AYM 4 Training – Online and Onsite Computer Training – Cool Stuff

I just received this announcement. Not only are there links to purchase the software, but also some information on upgrade pricing and date limitations. Take a look!
NEWS: Adobe® Creative Suite® 6 is Now Shipping 

Two weeks after its official introduction, Adobe this morning has released Creative Suite 6 in twelve languages, with major upgrades across the product line…  

All CS6 suites and individual tools are available immediately for Windows and Mac, with delivery via boxed shipment or instant download.  Discounted upgrades are offered from earlier versions, including CS3 and CS4 until the end of the year.

One big change: Starting with CS6, upgrades are only available direct from Adobe in most major geographies.

The company has also released all CS6 free trials for download and installation.  These trials are fully-functional and will work side-by-side with any previous version(s) of the Creative Suite, including CS5 and CS5.5.  We’ve got a complete list of trial direct download links for easy access. 

The CS6 Student & Teacher Editions are now shipping as well.  These offer up to 80% off the regular prices for education customers including students, teachers, and staff. 

So many of my design and motion graphics students become interested in type, after learning even just a little about it. Here is a GREAT example of the use of Type As Art. Well worth the watch!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J59n8FsoRLE&feature=youtu.be

Okay, I’ve already admitted that I don’t like hand-coding websites, and prefer to use WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) visually oriented Web design software like Dreamweaver, Flux, or some others. However, sometimes we HAVE to get into the code. CSS3 is a growing technology that enables web pages to do a lot of designer-y things they couldn’t do before.

This article explains why you may want to use these techniques, and how to implement them. Nicely done, WebDesignerDepot.com!

http://bit.ly/GF1ZNo

As I’ve mentioned before, designers are FONT FREAKS! We never do get enough of them, do we?

So, with this in mind, MacAppware.com has offered 10 Free Commercial Use Fonts, with 10 user licenses. Nice deal! Check them out at:

http://www.macappware.com/mac-fonts.html

Today, Dealfind.com is offering a Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch Tablet for $70!

As my graphics students know, I’m a big advocate of using a pressure-sensitive tablet for precision masking, vector drawing control and tons of other functions. This is the smaller version of their tablet – which makes it quite portable as well. check it out at:
http://www.dealfind.com/products/los-angeles/brightlightbusiness2?a=16589f8ddd39

Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch

Free – and Open Source Clip Art. Not only are they free in the public domain and usable for any purpose whatsoever, but there’s also a cool collaborative environment in which you can make your own alterations and share them. A great graphics resource, and an excellent way to get involved in the practical design of these images.

http://openclipart.org/

My students all know I’m a fan of Layers Magazine. In my general perusing today, I’ve found a nice tutorial on Fitting Images to Frames in InDesign. Last week, my InDesign students were asking for some tips. This may be useful to you. Enjoy!

http://layersmagazine.com/autofit-images-in-indesign-cs5.html

The people at CreativePro.com have posted a page with a link to an excellent free Ebook (in PDF format), named 25 Champions of Design. I’m sure my design students of all types will derive some excellent information from this book. And, best of all – it’s FREE!

http://www.creativepro.com/article/25-champions-design 

The hosting company who hosts all my websites (www.inmotionhosting.com) has posted a wonderful set of HTML 5 Cheatsheets! There’s one for Tags, One for Event Handler Attributes, and one for Browser Support.
 
Now, I know their images are TOO big to view clearly on my layout, so, to download them, go to http://www.inmotionhosting.com/infographics/html5-cheat-sheet/?utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=infographics&utm_medium=InMotionHosting
 
 

Demo image made in 4 minutes with Fumy and Photoshop

Here’s a little program I love! I bought a program named Smoke some time ago, at a discounted price. I thought it looked like a cool, fun toy of a program, but it’s so much more! Smoke underwent a name change. It’s new name is Fumy, and the newly released version is  Fumy 2.0.

Painting in Fumy is like painting with smoke, or waves, or patterns or light. Version 1, with all it’s point updates was very cool – choose a style and some colors and then paint. You could place the end results into Photoshop documents (or simply create a stand-alone graphic). The only “real” limitation was that the end-result image was opaque. You could use any color background, but you created an opaque image for which you might have to use Blending Modes in Photoshop to influence the result.

Now, with version 2.0, we have layers! This means that not only can we create images with transparent backgrounds, but we also have some limited blending modes inside the program, and we also have the ability to export individual layers of our image.

The names of the controls present a bit of a learning curve: names like “Flow”, “Range”, “Intensity”, “Density”, “Fluency”, “Gravity”, and “Quality” may not make immediate sense, but that’s part of the idea of working in this Fumy. It’s all about experimentation (you all know that’s a BIG teaching point of mine anyway, right?)

Version 2.0 just came out a few days ago, so there’re still a few “issues” to resolve. For example, the tooltip names don’t align and so you have to trust the icon more than the name of the tool. Also, there seems to be a bit of a problem with the function of exporting individual layers, but you should also be aware that the developer is extremely responsive. I’ve had a few questions over the past couple of versions, and I received response emails the same day!

On top of all this coolness and fun, here’s the real kicker – I’d originally bought this program for $6 via Maczot.com. It was also included in a software bundle I’d purchased at MacLegion.com. But I never needed the new version. Every update has been free – and the recent UPGRADE was ALSO FREE! Any developer with such a cool product, who is so responsive, and has such generous upgrade policies should be commended! I encounter so many programs with ridiculous and draconian upgrade costs, I’m especially impressed by this (see Adobe’s new upgrade policies, for example!)

Despite the few bugs in this new version, I highly recommend it – and the developer. If the regular $19.99 seems a bit much, wait… you’ll see it in a bundle, I’m sure. Also, Neatberry (the developer) seems to have a slew of other cool programs. I’m looking forward to checking them out.

Oh, and the image you see in this post  was done using a stock image from stock.xchng, and a quick image from Fumy 2.0, created and composited in about 4 minutes using Photoshop.

Check out Fumy 2.0. Let me know what you think!