Computer Arts (October 2003)

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FULL 3D SOFTWARE! On the CD: Maxon’s incredible Cinema 4D! Yours to keep

FIRST EVER PREVIEWS Flash, Dreamweaver and Fireworks MX 2004 on test THE WORLD’S BEST–SELLING CREATIVE MAGAZINE

EXCLUSIVE: SPECIAL COLLECTOR’S EDITION

PERFECT COLOUR ■ Use Photoshop to create this stunning image ■ Discover new metallic print techniques ■ Colour management and theory explained

TYPOGRAPHY IN PHOTOSHOP Create stunning illustrations – just using fonts!

32 PAGES OF BRAND NEW TUTORIALS • Expert InDesign • Flash cartoons • 3ds max, After Effects, FreeHand and more Printed in the UK

No CD? Please see your newsagent

Outside the UK and Éire £6 C$ 19.95

OCTOBER 2003

£6

10 9 771360 537024

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INTRO P

NOT ONLY DOES THIS TUTORIAL GO INTO DEPTH ABOUT THE PROCESSES USED IN PHOTOSHOP, IT ALSO SHOWS YOU HOW TO USE THESE METALLIC EFFECTS IN YOUR OWN PRINT WORK

revious Computer Arts covers (this being the 88th, no less) have featured splashes of metallic effects, fifth colours and varnishes, but nothing as spectacular as the magazine you’re holding now. We were fortunate to hook up with MetalFX for this – it’s the first time its new printing technology has featured on a magazine cover, and most definitely not the last. The tutorial on creating this month’s cover image, created by Derek Lea, not only goes into depth about the processes used in Photoshop, but also shows you how to use these metallic effects in your own print work. So whether you’re after some great Photoshop techniques from a seasoned pro or some insight into using metallics, turn to our Perfect Colour tutorial on page 22. The colour theme continues on page 74 with our in-depth look at the fascinating science of colour theory and colour management. It’s a sign of a great issue when it’s left to the third paragraph to remind you of our fantastic Maxon promotion – on your coverdisc is a FULL version of Cinema 4D CE 6, complete with tutorial and superb upgrade offer for Cinema 4D CE+.

COVER ILLUSTRATOR

A complete 3D illustration tutorial starts on page 46, and continues next month with an in-depth animation tutorial. More new and exciting stuff comes in the form of Macromedia’s latest upgrades to the MX suite – to put it in a nutshell, Flash now comes in two flavours – Standard and Professional – and Dreamweaver and Fireworks come equipped with more features and speed. See our news on page 12 and our in-depth previews on page 86. Other highlights this issue include the new two-part series on using InDesign to create a brochure from start to finish, getting creative with typography with graphic design duo Identikal, and a stunning six-page profile of the US kings of poster design, Aesthetic Apparatus. Don’t forget to let us know what you think – contact us by emailing [email protected] or hang on until our annual reader survey, coming next month – complete with a fantastic prize draw. Until then, read on! VICKI ATKINSON Editor, THE WORLD’S BEST-SELLING CREATIVE MAGAZINE

EDITORIAL DEREK LEA The expertise and experience of Canadian digital artist Derek Lea was called upon not only to create a stunning cover illustration in Photoshop, but one that would show off our exclusive metallic cover inks from Leeds-based company, MetalFX. We had a range of previous Computer Arts covers mocked up to find out what works best, and the end result is this dynamic, eye-catching and unmistakably Derek Lea cover, which will be grabbed from the shelves by readers the world over exclaiming, “It’s so shiny!” WWW.DEREKLEA.COM, WWW.METAL-FX.COM

ESTHER LAMB And thanks to CA Art Editor Esther Lamb, not just for all the work put into this cover, but for almost five years of great work for Computer Arts. This is Esther’s last issue, so good luck from the team, and from all the CA illustrators.

THE CA TEAM VICKI ATKINSON EDITOR [email protected] ESTHER LAMB ART EDITOR [email protected] RACHEL ELLIOTT OPERATIONS EDITOR [email protected] ROB CARNEY REVIEWS EDITOR [email protected] MARK PENFOLD STAFF WRITER [email protected] MATT GALLIMORE CD 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

Computer Arts_October 2003

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CONTENTS SUBSCRIBE TODAY

AND SAVE £38.99 AND CLAIM YOUR FREE GIFT NEVER MISS ANOTHER ISSUE –TURN TO PAGE 70

OCTOBER

ISSUE88 FULL LIST OF CONTENTS

NEWS 12 Flash MX 2004 13 New 3-megapixel Sony DV Cam 14 New VW Beetle ads 18 Adobe Design Achievement Awards 2003

TUTORIALS 22 Perfect Colour 34 Flash MX animation 46 Cinema 4D CE 6 – EXCLUSIVE! 58 Adobe InDesign 2 66 Illustrating with fonts

FEATURES 40 Aesthetic Apparatus in profile 54 Joshua Greene showcase 74 Colour theory feature 80 Anne Cakebread interview

SHORTCUTS 32 FreeHand MX 65 3ds max 73 Photoshop 83 After Effects

REVIEWS 85 Full listing 86 Flash MX 2004 88 Dreamweaver MX 2004 89 Fireworks MX 2004 94 Dell Precision M60 96 ATI FireGL T2-128 102 Affordable 19-inch LCDs

REGULARS

ILLUSTRATION BY AESTHETIC APPARATUS See page 40 www.aestheticapparatus.com Have your work featured here – email [email protected]

08 Your letters 30 Win the entire Union Font collection – worth nearly £2000! 70 Save £38.99 and get a FREE copy of The Adobe Photoshop Handbook 2 when you subscribe 108 Back issues 116 Exposure 122 Retrospective

ON THE COVER 22 PERFECT COLOUR

Create our stunning cover image using Photoshop 7, 3D renders and Illustrator vectors. Plus, learn the secrets of MetalFX, an ingenious special-colour printing package for creating stunning metallic and holographic effects

46 CINEMA 4D CE 6

FREE ON YOUR CD: The amazing 3D modelling, rendering and animation application. Get started with our expert tutorial

66 ILLUSTRATING WITH FONTS

Identikal, the hugely successful design agency and font foundry, shares its secrets of illustrating in Photoshop – just using fonts. Check out the five free fonts from Identikal on your cover CD

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74 COLOUR THEORY

With an understanding of the science of colour you can make your designs more purposeful, better co-ordinated and reliable at output

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86 FLASH MX 2004

EXCLUSIVE: Check out the brand new release of Flash MX – all the new features explored!

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS 32 SHORTCUTS

Our Shortcuts are tutorials you can work through in ten minutes, and they start here. This month: FreeHand, 3ds max, Photoshop and After Effects

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40 AESTHETIC APPARATUS Meet Aesthetic Apparatus – a US duo into a unique mixture of digital and lo-tech design

54 JOSHUA GREENE

Son of legendary photographer Milton H Greene, Joshua Greene is now digitally restoring some of Hollywood’s most famous faces

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94 DELL PRECISION M60

Does this super-charged laptop have the muscle for 3D and design work?

FULL LIST OF CD CONTENTS

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PC & MAC FULL PRODUCT

CINEMA 4D CE 6

WORLD

EXCLUSIVE

Yep, this amazing 3D application is yours – for free!

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very month, Computer Arts brings you a superb mix of creative resources, product demos and commercial apps; just check out this month’s CD! We’ve got the full version of the awesome Cinema 4D 6 (the same release as XL 6, with all the animation, modelling and rendering tools that earned it a five-star rating in the CA reviews section, only with the render resolution limited to 600x400), plus a host of C4D resources, exclusive free fonts from Identikal and great resources in our monthly Photoshop toolkit.

CD88 CONTENTS CINEMA 4D CE 6 (PC + MAC) EXCLUSIVE FULL PRODUCT: We bring you this awesome 3D modelling, rendering and animation app from Maxon. Turn to page 46 to begin using this fantastic, industry-standard 3D tool. Plus, you can upgrade from CE 6 to CE+ for just £79 (increasing the render resolution to 16000x16000) with our offer, saving £1300 on the original price! Turn to page 52 for more details

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inema 4D has always been regarded as a high-quality, professional, yet easy-to-use 3D application. It has won acclaim for having some truly intuitive and powerful modelling and animation tools, as well as sporting a fantastic rendering engine. The tool has been used to full effect in some of the world’s most popular feature films, including Gladiator, Spider-Man, Small Soldiers and… Inspector Gadget. Pacific Data Images, the geniuses behind Shrek, also use the tool for previsualisation work. Additionally, the app is used extensively in broadcast graphics by companies such as CBS, NBC and Sony in their commercials and title sequences. This alone should give you an idea of the power and popularity of this tool! So what can you expect from Cinema 4D CE 6? Well, its modelling tools include polygons, NURBS, Subdivision Surfaces, an interactive modelling history and much more. Animationwise, you have full-on IK and FK, an easy-to-use and powerful timeline and a fantastic particle system – you name it, C4D has it. The app also sports one of the fastest renderers around – bringing your creations to life in no time at all.

The only limitation of the CE version is that rendering output is limited to 600x400. This means you can output your animations for use in video projects and on the Web. If you want to render out at up to 16000x16000 pixels, upgrade to CE+ 6 (identical to the XL 6 toolset) for just £79 with our special offer (see page 52). Note that if you’re using the CE release for illustration, you can save your renders larger than 600x400 resolution by taking a screengrab of an on-screen render, as these are not limited in size. Turn to page 46 for our C4D illustration tutorial – and begin harnessing the power of this app. Next month, we’ll bring you an expert animation tutorial, so stay tuned to get the most out of your new pro 3D software.

CINEMA 4D 6 CE SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Pentium • 64MB RAM • Win 95/98/ ME/2000/XP MAC PowerPC • 64MB RAM • Mac OS 8+/ OS X PC

If you want more info on Cinema 4D 6, see our review of XL 6 in PDF format on the cover CD. And head off to www.cinema4d.com

CINEMA 4D R8 DUAL DEMO: Take the latest version of Cinema 4D for a test drive and experience an enhanced interface, superior polygon and NURBS modelling tools, extensive and flexible animation features and a great renderer

VECTOR PLUG-INS DEMOS: Turn to page 92 for our monthly software roundup – this month: Illustrator plugins. We have demos of nine of the tools on test here for you to try out, including Vector Studio 2, 3D-Tiger and Hotdoor Perspective

PHOTOSHOP COLOUR TOOLS DEMOS: To complement this issue’s theme – creating fantastic colour – our Photoshop toolkit brings you a host of plug-in demos including Colour Wheel Expert, 55MM and Unplugged. See opposite for more details

TUTORIAL FILES All the files you need to work through and complete this month’s expert tutorials. This month: Photoshop, Cinema 4D, Flash, InDesign, Dreamweaver and more. Find all the folders in the Tutorials folder in the root of your cover CD

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REGISTERING YOUR SOFTWARE You can begin using your software immediately using the serial numbers below. However, after three months you must register your software (still free) to continue using it. To do so, go to:

WWW.CINEMA4D.COM/CA Serial numbers: PC 62081701052-907D9C MAC 62082701052-BE4725 Upgrading to CE+ via our special offer on page 52 will enable you to take advantage of the full XL 6 toolset but will not entitle you to upgrade to Cinema 4D R8 using our reader offer.

On the CD

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ESSENTIAL RESOURCES

PHOTOSHOP TOOLKIT The best demos, resources and stock imagery for your Photoshop design work at your fingertips. This month, we bring you a selection of the best colour-orientated tools for Photoshop

PHOTOSHOP PLUG-INS

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his month, our Photoshop Toolkit brings you a broad selection of product demos and images, all of which aim to improve your knowledge of – and help you experiment with – colour in Photoshop. First up is 55MM. This plug-in from Digital Film Tools (www.digital filmtools.com) simulates popular glass camera filters, specialised lenses, optical lab processes and exacting colour correction. Next, we have Color Impact 1.7.1. This tool, from little-known Tiger Color (www.tigercolor.com), enables you to create harmonious colour schemes. Note that this is a 14-day trial version. Color Wheel Expert (Abitom, www.abitom.com) is another tool that enables you to quickly create colour schemes for print work, Websites and so on. Old Movie, from VanDerLee (www.vanderlee.com), by contrast,

gives you an easy way of adjusting the colours in your images to resemble old cinefilm and the like. It’s a fun and powerful plug-in, with many adjustable parameters. The final demo is Unplugged, again from the VanDerLee stable. This Photoshop-compatible plug-in enables you to create all sorts of intriguing colour-based effects. And to top it all off, we’ve also got a fine selection of photographic images on which you can try out all these plug-ins. See your CD inlay for individual system requirements.

Digital Film Tools’ 55MM (above) is a great plug-in for simulating a range of lens and colour effects, while Tiger Color’s Color Impact 1.7.1 (left) enables you to create harmonious colour schemes quickly.

FREE FONTS FROM IDENTIKAL Check out these free typefaces from Identikal, celebrating the design company’s fifth year in business To mark the fifth anniversary of top London agency and regular Computer Arts contributors Identikal, the company has offered Computer Arts readers five free fonts, all of which you’ll find on your cover CD. The Identikal Corporation, profiled in issue 79 of Computer Arts, are renowned in the design industry for creating original and prolific fonts; used by the likes of Sony and Dazed and Confused. The identical twins behind the company, Adam and Nick Hayes, have written our Photoshop typography tutorial, starting on page 66, using the free fonts on your CD. The fonts are free for commercial use.

The company is also releasing a new collection of commercial fonts to celebrate its fifth year. The new collection aims to captivate modern as well as ancient influences. The font family ‘Celt’ has a Celtic rhythm to it, but sits well as an experimental modern font. Then you have the font ‘Emporio’, which captures an appropriate look of authority and history, whereas clean serif faces such as ‘Revalo’ and ‘Corisande’ add a more mature look to the collection. For details on buying the fonts, call AtomicType on 01403 249 245 and check out www.identikal.com.

Identikal is releasing a host of new fonts to celebrate the company’s fifth anniversary. You’ll also find five free fonts on your cover CD.

INFO www.identikal.com

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LETTERS FLASH IDEAS Thank you for the tutorial on Flash MX (create a zoomable map) in your August issue. I am redrawing Victorian maps of London for a Flash MA project and would like to add a tip based on my own experience. I trace the map using a method similar to the one described in your article, but do it using line widths of 6, 8, and 10 pixels. Each section of road is drawn on a separate Flash layer. I then combine the layers, and convert the lines from strokes to fills, and add new hairline strokes to the fills to give the road borders. In this way I end up with roads of varying width, whose edges are always parallel. Richard Haynes

DAS IST PHOTOSHOP I enjoy your magazine and following the tutorials. However, time and time again I am stumped by

HAVE YOU GOT A POINT TO MAKE ABOUT THE MAGAZINE, A CREATIVE PRODUCT, A SHOW OR THE INDUSTRY AT LARGE? EMAIL YOUR THOUGHTS TO THE TEAM AT [email protected], OR JOIN US ON THE COMPUTER ARTS DISCUSSION FORUM AT FORUM.COMPUTERARTS.CO.UK. FOR TECHNICAL QUESTIONS, SEE SHORTCUTS LISTING IN CONTENTS

trying to translate the commands. I am an English speaker but live in Germany, I learned and use a German copy of Adobe Photoshop. When a tutorial gets into things like Level adjustment layers, it’s often very difficult to find the command they mean. So as you have so many foreign readers, I was wondering if you could put out a call for such readers who are experts in Photoshop or other programs you cover to put together a library of program terms in their own language, accompanied by the English terms so we can reference it when we work. This could then be made available for download, PDF or as another form of online reference. This would especially be a great help for less advanced users. Keep up the good work. Kyle J Lamson

French A-level between us. Hence we’re putting out a call to multilingual Photoshop boffins!

BEYOND PHOTOSHOP The cover of issue 84, Beyond Photoshop, by US designers WeWorkForThem is amazing! I love the design, and as a Photoshop addict I can figure out most of it except for the 3D twisted-type parts – what has been used to create that effect? If you could shed light on this it would be much appreciated! Previous tutorials in CA have had me getting my Photoshop designs to look a lot more 3D – I’d love to explore this technique/plug-in more. Ross Bradley

Sorry to disappoint, Kyle, but all we have are a smattering of Spanish GCSEs and one

CREATIVE COMPETITIONS What I love about Computer Arts is that you can read through and see all the usual great tutorials, reviews and features, but within all that there’s always a gem that makes it completely worth buying every month. In issue 86, it was the small, inconspicuous ‘Not So Young?’ box that

featured as part of the Young Creatives Network piece. It’s true that there are lorryloads of student competitions out there, which go all out to get exposure for those poor, defenceless new designers, but us slightly more experienced folk still want and desperately need

Competitions can bring worldwide attention to your work – Florian Brendal won Gold in the Canon Digital Creator’s Contest 2002.

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exposure! In fact, I’m planning to enter all three competitions you mentioned and I’ll let you know if I win! Keep us posted if you find out about any more. Timo Benson It’s important to keep exposure going all the time, and if the likes of Nike and the BBC haven’t had the chance to send you a commission, then regional, national and international competitions are the way to go. If any readers know of great competitions we’ve missed, drop us a line. Also, getting showcased at digital art events provides valuable exposure – while at SIGGRAPH this year, we spotted that all the walls were covered in 2D and 3D work from artists worldwide, and we took down some names. And, of course, you could always try out the Computer Arts Exposure section; it’s featured in many a digital artist’s portfolio over the years.

WeWorkForThem’s first Computer Arts cover… dark, twisted and rather impressive. At least, according to one reader.

Over to Mike Cina and Mike Young, the talented duo behind WeWorkForThem (see issue 81 for their profile): “We don’t use plug-ins. Honestly! The image started as a high-res render from 3ds max that we then cut up and pieced back together in Photoshop to create an even odder 3D form. Finally, we put the last 2D touches on it in Illustrator.” Hope that helps shed some light on the matter. WeWorkForThem have also written our opinion column this month – see page 18.

FINDING NEMO I know I’m stating the obvious, but please, please, please can you give us some insight into Pixar’s latest animated marvel Finding Nemo? I’ve seen teasers

NEXT MONTH COMPUTER ARTS 89 We create a dynamic illustration in Photoshop with the help of two Poser models from Daz and Curious Labs’ Poser

FIGURES IN PHOTOSHOP

Will we be able to pin those Pixar peeps down long enough to interview them about Finding Nemo? Fingers crossed…

and trailers and I’m busting at the gills (!) to have a little insider information on how they did it. Clare Farthing We’ve been wanting to cover it for ages, too, Clare, and with the film released in October, next issue (on sale 2 October) should do nicely. We’ll get the VFX guys to spill the beans, you’ll see.

FINDING NEMO

WRITE IN AND WIN!

The film that’s breaking box office records across the globe – we talk to Pixar’s finest about their successful blend of CG animation and great storytelling

Letter of the month wins a Contech Photoshop Logickeyboard, worth £75 Each issue, the writer of our star letter receives a Photoshop logickeyboard from Contech. Worth £75, the keyboard features colour-coded keys that enable you to edit in Photoshop like a pro. The keyboard helps you to work efficiently in Adobe’s app, providing handy tool references and keyboard shortcuts – you’ll never forget a key command again. Contech also offers

upgrade keycap sets to transform your Mac Pro keyboard into a fully fledged Photoshop tool. The company currently offers keyboards for Adobe Premiere and Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, Avid XPress DV, Pinnacle Edition and more. Mac and PC boards are available – you choose. For more info, go to www.contech.co.uk, [email protected], or call 01438 315 757.

AIRSIDE IN PROFILE UK-based Airside attracted attention with its work for band Lemon Jelly, not to mention designs for The Face, Carhartt and Chanel. We discover the team’s inspirations, techniques and more

A HELPING HAND Regional Development Agencies are ploughing cash into the creative and new media arenas – find out what’s going on and how you could benefit from some government dosh

CINEMA 4D ANIMATION Use the free version of Cinema 4D CE that you picked up this issue to create an amazing 3D animation with our tutorial

INDESIGN PART 2 We conclude our mini-project in InDesign 2.0: create a short and stylish brochure from start to finish. Part 2 covers integration with Photoshop and preparing your document for print

FLASH MX A designer cannot survive on Flash alone – in our miniproject, we look at how the Web package works with other leading graphics applications

ON THE CD Victoria 1.0 and Michael 1.0, courtesy of Daz. Plus the latest Poser demos and much, much more

REVIEWED SOON Apple DVD Studio Pro 2 Adobe DV Collection Studio MX 2004 Illustrator 11 Photoshop 8

3ds max 6 Corel KPT Collection Project Dogwaffle 1.6 Carrara Studio 3 Toon Boom Express

Extensis PXL Smartscale LightWave 8 Apple Power Mac G5 Olympus E-1

New cameras from Sony, Samsung and Canon New graphics card from NVIDIA

ON SALE 2 OCTOBER All contents correct at time of going to press

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NEWS

SEND ALL NEWS, COMMENTS AND LINKS TO MARK PENFOLD AT [email protected]

FLASH MX 2004 SOFTWARE Flash MX 2004 brings Behaviours, but Director lives on…

SOFTWARE LightWave 8 unveiled at SIGGRAPH p13

profilee promotes VW Beetle p14

ADVERTISING CA

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development features, including a new acromedia has announced forms-based authoring environment two new versions of and greater support for video. Macromedia Flash, its premium Web animation and development tool: Flash MX 2004 BEST BEHAVIOURS and Flash MX Professional 2004. The addition of Behaviours, enhanced Dreamweaver and Fireworks 2004 components and improved video have also been announced (see page support raises questions about the 86 for the full lowdown). future of Macromedia’s multimedia Flash MX 2004 ‘Standard’ brings a authoring app, Director. host of new features to the Thanks to its smart 3D and app, including Timeline ability to deal with native Effects (a neat way of video file formats, Director creating common animated currently remains the effects without having to better option for fixed STUDIO MX 2004 bother with manually EXCLUSIVE media projects and keyframing and tweening) bandwidth-demanding TURN TO PAGE 86! and Behaviours (which Web-based applications. enable you to drag and drop However, this latest certain actions onto objects on the release of Flash certainly brings the stage without having to open the program functionally closer to Director, and only adds to the speculation that Actions window). Thanks to its open architecture, third-party developers will Macromedia will stop developing the be able to create their own Behaviours app in the not-too-distant future. “Another version of Director IS in and Timeline Effects, too. Flash MX Professional 2004, development,” reassures Jon Harris, meanwhile, adds several appTechnical Sales Manager at

PREVIEW

Macromedia. “Director is selling better than ever. It might seem that the world is Flash crazy, but for fixed media projects and ultimate performance, Director MX is king.”

DIRECTOR NOT DEAD One of the explicit reasons that Flash and Director will never merge, Harris explains, is because of the differences between the two players. “Will we ever merge the 450K Flash player with the 3.5MB Shockwave player? No! Every single change to the Flash player is measured in terms of impact to its size; the Flash player always will be a remarkable achievement of miniaturisation, and will in the future continue down its path of being the smallest download possible.” So it looks as if we can expect a Director upgrade in the not-too-distant future, even if it is only to incorporate the ActionScript 2.0 and Flash Player 7 video functionality already included with Flash MX 2004… INFO www.macromedia.co.uk

OPINION WeWorkForThem

on the DIY movement p18

AWARDS Adobe announces

awards winners for 2003 p18

WEEKLY UPDATES

www.computerarts.co.uk

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Despite adding Director-like Behaviours to the new version of Flash MX, Macromedia says it will continue to develop Director.

Director MX remains the industry standard for creating CD-ROM and bandwidth-heavy Web content. So don’t expect it to vanish just yet.

News

SOFTWARE The latest releases, updates

LIGHTWAVE AND LUXOLOGY SOFTWARE Upgrades and new additions announced at SIGGRAPH 2003

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t this year’s SIGGRAPH trade show in California, NewTek previewed the latest release of its popular modelling application, LightWave 8. Meanwhile, on a separate stand, the team formerly responsible for developing the app was showcasing its own product, an impressive subdivision surface modeller, codenamed Modo. The latest LightWave upgrade, which is expected to ship at the end of 2003, has been long-anticipated by loyal LightWave users. Reactions to the numerous new and improved features have been cautious but positive. Significantly, LightWave 8 will boast a new particle system, new Rigid Body dynamics and improved Soft Body dynamics. Other extensive

improvements centre on streamlining workflow and enhancing the interface. According to developers Luxology, Modo promises to offer unrivalled power, speed and flexibility, and will encourage users to jump on board by emulating all the best interface features of its rival apps. Those who saw the demonstration first-hand certainly came away impressed… Luxology was party to Steve Jobs’ controversial demonstration of the power of the new G5 Macs and is firmly committed to developing product for the Mac. Modo should be available “towards the end of the year,” according to the Luxology Website. Expect a full review of this – and LightWave 8 – soon. INFO www.newtek.com, www.luxology.net

TURTLE RENDERER FOR MAYA Illuminate Labs’ Turtle is the latest high-speed renderer for Maya. Based on the new LIQUIDLIGHT rendering technology, the renderer offers new Global Illumination techniques and visualisation functionality, and has been in beta testing since spring 2003. A full commercial launch is planned for later this year. www.illuminatelabs.com

Luxology’s LightWave pedigree ensures Modo (above) will be one app to watch out for.

LightWave, the industry-standard 3D modeller, celebrates its eighth iteration with a bevy of new features, among them a new particle system. NewTek has also enhanced the app’s character animation and texturing tools.

SONY HANDYCAM HARDWARE Sony introduces world’s first 3-megapixel DV camera ony has announced the arrival of the first consumer level DV camera to feature a single 3.3-megapixel CCD. According to Sony, the DCR-PC330 is “built to deliver the best colour reproduction in the world of consumer video.” For the PC330, Sony has used its new ‘Primary Colour Filter’ to ensure accurate colour reproduction and high light sensitivity. The data transfer rate has also been increased fourfold to optimise image-processing efficiency. Sony says this leads to colour fidelity close to that of the human eye. As usual, the PC330 is equipped with a Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar Lens. Unusually for a consumer camcorder, the PC330 shoots in native widescreen mode “without any loss of quality”. This is largely thanks to the available extended surface area of the 3.3-megapixel CCD. Price-wise, it should cost around £1400.

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INFO www.sony.com

and software news MATCHMOVER PROFESSIONAL Realviz has announced version 3 of its automatic tracking software, MatchMover Professional. Realviz MatchMover Pro ‘Corsica’ is currently available for Windows NT/2000 and costs 7499 Euros (£5285). www.realviz.com

MAYA 5 PLE Alias has just released the Personal Learning Edition of Maya 5, a fully functioning but non-commercial version of Maya Complete. Top features include a new hardware renderer, animation enhancements and Paint Effects conversion to polygons. Check out the official Website for a free download. www.alias.com/mayaple IN-DESIGN PALETTE MANAGER 2.0 New York-based software house Teacup has announced version 2.0 of Palette Manager for Adobe InDesign. The app can be used to lock palettes to document windows or page items so that as documents are modified or moved, palettes follow automatically. Suitable for both Windows and Mac users, the package costs $60 (£37). www.teacupsoftware.com MISSING XPRESS 6 XTENSION Users have already noticed that a feature seems to be missing from QuarkXPress 6 – namely, the ability to double-click on an image to edit the original file in its native application. In fact, this feature, a benefit of ‘Publish and Subscribe’, was lost with the introduction of OS X. Quark has now released a free QuarkXTensions module to remedy the situation – check out its Website for details. www.quark.com MATCHLIGHT 3.0 Matchlight, an enormously powerful compositing plug-in for Photoshop 7, is designed to help you predictably and consistently calibrate the lighting and camera characteristics of two or more images in order to create a realistic composite. Mac and PC compatible, the standard package costs $199 (£124). www.gomatchlight.com

Computer Arts_October 2003

13

HARDWARE Stay abreast of the latest art-enhancing technology SMALLEST EVER CAMCORDER Sony has announced the Handycam DCR-IP1, a camcorder with the same dimensions as a pack of playing cards. Designed to be the ultimate in portability, the device sports a reasonable spec, too: a 1-megapixel CCD, 10X optical zoom and Carl Zeiss lens. Price to be confirmed. www.sony.co.uk CANON I560 BUBBLE JET PRINTER 25 per cent faster than its predecessor, the i550, Canon’s Bubble Jet i560 incorporates advanced Precision Colour Distribution Technology to deliver high-quality 1200dpi colour prints in double-quick time. And all for just £149. www.canon.co.uk CASIO QV-R40 DIGITAL CAMERA Casio’s latest addition to its QV Digital Camera series, the 4.0-megapixel QV-R40, is something of a fast mover, thanks to its one-second power-up time and 0.01-second release time lag. This good choice for quick-shoot scenarios will set you back £350. www.casio.com EPSON STYLUS C84 PRINTER Epson has released the inkjet printer it hopes will set the standard for plain paper inkjet printers – for just £90. The C84 uses three picolitre drops to print at an optimised resolution of 5760dpi and a four-colour ink system to ensure efficiency and colour accuracy. The launch coincides with the introduction of Epson’s DURABrite inks, which its experts reckon are smudge-proof and fade-resistant for up to 80 years. www.epson.co.uk CINTIQ 18SX PRICE CUT Wacom has slashed the prices of its 18-inch interactive pen display by 25 per cent. The new price of £2643 has been made possible by what Wacom describes as the tablet’s unparalleled ‘European sales success’. The device sports a 1280x1024 SXGA display and works with both the PC and Mac. www.wacom-europe.com MINOLTA DIMAGE A1 DIGITAL SLR Building upon the success of its DiMAGE 7, Minolta has just introduced the new 5-megapixel DiMAGE A1, which has been specially designed “with today’s creative digital photographer in mind”. It features a built-in f/2.8-3.5 7x optical zoom lens and a top shutter speed of 1/16,000th of a second. Price? 1299 Euros (£917). www.minoltaeurope.com

14 Computer Arts_October 2003

VW BEETLE CABRIOLET ADS DESIGN Former Computer Arts profilee designs VW print campaign

V

olkswagen’s stylish new print campaign for its recently unveiled Cabriolet Millennial Beetle perfectly encapsulates that summer-time feeling with the help of swarms of digital bees, butterflies and other summer paraphernalia. Former CA profilee Ian Bilbey (issue 83) was responsible for the illustrations, working on a theme conceived by renowned creative director Mark Reddy of ad agency BMP DDB. “[The campaign] was designed to be an antidote to those oh-so-worthy, dull car photographs that seem to litter every hoarding and magazine,” explains Reddy. Ian Bilbey was commissioned on a very specific brief – and, as always, to a tight schedule… “I had to buy a model of the Beetle, hack the roof off of it and paint the black interior with Tippex,” the designer remembers. “Then I took photos of it and completed the illustration work in FreeHand.”

Only at the last minute was it decided not to have the summery theme constrained by the mute greys and beige colour scheme of the Cabriolet itself. Good job, say us. INFO www.vw.com

CANON’S NEW KIT HARDWARE Canon flags up two key new products

C

anon has released two exciting new products this month: the MVX3i, a 2.2megapixel DV camera, and the Lide 80, a film-ready scanner. Both devices are aimed at the semiprofessional market and, given the devices’ specifications, will no doubt pique the interest of designers, illustrators and video editors. The MVX3i marks Canon’s first foray into the 2.2-megapixel DV camcorder arena – and is certainly well thought out; it boasts an RGB primary colour filter and makes full use of Canon’s DIGIC DV processor to ensure natural-looking images. Among the numerous features for the artistically inclined are a high-resolution 16:9 mode and manual audio control. Meanwhile, the CanoScan LiDE 80 breaks new ground on several

fronts: it’s the first film-capable, 2400x4800 Contact Image Sensor (CIS) scanner to include FARE automatic film retouching technology. FARE uses infra-red to scan the film for damage before initiating any repairs. The MVX3i costs between £1200 and £1400, while the LiDE 80 will set you back just £139. INFO www.canon.co.uk

The film-ready LiDE 80 (above) and 2.2 megapixel DV camcorder MVX3i (below).

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WEBSITES The hottest sites and services on the Web…

ROBBIE REILLY digitalninja.killerart.net Now in its third incarnation, the Digital Ninja Website is dedicated to the illustration, vector and character work of Robbie Reilly. Heavily influenced by the worlds of Manga and computer games, Reilly’s vector designs, filled with strong characters, are particularly interesting. JOEL LARDNER www.joellardner.com Lardner’s imagery fuses together a variety of creative techniques, resulting in mixed media crossbreeds of colourful and psychedelic collages. His work has been applied to various disciplines, including music, fashion and photography for such clients as Adidas, EMI and Greenpeace. ARK VFX www.arkvfx.net Home to a group of talented artists who between them span 3D, comic books, matte painting and concept design. The quality of their work is evident even from the quickest of browses – just check out their concept art. We expect great things from this Sheffield-based production house. AMOK ONE www.amokone.com Renowned graffiti artist Amok One brings together his excellent work in one place. From styles to walls, Amok One has done truly brilliant work. There’s also a series of wallpaper to download and an excellent links section. The text is all in German – but the images speak for themselves. KNI www.kurtnoble.com KNI is a design agency specialising in ‘cutting-edge Websites’. Notable clients include Robbie Williams, The Vines and Ben Harper. Based in San Francisco since 1999, its work is slick, well-mannered and engaging. Anyone thinking of designing a band’s site could do worse than start here. SVEN TOBIAS KILS www.konstruct.de This lovely site from German designer Sven Tobias Kils combines insightful photography with clean and effective design. His work is original and pleasing to look at without being flashy, and much of it – from print and posters to Web design and typography – is exhibited here.

WANT YOUR NEW SITE FEATURED? Send the link to [email protected] with the subject header ‘Websites’.

16 Computer Arts_October 2003

LEARNING CURVE DESIGN, ILLUSTRATION, 3D, WEB DESIGN AND VIDEO – KEEP YOUR SKILLS UP TO SCRATCH LIGHTHOUSE Brighton Lighthouse aims to catalyse creativity by providing courses that cover film, video, multimedia and digital media. Intermediate Interactive Multimedia: Macromedia Director 5-6 September, £150/£100 Webcam for artists 11 September, £80/£60 www.lighthouse.org.uk METRO NEW MEDIA London Metro New Media runs an exhaustive range of courses for digital media artists covering video, Web design, 3D and programming. Flash MX ActionScripting 2-3 September, £530 Adobe Premiere 3-4 September, £530 www.metronewmedia.com SYMBIOSIS Leamington Spa Symbiosis runs bespoke and scheduled courses covering Adobe, Macromedia and Media 100 technologies. Illustrator Intermediate 2-3 September, £700

Flash MX XML 3 October, £411 www.symbiosis.com SURREY INSTITUTE OF ART AND DESIGN Surrey The Surrey Institute aims to be ‘the specialist University College with an international reputation for education and research in the creative industries’. Flash 30-31 July or 10-11 September, £230 Introduction to Production/Digital Editing 10-11July or 11-12 July, £200 www.surrart.ac.uk TECH CONNECT Various Tech Connect has offices scattered around the UK, including Kingston and Manchester. It offers training in technical applications, alongside a roster of Macromedia packages, including Dreamweaver. Fast Track to Dreamweaver MX 15-17 September, £595 Fast Track to Flash MX 29 September-1 October, £595 www.tech-connect.com

GUEST FONT

Our favourite font this month is Abc, designed by Studio Liddell. It comprises two type styles, and is available for £45 per style (£65 for the entire family) from [email protected].

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmno pqrstuvwxyz 1234567890

ADOBE AWARDS COMPETITION Adobe reveals the winners of its

Design Achievement Awards

D

esign students from the UK, US and Canada have been competing to win Adobe’s 2003 Design Achievement Awards, and the winners have now been chosen by a panel of industry high-flyers and Adobe top brass. Recognition goes to work spanning seven disciplines, from Photography to Illustration and Time-based Media. First place in the Illustration category, Yasushi Umibe’s Dream Line illustration shows the perfect subway of the future. Umibe elaborates on the process: “I created the image using Illustrator for 99 per cent of the work, with a little help from Photoshop. The great capabilities of the Pen tool and the Smart Guide function gave me a way to

create the lines I wanted to draw with CAD-like accuracy.” The range of styles and approaches encompassed by the competition is well balanced, as you can see below, with some particularly interesting work falling into the Time-based category. Head to the Adobe Website, where you can now view the full range of work and a complete list of winners. Fostering new talent is of paramount importance to the creative industries, so it’s fitting that Adobe has taken up this challenge. Melissa Dyrdahl of Adobe tells us: “Our journey with the design community involves fostering a new generation of designers and kickstarting promising young careers.” INFO www.adobe.com

OPINION

DIY DESIGN

SUBJECT More and more designers are selling their own stuff, cutting out the client and creating design for design’s sake. According to Mike Young and Mike Cina of WeWorkForThem, it’s all about creative freedom

When we teamed up in 2000 to make the design firm WeWorkForThem, we had the idea of YouWorkForThem first – now at www.youworkforthem.com. The concept consisted of a central location where we could have our work, plus work by our friends and other artists we admired. One year after starting WeWorkForThem – by which time it was in full throttle – we began work on the YouWorkForThem online store and then launched it mid 2002. We both have a very ‘do-it-yourself’ type mentality. Only two of us run both design-based companies. That means we concept, design, budget, buy, ship, package, print, animate, manage, fax and write – the list goes on. We handle every little detail of both companies, and yes, even the accounting for the most part. We’d have it no other way – it offers control. Until the time comes when we can’t do it all. The ability to have control over everything leaves it more up to you to pave your direction – if anything goes wrong, you know exactly where it went wrong. We didn’t always want to go with publishers to publish our books or releases, but to publish our own projects and learn the gritty ways of trying to get our releases out to people and promoting them. We wanted to set our own budgets as to what could be spent on the project, and not be limited by a publisher. As time goes on and we start to publish more and projects of our own and for other artists, we learn the pros and cons of the DIY path – we’d still only have it this way. The ultimate idea is to eventually delete commercial work for clients as our major backbone, and create our own products and ideas completely under our rules and guidelines. For now, there still needs to be a good bit of commercial work in our daily lives, not just for financial reasons, but because we draw new ideas and techniques from each client project to another. To say that we’ll completely rule out client work as YouWorkForThem becomes more and more successful wouldn’t be true at this point in time – the client still brings so much to our tables of creativity. The idea of designers selling their own stuff is nothing new – it’s how any great product or ideas start – but thanks to the Web a lot of attention is now being placed on designers promoting and selling their own work. It’s a growing trend – you have to work hard at it to succeed, but it offers independence, creative freedom and control of your designs. INFO Find out more at www.weworkforthem.com and www.youworkforthem.com

18 Computer Arts_October 2003

News

SCANFONT 4

COMING SOON

SOFTWARE New plug-in for turning graphics into fonts

A CALENDAR OF ESSENTIAL RELEASES AND EVENTS FOR DIGITAL CREATIVES

SEPTEMBER

NOVEMBER

Computer Arts 88 On sale 4 September plasma 2 to be released by Discreet Computer Arts Projects 50th issue on sale 19 September Intel 4GHz processors Introduced from nowhere? Poser 6 It’s on the radar… New PowerBooks Will we see them at Apple Expo, Paris?

The Matrix Revolutions Hits cinemas 5 November – will it disappoint? Computer Arts 91 On sale 27 November Photoshop 8 Should be here by now Illustrator 11 Scheduled for a November release combustion 3 Due from Discreet Extended LOTR II DVD One for collectors, with loads of extras

OCTOBER

DECEMBER

Computer Arts 89 Buy it from 1 October Computer Arts Projects Issue 51 on sale 16 October Computer Arts 90 Hits the shelves 28 October InDesign 3 Due for release this month

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King Catch the final installment from 17 December Final Cut Pro 4.5 The G5-optimised version is on the cards G5 X-Serve due this month Computer Arts Projects 53 On sale 9 December Computer Arts 96 Out 16 December

ontLab has announced the release of ScanFont 4 for OS X, a plug-in for the TypeTool or FontLab font editors that converts bitmap graphics into TrueType or Type 1 fonts at the press of a button. ScanFont 4 can handle most file formats including EPS, TIF or Illustrator glyphs, doing most of the hard work of converting them into ready-to-use fonts. The new version has several enhancements that streamline the graphics-to-fonts conversion process. It can handle full-colour images and transparency, has a number of image-editing tools and improved image-splitting algorithms. The new version costs $99, and a full demo is available now at the FontLab Website.

F

INFO www.fontlab.com

(Top to bottom) Use ScanFont 4 to import copied outlines, develop symbol libraries and encapsulate your scanned work.

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22 Computer Arts_October 2003

Tutorial

WORLD EXCLUSIVE

PERFECT COLOUR Noticed something different about the cover? That’s because we’re the first to use a new special-colour printing technology: MetalFX. Discover how we created it in Photoshop 7, using 3D renders, 2D images, Illustrator files, and a spot channel for MetalFX This month’s cover illustration and tutorial are unlike any we’ve worked on before – in fact, it’s the first time MetalFX has been applied to a magazine cover. So what is this program and how did we use it? Here we explain the process, which begins with a stunning illustration by Canadian illustrator Derek Lea… Take a good long look at this image and ask yourself: ‘Why does it work?’ The actual colour palettes are minimal and there are very few main elements in terms of

composition. By using three basic colours – greys, blues and golds – we keep the image compelling without making things too busy. The simple elements like the metal, cube and geometric background are testament to this as well. We created interest in the background by introducing coloured gradients into a very monochromatic blue environment. But even the gradients were hue shifts of the blues used, going towards green in one case, and towards purple in the other. The use of grey in the metal avoids visual distraction, and enables your eye to be carried toward the cube. Your eye is always drawn to this because of the contrast between the silver and gold colours, as well as the small bright lights and the three streams of liquid metal. What could be a more appropriate image for this month’s cover than a space-age factory producing liquid metal? The subject is perfect for what you’ll learn about spot colour channels used in the new metallic process created by MetalFX Technologies. In addition to learning how to create an overall metallic channel, we’ll touch upon how to create HoloFX and LiteFX within that channel. As far as techniques go, you’ll make in-depth use of a number of Photoshop selection tools like channels and paths, plus extensive use of layers, Blending modes, adjustment layers, layer sets and layer masks. We’ll also use Illustrator files within Photoshop as the basis for various selections and layer contents. Before we start recreating this issue’s cover, turn the page for more information on MetalFX (www.metal-fx.com), where we outline what it is and how Derek Lea used it to create our cover illustration. INFO Artwork and words by Derek Lea, [email protected], www.dereklea.com

ON THE CD On the disc, in the folder Tutorial\MetalFX, you’ll find Photoshop and Illustrator actions for creating MetalFXready artwork, plus all the files you need to create our cover image. All files are for personal training purposes only, and are not to be reproduced elsewhere.

Computer Arts_October 2003

23

METALFX IN-DEPTH Illustrator Derek Lea created this month’s cover image with MetalFX in mind, generating an illustration with spot channels ready for the effects to be applied. Our tutorial outlines Lea’s process in full, from the expert creative process in Photoshop to preparing the metallic effects. To understand more about what he’s done you’ll need a little background info on MetalFX… Making your product stand out from the crowd is an essential ingredient of success, and whether you’re working with packaging, labels, promotional materials or magazine covers, metallics and fifth colours – when used well – have long proved to enhance a product’s feel and presence. MetalFX is a new technology developed to keep the costs of metallic printing down while creating superb effects. The process has been used successfully by leading brands such as Safeway, Morrissons and Sara Lee, but this is the first time you’ll see it on a magazine cover. Effects include metallics, holographic effects, HoloFX (which make parts of an image appear and disappear) and LiteFX (where parts of the image appear to change colour). The primary reason for MetalFX’s speed and cost-effectiveness is a specialised base metallic ink that is used on complete or selected areas of a document, before being overprinted with CMYK inks to create the rich colours. The process involves just one pass through a

standard five-colour printing press to create hundreds of metallic colours, unlike other metallic and fifth-colour techniques. This technique is compatible with printers worldwide – you just have to check with your local print house. The entire process is facilitated by the MetalFX kit, a collection of software, swatches and actions for a number of graphics applications. A PDF user guide also explains in detail how the process works with Photoshop, Illustrator, QuarkXPress, InDesign, PageMaker, FreeHand and ArtPro. In the following tutorial, you’ll get some insight into using the kit, and we’ll be reviewing it in full in issue 89. It may seem daunting at first, but the company offers technical support to make sure the technique and results are accessible to all. One customer, Wyndham Foster at Three Sixty Design, had this to say: “MetalFX turns the whole concept of metallic printing on its head. It has given us the edge and enabled us to create unique, innovative designs for existing clients, and has attracted interest from new clients who are looking for that USP to enhance their product profile.”

intermediate tones in the image, using ones that would display the effects in the best way. “I read the PDF user guide and talked to MetalFX about how to implement LiteFX and HoloFX. What seemed daunting at first was quite easy once I actually got down to doing it. “The actual creation of the MetalFX spot channel was quite effortless. I had a good look at the nuts and bolts of the Photoshop action that MetalFX supplied me with [on the CD], and it seemed very thorough. Usually I shy away from anything automated, but in this case, the action worked perfectly.” After Lea had completed his incredible image, complete with channels, the cover was sent to MetalFX for proofing and tweaking of the colour channels and sent to the printer. Read on for not only a fantastic tutorial on using Photoshop, but some insight into this exciting new process. INFO Find user guides, testimonials and more at www.metalfx.com

OUR COVER As you’ll see from your issue, this process was used successfully on our own cover, thanks to the close collaboration between Derek Lea and MetalFX. The process started when MetalFX sent Lea some of his own work after the metallic treatment. “What I noticed straight away was that there is almost no metallic ink printed underneath dark areas and in light areas like hilights. The metallics are to affect all of the tones inbetween the extreme shadows and hilights.” Keeping this in mind, Lea worked on the

24 Computer Arts_October 2003

The MetalFX site features a product overview, news and a downloadable PDF user guide – www.metal-fx.com

Tutorial

PART 1 THE BACKGROUND We’ll start by combining images and stacking up layers to build the initial background, and then put alpha channels to work in creating some hazy light effects

4

Adjust the input levels of all channels until they read: 6, .97, 244. Use the Pen tool to draw closed paths around the areas outside of the main shape, name the new path ‘bkd’. The left path should contain the shapes at the upper left. Generate a selection from the path. Create a new layer and fill the selection with a dark colour sampled from the background.

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Duplicate the layer, reduce the opacity to 35 per cent and change the mode to Overlay. Choose Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur from the menu. Enter a blur radius of 5 pixels. Duplicate this layer, change the mode opacity to 100 per cent and use the Gaussian Blur filter again. Create a layer set and add these three ether layers to it.

1

Open the file background.psd. Duplicate the background layer and change the mode to Overlay. Duplicate this layer too and choose Image>Adjustments>Levels from the menu. Using all channels, adjust the input levels to 0, 0.92, 242. Open the file background2.psd. Drag the layer into your working file and change the mode to overlay.

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Open the file ether.psd. Select all and copy. Create a new channel in your working file and paste into the new channel. Generate a selection from the channel and create a new layer in the layers palette. Fill the active selection with white and deselect. Change the layer opacity to 44 per cent and the Blending mode to Soft Light.

Reduce the layer opacity to 75 per cent. Create a new Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Increase the Saturation by 33 and the Lightness by 9. On the bottom layer, select all (Command+A) and copy (Command+C). Create a new alpha channel in the Channels palette and paste (Command+V). Choose Image>Adjustments>Levels from the menu.

^

2

INSIGHT FOREGROUND/ BACKGROUND By default, the foreground colour in Photoshop is black and the background colour is white. Click on either swatch to access the picker to change the colour. You can invert foreground and background colours by hitting the X key or reset them to their default colours by hitting D. Clicking on a colour in the canvas with the Eyedropper tool will set the foreground colour to the colour you clicked on. Holding down the Option key while doing the same thing will set the background colour.

Add a layer set mask and choose the Radial Gradient tool with a foreground colour of black and a setting of foreground to transparent. Use the Gradient tool on the layer set mask to blend the three edges of the ether layers into the background. Reduce the opacity of the set to 77 per cent. Create a new alpha channel in the Channels palette.

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Set your foreground and background colours to black and white. With the new channel selected, choose Filter>Render>Clouds from the menu. Generate a selection from the channel and create a new layer in the Layers palette. Select the Radial Gradient tool with the same settings as earlier and a foreground colour of white. Draw a gradient within the selection, overlapping the ether area.

CUSTOM COLOURS

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Adjust the input levels sliders to simply increase the contrast of the channel. Generate a selection from the channel and select the top layer in the Layers palette. With the current selection active, create a new Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Adjust the Hue to –27 and increase the Saturation by 58. Create a new Levels adjustment layer.

When creating imagery within a specific range of colours, like this illustration, it’s nice to have custom colour swatches on hand – especially when using similar colours in the gradient fill of areas like the icon path selections. First, you need to delete the existing swatches by dragging each one to the trash in the Swatches palette. Then, sample colours from the image one at a time using the Eyedropper and click on the empty area in the Swatches palette to add a colour to it. Every time you add a colour to the palette, you’ll be prompted to name it first.

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Deselect and add a layer mask. Use the gradient on the mask with a black fill colour to soften the effect around the edges. Create a new layer and use the Polygonal Lasso tool to draw a selection that is roughly the shape of the ether. Now draw a Radial Gradient with a white foreground colour inside the selection and deselect.

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^

INSIGHT NAMING PATHS When you begin drawing with Photoshop’s Pen tool, by default a new path is created in the Paths palette, called ‘work path’. When the path becomes inactive, and you start to draw with the pen tool again, a new path is created, again called ‘work path’, which replaces the old one. One way to save your paths is to name them. You can do this by simply double-clicking a path icon and entering a name in the resulting dialog box. Once a path is named, it will not be replaced by any new work paths.

SHIFT-DRAGGING

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Reduce the opacity and apply the Gaussian Blur filter with a radius of 35 pixels. Open the file frax.psd. Select all and copy. Create a new alpha channel in your working file and paste. Move the pasted selection within the channel so that it overlaps the ether. Generate a selection from the channel and create a new layer in the Layers palette.

In parts of the tutorial – when we bring the liquid metal in as new layers, for instance – you’ll notice that we tell you to hold down the Shift key while clicking and dragging a layer from one file to another. Doing this preserves the layer’s horizontal and vertical position in the file. For it to work properly, both the source and destination files must be exactly the same size, and there must be no active selections.

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Open the file icons.ai in Illustrator, select all, copy, and paste it into Photoshop as a new path. Duplicate elements and create a vertical line of icons as well. Use Free Transform to make the shapes follow the angles in the background. Paste again to add some more icons. Resize them, add duplicates and use Free Transform where necessary to adjust certain duplicate icon paths.

PART 2 ADDING ELEMENTS By incorporating shapes from Illustrator, we’ll add some gridwork and icons to the image, then introduce the previously rendered 3D cube

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Draw a white to transparent radial gradient inside the selection. Deselect and change the Blending mode to Overlay. Create a new Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and increase the Saturation by 18. Open the file sky.psd, and drag the image into your working file as a new layer. Use Free Transform (Command+T) to rotate, skew and distort the perspective of the new layer.

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Generate a selection from the path and create a new layer. Again use the Gradient tool within the selected areas on the new path to introduce some colour to these areas. Use the same colours you used for the grids, as well as any others you think will complement the image. Deselect.

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Generate a selection from the ‘bkd’ path you created earlier. With your new set selected, choose Layer>Add Layer Mask>Reveal Selection from the menu. Open the file grid.ai in Illustrator, select all and copy. Back in Photoshop, paste (Command-+V). Choose Path from the Paste dialog box. Select all points of the path and use Free Transform to distort and reposition it.

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Open the file cube1.psd. Generate a selection from the alpha channel. Choose Layer>New> Layer Via Copy from the menu. Hold down the Shift key and use the Move tool to drag this layer into the working file. Open the file cube2.psd and follow the same procedure to bring this cube into the working file so that it overlaps the previous cube exactly.

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Reduce the layer opacity to 15 per cent. Create a new layer with a Colour Blending mode and fill it with a blue colour sampled from the background. Duplicate the layer with the sky image and drag it to the top of the Layers palette. Change the mode to Overlay and the opacity to 82 per cent. Create a new layer set and add these top three layers to it.

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Paste again to place a second grid into your path. Use Free Transform to distort it as well and place it to the right in the image. Generate a selection from the path and create a new layer in the Layers palette. Select the Radial Gradient tool, still set at Foreground to Transparent. Choose colours that complement the image, and create some gradients on the new layer within the active selections.

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Tutorial

PART 4 LIQUID METAL Learn to create gleaming streams of liquid metal by combining different finished renders of the same objects in Photoshop, using different Blending modes, layer sets and masks

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Use the Pen tool to draw closed paths around the portals on the cube. Generate a selection from the path and click on the Add Layer Mask button in the Layers palette. Duplicate the silver cube layer and move it to the top in the Layers palette. Change the Blending mode to overlay. Create a new layer.

Create a new layer and fill the selection with a darker grey colour. Use the Direct Selection tool to select some of the large inner rectangles in this area and generate a selection from them. Fill this selection with a lighter grey. Now use the Direct Selection tool to select the remaining rectangles in the panels and generate a selection from them.

PART 3 EMBELLISH THE CUBE Using Illustrator and Photoshop together, we’ll now add some lights and panels to our cube, giving it a futuristic feel and providing some areas to employ HoloFX later on

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Open the file metal1.psd. Hold down the Shift key and use the Move tool to drag the layer into your working file. Duplicate the layer, change the Blending mode to Screen and the opacity to 12 per cent. Add a layer mask and use the linear gradient with a setting of Foreground to Transparent and a black foreground colour to mask out the top and right side of the layer.

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Fill the selection with a light green and deselect. Create a new layer. Now use the Direct Selection tool to select the squares one by one and generate selections from them. Fill these selections on the new layer with brighter colours. In some instances, select three squares at a time and fill them with a gradient.

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When you’re finished, Command-click this layer to generate a selection from its contents. Create a new layer with a Blending mode of Overlay, and, with the current selection active, choose Edit>Stroke from the menu. Enter a width of 1 pixels and set the colour to white. Leave the Blending mode set to Normal and the opacity at 100 per cent.

^

Use the Polygonal Lasso to draw a selection around the main triangular corner. Use a linear gradient of white to transparent inside the selection on the new layer. Deselect. Draw a smaller triangle selection inside the previous one, then fill it with a linear gradient of yellow to green. Deselect and do this for the remaining visible triangular corners.

INSIGHT ALPHA CHANNELS You can create a new alpha channel in the Channels palette by either clicking the Create New Channel button or choosing New Channel from the Channels palette menu. Once you’ve edited your alpha channel, you can generate a selection from it, by selecting the channel and clicking on the Load Channel As Selection button or Command-clicking the channel’s icon in the Channels palette.

LAYER SETS

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In Illustrator, open the file panels1.ai, select all and copy. Paste into your working Photoshop file as a path. Select all the subpaths using the Path Selection tool and use Free Transform to distort the path until it fits perfectly on the front of the cube. Use the Direct Selection tool to select the outer-most rectangles only, and generate a selection from them.

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Open the file panels2.ai in Illustrator. Select all, then copy and paste it into Photoshop as a new path. This time, use Free Transform to position it over the right side of the cube. Now repeat the same process to create a series of layers containing coloured elements for this side of the cube.

Layer sets are a great way to group individual layers with individual masks and preserve their masks and Blending modes. One main advantage is that you can add a layer mask to the set and mask the entire group of layers without affecting their individual masks. It’s also possible to alter the Blending mode and opacity of an entire set. When you add layers to a set, to keep them in order, drag them onto the layer set icon from top to bottom.

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Open the file metal2.psd. Use the Move tool while holding down the Shift key to drag the layer into the working file. Change the Blending mode to overlay. Open the file metal3.psd and bring it into your working file again using the Move tool and Shift key. Change the Blending mode to Soft Light and reduce the opacity to 59 per cent. Create a layer set.

Add all of the liquid metal layers to the set in their current order. Use the Pen tool to draw a closed path that covers all of the liquid metal overlapping the centre of the cube and goes off into the distance, so that only liquid metal that flows from the portals is outside the path. Generate a selection from the path and choose Layer>Add Layer mask> Hide Selection from the menu.

Use a hard-edged brush with a foreground colour of black to paint over any areas of the hoops that should be behind the metal. Click on the layer icon (not the mask icon) in the Layers palette. Deselect. Enable the Transparency lock in the Layers palette. Sample a yellow colour from one of the round portals in the image using the Eyedropper tool.

Choose Edit>Fill from the menu. In the dialog box, specify foreground colour, a Colour Blending mode, and an opacity setting of 100 per cent. This will colour your rings to match the portals. Choose Layer>Flatten Image from the menu. Select all and copy. Create a new file, the same size as your working file, then paste and flatten the image.

PART 5 METALFX

G 31

In the Actions palette, load the MetalFX actions from the CD. Select the ‘overall metallic’ action and click Play. When the action is finished running, select all, copy, and return to your working file. In the Channels palette menu, choose New Spot Channel. Name the new spot channel MetalFX base, specify a colour of 10 per cent black and a solidity of 1 per cent.

Open the file rings.psd and use the Move tool to drag the layer into your working file. Use the Move tool again to position the new layer so that the rings overlap the two streams of liquid metal on the left and the right. Command-click any liquid metal layer icon to generate a selection from it. Choose Layer>Add Layer Mask>Reveal All from the menu.

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Fill the selected areas with white for HoloFX and deselect. Generate a selection from your icons.ai path. Use the Gradient tool within the selected areas to introduce light grey gradients into the selections for LiteFX. Also, for Lite FX use the Path Selection tool to create duplicate icons in other parts of the image.

FINAL STEP

Once we make the metal dance through some hoops, we’ll use the MetalFX actions supplied on the CD while creating and customising a new spot channel

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Select your new spot channel in the Channels palette and paste your converted image into the new channel. Hide the visibility of the CMYK channels for now. Drag your other alpha channels into the trash. In the Paths palette, select the path that was created from the Illustrator file panel1.ai. Use the Direct Selection tool to select individual subpaths.

enerate selections from the duplicate paths and fill them with light grey gradients. When printed, these areas will be visible when the light on the paper surface changes angle. Enable the visibility of your CMYK channels. You’ll notice that the image appears a little darker with your new spot channel visible. Finally, save your image in Photoshop DCS 2.0 format.

DIGNA BOLD

WOR £200TH 0

WIN UNION FONTS

Win every single font in the Union Collection, worth nearly £2000!

T

his month, we’ve teamed up with Union Fonts to bring you the chance of winning the ultimate in type packages. The company is offering one lucky Computer Arts reader the chance to win the entire Union Collection – nearly 100 fonts, in total worth almost £2000. Union is a collection of 16 type designers from ten countries, brought together to sell a diverse range of fonts, including Space Age, Club Culture, Western, Wacky, Serious Serifs and San Serifs. The fonts in the collection vary in price from £12 to £150, but if you enter our competition, you can get every single one for absolutely nothing. Designers include London-based Martin Fewell and Lee Fasciani, who create great, futuristic clubculture fonts, well-known Dutch designer Max Kisman, who creates crazy hand-drawn fonts, and Nathan Williams from Kansas, who makes Western-style fonts based on historic documents he collects. This is a fantastic prize, and one every digital artist serious about typography and page layout will adore. For a chance to win, answer the simple question that follows and drop us a line in the usual way. INFO www.unionfonts.com

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QUESTION HOW MANY TYPE DESIGNERS HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO THE UNION COLLECTION? TO ENTER Try the easy way, via our Website at www.computerarts.co.uk/competitions. Click on the Union Fonts Competition and enter via the link at the bottom of the page. Answer the question, fill in the rest of the form, then click Submit Entry. If you don’t have Web access, you can still enter by sending us your answer on a postcard to: Union Fonts 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.

RULES Closing date is 9 October 2003. Employees of Union Fonts, Future Publishing and 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 details on to third parties.

Quick Tutorial

SHORTCUTS

www.studio-output.com

FREEHAND

same time. You can use 3 and 4 to reduce or increase the width by itself, while 5 and 6 do the same for the height.

Using FreeHand’s Perspective tool can a take a little patience at first, but it’s definitely worth persevering with – here, we’ll explain exactly why. Once you’ve grasped how it works, you can use it with the Trace tool to convert scanned – rather than just vector-drawn – images with ease.

FreeHand packs some great features, offering flexible approaches to creating illustrations and layouts, but it’s how you use some of these tools and techniques in combination that provides the greatest control. Most FreeHand problems can be resolved with a little rational thinking, and in this program the vector rules – remember this and you shouldn’t go too far wrong. The Perspective tool is a prime example of a really useful tool that needs careful handling if you want to get the most from it. It works straight out of the box for all vector-drawn images created within the application, although how it works with imported graphics is a fuzzy area. Fear not – we have a workaround for this relatively straightforward but often overlooked issue… Before enlisting the assistance of the Perspective tool, it’s vital to prepare your image for the journey; otherwise all your hard work will go to waste. First off, if the object/image that you’re looking to wave the wand of Perspective over has been created as a vector image in FreeHand, then feel free to skip this first stage. If not, then import your image into a clean new document. This walkthrough uses a simple scanned graphic of a hand, which has been previously saved as a TIFF file. Make the hand background invisible, lock the layer and open up a new layer. Doubleclick on the Trace tool in the toolbar to open the dialog box. Set the Colour mode to 32 and set to CMYK with Normal Resolution and Trace layers to All. The Path conversion should be set to Outline. Click on the Trace wand/tool and drag across the hand image. With a little luck, and probably a couple of attempts until you get it dead right, you’ll have created a new vector-traced hand, as shown.

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WITH A LITTLE KNOWLEDGE, FREEHAND CAN BE PERSUADED TO ‘MIX’ THINGS UP, SCRATCHING AND OVERLAYING SO THAT SOME OF THE PERFECTION CAN BE STRIPPED AWAY TO CREATE EDGIER IMAGES

With a fully editable hand to play with, go to View/Perspective Grid/Define Grids. Check 1 as the Vanishing point and set the Grid Cell Size at 60mm, or whatever size is appropriate to your artwork, and create colours for your grid that stand out against your background colour. Go to View/Perspective Grid/Show to view the placing of your grid on your image. Spend some time getting your grid into position, then move the small diamond by dragging with the cursor. For simplicity here, we’re looking at just a grid placed on the ‘floor’. You may opt to use ‘walls’, too, but it’s best to approach from a simple starting point first, until you get the hang of how the procedure works.

Next, duplicate and place the hand into the grid by highlighting it and then clicking on the Perspective tool. As you’re moving the object, hold down the mouse, and also the Down Arrow button if you’re placing onto the floor, or the Left or Right Arrow. You can resize objects as you place them on the grid, too, by using buttons 1, 3 and 5 to shrink and 2, 4 and 6 to enlarge while placing your object. Each number reduces by one pixel: 1 shrinks the width and height and 2 enlarges the same two at the

Repeat this action, placing your image into all desired spaces on the grid. Remember, you can always go back and remove some afterwards if the effect is too busy or just too high impact. Once you’ve created the look you want, and have all objects in the correct place, go back into the illustration and change the background colour as we’ve done here, so that you can quickly judge the final look. It’s worth going to View/Perspective Grid/Show to turn off the grid before making the final decision.

So the simple rule is this: if you want to get creative with the FreeHand toolbox, make sure that you’ve created a vector image or have changed any imported image into one before you start – you’ll have much more flexibility. ■ INFO Expertise supplied by Lawrence Zeegen, www.zeegen.com

ILLUSTRATION BY JACEY

[email protected]

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Tutorial

WEB CARTOONS

FLASH MX ANIMATION In the third part of our series taking an in-depth look at Flash MX, we create the credit sequence for a Web cartoon using the package’s animation features There’s no avoiding it – when people think of Flash, they think of animation. It may well have evolved into an application authoring package, but there are good reasons why it’s largely famous for animation. The combination of vector graphic support with the easy-to-use timeline makes it a pleasure to work with. Even if you’ve never considered animation before, Flash MX provides you with enough roads in to inspire anyone. The most obvious way to get started is to use frame-by-frame animation. Pioneered in the earliest days of the art, this technique is given an interesting new twist in Flash. Vector graphics enable you to make changes to artwork quickly, while layers enable you to build up static backgrounds to accompany your work. The package’s ability to adapt to other media means that you’re not confined to using Flash’s drawing tools. You can just as easily use the program in a more traditional way, scanning in artwork and arranging it in Flash. The results can be instantly viewed and tweaked in a variety of ways. This traditional method is augmented by several features that you could only achieve digitally. Tweening is Flash’s killer feature – a method that enables you to specify the start and end points for an animation, letting Flash work out the frames inbetween. As the package has become more sophisticated, tweening has too. In Flash MX, you can automatically animate the rotation, scale, colour, transparency and position of objects. If it’s necessary, you can do all of those things at once – creating spinning objects that grow larger as they fade into view, for instance. To control the movement of objects, you’re also able to define paths that combine with tweening techniques to give a superb level of control. Flash 4 introduced a feature that enables you to take two different shapes and animate the transformation from one to the other. Again, this is a form of tweening, requiring you to simply place two keyframes on the timeline containing two

different objects. Creating the animation is as simple as selecting a menu command. In isolation, such techniques are easy to master, but when combined into a single project, the results can be very impressive indeed. Over the last two issues, we’ve looked at Flash’s drawing tools and timeline in detail. In this third tutorial of the series, we combine all that knowledge with Flash’s animation techniques to create the introduction to a Web cartoon. We’ll show you all the techniques we used to complete the project: how to combine frame-byframe animation with tweening effects, how to morph shapes and create fades. The full, finished project is on the cover CD for you to look at and deconstruct in Flash. INFO Words and Flash expertise by Karl Hodge, [email protected]

The Mr Men are back – in Flash form! Actually, these cartoons have nothing to do with the famous Roger Hargreaves’ Mr Men series – they’re a collection of quirky ‘films’ by Steve Whitehouse. You’ll find them at www.whitehouseanimationinc.com – have a look at what’s possible when you use Flash as an online animation tool.

Proof that having one good idea can kick-start a career, Joel Veitch’s work has recently made the transition from Web to TV. You can still see a collection of his Flashpowered animations of guitar-wielding kittens singing glorious pop songs at www.rathergood.com.

ON THE CD The files you need to follow this project, including the final result, are on the CD in the Tutorial\Flash folder.

Homestar Runner (www.homestarrunner.com) has acquired cult status among the net community, even getting a recent name-check on Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The site’s high-point is Teen Girl Squad – a bizarre combination of fashion tips and extreme violence.

Viral marketing is the natural next step for successful Flash animators – and that’s what JibJab specialises in. Visit www.jibjab.com for Flash cartoons you’ll definitely want to pass on to your friends.

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^

PART 1 FRAME BY FRAME Locate the Flash tutorial folder on your CD and find credits_tutorial1.fla

INSIGHT ADJUSTING OUTLINES When adjusting elements manually on stage, it may be necessary to switch back into Outline mode so that you can accurately select the element. Just toggle the Outline icon on the Layer label and, if you prefer, switch to standard ‘Onion Skin’ mode using the first of the Onion Skin buttons on the timeline. With an element selected, you can also use the arrow keys to nudge things around.

7

Insert a blank keyframe at frame 3. Notice how the Onion Skin Markers change to encapsulate all three frames. You can manually alter the beginning and end markers so that onion skinning affects as many or as few frames as you like. Alternatively, clicking the Modify Onion Markers icon enables you to select a choice from a menu.

1

Open credits_tutorial1.fla in Flash MX. This is an empty movie that contains all the various media you’ll need to complete this tutorial. The file gordon_credits.fla is the finished project using the techniques we’ll discuss, while gordon_credits.swf is the Shockwave Flash version.

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Open the Library (Window>Library) and find the Fish folder. Inside it are four graphic symbols. Drag and drop the symbol named gordon1 to the stage, as shown. A preview of the symbol will appear in the timeline. Centre the symbol on stage using the ‘Align’ panel (Window>Align).

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Drag and drop an instance of gordon3 to the blank keyframe and, as before, use Onion Skinning to position it. Create a blank keyframe at frame 4 and add an instance of the symbol gordon4.

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Go to Insert>New Symbol and choose Movie Clip. Name the clip ‘gordon_swims’. Next, we need to set up the timeline for frame-by-frame animation. In the top-right corner of the timeline is the Frame View pop-up menu – click the icon to open the menu and choose Preview.

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Select frame 2 and hit F7 to place a blank keyframe. Drag and drop an instance of the graphic symbol ‘gordon2’ to the stage. To help you correctly line up the second frame with the first, you can switch on Onion Skinning – a mode that enables you to see the previous frame.

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When you’re happy with the positioning of the symbols, click the Onion Skin Outlines button again to switch it off, then turn off Outline mode in the layer. Hit Enter to view your animation.

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In Preview frame view mode, each frame in the timeline shows the artwork on stage – this is handy in frame-by-frame animation, giving you a visual cue as to what’s happening while you work.

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In this case, switch the Layer to Outline mode by clicking the fourth icon along in the layer 1 label. Select the second of the Onion Skinning icons on the bottom-left of the timeline – the Onion Skin Outlines button. Move the symbol you placed in the frame until it’s correctly aligned.

Tutorial

PART 2 LINEAR MOTION Using our frame-by-frame animation to take things further – with motion

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Notice in the screenshot that the line moves completely outside the limits of the stage. When we play the movie back, our character will swim into the screen from one side and out the other.

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With the first frame still selected, move the gordon_swims movie clip so that its centre mark snaps to the end of the motion guide on the right of the screen. With the object still selected, hit Q to select the Free Transform tool.

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Return to Scene 1 of your movie – there’s a link at the top of the stage window. Drag and drop an instance of the gordon_swims movie clip you created to the stage. In the Transform panel, enter 50 per cent to scale the clip down.

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Select Layer 1 and highlight frame 30. Hit F6 to insert a new keyframe. Select the first keyframe and select the instance of gordon_swims on stage. Set the Tween menu in the Properties panel to Motion. Tick Orient To Path and Snap.

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Select frame 30 and hit F5 to insert frames. Right-click (or Ctrl-click on the Mac) the layer label to bring up the context-sensitive menu for layer 1 and choose Add Motion Guide. This adds a guide layer that’s joined to the original layer. Select this.

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Hover the cursor close to the object until it changes to the Rotate icon. Manually rotate the movie clip so that it faces in the direction of the path. Select frame 30 and move the second instance of the clip to the end of the path on the left, aligning the centre mark over the end of the path.

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The Orient To Path setting makes your animated symbol rotate in the direction of the guideline. The Snap setting helps the object on the animation layer snap to the ends of the guideline.

18 Select the Pencil tool from the Tools panel. Click the Options icon at the bottom of the panel and select Smooth. In the top-right section of the stage area, use the Magnification menu to zoom out to 50 per cent. Use the Pencil tool to draw a wavy line across the entire workspace – from one side of the stage to the other, as shown.

^

12

INSIGHT

Again, manually rotate the clip in the direction of the path. Press Ctrl+Enter to test the playback of the movie. The process we’ve described applies to all instances of motion tweening; to make a clip move along a straight axis, you don’t need to add a motion guide layer. Just start and end keyframes.

OTHER TWEENS You can also use motion tweening to rotate and resize objects. Simply change the rotation or scale of one of the keyframes, making sure that the Scale box is ticked in Properties and you’ve chosen a rotation type. You can animate colour effects by selecting an instance of the object you want to animate, then using the Colour dropdown to select a transition. Setting one instance of a clip’s Alpha to 0 per cent and the end frame to 100 per cent creates an effective animated full fade.

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^

PART 3 SHAPE TWEENING How to transform one shape into another to create exciting transitions

INSIGHT ACTIONSCRIPT ANIMATION ActionScript is there to control objects, and in Flash MX there are many dedicated commands that control the state of objects, which can be used in animation. Open our finished project file (gordon_credits.fla) and the library, going to the bubbles folder. In here is a movie clip called bubble_blower. The second frame contains an ActionScript that randomly generates bubbles in our movie. The key is the duplicate MovieClip item, which random duplicates copies of a movie clip at different co-ordinates and scales. This code was cleaned up and adapted from the ActionScript in bubbles_rising.fla by Vikram Prajapati, found at www.flashkit.com.

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Select keyframe 10 and drag and drop an instance of the graphic symbol text_bubble to the stage. Align it over the letter F. Click away from both objects to deselect everything, then select the letter and delete it. Select the bubble symbol and hit Ctrl+B to break the symbol down into a shape.

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Although the basic technique is similar to that outlined in Part 2, shape tweening has some functional differences that should be addressed directly. To see an example of shape tweening in action, open the file credits_tutorial2.fla, drag and drop an instance of fishhatlogo from the Text folder in the library to the stage and press Ctrl+Enter.

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The first Ctrl+B breaks down the symbol, the second breaks the text down into individual letters. Go to Modify>Distribute To Layers. Each letter is assigned its own, uniquely named layer. Select layer F and insert a keyframe at frame 10.

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In this example, letters morph into bubbles (which then rise using a motion tween). These are quite different shapes but the transition works because the shapes are simple. The animation is simply a transformation from rectangle to circle.

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To try out the technique for yourself, delete the movie clip fishhatlogo from the stage, then drag and drop an instance of fishhat_text in the root of the library. Unlike motion tweening, shape tweening works on single shapes, not symbols. Select the text and hit Ctrl+B twice.

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Return to frame 1 and select the letter F. Hit Ctrl+B to break the symbol down into a shape. Go to the Properties panel and chose Shape from the Tween menu. Add frames at frame 10 for each of the other layers. Press Enter to see your animation.

FINAL STEP

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ou can control more complex shapes using shape hints. Choose Modify>Shape>Add Shape Hint to add a point to a shape you’re transforming, then add a corresponding point on the shape it’s transforming into. You can add as many hints as you like to control the process.

www.corel.com/devil © 2003 Corel Corporation. All rights reserved.

C I T C I E T H E T H S T E S A AE ARATUS P P A om s of wisd ,” d r o w y ’t have an promote “We don l propaganda to getically. lo a or politic says rather apo k a couple of a r a r Dan Iba en asked to spe e’re always e w “We’ve b onferences, and ly been in e c r t times a ... like, we’ve ba not really e d perplexe for a year, so we’r o be saying” t s d s busine suppose e ’r e w t nty to have ple sure wha tus does ma

this agery in 1. The im ster is a po re d to the Raptu rward no straightfo e. The colours o ra m fr c Appa band’s na ference the sort ight hear re . Aestheti write at you m and type k and 80s New rictly true e tried to k spiel th W ic “ sl l s, a te his isn’t st … su a post-pun that typifies d u st e of se te li th si a t b o re e n st und s its W t then we Wave so style. say. It’s ju gency. A ’s r this. Bu design a the band cy intro fo ” t. n a fa a th rfledgling e is p ke li to su p in a s, titled u cr re o a i ri to sk ster is en a really se people who are in el Byzew 2. This po . “We pushed ratus 01 er Micha a of n p ple 20 d p rt n a A on p ki c po ti n e S how sim t th s to see design. his desig among n. Aesthe we’re no ourselve arra and ch desig ures for, the e Ib ch -t ep n w ro a ke b lo a D d f t d d ul a o n a ll Wh ference we co digital an ckaging ave a he ery is a re ixture of tities, pa e boys h The imag e band’s songs, th d n a , unique m sters, logos, iden p th to one of Fitted Shirt.” d Sub Po s po e USA as Virgin an produce called Th mid-West Records, s d a . n t it d la u n g o Is u , b in one-man others nsin – a ey’re do undergro g III is a on, Wisco e while th ing of an nd 3. Bob Lo sings through a is a m th d ti e a ck d o m M o f -r o so o ie g to e band that that’s attached ed in ind sic scene ve becom e ectful y immers In the mu osters ha telephon e helmet. He ith a resp uys totall w g , t – AA’s p cl e o re ly cy g u g tw or lt ld r in ot u cu m am Boob you co y fitting fo post-everything nted, see ngs like h is prett writes so Clap Your Tits. creenpri k, r and cult. Whic k, post-new-pun ir hand-s to e h and h tc ra ver the T st co . S lu re Il un nse to co sts.” befo ital art in made se ea ig t d br the post-p of all that’s gone “I s ’s a en fe wom on begin li poster in ppreciati actually

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Photoshop, yet you could swear the end results were produced in someone’s basement. Which, for a while, they were. Ibarra and Byzewski met while working at a design studio in Madison, called Planet Design (now Planet Propaganda). “We were just hanging out and going to music shows together,” Ibarra says. “One of the principles there had a band called P’Elvis. I had access to some screen printing equipment in a basement of a defunct artists’ cooperative in Madison, and he asked us if we wanted to make some posters for his band.” They were, he says, “really, really badly-made posters,” but they noticed that weren’t a lot of them being produced in the state capital. “So we started making some for ourselves to promote shows that we thought needed better promotion. And, really, it just picked up from there.” “We slowly gained confidence that we could possibly do this on our own,” adds Byzewski in his slightly more laconic way, “and we started getting more and more recognition for the work we were doing. So that boosted our confidence a bit, and we started talking about going out on our own.”

PREPARATION With no idea that their business would ever be, well, a business, both members of AA are still a little phased by their success – despite their impressive educational backgrounds. Byzewski gained a Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in graphic design, while Ibarra explains, “I wasn’t able to go to a

“SCRE E NICE W N PRINTING IS FROM AY TO GET AW A THE CO SPEND MPUTE AY A R. WE G OO OF OU R DAY D MAJORITY SITTIN MACH G IN STUFF. E WORKING AT A AN AFT WE LIKE TO T ON A DEPEN ERNOON OR KE DING O A DAY, BIG TH E RUN N HOW IS…”

EXPERIMENT four-year school… I wanted to be a fine artist, like a painter, when I was in school, but that never happened.” He pauses. “And all for the better too, ‘cos that would have been really, really crappy.” Instead, he studied commercial art at a technical school. “It was basically a place where you learn to be a good production artist. I spent a lot of time doing design there and found a love for it.” Although the pair have just moved into a new studio in downtown Minneapolis, their working life began in that fabled basement, where a rough-andready assemblage of household items served as a screen-printing press. “When we decided to leave Planet Propaganda, we knew it was going to be a tough first year, because it was just us trying to get our name out there,” says Ibarra. “So Michael and I and his wife Holly and their two cats all moved into a house, lived in the upstairs and worked downstairs in the basement for the first year. That went well… it was

SPELLING IT OUT If you want to stand out from the crowd, you’ve got to make people work for it Unsurprisingly, the guys behind Aesthetic Apparatus are both rabid music fans – and get a huge kick out of designing for their favourite bands, both locally and nationally. Feedback has been good, too, as Dan Ibarra explains: “In a lot of cities, people don’t take the time to actually screen-print posters – so a lot of them are very excited to see that. We’ve had pretty good luck with bands being happy with what we’ve done.” Byzewski used to publish a small music ‘zine for a few years: “I

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like a rec room basement, wood panelling, burbor carpet, drop ceilings… not the sort of place you’d expect guys to have a design studio.” But now you’re out of the basement, do you still keep the culture? Maybe throw in a few rats? “That’s right! We actually put up some wood panelling… we should get some air freshener that smells like must…”

mean a really small one. It focused on independent music and the artists who worked within that music community.” It was that ’zine which gave the company its name, a name which perfectly exemplifies the pair’s approach to business. “It was called Ready Set Aesthetic,” says Byzewski. “I’d made quite a few contacts in the music business so when we started doing these posters, we wanted to combine that with the new poster thing. So the apparatus referred to the

posters, it was a little nod towards that, really.” Ibarra adds: “There was also this thing where… I don’t know if it’s the same scenario in the UK, but here there’s a predominance of monosyllabic design studio names. So we thought it was funny to have this mouthful… y’know, we have to spell it every time to new clients…” He proceeds to do a convincing impression of someone trying and failing to pronounce ‘aesthetic,’ and his glee is evident.

All AA’s designs start off in Illustrator and Photoshop. “A lot of our work is found imagery, which we manipulate in Photoshop, retouching and whatever and then bring it into Illustrator. I think we use Photoshop for the opposite reason that most people do – we use it to make things look like they were hand-created. We try to make it dirtier instead of cleaner.” Ultimately, though, each poster in each run is hand-screened, which ensures both that organic look and the subtle differences that have led to some designs becoming collector’s items. “For us,” says Ibarra, “screen printing is a nice way to get away from the computer. We spend a good majority of our day sitting at a machine working on stuff. We like to take an afternoon or a day depending on how big the run is to do some manual labour… getting dirty and inky… It’s a nice break for us, and it also gives us time to think about whatever we have to design.” “It’s good to have that balance of computer versus actual manual creation,” Byzewski agrees. Although it was the poster prints that brought AA to the public’s attention, Byzewski explains that they don’t really make money from them. “It’s kind of promotion that pays for itself. It’s something we love doing, but we’re primarily a design studio, and we do do logo work and packaging and so on… all the stuff that your average design studio does. It’s the screen printing that kind of sets us apart a little bit right now in that it’s unique in this market. “Word of mouth has been huge for us,” he continues. “We’ve been lucky, we’ve had some coverage in magazines but it’s mostly that. We haven’t done a lot of advertising or sent out promotional stuff so far…” Saul Bass, Art Chandry, Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg are all cited as influences, but Aesthetic Apparatus is cagier about what other material informs its work. “I guess our influences also come a lot from the stuff that we’ve found as resources, like the ephemera of the last 50 years,” Ibarra says. “A lot of that is influential for us in

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1. Jonathan Richman writes playful yet disjointed songs. “We just tried to reflect a bit of that musical style in this poster.” 2. This poster celebrates Har Mar Superstar’s major label CD release. The boom box imagery was inspired by the album art. 3. One of many AA posters featuring flying imagery, created for local band Volante. 4. The Honeymoon Killers is an early 60s film that tells the true story of a man and woman who meet through a lonely hearts ad, and end up going on a killing spree. The design plays off their initial meeting through a lonely hearts ad.

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5. The Scorched Art logo was created to promote a book signing by the artists included in a book of custom Zippo designs. Killdeer Records is a Madison, Wisconsin-based record label; this is its logo, as created by AA.

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terms of typography and some of the styles or colours. We’re always trying to build on what we consider a classic American style. A lot of that comes from prominent artists, but probably just as much comes from no-name designers working for K-Mart in 1972 or whatever.” “Yeah, I don’t think there’s a certain group of artists I would say, ‘These are our main influences.’ I think it’s wide open,” adds Byzewski. “And if we name specific artists, they’ll say we’re ripping them off,” Ibarra throws in. “Which we are.” “Yeah, but they don’t know that yet…”

RESULTS This apparently false modesty might grate after a while if you didn’t realise that Ibarra and Byzewski actually mean it. By Ibarra’s own admission, they are “pretty oblivious” about the state of the design industry – not, it seems, in any conscious, cynical way, there’s just a total disconnection, full stop. “We pay attention a little bit, but we’re so… we’re so not connected to the typical design community,”

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CT ATTRA O O T T AN LS “WE W THAT WE A IENDS. S R T F CLIEN O HAVE AS T T S WAN NT TO BE A LE. OSSIB WE WA RTABLE AS P ALK T COMFO E HAVE TO THEM, W H N IT WHE MONEY W MOST T E H U T S Y ABO ALWA THAT’S L PART…” PAINFU

“Yeah, which is why we never act professional... It’s that philosophy of really selfish creative control. Especially now because of what’s happened economically in the last years here in the US, it’s been pretty bad, and a lot of major design studios have had to cut their employee numbers in half.” He pauses, then in typical AA way, throws in the punchline. “I wouldn’t want to fire anybody... So we’ve taken that to the extreme, the extreme of never hiring anybody.”

DO IT YOURSELF Ibarra says. “It’s strange how we don’t really ally ourselves with other designers. From what we can tell, it’s not an easy time right now to find a job. It seems like a good time to be a smaller firm.” In short, they’re just two guys who happen to enjoy design and also happen to be damn good at it. Byzewski says of their laid-back style: “We want to attract clients that we also want to have as friends. We want to be as comfortable as possible. When we have to talk about money with the clients, that’s always the most painful part for us… it’s usually us talking to other artists and they’re equally uncomfortable with it.” Why not take on other people to handle the business side? “We’ve talked about that, but there’s the fear that that would scare off the sort of people we want to work with, because it has that appearance of a proper business.” At heart, creative control is the issue. “Part of the reason that we position ourselves as ‘casual’ about the whole thing is our past experience of studios getting larger and having brand managers and so on,” Ibarra explains. “Having people between the artists and the clients – it’s alienating when you’re working with small groups. We want to be as well-honed and tight a business as we can, so we can really do what we want to do. We have this fear of the downward spiral of hiring employees, and then having to take on jobs just to pay for them.” Byzewski laughs and quietly chips in: “It’s the fear of being successful…”

The spirit of punk lives on, right? No selling out to The Man, ever. Hardly... Ibarra and Byzewski might be independent, but they aren’t stupid. “We want to continue the print design, but we’re also trying to build other facets of what we offer as product designers, I guess – just for our own selfish needs. Creating things that we hope other people might enjoy. We’re working with some friends to create another music magazine, a larger-scale brand...” Byzewski can’t resist: “We like the idea of coming up with our own products, manufacturing them ourselves and selling them.” Pause. “To a large corporation for millions of dollars. There’s a lot of companies that we’re not really interested in working with, though. If a specific corporation came up to us and wanted us to do advertising or whatever, and we didn’t really agree with their politics... there’s stuff we’re going to deny. And again that’s the freedom of being able to pick and choose what we do… “But if Hasbro wants to buy us, or something like that,” he adds. “Well…” Your designs could be on toys around the world… get to ’em young, keep brand loyalty… “Yeah, right! We learned that from Coke.” Ibarra may or may not be joking when he adds, “We have been really lucky… and we’re not quite sure how that happened. We threw a really good one over on the whole design community. “I think if we say anything at all, it’s to tell people that we’re not really geniuses, and we don’t always know what we’re doing, but if we can reach some kind of level of success then other people have a pretty good chance of that, too. If guys like us can almost pull it off, then anyone can do anything.” “Yeah, that’s definitely the idea we want to promote… do it yourself!” INFO Get your apparatus at www.aestheticapparatus.com, phone 001 612 339 3345, or email [email protected]. Words by Ed Ricketts, [email protected]

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1. This is a poster for Pilot Scott Tracy. “It’s a two-person band,” explains Dan Ibarra. “Pilot Scott dresses like an airline pilot, sings and plays guitar. Tracy dresses like an airline attendant, plays keyboards and offers refreshments to the crowd during their show.” 2. Dan Ibarra elaborates on this Hank III poster: “Hank III is the grandson of country legend Hank Williams. His shows usually consist of half classic country and half punk rock, so we tried to combine both the genres into one design.” 3. “This poster took some inspiration from a Soft Boys lyric about someone being hard as a diamond, but we also liked the juxtaposition of the name Soft Boys and diamonds being hard.” 4. “The Melvins are one of the heaviest bands in the world. A lot of what they do has a sinister yet lighthearted feel to it, and that’s what we tried to capture in this poster for the them.”

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ILLUSTRATION BY SIMON DANAHER [email protected]

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Tutorial

3D ILLUSTRATION

CINEMA 4D EXCLUSIVE WORLD IVE EXCLUS

This month, you’ll find the full version of Maxon’s powerful Cinema 4D CE 6 on the cover disc. Start up your free app and follow our tutorial, where we show you how to create our stunning flower illustration

Currently at version 8, Cinema 4D has become one of the best 3D packages around. Version 6 was a landmark release for Maxon; it had a radically improved modelling system and one of the best-designed interfaces available. While a lot of details have improved, the basic functionality introduced in version 6 remained core to the way the program worked in future versions. On the CD, you’ll find not a save-disabled demo but a full copy of Cinema 4D CE (Covermount Edition) 6. You’ll have access to all the fantastic modelling features including polygons, NURBS, Subdivision Surfaces, an interactive modelling history and more – plus a fantastic animation system, robust texturing and a super-fast renderer. The only limitation of the CE version is that rendering output is limited to 600x400 resolution; you can render animations for the Web or video, but not for film. For illustration work, you can save your renders larger than this resolution by taking a screengrab of an on-screen render, as these are not limited in size. Because Cinema doesn’t save the paths to where images are located, it looks for them in specific places. It’s best to copy the files and textures to your hard drive, and then place the textures in a folder called ‘Tex’ in the folder in which Cinema 4D CE was installed. If you want to store the textures elsewhere, you need to tell Cinema where to find them. To do this, choose Edit>General Settings and click on the Texture Paths tab. Click Browse and locate the directory where the images are stored. You can have up to ten different locations. Continuing the theme of perfect colour, what could be more perfect than a flower? A water lily, to be precise. Follow the tutorial and create our flower illustration – all the files can be found on the CD. INFO Artwork and words by Simon Danaher, [email protected]

ON THE CD The full program Cinema 4D CE 6 is on your CD, along with the files you need to follow this tutorial – you’ll find these in the Tutorial\C4D folder.

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INSIGHT

PART 1 THE PROGRAM Start by getting to grips with the app

COLOURS You can change numerous things in Cinema. We’ve changed the Colour mode from RGB to HLS, which tends to be easier when it comes to setting colours in materials.

PART 2 THE OUTER PETALS How to use Cinema’s excellent modelling tools to create the petals

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Before we can dive into the tutorial, you need to familiarise yourself with some of the settings and preferences in Cinema. Your first priority is the General Setting. You’ll find this panel in the Edit main menu (the one at the very top of the screen). Open it and click on the Views tab.

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An instance object is created that references the path, creating a duplicate. The next bit is very important. At the far left of the screen are the modelling tools or tool ‘modes’; from the top, Camera, Object, Model, Axes, Points and Polygons. Select the Object tool (it has a Cone, Sphere and Cube on it) then locate the Co-ordinates Manager, and make sure the Scale mode pop-up is set to Scale. Enter -1 in the X scale field and click Apply.

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For this part, we’ll use a SweepNURBS and some curves. Begin by drawing the profile of the water lily petal in the XY orthogonal (non-perspective) view using the B-Spline curve tool – the yellow curve icons are in the toolbar at the top of the interface. Note that as your mouse moves over a tool button, its name will appear in the Help bar at the bottom of the screen.

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You may not have noticed, but the instance’s axes have flipped around. Now select the Path spline you drew and hit the Return key (or click the tool at the left of the screen) to enter Point mode. You can edit the points of the curve by selecting them and dragging on the axes’ handles to constrain the motion; when you do, the instanced curve’s points will move in the opposite direction.

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By default, Cinema comes with OpenGL acceleration disabled. If you know that you have an OpenGL-accelerated graphics card (and most of us do), turn this option on. The 3D views will be about twice as responsive. In this panel, you can also change the interface scheme, the colours used and so on. Note that we have made the background of the 3D views darker as it tends to be easier on the eye.

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In the YZ view, draw the path curve again using the B-Spline tool. Just click to place points. You don’t have to be perfectly accurate – Cinema is very tolerant and will let you make changes later.

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To create the 3D leaf mesh you add a SweepNURBS object (Objects>NURBS> SweepNURBS). Now, in the Object Manager, drop the curves into the SweepNURBS object by dragging their names.They need to be in the following order below the SweepNURBS object: Profile, Instance, Path. See the file Petal1.c4d on the CD for help.

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It’s a good idea to get used to the menu in the 3D view panel. At the far right are the view manipulation buttons (Move, Zoom, Orbit) and the Expand/Contract button. Clicking this converts the view into a four-pane setup; clicking this button in any other view expands that view to full-screen.

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We need another path because the object will be a dual-rail sweep. But rather than draw another curve, we’ll make an instance instead. With the path curve you just drew selected, choose the Objects> Modelling>Instance command from the main menu.

Tutorial

STEP 3 MAKING VARIATIONS To prevent the flower petals looking too regular, we need to create a few subtle variations, like this…

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For easy rotation of the petals, we’ll group each one within a Null object. Choose Objects>Null Object to add a Null the the scene. It’s created at the centre of the scene. Control-drag it to make four copies so you have five in total. Rename one of them Lower Petals, then drag each SweepNURBS hierarchy into its own Null. Finally, place each of these Nulls inside the Null named Lower Petals.

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Hit the C key. This is the shortcut for converting a parametric object, like a plane, into a polygon object. Its handles disappear and its icon will change. Press Enter once to go into Point mode; you’ll be able to see the points and polygons you specified.

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To duplicate anything in Cinema, you simply Ctrl-drag it. So, select the Petal1 object in the Object Manager and Control-drag it to make a copy. Here we’ve also rotated the result in the 3D view, so you can see more clearly what happens.

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Note, however, that the instancing in Cinema 4D CE is based on object names only, so the copy petal we’ve just made has an instance that is a direct copy of the original. It’s still referencing the original path curve, not the duplicate one. So before you do anything, double-click the Path curve in the copy petal hierarchy and rename it – say, to Path2. Now double-click the icon of the copy instance object to open its properties. Type in the new name, Path2. It’s now pointing to the correct curve. See the file Petal2.c4d.

Now you can easily control the rotation of each petal about the world Y axis, and the group as a whole. You can also move the petals in and out of the array by moving each SweepNURBS hierarchy along its local Z axis. Select the Lower Petals object and make a copy. Rotate and move each level in the hierarchies until you get a nice arrangement of 12 alternating petals. A simple sphere helps as a standing for the central section.

Expand the top (XZ) view to full size. While in Point mode, you can access point modelling tools by Ctrl-clicking in the view (or hitting V). Select the Magnet tool from the pop-up, then in the Active tool Manager (bottom-right), change the mode of the magnet to Nearest Point and set the Radius to 0. Now click and drag the points to make a petal shape.

PART 4 THE INNER PETALS Now it’s time to model the inner petals using C4D HyperNURBS

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Add a HyperNURBS object and drop the leaf object into it. It’s now smoothly subdivided. Reselect the leaf and enter Polygon mode (hit Enter twice). Press V to access the Polygon Modelling popup and choose Extrude. Click-drag in the view to extrude the polygons, creating a lip around the edge. Choose the Normal Scale tool from the pop-up again, then click-drag to shrink the extruded polygons.

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INSIGHT

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Now we can go in and edit the curve points to fashion ourselves a unique petal. Repeat steps 10-12 for as many petals as you’d like to create. We’ve made four in this particular arrangement, editing the path and profile curves to introduce a little variety.

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We’ll change tack for the inner petals. We can get away with less variation, so a quicker way to model them is to use polygons, smoothed with HyperNURBS. Create a plane primitive object (Objects>Primitives>Plane). Double-click its icon in the Object Manager and enter a width of 150, height of 400, with segments of 3 and 6 respectively.

SPACEBAR SHORTCUTS The Spacebar toggles between Select and whatever other tool you used last. So if you’ve already selected the Scale tool, pressing the Spacebar switches to the Select tool; pressing it again switches back to the Scale tool. If you then select the Move tool, the Spacebar toggles between the Select and Move tools.

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INSIGHT DEFORMERS In Cinema, the Deformers work on objects in the same hierarchical level in the Object Manager. This is why we had to group the Bend and HyperNURBS within the same Null object.

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We can copy and paste this array into our other scene containing the outer arrays. This is an easy way to transfer objects to and from open documents, and greatly enhances workflow. All open documents are listed in the Windows main menu.

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Select the centre row of polys and move them down to get a deeper bowl shape to the petal. Now it’s a matter of fine-tuning the object. Delete the two polygons, making the lip at the base of the petal, then using Point mode to align and flatten that part of the object. Use the Move and Scale tools on selected points to do this. See the file PetalPoly.c4d on the CD.

PART 5 DEFORMERS Time to flex those lotus petals using Cinema’s aptly named Deformers

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Now for the fun part. Add an Array object to the scene and drop the Null containing the bent petal into it. Open the Array properties (double-click on its icon) and set the Copies to 6 (making 7 in total), and the Amplitude to 20m. The latter adds a bit of vertical variation to the array.

PART 6 TUNING THE ARRAYS Your chance to try your hand at flower arranging. Quite literally!

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And here’s the final petal array of the water lily. Two further inner arrays were created by copying them. We’ve altered the number of petals in each one by changing the number of copies in every array object. If we were really smart, we could’ve worked out the correct numbers of petals, as it’s a Fibonacci sequence common in nature. We can get by just using or eye, though.

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We could’ve modelled the petal in the curved shape that we wanted to begin with, but this would’ve made editing the object more difficult. It’s easier to bend it afterwards. Create a Null object and drop the HyperNURBS object into it. Now add a Bend Deformer and drop that into the Null as well.

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You can fine-tune the curling of the petal array by opening the Bend properties and changing the Bend angle. Or you can rotate the HyperNURBS object in X to make the petals more open or closed without bending them. Clicking the top grey dot next to the Bend object in the Objects Manager until it turns red will turn off the display of the blue cage in the 3D view, making things a bit clearer.

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Make sure you have the Model tool selected (from the toolbar at the far left of the screen – it has a set of axes and a blue triangle on it), then rotate the Bend object so its Y axis points along the petal. The easiest way is to enter -90 in the Co-ordinates Manager and click Apply. Double-click on the Bend object’s icon in the Object Manager and enter a new size: 150, 400, 150, the same as the original polygon. Set the Bend to 70 degrees, the Direction to 270 degrees and Click OK. Your leaf should now be bent.

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We created the stamen in the same way we created the outer petals – with SweepNURBS. An array is used to make the initial circular arrangement, then copies are made. To add randomness to the arrangement, hit C on the copies to collapse the array into duplicates. By using the Functions>Randomize command on the group you can add jitter to their scale, position and rotation.

Tutorial

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INSIGHT

PART 7 TEXTURING THE LILY For the final illustrative touch, it’s time to venture into Photoshop

DETAIL Use the Display>Level of Detail menu in the 3D view panel to reduce the detail in the model. This will make the display more responsive. By checking the Use Render LOD feature in the same menu, the objects will be fully detailed when you render to the screen.

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You can apply the same tag to all the petals if you like, but it’s best to create some different materials with different textures to add variety. To help map the texture correctly, you can rotate it on some of the more curled petals. The technique of copying and pasting objects into new documents is very useful here; it’s a good working practice.

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To create the textures, we need to take a trip to Photoshop. Here’s the texture we’ve created. We’ve used a pink-yellowish gradient, added some blurred lines and then used the Noise filter. Blurring the map creates a nice organic mottling of the texture. See the file PinkyellowPetal.jpg on the CD.

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In the Texture panel, set Projection mode to Flat and rotation in Pitch to -90 degrees. The texture is rotated to point straight downwards. Click the Texture tool on the left of the interface to see the texture projection. To make it fit the object, select the Texture tag in Object Manager and choose Texture> Fit to Object from the Object Manager menu. Click OK to the dialog and the texture is resized to fit the petal.

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We’ve used a few tried-and-tested tricks to light this scene. To simulate colour bleeding and translucency, we’ve added two Omni lights set to Ambient illumination mode. Light Falloff is also enabled to restrict the illumination. A blue ambient light with no falloff can be used to simulate the global ambient illumination. We rendered out separate passes for each light and composited them in Photoshop. See the file Petalx24.c4d on the CD.

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Back in Cinema, in a new document, create a new Material in the Material Manager using its own File Menu. Double-click the small preview that appears to open the Material Editor. This is a non-modal panel that can remain open on screen. In the Colour section, click the Image button and navigate to the PinkYellowPetal.jpg file from the CD. A dialog will appear asking to copy the file. Click OK.

FINAL STEP

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Copy and paste this object back into your main file, and Ctrl-drag the texture tag to the outer leaves. Run the Texture>Fit to Object command on any tags whose projection doesn’t quite fit the petal. You can delete the petal you copied into the file now.

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et up the rest of your scene as you see fit. We’ve added lily-pads and water, rippled using the formula Deformer. You can render out a full-screen image by choosing Window>New View Panel, rendering using Ctrl+R and taking a screengrab. Rendering from the Render Settings dialog is limited to 600x400 resolution images in this version.

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Select one of the outer petals from your main lily scene, and copy and paste it into the new document you’ve created. In the Co-ordinates Manager, make sure the leaf isn’t rotated. If it is, just enter 0,0,0 into the H,P,B fields and click Apply. Drag the material from the Material Manager onto the SweepNURBS object in the Object Manager.

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SAVE £1300

ON THE ORIGINAL RRP OF CINEMA 4D XL6!

UPGRADE AND SAVE Upgrade your free copy of Cinema 4D CE to the new CE+ edition for just £79, and unlock all the functionality of Cinema 4D XL6 – as originally sold for over £1395! On its release in 2000, Cinema 4D XL6 was immediately hailed as a breakthrough in 3D software. In issue 45 of Computer Arts, we described it as ‘rock solid’ and ‘packing one hell of a punch’, before going on to award it a review score of five out of five. Three years on, the appeal of XL6 is still exceptionally strong, and now comes in the form of CE+. The app has a massive range of modelling tools, including HyperNURBS, Splines, MetaSplines, MetaBalls and Parametric Primitives, a full animation toolset (including a powerful particle system), and a 256-bit SuperScalar motion renderer. Whether you want to create special effects, broadcast titles, technical visualisations or character animation, you can do it with Cinema 4D. Better still, CE+ offers Cinema 4D users a completely customisable interface, including the power to build icon palettes from text or pictures, complete with folded palettes, to dock windows together as tabs, define custom keyboard shortcuts and even change the

52 Computer Arts_October 2003

menu structure. Throw in features like a non-linear construction history, motion sequencing, and a toon-shaded rendering mode, and you’ve got yourself an application that can still easily hold its own with the best of them. On its release, Cinema 4D XL6 was sold for £1395 – but, thanks to our special reader offer, you can now unlock all that functionality for under £100! On this month’s cover CD, you’ll find a free copy of Cinema 4D CE 6 – a cut-down version of XL6 with an output resolution of 600x400 pixels. By now you’ll have tested it out using the tutorial on the previous six pages. For just £79 (plus postage and packing), you can upgrade that copy to the new Cinema 4D CE+ edition, which has a whopping maximum resolution of 16,000x16,000 pixels: ideal for high-quality illustration or animation work, and identical to XL6 in all but name. The offer runs until 30 November 2003. To upgrade to Cinema 4D CE+, just follow the ordering instructions to the right.

HOW TO ORDER BY PHONE Call +44 (0) 1525 718181 (UK only) ONLINE Visit www.cinema4d .co.uk/ce (UK) Visit www.cinema4d .com/ce (Rest of World) OFFER ENDS 30 November 2003 Offer price includes VAT, but excludes postage and packaging. Postage will be charged at £7 within the UK; charges for the rest of the world vary.

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Milton Greene took this publicity photo of Judy Garland for her TV show in 1963 at his New York studio. The Archives (www.archives.com) restored the image in 1998 for publisher A&E, which selected it to advertise its Judy Garland biography.

PROFILE

JOSHUA GREENE

Inspired by his father – a friend and photographer of Marilyn Monroe – Joshua Greene is now one of a select group of artists who are digitally restoring iconic 20th century images

54 Computer Arts_October 2003

Profile

M

ilton H Greene was one of the most influential photographers of his day. His portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Marlene Dietrich and more decorated the covers of magazines like TIME, while his fashion work was commissioned by Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. Now his son, Joshua Greene, has established himself as an expert in the field of film restoration and print archiving, and renovates the truly amazing prints from his father’s collection – you can see some of the digitally restored photos on these pages. Greene began helping in his father’s studio at the callow age of 11. He quickly established himself as a photographer in his own right, and later became studio manager when the family moved to Manhattan. This experience gave him a deep affinity for photography and a particular understanding of his father’s approach: “He

favoured high-contrast colours, velvet blacks and porcelain skin. He wanted to make his subjects look beautiful.” By the early 70s, many of Milton Greene’s earliest colour pictures, images of Marilyn Monroe dating back to the mid 50s and beyond, had begun

feet wet with Photoshop. I paid something like $10,000 for my first 100MHz Mac in 1992.” Since then, he has built up a body of expertise that’s shared by a only a few print archiving professionals. “Mac Holbert at Nash Editions became my Photoshop guru. During the first year, I spent around 60-70 hours restoring each image, “MY FATHER DIED IN 1985 BELIEVING THAT and was always calling him up to get advice.” HIS GREATEST COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Greene has honed his skills WOULD NEVER BE REPRODUCED…” and today the procedure has to seriously deteriorate. “My father died in 1985 been streamlined considerably: “We have the believing that his greatest colour photography process down to somewhere around 20 hours per would never be reproduced.” image. This year we hope to recover some 250 Several years after his father’s death, Greene images.” The problem is ongoing, of course, began to experiment with the possibilities offered because it’s in the nature of colour film to fade by early digital technology. “In the early 90s, I through time. “Black and white film will last up to realised the future was digital and began to get my 150 years, but colour fades after 30. The only thing

RESCUING MARILYN MONROE Joshua Greene tells us about his father’s ‘Ballerina’ series of Monroe photographs Milton H Greene was instrumental in freeing Marilyn Monroe from an overly restrictive contract she had signed with Fox Pictures. During the lengthy court case, Monroe sheltered at his family home in Connecticut, and once the battle was won he lent her the money to buy out of the contract. They became good friends. This picture was taken in 1954 at Milton Greene’s studio in New York City. An alternative to one of Greene and Monroe’s most well-known

collaborations, this sitting has been nicknamed the ‘Ballerina’ series after the dress Monroe was wearing. “Clothing designer Ann Klein sent various outfits to the studio for Marilyn Monroe to wear,” Greene explains. “However, all the outfits were two sizes too small.” All of the poses in this sitting had to deal with the problem of holding up the front of the dress! The sad deterioration of this and other pictures taken around the same time was discovered in the early 70s,

This image of Marilyn Monroe was discovered, in a much deteriorated state, when Milton H Greene was asked to contribute to the Norman Mailer book on Marilyn’s life. The photographer died believing his finest colour work would never be recovered.

when Milton Greene was asked to provide images for the Norman Mailer book on Marilyn Monroe. At the time, it was assumed that nothing could be done to reverse the ageing process. Now, of course, there is a solution, and the Ballerina photos are back. Below, you can see before and after versions of one of these shots. The original (left) has deteriorated in typical fashion: “The trouble comes with the reds and yellows. The yellow is lost from the film by a gradual

chemical deterioration, leaving the reds and blues to combine.” This process gives the image its washedout magenta hue. “I find it amazing that people come home with their photos, keep the prints in an album and throw away the film. It’s crazy!” Today Joshua Greene curates an archive of 72,000 pictures (over 6000 of which are of Marilyn Monroe). A selection of the first images have been published in a book called Milton’s Marilyn (www.archiveimages.com).

Twenty years later, after Milton’s death, Joshua Greene discovered the possibilities provided by digital technology and began to restore some of his father’s work. Early examples such as this one took Joshua anything up to 70 hours to complete.

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you can do to retard the ageing process of film is to freeze it, as they’ve done with the Bettman Corbis archive in a huge bunker somewhere in Virginia.” Film degeneration follows a familiar pattern: “The problem is that the yellow in the film gasses away, and the remaining colours fuse to give you this magenta blow-out.”

SCULPTING IN PHOTOSHOP Joshua’s restoration process has developed considerably over the years, and a well-established workflow is now in place at his studio in rural Oregon. It all begins with hi-res scanning. “We scan the photos on a Scitex flatbed scanner at 6000dpi. Then we take these raw files into Photoshop and begin to work on them.” The RAW file is never touched, so that corrections can be made. Once the files have been imported into Photoshop, it’s layers all the way. “Everything is done with layers,” says Greene. “We mask each element of the scene meticulously, then work on colour levels and balance until I’m happy with the colours. The next stage is to begin ‘sculpting’.” Before the final stage of the process can be attempted, the photographs are printed to ascertain

This editorial image was originally undertaken for Life magazine in 1962, to promote singer and actress Diahann Carroll as the lead in the Broadway musical No Strings. As with all the images shown on these pages, this is the digital version carefully restored by Joshua Greene.

This picture of Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole was taken by Milton Greene in 1963. Milton was on assignment for Life magazine, covering the two actors during the making of the 1964 movie Becket. Greene spent a week with the actors – and much of that time was spent here at this pub.

that their colouring has been correctly set for print. Every stage of the process has been meticulously researched, and paper stock is as important as the

inks used to print on them: “We’ve used Hahnemühle’s art papers successfully with most printers.” When it comes to inks, Greene has very strong views. “Trying to print black and white images by balancing a six-colour ink system is insane!” he exclaims. “We always use a set of carbon-based grey inks for this type of work.” In this way, he eliminates the almost inevitable problem of colour shift in the final printed images. Once he is happy with this, the sculpting begins. “First, we print the image to ensure its colour values are at their optimal. Sculpting entails dodging and burning the image in each colour channel to give it that final polish.” The final image is then copied, flattened and expanded. The final files can have over 50 layers and be up to 1.5GB in size. “For blowing up images, I use Fred Miranda’s Stair Interpolation Pro plug-in [PC only]. For $19.95 you have the power to enlarge images by as much as 400 per cent,” he enthuses. For a recent Paris exhibition of Marlene Dietrich photographs, Greene and his team successfully scaled one of his father’s famous Dietrich photos up to fill a 15-foot-square banner.

SAVED FROM EXTINCTION Greene has worked on some exciting projects, giving him the chance to restore some incredible images. A recent job, which gave a glimpse of history in the making, saw him renovating images of the Wright Brothers’ earliest test flights. “I’m a photo restorer and curator. Most of the joy is knowing you are saving these extraordinary images from extinction.” His curatorial duties are what excites him most these days. One current project involves working with Elliot Landy; Greene plans to juxtapose Landy’s photography of the 60s American peace movement with photos of the Woodstock era rock musicians. By rescuing film from the clutches of oblivion, Greene is a thorough convert to the digital world: “I use a Canon 10-D digital camera and I love it. I still have a darkroom, but I just go up to smell the fixer and reminisce. I still love the magic of watching a print develop, but digital is much more versatile.” Look out for the next Computer Arts Projects, on image manipulation, on sale from 20 September. This image of the fiery siren Suzy Parker was originally photographed in 1952 by Milton Greene, while on assignment for Life magazine. The digitally restored version shown here is stunning, bringing out all the vibrancy of the original print.

56 Computer Arts_October 2003

INFO See the results of Joshua Greene’s meticulous restoration process at www.archiveimages.com

has become

watch out for our new logo on the next issue Over the coming months, we’ll be covering a variety of illustration and online projects, providing all the expertise, support files and software you need to complete the project for yourself.

ISSUE 49: ILLUSTRATION Three illustrators, one brief, three different results. Try out their varying techniques for yourself. ON SALE NOW

ISSUE 50: THE PERFECT BODY How to transform a model shoot into covergirl material, using pro retouching secrets. ON SALE 19 SEPT 03

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ILLUSTRATION BY MAGICTORCH

www.magictorch.com

58 Computer Arts_October 2003

Tutorial

LAYOUT AND DESIGN

ADOBE INDESIGN 2 Discover how to produce a brochure in InDesign 2, as we highlight some of the features that help make it such a supreme page-layout application Some of the main requirements when producing a brochure – or any longer document – involve ensuring that consistency is maintained from page to page, and that key elements can be changed quickly, cleanly and accurately as the design progresses. Here, we’ll examine InDesign’s novel approach to redefining style sheets and complementary colours, and show you its variety of benefits. We’ll also be looking at how the program’s guides, grids, layers, libraries and tables can be utilised for this type of work. However, where InDesign completely rewrites the rulebook is firstly in the amount of creative work you can do in the program itself – without hitting a brick wall and having to go off into another application – and secondly in the phenomenal way it integrates with its siblings. We’ll focus on working with Illustrator this issue, and with Photoshop in the second stage of the project next month – where we’ll also look at other ways of making pain-free global changes. INFO Expertise from InDesign training specialist Chris Gregory. Contact him on 07967 372 699 or [email protected]

ON THE CD Your coverdisc has all the text and images you need to follow this tutorial. Look inside the folder called Tutorial\InDesign to begin. All images are for personal use and are not to be reproduced elsewhere.

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^

PART 1 THE MASTER PAGES We’ll start by setting up the document, then generating the repeating master page items

INSIGHT REFINED PALETTE The document becomes more navigable if you ‘tweak’ your Pages palette display options. Choose Palette Options from the Palette menu, turn off the Show Vertically options and choose Icon Size: Small. You may need to slightly resize the palette window to update the view, but you should now be able to see a good part of longer documents in a handy horizontal format.

7

Drag a text frame on top of the panel across the three pages. Choose Type>Insert Special Character>Section Marker – twice. Format font and size, then colour one white [Paper] and one Yellow. Copy and Paste repeatedly across the page. We’ll be returning to use this feature to good advantage later in the tutorial.

1

Start with a new A5 document using the values shown above. Although we’ll be using facing pages in the document, leave this option off, as we’ll create three-page spreads with master pages. The contents will be varying from page to page, so you can leave Master Text Frame unchecked, too.

4

Use the Pen tool to create a triangle in the bottom right-hand corner of one of the pages. With the Swatches palette, create a new green colour swatch (C=75, M=5, Y=90, K=40 for example). Apply as a Fill and change Stroke to None. Change the Blending mode to Colour Dodge with the Transparency palette.

8

Now we’ll create layers to help with organising the layout and determining its stacking order. In the Layers palette, Alt-click on the Create New Layer button and create layers named ‘Panels and Images’ and ‘Text’ (topmost). Select the appropriate elements in the Layers palette and drag the coloured dot marker to the correct layer.

2

In the Pages palette, double-click the A-Master icon. From the Pages palette menu choose Master Options For “A-Master”… and change the Number of Pages setting to 3. Place the image Background.jpg (on the CD) so that it bleeds off on all four edges of the spread. Change its Opacity to 20 per cent with the Transparency palette.

3

Place an identical rectangle on top (with Step and Repeat or Copy and Paste in Place), fill with [Black] and set Opacity to 30 per cent. Command-click with the Selection Tool to select through the stacking order and experiment with different Opacity settings and Blending modes.

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5

Alt+Shift-drag the triangles with the Selection tool to copy and move to the other two pages of the spread. Double-click the green swatch and click on Preview. Shift-drag any slider to shift all colours proportionately and see changes in the document. Click OK to update changes to swatch and triangles.

6

Create a header panel across the spread with the Rectangle tool. Fill with the same green colour, but change the Blending mode to Overlay. Choose Object>Drop Shadow and click Preview on. Try out different combinations to get your preferred effect.

9

Drag two three-page masters into the document area of the Pages palette. Drag the original single page onto the palette’s wastebasket icon to delete. The ‘chequerboard’ background of the master and document page icons indicates that transparency (including a Drop Shadow or Feather) is present.

Tutorial

PART 2 STYLES

PART 3 GUIDES AND GRIDS

InDesign Paragraph and Character Styles ensure speedy, consistent formatting of text and make global reformatting a cinch

InDesign has some great features for creating guides that help put the layout together

13

The style name now appears in the Paragraph Styles palette. Next, highlight each styled paragraph in turn and click on the style name to apply it – this action will become particularly important, as we’re about to use global reformatting. Click in the unstyled paragraphs and apply styles to quickly, consistently format the text.

16

Page 2 will be the Outside Back Cover, with a gallery of images and tinted panels. To help position them we’ll create a custom grid. First, create a new layer called Guides, then choose Layout>Create Guides and specify 10 columns, 10 rows, 3mm Gutter and Fit Guides to Margins.

10

Go to page 1 of the document. Select the Text layer from the Layers palette. Choose File>Place and open Services Intro.doc. Drag the loaded text pointer to create a text frame approximately half the page deep.

14 11

Select and format distinctive title text, body text and sub-headings using the Character and Paragraph settings. For best results you might try Optical kerning on the title. Or, if you have access to an OpenType font, you might try some of the options available from the Character palette menu.

Now for the global reformatting – as mentioned, an utter joy in InDesign. Simply highlight a representative paragraph and reformat accordingly. Next, choose Redefine Style from the Paragraph Styles palette menu and all associated paragraphs also change. This superb feature even has its own shortcut (Command+Alt+Shift+R) to speed up the process further.

17

Temporarily hide Layer 1 by clicking its eye icon in the Layers palette. Select the Panels and Images layer and draw out six rectangles for the images, plus accompanying panels to suit. Hide the Guides layer when finished. This is an excellent way of managing customised grids in your document.

^

INSIGHT THE ALT KEY: INDESIGN TRICKS

12

Highlight the heading paragraph and choose Type>Paragraph Styles. From the palette menu choose New Paragraph Style. Ensure that Based On is set to [No Paragraph Style] to help avoid formatting complications. Note that each style can have its own Hyphenation and Justification settings. Click OK to save the style.

15

This ease of use equally applies to using Character Styles to pick out selected words within the main body of text. You might also use this feature as a way to consistently format dropcaps.

The humble Alt key can enhance the way you work in InDesign – here are three examples: • Alt-click with a Transformation tool to set a point of origin and show a dialog box. • Alt-enter a Rotate or Shear value in the Transform palette to transform and copy. • Press Alt and choose Type>Create Outlines to position a copy of the outline text directly (and accurately) on top of the original text.

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21

In the Swatches palette, double-click the original Green swatch and turn on Preview. Adjust the colour values to see how all associated ‘child’ swatches instantly change in the document. Click OK to update the document.

18

A novel feature with InDesign is its ability to drag images directly into the document. In our case, go to the Gallery Images folder (on the CD in Tutorial\InDesign\Images), drag each image in turn into a frame then position and scale to taste. Check the Links palette to see that these are indeed linked rather than embedded images.

23

You can quickly and easily re-colour the images. Type D to instantly format with Default Stroke: Black 1pt, Fill: None (Transparent). Next, double-click the Line Tool to activate the Stroke palette and change Stroke Weight. Finally change the Stroke colour to a Green tint to taste.

PART 5 USING ILLUSTRATOR PATHS InDesign’s superb integration with its sibling application opens up unique design possibilities

PART 4 PARENT AND CHILD TINT SWATCHES Use this feature to change multiple complementary colours in your document – instantly

24 22

Open the Illustrator document named Garden Paths.ai (on the CD). Select an image and drag into position on a green triangle in your InDesign layout. Repeat for the other five images. Note that these images do not appear in the Links palette as they are now embedded editable paths.

Drag the main Groovy logo into position on page 3. You can now re-colour its individual paths by simply dragging on colours from the Swatches palette. This feature is potentially a great time-saver for elements which would normally have to be changed in Illustrator and re-imported into the main layout each time.

PART 6 USING LIBRARIES As you might expect, InDesign libraries are well put together

19

In the Swatches palette, create a New Colour Swatch named ‘Green’, with the values C=75, M=5, Y=100, K=40. Choose New Tint Swatch, specify a Tint Value of 90 per cent and click OK. Repeat for Tints of 70 per cent and 55 per cent, for example.

^

INSIGHT GET SOME GUIDANCE

20

Drag the swatches directly onto the panels in the document. Experiment with different combinations of light and dark tints.

62 Computer Arts_October 2003

You can also create custom grids by duplicating and distributing guides. To do this, drag a ruler guide onto the document and leave selected. Use Edit>Step and Repeat to duplicate the appropriate distance and number of times. Now, if required, drag the outer guides to the edges of the grid and select with the Selection tool. Use the Transform palette’s distribute options to evenly spread out the guides.

25

As we may want to repeatedly use our paths, we’ll put them in libraries so we can access them quickly. Choose File>New>Library and name accordingly. (It’s recommended that you save the library on your local hard drive rather than a server).

Tutorial

26

Drag each item from the document into the Library palette and double-click to name. You can also specify an Object Type and enter keywords to help you when searching in future (using the Show Library Subset option). You might also create different libraries and group them together, as with any other InDesign tabbed palettes.

29

27

30

As well as being able to drag library items into the document, InDesign also enables you to ‘place’ them by choosing Place Item(s) from its palette menu. This will put the item in precisely the same position it originated – superb for elements such as picture credits.

Click anywhere within the table with the Type tool. If not already visible, choose Window> Table. From the palette menu, choose Table Options>Alternating Fills. Click Preview on and Select Alternating Pattern: Every Other Row. Experiment with colour combinations for the alternating rows and click OK when satisfied.

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To put vertical text headings in the new columns, firstly highlight a column and choose Table>Merge Cells. Then, in the Table palette, choose the appropriate ‘T’ alignment and type out the headings (‘Service’ and ‘Details’). Use the Table and Paragraph palettes to align and indent within the cells.

Next we’ll insert two new columns. First, go to the top of the first column and click the downward-pointing arrow to select it. Choose Table>Insert>Column and insert one to the left. Repeat the process and add a column to the right.

33

To selectively change Cell Strokes, highlight the appropriate area and make the Stroke palette visible. In the Preview panel click OFF the sides of the representation you don’t want to affect (Black denotes OFF and Blue ON) and choose Stroke Weight.

PART 7 TABLES No more fear and loathing when it comes to rows and columns of data that need formatting

FINAL STEP

T

he final steps involve fine-tuning the layout, for example adding an Offers banner (with Section Marker), redefining styles and dragging swatches and images onto the table until satisfied with the combination. In part 2 of this tutorial next issue, we’ll look at adding elements to the other pages and affecting other types of global change.

31 28

Go to Page 1, choose File>Place, locate Services Table.doc and drag out a frame below the introductory text. Highlight the text and choose Table>Convert Text to Table. As the text was tab delimited in the original Word document it converts tidily, although you could just as easily have placed a Word table or Excel spreadsheet.

Position the Type tool between columns until the horizontal arrows pointer appears and until the columns fit within the text frame. (Shift-drag to move without changing the overall table width.) Select each new column in turn and use the Table palette to ensure they are the same width – 10mm, for example.

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Quick Tutorial

SHORTCUTS

www.studio-output.com

3DS MAX With so many radiosity renderers available now, the skill of lighting a CG scene the traditional way is beginning to fall by the wayside. However, it’s still a valid option, as we’re about to show you. Create a bounced light simulation in 3ds max using the files on your CD in the Tutorial\Shortcutmax folder.

So why use traditional lighting? Well for a start, because of expensive radiosity render times, thanks to the amount of calculations the software has to make to bounce light rays around the scene to generate the lighting solution for the render. These renders are effective and realistic, but some scenes can take many hours to render – which is why we should take a step back and look at the traditional ways of lighting a scene, using standard lighting tools to fake bounced light and soft shadows. Lighting can make or break a scene; how many times have you seen a bad piece of CG either on the large or small screens, and sucked the air through your teeth while grimacing? The main culprit is lighting that doesn’t match and that hasn’t been set up correctly. To rectify this with just the basic kit, we need to focus on which elements exist in the unlit scene (or a scene with just the main preset key light), then manually trace how the key light bounces around the scene, observing any reflective surfaces, and whether they absorb light colours, thus reflecting only one colour of light. By performing this trace, best done with a rough sketch on paper, we can position fill lights around the scene – normally, Omni or Direct lights, depending on the incident angle of the key light and the shape of the objects.

LIGHTING CAN MAKE OR BREAK A SCENE; HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU SEEN A BAD PIECE OF CG ON THE BIG OR SMALL SCREEN AND SUCKED THE AIR THROUGH YOUR TEETH WHILE GRIMACING?

To demonstrate this, we’ll perform a simple bounced light simulation with a basic scene. After loading up and rendering the base scene (see bouncedlight_screen01.jpg on the CD – shown below-left) we see that it’s just a basic setup. There are four slightly reflective boxes, each with an intense colour (apart from the white box). As this is to be an external scene, we can create a dome of lights to simulate illumination from the sky. These lights are all instanced copies of each other and are distributed around and over the boxes. A copy of a row of lights is also positioned underneath the boxes, pointing back up to simulate the sky’s bounced light off the ground plane. See bouncedlight_screen02.jpg.

These lights should be very low intensity, have a low shadow size to keep render times down, and a high sample range to diffuse said shadows. They should also have specular highlights turned off. Otherwise, we’ll have highlights cast across our objects when we only require one – from our main key light. As this is an external scene, we need our main key light to be more intense (but not too much), and to have a large shadow size to show more shadow detail. See bouncedlight_screen03.jpg on the CD.

Finally, we can add our fill lights to simulate bounced light – these should be the same shade as the objects from which the light is being reflected. Due to the shape of the objects in the scene, we can position these fill lights (Omni lights) inside each object, but we’ll have to turn off specular highlights again, and also prevent the fill light from illuminating its respective box – otherwise, it will appear internally illuminated! Attenuation on these reflection lights controls their intensity – the further away from the boxes, the less intense the reflected light becomes (in real life, the light is simply dispersed). See bouncedlight_screen04. jpg on the CD.

And that, in essence, is all there is to it. The technique is quite simple, but highly effective if you carefully position and control the light ‘bounces’ in the scene. As a comparison, try rendering out a 100-frame animation of a copy of the scene with the same key light, but instead of using the dome array of lights and faked bounced light, use a Skylight standard light, Light Tracer and add a light bounce. In the amount of time it takes to render those 100 frames, you’d have been able to set up the faked scene, render it out, and still have time left to pat yourself on the back on a job well done – and go for a pint. Placing the lights yourself not only greatly reduces render times, it also gives you far greater control over the illumination in the scene. Plus, if you can produce work that looks like it’s been put through an advanced lighting system when in actual fact it hasn’t, you stand to make yourself a lot more attractive to future employers – it undoubtedly demonstrates a higher degree of skill. INFO Expertise supplied by Pete Draper, www.xenomorphic.co.uk

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ILLUSTRATION BY IDENTIKAL

[email protected]

66 Computer Arts_October 2003

Tutorial

PHOTOSHOP

PART 1 PREPARE YOUR SPACE

ILLUSTRATING WITH FONTS

Using grids and preparing your artwork is extremely important

Using the type tools in Photoshop, as well as grids and patterns, we show you how to get great typographic results within your illustrations – in the simplest way This tutorial is for those of you who never usually regard Photoshop as a typographic program. For the best results with type, most illustrators and designers normally use a vector-based app such as FreeHand or Illustrator, but here we show you how to use a pixel program to create superb typographic-based images – without even touching a vector program. The expertise comes from The Identikal Corporation, the design team behind the Identikal Foundry – creators of some of the hottest modern fonts around. You’ll find five of these typefaces free on the CD. Learn how to construct your image by using grids and sketching your hierarchy, and then how to piece your image together. The type tools and fonts you use will be important to the final stages of your image, so we’ll tell you what type of fonts to use and how to use them. By the end of this tutorial you’ll have honed your typography skills – using only Photoshop in the process. INFO Artwork and words by Identikal: [email protected], www.identikal.com

4

Duplicate your cross-point and place where all guides meet. The easiest way is to place four duplicates accurately, then duplicate the four to make eight, then duplicate the eight to make sixteen and so on – until every cross-point is covered.

1

Begin by setting up your document to the right specifications. In our case: CMYK, 232mm width by 280mm height, and 300dpi resolution for print. It’s also good to have an idea of what your colour palette will be.

2

The next move will be setting up a grid. This will be the hidden structure of your typographic Illustration. The easiest way to do this, is to use the rulers and pull out guidelines on each increment. Decide whether you want a complex or simple grid.

5

3

6

Now that you have covered every cross-point, you will need to select every path. This is easily done by dragging the Convert Point tool across the whole document window.

FREE FONTS! You’ll find Invada, the font used in this illustration and tutorial, on the CD, along with four more cool Identikal fonts – yours to use in your own work.

When you have completed your grid guide, move on to creating ‘cross-points’. All this will be done using the path tools. Create a new path, then zoom in to a point where your guides cross. With the Pen tool, draw a straight-vertical line. Select the path line and duplicate it, then rotate the duplicate line until it’s perfectly horizontal. Place the paths centrally to form a perfect cross-point.

Once all the paths are selected, our next step is to create a stroke to make the cross-points a visible detail within the image. This is done by selecting the white circle at the bottom of the paths window.

Computer Arts_October 2003

67

7

Create a new layer and double the size of the previous stroke by repeating step 6, but editing the thickness of the stroke in the Edit menu. Simply double the amount of pixels used, and try a different colour that suits your palette.

9

The fun part of working with grids begins. Make sure you have Snap To Guides on (in the View menu). Block up with colours from your palette by simply using the Rectangular Marquee tool. Make sure your rectangular shapes snap to the guides, and then fill with colour.

12

Once you have decided which font to use, you will need to decide what you want to write. We have chosen the word Invada. When you have typed out your word(s), work out the block sizes within the typeface and match them to your grid.

13

Once the large text is completed, it’s always best to unite it with smaller text. This will add hierarchy to the image, and give it meaning. With smaller text, you don’t need to match block sizes.

8

Once you are happy with the right thickness of stroke, zoom out to screen size. You should now have a simple grid to work out your typography.

10

Remember to create a new layer with every colour you choose. And no matter what, always stick to the grid. You may think the grid is in your way at this point, but restriction from the grid is good. Without it, this style of illustration won’t work.

^

INSIGHT EDITING TYPE Just like any vector-based program, you can mess around with the type until it suits your artwork. Once you have selected the Type tool and have began typing, Photoshop automatically creates a layer for you. Photoshop is very basic when it comes to the complex editing of fonts (leading, kerning and and so on), so the best method is to go to the Layer menu, select Type and then create a work path. You will now be able edit your text as you would in any leading vector package.

PART 2 THE RIGHT TYPE Next we show you how to use the Type tool within your image – without having to import any EPS files from vector apps

14

Before we get to the final stages of the image, it’s best to finalise your palette. Look at your colour co-ordination and make sure it works; colour is a very important part of this typographic image. Turn off all guides to get a better view.

BITMAP-STYLE FONTS Using fonts that are based on LCD screen technology such as calculators and train departure screens is great, as they are mimics of bitmap or cell typefaces. This means that they benefit from being used in pixel-based programmes: because they are made up of shapes, they do not break up like other fonts when reduced or enlarged.

68 Computer Arts_October 2003

11

For best results, use fonts that are based on bitmaps or LCD screens. You can also use the font we’ve chosen for this tutorial, called Invada, which Identikal has supplied free on the CD.

Tutorial

15

Make sure you are happy with the positioning of the large text, then rasterise your main large text as a layer. To do this, go to the Layer menu. Select Rasterise, then Layer.

19

Turn on your guides and start accurately positioning the type to fit into the grid. Offset the text by duplicating the type layers, turn the text white, place them over the other text layers and then move them around within the grid to create an interesting ‘block-out’ effect.

22

The final touches are extremely important in typography. What is a good typeface without a good logo? As you can see above and in the opening illustration, we have drawn up the Identikal logo in block style to fit into the final structure of this typographic illustration. Experiment with your image and create something that suits its overall style.

16

To make the large type more interesting, duplicate the main type layer twice and adjust each type colour. Now move the separate layers across until they are visible by one block. This technique can be used as much as you like.

FINAL STEP

17

Now make your background black, or the darkest colour in your palette. Place above the ‘colour blocks’ layers (from steps 9-10). This will give a hard contrast to the main image, and enable you to get the typographic composition correct.

20

Now move the ‘colour blocks’ layers (from steps 9-10) above the dark layer. The blocks you created previously may be obstructing the type, so simply use the Marquee tool as in steps 9-10, but this time delete parts of the obstructing blocks instead of filling them with colour.

Y

our final image should show great composition, as well as a strong use of your colour palette. Using the Type tool within Photoshop adds a more accurate finish to the typography within your images, and by now you should be able to see the benefits of using a bitmap-style font.

18

Now apply step 16 to the small text layer, but instead of moving the layers across, move them down. You can really start to see the typography starting to work.

21

Create a new layer, then trace the grid lines with the Pen tool. Now add a light, thin stroke (as in step 6) and place this layer wherever you like. This adds nice detailing and shows off your grid, making the image stronger.

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PHOTOSHOP Layer Effects and Styles are often neglected in Photoshop tutorials – perhaps people just think of Drop Shadows, Bevel and Emboss and start to cringe… But the fact remains, there’s a lot more to Layer Effects than that. Here we’ll enlighten you about the versatility and extraordinary power of putting Layer Styles to a number of commercial uses.

T

he real beauty of using Layer Styles can be appreciated when you start to combine several styles together to create an effect. Try a simple experiment by drawing a shape and applying a preset style from the Styles palette, then Shift+click on another style to add the attributes of the second style to the first. You can combine as many preset styles as you like, but bear in mind that some styles will overwrite the settings of others if they both use the same effects. Web designers using Photoshop to create buttons and other graphics will already know that Layer Styles are a useful

ADDING A REFLECTIVE EFFECT

1

This digital photo for a car magazine was shot on a dull day without any direct sunlight, so the subject looks a little too flat. Three adjustment layers have already been added to brighten and colour-balance the image.

2

To blend the effect in, set the layer to Soft Light and the Fill to 50 per cent. Add a layer mask (to paint out areas where the effect looks wrong). Next, using a variety of brushes and opacities, paint along the contours of the car.

4

3

To add reflections, create a new layer and make a selection of the car’s surface (Select>Colour Range). Apply Bevel and Emboss using an Inner Bevel with a Ring – Triple Gloss Contour. Now apply the other Contour.

See the difference? The car’s surface now picks up reflections from its surroundings, making it really stand out from the background. Often, a quick process like this can add a bit of magic to a flat-looking shot.

tool when you need to create graphics quickly. But the graphic designer or illustrator may not be aware of their potential. You can also use Layer Styles to simulate natural-looking textures such as water, stone or metal, to create logos or to add extra texture to illustrations. When Photoshop 7 was released, Layer Styles received a host of new options with increased capabilities, enabling the creation of some stunning effects. A useful new option that has been added to most of the styles is the Contour option. The contour is the curve that the effect follows. Basically, this option enables you to change the landscape of the curve to create valleys and ridges on the effect, making it dip and rise over the layer’s content. There are a set of contours for each effect, but you can make up your own by clicking on the preview window to bring up the Contour Editor. From here you can customise contours by adjusting the curve as you would in the Curves dialog box. This option is essential for achieving realistic liquid or metallic effects, as it adds extra dimensions to the effect. The Bevel and Emboss effect has two contours to work with: the Gloss Contour helps to create a shiny surface, and an extra one increases the effect even further. The contour option has a Range value that dictates the coverage of the effect, with a lower value giving tighter contours. As its name suggests, the Satin option, also introduced in Photoshop 7, adds a satin finish to the layer content. Again, applying this option helps to give the impression of depth by adding highlights and shadows within the contours of the effect. Using different contours also helps to make the affected area look more chaotic (useful when emulating liquid). Layer Styles also come in useful when you need to add effects such as reflections or texture to photographic images – see the walkthrough to the left, where the surface of a rather dull-looking car is made to look clean and shiny. Funnily enough, we achieved this effect using just Bevel and Emboss, which goes to show that Layer Styles aren’t just about adding the usual Drop Shadows and Emboss effects. When used carefully in the right way, these powerful tools can create amazing effects to transform an image into something really special. INFO Expertise provided by Frank Bartucca, [email protected]

Computer Arts_October 2003

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ILLUSTRATION BY AUTUMN WHITEHURST

[email protected]

74 Computer Arts_October 2003

Feature

COLOUR THEORY With a little understanding of the science of colour – from theory through to colour management – you can make your designs more purposeful, better co-ordinated and reliable at output

Computer Arts_October 2003

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H

ave you ever turned yellow with envy? If you hail from Germany, it’s quite possible… Or had over 100 words at your disposal to describe the colour white, like the Eskimos? Thought not… It just goes to show that, while we can measure and calibrate colour scientifically, perception, at both an individual and cultural level, remains an equally important factor. As children, we’re told that the sky and sea are blue. From that day onwards, every sky we paint or draw is always bright blue, and every instance of water – be it river, pond or puddle – a deep azure. Growing up, we eventually realise that colour is subject to perception, and that we’re always

interpreting our environment, rather than seeing what’s actually there. Of course, a skilled designer can turn this on its head to trick the eye, but you need some understanding of how it works before you can play that game.

COLOUR DEFINED Sir Isaac Newton was the first to lay down the foundations for a true science of colour (chromatics). He identified that ‘white’ light could be split into many colours using a glass prism, and concluded that white light itself must contain all the wavelengths within the visible spectrum. It followed, then, that when this light falls upon an object, it’s

modified in some way so that only certain wavelengths are reflected back, while others are absorbed. If the object’s surface is smooth, the reflected light is bright and sharp; if rough, the reflected light is much more diffuse. So much for the mechanics of colour perception. More useful to the designer

IF THE SURFACE IS SMOOTH, THE REFLECTED LIGHT IS BRIGHT AND SHARP; IF ROUGH, THE REFLECTED LIGHT IS MUCH MORE DIFFUSE is an understanding of how we can use colour to our advantage. At its most basic level, light can be broken down into three primary tones: red, green and blue (RGB), with various proportions of each producing intermediate colours (that’s how TV

METAMERISM When two different colours look exactly the same Colours look different when you view them under different light sources. This is always a challenge for the indoor photographer as well as print proofer. But there’s another sneaky little problem with looking at colours under the ‘wrong’ light: it’s possible that two different colours under a particular light source will actually look the same. This effect

Only 5cm across, a RHEM strip shows you immediately when the light isn’t perfectly 5000K. A pack of 50 will set you back around £44.

76 Computer Arts_October 2003

screens and computer displays work). Showing the RGB colours at full blast produces a mix which appears to the human eye as white, while no primaries – that is, no light at all – effectively leaves blackness. (Note, however, that RGB isn’t the last word in colour perception theory – for more

is known as ‘metamerism’ and it demonstrates the limited ability of the human eye to deal with certain wavelengths in the visible spectrum. Obviously, it really only happens when the two colours are roughly similar to start with, but under certain conditions, the difference can suddenly become very dramatic. A simple example might be to take a sheet of office paper and a sheet of coated inkjet paper into daylight, where they look the same. Now bring them indoors and view them under a domestic lightbulb; the coated paper will appear yellowish. The best way to minimise the risk of wrongly identifying what you see in a colour-controlled environment is to use a light-hood with the correct D50 bulb fitted to check your proofs. If you’re unsure whether you’re viewing artwork under the correct quality of light, attach RHEM strips – little stickers from Typemaker (www.typemaker.co.uk) – to your proofs. These reveal stripes if the light isn’t right.

details, see ‘Theories of perception’ on page 77.) As Newton hinted, light is modified when it’s reflected back from an object. What you see isn’t the original light, but reflected light stripped of most of the original light’s wavelengths. In these instances, the principle of the light primaries is reversed – put into negative, if you like. This means that reflected colours need a subtractive theory to define them. Using filters, scientists discovered that red-greenblue had a reflective primary equivalent of cyan-magenta-yellow (CMY). In complete contrast to the additive primaries, mixing solid CMY paints or inks produces black, while no CMY primaries creates ‘nothing’ – the paper or canvas remains white.

COLOUR IN COMPUTERS People have been mixing paints since prehistory without the aid of scientific descriptions of colour. But at some point, a gadget known as a ‘colour wheel’, was devised. Used extensively by painters, it helped the artist identify groups of colours that harmonise

Feature

THEORIES OF PERCEPTION How do you quantify light and its properties?

rather than clash (see ‘Colour wheels’ on page 78). It’s still used today when a colour scheme is required that won’t grate on the eye. Expert designers might belittle the gadget as a prop for students and the inept, but if you’re unsure about devising a scheme which, for example, sits well alongside a corporate colour or logo, or works across an entire rebranding job, it can prove a godsend. So far, though, such gadgets simply help you evaluate the use of colour. Before a computer can do the same, it needs to appreciate what colour is and then numerate it. This is where theories of visible colour as three-dimensional models – or ‘spaces’ – come into play. RGB, CMYK, HSV, LAB and so on all describe colour spaces (see ‘Theories

For a long time, the most widely accepted theory of colour vision was proposed by Thomas Young in 1807, and developed by Hermann von Helmholtz in 1859. It describes three types of receptor ‘cones’ in the retina (the light-sensitive area at the back of the eye) linked to the brain by a series of neural networks, each responsive to either red, green or blue wavelengths of light. Unfortunately, the theory doesn’t take into account the perception of yellow, a colour which doesn’t appear to bear any relation to the red, green or blue primaries. So in 1878 Ewald Hering proposed an ‘opponent response’ theory which added yellow as a fourth primary and set them all in opposing pairs: red/green, blue/yellow – plus, of course, white/black.

A big problem with these theories is that they treat colour in isolation from the quantity and quality of light itself. In the 1920s, a commercial artist and teacher called Professor AH Munsell established a classification system in which every colour is defined by three attributes: hue (the basic colour), chroma (intensity or saturation) and value (lightness or brightness). It was the first theory to define colour within a three-dimensional space. Variations of this hue-saturation-value system are known as HSV, HSL and HSB, but they all mean the same thing. In 1942, Richard Hunter adapted this theory to produce a colour model he called L*a*b. ‘L’ represents lightness from black to

of perception’ above). LAB is considered the biggest and therefore the most useful umbrella colour space by which all others can be evaluated, although bear in mind that while LAB defines all visible colour, it’s a system principally geared towards the printing industry. Another system, known as LUV, defines colour in additive light produced by displays and projectors. Despite the importance of LAB, most designers work in one of the other

You can colour-profile digital cameras using products such as Pictographics’ inCamera. You must do this afresh every time you shoot, though, because the lighting conditions will vary.

white, while ‘a’ the red/green axis and ‘b’ the blue/yellow axis. This was further refined

in 1976 by the Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage under the name CIELAB.1.

Several systems to define colour perception have been proposed over the past 200 years, with CIELAB the currently accepted form.

colour systems because they’re more familiar – and, besides, LAB is hardly the most intuitive way of picking colours. Thankfully, you don’t need to worry about this too much; what’s important is that LAB forms the basis for modern colour management.

COLOUR MANAGEMENT The principle of colour management is to ensure input devices such as scanners, cameras, photo libraries and your display all share the same definition of colour, and that this in turn matches those definitions produced by output devices such as printers, projectors and (yes, again) your display. Actually, these devices

define colours in wildly different ways, but by measuring each one, it’s possible to map out these differences and then compensate for them. This is where colour management software comes in. It makes dynamic conversions in the colour make-up of your designs as they’re exchanged between said devices and your computer. Rather than constantly changing the data, which would be progressively destructive, the software uses ‘profiles’ (simply files which contain information on the colour space capabilities of a device) to make the conversion on the fly. The software sits in the background, applying LAB definitions in these profiles as

The electromagnetic spectrum in all its glory: visible light resides in the wavelengths between 380nm and 760nm. To the left lies cosmic radiation; to the right, radio.

Computer Arts_October 2003

77

COLOUR WHEELS How to ensure you obtain the ideal colour match

you scan and print, using a device-independent ‘working space’ as a virtual locale where the original, ideal colour definition of your artwork can sit unabused. Although colour management software works automatically, it makes huge demands on the designer to make it work properly. First, you have to ensure the colour profiles are accurate and up-to-date for each device, and this includes, if appropriate,

Artists have being using colour wheels for centuries to help them pick harmonious colour schemes. They’re basically a spectrum bar bent around into a full circle, traditionally in 12 sections, with red, yellow and blue as primaries. (Don’t forget that the colour wheel was originally invented for paints, not computers.) The principle is that the wheel provides a visual indication of how the various primary, secondary and intermediate colours relate to each other. In the first instance, it reveals opposites, such as red/green, orange/ pale blue and so on. These are ‘complementary’ colours. Then you have groups of adjacent colour sections in

the wheel, such as orangered-mauve. These are ‘analogous’ colours. Going further, you can draw symmetrical triangles across the wheel, or even squares and rectangles, to pick further complementary colour schemes. You can buy colour wheels from many art suppliers (a $45 software wheel is available from Tiger Color at www.tigercolor.com). Our favourite is a Flash colour wheel hidden away on the HP Website at http://h40099. bbn-stage.europe.hp.com/ country/me/eng/color/art_ hp_colour_wheel.html. This helps you pick schemes from a pure gradient spectrum wheel, and gives you precise RGB and CMYK values.

one for the final printing press. Second, you need to configure each design software program to use the same profile setup, including your choice of profile for the working space. Don’t confuse this with your monitor profile, which ultimately is just another input

The central point of a colour management system for the designer is your ‘working space’, not the display profile, as many people believe. From here, colour consistency is assured.

78 Computer Arts_October 2003

A colour wheel helps you pick harmonious schemes, known as ‘colour chords’. These ensure eye-pleasing combinations every time.

and output profile, crucial though it is. Third, you need to be specific about where your designs are headed and assign the correct output profiles. Otherwise, your colours will be shifted twice when you choose another profile during proofing and printing. It gets very complicated at this stage, so it’s no wonder that many studios cringe at the thought of colour-management and that printing companies often ask designers to switch it off completely. This gives rise to another common practice in the commercial field, which suggests it’s better to produce pleasing rather than accurate colour. Colour

management ensures a duff photo will look duff in print and on a Website. In nine cases out of ten, a customer would rather it looked better than stayed faithful to a dodgy original. Commercial printers have operated in this way for the best part of a century, which brings us neatly back full circle. Colour in design is principally – quite possibly wholly – a matter of perception; everything else is just down to scientific nuts and bolts. And nuts and bolts, of course, only come in different shades of grey. INFO Words by Alistair Dabbs, [email protected]

When you’re using colour libraries, such as Pantone, in your design software don’t forget that they’re meant to be used with printed swatches. Otherwise, they can mislead.

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PROFILE

ANNE CAKEBREAD EMAIL [email protected] WEBSITE www.artmarketillustration.com

Surprisingly, Anne Cakebread’s break into illustration came when Charles divorced Diana. After sending in some of her work to The Guardian, the ex-Fine Art graduate was commissioned immediately to create an image captioned ‘A husband is for life, not just for Christmas’. The commissions weren’t just for Christmas, either – since then her workload and client list has snowballed. Based in Cardiff, Cakebread has a range of clients, including ad agencies such as Saatchi and Saatchi. Her vector styles are created using a combination of Illustrator, Photoshop and Streamline, accompanied by copious amounts of tea. And, she’s met Richard and Judy.

1

What image is on your desktop?

My whippets – Huxley and Burt. Which Website do you visit most?

At the moment it’s the dancer Eddie Ladd’s new Website at www.eddieladd.com. I’ve been producing the artwork for the screen images. Eddie came in with the concept of building up images by overprinting. The cover page was the final layer; it’s one of the best illustrations I’ve done. What are you obsessed by?

Neale Howells’ paintings. If I ever move house it will be to find room to hang more pieces. Name one brilliant illustrator/designer

Robert Rauschenberg. 2 What are you working on now?

I’ve been collaborating with performance artist André Stitt on ten prints based on The Bedford Project performances he’s been doing over the past year. The Exhibition is opening in the BCA Bedford in September and Deluxe Gallery, Hoxton Square, London in January 2004. It’s been completely absorbing. Each print would take hours of intensive work, but once I’d got into André’s mindset the work became easier. What is your strangest client experience?

Bora Milutinovic saw my work in Total Football magazine and contacted me before the 1998 World Cup. He was managing the Nigerian World Cup Team and asked me to draw up the team’s tactics. The first goal they scored against Spain I’d drawn three days before. I ended up going out to France to drop off the quarter final tactics in person, and saw England v Columbia in the process! What do you read in bed?

I rarely read in bed, I’m far too tired. However, I have an 8x6ft Neale Howells painting on the far wall to contemplate. What is your ultimate ambition?

To travel across the US seeing the best indie bands. Favourite city?

Barcelona. I would love to move there. What keeps you awake at night?

Students playing rubbish music.

80 Computer Arts_October 2003

3

Profile

4

1. This was a poster for a new performance by dancer Eddie Ladd (www.eddieladd.com). It was created in Illustrator. 2. This image was commissioned for BBC’s Eve magazine, and was also produced in Illustrator. 3. Another piece created for Eve magazine, named Kitchen. 4. This composition for Livingetc was created in Illustrator and Photoshop. “I came up with the idea for this article based on a standard room and three different designers with three different budgets. It was picked up by Richard and Judy on This Morning, who asked me to produce artwork for their interior design section and appear on the show!” 5. This was a special project idea created for Emap Publishing.

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ON TV: Children of Dune, Ally McBeal, The X-Files, M&M's commercials, American Express Blue, Dune, Star Trek, BT "Broadband", Carphone Warehoure... IN VIDEO GAMES: Anno 1503, Blood Omen 2, Unreal Championship, Serious SAM, Moto Racer 3, Baldur's Gate 2, Giants, Resident Evil: Code Veronica, Everquest... THE CUSTOMERS: AirBus Industries, Codemasters, Delphine Software, Digital Animations, Digital Domain, Duran Duboi, Foundation Imaging, Industrial Light & Magic, Movida, Passion Pictures, View...

✁

For more information or to purchase LightWave 3D®, contact one of the authorized dealers listed below:

TRImedia ONLINE

01202 245630

[email protected]

what you need and there has

ave 7.5 E ow s 98/M

never been a better time to

®

get it! "Children of Dune" : Area 51, courtesy SciFi Channel

SPECIALS >>>>>>> >>> UNTIL

IN MUSIC VIDEO: Gorillaz 19/2000, Starlight / Superman Lovers, Robbie William/ Lets Love be Your Energy ...

w w w . n e w t e k - e u r o p e . c o m

OS X and Intel Pentium 4 optimized

Our references say it all

"The Groovenians" : s4studios, courtesy Cartoon Network

Macintosh

IN MOVIES: X-men I & II, Matrix Reloaded, Daredevil, Spy Kids II, Hart's War, Panic Room, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius, A.I., Final Fantasy, The Time Machine, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, The 6th Day, Jurassic Park III, Charlie's Angels, X-Men The Movie, Pitch Black, Titanic, 5th Element, Driven, Scary Movie 1 & 2, Tomb Raider, Star Trek, James Bond: The World is Not Enough, MIB...

SEPTEMBER 15th, 2003