Mac OS X Web Server Tips for Designers, Part 1 By Kevin Schmitt OK, so you're a Web designer. Perhaps it's all you do, or perhaps it just a small part of what you do, but wherever you happen to be on the Web design food chain, you can definitely benefit from setting up and using the Web server that is included with every installation of Mac OS X. And while many of you may already have the server running, there's a lot more that could conceivably be done to soup things up a bit. ...Read More »

HAIR GEOMETRY By Ko Maruyama MAXON'S CINEMA 4D allows users to add a module called HAIR, integrating custom hair control to 3D projects. However, sometimes users may want to export the HAIR geometry to non-HAIR users. The process, although easy, isn't necessarily obvious. Here's how... ...Read More »

Creating Timers in Flash, Part 2 By Kevin Schmitt Timing stuff in Flash isn't exactly the glitziest of tasks, but sometimes it just has to be done. In our last installment, we went over two relatively basic methods for creating timers, each with varying degrees of simplicity and/or accuracy. Today we're going for as much accuracy as we can, and we're going in two completely opposite directions. Intriguing? I thought so. I am, after all, the master of suspense, so let's get down to business, shall we? ...Read More »

Revisiting "Bad" CSS, Part 2 By Kevin Schmitt In part one of this fantastically riveting two-part series, we learned all about the insane fun that goes along with IE conditionals. Now, in part 2 (which I know you have been waiting breathlessly for), we're going to--wait for it--actually write some of said conditionals all by ourselves! I know, I know--the air is thick with excitement. So, without further ado, let's get this party started. ...Read More »

Revisiting "Bad" CSS, Part 1 By Kevin Schmitt 'Round about Thanksgiving time last year (late November for those outside the U.S.), I wrote a piece on how to use non-standard ("bad") CSS to present different content to different browsers. Now, with IE 7 threatening to be unleashed on an unsuspecting public, it's high time to revisit the basic concept and see if we can't clean it up a bit. In part 1 (of 2), we'll be setting up an example and going through what IE conditionals are, which will ultimately make designing sites for IE a little less messy once IE 7 gets thrown into the mix. ...Read More »

The Tween Class: A Flash Designer's Best Friend, Part 2 By Kevin Schmitt I hope you're already having a blast playing with the Tween class after our last riveting installment, but there is still much to discuss. Today, we're going to go over methods, properties, and event handlers for the Tween Class, but since those sound so, well, "programmerey," let's just say we're going to learn how to monitor and control our Tweens as they go about their little Tween errands. ...Read More »

Illustrator Tips: Color Swatches By Dave Nagel No matter how long you've worked in Adobe Illustrator, there's always something new to learn--even in terms of the most basic functions of the program. For the latest installment in our "Illustrator Tips" series, we take a look at ways to manipulate color swatches, from importing color swatches--selectively--from Adobe Photoshop to merging color swatches to adding new swatches to Illustrator's default Swatch library so that you don't have to import colors on a document by document basis. ...Read More »

The Eolas Patent Decision: What it Means for Web Designers By Kevin Schmitt I know what you're thinking: why on Earth would an article about a flippin' patent case possibly interest me, the hip-hip-happenin' designer? It may not seem like the usual fare for creative-types, but the first time you field an angry phone call from a client over "activating" embedded content like Flash or QuickTime, you'd best be prepared for how to deal with the fallout. So let's take a deep breath, collect our thoughts, and power through here. It may sound scary, but it's really not that bad once you know what to do. ...Read More »

The Tween Class: A Flash Designer's Best Friend, Part 1 By Kevin Schmitt For the three (or perhaps even four) of you who regularly follow my Flash tutorials, you are well aware of my repeated rantings that Flash designers can do themselves solar systems of good by learning at least a little ActionScript. One of the better illustrations of that mantra is the Tween Class, which I'm going to make you try and fall in love with over the course of these next couple of articles. ...Read More »

Photoshop Tips: Batch Processing Images By Dave Nagel As you already know, it's possible to batch process folders full of images and save them out in various formats (JPEG, TIFF, etc.) using Photoshop's presets. But how do you create your own export presets if you don't like the ones supplied by Adobe? And how can you save images to multiple formats in one step? We'll look at these issues in this week's "Tips for Beginners." ...Read More »

Exploring the editing tools in ACDSee Pro By John Virata While Adobe Systems and Apple Computer have shipped or plan to ship image management tools for the Macintosh, ACDSee Pro, one of the most widely used Windows-based image management applications for professional photographers, has grown some image editing tools to complement its image management capabilities. And those tools are surprisingly robust. ...Read More »

Supersizing in Synthetik Studio Artist By Dave Nagel Synthetik Studio Artist 3.5 introduced a new feature called "Supersizer," an algorithm for enlarging images while enhancing and preserving detail as much as possible. In this tutorial, we'll take a look at the process of supersizing images in a few different workflows. ...Read More »

Photoshop Tips for Beginners 4 By Dave Nagel One of the things you'll come to appreciate the more you work in Adobe Photoshop is automation. Typically you'll get into a groove in design where you'll need to perform the same (or similar) tasks over and over on multiple images, and that can get tedious. But Photoshop can alleviate that tedium through Actions. ...Read More »

Creating Timers in Flash, Part 1 By Kevin Schmitt If you do any sort of ActionScripting in Flash at all, eventually you're going to come across a situation where you'll need some kind of timer. Whatever the need—a countdown clock, a simple pause before directing some sort of action, or even a timeout feature for a kiosk application—there are a bunch of ways to do it, so let's start with the two simplest. ...Read More »

After Effects Backgrounds By Ko Maruyama In After Effects, there are several effects that will help you to edit simple shapes into more complex images. Here is a procedure to create a spline that looks like a frosty or "icey" shape. ...Read More »

Photoshop Tips for Beginners 3 By Dave Nagel If you're new to Adobe Photoshop, it's likely you haven't played around with paths too much. The path tools in Photoshop aren't really like those in vector illustration tools (like Illustrator), which are used principally for the creation of vector objects. In Photoshop, paths can be used (clumsily) for this purpose. But they have a more useful function in image manipulation: masking. ...Read More »

Global Color Replacement in Adobe Illustrator By Dave Nagel It's easy to draw yourself into a corner in Adobe Illustrator. You may create complex illustrations involving hundreds--possibly thousands--of individual objects. And if you need to make changes (such as modifying fill color) to several objects of a particular type within your larger illustration, you might find yourself looking at hours of manual labor. But the Magic Wand tool can spare you that. ...Read More »

Droplet Options in Adobe ImageReady By Dave Nagel This is one that threw me for a loop for a while. I rely pretty heavily on Adobe ImageReady for my batch image processing, working almost exclusively with droplets I've created over the years. But sometimes these droplets need to be updated. No trouble usually: Just make the changes to the original action, and recreate your droplet from that. But what happens if you no longer have the original action? ...Read More »

Photoshop Tips for Beginners 2 By Dave Nagel In our first collection of tips for Adobe Photoshop, we looked at some methods for simplifying the selection of a layer's contents. We presented some shortcuts to save time and allow you to select elements of your composition precisely and with a minimum of fuss. Now we'll go a bit more deeply into selections with a look at how to manipulate any type of selection with an equal amount of precision and ease. ...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 »