Wednesday, November 25, 2009
100+ Great Resources for Design Inspiration
Veer: Ideas – A huge idea gallery from stock photography company Veer formatted as a blog and including news and updates from the company itself.
Delicious CSS – A CSS web design gallery that was founded because of the lack of features for tracking design ideas on traditional social bookmarking sites. Categorizes sites in useful ways (such as by color) in ways that traditional social bookmarking sites don’t.
Raster – A regularly-updated gallery of photography and art with collections broken into “chapters.” Founded in 2001, its only goal is to provide inspirational images from a collective of creative minds.
CSS Galaxy – A very simple French gallery of CSS website designs that selects sites based on their standards-compliance, technique, coherent graphic design, and aesthetic.
CSS Uber Clean – A gallery of exceptional CSS-based designs. The sites featured all contain simple, minimalist, super-clean designs.
deviantARTdeviantART
– A gallery for all types of artwork, both traditional and digital, that serves as an excellent source of inspiration for all kinds of projects. Just be careful not to get sucked in and spend three days looking through it when you have deadlines to meet!
muse – A collection of some of the best commercial artwork out there. Includes interviews with the artists who create the designs that reveal what their inspiration was.
Behance NetworkBehance Network – Features a gallery of all kinds of creative projects including illustration, music, web design, typography, photography and more.
Depthcore – An international collective of modern art and digital media that releases chapters every three or four months featuring work contributed by members.
Designflavr – A gallery featuring all kinds of artwork and design including Flash websites, CSS websites, vector art, advertising, abstract design, photo manipulation, and more.
Web Creme – A web design gallery with more than 330 pages of great designs. Search the archives by the month a design was featured or by color.
CSS Remix – A gallery of beautiful CSS designs where you can sort designs by what’s popular or up-and-coming.
Typechart – A gallery of typography for the web with CSS styles included. You can search available styles by font, emphasis (whether something is bold, italic, etc.), type size (heading, body, etc.) and more. Also lets you compare Windows ClearType rendering and Apple font rendering.
CreativeDepart – A gallery of design, art, photography, and more with its own inspiring design. Their goal is to increase awareness of the designs they love to open up more avenues to the creators they admire. You can also submit designs you’d like to see become a part of the site.
CSS Mania – Another CSS gallery with more than 13,000 sites and a blog. View galleries by month or by topic (associations, media, web developers, blogging, etc.)
Screenalicio.us – A gallery featuring more than 10,000 website screenshots. Offers an RSS feed for keeping up with the best new website designs online.
One Page Love – An awesome collection of single-page websites. Covers portfolios, applications, and even temporary landing pages with enough information to help a visitor make an appropriate decision. Also includes searchable tags for finding inspiration from similar sites.
Design Snack – Features two different galleries, one for XHTML/CSS designs and one for Flash. You can browse designs by color or category.
Design Shack – A searchable CSS gallery with more than 1700 designs that lets you browse by category (such as blog, magazine, photography, design, etc.), layout, or color.
eduStyle – Designing websites for educational institutions is sometimes more challenging due to the volume of information and the intended audiences (after all, it has to appeal to current students, prospective students, parents, professors, alumni, etc.). This site has a huge gallery of college and university websites sorted by categories and tags, and also features articles on design and other resources.
COLOURlovers – A community-based color gallery that includes colors, palettes, news, and real-world design examples. Members get points for being active participants in the community.
Faveup – A gallery of logos, business cards, flash and CSS websites where you can vote for your favorites. One of Faveup’s main purposes is to provide inspiration to designers and to showcase and provide links to great designs.
CSSclip – Sort websites by color or look at the Best of 2009 websites. The site also includes news and other resources for designers.
InspirationKing – Another gallery that started as a personal resource before going public. Offers an RSS feed and features a number of well-known websites in its design gallery.
Ads of the World – Check out print, TV, radio, online, outdoor and other types of advertisements from all over the world to get inspiration for both online and offline design projects.
Design Flood – Vote on a scale of 1-9 on the sites featured in this gallery or just browse for new ideas. All the sites featured are handpicked for being unique and well-designed.
Darkeye – Web design gallery where you can search by color or keyword. You can also browse recent submissions, most viewed, and highest rated sites, and you can vote and leave comments on featured designs.
TextureKing – More than 300 textures divided up by category—grunge, plaster, rust, wood, glass, and more. You can then download the textures as free stock photos.
The Cool Hunter – A gallery of all things awesome, including architecture, design, stores, and more based in AustraliaAustralia. The site serves as a celebration of modern creativity in all its forms and is a global hub for everything cool, innovative, original, and thoughtful.
UniqueCSS.com – A judged site that features six of the best and most unique CSS designs on the web every month. Viewers can then vote and the highest-ranked site each month wins $25.
CSS Import – A CSS gallery with more than 2,000 sites featured. They offer RSS feeds for the full gallery and for just the notable entries. The biggest drawback to the site is that the archives are only organized by date.
csstux – A huge collection of websites with browsable archives. There is no search feature on the site, so while designs are tagged with categories, there’s no effective way to find designs tagged a certain way.
UCreative.com – View graphic design, photography, web design, digital art, and industrial art galleries. Each category has subcategories to further refine your search.
CSSArtillery – Great standards-compliant CSS sites from all over the web. The site is browsable by category and subcategory and also offers RSS and TwitterTwitter
feeds.
One Pixel Army – A collection of sites perfect for finding inspiration or direction in your own designs. All the sites featured are handpicked by the site owner as excellent sources of inspiration.
Splench – A gallery in a blog format that makes browsing easy. You can view sites by color or search by keyword. An RSS feed is also available.
Website Design Awards – Features some of the best designs on the web with a focus on interactivity, usability, creativity, and originality.
CSS Design Yorkshire – A gallery of more than 2,500 CSS website designs that also has monthly featured websites. All of the designs featured are by designers in the Yorkshire region and all sites are built with good semantic xhtml.
CSSMoon – View web design galleries by category—education, business, portfolios, medical, and more. The coolest part about this site is the header, which allows you to browse sites in a similar way to browsing album covers on the iPhone.
css {imagine} – A huge gallery with a blog that features outstanding designs and other useful posts. They normally showcase ten designs each month, though some months they share additional sites if there are tons of excellent submissions.
Pattern Tap – One of my favorite resources for web design inspiration. View the way other sites handle specific elements such as 404 Pages, Backgrounds, Calendars, Contact Forms, and more.
PageCrush – A place where designers from all over the world can post their best work and where others can go to find inspiration.
The Photography Showcase – View and rate photos of a variety of subjects. The tag cloud makes finding exactly what you’re looking for easy and the site offers a widget you can add to your own site.
Stylegala – Though currently going in a new direction, this site has an amazing gallery of CSS website designs, as well as a forum, resources, and feature articles.
unmatchedstyle.com – A web design gallery site that also includes podcasts, resources, interviews, news, and more. They also offer an RSS feed and you can follow them on Twitter for regular updates. The sites featured are tagged and can be rated on a scale of 1-10.
CSS Scoop – View and rate CSS designs and check out the blog for web design articles covering a variety of topics. RSS feeds are provided for both the gallery and the blog (”The Scoop”).
Beautifully – A regularly-updated gallery of beautiful websites. They also offer weekly web design news roundups and RSS feeds for the gallery, news, and resources.
DiVine CSS – A gallery that features blog designs, CSS, Flash, e-commerce sites and more. Sites are selected by the team of graphic designers, web designers, programmers and developers behind DiVine CSS.
Light on Dark – A gallery of nothing but websites with dark backgrounds and light-colored text. This can be one of the hardest design styles to pull off, so studying successful sites that employ this style is a good place to start.
Wooki.es – A CSS and general web design gallery with browsable categories. Sites featured are excellent examples of innovative and creative uses and are web standards compliant.
CSS Dance – A web design gallery showcasing appealing site design with a rating system. They offer an RSS feed of new additions and you can follow them on Twitter.
CSS Mix – Gallery sortable by color or category and with a rating system and RSS feed. Members can also view sites that are still pending for addition.
CSS Nature – A gallery featuring only green, eco, and organic websites. They also offer open source templates and the ability to comment and rate designs.
Blogs
Web Designer Wall – The Trends category on Web Designer Wall has amazing showcases of web design elements and complete sites.
Web Design Ledger – The inspiration category on this blog has tons of places to go for inspiration and showcases beautiful examples of all kinds of design.
Computerlove – A social platform and blog for finding inspiration and sharing your work. They offer design news as well and ways to promote yourself as a designer.
Design is Kinky – A blog featuring new designs and artwork from all over the world. They’ve been around for more than 10 years, making them one of the older design blogs/sites on the net.
DFCKR – Tracks design news and resources and highlights up and coming illustrators and designers. Their archives are browsable by recent entries, date, and category.
You the Designer – Posts featuring examples of excellent design across the web and beyond put together by a freelance graphic designer.
Think Vitamin – A blog for web designers and developers that includes some great design galleries and articles. The site is put together by Carsonified, the same company that produces the Future of Web Design and Future of Web Apps conferences.
Vandelay Design – Features multiple posts showcasing great designs for inspiration. The blog itself is produced by a web design company in an effort to make their site more useful than just the standard portfolio site.
Design Shard – Blogblog
featuring inspiration for print and web design, with a pretty inspiring design itself. It also features other resources for designers, including free photoshop textures and brushes.
I Love Typography – Great inspiration for anyone trying to find just the right font, this site showcases fonts and typography in the world around us, from road signs and shampoo bottles to billboards and posters.
Noupe – Posts offering collections of design elements for inspiration along with tutorials, icons, showcases, and more. Noupe’s goal is to help designers create more engaging websites and functional interfaces.
Six Revisions – Posts covering all kinds of design topics and including a variety of sources of inspiration and useful tools. Includes practical information for modern web designers.
Design Reviver – Offers a variety of articles, including showcases of great design and design elements. They also include tutorials, free downloads, and articles covering anything related to web design.
fadtastic – A multi-author blog covering trends in web design with some great showcase posts. Posts cover trends in web graphics, typography, and more.
Design Melt Down – Covers all sorts of design elements and trends, broken down into chapters. Includes color usage, principles of design, site types and more, all illustrated with real-world examples.
Fuel Your Creativity – A brilliant design blog with some amazing articles in their inspiration section. They tout themselves as the place to go when you’re having one of those “I’m-going-to-implode-if-I-don’t-get-an-idea-soon” moments.
Typographica – A blog featuring typography news, resources and more. They feature mostly print materials that display excellent use of typography, though inspiration could be drawn from here for both print and web applications. Their handpicked font collections showcase the best fonts each year (four years are currently available, 2004-2007).
Online Magazines
Phirebrush – Online magazine and art group offering monthly issues that feature user submissions of photography, artwork, writing, and more.
Multilink Magazine – A free PDF magazine that has issues released on an irregular schedule as they’re ready with variable content.
GizMag – A PDF magazine that features photography, illustration, design, sculpture and more, as well as interviews with artists.
Destructed – A PDF magazine featuring art and design with themed issues that can be downloaded for free. Each quarterly issue features a unique art- and design-related topic.
delve – A free, experimental design magazine with archives available online that features photography, design, illustration and other visual arts.
ROOTmagazine – Features graphic design, illustration, photography, video, audio and other content from everybody willing to exhibit.
RevolutionArt Magazine – Magazine focusing on art as well as culture with over 70,000 subscribers. They cover the arts, modeling, music and more and consider themselves a massive worldwide propaganda machine for making people think about global messages.
Artz Mania – A downloadable design magazine featuring international artists and designers that started in January of ‘07. They showcase designs by artists and designers from all over the world distributed on a platform that’s accessible to people from all walks of life.
encore – A flip-book format online art & design magazine with a very slick interface. They focus on art, design, and film and track down innovative products, events, trends, and artists from around the globe each month.
Castle Illustrative Magazine – A free PDF magazine full of work by “creative nerds.” They put out regular issues focused on free illustration and design. Back issues are available on the website.
Anti – A digital magazine showcasing outstanding art and design content. Eight issues are currently available for free download.
Blanket Magazine – A free PDF magazine covering all areas of art, design, and photography. Each issue also features humorous stories and informative interviews.
Proteus Mag – Features photography, painting, sculpture, graphic designs, fashion designs, and more in a free PDF magazine.
bitFUUL magazine – A PDF magazine that covers all aspects of art and design including music, photography, writing, and art.
WAG – Features “works-in-progress” in art, expression, literature, and more. They aim to be available in paper for some editions, though for the most part they are a screen magazine.
ruby mag – An art magazine that aims to promote different artists to the world. More than thirty back issues are available on the website.
Phase Collective – A downloadable digital magazine that’s currently undergoing a changeover to a blog format. Back issues are still available for download.
TXTnein – A free art magazine available in PDF, Flash or executable files for both PC and Mac. Submissions are open to graphic designers, photographers and artists from all over the world.
File – Online photography magazine with a focus on unexpected treatment of subjects. Photographs that treat their subjects with alternate takes, odd angles, and unconventional observations.
Computer Arts – An online magazine that includes a gallery, forums, creative directory, news and more. The creator of the site, Future, publishes more than 100 consumer magazines worldwide.
JPG Magazine – An online magazine devoted to photography with themed issues. Visitors to the site can vote on photos for upcoming issues. They have open themes where photographers can submit work and which may or may not be featured in future issues.
Flickr Pools
CMYK design – A collection of photos of print designs. This is definitely the pool to look at if you’re looking for inspiration for package or marketing materials design.
Web Design – A pool of website screenshots with more than 7,000 items uploaded. There are examples of just about every kind of web design present, some with multiple screenshots available.
Experimental Graphic Design – A collection of more than 17,000 graphic design images that don’t necessarily fit traditional design conventions.
Poster Design – View more than 10,000 poster designs from all over the world. Great for inspiration whether you’re designing an actual poster or any other print or online project.
Design the Logo – A graphic design pool focused specifically on logo design. Features well-known logos as well as ones for lesser known brands and companies.
Graphic Design Magazines – A selection of photos from magazines focused on graphic design. Shows layouts and specific elements from magazines from all over the world.
Photo-Graphic Design – A pool of graphic designs revolving around the use of photos. Some items from the pool are very straight-forward examples of photo-based design while others are truly original and creative designs.
Catchy Colors – A pool of photos focused on eye-catching color with more than 1.3 million items. Pulling colors from photos is a great way to design a unique color palette for any design project.
flickr in full color – Another photo pool focused on brilliant use of color in photography. While there are only around 99,000 photos in this pool (as opposed to the 1.3 million in the previous pool), the quality of the images is outstanding.
Src: http://mashable.com/2009/03/16/design-inspiration/
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Adobe Releases Flash Player 10.1 And AIR 2.0 – Both Include Multi-touch Support
Both of the products are being released with a ‘beta’ label at the same time for all 3 major operating systems (Windows, Mac and Linux) and x86-based netbooks, and are available now via Adobe Labs.
Update: sorry, we unintentionally – no, really – jumped the gun on this one. The links to the products are now live: Flash Player and AIR.
People who were still hoping for a beta release of the new Flash Player for mobile will be somewhat disappointed by the fact that they’ll have to exercise even more patience.
But first things first.
Both the new Flash Player for desktop browsers and the latest iteration of the rather popular cross-platform runtime environment for desktop apps were announced in the beginning of October and previewed at the recent Adobe MAX 2009 event (see video below). That means there aren’t too many surprises left with regards to what the upgraded versions bring, so we’ll just give you a quick run-down.
Both Adobe AIR 2 and Flash Player 10.1:
- boast support for multi-touch and gestures (yes, you’d need a machine with a touch screen)
- include a global error handler, which enables devs to write a single handler to process all runtime errors
- (finally) support local microphone access, so you’ll no longer need to first pass through a server in order to record audio locally on both Flash Platform runtimes
Adobe Flash Player 10.1 now also leverages hardware decoding of H.264 video on Windows PCs, netbooks and mobile devices.
Want all that goodness on your mobile phone, too? Hold your horses: while a public beta of Adobe Flash Player 10.1 for Palm webOS is expected later this year, Google Android support is expected no sooner than early 2010, and support for Blackberry smartphones will likely take even more time to be added.
Also new in Adobe AIR 2.0 and worthy of a mention:
- Native process API: enables apps to communicate with native applications on local machines
- Mass storage device detection: plug in your Flip camera or that USB stick you got as a gift at the last conference you attended, and AIR 2 applications will be able to detect them
- Open document API: with it, AIR apps can ‘ask’ the OS what the default application is associated with files and function accordingly
- Improved socket support: think AIR-powered local servers and P2P apps
- Speedier WebKit: updated version that includes a faster JavaScript engine and new HTML5/CSS3 capabilities
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
20 Exceptional Websites for Learning Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is the industry-standard when it comes to scalable vector artwork. As a designer, Illustrator is the right tool for graphics that need to be scaled. A prime example are logos which often need to be adapted for small mediums such as business cards, larger mediums like billboard signs, and converted to grayscale or black and white for mediums such as newspapers.
In this collection, you’ll find 20 excellent websites and blogs that provide high-quality tutorials and information on vector illustration and Adobe Illustrator.
1. Vectips
Vectips is a blog about Adobe Illustrator tips, tricks, and tutorials. It’s run by Ryan Putnam, a talented illustrator/designer, and an exclusive artist at iStockphoto. You can also find interviews of professional designers and excellent monthly roundups of Illustrator resources on Vectips.
Tutorial examples
- Create Sketchy-Style Vectors
- Create Abstract Backgrounds in Illustrator
- Creating Halftone Effects in Illustrator
2. Blog.SpoonGraphics
Blog.SpoonGraphics is the personal weblog of talented Graphic/Web Designer, Chris Spooner. He writes about design-related topics, and his tutorials are renowned as useful and top-notch. Check out the Tutorial section to quickly find Illustrator-related tutorials.
Tutorial examples
- Create a Cute Vector Monster from a Pencil Sketch
- Logo Design Project Step by Step Walkthrough
- How to Create a Vector Safari Compass in Illustrator
3. VECTORTUTS
VECTORTUTS is a blog and tutorial website on Illustrator and vector illustration. It’s one of the more recent additions to "TUTS" network which include NETTUTS, PSDTUTS, and AUDIOTUTS. You’ll find high-quality, detailed tutorials on vector illustration as well as excellent roundups.
Tutorial examples
- Create a Vibrant 3D Pixel Type Treatment
- Illustrator’s Type Tool: A Comprehensive Introduction
- Methods for Creating Random Vector Noise
4. Veerle’s blog
Veerle’s blog, written by Veerle Pieters, a reknowned Belgian graphic/web designer, posts top-notch tutorials on Illustrator. Check out her Tutorials category archive and Photoshop-Illustrator category archive to quickly find Adobe Illustrator-related posts.
Tutorial examples
- Creating simple Art Brushes in Illustrator
- Command shape in Illustrator
- Recolor artwork using Illustrator’s LiveColor
5. GoMediaZine
GoMediaZine is a website by art and graphic design professionals. They have a growing section of top-notch Adobe Illustator tutorials. Besides quality Illustrator tutorials, they also have a Freebie section where you can obtain free vector artwork.
Tutorial examples
- A Pseudo-Sugar Skull: From Start to Finish.
- From Sketch to Vector Illustration
- Intricate Patterns in Illustrator
6. N.Design Studio
N.Design Studio is freelance illustrator/web designer’s Nick La’s design blog and portfolio. One of the most popular sections of N.Design studio is Illustrator Tutorials section that hosts high-quality, detailed Adobe Illustrator tutorials.
Tutorial examples
7. Vectordiary
Vectordiary is Tony Soh’s blog on vector Illustration. You can find wonderful tips, tricks, and tutorials pertaining to vector illustration. Check out the Illustrator category to go directly to Illustrator-specific blog posts.
Tutorial examples
- Learn Illustrator CS3 in 30 Days
- Illustrator tutorial: The Perfect Diamond
- Illustrator Tutorial: Wire Fence
8. Layers Magazine
Layers Magazine is a magazine dedicated to Adobe products (such as Illustrator, Photoshop, and Dreamweaver). The Adobe Illustrator Tutorials section has plenty of online tutorials to help you learn more about Illustrator.
Tutorial examples
- Swingin’ Retro Look in Adobe Illustrator
- Blueprint-Style Text in Adobe Illustrator
- Imitating A Scanner Darkly in Adobe Illustrator
9. Computer Arts – Tutorials
The Computer Arts Tutorials section of the highly-popular Computer Arts magazine has plenty of first-class arts and graphic design tutorials. The section has over 500 professionally-written tutorials, many of them involving Adobe Illustrator.
Tutorial examples
10. FreeTransform
FreeTransform (referring to Illustrator’s Free Transform tool) is a blog by Illustrator and tutorial writer Cheryl Graham that covers Adobe Illustrator Topics. Check out the Tutorials and Quick Tips section for handy lessons on Illustrator.
Tutorial Examples
- Tutorial: make texture without leaving Illustrator
- Tutorial: A Gradient Brush?
- Tutorial: Transform, Style, Blend
11. Illustrator Design Center
Adobe’s Illustrator Design Center is the company’s section dedicated to Adobe Illustrator. You’ll find a variety of information, guides, and tutorials straight from the creators of Illustrator and from first-rate professional illustration and design artists.
Tutorial examples
- Creating scatter brushes in Illustrator
- Using Live Trace and Live Paint
- Working with Transparencies in Illustrator
12. Kevin Hulsey Illustration
Kevin Hulsey’s tutorial site is dedicated to sharing useful computer graphics tutorials and resources. The Adobe Illustrator tutorials are split into three categories: Basic, Advanced, and Tool tips and tricks.
Tutorial examples
- Drawing Gears in Adobe Illustrator
- Cutaway Car Illustration
- Hex-Head Bolts and Fasteners in Adobe Illustrator
13. IllustratorWorld
IllustratorWorld is a leading website for vector art and vector illustration software. It has a large community, so if you want to talk to illustrators and designers, check out the IllustratorWorld forums.
Tutorial examples
14. BittBox
BittBox is a blog by talented designer Jay Hilgert. Jay Hilgert provides tons of freebie design resources and writes quality vector illustration tutorials and helpful Illustrator workflow tips.
Tutorial examples
- Illustrator Tutorial: How To Make 3D Vector Vintage Stars
- Fun with Illustrator’s Blend Tool
- How to Make Vector Grunge
15. AiVault
AiVault (Ai is the Adobe Illustrator file extension) is a website dedicated to sharing resources, tips, tricks, and tutorials on Adobe Illustrator and vectors. For those seeking Adobe Illustrator tutorials, check out the Ai Tutorials section.
Tutorial examples
16. IllustrationClass
IllustrationClass is a website about illustration. The tutorial section has over 60 brilliant tutorials that you can download (they come with the source file and the tutorial).
Tutorial examples
17. PinkZAP
PinkZAP is dedicated to providing free Illustrator and Photoshop tutorials (as well as other design-related tutorials). Check out the Illustrator category to find articles speficially related to Adobe Illustrator.
Tutorial examples
18. CreativePro
CreativePro is a website for professional creatives. The CreativePro Illustration section provides many helpful tips and tutorials on Adobe Illustrator, as well as relevant news and reviews on the topic of Illustration. Check out the How-to’s section to go directly to the tutorials.
Tutorial examples
- Round Corners Quickly in Illustrator
- Add Strokes to Placed Images in Illustrator
- Illustrator How-to: Why the Appearance Panel Rocks
19. Illustrator Tutorials at Designer Today
Designer Today is a graphic design magazine and tutorial resource for designers. The Illustrator Tutorials section has plenty of useful and top-notch tutorials.
Tutorial examples
- Cityscape – Illustrator CS3 Tutorial
- 3D Logo – Illustrator CS3 Tutorial
- Abstract Background Path – Illustrator CS3 Tutorial
20. AiBURN
AiBURN is a website dedicated to discussing current art and design trends. The site is run by Sean Hodge, editor of PSDTUTS. AiBurn also has excellent web roundups that contain top-notch resources from around the web.
Tutorial examples
Src: http://sixrevisions.com/graphics-design/20-exceptional-websites-for-learning-adobe-illustrator/Monday, November 16, 2009
Adobe Launches "Moviestar" Version of Flash Player - HD Television Quality for Web Video
Adobe claims that these advancements will extend their leadership position in web video "by enabling the delivery of HD television quality and premium audio content".
The new Flash Player will be available later today as a beta at Adobe Labs - and the final release is slated to be available in the fall (September - November). The last big update to Flash Player was the launch of Flash 9 in June 2006.
Adobe: This is Tipping Point for H.264
I spoke to Mark Randall, Chief Strategist for Dynamic Media at Adobe, about the news. He told me there were three main points to the Moviestar release:
1) The H.264 support means superior video quality; it is also an open standard.
2) High Efficiency Advanced Audio is, says Mark Randall, a "successor to MP3". He said it is a higher quality audio, but at a lower bit rate.
3) It means "hardware acceleration" for Web video.
Randall also said that this represents a tipping point for the H.264 standard, because now Flash Player is supporting it as well Blu-Ray - two big industry players.
Richer Platform for Online Video Producers
As well as the consumer benefits, this also gives online video companies a platform to deliver richer Flash experiences on the desktop, Web and H.264 ready consumer devices. As well as the new Flash Player, H.264 playback will be supported by the Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR - a platform to create rich Internet applications to the desktop) and applications developed with Adobe AIR software, including Adobe Media Player in late April.
Src: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/adobe_flash_player_moviestar_h264.php
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Tracking Flash with Google Analytics
Ok so I have been using Google Analytics for quite sometime now and I must say i love it! So if you don't know by now Google provides FREE website statistics that go above and beyond any stat tracking systems I have seen to date. Well that is for something that is FREE. Anyway I want encourage all of you to get out there and start using Google Analytics for all your flash site going forward. Its really very simple to implement into your flash sites and even track individual events that occur in each of your sites. Please see analytics.google.com for more information on setting up your personal analytics with google and to get the Javascript needed for the code below to work. With that said let's get on to some actionscript!
googleAnalytics.as (right click - save as)
/// GOOGLE ANALYTICS SIMPLE TRACKING
/// http://blogfordesigners.blogspot.com
import flash.external.ExternalInterface;
function gaTracking(page) {
ExternalInterface.call("pageTracker._trackPageview", page);
}
//end
Code for simple call
gaTracking("/flash/home");
//sends event to google's analytics system
Now what you can understand from this is... You can call this function during ANY event function etc that you so desire. And any string combination that you want to pass to it is fair game. Use best practices when passing in the strings though so its easier for you and your clients to read when you all are reviewing the numbers. Ok so thats that! Cheers!
10 Excellent Open Source and Free Alternatives to Photoshop
1. GIMP
GIMP stands for “GNU image manipulation program”, and it is one of the oldest and most well known alternatives to Photoshop in existence. Although it doesn’t quite have all of them, you’ll find most of the features included in Photoshop somewhere in GIMP. GIMP is cross platform and supported by a large community.
If just having the feature set isn’t enough for you, there is an alternative based on GIMP known as GIMPShop. It’s the same as GIMP, except the layout has been structured as close to Photoshop as possible, so anyone making the transition should still feel right at home.
2. Krita
Krita has been lauded for ease of use and won the Akademy Award for Best Application in 2006. Part of the Koffice suite for Linux, Krita is slightly less powerful than both Photoshop and GIMP, but does contain some unique features.
3. Paint.NET
Paint.NET has grown out of a simple replacement for the well known MSPaint into a fully featured open source image editor with a wide support base. You’ll need Windows to run Paint.NET.
4. ChocoFlop
ChocoFlop is a design application designed exclusively for Mac, optimized for Mac architecture. It’s quick and fairly well featured. This program won’t always be free, but until a stable version is released (it’s currently in beta) they are allowing free use. The program works pretty well as is, and if you’re the type who doesn’t mind an occasional bug it’s certainly worth a look.
5. Cinepaint
Cinepaint is designed primarily for video often used to make animated feature films by major studios, but it is also a great image editor capable of high fidelity 32 bit color. Currently there is no stable version for Windows.
6. Pixia
Pixia was originally designed in Japanese but English versions now exist for this rich editor. Although the original focus was on anime/manga, it is a very capable editor in general. Some of the features are a little counter intuitive, but there are plenty of English tutorials available now if you want to give it a shot. The website seems to have changed recently, so be sure to use our link if you don’t want a Japanese error message. Pixia works for Windows.
7. Pixen
Pixen is designed as a pixel artist’s dream, but has expanded into a smooth and well featured overall editor. It’s definitely best at animation though, if that’s your style. Pixen is Mac (10.4x or later) only.
8. Picnik
Picnik is a web based photo editor that has recently taken off due to a partnership with Flickr. It has all the basic features plus a few advanced ones like layers and special effects. It is cross platform since you only need a browser.
9. Splashup
Another web based application, Splashup has a strong set of features (including those layers) and will remind you somewhat of Photoshop. It integrates easily with photo sharing websites and just like the above, is cross platform.
10. Adobe Photoshop Express
Adobe actually has a free web based photo editor of their own. It has all the basic functionality you’d expect as well as a few advanced features (sadly though, no layers), and interfaces well with a number of photo sharing websites. Again, completely cross platform.
Your favorite open source/free image editor?
There are many excellent open source and free alternative photo editors out there, and if your favorite isn’t on the list – why don’t you tell us about it in the comments?
Adobe and Mozilla Foundation to Open Source Flash Player Scripting Engine
SAN FRANCISCO — November 7, 2006 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) and the Mozilla Foundation, a public-benefit organization dedicated to promoting choice and innovation on the Internet, today announced that Adobe has contributed source code for the ActionScript™ Virtual Machine, the powerful standards-based scripting language engine in Adobe® Flash® Player, to the Mozilla Foundation. Mozilla will host a new open source project, called Tamarin, to accelerate the development of this standards-based approach for creating rich and engaging Web applications.
The Tamarin project will implement the final version of the ECMAScript Edition 4 standard language, which Mozilla will use within the next generation of SpiderMonkey, the core JavaScript engine embedded in Firefox®, Mozilla’s free Web browser. As of today, developers working on SpiderMonkey will have access to the Tamarin code in the Mozilla CVS repository via the project page located at www.mozilla.org/projects/tamarin/. Contributions to the code will be managed by a governing body of developers from both Adobe and Mozilla.
“Adobe’s work on the new virtual machine is the largest contribution to the Mozilla Foundation since its inception,” said Brendan Eich, chief technology officer, Mozilla Corporation, and creator of JavaScript. “Now web developers have a high-performance, open source virtual machine for building and deploying interactive applications across both Adobe Flash Player and the Firefox web browser. We’re excited about joining the Adobe and Mozilla communities to advance ECMAScript.”
“This is a major milestone in bringing together the broader HTML and Flash development communities around a common language, and empowering the creation of even more innovative applications in the Web 2.0 world,” said Kevin Lynch, senior vice president and chief software architect at Adobe. “By working with the open source community we are accelerating the adoption of a standard language for creating and delivering richer, more interactive experiences that work consistently across PCs and mobile devices.”
Tamarin implements the ECMAScript standard used by languages such as JavaScript, Adobe ActionScript, and Microsoft JScript, the primary languages developers use for building rich Internet applications. Adobe and Mozilla are both active participants in the ECMA International Programming Language technical committee (TC39-TG1) developing the ECMAScript Edition 4 (ES4) standard.
“There is nothing better for a standard than to have it implemented in multiple products,” said Jan van den Beld, Secretary General, Ecma International. “Adobe is taking a huge step forward in driving standards-based Web development by open source licensing their virtual machine technology.”
Adobe’s most recent virtual machine for ActionScript 3.0, a core component of Adobe Flash Player 9 released in June 2006, was built from the ground up to offer breakthrough performance and features, including more efficient memory utilization, faster application start-times, improved debugging and full runtime error reporting. Adobe Flash Player is installed on over 700 million Internet-connected PCs and mobile devices worldwide. The ActionScript Virtual Machine features a Just In Time (JIT) compiler that translates ActionScript bytecode to native machine code for maximum execution speed. Now developers can leverage existing skills to quickly and easily build complex rich Internet applications increasingly required as users demand more interactive Web experiences.
source: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/press/mozilla-2006-11-07.html
Why your Web content will look darker on Snow Leopard
If you're a Web designer, expect your CSS colors & your untagged/unmanaged images to look darker on Snow Leopard than on previous versions of the Mac OS. You'll also see less of a visible color shift when going from Photoshop to Flash or other unmanaged environments (e.g. Internet Explorer).
Why is that? Apple has switched to a default gamma of 2.2, which is what Windows has used for years. Colors that aren't color-managed are going to look darker on the whole. Your whole display will now be closer to what Windows users see*.
Apple's marketing materials (and reviews of Snow Leopard) say only that the change is "to better serve the needs of consumers and digital content producers." Not really knowing what that means, and wondering why Apple would change the Mac to match Windows after 25 years of using gamma 1.8, I sought out more info.
Adobe Principal Scientist Lars Borg provided some perspective. Lars has spent the past 20 years at Adobe defining & driving color management solutions, and lately he's been focused on digital cinema standards. Here's what he said:
In the distant past, the computer world was colorless, bleak, stark black and white. No one cared about their display gamma, as gamma is irrelevant for displaying only black and white.Macintosh, in 1984, introduced us to desktop publishing and to displays with shades of grays. Publishing at that time meant printing presses, and the dot gain of a typical press (then and now) corresponds to a gamma of 1.8. As color management was non-existent at the time (the first color management solutions did not appear until early 1990s, when color displays became more available), Apple's pick of a 1.8 display gamma enabled the Macintosh displays to match the press.
In early 1990s, the TV industry developed the High-Definition TV capture standard known as ITU Recommendation 709, using a net gamma of around 2. Later, in 1996, IEC put forth a CRT-based display standard (sRGB) for the Web that would match the HDTV capture standard, having a net gamma of around 2.2. sRGB was slowly adopted first in the PC display market, next in the burgeoning digital camera market, and 2.2 became the dominant display gamma.
Is 2.2 the ultimate gamma? No. In 2005, leveraging color science research, the movie studios' Digital Cinema Initiative selected a gamma of 2.6 as providing the best perceptual quality for 12-bit cinema projection. Today, few can afford a true Digital Cinema display at home, but as always prices are falling. Yes, that's what I'll have in my next home theater.
But, recall VHS versus BetaMax. The VHS format finally died with the last video tape. Gamma 2.2 will not be unseated easily. However, calibrated displays and functional color management will make gamma a moot point. Gamma will be for the Luddites.
Source: http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2009/09/why_your_web_content_will_look_darker.html
Configuring GIMP 2.6 to Replace Adobe Photoshop
GIMP is often referred to as the poor-mans Photoshop. Is this a fair assessment? Perhaps. Users tend to be split into three groups: those who can afford Photoshop, those who cannot, and those who are willing to pirate. For those who cannot afford it and aren't willing to pirate (we're certainly not encouraging it), then the most attractive option is GIMP.
Is GIMP an adequate alternative, however? Is it worth the effort to learn the new menu system and swap out the monster-sized commercial program for the lighter, free, open source graphics program? For most users, the answer is yes.
This tutorial will teach you how to configure GIMP to make it as close to Photoshop as possible, accomplished via plugins, filters, and other downloads. The modifications done in this article are performed on the regular GIMP, not GIMPshop. If you are absolutely unwilling to learn new keystrokes and menu layouts, then you may want to look at GIMPshop, which is a redesigned GIMP layout for Photoshoppers. If you don't like GIMPshop, you can also try GimPhoto.
How to Install Brushes, Filters, and and Plugins in GIMP
To add brushes, filters, and plugins to GIMP, simply open the program folder and put the files into their appropriate folders--brushes into Brushes, filters into Filters, etc. In Mac, right click and open the app folder. In Linux, navigate to your Home Folder and press Ctrl+H. In Windows, it's in C:/Program Files/Gimp.
Arrange the Layout
GIMP has compromised and changed the layout to be the best of both worlds. If you enjoy the free floating windows so common in GIMP, those features are still available. If, however, you want everything to be contained in one window, simply maximize the menu window, and then place the toolbar and window dock inside. Right click and choose "Always on top". It will now function just the same as Photoshop's all-in-one window; the individual docks aren't all listed in the bottom, they are all contained within the one window.
Add Photoshop Plugin Support
If you've invested in a library of Photoshop plugins, then the last thing you'll want to do is leave them behind when you switch. Luckily, it is possible to add support for Photoshop plugins using the PSPI plugin.
Download the PSPI plugin for your operating system and copy the file(s) to your GIMP plugins folder. The menu feature can be found in Filters > Photoshop Plug-in.
Higher Bit Support
Navigate to Colors > Use GEGL and check the box next to it.
Add CMYK Color Separation - http://cue.yellowmagic.info/softwares/separate.html
To add CMYK separation, you will need to add the Separation+ plugin. Download and copy it into the GIMP plugin folder.
Add Layer Styles
Can't live without Drop Shadow, Inner Glow, etc? Then install this plugin. Simply add the script to your GIMP script folder, then close and reopen the program. You'll find the Layer Styles in Script-Fu > Layer Effects.
Add Brushes
While you're adding everything to your install, download a bunch of brushes and add them to your brush folder. The default brushes that come with GIMP aren't all that great. A good resource for brushes is Blendfu.
Conclusion
The above will add a few extra features to GIMP that increases it's functionality. It doesn't have all the features of Photoshop, many of them due to copyright issues. For the vast majority of users, however, GIMP is a very good graphics program that will do everything you need.
Source: http://laptoplogic.com/resources/configuring-gimp-2.6-to-replace-adobe-photoshop
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
How Do They Do That? Nine Mind Blowing Flash Animations
Whether you are new to Flash or a seasoned professional, these sites will make you sit back in wonder:
1. Bird on a Journey
A little bird flies on his way home to his lady, avoiding some pitfalls on the way. This brilliant animation combines drawing and photography to stunning effect, together with a weird and wonderful soundtrack.
2. Drum Machine
If you love oriental music – and drums – then you will love this animation. Seven Japanese drummers deliver the goods in this beautifully constructed piece of Flash. The skill and time that went in to this beggars belief!
3. Online Shopping
Be patient with this one. At first glance it looks like just another website that offers you household goods to buy. But hold on a second – didn’t that mug on special offer just fall over! That’s just the beginning of the fun – a joy to watch!
4. Icon War
These desktop icons decide that they don’t like each other any more. War bre
aks out! Who will be the ultimate winner as icon fights icon! Oh, the humanity! Extremely
entertaining flash animation.
5. Kaleidoscope
This is an amazing pattern generating piece of flash an
imation. You can choose from lots of different varieties and the patterning effect follows your mouse around in a myriad of colors and shapes. Inspirational!
6. Silhouette Sounds
A single silhouette becomes several then becomes many, with each producing a different sound to produce a tune. Fantastic black and white animation is eye catching and very, very different!
7. Doorway
All the guy wants to do is get through the door! Unfortunately, there are lots of things that do not wish to grant him passage. Superb European style flash animation you will want to watch again and again.
8. Falling Dude
Superbly irritating but extremely watchable, this animation has a roughly drawn boy falling, and falling – oh, and then falling some more! You wil
l love it!
9. Jackson Pollock
Ever seen a Jackson Pollock painting and thought “I can do that!” Well, here is your chance! Let your mouse do the walking as you produce works of art that the Saatchis will be after in no time at all!
Adobe, Google, Yahoo Team for Flash Search
In a move long in the making, Adobe Systems is teaming up with search engine leaders to make Flash content more searchable.
Eric Wittman, director of client distribution and business development in Adobe's Platform Business Unit, said the company is providing optimized Adobe Flash Player technology to Google and Yahoo to enhance search engine indexing of the Flash file format (SWF) and uncover information that is currently undiscoverable by search engines.
Adobe announced the news July 1, sharing its plans to try to dramatically improve search results dynamic Web content and RIAs (rich Internet applications).
The move will provide more relevant automatic search rankings of the millions of RIAs and other dynamic content that run in Adobe Flash Player. In addition, RIA "We've wanted to make an announcement of this impact for several years now," Wittman said. "There are millions of things built in Flash and there have been concerns because of search engine compatibility. We have a piece of technology to remedy this and we’re working with Google and Yahoo. Google has integrated it and Yahoo will in a period of time." As Ryan Stewart, an Adobe evangelist, put it: "So what does that mean? We are giving a special, search-engine optimized Flash Player to Yahoo and Google, which is going to help them crawl through every bit of your SWF file. This Flash Player will act just like a person would in some cases. It will click on your buttons, it will move through the states of your application, get data from the server when your application normally would, and it will capture all of the text and data that you’ve got inside of your Flash-based application. We’ve basically provided a very powerful looking glass into SWF files so Google and Yahoo can pull out meaningful information." "This is a pretty important breakthrough to highly creative and interactive sites such as Disney and Tiffany.com built with Flash and Rich Internet Applications can now be found, crawled indexed and ranked," said Bill Hunt, president of Global Strategies International, a search engine optimization consultancy. "For years, those with Flash sites have been conflicted with reducing the amount of flash or resorting to any number of less than optimal workarounds to get their content included in search engines let alone getting high rankings." Many major brands and creative developers have been critical of the search engines for not working with them or Adobe to develop a solution to index and score their content, Hunt said. "These developers and search engine optimization firms like Global Strategies have spent a lot of time and resources -- financial and manpower -- to code alternative sites and workarounds to get the exposure commensurate to their brand positions in the marketplace," he said. Source: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Enterprise-Applications/Adobe-Teams-with-Google-Yahoo-for-Flash-Search/
