Monthly Archives: July 2010

Smarter Saves with Adobe Bridge Collections

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If you find yourself using files that are in two differen folders or even hard drives, Collections is for you! On the lower left side of the Bridge window you will notice 3 tabs reading Filter, Collections and Export. When you click on Collections you have 2 choices: A straight Collection, or a Smart Collection.

Smart Collections are fantastic because let’s say you buy images from istockphoto.com. The good thing is that the word “istock” is in the name of each image, and if you set up a Smart Collection with Filename Contains istock, Bridge will set up and save that search as a Collection.

Free Event: Creating Email Newsletter Blasts!

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Learn the ins and outs of creating killer html email marketing blasts! Look at the behind the scenes html development, in addition to best practices and avoiding being tagged as a “spammer.” This free event is at our Chicago training facility August 17th, 2010 , 5pm.

Register for this free event.

Learn about our Adobe Dreamweaver Training

Adobe Photoshop CS5′s Repoussé for Text

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Many of us remember a great little application called Adobe Dimensions. It created an easy way to create 3D from vector images. The 3D pieces of Dimensions has been incorporated in Illustrator for quite some time, but now we have the same features in Photoshop CS5 with Reproussé!

  • Create a blank image using the preset for web at 1152 px by 864 px.
  • Choose 3D > Repoussé > Text Layer.
  • Set your Depth to 3, and Scale to .3.
  • Choose the 3D Rotate tool  and  either drag straght downwards, or on the Control Bar type in 44 for Orentation X.
  • Click OK and choose Window > 3D.
  • At the top of the 3D window, choose Filter by: Materials.
  • In the top part of the 3D window, choose Ascend Extrusion Material.
  • If you click on the Material Picker  in the bottom half of the window, you can choose existing materials to apply to your text.
  • Diffuse: The color you are applying to the 3D object.
  • Opacity: How opaque or transparent the material is.
  • Bump: Creates a deeper 3D affect by increasing the contrast of raised areas. In Photoshop Extended, you can paint your own. Basically Bump increases depth.
  • In the bottom part of the 3D window you will see a color that is being applied to the text. Next to that is a PICT image that allows you to choose an image.
  • Click on the Edit Diffuse Texture icon  and choose the texture you want to use.

  • If you click on Edit Properties, you can edit the way the texture is displayed.
  • Target Determines whether settings apply to a specific layer or the composite image.
  • U and V Scale resize the new mapped textures. To repeat your pattern, decrease the values.
  • U and V Offset repositions the new mapped textures.

The new 3D features in Photoshop CS5 offer a whole new realm of options to users. 3D is covered in Ascend Training’s Photoshop CS5 Level 2 class at our Chicago and Deerfield training facilities, and online. All Adobe Photoshop Class Offerings. Our Photoshop classes at our facilities feature small class sizes of 10 students or less with individualized attention.

Upcoming Adobe Photoshop Training Classes:

Photoshop CS5 Level 2

Chicago Dates

Sep 13 – 14
Oct 21 – 22
Dec 13 – 14

Deerfield Dates

Aug 12 – 13
Nov 18 – 19

Photoshop CS5 Layer Comps

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Layer Comps in Adobe Photoshop are a great alternative to Snapshots to save the way your image looks at a particular place in time. You can choose to save the Visibility, Position and Styles. Once you have everything the way you want it, click on the New Comp icon at the bottom of the Layer Comps Panel.

When you have mutiple comps, you can use the arrows to scroll through them. You also can make a change, and click on the Update button for a particular comp.

In addition, you can choose File > Scripts > Save Comps to Files to create separate images of your comps. The real power of Layer Comps comes when you export to InDesign.

When you import any layered Photoshop file to InDesign, either checking the Show Import Options button when you import, or selecting the file and choosing Object > Object Layer Options not only gives you access to the Photoshop Layers, but to the Layer Comps.

Photography through Astronomy

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As I was browsing the internet the other day, I stumbled across an article that may interest those of you who enjoy photography. It details a trick where you can use the rotation of the earth to create neat, long exposure photos. First, you need to know how to go about finding the North Star (Polaris), which is made easy by this picture:

Now with the north star located, you can create background designs with the stars. Over time, all the stars rotate about the North Star so the direction of your camera in terms of the North Star will change the pattern of the star movement in your photo. For example, angling your camera directly at the North Star will produce a circular effect whereas directing your camera to the left will produce arcs going from top to bottom in your photo. Chicago, obviously, wouldn’t be the best place to experiment with this, but the suburbs, and certainly while camping, would be great opportunities to experiment with this. Then once you get some photos you like, fine tune them or toy with them in Photoshop until they are to your liking. Get more details or see examples here.

Photoshop CS5 New Paste Features

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NUnder the Paste options, we used to have 2 choices: Paste, and Paste Into. In Photoshop CS5, we now have the following choices:

  1. Paste
  2. Paste in Place
  3. Paste Into: Pastes into a Pixel Mask if you have a selection.
  4. Paste Outside: Pastes outside a Pixel Mask if you have a selection.

While we’ve had multiple paste options in other Adobe apps forever, now there are more choices on how exactly you want to paste in Photoshop!

Quick Tip from Jerome

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Today’s tip is for all of you Mac users! Especially those that use Facebook and Flickr. What I am going to go over today is a simple way to upload pictures or even entire photo albums directly to Facebook and/or Flickr from iPhoto. If you are not currently using iPhoto to manage your artwork and photos, I highly recommend doing so. iPhoto is a great application to use to keep your pictures organized and is also very easy to use. Let’s get started. Here I have a picture I want to upload to Facebook

In the bottom right you can see a few buttons with upload options. Here we have Facebook, Flickr and MobileMe. You should also see an option to email. (Pretty nice.) I’m going to go ahead and click on Facebook. If you have never attempted to upload via iPhoto, you will get a popup like this.

Click on “set up” to get a screen that is likely familiar.

Now log in and voila, your picture is uploaded to Facebook. As long as the picture is in iPhoto, whether it is a logo you produced in Adobe Illustrator or a photo you have edited in Photoshop, just drag and drop your jpegs, gifs, etc. into iPhoto and follow these simple steps. The same steps can be taken for Flickr and the other options.

There are a few things to keep in mind when you share from iPhoto. First, this can be done either to entire albums or individual photos. Make sure you know exactly whats going up before you go through with the upload. Also, you can set your iPhone to sync its photos to iPhoto. You should also know that uploading photos from a digital camera to iPhoto is as easy as plugging the camera in, starting iPhoto, and making a few simple mouse clicks.

Happy social networking!
-Jerome-

Exploring Flex 4: One Day Flash Builder Training

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Are you looking to see the latest and greatest Flex has to offer? Check out Adobe’s exciting event: Exploring Flex 4! You will get a one day overview and learn the basic fundamentals of working with Flex. The cost of this 1-day training is $199. For more information and registration, please visit: https://registration.mclabs.co/register.asp?m=251&c=18