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See, Hear, and Speak No Evil by Kyle R.

This is the time of year when you should be finding your voice (Alex S) in the Mac Lab. You’ve had a solid grounding in the technical and artistic fundamentals. You have a world of resources to tap into. You have the archived blog posts, where nuggets of inspiration, links, tuts, tips, and tricks reside. Cue the orchestra. Raise the curtain. Time for digital artists to sing!

3D ARTISTS: The new issue if 3D Attack is in Resources on the server (as is this one). It’s in the drag to documents folder. If you skip it you’ll miss out on the Zombie Shader.

DIGITAL ARTISTS: I’ve been learning and burning the midnight oil at FontStruct. This isn’t just about creating fonts. I’ll be posting something about creating logos and/or logo type there later today or over the weekend. In a nutshell, how’d you like to have your graphic identity available at a keystroke? It may not work for everyone but this holds real promise for many of you – especially those whose logos have yet to shine.

Virtually every morning, 30 to 40 minutes before 1st period, Angel and Fernando H stop by the Mac Lab, fire up their iMacs, and set about working. (And as I’ve already told you, Fernando isn’t even enrolled in any of our classes.)

One of the things Angel does (that others have yet to try) is to create his own fonts (using Illustrator or Photoshop) and generating the OTF (the new OpenType standard for digital typography) using FontLab Studio. We have only one license and it’s installed on computer 50 (by the scanner). With all the doodlers in here, I expected a whole bunch of dingbat fonts to be created, but it seems that everyone except Angel has forgotten that I told you about the software earlier in the year. Oh well, maybe the kids next year will take advantage of it to create more Mac Lab Fonts™ that we can all admire and use.

Speaking of Angel, he’s also been playing with Flash and has a semi-almost-functional site. (Stick that in an HTML page and update it!) I thought you all might be interested in enhancing the simple sites I’ve had you build so far. So, for those of you who are still reading, this is required. And it’s due by the end of the period. Today! Drop everything and complete this assignment… right now. Step 1 | Step 2 | Quick Correction | Step 3 | Step 4 | Step 5 Can’t wait to see the results… today.

I love watching kids work out their ideas. ARD allows me to monitor the entire classroom. I can see every monitor, offer suggestions, and sometimes help stragglers find their way back to the task of the day (with an invitation to spend a little extra time in the Mac Lab to pay for the transgression). A few days ago, this design by Dean S caught my eye. I suggested he use Illustrator’s Pathfinder (here’s a very simple introductory tutorial) to add the rounded elements to the D and N as well to see if that made the design more interesting. After a bit of arm-twisting, Dean finally came up with this. As much work as it was to get him to take that step (I had to threaten to do it myself and claim the design as my own – I know, I’m shameless), I’m wondering if he’ll consider playing with the shape of the D and N to see what they’d look like if altered slightly.

Back in the day, identity design was my favorite job. Logos, letterheads, business cards, signage – I loved it! I’d spend days tweaking a design, trying to find that magical place where it felt perfect. More times than not, the simpler it got, the better it felt. If I had Dean’s original concept, I’d run through a dozen or so variations to see how they’d change the overall look. If you’ve forgotten some of the basic logotype principles, refer to the tutorials on the CS3 page. For a much more developed (and different) feel for what I’m talking about, watch this video.

Yesterday, Justin from CartoonSmart posted about LogoInstant, a terrific new site that intends to post a new logo a day. (I’m interested to see if they can keep that up.) One caution, though: NEVER design your logo in Photoshop (unless you know how to keep everything in vectors). Use Illustrator! Look here for more logo links. The reason I’m reminding you, yet again, about your logos is that we finally have all the Hydroshield discs (CD and DVD), jewel cases, and ink for our CD/DVD duplicator/printer. Your final project in here, besides the online portfolio, will be to create your own demo disc. You do want it to look good, right? It all begins with the logo.

My dad and I couldn’t be more different. He was drafted by the 49ers. I was the only player in Watsonville High School history to play two years on Lightweight Reserves. Seriously, that’s what we were called. We played in old, moth-eaten uniforms at 8:00 Saturday mornings. A few kids would ride around the track on stingrays while we played and the seagulls screeched. I was a 100 lb, 5′-3″ specimen before sprouting in my junior year. I did learn a lot from the big guy but we never had the classic father-son relationship.

Anyway, the point of this post is to highlight someone who does have a winning relationship with his dad that plays right into the Mac Lab. Michael R is beginning to come into his own as a photographer due to his dad’s mentorship. As with Sarah, I’ll let Michael tell the story.

What the rest of you can learn from this post (besides how tiny I was in high school) is the art of preparing your work for print. You’ll find a number of tutorials on this subject on the CS3 page. Remember to set the resolution to 360 pixels per inch rather than 300 for the best prints.

Oh, and because you’ll ask… No, my dad didn’t take the offer from the ‘Niners. He took a job with the telephone company and played semi-pro in Salinas for a few years. That way he earned more than the $6,000 contract teams offered rookies back then. How times change, eh?

I’ve already told the story of my first Flash project and hinted at how that demonstration altered the trajectory of the Mac Lab. Sure we’ve used Flash extensively in here over the past 7 years but if there’s one thing that really sets our classroom apart from the others, it’s the animated versions (Steven M) of our Photoshop work (Michael W). Newbies in here are probably wondering what I’m talking about because we haven’t focused on Flash yet this year.

There’s a controversy surrounding who created the first animated PSD in here, but there’s no doubt that among those early projects, Michael Werner’s was the best of the bunch. Two of the many tutorials I recorded about this technique may be found here, and here. And before I get carried away and move on to animated masking (here’s Brian S’s source file if you’re interested) and the world of fun you can have with those skills, let’s get straight to the Flash resources you’ve got access right now.

Rather than searching the Internet, why not take advantage of two of the best Flash resources on the planet? The Mac Lab’s Flash Tutorials, believe it or not, are praised by folks around the world. If I don’t have what you want, Justin, the genius behind CartoonSmart, surely will. We’ve got all his tutorials in the Resources folder* on the server. If you want to learn from him at home, He’s got free tutorials, info about free tutorials, a new home for more free tutorials (Vimeo’s blocked here at school but available everywhere else), and a wonderfully informative blog for all things Flash and beyond (he’s branched out to a wide array of other programs).

So, if you’ve been wanting to learn Flash, there’s no excuse anymore. Just know that it’s going to take some time and effort to really feel comfortable with the program.

*Resources > digital_arts > double_click > tutorials > cartoon_smart

The Mac Lab Blog is the new backbone of the classroom. When I went hunting for the perfect image to complement this post, I looked no further than Hannah J’s beautifully nightmarish digital painting. That she named her creation Vertebrae is all the more perfect.

I’m guessing that some of you feel trapped by the obligations of the blog. The assignments. The tutorials. The standards. So much information! How is it possible for anyone to keep track of all those posts? How could you ever find a needle in this digital haystack?

Here’s a nice, short video to set your anxieties free. And here’s what I forgot to mention in the first video. Now, Ride like the wind, Bullseye!

Thanks to a David B comment, a light went on. Like many ideas that suddenly spring to life (design by Taylor S), it’s something completely obvious. And, as luck would have it, it’s something that you’ll probably find of use.

Since we’re going to be using the pro color correction workflow quite a bit, and since that process involves some repetitive steps, this is a perfect time to introduce you to Actions.

So… Lights! Camera! And watch this Actions-packed video! (then make your own customized Actions).

Digital photographs and Photoshop are bosom buddies. Even Ansel Adams spent time in the dark room, selectively dodging, burning, and using a techniques like unsharp mask to get his photos just so. (Where do you think Adobe got names for these features?)

I’m not all that happy with how my version of Nolan C’s pic came out and I expect him to improve on and post the real pro version of his ‘Stang. Here’s a few videos to explain the strategies I used…

UPDATE: My laptop monitor seems to be failing. The image that looks fine on it right now is completely blown out on the lab’s computers (as are the images in the videos). I’ve repeated the steps to replace the horrible version I wound up with via the tutorials so you could see what I was shooting for (with lower Vibrance and Unsharp Mask settings) but I didn’t like that either so I tried it with Camera Raw on the front and back end and got something worth showing. Now I’ll have to record a few new tutorials to show what finally did the trick. Regardless, watch the following videos as they’re packed with Photoshop tips (as well as the embarrassingly blown-out images):

Starter File (right-click and download) Overview | Things You Have to Know | Cropping and Preserving | Color Correction | Auto Madness | Dodge and Burn | Polishing | Sharpening

Moral: Sometimes you have to change your game plan in order to save a photo (and a tute).

Change of Plans: Overview | Pro Color Correction Settings | Locating Black and White | The Dave Cross 50% Gray Trick | Setting the Black, White, and Gray Points | Layer Comps and Alt Strategy | A Few Extra Details | Creating and Opening the Camera Raw File | Camera Raw Adjustments | Off Screen Enhancement | Camera Raw Revisited | Contrast Curve | Last Word

Warning: Ignoring this post will be considered defiance. And by a curious coincidence, we happen to have a Mac Lab Saturday School scheduled for this weekend. It’s more fun to come of your own free will but if you’d rather have a special invitation, by all means ignore the following.

The acquisition of the CS4 Master Collection six weeks into this school year was a blessing for all of us. One drawback, however, was that I didn’t get a chance to familiarize myself with the apps before beginning to write tutorials. To help remedy that inconvenient truth, I’m returning to the basics so we can spend the last third of the year as productive as possible. We’ll begin by focusing on color (image courtesy of Balend N).

The following tutorials are mandatory. For all students. Everyone. No exceptions. Now that that’s clear… Overview | Color Settings | Color and Camera Sync | Preferences | 2 Things I Promised to Show You