Interview: Julieanne Kost

Adobe Photoshop A-Z

A special series working through the best features of Photoshop

A IS FOR ACTIONS If you regularly perform a task, Photoshop’s actions will be your new best friend. Actions allow you to record tasks. Once recorded and saved, they can then be applied to fi les. Just one push of the Play button will activate the action and your task will be handled automatically. You control actions in the Actions palette. From here you can store and organise actions, as well as record new ones. If you have Photoshop CS and above, you can also turn actions into ‘droplets’. These are small icons that you drop a fi le onto and then just wait for the command to be carried out.

Be trained by the best

Deke McClelland unveils his rst title on the Lynda. com video training site

ynda.com, the popular video training site, has announced Deke McClelland as the latest addition to its list of Online Training Library authors. Deke McClelland is best known as an expert in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, and has produced over 100 books and training videos on the subjects. CEO

Create something di erent at Lynda.com of lynda.com, Lynda Weinman, said: “We’re honoured that Deke has joined our esteemed team of authors. He’s a one-of-a-kind talent who makes you want to learn more.” Deke’s training title is called Photoshop CS2 Actions and Automation. You can view his tutorials by subscribing to the site, which will give you access to thousands of other authors’ training videos as well. The title is also available on a DVD in which Deke offers expert guidance on building effi cient actions and how automation functions can improve the way you work in Photoshop. The training DVD has a running time of nearly 19 hours and costs $149.95, or monthly subscription to lynda.com costs $25 per month. Visit the site at www.lynda.com for more information, to purchase the training title or access free online samples.

FREE BRUSHES A brush with greatness

GetBrushes.com presents you with the most impressive free Photoshop brushes around

earching the Internet for attractive free brushes can be time-consuming. Now GetBrushes does the hard work for you, featuring the most impressive free brush sets available to download, as well as news and links to tutorials and art communities. The site aims to be ‘a place where you can meet, and present your own Photoshop brushes and other stocks to the world’, and categorises brushes by style or artist, making it easy to nd exactly what you’re looking for.

GetBrushes is easy to navigate, with over 150 brushes in categories such as Grunge, Tech and Abstract. There’s even a section for featured Photoshop brushes where some of the most unusual and impressive sets are

GetBrushes.com brings you free brushes and a whole lot more singled out, and all brush sets are given an Editor’s rating so you can download the best. Check them out at www.getbrushes.com.

EXPOSURE

Updates... THIS MONTH IN SHORT

New additions to the world of Photoshop

Mask Pro 4

onOneSoftware has released Mask Pro 4 – an update to the popular Mask Pro 3. This plug-in uses colour as a way of creating masks, even on the trickiest of images. Version 4 has a fl urry of new features including improved navigator windows for different views. Mask Pro 4 costs $159.95 from www. ononesoftware.com.

DIGITAL ART http://digitalart.org With over 14,000 members, the Digital Art site is a great place to share your creations and spend a fair whack of time looking at other peoples’. There is a wide and wonderful mixture of styles here, from fantasy and cartoons through to photo manipulation.

FLICKR PHOTOSHOP TENNIS www.fl ickr.com/groups/pstennis You may be aware of the Flickr site as a place where people share their photos (for free), but you may not realise that it has a Photoshop tennis area as well. Visit here and join in the fun. Simply download the chosen tennis image and challenge yourself against other users. New custom shapes

The ever-prolifi c

Andrew Buckle at Graphicxtras.com has recently added Custom Shapes Pack 21 to his collection. This consists of 770 frames and edges that can be used in personal or commercial projects, and they can’t be found in any other shape or collection set. More at www. graphicxtras.com.

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