BEFORE

CLIENT: Bone Cootes

“[Cootes would] like the cover to be whimsical, but not too silly or jokey. “‘Intriguing’ is probably the word that best describes what I’d like the designers to go for.”

San Francisco singer/songwriter Bone Cootes performs his original compositions in small clubs around the Bay Area. In 2001 he self-produced mock piehole, a CD of songs co-written with fellow musicians. “Ry Cooder meets Tom Waits” is how one rock critic described Cootes, a musical raconteur whose gravelly voice delivers slice-of-life lyrics backed by reverberating guitar. But the indie musician prefers the high-concept description used by another reviewer: “Leonard Cohen meets the Cramps.”

One of the benefits of the indie music scene is creative control. Cootes not only co-writes all of his own lyrics and music and produces his own CDs, he’s also involved in creating the visual concepts for his albums. On the latest CD, he worked with a designer to realize an art treatment the singer already had in mind. “‘Mock piehole’ is one of those word mashups—a combination of mock pie (like mock apple pie from the Depression) and pie hole, which means the mouth,” he explains. “I came up with the idea of showing an Asian puppet with a false mouth.”

Although he’s happy with the cover, Cootes is curious to find out what the new designers will come up with based on their reaction to his ironic lyrics and musical references. He likes the idea of giving them free rein, aside from a couple of requests. He’d like the cover to be whimsical, but not too silly or jokey. “‘Intriguing’ is probably the word that best describes what I’d like the designers to go for,” he says. And though the current cover has a brownish tint, Cootes is adamant that the designers use what has become his signature color: “Green, green, green.”

We sent five songs from the client’s CD to three designers and gave them carte blanche to create a CD cover, front and back, that’s a little Cohen, a little Cooder, a little Waits, a little Cramps, and a lot Cootes.

AFTER

DESIGNER: Brook Berth www.gunthergraphics.com

©BROOK BERTH

“I made paths around different areas and played with making some parts color and others black-and-white. But ultimately I decided on a mostly black-and-white front cover…”

After listening to songs from Cootes’s CD, I decided to incorporate a blackbird into my design. My goal was to combine symbolism—blackbirds are bearers of messages—with a funky layout. The name of the album, mock piehole, gave me the idea of using a bird-shaped pie vent and putting it in someone’s mouth.

I set up a photography session in Milwaukee’s Third Ward in front of an old brick building. The model wore a polka-dot dress, which gives the cover an urban-retro look. In Photoshop, I made paths around different areas of the image and played with making some parts color and others black-and-white. But ultimately I decided on a mostly black-and-white front cover to draw the viewer into the imagery and evoke the raw feeling of Cootes’s music. The exception to the black-and-white treatment was the green layer in the lettering to tie it into the back cover, which has a green tint.

I used Albertus, a sharp, bold font with slight serifs, throughout this project. I even modified it in the white outline on the title to create a sense of vibration. I repeated the front cover image on the back, where I used it in a transparent layer above the green. I also used the pie vent, skewed at an angle, to create dynamic movement through the cover.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER: GUNTHER GRAPHICS

In addition to working as a full-time graphic artist, Brook Berth runs her own home-based sign and design firm, Gunther Graphics, named after her Boston terrier. During her more than eight years in the field, she has created visual treatments for clients ranging from magazines and newspapers to individuals, small businesses, and corporations in just about every genre, from branding—creating logos and identity—to print, Web, signage, and monument design.

Berth describes her design style as eclectic and streamlined with an urban flair. She owes her early success to starting in the industry as a junior in high school, when she joined the Workforce 2010 Apprenticeship Program at Times Printing. That early exposure gave her a solid technical foundation and a head start in figuring out what she wanted to do professionally.

APPLICATIONS USED: Adobe Photoshop CS, Adobe Illustrator CS, and Adobe InDesign CS

AFTER

DESIGNER: Jay Kustka www.jaybirddesign.com

“My initial idea was to use pies with faces, but that evolved into simple circles with eyes and a different symbol for each mouth, or piehole.”

Before I began sketching, I listened to Cootes’s music, trying to get a feel for it. Since he likes the artwork he currently has (as do I), I wanted to provide a design alternative that would give the cover a different flavor but still capture the essence of his music.

My initial idea was to use pies with faces, but that evolved into simple circles with eyes and a different symbol for each mouth, or piehole. Working in Illustrator, I put together my first version (in green, of course), but the end result looked too stiff—not at all what I was going for. I then decided to try photographing the design to give me the effect I wanted. So I printed the Illustrator file on a color laser printer, laid it on a table, and took several pictures with a digital camera at different angles and distances. Using one of those images as a background, I overlaid text in Rosewood (filled), a font that’s a bit overused in circus and western themes but which works nicely here in the filled version.

Because I have a preference for completely transparent jewel cases, I designed the mock piehole cover to fit that kind of tray, which gives more room for the design.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER: JAY KUSTKA

A Boston native recently transplanted to New York City, Jay Kustka is not only a designer but also a musician who has played guitar in bands in both cities for the past 20 years. Kustka branched out into print and Web design eight years ago. Since then, he has worked with Big Duck Studio and Newport Creative Communications, as well as on independent design projects. He’s also partnered on projects with his fiancée, a Web developer. Currently he’s the sole dedicated freelance designer for a large consulting firm in New York City, but he continues to devote as much time as possible to music. “Music inspires me on a core level. I always listen to music while designing and have found it to be an essential part of the creative process.”

APPLICATIONS USED: Adobe Illustrator CS2, Adobe Photoshop CS2, and Adobe InDesign CS2

AFTER

DESIGNER: Donovan Sears www.transfixdesign.com

“I immersed myself in the music and experimented with various combinations of images and textures in order to create the mood I got from his music.”

Knowing when to say when doesn’t just apply to beer. One of the most important things I’ve learned is to eliminate unnecessary elements. Before starting a project, I try to focus on the specific purpose the piece is intended for and figure out what mood I want to establish. Then I streamline. In the end, the customer has a piece that serves its purpose and does so in style—just not too much style.

My idea for Cootes’s artwork was to work off of the word “mashup,” as his current design does. I immersed myself in the music and experimented with various combinations of images and textures in order to create the mood I got from his music. I was particularly drawn to the songs “The Happiest Hour” and “Mock Piehole.” I feel they are reflected most in my design.

I chose to run the image across the entire exterior of the booklet, in order to create a large, less-constricted image. I prefer the proportions of this “widescreen” visual format. The image also wraps around to the back of the tray card. Photography help came from the other half of Transfix—Kevin Shuck. He composed and photographed the face you see. For fonts, I chose the strange and grungy font Nasty, a nice contrast with the simplistic and condensed Orator. And of course it’s all dipped in Cootes’s signature hue: “green, green, green!” [Insert credit for photograph] ©KEVIN SHUCK

ABOUT THE DESIGNER: TRANSFIX DESIGN

Donovan Sears started his business right out of college in 2001 with his partner in crime, Kevin Shuck. A lot of their work is with the indie rock bands and studios that make up the incredible music scene in Louisville, Kentucky. They provide that music scene with CD packaging, poster design, apparel logo design, and Web design. They’re particularly drawn to working with musicians because Donovan plays guitar for a band, and because he’s part of the indie scene, they’re able to make connections with local musicians. Aside from rock bands, they have also created promotional materials for country and bluegrass acts, and they’re working with local concert venues to help them better connect with concert goers.

APPLICATION USED: Adobe Photoshop CS

Frederic Goudy, noted American type designer, once said that anyone who would letterspace type would steal sheep.¹ Alas, letterspacing—exaggerated spacing between characters—has become a popular typographic device, so if you choose to face the Wrath of Goudy, you owe it to him to letterspace as well as you can.

The easiest way is simply to add fixed spaces—ems, ens, or thins—between each of the characters. (These fixed spaces are located in the Type>Insert White Space menu.) This is the best approach for a logotype, for example, where you have an exact spacing scheme in mind. You can then adjust the spacing with manual kerning. Letterspacing camouflages kerning problems, but it can’t eliminate them. This tedious technique gives you the most control over the spacing of your type.

More commonly, though, you’ll letterspace to spread a line of type over a given measure, or line length. The easiest way is to use your program’s force-justify command, which Adobe programs call “Justify All Lines.” This forces each line in a paragraph to completely fill the measure. In most justified paragraphs, this only affects the last line, whose spacing will be expanded, usually to its detriment.

Thus letterspacing rule #1: Use it only in display type. If you need a perfectly rectangular block of body text, adjust its tracking in the Character palette until the last line is very nearly full, then force-justify the paragraph. If the last line insists on setting long and creating a widow when you’re tracking the paragraph, tighten tracking for only the last two lines to force it to fit. Normally, tracking adjustments are best made on a whole-paragraph basis. [Note: A widow is a short last line of a paragraph. It’s disruptive because it creates the impression of a line space between paragraphs. An orphan is a short fragment of a paragraph (which could be a widow) that appears at the top of a column. It’s unattractive because it disrupts the rectangular geometry of the column of type.]

Avoid letterspacing more than one line of type, because it’s unlikely that spacing will be consistent from line to line. If you do wind up with the same number of characters on each line (creating consistent spacing), the characters in succeeding lines will stack one over the other. Not pretty. With rare exceptions, variation in spacing within a text block appears sloppy. Such an exception—where variation is the typographic point being made—appears in Figure 1.

Figure 1

Point size
Designers often erroneously use letterspacing for copyfitting. If you need to fill the measure with type, it’s better to do it by varying point size. First, make an educated guess about the size you need, and then use the increase/decrease point size command (Shift-Command-> or < [PC: Shift-Control-> or <]) to get the type closer to the right size. Then use the force-justify command to completely fill the measure. If you do this often, go to InDesign (PC: Edit)>Preferences>Units & Increments, and change the Size/Leading increment to 1 point for finer control.

When force-justifying display type, remember that the larger the point size, the more the first and last characters’ side bearings will cause the line to appear indented at each end. Side bearings are slivers of space on the flanks of every character that separate them from each other, and in large point sizes they become very apparent, as shown at the top of Figure 2. To compensate, you have two options, neither of them automatic:
• Widen the frame of the letterspaced type. You have to eyeball this in a zoomed view.
• Add a thin space (Shift-Option-Command-M [PC: Shift-Alt-Control-M]) at the beginning of the line, place the text cursor between the character and the space, and use manual kerning in the Character palette to nudge the character to align precisely against the text frame’s edge. This won’t work with word spaces, only fixed spaces. It won’t work at the right-hand margin either. There, type the last character a second time, select the new character with the Type tool, and in the Toolbox, assign it to have no fill, making it invisible. Place the cursor between it and its visible twin, and manually kern the visible character until it aligns flush right. Whew! (Tip: To manually kern using keyboard shortcuts, press Option-Right Arrow [PC: Alt-Right Arrow] to increase the kerning in an increment as defined in Preferences>Units & Increments [use the Left Arrow key to decrease the kerning]. Add the Command [PC: Control] key to the shortcut for an increment five times as large.)

Figure 2

Word space
When a word space appears in a single, force-justified line, InDesign does all the stretching in the word space—the other text retains the spacing specified in your Hyphenation and Justification settings (found in the flyout menu of either the Paragraph or Control palette). To force the text to letterspace, replace the word space with a fixed space, such as an en. You can adjust that space later by adding ens and thins to get an appropriately proportioned “word space.” (In Illustrator, you have another option: the Type>Fit Headline command, which stretches character spaces and word spaces simultaneously. It’s faster, but you’ll miss InDesign’s finer, if more tedious, controls.)

Punctuation
Letterspacing rule #2: Avoid punctuation when letterspacing. Commas, apostrophes, and dashes all make logical, proportional spacing difficult. Where punctuation is unavoidable, use thin spaces to separate all the other characters, but set the punctuation closed up, without spaces. Then manually kern the punctuation for optimal spacing. Where an apostrophe appears, get the overall space between the characters flanking it to match that of the other characters on the line, as shown in Figure 3. (The fastest way to set a series of fixed spaces is to set one from the Type>Insert White Space menu, copy it, and paste it repeatedly. The ultimate solution is to create keyboard shortcuts—using the Edit>Keyboard Shortcuts command—for spaces you use often.)

Figure 3: Punctuation in letterspaced type is tricky, as shown in the force-justified but otherwise unmodified upper sample. Below, the characters around the apostrophe have been kerned so their spacing matches that of the other characters. Likewise, the exclamation point has been kerned in to keep it from hanging out into space.

When you don’t want equal spaces between all characters in the line, put flush spaces between the characters where you do want space. Leave no space between the characters that you want to remain snug. Then force-justify. Only the characters separated by the flush spaces will be letterspaced. Any kerning needed between the snug pairs will now be much easier to accomplish.

One last suggestion: Letterspacing looks better with sans serif faces, because their hard geometry helps the spacing look more even.

(1)-Erik Spiekermann’s wonderfully informative and entertaining book on type, Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works (Peachpit Press), draws its title from Goudy’s wry imprecation.

The Broadcast Designer

In high school, Christopher Dominici drew caricatures of his teachers and his friends. He also played piano by ear and wanted a formal music education, but his father wanted him to be an engineer. So he compromised and went to art school, bought a synthesizer, and joined a rock band. The band never made it, but he did get a BFA in Graphic Design.

Later, in his twenties, Dominici was a print designer by day and a musician by night. Then a friend, a sound engineer at a local TV station, asked if he could compose a music package for their news programming. That’s when he bought his first Mac. The TV station soon hired him as a writer/producer/designer.

Since then, he’s been a broadcast designer, a TV promotion writer/producer, a design director, and a creative director at various TV stations and cable networks. Now, he owns his own company, Potomac Motion in Poolesville, Maryland, and provides motion graphics and broadcast design to corporations, broadcast and postproduction facilities, and government agencies.

Staying alive
To keep his music fix alive, Dominici composes original music for a project or two and plays keyboards and low Irish whistle at church on the weekends.

He likes to stay on top of new developments in the industry and likes to play with new applications. “Of course, I try to keep up with the latest software and plug-ins. My best advice to any designer is to try to avoid using any plug-in or software ‘out of the box,’ but to allow some playtime with your new toy and come up with alternate uses of the product. Some of my best motion graphics have come about when I’ve hit the wrong key while designing.”

When I asked Dominici what was the one thing that had the most impact on his career, he responded, “After Effects, without a doubt. When I first used version 4 in 1998, I was elated because here was a program that essentially gave me a timeline and editing capability for Photoshop. I could now edit keyframes (just as I had edited MIDI data the previous ten years) and create motion graphics in much the same way that I create music.”

When asked about the future of video, Dominici answered, “In five years, I expect full-resolution, uncompressed, high-definition video on digital (tapeless) cameras and decks to be the norm. Also, I suspect that the quality of motion graphics will improve exponentially throughout the industry. I can’t wait to see what the best designers will be capable of producing in the not-so-distant future.”

FBITN Presents video open
PHOTO CREDIT: ©2005 FBI TRAINING NETWORK

The Video: FBITN Presents training video open

The Inspiration: The FBI had a training unit that needed a makeover of their logo and their video training materials. This is a program open that Dominici designed, live-action shot, and created in Adobe After Effects. “I had the luxury of choosing the music track for this open (I try to negotiate this option on most jobs), so I can say it was the track that inspired the look and frenetic pace of the animation.”

The Process: “This is the kind of job that, in my recent past, would have taken hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of broadcast hardware and a full creative team to pull off. Now, I can create and execute a piece like this in less than a week with less than $20,000 worth of hardware/software,” according to Dominici. To achieve the final product, he used a Sony HDR-HC1 video camera (www.sony.com); Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator (www.adobe.com) on a Power Mac G5 and a PowerBook G4 (www.apple.com); and the following plug-ins: Aurora Sky (www.digitalanarchy.com), Power Picker (www.fnordware.com), Knoll Light Factory (www.redgiantsoftware.com), ReelSmart Motion Blur (www.revisionfx.com), and Shine (www.trapcode.com).

[To view samples of Dominici’s video opens, visit www.layersmagazine.com/magazine/downloads.—Ed.]

Redskins Gen‘R’ation program open
PHOTO CREDIT: ©2005 THE WASHINGTON REDSKINS

The Video: Redskins Gen‘R’ation program open

The Inspiration: The Washington Redskins were in need of a Saturday morning kids’ show program open. Unfortunately for Dominici, he was asked to use existing footage of players and kids shot in a dark studio with one light source. “I felt that the footage was inappropriate (from a design standpoint) for a fun, lighthearted kids’ show,” he said. So, he grabbed stills from the footage and created a virtual world of team colors and football icons. The footage limitation led to this final design that was a hit with the client.

The Process: For this project Dominici used a Power Mac G5, a PowerBook G4, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Apple Motion, and the following plug-ins: Power Picker, Knoll Light Factory, ReelSmart Motion Blur, and Trapcode’s Particular.

Top 10 things Dominici can’t design without:
1. My eyes
2. My ears
3. Nature
4. A grid
5. Music
6. Typography
7. Single Malt Scotch
8. My cameras
9. My Macs
10. After Effects

The Illustrator

The son of a cartoonist, William Evans (http://wevans.co.uk) was exposed to art and creativity very early on. After finishing grade school, he enrolled in The Arts Institute of Bournemouth in England, where he studied graphic design, illustration, and multimedia. While there, Evans seized each and every opportunity to work in his field of choice, and did time in the trenches at various advertising agencies.

Struggling to find work after finishing college as many bright young designers do, Evans decided to take the digital television and Web career path with Teletext (www.teletext.com). It was during this time that he was bitten by the illustration bug. Thus, in his spare time he created illustrations for sale on iStockphoto.com (www.istockphoto.com/onion). Through the resulting connections, he started branching out and taking on freelance work. This not only boosted Evans’ confidence, but it began opening doors of opportunity for him. A few years and a few doors later, he joined the Electronic Arts team (www.ea.com) as a motion graphics designer, where his previous experiences and projects come into play each and every day.

The art
These days, Evans is not resting on his British laurels; he believes it’s vital to create illustrations every single day, either for clients or for himself. With his eye on the future, he creates the type of artwork he wants to be hired to do. “It sounds strange but I always act out a brief in my head before I do anything,” he said. “Some of the work you do can be of little interest, and this helps in these cases and gives you a starting point.” Evans views each image as a journey. “You never know what you’ll have as the finished product,” he reflected. “I keep going through the process until I’m happy and my client is happy with my work.”

For inspiration, Evans suggests investing in shelves and shelves of books, and to be mindful of what you see in magazines and on the Web. “These will give you the latest trends and new concepts to try out,” he advised. He also sings the praises of having a sketchbook and camera with you whenever possible. “I find that every time I leave the house there is always something to get inspiration from; whether it’s from people watching, objects, city life, or ads that catch my eye,” said Evans thoughtfully.

Designing the future
I asked Evans where he thought the print industry is headed, and what type of changes he sees on the road ahead in the next five years. “It’s always very difficult to answer this kind of question,” he said. “I feel that in the last few years there has been more focus on photographic imagery that’s been manipulated in different ways to create an illustration. Though recently, and in the future, I can see Illustration getting more credit and exposure.” Evans was quick to add that this means added pressure on designers and artists to perform at higher levels.

“I would say that the most recent style trend has been for very clean and slick designs,” Evans stated. “Clients now want designs that look more hand drawn and authentic.” Of course, Evans acknowledges it’s anyone’s guess as to how long that trend will last. He also added that he sees a great opportunity in the stock industry for illustrators. “Personally I think this is a great opportunity for new illustrators and graduates alike to get exposure in this difficult industry, and to open new opportunities.”

Music
PHOTO CREDIT: ©WILLIAM EVANS

The Illustration: Music

The Inspiration: Music and urban living.

The Process: “My thought process was to start on the basis of stencil/graffiti,” Evans remembered. “I started by taking photos, which I then took into Photoshop.… I played around with the Levels and Curves, and Pasteurise until I was happy.” Once he had just the right level of detail, he took his creation into Freehand where he traced the edited images. “I always take images into Freehand first,” he said, “as I am more fluent in that application, and, therefore quicker.” Next, Evans popped the piece into Illustrator to create the composition and add color. “I finished by taking it back into Photoshop to add final detail and extra layer effects.”

Bottle
PHOTO CREDIT: ©WILLIAM EVANS

The Illustration: Bottle

The Inspiration: “I’m constantly thinking of objects I can use in my designs. With this one I took an everyday object then just went off on it, letting it go and not really knowing where it would end up.”

The Process: Evans started by coming up with concepts—exploding, colorful, and energetic—and kept these in mind throughout the process. “I started to play around in a blank Illustrator file deciding on the main focal point, the bottle, and then working around it, adding swirls and sloshes,” Evans said with a smile. Once he was satisfied with the final piece, he used Photoshop to add final detail and extra layer effects.

Top 10 things Evans can’t design without:
1. 2.1-Ghz G5 iMac: “My beautiful baby,” Evans cooed affectionately.
2. Macromedia Freehand MX: “I always start my work here.”
3. Adobe Illustrator CS2
4. Adobe Photoshop CS2
5. www.istockphoto.com
6. www.bbc.co.uk: “I’m constantly checking the news on this website,” Evans said.
7. A sketchbook
8. Digital camera (he’s saving up for a digital SLR)
9. My collection of books
10. iTunes: “My collection of music.”

The Multimedia Guerrilla

Can a hard-core software developer and programmer with no formal training become a successful Web and multimedia designer? Ask Niilo Tippler and you’ll find the answer is a resounding, “Yes!”

A UK native, Tippler’s background in IT and design spans over twenty-four years, and he’s come a long way from developing software for British Telecom. Tippler transitioned into multimedia CD-ROM development in the early 1990s and has produced several critically acclaimed titles. He participated in the production of Peter Gabriel’s groundbreaking XPlora1 CD-ROM, and he also developed a proprietary code engine for analyzing digital audio information and translating it into visual effects, the forerunner to today’s iTunes’ mesmerizing visuals.

Tippler has also worked on highly successful multi-CD infotainment titles, such as McGraw-Hill’s Pony Express Rider and Virgin’s One World Atlas and One Tribe encyclopedia. He has also produced a wide range of CD-ROMs for Fox TV, Fox Sports Net, Sony Vaio, FranklinCovey, and Motown.

Life changes in a Flash
When Tippler discovered Flash, it was love at first launch; and with the introduction of improved scripting features in Flash 4, he began implementing coding techniques from his programming days. “For me, programming is as much art as it is coding; it’s a creative process. I see what I want to do in my head and I just start making it. I never had any formal training so I don’t really do anything by the book,” Tippler said. “Don’t expect specifications, discovery documents, flowcharts, and rigid schedules from me…evolution is the name of the game,” he tells his clients. “Life evolves, so does art; and for me, so does the whole development process.”

His programming background dovetailed perfectly with his newfound passion for creative vision and design. “When it comes to software, I’m a purist,” Tippler said. “I love my basic work suite: Photoshop, ImageReady, Flash, Dreamweaver. These are the core of my production workflow,” stated Tippler. He uses Photoshop’s adjustment layers and layer masking extensively. There’s only one third-party plug-in that he uses regularly, and that’s PictureCode’s Noise Ninja (www.picturecode.com). For removing noise from photos, especially high ISO shots, he says it’s invaluable.

Tippler’s unique blend of engineering and design methodologies result in work that’s the best of both worlds—function and form. “Design by Engineering by Design” is an axiom by which he works, seeing not just the front-end nor the back-end, but the melding of the two. The unique community on iStockphoto.com has also been integral to his success, and their iStock Steel Cage Photoshop battle is where he feels the most creative.

These images are a result of Tippler’s own images, images downloaded from iStockphoto.com, and the images from other players’ blows in one of the iStock Steel Cage battles.

Turning Japanese
When it comes to inspiration, Tippler points to books. “I was able to work my way into the job market through sheer determination and self promotion,” Tippler recalled. “Whenever something came up that I didn’t know, I just got a book and taught myself how to do it.” He loves design anthologies and has a huge library that he browses for ideas. In particular, he likes the Society of Publication Designers Publication Design Annuals and the Creativity series (www.spd.org). For personal inspiration he looks to Japanese marketing design, and back a few generations to the ’60s and ’70s. “Two decades so ultimately different, but whose identities provide immense opportunities for a designer.”

When asked about where the Web and multimedia industry is headed, Tippler said we should look to Japan to see the future. “Technology is far more heavily integrated into Japanese society than it is in the West,” he said. “IT communication is fluid and constant. We think we’re deeply immersed in it here in the U.S. but this is the tip of the iceberg. Japan has always been a couple of generations ahead in terms of the way they use and integrate technology into their daily lives. That’s where we’re heading in a few years.”

In January of 2001, Tippler realized the dream of working for himself by founding UPSIDEDOWNDOG (www.upsidedowndog.com), a multimedia design and development studio, specializing in Flash game and activity development. His client list includes Mattel and Fox Television, and his projects run the gamut of the interactive spectrum. Among his latest are a website for a New Jersey candymaker, a dog training CD-ROM, a paintball game for William Shatner, a website for a technology staffing company, and games for The Simpsons and American Idol.

SusanDeming.com
PHOTO CREDIT: ©NIILO TIPPLER

The Website: SusanDeming.com

The Inspiration: Tippler’s inspiration for Susan’s site came from Monty Python. “Their style of animation, using a mix of cartoons and real objects in a pseudo-realistic setting where perspective, light, and the laws of physics are bent out of shape, seemed perfect,” Tippler said. “Susan was involved in the official Python website, and I’ve always been a huge fan, so this seemed the perfect direction to take.”

The Process: The site was created in Flash, though everything was first put together in Photoshop, then saved as PNGs with transparent backgrounds. “The old ’60s-style record player used to play Susan’s songs shows a particular style of design that I really enjoy producing: real objects with added layers of elements which build it into a user interface,” said Tippler. “It’s this combination of real and unreal which has become something of a trademark in my designs,” he said with a smile.

Method & Red’s Mix It Up
PHOTO CREDIT: ©NIILO TIPPLER

The Media: Method & Red’s Mix It Up

The Inspiration: This was a project for Fox Television to accompany a new hip-hop comedy show called Method & Red. “Hip-hop came from the underground,” Tippler said, “so I wanted to present this audio mixer as something which had been cobbled together with bits and pieces of other equipment, and held together with tape and bits of string. Again, this is where my pseudo-realism style came into play. I built the entire concept in Photoshop, layering numerous elements together, building the interface from old switches and buttons, and using real VU meters whose needles I could animate in Flash. The whole design is a true collaboration of photographic imagery and animated Flash vector elements.

The Process: The specs were quite vague, Tippler remembered, “Just create an audio mixer using supplied sound samples, allow the player to create a short piece of music and then let them email it to a friend. Kind of an audio eCard.” Though the project timeline was unbelievably short (about a week), Tippler said it’s one of the projects he’s most proud of.

Top 10 things Tippler can’t design without:
1. Dual 2-Ghz Power Mac G5 with 2.5GB RAM and 1-TB of hard drive space
2. Twin ViewSonic 18″ VX800 LCD display
3. Macromedia Flash 8 Professional
4. Adobe Photoshop CS
5. Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004
6. FontAgent Pro v3.0.2 by Insider Software
7. Transmit FTP v2.6.2 by Panic
8. Apple Titanium PowerBook G4
9. Apple Pages v1.0.2
10. Chocolate (any version!)

Adobe Photoshop is one of the most powerful digital image-editing programs ever created. The things you can do with it are simply amazing, which is why it has such a huge following. But (you knew there was a “but” coming didn’t you), many folks have other things they’d rather be doing than spending extra time in Photoshop. Don’t get me wrong—I absolutely love to use Photoshop; however, I don’t love doing repetitive, mundane tasks. For that reason, I’ve spent a great deal of time learning how to do things faster when I work. In this article we’ll look at some ways to speed up Photoshop so you can spend more time doing things you like and less time doing repetitive tasks.

Automations

These are the easiest way to get more out of Photoshop. Why? Because they’re right there, ready for you to use. You don’t need to create anything and you don’t need to load or move any special files. All you have to do is know where to find them and which ones you want to use. After that, just point them at an image (or many images) and they do the work for you.

You’ll find Photoshop automations under the File menu. Just scroll down to Automate and you’ll see all of the automations available to you. Interestingly, you can also run most Photoshop automations from Adobe Bridge. Yep, just look in the Tools menu under Photoshop and you’ll see just about all of the same automations. What’s the difference? The main difference is that running your automations through Bridge allows you to visually select which images you want to run them on instead of blindly targeting an entire folder in Photoshop that may or may not contain all of the images you want to automate.

—CREDIT: ©MATT KLOSKOWSKI

Regardless of how you start the automations, it’s important that you think about how to use them to speed up your work. Let’s take a quick look at each one:

Batch—

The Batch dialog is perhaps one of the most powerful automations in Photoshop. Using actions is a great way to speed up your work. But what if you could apply that action to an entire folder of images and have Photoshop open, edit, and save them for you? Well, that’s exactly what the Batch automation does.

CAPTION: Have you ever wanted to apply a watermark to all of your photos at once? Batch is a fast and easy way to get it done.
Batch2 CREDIT: ©MATT KLOSKOWSKI

PDF Presentation—
This automation allows you to save multipage PDFs from your selected images in Photoshop. It’s a great way to package your images or photos and send them off to a client in one file. You can even secure the PDF so only people with a password can open or print it.

Create Droplet—
First, you’ll need to know what a Droplet is before you create one. A Droplet is essentially a little application that applies an action to the images that you drop on it. The Create Droplet automation works similarly to Batch but instead of running the automation when it’s done, it creates a small file. Simply drop images on top of the Droplet icon to kick it off.

Conditional Mode Change—
Use this automation when you’re recording an action that changes the color mode. Often, an action that has a step that changes the color mode can cause an error if the file being opened isn’t in the source mode specified by the action. If you record this step into the action, then you can specify more than one source color mode and a mode for the target mode.

Contact Sheet II—
The Contact Sheet II command lets you create a printable page of thumbnails for previewing and cataloging groups of images or photos.

Crop and Straighten Photos—
This automation is one of my hidden favorites. Just scan multiple photos at the same time and open the image in Photoshop. Then run this automation on the scanned image and Photoshop will automatically crop, straighten, and remove each image from the master, leaving you with separate files for each scanned image. Talk about simple—there are no dialogs to mess with and no settings. Just be sure to leave about 1/8″ between each photo when scanning.

Fit Image—
Let’s say you want to downsize photos to a particular size but you quickly realize that specifying say, 200 pixels for width for all photos using the Image Size command won’t work because horizontal and vertical images will size differently. The solution is to use the Fit Image command to specify a maximum width or height and Photoshop will make sure that the width or height doesn’t exceed the chosen amount while constraining proportions.

Picture Package—
If you’ve ever seen the way that portrait studios combine multiple versions of a photo on a single page then you know exactly what Picture Package does. This is a great timesaver if you don’t want to manually copy and position each copy of a photo on a page. It’s also customizable and allows you to get just about any combination and size of images that you can imagine.

CREDIT: ©ISTOCKPHOTO/EVA SERRABASSA

Web Photo Gallery—
Also known as WPG, this automation takes a folder of your photos and automatically creates webpages containing your own personal photo gallery from them. There are some great customization features that will allow you to tweak the appearance of the prebuilt templates, but you don’t get total control over the gallery that you’re creating. The trade-off is that it’s fast and easy.

Photomerge—
This one is used for stitching together panos (that’s industry speak for a panoramic photo). Just point it at two or more photos and Photomerge merges (or stitches) them into a single image. There are also some great blending options in case they don’t stitch together perfectly.

CREDIT: ©MATT KLOSKOWSKI

Merge to HDR—This feature is brand-new in Photoshop CS2. Merge to HDR lets you combine several exposures of the same photo into one 32-bit image. Its power comes from the fact that it extends the dynamic range of the image by using all exposures instead of the limited range that only one photo would produce.

Actions

Actions are the next step when it comes to making Photoshop fly. Think of them as tiny macros or a series of recorded steps in Photoshop that you can play back at any time. You can even set keyboard shortcuts to run them just as you would any other commonly used Photoshop command. They’re not hard to create or use and they significantly cut down on the time you spend editing your images or photos.

The first thing you’ll need to find is the Actions palette. If you don’t see it open already, just go to Window>Actions. Using the palette is pretty simple. Like many presets in Photoshop, you can load or save action sets by clicking on the Actions palette flyout menu and choosing the corresponding option.

Sets are like folders for actions and they help you stay organized. You can put one or many actions into an action set. These sets come in the form of an ATN file that someone would either give to you or you’d download from the Web. Just point the Load Actions dialog to that file and you can load those same actions into Photoshop. The other three main things you can do with the Actions palette involve the actions themselves. You can play an action, which is the most common choice; you can create an action; and finally, you can edit existing actions.

Playing an action
Playing an action is really simple. First, from the Actions palette flyout menu in Photoshop CS2, choose Sample Actions. That will load the sample actions that come with Photoshop. [Insert SampleActions] Now open any photo. A portrait photo will work great for this type of effect but any photo will do. Next, click the small right-facing arrow to the left of the name Sample Actions to expand the action set. (Remember that a set is just like a folder to hold your actions.) In that set you’ll see an action called Sepia Toning (layer). Click on that action and then click the Play Selection icon at the bottom of the palette to run the action. Photoshop will automatically apply the steps to create a sepia-toned effect on your photo. That’s it! You’ve just played an action and there’s nothing else to it.

—CREDIT: ©ISTOCKPHOTO/SHELLY PERRY

Creating an action
Sure you need to know how to play an action, but if you really want to take advantage of the power of actions, then you’ll probably want to start creating your own.

Let’s say that we want to create an action that applies sharpening to a photo. There’s actually a great technique for sharpening that involves switching to Lab mode, so let’s try that one. First, make sure you have the Actions palette open, then open a photo that needs some sharpening.

To begin, click the Create New Action icon at the bottom of the Actions palette. You’ll see a small dialog asking you to name your action. Let’s name this one “Lab Sharpening.” Then, select the set you want to save this action in from the Set pop-up menu, and click Record. The next step is to switch over to Lab color mode, so choose Image>Mode>Lab Color. Notice that after you do this a step appears in the Actions palette.

Next, go to the Channels palette, and click once on the Lightness channel. Go under the Filter menu to Sharpen>Unsharp Mask and enter 85% for Amount, 1.5 for Radius, 3 for Threshold, and click OK. Press Command-F (PC: Control-F) to apply Unsharp Mask a second time. Now that the sharpening is applied, it’s time to switch back to RGB mode, so choose Image>Mode>RGB Color. After each command another step is added to the action in the Actions palette. The last step here is to press the Stop Recording icon at the bottom of the Actions palette to complete the action.

Now open another photo, select the Lab Sharpening action in the Actions palette, and just press the Play Selection icon. The action will sharpen that photo using the same method. If you want to save this action, just click on the name of the action set (not the name of the action itself) and choose Save Actions. This will create one of those ATN files mentioned earlier, and you can share this file with anyone who has Photoshop.

Editing an action
Editing an action is also really easy. In fact, action steps work just like layers in the Layers palette. Take the Sepia Toning action that we looked at earlier. If you want to move the Desaturate step to a different place in the action so it executes sooner (or later), then you can just drag that item as you would a layer in the Layers palette. You can also drag actions from one action set to another.

If you forget to record a step in an action, there’s no need to re-record the entire action. Just select the action, press the Begin Recording icon, do the step that you forgot, and press Stop Recording. Now you can reposition the step to where you need it in the action.

Scripts

Now we’re getting into the deep stuff here. Scripts are certainly the most powerful of any automation feature in Photoshop; however, with that power comes added complexity. I won’t lie to you, writing scripts can be a difficult task, but fortunately, you don’t have to know how to write scripts to use scripts. In fact, using a script is just as easy as using an automation in Photoshop.

The first thing you’ll want to do is go into Photoshop and look under the File>Scripts menu. Here you’ll see a few scripts that come with Photoshop right out of the box. Some are pretty self-explanatory. For example, Export Layers to Files does just what it says: It exports all layers in your PSD document to separate files. Toward the middle of the list you’ll see Layer Comps to Files, PDF, or WPG. These scripts simply take any layer comps you have in your PSD files and convert them to one of the options listed. The moral of the story is that if you’re not using layer comps then you should probably start because there are many benefits to doing so.

Some scripts that aren’t so self-explanatory include the Image Processor and the Script Events Manager. Image Processor will convert an entire folder of images from one format into another. You can even resize them so if you need to put some photos into a Web gallery, Image Processor can take care of it for you. This is especially useful if you shoot using RAW mode. With Image Processor you can easily convert all of your RAW photos to JPEG, PSD, or TIFF (or all of the above if you like). You can even specify an action to run during the conversion process to say, sharpen your photos.

—CREDIT: ©MATT KLOSKOWSKI

Another great script-related feature is the Script Events Manager. When Photoshop CS2 was introduced this was a feature that went largely unnoticed, but as more and more people got ahold of the latest version of Photoshop, they began to question what this new feature was under the File>Scripts menu. At first I didn’t think much of it but as soon as I realized what it did I remember saying, “Sweet!” The Script Events Manager gives us a revolutionary way to automate things in Photoshop. Essentially, you can program Photoshop to automatically run any action when you open, save, close, or even print an image. If you like using actions and automations then you’re going to absolutely love this new feature. If you want to learn more about the Script Events Manager, I’ve created a video tutorial at www.layersmagazine.com/magazine/downloads showing how easy it is to use.

One of the essential things to walk away with after reading this is that the Script Events Manager isn’t just for those programming-code-savvy people who know how to write and use scripts. If you can create an action in Photoshop, then you can use (and I mean really take advantage of) the Script Events Manager—it’s that simple.

Getting more done in less time

That’s really what it’s all about, isn’t it? Plus, these tools help you work smarter, not harder. I’m going to leave you with a few places to go if you want to learn more about working faster in Photoshop.

Adobe Studio Exchange (http://share.studio.adobe.com)
This is a must-visit for anyone who wants to get things done faster in Photoshop. This website is filled with a ton of actions, presets, and scripts that you can download for free.

Jeff Tranberry’s Photoshop Crawlspace (http://blogs.adobe.com/crawlspace)
Jeff is a Quality Engineer Product Lead at Adobe and has some excellent information regarding scripting and automation in Photoshop.

The Photoshop CS2 Speed Clinic by Matt Kloskowski (www.scottkelbybooks.com)
For a comprehensive resource to make Photoshop fly, check out my latest book. It’s all about helping you work faster in Photoshop. It’s not a cookbook of actions or shortcuts. Instead, it’s about teaching you what speed-related features are in Photoshop and showing you how to use them to get your work done faster.

Hey, that’s not me talking! That’s a comment I heard from several attendees at my presentations at the recent Photoshop World in Miami (be there or be square). With that in mind, I thought I’d share some photographs I took on a 2006 adventure to Bhutan—known to travelers as “The Land of the Thunder Dragon.” (Bhutan, the most mountainous country I’ve ever visited, sits on the right shoulder of India and is bordered by Tibet to the north.) Each photograph is accompanied by a photo technique that I took into consideration before pressing the shutter release button.

Sure, it’s fun to work and play with our images in Photoshop; however, I can’t stress enough the importance of getting the best possible in-camera image. So, here are a few basic photography tips to keep in mind when you’re looking through your camera’s viewfinder. Note that these photographs are all RAW files taken with my Canon EOS-1D Mark II (telephoto shots taken with my 70–200mm IS lens) and Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II (wide-angle shots taken with my 17–40mm lens). Also, I used basic image enhancements in Adobe Camera Raw and in Photoshop to process my RAW files.

Create a sense of depth:
We see the world in three dimensions: height, width, and depth. Our cameras record only two: height and width. As photographers, it’s our job to try to create a sense of depth in our pictures. One method is to use a foreground object when composing a wide-angle scene. For the main image at the beginning of this article, I used a dancer at the annual festival at Dzongdrakah as my foreground object. Other methods for creating a sense of depth are to photograph a scene at an angle (I did that here, too), and to include shadows in a scene, such as those we get in the early morning and late in the day when shooting outdoors on sunny days.

Stop or blur action:
Forget about setting your camera on P (Program) when photographing moving subjects: Tv (Time Value or shutter priority) or Manual are the ways to go. Pick a fast shutter speed (at least 1/500 second) to stop action, as I did here when photographing a dancer at the annual festival in Paro. To blur action, experiment with slow shutter speeds, perhaps starting at 1/30 second. Also, for best results when photographing action, use your camera’s focus tracking AF mode, which tracks a moving subject right up until the moment of exposure.

Go for total focus: We see scenes in total focus. When it comes to lenses, the longer the lens, the less we get in focus in front of and behind the subject on which we focus. To get entire scenes, such as this festival scene, in focus, follow this technique: use a wide-angle lens (I used the 17mm setting on my 17–40mm zoom), a small f-stop (I used f:11), and set your focus 1/3 of the way into the scene (in this case slightly behind the main dancer in the foreground). You can set that focus point using the focus lock on your camera.

Dead center is deadly: If you check out all the images in this article, you’ll see that none of the main subjects are in the center of the frame (for the portraits, the heads are off-center). When composing a picture, try to imagine a tic-tac-toe grid over the frame and place the main subject where the lines intersect, as I did for this portrait of a young monk at a dzong (fortress/temple). (You’ll also hear this referred to as the rule of thirds.) This image looks like a wide-screen image, which was my goal when I took the picture. Simple cropping like this can dramatically change the impact of a picture.

See eye-to-eye: When it comes to people pictures, it’s important to shoot at the subject’s eye level. (Some fashion photographer’s might not agree. They often shoot women from a lower angle to create a feeling of superiority.) For this image of a mother and her daughter at a market, I crouched down so I could see eye-to-eye.

Make a picture:
There’s a big difference between taking a picture and making a picture. Sure, I take pictures, but as a travel photographer, I often make pictures, asking the subject to move here or there in a scene. I made this picture of a young monk by a beautiful painting by simply asking him to walk into the frame and look out into the courtyard. I love the quality of light in this natural “studio.”

The camera looks both ways: Perhaps the most important people photography tip I can offer is this: The camera looks both ways; in picturing the subject, we’re also picturing a part of ourselves. In other words, the feelings, emotions, and the energy we project is reflected in our subject. When I was photographing this young girl in a remote village, I projected the feeling of sincerity and respect—and happiness that I was photographing her.

While on the subject of people photography, it’s best to shoot on an overcast day, when there’s no direct sunlight to cast unflattering shadows on a subject’s face. In Bhutan, I was very, very lucky. It was overcast every day!

Go behind the scene: Sure it’s fun to shoot on “center stage,” whether we’re at a festival in Bhutan or at a soccer game in our neighborhood. When I’m at an event or location, I try to “tell the whole story.” I go behind the scene to capture important parts of the story, as I did here, showing the dancers preparing to perform at the annual festival at Dzongdrakah.

Be aware!
When we’re photographing, we need to be aware of what’s going on all around us. That includes being aware of our role in the scene. At the sacred Paro festival, these tourists were totally numb—the only ones standing at the entrance to the festival area—making it very difficult for photographers to capture the dancers as they looked hundreds of years ago. Worse still, they distracted the dancers and local participants from the sacred event. (I used the Gaussian Blur filter to protect their identities.)

Have fun:
Sure we can think about shooting RAW files (a must in my book), setting the lowest possible ISO for the cleanest possible image, choosing the best f-stop and shutter speed combination for the optimum results, and using the right lens for the situation, but we also need to have fun when we’re out shooting. For me, fun is a big part of my photography. Here I’m doing a simple coin trick for some monks I met in a dzong. Check out their faces: Every monk is intently focused on me. Now that’s real magic. By the way, I often do magic tricks when traveling to get people to like or accept me before a photo session.

I couldn’t resist sharing a before-and-after Photoshop image with you. I like the color image of Tiger’s Nest temple (at 10,000 feet it’s quite a hike). But I also like the Photoshop-enhanced image. I first applied the Aged Photo action and then the Light Rain action. (To access these actions, go to Window>Actions, click the flyout menu at the top of the Actions palette, and choose Load Actions from the menu. In the dialog that appears select Image Effects.atn and click Load. These actions now appear in your Actions palette.)

To add to the old-time feeling of the picture, I used the Emulsion frame from onOne Software’s PhotoFrame 2 to create a different version of the scene (www.ononesoftware.com).

Okay, I gotta go! I actually want to play around more with my Bhutan images in Photoshop.

Viewing, arranging, and navigating images in Acrobat

Once you’ve created and opened your PDF in Acrobat you have numerous viewing options. Expand the PDF viewing window to its maximum dimensions. If you have a lot of Toolbars open, you can close some of them to provide more viewing room. Press F8 to hide all the palettes to reduce clutter during viewing, but you’ll want to activate the Commenting Toolbar when you’re ready to create comments in the PDF.

Click the Single Page view icon located in the lower-right corner of the Acrobat main window to limit the display in the main view panel to one page (or image in our case). Now click on the Pages tab located on the left side of the main Acrobat window. This will activate a left-side view panel that allows you to view multiple pages at once. Click-and-drag the divider between the main view panel and the Pages panel to scale the horizontal dimensions of the Page panel. Click on the Options menu located at the top of the Pages panel and select Enlarge or Reduce Page Thumbnails to either increase or decrease the size of the Pages thumbnails to suit your viewing needs.

To rearrange images in the Pages panel, simply click-and-drag an image to a new position. Command-click (PC: Control-click) to select multiple nonsequential images or Shift-click to select sequential images prior to moving them. (Note: When you click on a thumbnail in the Pages panel its full-size image appears in the main view panel.)

Click on the full-size image and press the Up or Down Arrow keys to advance or retreat through the images. When in the Pages panel, use the Arrow keys to navigate up, down, left, and right through the images. A colored selection border will appear around the selected image. Press Return/Enter to view any selected image in the Pages panel in the main view window.

Commenting and marking up images

Acrobat provides a complete set of commenting and markup tools for use with your images. Here’s how they work:

STEP ONE:
Select Tools>Commenting>Show Commenting Toolbar. Then select Tools>Drawing Markups>Show Drawing Markups Toolbar. Note these Toolbars can either float free or be docked in the area above the main Acrobat window.

STEP TWO:
Select an image in the Pages panel to view it in the main view window. Now choose the Note tool from the Commenting Toolbar, and click in the upper-left area of the image. This places a Note icon and presents a text field dialog. Type in “Let’s lead off with this image.”

STEP THREE:
Activate another image and select the Callout tool from the Drawing Markups Toolbar. Click on the image and in the text field that appears, type in your text. In our example, we typed “Neutralize the white in the tail to make it pop.” Switch back to the Callout tool again, resize your callout box, and click-and-drag the callout arrow so that it points to the area to which you’re referring.

STEP FOUR:
For another example of a comment/markup, activate a third image, select the Line tool, and drag it across the image. (You’ll find the Line tool in the Arrow tool’s drop-down list.) Double-click on your line in the image and type in your text in the resulting field. In our example, we dragged the Line tool across the top of the bent horizon in our image and typed “I Suggest straightening out this horizon line with the Lens Correction Filter in Photoshop.”

STEP FIVE:
Experiment with the other Commenting and Drawing Markup tools to become familiar with them. Once you’re through making your comments and markups, simply click on the Comment tab on the bottom left to view them all.
Each listed comment has the page number, the type of comment, the name of the author, and the comment. Click the [+] symbol to reveal the date of the comment as well. These comments can be checked, sorted, searched, and printed (see the icons at the top of the Comments panel).

Sharing your comments

There are numerous ways to share your comments. Here are the two I’ve found the most useful.

Method 1—Send the PDF as is:
Simply save the PDF and send it to whomever you would like to have comment/markup your PDF. They can then open this PDF and click on the Comments tab to view all the Comments. Recipients can: (1) Add their own comments (which will appear with their name and a different color than yours); (2) accept or reject comments by clicking the Set Status button, choosing Review, and selecting the appropriate option from the drop-down menu; or (3) they can select one of your comments and click the Reply button located at the top of the Comments panel.

Method 2—Summarize Comments:
Select the Comments panel’s Options menu located in the upper-right corner of the panel, and select Summarize Comments. There are four types of summaries available. My favorite option is to have the Document and Comments with Connector Lines on Single Pages. Experiment with the various kinds and variables to create comment summaries that suit your fancy.

The RED ONE
This new film-quality camera seemed to have the most buzz at the show. RED Digital Cinema Camera Company (www.red.com)—started by Jim Jannard, the founder of the Oakley sunglass company—is the developer of this digital video camera called RED ONE, which is capable of recording resolutions up to 4520×2540. This is possible because of a new sensor that’s large enough to adapt to standard 35mm lenses normally used by film cameras. The best part is that the camera is expected to be sold in a base configuration for as little $17,500 (about one fourth of what competitors charge) and should make a big impact in the digital cinematography market. The company hopes to have the camera on the market by the end of the year, and there’s already a Wikipedia encyclopedia page for more about this next generation camera: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RED_Digital_Camera_Company

The Blue one
Boris FX showed a number of new products, the most impressive of which was Boris Blue. This new 3D compositing and motion graphics solution is based on the award-winning Boris Red but operates as a standalone application that provides unprecedented 3D creativity with real-time performance to accelerate your workflow. You can now create 3D text and 3D shapes with all types of pixel shaders (including bump maps, noise patterns, natural materials, reflections, and 3D shadows) all in real time!

This Windows-only application uses powerful OpenGL programming to achieve its results, so specific graphic cards are required to run the application. See the approved list at www.BorisFX.com.

Boris also introduced Boris Red 4 and Continuum Complete 4, which the company demonstrated in its booth running inside Final Cut Pro on an Intel-based Mac. Red 4 adds 16-bit color support, more than 40 new filters, vectorization of raster images, enhanced support for Wacom tablets, a new paint engine, EBU subtitle import, and improved integration with Avid NLEs. The Universal binary version of Continuum Complete will ship sometime after Red 4.

The Avid one
Speaking of Avid (www.avid.com), they were one of the few big companies that showed brand-new products in their booth. One of the most startling announcements to me was the introduction of a software-only version of Media Composer. No additional hardware required. This means you can now run a full Media Composer on your laptop! The new software delivers comprehensive HD support for both the Mac and PC, leveraging the latest in multicore CPU and GPU power available to both platforms. The software also supports full-screen DVI output of SD and HD material. There is also new Mac support for Avid Adrenaline and Mojo hardware.

Avid also announced Xpress Pro 5.5 for Mac and Windows (in one box). Available in June for $1,695, the new version adds support for HDV and DVCPRO HD, as well as Sony XDCAM and the new P2 cards from Panasonic. On the Mac side, Xpress Pro 5.5 adds expanded film support, including normal and advanced pulldown, and AVX 2 plug-in support.

Avid’s audio subsidiary, Digidesign (www.digidesign.com), previewed both Pro Tools|HD 7.2 and a Universal binary update for the Mac to Pro Tools LE and Pro Tools M-Powered. The new release of Pro Tools|HD will come out later in the year and include integrated video editing in the timeline and the ability to play QuickTime files through AVoption|V10 and Avid Mojo, among other new options.

The future
As for what the future will bring, look no further than the Japanese government-funded NHK’s Ultra High-Definition 3D TV system. It has a resolution of 7680×4320, which I’m told has 16 times more data than the current HD standard of 1920×1080 (don’t ask me how they do that math). The 3D display system used to project these new images is made of dual 202″ DLP projector system with a polarizing filter to create an amazing 3D image. Of course, all of this is just for fun because the Ultra High-Definition TV system isn’t expected to be commercially available until 2025!

Put your copy on the right, and the reader’s eye will follow the path directly to it. Like this:

It’s as easy as 1- 2- 3

Scale, crop, align

Things to watch for…