Adobe After Effects 6.5 Magic Review (Reviewed by: Rafiq Elmansy)

The Adobe After Effects 6.5 Magic for James Rankin and Anna Ullrich is a practice book. You will learn by example 100 of the After Effects techniques through 22 chapters. Each chapter includes project that helps you creating cinematic and commercials animation effects.
Creating each project is described step by step easily and clearly, by the end of each project, you will find a Now Try This section that inspire you with new ideas to apply what you have learnt in each chapter.
The After Effects Magic projects are varies from text, lighting and corporate logo animation techniques. I wished the book includes more projects and order them according to its level. But generally, the book is good choice as a practice resource that lets you easily digest many of the After Effects features.

Reviewed by: Rafiq Elmansy

Product Details:
Book Name: Adobe After Effects Magic
Writer: James Rankin, Anna Ullrich
Publisher: New Riders Press
ISBN: 0321267230

Reviewing Adobe After Effects Studio Techniques (Reviewed by: Rafiq R. Elmansy)

The Adobe After Effects Studio techniques book takes you in a tour to explore what is inside this magnificent program and how to use its capabilities in creating video effects.

The book focused on the video production techniques. The first section introduces the program and its working foundations. While the second section concerns with the effects composting, the third section talks about how to work with light, air, water, smoke, clouds and fire effects.

The book level is for intermediate/ advanced. So, you need to have a background about the After Effects to enjoy reading this book.

Reviewed by: Rafiq R. Elmansy

Product Details:
Adobe After Effects Studio Techniques
Publisher: Adobe Press
ISBN: 0321316207

Achieving Amazing Easing Effects in Flash article

Among the great features in the new Flash Professional 8, I have concentrated on a wonderful feature for animation and creating animation effect. Which is the new custom easing effect feature. This feature enables Flash animator and designers to create amazing tweening effect and mimic natural animation effects. To read more about this great feature, visit Macromedia site at the following link:
http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/flash/articles/custom_easing.html

Reviewing Macromedia Flash 8 Training from the Source (Reviewed by: Rafiq R. Elmansy)

Macromedia Flash professional 8 training from the Source is a member of the training from the source series that lets you learn by example. The book is good for beginners that need to know about Flash. In the beginning, Tom Green and Jordan L. Chilcott introduce Flash interface and walk through the program features with some useful example for better understanding for the program and its features.
For sure, it is not useful if you want to go deeper and more advanced in the program, but it is still a very good start. This book is also a very useful resource for the Flash certification exam beside the study guide.

Reviewed by: Rafiq R. Elmansy

Product Details:
Macromedia Flash 8 Training from the Source
Publisher: Macromedia Press
ISBN: 0321336291

Reviewing Color Management (Reviewed by: Rafiq R. Elmansy)

Macromedia Flash professional 8 training from the Source is a member of the training from the source series that lets you learn by example. The book is good for beginners that need to know about Flash. In the beginning, Tom Green and Jordan L. Chilcott introduce Flash interface and walk through the program features with some useful example for better understanding for the program and its features.
For sure, it is not useful if you want to go deeper and more advanced in the program, but it is still a very good start. This book is also a very useful resource for the Flash certification exam beside the study guide.

Reviewed by: Rafiq R. Elmansy

Product Details:
Macromedia Flash 8 Training from the Source
Publisher: Macromedia Press
ISBN: 0321336291

Adobe Production studio

The adobe Production Studio is a new Creative suite from Adobe that gether the video editing software such as premier, After Effects and Encoder DVD in addition to Adobe photoshop CS2 and Illustrator CS2.
Visit the following link for more info:
http://www.adobe.com/products/productionstudio/main.html

Adobe Acrobat 3D

Adobe has announced a new Adobe acrobat product named Adobe Acrobat 3D that allows you embed 3D objects from 3D applications like AutoCAD to your PDF file.
This technology will enhance the Adobe acrobat with new capabilities to view 3D object.
To know more about this technology, you can visit the following link:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat3d/overview.html

Reviewing Digital Photography Hacks (Reviewed by: Rafiq R. Elmansy)

Digital Photography Hacks is a part of O'reilly's hacks series, which provide tricks and solutions for different fields. This book gives you tips and tricks when dealing with your digital camera.

I read this book after reading Digital Photography Guide for the same writer, Direck. So, I found myself comparing between the two books and found the Digital Photography Hacks is an extension for the Digital Photography Guide. These tips and tricks complete your knowledge with some useful methods to create professional photos using tools and things around you.

If you know your camera well, you will find this book very useful and open your mind for new tricks to produce professional photos. However, if you were a beginner in digital photography I would prefer to start with Direck's Digital Photography Guide.

Reviewed by: Rafiq R. Elmansy

Product Details:
Digital Photography Hacks
Publisher: O'reilly
ISBN: 0596006667

Adobe message to Macromedia community

Sara Spalding's message to Macromedia community supports the expectation of more support from Adobe to the huge community that Macromedia created and helped to create. This open community helped a lot of people around the world to know learn and exchange ideas and information related to Macromedia products.

I think the decision of containing the community support is wise one and in the same side of Adobe further strategy.

Below is the letter sent by Sara Spalding, Director of Developer Relations at Adobe:

Dear Macromedia Community Members:

By now you most likely know that Adobe has finalized its acquisition of Macromedia, combining the leading-edge technologies of two pioneering software companies. We'd like to take this opportunity to let you know what the acquisition means to you as a valued member of our community and what you can expect from Adobe in the days ahead.

With the acquisition of Macromedia, Adobe is dramatically advancing its ability to deliver a platform that provides you with powerful solutions for engaging people with digital information. We are now better positioned than ever to assist you in meeting and exceeding your business requirements and goals.

Moving forward, we will bring together some of the industry's strongest brands and most ubiquitous technologies, including Acrobat, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, PDF, ColdFusion and Flash. Customers who have relied on Adobe and Macromedia solutions will benefit from a consistent platform and common user interface, as well as the outstanding care they've come to expect from both companies.

At a high level, by bringing our technologies together, we will provide the community with the software solutions you need to meet the increasing demands of today's competitive environment. Now more than ever, we are positioned to help you securely extend the reach of your information, business processes and services to engage and interact with customers and constituents online, via mobile devices – by whatever medium you choose.

As you may know many of Macromedia's leaders are now in leadership roles at Adobe. Kevin Lynch is now Adobe's Senior Vice President and Chief Software Architect, Platform Business Unit. Kevin's responsibilities include the Flash Player, Acrobat Reader, and Developer Relations. David Mendels is now Adobe's Senior Vice President of Enterprise and Developer Solutions, and is responsible for products like Flex, ColdFusion and LiveCycle. Tom Hale is now Adobe's Senior Vice President of the Knowledge Worker Solutions Business Unit, which includes Breeze and Acrobat. And lastly, Stephen Elop, Macromedia's former President and CEO, is the President of Adobe's worldwide field organization.

Our efforts with user groups around the world, developer events and conferences, and throughout the community will continue as they always have, and we're excited about how we can enhance and expand our relationships with our development community.

We look forward to sharing more information with the community in the coming weeks. For more information about the merger, please visit www.adobe.com. If you have questions, comments, or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me directly, or any of your contacts on the developer relations team.

On behalf of all of Adobe, and the Developer Relations team in particular, I want to thank you for your continued commitment to our community, and I look forward to new opportunities to work together.

With best regards,

Sara Spalding, Director, Developer Relations

sspaldin at adobe dot com

Reviewing Macromedia Flash 8 Tutorial Guide (Reviewed by: Rafiq R. Elmansy)

The macromedia Flash 8 tutorial guide for Jay Armstrong and Jen deHaan is the official macromedia tutorial guide for Flash 8. This book is a good book for beginners to Flash 8 as it gives simple organized training examples that help understanding the program features.

The book is divided into tasks starting from creating Flash-working file to using dynamic content in the Flash project.

The best advantage in this book is the simplicity in delivering information, as well as the organizing and the developing of the examples.

Product Details:

Macromedia Flash 8: A Tutorial Guide

Publisher: Macromedia Press

ISBN: 0321394143

Reviewed by: Rafiq R. Elmansy

Reviewing Digital Photography Pocket Guide (Reviewed by: Rafiq R. Elmansy)

Do you remember when you first hold your new digital camera? Have you got this strong desire to take a professional shots for every thing around you and the people around you?

Then, you hold your camera searching for the power button!! And face the fact that you need to know your camera to be able to get your professional shots. However, many people do not know much about their digital camera and its capabilities, losing chances of great shots.

The Digital Photography Pocket Guide, O'reilly's best selling book, leads you to know your camera starting from its components, features and software features to how to take good shots with your camera.

The first chapter introduces to you the digital camera and its features. The second chapter tells you alphabetically what every button and menu do starting from Aperture Value to Zooming.

The last chapter includes some useful tips and tricks to consider when taking your shots. And in the end of the book, Derrick Story included important indexes about your digital camera

Actually, the secret of the good shots is to consider your camera the extension of you hand that translate your eyes vision and ideas to camera shots. And the first step to achieve this is to know your camera.

This guide is a very useful for both beginners who want to get a new camera or the user that already have a digital camera but do not know much about it.

Product Details:

Digital Photography Pocket Guide

Publisher: O'reilly

ISBN: 0-596-10015-9

Reviewed by: Rafiq R. Elmansy

Reviewing Animation and Effects with Macromedia Flash MX 2004 (Reviewed by: Rafiq R. Elmansy)

In her book, Animation and Effects with Macromedia Flash MX 2004, Jen DeHaan covered the animation effects techniques in Flash MX 2004.

Jen started her book with a fast introduction to Flash MX 2004, and then she moved on to the animation techniques in Flash, motion tweening, shape tweening and frame by frame animation.

Also, she did not miss to mention the animation using action script. And in the end of the book, she included useful appendixes about publishing SWF, time line effects and keyboard shortcuts.

However, this book is a good reference for intermediate designers and developers that want to get a solid background on the animation in Flash MX 2004.

Reviewed by: Rafiq R. Elmansy

Product Details:

Book title: Animation and Effects with Macromedia Flash MX 2004

Author: Jen DeHaan

Publisher: Macromedia Press

ISBN: 032130344X

Reviewing Adobe Photoshop CS2 Class Room in a Book (Reviewed by: Rafiq R. Elmansy)

Are you a digital photographer, graphic designer or a professional graphic design that eager to be an Adobe Certified Expert? So, you have to read this book. Adobe Photoshop CS2 Class Room in a Book is the official training book for Adobe Systems and the official training source for the Adobe Certified Expert exam.

This book provides a how-to training guide for Adobe Photoshop CS2, and covers all the features in this magnificent program starting with the working area and program anatomy, going through the photo editing features and other program features.

Also, it covers the new features in Adobe Photoshop CS2 like smart object, vanishing point and camera RAW technique that provides enhanced capabilities for image editing for digital photographers.

Adobe Photoshop Class Room in a Book is the best practice book for all who work with Adobe Photoshop CS2, whether digital photographers or graphic designs.

Product Details:
Adobe Photoshop CS2 Class Room in a Book
Publisher: Adobe Press
ISBN: 0321321847

Reviewing Adobe Creative Suite 2 Class Room in a Book (Reviewed by: Rafiq R. Elmansy)

Adobe Creative Suite 2 Class Room in a Book is part of the official training series for Adobe products. This book provides various training projects that cover different fields of the graphic design.

These fields are covered using the application included in the Adobe Creative Suite as following:

• Image editing with Adobe Photoshop CS2.
• Drawing and illustrating with Adobe Illustrator CS2.
• Page layout with Adobe InDesign CS2.
• Web design with GoLive CS2.
• Client reviews and printout with Adobe Acrobat 0.7 Professional and Adobe Reader
• File Sharing with Adobe Version Cue CS2.
• Organizing assets with Adobe Bridge.

If you got a project that needs different graphic contents such as web pages and printouts, this book will provide you a complete solution of how to implement the Adobe CS2 applications to manage and work in your project.

These series is also the official training for the Adobe Certified Expert exam.

Although this book is not a helping guide for Adobe applications, but it provides a how-to steps that complete your knowledge of the Adobe Creative Suite application with practice and training.

Product Details:
Adobe Creative Suite 2 Class Room in a Book
Publisher: Adobe Press
ISBN: 0321349822

Reviewing Inside 3ds Max 7 (Reviewed by: Rafiq R. Elmansy)

Before I started reading the Inside 3ds Max 7 book, I had read the authors biography. Most of them got a long history with 3ds Max, which makes this book a must-read experience.

 

The authors described each tool in the program and showed its strength without focusing on a specific production process, which makes this book suitable for all 3ds Max users in many fields.

 

The Inside 3ds Max 7 is for intermediate and advanced users. So, if you are new with 3ds Max, try to get a basic background before start reading this book to be able to acquire all the experience included in the book. The 3ds Max 7 book gives you a great experience with the program features that make you able to do professional tricks and effects.

 

The first part of the book shows what is new in 3ds Max 7 concerning each feature. And the following parts go deeper in program features to fully cover the program tools.

 

The 3ds Max book is a great book and will surely give you a solid experience with the program and its features.

 

Product Details:

Book Name: Inside 3ds Max 7

Written by: Sean Bonney

Publisher: New Riders Press

ISBN: 0735713871

Reviewing The Comupter in The Visual Arts (Reviewed by: Rafiq R. Elmansy)

            In her book "The Computer in the Visual Arts" , Anne Morgan filled the gap between computer concept and art concept for those who want to use computer in visual arts or miss the computer graphic concepts, while being more concern in learning tools and graphic software.

 

This book takes you through the history of graphic design and how the new technology comes to life with new concepts in all the computer graphic fields; like printing, 2D and 3D graphics, and how these concepts are related to develop the computer hardware and tools.

 

The title is accurate in delivering the idea included in the book. I find "The Computer in the Visual Arts" useful for beginner and advanced users of the computer graphics either for the visual arts or the commercial proposes.

 

The "The Computer in the Visual Art" book consists of 12 chapters. Anne started her book with a brief history of the computer art in the first chapter and concerned in chapters 2 and 4 with the 2D graphics, while the 3 ^rd chapter was about the computer hardware used in the computer graphics. The color concepts are covered in 5^th chapter and the concepts of the printing are described in the 6^th chapter.

 

The 3D concepts are described in the 7^th, 8^th and 9^th chapters, the video concepts are described in the 10 ^th chapter and the multimedia and interactivity are covered in chapter 11. Anne did not miss to mention some of the general concepts of the web in chapter 12.

In the end of the book, Anne included a conclusion and two appendixes about the modern art periods and computer theory.

 

Also, Anne included a very useful illustration to describe computer concepts. Moreover, she comprised an interesting gallery of computer graphics samples.

 

Although it is hard to include all the concepts of the fields mentioned in this book, Anne described some important concepts in each field in a simple way, which pushes me to think of reading more of her books.

 

For me as a graphic designer, I did not find the chance to go that much deeper in the computer graphic concepts, while being more concern in learning tools and graphic software. And when I wanted to know more about the computer concepts, I did not find many books concern about this issue, till I got this book, which was a good opportunity to fill what I miss in the computer graphic concept with the interesting way Anne used.

 

So, if you are a beginner in computer graphic field and got this book, then it is a good chance for you to know a general knowledge about the different computer concepts in many fields.

 

Product Details:

Book Name: The Comupter in The Visual Arts 

Written by: Anne Morgan Spalter

Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional

ISBN: 0201386003

Reviewing Model RIG Animate 3DS Max 7 (Reviewed by: Rafiq R. Elmansy)

Have you ever thought in creating 3D character? If so, then you must asked yourself the following questions:

 

1-     How do I model my character?

2-     How do I enhance my character look with materials?

3-     How do I animate my new character?

 

These questions form the basic steps to bring your character to life. Michele Bousquet has answered them in his book Model RIG Animate with 3DS Max 7.

 

The first and the second chapters answer the first two questions about modeling and adding materials to the character. Starting with pre-training on the tools used in modeling and adding materials, Michele goes step by step in his tutorial and applies each tool on the example included in the book CD.

 

The preparation for animation process is covered well in the third, fourth and fifth chapters. Chapter 3 teaches you how to assign bones for the model. Adding RIGs to the bones process is described in chapter 4. After completing the bones, chapter 5 is concerned with associating the bones with the model, which is known as the skinning.

 

My favorite topic, animating the model, is covered in the last two chapters. Chapter 7 is concerned with the character modeling, when chapter 8 concentrates on the facial animation.

 

This book is a must-have reference for animators, designers and teachers who want to deliver the modeling and animation with rigging features in 3DS Max7 in a simple focused way.

 

Product Details:

Book Name: Model, Rig, Animate with 3ds max 7

Written by: Michele Bousquet

Publisher: New Riders Press

ISBN: 0321321782

The Digital Video Hacks Review (Reviewed by Rafiq R. Elmansy)

The Digital Video Hacks by Joshua Paul gives you a shortcut to produce low cost movies by providing some useful tips and tools hacks for the movie production process.

With this book, you do not need studio expensive equipments to get a professional looking movie. All you need is to look around you for inexpensive tools to help getting your movie a professional look.

Joshua has organized the hacks in this book into eight chapters according to the stages of the video production process.

• The first chapter describes the most important stage to save money and produce a professional looking movie. It is the preparing stage, where you do the planning, storyboarding and organizing your work.
• The lighting related hacks that help create low cost lighting effects are introduced in the second chapter.
• The third chapter is concerning about acquiring your movie, which include hacks about how to shoot you movie and distribute it.
• The fourth chapter introduces hacks to help create high quality output when editing your movie. 
• Chapter 5 shows you how to create audio that will grasp the attention of your audience's eye and ears. This leaves a greater effect than presenting the idea to  the eye only.
• Effects help deliver your message and visualizing your storyboard with interesting way that remains in the mind of your audience. So, the hacks in the sixth chapter are concerning about this interesting part of the movie production process.
• After finishing your movie, the hacks in the seventh chapter help distributing you work with variety of ways such as using the internet, cell phones and pocket pc.
• Joshua finishes his book with some general hacks that are useful in presenting your movie in chapter 8.

  Many of us are interested in creating low cost movies. I think this book is good for all who want to create personal movies for memories. It is also good for web designers who want to enhance their web site design with new video media under the limited budget of the web projects. Digital Video Hacks is one of the rare books that cover this kind of video projects.

The Digital Video Hacks Review

Written By Joshua Paul

Publisher: O'Reilly

ISBN: 0596009461

Reviewing Developing Digital Short Films (Reviewed by Rafiq R. Elmansy)

Sherri Sheridan takes you in her book Developing Digital Short Films through a very spectacular trip in the most interesting design topics which is about films and animation production industry.

While moving through this interesting educational trip, you will find Sherri stands out with her tips, proverbs of famous people and exercises, which is the only way to fully digest the content of the book.

 

This practice opens your eyes widely to see your favorite movies with a new vision. Every part of the film will remind you with a concept or a principle Sherri has mentioned in this book. Then you will realize how much interesting this filed is. And for sure, a dream to create your own movie comes to mind.

 

As said, " This book will not make you Steven Spielberg, but it is a good step to start with", this book gives you a strong background in the field of animation. Not only the people that interest in working in the field of short films who can use this book, but also all who work in the filed of animation, including cartoons and web and digital animation. It will give the key to add a flavor to your animation and create eye-catching ideas with the principles used in film production industry.

 

This book is divided into three parts that take you step by step to reach by the end of the book to create a complex idea. Enhanced with the exercises after every step. The first part (Digital Storytelling) prepare you to create your own story and develop it to create a story board for your film, in this part you will learn the concepts and principles of creating interesting story and develop it through its stages using its basic elements (Plot, Character, and Theme).

 

After writing your story, Sherri takes you to the next step in part two (Visualizing Your Scripts) which converts your story into a storyboard ready for production. In this part, you will learn how to use film elements like cameras and locations to well deliver your story target to the audience. This part is very important to learn the principles of filmmaking and animation. However, it is important for all who works in the animation field.

 

The third part (Creating Digital Short Films for Different Production Styles) is about using different techniques to come up with your film into the production phase applying all what you learnt through the book.

 

This book provides a great experience for all who work in the fields of films production, cartoon and animation.

 

Developing Digital Short Films

Written By Sherri Sheridan

ISBN: 073571231X

Flash Hacks Book Review

(Rafiq R. Elmansy review for O'reilly book "Flash Hacks ")

Flash MX 2004 creative work depends -in most of it- on tricks and mind digging. However, like other members in the Hack family, Sham Bhangal's book (Flash Hack) has dug the minds and came up with 100 of the most interesting Flash tricks that are distinguished in a very smart way depending on their type.

In this book, found a group of the tips and tricks for beginner and professional designers and developers. Beginner designers and developers can develop their ability to create their own tricks through reading this book thoroughly, as beside describing his thoughts within each trick topic, Sham has attached at the end of each trick a Final Thoughts part as a conclusion to ensure that the reader has completely grasped his idea.

This book is written by Sham Bhangal and to find more about it you can visit the following link:

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/flashhks/index.html