Some designers have a background in 3D modeling. I don’t. Still, clients expect me to make their logos spin and dance in 3D space. As much as I’d love to learn how to use Maya or 3ds Max, I don’t have the time or resources to do so.

Thank goodness for Swift 3D 6. It’s a 3D application made specifically for Flash designers. It allows them to draw simple shapes, type text, or import AI/EPS files and extrude them. You can then color and shade the model and animate it using a Flash-like Timeline. Swift 3D ships with preset animations, such as spins and bounces, that you can apply via drag-and-drop. It also comes with a large styles library, so if you want your object to look like glass or chrome, you don’t have to create that look from scratch. You can render out your model in a variety of styles, including photorealism and various cartoonish looks.

Once you import your project into Flash, you see it as a series of layers on the Timeline. Each aspect of the 3D data (reflections, colors, shadows, etc.) is on its own layer, so you have independent control of all the parts.

Advanced users will enjoy Swift 3D’s ability to import industry-standard 3DS and DFX formats. Swift 3D also includes polygon tools for advanced modeling. Developers will enjoy the program’s ability to export models and Papervision3D scenes.

With Swift 3D, I’m able to tell clients, “Yes, I can!”—Marcus Geduld

Company: Electric Rain
Price: $129
Web: www.erain.com
Rating: 4

Hot: Huge time saver; bargain: 25 effects for $129
Not: Mac only; lack of built-in image ordering

The best tools are the least sexy, and CoreMelt ImageFlow FX is a perfect example. It’s not the sort of tool that will wow you when you see it demonstrated at a conference or user-group meeting, but it’s the tool that may save you hours of toil. That’s better than sexy; that’s money in the bank.

Put simply, ImageFlow FX is a Mac-only plug-in for After Effects, Motion, and Final Cut Pro that generates slide shows from still images. You apply it to a solid and then, in the Effect Controls panel, point it to a folder that contains images. ImageFlow FX displays each image, one by one, with cool transitions between images. If you’ve ever tried to do this by hand, you know how boring and time-consuming it can be.

ImageFlow FX will display the images or videos in the folder in filename order or in a random order. That’s probably good enough for most purposes, though I wish it would let me order the images any way I want. To get around this, I name my images image01.png, image02.png, image03.png, etc. in the order I want them to appear (ImageFlow FX works with most standard image and video types, not just PNGs).

New to version 2 is the ability to pull images from “image wells,” which are layers in your Composition. You can pull images from up to eight wells.

ImageFlow FX isn’t a single effect—it’s a suite of 25 effects, each one containing a different transition. Some of the transitions are simple, such as fade-ins and drop-downs; others are more complex, such as 3D zooms, carousels, and image walls. Each effect has a default behavior that you can easily customize, changing timings and x, y, and z positions.

The effects allow you to add custom masks and frames to images. ImageFlow ships with many standard frames, but you can add your own. You can choose to display each image just once, or you can loop the images so that after the last one displays, the slide show begins again with the first image. The effects also support blend modes, so as various transitions cause images to overlap, they can interact with each other in interesting ways. If your images aren’t all the same size, you can tell ImageFlow FX to leave them as is or scale them to fit so they’re all the same. I’ve gotten best results when my images are all the same size, so if I have images of different dimensions, I usually animate them in groups, giving each group its own instance of an ImageFlow FX effect.

I’ve also been experimenting with using ImageFlow FX to create quick, funky backgrounds. I fill several folders full of random images and then layer random, looping slide shows on top of each other, mixing them together with blend modes.

As is my usual custom, I initially tried out ImageFlow FX by downloading the free, 15-day trial version. I was pleased to discover that CoreMelt let me keep four of the 25 effects permanently, with no obligation to buy the full product. The four free effects are Carousel, Continuous Random Pan, Multi Pop Forward, and Filmstrip. But it was a no-brainer choosing to buy the suite. I knew my $129 would repay itself almost immediately, giving me more time to focus on really creative work rather than sequencing dozens of still images on a timeline.—Marcus Geduld

Company: CoreMelt Pty Ltd
Price: $129
Web: www.coremelt.com
Rating: 4

Hot: Huge time saver; bargain: 25 effects for $129
Not: Mac only; lack of built-in image ordering

Ask Web animators what application they use, and the majority will tell you it’s Adobe Flash. That’s too bad. Although Flash CS4 has made great strides by adding 3D and inverse kinematics (bones) to its toolset, it’s a limited animation program when compared to Toon Boom Animate.

Toon Boom Animate includes the following features that Flash lacks: lip-syncing, 3D multiplane cameras, cell swapping, multiple brush tools, and motion blur. Like Flash, Animate includes onion skinning, animateable effects, path editing, gradients, inverse kinematics, masks, reusable symbols, sound support, layers, vector shape tools, and multiple color palettes.

Animate’s palette support is much more complex and fully featured than that in Flash. For instance, each drawing tool in Animate can have its own color. In Flash, if you chose stroke and fill colors, all drawing tools will use those colors. Morphing in Animate is also much more feature-rich than it is in Flash (where it’s called Shape Tweening). Animate contains a suite of tools and controls to allow you to get exactly the morph you want, and it can import most standard formats, including MOV, SWF, PSD, AI, and PDF. It can export QuickTime movies, FLV, and SWF (Flash) files.

As a long-time Flash animator, I most enjoyed using Animate’s lip-synching tools, as this task has always been arduous in Flash. Animate lets you draw mouth shapes for each common sound. It then analyzes the audio and automatically maps mouth shapes to the soundtrack. You can override its analysis if necessary, manually choosing which mouth shape to use at a specific time.

Traditional animators will love the fact that Animate includes Xsheets (exposure sheets), which are spreadsheet-like charts used to plot out animations in a standard film and video workflow. Animate’s Xsheets are more than just charts; you can plot keyframes on them instead of on the Timeline if you prefer that workflow. I find it best to use both the Timeline and the Xsheet. The Xsheet gives you many more details about what’s going on in each frame; the Timeline gives you a quicker, more-compact overview.

A strong point for Flash is also one of its weak points: its small number of tools. The smaller the tool set, the easier the application is to learn. New users can be up and running with Flash within a few hours. On the other hand, Animate’s complexity means a steeper learning curve without the plethora of books, courses, and online training videos you can find for Flash. To help new users, Toon Boom has loaded their website with training videos and “getting started” documents.

Another strong point in Flash is ActionScript. Flash isn’t just an animation tool, it’s also a computer-programming platform. Toon Boom has wisely chosen to focus only on animation, so you can’t use Animate to code interactive movies or games, but Animate does include a scripting language that allows you to automate repetitive tasks in the application itself.

One thing missing from Animate is a Type tool. If I had to choose between animating text in Animate or Flash, I would choose Flash. Although Flash has a Type tool, its text-animation features are sorely lacking. I usually animate text in After Effects, which includes the most advanced text-animation tool I’ve found.

Available for both Mac and PC, Animate retails for $999.99. Compare that with Flash, which is few hundred dollars cheaper, retailing at $699. Those prices seem about right, given the animation features of the two applications.—Marcus Geduld

Company: Toon Boom Animation Inc.
Price: $999.99
Web: www.toonboom.com
Rating: 4.5

Hot: Full-featured; powerful tool for professional animators
Not: Pricey compared to Flash; no Type tool

1 CREATE A NEW SOUND FILE
Start by launching Soundbooth and click the red Open Record Dialog icon at the bottom of the interface. In the Record dialog, select your method of input from the Device drop-down menu at the top. Enter “Voiceover” for the File Name and then click the Browse button to choose a location for your file. Next, click the red Start Recording button and speak into the microphone. When finished recording, click the Close button in the Record dialog.

2 INSERT VOICEOVER INTO MULTITRACK
There are a couple of ways you can incorporate your voiceover recording into a multitrack project. You could choose File>Save As to save the voiceover file, and then start a new multitrack project by choosing File>New>Multitrack File. Then simply import your voiceover file into the new multitrack project. But instead, let’s click the Tracks button and chose Insert Waveform into New Multitrack File. In this example, the voiceover was a mono recording. Had it been stereo, we could have chosen Insert Channels into New Multitrack File, which would have copied each channel of the source onto a separate track in the multitrack project.

3 INSERT OTHER SOUND FILES
Now that your voiceover is on its own track, go ahead and import some other sound files. Click the Open Files icon (it looks like a folder) at the top of the Files panel and navigate to a folder where you have some saved audio files. Select several files and click Open. Soundbooth will switch away from the multitrack project (it assumes you want to solo edit the last individual file you opened), so to return to your multitrack project, double-click its name on the File panel.

4 ADD FORGOTTEN FILES
You can now drag files from the Files panel to the Editor. Each file will appear as its own track. At this point, if you realized you had forgotten to import a file, you can simply drag it from your operating system’s file browser into the Editor. If you want the file to be added to an existing track, just drop it on that track. If you want the file to appear on its own track, drop it on an empty area below the other tracks.

5 SEQUENCE FILES IN TIME
To sequence the sound tracks in time, simply click-and-drag the tracks left and right in the Editor. Check your work by pressing the Play button at the bottom of the interface and also by dragging the playhead left and right. Keep repositioning the files until you’re happy with the sound.

6 ADD FADES
When you click on a track in the Editor, you’ll have access to interactive controls that allow you to add fades, adjust volume, adjust panning, and edit in/out points. To add fades, click-and-drag the square control points in the upper-left and upper-right corners of the track in the Editor. Drag up or down to control the curve of the fade.

7 ADJUST VOLUME AND PANNING
You can also adjust volume and panning via the interactive controls. For example, to adjust panning, scrub the circular control on the right. (To scrub it, point to it with your mouse, hold down the mouse button, and drag left or right, as if you’re trying to drag the circle out of the Editor.) You can also click inside the numerical text fields to type volume or panning values.

8 EDIT IN AND OUT POINTS
To edit a file’s in point, move your mouse cursor to the left edge of the track until the cursor changes to a bracket-like symbol. Then hold down the mouse button and drag right to crop away the beginning of the file. Drag left to add back the content that you cropped. You can edit the out point by dragging inward and outward from the file’s right edge.

9 GET IN CLOSE
If you need to zoom in to make close edits to a file in just one of the tracks, double-click it in the Editor to open it in its own Editor panel. When you’re done working on it, click the Back button to return to the multitrack project.

10 SAVE YOUR PROJECT
When you’re satisfied with your multitrack project, choose File>Save. We saved our file as an MP3, but notice all the other options, including FLV | F4V for use in Flash projects.

The Corner Pin in After Effects seems like a great effect until you actually try to use it. If the image you’re pinning wasn’t shot dead on, it’s hard to composite it realistically into a new scene. To the rescue comes Warp, a new suite of plug-ins for After Effects (and Premiere Pro) from Red Giant Software.

Warp’s Corner Pin effect includes secondary controls that allow you to distort the pinned footage so that it’s skewed to match the target layer underneath. Corner Pin also works well with masked images, allowing you to set the pin bounding box to either the footage itself or the bounds of the mask. It’s a complete compositing solution, including transfer modes, upscaling, motion blur, and opacity adjustments right in the effect. It also allows you to adjust the color of the Comp window controls so that you can see them against the colors of all sorts of footage.

Red Giant has applied its smart-distortion technology to the other two plug-ins that also ship with the Warp package: Shadow and Reflection. The former allows you to apply shadows to layers and then, via multiple points of control, skew the shadows in any direction in faux 3D. The latter allows you to do the same with reflections. Both effects include realistic, controllable falloff controls.

The online help is well-written and fully illustrated, and the $199 price is reasonable for this powerful set of everyday-use effects.—Marcus Geduld

Company: Red Giant Software LLC
Price: $199
Web: www.redgiantsoftware.com
Rating: 5

Hot: Power features; good documentation
Not:

1 ADD A CUE POINT
With your audio file open in Soundbooth, click in the waveform to place the Current-Time Indicator where you want to add a cue point. From the menu, choose Edit>Marker>Set Flash Cue Point. You can also add a cue point by pressing Shift-8 (or the Asterisk * key) on the numeric keypad.

2 ADD & NAME ADDITIONAL CUE POINTS
To add additional cue points, repeat Step One. To give cue points descriptive names, click on the Markers tab on the left to reveal the Markers panel. Click on one of the marker symbols in the Timeline, then type a name in the Marker Details section of the panel. We named our cue points “show star” and “hide star.” You’ll see why once we get to Flash. Note: If you don’t see the Markers panel, choose Window>Markers from Soundbooth’s main menu.

3 SAVE AS QUICKTIME FILE
Now choose File>Save As and in the Save As dialog, pick QuickTime (MOV) as the file format. (FLV, Flash’s native video format, might seem like a better option, but choosing QuickTime will make it easier to import our cue points into Flash). Note: Soundbooth saved two files to your hard drive, the QuickTime file and an XML file that contains data about the cue points.

4 IMPORT ART; CONVERT IT TO SYMBOL
In Flash, import (File>Import>Import to Stage) an object that you would like to appear and then disappear based on the markers that you added in Soundbooth. In our example, we’re going to use a group of stars on their own layer above a colored background. Select your object, and choose Modify>Convert to Symbol. In the Convert to Symbol dialog, name your symbol “star,” choose Movie Clip for Type, and click OK. In the Property inspector, give the name “star” to the Instance of the symbol on the Stage.

CREDIT: ©ISTOCKPHOTO/ESAGI

5 IMPORT QUICKTIME FILE
Go to File>Import>Import Video and in the Import Video wizard, click the Choose button and select the QuickTime file you exported from Soundbooth. Click on the Continue button.

6 IMPORT VIDEO—DEPLOYMENT
In the wizard’s next dialog, choose Progressive Download from a Web Server (the most standard deployment method). What this means is that for the Flash movie to play back the audio, we’ll have to upload two files to the Web: the Flash movie (SWF file) and the FLV file that the wizard will create from our QuickTime movie. The wizard will place that FLV in the same folder as its source. Again, click on the Continue button.

7 IMPORT VIDEO—ENCODING
On the wizard’s next screen, click on the Cue Points tab, then click the folder icon (circled) and import the cue point XML file. Click the Continue button to yes, continue with the wizard.

8 IMPORT VIDEO—SKINNING
Choose None as the Skin type in the wizard’s next screen. Skins add playback controls to media, such as play and pause buttons. Because we just want our audio to play automatically, we have no need for skins. Click Continue, and then click Finish.
After the wizard is done, give the imported media an Instance name of “music” in the Property inspector and move it off the stage. Because it’s just audio, there’s no need for it to be seen.

9 ENTER CODE IN ACTIONSCRIPT
Our goal is to make the stars invisible by default and then we want them to appear when the music reaches the first cue point (“show star”) and vanish when it reaches the second cue point (“hide star”). In the Timeline, click the Insert Layer icon and rename the new layer “actions.” Select the first frame and choose Window>Actions to reveal the ActionScript editor. Here’s the code that we typed above. (Note: For more information on working with cue points via ActionScript, see the online Help for the FLVPlayback component.)

10 TEST YOUR MOVIE
Sure enough, when we tested our movie, the stars were invisible at first. Then, perfectly timed to the music, they appeared and disappeared—right on cue.

I didn’t expect much from RE:Vision’s Video Gogh 3 effect, a plug-in for After Effects and similar applications. I’d already seen effects that turn videos into faux impressionist paintings and my feeling was that you’ve seen one; you’ve seen them all. But two hours after installing Video Gogh, I was still playing with it! After a quick read of the well-written manual (a PDF), I realized the effect is more than a painterly-look effect; it’s a complex particle system in which the particles are brush strokes. There’s a somewhat steep learning curve; however, there are out-of-the-box features you can use almost instantly.

Video Gogh ships with three preset brushes, but it also allows you to create your own using any artwork as a brush shape. (And, yes, brushes can be animated!) Your brushes are then used to repaint the source video. There are a couple of ways you can control brush strokes:

• By letting Video Gogh calculate brush orientation, in which case it will follow the contours of the source image; or
• You can use another image (or video) as a map to control orientation. This can be a direction map from a 3D application.

Because Video Gogh is really a particle system, you have control over the birth and death of the particles (the brush strokes) as well as Photoshop-like brush properties, such as brush spacing, size, and opacity.—Marcus Geduld

PRICE: $119.95 (Upgrade $39.95)
FROM: Vision Effects, Inc
WEB: www.revisionfx.com
RATING: 4.5

LAYERS VERDICT
HOT A painterly effect with a ton of power features
NOT Somewhat steep learning curve

1 THREE AUDIO TRACKS
In this example we have added three tracks of audio to our sequence: music, ambiance, and dialog. On preview, we notice that some of the audio levels are a bit off. At times, the music and ambiance drown out the dialog; at other times, the dialog is a bit too loud.

2 SWITCH TO AUDIO WORKSPACE
As the first step in remixing the audio, switch to the Audio Workspace by choosing Window>Workspace>Audio from the menu. This Workspace includes the Audio Mixer—the perfect tool for the changes we want to make.

3 SET AUTOMATION MODE TO WRITE
Our first task is to set new levels for the music track. This isn’t as simple as lowering the volume because we want the music to fade and swell at various times during the sequence. To record volume changes in real time while listening to the sequence, set the Automation Mode for the Audio 1 track to Write in the Audio Mixer panel. Note that the volume slider is currently at zero.

4 PLAY AND ADJUST
Hit the Spacebar to start playing (you can also click the Play/Stop Toggle icon at the bottom of the Audio Mixer panel). While listening to the audio, drag the slider up and down, raising and lowering the volume, as appropriate. At some point, press the Spacebar to pause playback and then press it again to continue. Notice the volume slider jumps back to zero when you continue playback.

5 DISABLE SWITCH TO TOUCH AFTER WRITE
We don’t want that return to zero. So via the Audio Mixer flyout menu, turn off the Switch to Touch after Write option. When this option is on, the Automation mode switches from Write to Touch when you press the Spacebar to pause playback. Touch mode records a keyframe when you pause playback, and that keyframe always returns the property to whatever value it was before you started adjusting it. That’s why our audio jumped back to zero.

6 TRY AGAIN
With the Switch to Touch after Write option disabled, return the Current Time Indicator (CTI) to the beginning of the sequence, set the Automation Mode back to Write, press Play, and remake your adjustments. This time, when you pause while you’re making adjustments, the rest of the track will stay at your new ending volume level, which is what we want. In this example, we pressed the Spacebar again to pause playback after about 34 seconds.

7 SET AUTOMATION MODE TO READ
When you’re finished making adjustments, immediately set the Automation Mode back to Read (the default). This ensures that you don’t accidentally record more changes to the volume during subsequent playbacks when you’re just previewing the audio.

8 REVEAL KEYFRAMES IN THE TIMELINE
While you were in Write mode, Premiere Pro added keyframes in the Timeline. To see them, twirl down the music track in the Timeline (if it isn’t already), click the Show Keyframes icon, and select the Show Track Keyframes option. Notice the keyframe at 34 seconds. That was when we quit making adjustments. By default, Premiere Pro adds a keyframe as soon as you switch the Automation mode back to Read, returning the property to its setting before you started adjusting.

9 ANOTHER TRACK
Repeat this process with another track (in our example, the dialog). Set its Automation Mode to Write and leave all other tracks set to Read. Return the CTI to the start of the sequence, hit the Spacebar, adjust the volume slider while listening, and when you’re done making adjustments, hit the Spacebar once again to pause playback. While you were recording changes to the dialog, did you notice the music track’s slider moving up and down by itself, as if a ghostly hand were adjusting it? It was really just displaying the changes you made earlier.

10 SOLO TRACK
While repeating the same steps with other tracks, you might find yourself getting distracted by the music and dialog. In this example, we want to record adjustments to the ambiance track without hearing the other tracks. So click the Solo Track icon. Once you’re done recording new levels, click the Solo Track icon to toggle it off so you can hear all the tracks again.

11 ADDING AN EFFECT
We decided to add an effect to the ambiance track. Click the right-facing arrow to the left of the mode drop-down menus in the Audio Mixer to show the effects for each track. Click on one of the down-facing arrows in one of the tracks to choose an effect. Premiere records keyframes to an effect the same way it records them for volume. Just set the track’s Automation Mode to Write and adjust the effect’s control in real time, while listening to the playback. Premiere wrote the appropriate keyframes to the Timeline.

12 AUTOMATION OFF
If you have second thoughts about changes that you’ve made to a track, play back the audio again, but this time change that track’s Automation Mode to Off. This will allow you to hear what the audio sounded like before you made adjustments. In our example, we decided the keyframes were a mistake. To remove keyframes, switch to the Pen tool and drag a rectangle around the keyframes in the Timeline to select them all. Then press Delete (PC: Backspace) on the keyboard.

13 OTHER MODES
As for the other Automation modes, Latch and Touch don’t immediately start recording keyframes during playback like the Write mode. They start when you begin making adjustments. So if you hit play and then don’t make an adjustment until two seconds into the sequence, Premiere won’t start laying down keyframes until two seconds. When you pause playback, Latch (like Write) sets the rest of the Track to the level of your last adjustment; Touch returns the rest of the track to whatever level it was before you began making adjustments. Visit the Help Viewer under the Help menu to learn more about each of the Automation modes.

Be careful what you wish for: You might get it. That’s what happened to me when I moaned about Flash’s lack of pro-level animation capabilities. I wound up with Toon Boom Studio 4, a power tool for animators that can export to several popular formats, including QuickTime and SWF.

While Flash is easy to learn (if you skip scripting), Toon Boom is a monster. But the flip side of the coin is that Flash doesn’t have many tools for the animator—that’s why it’s easy to learn. On the other hand, Toon Boom Studio, as the name implies, is an entire studio worth of tools: pro-level lip-synching, virtual cameras, vector tracing, a rotary drawing table, exposure sheets, forward kinetics, an advanced color palette system, and…well, you get the point; it’s feature-packed.

Those of you upgrading from older versions of the program will likely enjoy its new interface, which is very similar to the one in many of the Adobe CS3 applications, with dockable panes you can drag to resize. Version 4 also includes feathered edges and the ability to import Illustrator files with layers intact.

Toon Boom Studio isn’t a use-out-of-the-box application; you have to delve into the documentation (in addition to the docs that ship with the program, the Toon Boom Animation website is loaded with helpful tutorials and user forums). But the serious animator will willingly climb to the top of the learning curve. The view is spectacular from there. See ya later, Flash!—Marcus Geduld

PRICE: $399.99
FROM: Toon Boom Animation Inc.
WEB: www.toonboom.com
RATING: 4.5

LAYERS VERDICT
HOT Swiss Army knife of tools for the pro-animator
NOT You actually have to read the darn manual

1 A HELPING HAND
To learn the shortcuts for your favorite app, select its Help file from the Help menu; for example, in Photoshop, choose Help>Photoshop Help. Keyboard Shortcuts are always listed near the bottom, so scroll down. (It’s also a good idea to print out the Help pages.) The third time you use a command from a menu, ask yourself if it’s a command that you’ll use all the time; if so, force yourself to look up the shortcut and use it from then on. It may take a few attempts, but soon you’ll have it memorized.

2 EDITING SHORTCUTS IN PHOTOSHOP
In almost all the Adobe apps, you can edit shortcuts by choosing Edit>Keyboard Shortcuts from the menu (or use the shortcut, Shift-Option-Command-K [PC: Shift-Alt-Ctrl-K]), which will open the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog. Note: If you start editing the shortcuts in Photoshop right away, you’ll be changing the default set of shortcuts and that’s a little unsafe. So, we recommend that you click the Create a New Set Based on the Current Set of Shortcuts icon (to the left of the Trash icon), which will allow you to save a copy of the shortcuts and edit that instead.

3 COPY THE DEFAULTS
Photoshop will save the new set of keyboard shortcuts as a KYS file, which you can transfer from computer to computer (it’s also a good idea to back it up). If you use Photoshop for multiple, discrete purposes, consider saving various sets of shortcuts; for example, you could save one for print work and another for video work. That way, within each set, you can assign the F5 key (for instance) to do something different. You can switch from set to set via the pop-up menu at the top of the dialog.

4 SHORTCUTS FOR WHAT?
You can add a shortcut to almost any command in Photoshop. If you want to edit a shortcut for a tool rather than a menu item, simply choose Tools from the Shortcuts For pop-up menu.

5 ADDING A NEW SHORTCUT
Adding a new shortcut is easy: Just locate the command, click on its name, and type the shortcut you’d like to use for this command in the white field. Photoshop will warn you if you’ve chosen an illegal shortcut: one that Photoshop can’t understand or one that’s already assigned. It’s okay to reassign a shortcut if you want to; just make sure it’s one you won’t be needing.

6 INSTANT ACCESS TO BLUR
Add shortcuts for those commands you use most often; for example, we gave the Gaussian Blur filter a shortcut as we use it all the time. After you’ve finished making your changes, make sure you press the Save button (circled).

7 EDITING SHORTCUTS IN ILLUSTRATOR
The Keyboard Shortcuts dialog in Illustrator works almost exactly the same way as in Photoshop, with a couple of exceptions; for example, the Save button is on the right-hand side of the dialog.

8 PRINT THE SHORTCUTS
In addition, the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog in Illustrator has an Export Text button that, when clicked, will create a text file listing all of your shortcuts. You can view it in a text editor, such as Windows Notepad or TextEdit.

9 EDITING SHORTCUTS IN PREMIERE PRO
In Premiere Pro, we like to use markers, so let’s create shortcuts for that. In the Keyboard Customization dialog (Edit>Keyboard Customization), choose Panels from the second pop-up menu, twirl open the Source Monitor Panel group, and then add shortcuts for Go to Next Marker and Go to Previous Marker.

10 SHORTCUTS FROM NON-ADOBE PROGRAMS
Premiere Pro users who are transferring over from non-Adobe editing applications may wish to select one of the built-in shortcut sets, which mimic shortcuts for Avid Xpress DV and Final Cut Pro.

11 EDITING SHORTCUTS IN SOUNDBOOTH
In Adobe Soundbooth, make sure you click the Save As button (circled) before editing or adding shortcuts in the Edit Keyboard Shortcuts dialog. Adding a shortcut in Soundbooth is a little different from doing so in other apps: First you need to select the command, type the shortcut in the Press Shortcut text field at the bottom of the dialog, and then click the Assign button.

12 EDITING SHORTCUTS IN FLASH
Flash veers the farthest away from the standard workflow: While PC users will be able to edit keyboard shortcuts by choosing Edit>Keyboard Shortcuts, Mac users must choose Flash>Keyboard Shortcuts. To edit a shortcut in the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog, first duplicate the standard set by clicking the Duplicate Set icon (circled), then choose a set of commands from the Commands pop-up menu.

13 ADDING SPEEDY FLIPS
If like me, you’re driven bonkers when you can’t flip graphics in Flash without going to the menu, then why not add shortcuts to Flip Vertical and Flip Horizontal?

In the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog, choose Drawing Menu Commands from the Commands pop-up menu. Twirl open Modify then Transform. Click on Flip Vertical to select it, click the Plus button beside Shortcuts, then inside the Press Key field, type the shortcut you want to use. To save the shortcut, click on the Change button. Then just do the same for Flip Horizontal—with a different shortcut, of course. That’s all!

[This article was co-authored by Richard Harrington]

STEP 1 Open Background Images
Begin by opening two images in Photoshop CS3. Use the Move tool (V) to drag one image into the other. With the top layer active (surf in our example), click on the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel to add a mask, then choose the Gradient tool (G), and draw a black-to-white gradient on the mask so that the top layer fades into the bottom layer. Next, add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer (click on the Create New Adjustment Layer icon and choose Hue/Saturation) to bring both images into the same color space.

CREDIT: ©PHOTOSPIN

STEP 2 Duplicate Adjustment Layer
Our goal is to bring the surf’s transparency data into Flash so we can animate it fading in over the burlap, but never completely covering it. But before we do that, we have to deal with the fact that adjustment layers don’t import into Flash, so select the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and duplicate it (Command-J [PC: Ctrl-J]). Then, drag the duplicate to immediately above the bottom layer (burlap in our example) so that both layers have their own copy of the adjustment layer.

STEP 3 Merge the Adjustment Layers
Click on the top adjustment layer and merge it with the image layer below (Command-E [PC: Ctrl-E]). Do the same with the duplicated adjustment layer.

STEP 4 Import a Watch; Draw Separate Hands
Next, drag in a watch or clock image. Using Free Transform (Command-T [Ctrl-T]), skew it to add the illusion of perspective and add a drop shadow (click on the Add a Layer Style icon and choose Drop Shadow). Because we want to animate the hands spinning in Flash, paint out the actual hands and recreate vector hands (shape layers drawn with the Pen tool), with each hand on its own layer. Use the Ellipse tool to create a shape layer for the small black circle in the center. To keep things organized, place the hand layers in a group called “hands” (what else?).

CREDIT: ©PHOTOSPIN

STEP 5 Add Text Layers for Links
Now let’s use the Type tool (T) to add layers of text that we’ll later use for links in Flash. We added the links as text layers because it’s vital that these remain editable since our clients constantly change their minds (sound familiar?) about the linked-to pages. Place all of your text in a layer group called “links” and then place this group in a group called “text.”

STEP 6 Add Logo Layer with Outer Glow
Finally, add a couple more text layers to create a logo. With one of the text layers active (“Time ide” in our example), click on the Add a Layer Style icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Outer Glow. When you’re done adjusting the settings to your liking, click OK. Go to File>Save As and save the file as a PSD somewhere on your hard drive.

STEP 7 Import File to Flash
Flipping over to Flash, import the file by choosing File>Import>Import to Stage and selecting the PSD from your hard drive. The new Flash Import dialog will open. You’ll see this same dialog when you import any PSD or AI file. It contains useful options for ensuring that each layer imports the way you want.

STEP 8 Select Import Options for Link Layers
Begin by selecting all the link text layers (click the top text layer in the links layer group and Shift-click the bottom text layer). Then, check the Editable Text option so that we’ll later be able to make edits using the Flash Text tool.

STEP 9 Import Logo Text Layers
For the logo text layer (“Time ide” in our example), choose the Flattened Bitmap Image option to maintain the outer-glow effect. (We did the same with the watch layer to preserve its drop shadow.) We chose to import the ampersand (&) layer as Vector Outlines to maintain a small file size and so that we could edit it later with the Flash Pen tool.

STEP 10 Import Hands as Vector Shapes
Knowing that we plan to animate the watch hands in Flash, choose one of the shape layers in the Import to Stage dialog and select the Editable Paths and Layer Styles option. This automatically saves the layer as a movie clip in the Flash library (you must do this for most tween animations in Flash). The Import to Stage dialog also lets us create Instance Names and even choose Registration points (the pivot point for rotations). Repeat for the other shape layers in the hands layer group.

STEP 11 Lossless or Lossy Compression
When selecting the import options for the image layer that contains the layer mask, choose Lossless for Compression—this is vital for maintaining the transparency and soft edge that we added in Photoshop. Lossless images are imported as PNGs, which support transparency. (Lossy images [the other option] import as JPEGs, which works fine for our other image layer that doesn’t contain any transparency.) Also, select the Bitmap Image with Editable Layer Styles option.

STEP 12 Importing Layer Transparency
It’s important that you select both of these options—Lossless compression and Bitmap Image with Editable Layer Styles—to import the layer transparency. If you don’t, you’ll get a really ugly, jagged edge (as shown here).

STEP 13 Set Stage Size
Finally, check the Set Stage Size to Same Size as Photoshop Canvas option. This will resize the Flash movie so that it fits your PSD dimensions exactly. The Place Layers at Original Position option (which we left checked) ensures that the layers stay where we placed them in Photoshop. If you uncheck this option, Flash will center all the layers.

STEP 14 Let the Flash Begin
Click OK to close the Import dialog, and as you can see, Flash maintains our layer stack, including the groups, which it magically transformed into layer folders. You can now use the motion tweening in Flash to animate the hands moving around and the background fading in. You can also change any of the text links (such as the word “email” to “contact”) using Flash’s Text tool.

Now we can all fall to the floor and thank Adobe for shaving hours off our work time.

As a motion-graphics artist used to After Effects, it’s always irked me that Flash doesn’t include a particle system. I’ve had to create particles in After Effects and export them to Flash as videos, which bloat my SWF files and makes it hard for me to integrate particle effects with other Flash elements. So I danced a happy jig when I found Partigen.

This fantastic plug-in lets you create 2D particle systems via drag-and-drop or ActionScript. Animators will be able to create particles without writing code. Coders will be able to add all sorts of cool, interactive effects. Particles that follow the mouse or change color when you roll over them? No problem!

Partigen ships with a library of preset effects: fire, explosions, rain, snow, and water. And you can add your own custom effects. You can even export your effects and share them with other animators.

Particles themselves can be any imported graphic: arrows, blobs, dots, company logos, and so on. And you can tween emitters so that particles appear from different parts of the stage at different times. Without writing code, you can control many aspects of the system from the Properties panel. Best of all, there’s no render time. Tweak a property and you can instantly see how the system changes. Grudgingly, I’ll admit this blows After Effects out of the water.

My one gripe: Partigen only works with ActionSript 2.0. Pure animators won’t care, but as a programmer who is migrating to 3.0, this is disappointing. I emailed the developer and asked him if a 3.0 version is on the horizon and he assured me that it is. I await an upgrade!—Marcus Geduld

PRICE: $99
FROM: Desuade
PHONE:
WEB: www.desuade.com
FOR: Mac and Windows
RATING: 4

LAYERS VERDICT
HOT Complete particle system for Flash
NOT Not compatible with ActionScript 3.0