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Get your Photojojo On | Flash Animation to Code | Are you a Bad Graphic Designer?

CATEGORIES: Living In Layers | RC | March 12, 2008

While checking the emails this morning, I noticed that one of our tutorials was posted on Photojojo! Coolness. For those of you who don’t know Photojojo – let’s break it down:

You sign up for a newsletter – they send you really cool Photo tips. Nothing simpler than that. If you want to check out some of my favorites – go to the Photojojo site and check out the Archive. I’m totally digging the idea of getting a postcard from everyone around the world. Maybe I can convince some of you guys to send some postcards in to the office. That would rock!

Also, be sure to check out the latest episode of Layers TV. This week, we have special guest Larry Becker from the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. He’s here to talk to us about the benefits of being a NAPP member.

Now, I have triple checked my post for a double space problem, and STILL my editor will find mistakes. Jacob Cass has got me really paranoid with his rules on how you can be a bad graphic designer. Those rules, and a cool Flash tutorial right after the jump.

Turning Flash Animation to Code by Lee Brimelow
Lee goes into Flash CS3 to show us how to take an animation that has been built in a timeline via tweens, and turn that into Actionscript 3 code – really useful for bridging the gap between designers (who focus on the design) and developers (who need to make that design with dynamic components). Check it out at this link.

Jacob Cass – 13 Signs of Being a Bad Graphic Designer
I don’t know why, but I was in stitches reading Jacob Cass’ recent post about 13 tell tale signs that you are a bad graphic designer. I’ll admit – I had a couple of these offending marks on my stuff, which made it all the more funny. He even has another post about the top mistakes a graphic designer can make. Both are great reads- they are full of stuff that had to be said! Check them out below:

Jacob Cass – 13 Signs You Are A Bad Graphic Designer – (via Design News)

Jacob Cass – Top Mistakes Graphic Designers Make – (via Design News)

Logo Design Trends for 2008
Logorange has got some really cool insights on the logos of 2008. Be sure to check these out, as familiar faces (Wacom, Photoshop) seem to peek through them.

Logo Design Trends for 2008

Thanks to Design News for the postings. Those guys rock.

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Visitor Comments »

Hi, thanks for the link ups to my posts. Glad you enjoyed them, and like I even said, I am also a culprit of some of the mistakes!

Comment by Jacob Cass | March 11, 2008 @ 7:33 pm

Help with making us better illustrators/graphic artist:

One of my biggest obstacles is working with “highlights” and “shadows” in Illustrator. This is not an issue with Photoshop. PS, intuitively, is similar to a real life situation, where you can “draw in” the shadows or “erase” the highlights. Whether it is a photograph or an image, shadows and highlights can be drawn in on a “non-destructive” level, mask, or using layer styles, blending modes and even channels.

However, the problem in Illustrator, for me at least, is twofold: First, “highlights” and “shadows” are “objects” and require a different mindset than working in PS or drawing an image by hand, and second it seems like professional illustrators use so many different styles and computer methods for drawing-in their highlights/shadows that I am finding it hard, especially as an Illustrator newbie, to find one that works with my type of image.

My favorite highlight/shadow styles are the following: triangles (see Nick Diggory, http://www.nickdiggory.com), woodcut style (Doug Panton, http://www.dougpanton.com and Daniel Pelavin, http://www.pelavin.com) and the combination of line and triangle style (see Louis Fishauf, http://www.fishauf.com).

These artists and others are featured not only in the Adobe Master Class book, Illustrator Illuminated, by Barbara Obermeier but in the now defunct Illustrator Techniques magazine that has been incorporated into Layers Magazine.

You currently highlight an artist and his/her work at the beginning of each chapter of Layers Magazine, but I would love it if you could share with us through either Layers Magazine or Layers TV those special tips that make Illustrator images go from that flat coloring book look to multidimensional professional images. It would be great if you demonstrated a style (in detail)…maybe once a month(?) Thanks.

Comment by D Klecan | March 17, 2008 @ 12:50 am

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