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
Welcome. Teaching and Learning Features.
Supporting Web Site.
1 Introduction.
Safe Working with Digital Media Tools.
2 Interface Basics.
Platforms.
Menus and Commands.
File Menu.
Edit Menu.
Help Menu.
Keyboard Shortcuts.
Context Menus.
Panels.
Panel Groups and Docks.
Workspaces.
Panel Controls.
Common Panels.
Tools Panel.
Options Bar, Control and Properties Panels.
Layers Panel.
Navigator Panel.
History Panel.
Automating Repetitive Tasks.
Replaying History.
Actions.
Layout Aids.
Rulers and Grids.
Guides.
3 Bridge.
The Browser Window.
The Default View.
Other Workspaces.
Rotating.
Slide Shows.
Compact Mode.
Stacks.
Navigation and File Operations.
Navigation.
File and Folder Operations.
Interacting with Other Programs.
File Organization.
Ratings, Labels and Keywords.
Metadata.
Filtering and Sorting.
Retrieval.
4 Photoshop.
Fundamentals.
Opening and Importing Images.
Saving and Exporting.
Resolution.
Modes and Colour Spaces.
Creating Images.
Layers.
Making and Using Selections.
Marquee Selection and Cropping.
Lasso Selections.
Selecting by Colour.
Paths.
Combining and Transforming Selections.
Selecting and Extracting Objects.
Masks.
Adjustments and Retouching.
Tonal Adjustments.
Colour Adjustments.
Retouching by Hand.
Effects and Filters.
Smart Filters.
Blurring and Sharpening.
Artistic Filters and Distortion.
Layer Effects and Layer Styles.
Vanishing Point.
Painting Pixels.
The Paintbrush and Pencil.
The Brushes Panel.
Selecting with Brushes.
Erasing.
Fills.
Animation.
Animated GIFs.
The Animation Panel.
Animating Layer Properties.
5 Illustrator.
Fundamentals.
Vector Graphics.
Creating Documents.
Technical Drawing.
Stroke and Fill.
Shape Tools.
Freehand Drawing.
Manipulating Objects.
Selection.
Transforming Objects.
Reshaping.
Appearance.
Complex Fills and Strokes.
Live Paint.
Effects, Filters and Styles.
3D Effects.
Warping.
The Appearance Panel.
Symbols.
Symbols and Instances.
Symbol Sets and the Symbolism Tools.
Symbols and 3D.
Bitmaps.
Combining Bitmaps and Vector Art.
Importing Bitmaps.
Manipulating Bitmapped Images.
Live Trace.
Shared Features.
Selection.
Colour.
Drawing Aids.
Layers.
Type.
Web Graphics.
6 Flash.
Basic Concepts.
Documents and Movies.
The Stage and the Timeline.
Artwork.
Drawing.
Selection.
Transformations and Reshaping.
Graphic Symbols.
Importing Artwork.
Animation.
Animating One Frame at a Time.
Motion Tweening.
Editing Animations.
Animated Symbols.
Shape Tweening.
Sound and Video.
Sound.
Video.
7 Dreamweaver.
Fundamentals.
Web Pages and Sites.
User Interface.
Preferences.
Formatting Web Pages.
Structure and Appearance.
Layout.
Simple Formatting.
Font Properties.
Backgrounds.
Links.
Lists.
Using CSS.
Displaying and Editing Rules.
Creating CSS Rules.
CSS and Layout.
Page Content.
Images.
Flash Movies and Video.
Tables.
Forms.
JavaScript.
Behaviours.
The Spry Framework.
Sites.
Local and Remote Sites.
Assets and Templates.
Templates.
8 Shared Concepts.
Colour.
Colour Models and Modes.
Picking Colours.
Gradients.
Typographic Controls.
Entering Type.
Formatting Type.
Bézier Curves.
Web Graphics.
Web Image Files.
Optimizing for the Web.
Index.
