Indiana University: IT Training Tips Blog

It seems like every device these days includes a video camera.  Cell phones, music players, laptops and more all include easy to use video cameras.  Along with this, consumer level cameras are becoming cheaper and more powerful all the time.  But what to do with all of that video?  Well IT Training is here to help.  Starting next week, we'll begin teaching on video topics with the following workshops on 11/4 and 11/5:

Video Basics - An Overview of Tools and Resources - In this workshop, Donna Jones will discuss the basics of video, starting with a discussion of cameras, and what features to look for, and then using Windows Movie Maker to edit a short video.  While working on editing the video, the process of shooting a movie will be discussed, including setting up lighting, getting good quality audio, and setting up good shots.  Donna will also discuss some simple ways to make your production look more professional.

After Effects: Text Animation and Video Basics - Adobe After Effects is an animation program focused on video production which allows you to combine video and animations into a single project and then export it into many common video formats. In this workshop, Andy Hunsucker will guide you through the creation of a short movie trailer that combines text animation, video, and background music, along with some animations created entirely within After Effects.  Participants will get a chance to spend time working in the interface, and learn the basics of the animation system and the effects system.

See the workshop descriptions to sign up.  If you can't make it next week, we're doing a rerun on 11/17 and 11/18.  And don't forget about the same workshops being held at IUPUI.

Unlike MS Word, InDesign won't let you "fake" a bold or italic style where the type itself doesn't include a bold or italic font. It will allow you to slant characters, but designers consider that to be bad form. Discussion of terminology of typography may help you understand why.

When people speak of fonts, they are typically using the word inaccurately. Here's the truth:

 

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I was teaching an Illustrator class recently, and talking briefly about the Pathfinder panel:

I realized as I was discussing it, that many of these options are not as straightforward as the end-user might like. I promised the class I would go into more depth on our blog.

So in the following video, I will explore the Pathfinder panel, and demonstrate each of the buttons, so that we can see exactly what they all can accomplish.  Hopefully this will spark your creativity, and give you a better idea of the power of these simple buttons.

Illustrator: Exploring the Pathfinder Panel

Recently, Andy Hunsucker wrote an article on his favorite Photoshop keyboard shortcuts. If you like keyboard shortcuts and other Photoshop tips, enjoy this entertaining video, "101 Photoshop Tips in 5 Minutes," by Deke McClelland for Adobe TV:

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/dekepod/101-photoshop-tips-in-5-minutes/

You may already know that Photoshop blend modes can immeasurably enhance your creativity and playfulness. You may be familiar with the artful aspects of blend modes; however, most Photoshop users don't know they are corrective, too. Understanding how they work is a key to using them to your best advantage.

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You may have attended the IT Training & Education STEPS workshop, "Adobe Illustrator CS4: The Basics," and would like to learn more. Make lynda.com your personal trainer! If you would like a little review of Illustrator followed by more advanced concepts, see Mordy Golding's Illustrator CS4 Essential Training.

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As you know, Adobe Flash is a robust platform for creating web and desktop applications as well as simple animations. IT Training & Education currently offers three workshops focused on Flash:

• Flash CS4: The Basics -- Basic instruction on the interface, drawing, and Flash concepts.
• Flash CS4: Interactivity Basics -- Introduction of ActionScript 3.0 to create interactivity using buttons in a Flash movie.
• Flash CS4: ActionScript Programming Basics -- Basic concepts in ActionScript 3.0 such as the use of control structures, collision detection and animation.

While these workshops give you a great foundation in Adobe Flash, there are many, many topics that aren't covered in-depth. Lynda.com can be used to fill in and augment the topics in these workshops. From now until December 20th, IU community members get FREE access to lynda.com. As of this writing, lynda.com offers 10 courses in Flash CS4 and 7 courses in ActionScript 3.0. Remember that the Flash platform isn't limited to the Adobe Flash software. In addition to the Flash specific courses, lynda.com offers 4 courses on Adobe Air and 10 courses in Flex. That's 31 courses about or relating to the Flash platform. To simplify things, this article will focus only on the courses related to the Flash application as well as ActionScript 3.0.

Continue after the jump!
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IT Training and Education currently offers three workshops on Dreamweaver CS4:

1. Dreamweaver CS4: The Basics covers the Dreamweaver environment and building a publishing a simple web site using tables.
2. Dreamweaver CS4: Creating Websites with CSS concentrates on how to build a website using Cascading Style Sheets to control the layout.
3. Dreamweaver CS4: Navigation, Templates & Media Integration covers how to create pop-up menus for navigation, build Dreamweaver templates to simplify site maintenance, and include multimedia on your web sites.

While these workshops provide an excellent platform on which to start exploring web design and development using Dreamweaver, they are by no means exhaustive. And, there may be certain concepts (especially related to CSS) for which you'd like additional reinforcement. This is where lynda.com can come in. Remember that from now until Dec. 20, IU community members get FREE access to lynda.com. As of this writing, lynda.com has 8 Dreamweaver CS4 series, for a total of almost forty additional hours of training on Dreamweaver CS4. Awesome! And when we retire, we'll actually have time to watch all of it.
Here's a chart to help you narrow down which lynda.com Dreamweaver CS4 videos cover the topics you're interested in:

See a more detailed chart after the jump... (more...)

It's difficult to create a perfectly straight photo when taking a picture.  Most of the time a small rotation isn't that noticeable, but it's possible that a rotation could cause problems for other corrections, especially if the tool you're using requires things to be lined up properly, like the rectangular marquee.  We can also easily introduce an unintended angle when scanning images as well.

Straightening an image is fairly straightforward in Photoshop. This is where the Ruler tool comes in. With the Ruler tool, we can map out the angle that the image is currently at, and then we can rotate the image using that method.

Let's see how to do this now.

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Object Styles in InDesign are used to package a set of options for an object.  Things like the stroke, the fill, the text wrap, and other things that we can apply to an individual frame.  Styles are great, because they allow us to apply the same style over and over again, which gives us consistency.

But there's another way we can use them.  Rather than package all the styles we need at once, we can select individual traits that we want to apply, without removing the formatting we've already applied.

In this video tutorial, I will show you how to create a style like this.  In this case, we will create a style that rounds the corners of a text frame, without altering any of the other formatting.  That way, you can quickly and easily round the corners of any frame. This method can be applied to anything you can control with an Object Style.  Try it out for yourself!

Creating an Object Style in InDesign