Design

Previously on DLS I’ve mentioned Toon Boom Studio, a Flash-based animation package. Well now they’ve debuted Toon Boom Solo, a "new stand-alone animation software solution designed to meet the needs of small size studios and independent animation filmmakers" How is this different than TBS? Well, a few thousand bucks, for one… Why the added expense? Whereas TBS is a sort of Flash knockoff, designed specifically for creating character animations in Flash format, Solo is a complete animation studio. As such, there are industrial-strength tools included that you’d likely see on a decent 3D app. Like inverse kinematics, a sort of simple way to "rig" characters with bone systems so they are easier to animate. If Flash had IK, oh man that’d be sweet… Apparently there is a free trial you can download, but with the steep price, cool toolset, and hardware dongle, no doubt this will be lighting up the p2p boards in no time. Oh, and they’re running a promo until the end of October where you get a free Mac mini with every Solo. So for about three grand you get a computer and the software to make your animated classic. Not a bad deal.

[Via TUAW]

Photoshop CS2’s new font preview ability is pretty handy, but what if the preview is too large or small for your tastes?

In Photoshop CS2’s preferences, the last option on the pull-down menu, called Type, will allow you to adjust the preview size between small, medium and large. Not exactly all-powerful options, but they should come in handy for getting a better look at your fonts.

[via PhotoshopSupport.com]

I started off the week with a simple Imaging Tip on Photoshop, and I think that’s how I’d like to end it. The semester’s just around the corner, so I figured I’d make it an easy friday for all you students out there (including myself) with one of those "gotcha" tips covering something right under all our noses: changing your canvas extension color. I’m sure from time to time you’ve had to increase your canvas size for one reason or another and have either gone over to the toolbar’s foreground/background choser to prepare, or tried some other trick. But right in front of us in the Canvas Size dialog is a color pulldown that even offers a color choser with an eye dropper - great for grabbing that specific color from anywhere on your canvas. Nice, easy, and right in front of us the whole time. I think this is present at least in Photoshop 7, anyone know if it goes back earlier?

[UPDATE: Sounds like this only works in CS and CS2. Thanks Adora]

[image and tip via PhotoshopSupport.com]

I stumbled on this handy little option for working with Actions in Photoshop and thought it was too cool to not mention. This feature is simple and almost too obvious so stop me if this is old news, but I figured sometimes this kind of stuff stays hidden right under our noses. In Photoshop at least as far back as version 6, if you open the Action palette’s options and enable the "Button Mode" (does anyone else hate the word ‘mode’?) you now have 1-click access to any actions in the palette. Totally handy if you’re nutty for actions like I am. Not (yet) nutty for actions, you say? Go get the lowdown on what actions are and how they could significantly improve your Photoshop workflow from one of my favorite sources: PhotoshopSupport.com.

The Mac color picking mechanism has historically been a strong point. The Mac color wheel was standardized, useful, and simple. Most apps that use it in OS X implement it properly, but that’s not to say it can’t be better. So Painter’s Picker enables a color wheel in almost every app, and adds tools for choosing color schemes.

We just wrapped up a couple weeks’ work on color theory in one of my classes, so I guess I’ll be using this to recap some ideas. Painter’s Picker lets you quickly see the primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. It’ll help you see when colors will clash, or which will create harmonies. Very handy if you do design. Another simple yet effective app (for $15.85).

Well, maybe. Since Hash doesn’t seem to answer emails regarding Tiger compatibility, there’s no official word, but it looks like A:M forums are reporting some success with the beta. Last week the latest rev, 12e was released (almost in time for SIGGRAPH). No where in the specs does it say it’s Tiger compatible, but it doesn’t say otherwise either.

But I do know previous versions have been lacking Tiger compatibility. The Animation Master forums posted up a beta for Tiger testing, with the promise of more info "after SIGGRAPH." There was also a little bit of haughtiness suggesting they were really busy. Too busy to bother with a Tiger update? Well, I can see how the premiere 3d event of the season would preoccupy anyone, but uh, isn’t this your job?

The thing is, Animation Master is really a fantastic app. If you’re lucky enough to get your hands on a copy (for Windows, and no there’s no demo version available) give it a whirl. For character animation in particular it is a nice balance of power and ease-of-use. Since it’s inception it was designed for character animation. And while it took years for Character Studio to make it into the base price of 3ds max, Animation Master has quietly launched the career of some of 3d’s finest. Jeff Lew and Victor Navone come to mind… Yet Animation Master has most of the same character tools you’d find in "big name" apps, but it only costs a trio of c-notes. For that kind of money I guess it is hard to answer the deluge of email from disgruntled Tiger users.

I just discovered ArtRage by Ambient Design a few days ago, thanks to a mention of the software by the Tao of Mac. Ambient Design was founded by people who left MetaCreations in 2000, so if you are familiar with any of MetaCreation’s products (Kai’s PowerTools is now also available from Ambient Design), you will find the interface of ArtRage to be familiar. It fills the screen when it launches, taking over your Mac / PC.

I’ve only just started playing with this app that allows you to "sketch" with Oil Paint, Pencils, Crayons, Chalks, or Felt Pen tools, as well as use an eraser and palette knife to manipulate what’s already on the canvas, but, as an artist, I really like it. It feels intuitively more pad and paper like than most of the creative programs out there. I wonder if it can work with a pressure sensitive drawing tablet like the Wacom tablet I have stowed away in my closet…

You can download ArtRage from this page. It is free and will run on both Windows and Mac OS X. Check it out.

UPDATE: Marc Orchant wrote me a minute ago with this added info: “ArtRage is also bundled in the Tablet PC Experience Pack as InkArt. The program was originally developed as an entry in Microsoft’s ‘Does Your App

Think in Ink?’ contest.” Thanks, Marc!

Not sure how long this is going to last, but if you’re so inclined, right now you can get your hands on a zip file of the six new fonts that were commissioned for Longhorn Vista. Above you can see the likely replacement for Verdana / Tahoma, called Calibri. To learn more about what makes these fonts special, check out this article at Poynter Online. According to a comment over at digg, these fonts also work on OS X. Here’s the link.

[Via digg]

Its creators style DENIM "An Informal Tool For Early Stage Web Site and UI Design."

If you’re not exactly clear on what that means, here’s my take: DENIM is a program for whipping up quick prototypes of web sites and user interfaces. DENIM lets you draw rough sketches of your user interface just like you’ve been doing on paper for years, but saves you the step of translating that into a digital mock-up by letting you immediately add hyperlinks and interactive navigation.

The U.S. Department of Justice has requested additional information from Adobe and Macromedia, potentially delaying the companies’ planned $3.4 billion merger. The government is apparently interested in getting more information about competition in the graphics software market, in order to determine whether or not the deal could create a monopoly or stifle efforts to compete by smaller players. While Adobe and Macromedia may dominate certain sectors with products like Photoshop, Acrobat and Flash, the deal is likely to be approved, since there is still significant competition from both major players (i.e., Microsoft’s Acrylic) as well as smaller vendors (i.e., Corel’s Paint Shop Pro, Ulead’s various tools, and, of course the GIMP). Adobe has said it still expects the deal to close this fall.