpessicn=tbet we'll treat a pet like one of the family." With that in mind, we asked three designers to come to AMERS' rescue and give them al vehicle design that leaves no doubt as to their mission.

ates vehicles that provide mobile cere and trensportation 10" in jured and ill I pets. In othe r wo rds, th ey're just I i ke am bu lances,

except that they're for arirnals rather than humans. And therein lies the organization's design problem: the vehicles don't successfully cornm unicete what they're for.

AMERS was founded in 2001. CEO David Watts tells the story of

a friend of h is whose beloved dog collapsed one day: she called 911 and an ambu lance arrived, but the responders were unable to help because they weren't trained in animal "are. They couldn't even transport the dog to a vet, Walts recalls, because govemment regu'latiions forbid it. The dog died, but the idea of an animal ambulance service was born.

Th", service is ba .ed ,in Antioch, Cal'ifornia~i:n the San, Francisco; Bay Area=but is available to provide assistance statewide_AMERS has what Watts calls a "Domino's" service area, cornprisinq four counties in the San Francisco Bay Area, within which they can respond to a

[J.k~ widm,n. rs a writ~r and ?ditor who lives i", San FrancisCQ_ He's been cowring the Jneersectrcn of computers snd graphic dQsign for about 20 _v0ars i'lo'L-'Y-s~nr;13' baCk] when it was .11 c.ll@d "desktop publishing."

. -

rnaceover SUBmISSIOnS

We're looking for product packa_gling or labels. pri:nt advertisements. and magazine covers that are currently in the mar,ketpla.ce for futlIre "Design Makeovers:' So if you or someone you know hasa design tbat you'd ike us to consider makii1g~ over, orif you'r~ a designer and you'.a:like to be considered for a future "Design Makeover," drop us a li~~ at letters@'layersmagezine.co~_

after

DESIGNER: Quinton Wash] [www.nicheonline.net

The green would cause the vehicle to stand out on the road while also differentiating it from a human ambulance.

y ovarall approach to this project was influerced by the fact

that the vehicle would primari:l, be seen in motion, heading to an emergency. Because of that, I knew that an extremely detailed

design woi.ld not be necessary, My desig,n is intended to be printed onto a vinyl vehicle wrap, rather than benng painted cnto the veh iele.

I chose a dark green for the base color 01 the ambulance because you rarely see vehicles that color. The sreen would cause the vehicle to stand out on the road while also differentiating it from a human ambulance. If] additionl've learned that green is a mctivating, actionoriented color, Once I chose the base color, I generated ideas lor other colors that would work well with it using Adobe's kuler website (http:// kuler, adobe.com), which has been a lifesaver on many of my projects.

I decided to display irnaqes of animals along tlhe side of the ambul ance 50 that viewers wou Id be able to get a clear idea

A B OUT

THE

DESIyNER

of the organization's services, even if they weren't able to read the writinq as the vehicle sped past The vanety of animals-besides being cute-s-shows the range 0' services provided, while the big boxer with the stethoscope clearly says "animal doctor." I found the images I needed on iStockphoto,com through a simple sesrch for "Animal Medicine" and "Animal Doctors."

The on Iy 10 nt I used was Si 10m, a system font that com es with Mac OS X,I wanted to make sure that the name and Web address were dearly visible because they're both easy to remember and pretty catchy, I set the name of the orqanizationin a different color to make sure it was perceived as a separate element, so viewers wouldn't read the whole thi.ng as one phrase [AMERS Animal Arnbulance) The contact numbers were left on the lower end of the side panel and back door panel of the car,

Qui nton Wash] [ Ni cheOnll ne. net

Dallas-based Quinton p, Wash learned from his father what it takes to become a successful' and respected businessman. Working under his father's tutelage in the field of concert promotions, Quinton realized that among the most important tools a businessman needs are honesty, integrity, and talent.

With an undying desire to follow in his father's footsteps as an entrepreneur, Ouintcn founded NidheOnline

net, At the stat of his career, Ouinton's projects consisted of company logos and custom pages for members of Blackf'lanet, an online community aimed atAfrican-Americans. Since then-sti'll with no formal training or design classes-Quinton has hod the pleasure of adding to his portfolio such h igh·profile clients as comedian 'Rickey Smiley (from the Rickey Smiley Morning ShOWl, Doug Banks and DIODe McGuire (from. ABC Radio Networks), P·aul Quinn College in Dallas, and the University of North Texas,

His progress is built on the foundation of those who gave him a head start in .Iife God, his mother Cynthia Pierre, and his father AI Wash.

App:"IL:AnON USED: Adobe Photoshop

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APPLI[ATIONS USEO: Adobe Adobe Photosho,p (53 and Adobe Illustrator (53

[design makeover]

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DESIGNER: Kat Sheldon] [ www.poHencreative.com

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animal medlc.ll emergency re~pom(! s(lfvice'S _

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The red, white, and black color palette creates a sense of efficiency and trust .

.... he existing, ambulance graphics are chaotic, plag,ued by a •• nondescript logo and a "tossed salad" of illegible fonts with 110 particular hierarchy or order. I approached the job Ilike a branding project not jLl"t th" cre~tion of graphics for an animal arnbulancs.

I started with nomenclature-in the ecronyrn of their name, AMERS, the 5 stands for "Systems." I changed it to "Services," since they're primarily a service orqaneation.

De\lel,o~ing the identity was the nex: step. My proposed design is a family of graphics including a logomark, the AMERS; acronym, and the image of a Dalmatian, The logomark is a combination of a heartshaped dog tag with a white cross, Rotating the logomark to a 1 :" angle adds personality and enables it to poi nt to the prominent "ER" (for "Emergency Room") in the acronym.

The Dalmatian graphic serves as a secondary element. Its posture is attentive, trusting, and caring. Th.e Dalmatian is not instantly

recognizable; its spots imply its outline. This graphic solution makes viewers think, then it makes them feel smart that they figured out what it is. From this point forward, they'll always see th" 1)"lmati~n

I ch ose th e type! ace F ru ti g er 10 r th ei r co rp Q ~ate fa ceo Th e lowercase treatment for the acronym giv€s it a "living and breathing" qu,ality without being stylized and sacrificing Ilegibility.

The red, white. and black color palette creates a sense ~·f efficiency and trust. When picking colors for the ambulance, I choose to make the top red and to differentiate it from the body of the vehicle. This color scheme streamlines the shape of the ambulance and gives it a custom look. M.y intention is to have the top painted and all of the graphics on the body to be applied as cut vinyl.

This proposed design has flexibility and can be adapted for use in various formats.

ABO U T

THE

DESICjNER

Kat Sheldon] [ Pollen Creative

In' 1992, Kat graduated with honors from Arizona State University with a BFA in Graphic Design, She then 'noved to Derver to start her career as a designer, She worked for Genesis, Inc" on. projects for Disney, Frontier Airlines, Schwinn, Scott USA. and the Quaker Oats Company, Alter relocatinq to San Francisco in early 2000, she worked for the firms Man Bites Dog and SMWM on projects including the San Francisco Ferry Building and Galleria Dallas.

Iii 2004, with 12 years' experlence in the field, Kat lounded Pollen Creative. Her diverse client bale includes ArtSpan, Keysto ne Strategy, Microsoft, and Steinberg Architects, In tf- elast few years, Kat has been worki ng with alternative energy clients includinq REcurrent E'I'iergy, Shai A9'assl. arid Tesl'" Motors .. She commits to cultivating originality and thrives on the "Aha!" moment where client, designer, and campaign cross-pollinate.

Kat's colleague, Susan Carter, collaborated with her 011 this project. Constructive criticism and push~r,g the design process is critical to an. enriching design experience and a successful. product.

after

DESIGNER: Drew Dunlap] [ http://dunlapstudios.com

I decided to g[] with a slnqle-cnlcr approach. which is characteristic of most ambulances. But I wanted to steer clear from the typical red ...

hen I first began this project, I started creating an elaborate vehicle wrap filled with images and vectors. I soon discovered that the morel included, the less the result looked like an arnbu-

lance, So I decided to go back to the drawinc board and playoff of the typical ambulance style. I started again from scratch with three key factors in mind: simplicity. readability, and understandability. My interition was to create sorneth ing that would oe printed on vinyl and applied to the vehicle, 50 keepinqit sim pie means the design will require fe",,·er materials and less printing, thus keepins customers' costs down,

I decided to go with a single-color approach, which is characteristic of most ambulances. But I wanted to steer dear from the typical' red to help distinguish this ambulance from the norm, since confusion with human arnbulan coos is the main issue AM ERS is tr{ing to address,

I chose green because I think it's a neutral color for both males

and females, and I think Ht would catch other drivers' attention. For ultimate readability, I chose the bold sans-serif font ITe Blair Medium. a revival of a turn-of-the-century engravers' typeface. I not on Iy chose it because it's a great font, but also because I felt that its clarity and timeless elegance fi: the piece perfectly.

To help viewers understand that this ambulance service is for animals, I: included a couple of simple identifying elements First, I played off the Red Cross symbol and placed a paw in the circle instead, Second, as an alternative to enclosing the text in a simple rectangle, I decided louse the shape of a dog bone, And finally, I traced an image of a dog and worked it into the ambulance bar. Once I had everythinq in place, I felt that itwas, if anything, too simple. So I worked on the green center bar a bit more and mace it wrap around into ~ la.rge back piece with the paw print syrnbo: boldly displayed

THE

DESlqNER]

A 8 0 U T

Drew Dunlap] [ Dunlap Studios

Drew is a 21-year-old graphic designer and illustrator based out of Gilbert, Arizona, He's been usinq design software for almost a decade, and says he's been drawinq ever since he could hold a pencil. He's currently cornpletinq the requirements for an Associate's Degree and Digital Art and lllustration Certification at Chandler-Gilbert Community College Once he finishes, he plans to pursue a Bachelor's Degree through Arizone State University.

Drew works full-time as a graphic designer for Group Ima9ing, a small- and larqe-format print company located in Mesa, Arizona. He a lso pu rsues several freelance ventures, o ne 01 wh ich islndie Web Studio, a progressive design studio focusing on in die Music, (Look lor www.indiewebstudio.com coming socn.) He also maintains a bloq at his website (where he offers free Ph otoshop brushes of his own desig!n).

When not designing, Drew spends time with his family "1 have a bea'utilul wife and a t-year-olo daughter that are my main priority." he says, "I love what I do, and there's nothing else I'd rather do"

APP:"I[ATION USED: Adobe Photoshop C54.,."

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say, "That looks phony."]

[ARTISTIC ~EXpRESSIONS] BERT {j} MONROY

where there's light. ..

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the way things work in real

I i Fe, even the untra ined eye

will I oak at your p ieee and

'I thought it would be fitting to write a column that discusses some of the functions of layers for a magazine aptly called Layers I often write about the importance of layers because they serve 50 many functions-not only do they allow for easy adjustment of compositions but they aliso give you the flexibility to chanqe their contents at any ti me,

One of the powerful: features of layers is. the layer style. layer styles can be applied to create a variety of special effects, such as lighting or textures. that give an image dimension and set a mood. In these pages we'll explore h 01\1 layer styles can help create the effec::s produced by a light source that interacts with objects in a scene. It's very important to notice what happens when light hits carta n objects. For e~ample, a s trong light source hitting a gI3.$$ window will have a, dramatically different effect than .if it were to hit a concrete wall. It's crucial to understand how different objects react to light Fortunately, you have a wonderful source for studyin;;J these effecis--the world around you_

Become enlightened

I often tell .my students that ifs not a good thing to guess at what something should look like. 'It might look right to you but i r it doesn't comply with the way thinqs work in rsal hfa, even the untrained eye will look at your piece and say, "That looks phony." I strongly advise th at you study the way I ight works and how shadow, travel along surfaces in order to recreate these effects in your images, If you import some object from one irnaqe to another and disregard things such as shadows and reflections, the new object will look out of place, It wil.1 look like it was pasted into the scene. If, however, shadows fall as in the rest of the scene and other o bj eels are I<!flected onto the surface, the object will appear to have been there when the original shot was taken.

The two light poles shown here are but a tiny portion of my latest digital painting, a work currently in

progress The pole on the rig ht is alarn ppost th at has two I i'g hts at the top that are out of our field of v ew. These two I ights a re I it; therefore, they cast highl;ghts and shadows over the metal sections of the pole The light sources are very dose to the frame on the pole that SLIp ports the lights This makes it necessary for the resulting highlights and shadows to be very strong.

Eas,y highlights

Here we can see the section of the

rod that supports the actual globe for the light. In this version the highlights only simulate the reflected light from elsewhere in the scene; there's no highlight for the globe at the top of the pole. Let's add that strong highlight th at's needed to make this scene look rea.

STEP ONE: You can follow along; by creating a simple rectanqular shape in a layer similar to the unhighlighted pole above. (The pole or object tha t you're usi n 9 sh oul d be on its own lavsr abov .. the Background lay .. r.) Just click the Create a New layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. B,nd then use the Recta.ngular Marquee tool (M) to dra.w your selection .. HII the selection with color and then use the Dodg.e and Burn tools to add highlights and shadows.

STEP TWO: Now let's create the strong highlight. Choose a bright yellow for your Foreground color and a round brush tip with zero Hardness for the Brush tool (8). (Note: You can select your brush tip and Hardness by clicking on the Brush thumbnailin the Options Bar to open the Brush Preset Picker} Open the Brushes panel (VVindow> 'Brushes) and go to the Other Dynamics section. Under Opacity Jitter, set the Control drop-down menu to Fad'e. The amount of Fade will

determine the length of the brush stroke. For example, a Fade of 10 will give you a short brushstroke while a Fade of 100 will create a. longer brushstroke,

Set your Fade to whatever amount you need for your shape.

Create a new layer. then dick once where you want the stroke to begin. Press the Shift key and click beyond the point where you want the stroke to end. (Holding the Shift key will draw a straight brushstroks bstween the two points that you clicked.) The reason for clicking beyond the ending point is because you need to allow enough room for the stroke to lessen in opacity. For example, let's say you set the Fade amount to 200. This means that when the stroke has applied 200 steps of the brush tip, it will fade out and di sappear, So if you're trying to create a stroke th at wi.11 be ebout four inches long and you dick at e point that's exactly four inches from your f rst click, your brush stroke may not have enough room to apply all 200 steps of the fade. This will result in the brushstroke not having enough room to completely blend away to nothing (0% opacity). If you dick at a point about six inches away from the Ii rst cI ick, you r stroke has plenty of rccrn to a pply all 200 >~eps and fade in opacity, thus giving you the effect you're lookinq for. Press Cornrnand-D (PC: Ctd-DJ to deselect.

STEP THREE: Double-click on the layer with the brushstroke to' brHng up the Layer Style dialog for that layer. Click on the Outer Glow layer style in the list of Styles on the left .. (Note: In case you didn't know this already, cI icking; on the title of the style will bring you to the control panel for that style: clicking on the checkbox for any of the styl es wi lion I y activate that style and apply it with the default or previously used settings without 9 ivin 9 you the abi] ity to alter the settings.) lr the controls for the Outer Glow style, set the color to a bright orange {click the color swatch to change the color} and the Bilend Mode to Normal. Adjust the Size as needed to produce a bright glow around the yel'low brushstroke, then dick OK to dose the Layer Style dialog.

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STEP FOU R: The gdow is from t~e light directly above the pole and to the left. This means the reflection should be along the inside edge

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of the pole and not spill out into thin air. To constrain the effects of the glowing stroke and confine it to the shape of the pole, turn the two layers Into a clipping group. To create a, cl ipping group, hold the Option key (PC Alt key) and dick between the two layers in the Layers panel.

STEP FIVE: Now let's add a little glow that seems to reflect off the surface of the pole, adding an atmospheric effect. To achieve this effect, drag the layer with the glowing stroke to the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom 01 the Layers panel, to duplicate the layer. M ak" sure the layer with the pole is not dipping the new layer. To unclip the layer from the group, simply Click between the two I ayers in the Layers panel while pressing the Option key {pC: Ait key).

This new duplicate layer should c reate a sli ght halo protrud i n9 beyond the surface of the pole. Double-click that layer to brinq up the Layer Style dialog again. This time go to the Blending Options section andlowsr the Fill Opacity to 0%. This wHi make the original pixels of the yellow stroke invisible, but since the layer Opacity is still at 100%, the Outer Glow layer style remains completely visible. Reduce the Opadty if needed to soften the glow. (The i mage here shows just the glow with the other pole layers hidden.)

Damage control

Here you see multiple darnaqes on the surface of the metal You can create th is effect with the Brush too'l and customized brushes. If you apply brushstrokes in separate layers, you can treat the various strokes differently .. To make some of the strokes appear like gouges in the metal, 0P"" the Loy", Sty!'" dialog for those partkular strokes, ,.,due" the Fill Opacity to 0% in the Blending Options, and apply a Bevel and Emboss layer style. Modify the settings in the dialog to get the highlights and shadows necessary to complete the effect of gouges.

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These are simple tricks but the end result is a believable lighting effect needed to make a scene look real. AI'ong the way you'll be faced with many dialogs with many buttons. Push them and see if it creates yom desired efleet.lf not, push them again.

Remember to have fun and Flay. II

[ Bert Monroy i.s con.sidere.dOI'l6!of the pioneers of digital art. HI.-S WDr..j( has been seen in many magaz~1es end scores of books, He bas served 01 the faculty of ma1Y weU..known fnstnrnons, ]. wtitten "'My books. anel ;;PP""OO on r.tl"eli<>d; d TV ;~"W5 "~I,"d th" wo~d. ,

ALL 'MA(j~1 BY B~RT MONROY UNLESS OTH E,nwISE "OTEO

lmaqes Fo.rAU.5miliion stock Imlages .. Starting from $1 .. Phone 718 57713.21 I www.fotolia.com

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[INSTANT INSpIRATION] JACOB{f}CA55

Don't undervalue your work. Se k criti cism, not praise.

Always keep.------- 1 earni ng.

Instant Inspiration is where we showcase an established commercia I designer a nd pick th eir brain in a n effort to qa in insights on the creative process and inspiration in general

WHaT'S THe "meTHOD TO your manness=

I have a 2A-GHz Dual Core PC, dual monitor setup, cordless keyboard, togitech MX Revolution mouse, and I use Photoshop, lllustraror, In Design, and Drearnwsaver. I also do some 3D work in Cinema 4D and Xara3D. The rest is basically pen and paper.

WHaT msprrss YOU?

I never have JUS( one source of inspiration. Every project has different needs sol go to different sources depending on what is needed. For example, for a Web design I would look for inspiration online; however, if I. were after some prim design inspiration I would look offline. I also make use of the website www.delicious.com-a search engine that many designers use for bookmarking. I've also compiled a list of my own inspirational resources that I share on my blog,

on Levers maqazme:

I rhink the diversification of Layers is what makes it stand OU!. It really does cater to everyone, wh ich is needed these days. Designers need a large range of skills CO be able to work across a variety of mediums.

WHaT are YOU worxmq on now?

At present, I am working on five logo designs, two websites, an environmentally friendly glass water bottle design, two vodka bottle designs, a liquor bottle design, a eo-page logo design ebook, and a comic book illustration (in collaboration). I om also constantly working on my three personal. websires/blogs: Iusr Creative Design, logo 01 the Day, and Logo Designer Slog.

WHaT Has Been your crownIng acurevemenr SO Far?

I believe my blog just Creative Design would have to be my biggest ach ievement, To have a subscriber bale of over 14,500+ readers who want to read what I have to say is, to me, quite astonishing, I send out a big thank you to all of my readers-you really do inspire and drive me to learn more and more! Thank you again!

any aDVICe?

Don't undervalue your work. Seek criticism, not praise. Always keep I.earning-do this by reading books. magazineslike Layers,. blogs, and by practicing, Collect and share things, Teach others. Never give up. Keep practicing. Again, keep practicing!

All art depicted © jacob Cass 2008,

smOOTH co

A CD cover design for a smooth-flowing instrumental band,

W E?'D Y era I L

Vodka bottle design for wedgetail Distillery. 3D work done in Cinema <i[) then com posed in Photoshop,

socnru poster

A font flog created ro showcase the beautiful typeface that is Bodon i!.

Bodoni

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A drink coaster designed to raise awareness of the dangers 0 f aleo ho I. Th e tag Ii ne was "Take A Closer Look."

...

ROUfjH [0

1. I listened to [heir music, [hen sketched on paper whar I, heard using colors that also evoked that emotion/sound (see sketch below).

2. After researching. sketching, and other experimentation.l came down to a rough design,

3. I then created each letter mdjvtdually: n Xara3D and imported each letter into Phoroshop (see middle Image below).

4. II then arranged each letter into a nice composition. If a letter didn't look right I re-created it in Xara3D.

5. Alter I was happy with the composition, I added texturing, styling. and shadows.

6. II then worked on the background and added finishing touches,a

modbool-l)

.s: tJ.AJ-Mih. J.c,jReJ-

Why nof lei your everyday life inspire your creative life? Now vou can with the Modbook. Just luck il

in your bog and I1rl ~he rood - draw and sketch wherever you wanl. whenever the inspirotion strikes. The Modbook's rozor-sharp pen sensitivily gives you precise and subtle control of renderings" Sturdy and portable. it's your mobile sketchbook or your oll-in-one sruolo, And iI's o hondy presentation +001 for clients,

The Modbook. Unleash your creativity in the environments ho inspire it.

Leam more about the toblet USA Today called "cleverly designed" and CNET praised as "an impressive feo,1 of englneering" at axiotron.com/modbook.

Visit a convenienlly located Motron Authorized Reseller or go ta axiolron.com/buy _____ ~. 10 order your Madbook today.

Kody Chamberlain. Professional Comic Book ArtIst and Designer.

"The Modbool<. felt natural and intuitive right from the sfart.1 can pock It up and produce print-quality artwork anywhere - on a plane. al 0; cafe, or on a long road trip. It's the perfect tool in. or out of the studio. I don't know how I ever gal by without it."

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[THE OICjITAL CANVAS]

SHOWCASING THE DESI6N WORK OF OUR READERS

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Designs; Walking Brace & Wrist Brace Illustrations II Client: Aircast I [ Designe~ Bill Yermal II Software' Adobe Illustrato(C52 and Adobe Pnotcshop CS2 II www_TlleArtGuy_<om

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Il hitF';//amycullen,net

3: Children's Book Designs' Mother&, Baby Otter and Mother & Baby Giraffe from My Mother Is My Friend I [ Client Kimberly P Johnson, Autllor/K_eyt'\Qte Speaker

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Design; Spaoeship T·Snirt Design I I Client Owl Ci.!y II Designer: Conor Keller I I Software: Adobe Photoshop C54 I r www.studioaktcom

Design' Mad ~iddle T·Shirt Design I [ Client: ot uteretere/Messhead Clothing I [ Designe~ conor Keller II Sof\wa!Ce' Adobe Photoshop C54 I [ wVlwstlJdioaktcQm

The staff at Layers magazine appreciates the time and effort involved in the creative process, no matter how large or small the project With this in mind, we offer you the opportunity to display you r work on The Digital Canvas. PI ease su bm it your print, We b, or packaging design ijpeg or eps f"rm"t) to: rm~in@l"y",r"m"G"zine.corn. Please include name of piece, client name (if appl icable), applications used, and any website where our readers can view more of your work.

Desigr: Koinonia J t Client Personal Work J t Designer: Brandon Weaver I [ $o'/tware: Adobe Pl otoshop C53 I [ www.keyslonelemur.devianlartmm

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By now you've probably heard the term "video podcast," but what exactly does it mean? The simplest answer is this: A video

'\ podcast is a TV show lhat's delivered via the Irternet. Shows are usually targeted to special interest groups an:! cover niche subject matters. The files can be watched on a computer; many TVs; and, of course, pc.rtable media players such as the iPod, iPhone, and zune. The unique part is that viewers can subscribe and have new shows download automatically,

o why all the buzz? Because consumers want their Web ',ideo-a loti t's estimated that 38 million Americans will consume podcasts ~n 2009, VVhen you expand that to worldwide, Web video ls growing <It an exponential rate. One reputable group estimates that Web video will have an

audience of one billion by the year 2013. It's" prett1 exciting time for those wanting to share with the world,

It's possible for-a podcaster to reach out and connect with large audiences. This audience may not rival those consuminq mainstrea rn med i a (a Ith 0 u gh 30 rn e pod ce 51:5, such as Photosho p User TV [www.phctoshopusertv.corn], regularly outperform cable and network television), but your chances <Ire good to reach a substantial

percentage of <! niche market.

Consumers are looking lor news and entertainment that they can relate to-that addresses their needs and specific interests. But webcam video and low production values rarely cut it. Viewers

expect nicely shot video with attractive graphics, effective editing, and killer sound. If you produce professional~lookingl content, your

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audience con enjoy the show without being distracted by horrendous

"The editinq stage is the place where all the pieces come togiether

_-.........._ into the fina:1 story. In many ways, itall comes down to how the

-~editor puts these pieces together. Editing podcasts has a lew ..... _. __ I,!Pique challenges compared to traditional video.

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Determining .. di6ng size: Don't worry ao6ut making yom segu.mce match the finished pod cast size. All of the resizing can happen later durinq the compression staqe. Simply set up Premiere Pro to match

your footage. If you shot in HD, edit that way. Widescreen DV? Set up the project to match. It's a very good idea to stick wit~ the sequence presets that sh i p with you r ed iti ng software. Just be su re to m atch th e right sequence settings to your footage .. If you have to render everything in your Timeline, the sequence settings are wrong.

Maintaining optimum color and exposure: Many podcasters understand little about color correcting their video. -Iere are a few simple pieces of advice:

• Try to avoid blowing out the irnaqs. If it's a choice between too liqht or tOQ dark, favor too da rk.

• MaLe sure you hove sufficient contrast because a lack of contrast will cause problem, when you compre,;,.

• Use a three-way color corrector or curves-based color correction effects.

Consider tmnsitions carefully; Oftentimes, wipes [lnd transltions will break up due to a pcdcasts compression. A transition (sspacia Ily a dissolve) is much more complex to effective y compress. This is because so many of the pixels are chanqinq at :he same time-and usually ~uit'" rapidly. p"dcasl cornpr"ssion ,,,Ii,,, upon MPEG-4 tech nol ogy, which saves space by only updating pixels that change. When you use a wnpe, it causes a spike in the data needed tc show the image dearly. Because podcasts generally have caps on their data rates, this results in the picture breaking up. Many pod casters eliminate wipes altogether, and instead rely upon the most basic dissolves and fade to color transitions (or even the most basic transition of all-the cut),

Dealing with interlaced material: There's a very good chance that the video in your Timeline is interlaced (even if it was shot in 24p), Most video formats involve some interlacing, This is a "leftover" technology from the earliest day> of television. Video interlacinq causes half of one frame to load, followed by the second half.. While this is useful for video that's intended for television sets (it can pcduce smoother motion), it looks terrible on progressive-type displays (such as LCDs, Wods,. etc.).

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• Shoot prJgressive: It :/ou 'know that you're only deliverlnq te podcast, shoot your video progressive to get rid of fields.

• Deuitenece the Tunetine: Premiere Pro lets you set a Timeline to progressive scan in the New Sequence dialoq, You'll generally need to remove fields using a pluq-in for After Effects and Premiere Pro such as FieldsKit (www.revisionfx.com)or Reslzer 2.2 ('NWW,recigiantsoftware.cornl, Note: Resizer, formerly from Digital Anarchy, is now part of Magic Bullet Instant HD from Red Giant Software,

• During compression:' The Adobe Media Encoder CS4 will autornatically remove interlacing from YDur footage when you use

a podcast preset onir terlaced material (we'Ll talk more about Adobe Media Encoder later),

Audio normalization; Pay attention to your audio levels, The podcastir1g audience is largely comprised of people with headphones jacked into their ears. If your audio mix keeps. "arying. with areas being very loud followed by very quiet, you'll annoy your audience. A sudden blast of sound because the talent got really loud will cause someone to take the ear buds out and turn off your show.

Fortunately, Premiere Pro offers normalization gain. This proce.s automatically smoothes out your audio levels. It won't totally "fiatten" the mix, but it will move it all closer to the middle: your highest highs will' drop to a specified target (in dBs) and your lowest lows will be raised closer to the center, This is e ·"ery important step arid worth doinq. Here'S how:

STEP ONE~ In the Timeline panel, select the sequence you want to normalize, and choose Sequence.-Normallze Master Track.

STEP TWO: In the Normalize Track dialog, enter an amplitude value in the dB field (zero to -2 dB is a good starting point), and dick OK.

STEP TH R EE: Play your sequence and listen to your audio You can undo and repeat with a different dB value as needed.

Run time strategies: Ne'ler forget your target run time. For most pcdcasts. you're editing short-form entertainment ortraininq. It's far better to keep a podcast short and to the point In our opin ion, thns is an easy way to meet the audience's needs andlower production costs. We personally tar~et three to ei9M minutes per episode.

One trick is to add a marker in you,rTimel.ine to make it easier to see your target run time. Remember. most shows benefit from edit" ing out the bad parts. A shorter show helps you distill your content to only th e best parts.

Graphics for podcasts

There are several issues to consider when it comes to buildinq m oti 0 n 9 ra phi cs for a pod ca s t. Th e a dvi ce we offer he rei s sp ecific to podcast graphics. However, if you're inexperienced with broadcast graphics, we..strongly recommend additionel readirg and practice (there are tons of grea.t tutorials on the Layers magazine website [www.layersmagazine-.comJ and books on motion and raphics, Ph,o.t",h(m for Video, by Focal Press),

Screen siz« and design issues; Try re sizinq your graphics to a pod cast size (such as 640x4S0 or 640:<360 for widescreen) to see how they look. YOU! don't want to make your audience squint, so keep the text la rger and easier t,) read. For pod casting , leave a 10% margin around the outside edge of your graphics so the text doesn't get hard to read by being too dose to the edge of the computer screen or portable media p~ayer,

OVIHOV sucks the life from graphics: The DV (dig!ital, video) and HDV !:high-definition video) codecs are the kiss of death to g raphics. They instantlv throw "way three-fourths of the work you've done and it makes, it look terrible. :Be very careful if you're working with DV footage net to finish your sequences using' the DV codee. Instead, change your sequence settings to a higher quality (such as Animation codec] for the [ina'i render. If using HDV, U"plure tu a different codsc and work with something less compressed

Keep 'em clean: While clean is a subjective judgment, it's still assertlal. By clean, we mean cIsp, easy-to-read, and easy-tounderstand designs, You want clarity with your podcast graphics, l.f things feel too busy, it's probably too busy; if you think it's a little hard to read, your audience will think it's very hard to read. We're not advocating for vanilla design, just remember that podcastinq is a very low-resolution medium that's also heavily compressed. You have less latitude than print (and even video). so it's, essential you design with the medium in mind,

Match style of show: The goa I is simple: you want the personality of your graphics package to match the style of your show and its host, Make sure that you're figuring out a way to make your show different than all the rest. Analyze your perceived competition then develop graphics that have a unique appearance that matches your show.

Read time: Many motion graphic designers and editors seem to forget that graphics are actually meant to be read by an audience.

The idea with read times is that you wantto be able to read the graphc "out 'loud," preferably twice, befo:re removing the graphic. This is an old broad ca st sta n da rd for a good rea son.

Fonts for smail screens: Be sure to invest in a font for your show that didn't come preinstelled with Microsoft Office. You need to find a visua I identity for your podcest, a nd good use of type is an easy way to do so. Take a look out thwe~there's a typeface that has your show's personality Something that's somewhat unique and will help convey the ch aracter of your show, Here are a few of our favorite type foundries: Chank (www_chank_com); DHnctype (www

. girlswhowearglasses,com); BV 'Fonts (wvvw.bvfonts.com): and Acid Fonts (www.acidfonts.com).

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Working with screen captures

Are you looking to launch the next podcast to shore your design ideas or software tips? Then you need screen capture software, There are software prog,ams that allow you to record what's happening on your computer's screen. The software can create anc store a video file om a hard drive so you can edit it with Prem iere fro. Here are some popular screen capture utilities:

• iShowU (www.shinywhitebox.comj:This Mac-only tool is reasonably priced and does a great job of writing fHes to disk.

• Snapz Pro (www.ambrosiasw,comj: This is another Mac-only tool that offers capture of both static and motion screens.

• Camtasia Studio Iwwwrechsmith.comj: This PC-onl, solution writes very small files, It can thsn e><port to virtually any video format.

Music for podcasts

Finding the right music to use in a pcdcast is very tricky. Sure you have the same selection challenges as any video-making sure die music fits the mood-but it goes well beyond that. With podcasts, you h ave all sorts of issues. Fi rst, the fiiles are shown on the Web (which is usually considered worldwide distribution), Then, add the fact that the items can be downloaded to a user's computer, When it comes to licensinq music, things can get very expensive. Here are two approaches to staying legal that are worth considering:

Pod-safe music: Many independent musicians make their music available for promotional reasons. There are wf'bsites where musicians of a II genres offer up thei r music for free use <15 'Ion g as'tYQu identify them in your show credits, This is a great wa'1 to find tnusic

tha,t sounds fresh and literally costs nothi ng_ Here are some sites for finding pod-safe music:

• PodSafe Music Network: http://podsafemusicnetwork_com

• IOCA Promonet: www.iodaprornonet.com

• Moby gratis www.rnobyqratis.corn

• Audiof'eeds.cro: http://audiofeeds.org

• Kahvi Collective: http://kahvi.org

Soundbooth scoring: Buildingl a customized music track is easy with Adobe Soundbooth CS4. Soundbooth is a recent addition to the Adobe Creative Suite and represents a significant evolution in approachinq audio tasks. Adobe Soundbooth is desiqned to make music creation simple Sound booth gives you access to several musical scores as well as sound -effects. The first step to scoring music with Soundbooth is to preview scores, lv10st of the scores aren't loaded by defau t, but they're easy to access with an Internet connection .

STEP ONE: Launch Adobe Soundbooth CS4 and choose Window> Resource Central, If your computer is cormeced to the Internet, you'll see new content load .

STEP TWO: Click the Scores tab to see the free scores for download, Each score is a highly custornizable song that can intelligently adjust to the length of your video and has the ability to change intensity and instrumentation, Items in the Sc-ore and Scund Effects tabs are free to download and use.

STEP TH REE: Click the category drop-down. men.u (currently labeled Ambient) and choose EI"cllQ"'i~ 2, Click the P,,,vi,,w icon (right.facing arrow) for "River of Unreality." Let's give this track a try_ Click the download icon (dO'Nn-facing arrow) to s-ave the file. Wait until the fil.e finishes dQwn;t?ading to proceed.

STEP FOUR: Clid:: the Scores tab to switch to the Scores panel (not within Resource Central, but at the top of the window) At thebDttom of the Scores pa nel, cI ick the I mport Scores to Score Libr:ilry icon, Select the downloaded score,

Once a. score is, selected, you can add it to a movie file, After Effects composition, or Premiere Pro sequence, Soundbooth makes it easy to adjust the lenqth of a score to get a customized sound that fits the duration of your video,

STEP ONE: In the Scores panel, select the score "River of Unreality." Click the Add Score to Multitrack icon. The score moves into the Editor window, You can now add a Premiere Pro sequence.

STEP TWO: Choose File>Adobe Dynamic Ullblmport Premiere Pro Sequence, A new window opens askinq you to specify a location for the Premiere Pro project, You can also choose ~ile>lmpOr1l>Files to simply add a video fi Ie. Select the sequence or me and dick OK,

STEP THREE: If the music is too long or short, click the score track then move the poi nter over the end of the audio track until it turns

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into a red cursor; Ctick-and-draq to adjust the audio track to match the video's length.

STEP FOUR: Choose Window>Video to see the video you're scoring to. Click Ploy to preview the music and video. Not too shabby, but the scors can be customized using basic presets to set the intensity or adjusted over time using keyframes. This flexibility greatly Improves tHe usefulness of each score.

STEP RVE: At the top of the audio track in the editor window, dick the Parameters drop-down menu and choose Show All to see all the keyframeable properties for the track. Volume allows you to

adjust how loud the clip is-usual'ly louder in the beginning and end, but dips low .. r wh .. n p"opl" ars talkinq. Int"ns.ity impacts how "strong" the music is. Experiment with I ntensity by scrubbi ng its. value up and down.

STEP SIX: Wh"n you'"" don e , you con save the ASND fil'e and sync to your video in Premiere Pro.

Podcast compression

To ou tput your POULdst viu·"o [ile s , you hav" the p"rf"ct tool:

Adobe Media Encoder C54. This versatile utility can read any vi.deo format that you'd create usin g the Cr .. ativs Su ite and can output podcast-ready MPEG-4 files.

STEP ON E: Launch the Adobe Media Encoder, click the Add button, and select one or more files.

STEP TWO: From the Format drop-down menu, choose H .. 21>4, and then dick the Preset drop-down menu and choose an Apple iPod preset for standard-definition shows or an Apple TV preset for H D shows. After you select a preset, you can dick on its name to customize the settings to make them more compatible for Apple Pods.

STEP THREE:: Click the Output File path to specify a location for your compressed files. Choose Fil,e>Save Queue, then dick Start Queue to create your podcast-ready video files.

RSS & pod cast delivery

On ce th e video is encoded, you need to create an RSS file and host the shows. There are no Adobe services for hosting and deliverinq podcasts=-but the pmcess is pretty straightforward. Here are a few resources to check oi.t to learn more about podcast hostin'J imel rl",livf'ry.

• Apple podcasting online class: http://seminars.apple.eom/semi.

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• Podeast Maker for Mac: ~ttp;//l€monzdream.comipodcastmak6:r

• The Pod cast RSS Buddy for Mat and PC: www.tolley.info/rssbuddy

• RSS Feec Va,1 idator: http://feedva.lid.tor orS

• The Adobe Media Player: www.adobe_comJproducts/mediaplayer

And her€' are a f8W hosting companies that offer podcast hosting packages. These plans often have mueh higher bandwidth than webhosting plans and a re priced differently. Don't use standard webhosting for your podcest es it's more expensive and not the best solution.

• AltarCast: www.altarcast.com

• Apple MobileMe: www.apple.corn/rnobileme

• [liS Contact: http://v2.bigcolltact.com

• Blogamp: http://blogamp.com

• GoDaddy: www.qodaddy.corn

• Hipcast: www.hipcast.com

• LibSyn: www.libsyn.com

• mDialog: www.mdialog.com

• Ourrnedia: http://ourmedia,.org

• Podbean: www.podbean.com

• pocbus: www.pcdbus.com

• Podeast Spot: www.podcastspot.com

• poc+loster: www.podhoster.com

• Podkive: www.geneticho5ting.com

• PodStrike!: www.podstrike.eom

• Switchpod: www.switchpcd.com

The road ahead

At this point, we would like to welcome you to the new publishing revolution. Be sure to keep up on podcastinq news by visiting the blog www.vidpodcastercom, and you can find local podcasting groups by visiting www.meetup_wm_ Join us-there's an audience out there waiting just for you .•

~ ~Chafd Ham'ng[on afld Mark Wei.wlf" am the owners of RHED Pixel {www.rhedph::eI_cQm}c a visual commumcattons company ~ Wa!i!J~ngtQnr D.C. They have heAped produce morQi than 4 .. 000 ]

:3: occasts wnh di€ftts such ,as Acobe, Applel Peachpi( Goog!e, Momf'l'yC.ast, and the U.S_ government Rkharo and Mark also run the local podcasters dub in Wa.shingtDnl D.C. Fer more on od"."i"~, ";,it www.d • ...opi xe I.LV ........ "w.vidpoJc.~!e.-<u r n. Rid.o.J e n dMorl< or "w-w!I.0 .. ol.l.el."woool:.f.oduc; .. 9\·«I.UP c dca at >.A·Ju;<I.ro. Media ,p, ob,;"".I" ('0'" ?<>c,,1 /",.".

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etting started in mobile doesn't have to be rocket science. In facti using good prlndples and a modern device such as the iPhone is a perfect p1ace to start. By the end of this article, you'll know how to create a working iPhone app that can be deployed on lower-end devices and he distributed through mobile app stores.

Let me start by making a few assumptions about you, the reader, Fir'<l. I'll gLJ"'''-, that yo,i"", haria mohi.If> rhon'" for" Ff'w y""m, nowprobably some sort of smartphone with a few a dvanced features, but rea II y a phon e wi th a {ew extra features bo I ted on. 111 guess th at you played around with some of the more advanced features, like tile mobile Web browser or maybeyou downloaded a game or two, but a,tter the nOl(e:lty ,Wore off you never used those features "9a in aod your advanced (and expensive) piece of mobile technology reverted back to its primary purpose, beillg a telephone,

Now. I'm going to guess that when the iPhone was introduced, your ideas about what mobile technoloqy could do char]g:ed: a bitSureyou were a little bit skeptical but come on, admit it, when you first saw the Phone you knew it, was like no other telephone you had ever seen.

While my powers of perception might have missed about 15% of you, chances are the other 85% know what I'm talking, about. Your experience in mobile pretty much summarizes the evolution 01 the marketplace for the past ten yea,rs. While the iPhonei; certainlY not ~he alpha and omega of moblle. i: stirrep somethinqin us that's h3ving a halo effect on the "nti'e mobill", in1:iustry-ilni3lly consumers are starting to realize that mobile phonesaren't just telephones.

Mobile devices have already outpaced the gro'Nth of desktop computers around the world. The research firm lnlormapredicts that ih just a few years 50% of the word's population will access the Web throuqh a mobile device. By the way, that's 20% more than people who will access the Internet througha desktop browser.

In 2008, the iPhone and devices similar to it, along with flatrate data plans, skyrocketed use of mobile devices 35 information devices, making fh e U.S. the largest.consum er of mobile Web content In the world-son1ething n has never done before.

So how do we, humble designers and'developsrs of the Internet. adapt our desi'gns and content for this incredible new medium? How do we take advantage of the opportunity around the lf'hone explosion? And while tl ePhone is the shape of things to come in mobile, iJs still a small fraction of the overall market, so how do we make our content available for everyone e'lse?

(PHONE FIRST. OTHER DEVICES LATER

I won't bore you with the .decade of industry history; let me just tell you that ,he biggest challenge in designing for the mobile Web has been the mass proliferation of shoddy mobile Web browsers made worse by 'device fraqrneritation. In other words, there are iI lot or devices out there that have a bad Web browser in them that can't be upqraded.

The Web Kit mobile browser, which first appeared in Nokia srnartphones and then exploded wj\h the tPhone, has started to chanqe the landscape of the mobile Web. Along, with Opera Mobile,. powerful aftermarket mobile browser in millions of handsets, Web standards are finally corninq to mobile.

What does this mean for us? We can finally create graceful mobile sites with gorg@ously designed experiences, and because we can use standards, we're assurec they'll' look reilWnably the same on next generation devices, such as. the Android G1 and the newly announced Palm Pre (wh,ich both 'use WebKit as well as. thei r native mobil e b row ser],

So my advice is to focus on creetlnq.a grea,tiPhone site or Web app using Web st ... ndards. If we do our fob rught, we won't need to worry about other devices during design a:nd' de'~eIO'p.m.en( A~. '

long as we stick to good Web standard principles, that job win be easily til~klec1 (whid 1'1'1 come hark to at the ",nn of thi, ilrtif'lp)

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Our first task in crea.ting a mobile site orWeb app is to understand in wftat context users will be using ou r content. Context is the circumstances that form understanding, This coukl be physjcalcontext; fOT example, the.usar might'be on a bus or train, away from his desk, It could be media context or the type of device he's using, and its limitations (e.,9" he may be-usinq a mobile phone and network coverage might be spotty while in transit). And it coutd be his state of mind or modal context (he might be bored and just wants to read some news),

Contextcan aid us (or even cisrract us) in understanding or app'eciating the information. in fro:nt of us, adding value to what we ezperience a nd therefore to our lives, Now that miqhtsound a bit overwhelming, improving somsonas life through a mobile website, but it happens every day. We useinformation \0 aid us in everything from the small forqettable problems of our lives, such as where to eat lu nch, to big decisioris, such as buyinga house or seeing a, doctor about-that rash,

Given the constraints of thernediurn, good mobile experiences begin and end wit.h understanding your USN'S context and then sornehowaddressinq it For our :purposes, we'l:1 start with a simple mobile Web epp that grabs the recent articles from www.l<lj'ersmagazine com and presents them in a mobile-friendly format for readers who mlght want to' catch up on the. bus or train commute Here are some things we'UI.need to thinkabout:

• We'll need to consider that they'll not be stable while reading, so we'll went to me larger text

• They may encounter dead "pots. in the network, so we'l'l want to load larger amounts of data per page load to decrease the need for pag:ing.

• We'll also need to consider that they'll only have a short timespan to read our content 'so we might need to keep om entries short and sweet

There are many more issues 01 context that we miqht address, but for now we'~1 try and keep it sl mple.

addressing the user's context, we need to create how we want to present it. Designing fer tbe iPhone and higheHesolution devices offers a bigger and. more flexible canvas to work with, but the downside is that we have to design ;(OU nd bulky fingertips.

Each button or hit area shouldbe at least 40 pixels in height tp allow for a niceclear target to touch, We should i.se largerfon!s to not only fill in the event areas, but also to provide our readers a usable type size when held about 8-12" away from their eyes,

We also want to make it dear that all actions Of events on the page are visually connected to parentdisplay or task. We want every actionable item to clearly state its intended purpose: This isn't just to prevent frustration during time-constrained browsing sessions. When designing for mobile devices, think of each touch 0" dick as en investment of time' end money on ,befta..if of the user, ss oftentimes it actually is. Many users pay for each page they visit So if you present a bad label that takes the user to the wronq information, the user has to lite'r<llly pay hardcash for that mistake. In some rasp, tllPy'll halfP to ray to goO h,,,,k to fhp origin"l, p"g". in which they started- It's you r responsibility to not a Ilow these costly mistakes to occur.

I like to Jay down a basic design approach in Adobe Photcshop first, but I only focus on the key desiqn elements lhat :1':11 need to slice Lip and optimize-the rest I'll cesiqn with XHTML and C55. This allows me to view my site on devices sooner, which almost always irrpaets my design decisions end ultimately the final design As the designer, your.challenge will be to think of your design flUidly-now it will stretch and zoom based on the users context and device, The tighter you, try and reigri down on the presentation, IDe 'less compatible and less useful it will. become to mobile users,

With our design direction in hand, so to speak, we <Ire ready to start bu,ilding our markup and styles. If you aren't familiar with Web standards principles, Ii suggest rea.diog. up on a few of the basics {www ,0fler<l.comicompany/edL!ication/curriculumJ. I have tv>;o easy n.les:

'I. Is it semantic? DQn't go t;razy adding a zillion divs or spanninqaach with its oWQ classes or IDs. Just use basic HTML elements like h-eaders and lists with structural divs. All your content should live within at least a block level element, such asa paragraph tag.

2. Is it readable? Write your entire markup before you. add any styles, You r site shou Id be perfectly usable without a single style (since that's how most other mobile devices will read it).

We'JI want to keep the I'~loutof our content short and simple; the more complex~ty we add only makes it more difficult to adapt it to other devices and 'moves usfurther awayfrom addressing, context.In this example; I. mentioned that we want to be ,able to IOnd more "onff'nt rf" p"g'" so thp LI,"'f won't n",,,,d a rf'r'li"t,mt wireless can nection.

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We should now have nice semantic markup that looks a bit basic-but that's ~he point. Our markup is perfectlyusable in virtually all mobile devices. But let's add a little style to it.

DESIGNING WITH CSS3

The WebKit mobile browser in the i~hone. iPod touch, Android devices, and the Palm Pre supports a great dea I of tSS3, which can come in handy when designing for mobile devices. YQu can check to see what CS53 is currently supported in various browsers at www.css3.info. Typically, whatever is supported in Safari is supported in mobile Safari and other WebKit browsers,

For the purposes of our app, we don't need to go too crazy.

We'll use little rounded corners around our content area and a small drop or box shadow to complete the effect.

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You'll notice the little .. -webkit" before our CSS3 declaration. We need to do, this since the World Wide Web Consortium hasn't fully ratifi ed CS S 3 yet, but that could change soon. To be safe, you should include both

the "'-webkit" and the norrral CSS3 syntax for support of future nonWebKit browsers. It's a bit ted i ous to make sure you

update everything twice, so I recommend just copying those when you're satisfied with your stylesheet.

And with just a handful of styles, we've made an unstyled block of text into a nice-looking iPhone site.

THE TECHNICAL BIT

If you've been paying close attention, you're probably wondering where all the Content came from for the Layers magazine, mobile site. No, I didn't cut-arid-paste or make a eMS template; I just used the Layers magazine RSS feed and the supersirnp!e PHI' library called SimplePie to pull in content and reformat it.

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In fact, RSS is the perfect pi ace to start your mobile a pp, RSS is basically just an XML file, which comes in handy for simple content adaptation since the presentation from au r content is already stripped out and OUr' data is structured. By just adding a few lines of code to a single document, we can pull our RSS content into our newly styled mobile site .

DESIGNING FOR THE APP STORE

Stories of developers making cheap applications that turn them into cvarniqht millicneires mig ht replace your pu pils with dollar signs. This isn't a new phenomenon to mobile; it-has happened many times before, Each time, the micro-industry crashed upon itself due to that same problem as before-device fragmentation, The Mobile Web is the only mobile distribution platform that promises to work consistently across all browsers, using the knowledge you already have (as you've seen from this article).

Who knows whet will happen this time around, but one thing is for certain, it does feel good to be on the user's desktop. Well, I have a couple of tricks for you.

By adding these few lines to your Web app, your users can bookmark your app to their iPhone or iPod touch home screen, just like a native app. The first section of code points to our app

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DESIGNING FOR THE OTHER 9960

Oh, theres just one more thing. What about all those other devices? In the US. more than two-thirds.of mobile Web tmffir ls coming from lhe i Phone and other hiqh-end devices I ike it, but let's not forge: .. our little flip"phone buddies out there _

Since we coded everyth i n 9 to standards snd we didn't use -any tricky JavaScript animationsto get users \0 our Content, our site can still be v<iewed on Iowsr-end devices, By simply USing the stylesheet media types ava ilahle in XHTrv L, we can point to different stylesheets based ontl e device.

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With a few tweaks in our lowest common denominator or LCD style sheet, we have a perfectl y usable site for eve ryone else_

I've shown, you, how easy creating mobile sites can be; now the rest is up to you. Get out there and start making cool stuff f((r this exciting new medium that billions of people-never leave home without .•

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Brian Fling is .i3' freqoen t speake r and a uthor on 'the "Jssues of me-bite design,. tne mobjte Webl and mobile .use r' experjence_ He was the prim ary ecthor of the free dotMo:_bi :M ~bjle ] Web De~bper:.s. Guide (w~~mobifotg.e.ccm). d'OWI1lo~ded thou:$~fi'd$ of tjtFi~.s o ..... ~r"; Bri-=-rt j~ ctJJ~(.Itlt writrt'l$' O'R.~;Il.y 1'i1~d'itl'.s. Mob[b Oe~i~1'l end O.eon;!opm-ent, due' ou1/~f:.e1" this ye., (mo/:lilede,i9'" org:b""k!_ a d." is .rh. f""n de,·.nd prinoiple d.,igner forme iPh<>ne "PP d.velopment firm pinch!.<>o"T (~ww.~in ch.""'il1. com!_

----------------------------------------------------[photographyJ

[THE DICjITAL CAMERA]

RICK {C} SA.MMON

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crop my pictures and you're a dead man!

"Crop my picture and you're a dead man." That's 1'I..;~.;.a".~~' what David Page, one of the contributors to my next book, said to me in an email when he submitted one of his pictures for publication, After his demand was a ©.

Basically, David, a heck of a 'nice g,uy and former fine art photographer and teacher at Duke University, was asking, in a nice way, that h is image not be cropped, I wrote back, "I'll crop you laterl Only kiddinq! Real men don't crop. No worries"©

David's comment was the inspiration for this column because

I agree 100% with his philosophy. To me, and to most of my photcqraph er friends, cropping in-camera and in the digital darkroom is one of the keys to a good imag'e~a good exposure and an inter" esting: subject being among the other key ingredients that make a good photograph,

In fact, when I work with publishers, including my fruends at Layers magazine, the only request I have is to please not crop my pictures It's a request that surely makes the art director's job more d iffi cu 11, a nd I a pp reci ate th ei r extra effort,

Oropping goes hand in hand with composition, because if you havean expertly composed photograp!h and then it's cropped poorly, the cornpcsrttcn g)es down the tubes, or maybeto Davy Jones' Locker, according to David Page.

So this issue's column is aJI about what's inside t~e four borders ofe dig,italimage. We'll begin wth image capture, and then move to onscreen cropping

Basic rules of composition

Here are some things to keep in mind to help you get the best in-camera exposure.

Rule of Thirds: Perh a ps the most basic rule of composition is to imaqinea tic-tee-tee grid over the image in your viewfinder and to place the main subject where any of the lines intersect. Of course, like all so-called photography rules, this one is meant to be broke:n. However, it's a good p I a ce to sta rt when it com es to COl reful composition"

Check out this photoqraph of a cowgirl and imagine that tic-tao-toe grid OVer the image" Both the cowgirl: and the shadow of a cowboy standing off-camera are placed where lines would intersect,

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of the frame,

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44

Place subject off"centerc When we take a picture with the subject off-center, we give the viewer the opportunity to u nconsciously scan the entire picture for other interesting elements. When we place the subject in, the de~d center of the f'r~me, the viewer', eyes get stuck on the subject.

An easy way to remember this rule is to think: Dead center is deadly. That's what I was thinking about when I took this picture at cuncet in Raj"'~than, :India,.

Use a foreground element: Composirg a landscape with a foreground element gives the viewer a reference point from which to view the main scene, No foreground element, 110 referel1ce point, Cornposinq a picture of a person with a foreqrounc element (or

45

surrounding element), which usual:ly means shooting close to the person, makes the picture more personal and 'intimate.

This picture of a Huli Wigman (bottom left), whom I photographed in Papua New Guinea " i~lustrate; how using ~,foreg"Ound element, the leaves, can enhance a portrait.

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Make the rounds: Before you press the shutter release button, make the rounds. That is, scan the edges of the viewfinder to see if any distrocting objects are intruding into your carefully composed image.

Before I took this picture in 'Namibia, I carefully scanned the frame to make sure no distracting elements {people climbing 01"1 the dunes and thetr footprints) were in the frame.

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Baslc rules of computer cropping

And here are some thing.s to keep in mind when you're editil1g images on your computer.

Crop first: When YJU open an image on your monitor, there are two reasons why you want to crop Ii rst One i 5 that you ca n customize your image to exclude unwanted objects and boring areas of a scene, thereby focusing the viewer's attennon on the main subject

[photography J

The other i 5 that wh en JOU ad] U st Levels a nd Curies, a rea s th at are cropped out won't a+ect your judgment as to the highlights and shadows in the scene-sespecielly if those cropped-out areas were very da rk or very light.

Here's a, before and after pair of images from Antarctica that illustrates creative cropping-"I:ong with" few creative enhancements.

Before

Crop to find pictures within pictures,' Here's a fun and creative exercise. Open a picture, and then use creative cropping to find other pictures within a picture, If at first you don't succeed, try and try again Keep 'in mind that in most cases, there's a good picture within a picture.

I luke my original horizontal photograph of this polar bear, which I: took in the Subarctic. But after playing mound with cropping, I discovered the nice vertical image that opened this article on page 44, which I also like"

After you crop: If you plan to display a print tbats not a standard frame size, you'll need a custom matte, which you can have cut at a framing store, or a custom frame, Another option is to hava your print mounted on foarncore or other mounting material. Online labs such as Mpix.com can help you out in this area Sure, you'll have to pay a few more bucks for custom matting, mounting, and fr"m.ing. but what would you rather have, a picture with impact or a picture with "orne boring cead space?

This picture of a momma polar bear and Iher cubs was cerefolly cropped from a full-frarneirnaqe to the panorama format I added the black border. brushed slum nurn frame, end drop shadow in Photoshop to simulate a framed image hanging on a wall_

Okay. I'm outta here. I think I'll start going throuqh my tens of thousands of images to see how a bette:r crop could result in an improved imag.e_ ln between editing, 1'111 check my email for other "dead man" notes_.

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[ Riel; $o",m.,,,', 10",," boo •• E'.,plo~"9 the light, Mol<i"9 'he Very Be" ;,,-C.m.to Exposures is c""d,-full of nicoly c'opp~d pictur~', $"0 "'-w..,.cic~ .. m"'o".oomfot more inbrmotiOf>. ] ALL IMAG~ By R~CK SAMMON

quick and easy web galleries

I love photography because it provides me a way to savor life, capture a memory, and tell a story. As a digital photographer, it's easy to take tons of pictures and then neglect to invest the time and effort to actually share them. Here's the good news: This problem has disappeared from my workflow with the incredibly powerful and easy-to-use Web module in Lightroom, It's now effortless to get your photos online for your friends, family, and clients,

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[START IN THE LIBRARY MODULE]

The first step is to pick out yOU!! favorite photos As any pro photoqrepher wil'l tell you, it's ~lw(Oys better to show a few amazing photos than many average photos. Click on the Library module picker at the top of the i nterfa ce, a nd press the E key to naviqate to Loupe view. Now, give eaclh image a star rating by pressing 1-5. For example, press 1 to add a 1-St;H rating, 2 for a 2-star rating, and so on, Only give your absolute, favorite i mages a, 4- or S-star rating. The star rati ng wHi appea r in th e Toolbar below ths image.

[FILTER BASED ON STAR RATINt;i)

After add i n 9 the sta r rati n g, press ~h e G key to na vig ate to th e Libra 'Y module Grid view. In this view you'~1 be able to see all of your images as thumbnails. If the Ubrary Filter options aren't visible at the top, press the Backslash key (\i to toggle them open. Click Attribute and then click on the particular star rating to sort or filter your images based on tl-at criterion. For example, dick on 4 stars to only show the images with a 4-star rating or higher. This way you can clear away all the Clutter and focus in on the keepers.

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[ADO RELEVANT METADATA IN LIBRARY MODULE]

While you're still in the Library module, take a few moments to add titles, captions, and copyright information to your photographs. Open the Metadata panel located in the right-side panels at the bottom. Next, choose a meta data view option to add the information. Choose the large Caption view to have more space to t~pe out longer captions, or choose Quick Describe to quickly add the Title, Caption, and COlPyright information. The advantaqe of adding these now is that you can show this information with the photos later in the Web g.allery .

[REORDER AND RENAME IN LIBRARY MODULE]

Reordering the photos in the l.ibrarv module can improve the flow and order of the Web qalisryln addition, renaming the photos is important because you may want the names to be visible in the Web g~II'ery. While still in Grid view, go to the Toolbar located beneath the Grid thumbnails and dick on the words to the right of Sort and choose User Order. Then, simply click-and-drag the thumbnails to reorder the images. Finally, select all of the photos by pressing Command-A IPC: CuI-A), then press FZ to open the Rename dialog and choose a new naming convention.

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In the Web module you can create a Web collection to save a specific group of 'images that aren't dependent on any folder structure (i.s., it doesn't matter where the images are located), which allows 'fou Ito quickly locate the file". To create the Web collection, dick on the New Collectionicon (+) in the Collections panel bar and choose Create Web Gallery. Next, type a nama lor the collection and! choose Include All Fi Imstrip Photos to select all the photos (or leave thus unchecked to choose only the seeded photos). Choose Make New Virtual Copies to create a collection with more flexibility.

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In certain situations, adding image titles and captions can rneke your Web gal1lery more functional, For example, it can help a client identify a particular photo. Dn the other hand, it can simply provide valuable information aboutthe ,mage that will add to the overallimpact of the ga.llery. To include this information that we added in Step 3, open the Image Info panel and click on the checkboxes. Depending upon the template you've chosen, this information can be displayed along with the image. (Note: You can also dick to the far riqht to select other information to show besides Title and' Caption)

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[CHOOSE A TEMpLATE)

The Web module come, loaded with a variety of HTML and Flash layouts. First, hover your cursor over the various templates in thE Template Browser panel' on the left until you see something you like in the Preview panel above. Then, dick the name of the ternplate you want to use. Ughtroom will render the gallery design with your sel ected imases. ilf you choose an HTM _ ga Ilery and' you have too many ima'3es to display on one page, Lightroom even generates the correct number of webpaqes with the appropriate hyperlinks to present all your photos,

[CUSTOMIZE YOUR qALLERY]

You can customize your Web galleries in many ways using the pa n el s on the right side of the Web module. Wh ile the customtzatron controls are self-explanetcry, let's take a quick tour of some of the most important options.

1, Engine panel: Choose one 0' five different qallery styles. 2., Color Palette panel: Choose color variations,

3. Appearance panel: Define the layout attributes such 05 the number of rows and columns in your layout, as well as image attributes including borders, drop shadows, etc.

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[IHACjE CApTIONS AND TITLES]

[ENTER OUTpUT SETTINCjS]

Open the Output Settinqs panel to define the image quality, select the rnetadata to include, and the amount of sharpening, Typically, when optimizing images for the Web you want a lower quality JPEG compression, but since the Lightroom Web galleries are well optimized, you can choose a hiqher quality option, ln this case, I've chosen 70, Next, you can select what Metadata to include: All or Copyright Only. If desired, click on Add Copyright Watermark. Finally, choose between a Low, Standard, o: High Sharpening amount. TYlPica Ily, Standard works best .

[ENTER UpLOAD SETTINyS]

Before you can upload your work to the Web, you need to enter your domain and hosting information, Open the Upload Settings panel, click the FTP Server option, and choose Edit. This wiH open the Configu,re FTP IFile "ransfer dialog. Enter your Server name, HP Username, and Password. Back in the Upload Settings panel, define the Subfolder by typing in a folder name. For example, these images could be viewed at www"chrisorwig.c:;.m/joe,. (As a side note, if you don't have a domain name and hosting, there's no better time than the present to get one, Visit www.chrisorwig .com/hostinq for 3 few recornmsridations.)

[gETTINy YOUR WORK ONLINE]

Before you get your work online, it's, a good idea to preview the Web gallery. Click on the Preview in Browser button on the left to view a loca] (i"e., not live 011 the Web) version of yOUI' Web gallery. This way, you can review the gallery before it goes live. 'If there's anything that doesn't look perfect in the 'local preview, go back to the above steps to make changes Once you're satisfied with the gal:!ery, click the Up'load button located below the right-side panels.

[VIEW AND SHARE YOUR pHOTOS]

After uploading, you can view the images online in your Web browser by typing out the full U RL string. For example, this ga lIer\, was uploaded to a folder called joe_color, so I typed "http.z/chrl~orwi9 .corn/jce jcolor" (1:11 lect, I've uploaded images lor (I client to review at thislink, so go there to see a sample g~llery.) To share the photos with someone. highlight the, full URL string and choose IEdit>Copy Open your email program, create a new email, and choose Edit> Paste,

Command (PC: Alt)-

[TIMESAVIN(_j SHORTCUTS]

Use the following shortcuts to speed up your workflows: To access the d'ifferent riqht-sids panels, press Commard-1 through 7 (pC: Ctrl-l through 7). For example, to toggle cpsn/ close the Color Palette panel, press Command-S (pC: Ctrl"3). To quickly preview the ga,llery locally in your browser, press Command-Option-P (PC Ctrl-Alt-P]. On the other hand, if you'd like to export the gallery to upload it with another apphcation, press Comrnand-J (PC: CtrlcJl), .•

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[ a1ris Orwig, pnotograp",ef, and authorl r,s on the' photo~faphy faculty at. th.€! Brooks Insbtut,e in San ta Sa rbara.1 C.:i Irfor~~il. His pubkc;3 tio~.s_ include a ~[Jm~ef of be5t~5~ I/ing lightroo~ ] .nd Photos"QP tr'1'rn'"9 t,tles.! Lyo</,.com,,, 'Iell as hIS books, Adobe Photo,hop (54 How-To" 100E"ent;ai Tecnniqoes and Adobe Photosboc l,ghtroo", 2 Hew-Toe: 1 00 Essentiel Tcchr'L~9UC!i: by Adobe Pross. Fer- mom in~pk;atict1. vis.jt h;~ w..."b.s;;tc.at www.chn~orwj9.D;lm.

All IMAGES ev C~RIS ORWIG UNLESS OTHEftWIS, NOTED

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disappearing act

Let's face it: no matter how carefully you try to compose your image, in some photos there's something in the shot that just has to qo! In this tutorial. we'll review some key techniques for removing e~ements from a photograph using cover-up layers and the new live brush preview for the Clone Stamp in Photoshop C54.

After

[CONCEpTUAL OVERVIEW]

The Clone Stamp and the Healing Brush are both great for retouching and, in some cases, removing smaller objects IToIT an image. But for larger items, especially in areas of more complex detail, you often h>lve to use another 3pproach that involves copyinG sections of the background onto separate layers. In order for this technique to work, there needs to be enough "extra," background information that can serve as a patch to cover up the unwanted object. Both the Clone Stamp and the Heal'ing Brush can be used to fine-tune rough edges after the main cover-up layers have been created.

[SELECT THE AREA TO BE COVERED]

ln the image of the girl wa'iking through rain puddles, our goal is to remove the white fence post. It's a bit distracting and the image will be more p'leasing without it, Fortunately, there's plenty of hnckaround that we can use to cover the post. It's also ,I'iahtly out of focus. which will make it easier to blend OVer the post Use the Lasso tool (L) with a 2-pixelFeatherin the Options Bar to drag a loose selection around the ferce post. It's okay to heve irregu~ar edges, as this will' help camouflage the cover-up. (Note: You can download this image from www.Iayersmaqazine.corn.)

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[MOVE SELE[TION TO gOOD DETAIL]

With the Lasso tool still active, dick inside the selection, hold the S h .ift key down, a nd move the sel ecti on over to th 10 I eft to a n a rea of background detail that will provide good image information for CCNering up the fence post. The use of the Shift key will constrain the movement of the selection to keep it aligned horizontally with the original position. In some images, suer as this one, this is not that critical, butin others it may be important. to have precise alignment of the data you'll be copying.

[CREATE THE COVER-UP LAVER]

To create the cover-up layer, croose l.ayerc-New> Layer via Copy, or use the handy shortcut Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J). Select the Move tool (\I) and, holding down the Shih key again to constrain the movement horizontally, move the new cover-up layer back to the right until it covers the ~ence post. So far, so qood. Now we need to zoom in for a closer look, adjust the positioning so that the fence wire matches up as well as possibie, and touch up other areas with the Clone Stamp or Healing Brush.

Before

Alret

[FIN E-TUNE THE LAYER ALIgNMENT]

Double-dick the Zoom tool to view the image at 100% (you. can also choose View>Actual Pixel's) It's dear that the fence wire does not line up perfectly in some areas, Make the Move tool active (V), and use the Arrow keys on the keyboard to nudge the layer in 1-pil<el increments until the wire mesh is better aligned.

I

[ADO LAYER MASK TO REFINE EOyE]

With the cover-up layer active, click the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel (it's the third icon from the lel1:). Choose the Brush tool (B), press D to set the, default colors, and then X to eXGhange them to place black n the Foreground color swatch. In the Brush Picker in the Options 8(1r, choose a 45-pixel, soft-edged brush. Double-check to make sure the layer mask is active. Now check for any hard, obvious edges on the cover-up layer and brush over them to add black to those areas of the layer mask and hide or soften those edges.

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As a final step you can use the Clone Stamp tool to remove the short white pipe near the upper center of the ,imag.e Keep the cover-up layer active so the retouching can be added tc this layer and separate from the Background layer, Because th€ Sample dropdown menu is still set to Current & Below in the Options Bar; you'll be able to clone the information from the Background layer to the cover-up layer.

[CHECK FOR REpEATINg ELEMENTS]

The cover-up layer is now working. quite nicely; however, because we copied a section of the background. we now need todoubls-chsck to see if there are notkeeble repeating elements. In this case, there are some grass patterns at the base of the fence that are obviously the same in two places. This needs to be retouched to hide the fact that it's the same chunk of g:ra,ss You can choose to retouch either the cover-up layer or th e Or'ig inal place from where the data was copied, For this example.Jet's retouch the cover-up layer. Click the layer thumbnail to make it activeinstead of the layer mask,

,:

[RETOUCH REpEATED ElEMENTS WITH CLONE STAMp]

Choose the Clone Stamp tool (5), set the 5a:m;:>le drop-down menu to Current & Below in the Options Bar, and Option-dick (PC: Alt-click) to sample some of the dark green grass. Now retouch the lighter yellow strands of gnlss to hide the fact that it's the same ·image information as elsewhere in the image. In Photoshop CS4, the Clone Stamp cursor will show you a preview of the data that you'll be stamping, which makes it very eosy to correctly align the data you're cl:oning with existing image information. For this photo, this is not that critical due to the sHghtly out-of-focus background ..

[REMOVE OTHER ELEMENTS]

1:111

[SHOOTINg TIPS]

So the key is to look for background detail that can be copied onto cover-up layers, When photographing, if you notice something that needs to be taken out, be sure to take Extra shots containing good source material tha,t can b€ used for a cover-up. For wedding group shots, take a shot of the background w.ith no one in front of it. That way you can use it as source material in case someone needs to be removed from the group (hey, it happens!),. V

[Sean Dugg"n i. co-"orhor ofTh .. Cre.t;,,-.. D;9.it,1 DarkrOOM and Photoshop Art;stry, fie ie"d"e. ",gular wo.-kshops on Photo,hop "no' Ughrtoom lot pho.r09,"phers- Sigh up for his 't"" J. digJtal darkroom newsletter at nis website. w~.!@'.andu9g':i3'n_Com_

All IMAGE, BY SEAN DUGGAN UNLESS OTHE~W"E NOTED

how to make your next website design pop

Web design is one of those areas that, when done right" you just know it. The finished site looks refined and we.11 done---it pops! There are a number of ways that you can achieve this by polishing off your design in Photoshop. Here, we'll look at some of the ways to do just that.

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[LAY OUT THE FUNDAMENTALS]

Before you go about makinq yo'ur website pop, you must. first have YOLlr flln<hm",nt"I,-, in pl,,~,,_ By this st"<J'" you "hOLJ'I.--J havf' done the research, laid out your website appropriately, and done most of the basic design work=but you haven't applied the polish. In the following example, we're going to look at some techniques used for a chocolate delivery Website; however, these same techniques can be applied to any website.

[CHE[K ALJ[jNMENT AND SPA[IN(j]

Alignment and spacing in website design creates order, organizes Ih" P"Of', "n.--J O'OLIPS p~rls of th .. wf'hsit" for 1"-"sy naviqation. In th", srreenshot above you can see the guidelines in place, ensurinq everything is aligned (the grid is from WNW.960.gs). Notice how the logo and all ohhe text is left al iqned? Also take note of the even spacing around the boxes and text Use guides in Photoshop to ensure all of 'lour elements are aligned. To add a guide to your document, drag: it from one of your rulers (press Cornmand-R IPC: Ctr-R1 to tum rulers on).

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[AppLY ANTI-ALIASINCj TO TEXT]

Something that's often overlooked when designing for the Web is anti-a liasinq text. For those who don't know, anti-aliasinq is the technique of minimizing distortion artifacts. There are a few ways to minimize this distortion in your text but the best way is to make use of the anti-aliasing options in your Options Bar (or Character panel), You can choose between None, Sharp, Crisp, Strong, and Smooth, Experiment to see what works best, as different fonts and sizes will yield different results; however, the Sharp setting u sua II y prevails.

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> Pick A Basket

'. " .

[ADO A l-PIXEL STROKE]

Something that really makes a difference in rraking a website pop is the use of a I-pixel stroke inside borders and lines. Take a look at the zoomed-in screerishot above-see the inner purple line that runs alongside the inside of the box on the right? These stroked borders really add that extra crispness to the design, as it provides extra contrast to the surrounding elements and gives the design more depth. You can add two strokes by selecting the object, choosing Edit>Stroke, and applying the l-pixel stroke to the Inside. With ycur selection still in place, go back to Edit>Stroke and apply your second 'stroke to the Outside.

[ADD SUBTLE CjRADIENT EFFECTS]

Gradients are popping up even/where in Web design and for a reason-thay add depth and real aesthetics to the design, Unlike print design where gradients seem flat, onscreen they make a design come alive. Notice the slight dark to light purple gradient in the screenshot above? Also take note of the slight transparency These effects give the design a new dimension, making the image come off the screen, so to speak. Use Gradient Overlay in the Layer Style dialog to create these nice subtle (emphasis on subtle) effects

[AOD SUBTLE DROp SHADOWS]

Use subtle drop shadows in conjunction with the gradients and stroked borders, Once oquin, these shadows odd Q new depth and dimension to your design as it makes the different elements on the page play against each other and pop out at you. Notice in the screenshot above that the logo, text, and boxes all have subtle drop shadows applied to them, which break them away from the other elements. You can use the Drop Shadow layer style to achieve these effects----cbutmake sure you use them in moderation.

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In Web design, photos, icons, and images are usually quite prominent, so you should ensure tl at they're ofthe hiqhest quality. Check the color balance, sharpness, and contrast of each image and make certain that it balances with the rest of the page and other im"ges, A good way to do this is to make use of levels" Unsharp Mask,and Cu rves in PhOt05hop_ A quick search at www_I'ayersmcgazine.com will yield results on how to do th is-these functions go beyond the scope of this tutoria I .

[ LESS IS MORE]

In Web design, the old saying goes, "less is more." After completing your website design, have a break and come-back to it. Th en as~ yoursel f-th ese que stio n s.to see h ow yo u ca n fu rth e r improve your site:

1, Is there ~nything that I can remove, fix, ,eplace, move, change, or edit?

2, Does one element t.ake up too much space or draw too

much attention?

3, Are there too mallY colors? 4, Is the site balanced?

5, Is there consistency?

6, Can I make use of more white space?

Wben you set out to design your next website, you can also ask yourself these questions:

1, Do I have the basic fundamentals in place? 2 Can I improve. my alignment or spacinq?

3. Have I used the appropriate anti-aliasing?

4,. Can I sharpen my images or text with strokes or borders' 5, Can I give .more depth to the pag:e by using gradients or

drop shadows?

6, Is there a cI ea r hie ra rchy with a call to a cti on?

7, Are all of the images color corrected. balanced. and sharpened?

8. And last of all, ask yourseF-doesthe website pop? •

[HIERARCHY & CALL TO ACTION]

When someone first visits your website, what is the first thing they're going to do? Is there a clear hierarchy of what to read cr do first? What is the purpose of the site? These are all questions that you should have considered at the start of the project; however, now is a good time to go back and reflect on these decisions. Can you adjust the colors, size, or position to achieve better results? 'Notice in the scrsenshct above that the call to action on the UKE website is the "Pick a Basket" button, which is placed conveniently after the main opening slogan,

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[COLOR CORRECTION [,SHARPENINCj]

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[Jacob C." is • 21·year-old d"'igner from Sydney, Ausr",U8, w/)o f<eel8llces under hi. oosiness )",r Cre.n". D.,i9,1. whidl .1'0 dou~l.s.s 8 popul.'design b109' JaCOb'S] 1.lent 1,05 brought him numerous .wards and his work ha, been published in bo, .. worlclwide_ To learn more abo'"t Jacob, visit h!!PJ/ju,tcrealivedes'gJl,com,

58

· ake ownership of yo . r website

Welcome to SiteGrinder ...

Finally,a Photoshop plug-in that effortlessly converts your gorgeous designs into standards compliant, (55 ... rlch webpaqes ..

Photoshop User Magalll'le March 2.001

Mljust recently purchased 5iteGrinder nor .knowing fhe fi.rst thing about· websites, and just built and uploaded my own. l5iteGrinderjls the best money {f'veJ ever spent on a graphics program. Thank you."

Kelly MaSte~george MrJsrerplece Creative Designs

Right Inside Photoshop, create stunning (55 rich, standards compllanr websites using your own designs, and without writing a single line of code. SlteGrlnder does it all in just minutes, and even lets you bul'ld automated photo gal'leries_ Flash slideshows., CSS~drfve;n menus, and so much more, intO your website. Best of all, your.qorqeou remain lookin,9Justas you created them ... gorgeous.

Download your trial ve . today

iiii;;;;~"'Alww.meaiaa b.com

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a really! cool, swirly border design effect

I couldn't come up with a super-cool or classy name for this effect, so I just called it what it is: a really cool, swirly border design effect. These swirlys and flourishes have become quite popular lately and you've probably seen different ways of creating them. We're going to show you a way that's not only easy but also fun .. Do enjoy!

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Choose Fi,le>New, select Basic HG B from the New Document Profi;l= pop·up menu, and dick OK Cllck-and-hold on the Rectangle tool in the Toolbox, select the Rounded Rectangle tool from the menu, and dick once on the ertboard. A dialoq will open where you can

~ manually enter the dimensions for your rounded rectangle. Enter

~ a Widt1h of 725 pt, a Height of 285 pt, and set the Comer Radius to

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3: 1 S pt. Click OK.

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{AppLY FILL 15- STROKE TO SHApE]

With the shape created, we need to change the color. Open the Swatches panel (Window>Swatches) and choose the brown swatch labeledR=117 G-76 B=36 for the Fill color of the shape. In the Control panel, set the Stroke color to none,

Rounded Recnngle

,Options -----------, Wldlh: !650 pl

Height 1225 pt

Corner Radius:

[CREATE SMALLER ROUNDED RECTANgLE]

Witn the Rounded Recl1l.ngle tool, click on the artboard once more. This time set the W~dth to 650 pt, tne Heig,ht to 225 pt, and keep the Corner Radius at 15. Click OK. This will create asimila r shape that's a bit smaller than the first

Inti" e Swatch es pa nel, ch 005e the ta n swatch I a beled R = 199 G=178 B= 153 for the Fill color of this shape. Set the Stroke color to none. Switch to the Selection tool M and select both shapes Use the alignment icons in the Control panel 10 center tne shapes Horizontal Align Center and then Verticai Align Center.

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U.ndo Clear

HZ

Clil COpy Paste

'Paste in Front

KX HC HV IJgF

Paste in Back ~&S

Clear

'Press Shift-Command-A to deselect the shapes, and then use the Selection tool to select just the front smaller rectangle. Choose Edit> Copy to copy this shape to the Clipboard, Now choose Edit -Paste in Back to place the duplicate one leve~ behind the smaller shape but in front of the larger shape.

Select Effect

Transform Arrange.

Hide

.. Other lavers

While this new shape is still selected, hold down the Shift key and drag a selection from outside the shapes into all of the shapes. This will select the two other shapes and deselect the one inner shape. Then go under the Object menu, undsr Lock, and ch oose Selection. This will lock these shapes in place so we don't change or move them accidentally

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[SE1.ECT CENTER SHApE]

Now drag over the shapes once more. You should only be able to select the inner shape that's in between the locked shapes. You can test this by dmgging the object to the side just" hit to make sure the other shapes are locked. Simply press Cornmand-Z (PC:

Ctrl-Z) to undo the move.

•

[SET OpTIONS FOR TWIRL TOOL]

In the Toolbox, dick-and-hold on the Warp tool and select the Twirl tool from the menu. Double-click this tool in the Toolbox to open the Twirl Tool Options dialog. Here you can change the brush size and intensity, among other things. Change the Intensity to 40%. For the brush size, enter a starting val ue of 125 pt for both the Width and Height. Click 01<.

•

[TWIRL THE [ENTER SHApE]

Th is next s:ep can be a bit tricky and it may take a few tries. It did for me. Anyway, start at the upper-left corner and position the cursor so it's a bout two-til irds over th e sh a pe. Then cl ick -a nd-d rag th e Twirl tool up and to the left. The tvvirl: wil'l start the moment you click and will change as you drag. Try this a few times to. get a feel for it. As I said, it mcy take some practice,

I

[CREATE RANDOM TWIRLS AROUND THE SHApE]

You'll notice that the twnrl direction is counterclockwise by default To reverse the di rection, simply dick to start th e twirl and then immediately hold down the Option key (PC: Alt key). Continue to randomly twirl different erees Mound the shepe, ';arying the di"ection5 as you go. YOLl can also vary the size of the brush by pressing-andholdinq the Option key (pC: Alt key) and clickinq-and-draqqinq, Add the Shift key to maintain tl e brush's proportions.

Select the swirly object.and then open the Transparency panel (Window> Transparency). Chanqe this object's blenc mode from Norrnol to Overlay, As on optional step, go under the Eff",ct menu, under Illustrator Effects, and choose Stylize>Drop Shadow. Depending on the shape and size of your swirls, the shadow settings will vary.

Go under the Object menu and select Unlock All. Select the front shape. Go under ~he Effect menu, under Photoshop Effects, and choose Texture> Texturizer, Select Sandstone for the Texture drop. down menu, set the Scaling to 200%, Relief to 5, Light position to tre Top Left, and dick OK. All that's left is to add text or whateve~ elements you would like inside your new really cool, swirly border design.

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[Corey Barker j-S an Eduo[ation and CurriCl..:.llum Developer for the N~tional Associ.ahon of Photo:shop Professionals. His exp€rtise in Adobe Photoshop .and ~e JIlu.st.rator has earned nim ] numerous ,Wold, in jii(JStriltjen, graphic design, ilnd photogmphy.

--------------------------[ ty p 0 9 rap h y J

[THE ART 'OF TYpE] JAMES {f} FELICI

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done wronq, and for a variety of reasons. ]

dot dot dot

[ ... points of ellipsis

are almost always

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"Maddening .. awkward. indispensable .... " Welcome to the wor'ld of the ellipsis, more accurately known as points of ellipsis or points of omission. They don't seem complicated, but in the pages you see every day, points of ellipsis are almost alwaysdon e wrong, a nd for a va riety 01 reasons. Beca u se with ellipses, language itself intervenes, and you crash up ag:air1st copyediting style and linguistic logic, as well There's no such thing as a simple dot-dot-dot.

FiIHng gaps with spaces

Grarnrnatically speaking, any break in the sense of a sentence is an ellipsis~this err dash, for example. In days of yore, as well as in part. of Europe today, point. of ell,ip.i. wer" used in the same way as an em dash, except to indicate an even more ex_ag,gerated break, as in the dramatic pause of an orator In American English, though, points of el~ipsis are used almost exclusively to indicate an omission amid e direct quote: e stand-in for text that's been eliminated for the sake of brevity or darrty. By convention, they're used in nne-quotation, or at the end, but rarely at the baqinninq. Occasionally, they're used outside quotations, at the end of a sentence, for example, to indicate a, thought trail ing off ..

Points of elli psis are comprised 01 periods, and their spacin 9 is important both typographically and grammatftcally. Spaces are always added between the periods of an ellipsis, but how much space depends on what authority you consult. The most popular spacing options are ens (Words into Type), one-third ems {Chicago Manual of Style}, and one-quarter ems (Hart's Rules for Compositors and Readers), the last of which are essentially the width of a regulation word space As we'll see a little later, quarter ems are the most practical choice.

The evil ellipsis character

N'ow, every font has a points-of-ellipsis character built in (Mac; Option-; [PC: Alt-0133]), but it's close to worthless. First, it's too narrow to excel at its job, which is to alert vou to missing text I:f .omethin,g', missing, there should be an obvious gap, right? Secondly, when points of ellipsis come at the end of a sentence, the rules of grammar say you have to odd a sentence-ending fourth period. But th ere' s noway you ca n a dd a fo u rth peri od ttl a no ell i psi s cha racter end have its specinq match that of the other three dots. If you set it closed-up (that is, with no spa.ce), its spacing is too narrow. InlnDesign. if you use th e narrowest f!ixed spac €---a Hair Sp Ke------betw·een ell ipsis and period, it's better, but still. too do",". And if 'leu use the next-largest 5p~ce-------a Thm=-it's too wide. Tilli, bad spacing can be particularly

apparent in webpaqss, wh€'re the low resolution of the screen display exaggerates bad character spacing to beqin with. (Note: To find the fixed spaces inlnDesign. go to T ype>lnsert White Space.)

Worse yet. in some typefaoes. the dots of the ellipsis character are not the same size as the periods. So not on Iy wull the spacing of a fourdot ellipsis be bad. but the dots won't even match.

The only possible role for this ellipsis character is in display type. where tight spacing is the norm. Set it closed-up, with no space between it and the text :hat precedes it. If you must use a four-dot ellipsis, in a display seUing. you can hand-kern that fourth period to get the spacing you want. But note that in very la-ge point sizes. even the tight spaci ng of the ellipsis character may seem 1.00 slack On this book cover example, the ellipsis charactercan be used to good effect. because the large type complements its tight spacing'.

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The do-it-yourself ellipsis

As a rule. you should build your own ellipses. For the dots, justuse everyday periods For the spaces between periods, use nonbreaking spaces. To create a nonbreaking space in Microsoft Word, use Option-Spacebar (PC: Ctrl-Shlft-Spacebar]. In Adob", appticaticns, use Cornrnsnd-Option-X (PC: Ctrl-Alt-X).

Nonbrsakinq spaces are included in every font and have the same width as normal word spaces in whatever typeface you've chosen {As mentioned a bove, this is just about one-quarter em for text-width faces) The distinctive feature of a nonbreaking spsce is that it's not a legal place to divide aline, so using nonbraak ing spaces assu res that the points of eHipsis will remain as a group and not be broken up at the end of a line.

Now, by copysditinq norms, points of ellipsis can appear anywhere on a typeset line, including the beqinninq, This means that it's log leal to separate th elast word of text from the first dot of your ellipsis with a normal word spece--etlris provides a le-gal place for your program to break the line. To keep the dots together and make sure they travel as a un t, separa.te them only with nonbreaking spaces.

If you're using three-dot ellipses, as ir the rnovie-review phrase "heart-warming .. enchantlnq." you'll want the space after the third dot to be a normal word space too, again for linebreakinq purposes. It's when you start using four-dot ellipses that things get more complicated.

The spacinq of a four-dot ellipsis depends on the sense of the text. A space before the fi rst doti nd icates :h at th e precedi n g word is not the last word of its sentence. Rather, the missing text represented by the ellipsis is part of that sentence. and the fourth dot of that ell ipse is the sentence ender, If the first dot of the ellipse is set dosed up against the text, it's a sentence-ending period itself, and the following three dots represent missing matter that followed that sentence. This is a copyediting distinction. but of tell .• as the typesetter. it's your job to assure this spacing is correct.

This brings up yet one more reason not to use the ellipsis character. InDesign, like most other text-processing programs, will break a line after an ellipsis character, just asIt would after an em dash. But Web browsers will also break a line before an ellipsis character, even though it's not preceded by a space This means that if you create a four-dot ellipsis that starts with a period, in a browser display you could end up with a broken ellipsis, with the period at the end of one line, and the ellipsis character at the start of the next line. Bad.

In the print sample th at follows, the spacing problems created by the ",II ipsis character in, the upper oxarnplo a r" appa ront: in its three-dot form lit's, too wimpy, and when a period is added, it isn't spaced properly The lower sampl'e shows well-formed, hand-built ellipses. When the sa me text is viewed in HTM l format in a browser, more problems arise: orie four-dot ellipsis comes apart at a Ii n e endin g, an d in the second. th e pe riod used to cres,teit ,is obviovsly a different size .• ,

Cumpart:tl ttl' the peril:. whidl our fiJrt:fllrlu:rs conquered. , . we have still much co be thankful. for ....• Plcmry i~. III OUr doorstep .•. ,

Compliredro the perils which our forefathers conquered .... we have still much ro he thankful for .... Plenty is at curdeerseep. , ..

Ellipses in print

Compared to the perils ..... hlch our forefathers oon(luered ... we have still mlJch to be thankful for. ... 'Plenty Is rat our doorstep ....

Compared to the perils which our forefathers conq,uered ... we ha,vl! stm much 10 be thankful for .... Plenty Is at our doorstep ... ,

Ellipses in a Web browser

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[ james fe/ic} .s rtie a[Jtho~ of Th~ Complete Manu.al of Typ-og rephv (Ad-ooo Press], form er managing edilof of .publ~s'h m.sgazil'l8J and contdburcr to The Seybold Report, Macworld m'!;ga.:zint2. ] PDFZone.cDr11 .and Pub!rsn,co,rr.

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take advantage of conditional text

InDesign has always supported the use of layers, but layers don't always cut it when working with text. You can put a text frame on a layer and turn that layer on and off as needed, but it's an all or nothing approach. What if you want to show and hide individual words or paragraphs and have the text automatically rewrap when you show or hide those words? With conditional text, it's a breeze.

t 01( j

( Conc:~ ,

f SJv' I'r!!s ..... '\ r MiClr~ OptionS}

You can certainly use one of you existing documents for thts, but if you're going to follow alonq, you might want to go ahead and create a new document. Choose New>Document from the File menu. One page· should be fine.

[FIRST, WE'LL NEED A NEW DOCUMENT]

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_ [CREATE A LARyE TEXT FRAME]

[n this example, we'rE' going to lay the foundation for a model release form that wi'll vary depending on whether the model is an adult or a minor. So create a large text frame usi ng the Rectan.gle Frame iool (F).

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[OpEN THE CONDITIONAL TEXT pANEL]

Conditional text is a new feature ill InDesign CS4, and it has ~ts own panel. YOLI can open it a couple of ways: YOLI can simply choose ie ~rom the Window> Type & Tables menu or you can select the builtin Book workspace from the drop-down menu at the right side of the "Application Bar.

[KEY IN TEXT FOR YOUR FIRST CONDITION]

ChaM€' the Type tool ro, and at this point you Can k€'y in all 01 you.r text that will be a part of your first condition. Fc>r this example. we're going to key in the bulk of the text for the release form as if it were for an adult model.

N~w Condition

Name· OVer 1"

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- [CREATE A NEW [aND ITIO N]

You can set up as many conditions as you need. Think of conditions as layers for your text within a text frame. So cur first condition will be for models 18 and over. This will be the language in the agreement that states that the model' is at least 18 years old and doesn't need parental consent to sign. Click the New Condition icon at the bottom of the Conditional Text panel. Name 'lour condition in the rssultmq dialog and dick OK.

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Now that you've hidden the text for your first condition, it's time to key in the text that will be usee for you r second cond ition. ln this case where it oriqinally said, "I am of full aqe." we're going to key in the text" I 'rn under the age of 18 and therefore my parent or legal guardian will sign." We'll also type "Parent's Signature" where "Model's Siqnature" originally appeared.

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[AppLY YOUR NEW CONDITION TO YOUR TEXT]

With your new condition created, the next thinq you I1eed to co is apply it to all of your text that matches that condition. Don't Wo)rry about the text that you want to rerna in the same for all versions of the document, as it automatically defaults to Unccnditionai. You only need to apply the condition to the text that you want to snow and hide .. So in this example, we'll highlight "I'm of full age" and then cl ck the Over 18 condition to apply it. We'll also repeat this with "Model's Signature." You should see a wavy blueline under any text you applied the conditior to.

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After you've hiqhliqhted each instance of your first condition and applied it in the Conditional Text panel, you're ready to key in the textfor your second condition. However, it would be much less confusing if the first condition's text wasn't showing. So click the Eye icon in front of your fi rst condition to hide all the text matching that condition. This will also help you find anything you may have missed,

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Date

Printed Name

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[KEY IN THE TEXT FOR YOUR SECOND CONDITION]

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[CREATE YOUR SECOND CONDITION]

Now that your text is 'in place for your second condition, let's create it. Go to the Conditional Text panel, dick the New Condition icon, name your second condition (in this case "Under 18"), and click OK.

o(ontnued on p. 70

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[AppLY THE SECOND [oNDITIDN TO YOUR TEXT]

Just like you did in Step 6, you're now going to apply your second condition (Under "13) to the new text. Using the Type tool (T), highlight each mstance of text matchmq your second conctnon, and then dick your second condition in the Conditional Text panel to apply it You should see a reo wavy line this time. (Note: When you're creating a new condition, you can change how it's going to be highlighted in your document by c~ang ng the settings in the lndicator section of the New Condition dialog. Or you can double-click an existing conditionin the Conditional Text panel to change those options.)

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[SHOW ANI] HIDE )'OUR CONDITIONS TO TEST]

At this point you have an IlnDesign document working with Conditional Text. You can show anc hide either condition to allow for prmMg and exporting. You can use this technique for a, variety of situa Ii on s, not th e least be i ng price lists. Th e bea uty here is that your text will automatically rewrap based 011 which condition is showing

New CondItion

Name Paid

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[CREATE MORE CONDITIONS AND AppLY THEM]

Now that you know how to create conditions and' apply them, it's time to make it a little more intsrestinq. Let's say it's a paid shoot versus a trade. Either of those conditions could apply to either of the previous two conditions" So it could be an over 1 8 model doing a trade or an under 18 mode:1 doing paid work, or vice versa. Create two new conditions revolving around the first line that talk> about pay.

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[USE (oNDITIONAL TEXT SETS]

When you have two or more conditions that could be used together, then it's time to break out conditional text sets. A conditional text set is a qroup of concitions that can be turned on all at once. Choose Show Options from the Conditional: Text panel flyout menu. Then turn on the conditions that wiH apply to your new set. Example Pa,id and Over 18. Then from the Set drop-down menu, choose Create New Set Now you'll, have a set to choose that will automatically turn on those two conditions and turn off the others. You cen make as marry sets as you need. =

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the art of prntirq

Acrobat 9 Pro is not only useful for viewing, editing, and manipulating PDF documents, but it also offers a sophisticated, full-featured print capability. With Acrobat Pro you have the ability to print everything from simple composite RGB to your desktop inkjet to full color-separated, commercial print documents with printer marks.

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[pREFLICjHT BEFORE pRINT]

Prior to activating, the print dialog in Acrobat, it's wel:1 advised to perform a pre~i9ht on your PDF dowment to determ ine its print dimensions and quality of content. You'll wart to determine content characteristics, such as the color space and linear resolution of any placed images; the number of assigned print colors, including. spot colors; any color profiles that haMe been assigned; the printability of items, such as vector paths; and the presence of any printer's mark, you may want. (For more details on preffighting, see "Customize Preflight Profiles wit.h Acrnhnt" at www.IRyf'r,m"g"zin".c()mk"tpg()ry!"~roh"t.)

[MATCH DRIVERS AND pDF TO pRINT DEVICE]

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First downl'oad and install the la:est print driver for your print device. Based on your prefl ight results (see Step 1')_ makeany adj ustments to the content of y::.ur PDF 50 the linear resolution, color spaces, and assigned print colors match the device to which you'll be printinq, For most commercial print documents, you'll want to have 250-300 ppi CMYK images, plus or mi nus spot colors. For inkjet printing, your images should be around 200 ppi and RGB color space-s-keep in mind that any spct colors wHI be printed as CMYK+ colors.

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[pICK pRINTER IN pA~E SETUp]

The next step is to format your PD'F for your specific print device, The best place to start is to choose Fi'le>Page Setup. First, choose your specific print device from the Forma,t For drop-down menu (in this example, we're going to be printing to an inkjet printer, so we've selected Epson Stylus Photo R2400). Then choose your paper dimension from the Paper Size drop-down menu, No:e: I'f you want to print full bleeds on an mkjet printer, be sure to select a full bleed option, usually a submenu selection, from this menu, To finish, confirm your Orientation, leave the Scale at 100%" and click OK.

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[LAUNCH THE pDF pRINT DIALO~]

To enter the actual print dialog, choose File>Print_ Once again, the :irst step is to select your specific printing device, this time from the Printer drop-down menu. The printer driver you select determines the available print cpticnsin the other portions of this dialog. You'lllike y see one or more Adobe PDF printer drivers. Choosing one of these drivers allows you to create an onscreen color-separated version of your PDF without having to actually prin: the color separations,

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[A55ICjN pAgES TO pRINT]

From the unnamed menu located below Presets, choose Copies & Pages (this should be the default selection). Now work your way througlh the options at the top left to select which PDF document pag,e. you'd lUke to print. The options you see here will depend on the printer driver YDU selected' in Step 4. If you selected specific PDF pages in the Pages panel prior to activating this print dialcq (see imag:e in Step 2), click the Selected' Pages option to restrict printing to those pages This feature allows you to visually select your print paqes.

[SELECT OpnONS FROM COMMENTS AND FORMS]

To control which components of your PDf document will print, click on the Comments and Forms drop-down menu .. Notice you have the ability to print just the Document, the Document and' Markups, Document and Stamps, or F-orm Fields Only. This is a little-known and often ignored print control capability that adds a qreat deal of flexibility and custornization to your PDF printing:. Here, we chose to print the Document only,

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[DETERMINE pAgE SCALINg]

With Acrobat, you can apply on-the-fly scaling of your print irnaqe. Click on the Page ScaLing, drop-down menu. Here you see many print dimension options, indudi.ng the ability to print riolnple pages on one sheet or print large images across several sheets. There's even a Booklet Printing option that allows you, to prim facing pages on single sheets (see image). The default setting is typically Fit to Pri.ntable Area. If you've already set the dimensions of your image exactly as you want them (as we've done here), then choose None from this menulist,

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[SELECT MEDIA TYpE]

From the unnamed drop-down menu, choose Print Ssttinqs. (Note:

Oepen.ding on your printer, some settings in the following steps. may be located in sections with different names than the Epson driver we're using here.) Check that you still have the proper printer driver selected, then review the Page Setup, which indicates the print dimension you assigned in Pase Setup in Step 3. Make sure this matches the page setup you ey.pect (here Sheet Feeder-Borderless}, From the Media Type drop-down menu, select the media type on which you'] be printing (here Ultra Premium Photo Paper Luster], Then from the Color menu, choose your preferred mode (here Color).

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[TURN OFF COLOR ADjUSTMENT]

Steps 9 and 1 0 are critical for determi'nin9 which color controls will be used in your prinflnq. From the Color Settings drop-down menu, choose the defau t printer driver control color profile (here Epscn Standard [sRGBll, Now click On the Advanced Color Settings tab, and note the printer driver-based controls. Rerum to the Color Settings drop-down menu and choose Off (No Color Adjustment), Once again, click on the Advanced Color Settings tab and note the paper-specific color profile that's indicated. This setup will typically ach ieve the highest quality and most consistent print results.

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[USE COlORSYNC FOR CalOR MATCHINy]

Return once again to the unnamed menu, currently with Print Settings selected, and choose Color Matching_ Here, you see a choice between two color control modes: ColorSync and an option for your particular printer (Epscn Color Controls in this examplej-vin the printer option, the printer driver controls the color mat:hing. Click on the ColoSyn c button and you'll see the paper-specific color profile, You can click on the Profile drop-down menu to select another profile if you wish, but we'l~ stick with the same paperspecific Premium Luster profile we used in Step 9. This avoids any potential conflict with the Epson driver.

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[CHOOSE pRINT QUALITY]

Now return to the Print Settings menu, dick on the Advanced button in the Mode section, then dick on the Print Quality dropdown menu. The choices you see will depend upon your printer and printer driver. You can experiment with the various print modes to understand their effect Oil imag,e quality. Here, we'll select either Best Photo or Photo RPM to achieve high-quality prints, Note; RPM is a higher resolution mode that's useful for images containing high detail such as text. Also test the High Speed setting (turned off here). which allows bidirectional printing, but can sometimes lower lmaqequel ty,

[!EXPERIMENT WITH EXpANSION SETTINg]

Return to the unnamed drop-down menu and choose Expansion You wa nt to pay attention to thi 5 settin g if you're printi n9 fu II b leed~~h at is, to the edge of 'lour print. !Feel free to test the effect of the various Expension setti nqs, The Expa nsion setting is the printer version of dragging all irnaqe past the bleed marks that you set in a p~gelayout document. You may simply want to use the 'Max setting to make sure your images always bleed off the edge of your print media.

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[ADVAN[ED pRINT SETUp: SEPARATIONS]

'If you want to print color separations or control overall color" management settings, choose Copies & Pages from the unnamed menu and click on the Advanced button located in the lower-left quadrant of the print dieloq. Click Output (in the list on the left). From the Color drop-down menu, select the type of output you'd like (here Composite). This is the menu from which you can choose to print separations either directly from Acrobat or send them to a RI P (PostScript Level 3 only). If you print separations, dick on Marks and Bleeds and assign printer marks in that menu,

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[ADVANCED pRINT SETUp: COLOR MANAyEMENT]

Click on Color Manag.ement in the list. From ilie Color Handling' dropdown menu, choose whether you: want Acrobat to mana.g:e the color (selected here); the printer to manage the color: or disable color manager:1ent and allow embedded color profile, to be used. If you choose Acrobat Color Management, se eet the paper-specific Color Profile from the drop-down menu. You can even direct Acrobat to simulate printing on another device: Just check the Apply Output Preview Settings box and assign the device to be simulated using AdvancedoPrint Production>Output Preview, (See "Output Preview" in the preflight article referenced in Step 1.) All that's left now is to click Print..'"

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add depth and dimension with background images and (55

In the early days of the Web you could only use background images that filled the entire screen or tiled down and across the page. Thanks to CSS, now you can control how background images appear by creating CSS rules that define alignment and positioning. In this column, we'll explore a few examples of how you can use backgrounds with CSS to add depth and dimension to your pages. (Note: This tutorial works for both Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 and CS4.)

Sol Slavin

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Background images are a great way to add decorative elementssuch as textured backdrops, gradients,. anc borders-to your wsbpaqes. You C3n create rich, seemingly layered designs by combining background images in the body, as well as div and

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[CENl ER BA[KgRDUND IMAgE ON pAgE]

You can still add a backqroundimaqe to the entire body of d. webpaqe, but don't insert it into the HTML body tag where it will just repeat and tile down the screen. Instead, create anew (55 style for the body tag and use the CSS Rule Definition dialog to choose alignment options. Using C5S, you can control whether the imaqe repeats on the x or y axis (across or down the paqe), or prevent th e image from repeating at all. You can also center your background in the middle of the page.

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You can set background colors as well as a background images and combine them to create seemingly layered designs. In this example, the .background color at the page was set to a dark gray and then an 1100 pixel-wide imaqe was inserted using a (SS body tag style to center it on the page. On a wide monitor, you can see the color behind the backqround imaqe, but on a smaller screen the backqroend color may be cut off. Designin gl a page with backqrounds this way helps create the illusion that the design fills the screen on big monitors .

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One of the advantages ou the C55 Box model, and the practice of building a page with div tags, is that you can add multiple background irnaqss to a page by placing them in different divs on the page. Here, adding to the last step, a div tag has been in se rted with a n I D style #conta i ner than set to 950 pixel s in width. It was centered by setting the Left and Right Margins to Auto, and then a background image was inserted that's also 950 pixels. wide. The heighl of the #containe' div IS determined by its content.

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If yOIl've done much C55 development, you've probably learned that it's best not to specify a height on any div or other tag that will contain text. That's because most browsers make it possible for users to enlarge or reduce text and you want to ensure that th e Fagelayout will adju.st to the content a nd not cu t off any text. With that in mind, if you're usirg a background image, it's good practice to make sure the background is longer than your content so that as con len L expands down the page, the background will still cover the full area.

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Here you see the same layout used in the last step, but the backgrounds have been changed: a smeller version of the light parchment ,imag,e in the b ackqround of the sidebar and the darker red image in the backqround of the #colltainer div, Both background image style, have been set so they won't repeat, arid images have been used that were big enough to fiH their respec~ live sections 01 the page, Now text and other images can easily be added inside the divs so that they'll appear to be layered on top of the backqround images,

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Of course )'OU can still have a background that fills an entire page by repeating, or tiling, Kross and down the page. With C55, you can use repeating images in sidebars, banners, footers, or any other area of the page, as well Experiment with the effects of using a small image that repeats. If you smooth or match the edqes, you can get rid of the edges you see in this example and create a seamless effect that looks like aile big image. Here the repeatinq image fills the entire page because it's included in the body tag style,

This desiqn example is a bit busy, but it demonstrates how you can repeat. a backqroundin a sing.le dlv, not just the entire page. In this case, you can see that the sidebar on the right has a repeating: red tiled background. A different background that looks like a giallt sheet of parchment paper has been inserted into the main #cQntainer div, which is centered on the page, For this, the body backqround has been set to white to make it appear that the parchment paper, which has a white background, is floating on the page when displayed on la,rger monitors,

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There are many adva nta9'es to usinq text instead ofi ma'ges for links (including better accessibility and SEO), but that doesn't mean you can't make ycur links look like images. By u.sing CSS to place background images behind your text links, you can create rich ef· fects usinq gradients, pattems, and anything. else you can imag.ine. III this example, a small image has been repeated with a gradient ellect across the x axis ot a div to create the background Tor this site's main navigation links. For perspective, the same image used in the background has been placed just above the navigation ba r.

ENJOY FR.EEWAY5

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Another gTeat way to use irnaqes in CSS is to replace the boring bullets in the list item tag. Although this isn't a background image, I in dude th is tip becau sa it's a n ice addition to the tool ell est of any Web designer who wants to use more design elements_ Changing Ihe bullet is as simple as creating an optimized JPEG, G I F, or PNG We in the size you want for the bullets in your desiqn. Then create a new style for the < I.i.> or list item tas and use the C55 Ru Ie Defi n iti on dialog to add the image in the list settings.

BACK ·ROUNDS

This picture frame was created entirely with C5S. A style was defin ed with a thick, dark brown border and a light background color, and margins and padding were used to control the space between the photo and border. A thin black frame was also included around the photo itself. If you make a frame like this a class style, it can be applied to any div, and can be used multiple times On the same page. Because the frame is created with CSS, it automatically adjusts to any image size and can be applied to as many images as you want,

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To put a frame around a photo, consider this trick: Create a div with a style that includes a background image, and then insert the photo into the div, The trick is to USe margin 3nd padding settings to alugn the ima:;,e where you want it within the frame in the backqround. In this example, you see the red background in the main #container div, and thena second div inside it with the lD #photo-background. That style cortalns a background image (it looks like a piece cut from a strip of film), as well as margin and padding settings to position the photo over the background.

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To fully test any C55 Layout yeu need to preview your page in as mal'TIy Web browsers as you can. Not all browsers support C55 back" grOL.nd, margin, and padding styles equally and the preview features in Draamweavar can't replicate all of the ways your page may be displayed. Keep in mind that not all images should be used in the backqround. Photos, logos, and other graphics that add meaning are best inserted into ycur pages as inline elements where they can include Alt text. And remember, if you use on image as a background, you can't tum i l in to d lillk.

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:3: design vlclcc training for Tornl Training. A popuiar spceker; she has been working online s-jnce ~ 995. To Jearn mom. visit WW'W.JCWa.~nef_com.

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the third dimension

Flash users have been asking for 3D support in Flash for years. Adobe has finally listened to the community and, with the release of Flash C54, we can now play in that elusive third dimension. In this tutorial, we'll create a classic 3D effect that's known as parallax. In the past, this type of effect required a large amount of complicated ActionScript to pull off.

[OpEN TI-IE FlA]

Download the tutorial file from www.layersrnaqazirte.corn and open 3DJIa in Flash C54. The new 3D features are only accessible in Flash C54 and will ,.150 only run in Flash Player 10. The Timeline contains a single layer named "back," which contains the artwork for the sky in our scene. In the Library (VVindow> library), you'll see three movie clips that contain the artwork that we'll use to bu i Id a typical neighborhood scene: Each of these clips will be set in 3D S pi! ce to a chi eve the pa rail a x effe ct.

[AOD THE HOUSES]

To achieve the parallax effect we'll need to place each layer of the scene at a different Z position based on how far away they a re from the camera. Click on the New layer icon at the bottom-left of the Timeline. Double-dick the name of the new layer and rename it "scene." Now draq outa copy of the houses movie dip from the Ubrary panel and place it so that the bottom-left comer of the dip is positioned at the bottom-lett corner of the Stage .. This row of houses will be the object that's furthest away from the camera.

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[pOSITION THE HOUSES]

Now we'll position the houses in 3D space, Select the clip on the Sta,ge and twirl down, the 3D Position and View section of the IProperty insp,ector Change the Z property to 500, This pushes the dip away from the camera and as a result, makes it smaller, Now we need to scale the dip so that it's approximately the same size asit was oriqinally, With the dip selected, go to tfle Transform panel, {Window> Transform) and scale the Width and Height of the dip to 160%. Now drag the dip beck down to the bottom-left corn er of the Stage,

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[ADD AND pOSITION THE (jRASS]

Now we'll follow the same steps to add some grass to the scene, Drag out a copy of the 9r~ss movie clip to the Stage. This grass will be across th e street fro m th e h ou ses and th us, wi II be do ser to th e camera, Set the Z position of the grass to 200. This positions it away frorr the camera but not quite as far away as the houses, Scale the clip :0 120% the some way you did for the houses and position it 50 that it's at the bottom-left of the Stage.

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[ADO AND pOSITION THE TREE]

Til e last step in constructinq our 3D scene is to add a tree that's even closer to the camera than the grass. Drag out a copy of the tree movie dip to the Stage. For this dip we actually set the Z position to a negative velue so that it's very close to the camera. Select the dip on the 'stagle and then set its Z property to ~200. Position it 50 that it's somewhere offstaqe to the right, When we animate the scene we'll reveal the tree

[ADD SOME DEpTH OF FIELD]

Flash CS4 doesn't have any actual camera controls like depth of field but we can He it by addirq some blur Select the tree movie dip and then twirl down the Fnlter, section of the Property inspector Click on the Add Filter icon in the bottom-left of the panel and choose Blur. You should automatically .see the resulting blur effect on the tree, Change the Quality of the filter to High. Adding the blur to the tree gives the illusion that the camera is focused on the houses,

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[CREATE THE CONTAINER MOVIE CLIp]

Now that you've positioned the three movie dips, you'Il nsed to put them all inside a single conteiner movie clip. Press Command-A (PC: Ctril-A) to select th 10' th ree m ov i 10' cI i ps a nd then choose Con vert to Symbol from the Modify menu. Choose Movie Clip from the Type drop-down menu, 9ive it a name of "scene," and dick OK. Now get the Selection tCoOI (V) and move the container movie dip around the Stage. Cool, huh? You can nOw see the parallax effect live on the Stage. The tree is moving faster than the grass, which is moving faster than the houses.

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[AN IMpORTANT BUCj]

There's a known bug that exists in Flash C54 that you need to be aware of when you're using 3D. If you have a, movie clip that contains 3D elements, you won't be able to go into EC'it in P,lace mode anymore. Double-click on the scene movie dip to see what I mean. You'll now be in Edit mode where all of the 3D elements are nowhsrs near the way you positioned them. Fer this reason, you need to make sure that you wait until you're done positioning your elements before wrapping them in the container clip.

[SEE THE STACKINCj ORDER]

A great way to visualize the 3D stacking order of elements is by rotating you r scene using the 3 D Rotati on tool. H it the W key to select the tool and then rotate your scene around any of the axes to See the stacking order. One of the thinqs that the new 3 D support doesn't do is Z-sorting. As you rotate the scene around, you may notice that the tree is always in front of the other objects even when it shouldn't be. Just be aware of thislimitation as you con stru ct y~u r 3 D seen e s.

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[ANIMATE IN 3D]

Creating 3D animation is accomplished using the exact same riethods that you. use for 2D animation. Select the scene movie clip, Controlclick (PC: Right-dick) on it, and select Create Motion Tween. This enables the movie dip for anirr etion and pleces a second's worth of frames on the Tirnell ne. To make the douds background appear throughout the animation, Control-click (PC: Right-dick} on frame 30 of the back layer and select Insert Frame. With the playhead at frame 3D, move the scene clip to the left a little ways to create a new keyframe. Test the movie (Command-Return [PC: Ctrl- Enter]) to see the animation effe:t.

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[ADO INTERACTIVITV]

The 3D effect can just as easily be controlled at runtirrs using ActionScript Undo tthe actions you did in Step 10, then neate a new layer and name it "actions." Select the clip and give it an Instance name of "scene" in the Property inspector. Select the firs,t keyfr(lmein the action" layer and open the Actiors panel (Window>Actions)_ Type in the Ac::tionScript 3 code shown a,bove This creates an enter frame event where the scene dip is continuously repositioned on the X-axis based on the position of the mouse. Test the movie and move your mouse around to see the efect.

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[ADD CONSTRAINTS]

You'll notice thet when you test your movie th at there's nothing stopping the scene clip from moving completely out of the frame. Type in the highlighted ActionScript code aboveinto the Actions panel. This code tests for the bounderies of the scene dip and only moves itil it's inside the bounds, "est the movie now and you shouldn't be able to go beyond the bounds of the scene. What you now have can serve as the start of a game, as many games use this pa rallax technique,

[ MORE ON FLASH 3D ]

While Flash Player 10 includes the first native 3D features for Flash, t~,e Flash community has been working on their own AetionScript-based 3D engines for a while now, Paperv,iSion3D (http://blogpapervision3d_org)isbyfarthemost popu la r open-source library for Flash 3D development, and its features goO far beyond the new native 3D support With Papervision3D you can import 3D models, apply material, and shaders, and also use a variety of 3D primitive objects such as spheres and cubes. Away3D (www.away3d.comlis another popular 3D engine with a .slmtlar set offeatures.

It's important to note that the new native 3D support was MDt created to compete with these amazinq open-source libraries a nd, in fact, Adobe ic adidi'ng special features to the Flash Player specificeliy to help them run faster, Flash Player 1.0 includes many low-level f'€atmes, such as the ability to draw tr angle meshes and the new Pixel Bender shader languageboth are extremely useful for 3D engines. Away3D has already released a new Flash Player 10 version that takes advantage of these new feati.res, and Papervision3D is curentlyin development on their next release, as well.

So this. brings up the obvious question of when should you use which 3D techno~ogy- The new native 3D support in Hash Player 10 and Flash CS4 is primarily for simple 3D effects such as tra n sino n s. Th is allows desi g n ers to create 3 Dan i m atio non the Timslina without haVing to do a,ny Action Script. Opensource libraries. such as Papervision3D require a fairly hiqh-lsvel knowledge of ActionScript 3 and, thus, makes it inaccessible to most Flash designers, lts also important to remember Vhe limitations of the native 3D as discussed in Step 9 of this tutorial.

If you',e 'looking to· build fullyirnmersive 3D experiences like the Absolut micro-site www.sbsolut.com/laaw built Lsing PJpervision3D, then you'll have to buckle down and get good atActlonscrlpt. as sites like th,is require an intense amount of coding, This site m alces use of manyadv'anced 30 feMures that are only available in Papervision3D and would be next to impossible to build using the native 3D features in Flash CS4 and Flash Player 10, •. #'

The Absolut site was built using PapeIVision3D to create an immersive 3D experience

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[- lee Bdmelow ~s a Platf-orm Evangelist with Adobe and an award.winnjl'lg into:J'facth"E des.ignor_ Lee rt.lnS tht3 iree tutorial sire ae WVo'l"J.goto.andit.;7am.com and a Flasn·J"el~ted bjog at ] www.thefia.5.hblog,("om. He is else the author o! several htles for lynda. com de.J1ing with Flash and After Effects.

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1, I think we'll see video cameras where consumers don't have to record video to tape or to a solid-state device (h ard drove, flash memory) of any kind. lnstead, video will be wirelessly recorded to 8 virtual storage service (think cloud computiingJ like we're currently doing with Web mail.

the future of digital video

It's hard to believe that it's been 15 years since I started writing for Mac TodiiY magazine, the publication that eventually became Layers magazine, In that time, digital video has gone from being a novelty (Ouickfirne 2 was released in February 1994) to a "revolution" adoptee by hundreds of thousands of professional videoqraphers to a process so simple and mundane that millions of people upload videos to sites such as You Tube every day" Who could have guessed that a third grader with a consumer HD camcorder and iMovie software runninq on an iMac could do more today than anything I could have dreamed of doinq back in 1995 with my $50,000 Media 100, Beta SP system? And that system was a steal back then! I was so excited about producing broadcast quality video in my spare bedroom that I spent most of the mid-to-latenineties inviting people over to my house to show them my setup and ask excitedly, "Can you believe I'm doing this act home?"

I still remember the first column I wrote where readers responded with gfeat enthusiasm and gratitude for what I'd shared. It was the October 1 994 issue where I gave ti ps on specific system resou rces you could uo-install 50 that you could still run media with 4 M8 of 'RAIlA, instead of raving to upgrade your system to 8 M8 or (God-forbid) tile unheard of 16 M B of RAM. Either option would cost hundreds of dollars plus an install fee from an approved technician. It'> hard for many people in todays industry to believe that we were actually creating digital video files with those limited resources back then, but Adobe Premiere was already at version 4 by July of 1994.

But that's tha past: what do", th" future hold? Obviously, nobody knows for sure, but here are 10th i nqs I think we'l I see in th e next 1 5 yea rs:

2. Most handheld devices will have a built-in video camera that can wirelessly stream real-time video and record/post it to your 'Nebsite, home TV, or social media profile (Facebook/MySpace) as we can currently do with om cell phone pictures.

3, We'll also be able to take that some reel-time video stream and send it d rectly to one pe rson or a se lect g rou p of peop le, like we cu rrently do with text messages.

4_ I think we'll be able to do most of our video editing di'f'ctly on our camera or handheld device without having to load it onto a dedicated computer first.

5, Even though people have been predicting it for years, I think mobile video will finally become commonplace and accepted by the musses in the next few years, It seems that every major new handheld device has video playback (both strearrinq and recorded) as a major compo· n e nt of its featu re set.

6, I believe that my friend Phil ip Hodgetts is right when he states that video will become just anothe- form of literacy in the neal future: wv.w.phili phodgetts,com/2009iJ2/Z2.

7, I think creating multimedia presentations wit~. video will be as routine for students in the future as typing on a computer keyboa rd is today.

8. I believe the ability to keyword search a video file to playback a specific word or phrase will be as common as using Google to search for a specific word or ph rase on a website,

9, I think after spending hundreds of millions of dollars, companies will finally stop building "destination video sites" to show and share their content and will realize that they need to go to the people rather than expect the people to come to them. All of my work and research for my cI ients the last 18 months has shown me that syndicating and distributing content to as many places as possible, to be seen by as many people as possible, is the best way to 9:0 for most situations.

10. I believe that there's a teenager today with an idea that he'll ponder and work on for the next 15 years that will absolutely revolutionize digital video in a manner that I can't, even fa~hom,

Well that's a quick look at the past and the future of digital video.

As for the present-this is my last "DVS" column in Layers m~gazine, 1'1'5 been an honor and a privileqe to appea r in every single issue printed in the last 15 years and to work with so many gifted writers, "dito"'., and designers dlJring that tirns. I want tosp"cifically thank Srott Ke I by for the opportu n ity and support, ChrisM ai r for th e bra in storm ~n 9 and excel len t techrt ka I ed i ti ng, and Fe,1 i x N elson and h is tea m for all of the great design thet they have given me and my columns throughout the,e many years, I'll still be doing reviews and special assignmerits for Layers, but you can read any new articles (as well as old archives) at www.rodharlan.com and join in the conversation on my blog at www_dvconfidential.com, I hope to hear from you there!.

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let the games begin

As coOl as 3D is in After Effects, there's nc doubt that an extrude tool is something we all wish for. While there are a few plug-ins that handle such a task (Zaxwerks Invigorator PRO being one of my favorites). there's a cool way to achieve a true 3D look (more or less) using the 3D effects in Illustrator .. Add to this mix some cool particles, lights, and shadows and we'll show you how to turn simple text into a cool extruded-3D scene. Let the games begin!

Create a new Adobe Illustrator document {File> New), name it "Game Night," select Video and Film in the New Document Profile dropdown menu, and set the size to 720x540 pixels. Under the Advanced option, choose the Dark preset for the Transparency Grid-this will ensure our white text will be visible as we work on it Click OK. Select the Type tool (Ti, click on the page, and add your type, choosing the font and size to suit your desiqn, Here, we've used a font from www.veer.com called Newspeak-Heavy, which will look great when extruded. Set the Fill color to white and the Stroke to none.

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[[ONVERT TO SHAPES; RELEASE TO LAYER]

Select the type with the Selection tool M, then go to Type> Create Outlines. Now we need to divide the type so that each letter is on a separate layer, 50 90 to Object>Ungroup, then from the Layers panel flyout menu, choose Release to Layers (Sequence). Shift-dick all the resulting sub-layers to select them and drag, them up above Layer 1 in the Layers panel. Drag Layer 1 to the Trash icon to delete it, as we don't need it. Now we"e ready to apply the 3D effect to each one of "he shapes and tweak it as necessary.

[AOD 30 EFFECTS]

Select the firstletter shape, choose Effect>3D>Extrude & Bevel, and then simply press OK to exit the dialog-we'll "etu.rn shortly to adjust it. Shift-click all the other letters on the a rtboard to select them and choose EffecDApply Extrude & Bevel. This applies the effect to each letter individually At this, stage you might want to choose View> Hide Transparency Grid to make the 3D shapes easier to see_ Now that every layer has its OWt1 3D effect, we're free to adjust the Extrude & Bsvsl properties on each letter to make the design much cooler:

[ED IT 30 STYLES]

Select a letter, and in the Appearance' panel (Window>Appearance) click 3D Extrude & Bevel. Adjust the rotation and camera perspec· tive values to angle the letter slightly and give the extrusion some perspective. Adjust the Extrude Depth value and add some extra hights if desired=-th is is a creative process-you're in control of the final look. When dons. dick OK. then repeat .his process for each letter, Rearrange the layers and use the Selection tool to move individual letters S'J the word "Game" appears to be sitting on top of tl-e word "N ight." When finished, be sure to Save the document.

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In After Effects, go to File>lmport>File and select the Illustrator document, Choose Composition in the Import As drop-down menu and click Open. Double-dick the new Game Night comp to open it, pre"" Comrnand-K (PC Ctrl-K), set the size to 720,,540 px, the Duration to 5 seconds, and click OK. In the Timshne, Commanddick (PC Ctrl-dick) the layers that make LIp the word "Game" to se'lect therr. choose layer>Pre-Compose, and name it accordingly Repea.t this process for the other word-now we have only two layers, which are much easier to control. Import a texture image to use as a floor. The one used here is free, found in the concrete seclion of www.texturekinq.corn.

Drag thetexture image into the Tirneline, rename ut "Floor," then double-click it to open it in a Footage viewer. Use the Rectangle tool (Q) to draw a mask around the entire layer. Grab the Selection tool (V) and drag the mask down about a fifth of the way from the top edge. Hit F for Mask Featl er, unlink the Chain, and set the Vertical axis to 300 pixels. Close the Footage Viewer, then d ck the 3 D Layer switch for all the layers. Select the Floor layer, press R, and chanqe its Orientation to ;,'/0" on the x-axis. Drag it down to the bottom edge of the compo Move the wore layers to rest on the floor and each other.

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[AppLY BASIC ANIMATION]

Select the GAME layer, go to frame 18 in the Tirneline, and hit Option-P (PC: Alt-P) to set a Position keyframe Return to the beginning of the Timeline (l-lome), and drag the layer upward on the y-axi, until it's offscreen. Shift-click both keyframes to select them and go to Animatiorr-Keytrame Assistant and apply the Easy Ease velocity to them. Now, go to Animation .-Keyfrarne Velocity, and set the Outqoing Velocity Influence to 100%. To enhance the effect, feel free to add Position ksyframes to the NIG HT layer for a slight position shift at the moment of impact.

With the "NIGHT Shadow' layer still selected, go to Effect>Generate> Fill, and then choose Effect> Blur & Sharpen> Fast Blur. In the Effect Controls panel (ECP), set the Color to black, and set the Blurriness value to 20. Now repeat Steps 8 and 9 to create a shadow for the GAME layer: duplicate it, rename it, remove any keyframe., scale its height. rotate it (you may have to experiment with the angle of rota= ticn), move it up to appear on top of the NIGHT I'ayer shapes, fill it

~ w,ith black, and blur it. Hit T for the Opacity valuer and drop ~t to 800b.

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[LHjHTS [,- SHADOWS]

Go to Layers-New> Light, change Light Type to Point, set the lntensity to 125%, turn Casts Shadows off, and click OK. Press P and adjusllhe Position attributes 10 360,75,. and -200. Since the elements we've created are without true 3D extrusion, we need to add their shadows manually .. Select tl e NIGHT layer, press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to duplicate it, and rename it "NIGHT Shadow." Delete any posl tio:n keyframes, an d hit S to show th e Sea Ie property. Un Ii 11 k the Cha in icon, scale the Y value to 20%, then pressR and set tile X Orientation to 27(J',. and move it to just on top of the Floor layer.

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[ANIMATE SHADOW SCALE]

Now we need to animate the GAME Shadow to foll'ow the animation of the word falling'. Select the GAM E Shadow layer, go to frame 18 in the Tirneline, and hit Option-S (PC: Alt-S) to set a Scale keyframe. Now move back around 10 frames, and set the X and Y scale to 0, Th is nicely enlarges the shadow as the word falls from the top of the screen. For more rea. I ity. you could also keyframe the 'layer Opacity, getting darker as the word gets closer

[ADD PARTlCLES]

Go to Layer>New>Solid, name the solid "Particles," dick the Color swatch, choose a white color, click OK, click Make Ccrnp Size, and click OK again. Drag the ayer to start at 10 frames ill the Timeline, then go to Effect>Simulation>CC Particle World .. In the ECP, set the Grid to Off, then change the BirthRate to 300, and dick the Stopwatch to apply a keyframe. Move one frame forward IPage Down) and set it to 0 so there are no new particles after this point. Adjust the Longevity to 6 seconds, which should be enough for our 5-se<:ond camp.

[BASIC pARTICLE SETTII'U~5]

Twirl down the Producer in the ECP, change the Position Y value until. it sits between the word layers (around 0.05 should do the trick] then set the Radius X to O.~this will spread perticles across the width of the whole N I:GHT layer. Under Physics, chang:e Animation to Viscouse, Velocity to 0.60, Gravity to 0.010, and Resistance to 3.0. Under Particle, change Particle Type to QuadPolygon, Birth Size \0 0.020. Death Size to 0.050, and Size Va~iation to 100%. Sample from the Hoar's bright color for the Birth Color and its dark color for the Death Color, and set the Transfer Mode to Screen

[ADVAN[ED pARTICLE SETTINCjS]

ln the ECP, dick the word "Options" near the name of the effect, then dick Opacity Map in the resulting dialog. Choose Constant from the Presets drop-down. menu. Click OK twice, then duplicate the Particles layer for a shadow version. Select the duplicate, return to the effe~ts Option. again, dickRend~ri"9', and ~et R..nder Animati.:>n to Projocted on Floor. Oid: OK twics, then position this layer between the Flooand NIGHT Shadow layers in the Tirnaline. In the ECP, change the Particle Birth Color to be the same as the Death Color. Click the Toggle Switches/Modes button, change the layer blend mode to Multiply in the Timeline, then add a Fast Blur effect with a Blurriness of 2. Perfect!

[FINAL EMBELLI5HMENTS]

Go to Layer>N ew>Cam era, choose the 15mm Preset and tu rn on Enable Depth of Field. Set the ,F-Stop to 2.0. the Blur Level to 300%,. and click OK. On frame 16, twirl down the Camera layer and then twirl down Transform, Move the Camera slightly back on the z-axis, and set 3 keyframe for both Pcsiticn and Point of I'nterest. At frame 18, move the camera on the z-axis towards the ty:pe~ and then on the last frame in the Timeline, move it a few more pixels Select all the new keyhames and apply an Easy Ease. Enable Motion Blur for All Layers, and render. True 3D? You tell me .... Enjoyl.

[Steve Horr)7$'$ is the creative dir"ec~or at E"nergi Design rr1' $ausii/ito, CaIjfomia, C:r"ecrhng award-winn0g motion' graphiCS (:Ino Web desi9n for clients worldwide. He .olso speClks.ot] various design conferences or) th@ scbjects of Aftef Effects, monon graphks, ,md typograpily. Stt;lll-e races as a professional cydisl jn t~G' U.S. and Eur(.r~ and )l@- can be r"ac-h~d at steve@dickenergi,com,

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ALL IMAGEISY STEvE HOiM~S ~NLESS OTHERWIS~ NOTED

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Corel Painter 11

NATURAL-MEDIA EMUlATION ART STUDIO

Corel bas just released Pa'n ter 11 and, as with previous versions, this release is packed with new features, tools, and upgrades. In fact, there are so many new and cool features It'S hard to know where to beqir , so let's just start in the creative category with hard media variants. After a.ll, what is a painter without her brush? There are more than 40 new brushes available in multiple brush categories, including Acrylic, Blenders, Cha lk, PencHs, Pens, Pastels, and Watercolor. The new hard media variants have their own Hard Media palette that enables users to create and save their own custom variants.

There are also new brush markers with some aweSOl1e controls that enable the artist to custornize how the media dries on the canvas. This allows for new options in blending, as well as the ability to control color build up, just I~ke traditional markers. Accompanying these new brushes and markers are a new Colors and Mixer palette, Both palettes are now resizable, so you have a better view of available colors and more room 10 mix custom colors. You can also add swatches to the Mixer palette for even more color creativity.

Corel added some new technical goodies in Painter 11, including keyboard color selection. Simply tap yom pen, iln the hue ring to activate the color wheel's predom inant color, and use your Arrow keys to fine-tune to the color you want. It's 11 very nice feature, especial'ly with the enlarg..d Colors and Mixer pa~ettes on a secondary monitor.

My pick for the coolest new toy is tablet lilt You can now control the width of brush strokes by the tilt of your pen, just like a real traditional brush! A ve'lical pen angle wil:l create a narrower stroke, and holdinq your pen at a slanted angle wi II create a "'ider stroke. Tablet ti~t works with any of the dry media, :Chalk, Charcoal, Pens, Pencils, and Markers) that are marked as "real" media.

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Now you can save color profiles for every painter document in RIF, PSD, TIFF, PNG, and JPEG formals. Whether you're importing a PSD file ora scanned image or photo, Painter will reccqnize the color profile aS50C ated with that file to help maintain color consistency.

There's a new Polyqonal Selection tool, and all the Transform tool modes have been combined into one property bar for easier access. Imprcved Ira nsfcrrnation flexibmty allows you to transform eifher the entire document orjust select portions ofthe document This is another contender for the coolest new toy award.

Overall enhancements to Painter 11 include improved copy-andpaste that's faster and allows you to copy from multiple layers, as well as all visible layers; a 30% increase in brush respon se speed; Vista support {l'rn happy to report that I was unable 10 crash Painter): and new PNG file support.

This latest version of Painter is Corel's best product yet. There are many important new creative and technical features and enhancements, but So a natural-media emulation program, the creative cide i, far mere important 10 me asan artsst than the technical gizmos. I have to admit, however, that the technical gizmos are pretty rockinqin this re:leasel

Users of Painter X should definitely consider upgrading to Painter 11 The tablet tilt leeture alon e is worth the price, but there ere ,Q m eny otherthi'ngslhat you get that I don't see how you can go wrcng with this v:ersioo.-Tami Fry-Pietsch

Company: Corel Corporation

Price: $429 (Upgrade: $229): Download: $399 (Upgrade: $199)

Web: www.corel.com

Rating: •••••

EasyCatalog for InDesign (54

EASY -TO-USE DATABASE PUBLISH ING SOLUTION

Based on the cost 01 EasyCatalog and the add-on modules, you can see that this product isn't for the casual user However, if you create any form of datil-driven publication, including product catalogs (with photosl, table-based documents, and more advanced paginated layouts, yo u s ho u Id check out th is prod uct A s the na m e imp I ies, Ea syC ala log is actually easy to set up and use, but like most programs, one must read the [relatively short) manual to know the full capabilities.

By itself, EasyCatalog works with standard tab- or cornma-delirnited text files from a database. Add-on modules are available for more advancad feature, includinq: OflRC i);;ta Provider for cre~ting twcwaylinks to a database including FHeMoker and Access (this requires setup with the OS); Rel'atiDnal for workirq with multiple data sources; XML Data Provider for importing data directly from ar XML me; Pagination, which is requlrod lor doing advanced paqlnatsd layouts; and Scripting, which, like In Design, works with JavaScript, AppleScript, and Visual Basic.

Photos can be imported if the info is included in the database file, either by full: path name or just the image name i:f the imaqes ale stored in a predetsrrninedlocaticn. The latter is a nice option since the images can quickly be moved and the location updatedin the iield options.

As it stands, many users will want to 9,el the DDSC and Paglinatio~ modules, which adds another $798 to the cost ($199 and $599, respectively). EasyCatalog is available for older versions of InDesign, too. If this product 'is overkill for your needs, check out 65bil's EasyCatal091 Lite, available lor $299.-David Creamer

Company; 65bit Software ltd

Price: $1,299 (Optional modules: $199~599)

Web: www.65bit.com Rating: •••••

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Epson Perfection V300 Photo Scanner

GREAT SCANS AT A GREAT PRICE

The Epson Perfection V300 Photo flatbed scanner comes with irnpressive Slats, easy-to-use software, quick SC<lO times, and for less than $100 it's quite a bargain. It scans docunents and 35mm transparencies at up to 48 bits at an optical, resolution up to 4,800 dpi {dots perinch), It uses an LED Hght source that consumes less power, diminishes warmup times, and enables fast scan speeds.

The USB 2 scanner measures 16.9{L)xll (W)x2 2(Hj" with a scann~ng bed that rneasu res 8.5)(11.7'" The front control panel has several' onetouch buttons with specific tasks, such es scanning documents to ermail or converting documents to PDF files. The lid houses a built-inliqht unit for SC2Inn ing 3Smrn negatives and slides. The included 3Smrn plastic film holder can hold a sixcframe filmstrip and four slides The I;d aiso lifts to accommodate scanning books or 3D objects.

The Epson Scan software covers. the bases. I: has a fully automatic option for beginners and (I professional mode with a plethora of controls. A now office mode cptimizes ~c~nnin9 text. The ~oltw3'e doe, a good Job ~estoring color to old faded photcq-aphs, removing, dust, and correcting for back lighting. Results of both reflective copy and film scans were impressive-accurate colors, good shadow and highlight detail, ~nd smooth 9radients. Text was very clean and crisp. It took e sn appy 25 seco nds to sea n a 35m m Ira n spa re ncy at 1 200 d P i atas bits.

The Epson Scan software can work as a standalone application or as a plug-in for third-party imaging pr09rams. There's an issue using the V300 wnth Adobe C54 on Intel-based Macs. In C54 there's no TWA~N plug-in for accessing scanners such as the Perfection V300. Adobe is aware of th is and has posted several workarounds to resolve the issua=-Steve Baczewskl

Company: Epson America, Inc.

Price: $99.99

Web: www.epson.com

Rating: •••• c.

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FreeSpin3D

MAKING FLASH 3D ANIMATION EASY

Attention Flash designer,: Have you ever wished you cou Id in cl ude interactive 3D objects in <; Flash movie or game without having! to be an ace programmer? II this describes you, then you'll want to check out FreeSpin3D. Tlhis easy-to-use Flash component allows you to impor: and cOl'ltrol3D models in a FI'a,sh docu m ent.

FreeSpin3D's dear-cut control panel makes rotating and animating 3D objects in your Flash movie painless. The proqrarn's real magic, though, is h:lw easy it is to add mouse and keyboard commands that allow the user to control an object. Adding: user interaction is as easy as selecti ng a 3D object on the Stage, checking Keyboard Control in the control panel, and clicking! the Plus button to open the Behaviors dialog. The window contains a drop-down menu listing four types of behaviors BasicRotation, Freefell, Movement, and Sticky Object. The behaviors Freefall and Movement each contain motion presets suc:h as 'Fall and Bounce and Fly,

Depending on the behavior selected, you can change values for the x- and v-exes, z-space, speed, accelereticn. as well as customize the keyboard selection for the types of movement Once you've made your selections and g.iven the object an Instance name, FreeSpin3D writes tihe ActionScript 3 (Ode needed to control the object. Editing the texture of a, model is as simple as opening the object's symbol source folder in the Flash Library and locating and editing the texture JPEG files in Photoshop.

At the time of th is review, FreeSpin3D was on Iy available for Fla'sh C53, Howeli",",. ~ccordin9 :0 comp,,'ny CEO, Amir Fischer, an updated version with additi onsl featu res is in the testing' phase and will soon be available for CS4.,-Cyndy Cashman

Company: Revolver animation & game technologies ltd. Price: $299

Web: www.freespin;3d.com

Rating: •••••

Joby Gorillapod Focus

LIGHTWEIGHT, FLEXIBLE SOLUTION TO A HEAVY PIROBLEM

I love tripods. I love the rock-steady, razor-sharp images I, can create using a tripod, What I don't like about tripods is carrying them. They don't fit in the overhead compartment, and if I use a tripod in Rome or on the Acropolis I have to pay a "professional" fee. So when I first encountered the Jcby Gorillapcd SLR-ZOOM a few years ago, I was intrigued. Looking like a com bination back massager and child's toy, the SLR-ZOOM could wrap its prehensile legs around almost anything! stable, and I quickly discovered it kept my camera as steady as <lny of my behemoth tripods. When I was donng a night shot at the Rornar:

Coliseum, I wrapped the strange Gorillapod legs around an old steel railing and got some great night shots Most importantly, the local authorities didn't think it looked like a tripod and so, no fee·,

My one complaint was that my large camera, and its huge lens were almost more weight than the 5LR·ZOOM could handle. Along comes the Gorillapod Focus. Hooray! Whereas the SLR-ZOOM has a 6.5-lb limit, the new Focus (which. only weighs 1.1 Ibs) can handle a whopping 11 lbs, I immediately took it for a spin and was impressed. The Gorillapod uses a standard %" screw mount {or Jj,''' with an adapter), which takes time to attach or detach. So I added a quick mount adapter, and now it's perfect. If you want to use a tripod on your trips, buy one of these jewels now! They come in five different sizes; so find the size that matcl es you camera and lens. The Gorillapod Focus sells for $109.95 and is worth every penny- DaveH uss

Company: Joby, Inc.

Price: $109.95

Web: www.joby.com

Rating: •••••

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Scott Kelbys very first book triumphantly retums!

New look. New material. StililiDown & Dirt}l.'

(54 Down & Dirty Tricks

Before there was a PhotoshopUser TV or a Layers magazine, there was a "Down & Dirty" book filled with all sorts of tips and tricks on recreating the most popular effects of rhe day ... for Photoshop 5.5. The very first book Scott Kelby ever published.

Fast-forward a few years. Now a Rve-tlme best-selling author, Scott Kelby revislts the book that started it all in a highly anticipated update for CS4 that shows you:

• The latest photographic special effects

• How to fak~ studio shots (you'll be amazed at how it's done)

• The latest cutting-edge type effects

• The most popular effects. used by big movie studios

• The most-requested advertising effects

• Commercial effects that clients go crazy over

• The most asked-for current Web effects

• Amazing 3D effects using Photoshop Extended

• Plus loads of effects that look hard, but are easy once you know the secrets

$269CY

NAPPMember Plrice

KelbyTraining Price

It's all here, in this completely updated version of the Photoshop book that launched a thousand tutorials. You're gonna love itl Cover price $44.99

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Co1oriage \1.6.0

COLORIZATION PLUG-IN FOR ADOBE. PHOTOS HOP

Colorizing old photoqraphs has come a ~ong way. and AKVIS has six versions 01 this software to prove it. Co,'orillge V_6.0 is another step in the right direction for im age professionals who want g reat results in Photoshop lor from a standalone application), as it brings a little more performance and slightly better results than previous editions. It also adds support for EXI'F and IPTC data as well as a new manual correction brush {Recolor Brush). I would, however, like to see the addition 01 more automated functions, such as a "magic wand' type selection tool with feather adjustment control.

Starting with an old Kodak T-MAX 400 35mm portrait image for th is test, the idea was to start with the skin tones, but I found that starting with the eyes was more effective in order to see the contrast to the skin tone and to avoid oversatuation, Categories that include People, Glass, a~d Wood help make selections more appropriate to the subject The AKVIS standard interfacelayout is dean and easy to navigate, Once you outline each portion to identify what elements receive color, hand correction is simple. Manual lines and erasing tools are there, along with multiple undos. Cli:ckrng on each tool also allows di'ameter adjustment>, so accuracyis excellent Your output appears (when applied in Photoshop) on its own layer as well,

Coloriage is a very good colorization tool that has a lot of features for its price. (It', a bit steep for what can be done meriually in Photoshop but it can save yot.n time.l lf you need to bring color to your memories, or you want to recolor CUTTent ones, AKVIS has a fine solution+-Danie] M. East

Company: AKVIS Software Inc.

Price: $97 (Home); $246 (Business)

Rating: ••••

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CopyFlow Gold

EASY ROUND-TIRIPPING OF YOUR TEXT IN INDESIGN

Extractinq text from an InDesi9n file can be a pain if your document has lots of text frames, but CopyFlow Gold for InDesign C52 and higher turns the export into a drop-dead simple process. In addition to exporting a document's text, it can reirnport the copy, making this plug-in especially useful for desigiers that need to hand off text lor editing (or, according to the company, for translation purposes).

CopyFlow Gold sports an easy-to-use panel ,irterla<:e that m.nogie, importinq and exporting text, file export formats, document settings, and its own activity log. It supports plain text, RTF, Adobe Tag, XU FF, XML,INX, and IDMl file formats to accommodate most any reason for exporting copy, inc uding editi'nSI and" rchivi ng, end it can export a, document's stories <15 individual files or as a single document.

Every text frame in a document needs to be tagged before copy can be exported. ard Copyf'low Gold handles that for you. toe. It can auto-name each frame, or lets you apply names on a frame-by-frame basis. Exported tex\fil'es can be edited and reimported, although RTF and plain text documents will lose their formatting when imported, 50 don't spend time on formatting before those Hiles come back.

While importing and exportrig is amazinqly simple. installing CopyFlow G old takes extra effort. There isn't an installer, 50 all 01 the components need to be copied to the appropriate directories before launchinglnDesign Clearinstructions are included, which makes the process a Ilittle bit friendlier.

Despite the manua I installation process, CopyFlow Gold is a breeze to use for repurposing or archiving text, and its round-trip text control can be a lifesaver for desiqners that work with several copy editors. -Jeff Gamet

Company: North Atlantic Publishing Systems. Inc. Price: $495

Web: www.napsys.com

Rating: •••••

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for

Every day, Images Just Ilk, this make their WIly Into the world - assaulting our senses with unbalanced color, poor masking, and insane proportions. With all the millions of Photoshop users out there, one must ask. nay beg ... "Won't someone PLEASE do something lor these images'"

That's where the National Association of Photos hop Professionals comes in. No matter your skill level or which version of Adobe Photoshop you use, we can help.

JOIN NAPP AND GET THE PEACE OF MIND FROM HAVING:

• Eight Issues of Photoshop User magazine

• A content-rich. members-only website with thousands of Photoshop and Ughtroom' tutorials, an active forum community, and Help Desks

• Hundreds of industry discounts thCi1t more than pay for your membership Think of 1111 the images out th ..... _ •• ttmg for JOUr Photo...,

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HP Photosmart B8550 Printer

[PH OTO IN KJI ET 0 FF E RS QUALITY RESU LTS

The first thing I' noticed about this H P printer was its overall sleek desiqn, making it appear as if it had been designed by Apple rather than in a former Soviet Bloc tank factory, Looks aside, the HP Photosmart B8550 offers featu-es such as dual paper trays and a built-in card reader with a 2.4" LCD that's de,igned to allow printing without a computE'r (though ~ don't see 0 pro using tha~ feature).

The B8:50 uses a dye-based, five-ink printing system to produce archive-quality images with an expected 1 OO.yearlifetime, which is a lot longer than the life 'pon of any client. I had 30m" doubts "bout now prints wou Id stack i.p aqainst printers offering more inks, but ~ was pleasantly surprised at how good th e B8550 prints appeared. The colors were vivid and the detail was sharp.

The 88550 uses oJ, dedtcated black cartridge r 01 uonphoto work, which mears I can, use the same printer to print invoices from the main paper tray and photos from the upper photo tray (max. size 5x7 "J without swapping paper-a VNy thoughtful feature. (ThE lower tray can also be used to print photos) The B8550 can print irnaqes up to 13xl T (super tabloid). When printing standard photo sizes, the speed of the printer and cost per copy appea r competitive with others ,in its class.

Overelll like the look and feel of the printer. I was able to achieve excellent color accuracy and quallty.lts price ($249.991 and feature set make it appear to be positioned as a high-end consumer printer but it would also serve the professions I for" majority of the prints used in wedding and portrait work.-Dave HU55

Company: Hewlett-Packard

Frice: $249.99

Web: www.hp.com

Rating: •••••

Squeezebox Boom

IMPRESSIVE SO~ND [FROM A LITTLE BOX

Logitech's Squeezebcx Boom is an aH-in-one music player that can stream music to any room in your house over an 802.1191 wireless network.It delivers impressive, distortion-free sound over its inteqrated 30-waH amplifier vi" two %" tweeters and two 3" woofers.

The compact box measures 5{H)x13(W)x4(D)". On the front between the speakers are a large fluorescent display and adearly labeled control panel with a large rubberized navigation wheel fc.r scroll ing through the menus. On the top s a snooze bar. The magnet zed remote can snap onto a refrigerator or in the well on the Boom's top. On the back are jacks for connecting an MI'3 player, headphones, external subwoofer, and E:hernet in lieu ofWi-Fi. Setup is straightforward: plug in the power cord and follow the setup wizard on the display. Once online. the Boom downloads the latest firmware.

Logitech provides two comprehensive, easy-lo-use music sources ..

The first is Log,itec~'s Squeeze'Center application, which allows you to stream from your personal music library stored on your computer SqueezeCenter accessed al:1 my songs from ifuoes except fOI DRMencrypted music. The second is SqueezeN atwork, which is l.oqitecb's freemtemet-based music service. Squeeze Network's thoroum list of radio stations is brckan down into music genra" pocicasts, and fr·as services. Your favorite stations can quickly be assigned to one of the six preset buttons on the Boom's control panel. You can also store your own music collection in an online M P3 music locker.

The Squeezebox Boom suppor:s nea,riy every eudio format including AAC, WMA, MP3, AIFF, WAV, etc. Squeezebox Boom generally per" formed very we'll, but was sometimes sluggish connecting to a station. The sound is remarlkable.-Steve Baczewski

Company: Logitech

Price: $299.99

Web: www.logitech.com

Rating: •••• (

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Warp 1.0

ADD SHADOWS, REFLECTIONS, AND CORNER POINT WARPS TO VIDEO

Th e Corner Pin inA Iter Effects see m s i i ke a great effect u nti I you actually try to use it. If the image you're pinning wasn't shot dead on, it's hard to composite it realistically into a new scene. To the rescue comes Warp, a new suite of plug-ins for After Effect; {and Premiere Pro) from Red Giant Software.

Warp's Corner Pin effect includes secondary controls that allow you to distort the pinned footage so that it's skewed to match the target layer underneath, Corner Pin also works well wit~ masked irnaqes, allowing i'oU to set the pin bounding box to either the footage itself or the bounds of the mask It's a complete compositing solution. including transfer modes, upscalinq, motion blur, and opacity adjustments right in the effect. It also allows you to adjust the color of the Comp window controls so that you can see them against the colors of all sorts of footage.

Red Giant has applied its srnnrt-dlstortion technology to the other two plug-ins that also ship with the Warp package: Shadow and Reflection. The former allows YDU to apply shadows to layers and then, via multiple points of control, skew the shadows in any direction in faux 3~. The latter allows you to do the same with reflections. Oath effects include realistic, controllable falloff controls.

The online help is well-written and fully illustrated, and the $199 price is reason able for th is powe rfu I set of everydey-u se effects. -Marcus Geduld

Company: Red Giant Software LLC

Price: $199

Web: www.redgiantsoftware.com

Rating: •••••

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Sonicfire Pro 5:

Scoring Edition

SOUNDTRACK SOFTWARE FOR YOUR VIDEOS

Havinq reviewed SmartSound products for nearly seven years now, the question was, "How has Sonicfire improved and at what cost?" SOJ1iciire Pro 5 has carne a long way and the essence of what it does is Simple. You take your video footage and add soundtracks for mood, emotion, or just to set the stage for what might happen next. By current standards, this product does much more than Apple's iMovie or pasting your favorite song from iT unes into your vdeo-editinq software of choice. These are the audible elements that you need to create a sense of the moment on your screen, making you feel like you're conductinq rather than just placinq music.

For "xampl .. , imagin .. th .. rJiff~rence betwe~n th .. rnisr: .. llans ous chatter of "so nice to see you" and "thanks for coming" in footage of a wedding receiving line com pa red to beautiful stereo backg round music that's fu Ily orch es trated, set by your arran gem ent fo r full or partial instrumentation, and timed perfectly for this scene. By opening a video file, you can add your own audio, or one of the titles available, quickly and easily. The music libraries available are extensive and offer every conceivable style of music with excellent sound quality.

With features such as Mood Mapping to control your arrangements, adjustable tempo and pitch, and an intuitive interface, Sonicfire helps the subject matter convey the emotion of the moment. What you can do with the catalog of music that's available on disk or for purchase via download is only limited by your time. And Like previous versions, you may find yourself hming fun a nd playing. with all the options. Son icfire Pro 5 can be the difference between making videos and producing films.-Daniel M. East

Company: SmartSound Software, Inc.

Price: $99.95

Web: www.smartsound.com

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