CS5

Hello friends: Just a note to let you know that I finished recording my modest Photoshop CS5 Extended One-on-One: 3D Fundamentals video course for lynda.com. I say "modest" because, instead of 250 movies (as in the case of my unexpectedly epic Photoshop CS5 One-on-One: Advanced), this course will be a mere 65 movies. Which means you can absorb it in a couple of days.

I don't mean "modest" in scope. These 65 movies pack an enormous amount of information. They introduce you to the world of 3D in Photoshop CS5 Extended. They teach you how to work with new disciplines, approaches, and tools. And they introduce you to a new vocabulary. Remember when you first learned what a layer mask was? Well, multiply that by five and you have a sense of what's in store.

The above graphic is the final image from Chapter 5, "Designing and Applying Materials." Read more » 

A quick note to let those of you who may be interested know: I just now arrived in Ventura, CA, at the recording studios of my esteemed video publisher lynda.com. Tomorrow I begin work on what promises to be a four-part comprehensive and (more importantly) comprehensible series on 3D in Photoshop, beginning with Photoshop CS5 Extended One-on-One: 3D Fundamentals.

This particular graphic happens to hail from an upcoming Deke's Techniques movie, created in Photoshop CS5 Extended with a little help from Illustrator (as you'll learn in May when that movie goes live). But, hey, it'll do in a pinch.

If you have any 3D trials or tribulations that are troubling you, I invite you to comment here. I'll be working on the various pieces of this series for the next few months, so suggestions are welcome. Read more » 

'Tis the Season, so I suppose 'tis likewise a bit optimistic to think squillions of folks are paying attention to my site this week. But, hey, what with the solstice and the full moon and the lunar eclipse and everything else that's been going on these last few days, anything could happen.

So I figured I'd write and let you know that I managed to wrap up my final general-training CS5 video course before the end of 2010. The course in question, Illustrator CS5 One-on-One: Mastery, won't go live until late January, but my work on it is done. While it's just eight chapters long, it comprises 134 movies. (Which, frankly, is diminutive by my standards.) And as usual, the course sports all-new project files, including the incredibly uncool one below.

Naturally, this course will be part of the massive and exhaustive lynda.com Online Training Library. In the meantime, here's the breakdown: Read more » 

I open my window and I hear the birds roar. And do you know why? Because just this morning, my 153-movie, 14-hour and 53-minute "Illustrator CS5 One-on-One: Advanced" video course went live at lynda.com. If that sounds like a lot of hours, perish the thought. It's down slightly more than a full work day (8 hours and 19 minutes) from my introductory course, "Illustrator CS5 One-on-One: Fundamentals." And it goes down easy as this very Tuesday morning. (Click here for a full chapter-by-chapter breakdown of the contents.)

Here's a previously unreleased screen capture from the course that demonstrates how to integrate Photoshop images into your Illustrator workflow. What it lacks in beauty it makes up for in prehistoric bird action and sweet training goodness. Not to mention, a page curl. (Now we're talkin'!)

Members of the lynda.com Online Training Library can get started instantly by clicking on this link. Not a member? Get yourself a free week by clicking here. Not interested? Just sit there. Those are your options. Read more » 

Today I was hanging out at the lynda.com studios (working on my Illustrator CS5 One-on-One: Mastery course, if you must know). When I ran into that one artist who isn't afraid to make his own reality, even if it requires hand-drawing individual drops of bird poop and sacrificing three years of his life. By which I mean, Bert Monroy. Colleen was there, too---these days, she works for lynda.com. And, before anyone knew it, Bert was showing us the most recent version of his gigatron-by-teratron piece of bazillion-pixel imagery, "Times Square."

It's radically dazzling. Not to mention, huge. In a way that few things beyond a stretch-Ford F750 hauling 100+ freight cars might be deemed huge. (Seriously, it contains more pixels than there are galaxies in your head.) And it made me realize how very ashamed I am for not having shared the following info until now: By some random quirk of fate---perhaps because Bert is out of his mind!---this excellent man decided to include Colleen and I in his masterwork. Here's a miniature (not to mention, old) version of Bert's composition. With Colleen and I rendered in bright green. We're on the left. You can't miss us, because there's a giant Zapf Dingbats finger pointing in our direction.

I know many of you live in awe-and-wonder over the likes of Bert. (As well you should, I say.) Which is why I thought I'd post these charming sketches: Read more »