Creative Notes

Brushing up with Brush Pilot

James Dempsey — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:34:00 -0700

Jay Hilgert’s Brush Pilot is a simple application that lets you preview, install, and delete brushes anywhere on your hard drive. James Dempsey takes a closer look.

News: Toon Boom Studio 5 released

Jackie Dove — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:53:00 -0700

Toon Boom Animation has rebranded its animation application as an educational tool for multi-technique animation. It's also added a stop-motion animation feature to version 5.

Nik Software releases Complete Collection Lightroom edition

Digital Arts staff — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:14:00 -0700

Nik Software updated its Complete Collection, which bundles all of the company’s award-winning digital imaging software tools at an affordable price, to include Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 support.

Enlarging images with Alien Skin's Blow Up 2 plugin

James Dempsey — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:37:00 -0700

Pros know that enlarging photos is not always as simple a task as it looks. James Dempsey shows you how Alien Skin Software's Blow Up 2 can produce high-quality enlargements without a lot of fuss.

Image-placing shortcuts in Adobe InDesign

James Dempsey — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:03:00 -0700

Adobe's InDesing page-layout application usually offers more than one way to take care of a task. That's certainly the case for placing images in a document. Join James Dempsey as he shows off some ways to improve your productivity with a few handy keyboard shortcuts.

Adobe launches BrowserLab preview

Jackie Dove — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:00:00 -0700

Adobe BrowserLab, a fully hosted online service, lets professional Web designers preview how their sites will look in various Web browsers on the Mac and Windows platforms. The company has launched a preview of the new service.

Exploring Photoshop Actions

James Dempsey — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 06:36:00 -0700

Though its been part of Photoshop for some time now, Photoshop Actions doesn't get the attention that it deserves. James Dempsey looks to remedy that in the latest Creative Notes post.

Simulating tilt-shift photography with the Bokeh plugin

James Dempsey — Tue, 19 May 2009 06:02:00 -0700

Alien Skin Software's Bokeh does more than just add and adjust out-of-focus areas of an image to enhance the subject matter. It can also add tilt-shift effects to an image, as James Dempsey explains.

Add focus to your images with Bokeh

James Dempsey — Mon, 11 May 2009 10:50:00 -0700

If you want to apply the visually distinctive appearance of light in the out-of-focus area of a photograph -- a term known as "bokeh" -- you've come to the right place. James Dempsey shows you how to do it with a $199 plug-in from Alien Skin Software.

Universal Audio brings vintage sound to audio plug-ins

Jim Dalrymple — Fri, 08 May 2009 12:50:00 -0700

Universal Audio plug-ins will give your music mixes a sound that can't be beat.

Pro Tools 8—a solid upgrade

Jim Dalrymple — Fri, 08 May 2009 11:11:00 -0700

Digidesign's Pro Tools 8 has the right balance of new features and comfort for its existing users.

Fireworks update tackles text-shifting bug

Philip Michaels — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:32:00 -0700

Adobe says its Fireworks CS4 10.0.3 Updater improves stability and fixes bugs, such as one that caused some text to shift.

Australian rockers 26 take Apple's Logic onstage

Jim Dalrymple — Thu, 07 May 2009 09:59:00 -0700

Many professional musicians, producers and engineers use Logic, but Australian rockers 26 recreate their entire sound onstage with Logic.

JamVox a solid option for Mac guitarists

Jim Dalrymple — Tue, 05 May 2009 11:42:00 -0700

Vox Amplification new software and hardware product for Mac-using guitarists offers integration with iTunes, an online community, and killer tone.

Ocean Way Drums a clear winner for audio pros

Jim Dalrymple — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:50:00 -0700

Developed by Grammy nominated and winning engineers Allen Sides and Steven Miller, Ocean Way Drums is an incredible product for Mac-using musicians and songwriters.

Pixelmator a great, inexpensive image editor

Jim Dalrymple — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 11:08:00 -0700

Pixelmator offers users a great way to edit their images at a very reasonable cost.

Two great music creation utilities: Drumagog and EZplayer pro

Jim Dalrymple — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:26:00 -0700

Whatever your profession, you have your favorite apps. Two of my favorites for creating music are Drumagog and EZplayer Pro.

Spinal Tap makes new album with Logic

Jim Dalrymple — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 12:14:00 -0700

Spinal Tap is coming out with a new album this June that was all made on a Mac with Logic 8.

When good browsers go bad—and they all do

Robert L. Mitchell — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:35:00 -0700

Browsers, Web standards, and publishing tools have all gotten better. So why are Web pages still breaking? Computerworld's Robert L. Mitchell looks at why Web pages stray from WC3 standards.

The importance of color management

James Dempsey — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 11:01:00 -0700

These days, color management is almost a requirement for designers who want to maintain control over the appearance of their work once it's published. James Dempsey talks to Pantone executive Andy Hatkoff about how color management has changed and what tools creative pros can use to get the best results.