Computer Arts (June 2004)

Citation preview

CREATING REALISTIC SKIN

6

with 3D effects and Photoshop

ON TEST

Maya 6, Cinema 4D 8.5 DVD Workshop 2 THE WORLD’S BEST-SELLING CREATIVE MAGAZINE

T R A L I C STEN

PHOTOSHOP

CREATE OUR COVER Tutoria starts p2l2

and more... ts c e ff e t in a p ts, spray Graffiti cut-ou

ICONS THAT WORK!

Readable yet stylish - the secret to making great icons

ILLUSTRATOR

TRACING SKETCHES Stunning character work using paths and fills

PHOTOSHOP

ELECTRIC DREAMS Bring photography to life with cool light effects

DREAMWEAVER

INSIDER SECRETS How to take control of Web text and images Printed in the UK

Outside the UK and Éire £6 C$19.95 JUNE 2004 £6

06 9 771360 537024

EDITORIAL

EDITORIAL 01225 442 244 GILLIAN CARSON EDITOR [email protected] RODDY LLEWELLYN ART EDITOR [email protected] VICKI MITCHARD DESIGNER [email protected] JON ALONGI CD EDITOR [email protected] MATT GALLIMORE SENIOR CD EDITOR [email protected] JEN WAGNER ONLINE EDITOR [email protected]

HELLO! Welcome to the latest issue of Computer Arts. You may notice a few changes this month.The person writing this column for one! Some of you may know me from my time as editor of Computer Arts Projects, and some of you may even remember when I was editor of Create magazine. But if you don’t recall either, then hello! We’re really excited to bring you a new look mag this issue. We’ve rearranged some of the sections and increased the number of tutorials to bring you fantastic value for money. We’ve also commissioned some top-notch illustrators and designed some stylish new icons that will make it easier for you to find your favourite section. We’re really happy with the result, but it’s only a success if it works. So come on, tell us what you think. Until next time...

CD PROBLEMS 01225 822 743 [email protected]

CONTRIBUTIONS FROM Ryan Carson, Dylan Channon, Helen Dalley, Simon Danaher, Emma Geary, Dan Goodleff, Sebastian Lester, Derek Lea, Scott Hansen, Identikal, Jacey, Coneyl Jay, Vicki Mitchard, Mark Ramshaw, Ed Ricketts, twelve:ten PHOTOGRAPHY Katherine Lane-Simms PRINT BGP REPRO Radstock Reproductions Ltd

CONTACT Computer Arts magazine, Future Publishing, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath BA1 2BW 01225 442 244 ISDN 01225 789 293 SUBSCRIPTION QUERIES 0870 444 8455 OVERSEAS SUBSCRIPTIONS +44 870 444 8455 or EMAIL [email protected]

GILLIAN CARSON EDITOR [email protected] twelveten

ADVERTISING 01225 442244 ANDREW BRAIN advertising manager [email protected] GEORGE LUCAS senior sales executive [email protected] MELISSA WATKINS classified sales executive [email protected]

ILLUSTRATION IN THE MAG DEREK LEA

DIGITAL DIVISION

Our stunning Stencil Art cover was done by Computer Arts’ regular Derek Lea using Photoshop. In a departure from his usual style, Derek captures the look and feel of urban graffiti. Visit his site or past issues for more information. INFO: www.dereklea.com

JOHN WEIR publishing director JAMES BINNS publisher FIONA TULLY marketing manager CLARE TOVEY production manager PAUL MCINTYRE group art editor SARAH WILLIAMS software copyright coordinator

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

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

twelve:ten

BD4D

Twelve:ten produced this illustration using FreeHand, for our Icons tutorial. INFO: www.twelveten.com

Studio Output’s illustration is chopped up and turned into a Website by BD4D. INFO: www.bd4d.com

Coneyl Jay

Dylan Channon

Coneyl uses Photoshop to create some cool light effects in his illustration. URL: www.coneyljay.com

A Photoshop-style illo done entirely in InDesign EMAIL: dylan.channon @futurenet.co.uk

Emma Geary

Scott Hansen

These striking characters were created in Illustrator, then imported into Flash. INFO: www.anarkitty.co.uk

Evocative and recognisable –Scott’s illo is done in Photoshop and Illustrator. INFO: www.iso50.com

Simon Danaher

Identikal

Create 3D skin with Photoshop and Cinema 4D. EMAIL: simon. [email protected]

Font masters Identikal produced this illo using FreeHand and Font Creator. INFO: www.identikal.com

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

THE FUTURE NETWORK ROGER PARRY non-executive chairman GREG INGHAM chief executive ROB PRICE chief operating officer & managing director UK JOHN BOWMAN group finance director Tel +44 1225 442 244 www.thefuturenetwork.plc.uk Computer Arts is a member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations Jan-Dec 2003: 22,888 Computer Arts is the registered trademark of Future Publishing Ltd. All Rights Reserved. All trademarks and copyrights in this issue are recognised, and are acknowledged where possible. If we have failed to credit your copyright please contact us – we’re happy to correct any oversight. Material submitted is accepted on the basis of a worldwide right to publish in printed or electronic form. All contents © Future Publishing 2004. Future Publishing is part of The Future Network PLC. The Future Network produces carefully targeted specialist magazines for people who share a passion. We aim to satisfy that passion by creating titles offering value for money, reliable information, smart buying advice, and which are a pleasure to read. Today we publish more than 90 magazines in the UK, US, France and Italy. Over 80 international editions of our magazines are also published in 28 other countries across the world. The Future Network PLC is a public company quoted on the London Stock Exchange (symbol: FNET).

Ë

CONTACT Computer Arts magazine, Future Publishing, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath BA1 2BW PHONE: 01225 442 244 EMAIL: ca.mail.futurenet.co.uk SUBSCRIPTIONS: 0870 444 8455 OVERSEAS: +44 870 444 8455

June 2004

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CON CO ONTENTS NT NTE EN NT NT TS S

JUNE ISSUE 97

CA INTERVIEW

REVIEWS P88 GROUP TEST

With digital SLRs now coming in at well under £1000, has the compact had its day? We find out.

E-1

EOS 300D

S2 pro

D70

P80 MATCHMOVER PRO 3.0 Excellent automated tracking and plenty of manual control – but it’ll cost you…

P82 PRIMATTE 2.0 More powerful than Cinematte and cheaper than Multimatte, Primatte has great chromamasking.

P83 CINEMA 4D 8.5 Making great images is even easier now, thanks to Cinema 4D 8.5

P32 LESS RAIN

We caught up with design agency Less Rain to ask them how they get and keep big clients

TUTORIALS P68 INDESIGN

Create Photoshop-style layered effects with just one image in InDesign .

P64 DREAMWEAVER Mastering Cascading Style Sheets will make your Website more flexible - and future-proof it en route.

P84 JUGGLOR V2 Now you can distribute your content online truly effectively.

P84 MOJOPACK Realistic planets can be yours with MojoPack.

P85 MAYA 6 We get to grips with this new release. All new effects with Maya 6.

TUTORIALS FOR 99P Buy Computer Arts tutorials online for just 99p at www.computerarts.co.uk/tutorials

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April 2004

P52 PHOTOSHOP Create these cool light effects with Photoshop CS. We’ll show you how the illusion of light can interact three-dimensionally with a figure.

ON THE CD This month’s CD has a typographic theme. We have three full type-editing programs, plus all the fonts you’ll ever need.

ON THE COVER APRIL ISSUE 97 P13 STENCIL ART

Graffiti cut-outs, spray paint effects and more! Recreate that gritty urban stencil feel with our Photoshop tutorial– and a little help from a photocopier... .

P38 ICONS THAT WORK

CREATE A FONT Turn your handwriting into a unique TrueType font with the help of Font Creator (PC only). Then use it to create this stunning illustration by Identikal.

Stylish and readable icons by twelve:ten

P56 TRACING SKETCHES Stunning character work

with Illustrator

FONTCREATOR

P52 ELECTRIC DREAMS

P64 INSIDER SECRETS

Cool light effects in Photoshop

Taking control of Web text and images with CSS

FEATURES P38 ICONS

Creating stunning icons that really work. twelve:ten show you how in our practical feature.

P56 ILLUSTRATOR

Transform character sketches into sleek, full-blown Web graphics, using Illustrator and Flash.

P46 PUNK DESIGN The man behind the sex pistols artwork, Jamie Reid is still influencing designers today.

Discover why High-Logic’s typeface-creating program has garnered so much praise. Use the full app on your CD in conjunction with our hands-on tutorial.

1565 FREE FONTS Fed up of Helvetica? Bored of Times New Roman? Then enliven your suitcase with the 1565 fonts provided free by some of the best designers in the business.

CINEMA 4D 8.5 (demo) This latest iteration of Maxon’s 3D modelling superapp enjoys a rack of new features – boot up our demo for the hands-on experience.

SUBSCRIBE! TURN TO PAGE 44

P114 CV P60 PHOTOSHOP AND CINEMA 4D Create realistic flesh tones in Cinema 4D and add DIY textures with a little help from Photoshop.

Derek Bacon, a self-taught freelance designer in profile.

Subscribe today and get a free Photoshop book Richard Lynch’s The Hidden Power of Photoshop CS You can save £28 on the shop price! Call us on 0870 444 8455 or go to: www.computerarts.co.uk

April 2004

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EXPOSURE

EXPOSURE Send your work to Computer Arts and be seen by thousands! 1 NICHOLAS ROUGEUX JOB Graphic Designer CONTACT www.c82.net/[email protected] SOFTWARE Ultra Fractal, Photoshop

1. Ambition “This image encourages the viewers that anything is attainable if they have the determination to work for it”. 2. Celestial Awakening “This depicts the birth of a new celestial body under the watchful eye of the surrounding universe”.

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June 2004

EXPOSURE

To find out more about this section, please go to www.computerarts.co.uk/gallery/

3 3. Frostbitten “Here I have shown representation of the icy touch of a sharp wind in the dead of winter”. 4. Growth “This shows that great things can come from the smallest ideas with infinite possibilities. Everyone has potential”. 5. Reverb “Here I have displayed the many different forms of sound, and the emotions that can accompany them”.

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EXPOSURE

1

HELEN TURNER

JOB Freelance Illustrator CONTACT turnerpictures@aol. com, 0777 9583063 SOFTWARE Photoshop

1. Out on the Prowl “I created this illustration for a competition set by Dazed & Confused. This character was meant to be the human representation of an alley cat: sly and mischievous”.

2. Alley Cat “Another illustration for the same competition in which you were challenged to show how beauty is in the street . I wanted to show nature in an urban environment and how people can act on their animal instincts”.

3. Prey “An entry for the same competition. I wanted to show how the interaction of people on a night out could be interpreted as animal mating rituals”.

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June 2004

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EXPOSURE

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VINCENT CHONG JOB Illustrator and Photographer CONTACT www.vincentchong-art. co.uk/[email protected] SOFTWARE Photoshop IMAGE TITLES 1. Butterfly dream, 2. Duality, 3. Suffering 1. Butterfly Dream “The idea for this image was inspired by the following quote I’d read, ‘Once I dreamed I was a butterfly, and now I no longer know whether I am Chang-Tzu, who dreamed I was a butterfly, or whether I am a butterfly dreaming that I am Chang-Tzu.’” 2. Duality “An expression of the concept of ‘duality’ – whether we will discover a soul when we peel away the layers of the material body.” 3. Suffering “The aim of this piece was to create a striking image that would reflect the title of Suffering and provoke an emotional response.”

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

June 2004

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LETTERS… BLACK MAGIC AT WORK? On the basis of the promised free software ‘Blackmagic’, I purchased the February 2004 issue of Computer Arts recently (it takes a while to reach Australia). Before I brought the magazine, I checked the details of the Blackmagic Business Edition free software, said to be an ‘Exclusive Full Product’. The offer wasn’t limited to UK and there wasn’t a time limit on the offer, but you did state a limitation in the case of the Photoshop CS software, ie it was time limited 30 day demo. When I tried to register the software as stated in your

magazine, however, I was disappointed find it was not available as stated, ie the registration link ‘www. blackmagic-color.com/fpt.html’ did not exist and a visit to www. blackmagic-color.com offered no help unless I wanted to download a trial version or buy. I can understand that Blackmagic may limit their offer to the UK only, or have a time limit on registration of the free software or have an expiry date on the upgrade offer but I consider that not to advise of such limitations in your magazine is

tantamount to fraud or at best sloppy work. As I can’t be certain that the software offered with your magazine isn’t restricted in some way, I will not be purchasing the magazine again. I will probably not buy Blackmagic or recommend it to any one because I feel NeuralTek accepted your published conditions and they have failed to support their offer of free software. John Shaw Good news, John - Blackmagic is

A SHORTCUT

TAKE A CLOSER LOOK

I’m emailing you to see what is going on with your Shortcut Collector Cards, as I’ve not been able to find mine. I’ve been reading your magazine plus sister mags Computers Arts Projects and 3D World. My local newsagency gets them in airfreighted to me and I recently received the cards that came with 3D World, but I haven’t found the ones in the last few issues of Computer Arts. I haven’t received the additional bonus Macromedia issues either. Ryan Abbott, GRP Design

I recently purchased a subscription to Computer Arts the online version of your magazine, as I quite often get the printed version and have enjoyed and learned from your publication for many years now. The thing is, I’m having trouble reading the text with your special browser. Is it possible to get a PDF version? If not could I get a prorated refund? I’ve tried everything to get the typeface large enough to read, even change the resolution of my monitor, but nothing helped. Ann Davis

Unfortunately, neither the shortcut cards nor the Macromedia supplements were available to our overseas readers.

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April June2004 2004

available, it’s just that you are entering the URL incorrectly - colour is spelled with a ‘u’, not without as you mentioned. Also, when you click on the free registration link, the username and password should be entered all in lowercase - as xpact20. Hope this helps.

We’re sorry to hear you’ve been having problems, Ann. Have you tried using the zoom tool (magnifying glass with a plus sign) situated in the toolbar at the top of the browser? Finally, if you go to Tools > Zinio Reader Options, you can opt to change the zoom strength to either twothirds or one-third of the page view. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you’re still not satisfied with the browser.

WOT NO LINKS? Congratulations on publishing the best creative arts mag out there. I recently subscribed to the digital edition of Computer Arts via Zinio. One of the things that adds a lot of value to the magazine for me is the CD packed full of great apps and extras. While the project tutorial files are available with the digital edition, there are no links for downloading the CD content. This is a big disappointment for me, especially since there was no way of knowing that the CD content wouldn’t be made available until after I subscribed, and even then I had to contact Zinio customer service to find out for sure. Two solutions come to mind for

DON’T ON THE CDMISS ISSUE 98

NEXT ISSUE IN addressing this issue 1) Include links to downloads of the CD content (which would be great); 2) Inform potential subscribers upfront on the Zinio site that the CD content won’t be included in the subscription for the digital edition. I love your magazine, and I’ll subscribe to it whether or not the CD content is made available to me - it has become a valuable resource for me in my work as a game producer and designer. The digital edition is ideal as well, since I spend more time in front of the computer than in an armchair reading, and the immediacy of being able to click on a URL on the digital pages and go right to the site is fantastic. Matt Sughrue

PHOTOSHOP

WOODBLOCK EFFECT

I Love Dust shows you how to create this stunning woodblock overlay effect

HIGHLIGHTS

Thanks for your letter Matt. You’ll be glad to hear that the CD files are now downloadable on all new Zinio editions. At the beginning of each tutorial there will be a link in the pdf document that will enable you to download the required tutorial files.

THE SWEET TASTE OF CA I couldn’t have staged it better if I wanted to. I have a new dog, Barney, a three year old beagle and the other day he got his first taste of CA. As the postie popped it through the door, he snapped at it and destroyed the Back up kit in one go. Data vs Beagle - no contest. John Rodgers

CA INTERVIEW

RATHERGOOD

FLASH

CA chats to Joel Veitch, the creative star behind the Switch/Maestro TV advert.

Electrotank shows you how to create intricate illustrations using Macromedia Flash.

ONLINE ILLUSTRATION

GROUPTEST - SCANNERS We put the best five flatbed scanners to the test in our exclusive round-up. Find out where to spend your money next issue!

ON TEST

Thanks for sending the pic in, John. Seems your beagle has good, er, taste. Sorry! If you send us your postal address we will replace the disc.

ZBrush 2 Final Cut Pro HD IBM Workstation Vegas 5 DVD editor Sapphire OSX Plug-ins Opus 4 Toon Boom Studio 2.5

ON THE CD FULL SOFTWARE WIREFUSION

Create exciting interactive 3D Web content with the full versions of WireFusion 3.2 and the powerful 3D add-on WF3D 2.0

ON SALE 10TH JUNE June 2004

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NEWS

NEWS

DE H FI IG NI H TI ON

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

P14 HD SOFTWARE Adobe and Apple unveil their latest wares at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show in Las Vegas. Find out why you should be excited about the high-definition future.

3D

AP P

P15 STRATA 3D CX

FIND OUT MORE AT www.computerarts.co.uk LEAD STORY

APPLE vs ADOBE FOR YOUR VIDEO

Venerable 3D design app Strata 3D is undergoing a metamorphosis – to become Strata 3D CX. But will its exciting new set of features and extended compatibility come at a price you can afford?

ON LI NE

P16 WEBSITES

AN IM AT IO N

Check out the latest sites that caught the Computer Arts’ roving eye. This month: Steamboy, BD4D, Newstoday, Flight 404, Pirates Sites and Simple Things. Boot up your browser and try them out.

P16 SHOW OFF Canadian animation house DKP Effects has created what’s being touted as the first CG-animated prime-time show. But can Game Over do for CG what The Simpsons did for traditional cel animation?

DV DRW

P17 MORE STORAGE Sony releases two new DVD-RW drives that exploit the extra storage power of dual-layered DVDs. If you want to store 8.5GB on a single DVD, then these could be just what you’re looking for.

OP IN IO N

P18 OPINION

GO ..

For Pixelsurgeon’s Jason Arber, engaging in ‘creative dialogue’ with colleagues after hours, pint in hand, is as important for his creative well-being as sitting at home staring at his monitor.

M US T

P18 ADOBE LIVE 2004 On 26-27 May, Adobe Live 2004 hits the Olympia 2 Conference Centre in London. Expect new software, new tutorials and plenty of expert advice.

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June 2004

NAB sees two software giants unveil slew of new HD products At the recent National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show in Las Vegas, Apple introduced two new products and various updates for existing graphics apps, while Adobe announced point upgrades for its own video packages. Apple·s Motion (£199) is a new low-cost motion graphics package featuring what the company claims are real-time previews and procedural behaviour animation. Run on a G5 and Panther, it provides real-time feedback for, among other things, adding filters at full resolution and adjusting particle effect parameters. Also featured are Behaviors, effectively preset animation types that don·t rely on keyframing and can simulate natural phenomena such as gravity and wind. A full particle generator and 90 accelerated filters are included. Also announced was Final Cut Pro HD (£699), an update with full support for capture and editing of High-Definition video– now you can capture DVCPRO HD footage using FireWire without recompression and apply RT Extreme real-time effects in HD. DVD Studio Pro (£349) receives its own update to version 3, with 30 new transition styles and real-time previews, a node-based project display and support for DTS multi-channel audio. Finally, Xsan is Apple·s latest storage networking system aimed at larger

companies. Featuring a 64-bit cluster file system under Panther, it can share files and volumes up to 16TB over a fibre channel network. Meanwhile, Adobe used NAB to launch ¶0.5· updates to all the apps in its Video Collection. Premiere Pro 1.5 (£616) gains support for HD footage in any standard resolution, as well as the Panasonic 24p Advanced format. Spline-based Bézier keyframe controls are now included, while Photoshop-style filters, such as Auto Levels and Shadows/Highlight, also make an appearance. Colour correction and grain management effects feature in After Effects 6.5 (£663), along with an enhanced Motion Tracker, which enables you to use as many track points as you like. The new Advanced Clone tool offers five presets, among other improvements, and there are over 60 new plug-ins. Music and sound editing app Audition shifts up to version 1.5 (£245), sporting integrated CD burning, automatic click/pop elimination, vocal extraction and enhanced support for video. Lastly, authoring app Encore DVD 1.5 (£452) includes background transcoding for faster working, integration with Photoshop CS, an enhanced library palette and a ¶check project¶ facility for quick verification. INFO www.apple.com INFO www.adobe.com

STOP PRESS!

NEWS

3D: Accel-KKR to acquire Alias from SGI Accel-KKR will acquire Alias from SGI for an estimated $57.5 million USD, it has been announced. Alias, producer of Maya and other 3D graphics technology and services for the film, video games,

web, and interactive industry, will become part of Accel-KKR, a private equity firm. Asked how the sale would affect users of Alias software, Doug Walker, President of Alias

insisted that customers would see no difference in services, support or product availability based on this announcement. There will also be no management changes. INFO www.alias.com

SOFTWARE

SOFTWARE

A NEW GIMP EMERGES

3D MAYA 6 URL www.alias.com The long awaited update to Maya is finally here! Maya 6 hit the shelves this month and promises a whole host of new features for the mid and pro user. Pricing starts at £1645 for Maya Complete 6, and £5275 for Maya Unlimited 6 (PC only). Although a Free PLE version should be available todownload in Autumn 2004. Turn to page 85 for an in-depth review of the software.

The free image editor famed from its Unix days gets a new lease of life After just three years, the GIMP has hit version 2.0. Starting life as a free Unix app that aimed to offer much of Photoshop·s power, the GIMP – or GNU Image Manipulation Program – is still free, but is now officially supported on both Windows and Mac OS X. The biggest changes have been made to the user-interface; the coders have reorganised and rewritten it to be much friendlier. Tabbed navigation and docking are supported, along with a full-screen editing mode and skinnable elements. Major new functionality comes with the Text and Path tools. Now text is fully dynamic and gives much greater control over all things typographic. Pathing, too, has been overhauled, and comes with true vector-based stroking. The authors claim that much of the GIMP ·s code has been restructured to make it better organised and more easily extended than in previous versions, which should presumably make the creation of plug-ins much simpler. You can find out more about the new release, and download it for free, from the official Website.

GAMES BLITZING MAYA URL www.blitzgames.com UK developer Blitz Games has decided to switch its entire production pipeline to Maya, after conducting research into the platform other developers favoured the most. Blitz is responsible for many top titles on major console platforms, including Bad Boys II and Taz: Wanted. TRAINING FIREWORKS IN SEVEN HOURS URL www.lynda.com lynda.com has released an epic seven hour training CD, subtly titled Learning Macromedia Fireworks MX 2004. Beginning with an overview of the package, the CD goes on to cover topics such as creating image content, animation, optimisation, interactivity and Dreamweaver integration. Available for PC and Mac, the title costs $99.95 and is available direct from the Website.

INFO www.gimp.org

SOFTWARE

A DEEPER STRATA rendering side, the Light Dome brings global skylight-style options to match the existing Raydiosity style, and support for HDRI images. These can also be used to illuminate entire scenes. Strata 3D CX is due to ship in June for both Mac and PC. No pricing as yet, but Strata is offering a free upgrade to anyone who buys the current version, Strata 3Dpro 3.9, during April and May. INFO www.strata.com

Image by Howard Prince

Venerable 3D package Strata 3D CX has undergone a serious makeover which sees the introduction of several new features. You can now import Illustrator CS and PDF files, as well as layered Photoshop CS files, linking the latter as textures (updates between the two apps are in real time). In addition, CX supports both FBX and OBJ file formats. A new Polyspline SDS modeller enables more sophisticated, sub-divisionbased object creation, along with Bézier splines and metasurface modelling. On the

Image by Chris Tyler

Big facelift for established 3D package

FOOTAGE BEAUTY IN MOTION URL www.digitalvision.com Digital Vision has added nine new titles to its Motion collection, bringing the total footage library to 78. They include more model-based and lifestyle imagery, with titles such as Beauty and Graphic Loops. Main Street is a 16mm film set in classic US suburbia, complemented by a stills collection actually called Suburbia, which was shot simultaneously. 3D MAC RENDERMAN URL renderman.pixar.com Pixar’s RenderMan Pro is now available for Mac OS 10.3 or higher, supporting both G4 and G5 processors. The new version 11.5.3 also contains a number of fixes for Windows, Linux and Irix platforms, as well as support for 64-bit Linux boxes (including those running on AMD 64 chips).

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COMPUTER ARTS WEBSITE

NEWS

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

[email protected] WEBSITES

MEDIA STEAMBOY

URL: www.steamboy.net Steamboy is the most expensive anime film ever made, costing 2.4 billion yen (around £12.5m) with 180,000 drawings and 400 CGI scenes. The site is in Japanese, but you can still view the ace trailers.

BD4D

URL: www.bd4d.com Version 2.0 of the design collective portal created by the two Ryans, Carson and Shelton, sports a nifty new look, while still keeping you up to date on design happenings. Past events are now archived so you can search for your favourite presenter.

NEWSTODAY

URL: www.newstoday.com A relaunch of the creative/design news portal with an ultraminimalistic look and links-aplenty. The mish-mash of cool, geek, stupid, sexy is somewhat awe-inspiring.

FLIGHT 404

OF W TH EB E SIT M E ON TH

URL: www.flight404.com This is home to interactive graphical experiments written in the developers’ own version of a Java environment. You could say it’s an experimental synthesis of art and programming, but it’s just good fun.

PIRATED SITES

URL: www.pirated-sites.com It’s been around for a while, but Pirated Sites is still essential viewing, catching out those pitiful people who steal Website designs, and pass them off as their own. The gall of some people eh?

SIMPLE THINGS URL: simplethings.free.fr A collaborative ‘magazine’ open to all with no particular aim in mind. Volume one features photography, graphic design, sketches and more from various design collectives. There’s no agenda – just do your stuff and send it in.

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June 2004

‘GAME’ FOR A LAUGH New US sitcom goes entirely CG What·s being billed as the first CG-animated prime time series is now showing on UPN in the States. Game Over is a sitcom featuring a family of video game characters – the Smashenburns – whose games have ended, and who are now trying to adjust to living a normal surburban life. Veteran Canadian animation house DKP Effects produced six 22-minute episodes in eight months, employing 60-80 artists and designing 280 characters in the process. “Creating the near-feature level character animation acting and visuals in the tight comedic sitcom timeframe was one of the largest challenges,” says DKP·s John Morch. Indeed, the company developed a whole new workflow system for the show, which it

dubbed the GRID (Graphical Realtime Information Display). This enabled artists, technicians and directors to make editorial changes within a matter of seconds. The animation itself was produced in Maya with pure keyframe animation, as opposed to motion capture, to suit the cartoon style. INFO: www.dkp.com

LEARNING CURVE Design Computer Training Birmingham and Midlands

Net Resources Edinburgh

Metro New Media London

One-to-one and small group computer training, specialising in pro design software such as Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Quark XPress. Pro design software One day course from £370 for one person, £385 for 2-4 people, two day course from £730, £760 for 2-4 people URL: www.combined. f9.co.uk/computer

Courses delivered by a team of pro trainers with extensive experience of Net and Web design, including Flash, Dreamweaver and CSS. Tailored training days are also available. Flash MX 28 May, £239 Contribute 25 May, £239 URL: www.net resources.co.uk

Metro provides flexible and adaptable courses with costeffective training delivered by industry professionals. All courses include 'hands-on' workshops. Premiere Pro 25-26 May, £475 Photoshop CS, Inter to Adv 19-20 May, £475 URL: www.metronewmedia.com

Corps Business London

Clear Thinking Southampton

Parity Training Leeds

The West London facility covers a wide selection of 2D and 3D applications, teaching in classes of no more than five, and providing aftercourse support by phone or email. 3ds max:fundamentals 24-25 May, £550 InDesign: fundamentals 17-18 May, £450 URL: www.corps.co.uk

With courses for software by Autodesk, Macromedia, Maxon, Discreet and Adobe, Clear Thinking caters to both 2D and 3D, whether novice or expert.

Parity has some 30 offices in the UK, Europe and the USA. The creative courses featured here are scheduled for the Leeds office, though many other dates in other locations are available.

Dreamweaver MX/2004 31 May-2 June, £700 Cinema 4D 3-4 June, £495 URL: www.goclearthinking. co.uk

Photoshop 7 advanced features 26 May, £595 Dreamweaver MX/2004: Website development 7 June, £700 URL: www.parity.net

STOP PRESS

NEWS

PLUG-INS: The Essential Plug-in Bundle announced Four of the top Adobe Photoshop plugin developers have partnered together to offer a value-driven bundle of plugins. The Essential Plug-in Bundle costs $199and includes: Andromeda Series 3 Screens, Andromeda EtchTone, Alien

Skin Image Doctor, Alien Skin Splat, Digital Element Aurora, nik Color Efex Pro! Photo Classic/Design Bundle and nik Color Efex Pro! 2.0 Select Upgrade. A collection of products whose value equals $913.90.

The Essential Plug-in Bundle is compatible with Mac and PC. But hurry as the bundle pack will only be available between April 19th and May 31st.

INFO: www.andromeda.com

HARDWARE

HARDWARE

TWO LAYERS ARE BETTER THAN ONE At least they are according to Sony and its new double-layer DVD drives Sony has jumped on the doublelayer DVD bandwagon by announcing two new DVD RW burners, the internal DRU-700A and the external DRX-700UL. As used on many commercial DVDs, double-layer discs almost double the storage capacity of DVDs - from 4.7GB to 8.5GB, or four hours of MPEG-2 video. As the name implies, double-layer discs have two dye layers rather than the standard one. The upper layer is partially transparent, enabling the laser to focus through it and record onto the lower layer. Both new burners feature double-layer DVD+R recording speeds of 2.4x, with 8x DVD+/-R, 4x DVD+/-RW and 24x CD-RW, not to mention 40x CD-R. The drives are backwards – compatible with existing formats, both for DVD-ROM and DVD Video, while the external model offers both FireWire and USB 2 connections. Bundled with the drives are Ahead·s Nero Burning ROM 6 SE, plus a whole slew of other Nero utilities, which should cater for just about every burning question. They·re expected to be available in the spring. No UK prices as yet, although US prices are set at $230 for internal and $330 for external.

GRAPHICS S3 GETS EXPRESSIVE Like many other manufacturers, S3 will be launching new PCI Express-based graphics later this year. According to the company, the GammaChrome line will be true native solutions, without an AGP bridge device, and will span the range from high-end to mainstream products. A Chromotion 2.0 programmable video engine is also promised when the cards launch in the third quarter. URL: www.s3graphics.com PHOTO FUJI SNAPS Fujifilm is terribly excited that the winner of the verbose Wanderlust Travel Photograph of the Year Award (Digital Category) was taken on a FinePix 6800 Zoom. As the company gleefully pointed out, Andrew Chong’s pic of Galapagos wildlife beat other entrants who were using Canon EOS 10D and Nikon D100 cams. He has, however, since switched to a FinePix S7000 Zoom. URL: www.fuji.co.uk

INFO: www.sony.com

SOFTWARE

TINY PRINTERS GO PORTABLE Small, fast, neat – and you don't need a computer to use them If you need quick photo proofs on the move, Canon may have just the thing to interest you. Two things, actually: the new CP-220 and CP-330 compact photo printers. Both connect directly to any PictBridgecompatible camera and produce borderless prints in 85 seconds. The larger CP-330 runs off a rechargeable battery and supports irDA wireless for printing from

HARDWARE IPOD HOLD-UP Rabid Apple fans will now have to wait until July to get their hands on an iPod mini outside of the US. Demand for the dinky music player has been so high in the States that Apple has had to delay launch and ramp up production for the rest of the world. URL: www.apple.com

select mobile camera phones. Both printers use solid dye sublimation ink instead of ink jets, which Canon says leads to better print quality and longevity. Formats range from 10 x 15cm postcard size to mini-stickers, while paper and ink are sold together to ensure correct quantities. The CP-220 costs £149 and the CP-330 is £199.

PRINTING LIKE THAT SUPERSIZED? For a small fee, the big print company promises that you can make it big – or at least, your work can. It will print your images and photos, digital or otherwise, at a jumbo scale on photo paper or stretched canvas, and can also board-mount or laminate them for you. URL: www.thebigprintcompany.com OFFER PANTONE GOES FREE Colour Confidence, the management solutions people, have struck a deal with Pantone to distribute its products – and have set up a special promotion in the process. Just buy the Pantone Ultimate Survival guide and you’ll get a free Metallic Formula Guide worth a hundred nicker. URL: www.colourconfidence.com

INFO: www.canon.co.uk

June 2004

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COMPUTER ARTS TUTORIALS

NEWS

Buy Computer Arts tutorials online for just 99p. Download files in pdf format

www.computerarts.co.uk/tutorials

OPINION BLINKING INTO THE LIGHT TALK MORE Sitting in front of your computer designing like a demon is all well and good, but Pixelsurgeon’s Jason Arber feels that interaction with others is just as important. After a busy few months with little room for socialising, he’s realised it’s good to talk. It’s been a long winter. I’ve worked harder over the last few months than I think I’ve ever done before, and it’s been the same for many other designers I know. On the one hand, this is a sure sign that the economic recovery has started and is gathering momentum, as websites were often considered a luxury that could be dropped if budgets became too tight. But on the other hand, I feel like I’ve been in a bunker doing absolutely nothing but work – I’ve just not had the time to go out and see people and emails have been piling up like nobody’s business. One email that did make it through was from the guys at BD4D announcing that they were having a relaunch gathering in London. It coincided with the arrival of spring, and I started receiving emails, phone calls and texts asking me if I was going to be there. Too right! Enough of the hard work: sharing a beer with a bunch of like-minded people was just what I needed, even though I was worried that I might communicate in the bleeps and boinks my Mac makes. Pixelsurgeon and BD4D have grown up together (we were lucky enough to present a collaboration with Hungry Ghost at the first ever BD4D event at Digit’s offices in Hoxton Square). The secret to BD4D's success is seeing the faces behind the emails and getting together for some drinks. I spoke to Ryan Carson from BD4D about how important the social aspect of BD4D was. “The reason that BD4D exists is to get people into each other’s presence,” he enthused. “It's so amazing to see the energy that’s generated from this, and then to witness the flow of ideas that follows.” Although the launch gathering was based in London, BD4D (www.bd4d.com) itself is a global phenomenon, and can spring into life just about anywhere. If there’s an event happening near you, go and support it. The great thing about BD4D’s relaunch is that it reminded me that hanging out with people is just as important for my creative well-being as staring at my computer monitor. The days are getting longer and warmer and I have a funny feeling I’ll be getting out of the studio a bit more often from now on. Jason Arber is the founder of www.pixelsurgeon.com

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2004

TRAINING Fancy learning about Adobe's shiny new tools for a day or so? Adobe has announced plans for this year·s Adobe Live show two days of sessions and exhibitions focusing on every aspect of digital design. Each day features two 90-minute Showcase sessions, exploring the capabilities of both the Creative Suite and the Video Collection. New features in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, GoLive and Acrobat will be highlighted along with tips on how to get the most from your workflow. Meanwhile, the Video Collection showcase covers broadcast quality non-linear video-editing, motion graphics and visual effects with Premiere Pro, After Effects and Encore DVD. The

Breakout sessions are hosted by Adobe·s partners – names confirmed so far include Extensis, Wacom, Epson, Nikon and Apple. The Showcase sessions cover digital imaging, video, publishing and design and advertising, and will feature real users and case studies. Finally, the Solutions Village features familiar hardware and software vendors who will be plying their various goods and providing advice. Further partners and exhibitors should be confirmed soon. Adobe Live 2004 is free to attend and takes place on Weds 26th and Thurs 27th May at the Olympia 2 Conference Centre in London. INFO: www.adobe.co.uk/live

FONT SHOWCASE

INFO Web: www.monotype. co.uk/neosans10 Tel: 01737 765959 Contact Details: julie.strawson @agfamonotype.co.uk Price: TBC

GUEST FONT SHOWCASE

SEBASTIAN LESTER When an agency approached Monotype with a view to designing them a distinctive yet non-gimmicky font, Neo Sans and Neo Tech were the end result “Neo Sans and Neo Tech started to take shape when an agency approached us to develop concepts for a ‘futuristic’ custom typeface,” explains Type Designer at Monotype, Sebastian Lester.

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“They wanted something ‘distinctive and versatile’ that wasn’t ‘too gimmicky or ephemeral.’” Despite the initial enthusiasm of the agency, however, the project didn’t go ahead, but Sebastian was left with a

sketchbook “full of ideas and research into what constitute ‘ultra modern’ and ‘futuristic’ features in a typeface. Neo Sans creates an ultra modern impression, Neo Tech is the futuristic variant.”

REVIEW

MISSED AN ARTICLE? Now there’s no need to buy the back issue. Simply download past Computer Arts tutorials online with our new secure, one-stop shop at www. computerarts.co.uk/tutorials

BUY TUTORIALS FOR JUST

99p!

SO, WHAT DO I NEED?

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

BT CLICK&BUY BT click&buy is a secure way to pay for online content. If you have a BT telephone then you can have the 99p charge added to your phone bill. If you don’t have a BT account, simply charge it to your credit card instead – giving you two safe and secure ways to pay.

Go to www.computerarts.co.uk/tutorials

COMPETITION

COMPETITION

MANDO STUDENT DESIGN AWARDS 2004 The National Mando Student Design Awards are now open! Here’s your chance to get noticed…

www.mandogroup.com/competition

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY COMPETITION OPENED: 26 MARCH COMPETITION CLOSES: 13 JUNE at midnight PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARDS OPEN: 16 JUNE AWARDS CEREMONY: 30 JUNE

Dust down your portfolio and get ready for fame and glory… The Mando Student Design Awards 2004 are now open to all students in higher education across the UK. This year’s competition is being held in association with Liverpool’s Film, Art & Creative Technology (FACT) centre, where the awards ceremony will take place on 30 June. Judging of entries takes place on

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15 June, with details of the ten finalists published on the official Website on 16 June. Viewers can then select their favourite finalist as part of the People’s Choice Award (voting closes on midnight 23 June). The Mando Student Design Awards seek to encourage and motivate up-and-coming Web designers and give them a chance to improve and focus their skills by meeting leading industry experts.

MASTERCLASSES On the day of the Awards ceremony (30 June), there will be a series of masterclasses held at FACT, where entrants can participate in the following themed sessions: Please note that places in each class are limited, so book early

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PRACTICAL SESSION

INSPIRATIONAL SESSION

What are the key secrets of successful Web design? Why is understanding the Website audience vital to successful design? This seminar will be a practical session to introduce the do’s and don’ts of developing successful Websites.

How can you stand out in the design community? This session will provide you with the inspiration to find your particular design niche by looking at the ways in which you communicate, and challenging how you think and work.

ACCESSIBILITY SESSION

PANEL SESSION

The Accessibility session will explain the growing importance of accessibility in relation to Web design. According to the Disabled Rights Commission (DRC), one in seven people in the UK – around 8.5 million people – suffer from some form of disability (Source: DRC). This seminar will provide useful tips on developing sites that comply with the latest accessibility guidelines.

Your chance to ask the experts. Three industry insiders will answer all your questions and discuss anything you need to know about Web design and working in the Web industry.

To register interest for each masterclass, email: [email protected]

COMPETITION ON THE CD

WIN A TRIP TO

NEW YORK

PRIZES

JUDGES DAVE HOLDEN Creative Director Mando Group Ltd

FIRST PRIZE A week for two in New York, including flights and accommodation, courtesy of STA Travel (www.statravel.co.uk)

Dave has worked with many national and international brands, developing awardwinning projects for Web, multimedia and print. His work has twice been commended at the Roses Design Awards – a unique achievement. Dave has judged the Milia International New Talent Competition, set projects at Blackpool and Salford Universities and lectured extensively.

SECOND PRIZE A portable MP3 sound system, courtesy of Creative Labs (www.europe.creative.com) THIRD PRIZE £150 to spend with CD-WOW (www.cd-wow.com)

ALAN HERRON Creative Director The Chase

HOW TO ENTER

LAST YEAR’S WINNERS

Entry is free and students don’t need to create a new piece specifically for the competition: they can submit anything they’ve designed during the current academic year, be it coursework or a personal project. The entry should be live on the Web, although Mando will consider material provided on CD-ROM. Students need to fill in an entry form at www.mandogroup.com/ competition for each piece they wish to submit.

O In first place was Tim Ketterer from Bath Spa University College with www.balloonsender.co.uk

AWARDS NIGHT Prizewinners will be announced on the evening of Wednesday 30 June at an exclusive champagne reception at FACT, Liverpool.

STA Travel offers low-cost flights, accommodation, insurance, car hire, tours, overland travel, round-the-world tickets for students and those under 26. We have over 400 branches worldwide and 65 in the UK. For bookings and enquiries, call 0870 160 6070 or visit www.statravel.co.uk

Creative (Nasdaq: CREAF) is the worldwide leader in digital entertainment products for the personal computer and the Internet. Famous for its Sound Blaster and for

O In second place was Ross Featherstone from Bournemouth University with www.badlystitched.co.uk O In third place was Christina Handford from Staffordshire University with www.pollenpark.co.uk O The Winner of the Mando Student Website Design People’s Choice Award 2003 was James Sutton of Coventry Technical College with his excellent site www.h-a-r-r-y.com

launching the multimedia revolution, Creative is now driving digital entertainment on the PC platform with products like its highly acclaimed Jukebox Digital Audio Player. The company’s innovative hardware, proprietary technology, applications and services leverage the Internet, enabling consumers to experience high-quality digital entertainment – anytime, anywhere. Founded in 1981, Creative Technology’s corporate headquarters are based in Singapore and Creative Labs Europe was established in 1993 to capture a bigger share of the growing European market. General Manager Michael Sullivan put a fully-fledged European operation in place, with sales offices in France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, UK, Benelux, Denmark, Sweden and Poland. Curative’s European Operations

CLOSING DATE: 13 JUNE 2004

and Technical Centre (EOTC) facility is based based ased in Dublin, Ireland. The EOTC acts as the he central hub to Creative Labs’ European n business, providing an efficient localised sed da and nd d customised product supply for the European ro ope ean n market and customer support to complement ple emen nt sales office activities in several countries. rie es. The European operation currently employs ploy oys around 400 staff. For further information, ion n, vvisit issit www.europe.creative.com CD WOW! offers great eat at value va valu ue on CDs, DVDs and games, am mess, with CDs starting from om m just just £6.99, DVDs from £4.99 and games from om jjust usst £7.99. There’s also an award-winning customer services team, and everything ng includes free delivery worldwide! For more mo ore e information, go to www.cd-wow.com

Newcastle-born Alan Herron studied Graphic Design at Preston Polytechnic before working for some of London’s best consultancies. He co-founded and successfully ran his own design consultancy, Giant, for over 12 years before joining The Chase in Manchester five years ago. He is currently involved with The Design Council and UMIST.

MICHAEL CONNORS New Media Curator FACT Michael Connors is a writer, curator, and media educator born in Massachusetts, and currently residing in Liverpool. He began working as Curator (of New Media) at the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology in Autumn 2002, where he has produced a wide range of exhibitions, events and projects.

GILLIAN CARSON Editor Computer Arts magazine Gillian Carson has been an editor in the design field for over six years. Formerly, she edited Create magazine, an award-winning magazine aimed at designers in the Web and new media field. She also oversaw Computer Arts Projects and is currently Editor of the world’s best-selling creative magazine, Computer Arts.

June April2004 2004

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COMPETITION

Prize worth over $26,000 USD approx £14,200!

WIN A SCHOLARSHIP

TO VANCOUVER FILM SCHOOL! Deadline 30th June 2004!

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

T

he Interactive Media course at Vancouver Film School has a reputation that’s hard to beat and a staggering employment rate! Which is why we’re proud to offer you a chance to join it for free. This leading Canadian institution is offering one talented Computer Arts reader the chance to spend a whole year experimenting with major graphics software, studying theory and gaining hands-on experience in the design industry, while living in one of the world’s most beautiful and exciting cities. If you’re passionate about a career in design, this is a truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Just download our application pack, send in a letter of intent and submit your portfolio on CD or provide a Website link – we’ll do the rest. Work can be submitted as print, Web, video or animation, or a mixture of each; it’s entirely up to you. But be quick! With the closing date hard upon us, this will be our penultimate call for entries. This ground-breaking course begins with intensive grounding in interactive software and disciplines, before you explore one of three streams. Choose the Examples of student work: stills from Bernard Kowalski and Karl Jensen’s Flash action game, entitled Tiger Claw.

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

www.vfs.com/computerarts

THE FACTS

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

Image created by Kenneth A. Huff (www.itgoesboing.com). © Alias Systems, a division of Silicon Graphics Limited.

Featuring 132 pages of in-depth tutorials, 10 exclusive video guides and more, it's the ultimate Cubase SX companion

User requests have led to improvements in character animation, integration with industry standard tools used on every job and the scaleability to meet next generation production challenges. Add to this significant advances in modeling, continued refinement of rendering technologies and tools that allow the creation of unparalleled effects and you get the evolution of 3D. Experience the power of the artist and application coming together.

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For more information: www.alias.com/maya © Copyright 2004 Alias Systems, a division of Silicon Graphics Limited. All rights reserved. Alias and Can You Imagine are registered trademarks and the swirl logo and the Maya logo are trademarks of Alias Systems, a division of Silicon Graphics Limited in the United States and/or other countries worldwide. Maya is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries worldwide, exclusively used by Alias Systems, a division of Silicon Graphics Limited.

CA INTERVIEW

Art Director Carsten Schneider (left) and MD Vassilios Alexiou man the London arm of Less Rain. 32

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June 2004

CA INTERVIEW

LESS RAIN

HELLO CAMPERS!

“Our design is conceptual; we like creating small, perfect worlds.” Computer Arts corners new media company, Less Rain, to chat about escapism, graffiti, winning awards, and why design is one big holiday camp?

The founders of Less Rain spend a lot of their time trying to spot UFOs or dressed up as policemen. They believe that it rains too much in London, a lot of design is inhumane, and that, at the end of the day, people just want to enter small worlds. All of the above, believe it or not, has been integral to the company’s staying power. This new media company is based in London, Berlin and Vienna and has an ever-expanding client list that includes Nike, Mitsubishi, Red Bull, Becks, CocaCola and the V&A, to name a few. Less

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business. As a new media company, you often create sites that fit an existing brand, but it’s important for us to do stuff where we have total creative freedom to test ideas and develop them to the limit. The projects that emerged from this process – like Cyderspace (D&AD silver award, Rheingold award), our own Website (Macromedia People’s Choice award, D&AD Annual), Eyes Only (BAFTA) and the Vandalsquad site, mean we should continue frequenting our holiday camps.” “Most clients approach us as a Web design agency, unaware of our ability to

COMPANY INFO Location: London, Berlin, Germany Contact Details: 020 7251 0601 or [email protected] URL: www.lessrain.com

CASE 1: BECK’S FUTURES

“It’s important for us to do stuff where we have total creative freedom to test ideas and develop them to the limit” Rain has a portfolio that has more Websites, ads, posters, book covers and Tshirts than you care to imagine, plus ground-breaking interactive projects and an array of international branding work – a collection that has won numerous awards, including a BAFTA. Humane design The company was founded in 1997 by Vassilios Alexiou and Lars Eberle, who were joined by Carsten Schneider. Vassilios (MD and Interaction Director) and Carsten (Art Director) man the London office, while Lars (Art Director) works in Berlin. Add a team of ten – four in London, four in Berlin and two in Austria – and that’s the full staff. Together, they spend half their time on commercial projects, and the other half in what they call the ‘Less Rain holiday camp.’ “Personal work is our playground; it’s our own little holiday camp away from

work in other fields,” adds Carsten. “Our self-initiated projects enable us to design for different media.” This ‘play’ carries over into the Less Rain offices, too. “In our Berlin office we have a bar, which we’re expanding to a gallery and café,” says Lars. “We want to give people the opportunity to exhibit design, photography or illustration.” Lars and Carsten are both from Germany, Vassilios from Greece. They met a year before the start of Less Rain in 1996 while studying for MAs in Design For Interactive Media. The company name isn’t just the phrase they bellow at the London skies, it also reflects their priorities. The phrase opens up a visual place in their minds. “You have to get a company name that provokes you to be creative,” says Lars. The Less Rain team are all self-taught when it comes to software, using Flash, Photoshop, FreeHand, Director and more on both PCs and Macs, plus sound

The goal is to smash cultural stereotypes and clichés of art on this Website, designed to showcase the finalists and winners of the prestigious Beck’s Futures young artist award. On the Website, “You can smash a tacky, animated waterfall ‘painting’ you might find in any cheap restaurant,” says Carsten. “It ties into the fact that the finalists of this year’s Beck’s Futures do a lot of cross media and installation work, and come from many different cultural backgrounds too,” he adds. See www.becksfutures.co.uk April 2004

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CA INTERVIEW

LESS RAIN CASE 2: Less Mart Go to http://shop.lessrain.com: the ‘Less Rain More T-Shirt Supercentre’ or, as they usually call it, Less Mart.

tools. They don’t talk much about technique: they prefer to talk about what makes good design than how good design is made. “The hardware and software I use makes life convenient, but it’s not essential for survival,” says Carsten. They also talk a lot about humane design, which could mean a host of things – humanitarian, caring, compassionate... “Humane design is made with warmth or humour; it’s something that makes you feel comfortable,” says Lars, putting us on the right track. “We don’t like to be trendy for the sake of it. If you’re searching for ‘inhumane design’,

you just have to look around on the Net and shiver. I’m fed up with all those mini-pixel interfaces! They were funny when people were trying to master a new medium, but there’s too much of it around.” Vassilios is just as vexed. “A good Website isn’t necessarily one that contains information in an accessible way. A designer needs to make information desirable by devising a metaphor that defines how the information is served and digested. You need to create a narrative, or at other times, like in Vandalsquad, do the exact opposite to what people expect; pretend to be the enemy.”

Roam about the UK, Austrian and German Less Rain sites to explore their “small worlds” and full portfolio of work, and also to keep your eye on what the weather is doing... see www.lessrain.co.uk, www.lessrain.de and www.lessrain.at. 34

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The LRPD This brings us neatly onto the dressing as policemen and the online graffiti site Vandalsquad.com. It’s high on the list of jobs that Less Rain is proud of, along with the BAFTA-winning Eyes Only CD-ROM – an interactive UFO-spotting project (see boxout). Vandalsquad has just been redesigned, and this anti-graffiti site aims to raise awareness of despicable vandalism – said with a wink. It’s run by Less Rain’s own police department: Lars, Carsten and Vassilios, protecting public transport systems in full uniform. “We were working with the idea of online communities and multi-user interaction,” Vassilios enthuses. “It’s quite strange making a site that promotes and condemns graffiti! I felt that when we entered Banksy’s show in London, handing out our police IDs with photos of us looking like policemen and the caption: “Graffiti is not art, it’s a crime!” Reach for the sky Also on their list of personal achievements is www.redbull.com. “This has been very challenging – making an international content-based site for a major brand,” says Vassilios. “I’m proud of the PlayStation Waiting Room, too (www.lessrain.co.uk/ projects/waitingroom/dswmedia).” Carsten chips in: “We love projects that involve more than just building a Website, such as our project for Nike, which included posters, radio spots, bus routes, and even a skyscraper!” He’s referring to their biggest challenge – quite literally. They designed the world’s largest victory monument: 3300 square metres of vertical surface, showcasing

CA INTERVIEW

LESS RAIN Whoever thought that you could win a BAFTA by UFO-watching?

“Clients should check out our portfolio to see our style. Why is all this pitching happening? It’s a waste of time and talent!” portraits of winners of the Nike Scorpion football event in Berlin 2002. “This job shows how a good relationship with an open-minded client can evolve,” says Lars. “Nike approached us to do the online platform, then said we should get involved in the other parts of the campaign, too. The hardest bit was imagining how something on your 21-inch monitor would look on a 3300-square metre canvas!” he laughs. Getting clients like Nike, Red Bull and Mitsubishi is no small task. “We’ll

approach new clients and send examples of work,” says Lars. “If they’re looking for an agency, as happened with Nike and Red Bull, we get to pitch for work. With Mitsubishi it was different, though. We were approached by its advertising company Dentsu, who said, ‘We’d like you to work for us, here’s the briefing and the budget.’ It’s fantastic when that happens! “Clients should know our style and qualifications if they check out our portfolio, so why is all this pitching still happening? It’s a waste of time and talent.”

Rinzen’s RMX project involved 34 international design companies who ‘remixed’ each other's work. Less Rain took part in three streams of mixing – this is one of them. Less Rain clients The Mission Group’s corporate identity is as a space travel agency, launching rockets into space for each client.

Eyes Only was a non-commercial CD-ROM and Internet project, developed alongside the book Eyes Only by John Holden, Chris Ashworth and Sadie Plant (ISBN 0952364050). It received a BAFTA for Interactive Design in the 2001 Interactive Entertainment Awards. The CD-ROM provides an interactive framework for observing unidentified phenomena. When users spots a UFO, they can report the sighting by taking a snapshot and emailing it for others to see at the Eyes Only online archive. “The book is a series of photographic ‘reconstructions’, based around contemporary and classic descriptions and experiences of UFO sightings,” Vassilios Alexiou explains. “One day, John Holden and Chris Ashworth – whom we had only heard of before – walked into our office and asked us if we wanted to create something that initiated from the same point of interest as the book but had nothing to do with it stylistically or structurally, so we decided to create an interactive interface for a group of ‘wired’ users. “We printed 1500 CD-ROMs and distributed them to people we thought might enjoy them, or people we wanted to introduce to our design concepts. Then we sat back and watched. It was really interesting to observe the different approaches: some people did capture really interesting stuff, others were trying to spread rumours about weird things they saw, some thought that we really were a UFO-spotting organisation, and quite a few just used the Drawing tool to send silly messages to each other.” Take a look at the strange goings-on for yourself at www.lessrain.com/eyesonly.

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CA INTERVIEW

LESS RAIN

THE TEAM

Pitching is par for the course when you’re starting out – and to get where they are now, they must have mastered the art. “We used to win pitches by passionately presenting good ideas and still win pitches for the same reasons,” says Vassilios. The Less Rain Rulebook also has a large chapter devoted to inspiration – something that comes easily to them all. “Put us into a room together and we come up with enough ideas to keep us busy for ten years,” says Carsten. “When we started, we were very excited about John Maeda’s work,” adds Vassilios. “He was my hero. The whole Media Lab thing was something I checked out – artificial life, interactive cinema. My recent inspirations come from living in a vibrant place like London.” Propaganda in oils The Less Rain plate has been full recently. They’ve just finished www.fashionfringe. co.uk, the site for a fashion design competition where you ‘stitch’ through information. Then there was www.i-shake-u.com, made for Mitsubishi, where you help a couch potato to evolve. Then

This seven-inch single is part of an ongoing collaboration with indie label, Warm Records.

Name: Carsten Schneider Role at Less Rain: Designer/Art Director at the London office From: Germany Likes: Vib Ribbon Favourite designer/Illustrator: Charles and Ray Eames/Studio Ghibli Favourite website: Telepolis (heise.de/tp) Less Rain designed promotional posters showing the winning teams from local tournaments all across Germany for Nike.

came www.haribo.com/planet/uk/maoam/ index.html, where you can interact with fruit-flies Fred and Ernie from Haribo’s TV ad campaign. Lars, Carsten and Vassilios all have lengthy To Do lists. “We’re building a Vert skating event and a BMX event Website,” says Vassilios. “We’re also brainstorming for a golf event Website. All very athletic!” “We’re working on our second T-shirt collection for Vandalsquad,” adds Lars. “And thinking about our propaganda campaign, painted in oils, to be published in Luertzer’s archive in the middle of the year. But our major project will be getting the Less Bar and Less Exhibition Space in Berlin running, offering exhibition space for the London and Berlin artists we like.” “My priority now is not so much to express myself through my work, but to create work that’s useful,” Lars concludes. “Work that entertains, allows for selfexpression and really communicates.”

CASE 3: i-shake-u

Name: Vassilios Alexiou Role at Less Rain: Interaction Director/MD at the London office From: Greece Likes: Stuffed tomatoes with rice and sultanas Favourite designer/Illustrator: James Patterson, Martin Andersen, Ron Jonzo Favourite website: www.allmusic.com Name: Thomas Meyer Role at Less Rain: Developer/ Technical Director From: Germany Likes: Life (usually) Favourite designer/Illustrator: L Ebolé/ C Snider Favourite website: www. miketheheadlesschicken.org Name: Ron Jonzo Role at Less Rain: Illustrator From: Germany Likes: Futurama Favourite designer/Illustrator: Syd Mead Favourite website: www.tokyoplastic.com Name: Owen Lloyd Role at Less Rain: Sound Designer From: London Likes: Questionnaires Favourite designer/Illustrator: B H Robinson Favourite website: www.guardian.co.uk

Name: Stuart Barnes Role at Less Rain: Programmer From: South Africa Likes: Dark Chocolate Favourite designer/Illustrator: Ben Fry Favourite website: www.theonion.com Name: Tina Marusic Role at Less Rain: Intern From: Germany Likes: Laughing Favourite designer/Illustrator: Happypets/ Banksy Favourite website: www.shift.jp.org

Images from the vastly popular www.vandalsquad.com. “It’s a self-initiated project that’s fuelled by our ambition to create an international community around some of our multi-user ideas and interactive tools. Visitors can use our Graffiti Studio software to spray the available surfaces on the site, then upload their art to the site’s graffiti archive.” 36

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Name: Lars Eberle Role at Less Rain: Designer/Art Director at the Berlin office From: Germany Likes: To build remote-controlled Second World War tanks Favourite designer/Illustrator: Carsten Schneider, Andrew Rae, James Jarvis. Favourite website: Undecided

FEATURE

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June 2004

TUTORIAL FEATURE

CREATING ICONS THAT REALLY WORK We asked twelve:ten to create some new icons to aid reader navigation in Computer Arts and the results are clearly stunning. So what's the secret to designing clear, easy to read graphics? To be effective, icons must contain certain elementary properties to communicate their messages successfully. Working through this tutorial will give you an idea of the design consistency required for icons to work as a set or, moreover, a fluent ‘iconic language’ capable of crossing the barriers of visual perception and cognition. Step by step, you’ll be able to see the processes by which the icon set was created using FreeHand. These extremely useful design operations include union, cloning and punching and are repeatedly employed, which

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will reinforce your skills. As you will see, these operations – at times seemingly too simple – offer you endless scope and a solid foundation in the generation of graphic shapes which can be applied to illustrative elements such as icons and other creative areas like logo design. The process of representing objects and concepts graphically in a visually and universally comprehensible visual format is also explained through the use of the design building blocks the square, circle and triangle. Illustration by twelve:ten www.twelvetwn.co.uk

June 2004

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FEATURE

CREATE ICONS THAT REALLY WORK cont’d INFO

ON

OUR FREEHAND MX TUTORIAL TELLS YOU HOW TO CREATE GREAT ICONS

Matt Chambers is a designer at nottinghambased twelve: ten. for more info, go to: www.twelveten.com

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These icons were created in FreeHand MX, but you can also use versions 9 and 10. Set up a page in Object Inspector, then go to Window>Toolbars>Xtra operations.

COLLECT AND QUESTION We live in a world chock-a-block with icons; some we understand, some we don’t, and some we really don’t. If you want to understand icons better, then why not start collecting a wide variety of them – cutouts, photos, doodles – and stick them in a scrapbook. This doesn’t mean just the little visual symbols that bombard us daily; it could be a wider search, taking in film stars or the shape of a car, as these too are icons that use the same subconscious responses as the instructions on an airline sick bag. Above all though, question the icons you’re confronted with.

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These rectangles can now also be merged together using the Union operation to create the shape which will enable us to create the first element of the icon. As both shapes are occupying the foreground layer, it’s a good idea to give each shape its own fill colour. By doing this, you’ll be able to see which shape is sitting on top of the other.

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Holding down the shift button on the keyboard (which enables multiple selection of objects on the screen), first select the blue shape created followed by the underlying black shape. Then, select ‘Punch’ either from Xtras or by clicking on its icon in the Xtra operations tool bar found in the Window drop down.

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First, draw two rectangles 70mm x 50mm and 60 x 60mm. Centrally align the rectangles and then use the Union tool (in the ‘extra tools toolbar’) to create the shape. Now create another rectangle 50mm x 60mm and give it a radius of two, selecting it so its info appears in Object Inspector.

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Now draw a rectangle measuring 70mm x 40mm and place it 8mm inside the shape from its leading left and top and bottom leading edges. Clone and rotate it 90 degrees. This should be placed 32mm in from the custom shape’s left leading edge. As we want precise measurements, use the guides from the page rulers.

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The blue shape has now punched through the black shape leaving us with the first element of our icon. The blue shape shown here shows you where it was. Your screen should now hopefully look a little different – and now we have a new custom shape to work with.

FEATURE

ICONS AND COLOUR When it comes to icons, colour is a big signifier; red for danger, green for health and safety...

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This is what your screen should look like. The underlying custom shape has been punched through. This is roughly the shape that we need if a little boxy – it’s smooth curves we’re after – so use the Punch and Union operations to edit the shape. You can now draw the second part of the icon and place it under the shape as shown.

First, draw a circle then a larger square, holding down Shift as you click and drag to ensure accuracy. Align the circle centrally over the square and punch it through. Now punch the hollow square until only a quarter remains. This shape can now be used to round off the exterior and smooth the shape’s interior corners respectively.

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Now the shapes can be rotated and placed over the icon element. Colours can again be used, if you wish, to differentiate between which shape will be used for the Punch and which shape will be used for the Union command. Remember to always keep a master shape handy to clone from in case you use up all your other shapes.

To create the other corners of the icon, the same shapes can be used. Selecting one of the Punch shapes will reveal its ‘handles’, which can be clicked on and edited independently. Now the shape is in place, it again can be cloned and placed over where we want to punch corners through.

The rectangle you drew earlier can now be filled with a colour to make sure it’s behind everything else. Now reselect the black element for cloning by going to Xtras>Path operations>Inset path. An info box will appear containing a slider. Set this to -1, press ok and the cloned element will thicken.

Our perception has always been connected to colour and colour has long been used to emphasize, warn off and express ideas to our subconscious. In nature for instance, a spider’s shape maybe an instantly recognisable icon but not enough to warn us off. Coupled with a brightly coloured pattern on its legs, however, we may think again about approaching it. With the inclusion of colour there is an extra reinforcement of the message and used correctly, colours can hugely enhance

an icon’s recognition. Think of danger signs and their use of red: they grab your attention first, drawing you closer to read information. If you don’t want to draw attention to your icon, use soothing colours such as green that offer a feeling of health and safety like the First Aid cross. But before you start applying colour, look around and see how it’s used in everyday signage. You might be surprised by what you can learn...

USE OF LETTERFORM Legibility is key in the case of icons so now’s not the time to use hard-to-read letterforms. Failing to use appropriate letterforms could seriously disrupt your message. If your icon must contain words, legibility is key so ask yourself the following questions: who will be reading it, where will they be reading it and how big is the icon going to be? Above all, force yourself to think of any word as a pictorial element. The word should be short, and the reader should know exactly what it means. Avoid words

with double meanings that can be read in two ways, for example the road sign ‘Slow Children’. Look at washing instruction labels and you'll see the washing machine drum as a circle and temperature the garment should be washed at inside it as a simple number, for example 30 or 60. This connection between the physical and instructional is very simple and effective.

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Hold down Shift and select the inset shape and the pink rectangle below. Then, use Punch to create the space between the base elements of the icon. Fill the edited rectangle black and smooth its sharper corners as in steps 8 and 9. Select both elements, click Union and the base is done.

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FEATURE

CREATE ICONS THAT REALLY WORK cont’d

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The illustrative elements used in the icons are created in much the same way and use some more of FreeHand’s useful Xtra operations tools such as the Blend and Expand stroke commands. For this we'll use the ‘Paintbrush’ icon.

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Once the number of steps has been decided on, click on the Blend and select Ungroup. The exterior steps will ungroup first, so click again to ungroup the interior. When they’re all sorted, re-select all the lines again and select Xtras>Path Operations>Expand Stroke. The lines now become stroke and filled shapes, suitable for actions such as punching.

KEYBOARD SAVVY While working away on your icons, you can increase your speed and control on screen by getting to know FreeHand’s many keyboard shortcuts. Alternatively, through Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts, you can set up your keyboard to carry out shortcuts from a variety of applications, some of which you may be more familiar with, to make things easier. But the best bet is to get stuck in with FreeHand and learn as you go.

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Choose one of the converted lines for further editing by clicking on it and selecting Xtras>Path operations>Inset path. You'll see the shape selected thicken. Now add a circle to the bottom end of the shape, select both then Union them. Group all the shapes now so you can move and place them as a unit.

To apply perspective to the dot matrix square in the 3D and textures icon, first draw a square. Place a circle in a top corner, clone it, and then move to the other. Select both, blend them, ungroup then select Union. Select and clone the union, move to the bottom of the square and repeat the blend process.

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To create the lines of paint, use the line tool to draw a vertical line. Now select it and rotate it to a desired angle. Clone the line and move it horizontally (click and drag whilst holding down Shift) to the required distance. Now select both lines and use the blend tool in the Xtra operations toolbox. The number of steps in the blend can be altered in the Object Inspector.

The finished pictogram can then be placed onto the base created earlier to create the finished icon. All the commands employed in the creation of this icon were used to create the remaining four.

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For the handle of the brush, draw a rectangle, ungroup it and apply the Shift and Alt keys along with the cursor to manipulate its curvy shape. Select the shape, clone it, then click on the reflect tool in the main toolbar. Once you have both elements, bring them together with the Union command. The Punch command as in section 7 creates the barrel of the brush.

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The elements of the illustration can now be brought together over a rectangular background and arranged into the required position. Once this has been done, the lines can now be ungrouped and punched through the background.

To make the dot matrix fit into the punched out perspective rectangle, go to the Xtra Tools Toolbar (Window> Toolbars>Xtra Tools), select the dots then click on the 3D rotation tool. Hold down Shift then click on a point you wish to rotate from and drag away from the point.

FEATURE

THINK COMPOSITION! Your icons may have been designed to generate great impact, but they must work together, too.

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The digital map used for the Web icon originated as a map found on Google image search, a great tool for finding objects to trace. This image was quickly copied onto the desktop then imported into FreeHand. Although small, the image didn't need cleaning up as just the rough shape was needed to trace from.

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To enlarge an object or image in FreeHand whilst keeping it to scale you can either click on the image, click on a ‘handle’ holding down Shift and drag or double click, hold Control and Shift down together and drag. This method enlarges the object or image in scale from its centre point.

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Once the image is at the desired size, you can trace or draw over it. It’s best to put the image on the Background layer and lock it: this enables easier tracing and drawing without the worry of selecting the image and accidentally moving it.

How your icons are pieced together will influence their effectiveness. When designing icons – especially when they are part of a set as these are here – give careful consideration to their composition before you start designing. The set must work as a whole. For example, all the images must be in the same place on each icon. This goes for type and colours too. Beware of using abstract images, as they often mean different things to different people. To help your viewer clearly identify with the concepts or objects, go for simple, symbolic

representations, making sure a definite style is carried throughout. You’ll give the viewer unconscious visual reference points which connect your icons to your audience. An example of this is found in road signage. Hazards are constrained in a red triangle, so when drivers see the triangle, they understand that there is a hazard ahead before knowing what kind of hazard it actually is. Sub-information is then contained in the triangle to specify the hazard – and all this is done in the blink of an eye.

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Some elements of the icons were created from drawing precise shapes such as squares and circles coupled with FreeHand Pen Tool generated drawing. By using the Union operation, these different shapes, can generate tight yet expressive images once fused together.

NEXT ISSUE

Woodblock Effects! I Love Dust shows you some great design techniques for re-creating a woodblock print effect.

June 2004

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ICON

Main image: The cover on the single , God Save the Queen, which is from the album Never Mind the Bollocks. This anti-establishment image came to represent punk in the 70s and almost 30 years later, the image lives on in today’s popular culture. 46

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ICON

JAMIE REID

THE ART OF PUNK

What would design look like today if punk had never existed? Jamie Reid has a lot to answer for, in the 70’s when he designed ground-breaking Sex Pistols covers and now, where his style lives on in others’ work.

A world without punk seems almost unimaginable now. It would be a world without spike haired oddities in Trafalgar Square, one where Oxblood Doc Martens were the sole domain of workmen and one where rock ‘n’ roll would be dominated by the prog rockers: all ten minute opuses complete with tempo shifts, time signature changes and organ solos. Fundamental to punk was, and is its design ethic, and in terms of graphics, there is none more influential than the work of Jamie Reid. It was he who designed the sleeves for the Sex Pistols

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popular workshop, influenced itself by a movement called the Situationists Internationale, more or less masterminded by one Guy Debord. In terms of design, the Situationists relied on slogans, illustration and the juxtaposition of opposites for political messages. One of their most famous images, for example, is that of a head covered in bandages secured by a safety pin over the mouth, which went on to influence Reid’s work for the Sex Pistols. Situationist-inspired graffiti was also prevalent in the streets of Paris at this time, including the line ‘Club Med –A

Reid developed a habit of tearing up and cutting out images, heading to the photocopier and reaping the reward. singles, including God Save the Queen. He was also responsible for design of their other single sleeves and the album Never Mind the Bollocks. He went onto work on graphics for the Sex Pistols movie, The Great Rock and Roll Swindle and his influence stretched across the Atlantic, as he worked for similarly influential California rockers The Dead Kennedys. Jamie’s story begins in the less than spectacular outskirts of Croydon, in the neighbourhood of Shirley in 1947. As the 1960s came along, Jamie found himself enrolled at art colleges in Wimbledon and Croydon and it was at the latter that he met with future Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren. Both were profoundly influenced by revolutionary events in France during 1968, when students and workers protests led to the toppling of Charles de Gaulle’s conservative government. Key to that revolt’s success was the art of the Atelier Populaire (AP), or the

Cheap Holiday in Other People’s Misery’, easily recognisable as the opening sneer of Holidays in the Sun. McLaren and Reid were certainly touched by this, and it led them to believe they could employ similar tactics in the UK. In 1970, Reid set up the Suburban Press, a Situationist-influenced publication and it was during this time that he developed a style that employed tearing up and cutting out words and images, heading to the photocopier, turning up the contrast and reaping the reward. In 1976, when McLaren was looking for art direction for the Sex Pistols, he believed that Reid was the right man for the job. And he was right: Reid had the perfect vision of graphic design for the band. For instance, when it came to the sleeve for the single God Save the Queen, Reid took a 1977 official jubilee photo of the Queen cut out from the Sunday People, and copied it over and over and over. He

ESSENTIAL READING If you’re looking for the perfect book that will connect art movements of early twentieth century to punk, via the backwaters of Jamaican would-be musician gangsters and East Coast American doo-wop, there’s one place to go. You’ll have to read Lipstick Traces, a Secret History of the Twentieth Century, by Greil Marcus. Marcus believes that punk is the culmination of a century of European malcontent, from Dadaists all the way through to the Situationists. It’s fascinating and accessible and after you’ve read it, you’ll never be able to listen to your punk records the same way again! Greil Marcus’s book examines the links between early twentieth century European anti-establishment movements, showing how they were precursors to punk, even directly linking the movements. READ THIS: Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century by Greil Marcus (Faber and Faber, 1989June 2004 47 ISBN 0-571-212-88-3)

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ICON

JAMIE REID cont’d EMAIL WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! Send us your ideas, for this feature to [email protected], with the subject line ‘icon’.

then tried different ideas out on it, including using a safety pin over the mouth, similar to the AP pamphlet, cups of tea, slashes and swastikas over the eyeballs. The rest is history. Never Mind the Bollocks displaced the old album title God Save the Sex Pistols, apparently thanks to a rough and ready

accompanied by bright yellow and magenta. According to Reid, those two colours worked very well together, although the printers had a nightmare with the particular yellow used. Another radical idea was the sleeve for Holidays in the Sun. For this, he drew on an old Situationist trick where they would take DC comics and replace the words in the speech bubbles with their own slogans. For Reid and the Pistols, they took an old Belgian postcard showing a typical family holiday outing and replaced the dialogue with the song’s lyrics, including an echo of the earlier Parisian anti Club Med graffiti. These days, Reid continues to do record

Today’s subversive graffiti artists such as Shepard Fairey and Banksy could be said to be the true inheritors of Reid’s mantle quote from rough and ready guitarist Steve Jones. The idea was to keep it simple, so Reid used the cut out lettering

Jamie Reid’s Never Mind the Bollocks artwork has been appropriated by countless causes over the years, including this one against the single currency.

LEARN MORE ONLINE www.jamiereid.uk.net www.obeygiant.com www.banksy.co.uk

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www.tlchicken.com www.nothingness.org/SI www.hotelpelirocco.co.uk

sleeve artwork and he’s also designed the interior of influential London recording studio The Strongroom and a room at Brighton’s Hotel Pelirocco, Britain’s first so-called rock ‘n’ roll hotel. “We felt that his ideas perfectly reflected our own hotel image and philosophies,” says the Hotel Pelirocco’s Jane Slater. “All the rooms are themed around art, music and pop culture and Jamie’s work fitted this bill in more ways than one. He even designed our Hotel Pelirocco logo, plus the sleeve for our CD released last year.” The Never Mind the Bollocks style has been reproduced countless times: from the Never Mind the Buzzcocks BBC introduction, through to the Never Mind the Euro campaign against the single currency. Similarly, who could forget the similarity between God Save the Queen and the ‘Devil Eyes’ anti Blair campaign employed by the Conservatives in the 1997 general election? His cut out, photocopied, do it yourself style was emulated by countless designers of punk fanzines in the UK and the US. These days, DIY has been passed to the computer generation. The content is the same, but somehow the design is less jarring. But it is perhaps today’s subversive

To see Jamie Reid’s influence on stencil graffiti artists, head over to Shepard Fairey’s Obey Giant website. You could of course stay closer to home and go to Banksy’s instead.

graffiti artists that could be said to be the true inheritors of his mantle. There’s Shepard Fairey, for instance, creator of the stencil graffiti icon the Obey Giant. Fairey told interviewer Vinnie Baggadonuts for website Tastes Like Chicken, “One of my biggest influences was seeing all the ransom note punk stuff that Jamie Reid was doing.” Of course, there’s also Bristol’s Banksy. Although less overtly political, Banksy has done it all, from spray painting police uniform motifs onto live pigs, to spray painting the words ‘Designated Riot Area’ under Nelson’s Column. His homage to the God Save the Queen cover shows the Queen in similar getup to that on the famous Sex Pistols cover. The difference is that Her Majesty was replaced by a chimpanzee for the image itself. Suitably, it was unveiled during the Queen’s Golden Jubilee celebration of 2002.

NEXT ISSUE

We investigate Alberto Korda’s world-famous Che Guevara image as a design icon.

THIS ISSUE IN…

THE ART OF CARTOONS AND ANIMATION

100 PAGES DEDICATED TO CARTOONS AND ANIMATION FOR THE WEB, TV AND FILM… • CREATURE COMFORTS & WALLACE AND GROMIT • FICTITIOUS EGG PROFILE & TUTORIAL We meet Aardman Animations, the highly successful team behind some of the world's best-loved characters.

The animation house behind Johnny Casanova and Pop Skool reveals its secrets.

• EXCLUSIVE JIBJAB TUTORIAL

• TRIFFIC FILMS

How to create a collage-based animation in Flash, from the team famous for its outrageous Web cartoons.

The award-winning company responsible for 2DTV shows you how to give your characters real-life emotions.

• 50 ANIMATION TIPS

• GET A JOB IN ANIMATION

Essential advice on making your characters move.

Top tips for getting your foot in the door.

Computer Arts Projects 58 • ON SALE NOW

TUTORIALS PHOTOSHOP 3 HOURS

COOL LIGHT EFFECTS Want to create some great light effects? Using Blend modes and Adjustment layers, you can create a vibrant illustration with real depth and subtlety.

TURN TO PAGE 52

ON THE CD Tutorial files on CD

ILLUSTRATOR AND FLASH 2 HOURS

SKETCHES TO GRAPHICS

IN THIS ISSUE We’re certainly not short of tutorials in Computer Arts this month. As well as the excellent cover stencil feature (pages 22-26), there are five other walk-throughs for you to tackle, taking in Photoshop (mastering light effects), Illustrator and Flash (turning sketches into graphics), Cinema 4D (realistic skin tones) InDesign (using Photoshop-style effects) and finally, Cascading Style Sheets, which will make controlling your website content – be it images or text – much easier. Don’t miss next month’s issue, when Electrotank show you how to create intricate illustrations in Flash, our expert guide to using the Lens Blur Filter in Photoshop plus much more…

Transform your artwork from basic sketch form to sleek and professional online illustrations in the space of just a couple of hours.

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ON THE CD Tutorial files on CD

CINEMA 4D 3 HOURS

REALISTIC SKIN Convincing flesh tones can be yours, via Cinema 4D’s Advanced Render Module, which contains the subsurface scattering plug-in.

TURN TO PAGE 60

ON THE CD Tutorial files on CD plus Cinema 4D demo.

DREAMWEAVER 3 HOURS

BETTER WEBSITES Control the type, images and layout of your Website with Cascading Style Sheets – it’s so much easier than using tables.

TURN TO PAGE 64

ON THE CD Tutorial files on CD

TUTORIALS FOR 99P Did you know you can buy Computer Arts tutorials for just 99p via our Website at www.computerarts.co.uk/tutorials? There’s everything from Photoshop and FreeHand poster design, Typography in InDesign and vector drawing in Flash MX, plus more general tutorials on Dreamweaver and Flash. There are also tutorials on using 3ds Max 4, Bryce 5 and After Effects.

INDESIGN CS 1 HOUR

PHOTOSHOP EFFECTS In the first of a two-part tutorial, we explore some of the more advanced features in InDesign, such as Shadows, Glows and Transparency effects. ON THE CD Tutorial files on CD

June 2004

TURN TO PAGE 68 51

TUTORIAL

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TUTORIAL

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REVIEWS

FIND OUT MORE AT: www.computerarts.co.uk

REVIEWED IN THIS ISSUE ...

MAIN REVIEW

P80 MATCHMOVER PRO 3.0

DVD Workshop 2

Perfect for big tracking jobs – but with a big price to match.

Pro DVD authoring that’s easy to use – but has it listened to users needs enough? Its logical and linear workflow is easily DVD Workshop 2’s greatest asset, making it extremely easy to use. However, this piece of software is not without its problems. For example: its alignment tools and the fact that there are no button routing options – both things that you think Ulead should have sorted by now. Nevertheless, DVD Workshop 2 is still

P82 PRIMATTE 2.0 More powerful than Cinematte and cheaper than Multimatte, this plug-in offers impressive results.

much easier to use than either Adobe Encore or Sonic Reel DVD, which is one of its biggest plus points.

GROUP TEST: AFFORDABLE DIGITAL SLRs With prices of digital SLRs continuing to fall substantially – two years ago, one would have set you back well over £2,000 – the compact is fast becoming a less attractive

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option. The advantages to SLR over compact? Better optical options, better build and, most importantly, better image quality. In the market for a digital SLR? Then don’t miss this!

P90 NIKON D70 The first true ‘budget’ SLR at £800 betters its D100 at half the price.

P91 CANON EOS 300D It’s £100 more than the Nikon D70 but the features and build aren’t as good.

P91 FUJI FINEPIX S2 PRO Clear, sharp images and low ISO results are let down by some missing features.

P88 CANON EOS 10D Released to critical acclaim and notching up some hefty sales, the 10D is a weighty yet remarkably well put together piece of kit. The question is, is there anything that can challenge this truly awesome SLR within our group test – or will the 10D retain its position as market leader?’

P90 OLYMPUS CAMEDIA E1

Maxon has added the Vector Motion Blur feature to Cinema’s latest release.

P84 JUGGLOR V2 A great leap forward for Flash users, with plenty of new features and even greater flexibility.

P84 MOJOPACK Pandromeda’s best planets, plugins, terrains and tutorials – but most are already on the Net...

P85 MAYA 6 Amazing results are available if you’re willing to invest the time and effort into Maya 6.

P86 LACIE BIG DISK EXTREME 500 Stylish, powerful and versatile – but is it reliable enough?

P86 LACIE MOBILE HARD DRIVE Need to move data between computers? Then look no further.

Jump through 10 images a time with the thumbpad on this great-looking SLR.

VERDICT OUR RATING SYSTEM EXPLAINED: All our products go through rigorous testing to get a rating in our verdict and only truly outstanding and essential pieces of kit receive 5/5.

P83 CINEMA 4D 8.5

TURN TO PAGE 93 To find the full conclusions of the group test...

★★★★★ June 2004

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REVIEW

DVD AUTHORING PRICE: £258.61

(£112.06 upgrade)

CONTACT: Ulead Tel: 49 221 31088 30 Buy online at www.ulead.co.uk

DVD Workshop 2

Ulead has attempted to provide professional DVD authoring with a consumer-friendly interface, but has it succeeded? Main image: Here, we’re adding chapter points. The jog bar makes it needlessly hard work to scrub through a piece of video to find the right points, however, as it does not provide real-time update.

FEATURES Real-time preview 9.4GB disk support DLT output Button play list with loop points More templates More video buttons AC-3 sound as standard Multiple subtitles Multiple audio tracks Optional recompression on a clip-by-clip basis

SYSTEM PC PIII 800, 128MB RAM, 14.5GB hard disk space, Windows 2000/XP

FOR Exceptionally easy to use Supports multiple audio tracks Preview saves time

Inset: Irregular button formations such as this only serve to highlight the desperate need for button routing options.

AGAINST Can’t use standard Photoshop images as video frames Dreadful alignment tools No button routing options

VERDICT DVD Workshop 2 is an easy program to rip holes in and like the previous version, it feels half finished, as though created without listening to its users’ needs. In spite of that, the program is incredibly easy to use, and for the vast majority of jobs, it will be your best friend.

★★★★★ 78

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June 2004

In a market where its competitors were either unsophisticated or very complex and expensive, DVD Workshop 1 illustrated that it was possible to author attractive DVDs with little effort. Now its successor is here, but the world has moved on since version 1 debuted, so does it still look as good as it did? At £258, DVD Workshop is not cheap, and with many sub-£100 competitors and even some free packages bundled with video-editing software and DVD writers, it’s looking increasingly like a solution aimed at the prosumer, or even the professional DVD author. It comes as no surprise then, to see that Ulead has concentrated on features that will enable it to successfully target the professional market. Subtitles, multiple audio tracks, AC-3 5.1 sound, support for 9.4GB dual layer media, and output to DLT drives are the most notable additions, but there

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RESOURCE The DVD Workshop 2.011 update patch provides DVD Workshop 2 users with 10 program fixes, including anti-flicking settings and improving the quality of slideshow transition effects. More info at: www.ulead.co.uk

are others too. However, useful though these features are, they feel like fuel-injection bolted onto a push bike – pointless when the basic engine is so lacking. Version 1 had many inadequacies which were acceptable considering its price and the lack of affordable alternatives. But now, there are many other options and with prices falling by the day, you’d expect that simple flaws would have been sorted by now, but that’s not the case. One of the most frustrating aspects is the complete uselessness of the menu alignment tools. If you create two buttons, you need a way to align one to the other, and you have to specify which one remains static and which one moves. If you choose centre alignment, you don’t want both buttons to move to a meaningless centre-point between the two. Moreover, you need a way to align items to the screen’s centre as well. The program does enable you

to create a grid, but you can’t specify whether the grid starts from the centre or the edge of the screen, nor is the grid ticked off into easy line groupings – a bold or red line every ten lines for instance. Now it may seem that we’re harping on about one small aspect of the program, but the graphical design of your DVD is one of the most crucial elements, enabling you to distinguish it from amateur products. The fact that the program has failed to implement design functions which are a standard part of every photo editing and DTP program for a decade bespeaks a certain lack of empathy for the average DVD author’s requirements. But enough about the negatives, let’s look at what the program does well. DVD Workshop 2 provides you with an extremely straightforward and functional DVD authoring workflow: import or capture your video footage; mark it up into

REVIEW

WHERE YOU’LL SPEND MOST OF YOUR TIME – THE MENU WINDOW 1. Workflow buttons These represent the way that you will progress through a project, and each one opens a separate window. 2. Properties tabs Each opens a separate set of context-sensitive dialogues, as well as affecting the media content lists.

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4. Preview window. This shows video when editing chapter points and menus when you’re creating those. You can see a real-time preview of motion menus with this version. 5. DVD navigation menus Drag and drop to add them to buttons. Beneath is a list of video and stills included in your project.

3. The media library The program comes with a huge number of buttons, animations, frames, images and backgrounds. You can add your own too.

6. Chapter list You can jump to any chapter using a button. You can also add multiple media clips.

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chapters; create a menu screen with pointers to video clips and chapter points; then create an image on hard drive, DVD or DLT tape. Each stage of the workflow is accessed by a tabbed button at the top of the screen and has its own separate window. You can import your footage in all common video formats and AVI codes. If the footage is already in MPEG format, you can specify whether or not the footage will be re-encoded to fit the current project template. The project template specifies, among other things, the bit rate of any video footage encoded by the program. By offering you the option on a clip-by-clip basis to decide which clips should be encoded, you can use an external encoder such as Procoder to produce high-quality, low-bit-rate clips for footage that’s less crucial, saving the larger part of your bitbudget for the main feature. When it comes to inserting chapter points, the process is still excruciatingly laborious, with nothing like a decent scrub slider that would otherwise enable you to quickly move through your footage to

identify key chapter points. The video doesn’t update in real-time as you scrub through it, so you have to keep stopping to see where you are. When it comes to making menus, little has changed. The process is still very easy, yet very limited. You can create image buttons, text buttons and video buttons but still can’t create rollover effects such as

USING THE PLAY LIST TO MODIFY There is one major addition to the menu section, and that is the play list, with which you can specify a sequence of events that occurs when a user clicks a button. You can also specify loop points within the play list. Thus, you might specify a play list sequence whereby the DVD player plays a copyright warning the first time the button is selected, but that warning does not occur again. You can also use the play list to play premenu clips where a short transitional clip is played whenever a user moves from one menu to another.

pointers or underlines. There are an assortment of masked frames into which you can add still clips or video from your footage but you can’t specify where animated video starts from, and you can’t make your own clip buttons in Photoshop, as the program uses a proprietary file format created only by Photo Impact. Another greatly infuriating omission here is the absence of button routing, whereby you can specify the order in which buttons are highlighted as the user moves the cursor around the screen. This is essential if the program is to enable more creative button layouts. However, the program is significantly easier to use than Adobe Encore or Sonic Reel DVD, both of which require a much greater level of media preparation in other programs – but it can’t create DVDs nearly as professional. One of the best new features is the real-time preview option, which enables you to see more or less how menus with motion buttons, motion backgrounds or sound will look. So despite its many shortfalls, it also has some benefits.

NEXT ISSUE IN On Test: Final Cut Pro HD

June 2004

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REVIEW

IMAGE EDITING PRICE: €11,280 (€4,112 UPGRADE)

MatchMover Pro 3.0 Heavy-duty camera tracking at a suitably heavy-duty price

CONTACT: REALVIZ 01628 528 256 www.realviz.com

FEATURES Automatic matchmoving Customizable user interface ● Advanced 2D tracking ● Matte import or creation through built-in tool ● Constraints on camera motion and internal parameters ● Motion control data and 3D survey points ● 3D object model-based tracking ● Multiple motions, sequences and cameras ● Zoom and non-linear distortion ● Advanced graph editor ● Motion Capture from any combination of cameras ●

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Even the worst of footage generally works well with the purely automatic tracking mode.

SYSTEM • PC Intel Pentium III 800 Mhz or equivalent • 1024x768 24-bit minimum display resolution, OpenGL compatible • 256 MB RAM • MAC PowerPC G4 1024x768 24-bit minimum display resolution, OpenGL compatible, 256 MB RAM

FOR ●

Excellent automated tracking

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Price puts it in the pro bracket

VERDICT On the surface, MatchMover may not appear particularly sophisticated but its accuracy and flexibility make it ideal for heavyduty tracking jobs. With everincreasing competition in the camera tracking market, we can but hope that the hefty price drops by a few grand sometime soon.

★★★★★ 80

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June 2004

MatchMover may not look like much, but the interface hides a devastatingly powerful tracking engine.

all the complex jobs Ë Of associated with modern CGI, camera tracking must rate as one of the most tedious and unrewarding. It’s a vital part of virtually any effects shot, yet there’s nothing glamorous or particularly creative about tracking a boatload of moving points. The venerable MatchMover Pro at least tries to make the process as painless as possible. Trackers come and go with surprisingly regularity, but REALVIZ’s package has found a home within many major effects houses for good reason: it works. At its simplest, MatchMover is truly a one-button solution. Load your footage, hit Automatic Tracking, wait a while, and inspect the results. With relatively uncomplicated imagery, MatchMover does a great job of picking relevant track points, figuring out camera parameters and filtering out duff tracks via a Cleanup Assistant. Even hand-held footage filmed on a bog-standard consumer DV camcorder is well tracked.

RESOURCE Whether you want to get started with or without video files, REALVIZ has the MatchMover tutorial for you at www.realviz.com. There is also an Orbital camera motion tutorial available here.

For more sophisticated control you can switch to the Full interface, which pops up many 3D-like timelines and hierarchies. Setting a manual track point is similar to most other packages, via a magnified area window, although you may encounter a strange misalignment between the cursor’s position in the main window and the magnified view. Stepping through tracks and re-aligning points is also straightforward and there are plenty of ways to check your progress via the keyframe timeline. Unwanted areas can be masked off using either pre-animated mattes or hand-drawn ones within MatchMover itself, although this can be fiddly. Manual and automatic tracking can be freely intermingled, and combined with mattes, the process is very flexible. MatchMover has rudimentary support for 3D primitives too, enabling you to insert arbitrary objects into a scene to check the matching. You can set up a

CGI objects can be imported and automatically mapped to real-world footage to ensure accurate tracking.

coordinate system and grid if you have some measurements from the set, or use an imported 3D model to set survey points, guaranteeing accurate tracking for that object. Finally, the whole shebang can be exported to any of the major 3D packages or dedicated compositors. Version 3 doesn’t boast a huge number of new features; most of the tweaks involve additions to the main interface and display options. While the solving process itself is as speedy as horrendously complex maths could reasonably be expected to be, a few of the more mundane tasks feel surprisingly sluggish – setting ‘elastic’ survey points using an imported 3D object, for instance. Nevertheless, MatchMover Pro does its job exceedingly well and when it can’t cope automatically, it provides plenty of ways for you to get in and do it manually. It may not make tracking any more exciting, but at least you can get the damn thing out of the way more quickly.

Add Beauty and Art To Your Photography Photo/Graphic Edges 6.0 Photo/Graphic Edges 6.0 is a suite of 14 photographic effects that empower anyone, regardless of experience, to give images a unique, artistic look. By giving your images shape and dimension you can add interest and appeal to your work. Includes over thousands of edges and hundreds of visual presets that give instant results. New powerful features like layers and brush on effects make it easy to apply the effects. Photo/Graphic Edges also has training videos that are available and can teach you advanced techniques to take your work to new levels of creativity.

Includes 14 New Effects: Acid Edge - Ambient Brush - Burned Edge - Distort Edge Edge Brush - Edges - Frames - Montage - Photo Border Photo Tabs - Putty Edges - Smudged Edge - Transfer Vignette

Free Demo: www.autofx.com Add edges, borders and frames around your favorite images with ease. Photo/Graphic Edges is extremely easy and fun to use.

Free demo versions, full product details and creative examples are available on our website: www.autofx.com

Windows 98/NT/2000/ME/XP ~ Macintosh OS 9 - OSX native / Includes a stand-alone application version and a Photoshop 4 - CS compatible plug-in version. Includes both the Mac and Windows version. All products are backed by free customer and technical support. Training videos are available for many of our products.

REVIEW

PLUG-IN PRICE: $299 ($129 UPGRADE) CONTACT: Digital Anarchy Tel: +1 415 586 8434 www.digitalanarchy.com

Primatte 2.0

When you want to composite blue-screen images in Photoshop, you can do a far better job with Primatte Main image: It’s surprising just what a good job the plug-in does with complex images such as this one, which has two types of transparency.

FEATURES Create a quick chromakey matte within Photoshop ● Works upon layers ● Preserves transparency and fine detail ● Large image preview ● Use any colour as a key ● Many fine tuning controls ● View composite image or just the mask ● Use the spill sponge to instantly remove colour spill ● Use the detail options to restore lost detail ●

SYSTEM Any computer capable of running Photoshop 6 or higher Use a garbage matte to reduce the amount of needless work that the program needs to do.

FOR Powerful chroma-masking Comprehensive manual ● Many subtle tools ●

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No quantifiable way of making adjustments ● Takes over your screen ● A bit bewildering

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VERDICT It’s more powerful than Cinematte and much cheaper than Multimatte but offers comparable results – almost. The program can be bewildering and even Digital Anarchy’s experts sometimes have to operate by trial and error. However, there’s no doubt that the end results are impressive.

★★★★★ 82

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When it comes to chromakeying within Photoshop, the fundamental process is simple enough – create a selection based on a specified colour and knock it out of the current layer. The problem is, shooting against a blue or green screen – colours most frequently used because of their absence in human flesh tones – can create various unwanted effects such as colour casting and spill. Casting is where the background colour is reflected from the background onto the subject, creating a coloured tint. Spill is background colour contamination found at the borders of the subject, particularly in transparent areas, or fine detail such as hairs. Both can be a pain to eliminate, and while you can do so with Photoshop’s standard tools, it can be a long, multi-stage task involving many masks and tools. Primatte 2 is a plug-in filter that operates upon the contents of the current layer. When activated, it irritatingly takes over the entire screen, leaving you with only the Alt-

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AGAINST

June 2004

RESOURCE If you want to put your Primatte skills into practice, then go to www. digitalanarchy. com and check out the quick start guide and several tutorials on offer. There’s even a 76-page manual documenting all you need to know about Primatte.

Tab option if you want to switch to other programs. However, the plus side is that this gives you plenty of working area, unlike Cinematte. Having said that, you can’t resize the display window within the Primatte screen, resulting in a lot of wasted space if you have a hi-res monitor. The program can use any colour as its key and to specify which colour, simply click on the one to be knocked out. Although most of the program’s functions are image-wide, you often find yourself using a small part of the image as a representative sample to generate a process that will result in the cleanest background removal. The objective is to create an image in which all traces of the monotone background have been eliminated, yet which retains all details, such as fine hairs, object transparencies, and tonal range. When it comes to targeting specific problem areas, there may be times when you’ll need to isolate that area first using a standard mask, but these instances are likely to be very few and far between.

What makes the Primatte 2 special is the precision with which you can clean up an image. Hazards such as poor lighting or noisy backgrounds can be overcome with the Clean BG option, which enables you to add, by dragging the cursor over the image, background pixels that would otherwise be missed. You can simplify the process before you start by creating a quick garbage matte using Photoshop’s lasso tool to eliminate many of the background imperfections. You can further refine your selection using the Clean FG tool, which specifies object pixels to be designated part of the foreground. With its tune and transparency tools as well as the innovative Spill Sponge, which can be used to instantly remove colourspill from areas of fine detail, Primatte is vastly more versatile and superior to the kind of Chromakeyer found in Premiere. It does use an engine which is a component of many other applications but with an interface that, while a little confusing, certainly delivers the goods.

REVIEW

3D SOFTWARE PRICE: £499 (£99 UPGRADE) CONTACT: Maxon 01525 718181 www.maxon.net

Cinema 4D R8.5 Is this point release of Maxon’s flagship worth your time?

Main image: Cinema 4D has upgraded the user interface to make the work flow more consistent between the various window managers.

FEATURES Ripple Shader Spline Shader ● Layer Shader ● Dirt Shader ● Better Booleans ● FBX Format Support ● Smart Bones enhancements ● Enhanced Compositing ● Subsurface Scattering ● Vector Motion Blur ● Object Global Illumination ● Sketch and Toon Support ● ●

SYSTEM Minimum System Requirements: ● Mac OS 9.x or Windows 98 / ME ● 128 MByte RAM, PowerPC, Intel Celeron or ● AMD Duron and compatibles with 400 MHz Inset: Cinema 4D R8.5 includes support for Sketch and Toon, a feature-rich nonrealistic renderer.

FOR Excellent new shader additions to an already extensive library ● Enhanced Rendering with Object Global Illumination and Vector Motion Blur ●

AGAINST Sketch and Toon not included in Studio or XL bundles ● Cinema 4D still lacks some advanced modelling features ●

VERDICT The best aspect of Maxon’s latest upgrade is that it enhances what Cinema has always been good at: making great images. So if you’re still on release 7 or older and have been waiting for a particular feature such as the Vector Motion Blur, now may also be the time to open your wallet.

★★★★★

Maxon has always been relatively quick at updating Cinema 4D, as the arrival of 8.5 proves. While this update targets the traditional areas of workflow, modelling, materials and so on, it also adds support for a significant new rendering module to its already extensive family of plug-ins. Long missing in Cinema 4D but available in 8.5 is Vector Motion Blur, which complements the Object and Frame blurring already included. Vector-based blurring is relatively fast and because it’s a post effect, it can be rendered as a separate pass for compositing purposes. There’s also an addition to the radiosity engine: Object Global Illumination. Previous radiosity methods for animation often produced noisy results, but now you can render in normal mode instead of stochastic with better results. Subsurface scattering, which simulates the diffusion of light beneath the surface of objects, has

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been added as an integrated shader. Using it is as easy as applying a new material and adding the shader to the luminance channel. Also included is support for the FBX file format, developed by Kaydara chiefly for use in MotionBuilder. FBX files can include geometry, textures, deformation, animation and other information, making it an ideal all-in-one delivery system, and is increasingly supported in other applications. Better Boole replaces the previous Boolean operator with a cleaner and more feature-rich implementation. It reduces triangles, which can cause shading anomalies, and speeds up the Boolean calculations. There are several new shaders that have been added to Cinema’s already huge library and the Dirt shader, a popular third party shader, is now part of the core application. Also included are the Ripple shader which adds deformations based on particle

RESOURCE Maxon’s highlights tour for Sketch and Toon (www. maxon.net) features technical and artistic style, lines, shaders and familiar interface. There is also a gallery online to check out Sketch and Toon’s capabilities.

collisions, a Spline shader which projects splines onto surfaces and the Layer shader, to manipulate multiple layers for complex texturing. The material window has been updated to present the information in the same way as the attributes manager, bringing more consistency to the display. Node-based construction is more obvious with the addition of browser-style forward and back buttons, and the material preview window now offers a variety of objects instead of just spheres. Probably the biggest addition in 8.5 is the new all-powerful nonrealistic renderer, Sketch and Toon. Oddly, though, it’s not part of either the XL or Studio upgrades and must be purchased separately. For a point release, version 8.5 offers a surprising number of new and genuinely useful features. The upgrade price is also agreeably low, but bear in mind that Sketch and Toon costs an extra £200, which seems excessive for a cel

June 2004

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REVIEW

SOFTWARE PRICE: $249 Standard $396 Pro (upgrade $119 std/$269 pro)

CONTACT: 3rd Eye Solutions 01933 222 065 www.flashjester.com

Jugglor V2 Create stand-alone applications that deliver your interactive Flash content professionally and efficiently Macromedia Flash is primarily used for delivering multimedia-rich content online, but more and more offline content developers are starting to use Flash to deliver similar content on CD-ROM or other similar formats. Macromedia markets its Director application as the must-have tool for authoring offline multimedia content but to some, Flash is better for quick and slick authoring. The trouble is, there are a few features missing when distributing your Flash applications offline, and this is where Jugglor comes in, providing Flash developers with just as much control over distributing their applications as Director users, and more...

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SYSTEM • PC Flash 3/4/5/MX/MX 2004 & Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP

VERDICT Jugglor 2 is a great step forward in terms of offering developers a way of distributing content effectively. If you’re a Flash user and want more flexibility distributing your work offline, this software is sure to impress.

★★★★★

Jugglor 2’s many options and features will make your applications stand out from the crowd.

Jugglor 2 has a new interactive interface to work with which contains a whole host of useful new features. There’s the usual ability to use your JTools, something that will help developers considerably when it comes to linking to other applications and file formats.

In addition to the way you can set up your projector, you have new options such as Dynamic Shaping and Desktop Toys. Many will fear that their endusers will require the Flash plug-in to view their content, but Jugglor has support for SWF and Projector files with Active X installation in the Pro version. Jugglor uses the Flash projector as the player and packages it up in one single exe so other media elements aren’t required. Other third party products are available to perform similar tasks that Jugglor does, but this new version offers so many options for the developer and is so easy to use that you need little knowledge of Actionscript.

PLUG-IN PRICE: $99 CONTACT: Pandromeda +1 410 529 6540 www.pandromeda.com

SYSTEM • PC or MAC with CD-ROM and MojoWorld Generator 2.0 installed

VERDICT With version 3 of MojoWorld now in beta, MojoPack is clearly a stopgap – and ultimately a rather disappointing one. At, say, £50 cheaper it would be invaluable for any MojoNaut, but right now you’re probably better off waiting for the next version.

★★★★★ 84

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June 2004

MojoPack More new things to see and do with these MojoWorld extras MojoWorld is still one of the most inventive and fascinating of the landscape (or in its case, planet) generators on the market. It’s been around long enough for a significant amount of content to be created, and in MojoPack, manufacturer Pandromeda has collected together a selection of the best stuff that is currently available. Herein, you’ll find a collection of planets, plant objects, plug-ins, terrains (specifically DEM files) and tutorials. The planets are, of course, most interesting as many provide advanced use of MojoWorld’s often intractable maths engine. Others are just plain beautiful, especially those by Armands Auseklis, and provide many hours

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of wandering and rendering fun. But as most of the planets and other offerings are already available on the Net, it would have been good to see some new, exclusive worlds. Vegetation is the one thing MojoWorld can’t yet do natively, and unfortunately the 150-odd plants on offer here are something of a letdown. The models are reasonably high-resolution, but generally look blocky and plain against detailed terrain, often sticking out like the proverbial sore thumb. Most if not all of the plug-ins are also available elsewhere, although here they’re backed up by PDF tutorials of varying quality. Many of these, too, assume quite a high level of MojoWorld knowledge and tend to be fairly

Some of the best planets yet created are included in MojoPack.

short and to the point, leaving you to fill in the gaps. Finally, the collection of DEMs enables you to import terrains digitised from bits of the real world – well, the US, anyway. Once again, these are available for free on the Web, although you do save a lot of download time.

REVIEW

3D SOFTWARE PRICE:

Maya Complete 6 (£1645) Maya Unlimited 6 (£5275) PC only Free PLE version should be available to download in Autumn 2004

MAYA 6

3D GRAPHICS The latest incarnation of Alias’ leading 3D app is more of the same

CONTACT: Alias 01494 441 273 www.alias.com

Main image: Maya 6 Unlimited now has built-in long hair creation tools... perm or blow dry, madam?

FEATURES New Hair and Dynamic Curves (Maya Unlimited) ● Performance improvements in Smooth Proxy and Subdivision Surfaces ● Adobe Photoshop integration ● Maya panel Web browser ● Particle effects now interact with deformers ● Full integration of mental ray in fluids, fur and hair rendering (Maya Unlimited) ● Improvements to TRAX editor including ●

SYSTEM PC Pentium II or higher ● 450MB HD ● 512MB RAM ● Windows XP/2000 MAC (Maya Complete only) G4 and G5 ● 450MB HD ● 512MB RAM ● Hardware-accelerated OpenGL graphics card ● Mac OS X 10.2.4 or higher

FOR Render fur, hair and fluids in Mental Ray (Maya Unlimited only) ● Nothing else competes on so many levels and in so many areas

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Complete users won’t find much different here from Maya 5

VERDICT Many of the improvements in Maya 6 streamline existing workflow and provide alternative solutions to established tasks. It’s still fairly daunting for newcomers, but if you’re willing to invest the time and effort you’ll gain great results that are hard to achieve anywhere else.

★★★★★

Inset: A welcome addition to Maya 6 Complete is the ability to control particles using deformations.

Hard to believe, we know, but it’s been a year since Maya 5 hit the desktops and laptops of the world’s 3D artists, with much fanfare and a significant list of improvements, particularly the integration of an improved renderer in the form of Mental Ray. Maya 6 aims to build on the success of its predecessor with several key enhancements although, unfortunately, these mostly benefit high-end users of Maya Unlimited, rather than the more entry level Maya Complete. Still, Maya Complete is hardly your typical entry-level app, and this sixth iteration certainly offers a few choice tweaks. You can now control particles using Deformers, for instance. This means you can make your smoke go around a corner by simply applying a bend deformer to it. Modellers, meanwhile, will love the nifty Soft Modification tool, which enables you to pull around and otherwise deform areas of

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RESOURCE Think you can tell the difference between real photographs and a computer generated image? Then why not take Alias’s Fake or Photo? test. You can even submit your own images – visit Alias’s website for more details.

polygonal objects without the creation of nasty sharp edges. This is a timely (some might say late!) addition to the software’s modelling toolset. You’ll also find significant performance improvements using Smooth Proxies and Subdivision surfaces of x18 and x8 respectively. Another neat trick is the improved integration with Photoshop; this will go down particularly well with those who like to tweak the details of their 3D maps in Photoshop (who doesn’t?). However, we’re a little unsure about the new integrated Maya Web browser, a HTML browser that you can call up from the Maya Panel interface. Apparently, it’s useful for sharing Mel files and training, but only time will tell whether this catches on. If you’re a character animator, you’ll find Alias has made two improvements in the TRAX nonlinear editor, namely new import and assignment options. And the Hypershade shading menu now has

a bins option, which helps to keep things tidier. Another useful option is the ability to import specific parts of a scene using New File Referencing and Scene Management tools. This should save time and effort all round. With its new Maya Hair facility, Unlimited users will be pleased to see that they can now create long flowing hair with built-in dynamics and collision properties using Dynamic Curves. These can also be used to create such flowing geometry as billowing sails and flowing curtains. You can also render hair, fluids and fur using the advanced Mental Ray renderer in Unlimited. Unfortunately, despite this welcome improvement, Maya still cannot render Paint Effects Strokes; this limitation prevents you from taking full advantage of the Mental Ray renderer. It’s a major bugbear that really needs to be resolved by either Alias or a third party.

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REVIEW

HARD DRIVE PRICE: £420 CONTACT: LaCie Tel: 020 7872 8 000 www.lacie.co.uk

SYSTEM PC: PII 350Mhz ● 64MB RAM ● Firewire 400 (800 for maximum performance) ● Windows 2000/XP Mac: G3 ● 64MB RAM ● Firewire 400 (800 for maximum performance) ● OS 9.X

VERDICT This is a stylish, powerful and versatile drive and you’ll find its capacity and speed invaluable. Reliability is a problem, however.

★★★★★

Big Disk Extreme 500 Stop worrying about the performance and capacity of your storage with this super-fast Firewire drive Although USB 2 and Firewire are both interfaces that support hot-swappable storage and have similar transfer rates (60MB/s for USB 2 and 50MB/s for Firewire), Firewire has become the preferred method for connecting fast devices to a Mac or PC. Perhaps it’s because USB ports can support many daisy-chained devices, each of which erodes the capacity of the port, whereas it’s rare to see more than three Firewire devices connected to a single interface. Now, Firewire is set to confirm its position as the more useful high bandwidth standard thanks to Firewire 800 – a new double-capacity protocol for the most demanding data transfer requirements.

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The Big Disk can lay flat, stand up on its edge or be rack-mounted as part of a bigger storage solution.

The Big Disk Extreme is a new external drive that combines speed and capacity. Our review model is a massive 500GBs, but they go up as big as one terrabyte (1000GB). To achieve this capacity, our test model contains two hard drives housed in

an aluminium case. This is meant to disperse the heat generated by the drives without the need for fans, but the first test model overheated and appeared to burn out its interface. The two 7200RPM drives function as one, increasing their transfer rate. In fact, we measured the Big Disk Extreme and at 84.4MB/s, it’s just below LaCie’s Claim of 88MB/s. You can also connect the drive to a standard Firewire 400 (IEEE1394) port, where it will provide about half the sustained transfer rate – we benchmarked the unit at 40.2MB/s, better than LaCie’s 35MB/s claim. The Big Disk has a two year warranty, but given the potential cost of losing 500GB of data, we’d like to see more.

HARD DRIVE PRICE:

20GB £85 40GB £115 80GB £200

CONTACT: LaCie Tel: 020 7872 8000 www.lacie.co.uk

Mobile Hard Drive Storage that’s ultra portable and very affordable? It must be LaCie’s new drive There are many ultraportable hard drives available, but most, such as the Pocket Drive and the Flip2Disk, place durability and shock resistance high on the list. This subsequently means that you pay for shock absorbing designs that enable these drives to take a tumble without damage. This is an excellent consideration for the average road warrior, but if you just want to move a bit of data from one computer to another, then you’re paying for protection that you don’t really need. The does not include the same kind of protection as those other drives, but we dropped one from four feet and it worked fine afterwards. Measuring just

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SYSTEM PC: PII 350Mhz • 32MB RAM • USB 1 or 2 • Windows 98SE or higher Mac: G3 • 32MB RAM • USB 1 or 2 • OS 9.X

VERDICT Because it auto-installs without drivers in seconds on both Windows and Mac, the Mobile Hard Drive is ultra versatile. Its transfer rate is great for all but large-scale data transfer and its low price is the icing on the cake.

★★★★★ 86

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June 2004

12.9x7.6x1.7cm it’s very compact, easily fitting inside a shirt or trousers pocket, whilst its 200g weight makes it light as a feather. The drive is available in both USB 2 and Firewire 400 versions, and in 20, 40 or 80GB capacities; we reviewed the 40GB USB version. The USB 2 interface has a theoretical maximum transfer rate of 60MB per second, but we benchmarked the drive at a sustained transfer rate of 29MB/s – this is probably due to the drive’s slow 4200RPM mechanism. Having said that, if you’re simply using the drive to store a few files – even video or graphics – then that speed is plenty fast enough. It’s when you come to archiving an entire partition of your hard

RECOMME NDED

Need to move data between computers? Then Lacie’s latest Mobile Drive is just the thing.

drive, or backing up lots of small files, that a higher speed would prove advantageous. The drive does not require additional power if used on a buspowered USB port, but it comes with a cable that enables it to draw power from a PS/2 (keyboard or mouse) port if needed.

BOOKS

BOOKS

The best reads this month on Computer Arts

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CS FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS Author: Martin Evening Price: £29.99 Publisher: Focal Press ISBN: 0240519426 By his own admission, Martin Evening doesn’t really know much about computers. In a book like this, of course, that’s a definite plus, as it’s squarely aimed at photographers – and Evening certainly knows his photography. Thus most of the subjects here – from setting up your work environment, through to output for the Web – are presented in a purely practical way. They are mostly from the author’s own typical jobs, so there’s very little gimmicky sticking of heads on other people’s bodies, for instance. Instead, you get a measured, thoughtful overview of just about everything an enthusiast

or pro photographer would need to know about Photoshop. Yet Evening doesn’t skimp on the detail either; there are plenty of interesting and helpful sidenotes here (including the bizarre revelation that commercial IRIS printer development was largely driven by country musician Graham Nash). The accompanying CD, too, puts the emphasis on useful images in the book and even a number of tutorial movies instead of the usual slew of plug-in demos. This is Photoshop for grown-ups, offering an amazing amount of hard-earned knowledge, plus some stunning images.

GETTING COLOUR RIGHT Authors: Michael Walker and Neil Barstow Price: £19.95 Publisher: Ilex Press ISBN: 1904705243 If you’re touting a book as ‘the complete guide to colour correction,’ you’d better be damn sure of your material. Unfortunately Getting Colour Right isn’t really a complete guide at all – it’s just too perfunctory for that. Much of the first half is taken up by important but rather skimpilyexplained colour theory, which ultimately leads nowhere much, while the end section is an overly brisk romp through output options. It’s the middle section, containing tutorials on common colour problems with digital images, which is likely to be of most use. These working examples are clearly displayed step by step, with just enough text to keep things clear and admirably large colour images. The results, too, are generally

impressive and although it’s not actually flagged anywhere, Photoshop is used throughout. Nevertheless, the book feels too heavy on theory overall. Not bad but could have been so much more.

WEB TYPE: START HERE! Author: Tom Arah Price: £14.95 Publisher: Ilex Press ISBN: 1904705189 Although it’s somewhat variable in quality, the Start Here! series generally provides good introductions to a range of subjects. Type on the Web may not be the most obvious of topics for a beginner, but as the book points out, things have come a long way from simple HTML mark-up. Thus, Web Type also touches on Flash, PDF, embedded font technology, CSS and other font technologies – although most of the practical stuff is HTML-based. It follows the house style of plenty of large, full-colour screengrabs with bite-sized chunks of text on each spread. With such limited space, there isn’t all that much concentrated tutorial advice, although what is there is clearly explained.

Indeed, what could have been a dry and rather technical subject comes off sounding full of possibilities and excitement – which can only be a good thing for encouraging new designers.

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GROUP TEST

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GROUP TEST

NIKON D70 P90

OLYMPUS CAMEDIA E-1 P90

FUJIFILM FINEPIX S2 PRO P91

GROUP TEST

DIGITAL SLRs The price of a digital SLR is tumbling fast. With the launch of the Nikon D70 you can now buy one for £800. Now’s the time to choose which one is right for you! CANON EOS 300D P91 At one time, the SLR was the sole camera of choice for the photographic enthusiast and working professional, and the compact roundly dismissed as a ‘toy’ for holiday happy-snappers. But over the last few years, the compact has enjoyed growing support among serious enthusiasts in the digital market – largely because digital SLRs were well over £2000 a pop. Now, however, thanks to the recent release of two budget devices, the SLR is becoming a more viable option. One of the great benefits of a Single Lens Reflex camera, or SLR, is that what you see is exactly what you get – the image captured by the lens is sent directly to the viewfinder via an angled mirror and pentaprism. SLRs also carry the option of interchangeable lenses, giving you far more choice over focal length, and generally superior optical quality. The third advantage concerns performance – SLR sensors tend to offer better results than their prosumer counterparts, particularly in the field of ISO noise. The entire picture-taking process is faster, too – there’s no shutter lag and faster AF lock. So, SLRs offer better optical options, operate faster, are better built and provide superior images. And as you can now pick one up for as little as £700, your old compact should be feeling very nervous...

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Illustration by Scott Hansen. www.iso50.com

CANON EOS 10D P92

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GROUP TEST

Olympus Camedia E-1

Nikon D70

Nikon gives Canon’s 10D a serious run for its money

Olympus’ first foray into the SLR world remains a good one

PRICE: £800 body only STREET PRICE: £710 body only CONTACT: Nikon 0208 481 6875 www.nikon.co.uk Nikon’s D70 is the company’s answer to Canon’s 300D, the first true ‘budget’ SLR. While However, while the 300D looks a world apart from the pricier 10D, the D70 is actually more of an upgrade of Nikon’s D100, only at nearly half the price. The D70 is ever so slightly smaller and lighter than the D100, but better equipped buttonwise, providing fast access. Unfortunately, the menu system is a bit of a dog’s dinner, with excessively sized fonts and a garish colour mix. Still, it’s packed with customisable functions, which makes the D70 a dream to personalise. Scrolling through images in playback is speedy too, as is magnification, which works via an interesting mini-zoom box facility. The LCD monitor is exceptionally crisp (better than the D100) and, remarkably, the feature-set is as

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VERDICT

good as Canon’s 10D. Highlights include flash sync at a startling 1/500th sec, continuous shooting at 3fps for a whopping 12 frames, and a max shutter of 1/8000th sec. The only significant missing items are the ISO boost, an ISO 100 setting, and a TIFF file format; the lack of which isn’t drastic enough to prevent the D70 from taking full marks for its spec. Auto-focus performance is quick and copes excellently with a moving subject, and start-up delay and shutter lag are nowhere to be seen (both the Canons and the Olympus take around 1.5 seconds to ready). ISO noise is greater than that of the 10D, Olympus and Fuji at the higher settings, but still acceptable, and improve vastly on the D100. The autometering and white balance systems function as they should, and images are generally crisp and clean, with superbly accurate colour rendition.

★★★★★

The Nikon D70 surprised us all by bettering the D100 for half the price. It’s superbly kitted out, built to tough specifications, and produces decent results, all for under £800. Watch out Canon...

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PRICE: £1400 body only STREET PRICE: £1260 body only CONTACT: Olympus 0207 253 2772 www.olympus.co.uk The Olympus E-1 set a new SLR precedent by incorporating the 4/3 sensor standard and matching this to the lens mount; this enabled Olympus to manufacture a new series of lenses designed specifically for digital SLRs. This meant no more problems of image vignetting, and the ability to produce smaller, lighter lenses – the E1 and kit lens weigh 300g lighter than the 10D with its standard lens. Handling’s not at all compromised considering the size reduction, and every important function has its own dedicated button on the body. The menus are well put together and magnification in Playback mode is instantaneous. Scrolling occurs at an average rate but you can skip images in batches of ten using the thumbpad. There’s no real comprehensive playback info though, only blinking highlights to denote overexposure.

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RESOURCE Nikon’s competitively priced D70 has a choice of four different lenses, including the DX/ Fisheye 10.5mm f/2.8G, the first fisheye lens expressly developed for Nikon DX format digital SLRs.

VERDICT

Custom functions are plentiful, and the camera is brimming with features; there’s Kelvin fine-tuneable white balance, ISO from 100-3200, manual focus after AF lock, simultaneous RAW and JPEG capture, and 3fps shooting for 12 whole frames. The only negative aspects concern the smaller 5MP sensor and the auto-focus, which has only three selectable points. As with the Canons, there’s a small delay on power-up, but the AF system is fast and incredibly quiet. The metering system is a good all-rounder, but colour accuracy is a little off and it’s not clear whether this is an AWB or image-processing problem; still, it’s easily corrected with some WB fine-tuning. Aside from this, the E-1’s images are clean and clear, with ISO noise levels kept to a minimum throughout the setting scale.

★★★★★

A cracking build and a vast array of features make the E-1 a serious contender. Its strength? The down-sized lenses. Its Achilles’ heel? That 5Mp sensor; a bigger one would have made it a 10D challenger.

GROUP TEST

Fujifilm FinePix S2 Pro

Canon EOS 300D

Held in high regard for its Super CCD

The first genuinely budget SLR to hit the market.

PRICE: £1500 body only STREET PRICE: £1056 body only CONTACT: Fujifilm 0207 586 1477 www.fuji.co.uk The S2 Pro’s a bulky and weighty camera, but its plastic finish still feels a little hollow. The grip is expertly shaped, however, and there’s a lovely little groove on the backplate for resting weary thumbs. Fujifilm has plumped for a second supplementary LCD panel on the rear, which serves as a hub for the main functions (via buttons underneath); it’s an unusual substitute for dedicated function buttons, but not as quick to use. The menu system is wellorganised, but there’s not a great deal in it as there’s a separate setup for custom functions – browsing through either isn’t made easy by a rather spongy thumbpad. And while image-scrolling is fast in Playback mode, this is only for low-res thumbs – you have to wait an aeon for them to finally turn to high-res. Magnification speed is lacklustre,

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VERDICT

too, although once you’re there, scrolling around the image is faster. Feature wise, there’s everything you’d expect, but not all features meet this year’s SLR expectations – a 1/125th sec flash sync is no good for freezing action on a brightish day, and the 2fps shooting rate is frankly pitiful. Exposure increments of 0.3EV steps are missing (there’s only 0.5), and so is fine-tuneable white balance and WB bracketing. The AF system actually made a good job of our moving test subject, but has a tendency to hunt back and forth even when light is at a premium. It also takes forever to write files to your card. All this is a bit of a shame considering that image quality is good, and that the Super CCD allows an image twice the effective pixel size (12MPs!) to be recorded with a bit of nifty in camera interpolation.

★★★★★

A decent build, low ISO results, and crisp, clear, colour-accurate images are all let down by a couple of missing features – no 0.3EV exposure steps and no fine-tuneable white balance.

PRICE: £900 body only ; £1000 with lens STREET PRICE: £686 body only ; £789 with lens CONTACT: Canon 0870 241 2161 www.canon.co.uk Unsurprisingly, the budget version of the 10D isn’t up to much, build-wise: it’s plasticky and overly light, with no top-plate LCD panel. Until the D70 burst on the scene, no-one dared complain too much, but now we’re all expecting a professional build for under £800. Unlucky Canon. Build aside, the camera handles well and most of the important functions have their own buttons about the body, with the exception of quality (file format), which demands a trip to the menu system. The menus are logical and easy on the eye, but their relative simplicity tells us much about the limited number of custom functions available – don’t expect many tweaking options here. Playback scrolling is actually quicker than with the 10D and you get immediate high-res images

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RESOURCE The EOS 300D is the first digital SLR to be PictBridge compatible, enabling you to print directly to any PictBridge compatible printer.

VERDICT

(rather than low then high), but the zoom magnification’s tardy. Where this camera really takes a turn for the worse, though, is the number of fatal omissions in its feature list. Failing to include spot or centre-weighted average metering modes, or dedicated single and servo options for AF, is truly criminal, while missing out a PC socket for a studio flash, Kelvin white balance controls and secondcurtain flash is hardly going to do Canon any favours. And, let’s face it, continuous shooting rate of 2.5fps for four frames would only just be excusable in the prosumer market. Performance-wise, the 300D is less problematic: the AF system is above average for everything but moving subjects, metering and AWB are as good as the 10D, and the noise levels at higher ISOs not far off 10D standards. Such a shame, then, that the features-list is so restrictive.

★★★★★

The 300D scored highly when it hit the scene as the first ever ‘budget’ SLR. Since the arrival of Nikon’s D70, though, it looks a lot less appetising as Nikon is better on build and features and cheaper, too.

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PRICE: £1400 (body only)

STREET PRICE £1065 (body only)

CONTACT: Canon 0870 241 2161 www.canon.co.uk

FEATURES Magnesium alloy casing 6.3 effective megapixels ● 3.5fps continuous shooting for 9 frames ● 100-3200 ISO sensitivity ● 36 levels fine-tuneable white balance ● 7 selectable auto-focus points ● PC sync socket for studio flash ● sRGB and Adobe RGB colour spaces ● RAW + JPEG shooting ● White balance bracketing ● ●

FOR Superb range of features ● Exceptionally low ISO noise ● Excellent colour reproduction ●

AGAINST No buttons for quality, settings and custom WB ● Playback mode slow to display ● No spot metering mode ●

VERDICT The 10D’s not without fault, but its strengths trounce its weaknesses. The magnesium alloy body is superb and, feature wise, the camera’s got pretty much everything. Images are first class, too – the levels of ISO noise at even the highest settings are unparalleled by any SLR to date.

★★★★★ 92

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June 2004

Canon EOS 10D

RECOMME NDED

The 10D replaced the old D60, garnered enormous critical acclaim and has since sold in its thousands. We can fully understand why. It comes out on top in our group test this month.

The 10D’s an exceptionally well put together piece of kit; the magnesium alloy finish is immaculate and every button, switch, and dial is similarly well crafted and despite its considerable weight, the dimensions are actually fairly compact. The layout is also expertly organised and seriously logical. Everything seems to be exactly where you’d expect it to be, and there’s a big command dial on the backplate rather than a thumbpad, for speedy handling. Pretty much every function is catered for with dedicated buttons, although quality, flash settings and custom white balance are relegated to the menu system. At least two of these three really ought to have had their own shortcut access. There is a vital button for AF point selection, though (surprisingly, this isn’t always included on digital SLRs). The LCD screen is exceptionally bright and clear, with the right amount of contrast, which makes

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RESOURCE If you’re not too familiar with digital camera terms, Canon’s handy glossary covers everything from A-D converters to Zoom lenses, via GUI and SCSI’s. To view the full glossary, visit Canon’s Website at www.canon.co.uk

trawling the menu system a joy, especially as the menu itself is thoughtfully planned. The font/colour scheme is perfect and there’s a colour-coded scrollbar to let you know where you are in the menu. The Jump key also lets you move from one section to another without the need to scroll. The viewfinder, top-plate and playback information are fully comprehensive and playback scrolling is nippy, although you’re forced to endure low-res thumbs before the high-res versions. There’s also a bit of a pause when you first hit the Playback button. Still, at least magnification is nifty. The feature-list for the 10D is truly awesome, matched only by Nikon’s new D70. There’s playback jump for moving ten images at a time, a PC sync for a studio flash, 3.5fps for 9 frames’ continuous shooting, 36 levels of fine-tuneable white balance, and 7 AF points, which makes auto-focus that much more precise. The only real negative is the

lack of dedicated spot metering – 9 per cent centre-partial is no substitute, and it’s unclear why Canon would opt to miss out such an essential piece of hardware. On the plus side, the auto-focus system is the quickest by a whisker, and very accurate in single shot, although the servo mode did a poor job of tracking our moving test subject. The metering system made no inexcusable mistakes in fullframe mode, and AWB behaved as expected, too – highly accurate in outdoor situations and not quite so indoors. Still, there’s manual white balance and 36 levels of fine-tuning to mop up those mistakes. The image results are very encouraging: vignetting is minimal, the camera exhibits the lowest ISO grain by far at every single setting, and the default contrast, saturation and sharpening are perfect. The Canon EOS 10D pumps out clean and colour-accurate images time after time.

GROUP TEST

CONCLUSION Very little separates modern digital SLRs in terms of output results – take identical shots with the five cameras on test at the lowest ISO settings and you can attribute any major differences to aspects of metering, white balance or image-processing settings rather than differences in sensor quality. Find our test images on the coverdisc. In one sense, this probably means that you can never buy a bad digital SLR, but in another it makes the other factors that much more important. Even if a camera lacks features, you still might be unable to use these sensors in

a way that unlocks their true creative potential. In many ways, then, the battle of the SLRs comes down to a list of features. In this respect, there are two real winners - Nikon’s D70 and Canon’s 10D. The Olympus E1 comes a close third, but is let down by its 5Mp sensor – with a 6Mp chip inside it, this camera could have been a more serious contender. The 300D looks hopeless in comparison, with omissions that could seriously damage your creative potential, and while the Fuji’s FinePix S2 Pro is not so bad, there are still a couple of inferior specs that

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Product

NIKON D70

OLYMPUS CAMEDIA E-1

FUJIFILM FINEPIX S2 PRO

should rightly deter you if from buying it you’re looking for a digital SLR that’s a serious all-round performer. Admittedly, in terms of ISO sensitivity, sensors do differ – some are more prone to ISO noise than others when you rise above 200. In this sphere, the 10D comes up trumps again, and it’s perhaps this fact alone that makes it a better buy than the D70, even for the extra £300. There’s little else to separate these two cameras. If you don’t envisage yourself shooting in low light, saving money and spending it on a better lens would be more sensible.

CANON EOS 300D

CANON EOS 10D RECOMMEN DED

Maximum pixel count

3008x2000

2560x1920

3024x2016

3072x2048

3072x2048

Price

£800 body only £710 street price/body only

£1400 body only £1260 street price/body only

£1500 body only £1056 street price/body only

£900 body only £1000 with lens £686 street price/body only £789 with lens

£1400 body only £1065 street price/body only

File formats

JPEG, Compressed RAW, JPEG, RAW

RAW, TIFF, JPEG, RAW, JPEG

RAW, TIFF, JPEG

RAW, JPEG

RAW, JPEG

Sensitivity

200-1600

100-3200

100-1600

100-1600

100-3200

Connection interface

USB 2.0

USB 2.0, FireWire

USB 1.1, FireWire

USB 1.1

USB 1.1

Lens system

Nikon

Olympus

Nikon

Canon

Canon

White balance Presets

Auto, Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Flash

3000k-7500k (includes 2 tungsten, 3 fluorescent, sunny, cloudy, shade)

Auto, Daylight, Shade, Tungsten, Fluorescent (3 settings))

Auto, Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Flash

Auto, Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Flash

Exposure Steps

0.3 or 0.5EV

0.3, 0.5 or 1EV

0.5 EV

0.3EV

0.3 or 0.5EV

Exposure Compensation

+/-5.0EV (0.3 or 0.5EV steps)

+/-5.0EV (0.3 or 0.5EV steps)

+/-3EV (0.5EV steps)

+/-2.0EV (0.3EV steps)

+/-2.0EV (0.3 EV steps)

Flash options

Flash Exposure Compensation, Red Eye, 2nd Curtain Sync, Slow sync

Flash Exposure Compensation

Red Eye, 2nd Curtain Sync, Slow sync

Red Eye

Flash Exposure Compensation

Flash connections

Hotshoe

Hotshoe, PC Sync

Hotshoe, PC sync

Hotshoe

Hotshoe, PC Sync

Custom Functions

25

15

15

6

17

Self-timer (secs)

2, 5, 10 or 20

2 or 12

2, 5, 10 or 20

10

10

Continuous Shooting

3fps for 12 (JPEG), 4 (RAW)

3fps for 12

2fps for 7/8

2.5fps for 4

3.5fps for 9

LCD monitor

1.8-inch (130,000 pixels)

1.8-inch (134,000 pixels)

1.8-inch (117,000 pixels)

1.8-inch (115,000 pixels)

1.8-inch (115,000 pixels)

Noise Reduction

Selectable

Selectable

Selectable

Non-selectable

Non-selectable

Shutter speeds

30-1/8000th sec

60-1/4000th sec (+ bulb)

30-1/4000th sec (+ bulb)

30-1/4000th sec (+ bulb)

30-1/4000th sec (+ bulb)

Batteries

Lithium-Ion EN-EL3 rechargeable

BLM-1 1500 mAh LithiumIon rechargeable

4xAA batteries (NiMH recommended) or 2 CR-V3

Lithium-Ion BP-511/512 rechargeable

Lithium-Ion BP-511/512 rechargeable

Dimensions (mm)

140x111x78

141x104x81

142x131x80

142x99x72

150x107x75

Weight (body only/no battery)

595g

660g

760g

570g

790g

Test pictures (more on CD)

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BUYER’S GUIDE WELCOME Welcome to the Computer Arts Buyer’s Guide – your indispensable digest of all our recent reviews. The Buyer’s Guide is a useful resource that summarises popular products we’ve tried and tested in previous issues. It saves you flicking through your back copies to find out how we scored a particular product on your shopping list; here you can simply see at a glance what we thought of it. Every month, we update the section to feature the latest products we’ve tried and tested, ensuring that you’re

always up to date when it comes to making that vital buying decision. It’s also worth remembering that the price we print is the RRP suggested by the manufacturer, and in many cases the price you pay will be less. You may be able to save even more by comparing prices at several stores or Websites (check out the ‘Where To Buy’ box below). And when shopping for software, don’t forget that downloading the app (rather than buying a boxed version) could work out much cheaper!

RECOMME NDED

WHERE TO BUY: TOP WEBSITES When it comes to locating the best bargains, the Internet should always be your first Ëport of call. Whether you buy directly online, or use a dedicated Website’s search facilities to snap up a brilliant deal, there’s no better way to make your money go further.

www.ebay.co.uk

www.dabs.com

You can pick up lots of bargains on used products on eBay. Fraud is rare, but inspect a seller’s bidding history to ease your fears. If you’re buying software, ensure you’re getting a proper licence – or you might just end up with a CD-R and tatty photocopied manual…

Dabs is another e-commerce stalwart with a solid reputation. Its wide range of products and next-day delivery should put it at the top of your electronics shopping list. A powerful search function enables you to pinpoint exactly what you’re looking for.

www.amazon.co.uk

www.kelkoo.com

Amazon’s thin margins and great customer service translates into low prices and a quick turnaround. You can check out customer reviews of all their products – although, of course, we recommend Computer Arts for a more ‘authoritative’ verdict…

Price comparison site Kelkoo is a great place to snuffle out the cheapest products, be it hardware, software or stylish gizmo to enliven your studio or home. Type in what you’re after and up pops a detailed list of who’s selling it – and for how much.

VERDICT We assess all tools from the viewpoint of the professional designer. Does the product do what it’s meant to do? Is it quick, reliable and useful? Is the interface clean? And is it good value? Our five-star rating reflects these criteria…

★★★★★

CHOICE SOFTWARE P96 FREEHAND MX Macromedia’s slickly featured graphics tool is a must for pro artists, illustrators and designers

P96 COREL PAINTER 8 More powerful and intuitive than ever, Corel’s masterly virtual paintbox is an artist’s must-have

P97 SHAKE 3 This high-end compositor delivers state-of-the-art special effects into the hands of OS X users

P98 FINAL CUT PRO 4 Fast becoming a broadcasting standard, FCP 4 gives you superb editing control over your footage

P99 NIK COLOR EFEX Optimise and enhance your imagery using these superb Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro filters

P99 DVD STUDIO PRO 2 Multi-faceted DVD authoring app that’s easy enough for beginners yet powerful enough for pros, too

TURN TO PAGE 88 This month’s Group Test sees five digital SLRs put through their paces. Which one comes out on top? And why? Find out here…

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BUYER’S GUIDE

GRAPHICS AND LAYOUT SOFTWARE NAME

SHORT DESCRIPTION

MANUFACTURER

PRICE

WEBSITE

MAC & PC?

PROS

CONS

VERDICT

ISSUE

STUDIO ARTIST 3

Image processing and real-time video effects in this, the latest edition of the world’s only ‘graphics synthesiser’.

Synthetik Software

$379

www.synthetik.com

Mac

Huge range of presets, excellent video tools.

Difficult to learn.

4/5: Not the easiest graphics package to get to grips with, but persevere and it really comes into its own.

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ILLUSTRATOR CS

Industry standard vector graphics software – an essential tool for anyone who needs to design for print or the Web.

Adobe

£511

www.adobe.co.uk/ products/illustrator

Yes

Powerful new 3D features, advanced typographical controls, and smooth PDF integration.

Not a massive upgrade

4.5/5: Offers smaller improvements across the board.

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PHOTOSHOP CS

The design daddy, the creative king and the industry standard professional image editor.

Adobe

£605

www.adobe.co.uk/ products/photoshop

Yes

An impressive number of new tools and filters.

None

4.5/5: Something for everything - improvements across the board make this a more versatile tool than ever.

89

A pleasingly streamlined and easy-to-learn graphics environment for designing illustrations and organising your digital information for print, Web or Flash.

Macromedia

£299

www.macromedia.com/ software/freehand/

Yes

Lots of new tools, reshuffled interface, and improved Flash integration.

None

5/5: FreeHand MX is a fantastic application. The final release is rock-solid and has a plethora of great tools that will be invaluable to the professional illustrator, artist or Web designer.

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QUARK XPRESS 6

The tried-and-tested publishing tool plods into the present with this latest version, as Quark tries to fight off competition from Adobe’s InDesign.

Quark

£1095

http://euro.quark.com/en/ products/xpress/

Yes

Familiar interface, multiple undos, and OS X compatibility.

Outmoded typography and design tools, unsophisticated features.

3.5/5: If you’re upgrading, it feels comfortable and familiar right from the start. But if typography and graphic design are important to you, this isn’t the application to go for.

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INDESIGN CS

Adobe’s desktop publishing upstart comes of age as Quark killer InDesign approaches industry standard status.

Adobe

£716

www.adobe.co.uk/ products/indesign

Yes

Ultra-tight, time-saving integration with the rest of the Creative Suite.

Can feel sluggish on lower-spec machines. Clumsier texthandling than XPress. Grass roots support needs to grow.

4.5/5: InDesign 2.0 now just amazes you, full stop – and the battle we all expected between InDesign and Quark XPress never properly materialised.

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COREL PAINTER 8

The ultimate digital sketching and painting application, with over 400 brushes and over 30 mediums to paint with.

Corel

£367

www.corel.co.uk/painter8

Yes

Fun enough for beginners, powerful enough for professionals.

Sluggish when upping the brush size and detail. Strokes don’t so much flow with the tablet as follow it around five seconds after applying the paint.

5/5: A stunning tool that’s more powerful and more intuitive than ever. Tight integration with Photoshop and a huge range of natural media brushes make it an absolute must-buy for anyone involved in digital art.

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FREEHAND MX

DED RECOMMEN

DED RECOMMEN

DED RECOMMEN

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COREL DRAW GRAPHICS SUITE 12

Education-orientated vector graphics package with sketching capabilities and smart drawing tools.

Corel

£422

www.corel.co.uk

Yes

Good all-in-one graphics bundle with intelligent drawing tools.

Not as powerful as the Adobe Creative Suite.

3.5/5: A good combination of bitmap, vector, and animation tools at a price that will appeal to many business users.

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FIREWORKS MX 2004

Create, optimise and integrate great-looking Web graphics. Make everything from simple buttons to sophisticated rollover animations.

Macromedia

£249

www.macromedia.com/ software/fireworks

Yes

Impressive all-in-one toolset. Excellent workflow and integration.

Not ideal for photos. Reduced text features and SWF export still a bit ropey.

4.5/5: Rather than pack this ideal design application with crass effects and gizmos, the company has focused on making changes that simplify and improve your experience of using Fireworks.

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ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 2.0

Share your photos as prints, by email, or on the Web. Stick snaps into panoramas, fix red eye, and straighten and crop photographs with ease.

Adobe

£77

www.adobe.co.uk/ products/photoshopel

Yes

Great interface, low price.

Maybe too limited for pro users

4/5: Don’t dismiss Elements as a cut-down version of its big brother – many creatives won’t ever plumb the depths it has to offer.

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BUYER’S GUIDE

3D SOFTWARE NAME

SHORT DESCRIPTION

MANUFACTURER

PRICE

WEBSITE

MAC & PC?

PROS

CONS

VERDICT

ISSUE

POSER 5

The leading 3D character design and animation tool for artists and animators. Create 3D figures from a diverse collection of ready-to-use human and animal models.

Curious Labs

289 euros

www.curiouslabs. com

Yes

Easier to navigate and control and enables greater realism and variety of characters.

Pro Pack’s third-party program integration not implemented. Many bugs and design flaws.

3.5/5: Despite many minor, and not-so-minor niggles and shortfalls, Poser can still prove extremely handy for scene visualisation and quick character set-ups.

76

SHAKE 3

High-end compositor brings stateof-the-art special effects to OS X.

New Media Research

£3799

www.nmr.com

Yes

Sophisticated features, incredibly powerful.

Steep learning curve, not exactly cheap.

5/5: If you can afford it, and you’ll be doing plenty of special effects work, don’t hesitate to buy this.

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DED RECOMMEN

3DS MAX 6

Modelling, animation and rendering solution used by professional 3D artists worldwide.

Discreet

£2814

www.discreet. com

Yes

Improved workflow, great interface.

Expensive.

4/5: Vertex Painting should keep 3ds max popular in the games industry.

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MAYA 5

Academy Award®-winning 3D animation and effects software that’s become the film industry’s favourite tool. Offers finely tuned character animation, dynamics and polygonal modelling.

Alias

£1449

www.alias.com

Yes

Exceptionally fast hardware renderer, integrated rendering environment.

Vector renderer is a little difficult to master, UV tools could be better.

4/5: Plenty of new output options to attract new users and some serious productivity enhancements for those with established workflows.

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VUE 4 PROFESSIONAL

Natural 3D scenery rendering package that enables you to generate lush landscapes at the click of a button. Create still or animated natural 3D environments.

E-On Software

£419

www.e-on software.com

Yes

Unparalleled rendering quality, extensive import and export options.

Depth of field and soft shadows can look grainy.

4/5: A cut above other consumer 3D packages. Rapidly becoming the leader in its field.

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CINEMA 4D

Powerful but accessible 3D modelling and animation application, widely used in film, animation and broadcast.

Maxon

£499

www.maxon.net

Yes

Great price, flexible module system.

Some features need refining, interface and workflow could be improved.

4.5/5: Still some workflow issues and the interface needs an overhaul, but Maxon appears to have set a new standard in the mid-range.

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BRYCE 5

Create ultra-realistic 3D landscapes and animations. Boasts network rendering, and new light and tree tabs to generate gorgeous looking worlds.

Corel

$80

www.corel.com

Yes

Can import from almost any common 3D file format on the market: Alias Wavefront, DXF, 3DS, LightWave and trueSpace.

Doesn’t include any conventional modelling tools.

4/5: Great for creating lush-looking landscapes, interiors and architecture.

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TRUESPACE 6.6

Popular and powerful 3D animation and rendering package. Features an enhanced particle system that enables you to generate limitless effects like water, smoke and fire.

Caligari

$595

www.caligari.com

Yes

Broad selection of modelling tools, dynamics and interactive rendering.

Poor workflow, bad interface.

3.5/5: A worthy 3D program, rich in features, but its scatter-brain interface and poor workflow make using it a serious chore for the designer.

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SILO

Affordable new 3D program that aims to be cheap and powerful.

Nevercenter

$109

www.nevercenter. com

PC

Easy to learn, intuitive modelling style, great interface.

Occasional instability, selection not part of the undo list.

4.5/5: Good value for money, offering pro-level modelling tools for a fraction of the cost.

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SCANNERS AND PRINTERS NAME

SHORT DESCRIPTION

MANUFACTURER

PRICE

WEBSITE

MAC & PC?

PROS

CONS

VERDICT

ISSUE

HP SCANJET 4600

Budget USB 2.0 scanner with no lid, so you can see exactly what you’re scanning.

HP

£149

www.hp.com/uk

Yes

Great concept.

No calibration routine, and annoying lines on output that are impossible to remove.

2/5: Take a look in a year or so, when HP has ironed out the teething problems.

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CANON I990 BUBBLE JET

Colour photo printing with the world’s first six-colour printer.

Canon

£299

www.canon.co.uk

Yes

Microfine 2-picolitre droplets, prints A4 photos in 37 seconds.

Large footprint, fussy colour setup.

4.5/5: This superb printer will earn its place in any graphic or photo studio.

95

CANON I965 BUBBLE JET

Fast, economical printer with borderless photo printing.

Canon

£255

www.canon.co.uk

Yes

Fast printhead and USB 2 interface.

Large footprint, fussy colour setup.

4/5: Superfast photo printer that trounces the competition.

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HP DESKJET 9670

An attractive A3 device – and at a decent price, too.

HP

£399

www.hp/com/uk

Yes

Great quality printouts and relatively speedy.

The swappable cartridge system.

4.5/5: Not as fast as a Canon, but it holds its own when it comes to print quality.

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BUYER’S GUIDE

DIGITAL VIDEO

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NAME

SHORT DESCRIPTION

MANUFACTURER

PRICE

WEBSITE

MAC & PC?

PROS

CONS

VERDICT

ISSUE

VIDEOTOASTER 3

A complete postproduction and video mixing suite, offering everything you need to capture, edit, caption, and add 2D and 3D effects to your video in real time.

Computers Unlimited

£2500

www.newtek-europe. com

PC

Cost effective, full uncompressed video suite.

Lack of sound tools, tough hardware requirements.

4/5: Budget studios will find VideoToaster an ideal set-up.

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FINAL CUT PRO 4

Emmy Award-winning tool for editing and finishing in SD and HD formats. Used to produce many TV shows, it’s fast becoming an industry standard in the world of broadcast.

Apple

£699

www.apple.com/uk/ finalcutpro/

Mac

Lots of exciting additions and brilliant bundled applications.

None

5/5: Final Cut Pro 4 is nothing short of superb. The bundled applications truly excel, as does Final Cut Pro itself.

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AVID XPRESS PRO

Sophisticated video editing tool aimed at the higher end of the mid-range market.

AVID

£1527

www.avid.com/ xpresspro

Yes

Good real-time playback and capture compression.

Tool windows can be fiddly, limited file import formats.

4/5: Package is twice as expensive as Premiere – but a stark comparison of features doesn’t reveal a huge gulf between the two.

91

ENCORE DVD

Windows-only DVD authoring package. Create and edit menus in Adobe Photoshop format using a flexible interface and a comprehensive set of menu design tools, then output your project to all recordable DVD formats.

Adobe

£399

www.adobe.com/ products/encore/

PC

Powerful, intuitive, and easy to use.

None

N/A: Encore DVD is a great addition to Adobe’s digital video range. If you’re used to Photoshop, Premiere and After Effects, it’s a breeze to pick up.

87

AUDITION 1.5

Professional audioediting and mixing environment that delivers advanced audio mixing, editing, mastering, and effects-processing capabilities. Used to produce music, radio broadcasts or video audio.

Adobe

£246

www.adobe.co.uk/ products/audition

PC

Highly configurable interface, and destructive and non-destructive editing.

None

N/A: An excellent tool for home users who are serious about audio.

N/A

FINAL CUT EXPRESS 2.0

Apple strikes a careful balance between features and affordability in its flagship consumer video-editing program. Make sophisticated home movies with complex transitions, or professional videos for your creative business ventures.

Apple

£199

www.apple.com/uk/ finalcutexpress

Mac

Near-pro editing, with real time effects and complex animated composites.

No keyframing of effects.

4/5: The best low-cost editing solution for DV.

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AFTER EFFECTS

Adobe’s industry standard tool for adding visual effects and motion graphics to film footage. Integrates closely with Photoshop, Illustrator and Premiere Pro.

Adobe

£664

www.adobe.co.uk/ products/aftereffects

PC

New vector paint engine enables you to paint straight onto footage.

Not as powerful as shake 3 or combustion.

4/5: Well-designed visual effects program with many features not available in other programs of the same price.

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DED RECOMMEN

BUYER’S GUIDE

WEB, ANIMATION, CD/DVD NAME

SHORT DESCRIPTION

MANUFACTURER

PRICE

WEBSITE

MAC & PC?

PROS

CONS

VERDICT

ISSUE

DIRECTOR

Build rich content featuring video, interactive audio, bitmaps, vectors, text, fonts, and more – then deploy it on CD, DVD or the Web.

Macromedia

£959

www.macromedia. com/software/ director/

Yes

Great accessibility tools, excellent control over Flash movies.

Expensive for both platforms.

4.5/5: While perhaps looking at first like a weak upgrade, Director now has the power to deliver many different types of content either on or offline.

80

Apple

£349

www.apple.com/uk/ dvdstudiopro

Mac

Drag-and-drop functionality, great value for pros and amateurs alike.

High system requirements.

5/5: High-end tools complemented by easy-to-use features that everyone from the novice to the DVD pro will find useful.

90

DVD STUDIO PRO

DVD-Video authoring simplified! Quickly create DVD interfaces by customising templates, or build your own from the ground up.

DED RECOMMEN

GO LIVE CS

Adobe’s Website design application – sometimes hailed as the Pepsi to Dreamweaver’s’ Coke. Visual layout, creative suite integration and support for mobile and handheld devices.

Adobe

£394

www.adobe.com

Yes

Now integrates with GoLive CS in a much more logical way.

Only better than Dreamweaver as part of the Creative Suite.

4/5: Great integration. If you currently do a lot of work in Illustrator and Photoshop, GoLive CS’s ability to work with Photoshop and Illustrator files will save you time.

89

DREAMWEAVER MX 2004

Build and maintain Websites and applications, with a powerful combination of visual layout tools, application development features, and code editing support.

Macromedia

£339

www.macromedia. co.uk/software/ dreamweaver

Yes

All-round Web authoring tool.

Performance problems reported on some Macs.

4/5: Good integration with Macromedia Contribute, and full embracing of CSS to please enterprise-level Web designers.

91

TOON BOOM STUDIO

Complete 2D animation software. Features powerful drawing tools, time-saving lip sync tools, and innovative 3D camera and sceneplanning tools.

Toon Boom

$144

www.toonboom studio.com

Yes

Great value for money.

Can only handle up to 1000 frames of animation.

4/5: Great introduction to the world of 2D animation. Capable of fantastic results.

92

STITCHER 4

Create high quality panoramas from your photographs. Enables you to create 360-degree QuickTime VR animations in minutes.

RealViz

499 euros

www.realviz.com

Yes

Excellent quality, control over output.

Relatively expensive.

4/5: It may not be the cheapest ‘sticking together’ program around, but anything else would be a false economy.

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PLUG-INS NAME

SHORT DESCRIPTION

MANUFACTURER

PRICE

WEBSITE

MAC & PC?

PROS

CONS

VERDICT

ISSUE

NIK COLOR EFEX

Fantastic set of digital photographic filters for Photoshop and Paintshop Pro. Offers image enhancement, optimisation and the ability to perform professional darkroom effects.

Nik Multimedia

£280

www.nikmultimedia .com

PC

55 superb Photoshop filters that have a vast range of uses.

None.

5/5: Some wonderful filters are presented in this package for tweaking colours. You could produce the effects manually in Photoshop, but they’d take a lot longer!

94

MODELSHOP

Lets you add one of thousands of 3D models to your Photoshop document, enabling you to scale and rotate them directly from within Photoshop.

Digital Element

$149

www .digi-element. com

Yes

Easy to use, neat interface

No rendering options and only supports three formats.

4/5: Plenty of potential as a tool for artists who want to composite 3D elements in 2D scenes directly in Photoshop.

92

LUNARCELL

Instantly create planets in Photoshop. They can be fractal, reality-based or just plain odd – all yours in a few seconds! And you can add them to your documents while in Photoshop.

Flaming Pear

$40

www.flamingpear. com

Yes

Features live downloadable clouds from weather satellites!

Bit limited.

N/A: Excellent plug-in with wonderful integration – and some fantastic effects.

N/A

XENOFEX

Lots of miscellaneous effects to trigger from within Photoshop, Elements or Fireworks. Simulate spectacular natural phenomena such as lightning and clouds. Create striking images and text using sophisticated distortions.

Alien Skin Software

$129

www.alienskin. com/xenofex

Yes

Fun filter that gives you 14 different effects.

Takes a while to apply a preview.

3.5/5: In the wrong hands, can look cliched and gimmicky. But if you think you can get away with it, it’s not such bad buy.

84

SYMMETRY WORKS

Adobe Illustrator plug-in that enables you to make surface pattern designs in seconds. Takes the selected part of your artwork and automatically applies all the necessary rotations, reflections and other transformations to create a pattern.

Artlandia

$241

www.artlandia. com/products/ SymmetryWorks

Yes

You can drag and drop your patterns into Flash.

Very habit forming!

N/A: Extremely fast and effective way of creating patterns.

N/A

DED RECOMMEN

June 2004

| 99

BACK ISSUES Missed an issue of your favourite mag? Call now and order old issues!

SEE AN ISSUE YOU WANT? THEN CALL THE HOTLINE AS SOON AS YOU CAN, AS BACK ISSUES ARE SELLING OUT QUICKLY

HOW TO ORDER BACK ISSUES CALL THE HOTLINE ON 0870 444 8455 OR VIA EMAIL [email protected]

ISSUE 96 – Code C0A96 10 tutorials for Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver and After Effects – plus a copy of ACDSEE 3.1.

OUT D L O S

ISSUE 95 – Code C0A95 Great design on a low budget – essential techniques! Four full products worth £240 on the CD.

UT O D L SO

Did you know you can get Computer Arts in electronic format? Turn to page 59

ISSUE 94 – Code C0A94 Canvas 7 full app, plus hands-on tutorial, 101 top Photoshop tips, create a giant poster, and more!

UT O D L SO

Please quote relevant code

ADD OUR WEBSITE TO YOUR BOOKMARKS OR FAVOURITES: www.computerarts.co.uk SUBSCRIBE TO COMPUTER ARTS: www.computerarts.co.uk/magazine

ISSUE 93 – SOLD OUT Photoshop CS demo, InDesign and Flash tutorials; reviews include LightWave 3D 8.

ISSUE 92 – SOLD OUT Expert techniques, Creative Suite review, full apps and official Adobe Photoshop CS video training!

ISSUE 91 – SOLD OUT Adobe Creative Suite and After Effects 6 tutorials, 600 Photoshop brushes, plus free plug-ins!

CARTOON&ANIMATION Special – COSB0058

TYPOGRAPHY Special – COSB0057 How to design great fonts and icons – and make money from them!

FIGURES/FACES Special – COSB0056 Discover how to create fantastic figures and faces in 2D and 3D.

EACH ISSUE, COMPUTER ARTS PROJECTS GOES INDEPTH ON A DIFFERENT AREA OF DIGITAL DESIGN WITH TIPS, TRICKS AND EXPERT TECHNIQUES... Creating stunning animation for Web, TV and film on your Mac or PC

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Adobe

Photoshop FocusGuide From the makers of Computer Arts

132 INFORMATION-PACKED PAGES PLUS FREE CD-ROM

ON SALE 6 MAY

ON SALE 3 JUNE

The world’s best image editing program isn’t just for the pros! We’ll help you master Photoshop’s essential tools and features

GET YOUR COPY NOW Available from

and other retailers CONTENTS SUBJECT TO CHANGE

TRAINING

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Creative

WEB SERVICES

s

Community |freeware |articles |reviews |tools| Directory |get listed|

Services |website critiques|websitecritique.com

|content feeds|creativefeed.com |developer reviews|usereview.com

aA s

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In association with computer arts

www.ablestable.com CD / DVD DUPLICATION

University of Central England in Birmingham

Freelancers Do you have skills in animation, 3D, digital camera, editing, photography, audio, special effects or graphic design? Do you feel you could share these skills in a training environment? The Department of Media and Communication, UCE, is launching a new training programme aimed at the creative industry, and requires trainers with specialist skills. If you are interested please send your CV to [email protected] The University of Central England is an Equal Opportunities Employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.

/ NORWICH SCHOOL

OF ART & DESIGN

/ THE EAST OF ENGLAND’S

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

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

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

THE CREATIVE DIRECTORY CD DUPLICATION DB Masters

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

ILLUSTRATION, 3D ANIMATION & VISUALISATION Arcana Digital Animation, imaging and post production for broadcasting, interactive and print. Folio available online or call for a CD sampler. Studio 15 minutes from Victoria. Clients include: Bray Leino, Citigate.A.F, DDB, Grey, JWT, Lowe, Masius, Ogilvy, OWN&P, Proximity, Publicis, RKCRY&R, Saatchi, TBWA, WTCS, WWAV. Tel: 0208 466 0655 Email: [email protected] Website: www.arcanadigital. com Contact: John Fox

PRINTING SERVICES ist Printing Services ist Printing Services specialises in quality stationery using the foil blocking method of printing. If you need an unusual business card or letterhead, we can also incorporate die-cutting and embossing to make your stationery stand out from the crowd, using only the best

paper and boards from all over the world. We also supply presentation folders, invitations, plastic cards and acetate report covers. Visit our Website for more details and information about foil blocking. Tel: 01655 331196 Fax: 01655 331515 Email: info@istprintingservices. co.uk Website: www. istprintingservices.co.uk Contact: Ian Stopford

Wellington Press The Wellington Press Group has been established for over 70 years, offering a complete design, printing and finishing service encompassing all forms of printed and electronic communication. The Group has expanded and kept pace with the rapid developments in graphic communication and printing technology, and now leads the industry in many new techniques. From conventional to digital offset to large format printing and finishing, through pre-press, design and studio work, to electronic media and the internet, the Wellington Press Group are your complete solution providers. Tel: 0800 7833241 Fax: 0208 5583722 Website: www.wpdigital.co.uk

LARGE FORMAT PRINTING Display Print Services Ltd (dps) It’s a big world out there and competition is fierce, so how do you create super-strong

visual impact and really get noticed? By thinking big. Big graphics, big messages –and big pictures. As a specialist in large-format print and display, dps has all the know-how to transform your ideas into high quality reality. We can produce anything from point-of-sale items up to posters, banners, exhibition stands or even wrap up whole buildings. Call us for more details of how we can help you to make a big impression. Tel: 01373 225555 Email: [email protected] Web: www.dps.eu.com Contact: David Wooster

RECRUITMENT Corps Business

Corps Business is the most established and professional recruitment agency in the design, advertising and media industries. Since 1989, we have been recruiting the top freelance and permanent creatives and developers. Our strict testing and screening procedure ensures that the people we supply can do what you want, when you want. Tel: 020 7222 8484 Email: [email protected] Website: www.corps.co.uk

TRAINING SERVICE Corps Business Corps Business is the leading UK authorised training centre for the top software houses, including Adobe, Macromedia, Apple, Maxon, Media 100, Extensis and Quark Systems. You can choose either a group

or a tailored course, depending on your needs and abilities. Our consultants are all very knowledgeable in the software and can advise you on which course would suit you best. Tel: 020 7222 8484 Email: [email protected] Website: www.corps.co.uk

Falmouth College of Arts Are you passionate about the future of digital interactivity? The MA in Interactive Art & Design at Falmouth College of Arts, taught by renowned net artist Kate Southworth (www. gloriousninth.com), offers radical new ways of working in Web design, digital sound art, net art and interactive installation art and design. Tel: 01362 211077 Fax: 01362 213880 Email: admissions@falmouth. ac.uk

Metro New Media London’s leading training centre for Web design, 3D, animation, multimedia, project management and programming • All trainers are professionals in their field • State-of-the-art studios • All levels from beginner to advanced • Specialists in customised training • Discreet accredited

WEB HOSTING Dedicated Servers

The UK’s leading hosting company provides: • FREE and UNLIMITED phone & email support (24/7/365) • Service level agreement • State-of-the-art data centres • Dedicated Control Panel • Partner Programme • Windows, Linux, Sun, Cobalt and Co-location available • Host up to 200 Websites per server from £74.99 per month Tel: 0870 3339738 Fax: 0115 9195514 Email: [email protected] Website: www.dedicatedservers.co.uk

Netcetera Formed in 1996, Netcetera is one of Europe’s leading Web hosting service providers. Our services are biased towards Microsoft-based Internet Technologies – Microsoft Certified Partner since 1999. Netcetera provides complete solutions for Web hosting, Domain Name registration, ecommerce, e-mail, dedicated server hosting, server-based applications hosting (ASP) and .NETppliance.

Tel: 01624 612948 Fax: 01624 623385 Email: [email protected] Website: www.inetc.net

Tel: 0207 729 9992 Email: training@metronew media.com Website: www. metronewmedia.com

TO FEATURE IN THE CREATIVE DIRECTORY, EMAIL [email protected]

ON O N THE CD FULL PROGRAM MAC AND PC

TYPETOOL 1.3 FULL PRODUCT WORTH $99 Design your own font

WELCOME Your resource-packed CD-ROM has a suitably typographic theme this month, providing four full apps: Font Creator 2.3, FONTfitter 3.5, TypeTool 1.3 and ScanFont 3.2. Use these prolevel apps to create your own exciting fonts from scratch. Need inspiration? Then check out the 1565 fine typefaces also provided on this month’s disc. Tutorial help files, snaptest image comparisons from our digital SLR Group Test and a fully working demo of Maxon’s Cinema 4D 8.5 complete the line-up.

This month, we’re delighted to offer two full FontLab apps for creating and manipulating fonts. The first of these, TypeTool 1.3, enables you to create a new font or modify an existing one with easy-to-use yet powerful editing tools. Great features include outline editors with more than ten tools and a 200-level undo/redo function. You can import and export fonts in TrueType and PostScript Type 1 formats, too, while a metric and kerning editing module provides customisable autospacing and auto-kerning features. In addition, you can import and export font metric files in PFM and AFM

formats, as well as import metrics from Mac font suitcases. Add to this an extremely easy to navigate interface with drag-and-drop functionality and pop-up menus and you have an awesome font creation app at your disposal. Better still, you’re getting it for free! See below for details on how to obtain your serial number –and check your CD inlay for system requirements. HOW TO OBTAIN YOUR SERIAL NUMBER

Register your details at: www.fontlab.com/promo/futurepub.html

FULL PROGRAM MAC ONLY

SCANFONT 3.2 FULL PRODUCT WORTH $99 Create a font from anything scannable Ever see a logo, old typeface in a book or image/dingbat that you wish you could use as a font? Don't have the time to scan it in and trace it by hand? Well, our second typography tool from FontLab is the answer! ScanFont 3.2 enables you to create a professional looking, technically correct digital font in minutes, combining traditional font editing functionality with precise autotracing tools. The latter have been specially developed to work with characters, so you can transform anything you can print on paper or see on your computer screen into high-quality TrueType or PostScript fonts. Features

include a high-quality fully customisable auto-tracing algorithm (especially designed to handle characters), integrated bitmap editor, automatic detection of characters and strings in a source image, support for most scanners through TWAIN interface, the ability to export individual characters in EPS format, and an easy to use drag-and-drop interface. HOW TO OBTAIN YOUR SERIAL NUMBER

Register your details at: www.fontlab.com/promo/ futurepub.html

FULL PROGRAM MAC AND PC

FONTFITTER FULL PRODUCT WORTH £79 Space is everything when it comes to smart typography JON ALONGI CD EDITOR

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Many otherwise decent fonts suffer because poor spacing at the design stage prevents them from being corrected later on by any amount of corrective kerning. Good spacing is paramount in font design, but if you don’t have the experience to refine your work in this way, FONTfitter will do all the hard work for you, generating the side-bearing space values to ‘fit’ typefaces and create professionally spaced fonts. FONTfitter has been developed for beginner and expert alike, and no formal training or knowledge of letters is necessary. Using just a few details from your

typeface, it produces side-bearing values for use with your favourite font production or vector drawing software, providing initial important side-bearing values on which any other Latin characters can be based FONTfitter is labour-saving software for anyone making fonts, saving hours of work. READER OFFER

Want a 10% discount upgrading from version 2.5 to 2.6? Then go to: http://order.kagi.com/cgi-bin/store. cgi?storeID=6CXRF2&&

ON THE CD

IN THIS ISSUE FONT CREATOR 2.3 (PC) FULL PRODUCT Create and edit your own fonts with High-Logic’s excellent tool, worth $35.

FONTFITTER 2.5 (PC + MAC) FULL PRODUCT Don’t leave it to the kerning! Here’s professional letter spacing at your fingertips.

TYPETOOL 1.3 (PC + MAC) FULL PRODUCT Create exciting fonts using FontLab's user-friendly and versatile typographic software.

FULL PROGRAM PC ONLY

FONT CREATOR FULL PRODUCT WORTH $35 Create TrueType fonts with all versions of Windows Font Creator 2.3 is a font creation app aimed at all PC users, whether you’re a graphic designer, an aspiring typographer or a PC hobbyist. It enables you to create or edit TrueType fonts for use in all versions of Windows, as well as convert a scanned graphic file into TrueType outlines, and it’s free on this month’s coverdisc. Selecting a font is easy with the app’s built-in, easy-to-use menu, which displays the entire character set, complete with descriptions of every letter, number and

special character. Once you’ve perfected your typographical masterpiece, you can save it for future modification or for use in your favourite text editor, installing it at the touch of a button via the Programs toolbar. Also on the CD is the demo version of High-Logic’s Font Creator 4, which boasts a number of additions, enhancements and fixes. Now you can correct your work with multiple undos and redo and repeat functions – a life-saver when working on precision artwork. It’s easier to use, too; simply drag and drop your templates directly into software to activate them. There’s also a facility for converting scanned graphic files into TrueType outlines, enabling you to create your own signature, logo or possibly a digital version of your own handwriting.

SCANFONT 3.2 (MAC) FULL PRODUCT Scan in anything you like – then turn it into a Type 1 or TrueType font. FONTS (PC + MAC) FREEWARE Explore this huge selection of fonts, courtesy of FontGrube, Pizza Dude, Nick's Fonts, Grey Wolf, Larabie and Tom7. CINEMA 4D 8.5 (PC + MAC) DEMO Create 3D models and animations with Maxon's latest 3D package. And don’t forget to check out our tutorial, starting on page 60. TUTORIAL FILES (PC + MAC) Here you'll find all supporting files for this month's tutorials. Navigate the interface to the 'In The Mag' section and select Tutorials. CAMERA GROUP TEST (PC + MAC) IMAGES Compare and contrast the digital SLR shots taken especially for this month’s Group Test. Navigate the interface to the 'In The Mag' section and select Camera Group Test.

HOW TO OBTAIN YOUR SERIAL NUMBER

Register your details at the following Website to receive you serial number: www.high-logic.com/arts.html READER OFFER

Like what you see in Font Creator 2.3 (top)? Then why not snap up the latest version (above) and save 40 per cent on the asking price?

Our friends at High-Logic are offering Computer Arts readers an incredible 40 per cent discount off Font Creator 4. In order to take advantage of this limited offer, just register your details now at www.high-logic.com/arts.html and follow the on-screen prompts

CD TUTORIAL Enhance your illustration work by creating a font from your own handwriting using Font Creator, free on this month’s CD. Tutorial begins overleaf

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TUTORIAL

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June 2004

CD TUTORIAL

FONT CREATOR / FREEHAND / PHOTOSHOP CS ON THE CD You'll find your free copy of Font Creator in the folder marked Software\Font Creator on the cover CD, along with all the images used in this tutorial.

DIGITAL HANDWRITING Discover how to create a font from your own handwriting using High Logic’s much lauded Font Creator, free on this month’s coverdisc. Master the techniques outlined here, then use it to enhance all your illustration work As long as you can write, draw and use a PC at an intermediate level, you’ll find this project useful – particularly if you’re looking to explore new avenues of creativity. Many designers feel the need to fashion their own unique font, but basically anyone who can write has their own personal typeface already to hand, quite literally: their handwriting. This project aims to bring out that individuality, digitising your own written word to generate a font that’s 100 per cent you. Have you ever wondered what your own handwriting looks like once it’s been turned into a working typeface? Well, you’re about to find out. Move over, Times Roman… Sayonara, Helvetica… We’re about to inject a new lease of life into that tired typeface collection of yours. Over the next few pages, we’ll show you step by step how to create a working digital typeface from your own script using Font Creator, provided free on this month’s coverdisc – with a little help from FreeHand and Photoshop, of course. We’ll also reveal how to use your new font to complement your illustration work. And by the end of this tutorial, you’ll not only have a beginner's knowledge of typeface design, but a unique font based on your own handwriting.

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TIME LENGTH

12 hours INFO Identikal has been producing typefaces for over five years and distributes its 450-plus font library all over the world. This year, it launches a full collection of its fonts at a new home for the foundry: www. identikalshop.com. This will provide special offers and new, site-specific releases, as well as sections devoted to the fontmeisters’ most popular creations. For further information, please email info@identikal. com or visit www. identikal.com

With Identikal’s help, you’re going to create this gritty urban design using personalised fonts generated from your own handwriting.

1

Using a blank sheet of paper and a pencil, begin by sketching down the alphabet, A-Z, a-z and numerals 0-9. Try to write within an imaginary margin of around 10mm. The more natural the size and look of your handwriting the better.

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Once you’re confident writing these characters, grab a black bullet point marker pen. The thickness of line should be around 1-2pt. Now repeat step 1 until you have all of the characters perfectly drawn in a natural state. Practice makes perfect here, enabling you to pick and choose the bestlooking shapes later on in the tutorial.

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Once you’re happy with each case set of your handwriting, scan in the sketches at 100 per cent using Photoshop. At 300dpi, though, you need to use all those little marker details to bring character to the font. Also remember to scan your handwriting as a greyscale image rather than RGB.

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The scan should be clear and the glyphs you’ve drawn a dark black. You may notice, however, that your letters and numbers look a little grey (due to the importing process). Use the Brightness and Contrast tools in Photoshop to crispen the sketches and darken your characters.

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FONT CREATOR / FREEHAND / PHOTOSHOP CS

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If your scan has picked up unnecessary marks around the characters or figures, remove these using Photoshop’s Eraser tool. It’s important to do this now to ensure your font is as clean-limbed as possible.

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Now open up Font Creator and create a new font file under File>New. You can choose any name for your typeface, but as you’re creating a handwriting font, we recommend using your name, then ‘handwriting’. This will make locating your files easier later on. Hit OK to continue.

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Once you’ve cleared your sketches up, choose the best characters from each case set that you’ve drawn. Arrange them on your Photoshop file in order, and delete any unwanted characters. Make sure that your glyphs are well spaced out. You now have all the core elements of your font.

LINE TIPS For a better quality of line when sketching, use a bullet point pen and a range of markers with different point sizes. We tend to use ‘graphic pens’ commonly used in technical illustration. These pens have a fantastic ink pigment that even a low-grade scanner can pick up, and also allow for a crisp easy flowing line that dries quickly. Try and use the following sizes: 0.25pt for small details, 0.5pt for your main sketch, and 1-2pt to bring out details.

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9

The Overview window now shows you everything you need to know about your font. Each cell is reserved for a character that you've illustrated. Open one of the cells. Note the red bar along the bottom; this is your font’s baseline. Left/right side bearings define the space around each character.

7

To use Font Creator, you need to have a properly saved file of each letter before you can import them into the program and start making your font. Save each character as a bitmap file of around 300x300 pixels; Font Creator works best when using this format. Be sure to name your files properly. If you’re dealing with a capital A, for example, call it ‘uppercaseA.bmp’.

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Now you need to re-size your bitmap and place it properly on the baseline of the cell window. Simply select the object and a set of pull bars appear – with these, you can edit your imported glyph as you wish. Don’t forget to space your character using the left and right side bearings.

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Now that you’re happy with the look of your first glyph, you need to repeat steps 10-11 until all your characters are in their respective places. Ensure you’ve placed each character onto the baseline and that the glyph’s left and right side bearings are accurately positioned.

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10

Import your first bitmap using Tools>Import>Image. Press the Load button to select the first bitmap from your files, then hit the Generate button. Your bitmap now appears in the Glyph Edit window.

Congratulations! You’ve just imported all your characters into Font Creator. Now you need to start testing the font for any teething problems. Simply do this by selecting Test in the Font menu. Type out words, or even the full character set of your glyphs, into the text box

TUTORIAL

PC OR MAC?

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If you’ve spaced your font correctly, using the side bearings inside of the cell windows, it should flow evenly from letter to letter, as shown. However, some characters may conflict with others; if so, go back into your cell windows and make suitable corrections. Open up the Test window again to re-evaluate the font until you have an even flow to your typeface.

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As this font is a handwriting typeface used for illustration purposes, kerning isn’t required. If you spaced each glyph properly, your font should flow well enough. You’re now ready to transform your hard work into a working TrueType file for your PC or Mac. Select Install from the Font menu and the Font Installation Wizard will take you through the process. Once it’s installed, the font is ready for use.

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Open up a new file in your preferred vector program. For the purposes of this tutorial, we’ll use FreeHand. Type out a sentence or word, or import some dummy text into a text box. Test your new font by selecting it from the Font menu.

Compatibility between PC and Mac fonts has certainly improved of late. Macs can now read PC typefaces and vice versa – but only in Mac OS X, not OS 9. Sadly, although OS Xenabled Macs can use fonts created in Font Creator, they cannot run the app itself. Until High Logic conjures up an OS X-compatible version, you’ll have to use Font Creator on a PC or make do with Fontographer.

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Using your new font, place an array of text boxes over the whole area of your image. Use a range of words and sentences in upper as well as lower case. These text boxes will form the base of your final illustration in Photoshop.

Import your best sketches into Photoshop (300dpi, RGB), clean them up and place them on the same-sized file as your vector image. Consider how they’ll work with your vector image; after all, you’ll be placing the vector text in the final

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Once you’re happy with the layout of your font in your composition, you need to turn the font into outlines. If you like, you can start adding colour to the text, too. Export your image as a vector EPS, ready for importing into Photoshop.

Import your typeface vector EPS into Photoshop. If you’ve worked out your sketches accurately, you should have a wellbalanced piece. Now to add some colour and other objects. Here, we’ve created a focal point by adding a large graphic.

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Flip back to step 1. Remember how you sketched your typeface? Now you need to start sketching shapes or even images for your final illustration. Here we've used a range of abstract drawings to reflect the nature of our own handwriting font.

Decide which areas of the design you could improve. Work around your illustration until you’ve perfected the balance of elements. You've now produced a working illo from sketches, as well as a typeface of your own handwriting, from scratch. Apply these techniques to other future projects to create your own unique style. Good luck!

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CV

Bloody Kid: “I based this on an old photo of my parents. I love my dad’s ‘How did I end up here?’ expression.” (Photoshop)

CURRICULUM VITAE

DEREK BACON LOCATION: Bournemouth JOB TITLE: Freelance Eyeball Pleaser DATE OF BIRTH: October 1968 TRAINING: Self-taught SOFTWARE: Photoshop HARDWARE: Custom-built PC, iMac, Intuos2 A5 tablet INFLUENCES: “I’m influenced by painting as much as anything. The way Henri Rousseau painted all those densely detailed tropical plants is so clever. I lived in Jakarta for a while – a place jam-packed with chaotic detail – so I often like getting areas of intense detail into my pictures. At the same time, I love the way David Hockney could make something flat and ordinary look odd and interesting. Everyday life is probably the biggest influence; I think it’s quite odd when you stop and look at it. I try to put some of this across in my work.” STYLE: “My style is essentially montage: taking lots of individual elements, including colour, and balancing them. I make sure everything is lit from more or less the right angle and assemble all the elements in Photoshop to create a fresh scene or situation. It’s good to get some sort of narrative going in the picture, to create a work that looks contemporary and striking. But before I do any of this, the idea has to look right on paper. It may only be the roughest of sketches, but if the composition isn’t right from the outset, the picture won’t work.” CONTACT: Derek is represented by Illustration (www. illustrationweb.com) and has his own Website (www. derekbacon.com). For further details, please email [email protected] or call 0207 720 5202

Lennon: “I loved those psychedelic portraits Richard Avedon did of the Fab Four. I thought it would be good to do new versions.” (Photoshop)

EMAIL WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! Send us your CV, in the format shown, to [email protected], with the subject line ‘CV’.

Crowd Pleaser: “I just made this one up without any plan in mind – although it came out looking like a spectator scene. The people are all friends of mine.”

Blackpool: “I was just having fun with the composition on this one, contrasting the close-up element with the distant one. There’s no weightwatching message going on. Honest.” (Photoshop)

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10,000 songs in your pocket . 1

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