Computer Arts (May 2004)

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CD S E CE 0! TH R 49 N U £ O SO TH RE OR W

3D IN PHOTOSHOP

Add depth and texture to your 3D scenes with our in-depth tutorial

FREE THE COLOUR

Use FreeHand’s colour tools to create great images THE WORLD’S BEST-SELLING CREATIVE MAGAZINE

PHOTOSHOP • ILLUSTRATOR FLASH • DREAMWEAVER & MORE

LEARN NEW DESIGN TECHNIQUES – FAST! No time to improve your skills? Get up to speed with leading software using our 10 expert tutorials

WEB DESIGN IN ADOBE CS

Create superb sites in GoLive & ImageReady

MASTERING MULTIMEDIA

Design a cutting-edge CD interface in Director

26 NEW REVIEWS

No CD? Please see your newsagent

Director MX 2004, Toon Boom 2.5, plus five photo printers on test Printed in the UK Outside the UK and Éire £6 C$19.95 MAY 2004 £6

INTRO T OUR READER SURVEY FOUND THAT 97 PER CENT OF READERS BELIEVED THEIR CREATIVITY HAD IMPROVED SINCE READING THE MAGAZINE

ILLUSTRATORS We take our illustrations seriously here at Computer Arts. And we’re always on the lookout for new talent – so if you’re interested in contributing, contact [email protected]. Below, you’ll find a list of the illustrators who helped us out this issue… VINCENT MARCONE Artist Vincent Marcone illustrates a new Design Challenges series, starting on page 58, and describes how he created an e-commerce site to suit his own style. www.mypetskeleton.com IDENTIKAL The London design duo got to grips with FreeHand’s colour tools from page 52, and created this great sketchy illustration, while showing you exactly how it’s done. www.identikal.com TWO THINGS Rocco Pezzella of Amsterdam-based design outfit Twothings illustrated our Director MX 2004 tutorial, starting on page 70, in a scratchy urban style. www.twothings.net 123KLAN How do you illustrate building a Website using the entire Adobe Creative Suite? Incredibly, these guys did just that. Turn to page 62 to see the result of their labours. www.123klan.com

he results of our 2003 Reader Survey found that 97 per cent of Computer Arts readers believed their creativity had improved since reading the magazine. We’re really pleased to hear it – after all, that’s why we’re here! So a big thanks to everyone who sent the survey back at the end of last year. Don’t forget to keep giving us feedback or sending in your artwork. Following the great response to our Design on a Budget issue last month, we’ve put together a fantastic new article devoted to all you busy people out there. We asked five experts to give us two time-saving techniques in their favourite software. Aimed at new and experienced users, these ten quickfire how-tos will prove a vital resource for anyone looking to improve their skills in double-quick time. Turn to page 24 and start the clock! And there’s much more expert technique and inspiration throughout this issue. We look at ways to give depth and excitement to flat 3D renders in Photoshop; talk to illustrator Vincent Marcone about how he designed an e-commerce site that didn’t contrast with his individual style; and we get some

fantastic insight into FreeHand’s colour tools with a tutorial from Identikal. And for those who’ve never dabbled in Director, here’s your chance. We’ve got the trial of the new MX 2004 version on the coverdisc, plus a brand new tutorial on how to create a CD interface using the application – essential for anyone interested in going deeper into multimedia design. Profiles this issue come from Canadian outfit Helios Design Laboratory, and upcoming vector caricaturist The Boy Fitz Hammond. Turn over the page for the full contents. Finally, it remains for me to say goodbye, as this is my last issue of Computer Arts before I start work on a new Web and broadband magazine. After nearly three years, I’ve seen some fantastic illustration, Web design, 3D and video work, and look forward to seeing what great things the creative industry will do next. Thanks to everyone I’ve met and worked with while on Computer Arts and best wishes to all. VICKI ATKINSON EDITOR, THE WORLD’S BEST-SELLING CREATIVE MAGAZINE

COVER ILLUSTRATOR

EDITORIAL

MAGICTORCH

THE CA TEAM

We wanted this issue’s cover to be a creative, attractive and dynamic portrayal of speed, and called upon design outfit Magictorch to deliver. The Brightonbased studio has produced illustration and Web design work for numerous high-profile clients, and has also launched its own stock image library, Stock Cube, which offers a fairer rate for illustrators. This issue is also our first issue designed entirely in InDesign, so see if you notice the difference, and look out next month for a new look magazine! www.magictorch.com

VICKI ATKINSON EDITOR [email protected] RODDY LLEWELLYN ART EDITOR [email protected] ROB CARNEY DEPUTY EDITOR [email protected] RACHEL ELLIOTT OPERATIONS EDITOR [email protected] JON ALONGI CD EDITOR [email protected] JEN WAGNER ONLINE EDITOR [email protected]

CONTACT Computer Arts magazine, Future Publishing, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, BA1 2BW PHONE 01225 442 244 EMAIL [email protected] SUBS 0870 444 8455 OVERSEAS SUBS +44 870 444 8455

Computer Arts_May 2004

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CONTENTS MAY ISSUE 96

FULL LIST OF CONTENTS

NEWS

FEATURES

TUTORIALS

ON THE CD

12 Photoshop World 2004 14 New Canon printer 16 ZBrush 2 released 20 Guest font showcase

24 10 fast techniques! 46 3D in Photoshop 52 FreeHand colour tools 62 Web design in Adobe CS 70 Director interface design

38 Helios in profile 58 New! Design challenges 68 The Boy Fitz Hammond in profile

06 Full listing 06 8 commercial fonts 07 ACDSee 3.1 08 Poser resources

ON THE COVER

REVIEWS

77 Full listing 78 Director MX 2004 80 Toon Boom Studio 2.5 88 Sony CyberShot 94 Photo printers on test

REGULARS

10 Your letters and opinion 22 Win a design scholarship in Canada! 36 Win Discreet combustion 3 44 Special subscription offer: free book when you subscribe to Computer Arts 100 Back issues 108 Exposure 114 Retrospective

WIN

COMBUSTION – PRIZES WOR 3 TH

£1754! PAGE 36

24 LEARN NEW TECHNIQUES – FAST Get great results from leading graphics software - all in a matter of minutes with our 10 expert tutorials for Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver and After Effects

46 3D IN PHOTOSHOP Transform flat renders into stunning scenes with our essential Photoshop techniques – learn about layers, alpha channels, levels and more

52 FREE THE COLOUR IN FREEHAND

Using FreeHand's colour options successfully can give you the edge in digital illustration

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62 WEB DESIGN IN ADOBE CS Our expert guide to how each program in the Creative Suite works together will help you design amazing sites with ease

46

52

Illustration by Feargal O' Malley Turn to page 108

68

Vector and caricature artist The Boy Fitz Hammond in profile.

Have your work featured here – email [email protected]

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS SUBSCRIBE

TODAY AND GET A FREE GIFT!

THE ONLY DE G N MAG YOU’LL EVER SI NEED!

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NEVER MISS AN OT ISSUE – TURN TO HER PAGE

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38 HELIOS DESIGN LABORATORIES The successful Canadian design outfit talks about how to approach client and personal projects – along with scavenging, lying and learning…

70 CD DESIGN IN DIRECTOR

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The all-new Director MX 2004 has arrived! Use our demo with Flash to produce an interactive CD interface and get to grips with the app

58 NEW SERIES! We investigate the common challenges that designers face. Part 1: How to build a Web store that looks and feels like your own style

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94 PHOTO PRINTERS TESTED Printing digital photos? We rate five top products and give you expert buying advice

FULL LIST OF CD CONTENTS

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FULL FONTS PC + MAC

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PROFESSIONAL FONTS FONTS Eight

full commercial fonts from the industry’s leading designers, worth £360, courtesy of Fontworks

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very month, we bring you the widest range of software and resources to suit your needs. This issue is no exception. Put your CD-ROM in the drive and install our full product, ACDSee, a complete imagemanagement tool or get to grips with our eight commercial fonts from Type.co.uk. You’ll also find a great Shockwave snowball game, plus a demo of Director MX 2004 for you to try. Read on for full listings...

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ontworks is one of the UK’s top font suppliers, and represents over 100 foundries worldwide, including Adobe, Linotype, T26, Jon Barnbrook and Identikal. If you’re looking for a new or wellknown typeface, you’re sure to find it at their comprehensive Type.co.uk Website. The eight full fonts featured on this issue’s cover CD are a fabulous cross-section of text and display typefaces, worth a total of £360. This fantastic collection features work from

established typographers, such as Rian Hughes, Gareth Hague, Nick Cooke and Bruno Maag, as well as talented young designers, such as Darren Scott, Identikal, Ant Roberts and Dirk Wachowiak, all of whom are currently making their mark in the typographic design world. Read about these great foundries and view more samples in the Fontworks type section in the Software\Resources section of the disc. For the full catalogue, visit the Fontworks Website. INFO www.type.co.uk

CD96 CONTENTS ACDSEE 3.1 (PC) FULL PRODUCT Manage, browse and view your growing image collection with this simple but powerful image viewer from ACD Systems

EIGHT FULL FONTS FULL PRODUCT Yours to keep – a selection of eight professional fonts from Fontworks from top designers – Identikal, Dalton Maag and more. Worth £360!

POSER MODELS FREE RESOURCES Poser users will love this! We bring you a superb selection of 3D models, courtesy of AniMotion – clothes, poses, objects and loads more

DIRECTOR MX 2004 BRAND NEW DEMO Master Macromedia’s pro multimedia software with this latest demo and our tutorial, starting on page 70

FOR DIRECTOR GAMES AND RESOURCES Learn more about this powerful program with games and more, courtesy of Director and Shockwave experts, RobotDuck (www.robotduck.com)

20 STOCK IMAGES FREE IMAGES Feel free to use this fantastic collection of textures and object photography in your own work

TUTORIAL FILES You’ll find the files to accompany the Photoshop, Dreamweaver and After Effects tutorials in the cover feature, plus the resources for the Creative Suite, Photoshop and Director tutorials

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FREE STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY If your digital camera hasn’t snapped any butterflies or raging fires lately, try using these free images in your work (PC+MAC)

On the CD

FREE SOFTW RE WORTA H £29

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FULL PROGRAM PC

ACDSEE 3.1 FULL APP WORTH £29 View

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his mighty photo organiser and display app will make simple work of managing your pictures. Import from your camera, scanner, CD or elsewhere with a simple wizard, then view and browse your photos fast. You can browse by thumbnails or use the full-size viewer, and check details using the zoom tool. ACDSee digital photo software supports over 50 common photo and multimedia file formats, including JPEG and BMP. For big collections, you can view multiple folders, categories and CDs at the same time; click calendar dates to view by day, week or year; and sort by any image property such as file size. ACDSee also features enhancement

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and manage your images with this useful software tools for one-click editing. Adjust exposure and fix other common problems such as colour, brightness, contrast and red-eye. Rotate, resize and crop to standard print or screen sizes, and use the batch processor to carry out repetitive actions easily. When you’re ready, you can print your collection in popular sizes or as contact sheets, and make standalone screensavers to share your pics. On this month’s coverdisc, you’ll find a full version of ACDSee 3.1, plus a demo of ACDSee 6.0 PowerPack. This boasts two extra programs: ACD FotoCanvas, an easy-to-use photo editor, and ACD FotoSlate, fast and creative photo-printing software. ■

*Equival ent to 49 euro time of go ing to pr at ess

A range of viewing options in ACDSee enable you to make full use of your screen.

INFO www.acdsystems.com

Use the powerful Edit screens to alter your photos’ brightness, contrast and gamma settings.

Change the colour, hue and saturation of your images to produce some interesting effects.

HOW TO OBTAIN YOUR SERIAL NUMBER Register your full version of ACDSee 3.1 at www.guildsoft.co.uk/cmp/404GUCA1 to receive your serial number for installation by email.

UPGRADE TO ACDSEE 6.0! Computer Arts readers can take advantage of a 30 per cent discount when they upgrade to ACDC 6 PowerPack Deluxe. This latest version now includes six products: ACDSee 6.0, digital photo software with many new ways to organise and share images; ACD FotoCanvas 3.0 photo-editing software, with more fixing and enhancing tools; ACD FotoSlate 3.0 photo printing software, with over 450 layouts for making quality prints, calendars and greeting cards;

ACD VideoMagic automatic movie maker, for photos and video; Photo Stitcher, for creating great panoramic shots; and ACDSee Mobile, for Palm OS and Windows CE. Plus, you’ll get 5000 free photos, images and templates. Readers can take advantage of a 30 per cent discount (excluding delivery) when buying ACDSee 6 PowerPack Deluxe.

To upgrade to ACDSee at this special reader offer, visit www.guildsoft.co.uk/cmp/404GUCA1 or call 0800 289041 (overseas readers use +44 1752 895100). Please quote code 404GUCA1 on all orders.

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On the CD

FREE POSER GEAR PC + MAC

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ANIMOTIONS POSER FILES POSER RESOURCES WORTH £105

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ourtesy of AniMotions, we bring you more Poser content than you can shake a rendered stick at this month. These models, clothes and accessories are mainly based around Dina V, an ultra hi-res figure with over

*Equival ent to $1 95 at tim of going e to press

Models, clothes and accessories galore, all for use in Poser

over-endowed fantasy stereotype. She also sports Joint Controlled Morphs for realistic elbow/knee movement. As well as various poses and clothing for Dina, we’ve also found room on the CD to squeeze in the Modern Interiors Construction Set – a

DINA V IS MODELLED AFTER A TYPICAL FEMALE, NOT SOME EMBARRASSINGLY OVER-ENDOWED FANTASY STEREOTYPE 110,000 polygons, which is also included on the disc. Dina V has photorealistic texture maps and is modelled after a typical female, not some embarrassingly

FREE SOFTW RE WORTA H £105 *

38-piece package comprising walls, stairs, doors, windows, ceilings and floors. It’s ideal for creating interiors exactly to Poser scale, and a definite time-saver. Try it out now!

ABOUT ANIMOTIONS AniMotions is a unique, free online community where over 30,000 members help each other create their own comics and animé, as well as share tips, tricks, codes and video game secrets. AniMotions members share their creations in the galleries, forums, store and free stuff areas. Newbies are welcome, and experienced members and the pros are there to help. There are also game reviews, interviews and many other features. Join in the fun with over 30,000 other members by visiting its Website. ■

Check out the AniMotion Website for advice from pros and amateur model-makers.

INFO www.animotions.com

More resources are available from AniMotion – check your coverdisc for details.

A range of walls, floors and windows, against which you can pose your figures, features in the Modern Interiors Construction Set.

Dina V – a face that could launch your Poser career…

Joint-controlled morphs provide more realistic knee and elbow movement for Dina V. Yes, she’s in a bikini, but, well, you know, we just wanted to test her joints out...

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LETTERS YOU’RE THE BEST I have used Computer Arts magazine over a number of years now and I must say it’s been an essential part of my learning and development. It has kept me up to date with the latest upgrades, good tutorials and readers’ letters that have asked the questions I’ve wanted to ask. Please continue producing a top-quality product. Martin Best

based on his own experience (he owns both a 15-inch PowerBook and 15-inch iBook). “The iBook, by its very nature, is built for students and consumers who want a quality laptop they can chuck in a bag and not worry about. Its casing is rock-solid and you’d be hard-pressed to damage it,

FRAGILE POWERBOOK? In the review of the 14-inch iBook in Computer Arts 94 (page 86), you state that it “feels as though it will last for years, no matter what you chuck at it – unlike the PowerBook”. What does this statement mean? I’m thinking of getting a PowerBook, but there’s nothing in your recent review of Apple’s 15-inch to indicate that it’s fragile! Nigel Moore

I think this letter may interest other graphics artists. I’ve always been worried about images I send over the Internet – what if these are picked up by unauthorised people? Or what if my PC is either stolen or hacked? So while searching for encryption applications, I think I found the solution in the download section of the PC Plus Website (www. pcplus.co.uk/downloads). It’s worth a look: it’s called ZeroFootprint Crypt by Baroufa Soft, and its basic edition is free. Maybe an article about the issue of data protection would be of interest to other readers also? Thanks again for the very informative magazine and the great articles. John Atkins

Throw it in your backpack with impunity.

This looks like an interesting application, John, and one very much like Mac OS X’s FileVault feature. All digital artists should be able to encrypt data – but you have to make sure you remember your password or back up your images onto CD or DVD regularly. You wouldn’t want them disappearing

★ LETTER OF THE MONTH PERFECT TIMING

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Computer Arts_May 2004

though you’ll probably see a few scratches from the rough’n’tumble of everyday use. In my experience, the PowerBook feels less sturdy, because of its thinner design, not because it’s fragile. Indeed, it’s built well and is certainly a better performer than the iBook, although we advise you to buy a good backpack, just to be on the safe side. We recommend Brenthaven (www.brenthaven.com) or Crumpler (www.crumpleronline.co.uk). The bags aren’t exactly cheap, but they’re well-made and extremely stylish to boot.”

IMAGE PROTECTION

We spoke to the reviewer, Rob Carney, and this is what he said,

I have just taken on a design commission that requires the inclusion of several digitally generated figures, rollerbladers, skateboarders and so on. I was sitting here thinking, ‘How on Earth am I going to produce this one? when your email landed with the subject header ‘New Perfect Body Issue!’ I’m on my way to the newsagents! My artwork will form a display depicting a new rollerblade/skateboard concept for the local Chamber of Commerce. The aim of the presentation is to convince members to develop the concept, initially within their town. Eventually, the project could be rolled out nationally. At this stage, the figures are purely for print. If this

HAVE YOU GOT A POINT TO MAKE ABOUT THE MAGAZINE, A CREATIVE PRODUCT, A SHOW OR THE INDUSTRY AT LARGE? EMAIL YOUR THOUGHT TO THE TEAM AT [email protected], OR JOIN US ONLINE AT FORUM.COMPUTERARTS.CO.UK

meeting is successful, there will be a need to animate the figures in a multimedia presentation. So your latest Computer Arts Projects issue came along just in time! Craig Mcleod The Fantastic Figures and Faces Computer Arts Projects issue arrived just in time for this reader. Perhaps the Typography and Character Animation issues will prove just as important to you, too… The Typography issue is on sale now; the Character Animation issue hits the shelves on 29 April. This issue of Computer Arts Projects helped one designer to fulfil his brief – will you be the next reader we help out?

forever! We’ll certainly look into covering this issue in greater depth in a future issue.

MORE MEGAPIXELS Canon has been busy incorporating a new generation of 8-megapixel sensors into its range, a new larger CMOS chip for the EOS-1D, and a new CCD for the PowerShot Pro. It’s great news for magazine photographers like me, as they’re the first cameras, besides the fantastically expensive pro models, that really have a high enough resolution for an image across a double-page spread. However, the 1D is a bit high-end (ie, expensive) for me, and the PowerShot isn’t capable enough. What I really want is a new 8-megapixel 10D, but Canon is being very quiet about new releases. Do you know if there are any plans to release one? Jeremy Freear The digital camera market is still booming, with new and more powerful models coming out all the time to suit a wide range of consumers and professionals. Canon isn’t releasing any details of forthcoming models, as it’s a competitive market, but we at CA are confident that there’ll be new mid-range cameras to suit your needs within six months. ■

NEXT MONTH IN COMPUTER ARTS 97 PHOTOSHOP GALORE Expert illustrator Derek Lea takes us through the creation of our fantastic cover image in Photoshop. Follow this in-depth tutorial and enhance your creative skills en route!

ON THE CD More full software, more demos, more exciting Poser resources – and more fonts. Don’t miss out on this feature-packed disc!

LESS RAIN IN PROFILE We talk to the multimedia design studios about its superb work for Web, TV and DVD

Canon’s 8-megapixel EOS-1D: a new breed of digital camera.

DATABASE DESIGN IN DEPTH

CSS IN DREAMWEAVER

We talk to one Web designer about how a well-timed collaboration with a developer took his site to the next level

Format your type perfectly with our expert tutorial on Dreamweaver’s versatile Cascading Style Sheets

WRITE IN AND WIN! Every month, the winner of our Letter of the Month will be sent a full copy of the KPT Collection, courtesy of Corel. This extensive bundle of plug-ins was the all-out winner of our Photoshop plug-ins Group Test in issue 94 and will introduce hundreds of brand new effects to your work, for Web, print and 3D. To find out more about KPT, visit www.corel.com

SEMI-PRO DIGITAL CAMERAS ON GROUP TEST We put five leading SLRs to the test from leading camera manufacturers, including Canon, FujiFilm, Nikon and Olympus

REVIEWED SOON Cinema 4D 8.5

DVD Workshop 2

3D Tiger!

Canon EOS-1D Mark II

Matchmover Pro 3

QuarkXPress 6.1

Xtreme Path

FujiFilm S3 Pro

Primatte

Sonic MyDVD

Adobe’s new upgrades

Nikon D70

ON SALE 13 MAY All contents correct at time of going to press

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NEWS NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

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Canon impresses with large-format printer

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[email protected]

Computer Arts reports from Spring 2004’s Photoshop World…

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he first Photoshop World Show of 2004 took place last month at the Moscone Centre, San Francisco, and made quite an impression on the 2000 attendees. Held over three days, it boasted conferences, expert speakers, parties and provided a battery of

Imaging and Video, kicked off the event with his keystone speech, ‘Photoshop CS: Built for Speed’, after which attention turned towards the Guru awards, which celebrated Photoshop excellence in nine categories. The three days of conferences that followed, running from early morning

TOPICS INCLUDED PHOTO RETOUCHING, TYPOGRAPHY, THE ART OF BRUSHES, COLOUR SPACES, SCANNING TECHNIQUES, AND MORE Pixologic unveils Weta-sanctioned ZBrush 2

EFFECTS

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www.computerarts.co.uk

PHOTOSHOP ‘TIL YOU DROP EVENT

PRINTER

Visit our massive Website for weekly news updates and much more. To contact our news team, email

exciting Photoshop techniques for visitors to master.

FASTER THAN EVER Sponsored, as always, by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, Photoshop World 2004 showcased several fine speakers, including Deke McClelland, Bert Monroy and Scott Kelby. Bryan Lamkin, Adobe’s Senior Vice President of Digital

to 6pm (and sometimes beyond!), held something for every Photoshop user, regardless of expertise. Topics included photo retouching, typography, Web graphics, the art of brushes, colour spaces, scanning techniques and more, while a hefty 800-page workbook ensured absentees wouldn’t miss out. Despite the show’s title, After Effects and InDesign were also much in evidence, while a slew of hardware

and software vendors – Wacom, Epson, Dell and Apple, among others – plied their wares on the exhibitor floor.

TRULY DEVOTED For the devoted, and those undaunted by the first night’s party, the end of day two promised an extra session in the form of Midnight Madness, a more informal workshop, hosted by Kelby, McClelland and Felix Nelson, the Creative Director of Photoshop User magazine. The third and last day was wrapped up by the infamous Photoshop Wars, a creative free-for-all that saw Photoshop gurus competing on the day for fame and glory. It was, all agreed, probably the largest and best Photoshop conference to date. But don’t worry if you missed it. The fun starts all over again on 1-3 September, when Photoshop World moves to the sunnier shores of Orlando, Florida. ■ INFO www.photoshopworld.com

OPINION Tom Opasinski on deadline madness

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TV Cosgrove Hall goes digital for pre-school toon

(Above) The event was sponsored by The National Association of Photoshop Professionals.

NEWS WRITERS

Mark Ramshaw, Ed Ricketts

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(Top-left) Adobe proudly shows off its software, including InDesign and After Effects. (Left) Visitors enjoyed discovering about new techniques during the show.

News

SOFTWARE

CRAB SCHTICK

The latest releases, updates and software news SYMMETRYWORKS 3

Even futuristic crabs wear Nike. Apparently

ADVERTISING

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ike’s latest ad for its new brand of hard-surface football boots features extensive CGI animation created by special effects house The Embassy VFX. In the spot, two bizarre cyber-crabs – obviously wearing the new boots – play a game of footy in a bleak, post-apocalyptic wasteland. Featuring 15 effects shots, the ad relies on hand-held camera movement extensively, with footage tracked using 2d3’s boujou. LightWave 3D handled the modelling and animation; the Impact plug-in helped with dynamics. Most impressively, the Embassy handled all production, post-production, music and sound design on the project, which was completed within a month. The studio is currently working on a second spot for Nike. ■ INFO www.theembassyvfx.com

The Nike ad shows two cyber-crabs playing footy, using an old bookcase shell as a goal. You can guess which particular shoe-clad crustacean wins the day…

SAMARITANS GET CONNECTED COMPO Digital cameras up for grabs in charity’s latest annual competition

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he Samaritans has launched its annual photo competition, with this year’s ‘Connected’ event held to celebrate the society’s 50th anniversary (1953-2003). Camera giant Pentax has donated the prizes, with a *ist D digital SLR camera for the winner, an Optio S4 digital camera for the runner-up, and an Optio 33LF digicam for the winner in third place. The competition is open to both photographers and digital artists, with entrants challenged to produce an image that portrays positive human interaction, whether through the spoken or written word, modern technologies, signs or signals. For example images, visit www.samaritans.org/competition. The closing date for submissions is 9th July 2004. The winning images will be posted online and displayed at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London from August 2004. There will also be an additional prize of a photographic commission to document a ‘day in the life’ at the theatre. A competition entry pdf is available at the address below. ■

INFO www.samaritans.org/know/connected.shtm. The Samaritans is available 24 hours a day to give confidential support to those in need. Feel free to call them on 08457 90 90 90 (UK) or 1850 60 90 90 (ROI)

Artlandia’s SymmetryWorks 3 is the latest edition of its popular Adobe Illustrator plug-in. It now supports both raster and vector objects, so you can create patterns using brushes, gradients, meshes, type, vector paths, and bitmaps at multiple resolutions. It’s available now, from £215. www.artlandia.com SOFTWIDE BACK-UP Computer Arts subscribers will have received a free back-up disc from Softwide in their issue, encouraging Mac and PC users to copy work to disc in case of hardware problems. Nonsubscribers are invited to drop in at any Softwide store in the UK to pick up a free back-up disc and benefit from a 20 per cent discount off any initial purchase. Visit the Website to find your nearest store or call 0845 644 8268 to mail order a fre e copy. Don’t forget to mention Computer Arts! www.softwide.com BRAZIL FOR FREE SplutterFish is giving 3D modellers and animators the chance to try out its highly rated Brazil rendering solution for free. Brazil Rio Edition is a noncommercial version of the full Brazil r/s V1.2 edition, designed for 3ds max and Autodesk VIZ on the Windows 2000, NT and XP platforms. Download it for free from the official website. www.splutterfish.com MORE ANDREWS PLUG-INS The latest additions to Abneil Software’s Andrews range include Volume 16: GX Power Blend (£10), which contains two new plug-ins for colour blend and distortion, plus an upgrade to both Volume 14 (£10) and the Brushes collection (£20). www.graphicxtras.com

(Above left) W inning image in 15-18 year old category for 2003 – by Ma tthew Longsta ff. (Above) Comm ended image 19-24 year old ca 2003 – by Gina tegory for Lundy. (Left) Commen ded image 15-18 year old category for 2003 – by De an Lewington.

WINZIP 9 ARRIVES This latest edition of the compression and encryption tool adds 128- and 256bit security, plus support for 64-bit file extensions. The upgrade is free to licensed users, while new users can download a free evaluation for £15. www.winzip.com

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HARDWARE The latest releases, updates and hardware news

SIZE IS EVERYTHING PRINTER

Canon’s inkjet giant aims to provide both speed and flexibility

D FUJIFILM FINEPIX A120 The 3.1-megapixel FinePix A120 is FujiFilm’s new entry-level digital camera, complete with movie recording function and automated settings. With PC/Mac connectivity, the camera supports PictBridge. Available now, it costs around £180. www.fujifilm.co.uk BOARD WITH DIGITAL Board and coating specialist Slater Harrison has introduced a new artboard aimed at the digital market. Created using a giclée printing process, it’s been designed to provide fine-colour reproduction, so you no longer need to print and then drymount the image. Contact the company directly for pricing details. www.slater-harrison.co.uk TOSHIBA IN GUINNESS RECORDS Toshiba’s 0.85-inch hard drive, announced in January, is officially the smallest commercial HDD in existence. The drive will offer enhanced storage for such kit as camcorders and mobile phones. Initial capacities will be 2-4GB. Exact launch date and prices have yet to be confirmed. www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2004_01/ pr0801.htm

esign and print studios looking to deliver the big(ger) picture now have a new piece of kit to consider: Canon’s W6200P large-format ink printer. The W6200P has been conceived as a more versatile solution than its rival large-format devices, with Canon targeting both the ‘printfor-use’ and ‘print-for-pay’ markets. Key to this is a bidirectional, single-print head design that offers both high quality and speed without compromise. The W6200P is capable of outputting prints up to 24 inches in size, full bleed. Canon also claims that the six-colour print process provides improved colour precision, depth and tone diffusion, with shape, size and density of the microscopic ink droplets consistent throughout prints. Canon has also conceived the overall build with the small office environment in mind. The W6200P is more lightweight than its rivals and lands a smaller footprint of just 0.9m2. It’ll set you back £2533. ■

Canon’s large-format W6200P may look intimidating, but it’s a six-colour softie underneath, and ideal for any small office.

INFO www.canon.co.uk

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PINNACLE’S NEW TRIO Pinnacle Systems has announced three new pieces of video hardware that take advantage of USB 2.0: the PCTV USB 2 (£70), an external device for recording TV programmes; the Dazzle Digital Video Creator 90 (£80), a palm-sized input device for hooking camcorders up to your PC; and Studio MovieBox Deluxe (£200), which connects any analogue or DV camcorder to a PC. www.pinnaclesys.com NVIDIA EXPANDS QUADRO FAMILY The latest addition to nVIDIA’s range of professional graphics cards, the Quadro FX 700 features the industry’s only true 128-bit floating-point graphics pipeline, with 12-bit sub-pixel precision and full support for OpenGL 1.5 and Microsoft DirectX 9. The card is due out this month, although a price has yet to be confirmed. www.nvidia.co.uk

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SMART PHOTOGRAPHY HP’s latest boasts ‘intelligent’ imageprocessing features, such as Panorama Preview CAMERA

s part of its new range of digital cameras, HP has introduced the Photosmart R707, featuring a range of in-camera correction facilities that the company is calling Real Life Technologies. Along with a 5.1-megapixel total resolution, 3x optical and 8x digital zoom, there’s adaptive lighting, which balances out high-contrast scenes, red-eye removal and adaptive de-mosaicing for better colour resolution. Meanwhile, a Panorama Preview mode makes it easier to create panoramas by displaying a ghosted section of the previous image, and then previewing the entire scene. Finally, the Image Advice feature can analyse poor images and offer potential solutions for future shots. The Photosmart R707 costs £279 and be available in May. ■ INFO www.hp.com/uk

WEBSITES The latest releases, updates and software news DIESEL www.diesel.com/naturelovers Diesel rarely fails to impress. Its latest microsite has bags of style, yet still manages to keep the products centrestage. Also be sure to check out the Diesel Greatest Hips site at www. diesel.com/denimguide – where the company’s latest daft marketing ruse will be music to your ears. VISIONAIRE www.visionaireworld.com A gloriously glossy Website for edgy fashion magazine Visionaire. Each edition sports a new theme and format, so the collection adds up to something very impressive indeed. Here, a clean and smooth interface provides an efficient way to explore the magazine’s many different facets. NO P-P-PATTERN www.nopattern.com Artist Chuck Anderson’s work lies at the heart of this online portfolio site, which boasts a purposefully low-tech design (we’ve seen non-HTML format e-mails with more complexity). Record sleeves and mag art rub shoulders with hand-drawn and digital art from the Chicago-based freelance designer.

SOFTWARE

introduces tools used in Return Of The King

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ixologic has announced the launch of the eagerly anticipated ZBrush 2. Revolutionary new modelling, surfacing and texturing techniques are promised, with users being able to take advantage of multi-resolution mesh editing, support for displacement and normal maps, and displacement projections. In addition, the software offers more powerful visibility controls, a range of new sculpting brushes, plus extensive code optimisation. The company has also been discussing the role of the original

ZBrush became a key component during Return Of The King’s intensive production pipeline.

ZBrush in the pipeline used to create visual effects for the final chapter in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, which swept the Academy Awards earlier this year, winning all 11 categories in which it was nominated. To meet the increased demands of the third movie, Weta Digital was forced to rebuild much of its digital assets. Using ZBrush, the modelling team was frequently able to bypass the traditional physical maquette building, scanning and displacement map extraction phase. “ZBrush was trialled by Weta Digital’s modelling department early in our postproduction work on The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King, and it quickly became one of the key software components of our modelling pipeline,” says Matt Aitken, Weta Digital’s Digital Models Supervisor. As well as making use of the existing ZBrush feature-set, Weta Digital also tested and used a number of new features and enhancements that will debut in ZBrush 2. The new edition should be available for the PC now, retailing at $489 (£265). A Mac edition is expected shortly. ■ INFO www.zbrush.com, www.wetadigital.com Images © New Line Cinema

N.E.R.D. www.n-e-r-d.com With a new album to promote, N.E.R.D. has given its Website a long overdue makeover. Fresh graphics, new downloadables and enough photos of Pharrell and friends to keep admirers happy for a long time all feature, alongside a deeply silly but fun Flash-based skateboard game.

ZBRUSH 2 UNLEASHED Version 2 of Pixologic’s powerful app

LOST HUMANS www.losthumans.com The 2004 site for interactive content developer Ashley Warren is a Flash fetishist’s dream. Blade Runner-esque page furniture and dinky fonts reveal how adept Warren is at creating something beautiful yet easily navigable. A shame so many of his projects are for corporate clients. JOJO IN THE STARS jojo.studioaka.co.uk After wowing festival goers and Web surfers with his three ‘Picas’ shorts, StudioAKA’s Marc Craste returns with JoJo. A prequel packed with German Expressionistic influences, it’s already picked up a BAFTA. Find out what all the fuss is about at this beautifully understated official Website. WANT YOUR NEW SITE FEATURED? Send the link to [email protected] with the subject header ‘Websites’.

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Weta brought many Middle-Earth beasts to life using tools that will appear in Pixologic’s ZBrush 2.

News

CD:UK’S STUNNING NEW SITE TV

Saturday morning show makes stylish online debut

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D:UK, the hugely popular kids’ music and entertainment TV show, now has its own Website. Functioning like a futuristic music player, the site’s been designed to closely mirror the style, content and appeal of the programme, with the Flash-based interface providing fast access to videos, ‘backstage’ content, music news and competitions. Downloadable ringtones, a message board, and links to online shops are also set to feature, plus after-show live Web chats with presenter Cat Deeley and guests. Visitors will also be able to preview music from the next show. The site was created for Celador International by Stunning, a design agency

responsible for Atomic Kitten and The Thrills’ Websites (among others), album sleeves for Grand Central records, and a variety of TV, graphic and branding projects for recording artists, labels and other non-music clients. ■ INFO www.cduk.com, www.stunningwork.com

Deadlines are a fact of life you cannot escape. But, according to digital artist Tom Opasinski, they’re also “a point of no return” that you can exploit to your creative advantage

WHETHER YOU’RE INTERESTED IN ILLUSTRATION, 3D, WEB DESIGN OR VIDEO, YOU’LL FIND A COURSE HERE TO SUIT

MICROCOMPUTING Washington, Tyne & Wear Based in the North-east of England, this Microsoft-approved training centre provides courses specifically geared towards real-world scenarios. Adobe Photoshop – Fundamentals 1 June, £100 Adobe Photoshop – In More Depth 2 June, £100 www.microcomputing.co.uk HOXTON BIBLIOTECH Hoxton, London A business support and new media training company, based in Shoreditch and with three other centres around North-east London. HTML Level 1 12 May, £225+ After Effects 5 11-12 May, £500+ www.biblio-tech.net

DESIGNER DEADLINES

SUBJECT

LEARNING CURVE MERIDIAN TRAINING Henley-On-Thames The following are special offer prices. Only eight spaces will be provided for each course (minimum of four). Further half-price offers are available. Check the Website for details. Photoshop CS Introduction 13-14 May, £250 (was £495) Illustrator CS Introduction 26-27 May, £250 www.meridiantraining.com

OPINION

CLEAR THINKING LTD Southampton Specialising in 3D visualisation, Web, multimedia and print design, Clear Thinking is an authorised training centre for Maxon, Macromedia, Discreet and Autodesk apps. Maxon Cinema 4D 17-18 May, £495 3ds Max 24-25 May, £495 www.goclearthinking.co.uk PARITY TRAINING Leeds and Birmingham Parity is an international outfit with offices in 14 UK locations. It covers IT, business and creative-orientated courses. Quark XPress 6 For Windows 5 May, £595+ (Leeds) Fast Track To Macromedia Fireworks MX 2004 24 June, £595+ (Birmingham) www.paritytraining.co.uk AQUENT London Aquent offers training for creatives working in print, Web, multimedia and video. An authorised centre for Adobe, Quark and Maxon training, it offers a range of courses. Illustrator Introduction 4 May, £200+ Quark XPress Intermediate 20 May, £200+ http://aquent.co.uk

“We need your project now. Or, better still, how about yesterday?” Like anyone who works in a deadline-driven environment, commercial artists often have to acclimatise themselves to the pressures of ‘the deadline’ several times a week. After all, you can never fully estimate the amount of work that goes into a project until you’re right in the thick of it. And then it’s too late to back out... Computers may have changed dramatically in the last decade, but we haven’t. We still have to think, to solve problems, to share ideas and come up with the best solution. And it takes time to do that. We’re equipped with super-fast computers and huge flat-screen monitors, of course, but we’re still working with those same slow pencils to come up with the original ideas, and we don’t talk any faster than we did two years ago! Sometimes, we have inspiration and sometimes we don’t – but the deadline is still there, waiting for us. It might sound scary, but you do get used to it. After many years in advertising, I’ve at least learned one valuable lesson: don’t be afraid of a deadline and don’t wait for a deadline. After all, it’ll come whatever you do (or don’t do!). The secret is to make it work to your advantage… For most of the young artists I’ve worked with, the very word fills them with dread. That’s because they don’t yet understand how a deadline fits into their creative workflow. They’ve prepared themselves for the experience by reading about it in a book. But to truly understand the way it works, you have to learn on the job. That’s the only way. Experienced artists can think ahead, for instance. When you’re dealing with a deadline, your artwork becomes less ‘you’ – you don’t always have the time to make it ‘your piece’ and put ‘your touch’ to it. So, in a sense, you may say deadlines make you less original. That’s why recognised artists want to spend more time on their pieces. But as a commercial artist, I’m asked to do something quite different: to solve problems. With all my artwork (a poster, for example), there has to be a clear message for the viewer/client. Without this message, I can design many ‘beautiful’ images, but who will buy them? Does a deadline help me with ideas, then? No, but it does help me estimate the time I can spend on the artwork. It also helps me to organise and collect information (creative briefs, clients’ suggestions, and so forth). Deadlines are never inspirational; they’re a point of no return that helps me make decisions more quickly. On the one hand, then, it’s a good thing to work with deadlines (as long as they’re not too tight, of course!); on the other, you never enjoy a full sense of creative freedom... There are always some elements you want to change after the deadline has passed, be it shifting a graphic slightly to the left or subtly altering your palette... If we spent more time on our projects, thinking about all this before a deadline, life would be so much easier... Hang on a minute. Is that the time? I have to stop and send this opinion column to Vicki Atkinson now! Deadline tomorrow morning... See what I mean? INFO Tom Opasinski is a digital artist and certified Adobe expert. For more information, please visit www.tom-arthur-opasinski.com

Computer Arts_May 2004

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COMING SOON A CALENDAR OF ESSENTIAL RELEASES, EVENTS (AND WISHFUL THINKING) FOR ALL DIGITAL CREATIVES

MAY

My Favourite Conference IdN Magazine’s leading design event. Singapore, 13-15 May (www.idnworld.com) Computer Arts 97 On sale 13 May Painter 9 More brushes, canvases and bundled extras, please! Troy Blockbusting historical epic hits cinemas 21 May Computer Arts Projects 59 Graphic design and layout issue – hits newsagents 27 May

JUNE

D&AD New Blood Fresh talent goes on show (www.dandad.org) Computer Arts 98 With free Graduate Showcase supplement – on sale 10 June Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban Goes on general release Computer Arts Projects 60 Desktop film editing issue, on sale 24 June Apple Worldwide Developers Conference San Francisco, 28 June (www.apple.com/wwdc)

JULY

OFFF Top design event in Barcelona (www.offf.ws) Shrek 2 hits UK cinemas 2 July (www.shrek2.com) Computer Arts 99 On sale 8 July SoftImage|XSI 4 Should be hitting the CA reviews pages soon Spider-Man 2 Hits the big screens with even better SFX Computer Arts Projects 61 On sale 22 July

AUGUST

Computer Arts 100 On sale 5 August. The big anniversary issue! SIGGRAPH 2004 8-12 August, Los Angeles. Biggest graphics event in the world? Probably Blade: Trinity In cinemas 13 August. More CGI mayhem Computer Arts Projects 62 On sale 19 August Graphics Hardware 2004 Conference 29-30 August, Grenoble, France

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PRODUCTION SHOW The annual broadcast and production event returns EVENT

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vid, Quantel, Sony, and Skillset are just a few of the exhibitors confirmed for the Broadcast Production Show, which runs from 18-20 May at London’s Olympia Exhibition Centre. Formerly known as The Production Show, the event has been expanded this year, and will feature more content of interest to those outside of the pro broadcast arena. This includes

workshops for video editing, visual effects, HD, and digital intermediate from companies like Apple, Sony and Pinnacle. Entry to the main show is usually £10, but free registration is available online (see the official Website). A Content Pass is also available for £25, giving access to all workshops scheduled over the three days. ■ INFO www.productionshow.com

THE WUMBLERS NEW MEDIA

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Cosgrove Hall’s unique digital animation

egendary animation studio Cosgrove Hall – home to Dangermouse, Count Duckula and Engie Benjy – is back with a new animated TV show. Aimed at preschoolers, The Wumblers is being produced for Peak Entertainment/The Silly Goose Company, with an initial commission for 26 ten-minute episodes. The series is the latest to be animated by Cosgrove Digital, the in-house team responsible for the company’s new media, computer game

and digital animation output. Its most recent animation project was the acclaimed Doctor Who animated series. “The Wumblers is definitely a unique pre-school programme, and one that completely lends itself to our 2D digital process,” says Senior Producer Jon Doyle. “It’s being produced using a bespoke in-house production process, which has been developed utilising Flash software.” The Wumblers is set to air in Spring 2005. The BBC, ABC Australia, CBC Canada and Tele 5 France have all expressed an interest in broadcasting the series. ■ INFO www.chf.co.uk

10,000 songs in your pocket . 1

Join the iPod revolution with the new 15GB, 20GB or 40GB models. The new iPod range The super-slim iPod defines what a digital music player should be. It’s lighter than two CDs, can hold up to 10,000 songs or thousands of digital photos. Now you can sync with iTunes for Mac and Windows at blazing speeds, and take your entire music collection with you wherever you go. Available for Mac and Windows. Just 1.57 cm thick, the iPod fits comfortably in the palm of your hand and slips easily into your pocket - and your life. Merely 158 g , it weighs less than two Compact Discs, and even many mobile phones. And yet the iPod gives you a huge 15GB, 20GB or 40GB hard drive - big enough to hold 10,000 songs. Do the sums: that’s four weeks of music - played continuously, 24/7 - or one new song a day for the next 27 years.

Mac G5 series. You’ll also find a huge choice of software, monitors, compatible printers, scanners and other accessories.

Knowledgeable service Customers return to John Lewis time and again because they know the sales assistants are fully trained by Apple. This means that you, the customer, can rest assured that you will get the best product to suit your needs.

Buying made easy Buying Apple equipment from John Lewis is one thing. But the story doesn’t end there. Not only will your Apple be delivered free but installation professionals can help you set up your computer for a small charge. All in all, John Lewis offers a service that is designed to make buying and using your Apple easier than ever.

John Lewis – All under one roof John Lewis department stores stock the complete range of Apple products including the brand new and faster iBook, iMac, PowerBook and Power 1

10,000 applies to 40GB iPod only. Based on 4min/song and 128kbps AAC or MP3 encoding.

Want to know more? Visit your nearest John Lewis.

• 15GB, 20GB & 40GB HD • PC & Mac compatible • Firewire connector inc • Sleek earbud-stlye head phones • 20GB & 40GB include iPod dock and carrying case.

GUEST FONT SHOWCASE Design consultancy Substance® celebrates the birth of its online image directory ImagesOfSubstance by developing brand new font, Zhen-Yi “Originally, Zhen-Yi had a select number of characters and was designed for use in HTML apps,” says Neil Fletcher of ImagesOfSubstance. “The grey version was first showcased in Le Blanc

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magazine. The black font is a heavier weight of the grey version, designed for use in Computer Arts.” ImagesOfSubstance.co.uk is an online image directory, due to launch in May, aimed at designers,

art directors and the visually literate; the site’s being managed by its creator, design consultancy Substance®. “The Website has been augmented to feature fonts, books and audio clips,” explains Fletcher, “but primarily it will be a place to view and buy hundreds of photographic images, which can then be distorted, cropped or appropriated by the artist without fear of breaching copyright.” ■ INFO www.imagesofsubstance.co.uk

Prize worth over

$26,000 a

USD

pprox £14,200!

WIN A SCHOLARSHIP

TO VANCOUVER FILM SCHOOL! Our most amazing competition to date! Your chance to win a year’s scholarship at the prestigious Vancouver Film School, on the Interactive Media course. Flights to and from Canada are included. Enter now!

T

he Interactive Media course at Vancouver Film School has a reputation that’s hard to beat and a staggering employment rate! Which is why we’re proud to offer you a chance to join it for free. This leading Canadian institution is offering one Computer Arts reader the chance to spend a whole year experimenting with major graphics software, studying theory and gaining hands-on experience in the design industry. If you’re passionate about a career in design, this is a gateway to knowledge and opportunity. Just download our application pack, send in a letter of intent and submit your portfolio on CD or provide a Website link – we’ll do the rest. Work can be submitted as print, Web, video or animation, or a mixture of each. This ground-breaking course begins with intensive grounding in interactive software and disciplines before you branch out into one of three streams. Choose the Programming stream for in-depth training in creating cuttingedge solutions and rich Internet applications; logical thinking and

technical flair are essential to providing the best solutions. Opt for Visual Design and you’ll be immersed in motion graphics, usability and interactive marketing. The course offers advanced instruction on typography, interface design, user experience, DV, 3D and the rigours of print production. Finally, there’s the Audio/Video stream, where you’ll generate original sound and powerful visuals with advanced instruction in digital audio production, digital video editing, interactive video deployment, compression and asset delivery. In development is a Game Design stream that analyses the game-playing experience, working on prototypes and training in game theory, mechanics, story-telling and software skills. Every stream has close affiliations with industry partners. You’ll also be eligible for the Life Long Learning program, keeping you up to speed for the rest of your career! So get to work on your portfolio and download all the information and admission forms you need from the following Website:

www.vfs.com/computerarts Examples of student work: stills from Bernard Kowalski and Karl Jensen’s Flash action game, entitled Tiger Claw.

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THE FACTS Course duration 48 weeks Start date Every eight weeks from 25 October 2004 Age Must be 19 years or older Admission requirements Acceptance will be determined by the talent, creativity and commitment demonstrated in the contents of the application package and by the candidate’s potential to succeed in the program. Work experience and/or education in the area of study is recommended, but not required. Basic computer skills are required. The most suited candidate for the course will be selected by the entries. The judges All entries received before the closing date of Wednesday 30 June 2004 will be carefully considered by a panel of expert judges, listed below. The winner will be announced in July. • Stephen Webster, Head of Interactive Media, Vancouver Film School • Vicki Atkinson, Editor, Computer Arts • Sarah Mowatt, European PR Manager, Macromedia • Amber Bezahler, Director of User Experience, Blast Radius Terms and conditions Full terms and conditions, including application requirements, are available for download at www.vfs. com/computerarts. Closing date for entries is 30 June 2004. Candidates must fulfil all entry requirements, submit the forms provided and hold a valid passport. Flights to and from Canada are included, but not accommodation or transfer to and from airports. Entry and acceptance of prize are at winner’s own risk. Late or incomplete entries will not be accepted.

Innovation From Every Angle

■ ■ ■ ■ ■

6.3 million effective pixels (12.3 million recorded pixels) Innovative dual screen display Full manual control Unique upright design Ultra-fast start-up time

PHOTOGRAPHY IS OUR WORLD

www.fujifilm.co.uk/di

ILLUSTRATION BY MAGICTORCH www.magictorch.com

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Tutorial

QUICK-LOOK CONTENTS PHOTOSHOP PAGE 26

FAST TECHNIQUES

THE NEED FOR SPEED Get great results from leading graphics software – all in a matter of minutes – with these ten expert techniques for users of all levels Who isn’t busy these days? Time has become more and more precious and we’re all busier than ever. If you’re sat with your head fixated on your LCD screen hour after hour, then it’s time you took a break from the long, hard toil before your brain numbs and your creativity vanishes. Over the next ten pages, we provide fast techniques for five leading programs. Each of these techniques was provided by experts with the promise of saving you time or enhancing your graphics with only a little effort. None of the following tutorials should take you more than half an hour to finish, and each one has been carefully chosen as something you’ll find relevant. Keep this magazine alongside your PC or Mac until you find yourself with some spare time one evening. Once you’ve done just one of them, you’ll find yourself equipped with a greater understanding of your favourite app’s tools, a new effect for your work or a time-saving technique that you’ll wish you’d learned years ago. So turn over, dip in, let us know what you think or suggest some more fast techniques by email at ca.mail@futurenet. co.uk, or via our forums at forum.computerarts.co.uk.

Our Photoshop techniques were supplied by pro illustrator Jason Jaroslav Cook, also known as Jacey. His clients have ranged from LEGO to Tatler, and he’s now represented by the Debut Art agency. After showing us how to create painterly effects, Jacey explains how to quickly add shadows to objects in Photoshop www.jacey.com

ILLUSTRATOR PAGE 28 Andi Jenkinson, Creative Director of design agency, Folk, provided our Illustrator expertise. Based in London, Folk specialises in brand identity, print and new media, with a down-to-earth approach to design. Here, Jenkinson showcases two techniques for customising your tools and managing image resolution in Illustrator www.folk.uk.com

FLASH PAGE 30 Oliver Shaw is Lead Flash Developer at Now Wash Your Hands, a Londonbased new media agency that has produced interactive work for MTV and Cadbury’s. Shaw demonstrates how to use guide layers and create sound effects in Flash www.nwyh.com

DREAMWEAVER PAGE 32 Tom Knowles is a Creative Director at Manchester-based Ultima Group, and has over eight years’ experience in Web and multimedia authoring. In our Dreamweaver techniques, Knowles demonstrates how to make the most of libraries and cascading style sheets www.ultimagroup.com

AFTER EFFECTS PAGE 34 Digital video artist Rob Chiu works under the title The Ronin and is at home with both motion graphics and 2D illustration. He recently completed Dimensions – a three-minute short for Channel 4. Chiu supplies insight into the AE techniques behind two of his movies: fast type effects and working with layered Photoshop documents www.theronin.co.uk

Computer Arts_May 2004

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PHOTOSHOP QUICKSTEP CREATE A PAINTERLY CANVAS Use Jacey’s quickfire techniques to transform your images in minutes As with most things in Photoshop, Adobe’s much acclaimed image-editing app, there are 101 different ways to create paint textures and effects. You could spend hours working out which way suits you best, or you could use the following technique by a

INFO Expertise provided by Jacey (www.jacey.com)

'RZQORDGWXWRULDOILOHVKHUH IWSIWSIXWXUHQHWFRXNSXEDUWV]LQLRFDBSKRWRVKRSBTXLFNVWHS]LS

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Now create a new layer below the Texture layer and call it simply Paint. Select a nice, large brush with a texture effect from the Brush palette (you can use one of the default brushes).

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Open model1.jpg from the cover CD, duplicate the layer, then fill the original background layer with a light brown colour. Create a new layer above the copied layer and fill that with white, then set its Blending mode to Multiply.

Rename the white layer ‘texture’, then go to Filter>Texture>Texturizer. Set the Texture to Canvas, Scaling to 100 per cent, Relief to around 4, and the Light setting to Top.

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Now select the Pattern Stamp tool and go to Edit>Define Pattern. Give the pattern a name, then select it from the Options bar at the top.

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professional illustrator to achieve these results – fast. Using the Pattern Stamp tool and a few brushes, this short tutorial will show you a very quick way of giving your images a painterly canvas feel.

Computer Arts_May 2004

On the paint layer, start to paint around the layer and focus on the model’s left side. Next, paint over the left side of the canvas. Check out the image above to get an accurate idea of where to paint.

Now set the Blending mode for the paint layer to Overlay. This will enrich the effect and colours of this layer. Create a new layer at the top of the Layers palette and call it ‘darkarea’.

Choose the Brush tool for the Tools palette and select a soft brush tip. Using the colour black, paint around the model in the dark area layers, as in the above image.

Set the Blending mode for the dark area layer to overlay. You may want to set the opacity for this layer in the Layers palette to around 81 per cent.

Flatten the image so you have just one layer. Now use either Colour Balance or Hue and Saturation to tweak the overall colour palette, giving the illustration a warm, painterly feel.

Tutorial

PHOTOSHOP ADVANCED SUPERB SHADOW EFFECTS Haven’t time to render? Shadows not working? Then Jacey has the answer Using shadows in your digital illustrations or photographs can enhance and bring the elements alive by adding necessary depth and realism. However, in some cases you may find that the shadow isn’t quite strong enough, or that you don’t have time to make a full 3D render, so you’re forced to exclude them. Well,

this tutorial will equip you with a quick and easy solution – in this case, demonstrated using a 3D render 'RZQORDGWXWRULDOILOHVKHUH of a statue. With the help of paths, layers, Blending modes and the odd filter, we’ll show you how to create IWSIWSIXWXUHQHWFRXNSXEDUWV]LQLRFDBSKRWRVKRSBDGYDQFHG]LS a realistic shadow in no time at all. INFO Expertise provided by Jacey, www.jacey.com

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Start by opening statue1.jpg (included on the cover CD), then create a new layer in the Paths palette and call it ‘outline’. Using the Pen tool, draw a clipping path around the figure.

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Now turn your path into a selection, copy the selection and paste it. You should now have a new layer, so rename the layer statue ‘copy’. Duplicate this layer and rename the layer ‘shadow’.

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Staying with the statue copy layer, set the Blending mode for this layer to Hardlight. Using the Gaussian Blur filter, set its Pixel Radius to around 4.7 and then click OK.

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Now flatten all the layers, to leave just one. Duplicate that layer, Gaussian Blur it with around 6.8 pixels, then set its Blending mode to Overlay.

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Go to Edit>Transform>Distort to distort the statue copy layer, as shown in the above image. You may have to move it around a bit to get the same shape, but don’t worry if it’s not too exact. Just try and get it as close as you can.

Switch on the Transparency layer lock on the Layers palette for the statue copy layer. Using a black colour, go to Edit>Fill. This should now fill the distorted statue only. Turn off the Transparency lock.

Open the Colour Balance dialog box and add around +69 red to the statue copy layer. Click OK. Now duplicate the layer, and use the Eraser tool with a large, soft brush size to delete half, so that it’s dense near the figure.

Going back to the shadow layer, fill the statue with the colour from the shadow around the bottom of the statue. Next, using the Eraser tool, delete the top part of the filled figure, but leave a shadow around the bottom part.

We can now flatten the image again and experiment with the overall colour balance to change the feel of the image. Finally, use the Paintbrush tool to correct any areas that might need a bit more shadow adding to them. ■

Computer Arts_May 2004

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ILLUSTRATOR QUICKSTEP CUSTOMISE YOUR TOOLS Ensure your copy of Illustrator is tailored to your needs, not someone else’s Spending a little time customising your interface and shortcuts to match the jobs you do most often can save you hours, if not days, on a job. And Illustrator has a host of features that enable you to customise it easily. For example, if there are specific tools you use on a

INFO Expertise provided by Andi Jenkinson of Folk (www.folk.uk.com).

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Bring up your Tool palette by selecting Window>Tools, which will reveal all the tools available. If you aren’t familiar with every single one, experiment to see if there’s one that will enhance your style of artwork.

Think about your most frequently used tools. If you know the process of how you are going to build your artwork, decide which of these tools you’ll be using. This will save you wasting time rearranging your palettes during the project.

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Now we’re going to look at ways of customising your tools. As in the image above, select the Pen tool by clicking on it in the Tool palette.

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project – the Pen, Scale and Warp Tools, for instance – and you often flip between each variation of the tool, then read on for a quicker way of doing it that will save you both time and effort.

Computer Arts_May 2004

To see variations of the tools available in the set, click and hold the mouse down on the tool you wish to view. A pop-up of all the tools in that set now appears, giving you a range of permutations.

To separate the set of tools from the main Tool palette, scroll along to the arrow at the end of the pop-up panel, then click with your mouse.

A miniature toolbar will appear off the main Tool palette, as shown. This miniature toolbar consists all the variations of tools available to you. Reposition the set anywhere on your screen by clicking and dragging the bar at the top.

If you need more than one toolset available to you at the same time, then repeat the process with a different set. Repeat as necessary.

If you realise that you no longer require any of the tools you’ve detached from the main Tool palette, close them by clicking on the small Close button at the top of the bar.

The more experienced you are with Illustrator, the faster you can work. Our final tip is to try using the keyboard as shortcuts to selecting your desired tool. Find out which key selects which tool by hovering over the tool on the Tool palette.

Tutorial

ILLUSTRATOR ADVANCED SUCCESSFUL IMAGE MANAGEMENT Quickly determine the resolution or file size of images embedded in EPS files Big-client projects often require you to bring in images from a number of sources – and to ensure total control over your finished artwork, you need to manage these effectively. If your client sends you EPS files with embedded images, one of the challenges is calculating the resolution or original file size of the image to

ensure accurate output at the printing stages, which can take a long time. Over the following nine steps, we show you how to skip the hard work, and offer a pain-free way of working this out... INFO Expertise by Andi Jenkinson from Folk (www.folk.uk.com)

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In older versions of Illustrator, you could only find out how much an image was scaled at by selecting Information from the Links palette. This, however, doesn’t show the resolution of the image. In Illustrator 10 or above, by doing the same process you can see the current ppi (pixels per inch) value of an image if you ensure that your Preferences are set to Points in the Units and Undo menu.

Illustrator always imports artwork in at 72ppi, whether you embed the file or link to the file for an external source. Be aware that if images are linked, the original Photoshop image files must be kept with your Illustrator document, especially when printing. Use the Links palette to manage these links.

Create an original file in Photoshop by going to File>New, giving it a name and setting the size of the file to 1x1 inches and the pixels per inch to 300. Now import any image into your artwork.

Next, save your image as a TIFF or EPS that’s 1x1 inches at 300ppi in Photoshop, by selecting File>Save As, then import it into Illustrator.

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Next, check the scaled image. You’ll notice that it says the image is scaled down, even though you didn’t scale it. This is because Illustrator imported the image at 72ppi (approximately 7.9x6.7 inches), and automatically scaled it down to the correct 1x1-inch size in the process.

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You can check the pixels per inch by changing the Illustrator Preferences under Units and Undo. Then select Information from the Links palette. You’ll now be able to see that the image has been imported at 72ppi.

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So next time you need to find the resolution of an embedded image, find out how much it was scaled and scale it back to 100 per cent. You can then copy and paste it into Photoshop at 72ppi. ■

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Create a new Illustrator document, then import your file into the new document by going to File>Place or copying and pasting it from Photoshop.

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You can test this procedure out for yourself in the following steps, so that the next time you receive an embedded EPS, you know how to work out the original size of the embedded image.

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FLASH QUICKSTEP GUIDE LAYERS Using motion guide layers to streamline your SWF production schedule Motion guide layers are commonly used for animating tweened movie clips or multiple movie clips along a path. But you can use them for more than that – to store visual information on the Flash stage, such as notes, instructions, graphics and so on, which is handy when you’re sharing or distributing FLA files, or if

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To create a guide layer, select the layer you want to turn into a guide layer and right-click (Ctrl-click on a Mac). Select Guide from the pop-up menu.

you’re working from a design created in another package. There are two key benefits to doing this. First, the guide layers are invisible in the SWF file. Second, the objects on a guide layer aren’t exported in the library of a SWF file, thus ensuring a compact file size. INFO Expertise by Oliver Shaw, Lead Flash Developer (www.nwyh.com).

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You can tell the difference between the guide layer and the motion guide layer by the symbol at the left of the layer label, as shown above. Once you have the guide layer in the timeline, be careful when moving other layers around, as it’s possible to drag a standard layer onto a guide layer, thereby converting the guide layer into a motion guide layer. Now you can use the guide layer to add Notes and other important information for your movie that’s not required in the final SWF file.

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As in the image above clearly illustrates, the symbol to the left of the layer name has now changed, indicating a guide layer.

Above is a typical example of how a guide looks when you’re using it as a motion guide to animate a movie clip along a path.

Don’t select the Add Motion Guide option in the menu, because this will not render the layer (as with the other guide layer), and it could affect any tweened animation on the associated layer.

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Computer Arts_May 2004

When a layer is associated with a motion guide layer, you’ll notice that the layer’s symbol and layer name are indented slightly. This is the same for all layers linked to the motion guide layer, and works in a similar way to masked layers.

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Motion guides can be used to animate more than one movie clip along the same path (if that’s what your project requires). See the image above for an example of motion guides in action.

Note also that guide layers are handy for more than just motion guides… You can also use them to create a design in Flash and then overlay it on a Photoshop document, as shown above.

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Check out NOWWASHYOURHAND’s work for Tesco’s Computers for Schools campaign, which involved extensive use of guide layers in this way. Head to clients.ctn.co.uk/tesco_cfs_2004/pupils.asp.

Tutorial

FLASH ADVANCED CODING SOUNDS Enliven your animations with judicious use of Flash-generated sonics Having the skills to use Flash to create cool and funky animations for the Web or even TV is a great position to be in – you’re always going to be in demand. However, it’s easy to forget that great animation needs sound to complete the effect, whether it’s music, voices or just beeps... The following tutorial covers a range of

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A sound object essentially contains your sounds. Above, you’ll see the code required to create a new sound object and attach a library sound file to it. When creating a new one, it’s best to initialise the object within its own movie clip, rather than in the current clip you’re working on. It’s now so much easier to locate and organise your sounds, because you always know where they’re kept.

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When creating a new instance of the sound object, name your movie clip or sound object uniquely, as the word sound is a reserved word in Flash and may not work as intended. Once you have a sound object and attached a sound to it, it’s better to use the attachSound code only once.

methods that are considered good practice when using sound within a Flash project. These techniques aren’t the only way to work with sound in Flash, but they will make your project easier to control and much easier for others to edit. INFO Expertise by Oliver Shaw, Lead Flash Developer (www.nwyh.com)

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If you want to use multiple sounds in your project, you can create multiple sound objects, one for each sound. This is useful for interfaces that use multiple sounds in the interaction design.

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To keep a project’s file size down, you can load in external MP3 files. When loading in MP3 files, it’s best to load the files one at a time. You can set this up automatically using ActionScript.

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You’ll need to place sounds not set to load in the first frame on the timeline somewhere within the movie, so that they load correctly. With Flash 5, all linked sounds in the library have to load in the first frame. One way around this is to load a separate SWF containing the sounds into the main SWF file (after frame 1), where you can use them as normal.

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NOWWASHYOURHANDS recently used this sound-coding technique in the making of its Operation Slaps Website, where you can play the schoolyard game of slapsies in safety, with sound effects. Visit the site www.operationslaps.com.

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When you set a sound from the library to have a Linkage Identifier, it’s advisable to deselect the Export In First Frame checkbox, as shown. If it’s left checked, the sound will load in before your movie’s preloading script, leaving a pause before the graphics of the first frame are loaded.

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Instead of continually attaching the sound each time we need it, we’ve created a playSound function, which automates the process.

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If you want to find out more about Flash sound objects and how they work – or play with sound further – you’ll find a good online resource at actionscript-toolbox.com/soundobject.php. ■

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DREAMWEAVER QUICKSTEP USE THE LIBRARY TO GET ORGANISED Make your changes work across the board with this handy hint Dreamweaver’s template system is a great way of combating code duplication, but in a lot of cases it’s not the best solution. What if you want to include a company slogan at the foot of every page, and then be able to update it across the site if necessary, for instance? This is where Dreamweaver’s library comes

INFO Expertise by Tom Knowles of Ultima Group (www.ultimagroup.com)

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Below your table, write a generic copyright notice, such as: ‘All text and images copyright yournamehere 2004’. Place this inside a pair of paragraph tags, and format it as you wish.

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We’re going to demonstrate the use of the Dreamweaver library by creating a simple copyright footer and applying it to multiple pages across an entire document. To get started, open Dreamweaver and click Dreamweaver Site.

Follow the new site wizard – we don’t need to worry about server-side technologies or connecting to a remote server, so select None when prompted for a connection type.

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Once your new site is set up, click Create New HTML. As shown above, use the Table tool to draw out some sample content. Save your file.

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in – it enables you to store groups of assets, such as 'RZQORDGWXWRULDOILOHVKHUH text, images or tables, and then place references to them in your pages. If you decide to edit the library item, you can do this directly and every reference to it IWSIWSIXWXUHQHWFRXNSXEDUWV]LQLRFDBGUHDPZHDYHUBTXLFNVWHS]LS will then be updated automatically.

Computer Arts_May 2004

Highlight your footer text and move straight over to the Files panel. Click the Assets tab and then the library icon (the open book). Click the dropdown and select New Library Item.

Give your library item a name, such as ‘footer’. Your new item is now stored in the library, and the corresponding text should be highlighted and surrounded by special comments.

Next, we’ll create a new page. Choose File> New>Basic> HTML. As above, add in some generic content. Move back to the Library panel and drag the footer onto the page.

Save the current page, then double-click the footer item in the Library panel. Edit the text in some way and save the changes. A prompt appears.

This prompt now asks you whether you want to update the pages that reference the footer, thus demonstrating how easily the Dreamweaver library enables you to make site-wide changes.

Tutorial

DREAMWEAVER ADVANCED CASCADING STYLE SHEETS Looking for a clean and efficient layout? Then you’ve come to the right place These days, most people are familiar with using CSS for textual formatting, but it’s increasingly being used for layout and positioning as well. Using CSS in this way dramatically reduces browsing speed (the browser caches the CSS file rather than having to download and interpret the HTML structures for each page), and

achieves a cleaner separation of content from presentation. So if you’re after a layout that’ll port well to a variety of devices, it makes sense to get a grip of CSS positioning – just follow the nine steps below and you’re done!

'RZQORDGWXWRULDOILOHVKHUH IWSIWSIXWXUHQHWFRXNSXEDUWV]LQLRFDBGUHDPZHDYHUBDGYDQFHG]LS

INFO Expertise by Tom Knowles, Ultima Group (www.ultimagroup.com)

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To start with, we’ll demonstrate some simple positioning techniques by creating a small and simple sample page. First, create a new Dreamweaver site in the usual way. Once it’s configured, create a new HTML page.

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In the design panel, select New CSS Style; Dreamweaver automatically detects your new style sheet. In the selector field, type ‘div#’ plus the ID name of the content we’re going to position.

To create a navigation section, create another DIV element – this time with an unordered list of links. As before, give the DIV the ID name ‘nav’.

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Cascading Style Sheet positioning is based around use of the DIV tag, which we can use to separate and define our content. To insert one, choose Insert>Layout Objects>Div Tag.

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Let’s start with a couple of tags that contain a title and subtitle. In the DIV dialog box, give the two tags unique ID names, such as ‘title’ and ‘subtitle’, to remind you what does what.

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To complete our content, create two more DIVs, with the ID names ‘left’ and ‘right’. Now insert some paragraph tags containing textual content, such as the Lorem Ipsum text above.

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Create a new CSS file, and link to it in your HTML page. Either choose Attach Style Sheet from the design panel, or simply drag and drop it into your document’s HEAD tag.

Under Selector Type, choose Advanced. Now click OK and you’ll be presented with a wizard. Choose Positioning from the Category menu and you’ll be able to specify precise positioning for each DIV element on your HTML page.

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Dreamweaver offers a wealth of different CSS positioning options – with a little bit of fiddling around, you too can quickly create a classic layout, such as the one above, in no time at all. ■

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AFTER EFFECTS QUICKSTEP FAST-MOVING TYPE EFFECTS Create blindingly quick animations and video in nine easy steps The following tutorial shows you how to generate fast-moving typography and graphic effects with After Effects. Timing is crucial, of course, but there are no strict rules: so feel free to experiment, moving layers of type, and so forth. The, once you’ve finished, revisit the piece and try different timings and

INFO Expertise by digital video artist Rob Chiu (www.theronin.co.uk)

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With Shift held down, individually move layers 6-10 into the grey area outside the working window. This is the starting point for the animation.

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Create a project. Import the graphics1 document (on your CD) as a composition. Double-click the graphics1 composition in the Untitled Project window. Go to Composition>Composition Settings and set your frame rate to 25 and your pixel aspect ration to D1/DV Pal (1.07). In View>View Options, check the Pixel Aspect Ratio Correction box.

Set the ‘in’ time in the timeline window: set layers 6-10 to 03.12, layers 3-5 to 03.18, layer 2 to 3.24 and layer 1 to 4.09. Press Apple+G (Ctrl+G) and type 3.16 to jump to that position in the timeline.

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Select layers 6-10 and hit P to open up each layer’s position timeline. Click the clock icon for every layer to create a keyframe (a tick appears in the box to the left of the clock). Press I while on any layer to jump to the ‘in’ point of that layer.

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positioning. Experiment with duplicate layers set to 'RZQORDGWXWRULDOILOHVKHUH different modes, too, such as Multiply or Overlay. If you’re looking for some inspiration, click on the pr.mayhem piece at Computer Love’s Ronin exhibition IWSIWSIXWXUHQHWFRXNSXEDUWV]LQLRFDBDIWHUBHIIHFWVBTXLFNVWHS]LS at www.computerlove.net/theronin.

Computer Arts_May 2004

Go to time 3.21. Open up layers 3-5 and create a keyframe. Go to the ‘in’ position and repeat Step 4. Do the same for layer 2 at 3.28 and layer 1 at 4.14. While you are at the ‘in’ position of layer 1, create keyframes for all layers by checking the tickboxes.

Return to 4.14 in the timeline, hold down Shift and move layers 2, 6 and 8 off the screen. Now move layer 4 down so that the top of the graphic lines up with the top of layer 9.

Go to 4.20. Hold down Shift and move layers 1, 7, 9 and 10 down. Slide layer 3 left. At 5.07, create keyframes for layers 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9 and 10.

Go to 5.13. Hold down Shift and move all the layers off screen. Go to 0.00. Import the file background.mov from the CD and drag it into the timeline window so that it’s now layer 11.

Click all the jagged diagonal lines in the timeline window to enable high-quality graphics. Finally, either RAM preview your movie by pressing the Preview button in the Time Controls window, or render out your project using Apple+M (Ctrl+M).

Tutorial

AFTER EFFECTS ADVANCED ADD DEPTH WITH PHOTOSHOP LAYERS Turn even the simplest of graphics into something really special Here, we show you how to give depth to abstract Photoshop layers imported into After Effects. The movie that we’ll produce is taken from Rob Chiu’s Educate Innovate piece, created for the University of Huddersfield. Once you’ve followed the tutorial, go back and experiment – move the various layers and

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First off, create a new project in After Effects. Import the ltiu72dpi.psd document (on the CD) as a composition. Double-click the composition in the Untitled Project window. Go to Composition> Composition Settings and ensure your frame rate is 25 and the length is 8.00 seconds.

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Import background.mov and make it the bottom layer. Make all the layers (except the latter) 3D by checking the tickbox below the cube icon in the timeline. Create a keyframe at 07.28 for all 3D layers.

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At the start of the timeline, create a new camera (Layer>New>Camera); 35mm preset. At the end of the timeline, click the triangle on the camera layer. Create a keyframe for position under Transform.

alter how you navigate the 3D camera through the space created for you, adding your own touch in the process. To see Educate Innovate and more of Rob Chiu’s award-winning After Effects work, visit www.computerlove.net/theronin.

'RZQORDGWXWRULDOILOHVKHUH IWSIWSIXWXUHQHWFRXNSXEDUWV]LQLRFDBDIWHUBHIIHFWVBDGYDQFHG]LS

INFO Expertise by digital video artist Rob Chiu (www.theronin.co.uk)

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Return to 0.00 and, using the Orbit Camera tool, rotate the camera view so the co-ordinates in the timeline window are roughly 719, -171 and 542.

Repeat Step 5 for all layers in your project. Experiment by sending some layers to the back and bringing others to the front.

Select the Arrow tool and layer 2. Holding down Shift, drag the blue Z axis arrow so the layer moves position. The further you drag the arrow, the more 3D space you create between layers.

Change your camera view to check your position of the layers from a different angle. Viewing from the top makes the whole process a lot clearer. Experiment with moving layers using the Red X axis arrow and Green Y axis arrow.

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To simplify things, reduce your window size to 50 per cent, so you can drag layers off screen.

Ensure that your camera view is back at Active Camera and click all the jagged diagonal lines in the timeline window – this will enable high-quality graphics. You can now RAM preview your movie by pressing the Preview button in the Time Controls window, or render by pressing Apple+M. ■

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competition

PRIZES WORTH £1754!

WIN combustion 3 Fancy getting your hands on Discreet’s industry-standard motion graphics tool?

T

hanks to the folks at Discreet, we’ve got two copies of the fantastic combustion 3 to give away this month. combustion is the industry-acclaimed motion graphics, compositing and visual effects tool, aimed at professional artists working in video, film, DVD and the Web. It was also the winner of our compositing app group test last issue. Version 3 expands on this successful tool by adding many exciting new features. For a start, you can now use the Edit Operator to break free from your NLE by assembling clips, complete with transitions, directly within combustion. You can also design JavaScript-based Expressions to create complex animations, without having to keyframe each parameter, and make intricate Flash animations using the extensive range of tools. There’s a full particle system to create everything from dust to water droplets, and extensive vector-based painting and rotoscoping tools which work in real time. Sophisticated feathering facilities give you discrete control over the softness of both the inside and outside edges of a selection. Plus, the advanced Motion Tracker is not only one of the best in the business, it’s fully integrated with the other tools. What’s more, combustion now comes bundled with RE:flex from RE:vision Effects, providing industrial-strength morph and warping capabilities, thus eliminating the need for separate, expensive utilities. You can even analyse the grain characteristics of imported footage and apply it to anything else placed within a scene. It’s a superb app, worth £877 – we’ve got two copies to give away.

INFO Find out more about combustion 3, and other Discreet packages, at www.discreet.com

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THE QUESTION WHICH FEATURE OF THE NEW COMBUSTION 3 CAN BE USED TO ASSEMBLE CLIPS DIRECTLY WITHIN THE PROGRAM? TO ENTER Try the easy way, via our Website. Log onto www. computerarts.co.uk/competition. Click on the Discreet combustion competition to access the page. To enter the competition, click the link at the bottom of the page, fill in the form, including your answer and contact details. If you don’t have Web access, you can still enter by sending us your answer on a postcard to: Discreet competition, Computer Arts, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, BA1 2BW. Please include your address and a telephone number so we can contact you if you win.

THE RULES The closing date for entries is 20 May 2004. Employees of Discreet and Future Publishing, their agents and families are not permitted to enter. Multiple entries are not accepted. The editor’s decision is final and there are no cash alternatives. No other correspondence will be entered into. If you are entering by post and do not wish any of the companies involved in this competition to contact you with further offers, please indicate this on your entry. We will not pass your details on to third parties. ■

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Profile

HELIOS DESIGN LABORATORIES “Toronto happens to be the most culturally diverse city in the world,” says Felix Wittholz of Helios. “A barrage of influences awaits outside our office, and we’re constantly photographing street signage, scanning discarded fruit boxes or scavenging thrift stores. We just keep our eyes open. Naturally, a lot of our time is spent trolling the Net… for ideas, that is”

P Above: ‘Oh Deer’ 19x13-inch art print. Available from Helios’ growing merchandise outfit, OK47. Left: Cover art for the Helios motion graphic DVD. Note the not-so-subtle use of extreme implied violence.

erhaps Helios has found a secret ideas cache somewhere on that Net, because it certainly isn’t short of them. They surface in work spanning print, Web and motion graphics; from a site for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and Fiction416, a Toronto clothing company, to DVD interface designs, ads for PlayStation 2, covers for Adobe magazine and entire pop videos. Felix Wittholz – and older brother Alex, founder of Helios – have been around a bit, quite literally. As children, they travelled the world with their parents before settling in Canada. Nothing much happened for a while until Alex graduated from Ontario College of Art in 1990, discovered there were few companies still afloat to hire him, and instead set up Helios in “a basement office, tucked away in one of Toronto’s industrial wastelands.” Investing in the future, although perhaps a tad over-enthusiastically, he invested in a brand new 40MHz Mac II FX with 64MB RAM (for $9000 Can)

and set about designing “dinner menus and scalloped potato packaging.” Helios grew slowly, with the addition of Felix Wittholz and schoolmate Richard Switzer – who fortuitously brought with him a wealth of music industry contacts. Work on album jackets, music T-shirts and print ads followed, netting the company a 1995 Juno – the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy – for best album design. While the appeal of the music industry soon began to pall for Helios, it scored another member in the shape of rock guitarist Mike Robbins, who also happened to be a Visual Arts major and selftaught Internet wiz. Thus the next phase began, with Helios entering the field of interactive design…

LYING AND LEARNING “At the moment there are seven of us,” says Felix Wittholz. “We’ve had up to nine people on staff, but we prefer to stay small and farm out work to

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‘Tiga’ 19x13-inch art print – available through OK47.

More OK47 advertisements, taken from various Spring catalogues.

talented freelancing friends. In particular, any kind of sound design goes through John Black, the angry genius behind Cypheraudio.” Considering the sheer range of media that Helios has and will create for, seven is an impressively small number. Mixing the disciplines required for, say, a full Web campaign with those for a music video takes no small amount of flexibility. But Wittholz

One of many, many print ads created for OK47.

Apparently, sex sells (in this case, it sells OK47).

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“WE’VE NEVER SAID NO TO A PROJECT THAT WAS CLEARLY OUT OF OUR LEAGUE; WE JUST LIED AND LEARNED AS WE WENT ALONG!” believes this is less a conscious decision than, well, reckless abandon. “We have really short visual attention spans and hate repeating a certain style too often,” he explains simply. “We’ve also never said no to a project that was clearly out of our league; we just lied and learned as we went along.” But clients are none the less enthusiastic for it. “We’ve done almost no active soliciting of work, although we recently started sending out reels of our motion work to ad agencies. Most jobs come from either word of mouth or from our Website. That kind of approach isn’t the fastest way to get rich or famous, but it does mean that a lot of our clients come to us looking for our particular type of design.” If necessary, Helios will even turn down work. “Having said that, we have done a few

high-paying gigs strictly for the money and probably will continue to do so. That work will never make it into our portfolio, but the cash allows us a certain level of freedom to do personal work of our own or our friends’ pro-bono projects.” With such eclectism, it can be difficult to pinpoint a particular Helios style – although irreverence is nearly always to the fore. Wittholz acknowledges this, along with a strong sense of layout and context: “On a lesser level, there also exists an attempt to confuse and intrigue by mixing elements or styles. It seems that a lot of designers want to impose order on this chaos; we want to jump in and swim around in it. Some of this shows up in our work.”

METHODICAL PRINCIPLES When the project calls for it, Helios can also be strictly methodical. Two recent TV ads for Rogers, a mobile phone company, involved two days’ shooting in the snow-covered mountains of British Columbia. To push its clients’ new range of camera phones, Helios created the 30-second spots entirely from digital stills and then assembled them in post-production – which amounted to nigh on 10,000 frames in all. Despite the mindnumbing nature of the work, they clearly enjoyed it, particularly since it highlighted the variety of skills within the team. “Everyone here has their own preferences and areas of expertise,” Wittholz continues. “It’s nice to be able to jump around between

Profile

A DVD cover for TVcarnage.com, celebrating bad TV in its myriad forms.

mediums because you keep learning stuff from the people you’re working with. It’s also exciting to apply tricks or tools from one medium to a completely different one. Like using After Effects plug-ins to treat photographs for a print job, or using ActionScript in Flash to generate random images for a poster design.”

OPEN MINDS The company is split equally between working on Mac and PC – the former for its connections to the print world, and the latter because it’s generally cheaper and has a much greater range of specialised software, particularly 3D packages. Not that Wittholz or the rest of the gang at Helios are overly concerned with technology; they use “all the same stuff that everybody else does.” “We’ve always made a point of trying to do the most with off-the-shelf technology,” he explains. “Once you’ve plunked down hundreds of thousands of dollars for proprietary systems, you end up having to chase whatever jobs you can get in order to pay off your gear. When you finally do, it’s usually out of date anyway.” And, of course, nothing is ever fast enough. “It takes us about a week to complain about processor speed after we get a new machine, simply because we immediately attempt to do things on them that we would have never dreamed of trying on the old machines.” Along with more experimental, designerorientated work – such as sites for close friend

and associate, photographer Mark Bartkiw – Helios has produced its fair share of corporate gigs. When asked to design a print ad brochure for, of all things, the Royal Bank Mutual Funds, they were fully prepared for a world of corporate umming and aahing. As it

“WE HAVE DONE A FEW GIGS STRICTLY FOR THE MONEY, AND PROBABLY WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO… THAT WORK WILL NEVER MAKE OUR PORTFOLIO” turned out, the Bank was both flexible and surprisingly receptive to ideas. It was a similarly happy tale with connoisseur DVD company Criterion, which needed an interface design for the definitive release of Traffic as part of its seminal Criterion Collection. By Helios’ own admission, this was high-profile indeed, and the company feared

(Top) A 19x13-inch art print with a vectorised butterfly. (Above) Ciao Bella, a personal collage.

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IT’S OK TO SPEND Take a look at Helios online store: a hive of fickle consumer activity… Like many design houses, Helios runs an offshoot company dedicated to selling its own special merchandise: OK47 (which, with the right font, equates to ‘Okay’). However, unlike the norm, it didn’t come about as a mere offshoot of the company’s day-to-day work, but was rather founded in late 1999 as a separate company. “We had some unused designs we thought needed to be seen,” remembers Felix Wittholz. “With the help of some friends in the streetwear industry, we began with six T-shirt prints and, after adding a cut-and-sew women’s line, we’re now up to 50 different styles.” Originally, OK47 merchandise was distributed using traditional means rather than via e-commerce technology, in territories as diverse as Canada and the US, New Zealand, Japan, Spain and the UK. “The e-commerce site was built much later as a test project to see if we could do it,” explains Wittholz. ‘The majority of our business is still selling wholesale. All shipping, warehousing and site-management is handled out of our office space. Seasonal designs go out twice a year, which makes for a few crazy weeks. The workload is significant but manageable, and at peak times we have enlisted friends and relatives to help with some of the more labour-intensive tasks, like folding thousands of shirts.” Perhaps because it was created as something more than just an afterthought, OK47 continues to thrive without external

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investment, and now has its own dedicated and permanent staff. “On a creative level, OK47 is the ideal client: ourselves,” says Wittholz. “It enables us to work with very few creative restrictions and is probably the purest expression of where we’re at creatively at any given point. And since it deals in the notoriously fickle world of fashion, it also forces us to reinvent ourselves twice a year.”

Above: A video for Canadian pop outfit Spookey Ruben. Right: A QTVR-like Flash application created for the Winkworth Online Collection, part of the National Archives of Canada.

“all sorts of bizarre approval processes” – yet the fears proved groundless, and the project went off with nary a hitch. So in some ways, Wittholz believes, the larger corporate clients are actually much easier to work with – at least in terms of professionalism. “A lot of them are great, because they’re experienced and they know exactly what they want or need and they are

wants to move forward instead of doing the tried and true. “On the other end of the spectrum are people that hire you because they want to work with someone they think of as ‘edgy’, but then expect you to pump out the same old shit anyway.” Understandably, therefore, the company prefers to work with anyone who approaches a project with an open mind. They identify, Wittholz says, “people who “PEOPLE HIRE YOU BECAUSE THEY are willing to sit down and approach WANT TO WORK WITH SOMEONE a project together and completely ‘EDGY’, BUT THEN THEY EXPECT YOU from scratch, without any notions. One of the TO PUMP OUT THE SAME OLD SHIT” preconceived problems of working with ad agencies is that a lot of the time able to compensate you properly,” he explains. you’re hired to execute someone else’s vision, “Unfortunately, there are few companies with little room to contribute to the overall willing to take the risk of doing work that concept. We’d love to be able to be involved breaks new ground, which means that you at a much earlier stage in the process.” He either have to sneak it in under the radar or pauses, then adds: “More work in Europe get lucky and hook up with someone that would be great – hello, Wieden + Kennedy!”

TRAINING MONKEYS

Although OK47 began as a separate venture to Helios, it’s still central to their design ethos, as this fetching clothing demonstrates.

Helios designed this cover for the Winter 2002 issue of Metro-Pop magazine using Illustrator. The mag featured work from many top designers.

Wittholz readily admits that, “We do like flying to meetings in far away places and staying in nice hotels,” but he doesn’t necessarily believe that being based in Canada has any bearing on the range of work Helios is offered. “Toronto is the place to be. There’s a boatload of talented people in this town and it’s an amazing place to live. In fact, the clients that have come here to work directly with us have either enquired about moving here or outright asked for a job.” And anyway, as he points out, “The majority of our final files are sent via the Net, so whether we’re here or on an island in the Pacific doesn’t really matter.” The cross-pollination of cultures in Toronto clearly inspires Wittholz and the other members of Helios; but he’s all too aware of the fickle nature of style trends across the world. Design, he says, involves both content and style. “Content is usually fixed. It’s what it is. Your ability to interpret that content depends on your experience and education. Style is a different beast altogether. Style is

Profile

YOU HAVE BEEN WATCHING

One of the introductory images for Heliozilla.com. Helios’ design for photographer Mark Bartkiw’s site.

Those Helios members in full ALEX WITTHOLZ Role at Helios: Art Director (signs the cheques) From: Toronto via Munich Likes: Kittens Favourite designer/illustrator: Manuel Ocampo Favourite Website: www.fenslerfilm.com/?sec=video www.hellonetwork.com/demo/toysclub/video. asp?speed=hook300 www.okflavor.com

Educational matter for the Winkworth Online Collection.

driven by larger trends outside of design: technology, music, social movements. These trends change in an almost cyclical fashion.” He cites the rise of ‘grunge’ typography during the early 1990s as a reflection of the music scene, to be replaced with modern typography, “which had been around the block before in the 1960s,” when dance music took a hold. Both, he believes, are precise and repetitive. Then, a few years ago, “the explosion of Web design spawned a legion of pixel and vector art. 3ds max is responsible for page after page of convoluted 3D art. The backlash to super-clean design is already here with everyone – including us – now exploring a more hand-crafted, made-on-the-back-ofyour-high-school-binder, outsider art look.” Wittholz isn’t exactly cynical about this rehashing of past trends; he’s just taking the bigger picture. “Each new generation rebels against what came immediately before them,

A site for Giant Screen Bugs, an educational IMAX film.

although without any major technical or social upheaval they end up recycling retro trends instead of creating new ones. It seems that the Western world is a much more restrictive and paranoid place than it was a few years ago, so it’s only natural to see a more punk rock response in art, music and design.” Whatever the prevailing trends in five, ten or fifteen years’ time, it seems likely that Helios will be there to embrace, refine and adapt it to their flexible tastes. Its seemingly effortless, self-mocking approach masks a healthy appreciation of the cliché that ideas never really go away, but simply mutate over time. Or, as Felix puts it so succinctly, “We’d like to make more art. So we’re basically training monkeys to do our jobs.” ■ INFO Soak up the sarcasm and enjoy the design at www.heliozilla. com, phone +1 416 593 6006, or email [email protected]. Then check out the great links at www.okflavor.com and contribute to Helios’ pension fund at www.ok47.com

FELIX WITTHOLZ Role at Helios: Art Director From: Toronto via Munich Likes: Watching then joining Favourite designer/illustrator: Ai Kijima (pop-art quilts) Favourite Website: www.illegal-art.org www.okflavor.com RICHARD ANDREW SWITZER Role at Helios: Mouthpiece, money guy From: Northwestern Ontario Likes: My wife. Working 10-6. Toyota Prius. Sleeping. Summer at the lake; winter at the hockey rink. Favourite designer/illustrator: Low-Brow artists like Aaron Marshall, Todd Schorr, Drazen, Mark Ryden. Banksy for ballsy graf work and big ideas. Alex for starting Helios and bailing me out of Juvie. Favourite Website: Talkingpointsmemo.com and OKFlavor. com for putting it all in perspective. OK47.com for literally making me money while I sleep. MIKE ROBBINS Role at Helios: Technocrat From: Australia Likes: Too numerous to mention here Favourite designer/illustrator: Olin Stephens Favourite Website: www.sailinganarchy.com BRAD ABRAHAMS Role at Helios: 3D Animator and Compositor From: Mississauga Likes: Pirates Favourite designer/illustrator: Any artist prestigously awarded entry to the Gallerie Abominate (site below) Favourite Website: www.jackals-forge.com/abom.html

‘La Bomba’ 19x13-inch art print. Visit OK47 for more on this and other exciting Helios designs.

This 19x13-inch art print, entitled ‘Riot’, illustrates Helios’ subversive humour to good effect.

Helios created this cover artwork for New York City’s Vice Magazine – calling it ‘Infant Gangsta.’

Name: Drew Matthews Role at Helios: Designer/Motion Graphics/Flash From: Toronto, Canada Likes: Jen, technology, skating, late-night gaming Favourite designer/illustrator: Joshua Davis Favourite Website: www.shilodesign.com

Computer Arts_May 2004

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ILLUSTRATION BY SIMON DANAHER [email protected]

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Tutorial

ILLUSTRATION

PHOTOSHOP 3D Make your 3D artwork and illustration stand out from the crowd, by transforming your renders in Photoshop 3D programs are great tools for graphic artists, but if you’re a 2D artist used to editing large images in Photoshop quickly and easily, you may find 3D programs stifling or frustrating when it comes to achieving a specific look, or making final adjustments to colours, tone and overall feel. And rightly so… While it can be relatively quick to build up a scene from nothing, workflow quickly deteriorates to a slow pace at the test-rendering stage. As we’ll show you in this tutorial, when you’re wrestling with a particularly troublesome section of a 3D program, re-rendering constantly to check the results, it’s time to change your workflow and let Photoshop take up the slack. One problem with 3D renders, is they can look flat and dull or bright and plasticky; they don’t have that rich tonal palette that is so easily achievable on a 2D canvas. Here, we’ll show you how to take a good but ordinary render and manipulate it into something much more interesting in Photoshop. To do this we’ll use multipass rendering, multiple alpha masks, and a depth buffer to let us work creatively and to some degree ‘get inside’ the 2D image as if it was still in 3D. This will enable us to alter the look and feel of the render, without having to fuss with scores of unfathomable rendering or shading parameters – and without waiting. INFO Artwork and tutorial by Simon Danaher, [email protected]

'RZQORDGWXWRULDOILOHVKHUH

IWSIWSIXWXUHQHWFRXNSXEDUWV]LQLRFDBWXWRULDOBSKRWRVKRS]LS

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>INSIGHT

PART 1 FROM CINEMA 4D TO PHOTOSHOP Prepare your 3D render to be edited as a layered PSD

ALPHA CHANNELS

Most 3D programs with multipass support will have a scheme for assigning an object to its own alpha mask during the rendering process. Along with the RGB passes, you’ll end up with alpha channels for each object you specify, containing an alpha mask only for that object.

7

While this looks good for the chrome salt-andpepper shakers, the other objects don’t look so good when they are this shiny. The Object Buffers come in handy here: locate the salt-and-pepper mask in the channels and load it as a selection.

1

Although we won’t be covering much 3D in this tutorial, we’ll look at how to set up multipass rendering, in this case using Cinema 4D. Other 3D apps will differ in the details, but the principle is the same. Here’s the scene all ready to render.

4

The image is then rendered, and saved as a layered Photoshop PSD file. When opened in Photoshop, you can see that each of the layers contains a particular image component: Reflections, Specular, Radiosity and so on. The channels contain all the Object Buffers. You’ll find this file on the CD – open RadioScene.psd.

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Apply this as a layer mask to the duplicated Reflection layer, so that only the shakers’ reflection is brighter. Now we can add some grime to make them look a bit more realistic.

2

Because the scene is rendered using Radiosity it’s a particularly demanding one to render, so test rendering would be time-consuming. Cinema 4D’s multipass support is excellent and very straightforward. Here’s the MP tab in the render settings. From this we choose exactly what channels we think we’ll be needing.

5

Try turning each of the layers on and off to see what each one does. Let’s begin by increasing the contrast. Duplicate the Illumination layer and move it to the top of the stack. Setting its mode to Overlay increases the richness of the image considerably, making it look much less CG.

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Open the file SepiaMarblepaper.jpg from the CD. This is a contrast-enhanced, desaturated version of a sample file that comes with Photoshop CS. Drag it into the Radio image above the Reflection layers.

3

We’ll also want a separate mask for each of the objects in the scene. To do this we simply specify an Object Buffer ID for each object, and then add these buffers to the MP page. Cinema 4D has six Buffers and we’re using five of them, including one for the floor.

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6

Next the reflections. There are two ways to increase their brightness. The first method is to use Levels on the Reflection layer, but it’s better to simply duplicate the layer to double the effect.

Tutorial

PART 2 FRESNEL FALL-OFF Control the reflection fall-off, add a wall texture, set the flooring options and add effects

10

Option-click on the line between the Reflection and Sepia Texture layer to create a clipping group; the texture will now be restricted to just the shakers. Use the Clone tool (with Use All Layers off) to cover all the shakers with the texture.

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The surface of the mug looks hard and flat, because the reflections are unperturbed. Running the Ripple filter on the Mug Reflection layer will fix this, but you can see that it still leaves some problems around the edge.

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Another thing we can do with the reflections is change the fall-off effect. If you view the Material Reflection layer (Option-click its eye), you’ll see that it’s an edge fall-off mask of all the reflective objects. With this visible, go to Channels and Command-click one of the RGB channels to load it as a selection.

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Set the Blending mode to Multiply and duplicate the layer if necessary to intensify the grime. Here we’ve added a different texture as well, to make the grime less regular; it’s an image of a cracked wall that we’ll use again later. As you can see, it’s a lot quicker than texture mapping in 3D.

14

Undo the Ripple, duplicate the Mug Reflection layer and re-apply the Ripple to the top one. Using an Eraser, work on the edges of the top mug to get rid of the edge artefacts.

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Apply this as a layer mask to the Mug Reflection layer. It will turn unreflective, but don’t panic. Using Levels on the layer mask (not the layer), we can boost the edge reflections while dampening the face-on reflections – increasing the Fresnel fall-off. There isn’t much range in the mask when it’s this compressed, so be careful.

12

Now let’s deal with the reflection of the mug, which at the moment is way too shiny and unrealistic. Load up the mug alpha mask as a selection, then copy and paste the mug reflection from the reflection layer to a new one. Invert the mug selection, then add this as a layer mask to the original Reflection layer – this will prevent the reflection intensity from doubling.

15

Before we merge the two layers, change them both to Normal mode – this is because you can see the ‘unrippled’ layer through the rippled one. Link the two mug layers and choose Merge Linked from the Layer Options menu. Change the merged layer back to Screen mode.

>INSIGHT ADJUSTING LEVELS

An important tip to take note of, is if you have difficulty visualising the fall-off when adjusting Levels, make three copies of the mug layer first, add them to a layer set, then add the mask to the set and adjust it.

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Don’t try and get it looking bright at the edges (pretty impossible at this stage), just get the general fall-off effect going for now. To boost the brightness, you can then just duplicate the mug layer – we’ve got four here. The mug reflection looks much better as a result.

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>INSIGHT MATERIAL LAYERS

The Material layers don’t actually contribute to the image directly, but they do contain information that we might use later. Note that as well as the passes, there is also a full composite image on the background layer.

19

24

Next we’ll turn our attention to the walls. For this we need a big, grime texture, which we’ve downloaded from www.mayang.com – a great free texture site. We’ve desaturated it and increased the contrast using Photoshop’s various Adjustment tools (Highlight, Shadow and Levels). Note that you should only download one texture at a time rather than the whole lot, because the server is slow and it’ll come to a standstill otherwise.

To fade the effect up the wall (there should be more distressing at the bottom), apply the Difference layer’s mask, and then add another blank one. Use a linear gradient in the mask to fade out the effect up the wall. We’ve increased the layer opacity to compensate, and you can see that the image is now looking nice and distressed.

22

Duplicate the grime and turn off its visibility. Select the other one and apply the Filter> Stylize>Emboss filter using a low height, setting the direction to match the scene lighting.

25

Next, repeat the procedure for the other wall. Because of the mask protecting the foreground objects, you can do almost anything you like. Here, we’ve used one of Photoshop’s scatter brushes to add even more grime and mould to the corner.

20

Drag this into the Radio document and, using Free Transform, match the perspective of the left wall, stretching each corner to map the grime texture to it. Move this to the top of the layer stack.

23

The other layer is used to shade the bumps differently to the flat surface. Invert the layer, then set its Blending mode to Difference. Reduce the opacity to below 10 per cent; this will make the dents lighter in dark areas and darker in light areas. There’s no technical reason for doing this – we just think it looks good!

21

To put the texture behind the objects, Shift+Command-click on each of the Object Buffer channels in turn to create a master selection. Add this as a layer mask to the Grime Texture layer (not forgetting to invert it, either before or after).

26 >INSIGHT LENS BLUR

When using Photoshop CS’s Lens Blur filter, note that it doesn’t work well with edges that are blurred in front of edges that are sharp (see the shakers in the final step). To fix this, you can manually blur any rogue edges using the Blur tool.

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At this point you may decide that the floor is too plain. We could easily add some texturing as we did with the wall, and paint in some grime where needed, but what if you wanted to achieve something drastically different? Back in Cinema 4D, we quickly copy the floor and camera to a new document, and add a tile texture to the floor.

Tutorial

27

The texture goes in the Luminosity channel and is rendered at full size. You’ll notice that it renders quickly because there’s no Radiosity – or any extra objects to worry about.

30

Now you need to duplicate the shadow layer and move it above the floor layer, linking it as a clipping group. Doing this helps to bring back some of the shadows, that were previously looking a bit indistinct.

Another thing we can do is apply depth-offield blurring. This is best achieved using a flattened version of your file, so duplicate the document (Image>Duplicate), making sure the Duplicate Merged Layers Only box is checked.

28

31

33

This file can be dragged and dropped in the Radio document in Photoshop, and because we used the same camera as before, it fits perfectly. The Floor Buffer is loaded as a selection and applied as a layer mask to make the join seamless.

The Depth channel can be used to add effects to the scene, or to help subtly change the lighting. Here we’ve added a radial gradient masked with the Depth Buffer channel, along with two level adjustment layers to darken the foreground and create a more intense, localised light source.

32

Photoshop CS’s brilliant Lens Blur filter simulates camera depth-of-field effects. Choose Filter>Blur>Lens Blur, then choose an alpha channel. Select Depth to use the Depth Buffer, then adjust the Blur Focal Distance and Radius values to blur the background and keep the shakers in focus.

29

You can do whatever you like with the texture using Photoshop’s many Adjustment tools. So that the grout is dark instead of light, we have inverted the texture and desaturated it, then applied it in Multiply mode.

FINAL STEP

C

omplete your image by reversing the blurring so that the background is sharp – you can do this simply by clicking the Invert button. You can also control what will be affected by editing the Depth Map before you use the filter. That’s your illustration finished – a 3D render that has been transformed in Photoshop, into something that looks both stylish and accomplished. ■

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ILLUSTRATION BY IDENTIKAL www.identikal.com

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Tutorial

FREEHAND MX

FREE THE COLOUR Using FreeHand’s colour options successfully can give you the edge in digital illustration. We demystify the process of editing colour We all know that colour is one of the most important aspects of any image, so it’s vital that you master this area and get it right. Editing and using colour in FreeHand can be tricky, so here we’ve enlisted the help of The Identikal Corporation to guide you through the colouring options. Discover new techniques, get to grips with essential design skills and create a professional illustration along the way. After helping you plan your illustration, we’ll delve into the ins and outs of colouring options, before taking a detailed look at the Smudge tool, a device unique to FreeHand that will help you give your image that ‘cool’ touch and a contemporary finish. INFO Artwork and tutorial by The Identikal Corporation: 020 7263 2129, www.identikal.com

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>INSIGHT

PART 1 IMAGE PREPARATION It’s extremely important to get your image ‘perfect’ before importing it into FreeHand

BACKGROUND FILLS

Always colour in your backgrounds last. This simplifies the process, especially if you’re using dark colours. Another good tip is to use the layer system. Just copy your background shape to the background layer found in the layers window, then lock it. This will then give you the option of turning the layer off whenever you need to.

7

This final step is always a good tip when you’re drawing in FreeHand. Turn the image to black and white, because this will help you see the different shapes in the photo more clearly. Colour images can cause confusion at this stage.

PART 2 DRAWING

1

The concept of this image is based on the ‘Felt-style’ pictures from the 70s, and Highway Code guides. This was chosen because it’s a simple style, which helps us illustrate the colour options on offer. The theme is travel and road systems.

4

When taking your shot, try to work with vanishing points and perspective. This really helps with the dynamism of the image, and is a strong part of this particular style.

Here we show you how to draw your shapes and complete the overall structure of your image

8

Import your image into FreeHand by selecting the File window, then hit Import. Now place the image onto the document, as shown.

5

2

Remember that your illustration’s structure is dependent on the quality of your photograph. A bad photo will only give you a bad image – so it’s important to plan everything at this early stage. A good picture naturally requires a little thought; we’ve selected a bus stop – a location with a high level of activity that suits our theme.

When you’ve captured all your images, go through them and ask yourself these questions. First, action: has the image got interesting activity? Objects: are there many different vehicles and varying human presence? Composition: is there good perspective and object positioning? If your image has all of this, go for it!

9

Make sure your document is the correct size; in our particular case, the image is 290x470mm. With FreeHand’s EPS files, you don’t need to make sure that your image is print size (300dpi), as vector images are already print quality.

6

3

Whether you use a traditional or digital camera is up to you. We prefer the latter, as it gives you more options, capturing one-off good shots is more likely, and using a traditional camera can take too long. The photographic image is only a guideline.

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This particular image has all the above elements in place. All we need to do now is increase sharpness (using brightness and contrast) and then flip the image around – this is because it will be the opening illustration to this tutorial, and text will be needed in the bottom right-hand corner.

Tutorial

14

10

Now take a good look at the image – closely examine the objects. Select the Bézier Pen tool, as we’ll be using this to draw with from now on. In your Colour window, make sure your stroke is set at 1pt black and your fill has no fill.

Finish this stage by drawing the human activity. Here, we’ve zoomed in on people getting on the bus. Notice how we’ve treated the drawing slightly differently to the bus and cars, which we’ve treated more like shadows.

PART 3 FREEHAND COLOURING Now we move on to FreeHand’s colouring options, and take a detailed look at the Smudge tool

16

Take a look at the Mixer window: Window menu>Panels>Colour Mixer. This is the easiest way to mix process colours. You can either type in the percentage value, or use the sliders to get the tones and colours you want. For this particular image, you’ll need to mix up the following colours: CYAN: c: 100% m: 0% y: 0% k 0% MAGENTA: c: 0% m: 100% y: 0% k 0% YELLOW: c: 0% m: 0% y: 100% k 0% SUPER BLACK: c: 60% m: % y: 0% k 100% (very important when mixing process black, as process black needs more strength, 60% of Cyan will help) RED: c: 0% m: 100% y: 100% k 0% When mixing, simply grab the colour from the bottom sample and chuck it into the colour list. This is quicker than exporting your colour to the list.

11

An important tip for this particular style of illustration is to draw each object as if it were a silhouette. Simplicity is often the key to a successful image, and this is no exception.

15

For the final touches, a simple colour palette is required, so we’ve gone for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. If you use tone fills of 100 per cent, the image will look like it’s been printed with special inks – this is one of the secrets to a great image.

12

The first objects you should start drawing are shapes that hold the lines of perspective. Draw features like road markings or pavement kerbs.

>INSIGHT FIND AND REPLACE

If you have a tricky grouped object that is made up of different-colour fills, and you need to change those colours, simply use the Find and Replace window. Select the object, go to the Edit Menu, select Find and Replace, select Graphics and a window should appear. Using this window, you can now turn any of the fill colours into whatever colour you wish, avoiding any tricky shapes and selection confusion.

17

Once your colours are mixed, head to the Fills window: Window menu>Inspectors>Fill. The Fills window provides many options; we’ll be looking at the Object Fill section (gradient icon). When selecting an object, you’ll be given the choice of filling with a single colour, and in the Fills window you’re given the choice of Gradients, Patterns and textures. Here, we’ve shown the use of a Gradient fill. The gradient uses super black, and a 60 per cent tone of super black, but you can select more colours. FreeHand also has a great editing feature, where you can move the distance of the shading up and down – a handy effect for background sky.

BLACK LINES

13

Now start on the more detailed objects. Here, we’ve zoomed in on the van; notice how we’ve concentrated on details of its body and hubcaps, which really help to maintain the vehicle’s character and give a more realist viewpoint.

When you’re drawing in FreeHand, a great tip is to use 1pt black stroke and no fill. This will help you plan your image while you’re creating it, and avoid mass confusion as the project becomes more and more complex. Once you’ve finished working, you can easily turn your strokes off.

18

Making individual tints is as simple as mixing the colours. Go to Window menu>Panels> Tints. Simply select the colour you want tints of by using the scroll menu, then grab and place the desired tints into the colour list.

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>INSIGHT OVERPRINT CAUTION

If your image is going to be printed, make sure all your objects have no overprint. This can easily be checked by looking at your fills window. There’s a small box underneath the colour selection, so just make sure this is turned off; if it’s not, the object will overprint the object beneath it, which will lead to disaster! Basically, if you have a darker underlay, the lighter top object won’t knock through it if you do this.

CMYK VS RGB

19

Now to make use of your new colour palette. Colouring in FreeHand is usually done by selecting the object, filling it with your desired colour, then setting a stroke colour option. But there is another way: try simply grabbing a colour from the colour list and throwing it onto the object.

When it comes to print, CMYK is standard. This is an easy system to use when mixing colour, as it relates to the primary colour wheel: mixing blue and yellow will give you green, so in the print process mix Cyan and Yellow. The problem with CMYK is that you can only get thousands of colours, whereas with RGB you get millions. RGB is used for Internet and TV graphics, and file sizes are a lot smaller than CMYK.

23

The Smudge tool basically works by duplicating your chosen object 25 times and filling each object with a tone of the original fill. The default ‘fade’ colour is white, but you can change this to whatever colour you like by doubleclicking the Smudge tool icon. A window comes up, giving you a choice of colours to ‘smudge’ with; just grab your desired colour and chuck it into Fill or the Stroke options, as required.

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When colouring, think about what you need to apply to different objects. Try not to have touching objects in the same colour, because this will ruin the harmony of your piece.

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Now to add some type to finish off the composition. This gives the piece meaning and structure. Here, we’ve added a pixellated font to create a more ‘technical’ look.

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22

Final touches always demand something unique, and what could be more unique than the Smudge tool? You’ll find it in the Xtra toolbars section: Window menu>Toolbars> Xtra tools. To use this simple but effective tool, all you have to do is select your object, hold it down using said Smudge tool, then literally ‘drag’ it across your illustration. Dragging over a small distance generates a smoother gradient. Over a longer distance, it creates a more staggered look .

Zoom out of your image and do all your final checks. Double-check for overprints (see the Overprint Caution Insight for details) and ask yourself whether you’re happy with the composition – have you drawn all objects correctly?

FINAL STEP

Y

ou’ve now completed your image. Using the colour options we’ve shown in this tutorial will give you greater control over your images in the future, while the Smudge tool will provide a contemporary feel to any typography or images you produce. Never let complex colour tools and editing windows get in your way again! ■

ILLUSTRATION BY VINCENT MARCONE www.mypetskeleton.com

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Feature

NEW SERIES: DESIGN CHALLENGE

THE SKELETON SHOP In this series we focus on challenges faced by designers. Find out how a niche style can translate into a viable e-commerce site

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arkness, scarecrows, whispering spirits and desiccated bones aren’t what marketing folk would call a typical recipe for success when it comes to e-commerce. They are, however, some of the prevalent motifs in the work of artist and designer Vincent Marcone. Despite being anything but a mainstream operation, his niche site, My Pet Skeleton, is enjoying considerable success. Originally, www.mypetskeleton.com merely displayed Vincent’s portfolio so that art directors and potential clients could get a feel for his style of illustration. But it quickly became a springboard for other projects, including a T-shirt and fine art business, the Johnny Hollow music experience, and a centre for downloading haunting desktops. In a venture that will hopefully boost sales of T-shirts and prints, Vincent has added a new e-commerce section to the site, The Skeleton Shop, and a Flash game. But when we say e-commerce, don’t expect the three-clicks-to-a-sale ethos found at a typical consumer site. The artist and his team at My Pet Skeleton are taking up the challenge of e-commerce from a different perspective. “Form versus function is very important in anything you

create, and I think it’s important for a shop as well,” says Vincent Marcone. “Shops right now on the Internet deal with form and function, but tend to be magnetised towards the function – three clicks away. I try to create an experience.”

SOWING THE SEEDS The interface in the e-commerce section of My Pet Skeleton isn’t based so much on searching for and listing products as on intriguing the visitor with visual cues. The merchandise – art, clothes and pins – is represented by branches on a tree. Click the crow sitting on one of the branches and he’ll peck a bell hanging from the branch. The sound of the bell cues a vine to creep across the bottom of the screen, dropping seeds. The seeds fall and grow into flowers, and clicking on the flowers displays the products available. For Marcone, getting the user to browse the site and interact with it is as important as getting them to make a purchase. Little touches, like the way you can scare the crows that roost in the trees in the background by rolling the mouse pointer over them, attest to this. “It’s more akin to walking into a record shop or maybe an antique shop – a place where you

(This page) My Pet Skeleton always strives for a unique presentation: “Being a consumer myself, it gets really boring having no choice but to interact with cookie cutter design all the time,” says site creator Vincent Marcone. You see the same thing over and over again. I’m definitely feeding against that and designing against that.”

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THE DIGITAL SCARECROW Vincent Marcone explains how he turned the scarecrow from his original site into an exciting Flash game character

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The original scarecrow from My Pet Skeleton was designed to react as a 2D mouseover that would inspire the site’s mood and emotional backdrop. That was three years ago. Since then, thanks to the growing popularity of Flash gaming, a new level of interactivity has emerged online. “We have taken the same character and readapted him to be featured in The Skeleton Shop’s debut Flash game, A Murder of Scarecrows,” says Marcone.

The Skeleton Shop is e-commerce that’s not just an interface, but also an experience. “I could have just had a page that said ‘T-shirts’, but I think that weird experience, that kind of vibe, relates more to how I react to things as an artist,” says Vincent Marcone.

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The first step was to make a digital puppet of the scarecrow using 3ds max. The design of the game and site uses silhouettes against a strong white backdrop as the main ingredient within the composition: “By doing this, the modelling process was much more forgiving and our character is easily placed within the interface without any complications.”

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After creating the model, Marcone rendered out a series of animations for all of the scarecrow’s key actions. These frames were then touched up in After Effects by altering contrast, texture and noise to match the style of the game’s interface. He then multiplied the frames over the original Photoshop game interface.

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The multiplied frame sequences were then imported into Flash and divided into key animations. “There are particular motions for attacking the crows, slamming the ground, dying or being resurrected,” Marcone explains. “The animations were then ActionScripted to play in sequences, triggered by the various circumstances in the game.”

The Flash game has scarecrows scoring points by swiping at crows. “The scarecrows are also bringing back the imagery from www.mypetskeleton.com off the main interface. So I’m trying to create a web of design that I have done in the past, and adding little bits. Remixing it would be a good term,” says Marcone.

actually want to absorb the environment. I’m trying to create that kind of feeling digitally, so the result is that my interface is going to be more meticulous in detail and in sound, rather than in how quickly the user can get to a form page to enter his or her Visa card. It’s going to take a little bit more time. I want them to enjoy their experience there. The point of the site is certainly to sell, but it’s not a failure if people just go there, enjoy it, then leave, or play a game, and then move on to Johnny Hollow or My Pet Skeleton or whatever,” he says. The crows, vines, flowers, and moody, gnarled-up old tree all link with the existing imagery of the My Pet Skeleton site, but also neatly fit with the Flash game, another device

created to shape the visitor’s experience. Your objective is to protect three scarecrows from a flock of crows, by flinging acorns at them when they alight. If you hit a scarecrow with an acorn, he comes to life, flails his arms and you get points for each bird he scares away. If you can’t keep them at bay, they’ll peck your pumpkin-headed pals to death – just watch the roots beneath the scarecrows diminish as their life force fades. When designing the game, Marcone set himself and Animator/Programmer Tomasz Dysinski a couple of creative challenges. To begin with, he was inspired by other Flash games on the Web where interesting little interfaces combine with addictive gameplay. Then there was the whole issue of light and dark. “All my sites so far have been dark and black,” he says. “I wanted to challenge myself by working on a white background. So I took a lot of inspiration from Victorian silhouette images, as well as patterns, and tried to create a black-and-white silhouette interface that works off the imagery.” Why a game? In part, it goes back to what Marcone learned when creating the acclaimed Johnny Hollow music Website: be unique in your approach and challenge the visitor. The Johnny Hollow site gives people access to remixes from the Johnny Hollow album, and imagery, which can be won by answering a series of riddles when you explore the site. “If we hadn’t had those riddles, if we hadn’t forced the user to be excited about what they’re doing, and have a sense of accomplishment after they have found that result, I don’t think the site would have been as popular, and that’s what I’m attempting to bring to The Skeleton Shop as well,” he says. During the first month after launch, high scorers playing the scarecrow game will win merchandise on sale in The Skeleton Shop. Such prizes will not only give people an incentive to play the game, but will also highlight the fact that products are on sale elsewhere at the site.

DARK AND DREAMY The next stage is for Vincent Marcone and My Pet Skeleton to promote the diversity of the

Here are a few typical products on sale at The Skeleton Shop. “People are looking for something different,” says Marcone, “and I’m more than happy to design for them. I’m only going to sell things to people who want to see this type of thing. I can’t compete with your average skate shop or whatnot.”

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Feature

SOFTWARE AND PRODUCTION The team behind My Pet Skeleton “Photoshop is my lifeblood,” says Marcone. “That’s what I design for and around. I personally believe that you need to have a really good understanding of Photoshop to design in almost any other program that’s out there right now. We also design in Flash, and 3ds max is part of our design, too.”It’s not me who’s doing all the animating and programming. Right now, My Pet Skeleton has turned into more of a production house. That’s the next thing we’re going to be working on: My Pet Skeleton productions. I’ve got Tomasz Dysinski actually doing the animating. “Right now, there’s basically three of us. With these larger projects, it’s me doing the illustrating and designing, concept work and directing; Dysinski is doing the animating and programming, and design as well; and Janine White, who is also part of Johnny Hollow, is doing all of the sound architecture.”

Johnny Hollow won the Favourite Website Awards People’s Choice for 2003. The site was designed to market an album recorded by Vincent Marcone and his colleagues. Lessons learned in creating an experience and selling music at the same time were taken from this site to The Skeleton Shop. Vincent Marcone’s work extends beyond design to fine art prints, which are available to buy direct from The Skeleton Shop. Created in Photoshop, the images are printed using the high-quality giclée technique. Limited-edition runs of 99 images are printed and when they’ve sold out won’t be reprinted. Although they’re digitally created and magnetically replicated, their uniqueness is something Marcone holds dear.

work they’re now doing, by adding another new section to the site, aptly called My Pet Skeleton Productions. On top of illustration work, the creation of digital art for Websites and music-making ventures like Johnny Hollow, Marcone has directed a music video for the band Mushroomhead. He intends to do more work in this area. In Web design, he and his team are set to create a Website supporting an upcoming video game by Sammy Studios, and another one for a music project called Hawthorn Hill. Having an area of the site devoted to the diversity of work My Pet Skeleton now does will perhaps be a platform more and bigger projects that will enable the studio to grow. Could we witness My Pet Skeleton becoming more of a mainstream outfit? Well, so far it seems that Marcone has been

working on projects that remain very much aligned with his dark, dreamy and downright gothic style. And his inspiration certainly isn’t veering away from the niche market he currently appeals to. “I’m really concerned with moments in time,” he says. “Even in life, like watching a spider web flicker in a light breeze. Watching that moment in time – there’s something really special about that. I’m not referring to a romantic quality. I’m referring to the actual physics behind that. Those kinds of motions are what I’m trying to create in any kind of Website, whether it be e-commerce or Johnny Hollow or My Pet Skeleton. I’m trying to find moments in time that I can loop, and it can still be interesting on an endless loop.” ■

After creating some e-cards for the band Mushroomhead to include on its Website, the band asked Marcone to direct the video for its track The Sun Doesn’t Rise. The imagery instantly recalls that of My Pet Skeleton.

INFO Put your work aside and have a roam around www.mypetskeleton.com. Words by Garrick Webster, [email protected]

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ILLUSTRATION BY 123KLAN www.123klan.com

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Tutorial

CREATIVE SUITE

WEB DESIGN IN ADOBE CS We show you four different methods for prepping your Web designs, using ImageReady CS, Photoshop CS, Illustrator CS, InDesign CS or GoLive CS If you’re a designer, you probably spent your formative years with a box of crayons rather than a calculator. As a result, the arcane machinations of the programming world are something you may have cold sweats about at night, but don’t really want to tackle in the waking world. To be fair, no-one expects you to know how to put computer code around the text in a Word document to get the layout you want, so why should you have to worry about HTML tags, styles and other abstract computer code to bring your ideas to the Web? Both Macromedia and Adobe offer ‘complete’ packages for bringing designs straight from concept to the online world, but with the release of the Creative Suite of products from Adobe, you will be able to sleep more soundly at night. Although no computer program can truly replace a good Web developer with a thorough knowledge of the ins and outs of browser mechanics, these programs can help designers deploy simple sites quickly and accurately. In the following four quick tutorials, you’ll learn how to take a completed Web design from a flat image into a completed Web page, ready to be deployed from each of the programs included with Adobe’s Creative Suite. INFO Tutorial by Jason Cranford Teague ([email protected]). Learn more at www.webbedenvironments.com

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PART 1 IMAGEREADY CS Use the Web designer’s workhorse to quickly carve up and add interactive elements to your design

A

lthough often overshadowed by its older and more experienced brother Photoshop, ImageReady has several key features that can enable even the inexperienced Web designer to add interactivity to their work. In this tutorial, start with the file Wonderworld_ Comp.psd (on the CD) to use slices to optimise the image for Web display, and also add interactive rollovers to the links before output. While working with the file, notice that slices you manually create (referred to as user slices) are outlined in blue. Around these, outlined in grey, are slices automatically generated to fill the intervening spaces. Although you can select any of the auto-slices, if you make any changes, the auto-slice becomes a user slice. If the slice is not being used for an image, you can enter text into the field that will then be used as either graphic text or, if you check the option underneath, as HTML text that can be easily changed in GoLive. You may also want to set the background colour for the slice. If the slice is an image, you should always include Alt text for the graphic, which is used for accessibility. You can also specify a hypertext link URL and target for the slice, as well as a name used to identify the image for JavaScript.

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Choose the Slice tool from the Tool palette (press K) and slice your design into rectangular areas. Try to carve out distinct areas, including logos, individual photographs, text areas, and a separate slice for each navigation link.

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2

5

Now choose the Slice Select tool from the Tool palette (press O), and select one of the slices you created in step 1. In the Slice panel, choose whether the content of the slice is an Image, No Image (in other words, text) or part of a table, then follow this and the next two steps for all user slices.

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For each Image slice, use the Optimise palette to set its graphic format: GIF or PNG-8 (images with large areas of flat colour) or JPEG or PNG-24 (photos). Use the 2-Up or 4-Up views to compare the changes you make to the original, until you get the maximum reduction with acceptable appearance.

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In the Web Content palette, click the slice you want to add a rollover state to (most likely, this will be a navigation link). Now click the Palettes menu (top-right corner of the palette) and choose New Rollover State from the list.

With the new state selected, make changes to the style of the slice and these will be used to change the links appearance when the user rolls over the link in the final Web page.

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You are now ready to save the optimised image for the Web (File>Save Optimised As...), which works the same as in Photoshop CS and Illustrator CS, shown in steps 4-6 in part 2 (see facing page).

Tutorial

PART 2 PHOTOSHOP CS & ILLUSTRATOR CS Bitmap or vector? It makes no difference when it comes to output for the World Wide Web

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lthough ImageReady CS was designed by Adobe to handle heavy Web design, both Photoshop CS and Illustrator CS include the ability to output directly to create a Web page. To do this, both programs use an identical dialog with most of the same options found in ImageReady, but in a single window. For many designers used to the comfortable environment of their favourite image-editing software, this is more than enough. However, there are a few pitfalls when using this system, the chief of which is that the HTML code generated uses tables to create structure, rather than the preferred Cascading Style Sheets. Although using tables will work to create the layout structure for your Web pages, it’s better practice to use CSS instead. In this tutorial, you’ll be starting with the file Wonderworld_Comp.psd (on the CD). It’s already sliced up, so we’ll take it through the Save For Web process to create a completed HTML page, taking a slight detour along the way to switch over the output to CSS. Remember while working that if you have multiple slices selected, the settings are applied to all of the slices. You can then choose an individual slice and further tweak the settings to tailor that particular slice.

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Choose File>Save For Web to open the Save For Web dialog which, although it’s ‘Powered by ImageReady’, is used by both Photoshop CS and Illustrator CS to optimise your design for Web output (similar to steps 2 and 4 in part 1). Choose 2-Up or 4-Up to compare ‘before’ and ‘after’ versions.

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Before you save your work in the Save Optimised As dialog, choose Other from the Settings dropdown menu. In the Slices panel, switch to Generate CSS as your option for how slices should be output. Click OK.

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Use the Slice Select tool (a knife with an arrow next to it) to choose a slice in either the second, third or fourth view in the window. You can also zoom in and out to make it easier to choose slices, or even Shift+click to choose multiple slices to process simultaneously. For example, you may want to optimise all of the photographs with the same settings, rather than alter each one individually.

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Alter the Optimisation settings by first choosing one of the basic presets, and then tweaking the values from there. Once you’re done, click Save.

Meanwhile, back in the Save Optimised As dialog, navigate to where you want the files saved, make sure the format is HTML and Images, Settings are custom (as set in step 4), Slices is set to All Slices and finally click Save. Your design will now be automatically split into all of the relevant constituent files and saved.

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You can now locate the files on your computer and open the HTML file that was generated in GoLive, and make changes as needed.

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PART 3 FROM INDESIGN CS TO GOLIVE CS Your design may start out for print, but you can still use it to create exciting Web pages

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lthough you can’t use Adobe InDesign on its own to create a Web page – as with ImageReady, Photoshop or Illustrator – it does have the unique ability to output all of the content of a printed piece (both text and graphics) to a special PDF file which, when opened in GoLive, can be used to quickly move the print files from one medium to the other. This can greatly reduce the time needed to move from printed page to the screen, and save you a lot of grief when trying to convert file types. Now all you have to do is For this tutorial, open the file Wonderworld_ Comp.indd in InDesign to start the ball rolling...

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Open the material to be repurposed in InDesign and choose File>Package for GoLive... In the Package Publications for GoLive dialog, enter a name for the folder the elements will be saved in, then Save the files to the folder of your choice.

Click Package, and watch in amazement as progress bars fly across the screen detailing the files being generated as a part of the package. Check the folder where you saved the package. You’ll find a special PDF file that you can open in GoLive, which contains all of the original document’s elements.

5 2

Before the package is actually output, you need to set how the files are to be created and images optimised. The first panel you’ll see shows the General settings, which you can pretty much leave alone if you’re using GoLive CS.

In GoLive, with the package PDF already open in the Page Items window, start a new Web page. The Page Items window works as a kind of palette holding all of the items, and you can drag and drop them into your Web designs – or even columns of text – directly. GoLive, for its part, will then lay them out in a Web format.

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Click the Images button and set how the images in your package should be output. Generally, you’ll want to use the Optimised Formatted Images option and enable Automatic Image Conversion. If image quality of your photographs is a concern, increase JPEG Image Quality to High or Maximum.

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If you’re having trouble picking through pieces in the PDF to add to your Web page, switch over to Assets view. This simply lists all of the elements, and you can drag them from there instead.

Tutorial

PART 4 GOLIVE CS Use Smart Tags to save time when you’re making changes to your design in Photoshop CS or Illustrator CS

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any designers will begin their work in Photoshop, ImageReady or Illustrator, carve up the static composition using slices, and then use the methods presented in parts 1 and 2 of this tutorial to create their Web pages. The problem is, when they go back and make changes to the design in the original composition, they then have to manually update the files in GoLive, which often leads to confusion and, in rare cases, tragedy when pieces get mixed up or lost. GoLive comes to our rescue with Smart Tags. When placed into a Web page, these will automatically monitor Illustrator or Photoshop documents and update the Web page when changes are made to the source file. This is spectacularly helpful if you prefer making your changes to the original image, rather than trying to mess about with HTML. Here, you’ll be importing the file Wonderworld_Comp.psd from the CD as the file for your GoLive Smart Tag.

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Once GoLive is up and running, start a new file and save it. Grab a Smart Tag (either Photoshop for PSDs or Illustrator for AI docs) from the Objects palette and drag it to your new Web page. You can now add multiple Smart Tags or any other content to the page as and when you need it.

In the Inspector palette, choose the source PSD or AI document by clicking the Folder button next to the Source field, then browse to the file.

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For the next section, simply follow the Save For Web instructions in part 2 (steps 2-5). The one limitation is you won’t be able to set options; you’re stuck with a table-based layout.

Once you’re finished with saving, you’re automatically returned to GoLive with the design in your Web page window. You can click on individual slices in the design to make limited changes, including setting the Alt text or link and target for the slice, or manually entering HTML text.

If you want to edit the optimisation settings for the design used by the Smart Tag, click the edge of the Smart Tag area to select the Smart Tag and then click the Settings button in the Inspector palette. This reopens the Save For Web dialog (see step 3).

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Once you’re happy with the overall layout in GoLive, you’re ready to preview your design in the browser of your choice (File>Preview In). Make sure you preview your design in as many browsers and on as many different platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux and so on) as you can before you actually go live with it on the Web. ■

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1

1. The Boy Fitz Hammond’s illustration for FHM accompanied a collection of nine true road-themed stories. “My favourite was the German naturist who was stung by a bee whilst out on his motorbike.” 2. Fitz Hammond designed this character, Fudge, for the Boltonbased design consultancy of the same name. “They wanted a simple illustration for each section of their Website,” he says. “I gave them Fudge, Fudge gave them smiles.”

3. Six of Fitz Hammond’s caricatures from his personal portfolio, including Mick Jagger dancing the funky chicken and DJ Chris Moyles. 4. An office-themed illustration for stock company, Digital Vision. 5. A personal project, showing how small mammals get from road to pavement via a special escalator. 6. This illustration accompanied a feature on Acrobat 6 for MacUser.

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Profile

PROFILE

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THE BOY FITZ HAMMOND EMAIL [email protected] WEBSITE www.tbfh.com

Getting a straight answer from The Boy Fitz Hammond, also known as TBFH or Dave, is as challenging as not cracking a smile at the sight of his portfolio. Packed with caricatures of famous faces as well as his own brand of people and animals, the sketchy vector style is certainly of the moment. His tools of choice are Illustrator for adding colour to his drawings and Flash for animation. Originally from York and now based in Edinburgh, TBFH works solo and is represented by art agency Advocate. “My official role is Head of Drawing and Colouring In, although I’m not one for titles so I’ll just say that I illustrate full-time, which is a dream.” He now illustrates for clients such as FHM and Digital Vision, but also produces a great deal of personal work, which is showcased in the gallery section of his site. “As Sensei Wax, my former tutor at The Crayola Institute of New York once told me, ‘if you enjoy your job – you never have to go to work’.” What image is on your desktop?

It’s a scanned image of an idea that I’m working on as a side-project. I find it a pretty useful way of working, because when I close a window it’s there in front of me, without even having to think about it.

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Which Website do you visit most?

Another vote for Home Star Runner, www.homestarrunner.com. 1

What are you obsessed by?

T-Shirts. I love them. I’ve got a wardrobe full of them. Favourites include Lumberjacks Anonymous and Mr T – Bad Guys Wear Beards. For special occasions I can count on the trusty tuxedo T-Shirt, and once every four weeks I don the Employee of the Month. I’ve got a couple of designs of my own at www.spunky.co.uk and www.bodybag.co.uk. Name one brilliant illustrator

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J. Otto Seibold (www.jotto.com), Nathan Jurevicius (www.nathanj.com. au) and Charles Schultz, he of Charlie Brown fame. What are you working on now?

I’ve just finished working on the project Winterfresh SnoCore 2004 – a music festival touring America. I created six characters and handed them over to a team of animators in San Francisco to animate. The final six 30-second movies are being played on the big screens in the venues. I’m working on illustrations, postcards, and a dude called Fudge for an agency in Bolton. This afternoon I’m finishing off a picture for www.wearitwithpride.com, and am going to draw Wayne Rooney. What is your strangest client experience?

Probably getting the call from a dominatrix in Baltimore, USA. She wanted a couple of illustrations for an advert and said she’d come across me after running an Internet search for Excited Dog. What do you read in bed?

At the moment it’s Meet Mister Product – The Art of the Advertising Character. Last night’s favourite was Charlie The Tuna from 1974. Favourite city?

I like New York a lot. I live in Edinburgh at the moment, which is wicked. How do you celebrate completing a project?

I treat myself to a big nut sundae with butterscotch sauce. ■

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ILLUSTRATION BY ROCCO PEZZELLA www.twothings.net

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Tutorial

DIRECTOR MX 2004

INTERFACE DESIGN Director MX 2004 is definitely a weapon you should add to your design arsenal. We show you how to use it with Flash to build a powerful CD-ROM project – from creating the interface to burning the CD Macromedia has recently launched the latest incarnation of its powerful Director application. For those of you who haven’t used the tool before, Director is a multimedia tool for building rich content and applications for CDs, kiosks, DVDs and the Internet. For those of you who are seasoned Director veterans, you’ll find some great new features in this release, including scripting in JavaScript syntax, pre-built components, adding DVD-Video, publishing to both PC and Mac and importing Flash MX 2004 content. Here, we’re going to show you how to build a CD-ROM based on Formula One racing. The CD is aimed at journalists who want to browse and download photos. (All photos © British American Racing, www.barf1.com.) The best way to build a CD or DVD interface is to create the elements in Flash before publishing the finished product as a projector file from Director. We’ll walk you through how to build the Flash interface, import the files into Director and finally, how to burn the CD. It’s easier than you might think, and trust us, your clients will be impressed!

CREATE A CD-ROM Start your project in Flash, before heading over to Director MX 2004, and build a CD-ROM in the process

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Now add any extra elements to finish off your user interface. We’re adding elements for the photographs to be placed over, as well as a black bar and a header.

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Let’s start off by opening Flash, in which we’ll be building the user interface for the CD-ROM. Enter 800 for the canvas width and 600 for the height. This will ensure that it fits neatly on all users’ screens.

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When you’re designing a CD-ROM, you have to include an Exit button of some sort. This enables the user to close the CD-ROM when they’re done. We’re using a button in the top-right corner – always make this easy to see.

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As this is a CD-ROM for journalists who are interested in racing, we’re going to make the user interface look fairly gritty and rough, to give the feeling of the racing tarmac. We’ve used brushes in Photoshop to achieve this affect.

INFO Tutorial by Web applications specialist Ryan Carson, of Carson Systems and BD4D.com. Get in touch at [email protected]

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For this CD-ROM project, it makes sense to have thumbnails of the photos so the journalists can easily browse them. We’re using six photos, so each one needs to be in two sizes: 100 pixels wide by 75 pixels high, and 540 pixels wide by 405 pixels high.

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In Flash, import any graphics you’ve created for the user interface. Select the first frame on the timeline and choose File>Import>Import to Stage. Browse and hit Open.

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>INSIGHT BUDDY FUNCTIONS

Buddy Functions are helpful Xtras that you can add on to Director to make it even more powerful. This special set of Xtras makes it easy to do things like save files to your hard drive, and can be purchased online at the site www.mods.com.au/budapi.

JAVASCRIPT IN DIRECTOR

If you’re a JavaScript guru, Director MX 2004 is exactly what you’re looking for. Its proprietary coding language, Lingo, can now be replaced by JavaScript if you prefer.

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Now import these photos into the Flash file, as you did in step 3. Delete the larger photos from the stage (we’ll add them later) and place the thumbnails on the page.

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The journalists are going to click on a photograph thumbnail to view the larger version, so let’s make a simple rollover button for the thumbnails.

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Create a simple box (no fill) with a width of 100 pixels and height of 75 pixels. Select this outline and hit F8 (or choose Modify>Convert To Symbol from the menu). Type ‘btnThumbnail’ and hit OK.

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Double-click the new button to enter its timeline. Select the Over frame and hit F6 to create a new keyframe (or choose Insert> Timeline>Keyframe from the menu). Do the same for the Down and Hit frames.

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Now we can add the user interface elements for when the thumbnail buttons are pressed. Add keyframes on frame 10 and two new layers called ‘labels’ and ‘actions’. For the keyframe on frame 10 in the labels layer, add the label ‘photo01’ and ‘home’ for frame 1.

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Next, add a fill to the box in the Hit frame (any colour), and change the outline on the Up frame to black. Now our button is ready for some ActionScript.

Place a new button over each thumbnail and open the ActionScript panel by pressing F9. We want each of these buttons to open up a larger view of the photo, so add the following code to the button: on (press) { gotoAndStop(“photo01”); }

Next, add the following text: ‘Photo 01’ (the description), ‘Download’ (a button used for downloading the photo) and ‘Return to Home’ (a button used to go back to the thumbnail photos). You can see that we’ve also added further gritty elements to frame the photo.

Convert the text ‘Download’, Exit, ‘Return to Home’ into buttons, the same way we did in Step 9 and Step 10. Now you should have three buttons in your Library: btnDownload, btnHome and btnThumbnail.

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Next we need to add the remaining five photos to the CD-ROM. Add keyframes for the buttons, actions, labels and photos layers every ten frames and insert a new photo. Add labels ‘photo02’ through to ‘photo05’ to the labels layer.

Tutorial

17

Go to the photo01 label and select the Download button. on (release) { getURL(“event: downloadImage \”1\””); } The action ‘getURL(“event:’ will be used to communicate with the Director shell we’ll be placing around this Flash file. More on that later.

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We want a caption to appear with each photo, so let’s add a dynamic text box to the page. This will be changed each time a user mouses over one of the thumbnail buttons. Select the text box and type ‘caption’ in the ‘var’ field. Make sure ‘Dynamic Text’ is selected from the dropdown on the left. Add the following code to the first photo button, and repeat for the other five: on (press) { gotoAndStop(“photo01”); } on (rollOver) { caption = “Jenson Button in the new BAR 006 Chassis”; } on (rollOut, dragOut) {

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Test the movie (Control>Test Movie) to make sure everything is running smoothly, before we continue on and tackle Director. If everything looks okay, go ahead and publish it (File>Publish).

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Duplicate this ActionScript code for each photo, changing the “1\” to “2\”, “3\”, “4\”, “5\” and “6\”. This will tell the Director file which photo to download to the user’s hard drive.

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Now add the following code to the ‘Return to Home’ button: on (release) {v gotoAndStop(“home”); }

Lastly, we need to add the code to the Exit button, so the user can escape the CD-ROM when they’re done. Again, like the Download button, we’ll be communicating with the Director shell that will be wrapped around the Flash. Insert the following code onto the Exit button: on (release, releaseOutside) { getURL(“event: quitMe”); }

>INSIGHT

Open up Director MX 2004 (you can still use Director MX if you haven’t upgraded yet). Create a new file (File>New>Movie). Open up the Property Inspector (Window>Property Inspector). Select the Movie tab and change the Stage Size to 800x600.

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Save the Director file into the same directory as the SWF. Next insert the SWF file. Choose Insert>Media Element>Flash Movie and browse for the SWF. Leave the default options selected.

USABILITY

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Now we need to add some final ActionScript on the thumbnail buttons. Select each one and add the following code for the button over the second thumbnail: on (press) { gotoAndStop(“photo02”); } Repeat for the rest of the thumbnails, changing the 02 to the appropriate photo number.

If you’re building a CD-ROM, don’t forget to talk thoroughly to the people who will be using your CD-ROM before you finish the project. It will dramatically improve the quality of the final work.

TESTING CD-ROMS

After you’ve burned your CD-ROM, make sure you test it on both PC and Mac. Also, make sure you unplug the computer from your office network, just to make sure the CD-ROM isn’t trying to pull files from the network, instead of the CD.

26

Open the Score window (Window>Score) and the Cast window (Window>Cast). Drag the SWF file from the Cast window onto the Score window, then onto the first layer in the Score. Open the Stage (Window>Stage) and you’ll see the SWF.

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In order to make the Download and Exit buttons in the Flash file interact with the Director file, we need to add Lingo code. This is Director’s coding language. Open up the Script window (Window>Script). When the Download button is pressed, it calls the function ‘downloadImage’. To view this code in detail, see the files in the Tutorial\Director folder.

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That’s it! Now all that’s left is burning the CD. On Windows XP, all you need to do is drag the files onto your CD drive and choose File>Write These Files to CD.

Next, add the code to quit the CD-ROM when the Exit button is clicked. The button calls the ‘quitMe’ function in Director. Here’s the code: on quitMe me quit end quitMe Also add: on exitFrame me go the frame end

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Now we just need to publish the file. Choose File>Publishing Options. Check both Projector and Macintosh Projector on the Formats tab. On the Projector tab, check Full screen.

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Give it a quick test by burning the CD launching the journalistCD.exe (for Windows) or journalistCD.osx (for Mac OS X).

FINAL STEP

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he final product should be an easy-to-use CD-ROM for your clients or friends. Make sure you explore all the functionality behind Director MX 2004. It’s definitely an application you can sink your teeth into. ■

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REVIEWS VERDICT

★★★★★ OUR FIVE-STAR RATING EXPLAINED For a piece of software or hardware to make it into Computer Arts’ reviews section, it has to reach a certain standard. Truly dire products will be ignored, which is why you’ll rarely see one-star ratings. Our reviewers are experts in their own fields. We assess tools from the viewpoint of the professional designer. Does the product do what it’s meant to do? Is the interface clean? Is it quick, reliable and useful? And is it good value? Computer Arts Recommended awards are only given to products that are particularly good value, or truly excel in what they do.

Visit our Website for the Computer Arts online reviews archive:

www.computerarts.co.uk/reviews

SOFTWARE

Director MX 2004 P78 Toon Boom Studio 2.5 preview P80 DigiRostrum P83 Aurora Water P84 Lux P85 3D Layer P85 Page Curl 2.0 P86 Xtreme Path 1.0 P86 HARDWARE

Sony CyberShot F828 P88 Minolta DiMAGE A2 P89 Creative Stuff P90 BOOKS

Flash MX 2004 Bible P92 Beginning Dreamweaver MX 2004 P92 Type etc. P92 GROUP TEST

A4 photo printers P94 Canon Bubble Jet i965 HP Photosmart 7960 Canon Bubble Jet i905D Epson Stylus R300 Epson Stylus R800

Director MX 2004 is here, and, as you’ll find out when you turn the page, it provides a powerful leap in productivity for anyone involved in authoring multimedia-based DVD content. I’ll be the first to admit I thought Director was on its way out – what with the recent pro-orientated additions to the Flash toolset. But it seems I was wrong; Director looks and feels better than ever. We’ve also managed to get a sneak preview of the much-anticipated Toon Boom Studio 2.5 for the Mac. A release that is really all about bringing the tool up to date with the PC version, it nevertheless looks like a very exciting release. After Effects takes centre-stage with the reviews of three new plugins, followed by Page Curl 2.0 – a Photoshop plug-in that proves there’s life in an old effect yet, and Xtreme Path 1.0 – possibly the most useful Illustrator bolt-on we’ve seen to date. Two 8-megapixel cameras from Sony and Minolta go head to head, too – and you can find out the best printer to print your photographs out on in our A4 photo printers Group Test.

Rob Carney Deputy Editor [email protected]

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DIRECTOR MX 2004 MULTIMEDIA

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SYSTEM

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PC AND MAC £1127

Director MX 2004 is a powerful upgrade for DVD-Video content

Macromedia Buy online www.macromedia.com

PC 600MHz Pentium III • 128MB RAM • 200MB HD space • Win 2000/XP MAC 500MHz G3 • 128MB RAM • 200MB HD space • OS X 10.2.6/10.3

FOR Publish to a broad range of media ● DVD-Video support ● Highly extensible with Xtras ●

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AGAINST Expensive New cross-platform publishing slightly buggy ● Confusing interface ●

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Powerful extensibility with the Buddy API Xtra enables you to save files on your hard drive from CD.

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VERDICT

★★★★★ Director MX 2004 is going to be a must-have product for those producing any kind of DVD-Video content. Its extensibility through Xtras is currently unmatched in the multimedia applications market. Despite this, most first-time buyers are going to find the £1126 price tag hard to swallow.

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irector MX 2004 is the latest incarnation of Macromedia’s powerful multimedia authoring tool. In the fast-pace world of multimedia, Director is as old as the hills. It entered the scene in 1984 as Videoworks; a humble beginning for the product, as its main features consisted merely of black and white figures and monophonic sound. Unfortunately, Videoworks 2 wasn’t a vast improvement. Then came Videoworks Interactive, which saw the genesis of Director’s Lingo scripting language – a simple form of BASIC that offered uncomplicated interaction. The name was changed to Director 1.0 and John Thompson, the principal engineer at Macromedia at that time, modified the scripting language and named it Lingo. Ten years later, Director MX 2004 can be used to create an astonishingly diverse range of products, including CD/DVD interfaces, kiosk content, 3D games and more. This latest release has some new powerful additions: JavaScript syntax scripting support, crossplatform publishing, DVD-Video support, a large range of support for media file types, MPEG-4 and MP3 streaming, built-in DVD Event Manager and DVD Controller, panel docking, Sprite/Channel naming, and the ability to pull content directly from the Internet. The list goes on...

NEW FEATURES Those who are new to Director and have experience in Web development will find the new support for

JavaScript syntax quite useful. This will essentially transport you past the usual learning curve associated with a new application. However, experienced Director users will find little, if any use for this new functionality. The new ability to publish both Mac and PC Projector files is quite useful, at least in theory. Before this release, users were required to buy PC and Mac versions of Director if they wanted to make their content available on both platforms. It seems as though Macromedia realised this was an error in its strategy (to put it mildly) and moved to resolve the issue in this latest upgrade. However, when we tried exporting a Mac Projector and opening it on a Mac, all of the file association information had been lost and the Mac didn’t know how to open the file. In addition to this bug, Director MX 2004 only enables you to create OS X Projectors. One of Director MX 2004’s many useful new features is the ability to drag files from your hard drive directly into the Cast window. This is handy when you need to import a huge number of files into Director and don’t want to do it one at a time. In addition to this drag-anddrop functionality, you can now link to content from the Internet, which will really change the way people build multimedia content for CD/DVDs and kiosks. Gone are the days of burning the disc and worrying that your application will look dated in a few months’ time. When importing a file, simply click the Internet button and type in a URL. Now whenever the application loads,

Review

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FEATURES JavaScript syntax scripting support ● Publishing to both PC and Mac ● Revamped Projector Publishing panel ● DVD-Video support ● Integration of over 40 media types ● Supports streaming, MPEG-4 video and MP3 audio ● Supports QuickTime, Windows Media and RealMedia format ● Built-in DVD Event Manager and DVD Controller Component ● Improved panel docking capability ● Sprite and Channel naming ●

The latest iteration of Director MX 2004 enables you to simply drop QuickTime videos into the Cast from your hard drive.

Integration between Flash and Director is simple and powerful – newcomers will enjoy the support for JavaScript syntax.

it will grab the file from the URL you entered. A real-world example of this would be in creating press-pack CDs for journalists. It would be ideal to place heavy video and audio files on the CD, but allow for the press releases to be pulled from the Internet whenever the CD is launched. We said it’d be useful… In addition to this Internet file-linking feature, Director MX 2004 continues to improve its extensibility – largely with the help of a technology called Xtras. These plug-ins are simply purchased and dropped into the Macromedia\ Director MX 2004\Xtras folder on your hard drive. There are literally hundreds of Xtras available, enabling you to change screen resolution, export images, add transitions and special effects, send messages to mobile phones, encrypt files, show custom dialogs, send files using FTP and much, much more. Some Xtras that we found tremendously helpful were the Buddy API (www.mods.com.au/budapi) and DiskJockey CD-ROM Builder. The Buddy API Xtra enables users to save files and create folders on their hard drive. CD-ROM Builder makes deploying commercial-strength CD-ROM presentations even easier. To view and buy Director Xtras, head to www.macromedia.com/software/ xtras/director. Overall, this extensibility really makes the program worth the investment. You’ll find that it empowers you to create applications for your clients which you can sell at a premium. Another feature that Macromedia deems relevant is the new panel docking capability. We have always found the Director user-interface a little messy and poorly thought out, so this feature was a welcome idea. In practice, though, it isn’t as impressive as it could be. What is impressive is the primary new feature of Director MX 2004: its support for DVD-Video. This will really open up the DVD content market. You can now embed, control and play DVD-Video inside your Director applications. Macromedia has built a new component called the DVD Controller, which is very similar to the video scrubber component that shipped with Flash MX. This has Play, Pause, Fast-forward, Rewind, Menu, Title and Return buttons. You can choose three different controller styles, but most professionals will want to create a custom skin for their DVD Controller. The most powerful DVD content feature in Director MX 2004 is the capability to trigger events during DVD movie playback. An example of an event is the firing of URLs. This will open up new possibilities in creating Webenabled DVD interactive applications. During DVD playback, you could open up content in another window that is synchronised with the video, such as related images or helpful text. According to Macromedia, many

popular DVD titles are now using this capability, including A Beautiful Mind, Matrix Reloaded, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

POWER TOOL Director MX 2004 is a very powerful application that will enable you to create almost any multimedia application you can dream of. Those who believe that Director is just an expensive version of Flash and not worth bothering with will be missing out on a huge number of clients who need powerful cross-platform multimedia applications. There really is power in Director that you just can’t achieve with Flash alone. JavaScript syntax scripting support, cross-platform publishing, DVDVideo support, MPEG-4 and MP3 streaming, built-in DVD Event Manager and DVD Controller, support for over 40 media file types, Sprite/Channel naming and the ability to pull content directly from the Internet all make Director MX 2004 an essential tool for you or your studio. Is it worth upgrading from Director MX to Director MX 2004? Only if you’re planning on making DVD-Video an essential part of your business plan, or you’re an expert with JavaScript and can make use of the new JavaScript support. However, if you haven’t purchased Director before and already have multimedia clients, it really is worth the rather hefty investment. ■

UPDATING CONTENT Change your CD/DVD on the fly Director MX 2004 has the ability to pull content directly from the Internet every time your app is launched. This feature really comes into play if you want to encourage users to reuse your application many times. You can import a file onto the stage, choose the Internet button and enter a URL. Now Director will grab that file from the Web and bring it into your application. A

scenario where this feature really becomes useful, is if you’d like to distribute a physical product to customers, but need it to update itself with current data as it becomes available. You could distribute a presskit CD to a journalist with huge video files and images on the CD, but all the press releases could be pulled from the Web in PDF format, as and when they become available.

Importing a QuickTime video into Director is dead easy. You can simply drag the QT from your hard drive into the Cast.

The built-in Shockwave 3D support is quite useful. You can rotate models and manipulate the view, all from within Director.

Director’s ability to link to external media is a really helpful way to keep your applications updated with fresh content. You can pull media straight from the Internet.

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PREVIEW

TOON BOOM STUDIO 2.5 ANIMATION

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SYSTEM

MAC

£TBA

The celebrated tool finally gets updated for the Mac platform

Toon Boom Technologies Buy online www.toonboomstudio.com

MAC G4 or G5 • 100MB HD • 256MB RAM • OSX 10.3

T

oon Boom Studio is now the animator’s tool of choice when it comes to creating cartoons for distributing over the Web (or broadcasting on TV). Before TBS came along, Flash ruled the roost. But Macromedia’s app didn’t (and still doesn’t) provide tools aimed specifically at cartoonists – dope sheets, 3D planning tools, and so forth… TBS, by contrast, brings a vast feature-set that cel animators are immediately familiar with, which is why it’s proved so popular. This update finally brings the Mac version in line with the PC version. For those unfamiliar with Toon Boom Studio, it provides what’s called a ‘2.5D working environment’: not only can you draw in two dimensions,

TBS 2.5 FEATURES, FOR THE FIRST TIME, AUTO GAP-CLOSING AND THE ABILITY TO PAINT WITH BITMAP TEXTURES but you can also plan your scenes using planes – which makes 3D composition much easier. To create the illusion in Flash, you need to tween the size of symbols; in Toon Boom, you simply animate your camera, much like you would in a 3D app. Thankfully, creating an animation in TBS is easy, too, with the app conveniently divided into the following areas: inking, painting and 3D scene-planning. Naturally,

TBS 2.5 also provides a rotary light table (you can rotate your canvas as you draw), onion skinning, an Exposure sheet for planning the animation of drawn elements, and support for Wacom tablets.

MIND THE GAP The drawing tools in TBS 2.5 are much improved, too, with many of the PC enhancements now available for the Mac. As well as numerous vector-based tools, TBS 2.5 features, for the first time, Auto Gap-closing and the ability to paint with bitmap textures. While the former is an essential tool in the day-to-day production of complex cartoon drawing, the latter represents a leap forward in the ability to add a more organic feel to your work. As well as this, version 2.5 adds what is becoming a tool common to almost every design app: bitmap vectorisation. This is particularly useful in TBS, although bear in mind that the app can import all manner of file formats – including SWF, AI, PDF, TGA, JPEG, TIF and lots more. You can now also scan in work, which is a bonus. But it’s with the Sceneplanning 3D mode that TBS really excels. We’ve already mentioned that you can use planes to manage the depth of your scene. Well, now you can assign motion paths to elements, animate cameras, and more besides. This means you can add colour transformation and clipping effects, and copy

Much like a 3D application, TBS’ Sceneplanning mode gives you different views of your animation.

VERDICT This is the release Mac users have been waiting for – finally, the app is on a par with the PC version. We’ll have a full review of this exciting release soon. Toon Boom Studio 2.5 brings a wealth of professional animation tools to your Mac – and at a fantastic price.

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Review

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The 3D Sceneplanning mode is a real joy to use – enabling you to position 2D planes in 3D space, and animate cameras to create the illusion of distance in your animations.

frame properties to multiple key frames. This ability to scale and rotate images in 3D space is hugely appealing, and will prove a godsend to animators fed up with having to tween scales to simulate distance in Flash. Because you get a perspective, top and side views, you can control the movement of your characters and objects more easily. The TBS timeline is simple, yet easy to master, and reminiscent of that found in After Effects. The process of animating elements stored in your Exposure sheet isn’t difficult, either. First, you create, for example, a frame-by-frame walk cycle in drawing mode. Then you switch over to Sceneplanning mode and import the track, attaching it to a PEG (an invisible element that controls the position of an element) to animate your subject in 3D space.

ON THE LIPS Toon Boom Studio’s lip-synching toolset continues to be one of its most exciting attributes. No more manually scrubbing through a soundtrack and manually adjusting drawings as you go… With TBS, the process is simple. First, you import your soundtrack as an MP3, WAV or AIFF file; then it’s simply a matter of running the lip chart generator. This promptly goes through your soundtrack and generates the necessary phonemes to copy to your own cartoon. Another considerable time-saver is the automatic mapping of lip charts to lip drawings. The lip-sync features are paired with new support for audio, including sound streaming on export. This obviously makes your cartoons load much quicker when distributed on the Web. There’s also the ability to scrub sound on the timeline – a feature that makes it possible to easily check lip-sync at the Sceneplanning stage. Once you’re happy with your animation, TBS offers a range of export options. Predictably, you can output your cartoon as an SWF file (along with sound streaming) for Web distribution, or QuickTime for putting into an NLE for broadcast prep. Flash MX currently ships with a TBS Importer – making it possible to import raw TBS scenes into Flash (for adding elements of interactivity to your

FEATURES • Vector drawing tools • Auto Gap-closing tools • Lip-synching tools • Exposure sheet • 3D Sceneplanning • Timeline-based animation • SWF, QuickTime output • Wide-ranging raster/vector import • Sound scrubbing on timeline

Toon Boom Studio includes some great vector drawing and editing tools.

cartoons). New to version 2.5 comes the ability to export your colour palette in Flash files – a neat extra. Toon Boom Studio 2.5 for Mac is really a release that’s all about playing catch-up with the current PC version. That said, it’s a Mac animation tool unrivalled on the platform, and for that alone should be applauded. We can’t wait for the official release; which should be sometime in May. Expect a full review soon. ■

The ability to finely control tools in Toon Boom Studio makes it ideal for quickly achieving the desired cartoon effect.

BOOM-TASTIC Experience a high-end Toon Boom The team behind TBS is no slouch when it comes to animation; it’s already famous for USAnimation, a higher end animation tool aimed at industry professionals. Like TBS, USAnimation (the sixth Opus release) features a host of dedicated tools, arranged over a series of modules, each focusing on a key area of animation workflow. These modules include X-Sheet, an exposure sheet that enables you to automatically build timings by clicking and dragging; Drawing, a host of resolutionindependent vector drawing tools; Paint, for retouching vector drawing and painting with textures; and 3D Sceneplanning, with

tools much the same as those in TBS. A number of features differentiate the two apps. The ability to render to any resolution and aspect ratio, such as TV, NTSC, PAL, HDTV and film, for instance, as well as the ability to convert Maya 3D models into USAnimation vector files. USAnimation doesn’t have a fixed cost, as it’s tailored to your production needs. Movies produced with USAnimation include The Jungle Book 2 and Piglet’s Big Movie from Disney, Looney Tunes: Back in Action from Warner Bros, Rugrats Go Wild! from Paramount and The Triplets of Belleville from Sony Pictures Classics.

The Colour Palette dialog enables you to rename colours according to where they’re being used in your project.

The various views in 3D Sceneplanning mode help you lay out your animation extremely quickly and efficiently.

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Review

DIGIROSTRUM 2 DV

PC £50-£750

Add life to your still images with this intriguing virtual camera utility

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FEATURES

Lumidium Buy online www.lumidium.com

Import of high-resolution stills Creation of 2D and 3D camera paths ● Graph-based keyframe editing ● Real-time previews ● Export in a range of formats ● ●

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SYSTEM

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FOR

PC Pentium III 400MHz • 256MB RAM • Win 2000/XP

Fast rendering Simple workflow ● Very responsive

DigiRostrum enables you to use extremely high-resolution images, so you can zoom in as close as you like to enjoy the finer details.

3D camera movement is provided, but the single flat viewport makes it difficult to manipulate. Results depend very much on your material.

I

them around as a pair, but you can still select each one on its own to remove, or alter the pause. It’s quite a neat system, but a simple ‘hold’ duration for each keyframe would have done the job more simply (although, admittedly, not quite as flexibly). Once you’ve created a path, rendering can be done in a range of formats. AVI is supported, along with QuickTime and image sequences. You can choose to render with or without motion blur, and pick your camera’s aspect ratio. Rendering is fast, but its speed will depend on the resolution of your original photo. It’s worth bearing this in mind before you start, and asking yourself just how far you plan to zoom into an image, and therefore how detailed it needs to be. You’ll save yourself a lot of processing time (and memory) opting for a lower res image if it won’t jeopardise your work. This is a handy tool for DV artists who want to create moving effects from still images – see our boxout below for information on which of the three versions provided would suit your workflow. ■

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AGAINST Pro versions are pricy ● Editing packages and compositors have similar tools ● 3D mode could be more intuitive ●

VERDICT

★★★★★ DigiRostrum is a niche product. Most people wanting to work with still images will do so in their video-editing package. However, if you use a lot of stills in your video work, this certainly represents a simpler, more flexible and elegant way of presenting them than you’ll find in most other editors.

f you have an image to be shown on a TV screen, you can just pull it into your video editor and drop it on the timeline easily enough. But the result is only a static shot of the whole image, stretched to fit your screen. It’s dull, and no matter how detailed your original shot is, all you get to see is the 720x576-pixel image your TV is capable of displaying (or even less if you’re rendering your video for CD or Internet use). Which brings us neatly to Lumidium’s DigiRostrum... The idea behind this package is quite simple. You bring in a picture and use it to create a video that explores said image in as much detail you like. If you imagine this source material placed on a flat surface, DigiRostrum enables you to place a virtual camera above it, and plot a path overhead, zooming in and out and picking out details as the camera goes along. Creating a motion path is simple. Just click and drag on the screen, and you can add, move or delete keyframes as you see fit. At the left-hand side of the window is a monitor in which you can play the output, and below it is a keyframe graph showing the way the direction of movement changes over time. Not only can you move, resize and rotate the virtual camera in 2D, but you can also switch to 3D mode. 3D is a little more difficult to handle, because the viewer in which you create your motion path is still only a single 2D window. That said, once you get the hang of it, you can produce flyovers, or other true 3D effects. Unfortunately, what you can’t do is move the camera behind the image, so spinning and flipping images isn’t possible (which is a shame). Manipulating keyframes in the graph view is also easy, and special tools enable you to move a number of keyframes proportionally so that the same movement is preserved, even when you change the time over which it takes place. Pauses are important, too. In any piece of rostrum camera work, you'll want the camera to linger over certain points on the image before moving on. Even if it’s just the start or end of the motion, you’ll need the camera to be stationary at some point. DigiRostrum automatically creates a pause when you set up two keyframes at the same position. These immediately become linked together so you can drag

THREE OPTIONS DigiRostrum DV, Pro or HD? There are currently three versions of DigiRostrum available, each aimed at a different market. But which one will suit your particular needs? The first two are DV and Pro. DigiRostrum DV is the most basic package. At only £50, it contains all the same tools as the higher-end versions, but can render out only up to DV quality. DigiRostrum Pro includes the option of

importing video files as well as just stills, and will set you back £450. DigiRostrum HD is £750, and it’s aimed at pro studios and postproduction houses. With this version, you can output your finished piece in unlimited resolution, so you can create work for HD or film. For more info on these three iterations, head to www.lumidium.com.

Computer Arts_May 2004

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AURORA WATER 3D

PC AND MAC

$169 (£91)

Creating realistic 3D pools, lakes and oceans inside After Effects is suddenly plain sailing

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CONTACT

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FEATURES

Digital Element +1 510 601 7351 www.digi-element.com

Realistic water generator Creates animated ripples from layer sources ● Reflects Aurora Sky scenes and environment maps ● Supports and reflects up to four layers located in 3D space ● Generates caustic reflections and underwater rays ● Works in conjunction with AE’s camera ● ●

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SYSTEM PC/MAC After Effects 5 or above and a system capable of running it

FOR Reflective properties are a real boon ● Adding 3D layers increases the tool’s usefulness ● Great partner product to Aurora Water ●

‡ AGAINST

Can be a bit slow to set up and render ● Getting layer-generated ripples to work is hit and miss ● The default camera/layer settings are not very useful ●

VERDICT

★★★★★ This program is a real alternative to Psunami (though to be honest, you would probably want both). The ability to convincingly place your layers into a scene and have them properly reflected (and reflect the environment) is just crying out for experimentation.

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(Main) A simple text layer is pre-composed and added to Aurora Water. When animated, the caustic reflections ripple on the surface of the text. (Below left) Automatically create concentric ripples. (Right) This flat photo was cut out with an alpha channel and placed into the app’s 3D space.

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t’s been nearly five years since the arrival of Digital Anarchy’s Psunami, a reworking of Areté’s Digital Nature Tools, which enabled compositors to generate realistic oceans right inside After Effect’s render pipeline. But despite its age and several annoying limitations, it remains at version 1.1, and has left the door open for a new contender, in the shape of Aurora Water. A partner plug-in to Aurora Sky, this tool takes a different approach. Where Psunami generates a ‘real’ 3D mesh and renders it, Aurora Water produces only the illusion of rippled water, using bump mapping and reflections. So while it’s therefore limited to calm oceans and lakes, it does provide some useful functionality over its aging competitor.

And because it can use After Effect’s own 3D camera and world co-ordinates, you can toggle each layer into a 3D object and then position them within the scene using the standard controls. Naturally, alpha channels are supported for cut-outs and text. Like Psunami, this program supports texture and displacement mapping, but it goes one step further by automatically creating surface disturbance, either from a source layer intersecting the water, or from a point source, such as a pebble or rain drops. It also allows the camera to go underwater for shots of the rippling surface above, and can be accompanied by ‘God rays’, the shafts of volumetric light caused by sunlight piercing the waves. Where Aurora Water works differently to Psunami, it too has its pros and cons. The ability AURORA WATER PRODUCES ONLY THE reflect both the environment and layers in the ILLUSION OF RIPPLED WATER, USING BUMP to scene no doubt makes this a much more useful MAPPING AND REFLECTIONS tool for scenes that don’t just involve rolling seas. Conversely, the main drawback is that Aurora’s The plug-in features cubic reflection mapping, which water is totally flat, so it’s really only suitable for can utilise a basic, user-definable sky as created within Mediterranean seas, millponds and pools. Aurora Water itself; it can import and reflect scene Aurora Water is nicely integrated into After Effect’s 3D information from Aurora Sky, or it can base its reflections space, and solves many of the problems encountered on ‘Boundary Layers’ created and imported separately. with Psunami – which requires a lot more work to This latter option throws up some intriguing possibilities convincingly add other elements. In truth, though, the in terms of tying it into existing scenes – especially with ideal plug-in would be one that employed the best cubic sky maps rendered by 3D software. facets of both. But even better, Aurora Water enables you to place Ultimately, Aurora Water is one of those plug-ins that up to four separate layers within the scene itself, and to you’ll either find use for or discard as a novelty, and if it’s have those layers reflected in the water, receive caustic the former, Digital Element has certainly put effort into reflections, and also reflect the surrounding sea and sky. making it a tool worth investing in. ■

Review

LUX 3D

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PC AND MAC

$169 (£91)

Sumptuous glows and volumetric light beams are now just a few clicks away

CONTACT Trapcode Buy online www.trapcode.com

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SYSTEM PC/MAC After Effects 6

and a system capable of running it

VERDICT

★★★★★ Simple to apply, renders quickly, works beautifully, and makes all your 3D scenes look great. You’d need to argue long and hard about why you wouldn’t want Lux in your Effects menu.

3D LAYER 3D

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PC AND MAC

The Computer Arts logo gets the Lux treatment. Animated fractal noise is added to the light beam, via Lux’s own alpha channel, while another Trapcode plug-in, Starglow, adds a touch of sparkle.

volumetric lights and shadows, you’ll have to dip into a 3D package that can perform full raytracing. However, the inverse is also true – if your volumetric light beams don’t need this level of detail, and you can export light and camera data to AE, then you’d be much better off doing them as a post effect using Lux. Lux is truly amazing, capable of generating beautiful end results, very quickly and with the minimum of set-up. With many After Effects plug-ins it’s sometimes hard to imagine where you might use them; with Lux it’s difficult to see when you wouldn’t! ■

$169 (£91)

Give your After Effects work some real depth with this unique and useful plug-in

CONTACT Digital Anarchy +415 586 8434 www.digital anarchy.com

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ince After Effects 5, we’ve had the ability to position layers in 3D space and illuminate them with ambient, spot or point lights. However, all these sources of light are mere ciphers, apparent only by their effect; point a spotlight directly into the virtual camera lens and you’ll see nothing at all. Lux, from Swedish developer Trapcode, changes all that. It creates volumetric light effects, from subtle glows to full-on light beams, all correctly rendered according to the location of lights and camera. And even the most simple application of Lux alters any scene, adding a huge amount of atmosphere, ambience and realism. You have control over the intensity of the beam, which can be linked to that of the light source, or set manually. You then have full control over the look of the beam itself, where it starts, how far it travels, as well as the Light Model – whether it observes the normal inverse square rule of fall-off, or projects a more solid beam. However, like most programs, Lux is not without its limitations. It’s applied to an empty layer, and doesn’t actually interact with any 3D elements, so you can’t break up the light beam – say with volumetric shadows – and the glows and beams are perfect, without any smoky swirls or dust motes. The latter problem can be overcome by simply overlaying a little animated fractal noise, and Lux even generates its own alpha channel for just such a purpose. Of course, if you want truly 3D

SYSTEM PC/MAC After Effects 6

and a system capable of running it

VERDICT

★★★★★ A fascinating and unique addition to After Effects’ 3D functionality, 3D Layer is great for logos and idents, but it also opens up all sorts of possibilities for the experimental After Effects artist too. Now, if Digital Anarchy can just smooth the sides and speed it up a bit…

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istributed by Digital Anarchy, but co-developed with Conoa, 3D Layer is another plug-in that pushes After Effects in new directions. Ordinarily, the 3D layers in a composition are perfectly flat, existing as two-dimensional planes. But by applying 3D Layer you can create flapping flags, wavy surfaces, even 3D landscapes – all with depth and solidity. Set-up is straightforward: you apply the plug-in to a new solid, and then use other layers or pre-comps to texture and distort the object. It enables you to use the same image as texture and/or displacement maps, and you can texture the top, bottom and sides as necessary. You can choose to displace the layer using red, green, blue or alpha channel information, and you can get great animated results from the Fractal Noise or Wave World plug-ins as a pre-composed layer. 3D Layer even goes a step further, providing the ability to cut chunks out of the object based on the channel information of another layer, to produce ragged shapes or even extruded text. This plug-in adds a new dimension to AE layers. Previous tools have let you distort images into spheres, cubes or tubes, but these were all limited to basic primitive shapes; 3D Layer lets you displace the layer any way you like, and animate the effect over time. There are a few minor drawbacks. Because the layer information is actually being mapped onto polygons, it’s

Here a flat CA logo image has been distorted using 3D Layer, and extruded to give it real solidity. The surface of the object has been given a shiny surface with specular highlights, and is also reflecting an environment image placed in a separate layer.

difficult to hide the mesh structure – especially when cutting into the object. Despite using the highest resolution mesh, you get a blocky, geometric edge. Also, when striving for the best results (dense poly mesh, high anti-aliasing), it can slow After Effects to a crawl, but a multi-threaded version is apparently in the pipeline. 3D Layer is an excellent plug-in. Once you’re past the novelty of making wavy flags, you’re struck with lots of ways of employing it, for things like bubbling liquids, ocean swells, embossed logos, fake pin-screens… It’s the kind of tool that begs to be explored in depth. ■

Computer Arts_May 2004

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PAGE CURL 2.0 PHOTOSHOP PLUG-IN

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CONTACT

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SYSTEM

PC AND MAC $30

(£16)

Can there really be life in one of the oldest effects on the block?

AV Bros Buy online www.avbros.com

PC/MAC Photoshop and a system capable of running it

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he page curl – an effect that simulates the turning of a page or folio – is now such a staple of the design world, it’s become something of a cliché. Is there really any use for it in the world of modern computer graphics? You’d think not, but you’d be wrong. AV Bros, an Iranian Photoshop plug-in developer, certainly thinks there’s life in the old effect yet

VERDICT

★★★★★ A useful and inexpensive tool that is great for subtly tweaking your layers and selections.

You can use Page Curl 2.0 to create interesting pseudo-3D effects – like this petal, which seems to ‘curl out’ of the 2D flower image.

XTREME PATH 1.0 ILLUSTRATOR PLUG-IN

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CONTACT CValley Buy online www.cvalley.com

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SYSTEM PC/MAC Illustrator 8+ and a system capable of running it

PC AND MAC $139

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treme Path is the latest Illustrator plug-in from CValley, developer of the first ever Illustrator plug-in, FilterIT. But rather than taking an effects angle, it very much centres on productivity, bolstering those vitally important Illustrator Path tools. The plug-in adds 36 tools and a filter to the Illustrator toolbox, all of which are dedicated to editing paths. But

★★★★★

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Computer Arts_May 2004

(£76)

A set of useful plug-ins for the discerning path operator

VERDICT A fantastic tool. CValley is to be applauded for creating such a revolutionary and intuitive plug-in.

– and there’s clearly more to Page Curl 2.0 than meets the eye. It’s not just a simple flip-over effect generator; it’s a surprisingly versatile tool that you’ll find genuinely useful in your day-to-day work. The interface is pretty easy to work your way around – anyone familiar with Photoshop plug-ins will find it a breeze. The large preview pane that sits to the right of the interface even enables you to tweak page curls interactively, which is a definite boon. To the right is the main settings dialog, with options for tweaking the curl’s size, radius and tightness. In addition, you can adjust lighting and the quality of the final rendered effect. There’s even the option to export the whole effect as a PSD file without applying it to your image. There are other exciting effects you can explore, too. Because the plug-in supports Photoshop layers, for instance, you can delicately fold any layer or selection over to reveal the contents underneath. This provides a subtle way of creating 3D effects – for instance, curling the wing of a butterfly or the petal of a flower, so that it seems to ‘emerge’ from the page. It won’t be to everyone’s tastes, sure, but at only $30, Page Curl 2.0 is a cheap, fun and useful Photoshop plug-in that is great for adding subtle tweaks to your designs. Our only real gripe is that it can be slow at times – which does limit interactivity. ■

Offering 36 tools and an impressive filter, Xtreme Path 1.0 is one multi-talented Illustrator plug-in. Add it to your collection now!

are this many really required? Well, yes, actually… We’re not exaggerating when we say that Xtreme Path could irrevocably change the way you work with paths… The only filter effect present will be of huge interest to those working with typography in Illustrator on a day-today basis. It’s not complicated to master and it’s extremely useful. It basically adds a pair of smooth points to any corner anchor point – thus enabling you to round off any angle. This is exciting when it comes to fonts; you can round off type edges to create variations without fumbling around in, say, Fontographer. The rest of the plug-in’s guts reside in the main toolbox, and comprise a number of tools that deal with editing points. One of the best is the Segment Direct Edit, which enables you to grab hold of a point and drag it out without affecting the rest of the path. This means you can actually edit points without using control points – a breath of fresh air for any Illustrator user. The Segment Edit tool does a similar job. With it, you can reshape a path segment while retaining smooth anchor points. Tools such as Convert to Arc are a quick alternative to Illustrator’s often fiddly rounded Rectangle tool, while the Stretch tool enables you to interactively pull on a point, deforming the path in the direction you drag. All Illustrator users should try this superb plug-in out. Adobe, take note. Illustrator needs this next time… ■

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SONY CYBERSHOT DSC-F828 DIGITAL CAMERA

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Can this 8-megapixel compact meet expectations as a serious imaging tool?

CONTACT Sony 020 7365 2947 www.sony.co.uk

FEATURES Hologram auto-focus Simultaneous RAW and JPEG capture ● 4-colour Super HAD CCD ● Macro shooting up to 2cm ● 7-frame Burst mode buffer ● Dual media slots ● Carl Zeiss T* lens ● Rotating lens axis ●

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SYSTEM

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FOR

PC Win 98/SE/2000 Pro/ ME/XP MAC OS 9.1-9.2/OS X 10-10.2

Beautifully styled Rugged build ● Oodles of features ●

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AGAINST Purple fringing problems High ISO noise levels ● Resolution poor ●

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The Sony DSC-F828’s Hologram AF system even enables you to focus in complete darkness.

VERDICT

★★★★★ The DSC-F828 is deliciously styled and built to last, with bountiful features and performance to match the high price-tag. Unfortunately, image quality is weak in places, suggesting the 8-megapixel CCD could be in need of an overhaul.

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PC AND MAC £900

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he Sony DSC-F828 has been widely anticipated. As the first camera to carry this CCD (capable of full A4 reproduction with virtually no interpolation), the 828 brings with it a lot of expectations. Luckily then, Sony means business. The 828 is bigger, heavier and sturdier than its predecessor, the DCS-F717. It sports the same quirky rotating lens barrel design that made the earlier high-end CyberShots so popular, and the magnesium outer casing really is playground-tough. Every button and dial feels luxurious, and the 28-200mm lens is convincingly built. The layout is a work of genius, too – everything seems to be in just the right place for your fingers and thumbs. Unlike the Konica Minolta Dimage A2, there’s a button to cater for virtually every function and shooting parameter, making it feel like a professional piece of kit. The menu system’s negotiated via a small joystick above the viewfinder, which is unusual but works well with practice, and the menus are well ordered and easy to grasp. More good news on the serious imaging front: simultaneous RAW and JPEG recording, a speedy F2.0F2.8 mechanical zoom lens, dual card slots for CF and Memory Stick, a seven-frame Burst mode buffer, and macro capabilities as close as 2cm. A PC socket, Adobe 1998 colour space, and a buffer for TIFF and RAW shooting would’ve completed an otherwise perfect set. Performance is professionally geared, with fast startup times, minimal shutter lag, speedy and accurate autofocus (the hologram AF system makes low-light focus a doddle), nippy playback scrolling and magnification, and all-round excellence with metering and white balance. Unfortunately, like the Dimage A2, this camera has image quality problems. Colour reproduction is fine, but

HOLOGRAM AUTO-FOCUS Sony’s intelligent focus technology You can solve exposure problems in low light by using a flashgun, but focusing in such conditions to ensure a sharp image is always tricky. Some compacts and most SLRs provide an ‘AF assist beam’ to help with the job. This consists of either a beam of tungsten light (often emanating from the flashgun) or, better still, an infra-red beam fired

at the subject for pre-exposure focus. Sony has gone one better with its Hologram AF system, which projects a Class 1 laser pattern onto the subject, enabling the AF system to read the contrast between the pattern’s edge and the subject for ultra-precise focus. The system works a treat, even enabling you to focus in total darkness.

ISO noise is poor towards the top of the sensitivity scale, and the purple fringing caused by chromatic aberration is quite severe. Resolution isn’t up to the mark, either, considering the megapixel increase, with lines dissolving too quickly on close inspection. This doesn’t bode well for upcoming 8-megapixel cameras with this CCD; it may be better to go for an earlier 5- or 6-megapixel compact or SLR if image quality is a serious consideration. ■

Review

DIMAGE A2 DIGITAL CAMERA

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CONTACT

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FEATURES

PC AND MAC

£900

We test-run Minolta's latest 8-megapixel digital SLR

Konica Minolta 01908 200 400 www.minolta.co.uk

Anti-shake system Simultaneous RAW and JPEG capture ● Full manual flash controls ● Adobe 1998 colour space ● PC studio socket ● Selectable noise reduction ● VGA-quality electronic viewfinder ● Selectable spot metering and AF points ● Generates caustic reflections and underwater rays ● ●

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SYSTEM PC Win 98/98 SE/2000 Pro/ME/XP MAC OS 9.0-OS X 10.3

FOR Bags of features Good colour reproduction ● Handles well ● ●

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The Dimage A2 may not be the prettiest camera available, but it’s well-built, intuitive to use and worth £900. Image quality isn’t as high as we’d like, but it performs well.

AGAINST No super macro mode High ISO noise levels ● Resolution poor ● ●

VERDICT

★★★★★ It's a corking little camera in terms of features and usability, so it's a shame that the new CCD can't be used to its full size potential on account of the limited resolution and problems with ISO noise. It's still a good bargain for the money, though.

W

hen Minolta slapped a £1000 price tag on its Dimage A1 flagship compact, the feedback was good. But within a fortnight two new stars were born; Canon stunned with a sub-£1000 SLR and Sony impressed with an 8-megapixel compact. The A2 is Konica Minolta's great comeback hope: an 8-megapixel compact to compete with Sony's DSC-F828 and the three other 8-megapixel prosumers to recently hit the field: the Olympus C-8080, Canon PowerShot Pro1, and the Nikon Coolpix 8700. The A2 is the same dated shape as the A1 and its 7 series predecessors, and it's the least attractive of the 8-megapixel gang by far. Despite being uneasy on the eye it’s kind to the hand, handling superbly. Build quality is better than it looks; the exterior is magnesium alloy, and all the buttons and switches feel well engineered. Layout is organised with the speed-conscious photographer in mind. Buttons are within easy reach of the right-hand thumb, and it's all very intuitive. The only spoiler is the control dial on the right-hand side for metering, ISO, frame advance and white balance; the true professional is likely to bemoan the need to turn the camera on its side for such important functions as these. The menu system is faultless, and the array of options illustrate the number of features packed into the A2. Bonus additions include a PC socket for studio flash; the option to capture RAW and JPEG simultaneously; full manual flash features; Adobe 1998 colour space; the antishake system; and selectable noise reduction. The only negative points concern the burst mode buffer, which is disappointing at three frames, and macro shooting, which is possible at no greater than 13cm. Performance-wise the A2 comes up trumps; start-up happens in under a second, shutter lag is conspicuous by its virtual absence, the autofocus system is fast for a compact, playback scrolling the quickest going, and zoom magnification and scrolling are nippy. The metering system isn't always up to scratch though,

with a tendency to slight underexposure, but auto white balance is, hitting the mark virtually every time. Despite the size of the images outputted from the 8-megapixel CCD, the results are disappointing. ISO grain increases dramatically after ISO100 (it's appalling at 400 and 800), and resolution seems inferior to 5- and 6-megapixel CCDs we’ve seen. There are problems with chromatic aberration too, particularly with high-contrast areas where the trademark purple fringing problems are easy to spot. A shame really, considering everything else this camera has to offer, but it's still value for money. ■

ANTI-SHAKE The A2's greatest achievement? Camera shake is the poison chalice of lowlight photography – below shutter speeds of 1/60 sec (or faster with zoom extended), the slightest tremor in your hand or body is recorded, producing an unhealthy blur in your images. The solution is to whack up the ISO setting and risk ISO grain, get a tripod or, better still, a camera that comes with Minolta's latest Anti-Shake technology. It works by placing the CCD on tiny piston-like

actuators, that move around up to half a centimetre in all directions to compensate for accidental movement. Konica Minolta claims its Anti-Shake technology can offset two kinds of shaking; the highfrequency shaking of muscles, and the lowfrequency shaking of the body. Whatever the claim, the results are impressive, enabling photographers to shoot as slow as 1/30 sec with no visible movement blur, which really is unheard of.

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89

SONY PEG TJ37 PRICE £TBC COMPANY Sony WEBSITE www.sonystyle.co.uk

The latest in a long line of Clié PDAs from Sony takes the styling of Sony’s device to the next level. At the heart of the new design is a centred Jog Dial navigator wheel that has four-way directional movement for easily navigating the OS and Web-based apps. There’s also a high-res 320x320pixel, 65K display, along with a Memory Stick slot for backing up and storing valuable data, and 32MB of RAM. The super-slim model should be available now, and at 75.3x110.1x11.9mm it’ll easily fit into your pocket.

NOKIA 7700 PRICE £TBC COMPANY Nokia WEBSITE www.nokia.co.uk

Nokia’s strange-looking phone, due out this Summer, is certainly packed with features. It’s billed as a media device, and comes with large 65K screen, full-on Opera browser, VGA camera, FM radio, Email and MP3 player. There’s even a new technology called click-to-call which, as you can imagine, enables you to simply click on a number using the stylus to make your call. A new Nokia UI that’s completely customisable with skins and the usual range of downloadable wallpaper and ringtones just about wraps up the feature-set. Naturally, connectivity options are legion – BlueTooth and Irda are included.

CANON WP-20 PRICE £140 COMPANY Canon WEBSITE www.dabs.com

Canon has ventured into the wireless print server arena with the WP-20, a neat contraption that enables you to hook up your Canon Bubble Jet and print wirelessly. The print server is both Wi-Fi (IEEE802.11b) and Ethernet compliant, and capable of supporting both wired and wireless networks simultaneously. The server offers such security features as WEP64/128-bit encryption and password protection. Simply plug your printer into the USB port and, using the software wizard, you’ll have wireless printer access in just a few clicks . With a 50-metre range, you don’t need to worry about being out of range in all but the largest of studios, either.

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Review

CREATIVE STUFF OUR MONTHLY ROUND-UP OF THE LATEST GEAR AND GADGETS ITALK PRICE $40 (£22) COMPANY Griffin Technology WEBSITE www.griffintechnology.com

CREATIVE ZEN PRICE £TBC COMPANY Creative WEBSITE www.creative.com

When Apple introduced voice-recording features to the already versatile iPod, it was only a matter of time before Griffin brought out a device to rival Belkin’s dictaphone. And here it is… Thanks to the white and chrome colour scheme, which matches the styling of the iPod itself, it feels like a natural extension to the device, too. Due to ship in May, the iTalk is an absolute bargain at $40 (roughly £22). Go and get one now!

Developed by Microsoft and Creative Labs, this ‘iPod-killer’ is basically everything Mac users have been crying out for – only PC. It can store/replay video, music, recorded TV shows and more, making it truly a portable audio-visual device. It runs on Microsoft Windows Mobile software, and supported file formats to date include Windows Media Video, Windows Media Audio, Windows Media Image, MP3, JPEG and TIFF. The device has a 20GB hard drive, a 3.8-inch TFT colour LCD, and runs from a rechargeable battery. No confirmation on price as we go to press – but don’t expect it to be cheap…

INMOTION SPEAKERS PRICE £99 COMPANY Altec Lansing WEBSITE www.apple.com/ukstore

The first of this month’s iPod accessories is a real find, especially if you want to listen to your music without the inconvenience of headphones. This Altec Lansing speaker system both looks and sounds great, and it’s only around the size of an iPod itself. Extremely simple to use – all you do is pop your iPod on the supplied dock – and coming with ‘revolutionary’ MaxxBass Technology for booming sounds from small woofers, this accessory looks a bargain at a pound short of £100. There’s even the bonus that the speakers will recharge your iPod when the system’s connected, and the battery life quoted is 24 hours’ continuous playback with four AAs (not supplied).

Computer Arts_May 2004

91

BOOKS

ENHANCE YOUR SITES AUTHORS Robert Reinhardt

and Snow Dowd PRICE £33.50 PUBLISHER Wiley ISBN 0764543032

A

nother month, another Bible, this time for Flash MX 2004. The title promises to help you enhance your sites, explore new techniques for integrating Flash with other apps, and empower your Flash creations with the versatility of ActionScript. Fortunately, it lives up to these expectations. From the outset, it’s obvious that this book not only covers most aspects of Flash MX 2004 in detail, but also has a logical and progressive feel that eases you into the app. The Flash MX 2004 Bible begins by introducing the reader to the program’s framework – giving you a good grounding in how Flash builds movies, where to use them and how best to plan projects. This is extremely useful for

LOVE YOUR CODE?

ONE FOR THE COFFEE TABLE

AUTHOR Charles Brown, Imar Spaanjaars and Todd Marks PRICE £26.99 PUBLISHER Wrox ISBN 0764555243

AUTHOR Frank Heine PRICE £34 PUBLISHER Gmeiner Verlag ISBN 3899773004

efinitely not for the faint-hearted, Beginning Dreamweaver MX 2004 takes a code-based approach to designing and developing dynamic,

rank Heine was a German graphic designer whose type creations in the late 80s and 90s were regarded as some of the very best in modern typography. Most of his fonts are still available from foundries such as Emigre, FontShop and T26. Type etc, designed by Heine before his death in 2003, chronicles his work from 1988 to the end of his life. It showcases a superb collection of sketches, fonts and layouts, which reveal an incredible attention to detail – a plethora of alternative characters, kerning pair sets and ligatures. The large, hardback book is divided into 11 chapters, each demonstrating the use of his fonts over a range of media. The typefaces range from standard serifs and sans serifs to beautiful characters, full of expression.

D

92

those even familiar with producing Flash projects, and provides a solid beginning to the title. The book then goes on to explore the MX 2004 interface, before looking at improvements in the basic drawing tools, basic animation techniques and such novelties as Timeline Effects. Then, as you’d expect, Flash’s new video features are covered in a definitive manner, with compression, basic editing and streaming all explained. Two-thirds of the way in and the progressive nature of the book really begins to show. Once you’re okay using the timeline and basic ActionScript commands, it’s time to immerse yourself in the Flash programming language. This section is obviously heavier going, yet remains readable; the authors are experts at explaining just what every snippet of code does. The step-by-step approach, used both here and throughout the book, gives you all the techniques you need in an practical yet always entertaining manner. Our verdict? Definitely worth buying, particularly if you’re completely new to Macromedia’s app. ■

Computer Arts_May 2004

database-driven Websites. The cover is enough to strike fear into the heart of any designer, showing three codecentric-looking chaps (the authors), grimacing slightly. Hardly the kind of image that inspires confidence… While there’s no denying this title’s great content (aimed at users wanting to take their sites beyond simple HTML pages), presentation is wanting. Page after page of code, thorough write-ups and black and white plates soon begin to grate. Meanwhile, more interesting techniques are clouded by, again, the lack of consideration given to layout and design. To emphasise our point – the contents listing is printed on the inside cover. Look past the poor layout, though, and you’ll find a book littered with expert tips, technique and code. ■

F

As a typographer, Heine was unique, always able to express his ideas in fresh and exciting ways. This book is a fitting tribute to his talent. ■

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We show you how to create a Manga-style illustration using nothing more than Photoshop, Illustrator and a pencil

It’s already the leading tool for producing superb animation and interactive Websites, but more people are turning to Flash MX for another reason

In the second of our three-part expert series on Flash MX, we explore fundamental features of the timeline as we create an interactive comic

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CINEMA 4D R8 XPRESSO

Get to grips with some of Flash MX’s core tools, especially the program’s unique drawing features, and create a zoomable map for a Website

Use Flash MX’s powerful drawing methods to make your creative work more dynamic and interactive than ever before

Try out Cinema 4D’s exciting new expressions editor with R8 of Maxon’s powerful 3D modelling and animation software

SO, WHAT DO I NEED? All tutorials are in PDF format. You will need Adobe Acrobat to open them, which you can download free from ww.adobe.co.uk. Once you have paid for your tutorial, you will have 24 hours to download the file. All supporting files for the tutorial can be downloaded via a link embedded in the PDF

DESIGN CHAPEL Swedish illustrator Robert Lindström takes us through the making of his world-famous ‘nun’ desktop wallpaper in Photoshop and Flash

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ILLUSTRATION BY SCOTT HANSEN www.iso50.com

94

Computer Arts_May 2004

Group Test

P96

Canon Bubble Jet i965 £249

P96

HP Photosmart 7960 £249

P97

Canon Bubble Jet i905D £249

GROUP TEST

A4 PHOTO PRINTERS

P97

Epson Stylus R300 £129

Inkjet technology has come on leaps and bounds in the last few years, and there’s never been a better time to buy a photo printer. We snap-test five of the latest models There was a time, not so long ago, when photo pros lamented the failure of the inkjet printer to live up to its potential – to finally end the need for traditional darkroom processes and complete the digital darkroom loop. ‘They’re fine as long as you hold them at arm’s length,’ was the familiar response to an inkjet print, which commonly exhibited all manner of flaws close-up – droplet grain, softness, banding, inaccurate colours… But not any longer. Thanks to technological improvements, modern inkjet prints can now match their conventional counterparts on nearly every level – and the professional market has been quick to adopt the format as a serious imaging tool. Few would now seriously argue that silver halide is still superior for colour printing if you

have the right inkjet model. And while some still insist on the supremacy of traditional processes for the black and white print, their number is decreasing as technology improves here, too – the Quad black inks produced by manufacturer Lyson enable you to produce truly stunning results. So there’s never been a better time to buy into inkjet technology if you’ve plans to reproduce anything vaguely photographic, especially considering that you can get a professional standard for under £300. The ideal inkjet for this sort of money would produce speedy print times, perfect colour reproduction, smooth tonality, and a print that would remain fade-resistant for longer than your lifespan. It all sounds too good to be true, but one such printer does exist – read on!

P98

Epson Stylus R800 £299

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CANON BUBBLE JET I965

HP PHOTOSMART 7960

The i965 is one of Canon’s new breed of A4 printers with a 2-picolitre droplet size

An eight-ink lightfast system makes the HP 7960 a promising printer on paper

C

T

PC AND MAC £249

‡

‡

anon beat Epson off the block late last year with a new range of A4 photo printers, of which the i965 sits second in line to the i990 in the price-pecking order. The company has been hailed as the speed merchant of the photo-printing game, so it’s no surprise that this model promises yet more gains in the page-per-minute sprint stakes. True to form, the printer polished off the A4 test print in best-quality mode in just two minutes and 38 seconds with the high-speed USB 2.0 connection – that’s 12 seconds quicker than the Epson R800 managed with the speedier FireWire interface. The printer ran in similarly remarkable scores for A4 text, churning a page of print out in just under 17 seconds. Similarly great things can be said CONTACT about the build, which feels rugged yet Canon well-styled. It has the smallest width on 0870 241 2161 test, too. Features are plentiful; there’s a www.canon.co.uk CD-R printing kit included, a front USB port for printing direct from camera, a SYSTEM separate photo paper tray, a USB 2.0 PC 30MB HD space • port, and Canon’s MicroFine Droplet Win 98/ME/2000/XP Technology for printing as detailed as 2pl. MAC 30MB free HD Output quality is awesome on the space • OS 8.6-9.x/OS X premium glossy paper, displaying excellent detail across the tonal range, with none of the traditional giveaway inkjet blemishes such as banding or noise. Colour saturation and contrast are firstclass, too. There’s little to separate this from the Epson R800 in these terms, but You’ll be impressed by the the i965 just has the edge as the punchier i965’s print times if patience of the two, with marginally richer blacks isn’t one of your virtues – and greater detail in the shadows. and then by the contrast, Where the i965 can’t compete, though, colour saturation and detail is with colour accuracy – there’s a if quality is top on your list noticeable magenta cast with ICM colour of priorities. Only the flaws management, which suggests either the with colour accuracy prevent profile is inaccurate or the printer doesn’t this Epson printer jostling for have a colour gamut wide enough to first place. represent what’s on screen. Either way, the fault’s an important one.

VERDICT

★★★★★

96

Computer Arts_May 2004

PC AND MAC £249

‡

‡

he flagship photo model from HP has the biggest footprint by far, despite having no discernible extras when it comes to features. Like the R300 and i905D, it has a memory card interface for direct printing (though no USB port fo r camera connectivity), but its swivel monitor and buttons sit low down on the front panel, which doesn’t make for easy viewing if the printer’s close-up. It’s attractively styled, but the way the flimsy hood flips up for ink change does make it feel poorly designed. Connection is USB 1.1, which doesn’t help the fact that the HP models have never had the fastest print heads on the block; this top-of-the-range 7960 has rather abysmal run times – 12 minutes and 53 seconds for a maxquality A4 photo print, which is frankly CONTACT inexcusable. Text is better at 30 seconds a HP page, but this hardly makes up for the 0845 270 4222 wait for decent-colour prints. www.hp.co.uk While the ink system purports to be eight-ink, these are arranged in only three SYSTEM cartridges, which means more waste and PC 64MB RAM • 5000MB HD more cost. The 7960 also sports the least space • Win 98/ME/2000/XP fine droplet on test (4-5pl), though HP’s MAC 64MB RAM • 5000MB PhotoRET Pro technology aims to HD space • OS 9.1-OS X 10.2 overcome tonal problems by layering multiple drops of ink in each dot. One glance at the test print reveals that this isn’t always the case, unfortunately; noise shows in even areas of tone, which is a giveaway for the visibility of the droplet. This is the least of the 7960’s Diabolical print times are worries, though. Colour accuracy with only acceptable if the results ICM management is non-existent – the are really worth waiting for. test print exhibits a strong magenta cast Unfortunately for the 7960, on the main subject, which is difficult to they’re not. This model’s remove without affecting the backdrop colour accuracy is the worst which, ironically, is spot-on. That the cast in our Group Test, and there’s doesn’t cover the whole image suggests noise on show in even-tone limitations with the colour gamut rather areas, despite the use of HP’s than poor profiling, which should be proprietary ink system. enough to make you think twice about whether this is the printer for you.

VERDICT

★★★★★

Group Test

CANON BUBBLE JET I905D

EPSON STYLUS R300

The same price as the i965, but with a direct-printing, memory card interface

The cheapest printer on test, but does a budget price take its toll on quality?

T

T

PC AND MAC £249

‡

‡

he i905D costs as much as the i965, but provides direct printing from memory cards, along with a built-in LCD monitor for browsing and menu selection. Common sense tells you straight off that this means compromises must have been made elsewhere, and printing times are the first noticeable casualty – with only standard USB connectivity, the 905 can’t match its sibling, though it still turns in a respectable three minutes and 58 seconds for an A4 glossy print (faster than the R800 with USB). There’s none of that swish aluminium on the front cover, either, and styling seems to have taken a turn for the worse, but what you do get is the same six-ink setup, 2pl fine printing, the CD-R labelling kit, the dedicated photo paper tray, and a front USB socket for CONTACT PictBridge camera connectivity. You’ve no Canon USB 2.0 connection, but printing speeds 0870 241 2161 are more than satisfactory anyway, so www.canon.co.uk this shouldn’t be an issue. The driver interface is the same as SYSTEM the i965 – very approachable – and the PC 40MB HD space • menu set-up for memory card printing Win 98/ME/2000/XP is logically organised. However, the MAC 40MB HD space • positioning of the card interface makes OS 8.6-9.x/OS X changing inks a fussy affair. There’s not a great deal to separate the i965 from the i905D in terms of detail (the prints look identical under a magnifying glass), and the i905D exhibits the same punchy contrast, rich blacks and excellent range of shadow information. But where If you’re eager to get your the i965 stumbles a bit with colour prints straight out of the accuracy, the i905 very nearly falls over. digital camera, the i905D The same slight magenta cast is present, offers you the chance to but the printer also injected a worrying bypass your Mac or PC, but it flavour of green into the top and bottom doesn’t give you the output portions of our test print where there quality of the same-priced should be none. The Epson R300 did i965 (reviewed opposite). In the same (albeit worse), and this type terms of colour accuracy, it’s of flaw hints more to problems with just not in the same league. colour gamut than inaccurate profiling. A bit disappointing.

VERDICT

★★★★★

PC AND MAC £129

‡

‡

he Epson R300 is the cheapest A4 printer on test by a long run, costing just £116 if you don’t include the colour monitor accessory for viewing images from a memory card (you can still select and print from a card by frame number without the monitor). It’s a good-looking piece of kit, despite its budget price tag, and it feels rugged and well put together. This model has the shallowest depth of all printers on test (and width is minimal, too), which should impress space-saving enthusiasts. It has the same ultra-useable driver interface as the R800, and the same high-speed USB 2.0 connection (no FireWire, though), but unfortunately it doesn’t include the R800’s new eight-ink system, which adds red and blue cartridges to the party for an even wider gamut. The CONTACT R300 uses the old six-ink set-up, which Epson is understandable given the price tag, 08702 416 900 but Epson more than compensates by www.epson.co.uk packing in a 3pl droplet size. Impressive. Printing times are the second slowest SYSTEM on test; the R300 crosses the finish line PC 128MB RAM • 150MB HD with an A4 glossy photo print at space • Win XP/98/ME/2000/XP maximum quality in eight minutes and MAC 150MB HD space • OS 50 seconds, though a page of text was 8.1-9.2/OS X average for the group at 30 seconds. Granted, it’s not ideal to have to wait so long, but, to put things in perspective, these times are still two-thirds quicker than the HP, which is twice as expensive. Output quality is the real test, though, and you’d expect a £129 printer to fall at It’s cheap and it’s cheerful, this hurdle. Unfortunately, the R300 does; but poor colour accuracy and there aren’t real problems with noise or evidence of banding make smooth tone – on account of the 2pl the R300 something of a droplet size among other things – but the false economy. Unless dreaded banding rears its linear head. you’re strapped for cash Look closely and you can see lines and quality’s not an issue, running horizontally across the page. you’d be better saving your But that’s not the only problem: on top pennies for the Epson R800, of a slight magenta cast, the R300 also our clear Group Test winner. manages to turn blue into green at the top and bottom portions of the page.

VERDICT

★★★★★

Computer Arts_May 2004

97

WINNER

EPSON STYLUS R800

PC AND MAC £299

Epson’s A4 printer features high-end professional inks for a mid-range price tag – plus unrivalled lightfastness and a colour gamut to beat silver halide prints

‡

CONTACT

‡

FEATURES

‡

SYSTEM

‡

FOR

‡

Epson 08702 416 900 www.epson.co.uk

• Archival inks for 80+ years’ lightfastness • Ultrachrome inks for wider colour gamut • FireWire and USB 2.0 interface • Extra gloss optimiser cartridge • 1.5pl droplet size

PC 256MB RAM • 300MB HD space • Win XP/98/ ME/2000/XP MAC 256MB RAM • 300MB HD space • OS 8.6-OS X 10.1.3

• Speedy print times with FireWire • Excellent colour reproduction • Long lightfastness for prints

AGAINST • Price of ink makes it costly to run • Could be faster with USB 2.0 • Shadow detail could be a little better

VERDICT

★★★★★ The proof is most certainly in the pudding with the Epson R800 – the superb finish of the print on premium glossy paper confirms just what Epson has been telling us all along; that the Ultrachrome inks, combined with the new glossy optimiser, produce results that are actually better than conventional silver halide photographs. A real achievement.

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Computer Arts_May 2004

The winner on every level, the Epson Stylus R800 outputs colour prints of such quality that they’re actually better than conventional photographs.

E

pson’s new flagship A4 model is the priciest of all the A4 printers on test here, which is no surprise considering that it incorporates the new UltraChrome pigment ink set, first included on the professional A3 Stylus 2100 back in 2002. By using an eight-ink system that adds Red and a Blue cartridges to the traditional Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black (there’s now a Matte Black and a Photo Black, rather than the old Light Black), the company claims to have increased the colour gamut for colour reproduction – superior even to the conventional silver halide photograph. You might have sussed that these inks still total only seven; the eighth is the ‘Gloss Optimiser’, a transparent resin which overcomes the problem of the dull, matte finish generated by the UltraChrome inkset. It retains another of its prime advantages: a lightfastness to rival silver halide prints – over 80 years for glossy paper and 100 years for matte (the Canons on test manage only 25). And, to top it all off, Epson has now managed to produce the smallest droplet size of any printer on the market – 1.5pl – which guarantees grain-free images with the smoothest of tonal gradations. The R800 certainly looks the part with its translucent topplate finish, hardy outer casing and tough plastic feeder trays. Ink loading’s a doddle, too, with the use of individual colour cartridges ensuring costs are kept low – vital when a full set of inks is going to set you back nearly £90. This is the only printer on test to incorporate FireWire connectivity, which does a lot to narrow the gap between this

and the ultra-speedy Canon i965, although the latter still finishes marginally quicker at two minutes and 38 seconds with its USB 2.0 interface (the R800 ran in two minutes and 50 minutes). For those without the luxury of FireWire, there’s USB 2.0 high-speed, and the R800 still manages the third fastest times on test with this – four minutes and 49 seconds for a best-quality glossy photo print, and three minutes 15 with standard quality. Text printing speed is above average too, at 27 seconds for the single test page. The first and most important thing you’ll notice about all the test prints is the perfect colour accuracy; while virtually every other printer on test rendered the light blue background slightly purple, the R800 hits exactly the right tone every single time. The same can be said for the skin tones and the clothing; this printer takes you as near to the RGB source as you can get without paying thousands of pounds for a professional proofing set-up. This says two extremely positive things: first, that Epson’s canned profiles for the papers and the inks are spot-on, and, second, that the colour gamut is wide enough to reproduce tones that others simply can’t hit, which backs up Epson’s claims for its new Ultrachrome ink technology. While there’s little to separate the prints from those on the Canon i965 in terms of detail, contrast and saturation (the i965 does slightly better with shadow detail), the benefits you’ll gain from the enhanced colour gamut make the Epson R800 the winner by a mile.

Group Test

CONCLUSION

This Group Test had one clear winner – but how did the others fare? In the group of printers we’ve tested here, there’s a surprising variation in print times and output quality – especially considering that they all cost around the same price (bar the budget R300), and that inkjet technology has been established, tweaked and honed over so many years. You’d have thought by now that the competing technologies would have levelled off at a similar standard, but this Group Test prov es otherwise. Over the past few years, there’s been a lot of talk about the Canon print head – particularly its ability to produce excellent page-per-minute rates – so it’s no surprise that the i965 and i905D take second and third place, respectively (and the pricier i990 is supposedly faster again). Epson has narrowed the gap somewhat with the flagship R800, primarily through the inclusion of the FireWire interface, but the budget R300 languishes in fourth place, which is to be expected really, considering that it’s nearly half the price without the monitor. What’s not to be expected, is the languor of HP’s top-flight A4 model, the 7960. The sluggish pace of this printer really is

incomprehensible – it takes over 12 minutes to complete a single A4 colour print. Similar discrepancies can be found with the final results. While all of the printers managed decent contrast and colour saturation with a glossy finish, there was a great deal of variation in colour accuracy and detail. The Canon i905D, i965, and the Epson R800 posted similarly excellent results for detail, with no visible grain, noise, or banding, and a smooth transition of tonal gradation. The HP 7960 and Epson R300, on the other hand, produced unacceptable results at this price point – the former displaying droplet grain, and the latter a regrettable amount of banding. Colour accuracy was questionable on all printers bar the Epson R800; the i965 produced a slight magenta cast, both the i905D and R300 did the same, but with the addition of a green colour in the top and bottom portions, while the HP just turned everything purple. Pound-for-pound, then, there’s one clear winner: the Epson R800. It hits the mark in all categories. ■

CANON BUBBLE JET i965

HP PHOTOSMART 7960

PC and Mac

PC and Mac

PC and Mac

PC and Mac

PC and Mac

4800x2400

4800x1200

4800x1200

5760x1440

5760x1440

Six ink

Eight ink

Six ink

Six ink

Eight ink

USB 1.1, USB 2.0 high-speed

USB 1.1

USB 1.1

USB 2.0 high-speed

USB 2.0 high-speed, FireWire IEEE 1394

A4, B5, A5, Letter, Legal, DL, C10, 5x7-inch, 4x6-inch

A4, B5, A5, A6, DL, C6, 4x6-inch

A4, B5, A5, Letter, Legal, DL, C10, 5x7-inch, 4x6-inch

A4, B5, A5, A6, Letter, Legal, Half Letter, Executive, C6, C10, DL, 3.5x5-inch, 4x6-inch, 5x8-inch, 8x10-inch

A4, B5, A5, A6, Letter, Legal, Half Letter, Executive, C6, C10, DL, 3.5x5-inch, 4x6-inch, 5x8inch, 8x10-inch, EPSON Panoramic 210x594mm

2,38

12,53

3,58

8,50

4,49

N/A

7,1

3,1

8,2

3,16

Direct Print Port (PictBridge & Bubble Jet Direct)

N/A

Direct Print Port (PictBridge & Bubble Jet Direct)

Direct Print Port (PictBridge & Bubble Jet Direct) with optional Bluetooth adapter for notebooks, phones

N/A

MEMORY CARD INTERFACE

N/A

CompactFlash/ Microdrive, SmartMedia, Memory Stick (including PRO), SD card/ Multimedia card; xD-Picture card, Memory Stick DUO

CompactFlash/ Microdrive, SmartMedia, Memory Stick (excluding PRO), SD card/ Multimedia card; xD-Picture card, Memory Stick DUO, miniSD Card

CompactFlash/ Microdrive, SmartMedia, Memory Stick (including PRO), SD card/ Multimedia card; xDPicture card, Memory Stick DUO, Magic Gate Memory Stick, miniSD (with adapter), RS-MMC (with adapter)

N/A

BORDERLESS PRINTING

PLATFORM RESOLUTION (DPI) INK CARTRIDGE CONFIGURATION CONNECTIVITY STANDARD MEDIA SIZES

A4 PHOTO PRINT TIME USB -

CANON BUBBLE JET i905D

EPSON STYLUS R300

EPSON STYLUS R800

BEST QUALITY (MINS, SECS)

A4 PHOTO PRINT TIME USB STANDARD (MINS, SECS)

DIGITAL CAMERA INTERFACE

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

CARTRIDGE COSTS (FULL SET)

£40.74

£51.03

£40.74

£59.98

£89.66

COST PER PAGE (5% COVERAGE)

£0.19

£0.13

£0.09

£0.14

£0.22

Approx 25

73 (on Premium Plus Photo Paper)

Approx 25 years

6-26 (paper dependent)

80-100+ (paper dependent)

LIGHTFASTNESS (YEARS))

Computer Arts_May 2004

99

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Faculty of Art and Design

Media Trainer £26,897 per annum

Ref: 87561101

Principal Technical Officer - Faculty IT (Ref: T5028CA)

The Department of Media & Communication is looking for an experienced Media Trainer to work on an exciting new e-learning project.

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The role will involve developing online and workshop material for accredited units in Media Professional Development, writing analyses for companies, sourcing curriculum and freelance trainers and delivering training workshops.

37 hours per week Monday to Thursday 8.45 - 5.20, Friday 8.45 - 4.20

You will have a background in digital media, print production and the Internet, as well as be specialised in software such as web, animation, 3D, CD Rom, DVD and graphics packages. You will work closely with the E-Learning Developer, Senior Web Developer, Project Manager and the Marketing team and must be able to work effectively with a team or on your own. You will have experience of training in a media related field and familiarity with training analysis and company liaison. The ability and aptitude to train peers and external clients is essential along with excellent communication and interpersonal skills. This post is partly funded by the European Social Fund and is a fixed purpose contract until December 2005. Application forms (returnable by 29th April 2004) and details from: Personnel Department, Feeney Building, University of Central England in Birmingham, Perry Barr, Birmingham B42 2SU. Tel: 0121 331 6693 or email: [email protected] Please quote the reference number. To download job details directly, go to www.uce.ac.uk and select job vacancies. The University of Central England is an Equal Opportunities Employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.

You will provide hardware, software, server and network support services to the Faculty, which supports a wide range of study across the Departments of Design and Art. You must be familiar with Netware and OSX server software, networking, intranet, Internet and have a sympathy for Computer Aided Art and Design practices. You will be required to work as a member of the Faculty technician team. A degree or BTEC HND level qualification in a subject which includes significant network administration practice is essential. An awareness of the demands and ambience of Art and Design education and contemporary arts computer practice is desirable to work in this exciting and challenging role. Closing date: 7 May 2004 We offer a final salary pension scheme, staff development opportunities and 24 days’ annual leave, increasing with service, standard public holidays plus 4 additional days (which include the closure of offices between Christmas and New Year). You can apply for this job online at http://Recruitment.herts.ac.uk/recruit Further details available from Personnel, telephone (01707) 284802 (24-hour voicemail) quoting the reference number. The University is committed to Promoting Equal Opportunities

/ NORWICH SCHOOL

OF ART & DESIGN

/ THE EAST OF ENGLAND’S

SPECIALIST CENTRE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION IN ART AND DESIGN, OFFERING STUDIES FROM FOUNDATION THROUGH TO PhD.

/ FdA GAMES DESIGN / A NEW TWO YEAR FOUNDATION DEGREE IN GAMES ART AND DESIGN WITH EMPHASIS ON MAYA, FLASH, RENDERWARE AND OTHER MIDDLEWARE SOLUTIONS. UNITS INCLUDE 3D MODELLING & ANIMATION, GAMES ART & CONCEPTS, INTERACTIVITY & GAMEPLAY, WORLD & CHARACTER DESIGN.

NORWICH SCHOOL OF ART & DESIGN St GEORGE STREET, NORWICH NR3 1BB Call 01603 610561 Email [email protected] Info www.nsad.ac.uk

◗CD DUPLICATION Complete Digital Solutions Fast short run CDR Duplication with superb full colour on CD Face, from 1-500 without glass master - free example on request. Call Simon Hughes for competitive prices for CD-ROM REPLICATION for quantities of 500 upwards. Tel. 01923 261 269 Fax: 01923 261 267 Email: [email protected] ISDN: 01923 291 040

tuning techniques to offer leading-edge performance for the 3D enthusiast, 3D gaming and professional applications such as CAD, DTP, animation or video editing. Tel: +44 (0) 1635 524949 Fax:+44 (0) 1635 524948 Email: [email protected] Website: www.gainward.net

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DB Masters •Short and long runs •Competitive prices •Fast turn-around •A-Grade CDR •Thermal or screen print Tel: 01795 597 755 Fax: 01795 597 766 Email: [email protected] Website: www.dbmasters.co.uk

◗FONTS FACES LTD Whether you are looking for a single font, a complete library or a custom designed font, Faces offers you knowledgeable and friendly service. Fonts from the major foundries as well as new designers. Free confidential consultation for font licensing. Call for info and catalogues. Tel: 01276 38888 Fax: 01276 38111 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.faces.co.uk Contact: John, Carolyn, Melanie FONTWARE™ The Custom Font Specialists • customisation & conversions • digital branding solutions • individual fonts & collections • licensing • language • buy on-line Fontware Ltd Katana house Fort Fareham Newgate Lane Fareham Hants PO14 1AH Tel: 01329 221121 Fax: 01329 281145 Email: [email protected] Website: www.fontware.com

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Animation, imaging and post production for broadcast, interactive and print. Folio available on line or call for CD sampler. Studio 15 minutes from Victoria. Clients include:- Bray Leino, Citigate.A.F, DDB, Grey, JWT, Lowe, Masius, Ogilvy, OWN&P, Proximity, Publicis, RKCRY&R, Saatchi, TBWA, WTCS, WWAV. Tel: 020 8466 0655 Email: [email protected] Website: www.arcanadigital.com Contact: John Fox

◗RECRUITMENT CHANGE LTD Change is an agency with a difference. We have been providing a bespoke service to our customers for over three years and recruit exclusively for the Interactive Entertainment Industry. Change provides a friendly effective service to all sectors concentrating on the Gaming world. Our customers are loyal, which speaks for itself! Tel: 020 7241 4545 Mobile:07973 413060 Website: www.change-job.com

◗TRAINING SERVICES CORPS BUSINESS Recruitment and Training solutions since 1989. Training available in tailored & scheduled format. Authorised by Adobe, Extensis, Macromedia, Media 100, Maxon and Quark. Recruitment supplies staff on a temporary, permanent, contract and freelance basis. Tel: 020 7222 8484 Email: [email protected] Web: www.corps.co.uk ESCAPE STUDIOS – VISUAL EFFECTS TRAINING As Europe’s only dedicated school of Visual Effects Escape Studios courses provide the necessary skills to enter the Visual Effects and Games Development industries. Escape offer intensive day, evening and weekend courses in Maya, XSI, Shake, Combustion, Photoshop and RenderMan. Escape is a

certified training centre for Alias Wavefront, Discreet and Softimage. Tel: +44 (0)20 524 7570 Fax: +44 (0)20 524 7571 Email: [email protected] Website: www.escapestudios.co.uk METRO NEW MEDIA • London’s leading training Centre for web-design, 3D, Animation, Multi-media, Project Management and Programming • All trainers are professionals in their field • State of the art studios • All levels from beginner to advanced • Specialists in customised training • Discreet Accredited Tel : 020 7729 9992 Email: [email protected]

Web: www.metronewmedia.com

◗WEB DESIGN AZ*TECH GRAPHIC DESIGN Az*Tech Graphic Design is a Midlands based Web design agency. Specialising in Custom built software solutions for all of your online or multimedia requirements. Az*Tech has its own reasonably priced E-commerce and Auction solutions that can be attached to a site easily and add real power to your web presence. Tel: 07931 554073 Mobile: 07930 396444 Email: [email protected] Website: www.az-tech.co.uk

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NETCETERA Formed in 1996, Netcetera is one of Europe's leading Web Hosting service providers. Our services are biased towards Microsoft based Internet Technologies - Microsoft Certified Partner since 1999. Netcetera provides complete solutions for Web Hosting, Domain Name Registration, eCommerce, E-mail, Dedicated Server Hosting, Server-based Applications Hosting (ASP) and .NETpplaince. www.inetc.net Tel: +44 (0)1624 612948 Fax: +44 (0)1624 623385 Email: [email protected] Website: www.inetc.net

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TO F E AT U R E I N T H E C R E AT I V E D I R E C TO RY T E L E P H O N E B RY O N Y WAT T S O N 0 1 2 2 5 4 4 2 2 4 4

EXPOSURE SEND YOUR WORK TO COMPUTER ARTS AND BE SEEN BY THOUSANDS!

GET EXPOSED Send your work to us, along with an explanation of your techniques and software, the titles of each piece, your telephone number and email. Images should be sent as PC or Mac TIFF or JPEG files, on CD-ROM or Zip disks. A hard copy is a great help. We will endeavour to return all entries that provide an SAE. All contributions are submitted on the basis of a non-exclusive worldwide licence to publish, both in printed and electronic form. Post hi-res files for print to: Exposure, Computer Arts, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath BA1 2BW.

1 NAME Feargal O’Malley JOB Arts Centre Multimedia officer CONTACT [email protected], www.feargalomalley.com SOFTWARE Photoshop, Flash IMAGE TITLES 1. Somewhere Over The..., 2.Rap superstar, 3. Dream weaver, 4. Pop bitch “I’m inspired by everything and anything. I’m currently working on a multimedia project with poetry, illustrations, animations and video, based on the Lost Lives book that chronicles those who died during the recent troubles in Northern Ireland.”

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2 NAME Manhar Chaulan JOB Freelance Designer CONTACT manhar@blueyonder. co.uk, 020 8948 7637 SOFTWARE Photoshop, Illustrator, Painter IMAGE TITLES 1. Robot, 2. Robot spread “Designing and creating characters, whether they’re human, animal, mechanical or various combinations thereof, is something I really enjoy, and I’ve been fortunate enough to earn a living doing so.”

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NAME Andrew Spackman JOB Freelance Illustrator CONTACT [email protected], www.fatsuma.co.uk SOFTWARE Photoshop IMAGE TITLES 1. Trees Are Only This Big, 2. Pink Heads “I’ve contributed artwork to The Face magazine, HYPE Gallery and to the D&AD New Blood exhibition. I’m keen to continue building a portfolio of work for editorial, advertising and music industry clients.”

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4 NAME Michael Slack JOB Freelance Illustrator, Character Designer CONTACT slackart@mindspring , www.slackart.com SOFTWARE Photoshop IMAGE TITLES 1. Cowboy, 2. Bedtime Beast, 3. Character Design For British TV Ad, 4. Seaside Stinkhole Blues “For me, it’s all about layers and texture. I start with a drawing and some painted textures, then scan them in before adding more colour, textures and stylistic flurries.”

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RETROSPECTIVE ISSUE 31 MAY 1999 More Episode I references than you can shake a Wookie at

EDITORIAL 01225 442 244 VICKI ATKINSON EDITOR [email protected] RODDY LLEWELLYN ART EDITOR [email protected] ROB CARNEY DEPUTY EDITOR [email protected] RACHEL ELLIOTT OPERATIONS EDITOR [email protected] JON ALONGI CD EDITOR [email protected] MATT GALLIMORE SENIOR CD EDITOR [email protected] JEN WAGNER ONLINE EDITOR [email protected]

CD PROBLEMS 01225 822 743 [email protected]

Contributions from 123Klan, Ryan Carson, Jason CranfordTeague, Christian Darkin, Dan Goodleff, Scott Hansen, Matt Henry, The Identikal Corporation, Jacey, Andy Jenkinson, Thomas Knowles, Magictorch, Vincent Marcone, Vicky Mitchard, Tom Opasinski, Mark Ramshaw, Ed Ricketts, The Ronin, Oliver Shaw, Substance®, Two Things, Garrick Webster

W

ith Macromedia’s Dreamweaver starting to dominate the Web design field, it was time to devote some serious tutorial space to its use. Thus our cover answered the usual ‘How do you illustrate Web design?’ dilemma by completely ignoring it. Meanwhile, another old stalwart, 3D Studio MAX – as it was then called – was about to reach version 3, and Bryce was approaching 4 (not to mention imminent stagnation). Consumer digicams had cracked the 1.5-megapixel mark for around £450, and the first Computer Arts Live! show was being mooted. The team at Fluid Design, still residing at The Custard Factory, showed us their wares. So did Robert Brearley, whose illos have graced many a CA page since. Completing this happy coterie were RD2 – now with added Media, and still as creative as ever. Silicon Graphics’ doomed attempt at a desktop workstation got a cautious thumbs-up, though Strata’s ambitious Premiere-beater VideoShop got left on the cutting-room floor. This was a time when A4 colour printers went for around £300... and probably a second mortgage if you wanted ink cartridges as well. ■

PHOTOGRAPHY Katherine Lane-Simms PRINT TPL Printers (UK) Ltd REPRO Radstock Reproductions Ltd

CONTACT Computer Arts magazine, Future Publishing, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, BA1 2BW 01225 442 244 ISDN 01225 789 293 Subscription queries 0870 444 8455 Overseas subscriptions +44 870 444 8455 or email [email protected]

ADVERTISING 01225 442244 LEE HAINES key account manager [email protected] GEORGE LUCAS sales executive [email protected] MELISSA WATKINS classified sales executive [email protected]

DIGITAL DIVISION JOHN WEIR publishing director SHEENA PITTAWAY publisher FIONA TULLY marketing manager CLARE TOVEY production manager PAUL MCINTYRE group art editor SARAH WILLIAMS software copyright coordinator

PRODUCTION DAVID MATHEWS ad design point of contact KATTY PIGOTT production coordinator MIKE THORNE commercial print buyer

CIRCULATION & LICENSING RICHARD JEFFERIES circulation manager RICHARD BEAN overseas licensing manager SIMON WEAR overseas licensing director Computer Arts has licences in China, France, Italy, Poland, and Spain

UK DISTRIBUTION Marketforce Ltd 020 7633 3300 Kings Reach Tower, Stamford Street, SE1 9LS

THE FUTURE NETWORK ROGER PARRY non-executive chairman GREG INGHAM chief executive ROB PRICE chief operating officer & managing director UK JOHN BOWMAN group finance director Tel +44 1225 442244 www.thefuturenetwork.plc.uk Computer Arts is a member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations Jan-Dec 2003: 22,888

FLASHBACK

ABOVE Silicon Graphics attempted to ignore Moore’s Law at its peril. RIGHT Robert Brearley’s idea of a commissioned portrait. We like him...

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Hard to believe, we know, but Computer Arts, the leading digital arts magazine in its field, is already eight years old, and counting… See how far things have changed with our affectionate look back at 1999’s issue 31…

Computer Arts is the registered trademark of Future Publishing Ltd. All Rights Reserved. All trademarks and copyrights in this issue are recognised, and are acknowledged where possible. If we have failed to credit your copyright please contact us – we’re happy to correct any oversight. Material submitted is accepted on the basis of a worldwide right to publish in printed or electronic form. All contents © Future Publishing 2004. Future Publishing is part of The Future Network PLC. The Future Network produces carefully targeted specialist magazines for people who share a passion. We aim to satisfy that passion by creating titles offering value for money, reliable information, smart buying advice, and which are a pleasure to read. Today we publish more than 90 magazines in the UK, US, France and Italy. Over 80 international editions of our magazines are also published in 28 other countries across the world. The Future Network PLC is a public company quoted on the London Stock Exchange (symbol: FNET).