history

Getting Inside Illustrator

Submitted by colleen on 2 August 2011 - 12:15pm.

Hello, dekeIstrators! I wanted to make a special appearance to share something with those of you who are veteran users of Adobe Illustrator, this special Illustrator history lesson from our good friend Mordy Golding. Mordy has a new series over at lynda.com that is designed expressly for Illustrator "insiders" who may just feel like changes in the software have passed them by. In this video---a free excerpt from Mordy's first installment of said series, Illustrator Insider Training: Rethinking the Essentials---Mordy gives a terrific explanation of some of the reasons you may have missed significant improvements in the way Illustrator works. Bottom line: It's not you! It's not your throwing back too many martinis! It's not your stubborn adherence to old school practices! It's just that a paradigmatic shift happened in the software whilst you understandably may not have been listening. You are off the hook! And meanwhile, Mordy has (count 'em) three installments of this terrific series to help tried-and-true Illustrator experts get the most from recent developments without having to go back to square one. (Of course, if you need square one, there is Deke's new Up and Running with Illustrator course.)

So, if you already have a lynda.com subscription, you get Mordy as part of the deal. And if not, might I suggest signing up for a free 7-day trial at lynda.com/deke. Illustrator gurus, coming at you from all directions. You're welcome! (And nice to see you.)  Read more » 

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Martini Hour 094, In Which We Hypocritically Mock Some of Adobe's Odd Feature Names

Submitted by colleen on 9 December 2010 - 12:15am.

What's in a name? Does a feature that goes by any other name still function as well? This week we're enjoying making fun of the names of Adobe features that don't really make any sense. And who are we to complain? "Martini Hour" is never really an hour and this week we're drinking Manhattans. So join us on this vaguely hypocritical but otherwise entertaining discussion of goofy names for otherwise highly useful (for the most part) set of features in Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Like Martini Hour, you shouldn't be scared off by the names. 

Martini Hour 094: Adobe's strangely named features

Here is a list of cryptically, oxymoronically, or just ridiculously named features that we enjoy making fun of this week: Read more » 

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Photoshop Top 40, Feature #7: Undo, History, and Revert

Submitted by deke on 2 March 2010 - 12:15am.
Feature #7: Undo, History, and Revert

If you're anything like me, you sometimes make mistakes. For example, a few weeks ago, before recording the Photoshop 20th anniversary Martini Hour, I broke my foot falling down a short flight of stairs. Which was fun, because years ago, I had broken the other foot falling down a long flight of stairs. Not to mention the time I busted my teeth on a the bar of a trampoline. Or accidentally yanked a speaker down onto my head and bled so badly I had to replace the couch.

Then there was that time I cautioned a woman not to help a group of us lift a heavy object (it was a car) because she was pregnant (she wasn't). Or the time I called that other woman "Sir." Or when my buddy and I were trash-talking this guy for half an hour---I mean, really laying into what an absolute jerk he was---and then strolled out of my dorm room and found him sitting in a near fetal position by my door. Read more » 

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Photoshop Top 40, Feature #26: Dodge and Burn

Submitted by deke on 20 October 2009 - 12:04am.
Feature #26: Dodge and Burn

Just three features ago, I demonstrated the Liquify filter, which I described as "one of Photoshop's great destructive retouching tools" (see Feature #29: Liquify). The words one of implied that more were on the way, as they are, starting this week with two tools that recently rose like twin Pheonix from the ashes, dodge and burn.

Like Liquify, D&B permanently modify pixels in the interest of making those pixels look better than when they started. Both are brushes. The dodge tool brushes in brightness; the burn tool brushes in darkness. Read more » 

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