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
Table of Contents:
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
About the Author :
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.
