Computer Arts (July 2003)

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+,-!,'+."&%.!* !"#$%&'()* [email protected] www.webfusion.co.uk

CREATIVE VS COMMERCIAL Attik on balancing creative flair with commercial sense

EXPERT Q&A

Six pages of creative and technical advice

THE WORLD’S BEST–SELLING CREATIVE MAGAZINE

ULTIMATE TUTORIAL ISSUE

IMPROVE YOUR DESIGN SKILLS 30 pages of Photoshop • Flash FreeHand • Illustrator • Painter Dreamweaver • InDesign

24 NEW PRODUCT REVIEWS QuarkXPress 6, Paint Shop Pro 8 and more PLUS: Five affordable inkjets on test

40 WEB DESIGN TIPS Leading experts on the best use of graphics, navigation and animation

FLASH MOVES A MASSIVE CREATIVE RESOURCE FOR PC AND MAC! 100+ STOCK IMAGES

EXCLUSIVE MONTHLY RESOURCES:

Identikal creates a stylish animation in Flash, FreeHand and After Effects

FRO IMAGE* M AFTER

PHOTOSHOP TOOLKIT Royalty-free images, plug-ins, shortcuts and more PC + MAC

Painter’s new features via a stunning illustration tutorial PC + MAC

FULL PROGRAM WORTH $595

FULL PROGRAM

TRUESPACE

iCORRECT ENTREE Colour correct your images – fast. Worth $19.95! PC only

£6

07

Outside the UK and Éire £6 C$ 19.95

JULY 2003

PLUS All the files you need to follow the tutorials inside the magazine Some applications on the disc will require Internet registration

9 771360 537024

Caligari trueSpace 3.2 is back by popular demand. Plus, try v6.5 and upgrade for less PC only

Printed in the UK

NEW! PAINTER 8 Install this 30-day trial and let a top digital artist show you

7,500 songs in your pocket . 1

Actual Size

The all-new iPod from £249. In John Lewis stores nationwide now . 2

The new iPod range The new super-slim iPod once again redefines what a digital music player should be. It’s lighter than 2 CDs, can hold up to 7,500 songs and downloads music at blazing speeds. Now you can take your entire music collection with you wherever you go. Three lighter, thinner models that are smaller than ever (up to 18.7mm thick), the new iPod fits comfortably in the palm of your hand and slips easily into your pocket — and your life. At just 176 grammes, it weighs less than 2 compact discs, and even many mobile phones. And yet the iPod gives you a huge 10GB, 15GB or 30GB hard drive. That’s enough space to store up to three weeks of music — played continuously, 24/7 — or one new song a day for the next 20 years.

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

1 2

7,500 applies to 30GB iPod only. Based on 4min/song and 128kbps AAC or MP3 encoding. iPods not stocked at Caleys and Knight & Lee

Mac G4 series. You’ll also find a huge choice of software, monitors, compatible printers, scanners and other accessories.

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

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• 10GB, 15GB & 30GB HD • PC & Mac compatible • Firewire connector inc • New games features • 15GB & 30GB include iPod dock

INTRO F

“THIS ISSUE, WE’VE PROVIDED EXPERT GUIDANCE ON EIGHT MAJOR PACKAGES FOR WEB DESIGN, ILLUSTRATION, GRAPHIC DESIGN AND ANIMATION, FROM THE LIKES OF ADOBE, MACROMEDIA AND COREL”

rom the point of view of the user, creative software is booming. There’s a wide range of programs available to suit the needs of just about anyone who spends their time working with digital imagery. And because the creative market is still less than buoyant, most of the larger software manufacturers are pushing to release upgrades every 18 months, if not every year. That’s why this issue we haven’t beaten about the bush – via tutorials, features and our Q&A section, we’ve provided expert guidance on eight major packages for Web design, illustration, graphic design and animation, from the likes of Adobe, Macromedia and Corel. As if that’s not enough, you’ll also find the brand new Painter demo and full version of Caligari trueSpace 3 on our CD. In addition to this software injection, we’ve talked to the industry about exactly what it takes to turn your creative talents and eye for design into commercial (and therefore money-spinning) expertise. Attik takes us through the makings of a recent project for Nickelodeon from brief to delivery. Plus, we talk to four leading Web agencies about their advice on the

COVER ILLUSTRATOR

latest and best ways to design Websites using graphics, animation, navigation, and the dreaded but vital database. All of this, plus artist profiles, your work on show in Exposure and a massive review section – all dedicated to keeping your creative skills and industry knowledge up to speed. Let us know what you’d like to see in future issues on [email protected]. VICKI ATKINSON Editor, THE WORLD’S BEST-SELLING CREATIVE MAGAZINE

EDITORIAL RAY SMITH Represented by The Organisation Agency, British-born Ray Smith lives and works in Norway. His contemporary style has been the preference of clients such as the BBC, Time Magazine and Nissan, and TV addicts may recognise his work from the promotion for Channel 4’s Faking It programme. This issue, the illustrator was called upon to visualise the balance of creative flair with commercial talent. He’s featured a young creative surrounded by icons of digital design in his own inimitable style. WWW.RAYSMITH.BZ

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_July 2003

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CONTENTS

JULY

ISSUE 85

NEWS 12 The Production Show 2003 13 Adobe buys Cool Edit Pro 18 The Hulk – don’t make him angry… 19 Opinion: Richard May

TUTORIALS 24 Painter 8 58 Manga style: Illustrator and Photoshop 66 Static motion: Flash, FreeHand and After Effects

FEATURES 30 Commercial vs creative 48 onedotzero7 52 Ultimate Web design

PROFILES 40 Segura Inc 64 Neasden Control Centre

Q&A 72 FreeHand, Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, InDesign and After Effects – all your questions answered

REVIEWS 79 Full listing 80 QuarkXPress 6 beta preview 84 Edition 5 87 Paint Shop Pro 8 90 Evesham Acumen workstation 96 Inkjet Group Test

REGULARS

ILLUSTRATION BY KELLY DUNNE See the Graduate Showcase [email protected] Have your work featured here – email CA Art Editor [email protected]

10 Your letters 46 Save £36.99 and get a FREE copy of The Flash MX Handbook when you subscribe 50 Win Maya training in Tuscany worth £3400! 102 Back issues 110 Exposure 114 Retrospective

ON THECD TURN THE PAGE FOR FULL CD LISTINGS

PHOTOSHOP TOOLKIT (PC + MAC) ESSENTIAL RESOURCE: Our new monthly resource, packed full of stock images, full plug-ins, tips and tricks. This month, the Photoshop Toolkit features over 500 stock images from Image*After, three exclusive Flaming Pear plug-ins (see page 6) and a guide to all the shortcuts in Photoshop 6 and 7

58 MANGA STYLE Combining the tools of Photoshop and Illustrator with a little creative talent, you too can create stunning Manga-style illustrations in no time at all. Illustrator Jason Arber guides you through the process step-by-step, sharing essential knowledge that’s made him one of the UK’s most respected digital artists

PAINTER 8 (PC + MAC) EXCLUSIVE DEMO + TUTORIAL: Use our 30-day demo and tutorial to create natural media-style digital art. Experience all the new features of this fantastic tool on page 24

TRUESPACE 3.2 (PC) FULL PRODUCT: Back by popular demand. Your chance to get your hands on Caligari’s 3D app for absolutely nothing. Previously sold for $595! Turn to page 8 for further details

ICORRECT ENTREE (PC)

24 PAINTER 8

66 STATIC

EXPLORED

MOTION

Exclusive 30-day demo and tutorial by leading artist Derek Lea – use all the new features to stunning effect

The Identikal Corporation gives you the ideas and techniques you need to create an awesome promo reel

FULL PRODUCT: A nifty colour correction tool from Pictographics that enables you to quickly change global colour values. Worth $19.95. See page 6 for more

BRAND NEW DEMOS trueSpace 6.5 (PC): New demo of Caligari’s latest 3D modelling, animation and rendering release. Check out the review on page 88

●

iCorrect 4 and iCorrect Pro 4 (PC + MAC): Test drive Pictographics’ excellent colour correction applications – standalone and Photoshop plug-in versions included

●

TUTORIAL FILES All the source files you need to complete this month’s tutorials. See your CD inlay for further details

30 COMMERCIAL VS CREATIVE

52 ULTIMATE WEB DESIGN

How do you balance that creative spark with commercial demands?

The world’s top Web designers on how to make your sites rock

SUBSCRIBE TODAY

AND SAVE £36.99 PLUS CLAIM YOUR FREE GIFT NEVER MISS ANOTHER ISSUE –TURN TO PAGE 46

ON THE CD FLAMING PEAR PLUG-INS Three full Photoshop plug-ins, worth $50, from celebrated EXCLUSIVE

plug-in developer Flaming Pear (PC + Mac)

L

ast issue, we brought you three exclusive plug-ins on your cover CD – and this month we’re offering three more! There’s no time limit and no disabled features: these are full plug-ins from Flaming Pear, and they’re all ready to drop into your Photoshop plug-ins folder right now. The first of the plug-ins is Pixel Trash. This ace plug-in filter enables you to recreate the look of 80s blocky Spectrum graphics, adding enlarged pixels and 8-bit colours. A plethora of options are available, including the ability to save settings and randomly produce an effect by simply clicking a button. The familiar Flaming Pear interface enables to quickly adjust settings using intuitive sliders. The other two plug-ins are simpler, but still extremely effective. Both Demitone 25 and Demitone 50 enable you to create stylish greyscale images, with a hint of posterisation about them. INFO www.flamingpear.com

ICORRECT ENTREE FULL PRODUCT Quickly correct images using Pictographics’ app – worth $19.95 (PC only)

C

olour-correcting images can often be a long and tediously drawn-out affair, but it needn’t be – if you need to quickly adjust and finetune the colours in your digital images, iCorrect Entrée is the ideal solution. The version we’re bringing you free on the cover CD enables you to adjust the global colour and brightness of your images by marking neutral points within the picture itself. iCorrect Entrée makes it a breeze to quickly liven up dull images – using the Brightness and Contrast tools, you can fine-tune the image if the

6 Computer Arts_July 2003

original global correction isn’t quite to your liking. The application also enables you to set up an image queue for processing a large number of digital images. The demo of iCorrect 4 is also on the disc – in the same directory that you installed iCorrect Entrée – and this gives you even more colour-correction functionality. If you wish to upgrade to the application, click the ‘Upgrade to iCorrect 4’ button in the top-right corner of the interface. From here, simply follow the instructions to get your hands on version 4 at the special offer price of $29. INFO www.picto.com

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TRUESPACE UPGRADE OFFER By popular demand: the full version of trueSpace 3.2 – plus the demo of v6.5 and a chance to save £120 when you upgrade

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ooking for a modelling and rendering tool for a fraction of the cost of LightWave or Maya? Then why not try Caligari’s impressive trueSpace? Check out page 88 for a review of the latest version – 6.5. As well as the full version of trueSpace 3.2, you’ll also find a demo of 6.5 on your cover CD, and we can exclusively offer you the chance to make a huge saving when you upgrade. So, once you’ve mastered trueSpace 3.2, why not check out the demo of 6.5 and take advantage of our special offer below? You can upgrade from 3.2 for just $399 (£243) instead of $595 – that’s a saving of $196 (£120)! The demo of trueSpace 6.5 on your CD will let you explore your creativity and a host of features. This is the first version to feature clip editing of animations, making it easier to mix and blend animation sequences, and the physical simulation is improved – you can let the software automatically calculate leaves swirling in the wake of a car, for example. Inverse Kinematics lets you move jointed models, and sound can now be attached to objects and exported directly with the animation (with doppler and volume effects as the object moves). Every major modelling approach is available with NURBS, Subdivision Surfaces, and a set of point-editing tools for polygon modelling – you can create everything from the streamlined curves of a car to low-poly game models. Use the Mirror tool to cut your modelling time in half, then manipulate objects with the Shell, Bend, Taper and Skew tools, while rounding out their edges with fillets and chamfers to get your model just the way you want it. To integrate with other 3D apps, there’s also support for a wide range of import and export formats. Full instructions below…

TRUESPACE 3.2 Get the most out of trueSpace 3.2 with these expert tips and tricks GETTING STARTED There are many ways to modify your models/meshes in trueSpace 3. You can Point Edit (working on either points or faces of your model/object), Sweep, Lathe, Bevel and so forth. Join objects either by glueing or Booleanunion/subtraction – although remember that you can only separate a glued object afterwards; a Booleaned object is permanently connected. THE WORKSPACE When you first open trueSpace 3, you’ll be greeted by a slightly unconventional icon-driven interface. Keep the Help bar enabled for a description of each icon and its functions as you hover the cursor over them. Flagged icons (little red corners) have other functions. To activate pop-up menus or dialog boxes, simply left or rightclick. Don’t be daunted by the app’s odd approach; you’ll soon get the feel for it. TRUESPACE 3.2 RESOURCES PAGE Head to www.caligari.com/products/ truespace/ts3/resources/ for access to a community of trueSpace users and info, including an array of tutorials, free objects and links. LIGHTING This is just as important as the modelling when it comes to 3D design – and merits a complete tutorial in itself. But nothing beats experimentation and observing how light behaves in the real world. When you select an individual light, the Light Properties dialog opens, enabling you to adjust such settings as ‘fall off’, the

A host of neat design tools set trueSpace apart.

distance the light has an effect over, the intensity of the light, as well as its ability to cast either ray-cast or mapped shadows. Try experimenting with various illumination and shadow settings. PRECISE POSITIONING To ensure your objects are accurately aligned, use the Object Properties dialog – simply right-click on the Object Tool icon to open a display where you can manually input values for size, location and rotation. The axis tool enables you to check that an object’s axis is at its centre by using the ‘Move Object’s Axis To Centre’ option. You can also use the Collision Detection tool to locate adjacent objects. MATERIALS There’s no point rendering your scene too early; you need to paint your objects first to make them look more realistic. Use the Material Editor to create your own materials, or explore the libraries supplied with the app. You can edit all the materials here to suit, anyway. Try to keep the ambient glow setting to a minimum, though – while your libraries may look dull, particularly reflective objects will brighten up considerably during the render. (Objects with a high ambient glow tend to stand out and look unrealistic.)

UPGRADE AND SAVE To order your full, boxed copy of trueSpace 6.5 for only $399 (approx £243, plus $22.95 shipping and handling), visit https://forms.caligari.com/ts65mktgoffer.asp?code=CA02, or call +650 390 9600. Remember to quote the order code CA02. The offer is available until 31 August 2003.

TRUESPACE 3.2 REGISTRATION To get hold of your unique serial number, you need to register online at:

http://forms.caligari.com/forms/tS32_free.html 8 Computer Arts_July 2003

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LETTERS PRAISE AND PCS I am compelled to say what a magnificent issue. We Work For Them and Daniel Mackie in one issue! Does it get any better than that! The best cover on a mag I’ve seen since a rather superb one by Jacey a year ago illustrating a vector art orientated package, I think. Combined with the excellent resource information you provide, it really is the number one mag for us graphic foot soldiers. Recently, there have been reviews of a top Amari and a top Macintosh. Yes, I’m a Mac user, but not a

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 THE Q&A SECTION ON PAGES 72-77.

what I can tell, the top-of-the-range Mac is pretty well the best value-for-money, high-end machine out there, but if this isn’t the case, I have to know – as Kenny Everett once said, “I’m not made of bricks.” I would love to see a comparison test article comparing Mac with PC in similar price brackets. Warren Bonett [email protected]

We’re glad you liked last issue – we were rather pleased with it, too. The old Mac or PC debate, eh? We could run a Mac versus PC but the benchmarks would WE COULD RUN A MAC VERSUS PC ARTICLE, article give little idea to which is best BUT THE BENCHMARKS WOULD GIVE LITTLE value for money. Nowadays, designers are pretty much equally IDEA TO WHICH IS BEST VALUE FOR MONEY grounded on either Macs or PCs, zealot. I’m about to splash out on a new system. and both top-end PCs and top-end Macs are Every time I see new PCs or Macs reviewed, I blazingly fast in any graphics or 3D apps. It really seriously consider them for my next big purchase. I does come down to personal preference and, of keep hearing how far behind the Macs are compared course, the size of your wallet. If you’re swinging to top PCs, but it seems only the PCs that are twice towards a Mac, though, hang on until June 23, the price are actually faster. My work is primarily when it’s rumoured Steve Jobs will be introducing high-end retouching and illustration. I am looking to the new IBM 970 chips into Power Macs, and get into 3D and have my heart set on Maya. From subsequently dropping Motorola. Maya is a

Pride and joy – CA subscribers get a non-fussy and word-free cover. Want one? Turn to page 46.

10 Computer Arts_July 2003

strong points are tutorials. There’s no other available printed source with so many tutorials covering so many different apps. Your advice made me learn a lot about design, illustration, animation and Web design clearly, through easy-to-follow steps and exercises. My only serious complaint is about ActionScript. When you refer to it in tutorials, please provide clarification notes for its use. I don’t want just to copy, paste some weird code lines, but I want to understand the essence of ActionScript for its current use. Apart from that, you’re really my precious inspiration here in sunny Greece and I hope you’ll keep up the excellent work. Ilias Sounas www.grafistas.gr/ilsounas

BYE CRE@TE, HELLO CA I was greatly saddened at the demise of your sister magazine Cre@te Online, but no longer. After receiving my first issue of CA as replacement for my CO subscription, I was surprised at the level of quality this magazine has. The tutorials and tips are a superb resource and everything else is great, too. Now that I’ve tasted the CA apple, even if the CO Eden was still in existence today and I was presented a choice between the two, I’d probably pick CA and enjoy my sinful damnation. Jose Illenberger [email protected] If reading and enjoying CA counts as a sin, we’d better have a word with the big guy. Very pleased to hear we’ve managed to fill the hole left by the end of what was a great mag.

RE: RIVALLING THE CINTIQ In response to R Schleyer’s letter last month regarding the lack of competition for Wacom’s pricey Cintiq 18SX – there may be an alternative to Cintiq available from Wintime (www.wintime.com.tw). Stewart Lewis [email protected]

PRAISE FROM THE PANTHEON Do you know what’s the great difference between CA and other design magazines? Content! Every issue provides invaluable information about software and hardware, but the

powerful beast, so make sure your machine can handle it, whatever platform you choose.

ActionScript is an essential thing to learn for those wanting to take their knowledge of Flash a lot further, but it’s also one of the more complicated subjects to run magazines tutorials on… We ran an introduction feature back in issue 40 of Computer Arts Specials, looking at how it’s used in producing games in Flash – this proved very popular. We’re kicking off a new series on Flash design next month and ActionScript will definitely form part of this. Once you’ve got used to how it works, you’ll absolutely love the flexibility that it can bring to your work. Look out for the new series and don’t forget to show off what you produce by sending an example to us at the usual address.

You’re right – the Wintime DF-152 tablet LCD Monitor was introduced at this year’s CeBIT show

The Wintime DF-152, announced at CeBIT, could be a new entry into the UK graphics tablet market.

and looks to be a direct competitor to Wacom’s Cintiq 15X, the 18SX’s littler brother. The model, due out soon in the UK, has electromagnetic sensor detection and hovering support. It certainly looks interesting and could well be in for review in the next few months, but unfortunately a UK price has yet to be confirmed. That said, the DF-152 is only available for Windows (the Wacom model works on both Mac and PC platforms) and to our knowledge there remains no direct competitor to the Cintiq 18SX featuring a larger resolution of 1280x1024 and the ability to rotate the screen through 360 degrees.

NEXT MONTH COMPUTER ARTS 86 THE ILLUSTRATOR TOP TEN This special feature looks at ten well-known illustrators who have had a far-reaching influence on illustration with their work for magazines, advertising and more. We explore their ideas and inspirations, and show some of their superb work – such as this image for The Face by Jasper Goodall

RE: ROYALTY-FREEEEEE I’d like to comment on a letter from June 2003 regarding royalty-free images – I think that there is far too much emphasis placed on them. Shouldn’t we as creative people be doing something original? It’s not difficult to snap a picture, then manipulate it, or stick something into the scanner and pop it into Photoshop. Come on, guys. Can we start to encourage creativity instead of letting the royaltyfree business advertise all over the place with the attraction of free pics? The habit of not creating your own images could land you in trouble, as even the professionals struggle with copyright laws. Terry Roe [email protected] Tough talk, Mr Roe, but you make some valid points – after all, almost every discerning pro or enthusiast has a digital camera these days. People use stock photography in different ways, the more diligent digital artists will have their own library of photography and only dip into stock imagery for specialist stuff – locations, famous landmarks and particular objects. But there are certainly some pictures available in these libraries which would simply need a bit of imagination on the artists’ behalf to recreate. But time is money and if it’s quicker to go online, do a search and buy an image, then that’s often the more tempting option.

JUST A TEASE I was flipping through the latest issue of CA and didn’t notice until the subs pages that the cover of my magazine is missing loads of teasers, images and other text. The only reason I know this is that on the page 27 subscription offer, there’s a picture of how I assume the cover is supposed to look with an image of the CD. Did I get the only one and this is now collectors’ item? Or did the magazine go out this way on purpose? Just wondering… Diane M. Serpa Every issue of CA is a collector’s item as far as we’re concerned… but it looks like your company has a subscription so the covers don’t have to grab your attention on the newsstand. Instead, the whole space is devoted to our gorgeous cover illustrations. If anyone else would much rather receive a cover unsullied by words, then turn to page 46. Save some money and get a free book while you’re there.

PHOTOSHOP INFINITY

IN-DEPTH FLASH It’s always a good time to go back to the foundations of the Web’s most popular format. In this new tutorial series, we look at Flash MX’s every tool to help you make faster, better and more attractive Websites

A massive nine-page Photoshop tutorial by design studio Chapter Three on the creation of this stunning image for Digital Vision’s Infinity2 series – find out how to achieve these stunning light and particle effects for yourself. All tutorial files are included

COMBUSTION IN ACTION

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Discreet’s in-house software programmers show you the best ways to create stunning motion graphics with the help of this prestigious compositing app

RealSoft 3D Special Edition – add 3D effects to your illustrations or model, then render and animate using this great product (it scored an impressive 4.5 stars in a recent CA review)

Photoshop Toolkit – each and every month, we’re going to bring you a collection of useful plug-ins, addons, stock imagery, tutorials and more. See your CD this month for a taster of what’s to come!

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*All content correct at time of going to press

Computer Arts_July 2003

11

NEWS

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

THE PRODUCTION SHOW 2003 EVENT Diverse range of broadcast technology showcased

AWARDS 3D Awards – the best

in CG for 2003 p14

ILLUSTRATION Royalty-free image venture unveiled p16

T

he three-day London Production Show is the UK’s biggest event for broadcast, production and effects professionals. Following the success of last year’s post-NAB time slot, this year saw the show acting as a UK debut for many new products launched at the NAB show in June. Another major attraction came in the shape of 100 free seminars and workshops presented by the likes of Discreet, Apple, Sony and Softimage – showing Final Cut Pro 4, XSI 3.5 and Avid’s Xpress Pro system. The continued expansion of demand in the TV industry has meant that while there’s more work, there’s often less money to fund it – and less time to complete it. This means there’s a ready audience of professionals keen to discover the latest advances that might enable them to improve their productivity. Notable for attracting large crowds at this year’s show was Media100, demonstrating its awesome

844/X system. This all-in one videoediting and compositing system provides unlimited layers, eight realtime streams and 10-bit precision, but unfortunately starts at around £33,000.

INDUSTRY FOCUS While the show is renowned for its industry focus, there was plenty for those with shallower pockets. A good example was Apple’s seminars and demos of Final Cut Pro 4. Apple has always been strong in the video and motion graphics field, but FCP 4 is spearheading a new push to expand this market. Sony’s series of seminars dealing with High Definition video, billed as the ‘progressive’ future of television, also proved popular. The VFX day saw seminars presented by leading industry professionals on the latest 3D techniques being used to spice up television, film and commercial work. Highlights included Matt Johnson, VFX

FILM The Hulk – ILM has created a monster! p18

supervisor at Cinecite, talking about the CG work for Jackie Chan’s Shanghai Knights, and Andrew Daffy of FrameStore CFC outlining his contribution to the recent Audi ‘Fish’ commercial. The educational element continued with the major manufacturers presenting demos and tutorials on their latest products.

THE HOPEFULS The level of interest in broadcast and production work continues to grow, despite the current surplus of media graduates. This was illustrated by the queues forming at the Skillset ‘Work Zone’, where industry pros offered advice on getting on and into the industry. This promises to become one of the most significant aspects of the Show: there is and will continue to be a large pool of talent in the industry, keen to take advantage of the technology on display at shows like this. INFO www.productionshow.com

SIGGRAPH 2003 Gearing up for the 3D event of 2003

AWARDS The BIMA Awards

2003 is calling for entries p18 WEEKLY UPDATES

www.computerarts.co.uk The Production Show attracted large crowds of television and film professionals with its mix of new product debuts, seminars and free VFX masterclasses.

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There’s a buzz of anticipation about SIGGRAPH 2003 circling the CA office. To be held in San Antonio, Texas from 27-31 July, the conference and exhibition joins the finest 3D companies and artists, and gives dedicated 3D enthusiasts the chance to check out the latest technologies and possibly meet their heroes. Conferences and courses will deal with every aspect of 3D, from game design to animation and rendering. Among this year’s speakers are ILM and Pixar, while the usual line-up of software companies will include Softimage, Discreet and NewTek, the latter previewing v8 of its popular LightWave 3D. As ever, we’ll be there to bring you the essential news, so expect some software surprises.

News

COOL EDIT PRO SOFTWARE Adobe snaps up professional audio-editing tool dobe has acquired Cool Edit Pro from Syntrillium Software, manufacturer of digital audio tools. The package will complement Adobe’s existing range of videoediting packages by providing a professionalquality audio-editing solution for PC users. Cool Edit Pro already has a loyal following among industry pros, and this move by Adobe is a logical one. “Cool Edit Pro’s loyal customers can look forward to us building on Cool Edit Pro is now under the Adobe umbrella. the product’s innovative history,” promises Bryan Lamkin, Senior Vice President of Digital Imaging and Video Products at Adobe. The program features support for up to 128 audio tracks, 32-bit audio processing and real-time EQing on every track. Adobe recently boosted its video-editing range with the addition of Encore DVD. The addition of Cool Edit Pro now gives Adobe an end-to-end video production pipeline, without need to recourse to third-party applications.

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INFO www.adobe.com, www.syntrillium.com

COMPUTER ARTS PROJECTS RELAUNCH Successful Computer Arts Special projects magazine now has a new name omputer Arts’ sister magazine, Computer Arts Special, is set to relaunch this month under the title Computer Arts Projects. The new name reflects recent changes in the monthly magazine’s editorial content, which now focuses on providing a complete package of tutorials, features, software demos and CD files dedicated to one project – creating an online portfolio, designing a brand identity, shooting and editing a music video, and designing a magazine. Future issues will cover 3D animation and illustration, Web design, multimedia authoring and more. The immense popularity of these titles has led to the name-change, so the nature of the magazine will be clearer than ever. Computers Arts Projects retails at £6. The first issue on Photoshop will use all the app’s major tools to create a stunning illustration created by Derek Lea. For more on this issue, which goes on sale June 25, see page 38.

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INTERACTIVE MENUS DESIGN Tomato soups-up menu for fashionable London eaterie

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nternationally renowned design agency Tomato has just completed work on a smart interactive menu for the new branch of Busaba Eathai, London. The Japanese eaterie is owned by Allan Yau, founder of the Wagamama chain. The interactive menus Tomato has installed at the Store Street restaurant involve a series of ultra-bright displays, arranged up an external column of the building. Tom Roope from Tomato worked on the project personally. “The screens work on two levels,” Roope explains. “They provide an elegant way to access information, while at

Photo montage of the three displays outside the restaurant, and, right, a section of menu screens pasted together to illustrate the graphics.

the same time the higher screens act as a strong visual attractor.” The screens have a brightness of 2200 candles and thus provide an extremely luminous point of interest on the busy street. “Allowing people to play with information on the street is an underused element of design,” continues Roope. To counter this, Tomato has attempted to involve potential customers in a more enjoyable experience than simply reading a printed menu. You can check it out for yourself at 22 Store Street, London, WC1E 7DF. INFO www.tomato.co.uk

At night, the luminous interactive displays provide an intriguing focal point to the restaurant’s exterior.

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HARDWARE Stay abreast of the latest art-enhancing technology MINISTOR KEY DRIVES Amacom has released a range of mini storage devices with capacities of up to 1GB. The new drives use USB 2.0 and require no drivers or cables. MiniStor drives also feature DataLock and a full 128-bit encryption package – an obvious bonus with an easy-tolose drive that could carry a large portion of your portfolio. Prices have yet to be confirmed. www.amacom-tech.com CANON PRINTERS Described by Canon as ‘Mobile minilabs’, the CP-200 and CP-300 are the latest additions to Canon’s ‘direct print’ Photo Printer range. The two machines print photo-quality images without the need to connect to a PC – or the mains. Print sizes up to 6x4 are possible on these two lightweight printers. Prices start at £149. www.canon.co.uk LACIE POCKET DVD-RW LaCie is now shipping its new portable Pocket DVD-RW Drive, equipped with a blazing FireWire interface. Like its CD-rewritable counterpart, this compact DVDrewritable drive features a rugged bumper guard for reliable protection and weighs only 1.4 pounds. Mac and PC compatible, it costs £304. www.lacie.co.uk

3D FESTIVAL 2003 EVENT Denmark’s prestigious 3D Festival

launches the International 3D Awards

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t Copenhagen’s Bella Centre from 7-10 May, thousands of CG enthusiasts and professionals gathered for the 3D Festival 2003 – Europe’s largest event of its kind, and host to the brand new International 3D Awards. The world of digital animation and effects has taken great leaps forward this year, and the new-look 3D Festival reflected this. The event was made up of three conferences, an expo and the awards ceremony. On 7 May, the 3D conference kicked off with a whole day dedicated to Lord of the Rings. Matt Aitken, Jason Schleifer and Bay Raitt of Weta Digital spent the day revealing the inner workings of Gollum, the Ents and Weta’s ‘Massive’ crowd simulation package. The educational theme continued throughout the festival, with sessions from Paul Franklin of Double Negative, Victor Navone of Pixar and Alex Alvarez from Gnomon School. But it was the first ever International 3D Awards, held on Friday 9 May, that proved the real highlight. “These awards recognise the achievements of

artists and technicians whose hard work produces the best animation and art in this industry,” said Leonard Teo, the event’s Co-founder. The nominations were split into several categories, including Best Student 3D Animation, and judged by a capable jury of CG professionals. Tippett Studios walked away with the statuette for Best VFX in a Commercial for its Blockbuster ad featuring kung fu pets Carl and Ray. “It’s a special honour to be recognised by one’s peers when our work is measured against the fine quality of all the other international nominees,” said Tippett’s Jim Bloom. Other winners included FrameStoreCFC, which took away the award for Best VFX in a television programme for Dinotopia; Aardman, which won Best Ident for its ‘Presentators’ slot; and Weta, which claimed the Feature Film VFX award for The Two Towers. The dates and categories for 3D Awards 2004 are soon to be released – keep an eye on the Website. INFO www.3dfestival.com, www.3dawards.org

ATI RADEON 9600 PRO ATI Technologies Inc has recently released its long-awaited Radeon 9600 Pro visual-processing unit. Based on technology developed in the 9800, the 9600 PRO offers true cinematic quality visual effects, performance-enhancing options and efficient, powerful graphics for under $200 (£122). www.ati.com NVIDIA GEFORCE FX 5900 NVIDIA has announced the imminent arrival of the GeForce FX 5900 series of graphics processing units – the consumer addition to the awardwinning GeForce FX family. The topof-the-range GeForce FX Ultra 256MB will be priced in the region of $499 (£305), depending on manufacturer. www.nvidia.com CTX S730 TFT DISPLAY With a response time of 16ms, CTX’s S730 is optimised for handling fastmoving images without delays or on-screen stutter, and is covered by CTX’s unique Zero Dead Pixel warranty. It’s set to cost £369. www.ctxeurope.com

14 Computer Arts_July 2003

ABOVE The

Award for Best 3D Independent Animation went to Sam Chen for his Eternal Gaze, based on key moments from the life of 20th century artist Alberto Giacometti. RIGHT Tippett

Studios (www.tippett.com) won the Best VFX in a Commercial category for its Blockbuster ad, ‘featuring’ Carl and Ray.

Weta snaps up an Award for The Two Towers.

Aardman wins in the 3D ident category.

Glassworks earns statue for its Björk work.

The latest releases, updates and software news

Star by Fabien Barral

Scapegoat by Sam Chivers

SOFTWARE 3DS MAX EXTENSION Particle Flow is an integral extension to the 3ds max modelling, animation and rendering toolset. Designed by Discreet, the plug-in is available to 3ds max users as part of the Discreet subscription programme. Along with all the standard maintenance downloads, programme members receive valuable software extensions, online learning tools and specialised educational materials – a useful set of 3ds max resources. www.discreet.com

STUDIOLINE PHOTO 1.1 H&M Systems Software has released an online update of its image-management and editing software, StudioLine Photo. Version 1.1 delivers significant speed improvements, and the launch coincides with the decision to slash the price of StudioLine Photo Edition by 35 per cent to £31. www.studioline.net ARTIOSCAD 5.0 Esko-Graphics has just released version 5.0 of its computer-aided packaging design application, AtriosCAD. Along with a new virtual prototyping module, enabling 3D animations for the first time, ArtiosCAD 5.0 has a whole host of UI and tool updates aimed at packaging designers. The program also now functions as a presentation and design tool. www.esko-graphics.com

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ILLUSTRATION Design agency Magictorch launches

its artist-friendly stock image library

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ith a 50 per cent cut for the original illustrator and an impressive collection of contemporary illustration and photography, Magictorch’s royalty-free image venture looks set to please both the artist and the buyer. The Brighton-based design agency has spent 12 months planning this new branch to its outfit, and initial signs are promising. Illustrators and photographers will be included, both traditional and digital, and Magictorchers Mike Chipperfield and Sam Williams are currently on the lookout for talented contributors. The agency itself has already contributed to large image libraries like Digital Vision.

Stock illustration is a touchy subject with some illustrators. Although it can be a quick route to cash in a new creative’s career, many come unstuck when they later become established artists: a stock commission averages out at 25 per cent profit for the artist, and the work remains available after an illustrator has become established, costing far less than an original image. This new library, set up with the artist firmly in mind, is likely to stand out of a crowded market. The launch date is set for 1 September 2003. Preview images are featured here, and submissions can be emailed straight through to [email protected].

Forthcoming stock imagery from Magictorch’s new Stock Cube library, launching in September 2003. Telephone Business by Sam Chivers

DIGIROSTRUM DigiRostrum enables your PC to emulate a rostrum camera. You can track, zoom or rotate the virtual camera across High Definition image files to create broadcastquality video files. Version 2’s improvements include 3D control of camera movement, real-time preview and alpha channels. A full licence will cost £89. www.lumidium.com

STOCK CUBE

Trolleys by Jane Hutchison

LIVESTAGE 4.1 Totally Hip has released LiveStage Professional 4.1 for Mac OS X. The package now covers all the features required to make simple interactive Virtual Reality (VR) movies, and includes support for MindAvenue’s award-winning Axel 3D software. The upgrade is free for owners of LiveStage 4.0, while the full package costs $450. www.totallyhip.com

INFO www.stock-cube.com, www.magictorch.com

HOUDINI 6 SOFTWARE Side Effects ships its user-friendly upgrade ide Effects has begun shipping the sixth version of its 3D animation and visual effects package, Houdini. The major addition to version 6 comes in the shape of ‘digital assets’, essentially a method of creating libraries of reusable characters and effects. There have also been enhancements to animation, lighting, compositing and particle tools. Houdini’s reputation has been growing steadily, particularly in terms

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of its visual effects capabilities, but the app’s procedural architecture is perhaps hindering its take-up as the pool of available talent is comparatively restricted. This release promises to move Houdini closer to other 3D packages, by making its procedural architecture less intrusive. Another improvement to version 6, also increasing usability, is the introduction of an embedded Help browser. This system produces

interactive learning materials of its own, but also provides a framework for generating custom documentation to aid workflow on a specific project. Improved functionality comes in the shape of global illumination for Mantra, Houdini’s rendering module, and a new hotkey-driven keyframing system. Houdini 6 Master Edition will set you back £13,500, while Houdini 6 Select costs £1350. INFO www.sidefx.com

HULK SMASH! FILM Puny humans,

expect great things

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s comic fans and the general public alike await Ang Lee’s multiplex take on the Marvel legend with baited breath, early footage from The Hulk is already turning heads. ILM’s first fully computer-generated character is looking every bit the tormented ‘hero’ its fans have been clamouring for. Despite the creature’s size, Director Ang Lee insisted that the Hulk act and move like a ‘real’ human being as much as possible. Consequently, action scenes, such as the ‘Hulk Jump’ and numerous fighting sequences, were modelled closely on the movements of real-life athletes. ILM reportedly was reduced to hand-editing each scene to ensure that the animations achieved the degree of realism required by Lee. Heading up the ILM visual effects team is Dennis Muren, whose previous credits include Jurassic Park and The Abyss. Ang Lee has his own office at ILM and is personally overseeing the final touches to the movie. The Hulk will be in cinemas from Friday 20 June.

Almost enough to make you forget Jar-Jar.

Forget the 70s TV series. At long last, this is the real thing.

David Banner, where art thou?

INFO www.hulkmovie.com

BIMA AWARDS 2003 AWARDS Enter now to win an interactive accolade

T 2002 BIMA Award winners: The Hull International Short Film Festival (right) and specialmoves for its Meet the Osbournes Website.

18 Computer Arts_July 2003

he British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) is now calling for entries to its 2003 competition. This year, the emphasis is on projects that have created a ‘successful user experience,’ making interactive media accessible and compelling to the consumer. Two new awards, open to public voting, have also been added. The competition is divided into three categories: Market Sector, Best Use of Platform and Special Awards. Together, these awards cover almost every aspect of contemporary Web design, and include such sub-categories as

‘Best Use of Internet’, ‘Most Promising Student’ and ‘Best Broadband Site’. The Special Awards are of particular interest as candidates cannot enter themselves, but are instead nominated for by the public via the BIMA Website. Last year’s prestigious BIMA Grand Prix winners were Digit (for its Habitat site) and SAS (for Foxtons). Emma Saunderson, head of BT broadband, which continues to sponsor the BIMA Awards, said, “We feel strongly that the UK content industry should be recognised and rewarded, and that the BIMA Awards should be the key method by which that is done.” INFO www.bima.org.uk

News

OPINION

LEARN THE HARD WAY SUBJECT It’s far too easy to look down at the role of

the university or college tutor. All that holiday time, all that cigarette-blagging… Richard May goes back to school with a new-found respect

KAYDARA MOTIONBUILDER 5.0 SOFTWARE Character animation tool updated

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t this year’s SIGGRAPH festival, Kaydara will be celebrating its tenth anniversary by launching v5 of its acclaimed 3D character animation package Motionbuilder. The major new draw of this latest iteration is the much-vaunted Storytelling Timeline, which integrates 3D, audio, video and stills to provide a better integrated workflow. Designed purely as a character animation studio, Motionbuilder is further complemented by a number of well-honed Kaydara packages – including Motion Capture and Kaydara Online, a real-time broadcast system. Motionbuilder 5.0 will also benefit from OpenGL support, improved modelling tools and additional technologies from NVIDIA, which will give the application a photorealistic rendering capacity. The package is available now for $3495. INFO www.kaydara.com

GUEST FONT

This month’s font, Formation, was designed by Mike Cina from WeWorkForThem. It comprises ten type styles and is available for $89 from youworkforthem.com

ABCDEFGHIJK LMNOPQRSTU VWXYZ

abcdefghijklmn opqrstuvwxyz 1234567890

“You can’t pick up two melons with one hand,” advises my dear old mother, one eye on her RNID Typetalk phone display, one on the oven, and a third remote-viewing my father in the greenhouse – six partitions and two brick walls away. I want to inform her that she’d probably be surprised, before noticing my girlfriend’s professional-league frown. I hang up, but she’s right. I can’t, and I’m forever missing the point. Or at least not holding it correctly. Like most freelancers, I habitually take on more than I can chew. Avoiding the inevitable indigestion calls for not only that hoary old college lecturer’s chestnut, lateral thinking, but a certain degree of shrewdness and artful dodgery. And, as Roy Castle used to intone, dedication; or so I like to tell the students under my watch at the Surrey Institute. The truth is, nothing washes away the client-speak BS and focuses the mind faster than a student’s words: “I’ve been drawing in my sketchbook for two weeks and my assessment is tomorrow and I can’t think of anything.” That on-the-spot need to explain coherently and eloquently, to cajole, guide and ensure that the proverbial wheels remain firmly on the track and that time is spent in a most productive fashion... it can turn the brain into Meme casserole. Nothing else brings on the soul-searching like the presence of a nervous student searching for that spark in the dark; and nothing lights a hotter torch under your arse than the realisation that, no, you don’t know everything, and please hang five before switching into automatic PR mode. You’re not selling, you’re teaching. If you can’t explain to yourself exactly why it is you do what you do for a living, then what’s the point of helping others to sign up? “Those who can’t, teach,” thought I, naively and arrogantly, as my own degree show loomed. I’ve since learned – over the years, but most recently and quite soberingly, in three short months – that those who actually choose to put aside a considerable portion of the freelancer’s income to do so should be applauded in the streets. Or at least in the refectory. And only once you’ve got the hang of it – truly mastered the art of reeling out the glib one-liner that now occasionally means something – can you allow yourself a certain degree of satisfaction; because, hey, these guys are the future. The extremely talented future. Or, at the very least, your future competitors. INFO Richard May is a part-time lecturer at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design (www.surrart.ac.uk), and a freelance illustrator.

Computer Arts_July 2003

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WEBSITES The hottest sites and services on the Web…

OMANAMAN www.omanaman.com A portfolio site for Milwaukee artist and graphic designer Joseph J. Shakula, omanaman.com focuses solely on “pure graphic creation”, according to its creator. Joseph’s illustration work is very clean-limbed and incorporates an interesting blend of pixel and vector styles. JO CHEN www.jo-chen.com Jo proudly admits that she’s been heavily influenced by that classic of Manga animation, Akira – and it’s certainly easy to see how. But check out her cover work for Darkminds and her recent computer-generated images. There’s some inspirational character design here. COOL JAPANESE TOYS http://cooljapanesetoys.com The Japanese have the coolest toys. If there’s any doubt in your mind, just check out this site’s vast database of figures, ships and assorted oddments. Transformers were only a drop in the ocean compared to this. There’s enough here to consume your pocket money for years to come. HELLBOY www.hellsite.com The official site for the forthcoming Hellboy movie, this boasts all sorts of goodies related to the original Mike Mignola comic, including concept art for the upcoming movie. The site itself is well laid out, suitably fast and attractive. We just hope the film (out next year) can do it justice. RECOLLECTIVE www.recollective.co.uk Digital design outfit Recollective states its aim as “marrying creative, innovative design with strong usability.” Its new site is a simple, effective online environment. Clients include the Design museum and techno-bod Luke Slater (it gave him a style makeover, apparently). SOCIETY REVIEW www.societyreview.com Recently relaunched, Society Review now has a new look and intelligently balanced content, with the ego-rush digital art section showcasing some top-class design, photography and illustration. Other content areas, such as the obligatory fashion and music sections, are equally enjoyable.

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

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INSPIRED

ASTOUNDING DESIGN, RECOMMENDED BY US WeWorkForThem unveils the real One Top designer WeWorkForThem has just published a book and CD-ROM entitled One to showcase work from its early days. Interactive versions of seminal designs by such luminaries as Designgraphik, TrueisTrue and Submethod are included on the CD-ROM, while the book outlines the thinking and methodology behind each project. Available online now, One costs $26. INFO www.weworkforthem.com

LEARNING CURVE DESIGN, ILLUSTRATION, 3D, WEB DESIGN AND VIDEO – KEEP YOUR SKILLS UP TO SCRATCH TIDALFIRE Edinburgh Tidalfire is the only company in Scotland authorised by Adobe, Macromedia, Quark and CIW to deliver application courses using official courseware materials. Fast Track – Dreamweaver MX: 3-day course, 23-25 June, £850 Adobe After Effects: 1-day course, 8 July, £495 www.tidalfire.com CORPS BUSINESS TRAINING London All courses include hands-on instruction in the well-equipped training centre, plus lunch, course manual and after-course support by phone or email. Advanced ActionScript: 2-day course, 23-24 July, £450 Director Fundamentals: 2-day course, 19-20 Aug, £450 www.corps.co.uk/training MEKON Sutton, Surrey Mekon offers Macromedia and Adobe creative courses, along with more business-orientated training.

Photoshop Advanced: 1-day course, 20 June, £295 Flash Advanced: 1-day course, 29 July, £250 www.mekon.com MERIDIAN Henley, Kidlington, Basingstoke Meridian offers a huge range of scheduled and custom graphics, Internet and technical courses. There are never more than six students to a class. Flash MX Fast Track: 1-day course, 14 July, £495 Photoshop 7 Advanced: 1-day course, 22 July, £395 www.meridiantd.co.uk HARLEQUIN LONDON Founded in 1990, Harlequin offers training courses covering Web, design and print. It currently runs more than 100 a month from its purpose-built studios. Illustrator Advanced: 2-day course, 21-22 July, £645 Mac OS X Support: 2-day course, 30-31 July, £645 www.solutions.co.uk/training

SKETCHUP 3.0 3D SOFTWARE Take your ideas from napkin to PC eleased in the first week of June 2003, SketchUp 3.0 brings a range of new features to @Last Software’s acclaimed visualisation package, including animated previews, annotation and material transparency. Taking its lead from the idea of ‘napkin design’ – where a designer’s enthusiasm leads them to sketch on whatever’s to hand – SketchUp is deliberately straightforward and ultra-intuitive to use. In this way, artists can get their ideas down quickly without the need for advanced modelling skills or costly software. @Last Software sees SketchUp as filling a void between humble pen and paper and advanced 3D or CAD packages. Costing $495, v3 marks the first iteration of the package for PC and Mac OS X only.

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Detailed 3D models are fairly easy to sculpt.

Now transparent materials aren’t a problem.

INFO www.sketchup.com

NEW LEXMARK PRINTER RANGE Affordable devices move centre-stage PRINTERS

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exmark has unveiled a comprehensive new line of inkjet printers. With photo-printing capabilities at resolutions of up to 4800dpi, the cost-effective Jetprinter range is well equipped to serve a burgeoning army of creative digital photographers. Designed to produce photo-quality prints while keeping affordability to the fore, the Jetprinters are taking full advantage of the downward march in printing costs. The top-of-the-range P707, which uses a six-colour printing system and can deliver 4800x1200dpi borderless prints with ease, is set to retail for just £79. On-board memory card readers further streamline the printing process. See page 96 for our Group Test of the latest inkjets.

Annotations are simple to apply in v3.

Render rough animatics with ease.

INFO www.lexmark.co.uk

COMING SOON A CALENDAR OF ESSENTIAL RELEASES AND EVENTS FOR DIGITAL CREATIVES

JULY

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

COMICA International Festival of Comic Art and Literature ICA, London, 27 June – 6 July Terminator 3 At cinemas 2 July Computer Arts 86 On sale11 July League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen At cinemas 11 July Computer Arts Special 48 – Web Design On sale 28 July MacWorld, New York 14-18 July SIGGRAPH, San Diego 27-31 July

Computer Arts 87 On sale 7 August Closing date for entries to Animex Student Animation Awards 1 August Computer Arts Special 49 – 3D On sale 22 August RealViz Matchmover Pro 3.0 for OS X Due out now QuarkXPress 6 for OS X Finally, it’s out there! MindAvenue Alex 3D 2.5 Out this month

Computer Arts 88 On sale 4 September Computer Arts Special 50 On sale 19 September Next iteration of Flash from Macromedia Should be released Deep Paint 2.5 Could be out by now Epson upgrades its photo printers 64-bit chips from IBM and AMD become commercially available

Computer Arts 89 On sale 1 October Computer Arts Special 51 On sale 16 October Computer Arts 90 On sale 28 October Dreamweaver update Could follow hot on the heels of Flash Avid Xpress DV 4.0 Should be around by now New digital cameras from Nikon, Fujifilm and Olympus On sale in time for Christmas

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24 Computer Arts_July 2003

Tutorial

NATURAL MEDIA

PAINTER 8 Boasting a brand new interface, fantastic new features and unparalleled integration with Photoshop, Painter 8 now reaches out to a wider audience. See for yourself with our exclusive demo and tutorial This may be the upgrade that wins Painter the users who’ve been waiting on the sidelines. Photoshop users put off by an unfamiliar workspace and cluttered desktop can now revel in the Photoshop-friendly environment that is Painter 8. The reworked interface becomes intuitive very quickly, so the learning curve for your average Photoshop user is refreshingly slight. The improved interface enables you to focus less on how to do things and more on the artwork itself. Apart from the streamlined interface, we’ll explore such features as channels and layer masks, which behave refreshingly similar to those in Photoshop. We’ll also explore the almighty new mixer palette, which enables you to blend paint just as you would in the tactile realm – an important new feature in making the application more and more like natural media. In addition, new brush creator tools, such as Randomize and Transpose, help you quickly create a number of variations of your current brushes with incredible ease. And then there are new features like the tracker, which enables you to keep track of just what brush you used to create that stunning effect, and access it again at the click of a button. So, Photoshop users and Painter alumni, launch the demo from the CD and let’s get painting.

ON THE CD On this month’s disc, you’ll find a demo of Painter 8, plus the file you need to complete this tutorial – templat.tif – in the Tutorial\ Painter folder. Artwork and words by Canadian illustrator Derek Lea. You can check out his excellent portfolio at www.dereklea.com or email him on [email protected].

ILLUSTRATION BY DEREK LEA

[email protected]

Computer Arts_July 2003

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PART 1 CHANNELS We’ll start by generating a selection from an existing alpha channel within the image – just like Photoshop

INSIGHT

GROUPING PALETTES Painter’s interface has always had a reputation for being cluttered. Until this version, it hogged the screen, with lots of palettes covering up limited workspace. Version 8 remedies this old problem by providing the ability to group palettes. You can group ones that you use often by dragging the title bar from one palette onto another. To ungroup them, simply drag a title bar outside the palette it’s in.

BRUSH TRACKER

1

Open the file template.tif from your cover CD. Click on the New Layer button in the Layers palette to create a new layer. Expand the Channels palette by clicking on the triangle at the bottom of the Layers palette, then click on the alpha channel in the palette.

One of the biggest problems users had with Painter in the past was trying to remember exactly how to achieve a certain brush setting or stroke. The new Tracker palette helps remedy this problem. It records your last 25 brushes, so you can go back and access them at any time. Although it doesn’t record colour or size, it’s a tool that many experienced Painter alumni will find essential.

6

Paint within the hidden selection using sampled colours from the figure. Adjust the size and the opacity of the brush as you go wherever necessary. Continue painting until you have gone over most of the figure. Expand the Mixer palette if it is collapsed (it’s directly underneath the Colours palette).

PART 2 MIXING PAINT The new Mixer palette provides an area for you to mix paint using a brush or palette knife, just like you would in the real world

7

Use the Eyedropper tool to sample one of the lighter colours from your figure. In the Mixer palette, select the brush and change its size to about 17 pixels. Paint a blob of colour on the Mixer palette. Now select a greenish colour from the Colour palette and paint it over the existing colour in the Mixer. Continue painting to mix the colours together.

2

Click the Load Channel As Selection button at the bottom of the palette. Make sure that Load From is set to alpha 1 and Replace Selection is enabled in the resulting dialog box. Click OK. Choose Select>Invert from the menu. Select the RGB channel in the Channels palette and hide the visibility of the alpha channel.

4

In the Brush Selector, choose Acrylics. Select opaque brush detail 5 from Brush Variant in the Brush Selector. In the Property bar, change Brush Size to 10 and the Opacity to 10 per cent. Paint over the figure’s face within the hidden selection. Sample colours from within the figure using the Eyedropper tool (Option).

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Choose a light yellow from the Colour palette and paint it over an area of your colours in the mixer. Select the palette knife in the Mixer palette and go over the area where the yellow overlaps the other colour. Using the palette knife enables you to mix existing colours without having to paint more colour into the mixer.

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Collapse the Channels palette, and select your new layer in the Layers palette. Choose Select>Hide Marquee from the menu to keep your selection active but invisible. Select the Paintbrush tool from the toolbox. In the Layers palette, enable Pick Up Underlying Colour.

26 Computer Arts_July 2003

5

Use the same brush and vary the size and opacity in the Property bar. Sample colours from within the rest of the figure and paint over it within the hidden selection on your layer. Choose Oils from the Brush category, and thick oil flat 20 from the Brush Variant. Reduce the Brush Opacity in the Property bar, then paint over the acrylics with oil.

Tutorial

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Select the Eyedropper tool from the Mixer palette and sample a colour from the mixer. Use your existing paintbrush to paint some of this new colour into your hidden selection on the canvas. Use variations of your existing brush and various colours sampled from the mixer to paint some different colours throughout the figure on the canvas.

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Use your existing brush with varying size and opacity settings to paint some of your newly mixed colours onto the figure within the hidden selection. Click on the trash can in the Mixer palette. The trash can clears the contents of the Mixing palette and conveniently resets the Zoom level to 100 per cent. Choose Select>Invert from the menu to invert the hidden selection.

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When you have covered the entire background with acrylic brush strokes, in the Tracker palette, select one of your previously used oil brushes (second or third from the bottom). Use the colours sampled from the background to paint oil strokes over some of your acrylic strokes within the hidden selection. Use a variety of sizes and opacity settings.

PART 3 BRUSH CREATION Explore the new Randomise and Transpose features while blending the figure into the background

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Select the Pan tool in the Mixer palette. Move the mixed paint over so that you have some more empty space to mix new colours. Select a dark, yellowish-blue from the Colour palette and paint some into the Mixer, then select a lighter version of that colour and paint it into the Mixer. Use the palette knife to blend them with each other and any preexisting colours they touch.

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Choose Select>None from the menu to deselect. Select Window>Brush Creator from the menu and click on the Randomizer tab. Select a variant from the left and try painting with it on the scratch pad. Keep trying different variants until you find one you like the feel of. When you have selected one, click on the Transposer tab.

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Choose Window>Show Tracker from the menu. Scroll down to the bottom of the Tracker palette and select the bottom brush (the acrylic one we used at the beginning). Use the Eyedropper to sample the grey background colour, and paint some of this colour into the Mixer. Select some different grey-ish colours and tones from the Colour palette.

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Click the Clear button under the scratch pad. Leave the brush at the top selector bar set to oils, but change the brush in the bottom selector bar to pastels. Click the Transpose Current Selection button to blend the brushes together over a series of stages. Again, try the resulting variants on the scratch pad to see what’s possible. When you find one you like, close the Brush Creator window.

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Use your existing oil brush to paint some of your new mixed colours over dark areas of your figure within the hidden selection. Select the Zoom tool in the Mixer palette and click on an area of your newly mixed colours to zoom in on it. Click again to zoom in even closer. Use the palette knife to mix the colours you zoomed in on.

INSIGHT

TRANSPOSER

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Paint these colours in the Mixer and mix it all together using the brush and palette knife. Use the Eyedropper tool in the Mixer palette to sample various colours from the Mixer. Using your current acrylic brush, with various size and opacity settings, begin to paint the entire background using colours from the Mixer palette.

Another great feature within the Brush Creator is the Transposer. This produces variations of your brush by combining it with a second brush of your choice. Your current brush is displayed at the top of the palette; the second brush is near the bottom. You can choose from any of Painter’s natural media tools and variants for the bottom brush. You may also change the top brush as well if you like. Clicking on the Transpose button creates six brush variations in-between your top and bottom brush. Again, you can try any brush on the provided scratch pad before exiting the Brush Creator.

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INSIGHT

CHANNELS AND LAYER MASKS

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Reduce Brush Size to about 8 and increase Opacity to about 45 per cent, then create a new layer. Use this brush to paint over the sharp edge between the figure and the background. Use the Eyedropper tool to sample colours from the figure and the background, and slowly build up brush strokes that cover the hard edge.

These two new features are so similar to those in Photoshop that passing files between the two programs feels effortless. The channels in Painter 8 have their own palette, very similar to the one in Photoshop, while the layer masks are incorporated into the Layers palette just like they are in Photoshop. You can also edit the masks and channels as you would in Photoshop by painting with greyscale. The beauty of this in Painter is that you have all the natural media tools at your disposal to use while editing your channels and masks.

RANDOMIZER Inside the Brush Creator, the Randomizer is a great new tool for generating instant random variations of your current brush. Click on the Randomise button and you’re treated to 12 variations in seconds. You can control the degree of variation via the slider below the brush previews in the palette, as well as test any brush before you exit the Brush Creator by painting on the scratch pad to the right.

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Select white from the Colour palette, and paint over any areas in your layer mask that you may have masked, and which you’d like to add back into the image. Just like Photoshop, painting with white on a layer mask reveals that part of the layer.

PART 4 LAYER MASKS Finally, layer masks that behave exactly the way they do in Photoshop. A lot of digital artists are going to love this particular feature!

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Feel free to continue to draw and paint on various layers within the image until you feel that you’re finished. When your painting is complete, choose File>Save As from the menu. Select Photoshop as the format, and make sure Save Alpha and Uncompressed are enabled. In the Export options, we chose CMYK as the colour space, since our destination was print.

21 19

Create a new layer. Choose conte from the Brush category in the Brush Selector. Choose dull conte 8 from the Brush Variant in the Brush Selector. In the Property bar, reduce Size to 5 and Opacity to 29 per cent. Use the Eyedropper to sample colours from the image and draw some sketch detail lines over the figure and the background.

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Once you’re finished sketching, click on the Create Layer Mask button at the bottom of the Layers palette, then click on the Mask icon. In the Colours palette, select black. In the Brush Selector, choose charcoal from the Brush category and soft charcoal pencil 3 as the Brush Variant.

28 Computer Arts_July 2003

Change the size to 50 and the opacity to 25 in the Property bar. With the layer mask active in the Layers palette, begin to paint over areas of the mask using the soft charcoal brush. Just like Photoshop, painting with black on a mask will mask out that area of the layer. Now softly paint over areas you want to treat in this way.

FINAL STEP

W

e opened the file in Photoshop and everything was absolutely perfect. The colour looked great and all of the layers, channels and masks were there and working properly. We also added a few adjustment layers to snap up the colour (more out of habit than necessity). This is an excellent upgrade that works seamlessly with Photoshop.

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30 Computer Arts_July 2003

COMMERCIAL VS CREATIVE How do you balance creative flow with commercial demands? Developing creative ideas with mass appeal is an upcoming designer’s biggest challenge – we talk to leading agencies about how it’s done. Read on for their views on the commercial vs creative debate, practical advice, an industry overview, and a behind-the-scenes look at a real-life brief

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designer is by definition commercial,” says Paul Cilia la Corte, Design Director at Lewis Moberly. “They are creating something to meet a need.” This is the basic fact of commercial design. The days when creatives, especially in the Web industry, could dictate to clients from the wildest flights of fancy are over. But after the dust has settled on the horror stories of high-profile failures, how exactly is the design market faring today? Faced as they are with the pressures of an industry in flux – both internal and external – we look at how designers seek out, win, and bring commercial briefs to completion without sacrificing any of their creativity. On the way we’ll look at what you need to do to meet the challenges of the new world of design, and delve into real-life examples of successfully completed commercial commissions. >>

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Pictured below are images of a hoarding for a property development in South London, created by Hat-Trick Design. Usually hoardings are very dull, but this one incorporates a double image as you walk past – all based on the premise of the ‘best of both worlds’. The team has also created brochures, invites and a Website: go to www.thehamptons surrey.co.uk.

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he general feeling today is that the design sector is reasonably buoyant, with some areas being more susceptible to economic pressures than others. There’s also the matter of external influences on the sector, from a downturn in the global economy to individual company policies. “As design is a service industry, it’s almost entirely dependent on how the industries it serves are faring,” says Ed Templeton, Art Director and Partner of Red. “Although it should be argued that design influences the success or otherwise of its client companies, when external factors like decreased consumer confidence cause a loss in profits for a company, then so-called ‘luxuries’ like buying design still tend to suffer.” Attik’s MD, James Sommerville, believes that there’s work around because good design has always been and will always be needed. “Having said that, it’s a tough market all across the world,” he says. “These days, clients not only ‘want it yesterday’, some of them don’t expect to pay for it either.” The man from Attik does, however, have some good advice for anyone feeling overwhelmed by gloom. “In terms of sectors, read the business press, study the stock markets at home and abroad and see which market sectors are rising and falling. That’s usually the best starting point. From there, identify brands within the sectors you feel are right and approach them with a clear offer of how you can help. Believe it or not, clients want you to sell their product or service

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as a priority, not just to design something cool. Creative is not the priority, it’s a part of the sales and marketing wheel. Prove you can assist or strengthen their business through good design and you’re in a good place. Doing your homework before meeting the prospective client is the best way to show that you’re at least trying to be strategic about your approach to finding clients, and not just opening the Yellow Pages.” Lars Hemming Jorgensen, Creative Director of Large Design, feels that the design sector needs to change its business practices. “At the moment it’s too design-led,” he says. “You get these

“WE ALL SEARCH FOR THE PERFECT CLIENT, WHO RECOGNISES ‘CREATIVE GENIUS’ AND WILL PAY HANDSOMELY…” – Ed Templeton, Red Design big branding or design companies who don’t consult the sales staff of their clients. You should talk to the top three sales people in the organisation – the best at closing the deals – and get their techniques. That’s what you want to amplify in the communication: the sales messages, the triggers that clients use to do successful business.” Finding clients is obviously a commercial exercise in itself, which requires a methodical, business-like approach. Often a friendly phone call that communicates an idea which the client hasn’t thought of can do the trick, according to Jess Goodall, joint Creative Director of Mook, while James

Sommerville feels word of mouth is generally pretty strong. “But that only generates an initial spark of interest from the client,” he adds. “The job of converting the ‘initial chat’ into a real project happens over a period of time. It’s very rare that a new client calls you with a job. Nurturing relationships is an important practice. Clients don’t (or won’t) work with someone they don’t connect with – who would? So, aside from creative excellence, all those basic words like trust, honesty and clarity are vital.” Red’s Ed Templeton finds the best practice to get new commissions – aside from the usual practices of mailouts, calling round companies trying to get a meeting or at least your portfolio through the door – is to try to maintain a consistently good level of design output. “Thereby you gain a reputation for producing quality work,” he says. “Which is a harder thing to do than it sounds, especially when times are lean and clients are pushing you in directions you know you’d rather not go.”

STICKY BRIEFS This brings us back to the main point of the discussion – just how can you keep your creative impulses intact and fresh in the murky swamp of commercial dealings? How can you impress your ideas on your clients, and how do you react when a restrictive brief or a determined client leaves little room for creativity? “Generally, the clients we work with are very receptive to our creative input,” >>

Feature

CASE STUDY_ _AGENCY>> Red Design _WEBSITE>> www.red-design.co.uk _PROJECT>> Lighthouse Media Centre quarterly brochure _CLIENT>> Lighthouse Media Centre, www.lighthouse.org.uk _SOFTWARE/TECHNOLOGY USED>> G4, Photoshop 7, FreeHand 10, QuarkXPress 4.1 Brighton’s Lighthouse Media Centre, which runs courses on various digital topics from Photoshop to DV editing, needed to raise its profile and to communicate more effectively with its target audience, while presenting lists of activities and a programme of events and courses. The challenge was to

produce a brochure which was informative and easy to digest, whilst visually saying something about its subject matter without being too specific because of the diversity of the activities within Lighthouse. “Our reputation had fortunately preceded us, so the client – having been unhappy

>> says Mook’s Jess Goodall. “After all,

that’s why they come to us in the first place. Quite often clients know what they want to achieve from a site, but they leave it up to us to decide how to get there. We find that this is the most productive way of working. It’s very difficult when a client tries to dictate every last element, as designers usually try to work to some kind of system that’s not always visible, but makes the whole piece coherent.” Professional designers have various ways of dealing with restrictive briefs. “We have had some really sticky briefs, but through gentle persuasion we’ve managed to turn people around,” says Paula Benson, Partner at Form. “People get bogged down with strategy and with pinpointing markets, and forget to ask ‘does it look good?’ You can sit and talk about strategy till you’re blue in the face, but the danger is that you forget about gut reaction and emotional response.”

with their previous brochure – commissioned us without a pitch to do their future brochures,” says Ed Templeton, Red’s Art Director/Partner. “Our response was to produce a series of abstract digital images using FreeHand 10 and Photoshop 7, which referenced monitor pixel patterns and

So the message here seems to be to look at the strategy and keep your design hat on. “We very rarely get written briefs handed to us, they are usually formulated by discussion,” explains Benson. “ So quite often we’ll use style boards, mood boards or tear sheets from magazines just to get everyone thinking along the same visual lines before we go off and do lots of work. Developing briefs with designers at an early stage is better than some marketing manager making something up within the four walls of his or her office – if designers are involved at an early stage, you may well come up with a completely different solution.”

CREATIVE GENIUS According to David Ewen, Senior Designer at Interdirect, this sort of thing comes with experience. “You have to deal with every client differently,” he says. “A client who doesn’t know what they want

vector drawing techniques, yet were abstract enough to stand alone as ‘artworks’. We then punctuated the brochure layout with full-page and double-page spreads featuring these images, giving the brochure a sense of space while affirming Lighthouse’s arts-based policies.”

The first brochure (January/February/March 2003) was completed in December 2002. Obviously pleased with the result, Lighthouse commissioned Red for further promotional material for events, and may call upon the agency’s services in a full rebranding project later in the year.

can be a blessing or a burden. An open brief may give you the latitude to push the envelope, but it may also make damned sure you miss the target by a mile.” “The client will always want to have some kind of input into the design,” continues Ewen. “Everyone thinks they have an eye for style, art or design, and clients are almost always the extreme case of this type of person, so leave something for them to play with: make an element of the design unrefined or slightly wrong – the point size of the body text, for example. The client will love the fact that he/she recommended that you put the point size down a couple of points. I don’t recommend you do this with every one, but for a certain breed it could be the perfect antidote to client interference.” “Of course we all search for the perfect client, one who recognises your ‘creative genius’ and is prepared to pay you handsomely for it,” says Ed Templeton. >>

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2 1. Dave Ewen of Interdirect created this magazine ad for techno club Meganite. Due to feature in publications in June, this is one project where creativity was an important part of the brief. See www.interdirect.co.uk for further details.

3. These images are from an exhibition by Red Design, entitled Circles 01 and Circles 02. For more info on Red Design, check out the online portfolio on its Website at www.red-design.co.uk, and the Case Study on page 33.

2. A ‘look-book’ for Ghost fashion designer Sophia Malig added to the Red Design portfolio in March of this year.

1

>> “But until we find that particular client we

tend to work with people who require a decent amount of creative input. This can vary greatly; some music industry clients come to us with a fully art-directed photoshoot already done, and ask us to add something to the project in a purely typographical and layout way. Others, usually smaller independent record labels, come to us with some music to listen to and an open mind about how we might visually respond. The challenge for a designer is to do the best you can within

3

the framework you’re given. A job with a very tight and detailed brief can sometimes be more creatively rewarding than one with a ‘do exactly what you want’ type of brief – depending on how well you manage to get that job.” “First and foremost, make sure that you fully understand the brief,” continues Templeton. “Don’t be afraid to go back and ask more questions of the client if certain terms or concepts don’t seem clear. Research may be needed before you can even think about the visual side

of it. Design is communication, and you can’t even begin to communicate if you’re not sure what it is you are communicating and to whom.”

GET A LIFE Communication definitely seems to be central to the commercial vs creative debate. “For us, the key is to combine both, says Jim Sutherland, one of the three Directors at Hat-trick Design. “We can’t be creative in some sort of commercial vacuum. You need to engage >>

EXPERT ADVICE 1 _NAME>> Lars Hemming Jorgensen _JOB TITLE>> Creative Director of Large Design _WEBSITE>> www.largedesign.com

A lesson from the world of commerce that’s often missed in design is the use of project management. It’s central to the work ethic of Large Design – a design set-up based in both London and Copenhagen. We asked Creative Director Lars Hemming Jorgensen to explain his approach “The best way to meet briefs is to have someone in control of the project the whole way through, making sure the objectives are met and considered,” he says. “We need to be as professional as any other industry. It’s annoying if you don’t get things on time, and it could be very expensive for a business if there are people waiting to

34 Computer Arts_July 2003

take over from you. If you’re three weeks late it could be very costly, and it’s also a sure way not to get repeat business. “Having a good team to push the design and be creative is important, but it is just as important to have one of your people keep control of the project. If you are a sole designer or small company,

think of making an agreement with another freelancer to follow up on each other, write checklists and make sure you’ve answered those questions. In general, document as much as possible. When you do a project, write a specification document and write deliverables. In this way you can avoid confrontation

with the client at the end if you haven’t delivered what they expected. The more you can spell it out at first, the bigger the chances of you getting it right. “There’s also a greater chance that if the client expands the scope you’ll get paid more, because you’ll have the initial agreement in documented form.”

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EXPERT ADVICE 2 _NAME>> James Sommerville _JOB TITLE>> MD of Attik _WEBSITE>> www.attik.com

Attik is about to initiate a ground-breaking, free-of-charge Masters Degree programme at Huddersfield University. It’s intended to bridge an emerging skills gap in the creative sector by making students more commercially savvy before they enter the job market. We asked James Sommerville, Attik MD and Creative Director, some leading questions on the commercial side of design How receptive are clients to creative input? I think clients get a buzz from designers who push them into a new space. They don’t like to push designers – it’s not their job. Our role is to advise clients from a creative point of view, but those who know their business often have a lot of input, and rightly so. The problem occurs when clients have to communicate with a more diverse group. Generally speaking, they tend to know a

lot about a little. That is not meant to be critical. Often, someone who has worked in the sports brand sector will know that business inside-out – however, they may not fully understand other industries that consumers are affected by. Drawing from our experience in such diverse sectors and markets, we bridge the gap.

>> and communicate with people. Our approach to meeting briefs is very much one of understanding the issues or problems and working out how to communicate the messages to the reader in an engaging and appropriate way.” Many of the designers we spoke to had valuable advice for those people wishing to forge a way in commercial design. “It may sound obvious, but it’s important to design for the client – not just be happy after producing something that’s personally exciting, but which often leaves the client wondering why they commissioned you in the first place. Do all you can to analyse the work you produce, and don’t inadvertently develop a house style which will discourage new clients from becoming long-term clients. “Convincing clients is just confidence, but confidence without experience is just arrogance,” warns Form’s Paula Benson. “You have to have knowledge and experience of working with companies to see how it works, and have some kind of handle on dealing with clients before you’ll be able to convince them that something you’ve done is right.” Many designers suggested further study, including courses in presentation skills. “Courses are great for building up your technical skills and you should also include creative courses outside the digital realm,” says Ed Templeton. “Above all, you need to keep those ideas flowing. I don’t think you can take any one course that will give you an endless

Do you have any practical advice on the best ways to meet briefs? Creative has to fall secondary to answering the brief. If it’s just about ‘design’, it will probably fail and the brief will not be met – so it’s a pointless exercise. The key is to do both. That takes a combination of strategically minded people, from agency and client, paired with a creative execution team. That combination usually works well.

What do you think the difference is between a creative talent and a commercial talent? They both need to co-exist in our field. Otherwise, you’re an artist creating work to suit yourself. That’s cool, but commercially we need to answer the brief. That’s where the challenge lies. INFO Applications are currently being considered for the Attik MA. Email [email protected] or go to www.attik.com/ma. A number of bursaries are on offer, so act fast!

supply of ideas. Exposing yourself to as many stimuli as possible can only help, but ultimately you either have ideas or you don’t.” Paul Cilia la Corte agrees that further learning is always a good idea, but warns that some courses require huge amounts of time and effort. “It’s important to choose the one you find most stimulating, with an eye to how it could be applied in the commercial world,” he says.

“VALUABLE CREATIVES ARE IDEAS-DRIVEN. DON’T SAY YOU SPEND TEN HOURS A DAY ON A MAC – GET A LIFE!” – James Sommerville, Attik “Try not touching the Mac for a week,” advises James Sommerville. “Create raw ideas. The computer is just a tool to get you from idea to finished product. Don’t expect or rely on it to deliver the idea itself. Most valuable creatives are ideasdriven in the first place. And don’t go to interviews and say you spend ten hours a day on a Mac – get a life!”

CARPENTER OR SCULPTOR? A creative and a commercial talent can co-exist, according to Jess Goodall, but she adds that true creatives tend not to care too much about the commercial side of things. “By it’s nature creativity tends to be a somewhat time-consuming, chaotic process, which doesn’t always sit well with commercial objectives. There has to be compromise from both directions.”

Ed Templeton has another view: “Someone with a creative talent does what they do whether there’s a commercial aspect to it or not, and someone with a commercial talent is adept at working within commercial environments. It’s akin to the difference between an artist and craftsperson.” This is an opinion echoed by David Ewen. “The difference between commercial and creative design is like the difference between a carpenter and a wood sculptor. A carpenter creates the functional and people buy it because it works; a sculptor creates art and if they’re lucky someone will think he/she is a visionary and buy it, but mostly people will walk by and say ‘that’s interesting…’ But there’s always room for the sculptor to get practical and make a beautiful thing that people can sit on, or for the carpenter to let go a bit and make something to sit on that’s beautiful.” Turn the page for our final take on the commercial vs creative debate, and find out how Attik handled a recent brief for Nickleodeon, designing a Monty Python-style online identity for kids TV show GameFarm. INFO Words by Michael Burns, [email protected]. THANKS TO Attik, www.attik.com Form, www.form.uk.com Hat-Trick Design, www.hat-trickdesign.co.uk Interdirect, www.interdirect.co.uk Large Design, www.largedesign.com Lewis Moberly, www.lewismoberly.com Mook, www.mook.co.uk Red Design, www.red-design.co.uk

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ATTIK IN ACTION_ How this leading agency’s creative teams tackled a challenging brief from Nickelodeon _AGENCY>> Attik _WEBSITE>> www.attik.com _PROJECT>> GameFarm – kids gaming programme _CLIENT>> Nickelodeon GAS (Games and Sports) New York _PROJECT SITE>> www.nick.com/your_world/gamesandsports/gamefarm/index.jhtml _SOFTWARE/TECHNOLOGY USED>> G4, Photoshop 7, FreeHand 10

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James Sommerville, the initial three designers and later on an animator – had a range of ideas to discuss. “The designers work fast and within a couple of days we had developed three options to show to the client.” The three style options are shown here, but it was the third option that provoked unanimous support from Nickelodeon. “In terms of actually deciding which option to go with, it was extremely straightforward. They were attracted by the Monty Python-esque look and the trippy colours – it was exactly what they wanted, which made the project easier.” And so it was the designer of option three that took the project on, working with an external animator to meet the brief and the deadline, which was two and a half weeks away. As Nickelodeon is USbased, it had to make sure that work-inprogress screenshots and animations were available to the client every day. While in production, they were sending MPEGs three times a day. “We had a lot of free rein, and emailing constant progress shots gave Nickelodeon the chance to dip in before things had got too far. The main thing was to match the original ideas so there wouldn’t be any surprises.”

ttik is internationally known as one of the leading design agencies with offices in the UK, New York and Sydney, so its creative team’s experience of working to a brief, developing ideas and delivering a finished product, is extensive. We talk to Client Services Manager Stephanie Lucas about a brief for Nickelodeon, completed this spring – what is Attik’s creative process for tackling high-profile projects? The leading US kids channel approached Attik to design and create an identity to a new branch of their Website, called GameFarm. This involved the design of not only the logo, but a 20second intro sequence, titling and scoreboards. The finished results were to be adapted into marketing materials for the new venture so the team had to create impactful and flexible designs. “Following conference calls and meeting with the client, we established an in-house brief so it was clear exactly what we had to deliver,” says Lucas. “Next up, we got three of our designers to work on their own interpretations of the brief and come up with two or three possible styles to suit the project.” Within a couple of days, the team – featuring Stephanie, Creative Director

This is the first but unsuccessful visual style option, presented by Attik designers to Nickleodeon’s game teams.

So were there any hitches in production? “There were a few problems. Nickelodeon wanted to show some gaming consoles in the opening animation, but getting approval from respective companies for that proved difficult,” reveals Lucas. “And secondly, we were using animation software we’d never used before that was PC-based. We’re all Mac-based here, so there was a lot of toing and froing with file formats. I don’t think we’ll try that one again!” And being a US client, were there any significant differences in the way they work with designers? “We work with a lot of US clients. Americans are so straight with what they want, there’s no messing around. As they’re so direct with their comments, time-wise it seemed to work fine. English clients can sometimes have too many people involved so there’s a lot of coming and going.” The project itself was completed successfully in those short three weeks and the results can be seen online at the Nickelodeon Website. As we go to press, Attik has just finished a series of commercials for the channel. If only all projects were that simple. Read on for the brief itself, the timeline, and James Sommerville’s overview of the account.

This is the second of three options shown to Nickelodeon. The company eventually chose the third option.

Option three won universal support for its Monty Python-style retro graphics, suiting the audience and theme of GameFarm.

TIMELINE Develop design, refine storyboards and deliverables

Present initial design ideas to client

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FEBRUARY

36 Computer Arts_July 2003

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Approval/ feedback from client on opening sequence

Start work on opening animation with client approval throughout

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VIEW FROM THE TOP James Sommerville outlines his view of the project “Jay Schmalholz, the Creative Director at Nickelodeon, had been looking to work with us for a while,” says Attik’s MD James Sommerville. “He called me, we met and it went from there. The concept is based on a surreal, trippy farm landscape with a combination of animals and computer games. Our inspiration was a mixture of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper animation meets the Teletubbies.” Sommerville continues: “The style combines contemporary digital gaming with retro electronica in a simple yet engaging way. The logotype played a key role in the creation of the GameFarm experience. Creating a flexible identity that can appear across every kind of medium is becoming common with many projects. Clients no longer want it ‘just printed’. These days it needs to animate and also be interactive. “All these considerations had to be taken into account, but GameFarm is primarily a TV show that has to appeal to kids, so the concept had to remain simple and instantly recognisable. A pig [logo] game-controller seemed to work best; it reflects the look and feel of luminous environment whilst marrying the ‘game’ and ‘farm’ elements of the show together in one icon. The T-shirt and show-set also worked well. In the end we all felt the result was diverse, kid-friendly, funky, fun-looking, a little quirky and yet 100 percent on brief. “The major challenge was not so much arriving at a creative solution, it was working with a client in New York and a creative and production team in Huddersfield. We need to ‘think’ US Eastern-time, and they are five hours behind the UK, so effective communication is the key to success here. The client shouldn’t feel this time zone, and we took every step to ensure this was minimised. My advice to others thinking of developing international clients across time zones, is be prepared to have conference calls at midnight!”

Sound design to be completed with approval stages throughout

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has become

watch out for our new logo on the next issue In each issue of Computer Arts Projects, we show you how to create a complete piece of digital art or design work. Our large-scale projects have been successful for several issues already, and in future editions we’ll be showing you how to create an enormous mural in Photoshop, design a Website in a weekend, and produce your own 3D animation. From start to finish, each new issue of Computer Arts Projects will give you the skills you need to tackle and confidently complete an inspiring piece of work. See the opposite page for details on the newly re-titled Computer Arts Projects…

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Computer Arts_July 2003

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PROFILE

SEGURA INC Carlos Segura has a story about the early days of FontShop, the seminal type foundry, which perhaps sums up his attitude to design: “Eric Spiekermann once told me that when they were first starting, they would have to hide floppy disks full of fonts in their underwear and smuggle them from East to West Germany, just so they could sell them in the US.” He pauses. “The amount of respect they deserve for that is just phenomenal…”

T

hough he’d probably be the first to play it down, Carlos Segura’s own rags-to-riches story is equally the stuff of legend. The founder of Segura Inc, which now comprises five diverse companies and boasts a client list which literally spans modern culture, can certainly relate to such dedication. Born in Cuba, he moved to the United States at the age of nine, and a couple of years later became a 12-year-old roadie. “I always wanted to be a drummer,” he explains matter-of-factly – and four years on he was, touring with the same increasingly successful band, Clockwork. Part of Segura’s extra-curricular activities was promotion for the group, which entailed designing flyers “by hand, of course – that was long before computers.” While he admits in his characteristically blunt style that he “had no concept of design, and that graphic design might be different to a billboard or anything else,” these flyers began to get him noticed and became collectable in their own right. “On every flyer I would include an out-of-context line from The Bible, and I think that’s part of how I got to be known. I had no religious reasons for it, it was just something I did to identify myself.”

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When the group decided to tour Europe, 18-year-old Segura decided he’d had enough, collected all his flyers into a portfolio, and set off to find a job in graphic design. If this was a Hollywood biopic, we’d cut to late-thirties Segura reminiscing at his desk, surrounded by the happy trappings of the design collective that bears his name. But this is real life, and thus far more interesting. Together with his wife Sun, Carlos Segura oversees all five companies, which astonishingly number just ten employees between them. There’s Segura Inc, of course, the main ad, branding and print design arm. Segura Interactive deals with Web design and new media, while Thickface is an independent record label. Perhaps most famously, [T-26] is their digital type foundry, while the firm’s newest creation 5-inch.com produces custom-designed blank CDs and DVDs. Apart from Silas Dilworth, who concentrates solely on [T-26], most of the designers work across the board. How the hell do they manage? “I really think it’s because we’re selective about what we do,” reckons Segura. “We only take on projects that give us the freedom to flourish. We would rather make a little less money or even trim the team a little bit and keep our honesty rather than sell out.” “I don’t mean sell out in a negative way,” he adds quickly, “because I really think there’s a place for everything. We don’t think anything is beneath us – we’ve done all sorts of work, from flyers to packaging. I just mean there are certain people that aren’t right for us.” He explains that Thickface, possibly the sore thumb in the group, came about partly because of his love of music and partly “because a lot of our font designers were seeking representation as well. They’re all our own bands – all original bands. And we didn’t want a record label that focused only on one type of music. Some labels will do only hip-hop, some do jazz… we wanted a mixture.”

“I THINK GRAPHIC DESIGN NOW NEEDS TO LOOK AT THE BIGGER PICTURE FOR INSPIRATION, NOT JUST AT OTHER GRAPHIC DESIGN”– Carlos Segura But Thickface is on the back burner for the moment as Segura concentrates on 5-inch.com, a seemingly innocuous idea that has mushroomed. “I was surprised by its success, but I was more surprised that no one had done it before. It’s one of those ideas that you think, ‘Well, someone must already be doing that’.”

HUMAN NATURE It may be hard to reconcile the idea of selectivity with the bewilderingly diverse list of brand-name Segura clients: MTV, Marlboro, Ernst & Young, Pepsi, Duran Duran, Hugo Boss, Yosho, Heinz, Motorola… a hundred others. But all thoughts of corporate spin are banished when Segura starts talking about his relationship with clients. “Clients are entrenched in the basic acts of human nature,” he philosophises. “They tell you to be honest with them, but they don’t really want to hear the truth. They tell you to do whatever you like, but they mean do whatever they want. And they tell you money is no object until the bill comes through. So, most decisions are based on a fake reality. It’s real to them but it’s fake as a strategy. We usually end up designing to personal preferences instead of a target audience.” He’s not exaggerating, either. “One of the first things that we tell our potential clients is ‘Be prepared to buy something you may not necessarily love.’ We’re not doing it for you… yeah, you pay the bills, you’re the client, but it doesn’t matter, it’s irrelevant. And a lot of them don’t like to hear that. That’s why most of the stuff out there is shit.” On the other hand, he is equally passionate with receptive clients – such as their latest project for Corbis, the stock photo people. “This client is without a doubt the most creative person I’ve ever met. His name is Joe Barrett and he deserves all the credit. He can say anything about anything, direct me in any direction, and I don’t feel negativity towards him at all. I feel that we’re trying to do something together. In 13 years of business I’ve had three truly great clients, and he’s top of the list.” Rather than what Segura describes as “the usual 400-page books which are totally emotionless and offer you more than you should see,” Corbis has allowed the company to design a short, 24x36-inch photo book which actually tells a story instead of simply ponying up the goods. “It’s very conceptual and it’s put Corbis on the map again. I’m really happy that we were able to make that happen.”

TO THE DOGS It would be temptingly lazy to conclude that such intense feelings, whether positive or negative, come from Carlos Segura’s upbringing in Cuba. It’s a question he’s been asked many times before and he gives the idea scant

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FONTS FOR THE FUTURE Segura changed the face of font design and distribution with [T26] Although Segura’s best-known enterprise is probably [T26], the digital font foundry, Carlos Segura is keen to emphasise that there is much more to the company than simply font design. [T26]’s fame grew mainly for its innovative approach to font creation and distribution, even before the Web was commonplace. It was founded in late 1994, after Segura began to receive many calls asking if his custom-designed font Neo was publicly available. Somewhat ironically in today’s saturated Web world, the company initially hesitated about launching what they perceived as yet another foundry, but were encouraged by the apparent

lack of any major outlet for experimental and less corporate typography. Segura wanted [T26] to be more than just a font shop. He introduced considerable student discounts, partly as a way of convincing people that casual theft of fonts (and other art) needn’t necessarily be the norm. In the same vein, the company offered far more relaxed terms on the number of CPUs and printers each font could be used on – again relating to the practical needs of designers, instead of some vague corporate model that didn’t match up. Finally, in true Segura style, each printed font collection or ‘fontkit’ became a work of art in itself, running in limited editions never to be printed again. This in turn led to them being collectable, and [T26] still regularly produces this meta-art. It’s still going strong at www.t26.com.

1

2 1. [T26], Segura’s digital font foundry, is responsible for these stunning printed font kits. They have become works of art in themselves, and have a strictly limited run – if you miss one, you’re out of luck… 2. As if Segura Inc wasn’t already involved in enough projects with its five-division company, it also designs and illustrates covers for The Filth, an ongoing graphic novel from DC Comics.

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credence. “Honestly, I don’t see myself as Cuban, I see myself as human. I don’t think that Cuba influenced my conscious direction – perhaps unconsciously – but really, Cuba has only given me and my family shit. As far as I’m concerned I’m American, and everything I have in my life – all the possibilities, all the happiness – have come from the opportunities that this country gave me and my family. “My desire for people who work here is… well, I like people who are completely unattached to a specific direction. People who like to explore, any kind of exploration – I’m not just talking about graphic design. The people here are from different backgrounds and they all experience things in different ways. I want to make sure that this personality is what comes out.” Curiously, it’s that very lack of diversity which draws him to Japanese design – or, as he puts it, “they only have Japanese people living in Japan. The visual language is very homogenised, and probably the closest you can get to fine art at the moment.” British design is another big influence, particularly the fascination with typography and the embrace of older disciplines. By his own admission, Segura has stopped citing specific influences in case he omits anyone and offends them – with the enthusiastic exception of Neville Brody. These days he’s more interested in the general ambience than any particulars: architecture, product design, movies, music. “These things don’t necessarily affect me, but they touch on the overall aesthetic landscape. I think graphic design now needs to look at the bigger picture for inspiration, not just at other graphic design.” As we’re chatting he suddenly breaks off, shouting “Jackie! Jackie! Leave her alone!” This, rather disappointingly, is not the result of some internecine creative spat. Jackie Brown is a chocolate labrador that one Segurite sometimes brings to work, joined by Yuki, Carlos’ own dog and faithful company mascot. We get the impression that Segura Inc is a distinctly relaxed place to work. Is the atmosphere laid-back? “Yes it is. I really work hard at making this a fun place for people to want to be. It brings out the very best in people.” The team uses Macs (“We’re not even allowed to talk about PCs”) and a mixture of Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign – the latter a forced but nevertheless welcome replacement for QuarkXPress, which doesn’t run natively in OS X in v5. Virtually every picture of their large, open-plan offices

“THERE’S SO MUCH CRAP OUT THERE THAT YOU HAVE TO BREAK THE RULES TO BE NOTICED. THERE ARE SO MANY AMATEURS” – Carlos Segura in Chicago features Yuki, as a sort of canine Where’s Waldo? (Wally, to UK readers). One sly Website’s comment “Everyone who works here must ride a motorbike” may not be gospel truth, but the meaning is clear.

LOW BOREDOM THRESHOLD Segura Inc, then, is on the up. 5-inch.com is thriving, there’s a relaunch of Segura Interactive in the offing, and some of their designs have just been picked up by a major chain store. Yet Segura himself is still pessimistic – not about the future of the company, but the design industry as a whole. “The marketplace is getting harder and harder, so clients tend to be safer and safer. It’s harder to compete. There’s so much crap out there that you have to break the rules to be noticed. There’s also the other side: in today’s world anyone with a computer can be a designer. There are so many amateurs that it’s tough for clients to determine the good stuff – decisions are made out of cost, not quality. This is an intangible service to buy – it’s not like buying groceries.” But surely that will change as the market evens out, as the best rises to the top? “I think it’s going to change, but for the worse. If I started out now, I couldn’t make it to this stage in the same amount of time. The saturation level is just so much greater. It’s easy to forget how much difference the great designers have made, how much magic has happened. It’s part of what laid the foundation for us.” Such gloom is more understandable once Segura admits his low boredom threshold. “I get bored of stuff way too quickly – it’s a fault I have. It bothers me. I’ll buy a CD, listen to it once and never play it again. I’m like that with everything, all my motorcycles… I just bought a 911 Carrera and I’m bored of that too.” Thankfully, he’s not bored of his work. This designer’s agitation has been channelled into a portfolio that’s kept us amused for hours – prolific is an understatement. Our advice, not that he needs it, is remain easily distracted… INFO You can contact Segura Inc on +1 773 862 5667, visit www.segura-inc.com or email [email protected]. Words by Ed Ricketts, [email protected].

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1. Segura Inc’s latest venture is 5-inch.com, providing custom silkscreened designs (including cases) for blank CDs and DVDs. “We sat on the idea for two years before going ahead,” says Carlos Segura. Running with the concept has paid off – designer CDs like the ones here are in big demand.

2. Earcandy is a compilation from Thickface, Segura’s indie record label. He started life as a drummer; this side of Segura Inc feeds his ongoing love of music. 3. One of Carlos’ personal favourite projects were these mailing lists and other stationery for Yosho.

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ONEDOTZERO7

Now in its seventh year, celebrated digital arts festival onedotzero is about to embark on an exciting world tour. We went along to its London launch exhibition to see what the future holds

O

nedotzero has been bringing the best and most innovative digital film and animation to audiences since 1996, every year giving the public a rare chance to view cutting edge work from across the globe. Following this launch exhibition at London’s ICA, the festival visits Tokyo, Barcelona, Berlin, Stockholm, Prague, Taipei, Seoul, Melbourne and Montreal, before returning to the UK in September to embark on a national tour. Its approach is always unique. “We don’t just collect and display work,” points out festival Director Shane Walter. “We advise and assist with production and commission work for the festival.” It’s also extremely important for the artistic community… “It enables people like us to reach a wider audience,” explains Unit9’s Ben Hibon. “Our work on its DVD brought us connections from all over the world.”

HIGHLIGHTS OF 2003 2003 has already seen the launch of the onedotzero DVD imprint, which it is hoped will provide another platform to expose the work on which the festival thrives. It may also raise funds to enable onedotzero to expand its commissioning process. The first release, onedotzero_select 1, showcases some of the greatest hits of the last few shows and offers the chance to own some hard-to-find classics. Among the highlights of the London event were a personal appearance by music video maestro Michel

MY BEAUTIFUL GIRL, MARI Computer Arts sponsored the UK premiere of this beautifully animated Korean epic. The story centres on Namoo, a boy in a seaside village struggling with feelings of loss and worry when he discovers a portal into a fantastical world of light in an old lighthouse. With its original and lyrical visual style, this animation announces Korea’s arrival on the

international scene with some fanfare. Directed by Lee SungGang, My Beautiful Girl, Mari has already won the Grand Prix in 2002 at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival. The exposure given to this quality piece is another example of onedotzero’s commitment to giving international talent the audience it deserves.

Gondry, screenings of the incredible Korean animation My Beautiful Girl, Mari, and a plethora of educational events designed to foster a sense of community and encourage experimentation. One of the issues of this year’s festival concerns the future of the music video in the face of technological advances and market forces, so you can look forward to plenty of educational screenings, open and artist Q&A sessions, along with the regular ‘Wavelength’ slot. As always, there are several strands to the event. “‘Wow+flutter’ was there from the beginning and remains at the heart of the program,” explains Walter,

“but it’s important to continue to expand the horizons of the show and maintain our international focus.” ‘Wow + flutter‘ showcases a host of animation and motion graphic talent, demonstrating that the boundaries of visual style are always expanding. Highlights include Unit9’s Parasite, Timo Schaedel’s London Details and the excellent 3D world of akryls, produced by students at Superinfocom, France’s leading animation school. ‘Wavelength’ presents a collection of music videos which have gone the distance in creative terms. This year, top marks have to go to Sam Brady for his

SHOW TIME PARASITE BEN HIBON (UNIT9) Parasite, which received its world premiere at onedotzero7, tells the story of a world of cats and mice in which one mouse dares to break the taboo of love between species. So why the distinctive ‘hand-drawn’ look? Unit9’s Ben Hibon explains: “We wanted to get away from the coldness that’s generally associated with 3D animation.” And the mix of 2D in a 3D environment and the use of a limited colour palette? “It was designed to create a contrast with the almost ‘cartoony’ concept of the script,” he explains. The production process incorporated a range of software packages, including Softimage, 3ds max and Deep Paint 3D. “We’ve always used a mix of applications,” admits Hibon, “but very often we start working in Flash, because it’s fast and easy.”

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stunningly evocative work for Archive’s Again. Shynola also deserves full credit for its excellent Go With The Flow promo for Queens of the Stone Age, and the highly amusing but unreleased promo for Athlete’s You Got The Feeling.

START OF SOMETHING BIG ‘Lens flare’ gives visitors an opportunity to check out some of the latest gaming visuals and FMV sequences from next-generation consoles. Much has been said about the convergence of game and film,

and if the quality of this collection of mini epics is anything to go by, that day may come sooner than we think. Of particular note in this respect are Resident Evil Zero and Dead or Alive: Xtreme Volleyball, both of which display the kind of visual elegance and fluidity previously reserved for big moments on the cinema screen. j-star, meanwhile, marks the highly influential showcase of several leading Japanese artists. With fresh new work from Ukawa Naohiro, Hishikawa Sei and Osamucom, much of this material hasn’t been seen outside of mainland Japan.

As the tools and techniques of the digital creative become more accessible, so the expanding creative community continues to find new and exciting ways to apply them – although, as Walter points out, “We have always been about the creativity, not the technology.” And that’s one of the main reasons for onedotzero’s continuing success. “We have succeeded in developing an audience which comes to be entertained,” he says proudly. “It’s not all chin-scratching film-makers watching the work of other film-makers.” INFO www.onedotzero.com

AGAIN SAM BRADY

LONDON DETAILS TIMO SCHNAEDEL

Sam Brady’s promo for Again by Archive manages to convey the music’s emotional diversity, be it melancholia, rage or alienation, with terrific ingenuity. It was completed entirely in LightWave 3D, with compositing and effects added in After Effects. “In a way, the technique I used was fairly traditional,” says Brady. “I produced a large number of simple renders and mattes from LightWave, then composited them and added the effects in After Effects.” It took Brady just five weeks to create this five-and-ahalf minute animation, but time was so tight the artist had to work at fever-pitch throughout: “I had to start rendering in the first few days and move along sequentially in blocks of about 15 seconds.”

Timo Schaedel submitted London Details to onedotzero via its open submissions policy. “It’s definitely the first platform you come across if you’re interested in the moving image,” he says. “It has a great international reputation.” He used Cinema 4D and After Effects to bring his work to life. “The limitations of desktop packages compared to the likes of flame and inferno is decreasing rapidly,” adds Schaedel. A ‘freestyle’ exercise, London Details is good example of the artist’s working practice: “Ideas just come along as I’m working,” he admits. Schaedel is currently trying to bring together his diverse commercial and experimental experience: “Having a range of techniques at your disposal will always make it easier to find new ways of expressing yourself.”

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Competition

WOR £340TH 0

WIN MAYA TRAINING IN ITALY Win four weeks of Maya training in beautiful, rustic Tuscany – including accommodation and meals – worth £3400, courtesy of

I

f you want to master the complexities of modern graphics software, good training is vital. This is doubly true if you need to unlock the massive power of 3D packages like Maya. Expert training comes at a premium, which is why Computer Arts and its sister magazine 3D World have teamed up with 3D3 World to offer you the chance to win a place on a four-week Maya Masterclass, part of 3D3 World’s awesome ‘Summer of Maya’. Imagine spending four weeks, from 11 August or 8 September 2003, learning everything you need to know about your favourite 3D app from practising professionals at companies like ILM and LucasArts. All this while staying in the glorious surroundings of the Tuscan hills, deep in rural Italy. The prize includes the Maya Masterclass, accommodation and food – could there be a better way to spend the summer? Since 1997, 3D3 World has been training digital artists of all disciplines, be it 3D animation, Web design or multimedia, from its state-of-the-art Italian studios. Inspired by the ethos of Frank Lloyd Wright’s school at Taliesin, it offers not just first-class training in digital arts, but an all-round experience, too. To be in with a chance of winning a place on this fantastic course, just answer our simple question and start searching for your passport... INFO www.3d3world.com

50 Computer Arts_July 2003

QUESTION WHERE WAS FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT’S SCHOOL BASED? TO ENTER Try the easy way, via our Website at www.computerarts.co.uk/competitions. Click on the Maya in Tuscany 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: Maya in Tuscany 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 21 July 2003. Flights are not included. Exployees of Alias|Wavefront, 3D3 World and Future Publishing, their agents and families are not permitted to enter. Multiple entries are not accepted. The editor’s decision is final and there are no cash alternatives. No other correspondence will be entered into. If you are entering by post and do not wish any of the companies involved in this competition to contact you with further offers, please indicate this on your entry. We will not pass details on to third parties.

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LESS RAIN’S TOP TEN TIPS FOR GRAPHICS Always think about file sizes. It’s so easy to get carried away when creating graphics.

1

Create Web-specific contents from your assets. Don’t just put the existing print material online.

2

Look for a metaphor or a theme for your design. If this can be explained in one sentence, then it’s powerful enough.

3

As a designer, acquire a decent knowledge of programming environments, so that you can produce useful assets.

4

As a programmer, acquire a decent knowledge of imaging software, so that you don’t need to send graphics back that are one pixel too small.

5

Stay open to external influences. Buy records, watch movies, read books, get out more. Don’t look at other designers’ work for inspiration. Instead, listen to feedback on your own stuff, from people that won’t try to pat you on the shoulder.

6

You are not an artist. I repeat, you are not an artist. I repeat, you are not an artist…

7

If you need transparency on a Flash bitmap, just import it as a flat PSD file with a transparent background. It will increase the file size of the final movie, but no more than an ordinary GIF or JPEG.

8

Our favourite Photoshop shortcuts? Command+J copies a selection into a new layer, while Command+Shift+J moves it into a new layer, deleting the old instance. With Command+Alt+Z and Command+Shift+Z, you can move forwards and backward through the document history.

9

Our favourite Flash shortcuts? Command+ Shift+V pastes something into precisely the same position as the copied item, even between different files (if you have the same stage size).

10

INFO 020 7251 0601, [email protected], www.lessrain.com

54 Computer Arts_July 2003

LESS RAIN:

GRAPHICS A decent site relies on well-prepared and well-chosen graphical content, not a showy mish-mash of Flash and Shockwave effects erlin and London-based agency Less Rain BIOGRAPHY Less Rain is a creative new media (www.lessrain.com) has made a name for itself agency based in London and producing striking and original content that Berlin. Founded in 1997 by features truly exciting imagery. We caught up with MD Vassilios Alexiou and Lars Eberle, Creative Director Vassilios Alexiou, Technical Directors Thomas Meyer and Carsten Schneider Less Rain has quickly established Gordon Milwood, Creative Director/MD Lars Eberle and an outstanding portfolio. Clients include Red Bull, Nike, Scottish Creative Director Carsten Schneider to get a company-wide Courage and Mitsubishi. view on Less Rain’s approach to graphics and static images. Recent projects include Meyer is first to share his views on how and when static www.vandalsquad.com, imagery is at its best on the Web. “Obviously, static content www.becksfutures.co.uk, can only be effective if you don’t need to deliver up-to-date www.redbullbikebattle.co.uk and www.i-shake-u.com. information, which is quite rare these days,” he says. The broader network of Less “There are many ways to ‘shape’ static content in order Rain consists of over 30 members, to make it look dynamic, create a sense of space and encompassing designers, generate excitement.” He is quick to add that purely static programmers, illustrators, sites do not last – for obvious reasons, companies do not sound engineers, photographers, want sites that cannot be easily updated. architects and artists. In the last decade, the issue of colour on the Web has been a much-debated topic. According to Vassilios Alexiou, in Less Rain’s eyes, the Web safe colour palette is as good FAVOURITE as dead. “Most of our target audience use 16-bit colour or SITES more, so Web safe colours are not an issue, no matter what www.wecomeinpeace.free.fr technology you develop in.” Milwood intervenes: “Web Lars Eberle: “I love this site. It’s warm, unique in style and safe colours are extremely 1984.” extremely funny to watch. It makes Less Rain combines vector and bitmap imagery, using as you feel the human wit behind much of the available space to create a certain atmosphere, these characters and creates a nice as Schneider explains: “The balance between the two varies contrast to all these over-designed from project to project, as we take into account not only the designer and illustrator sites.” expected user bandwidth but also the ‘value’ a certain visual www.trevorvanmeter.com/flyguy style or interactive element might have for the whole user Vassilios Alexiou: “I just wish I experience; the more important an element is, the longer could exist in this world forever. It’s the user is prepared to wait for it.” In addition, he tells us so simple, yet so beautifully crafted and full of emotion. I think it has that the best way to get images for your site is to take them touched a lot of people and it’s yourself – the company never uses stock imagery. pointing the way forwards.” Finally, Alexiou reveals what he believes will be a core prerequisite for future designers eager to use graphics on the Web. “Core skills for all creative people are very much alike,” he says. “A painter, a programmer and a musician go through similar thinking processes when they’re creating something for themselves or an audience. A very interesting reference for this is Brian Eno’s ‘Oblique Strategies’. Designers are not artists, of course – a designer needs to define a tighter set of principles: ‘When do I consider my work finished?’ ‘How important is it that the client likes it?’ ‘How can I communicate my ideas more effectively?’ As soon as you start answering questions like this, Less Rain: “There are many ways to shape static content to make it look dynamic.” you’re on the right track.”

B

Feature

SPECIALMOVES:

ANIMATION The use of animation on the Web is pretty run-of-the-mill now, so how do you make your creations stand out from the crowd?

SPECIALMOVE’S TOP TEN TIPS FOR ANIMATION Think it through. Is your animation appropriate for your target audience? Be sure you are not just indulging yourself.

1

Plan it out before you start. A pen and paper can be very powerful tools. They can save time, effort and your sanity. Put them to use before you touch a computer.

2 eople are still making the assumption that because you put something on the Web, then it’s interactive,” explains Darrell Wilkins, founder and partner at specialmoves. “There is some fantastic linear animation out there, but it still misses the great opportunities that the Web offers us.” His point is a simple one – always ensure your animated content takes advantage of what the Web is at its best – a truly interactive experience. The highly interactive extravaganza that is specialmoves’ www.shipoffools.com/theark. As a company, Londonbased specialmoves thrives on the user experience when deciding upon animated content – BIOGRAPHY and Wilkins believes that interactive animation is animation specialmoves is an interactive media agency based in London at its most effective on the Web. “Animation comes in many that specialises in creating forms,” he continues. “As an interactive agency rather that a cutting-edge interactive content Web design agency, we feel that the best work comes when for the Internet and new media the user is influencing it rather than just looking at it. It’s channels. Its clients are drawn harder to create, but more rewarding for the user.” from a range of sectors, including media and entertainment. The The company’s latest project exemplifies this particularly company has won many awards, well. The Ark (www.shipoffools.com/theark) is a Shockwave and commendations for its 2002 Big Brother-esque extravaganza, only the likes of Jade ‘I work for the online side of MTV’s ain’t a minger’ Goody are replaced by Noah and Samson – hit show At Home With The aboard the Ark. The project brings together superb 3D Osbournes. Other clients include Channel 4, Independiente, animation with user interaction and, best of all, an original Mark Knopfler, VW and Ship idea. The same goes for the now famous The Osbournes Founder Darrell Wilkins of Fools – The Ark. site, developed for MTV (www.mtv.co.uk/theosbournes). Within these projects, specialmoves has implemented 3D environments that cleverly draw the user in – it’s a technique Wilkins is sure we’ll see more of in the future. “3D on the FAVOURITE Web is going to be massively important over the next couple SITES google.com of years, especially in the entertainment field,” he enthuses. “It answers every argument.” “Will it revolutionise Web animation? No, I don’t think it will. Like all animation, it’s easy to do, but very hard to do well. psyop.tv Interactive 3D is harder still. The important thing is that you “The coolest TV graphics.” use the appropriate type or style of animation, depending on your project. Just because an animation is 3D doesn’t linkdup.com “What the best are up to.” necessarily make it appropriate.” Ideas not software are the vital ingredient. “The best tools are those that help you realise your ideas,” explains Wilkins. “Their feature-sets don’t matter. People are too hung up on which tools to use and not concentrating on the ideas.” Wilkins’ final piece of advice points towards keeping animated content appropriate – doing things for the sake of it may look pretty but the user experience remains key to the design process. “Too many times sites are spoilt by designers’ wet dreams,” he says. “This has been bad for the Web in general, and it devalues the animator’s work. Often their animations are excellent, just inappropriate.” “

P

Get plenty of people to look at your project as you progress. Ask them to be critical. Get as many different views of your work and you’ll be better informed as to the right direction to take.

3

Test your site or animation on as many machines as you can. Especially old ones.

4

Don’t just show what is possible, show what is appropriate to the task in hand. This particularly applies when you’re working on your portfolio.

5

People are still making the assumption that because you put something on the Web, it’s interactive. It’s not…

6

The important thing is that you use the appropriate type or style of animation, depending on your project.

7

Think about who will be looking at your animations and tailor them accordingly. Manga would be out of place on a corporate site and animated business graphs would look stupid on nike.com.

8

9

Don’t learn software packages, learn ways of working.

Occasionally, ignore every bit of advice we’ve just given. You might just create something amazing.

10

INFO 020 7253 3399, [email protected], www.specialmoves.co.uk

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MIRAMEDIA’S TOP TEN TIPS FOR BACK-END CONTENT Use the correct field sizes. For example, Address fields should be 50 chars and not set to unlimited. Unlimited field sizes make the database very inefficient.

1

Describe what you are storing. Dates should be held in date type fields, numbers in numbers, etc. It makes rendering, formatting and manipulating the data easier later on.

2

Define a naming standard. For example, Address fields should always be called addr, telephone -> tel, not phone or telephone. Call your field names in your forms the same as in the database. It makes it easier to track down a fault.

3

Don’t use MS Access – it’s great for one user on the desktop but it was never designed as an Internet database. Use MS SQL at the least.

4

Use CSS and other external file includes wherever possible. CSS are commonplace now and should be used in all HTML files.

5

Where possible, use GET rather than POST – this makes moving backwards and forward around the site much easier.

6

Try not to overcomplicate an application – it’s much better to do little well than risk a flaky system.

7

Where possible, use common code included in libraries or separate files. Avoid ‘copy and paste’ coding where bugs can appear in many locations.

8

Put as many comments in as you can – and a header at the top of every page listing, as follows: Version Developers Initial Date Description Overview of file

9

Never hard-code variables – always put them in external include files. And try not to include HTML code in the body of the code – it will make changes later much harder for the designer.

10

INFO 01892 616 737, [email protected], www.miramedia.co.uk

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MIRAMEDIA:

BACK-END & DATABASES Dynamic sites make it a cinch to update your content – so don’t let database-driven projects intimidate you. Miramedia is here to help

M

iramedia has been working with database-driven BIOGRAPHY Miramedia is an interactive agency Websites from day one. According to Dominic for the exhibition industry. Formed Johnson, founder of the company, database in 1999 as a Web design agency content has the following advantages: it’s quick and simple working for the likes of Sony, to update, you can radically change the style of your site Merrill Lynch, Harvey Nash and BP, without upsetting its content, and by using a database to it decided to specialise in exhibition store and deliver data, you can pipe the same material Websites in 2001. It recently launched an Online Exhibition and through on the Web, kiosk, mobile phone or PDA. continues to develop upwards of With this in mind, we asked how Miramedia approaches 25 event sites per year for Imark a project – does the demands of the content dictate the Communications, The Motor Cycle technology or vice versa? “We deal with marketing Show and Spanish Tourist Board. Founder departments who have no interest in the technology we Dominic Johnson use for the back-end,” explains Johnson. “They’re buying a black box solution and all they care about is that it works FAVOURITE and is secure. I’d say we dictate the technology based on SITES our past experience and code modules. We’ve adopted a www.sydneyoperahouse.com kind of object-orientated approach, building up an Dominic Johnson: “While we application with a series of modules and post-test existing were researching 3D environments code. Most Web development isn’t rocket science and for our online event, Softworld there’s a huge crossover between applications and sites.” Accounting & Finance Online, we came across the Sydney Opera Bringing together both designers and developers, the House Website. The virtual tour is process demands compromise at every turn. “A developer’s absolutely excellent. It’s a fantastic job is to make the database layer as transparent as possible example of what’s possible.” and deliver a site that looks identical to the way that the designer intended,” explains Johnson. “Both parties have to work together, so, of course, there will be an element of compromise. The result has to be a system that works well, looks good and, most importantly, can be delivered to budget. It’s a compromise because we all have to turn a profit. Separating the programming code and the rendering HTML is the easiest way to keep both parties happy.” Johnson’s advice to those wanting to progress in the world of database development is twofold: “Technically, learn XML/XSLT, so your designs can integrate with any database structure. There’s no doubt that XML is here to stay – every project we work on uses it in someway – and at some point all designers are going to have to use it. My main advice is concentrate on design and do not try to be a jack-of-all-trades. Study design and learn tools to help you become a better designer. The Web is full of people that can do a little bit of this and a little bit of that.” Miramedia’s work for Accounting & Finance Online boasts an excellent 3D environment.

Feature

JUXT INTERACTIVE:

JUXT’S TOP TEN TIPS ON NAVIGATION & DESIGN

Good navigation is vital for a satisfying user experience, but it’s often overlooked in the rush to provide exciting creative content

1

NAVIGATION

Know your audience. This overrides all other rules: different people think and interact differently. If it’s easy to read, it’ll make it easier for the user. If users have to guess at what you’re alluding to with your labels, you’re wasting time.

2 avigation should establish itself, tell you where you are, where you have been and where you have to go,” enthuses Todd Purgason, Creative Director at Juxt Interactive. “It shouldn’t change in the middle of the experience – and, if at all possible, it should always be in a consistent location. These are rules, and rules are good guidelines, but sometimes you also need to learn when to bend or break the rules.” Purgason certainly knows what he’s talking about – after Refine your navigation design to ensure the user’s experience is as effortless as possible. all, the navigational device you use on your site will ultimately determine its functionality and the way your BIOGRAPHY users experience the site. It’s notoriously easy to get carried Todd Purgason is the Creative Director for Juxt Interactive, a away with creative ideas and forget about the reason California-based Web design your site exists. Purgason at Juxt gives some insightful studio that specialises in Internet Creative Director comments into the most common navigational mistakes. Todd Purgason strategy and interactive design. “Content is often structured in a way that is easy to organise Purgason has led Juxt in creating on paper – without considering how the user will be innovative work for such clients as VW, Sketchers, Billabong, stepping through the content,” he explains. But this modus Macromedia, Kawasaki, Reef, operandi can lead to serious navigational problems. “You Red Bull, Sam Adams, Shimano, have to think through how users will be using the site – not Sci-Fi Channel, Toyo Tires, Bandi necessarily which container you put a certain piece of and many others. (You’ll find a content in. Otherwise, you end up creating a tedious and full profile of Juxt in issue 76 of Computer Arts.) frustrating experience for the user.” It’s obviously a fine balance creating navigation that is interactive and original, yet usable at the same time. Often creative ideas get in the way of solid navigation, as FAVOURITE Purgason explains: “I think one problem in the struggle to SITES create something original is that many people quickly turn http://wellvetted.com to the obtuse or abstract. Unfortunately, when it comes to Todd Purgason: “Sites like navigation, obtuse and abstract are usually going to work Newsday and Surfstation are against you, not for you. Navigation needs to be clear and good, but there’s a lot of concise and easy to use for the impatient Web audience.” information and random links. For me, however, this content But such a method doesn’t preclude sparkling originality is noise I’d like filtered out. or clever thinking. “It just means you need to think more Wellvetted gets a great group and work harder on the solution,” says Purgason. “It’s also of well-vetted members of the important to know who you are designing the navigation global design community to give for. If the site is a designer’s portfolio, for instance, you’re just one link for the month. The going to have a great deal more creative freedom than a result is a concise list of great links that have been filtered commercial site. But being a creative director that sees down to the most noteworthy.” countless resumés and portfolio sites when looking for talent, I’ve often looked at sites that I just couldn’t figure out how to use, and simply moved on to the next candidate. Creative directors are busy people that do not like to have their time wasted, which is a good thing to remember about not just me, but most Web users.” “

N

Navigation is like the keyhole in your car. If the user has the key, but cannot find the hole, it’s useless.

3

A basic design principle is consistency, consistency, consistency. Oh, and consistency.

4

Users want things to be quick. If you opt for over-descriptive or witty labels, navigation goes from being an instant affair to a tedious one.

5

If you have lots of navigation, break it up into logical clusters of links dedicated to different types of content or uses of the site.

6

As Web designers, we don’t just make things interesting or pretty. We work to increase legibility, guiding users to navigation points or key action/response areas by intelligent use of layout, colour, white space, etc.

7

Colours are one of the best ways to communicate links. If you use them for navigation links, don’t then use them for non-navigation elements.

8

Choose typefaces for navigation carefully. There are thousands of cool ones available that work brilliantly as a headline in print, but not at ten pixels on screen. At that size, nearly all the unique characteristics of a font can work against you. Pick a legible face and use your titles or illustrated typography to establish the tone.

9

As you design your navigation, canvas other people’s opinions. Other designers won’t best represent your intended audience, though, so get ordinary pundits’ views, too. Then analyse the results. Sometimes in testing, people will comment on everything and that can skew the results. So if one guy out of three says you should make your type bigger, that may not be necessary. But if three out of three say it, you should take action.

10

INFO +1 949 752 5898, http://juxtinteractive.com

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ILLUSTRATION BY JASON ARBER

www.pixelsurgeon.com

58 Computer Arts_July 2003

Tutorial

ILLUSTRATION

MANGA STYLE We show you how to create a Manga-style illustration using nothing more than Photoshop, Illustrator and a pencil Traditionally, the term Manga refers to Japanese comic books, but it’s now commonly used to describe the Japanese style of illustration, and artwork influenced by the comics. Manga can be traced all the way back to the ukiyo-e woodblock portraits of the 19th century, especially those by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, although the father of modern Manga, Osamu Tezuka, was also heavily influenced by Walt Disney and Max Fleischer. Tezuka’s best-selling comic was Shin Takarajima (New Treasure Island), which appeared in 1947. The artist was also responsible for Japan’s first TV show of animated cartoons, the hugely popular Astroboy, in 1963. Many modern artists and illustrators in Japan and worldwide are creating artwork in the Manga tradition, such as Yuzuru and Kanako from Manga Media (www.Manga-media.com) and LA-based Kozy and Dan (www.kozyndan.com). It’s also possible to see the influences of Manga in the work of artists like Preshaa (www.preshaa.com) and CA contributor Autumn Whitehurst (altpick.com/members.php?id=11198). The Manga style often (though not always) features characters with huge, almond-shaped eyes with glinting highlights, overly large heads and bodies with exaggerated limbs. The clean lines and simple shapes lend themselves to being captured in vector applications such as Adobe Illustrator, and in this tutorial we’ll be using Illustrator to create an image which will then be rendered and treated further in Adobe Photoshop.

ON THE CD Look on your disc in the Tutorial\Manga folder for the files you need to follow this tutorial. Artwork and words by Jason Arber: [email protected], www.pixelsurgeon.com.

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PART 1 ILLUSTRATOR Getting the basic proportions right is a vital first step

INSIGHT

THE RIGHT PATH For someone new to vector apps, the toughest function to grapple with is Bézier curves – the way that programs like Illustrator, FreeHand and CorelDRAW draw smooth curves and lines. Originally developed by Pierre Bézier in the 70s for CAD/CAM operations, they use a system of nodes and control points to define curves, and have formed the basis for Adobe’s PostScript page-description language and EPS format. Clicking and dragging with the Pen tool initially seems counter-intuitive, but once you’re familiar with the process it’s an incredibly effective method of drawing.

BLENDING MODES

1

The tutorial begins with an illustration sketched out roughly with pencil on paper. For those less artistically inclined, don’t panic – we’ve included this example sketch with the files on the cover CD. Use a scanner to import the image into Photoshop where you can clean it up if necessary.

On the surface, it would appear that Illustrator duplicates Photoshop’s blending modes such as Multiply and Hard Light, but when creating artwork, they behave in different ways. As well as modes with the same name producing a subtly different effect, Illustrator’s blending modes can be applied on an object-by-object basis, as well as on a layer basis.

6

Once you’re happy with the traced image, fill the lines with your desired colour scheme. Once each zone has been completed, hide the layer by clicking the eye icon in the Layers palette so that it doesn’t cover other areas you want to trace.

7

Don’t worry about overlapping your lines, because once you’ve filled them with solid colour, the different areas will stack naturally. You can change the stacking order within a layer by selecting Object>Arrange from the menu, or by clicking the triangle next to the mini preview in the Layers palette and dragging the sub-layers up and down.

2

Open Adobe Illustrator and create a new document (File>New). Because Illustrator will be used for the source material, rather than the final image, the actual document size is unimportant – an A4 RGB starting point is fine.

4

It’s best to divide the illustration up into key zones, such as the limbs, at this point. Working from the bottom up, start with the left arm. Create a new layer by clicking on the document icon at the bottom of the Layers palette and name it accordingly.

8

You can use paths with no stroke or fill to carve up your underlying shapes quickly and simply. Select the shapes to be cut, together with the dividing paths, and then click the Divide icon in the Pathfinder floating palette. This will dissect your artwork so that you can colour different areas individually.

3

Place your scanned artwork onto the document (File>Place) and double-click the layer in the Layer palette to specify this artwork as a Template in the layer options. This locks the layer so you don’t accidentally move or draw over it.

5

Using the Pen tool with a fill set to Transparent, and a stroke set to a bright contrasting colour and narrow weight, begin to trace around the arm, trying to use as few points as possible.

60 Computer Arts_July 2003

Tutorial

9

The Divide method is perfect for more complex areas, such as the eyes, where the tops and bottoms of the pupils can be easily removed. It’s also a good idea to spread the facial elements over many layers, so that you can keep track of different parts.

12

The final touch in Illustrator is to bend some Japanese text (or any text) using the Warp filters. Select the words with the selection arrow and choose a warp effect (Effect>Warp>Arc). Make sure the preview box is checked so you can see the results of moving the sliders around.

15

Create a new layer by clicking on the document icon in the Layers palette, then create a simple gradient with the Gradient tool by clicking and dragging. Hold down the Shift key while dragging to constrain the gradient to a perfect vertical. The gradient can fade to transparent by selecting the appropriate preset in the Options bar.

PART 2 PHOTOSHOP Time to combine and develop your Illustrator artwork in Photoshop

10

At this stage, don’t be afraid to give certain elements (such as the eyes) a gradient to add a certain amount of lift to the otherwise flat artwork. Apply a gradient to your shape, which can then be customised by dragging new colours from Swatches palette onto the gradient line in the Gradient floating palette. Drag the little triangles to fine-tune the effect.

16 13

In Photoshop, create a new document at the size you’ll need the artwork (File New). Although the artwork is destined for print, it’s okay to work in RGB and convert the file to CMYK later.

Using the Elliptical Marquee tool from the Tools palette, draw some simple overlapping circles in a fairly random fashion. You can use the tool to select areas to delete from the main area (Edit>Clear or simply backspace).

11

Unify your artwork by creating a thick keyline around the whole illustration. With all your drawn layers unlocked (don’t include the template layer), select all the artwork (Select>All) and copy the shapes (Edit>Copy). Lock all the layers again, create a new layer and paste in the same place (Edit>Paste in Front). Now select all the paths and make them a single shape with the Add To Shape Area icon in the Pathfinder palette. With the new layer behind the rest, give your new shape a chunky stroke.

14

Scan in a painted background or some other interesting texture in order to provide a little contrast to the ‘flatness’ of the Illustrator artwork you’ll be importing later.

17

Repeat this process using different colours and layer blending modes (which you can access from the dropdown menu at the top of the Layers palette). Multiply and Overlay are good choices, and enable the underlying texture to show through.

INSIGHT

KEEPING THINGS FLEXIBLE One of the great things about Illustrator is that so many of the elements remain fully editable, even after previously destructive effects have been applied to them. Text remains live even after a brush with the Warp filter, so you can change the typeface or the colour as easily as you could before the effect was applied.

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18

If you have any other Illustrator or EPS files lying around, try placing them into your artwork (File>Place). Complex vector files often take some time to render in large Photoshop documents, don’t forget, so make yourself a nice big mug of coffee while you’re waiting…

19

Use a Multiply blending mode at a low opacity to knock the placed graphic back a little. Create a layer mask by clicking the layer mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette, and use the Gradient tool fill with a gradient to make the placed graphic taper to complete transparency.

20

Now place your main Manga illustration (File>Place). It’s possible to position, resize and rotate placed images before rendering them. Attempting to enlarge or rotate an image after rendering, however, could result in the crisp lines of your artwork being corrupted or losing definition.

62 Computer Arts_July 2003

21

Place another copy of the illustration behind the main copy, and use a combination of layer mask gradients and blending modes to make the duplicate part of the background texture.

22

Add texture to the rendered artwork with a scan of rust or spattered paint. It’s possible to apply the scanned texture to the Manga illustration only, by creating clipping layers. Make sure the texture scan is above the illustration and Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac) between the layers. You can create as many clipping layers as you like.

23

Clipping layers can have blending modes and layer masks, and you can treat them in exactly the same way as you would any other layer. In this case, a clipping layer has a layer mode of Multiply and a gradient layer mask to make the figure darker and more textured towards the bottom.

24

Use the Pencil tool at a small size to scratch through the overlaid textures by drawing in black onto the gradient masks, as shown.

FINAL STEP

T

he final touch is adding the warped text, which you can either place yourself, or copy and paste into the artwork. Making sure the artwork has been saved, flatten the image (Layer>Flatten Image), convert to CMYK (Image>Mode>CMYK Colour), then save the result as a TIFF (File>Save As).

HANDS

ON E XH IBITION

EUROPE’S BIGGEST HANDS-ON ART EXPERIENCE ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲▲

Join more than 16,000 artists at Europe’s biggest practical art fair Special areas dedicated to photography and digital art Have your drawings animated by the Arts and Technology Partnership Pick up art supplies at competitive prices Book a place on a workshop or demonstration and see how the professionals achieve such great results

24-27 JULY 2003 B U S I N E S S DE S IG N CE NTR E, I SLI NGTON, LON DON N1

TICKET HOTLINE 0870 735 5566 For more information see the latest edition of Artists & Illustrators magazine in WHSmith and all good newsagents or call 020 7700 8504 for a free show leaflet.

PROFILE

NEASDEN CONTROL CENTRE EMAIL [email protected] WEBSITE www.neasdencontrolcentre.com

The mysterious London-based Neasden Control Centre has developed a reputation for producing art-led design with a scrawled weirdness verging on genius. A long list of clients includes MTV, Burton Snowboards, Girl Skateboards and 4AD Records. The list of admirers is much longer, with work in print for Onboard, Big Issue and Esquire. The team has just released a book through Die Gestalten Verlag, showcasing some of their best work, and continues to exhibit wherever they can – most recently in Munich.The Neasden aesthetic relies on getting the hands dirty, making objects and photographing them – then the computer comes into it. We pose a couple of questions to this enigmatic set-up… What are your names?

Smith and Diamond. How did you get into design work?

Unemployment followed by more unemployment. What are you obsessed by?

Getting some new glasses, collecting loads of shit and then chucking it out. Hidden things. The league, our roof, darts, the mental kids next door. Name one brilliant illustrator/designer

Kurt Schwitters. What are you working on now?

Making an album and designing some more tees; artwork for Wevie Stonder’s (www.weviestonder.com) next release on Skam Records; Magma books Exhibition; Vodka Milkshakes; Action Aid – Schools and Youth booklet. What is your strangest client experience?

America. What do you read in bed?

Chris Rodley’s Lynch on Lynch, Reductionism and the Development of Knowledge, Maradona’s autobiography. What is your ultimate ambition?

Set up base in the middle of nowhere playing the Floyd; get a fishing boat; nine-dart checkout; drummer for an all-girl band; leave London. How do you celebrate completing a project?

Cigars and a bottle of Krug. Best album to work to?

Any Floyd, Don Dudley’s Truck Driving Son of a Gun, Mooks Mix Tapes, any Charles Mingus, the Mullholland Drive soundtrack. If you weren’t busy being a designer, what would you be doing now?

Playing football for Harchester United. What keeps you awake at night?

The mental kids from next door and Shoot-Up Hill, London.

64 Computer Arts_July 2003

1

Profile

2 1. Images for the book Neasden Control Centre, published by art and design specialists Die Gestalten Verlag of Germany. The art was intended to give a flavour of what was inside. One commentator said, "It looks like you dug it up." According to NCC, this was just what they intended. 2. This work is taken from a stream of consciousness written by Mr Diamond for NCC’s book. Re-edited and composited, the original is currently part of an exhibition touring Spain.

3. The Neasden Control Centre logo started life as a collection of found objects while the creative duo were living in Neasden during 2000. The Unabomber-style photo-fit has subsequently been incorporated into many other works. 4. NCC has produced a number of limited-run T-shirts for Finchley-based O6N. "O6N’s our perfect client – they encourage creativity." The Centre has been commissioned to redesign the O6N Website – www.o-6-n.com.

4

3

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ILLUSTRATION BY IDENTIKAL

[email protected]

Tutorial

PROMO DESIGN

STATIC MOTION The Identikal Corporation gives us the lowdown on creating a promo – change any of your favourite static vector illustrations into moving-image masterpieces using FreeHand, Flash and After Effects Throughout this tutorial, we show you how simple and easy it is to take one of your vector illustrations and turn it into a flowing, animated, moving image using a variety of graphics programs and techniques. By reading through our step-by-step guide, you will learn how to work to a storyboard and put together Flash animations that flow smoothly. We’ll also show you how to add effects to your animations in After Effects, and how to add a musical score that brings depth and atmosphere to your movie. All of this can be produced in three programs: FreeHand/Illustrator, Flash and After Effects. Once you’ve mastered these skills you’ll be able to apply them to any other vector illustrations you wish.

ON THE CD Check out the QuickTime movie of the illustration Identikal has produced – head to the Tutorial\Identikal folder. Illustration and words by The Identikal Corporation: 020 7263 2129, [email protected], www.identikal.com.

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PART 1 SELECT AND PREPARE You are at the most important stage of this tutorial here. Be sure to meticulously plan how you will animate your chosen illustration, and choose your elements wisely

INSIGHT

STORYBOARDS RULE It’s always best to storyboard the look and feel of your movies in your desired drawing program. This helps you get a feel for how it will eventually look when producing it in Flash and After Effects. Your storyboard is the most important element – if you are happy with the layout, your movie should run perfectly.

NAME YOUR LAYERS Name all your layers in Flash properly in order to keep your animations simple. When you’re using a vast amount of animated objects, there’s nothing worse than having layers named in a similar way.

6

Once you are happy with your storyboard, you can now begin to prepare files for the animation. We will be setting up our files in Flash and working to the NTSC sizes (720x486 pixels).

1

Choose a vector illustration you feel will look great as an animated piece. Here we’ve chosen an illustration that has potential. Identikal originally turned this illustration into a graffiti-looking piece, but for now we’ll only be needing the vector files.

4

Use these sketches to illustrate each frame in your desired graphics program, and place each vector shape into place. Try and be as accurate as possible, as this will make life easier for you when you come to animate your piece.

7

Prepare each individual screen you’ve produced with your storyboard into individual files. Make sure they are set to the pixel sizes you will be using in the Flash file you’ve just created.

2

Think of how you can animate each individual fragment. Start by drawing screen shape boxes, and sketch how you feel each object will animate within them. Eventually this will be your storyboard.

5

Add the time frames and any descriptions needed – be as detailed as you can. The most important document in this project will be your storyboard.

8

Use screen-safe guides within your Flash file like the one above. If you wish to see your animation on a DVD and videotape, you’ll need to work within specific sizes and boundaries, such as Title Safe and Action Safe. Throughout this tutorial we will be using the NTSC Safety cage.

3

Once you have sketched the flow of the piece, think about the length of the whole movie. Work out a time increment for each box. Identikal tends to use three to five seconds for each individual screen.

INSIGHT

PASTE TO VICTORY If you use FreeHand, you can copy and paste an object into Flash and all the data is transferred without any problems. This is a great shortcut for anyone who prefers to use the drawing facilities of FreeHand rather than Flash.

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9

Before you begin the next stage, make sure you set your frame rate in Flash to 29.97 frames (if you are using NTSC). This will stop frames dropping when you come to export them into After Effects; the lesser the frame rate, the more your movie will appear jumpy, which is why a higher frame rate should be used. You’ve now accurately produced a storyboard and have set up files for the next stage.

Tutorial

PART 2 ANIMATION AND EFFECTS Now we’ll show you how to animate in Flash, use After Effects to give your moving image the edge, and create atmosphere with sound

13

The background of the movie area should now be locked, but keep it in view. Now you are ready to start accurately placing the animated elements. These should have their own individual layers, in order to animate them easily.

10

Now you are in Flash, ensure that you’ve set up a grid based on the NTSC Safety cage – this will be of great help in further steps. At this stage you should use a view size of around 75 per cent so you can see your active site area (the white box) and the inactive zone (the grey space). This enables you to arrange elements easier when you begin to import.

16

Now we can begin to animate each object at a time. Here we need to make this text appear as though it has been typed in on a retro computer. Making text act as though it’s flashing onto a screen is very basic; as illustrated, we have imported the text as separate shapes, which in turn have their own keyframes. You simply delete the letters you don’t need in each keyframe until you are left with the final wording.

14

Here we have placed all animated items which have their own layer; all of them have been locked apart from the layer we are working with. Each individual item has been placed around the active area (not within it) using the site grid – this makes life easier when you come to produce the tweening actions.

11

When you import files, make sure they are EPS files and place the animated objects in the non-active zone, with the background on the active area. You could simply copy and paste elements to their desired layers from FreeHand, which saves time when you have a vast amount of graphics to bring into your movie space.

17

With this keyframe, we changed the object to a different colour from the previous one. We also set each of the different frames to the same amount. Once you have these frames ready you can then copy them one after the other using Command+Shift+V. Do this for however long the movie is, and when you press Play (RTN key) you will have achieved a flashing effect.

15 12

Once you have organised the movie area, begin to organise each element you wish to animate. For instance, here Identikal has developed a pattern of the team’s logo, which is used throughout its Website. This won’t be animated, so we have fixed it to our background. Ensure you group all individual parts, and that they’ve been provided with their own layer (name the layer appropriately).

Because this particular animation will start the movie, we have to ensure that the first frame displays the background only. Using your storyboard, you should now begin to set the length of the movie by adding the desired keyframes. As the background stays the same throughout the animation, we add the desired keyframes. This part of the movie is only approximately five seconds long.

18

Our next animated objects are the circular logos. These logos carry unanimated icons for visual purposes, but all of them are animated in a similar way using the tweening effect. Enter the desired amount of keyframes that you feel the object should move in time with.

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19

Next you should enter the tweening effect to the keyframes – in this instance we are using the Motion tween, which allows an object to move over a desired area. Now you should highlight the end frame of the object (this will highlight it), then place the piece where you require it to stop. Once you have done this you should use the same steps to animate the object away from the active area.

20

For the other objects, we used the same tweening effects as in step 19. We have treated each logo as an individual object; each one moves differently, and animates in and out of the active area in a smooth, flowing way.

22

Once you are happy with the flow of your animation, you will need to export it as a QuickTime file in order to import it into Adobe After Effects. Simply go to File>Export Movie>As a QuickTime Video. Make sure it is Full Quality and that the Compressor is set to None. Do not change the size of your active area. Once you have done this, you are now able to view the movie for any glitches, and are ready to import it into After Effects.

23

You may have organised your different Flash animations into separate scenes – if so, you will have various QuickTime movie files. When you first open After Effects, begin by importing these QuickTime movies into your project area. All of these files will appear in order in your workspace window, and can be clicked on to view.

25

Start placing each movie file onto your timeline window as accurately as you can. You can work out the exact movie time here, and you will notice how important your original storyboard has been. As films, adverts and other forms of TV graphics work within strict time limits, it is important to be as accurate as possible. In this piece, we have worked to as close to a minute as we can.

26

To make our animation less vectorised, we have added some effects that bring it to life. Here we have a picture of a wall, which we’ve imported into After Effects. This will be a Multiply frame, which will be present throughout the epic. Do this by stretching the time frame of the image across the whole animation, then select Multiply under the Mode pulldown. The wall gives the feel of graffiti.

21

Repeat step 10 through to step 20 to achieve a similar effect in animation to the other scenes throughout the movie. Try and use different intros to each graphic object, but remember, the simpler it looks the better; this is the beauty of Flash animations.

INSIGHT

PANTONE VS RGB If you use a drawing program you should always work in RGB, but it’s handy to work in Pantone colours at first. This way, you can pick and choose your colours without playing around with the RGB channels, which can be tricky. Once your artwork is finished you simply convert your colours to RGB, then import them into Flash without any problems.

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24

Once all your footage has been imported, arrange the project area to the specific sizes you are working at. You can do this by selecting ‘New Composition (Master N)’. We are working to NTSC, so again, repeat the same process you have covered in previous steps.

27

To enhance our graffiti wall look, we need to add an effect that mimics the look of spray paint. Here we have selected the Glow effect: Effect>Stylise>Glow. Play around with the Effect controls to create your desired look. With After Effects, you can apply the same effect to other footage by simply selecting the same process as before. The controls set in the Glow effect will be the same as the previous file you worked with.

Tutorial

INSIGHT

LOOP DA LOOP If you’re producing a Flash movie and you want it to work on a loop, the best way to set your movie up is by simply ensuring that the first frames of your movie are exactly the same as the frames at the end. This technique is very simple and looks fantastic if done properly – you won’t even be able to tell when the movie loops.

AIFF SOUND

28

Now that you have added your effects, play the movie through to make sure it flows. For best results, set your Resolution/Down Sample Factor pop-up to a Quarter. This way you can roughly view how the flow of your final movie will appear.

When creating your sounds, be sure to save the final edits as AIFFs at 16-bit and 44.100KHz. This is CD-quality sound, and if you want your movie to sound as crisp as possible, you can’t go wrong with this format – it’s industry-standard!

33

Once you’re happy with the sound of your movie, you will need to export it as a QuickTime Motion JPEG (for large-format broadcast you will need to render your movie with no compression). In this process, we have used the MPEG 1 compression with half the size of the original file. This squeezes down the file size to around 150MB so it can fit onto a CD. For your audio files, you don’t need to compress it. Set the audio settings to the CD-quality sound of 16-bit and 44.100KHz.

PART 3 SOUND AND BROADCAST Learn how to import CD-quality sound files and place them on your movie timeline, then export your film for broadcast or to fit on a CD-ROM

31

To add the sound, you simply grab and place your audio files onto the timeline of your movie. For sound effects, you need to carefully add points in your movie where you think they should go. The best way to do this is to mark the frame to the nearest millisecond and take note of this time. That way, when you place the audio file onto the marked area it will be perfectly in place.

29

Be wise when selecting soundtracks for your movie, and remember the rules of Piracy! Nick and Adam Hayes at Identikal produce their own sounds and musical scores in the outfit’s professional sound studio, where they create unique sounds for animations. For those of you who do not have access to the right facilities, the best thing to do is purchase sound sample discs. These can be found at any musical store and can contain samples of beats, bass, instruments or anything you feel will suit your movie. Make sure that these files are AIFF versions, as this is the best quality for import into After Effects.

FINAL STEP

C 32

You can reduce the audio levels of each sound file if you feel that one is too loud. Do this by using your Controller window, pulling the decibel levels of each sound up or down. Once this is complete, run through a rough render of the movie with the audio on – just like in step 28.

heck out your newly compressed movie and make sure you are happy with the flow and the quality of the sound. You have now successfully transformed a static vector illustration into a moving image masterpiece – take a look at the final result, Identikalmovie.mov, on your CD.

30

For our musical score, you will need to import all of your sounds into your workspace. Here we are using one of our own tracks for the duration of the movie. This has been cut down to flow with the animations. We will also be adding sound effects to the movie as well.

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Q&A

OUR EXPERTS THIS MONTH

ROBERT CARNEY

FRANK BARTUCCA

CHRIS SCHMIDT

CHRIS CHRIS KENWORTHY GREGORY

IF YOU HAVE A TECHNICAL OR CREATIVE QUESTION THAT YOU’D LIKE OUR PANEL OF EXPERTS TO ANSWER, JUST MAIL IT TO [email protected]

FREEHAND I create an emailable Flash presentation Q Can from FreeHand MX to show the boss or client my work-in-progress and ideas? David Johnson, UK

A

QUESTIONS THIS ISSUE

FreeHand MX builds on an already substantial Flash toolset, making it even easier to turn graphics and vector artwork into Flash presentations – whether for clearance from the boss or by simply creating Web content without the expense of Flash MX. FreeHand will also directly publish HTML files, including the Flash content, making it possible to create an entire site in the vector drawing app. The first thing to do when creating a Flash project is to set up your pages. FreeHand enables you to create multipage documents, from which you can build multi-page Flash movies. Begin by going to the Document panel and using the dropdown to the top-right to choose New Master Page. Next, from the Document panel, specify the Master Page size as Web, then add any graphics you wish to appear on each page. Close the Master Page.

Now to add the actual pages. Using the dropdown in the Document panel, add five new pages in the Add Pages dialog, specifying the Master Page you just created in the bottom dropdown. Arrange your pages closer together using the Page tool from the main toolbox. Next, begin adding your content to each page – folios, graphics, even animations brought in from Flash (via the File>Import menu). To link up the pages, simply use FreeHand MX’s Action tool. Doubleclick the tool in the toolbox and, in the options that appear, make sure Link To

Target Page is selected. Choose a graphic you wish to link to the next page in your movie, then click-drag the Action tool from that graphic to the next page. A blue line shows the link. Adding printing functionality is just as straightforward – simply add a print graphic to your page, double-click the Action tool in the toolbar and choose Print target page, then link the graphic to its own page. Test your movie by hitting Apple/Ctrl+Enter. Before you export your movie, you’ll need to alter a few export options. Choose Window>Toolbars>Controller and hit the Settings button. Change the Layers option to Flatten and the Movie type to Single. Check the Full-screen Playback radio button if your movie is a presentation. Depending on where your movie is destined for, adjust the optimisation settings. Now simply go to File>Export and export the movie as a SWF movie – users will be able to click through the project using the assigned graphics. Bear in mind that your client or boss will need the Flash Player 6 to view the presentation after emailing. INFO Expertise supplied by Robert Carney, [email protected]

FREEHAND Email-friendly

Flash-work at your fingertips PHOTOSHOP Want to fashion

your own filters? Here’s how DREAMWEAVER Ensure your templates are fully updated FLASH Using shared symbols

to improve your workflow AFTER EFFECTS Give your fake

in-car footage a lease of life INDESIGN Moving on from XPress? Then you need help

(ABOVE LEFT) The ability to create master pages not only benefits the print designer – but also comes in handy for designers working on Web projects and presentations. (LEFT) FreeHand MX enables you to finely control the export of your Flash movie – from animating layers to optimising for file size. You can also choose to play the movie at full-screen, giving your boss or client the benefit of a pro-quality presentation without having to fiddle around in Powerpoint.

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Q&A

TO TAKE THE CREATION OF CUSTOM FILTERS A GREAT DEAL FURTHER, YOU NEED TO USE FILTER FACTORY, WHICH IS A FREE PLUG-IN THAT COMES WITH PHOTOSHOP

PHOTOSHOP there a way to create your own customised Q Isfilters in Adobe Photoshop? Jonathan Harris, Belfast

A

Photoshop’s filters have always played a controversial role in image manipulation over the years, as you’ll know from our cover feature last issue. Third-party plug-ins and Photoshop filters are a viable part of the creative process, but sometimes you just want to experiment for yourself and create an effect that is purely your own, or one that you can apply to a range of images as a house style. Creating your own filters is another useful way of customising your copy of Photoshop. To achieve this, there’s the Custom filter, which you’ll find hidden at the bottom of the filter dropdown menu, under Other. The Custom filter enables you to create your own filters by typing in Brightness values of between -999

and +999 into a square grid of 25 pixels, represented by text boxes. The centre text box represents the pixel to be evaluated in the group. The default setting is a value of 5 for the centre box, with a value of -1 in the boxes directly adjacent to it, to the top, bottom, left and right, which generates a sharpened grainy effect. Thankfully, you don’t have to enter values into every box, as a box left blank is automatically given a value of 0. The preview window enables you to view your image as you punch in your numbers. Once you’re satisfied with the effect, click on the Save button and give the new effect a name. It’s really that simple, but still fairly limited. To take the creation of custom filters a great deal further, you need to use

Filter Factory, which is a free plug-in that comes with Photoshop. You’ll find this on your Photoshop installation disc and it needs to be put into your Plug-ins folder inside the Photoshop folder. If you do this, you’ll find Filter Factory under Filter>Synthetic>File Factory when you relaunch the program. To help you, there’s a ninepage PDF tutorial that explains the mathematics behind how the filter works at www.creativemac.com. It’s tricky, but it can be well worth the effort. Good luck! INFO Expertise supplied by Frank Bartucca, [email protected]

HOW TO CREATE A CUSTOM FILTER

1

Open an image in Photoshop, then go to Filter>Other> Custom. In the Custom window grid, you can now create your own filters simply by typing in numbers.

2

The grid represents a group of pixels to which you can assign various Brightness values. The centre box shows the value of the pixel being evaluated.

If you want to take custom filters further, take a look at Photoshop’s own Filter Factory, located inside the Goodies folder on your installation disc, for tutorials and examples. (TOP)

(MIDDLE) This image shows just how powerful and versatile the Custom filter can be. We achieved this extreme effect simply by using alternate columns of 10s and -5s with a Scale of 10 and Offset of -100.

3

Enter numbers into selected boxes and observe the effect it has on your image. Here, a symmetrical grid of 10s and -10s gives a good newsprint effect.

4

Now click on the Save button, select a suitable folder within your Photoshop folder and give your new Custom Filter a name. Make sure it has the .acf suffix.

Here, a simple circle of ‘5s’ produces a smooth, blurred effect, and takes the harsh edges of a grainy image. Note that values have not been entered into all the boxes, indicating that those pixels will be left unaffected. (BOTTOM)

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HITTING THE PREVIEW BUTTON PROMPTS DREAMWEAVER TO MAKE THE RELEVANT COMPARISONS AND RETURN A REPORT HIGHLIGHTING FILES THAT NEED UPLOADING

DREAMWEAVER manage a large site and regularly make multiple Q Ipage amendments, but I often lose track of which files have been updated. Does Dreamweaver provide any tools that will ensure all these files are properly uploaded? John Hampshire, UK

A

Dreamweaver provides many tools to streamline Website production – the template system, for example. However, making a change to a template inevitably affects multiple pages, which, on larger sites, can run into the many hundreds. Ensuring amended files are uploaded is therefore crucial to your site’s success. Luckily, Dreamweaver has many great features that can speed the process up. Keeping tabs of pages you’ve updated can easily distract from your workflow, as can constantly uploading files after each amendment. The most basic way to keep work current is via the Synchronise option (under the Site menu of the Site panel). This enables Dreamweaver to compare your local site with that held on the remote server. The first step is to determine the range of the comparison to be run,

either on your entire site or restricted to selected files or folders. Next, you need to specify the direction of the synchronisation, either by getting or depositing newer files, or a blend of the two. This is important for sites where multiple authors may be working, because it gives you the chance to download more recent versions of files before making changes and risking overwriting other authors’ previous amends. The option to ‘Delete remote files not on local drive’ is one best left to the primary site owner, as this will do just that – although it provides a useful method of cleaning up old or orphaned files. Note: this can be devastating to your site if not monitored correctly. Hitting the Preview button prompts Dreamweaver to make the relevant comparisons and return a simple report highlighting any files that need uploading, along with the option to bypass the process for individual files. Once your site has been synchronised, and especially if you’ve chosen to delete remote files not on the local drive, you’d be advised to run Dreamweaver’s built-in link checker – also found under the Site panel’s Site menu. This highlights any missing files or outdated links that could cause unwanted 404 errors, and enables you to make the relevant fixes before your site visitors find them.

GETTING SMART RESULTS FROM DREAMWEAVER An often-overlooked feature of Macromedia’s Web-authoring software is the comprehensive Results panel. Accessed via the main Windows menu, this provides options for fairly comprehensive site analysis – not just to check links, but also inspect target browsers, validate code, and weed out such elements as redundant empty tags, missing image Alt tags and untitled documents. More server-specific tools are also to be found here, including your FTP session log and server debug options for more dynamic sites. Running these reports is often as straightforward as clicking the green Play icon, which then prompts any configuration options necessary for your chosen report. Buttons available with this enable you to delete an item, get more detailed information on a specific result, save the report, or view a more understandable version in the browser.

INFO Expertise supplied by Chris Schmidt, [email protected]

Running site reports enables you to choose which elements of your site are analysed. Once run, the report will highlight any potential problems your selected files may have.

(ABOVE LEFT) Run the Synchronisation tool to draw attention to file differences between those held on the local and remote locations. This enables you to upload your work instantly.

By removing the checkmark by individual entries, you determine which files are processed and which files are left unaffected.

(ABOVE)

If you have the screen space, we suggest docking your Site and Assets panels to the right of your interface and keeping your Results panel open. This gives you the best access to these essential elements.

(LEFT)

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Q&A

YOU CAN CREATE A RUNTIME SHARED LIBRARY SYMBOL FROM A GRAPHIC BUTTON, MOVIE CLIP, FONT SYMBOL, SOUND OR BITMAP. SIMPLY SELECT THE LIBRARY SYMBOL…

FLASH I’m working in a team developing Flash files based Q onbut a central character. This is still being finalised, we’re on a tight schedule and need to complete our work quickly. What’s the most efficient method of sharing such a library symbol? Jules Smith, UK

A

Flash makes it possible to share symbols in such a way that if a parent version is amended, all child files can reflect such changes instantly. This provides the best solution, because you’ll be able to continue developing your work without having to wait for the sign-off of your character. There are two kinds of shared symbols: runtime and author-time. You can create a runtime shared library symbol from a graphic, button, movie clip, font symbol, sound or bitmap. Simply select the library symbol and choose Linkage from the

Options dropdown. In the dialog box that appears, select ‘Export for runtime sharing’, provide a unique name in the identifier field and then a path (relative or absolute) to the source movie that will share this symbol. Keep the ‘Export in the first frame box’ checked. Your symbol is now marked for export and is available to other movies as long as you create the SWF file and place it in the location you specified. To use this symbol in another Flash document, create a new symbol in your library and choose the Linkage option again. This time, select ‘Import for runtime sharing’ and enter the same name as the original identifier. Locate the file by entering the appropriate path in the URL field, click OK and your symbol is updated with the original.

CREATING A RUNTIME SHARED SYMBOL

1

In a new Flash document, create the symbol you want to share and add to your library. This can be a graphic, button, movie clip, font symbol, sound or bitmap.

2

Locate the symbol in the Library window and select the Linkage option, either from the contextual menu or via the Options dropdown (to the right of the panel’s title).

Author-time sharing is more suited for sharing symbols across FLA files instead of SWFs. As each child movie stores its own copy, you can update the symbol whenever you want or even make automatic updates before you publish your SWF. To update the symbol, select it in the library and choose Properties from the Options menu. Click the Advanced option and click the Browse button in the Source section. Use this to locate the parent Flash file, click OK and choose the relevant symbol from the prompted list before clicking OK to return to the Symbol Properties dialog box. If you choose to check the ‘Always update before publishing’ option, then you’ll be assured that your symbol will always be as current as the parent copy whenever you publish your file. Although there are similarities between the two methods, each approach has its own strengths. Runtime is better at sharing assets between multiple SWF movies, with advantages in file size and loading times brought by the fact users need only download the library symbol once for it to be available to other SWFs. Author-time, on the other hand, is better during a project’s production, and as such is better-suited for your particular query. You can use authortime sharing to keep different symbols in separate FLA files, while a master FLA file can reference all of the symbols in the separate files and compile them into a single SWF. Using this method, you can have different members of your team working on different symbols, while author-time sharing ensures that the final published movie contains the final objects. INFO Expertise supplied by Chris Schmidt, [email protected]

3

Check ‘Export for runtime sharing’ and input a name as identifier. Leave ‘Export in first frame’ checked, then enter a relative or absolute URL path for later file storage.

4

Create the SWF file. Now place it in the location specified in the URL of the Linkage properties dialog to create the source movie that shares its symbol.

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WATCH ANY SPIELBERG MOVIE AND YOU’LL SEE THAT WHENEVER PEOPLE MOVE IN A VEHICLE, WINDSCREEN REFLECTIONS ARE USED TO GIVE A BETTER SENSE OF THEIR ENVIRONMENT

AFTER EFFECTS can I make my fake car footage look more Q How realistic? Mine still looks dreadful!

Todd Gilchrist, Boston

A

The best way to fake good car footage, is to shoot with a camera mounted on the car, or a camera and car mounted on a trailer. But when that isn’t possible, you’ll probably shoot with a blue screen. If you’re not careful, your footage will end up looking like the car shots from Seinfeld. That’s okay if realism isn’t important, but if you’re after a genuine look, you’ll need to add some extra details. Once you’ve done the bluescreen work, and colour-corrected the foreground to the background, you may still feel that the image lacks realism. What’s probably missing is a good windscreen reflection. Watch any of Spielberg’s movies, and you’ll see

that whenever people move in any vehicle, real or fake, windscreen reflections are used to give a better sense of the environment they’re moving through. By applying a fake reflection to your windscreen, you can create some stunning results. When you shoot the on-road footage for the rear-window view, also shoot some through the front window of the car, with the camera as steady as possible and pointing almost upwards at the same time. You then layer this footage onto the windscreen. To begin with, perform your composite work as normal, removing the bluescreen, adding a background, feathering the matte, and colourmatching the clips. Now export and re-import the finished clip into After Effects. Import your windscreen footage and place it directly above the first clip in the timeline, with the Composite Mode set to Screen. Use the Pen tool to draw a matte around the windscreen area, so that the new image only covers the glass and not the windscreen wipers. Feather the matte slightly. Finally, reduce the opacity of the widescreen clip until it blends in naturally. In some cases, you’ll barely need to lower the opacity at all and the effect will be perfect. INFO Expertise supplied by Chris Kenworthy, [email protected]

(TOP) Import your composited car clip and the windscreen footage. If you need to, use Image Control filters to match the colour of the new clip to the background. (ABOVE) Add your windscreen clip and then use the Pen tool to outline areas that are not glass – such as the car frame and windscreen wipers. Feather the matte slightly. (RIGHT) Reduce the opacity of the windscreen clip so that it remains noticeable, without blocking the view of the inside of the car. The result is close to the genuine article.

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WHICH WAY? Look at a genuine car-shot and images slide up the windscreen quite rapidly. This is why your footage needs to be taken pointing almost upwards; your camera is capturing what the windscreen ‘sees’. For shots from the side or slightly to the rear, it’s usual to use no reflection. Even though you’re shooting from a long away off, the long lens makes it

feel as though you’re in the next seat. But in some shots, this isn’t possible, and windows’ edges creep in – the reflectionfree glass becomes visible and realism is lost. In these shots, you might find added reflections help, although try to keep the look consistent throughout. For side and rear-shots, use footage that slides across the screen. If your car moves from right to left, the images will travel from left to right. In other words, shoot your side footage from the window you’re going to add reflections to.

Q&A

ONE THING YOU SHOULDN’T DO IN INDESIGN IS DOUBLECLICK THE PALETTE TITLE BARS. YOU’LL JUST BE LEFT WITH A SEA OF IDENTICALLOOKING GREY BARS

INDESIGN I recently moved from QuarkXPress to Adobe Q shortcuts InDesign. The new program’s complicated and sheer number of palettes are giving me major grief. What can I do to ease the pain of transition? Dylan Jenkins, UK

A

Apply default fill and stroke to an object (Stroke: 1pt Black; Fill: None) by tapping ‘D’. Use Shift+X to swap Fill and Stroke (Stroke: None; Fill: Black).

(BELOW)

Get closer to XPress keyboard shortcut increments by going to Edit>Preferences>Units and Increments and changing the values. (BELOW RIGHT)

(RIGHT) Hold

down Alt, then drag with the Selection Tool (pointer changes accordingly) to copy frames, lines and paths.

Well, there are two things to recognise from the offset. First, InDesign has more depth to it than XPress. Second, the keyboard shortcuts are likely to prove frustrating for hardcore XPress users – but only to begin with. The good news is that there are several ways to manage screen clutter, and the shortcuts will speed up your workflow. To begin with, assess which palettes you use most often. Consider dragging rarely used palette tabs out of their default group and closing them. You can always recall closed palettes from the Window menu, or by using the keyboard shortcuts listed under that menu (or, if none are listed, by adding your own custom choice under Edit>Keyboard Shortcuts). Another handy technique is to create long, docked palettes which remain visible and accessible. As an XPress user, you might join Transform, Character and Paragraph to replicate the Measurements palette, for example. To do this, drag the tab to the bottom of a palette until a thick horizontal bar appears between the two, then release. This locks one to the other until you drag the tab out to reverse the process. Photoshop and Illustrator users will be familiar with hitting the Tab key to

hide all palettes, but perhaps less so with using Shift+Tab to hide all but the toolbar. One thing you shouldn’t do in InDesign, however, is double-click the palette title bars. Unlike XPress, which collapses to named bars, you’ll just be left with a sea of identical-looking grey bars that you’ll have to expand to identify. Instead, double-click on the tabs to cycle through palette sizes. Now is the time to really make a point of learning all the tool shortcuts to get productive. If nothing else, memorise the Selection Tool (V), Direct Selection Tool (A) and Type Tool (T). If you’re working within text, try using Deselect All (Command+Shift+A) before switching tools to prevent the curse of unwanted additional characters in your copy. With practice, getting around InDesign can be a joyous working experience. And don’t forget that, once you’ve adopted its shortcuts, you’ll be able to use many of them in Photoshop and Illustrator.

TEXT TIPS For those who’ve just moved from XPress to InDesign, adopting the shortcuts when working with text can be a tad frustrating. Here are a few tips: • Scrolling – Access the Hand tool by holding down the Alt key. Alternatively, hold down Command+Spacebar and then release the Command key. A bit fiddly to begin with, this handy technique works both with and without text. • Zooming – Hold down Command+Spacebar (in that order) to zoom in, and

INFO Expertise supplied by Chris Gregory, [email protected]

Command+Alt+Spacebar to zoom out. These shortcuts also work without text. • Selection tools – As in XPress, the Command key temporarily switches to a selection tool. Unlike XPress, it switches to the tool last used. • Selecting to start/end of text – The former is Command+Shift+ End; the latter is Command+ Shift+Home. You’ll need an extended keyboard to access these shortcuts (unless you get customising). • Control-click – This brings up a context-sensitive menu. With text, these are also listed under the Type menu – often with practical shortcuts.

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REVIEWS ★★★★★

SOFTWARE

OUR FIVE-STAR RATING EXPLAINED

QuarkXPress 6 preview p80 Edition 5 p84

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

form•Z 4 p86 Paint Shop Pro 8 p87 trueSpace 6.5 p88 Imaginate p89 Animation:Master 2003 p89 HARDWARE

Evesham Acumen p90 HP Laserjet 1500 p91 Plextor PX504A p91 NEW: Creative stuff p92

GROUP TEST

AFFORDABLE INKJETS p96

Epson Stylus Photo 925 HP PhotoSmart 7150 Canon i470 Lexmark Z65 Epson Stylus Photo 900

It’s possibly the most anticipated creative software release ever. The final release of XPress 6 may not be with us yet, but from our beta preview over the page, you can see that the company might well have found the killer application it’s been after. A new XPress feature called Projects could well revolutionise the way we create across different media. Quark-bashers, prepare to be surprised. In addition, we’ve got the exclusive on Pinnacle Edition 5 – a fully-featured NLE with integrated DVD authoring tools. The tool once regarded as essential for any image-editor on a budget, Paint Shop Pro, also makes an appearance this time in a new guise, as does form•Z 4, a 3D release that we almost forgot about it’s been so long coming. Hardware this month is led by Evesham’s mighty dual Xeon workstation, a new DVD-writer from Plextor, and a surprisingly affordable colour laser from HP. Creative Stuff, meanwhile, has the new iPod and some interesting developments from Sony. Finally, our Group Test focuses on affordable inkjets – because, let’s face it, we could all do with a decent colour printer that doesn’t break the bank. Rob Carney Reviews Editor [email protected]

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PREVIEW

QUARKXPRESS 6.0

PC AND MAC (£TBA)

PRINT Quark’s DTP favourite undergoes a vital revamp, and promises brilliant new features CONTACT Quark 00800 1787 8275 www.quark.co.uk

SYSTEM PC Pentium • 128MB RAM • 190MB HD space • Win 2000 or XP MAC PowerPC G3 • 128MB RAM • 230MB HD space • Mac OS X 10.2

VERDICT On the strength of this beta, QuarkXPress 6 looks like being an extremely impressive release, with a host of new features and refined workflow. It could ultimately prove to be Quark’s triumph.

T

he final run-in to the design software launch of the year has begun. Upgrade offers are being distributed to registered users, details of new features are being hinted at, and Quark is actively demonstrating its product to major publishers at the largest installed sites. Here, we get to grips with an early beta copy of the program to find out exactly what the upgrade has in store for us later in 2003. Much anticipated to say the least, QuarkXPress 6.0 promises to be the groundbreaking package that everyone had hoped version 5.0 would be. Obviously, the large number of designers who run the app on a Mac will be interested to see how it looks under Mac OS X, but this is almost an incidental benefit. Judging from the beta we tested, QuarkXPress 6.0 could radically change the way you approach your design work.

SUPERB INNOVATION If every upgrade needs a killer feature, QuarkXPress 6.0 has it in the new concept of ‘Layouts’. When you create a new file, it’s now called a Project, and this Project can actually contain multiple documents, each called a Layout. Just like separate documents, Layouts can employ different page trim and orientation or they can be a mix of Print and Web mode pages. The idea isn’t to bring associated documents such as book chapters or magazine features together for

Mac users will be relieved to see that the step up to Mac OS X has not had a negative impact on the familiar QuarkXPress interface.

convenience (the program still provides a Book palette for that), but to let you rework common content in different ways. For example, you can design a brochure in one Layout, rework it as a poster in another, and produce a multipage Website of the same content in another – all within the one QuarkXPress file. You navigate between Layouts using tabs at the bottom of the Project window. This concept of Layouts really comes into its own when used with another new killer feature, the Synchronized Text

The refreshed Hyperlinks palette used to be just a swing-bin for URLs, but now it’s a functional link manager, even referencing Layout pages.

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Review

palette (see boxout). The ability to synchronize any number of text stories across multiple Layouts in an instant is more than a massive time-saver. It should open up possibilities you may not have previously thought possible. An important adjunct to the multipurposing aspect of Layouts is that Print and Web modes, introduced with QuarkXPress 5.0, will no longer be mutually exclusive. In the beta, a Layout could be switched from one mode to the other quite simply, bearing in mind that doing so will shave off any features built into a Layout that were unique to its mode (image maps, rollovers and so on). Talking of killer features, the most popular item in QuarkXPress 5.0 was its click-and-drag table creation function. In the beta of QuarkXPress 6.0, tables have matured from an experimental feature into a highly versatile and thoroughly usable one. Before you ask, yes, you can now hide the gridlines, and, yes, you can set the background colour of individual cells to None, effectively making them transparent. Additionally, it’s possible to use the standard Linking tool to flow text stories from one cell to another, or indeed from and to external text boxes. If nothing else, this will prove extremely handy for monitoring previously invisible overflow.

SYNCHRONIZED CONTENT Let’s say you’re preparing a marketing campaign and have created several Layouts in one Project file for various marketing materials (handout, display ad, brochure, Web page, etc). Using the Synchronized Text palette, you can now copy any number of text stories

from one Layout to another with ease. Simply edit synchronized text in one Layout and it’s automatically updated in the others. Now when you need to update a price or correct a quote, you can do it across the entire campaign in seconds and with perfect consistency.

FEATURES Design multiple versions of a publication across Layout tabs ● Share content between Layouts and synchronize it globally ● Multiple Undo and Redo ● Fully self-contained PDF export filter (Acrobat not required) ● Tables are more versatile and even easier to customise than before ●

DYNAMIC DESIGN TRICKS But that’s just the start. With just a little experimentation, we found we could place clipping path images into table cells with transparent backgrounds. There’s also a new option for reverting tables: as well as being able to turn table text back into tabbed text, you can break complex tables into separate (but grouped) text and picture boxes that maintain their size and position until you edit them individually. While you can draw and edit tables in both Print and Web mode Layouts, certain new features in the QuarkXPress 6.0 beta are specific to Web mode. A handy HTML Preview button has been added to the bottom of the Project window

Add a story to the Synchronized Text palette, copy it to a different Layout – and update both automatically.

remote rollover tool with which you can create items that change their state when you pass the cursor over a different object. If you were ever tempted to play around with JavaScript-based drop-down menus for your Website, QuarkXPress 6.0 makes it easy with a JUDGING FROM THIS BETA, QUARKXPRESS simple dialog window, so you can do it right on the 6.0 COULD RADICALLY CHANGE THE WAY page. Both features are strictly functional and don’t YOU APPROACH YOUR DESIGN WORK offer much option for further customisation, but like all the Web design tools in QuarkXPress, they’re so that you can generate a quick preview of the current there to ease print designers into Web publishing without page in your Web browser with one click or by holding forcing them to learn a new package. down the mouse to select from a pop-up list of alternative Other enhancements to Web mode include the ability to browsers installed on your computer. This preview list is set up font families which can be used by cascading style also now accessible from context menus. sheets: again, the ability to do this directly within A couple of dynamic design tricks have also been added QuarkXPress rather than having to reprocess your site to Web mode. Building upon QuarkXPress 5.0’s basic through an unfamiliar Web editor is invaluable. Those who rollovers, the version 6.0 beta introduces a ‘two-position’ disliked the restrictions on form-building in QuarkXPress 5.0 will appreciate the flexibility in version 6.0 – letting you edit the content of an ordinary text box and then convert it to a form box afterwards, for instance.

As well as offering multiple Undo and Redo, QuarkXPress 6.0 also enables you to navigate the history via pop-up lists at the bottom of the Project window.

Now you can replace pixellated image previews embedded in images and vector graphics with freshly generated high-res previews for accurate placement.

LISTENING TO WISHLISTS

If you need to show and hide layers for different printouts, you can now handle this directly within the Print dialog window.

Alongside such major additions and enhancements, the QuarkXPress 6.0 beta also suggests that Quark really has started paying attention to frustrated users’ wishlists. At last, the program offers multiple Undo and Redo, limited only by system memory and the number of history levels you set in Preferences. Convenient Undo and Redo buttons are now provided at the bottom of the Project window, enabling you to jump to any step in the history without having to plod back and forth incrementally. Another muchcalled-for improvement is in the quality of picture previews. The program can generate fresh full-resolution previews from the original picture files and keep them visible on the

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MORE FEATURES Build remote rollovers and drop-down menus into Web pages ● Generate full-resolution picture previews for precision layout ● Hide and show document layers when printing ● Enhanced Hyperlinks palette supports page-topage page links ● Optimised for Windows XP and Mac OS X ●

QuarkXPress tables fulfil their potential in version 6.0, with linking text cells, transparent backgrounds and gridlines (that you can hide).

page on a picture-by-picture basis. Very usefully, it can do this with EPS vector art. Precision design with clipping path images and irregularly shaped graphics is finally a reality in QuarkXPress. Another deficiency remedied is the lack of a built-in PDF export filter. Having lost patience with Adobe, Quark has enlisted the help of Global Graphics and licensed the company’s Jaws PDF libraries to handle the conversion internally. We can confirm that the QuarkXPress 6.0 beta produces perfect PDF (version 1.3) documents, complete with active bookmarks and hyperlinks, embedded font subsets and customisable compression, without the need for Adobe Acrobat or Distiller. The same libraries support

you to set up direct links to other pages in a Layout instead of having to set anchors first: this will be a huge timesaver in Web design and when preparing PDF bookmarks. Support for PostScript 3 output devices has also been extended, with the program now supporting In-RIP controls and more.

TRIUMPHANT RETURN

We should make one final comment on the interface, which Mac OS X users are probably desperate to see. The most striking thing is that, despite the move to Mac OS X, the app still looks and feels like QuarkXPress. After a minute or two, you’ll have forgotten all about the problems with versions 4.x and 5.0 running in Classic mode, and AFTER A MINUTE OR TWO, YOU’LL HAVE will be concentrating purely on using the program FORGOTTEN ALL ABOUT THE PROBLEMS OF like you used to. VERSIONS 4.X AND 5.0 RUNNING IN CLASSIC This is all the more impressive since Quark has subtly altered a number of interface details, from the placement of PDF pages into your QuarkXPress the collection of all palette commands under a new designs, treating them like pictures. Window menu to the introduction of a new Layout menu Inevitably, the upgrade also brings a long list of smaller and Layout tabs. Apart from the fact that QuarkXPress 6.0 has been designed specifically for Windows XP and Mac yet intelligent enhancements and fixes. The Layers palette OS X, it’s still the same QuarkXPress that you already know, now lets you show and hide entire layers without resetting and you certainly won’t be left hunting for your favourite the show/hide attributes of individual items. You can even commands and tools. If QuarkXPress 5.0 was a bit of a show and hide layers while printing, thanks to a simple disappointment, on the basis of this beta we feel that toggle on/off dialog in the Print window. The Hyperlinks version 6.0 could turn out to be Quark’s triumph. palette has also been given more functionality, enabling

Present a highly efficient navigation system for complex Websites by building nested drop-down menus within QuarkXPress 6.0.

82 Computer Arts_July 2003

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PINNACLE EDITION 5

PC (£499)

DV One of the slickest video editing packages around gets a welcome update… CONTACT Pinnacle Systems 01895 442 003 www.pinnaclesys.com

SYSTEM PC 1GHz Intel or AMD processor • 256MB RAM • AGP graphics card (64MB required for RT FX with GPU) • Win2000 or XP

FOR Excellent editing environment Good range of real-time effects (dependent on hardware) ● Highly customisable ● ●

AGAINST Not easy to use alongside other video applications ● Doesn’t support all video formats ● Fewer audio and video filters than its competitors ●

VERDICT

E

dition takes itself seriously. It’s not a program you can stick up in one corner of the screen while you do three other things. This is a package for editors who just want to edit. It takes ages to load, and once up and running, it takes over your entire desktop, giving you the distinct impression it would like a couple more screens to spill out onto as well. It even changes your desktop colour scheme and invents its own desktop, recycle bin and Start menu. All of this is a hangover from the days when Pinnacle Edition was Fast Purple, a high-end editing package aimed at users who’d buy an entire dedicated system just to run it and were prepared to pay thousands for a product that competed with Avid. Nowadays, with a price tag of 500 quid, Edition is after users of Adobe Premiere, and faces stiff competition from the likes of Media Studio and Vegas Video.

PROFESSIONAL POWERHOUSE There are two main versions of Edition. We looked at the standard package, although a Pro version is also available. (this includes a dedicated graphics card with analog and digital video input and output). Layout has always been Edition’s strong point. Its smooth look and large buttons place everything where you need it, yet doesn’t overwhelm with icons. You can set up

Hollywood FX comes as standard with Edition 5, and boasts an interesting range of 3D transitions and effects to play about with.

the screen in a number of ways for different points in the editing process, but most of the work is usually done with the timeline running along the bottom of the screen and the top half displaying two large monitors – one for trimming the source material, the other for viewing timeline contents. With version 5, you can expand these monitors to full PAL (or NTSC resolution), so what you see is exactly what

★★★★ Need a powerful professional editor that gets the technology out of the way and lets you get on with the job? An editor you can work with full time without getting annoyed about its foibles? Then look no further.

The brilliantly configured main interface makes Edition one of the cleanest and clearest video editors currently doing the rounds.

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DVD AUTHORING According to Edition, DVD menus are just another media item you can call up from the left-hand side of the timeline. A selection is supplied, but you can design your own – simply drag them onto the timeline and start being creative. Simply link markers placed at important points in your production to buttons on your menu – or to other menus. To create your own menus, use Photoshop, or other Pinnacle programs such as Impression, and then

import them directly into Edition. You can also add highlight states so that the buttons on your menu react to being clicked. This isn’t an advanced authoring package, so you can’t create scripts for games or integrate multiple soundtracks or subtitle options. However, you can add animated buttons and video backdrops, and if you need more power, other DVD authoring packages from Pinnacle are well integrated with Edition.

you get. This enables you to concentrate on the material itself rather than the technical process of editing, which is always a good thing. Indeed, neat and intuitive editing tools are the hallmark of Edition – you can scrub through the video in either monitor by simply dragging the mouse over it, for instance, or add a simple dissolve with an audio crossfade using a single button. To the left of the timeline, a small browser enables you to locate the video, audio, effects and transitions you need for your work. It’s well organised, but the screen-space devoted

there (colour correction, keying, etc), as well as all the 2D and 3D animation tools you could wish for. Apart from real-time effects, and full quality monitor windows, version 5 adds a few extra neat tools, too. The most obvious of these is DVD authoring. Most editors force you to render your DVD video, then load up a whole new package before you can start work. This is what the previous version of Edition did. Now the package enables you to do everything from the main interface. In fact, DVD authoring happens on the standard timeline (see boxout). This means that you can even add effects filters to DVD menus and buttons. EDITION 5 PRESENTS A WORKING Other enhancements for version 5 include ENVIRONMENT WHOSE CLARITY AND re-worked capture tools. Edition now automatically SIMPLICITY HIDES A GREAT DEAL OF POWER divides captured DV material into takes – detecting when the camera was originally activated. This to it is small compared to other editors’. By switching to a makes large captures easier to work with, and is something different layout, you can get better access to the media in that’s been available in many low-end editors for years. A your projects. There’s even a desktop on which you can number of other smaller updates make capture and tape drag and quickly arrange simple sequences. logging less of a pain, too. Effects rendering is done in two ways. The first is realSound is reasonably dealt with – there’s a good audio time rendering. Version 5 introduces this for many effects mixer and equaliser tools. However, it still can’t compete and transitions, although naturally how well it works with Premiere’s audio complement (which looks set to depends on the power of your processor and graphics expand now that Adobe has bought the Cool Edit Pro hardware. An indicator on each one lets you know whether toolset from Syntrillium) or those of Vegas Video. your PC – or its graphics card – can render the effect Edition still offers what’s probably the best editing appropriately. Hollywood FX, complete with all its flashy 3D interface on the market. It presents a working environment real-time transitions, comes with Edition as standard. whose clarity and simplicity hides a great deal of power. All the effects filters and transitions are customisable and keyframeable. You can even use keyframe interpolation FLYING COLOURS options to smooth out transitions and audio level changes Anything that’s not available as a real-time effect is with as much control as you like. rendered on the fly. The package doesn’t wait to be told what needs rendering – it just gets on with it in the background as soon as you lay an effect on the timeline. POLISHED ACHIEVEMENT The great thing is this doesn’t affect any other editing work This update polishes the app rather than revolutionises it, although real-time effects are a major new addition, you’re doing, so you can simply get on with working and, alongside improvements in logging and the introduction of by the time you come to run your next cut, the effect is neat DVD authoring tools. Unfortunately, the range of file usually ready to play back. types it can import isn’t as great as some of its competitors. Both types of rendering are handled in much the same way as far as you’re concerned, so even the non-real-time And because it takes over the screen so completely, it’s not ideal if you intend working alongside other packages, such effects can end up playing back in real time on a speedy as 3D programs and compositors at the same time. Despite enough PC. Conversely, your real-time effects may need to these minor drawbacks, Pinnacle Edition remains a wellbe rendered if you ask the machine to do too many at once. rounded app that is more than capable of standing its There are literally hundreds of transitions available, own against meatier peers. but not a huge range of effects filters. Still, the basics are

FEATURES Full set of video-editing features ● Audio mixer ● Real-time video effects ● Background rendering ● Timeline DVD authoring ● IEEE1394 capture card included ● Transition effect editors ● Title Deko titling plug-in ● Full-resolution display monitors ● Automatic scene detection during capture ●

The impressive DVD editing tool enables you to author interactive discs right on the timeline.

New capture and logging tools make the job of importing material much less tedious.

Experiment with a vast range of exciting real-time transitions.

See your work as it’s meant to be seen, with Edition 5’s option to expand monitors to full size and resolution.

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FORM•Z 4 3D After

PC AND MAC £1288

what seems like years in development, the architects’ favourite finally arrives

CONTACT Computers Unlimited 020 8200 8282 www.autodessys.com

FEATURES Comprehensive polygon modelling ● NURBS ● New Smooth Modelling tools ● Drafting ● 22 new tools ● Plug-in architecture ● Good support for units and scale modelling ● Raytracing and Radiosity ●

SYSTEM PC 64MB RAM • 50MB HD space • Win 9*/2000/ME/XP/NT 4 MAC 64MB RAM • 50MB HD space • OS 8.6-OS X 10.2.x

FOR Powerful Accurate polygon modelling ● Decent raytrace renderer ● ●

AGAINST Editing even simple NURBS objects can be slow ● No proper SDS support ● Non-creative interface ●

VERDICT

★★★★ Buy form•Z if you need engineering-grade accuracy, you like to work with polygons and don’t mind being swamped by many different modelling options and parameters. If you want a direct, hands-on, freeform 3D environment, this won’t be for you.

F

orm•Z from auto.des.sys has long been considered one of the best 3D modelling programs – although it’s been quite a while since the last iteration hit the shelves. Already over ten years old, the application has become a favourite among architects and engineers, despite being less popular in the fields of Web design, illustration and DCC. So, advocates may or may not be pleased to hear that auto.des.sys has made some significant changes under the hood in form•Z 4. Most notable is the adoption of a modular, plug-in-based architecture. In fact, many of the app’s existing features are actually now plug-ins, which means you don’t actually get to see the benefits of the app’s new architecture straightaway. Advantages should become more evident as auto.des.sys adds more features in subsequent upgrades. In this version, for instance, you can choose not to install the Smooth Modelling feature if you want, so we assume this area of the app is already a plug-in. This will definitely please form•Z users accustomed to faceted modelling – they often found the Smooth Modelling a hindrance anyway. Version 4 features an all-new NURBS implementation, called nurbz – auto.des.sys is clearly aiming to take on the big boys when it comes to this type of modelling. It still has

THE SYSTEM IS OKAY, BUT IT CAN BE CONFUSING TO KNOW WHICH TOOLS WORK WITH WHICH GEOMETRY TYPES a long way to go, but the new system does offer some advanced NURBS options, such as trimming and stitching, fillets and blends, isoparm extraction and curves on surfaces (necessary for trimming, of course). The system is okay, but it can be confusing to know which tools work with which geometry types – a longstanding problem for form•Z newbies. There’s a new nurbz pop-out toolbar containing nurbz-related functions, but the fillets and blending tools are grouped, along with the rounding tools, which work on different geometry types. The program is also weighed down by the huge number of options each tool can have, making it difficult to know

New nurbz tools add power and flexibility to form•Z. The object on the left is a polygon lathe, which is then converted to a full NURBS surface with a single click using the Nurbz tool.

which settings are less likely to cause problems further down the line. A nice feature is the ability to draw directly on NURBS surfaces for trimming. You can also edit the curve in the surface’s parameter space: a panel pops open with a 2D UV view of the surface, where you can edit the curve more easily. In use, we found the new tools to be pretty good, but the nurbz features were unstable on a Mac running OS X 10.2.6 and the program often crashed. Still, for accurate to-scale modelling, form•Z remains one of the best apps out there. When it comes to freestyle, artistic work, such as for DCC and illustration, however, its click-heavy interface and overly complex workflow do hinder artistic expression. The lack of proper (and simple) Subdivision Surfaces modelling is also a problem. The rendering is good, but dated and slow. The Radiosity system is painfully slow, too, especially compared to current systems using adaptive techniques. The Smooth Modelling and NURBS are a good effort to modernise the program, but form•Z 4 still can’t really compete in terms of speed with the latest generation of apps geared towards freeform 3D modelling.

NURBZ How do you use form•Z’s new nurbz system?

As always, form•Z is great for architecture and engineering. But while it’s passable for some kinds of digital content creation, we can’t really recommend it for more general work, in light of the competition.

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Despite the tools and most operations being dependent on geometry, transformation between geometry types is quite robust. The new nurbz system enables you to build surfaces in faceted mode, then convert them to NURBS surfaces. To create a nurbz vase, for example, you could lathe a linear curve to

derive a faceted vase. Select the Nurbz tool and click on the polygon object to convert it to a smooth NURBS surface, using the polygon vertices as the control vertices for the NURBS. Note: this only works on polygon meshes with a properly defined UV surface topology, so a Booleaned object won’t convert to NURBS.

Review

PAINT SHOP PRO 8

PC £100

IMAGE EDITING Jasc’s value-for-money tool returns with a plethora of new effects CONTACT Digital Workshop Buy online www.digitalworkshop.co.uk

FEATURES Image editing Colour correction ● Filters and effects ● Layer masks ● Layer sets ● Vector shapes ● Text on a path ● Actions ● Web toolset ● ●

SYSTEM PC Pentium • 128MB RAM • 200MB HD space • Win 98 SE/NT4/2000/ME/XP

FOR Good value for money Huge feature-set ● Lots of new effects ● ●

AGAINST Some tools feel a little unfinished and glitchy ● PC only

P

aint Shop Pro has long been considered a poor man’s Photoshop. But before you start writing in to disagree, this isn’t our opinion. It’s simply a fact. Most graphics professionals won’t even go near Jasc’s app – and, let’s face it, few agencies and design houses are looking for employees who are PSP-proficient. Still, for those budget-driven designers and students who can’t afford the luxury of Photoshop, PSP has long proved a viable alternative. We must mention Photoshop Elements, of course. Adobe’s low-end image-editing app must have had a huge impact on PSP sales, being around £25 cheaper and providing an easy route into Photoshop. Elements is also dual-platform, while PSP is strictly PC only. But with PSP 8, Jasc has clearly improved the program across the board, improving its image-editing tools, effects and general workflow. What will not come as a surprise to many is how all the new tools bear a passing resemblance to their counterparts introduced in previous iterations of Photoshop. However, considering the app’s price, the implementation of such now-familiar tools isn’t that bad, and PSP8 has quite a few features that its main competitor, Photoshop Elements, just cannot match. One such tool is the Warp brush. Taking a direct lead from Photoshop’s Liquify, it enables you to stretch, bend and twirl images using a simple brush-based tool. Options

Paint Shop Pro 8 features a range of new tools and effects, many of which take their lead from Photoshop. The interface remains as easy to navigate as ever, making for a decent budget image-editor.

●

VERDICT

★★★★ This is certainly the best release of Paint Shop Pro yet, building on a tool that many consider as good at Photoshop for certain basic tasks. Taking an obvious lead from Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro 8 adds a number of tools that image-editing enthusiasts will love.

JASC HAS IMPROVED PSP ACROSS THE BOARD, IMPROVING ITS IMAGE-EDITING TOOLS, EFFECTS AND WORKFLOW for it appear in a context-sensitive bar running along the top of the interface, and enable you to choose from a variety of effects. Then there’s Unwarp and Iron Out for erasing warp results in certain areas of your image. Used with PSP’s Mesh Warp tool, the functionality is gaining on Photoshop’s Liquify command, although it’s still a little less elegant and accomplished. Masking has also been improved, with mask layers (or layer masks) now making it possible to hide and reveal areas of an image using the brush tools. Meanwhile, the Background Eraser tool seems like another port from Adobe’s app, and in theory makes masking easier by automatically detecting edge pixels as you paint. In use, it’s

competent, but you have to work carefully to achieve clean cutouts. You can use all of PSP’s brushes with the tool. On the subject of brushes, designers should at least benefit from the app’s new Painting engine. Although nowhere near as comprehensive as Photoshop 7’s natural media engine, at least it provides PSP users with a lot more scope for producing natural media-like effects. A Perspective Correction tool does make it very easy to adjust the focus points in digital shots. Enhancements to the Text tool (and, yes, you can place text on a path – unlike Photoshop), and Layer Groups (or, perchance, sets?) are here, as is a new Effects Browser, making it possible to preview many effects at once without going in and out of dialogs. It’s a nice idea, but sadly the previews are just too small. New effects include a (rather cheesy) Soft Focus effect, Halftone, 3D Balls and Bubbles (hmm), and a Magnifying Lens effect, which actually does a good job of blowing up areas of an image without pixellation. Automated Productivity Scripts (or Actions – enabling you to set up effects or image operations and run them on single or batches of images), along with a customisable interface and improved format support, make PSP considerably easier to use on a day-to-day basis.

ELEMENTARY DECISION? Comparing the most popular budget image-editors When Photoshop Elements first arrived, it certainly aimed to cut into the market of Paint Shop Pro – bringing an already well-established professional brand into the consumer marketplace. In terms of features, both applications share excellent image-editing and colour correction toolsets. Both also feature a wide variety of

effects and filters. PSP clearly offers a wider range of tools than Elements 2 – including Liquify and masking tools that take their lead from Photoshop – but then Elements has a friendlier interface and introduces artists to the complexities of Photoshop. Arguably, Elements has better text functionality than

PSP – the ability to type straight onto the canvas remains much more intuitive than PSP’s dialog-based approach to text input. Both have layer functionality, but with the addition of layer masks, PSP just pips Elements on this feature. However, Elements features layer styles – very handy for reusing graphics. Both

applications have vector shape functionality. One thing we would mention, though, is that Elements is around £25 cheaper and comes with both Mac and PC versions in the box. Also bear in mind that PSP comes with an (albeit not comprehensive) animated GIF creation app – Animation Shop.

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TRUESPACE 6.5

PC $595 (£370)

3D We test the latest release of Caligari’s respectable mid-range modeller CONTACT Caligari 001 650 390 9600 www.caligari.com

FEATURES NURBS and polygon modelling ● SDS layers ● Physics and collisions ● Interactive rendering ● Radiosity ● Image-based lighting (not HDRI) ● Goniometric lights ● Interactive rounding ● Post-process render editing ● Bones and IK ●

SYSTEM PC AMD Athlon or Pentium 120 ● 64 MB RAM ● 50MB HD space ● Win 9*/ME/NT4/2000/XP ● 3D video card with at least 16MB of video memory and D3D or OGL drivers

FOR Fully featured 3D app Broad selection of modelling tools ● Dynamics and interactive rendering ● ●

AGAINST Poor workflow Even worse interface ● Poor material management ● ●

VERDICT

★★★★ trueSpace is a worthy 3D program, rich in features, but its scatter-brain interface and poor workflow make using it a chore for the professional designer. It’s a great tool for 3D enthusiasts, though.

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rueSpace users must be a funny bunch. Their favourite 3D software has arguably the strangest interface we’ve ever encountered. Even the oddball modeller Amapi can’t match it. But while Caligari claims it improves workflow – we don’t doubt that seasoned trueSpace users can whizz round the app like well-oiled squirrels – if you’ve used just about any other pro 3D app, trueSpace will annoy and confound you. The app is placed in the mid-range, so it competes with Cinema 4D R8 core. Interface aside, trueSpace 6.5 has a veritable cornucopia of 3D goodies in store, which seems to enable it to compete with more advanced 3D apps. For its modest price, you get NURBS, polygons, hierarchical Subdivision Surfaces, character animation tools, dynamics and physics simulation, radiosity, function curves, interactive rendering... The feature list goes on and on, and contains virtually every 3D buzzword going, apart from HDRI and subsurface scattering. The overall impression you get of trueSpace from the Caligari Website is a program driven by strong marketing. In use, the features listed on the site don’t feel nearly as slick as they appear. What’s most annoying is the fact that all of

seem to be support for independent-channel keyframe editing. You can only move keys temporally in the keyframe view, which displays motion channels as a single track. There are some other useful new additions to this upgrade. These include global find and replace, ANNOYINGLY, ALL TOOLS AND FUNCTIONS geometry painting, local physics attributes, ARE SHOVED TOGETHER IN A HEAP OF improved fillets and rounding (which were already very good). BUTTONS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN trueSpace 6.5 is a very feature-orientated the tools and functions, regardless of purpose, are shoved package, which is fine for the price, but don’t be fooled by together in a heap of buttons at the bottom of the screen. the long list – it’s not in the same league as LightWave or There’s minimal segregation of buttons by type, action or Cinema 4D. These programs show their mettle by offering a mode, although there is grouping in pop-ups. However, workflow that’s robust and well thought out; they offer a even this grouping can be confusing, and all too often serious solution to genuine 3D problems. When things go you’re left wondering where a given tool is. At least Caligari wrong in trueSpace, you often find yourself with few provides an ‘icon finder’ if you get lost. options to remedy the situation. If you intend to pursue 3D New in version 6.5, as mentioned, are hierarchical as a primary discipline, look elsewhere. Subdivision Surfaces, or Subdivision Layers. These work much like those in Maya, enabling you to add layers of subdivision and edit the surface of each layer or ‘cage’. The subdivision can be applied locally to selected polygons, making it an efficient way to add local detail to a model. Animation is well catered for, and the system features a Okay, so the trueSpace interface isn’t to new non-linear editing scheme. You can display keys only, our liking, but how could it be improved? or function curves for motion channels, but there doesn’t

THAT INTERFACE...

Here are a handful of changes we’d like to see in a more user-friendly interface

ON THE CD The full version of trueSpace 3.2 is on the CD, worth £377, along with a demo of trueSpace 6.5 – give the new version a try and let us know what you think.

Modelling is actually quite good, with subdivision layers enabling you to edit the polygons of successively finer subdivision cages.

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Using the integrated dynamics function, you can create physical simulations, such as this blast effect, easily and quickly.

First, implement textbased menus with useful titles for tools and commands. Menus read better vertically, so move the menu/toolbar from the bottom to the side of the interface. Divide the interface into sections by task, such as Animation, Modelling, Dynamics or Rendering – just like LightWave or Maya. Have the toolbar change to display menus relevant to the selected

task, so as not to clutter the interface too much – like Softimage|XSI. Some tools would be permanent: for example, no matter what section or mode of the interface you were in, the Select, Move, Scale and Rotate tools are always available. Finally, the interface should implement panes rather than floating windows, so that you can display the 3D view with the graph editor below.

Review

IMAGINATE

PC £176

DV Create moving content from still images for your DV projects CONTACT Canopus Buy online www.canopus-uk.com

VERDICT

★★★ You could never class Imaginate as an essential tool for video editors, but it is one that’s particularly easy to use and one that artists doing this kind of work will warm to, thanks to the simplistic yet intuitive interface. It’s also rather pricey – a £100 price tag would seem much more reasonable.

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maginate seems like a strange release. Its premise is to enable you to create moving content from still images using a timeline and keyframes – something you could do natively (to a certain extent) in an NLE or a compositing app such as After Effects. Imaginate features a simple interface and seemingly simplistic workflow. There’s a main work area, along with a preview area to the top-right. A bounding, crop box

automatically centres itself on the loaded image (all the main file formats are supported) – this is the area to which you apply the transformations over time. The timeline itself is, again, simple in its operation, and a breeze to pick up if you’ve dabbled in keyframe techniques before. Over time, you have the ability to pan, zoom and rotate still images, creating motion menus, still image in picture effects and the like. Below the preview area lies a camera control, enabling you to quickly rotate your images through X, Y or Z. You can also quickly adjust the perspective using a slider. To animate, you simply drag to a point on the timeline and change the positioning (and so on) of your image. Keyframes are automatically added, but can easily be shuffled around. Path tools enable you to animate your image on a path, with interpolation options being Constant, Linear or Spline (and applied globally). Sadly, though, there’s no provision for motion curves. Imaginate is a tool that enthusiasts may be interested in, if it weren’t for the £176 price tag. Professional editors will almost certainly have a compositing tool to hand, such as After Effects, that will do the job just as well. In short, this is an easy-to-use tool, if a little pricey and a little too niche. A Premiere plug-in enabling you to import Imaginate projects without the need for rendering (Imaginate renders to AVI and DV) will be a boon to anyone using Adobe’s NLE.

ANIMATION:MASTER 2003

PC AND MAC $299 (£183)

3D Hash’s budget animation powerhouse returns with a host of new tools CONTACT Hash Inc Buy online www.hash.com

VERDICT

★★★★★ A plethora of fantastic animation tools that are well presented and easy to use make Animation:Master 2003 a cracking character animation application. It’s a little rough around the edges, but definitely a bargain at $299.

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nimation:Master has become something of a cult app among professional animators. And with good reason – you get an incredible number of features for your £183, all of which are usually reserved for £1000-plus tools. When you open the app for the first time, you’re presented with a single-perspective view and many tools that will certainly bamboozle the beginner. The library sits

to the left of the interface and, importantly for newcomers, enables you to easily drag and drop predefined characters into the workspace (all of which are set up for animating). This immediately gives you an idea of how the app functions. Even more importantly, you can use the library to store your own content, so you can easily reuse models and animations in other projects. A simple yet brilliant idea. The animation toolset is second-to-none, rivalling the toolset of apps five times the price, and includes constraints, bones and muscle motion. The normal timeline-based approach is used to animate characters, with keyframes and a graph-based dialog enabling fine control over movement. Both timeline and graph-based views will be familiar to anyone used to character work. Modelling in Animation:Master isn’t exactly standard. The app uses Hash patches rather than polygons. These provide an effective way of modelling lightweight models – which is necessary for animating characters. Models can be exported to polygons for use in other apps if need be. Our one problem with Animation:Master 2003 is that it’s still a little buggy on the Mac. Hopefully, an OS X release will iron this out. By contrast, the PC version performed fine. If you’re thinking of moving into character animation but can’t afford the likes of Maya, Animation:Master is a great starting app that you’ll probably find yourself coming back to many times during your career.

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EVESHAM ACUMEN WORKSTATION PC £4486

PC The dual Xeon 3.06GHz is tailored to the needs of the professional video editor CONTACT Evesham Buy online www.evesham.com

FEATURES Twin LG 1710B digital displays NVIDIA Quadro 4 980 XGL ● Intel Xeon 3.06GHz processors ● 230GB SCSI HD ● DVD RAM drive ● Creative I-Trigue speaker system ● Wireless keyboard and mouse ● Windows XP Professional

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FOR Good video performance Lots of storage space ● Good choice of displays ● ●

AGAINST Expensive Loud ● Disappointing 3D performance ● ●

VERDICT

★★★★ Twin displays, a large hard disk and masses of processing power make this machine a logical choice for anyone with a workload consisting mainly of video and 2D graphics. For 3D work, however, better machines are available, and the layout of the Acumen’s I/O ports feels a little cramped. It’s also very loud.

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vesham may not be the first name you think of when considering a new workstation, but this machine boasts some impressive stats. Twin Intel Xeon processors running at 3.06GHz are combined with an NVIDIA Quadro 4 980 XGL and 1GB of DDR RAM – a powerful system by any standards. This set-up was born for video and 2D work, and in these two areas the PC excels, particularly when configured with the dual LG displays. Sadly, 3D performance isn’t quite so impressive… Still, the addition of a second display is a bonus, particularly for anyone working with video or needing to run more than one app simultaneously. Indeed, the Acumen is at its best when working with video in Avid’s Xpress DV, and will happily run Photoshop alongside it. This emphasis on video is emphasised by the inclusion of a huge 230GB SCSI hard drive – just what you need to capture your video before you edit and burn it to DVD. The twin Xeon processors love applications like Photoshop 7, which are designed to take advantage of Intel’s multi-threading technology. With this power driving the system, only an enormous workload could make a noticeable dent in response times – a crucial consideration when dealing with time-based media. Evesham has opted for the NVIDIA Quadro 4 980 XGL graphics card; it’s a solid performer, but not in the same league as the FX 2000 when it comes to 3D acceleration. The PC isn’t a poor performer by any means; it’s just been designed with video and 2D in mind. Running Photoshop, it’s a dream; by contrast, 3D performance is rather sluggish. But the components that really stand out have to be the twin LG 17-inch displays. These provide enough viewing real estate to keep everyone happy, and NVIDIA’s 980 XGL card copes well with the increased workload. Static images and type are crisp and luminous, while moving images are dealt with equally well across the entire extended desktop.

BENCHMARK We tested the Evesham with Viewperf 7. This test establishes how well a machine copes with various types of 3D geometry by seeing how many times it can repeat a series of standard operations in a given time. ————— SUM_RESULTS\3DSMAX\SUMMARY.TXT 3dsmax-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 7.280 ————— SUM_RESULTS\DRV\SUMMARY.TXT drv-08 Weighted Geometric Mean = 29.04 ————— SUM_RESULTS\DX\SUMMARY.TXT dx-07 Weighted Geometric Mean = 20.15 ————— SUM_RESULTS\LIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT light-05 Weighted Geometric Mean = 8.792 ————— SUM_RESULTS\PROE\SUMMARY.TXT proe-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 9.058 ————— SUM_RESULTS\UGS\SUMMARY.TXT ugs-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 17.37 *High numbers are better

Many workstations in this price range are built with high-end 3D in mind, and overlook 2D in the rush to demonstrate big polygon-shifting numbers. Evesham’s machine, though, is ideally suited to video-editing and 2D graphics work. Smart components which complement the Xeon chips ensure accurate images time after time.

Review

HP LASERJET 1500

PC AND MAC £675

PRINTER At last, an A4 workhorse for the studio or office at a decent price

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CONTACT Hewlett-Packard 08705 474 747 www.hp.com/uk

VERDICT

★★★ A decent enough laser printer at a decent enough price. The unit’s print speed and quality aren’t going to break any records, but as an everyday machine for quickly proofing docs, it does the job.

verybody needs a black and white laser printer, whether it’s for churning out variations on logo designs or quickly proofing images without the expense of a colour inkjet. But until now, colour laser printers have been a luxury few can afford. HP’s sub-grand offering looks set to change all that. Connectivity comes in the form of USB 2, which means significant performance gains when hooked up to a PC (Macs only have USB 1.1 ports). Colour page printing times certainly varied between the two platforms, with the PC bashing a page out in around 31 seconds, while the Mac took a more leisurely 40. Colour printing is quoted at up to four pages per minute, but we got around two printing image-intensive layouts. Not the speediest of outputs, so Mac users will probably want to use the FireWire port instead. Both network and wireless connectivity are optional extras. In terms of print quality, the HP 1500 doesn’t deliver anything special, but for a 600x600dpi £675 laser, it does its best. Colours sometimes appear a little washed out, but are generally passable for everything bar colour-sensitive work, and printing in black and white gives decent enough results. Text quality is good – making this printer a cheap way of quickly proofing layouts. We did, however, have problems printing directly from QuarkXPress 4.1 in Classic mode in OS 10.2. XPress can be a fussy beast at the best of times, but we couldn’t even get the driver to position the

PLEXTOR PX-504A DVD DRIVE

print correctly. Thankfully, printing from Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator yielded no significant problems. The 1500 isn’t as heavy as it looks, and although HP has obviously tried to steer clear of the ‘grey box’ aesthetic normally associated with laser printers, the ‘breadbin’ design doesn’t quite work. Looks aside, for general office or studio work, it’s reliable and efficient.

It may look like a trendy breadbin, but Hewlett-Packard’s dumpy number can still muster a reasonable 600x600dpi.

PC AND MAC £212

Say goodbye to CDs with this DVD+R/+RW drive

CONTACT Plextor +32 2 725 55 22 www.plextor.com

VERDICT

★★★★ If you’re looking for a DVD+R/+RW drive, then they don’t come much better than this. It’s a steal for PC users, but not really recommended for using with a Mac.

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ost of us are still using CDs to back up and store our data. We’d like to use DVD, because each disc holds a whopping 4.7GB of data, but the problem is that writers are so expensive. And what about those format wars? Should you buy DVD-RAM, DVD-R or DVD+R? Fortunately, Plextor has made things easier with the PX-504A, an attractively priced DVD+R/+RW drive that can record discs in a multitude of formats. Currently, the DVD+ format is seen as the most compatible option, being fully compatible with DVD-Video and 95 per cent of domestic DVD players. That means any work you author to a DVD+ drive is likely to work in the widest range of DVD players. So having established that the DVD+ is the way to go, what does this little bundle offer? For starters, there’s full compatibility with virtually every type of CD format going. In addition, Plextor has engineered a plethora of handy features, such as a black tray to reduce jitter, high-quality audio extraction and a two-year warranty. If anything goes wrong, Plextor will even come and pick it up for repair. In terms of software, the Plextor CD/DVD comes bundled with Nero 5.5, InCD recording software, Pinnacle Studio 8 and PowerDVD. Not so good if you’re a Mac user, but very handy if you’re going to pop this drive into your PC. Speaking of Mac users, we actually fitted the PX-504A into an external FireWire housing and managed to get it

working with Roxio’s Toast Titanium on a Mac. Unfortunately, it’s not iTunes or Finder Burning compatible, and it won’t work with iDVD (only Apple’s proprietary SuperDrive will do that). However, you can use it with DVD Studio Pro. As well as writing DVD+R at 4x speeds, Plextor’s drive can write rewritable discs at 2.4x – we backed up over 3.5GB of data in around 19 minutes. Pretty impressive. CD-Rs can be written at 6x and there’s full Buffer Underrun protection, too. Quality stuff.

Plextor’s accomplished contribution to the DVD-drive fold is packed with great features – and comes with a two-year warranty.

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CREATIVE STUFF ESSENTIAL KIT FOR THE MODERN DESIGNER

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Review

APPLE IPOD

SONY CLIÉ PEG-SJ33

HP PHOTOSMART 230

PRICE £249-£399 COMPANY Apple WEBSITE www.apple.com/ukstore

PRICE £250 COMPANY Sony WEBSITE www.sonystyle.co.uk

PRICE £130 COMPANY Hewlett-Packard WEBSITE www.dabs.com/hp

The latest in Sony’s ever-expanding line of Clié PDAs goes all out trying to break the geeky image attached to the devices. Like its CyberShot U range of digital cameras introduced earlier this year, the company’s PEG-SJ33 come in three metallic colours and sport a neat clamshell design, making them dead easy to flip open. In terms of specs, the devices aren’t bad either, especially considering the relatively inexpensive £250 price tag. At the heart of the unit beats a 66MHz processor, complemented by a high-res colour screen and 16MB RAM. There’s also a builtin MP3 player – so you can play audio files from an (optional) Memory Stick. In addition, you can play MPEG files, easily remember a large round at the bar, and er, manage contacts and your diary.

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PRO MEMORY STICKS

PENTAX OPTIOS

SONY ERICSSON T310

PRICE £150-£585 COMPANY Sony WEBSITE www.sony-cp.com

PRICE £350 COMPANY Pentax WEBSITE www.dabs.com

PRICE £120 (sim free) COMPANY Sony Ericsson WEBSITE www.sonyericsson.com

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The Apple iPod has reached its second incarnation and is more beautiful and tactile than ever. Coming in 10, 15 and 30GB flavours, the new devices are capable of playing AAC files – a file format superior in quality to MP3 yet smaller in size. This results in over 7500 songs (according to Apple) fitting onto the top-end model. A new slimmer design with backlit, newly positioned touch-sensitive controls and the familiar iPod trackpad make this in our opinion the essential portable music device – for Mac or PC users. A gaggle of accessories are also available, including a car power adaptor and battery backup pack from Belkin. The release comes at the same time as the launch of iTunes Music Store – an online service (US only at time of going to press) that provides downloadable songs for a buck a piece.

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The Memory Stick is one of the most popular storage formats for digital cameras and portable devices – from PDAs to MP3 players. However, with a top capacity of only 128MB, it always lagged behind rival storage media. However, the company has recently released a new Pro range, featuring 256MB, 512MB and 1GB models – all with MagicGate copy protection. Measuring at just 21mm(w)x50mm(l)x2.8mm(h), the 1GB Memory Stick costs a whopping £585, with prices for the 256MB and 512MB models coming in at £150 and £300 respectively. If Sony ever releases a pro digital SLR, then these Memory Sticks would come in very useful indeed…

This little beauty weighs in at just 115g and is smaller than a playing card (but not as thin). The innovative lens system slides one group of lenses to the side when you switch the camera off – ensuring the thickness of the camera (at just 20mm) is actually less than the length of its massive 3x optical zoom. With 3.2 megapixel resolution (up to 2048x1536), 11MB built-in memory, the ability to take SD and MMC cards, and a rechargeable Lithium battery, this has taken over from the CyberShot U in our eyes as the ultimate in portable digital cameras. The camera has an abundance of picture modes, along with the ability to shoot time-lapse video. The milled aluminum body looks great, as well.

Here at CA, we see enough printers to start a small bureau, but none have had such an ‘Ahhh!’ appeal as the PhotoSmart 230. Small enough to carry anywhere and with extremely good print quality, the 230 enables you to print borderless onto 4x6-inch paper at 4800x1200dpi – direct from your digital memory card. The front of the printer holds interfaces for CompactFlash type I and II, SmartMedia, Sony Memory Stick, Secure Digital and MultiMedia Cards. The colour LCD display and navigation controls on the top of the unit enable you to preview images on your card before printing them, too.

Sony remains as busy as ever, churning out top kit for creatives in every department. The latest in its line of phones currently on sale from Sony Ericsson is the T310. Like many contemporary phones, the device features a highresolution colour screen and a bolt-on camera attachment, as well as multimedia messaging and a range of games, including the seminal Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4. The now-familiar joystick control enables you to perform all manner of kickflips and ollies while waiting for your latest client (or boss) to phone. What’s more, this mobile blower is extremely cheap at £120 – and looks fantastic. Keep your eyes peeled for the T610, price TBC, coming later in the year – adding, among other things, an internal camera and Bluetooth support.

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BOOKS

TYPOGRAPHIC TALENT AUTHOR Joep Pohlen & Patrick de Hondt PRICE 54 Euros (£39) BOOK Fresh Fonts ISBN 9075084099

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his large coffee-table book doubles both as a discussion of the evolution of digital typography and a catalogue of classic and off-the-wall fonts from the last 15 years. Well-presented with a bronzed cover, bookmark and postcards, Fresh Fonts is more of a luxury item than a necessity, but one that won’t disappoint. The folio-sized book begins with a matter-of-fact introduction to the effect of the digital era on the creation of typefaces, before going on to survey the significant foundries in early typography and their achievements. The book’s emphasis on these early years makes it clear that the

WEB FOR BEGINNERS

MAYA TRAINING

AUTHOR Nick Nettleton PRICE £11 PUBLISHER Thames & Hudson ISBN 1586637134

AUTHORS Shawn Dunn, et al PRICE $343 (£213) PUBLISHER Alias|Wavefront

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ow to Design and Build the Coolest Website in Cyberspace isn’t exactly the catchiest of monikers, but look past the consumer-orientated title and there’s something appealing about this tome (the price for one). The

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early 90s is now widely regarded as a hugely innovative era for most foundries across Europe and the US. It’s an informative look at the history of typography, but one that serious buffs will know the bare bones of already. Still, the ensuing chapters do offer more. The authors have split the typeface arena into seven sections, arranged stylistically, and dedicated the remainder of the book to showcasing fonts that fall into particular forms. Ultra Dry refers to those simple fonts which have legibility as their aim, Hooked encompasses adapted classic fonts, while Next Century covers the futuristic and technical. This catalogue-style list is perfect for browsing a massive range of typefaces from some of the world’s top foundries. Each font is printed in full, with several illustrated over a double-page spread. Names, dates and contact details are listed, too. This generous mix of information and showcase makes it a great all-rounder for a wide range of typography fanatics. It’s available at www.freshfonts.nl.

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basics of the Internet are covered early on, leaving irregular CA contributor Nettleton to get on with the finer points of Web design – assessing the uses of design devices such as frames, animated content and audio/video. The book is full-colour, clearly laid out and easy to navigate. Step-by-step tutorials are interspersed with discussions by the author on the theories of good Web design – and the light-hearted yet confident tone makes things easy to dip into. Intermediates will certainly be able to find something useful, while beginners will enjoy the gradual buildup and introduction of new skills as they build a fictional site under Nettleton’s expert guidance. Pros, though, will find it all too simple. Still, a decent starter for anyone beginning to design for – or porting print designs over to – the Web.

n MEL Fundamentals, its certified training course, Alias has delivered 200 pages of project-based tuition that will give you a solid grasp of the basic functions and possibilities of Maya’s scripting language. However, at £213, this is a disappointing package, particularly given the availability of comprehensive books on the subject for just over ten per cent of the price. From simple UI customisation, through program flow and on to the introduction of Expressions, MEL Fundamentals is a solid resource, but it lacks the depth you’d expect from official training materials costing this much. This title gives you the tools, but it’s very much up to you to continue your study by reading the MEL online documentation and experimenting. In a production setting, the use of custom scripts and plug-ins is what gives that crucial edge to a package. If

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you’re looking for an immediate boost, then, you’ll be disappointed here. But if your ambitions are more modest, this book-and-CD combination will provide a good grounding. It’s available from www.aliaswavefront.com.

Available from all good newsagents. Price £3.50

ILLUSTRATION BY JACEY

[email protected]

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AFFORDABLE INKJETS You don’t have to spend a huge amount to achieve massive performance gains. We pick five of the best A4 colour inkjet printers and put them to the test Reviewing inkjets used to be about looking at printouts from several different models, and saying that one looked grainier than another. Well, those days are long gone. Even scanned at 3000 dots per inch, prints from the five printers we tested over the next few pages all look darn-near perfect in terms of colour solidity. What separates them is how accurately they represent colour and what technique they use to do it. The Canon i470 produces minute two-picolitre ink droplets, while the two Epson models on test – the Stylus Photo 900 and 925 – produce variable drops ranging from four to ten picolitres. The others produce something inbetween. It’s the small droplet sizes that enable the Canon to produce higher quality with less colours, making it cheaper to buy and run. The key battlegrounds for modern printers are speed, extra features and unit price. Now that digital cameras have become so popular and affordable, the way printers handle images from them is increasingly marketed as a selling point. Some accept camera memory cards or have perfect colour matching; others enable you to print camera pictures without attaching the printer to your computer. This phase of technology is still in its infancy, but looks set to become a major selling point in the future. For professionals, however, these features are less likely to matter – you’re going to want to import your photos into your computer for enhancement and modification before printing. Most manufacturers quote their printer’s speed in terms of the fastest possible text-printing performance, via the lowest quality settings. Measuring like that, they can claim ten, 12, even 15 pages per minute. But that doesn’t matter one iota to you – you aren’t considering the printer for its text-printing capabilities. What matters to graphics pros is how long it takes the printer to produce a high-quality image, and measured using that criteria, print speeds increase from seconds per page to minutes. When it comes to price, few professionals are going to haggle over £50 either way, although we were pleasantly surprised by the kind of performance £80 buys you. What we’ve discovered is that there isn’t a great deal of difference between the print quality of our contestants – it’s simply a matter of choosing the model that best suits your needs.

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EPSON STYLUS PHOTO 925 PC AND MAC £200

Buying a digital camera doesn’t mean you want to become a computer expert. With this printer, you don’t have to worry

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n terms of printing capabilities, this device is so close to the Stylus Photo 900, it’s almost indistinguishable. It uses the same ink formulation, the same colour model, and has essentially the same printing engine. So if the printer can produce more or less the same results, in roughly the same time, what’s the difference between the two? The answer lies in the different way they approach digital photos. The 900 does it in a way typical of colour printers; you transfer the images to your computer and then print them out, albeit with greater colour accuracy than most printers. However, the 925 is designed for people CONTACT who don’t necessarily want to connect Epson the printer to a computer, or who don’t 0800 220 546 want to turn their computer on simply to www.epson.co.uk output a digital photo. It has a range of slots on the front, into SYSTEM which you can insert just about every PC 300MHz Pentium ● type of digital camera memory card, 128MB RAM ● 100MB HD including Compact Flash, Smartmedia space ● Win 98+ ● USB and IBM Microdrives. The printer also MAC PowerMac ● 256MB has an LCD panel for selecting images RAM ● OS 8.51+ and specifying print settings. Although you can’t flip through the contents of VERDICT your digital camera’s memory from here, you can print a thumbnail sheet The Stylus Photo 925 is to preview all images before selection. virtually the same as the Alternatively, buy a small, optional 900, and it’s horses for LCD monitor to see the actual photos courses. Unless you before printing – a worthwhile option for need its direct printing someone using the printer standalone. functionality, go for the The Stylus Photo 925 is a little more more versatile 900 model. costly to run than its stablemate, and it definitely lacks the 900’s ability to print on CDs and thick card. It’s supposedly about seven per cent slower too, although we found it to be fractionally faster for graphics. If you don’t need to print photos directly, without the use of your PC or Mac, then we’d advise you to check out the 900, our Group Test winner, on page 100.

★★★

HP PHOTOSMART 7150 PC AND MAC £115

Fast, high-quality printing is a big draw, but with the 7150 it comes at a cost

H

P always argued that resolution isn’t the primary indicator of print quality, obstinately pursuing its Photo Resolution Enhancement Technology (PhotoRET) despite rivals’ misgivings. Now that everyone has started following the same route, the company can feel vindicated. At 4800x1200, the 7150 clearly doesn’t suffer in the resolution department. It also boasts the highest gamut (range of printable colours) in our Group Test – despite what others may claim, CONTACT the output from the 7150 is smoother, HP with less banding, fewer dithering 08705 474 747 artefacts and generally ‘punchier’. www.hp.com/uk Still, this is the only model that switches photo-enhancement on as SYSTEM standard within its drivers. While this PC Pentium II ● 128MB doesn’t provide more appealing photos, ● ● RAM 500MB HD Win 98 it does reduce colour accuracy; if this is a ● USB port concern, you’ll want to turn it off. MAC G3 ● 128MB RAM ● As with the Epson 925 and the Canon 500MB RAM ● OS 9 or i470, the PhotoSmart can print digital above camera memory photos without you VERDICT having to turn on your computer. However, it does opt for a different approach, connecting to cameras via Although the 7150 USB. Any camera using integrated produces lovely results memory will still work, of course, but and is inexpensive to buy, unless it has USB you’ll have to transfer it’s pretty costly to run the pictures to your computer and print and has minor ergonomic in the old-fashioned way. drawbacks that could With a 180-degree bend in the irritate over time. standard paper path, the 7150 can handle paper up to 240gsm, which is the equivalent of light card. Because the paper tray is enclosed, though, it makes refilling just a tad less convenient. The 7150 has a seven-colour print process. For text and spot colour, you can use the standard CMYK ink cartridges, but for photos you can add an additional light colour cartridge for greater subtlety. Unfortunately, in this mode it becomes the most expensive printer in our Group Test to run by over 50 per cent.

★★★

98 Computer Arts_July 2003

Group Test

CANON I470D PC AND MAC £175

It’s amazing how much you can fit into a small package, as Canon’s compact if overly noisy printer demonstrates

F

or photo printing, most manufacturers have moved to a six-shade colour model or higher, employing pale versions of the ink primaries to increase the palette and provide more subtle colouring. We initially assumed this model to be six-colour, and when comparing the output of the printers in our test, were initially a little disappointed to note that the i470D produces faint but visible dithering in some areas of the image. Given its 4800x1200 resolution, it didn’t really seem acceptable for a six-colour printer. Then we checked the specifications again – this is a four-colour printer, not a CONTACT six-colour model! The image quality is Canon 08705 143 723 almost as good as its more advanced www.canon.co.uk peers’, and only close scrutiny reveals its inadequacies. This is excellent news, SYSTEM because it means that the printer is more PC Pentium ● 64MB RAM economical than its rivals. Although the ● 50MB HD space • Win 98+ cost per page appears to be 6.6 pence, ● USB that figure assumes all inks are used MAC PowerMac ● 64MB equally for each image. If one colour is RAM ● 100MB HD space ● used twice as much as the others, it can OS 8.6+ result in massive wastage – 30 per cent in the case of this printer, but 40 per cent VERDICT with five-colour printers. In other words, you’d be throwing away more than It’s fast, compact, offers £10’s-worth of ink with some devices. If the most versatile range of the printers used separate ink cartridges, digital camera connectivity there wouldn’t be any wastage, but at and delivers great quality this end of the market, the printers all use for a four-colour device. combined cartridges. However, with its noisy This model is the most versatile in and vigorous mechanism, terms of its handling of digital cameras. the i470 is not one to use Not only can it accept all the usual while you meditate... memory cards, but it also offers direct USB connection like HP’s PhotoSmart – the best of both worlds. It’s the fastest in our Group Test, too, but makes a hell of a racket during printing. For the price, Canon is offering a clear choice: optimal quality or maximum versatility, but not both. If you choose quality, look elsewhere; if you choose versatility, the i470D excels.

★★★

LEXMARK Z65 MAC £76

As the cheapest printer in our Group Test, you might not have high hopes for the Z65. Prepare to be pleasantly surprised

L

exmark has never been one of the big hitters in the colour inkjet market, and with its Z65 coming in at a remarkably wallet-friendly £76, you can’t be blamed for having low expectations. So we were genuinely surprised when it turned out to be quite an accomplished printer, despite limited functionality. Like the Canon i470D, this unit uses a four-colour print process, but unlike that printer, the Z65 doesn’t produce quality in the same league as the six-colour models; it’s reasonable, good even, but clearly inferior. The most noticeable difference is simply in the printer’s gamut. If you print a standard colour wheel, there’s more visible banding, and a coarser transition from one colour to another. This gives CONTACT the images a slightly saturated, highLexmark 08704 440 044 contrast appearance. www.lexmark.co.uk The Z65 includes things such as automatic paper-type detection, so it SYSTEM adjusts its colour and ink density settings PC 233MHz Pentium ● without you having to manually specify 128MB RAM ● 300MB HD the paper you wish to use. It also autospace ● Win 95+ aligns the heads to keep your images ● MAC 300MHz G3 128MB looking sharp. The printer felt a little RAM • 40MB HD space ● cheap and plasticky, and because of OS 8.6+ the way it holds the paper it felt as though it was about to jam at any VERDICT minute (it never actually did). Although it claims a maximum speed Don’t dismiss the Z65 of 15 pages per minute for colour prints, because it’s cheap. This is and 21 for mono text, its graphics speed an ideal printer for people was the slowest of all our Group Test who aren’t desperate models. This only goes to show that for perfect quality or quoting fast, low-quality text printing accuracy. Instead, it speeds is a disingenuous way to give out offers low running costs a printer’s speed. and fast text printing. At 6.55 pence per page, this printer provides the lowest cost per page, and if you opt for high-yield colour cartridges, that price falls to just over five pence per page. Its good text-printing performance and low running cost make it ideal for DTP rather than graphical applications.

★★★★

Computer Arts_July 2003

99

WINNER

EPSON STYLUS PHOTO 900 PC AND MAC £180

Versatile paper handling, reasonable operating costs and superb overall quality are the key factors that win the 900 our top spot. That and an attractive initial price point CONTACT Epson 0800 220 546 www.epson.co.uk

SYSTEM PC 300MHz Pentium ● 128MB RAM ● 100MB HD ● Win 95+ MAC PowerMac ● 250MB RAM ● 15MB HD ● OS 8.1+

VERDICT

★★★★★ It’s not the fastest or the cheapest by any means, but if you have only one colour printer in your studio, the Stylus Photo 900 is massively versatile.

100 Computer Arts_July 2003

E

pson printers have been winning our Group Tests, virtually unopposed since our first issue, and while it would be great for graphics pros if the market was flooded with high-quality printers, in reality it’s difficult to pip an Epson printer to the post. There are excellent printers available, of course, and we scrutinised the merits of the competition with a fine-tooth comb. Every printer beat the 900 in at least one area, be it speed, performance or ease of use, but no other printer had that delicate balance between all these features. The 900 is the largest and heaviest of all the printers in our roundup, although it will still fit easily onto the average desktop. Unlike the 925, whose size is taken up with card readers and LCD screens, the 900 has no such special features – if you want to print digital photos, transfer them to your computer and print them from there! However, what the printer does have is the most versatile paper-handling of the five models we looked at. Of course, it can handle all the different paper sizes up to A4, starting from 4x6-inch photo sheets. It can also handle 4-inch rolls for printing panoramic or banner images. Where it starts to get really interesting is when you see that it can deal with media up to a massive 2.5mm thick. This means that, if you need to print marketing material or display images for galleries or presentations, you can print directly onto the mounting board without wasting time sticking ordinary prints on the board manually. An even more significant effect of the 900’s straight paper path and heavyweight media handling is the fact that it can print directly onto printable CD-R and DVD-R

discs. These cost a little more than normal blank media, but you don’t have to mess around sticking labels onto discs; nor is there any risk of the labels peeling off inside anyone’s drive. More importantly, it enables you to create the most professional-looking discs short of a professional replication house. Although the printer doesn’t appear to have as wide a gamut as the HP PhotoSmart, it does offer a better range of colour-matching options. Its ICM drivers provide good colour accuracy, enabling you to use the printer in all but the most colour-critical environments. These drivers produce more accurate results with the pure shades of drawings and diagrams, rather than the more varied palette of photographs. The 900 has a top resolution of 5760x720 dots per inch, and it uses a variable dot size ranging upwards from four picolitres. Although this is coarser than the Canon i470D, the Epson does produce smoother non-primary colours. At 6.76 pence per page, the printer’s running costs aren’t anything to get upset about. However, because the 900 uses a five-colour cartridge, when one colour runs out, any remaining ink in the other wells is wasted (because all five colours must be replaced at once). Like all modern printers, it has a separate black cartridge to keep the cost of text printing down to a minimum. The Stylus Photo doesn’t include any form of card slot for digital camera memory, but it does offer additional Print Image Matching, which is a software calibration technique developed in conjunction with the camera manufacturers to ensure the highest levels of colour accuracy.

Group Test

MODEL

EPSON STYLUS PHOTO 925 HP PHOTOSMART 7150

CANON I470D

LEXMARK Z65

EPSON STYLUS PHOTO 900

PRINT QUALITY (1 = best)

3

1

4

5

2

GAMUT (1 = best)

4

1

2

5

3

COLOUR MANAGEMENT

Epson colour-matching system, ICM, sRGB, ColorSync 2.0

HP PhotoRET IV, Digital image enhancement technology

ICM 2.0, ColorSync 2.5, EXIF Print

sRGB, sRGB64, ICM 2.0, ColorSync (Mac)

Epson Print Image matching II, ICM

RESOLUTION (dpi)

5760x720

4800x1200

4800x1200

4800x1200

5760x720

PRINT SPEED (8x5; best quality)

4m 46s

3m 34s

3m 22s

5m 41s

4m 47s

PRINT SPEED (A4 colour text) Up to 8.5ppm

Up to 14ppm

Up to 12ppm

Up to 15ppm

Up to 8.8ppm

PRINT SPEED (A4 mono text) Up to 8.5ppm

Up to 11ppm

Up to 18ppm

Up to 21ppm

Up to 9ppm

COLOUR MODEL

Six-colour

Seven-colour

Four-colour

Four-colour

Six-colour

CARTRIDGE COST Mono Colour Photo

£22.32 £16.45 Not needed

Not needed £29.37 £25.27

£22.32 £21.14 £29.50 (£36.24 high yield)

£17.62 £6.45 Not needed

£15.27 Not needed £10.56

PAGE COST (in pence) Mono 5% Colour 5% per colour Photo 5% per colour

6.76p 3.66p 6.6p

6.76p 7.34p 4.21p

5.9p 12.63p 6.55p (5.12p high yield)

8p 4.96p 6.55p

4.03p 8p 6.6p

PRINTABLE AREA OR MARGINS

210x297mm with no margins

216x356mm banners

210x297mm with no margins

445x305mm banners

210x297mm with no margins

PAPER WEIGHT

255gsm

240gsm

270gsm

270gsm

255gsm or 2.5mm card

LIGHTFAST

25 years

73 years

25 years

Not quoted

25 years

INTERFACE

USB

USB

USB

USB

Parallel & USB

DIMENSIONS (HxWxD)

228x492x290mm

160x475x390mm

393x258x218mm

331x445x533mm

302x493x546mm

WEIGHT

6.4kg

5.2kg

4.0kg

4.93kg

6.9kg

PRICE

£200

£115

£175

£76

£180

SCORE

★★★

★★★

★★★

★★★★

★★★★★

CONCLUSION

How do you choose a winner when each model offers such a different combination of benefits? By reflecting on its entire feature-set, naturally We agonised for ages over which inkjet to award first place, and considered every factor: price, performance, ergonomics, reliability, and more. We also looked at each printer’s unique attributes: its ability to print directly onto CDs and DVDs; at automatic paper sensing, so that the unit always selects the right paper; at automatic alignment, to ensure the heads are in optimal positioning; and at its ability to handle a variety of paper weights. Even then, our choice was far from clear. In the end, we asked ourselves a simple question: who are you and what do you want to do with the printer? That made things easier. Generally speaking, CA readers are not the kind of people to quibble over a few pence per page in operating costs, and, by and large, you’re unlikely to have a desperate need for direct printing capability, although many of you will undoubtedly find it valuable on occasion. What matters the most, we suspect, is print quality, ease of use, dependability and print speed.

With that in mind, it was easier to discard some of the models on test – namely the Canon (far too noisy), the Z65 (couldn’t produce a broad enough palette of colours) and the PhotoSmart 7150 (good quality, but too expensive to run). This left the two Epson printers, alike in performance, quality – and price. Versatility therefore became the deciding factor. The 925 accepts many digital camera cards and offers Direct Printing, whereas the 900 can print on CDs and thick card, and has a different type of digital photo processing. Ultimately, then, we felt that versatile media handling was more important than computerfree digital photo printing.

Computer Arts_July 2003

101

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EXPOSURE MOJOWORLD 2.0 FOR WINNING ENTRIES Our favourite entry to Exposure each issue will be featured here on the opening spread, and will receive a copy of Pandromeda’s MojoWorld, the 3D planet creation tool. This sophisticated application, worth £158, models and renders detailed landscapes limited only by your imagination. Reviewed in Computer Arts issue 79, we gave MojoWorld 2.0 four-and-a-half out of five for its flexibility, accessibility and originality. Impressive results – and there’s nothing else like it in the market, making it perfect for adding a new perspective to your illustrations. INFO www.pandromeda.com

SUBMISSIONS: Exposure Computer Arts 30 Monmouth Street Bath, BA1 2BW United Kingdom Turn to page 112 for full details

LEGAL BITS One copy of MojoWorld can be won per issue. The editor’s decision is final, there are no cash alternatives, and no other correspondence will be entered into.

WINNER 1 NAME Neal Murren JOB Student, Salford University CONTACT 07900 642 606, [email protected] SOFTWARE Photoshop, Illustrator IMAGE TITLES A Day In The Life, Salford, At The Fair, Down and Out “These are some examples of my early work. They begin as photos traced in Illustrator, then I distort them by photocopying, faxing or using solvent transfer. I then add the vector elements in Photoshop. I’m on the lookout for a graphic design placement this summer, in the Manchester or Northampton area.”

110 Computer Arts_July 2003

Exposure

Computer Arts_July 2003 111

GET EXPOSED Send your work to us, along with an explanation of your techniques and software, the titles of each piece, your telephone number and email. Images should be sent as PC or Mac TIFF or JPEG files, on CDROM or Zip disks. A hard copy is a great help. We will endeavour to return all entries that provide an SAE. All contributions are submitted on the basis of a non-exclusive worldwide licence to publish, both in printed and electronic form. Post hi-res files for print to: Exposure, Computer Arts, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath BA1 2BW. Every effort is made to ensure that your work is returned safely. However, all contributions are submitted at the risk of the owner. Future Publishing Limited cannot accept responsibility for them either in transit or while in Future’s possession. If this is the only copy of your work, do NOT send it in!

1 NAME Paul Sinclair JOB Freelance Designer CONTACT 07870 961 078, [email protected]. SOFTWARE Photoshop IMAGE TITLES F8 “The corporate work I do in the day doesn’t give me real freedom, so I do the fun stuff in my spare time. It’s the sort of work I like to look at – something that has an instant aesthetic hit and substance.”

2 NAME Dan Seddon JOB Freelance Designer CONTACT 07973 654 277, [email protected], SOFTWARE Photoshop, 3ds max IMAGE TITLES Lapieta, Vertigo “When I started out, I was bogged down with layers, trying to recreate the complicated imagery I‘d seen around. Months of experimentation later, I now believe that the simpler image is the most effective.”

3 NAME Ella Tjader JOB Freelance Illustrator CONTACT 07900 666 959, [email protected], SOFTWARE Illustrator, Photoshop IMAGE TITLES Bar and Woman “My ideas come from everywhere – images on TV, wedding pictures of my friend, flowers in the garden. I use a variety of tools to decide how to develop the idea – sketch, scan, watercolours and so on. I’d describe my work as cheeky and humorous, strong in colour and composition.”

112 Computer Arts_July 2003

1

Exposure

2

3

Computer Arts_July 2003 113

RETROSPECTIVE ISSUE 20 JULY1998

EDITORIAL 01225 442 244 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]

CD PROBLEMS 01225 822 743 [email protected]

The first iMac, Photoshop 5 and scanned bras – we had it all

T

he hybrid eye-flower thingy that graced this month’s cover might’ve been odd, but at least it enabled us to tie in a pleasingly cheesy coverline to go with the issue’s humongous features on 3D skills. Inside, with an understatement that bordered on the missing-the-boatism, we devoted about six words to the launch of the iMac – the machine that would turn Apple’s fortunes around. In a further misguided bout, we predicted Mac OS X would appear in 1999, preceded by Rhapsody. Well, y’know, we must just have had other things on our mind that day... Up-and-coming multimedia outfit Abbey Road was profiled (didn’t it used to be famous for something else?) as was Paul “Two” Towers. We also breathlessly introduced you to, ahem, “the explosive features of Fireworks” and reviewed Photoshop 5. Guess what score that got? Why, how remarkably prescient of you. Finally, the second part of the Website-building article cheerfully advised: “We won’t be stuck with GIF and JPEG forever... There are already several formats emerging that are set to challenge standards.” So where are they then?

Contributions from Jacey, Jason Arber, Frank Bartucca, Mat Broomfield, Michael Burns, Simon Danaher, Christian Darkin, Dan Goodleff, Chris Gregory, Christopher Kenworthy, Derek Lea, MagicTorch, Vicky Mitchard, Ed Ricketts, Chris Schmidt, Ray Smith, Mark Sparrow, The Identikal Corporation PHOTOGRAPHY Louise Broom PRINT Cradley Print, UK REPRO Radstock Reproductions Ltd

CONTACT Computer Arts magazine, Future Publishing, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, BA1 2BW 01225 732 361 ISDN 01225 789 293 Overseas subscriptions +44 1458 271 100

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

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

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THE FUTURE NETWORK ROGER PARRY non-executive chairman GREG INGHAM chief executive COLIN MORRISON chief operating officer & managing director UK JOHN BOWMAN group finance director

FLASHBACK

ABOVE Which

cheeky chap created these images? It’s none other than Richard May, now of Pixelsurgeon, making his first CA appearance.

RIGHT The

airbrush talents of Jamie Lancaster, complete with scanned brassiere.

114 Computer Arts_July 2003

Regular readers of Computer Arts will know that we started life as a bi-monthly mag back in 1995, when the industry was a very different place indeed. Software has developed, technology has outperformed our expectations and expertise has moved on considerably. On this page, we go back 65 issues in time and flick through our well preserved copy of CA from July 1998…

Tel +44 1225 442244 www.thefuturenetwork.plc.uk Computer Arts is a member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations Jan-Dec 2002: 30,024 Computer Arts is the registered trademark of Future Publishing Ltd. All Rights Reserved. All trademarks and copyrights in this issue are recognised, and are acknowledged where possible. If we have failed to credit your copyright please contact us – we’re happy to correct any oversight. Material submitted is accepted on the basis of a worldwide right to publish in printed or electronic form. All contents © Future Publishing 2003. Future Publishing is part of The Future Network PLC. The Future Network produces carefully targeted specialist magazines for people who share a passion. We aim to satisfy that passion by creating titles offering value for money, reliable information, smart buying advice, and which are a pleasure to read. Today we publish more than 90 magazines in the UK, US, France and Italy. Over 80 international editions of our magazines are also published in 28 other countries across the world. The Future Network PLC is a public company quoted on the London Stock Exchange (symbol: FNET).