Adobe After Effects Presets #05 By Ko Maruyama Emerson and I have started to create some presets for After Effects. These are actually project files, and not just Animation Presets. Some of the elements that we will feature here are simple, but others may rely on complex animations. Download the ones you want to see what we've done. ...Read More »

Photoshop Tips for Beginners 1 By Dave Nagel Generally it isn't too difficult to find your way around Adobe Photoshop, even for novices. But there are tricks that you pick up along the way that can help you work more quickly and efficiently and alleviate some of the frustration that can arise from doing things "the hard way" unwittingly. With this in mind, I kick off my first extended series of tutorials dealing specifically with time-saving tips, starting off with a mini-series on making selections. ...Read More »

Razer Pro V1.6 Mouse By Dave Nagel I'm not a huge fan of mice in general, preferring pressure-sensitive graphics tablets instead for the vast bulk of my work (something on the order of 95 percent of my work). When I do swap out my stylus for a mouse, the reason is invariably the need for absolute precision--masking out difficult images, working with paths, etc. But in this respect, even mice designed for "pro" users (as indicated by their marketing nomenclature) can fall woefully short of my needs. ...Read More »

Using the new Create HTML Album tool in ACDSee Pro By John Virata ACDSee Pro enables you to output your images to a variety of mediums, such as CD, DVD, and slide show format. Photographers now have many choices in which to output their work. One of the new features in ACDSee Pro is the capability to quickly create HTML Albums of your images for placement on the Web. ...Read More »

InDesign Inline, Part 2 By Dave Nagel In our last romp through Adobe InDesign, we looked at three methods for anchoring graphics within a text frame so that the objects would flow along with the words on your page. But that doesn't mean that inline (or "anchored") graphics need to flow inside the text box itself. With the options available for anchored graphics, they can appear in the margins or virtually anywhere else on the page, using the original anchor point only as a reference. ...Read More »

Adobe After Effects Presets #04 By Ko Maruyama This week we have MORE HOLIDAY presets (see archive). These are actually project files, and not just Animation Presets. Some of the elements that we will feature here are simple, but others may rely on complex animations. Download the ones you want to see what we've done. ...Read More »

ACDSee Pro By John Virata ACDSee Pro is an image management and photo editing application for Windows that gives digital photographers the tools to better manage their photography work flows. The strength with this application is in its photo management capabilities, although it does feature very robust image editing tools. ...Read More »

InDesign Inline By Dave Nagel When you're laying out classified ad pages or other types of listings for print, you want your subheads to flow along with your text. But what if those subheads are graphical elements? In Adobe InDesign, you can embed (or "anchor") graphics into your text fields so that images and other elements can flow along with the words on the page. ...Read More »

After Effects 7's Create Photoshop By Ko Maruyama After Effects 7 has a new feature that allows you to create brand new Photoshop documents from within the After Effects application. While you may have previously used Photoshop and After Effects together before, this can be a "click-saving" routine, allowing for quick and easy creation of Photoshop elements. ...Read More »

Apple Aperture 1.0.1 By Dave Nagel The first time I saw Apple's Aperture 1.0 in action, I couldn't wait to get my own copy and dig into it. Its looks were gorgeous, and it was blazingly fast at opening and manipulating raw files. With Apple touting Aperture as "the first all-in-one post-production tool for photographers," my expectations were high. Sadly, Aperture did not live up to those expectations. ...Read More »

PLUGIN PRESETS for After Effects By Ko Maruyama Emerson and I have started to create some presets for After Effects . These are actually project files, and not just Animation Presets. Some of the elements that we will feature here are simple, but others may rely on complex animations. Download what you want to see what we've done. ...Read More »

Cocoatech Path Finder 4 By Kevin Schmitt Let me put this as succinctly as I can: if you use a Mac, you need to be using Path Finder 4. Period. That's about as direct as it gets. Granted, $34.95 may seem a bit steep just to replace a part of Mac OS X, but with the native Finder as (arguably) bad as it is and with Path Finder 4 as good as it is, the price is a pittance, especially in light of the sheer volume of features Path Finder 4 packs under the hood. ...Read More »

Saving Layouts in After Effects 7 By Ko Maruyama Adobe's After Effects 7 is finally unveiled, and there are many small parts of the application which might be overlooked for some of the larger features. One of those nice little additions is the ability to easily change workspaces. Surely previous version had it, but AE7 allows more control. ...Read More »

Pantone/GretagMacbeth Huey By Dave Nagel For those just getting into digital imaging, color management can be a confusing issue. But let me try to simplify it. Different devices all handle color differently. The picture you see on your camera's LCD is going to look different from the same picture displayed on your computer monitor, which is going to look extremely different from how the picture looks when it comes out of your printer. But there are ways to minimize these differences, thus saving you money on the ridiculously expensive ink you would otherwise waste whenever you print something that comes out wrong. ...Read More »

PLUGIN PRESETS for After Effects By Ko Maruyama Emerson Velasquez and I have started to create some presets for After Effects. These are actually project files, and not just Animation Presets. Some of the elements that we will feature here are simple, but others may rely on complex animations. Download the ones you want to see what we've done. ...Read More »

ActionScript for Designers, Part 6 By Kevin Schmitt Well, folks, here we are. If you've lasted this long, you're about to get a taste of some long-awaited satisfaction. Finally, we're going to start writing some real ActionScript by way of a sample project, one which we'll start slowly with and continue to improve upon in the coming installments. I'm going to try to focus on different aspects of ActionScript (you know, the boring stuff from part 5) as we initialize and augment the project, so hopefully by the time we're done, you'll have a good jumping-off point for your own creations. ...Read More »

First Look: ProShow Producer 2.6 By John Virata Photodex Corp.'s ProShow Producer 2.6 is targeted at the professional end of the slide show creation market, those who create slide shows everyday as a part of their business. While the company offers a less expensive ProShow Gold, the Producer version adds several new features to enhance the professional user experience. Within the scope of this first look, we'll take a look at some of the new features. ...Read More »

Download: Photoshop Brushes Series 36 By Dave Nagel If you've used any of our previous collections of hair and fur brushes for Adobe Photoshop, you've probably run into the same situation I have: a need for more and more variations. So our latest collection of brushes for Adobe Photoshop is an extension of these previous collections, offering some new styles, as well as variations on previous styles. As always, these brushes are free for you to download and use as you see fit. ...Read More »

PLUGIN PRESETS for After Effects By Ko Maruyama Emerson Velasquez and I have started to create some presets for After Effects. These are actually project files, and not just Animation Presets. Some of the elements that we will feature here are simple, but others may rely on complex animations. Download the ones you want to see what we've done. ...Read More »

Path Deformer LITE By Ko Maruyama Renato Tarabella's popular plugin called "Path Deformer LITE" is a favored tool because it does many things quickly and easily. Because the LITE version of the plugin is free, many people quickly download it, and get snagged by a couple of easily corrected mistakes. Here are a few. ...Read More »