Digital Media Tools

Digital Media Tools is a clearly focussed introduction to the major software tools used for creating digital graphics, multimedia and Web pages. There are substantial chapters on each of the industry-leading applications such as Photoshop or Flash, plus an introductory chapter on the common interface elements. Readers will acquire a basic fluency with these important tools, learn what they do best and what their limitations are. The book is lavishly illustrated throughout, and files are provided on the supporting web site for students to work through all the major examples themselves. The approach is highly practical and founded in the authors’ extensive experience with these tools, but also supported by a thorough understanding and explanation of the technical and theoretical issues underpinning their use.

Digital Media Tools is designed to be the perfect practical companion text to the authors’ latest course Web Design: A Complete Introduction.

This edition brings this very successful book up to date and provides information on the latest versions of Photoshop, Flash, Illustrator and Dreamweaver, along with new coverage of Bridge. This 3rd edition introduces a wide range of new teaching and learning features both in the book itself and on the new supporting Web site www.digitalmediatools.org

Welcome xiii

Teaching and Learning Features xv

Supporting Web Site xv

1 Introduction 1

Safe Working with Digital Media Tools 6

2 Interface Basics 9

Platforms 11

Menus and Commands 13

File Menu 13

Edit Menu 15

Help Menu 17

Keyboard Shortcuts 20

Context Menus 21

Panels 23

Panel Groups and Docks 24

Workspaces 27

Panel Controls 27

Common Panels 29

Tools Panel 29

Options Bar, Control and Properties Panels 30

Layers Panel 32

Navigator Panel 35

History Panel 38

Automating Repetitive Tasks 42

Replaying History 42

Actions 43

Layout Aids 46

Rulers and Grids 46

Guides 48

3 Bridge 51

The Browser Window 52

The Default View 53

Other Workspaces 55

Rotating 58

Slide Shows 58

Compact Mode 59

Stacks 60

Navigation and File Operations 62

Navigation 62

File and Folder Operations 63

Interacting with Other Programs 64

File Organization 65

Ratings, Labels and Keywords 65

Metadata 67

Filtering and Sorting 68

Retrieval 70

4 Photoshop 73

Fundamentals 75

Opening and Importing Images 75

Saving and Exporting 77

Resolution 81

Modes and Colour Spaces 87

Creating Images 89

Layers 91

Making and Using Selections 102

Marquee Selection and Cropping 103

Lasso Selections 106

Selecting by Colour 107

Paths 111

Combining and Transforming Selections 112

Selecting and Extracting Objects 115

Masks 118

Adjustments and Retouching 124

Tonal Adjustments 125

Colour Adjustments 133

Retouching by Hand 142

Effects and Filters 146

Smart Filters 149

Blurring and Sharpening 151

Artistic Filters and Distortion 156

Layer Effects and Layer Styles 157

Vanishing Point 159

Painting Pixels 163

The Paintbrush and Pencil 163

The Brushes Panel 167

Selecting with Brushes 170

Erasing 171

Fills 173

Animation 179

Animated GIFs 179

The Animation Panel 180

Animating Layer Properties 185

5 Illustrator 191

Fundamentals 193

Vector Graphics 193

Creating Documents 194

Technical Drawing 195

Stroke and Fill 197

Shape Tools 199

Freehand Drawing 206

Manipulating Objects 211

Selection 211

Transforming Objects 213

Reshaping 218

Appearance 222

Complex Fills and Strokes 223

Live Paint 226

Effects, Filters and Styles 229

3D Effects 235

Warping 240

The Appearance Panel 241

Symbols 245

Symbols and Instances 245

Symbol Sets and the Symbolism Tools 248

Symbols and 3D 250

Bitmaps 252

Combining Bitmaps and Vector Art 252

Importing Bitmaps 255

Manipulating Bitmapped Images 257

Live Trace 258

Shared Features 262

Selection 262

Colour 264

Drawing Aids 270

Layers 274

Type 276

Web Graphics 280

6 Flash 287

Basic Concepts 289

Documents and Movies 289

The Stage and the Timeline 292

Artwork 295

Drawing 296

Selection 302

Transformations and Reshaping 305

Graphic Symbols 308

Importing Artwork 311

Animation 316

Animating One Frame at a Time 316

Motion Tweening 319

Editing Animations 329

Animated Symbols 335

Shape Tweening 340

Sound and Video 345

Sound 345

Video 348

7 Dreamweaver 357

Fundamentals 359

Web Pages and Sites 359

User Interface 361

Preferences 370

Formatting Web Pages 372

Structure and Appearance 372

Layout 373

Simple Formatting 376

Font Properties 379

Backgrounds 384

Links 387

Lists 389

Using CSS 391

Displaying and Editing Rules 392

Creating CSS Rules 396

CSS and Layout 402

Page Content 408

Images 408

Flash Movies and Video 417

Tables 420

Forms 422

JavaScript 426

Behaviours 426

The Spry Framework 430

Sites 440

Local and Remote Sites 440

Assets and Templates 448

Templates 450

8 Shared Concepts 455

Colour 456

Colour Models and Modes 456

Picking Colours 460

Gradients 467

Typographic Controls 472

Entering Type 472

Formatting Type 473

Bézier Curves 481

Web Graphics 488

Web Image Files 488

Optimizing for the Web 491

Index 505

Nigel and Jenny Chapman are internationally well-known authors of major text books on new media technologies, computing and Web design.

Nigel Chapman was a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at University College London until he became a full-time freelance writer and Web developer.

Jenny Chapman is an award-winning animation and video artist, Web designer and visiting Lecturer in new media animation at Edinburgh College of Art.

Digital Media Tools is a clearly focused and highly accessible introduction to the major software tools used for creating digital graphics, web animation and web pages, suitable for course use or self-study. Its unique approach provides substantial chapter-by-chapter coverage of each of the industry-leading applications and uses practical and engaging exercises to help you gain a clear understanding of each tool and feature. Based on the authors' extensive experience in both using and teaching these tools, this book provides a comprehensive insight into both the technology and the theory underpinning its use in everyday practice.

The third edition of this very successful textbook has been completely revised to provide fully up to date coverage of the latest (CS3) versions of Photoshop, Flash, Illustrator and Dreamweaver, along with new coverage of Bridge and chapters devoted to interface features and shared concepts. Fully updated and extended with numerous new illustrations and examples, learning features and web resources (available on the brand new companion site), this book is a complete introduction to this vital range of software tools.

Also by Nigel and Jenny Chapman:

Web Design is a core text for undergraduate and masters courses that provides a complete introduction to every aspect of the building of web pages and web sites. It provides a deep and thorough introduction to web technology, markup, stylesheets, web graphics, web animation and embedded video, client-side scripting, web applications, usability, accessibility, page design and site design. Full coverage of HTTP, XHTML, CSS, Javascript and the DOM is provided, and the use of web standards is emphasized throughout. At all times, the focus remains on good practice, underpinned by sound principles. Supported by exercises, assignments and summaries, it is ideal for course use or self-study, and represents a complete overview of web design.

Also available: Digital Multimedia, a core text for undergraduate and masters courses in multimedia, covering the basic principles of each media type – text, graphics, audio, animation and video. A perfect companion to Digital Media Tools.