It’s January again and it’s time to welcome a new year for all of us. In the spirit of the new year, Creative Crew Singapore has prepared a new line up of programs for our January meeting for our everyone.

Date: 13th January 2009
Time : 7.30 p.m - 9.30 p.m
Venue: Motion Elements Pte Ltd, 81a Maude Road, Singapore 208355 (Closest MRT Lavender)
Map: http://tinyurl.com/meetingvenue

- 7.30 p.m - Registration and pizza

- 7.50 p.m - Welcome to January meeting
Synopsis > A warmest welcome from Creative Crew’s Co-Manager, Carlsson Chee

- 7.55 p.m - The RAW truth part 2, by Samuel Chia (30 minutes)
Synopsis > A continuation from December’s meeting, Samuel will Demonstrations of Image Processing Workflow in Camera Raw.
The tools and functions of camera raw - live conversion of a raw file using the ideas proposed in the previous session - showcase of how camera raw may be used to process jpegs and its advantages.

- 8.25 p.m - Break (Remember to bring your name cards!)

- 8.40 p.m - Creating a website in Photoshop CS4 by Carlsson Chee
Synopsis > Learn how to design and create a simple website from scratch in Photoshop CS4.

- 9.00 p.m - Cool New Features of CS4, by Lynus Hee (30 minutes)
Synopsis > Now that the euphoria of the CS4 launch is done and dusted, it is about time to start integrating the new features into our own workflow. From the new tabbed interface and navigation to the new and improved smart objects, Lynus will explore some of its new features in a practical demonstration.

- 9.30 p.m - End

What is Webby Night?

Webby Night brings together some of the most interesting people working with the internet in some way, into one room, for one night, adding some beer and entertainment to the mix. It is a celebration of the great things the internet has enabled, showcasing a breadth and depth of activities and personalities that starts to do justice to the enormity of the web’s influence on our lives, culture, business and society.

The event on FaceBook, click here

• Happy New Year & Webby Awards Berlin
• Webby Awards video blog
• The 2008 Urlies, Urlesque’s Best of The Internet Awards

Do you know what Adobe is working at? Do you know what’s up for the future?
Watch this video, then. You won’t believe to your eyes!

A grainy video has just become available from the Adobe Max conference in Milan, Italy last month of a sneak peek at a new experiment called Infinite Images.

Dear Crew,

this is the last day of 2008. It was a strange year. Good news and bad news. Adobe finally launched CS4, but then, on the other hand, financial crisis is gave a lot of troubles.

Let’s hope for a 2009 full of good news!

Happy new year to every member of Creative Crew.

See you on January 13th, next meeting!

Ciao

Stefano Virgilli

In Photoshop create a new document using File > New. Set the size of the button. In this example 120 x 25 pixels. Resolution for web is 72 dpi.

Zoom in to 400% by clicking 3 times Ctrl together with +. Select the Rounded Rectangle tool from the tools bar.

In the Option bar make sure that the first icon is selected (Shape layer). Type a Radius of 10 pixels. Select a dark red by clicking the color box.

Click exactly on the top left corner of your artwork and drag your mouse all the way to the bottom right corner. The red Rounder Rectangle should appear when the mouse button is released. In the Layers palette you should see a shape layer above you Background. Click and drag your Background in the small trash bin at the bottom of the Layers palette. You can skip this step if you have selected Background Transparent when created the new document.

Now it is time to add some effects. From the menu Layer select Layer Style > Bevel and Emboss. A nice bevel effect can be created by un-checking the Global Light for Shading and setting the Altitude value to 70º. Note that to be able to edit style settings, must click the correspondent word. Clicking just the checkbox won’t display the style settings.

Add other effects as a white Inner glow. Also add a Inner shadow. This one may look nicer if you set the light angle from bottom right. In the example -66º. Remember to un-check  Global Lighting every time you change a specific style, unless your intention is to change the light for all the layers in the document.

Let’s add some text to the button. Create a new empty layer using Layer > New > Layer. Rename the new layer “Home”. A new layer has been added above the button. Select the Text tool in the Tool Bar and click into the artwork. Type “HOME” and press Enter on your numeric pad (NOTE: do not press Return in the main keyboard).
Go to Window > Character. Set color white by clicking the small color box. Set size 14. Go to Window > Paragraph and set the alignment to Center text.
To move the text in the middle of the artwork, select the Move tool (the first tool on the top, the black arrow) in the Tool Bar. Your text should snap in the middle of the artwork. If it does not, make sure that Window > Snap is enabled.

While the Home layer is still selected, go to Layer > New > Layer via copy (shortcut Ctrl+J). That is how you can quickly duplicate a layer. In the stack of layers, you should see Home Copy on top. With the Move tool still active, double click the correspondent thumbnail (it displays a letter T) and type ABOUT. Press again Enter on the numeric pad to commit the text. You should see ABOUT overlapped to HOME. In order to temporary hide a layer, click on the correspondent Eye that indicates the visibility.

You can add as many labels as you need. To rename a layer, double click the name of the layer in the Layers panel. Try to be accurate when do this. If you double click just outside the layer’s name, the Styles window will open instead. You can also decide to apply a small Drop Shadow style to the text. Once in a while, remember to save your work as PSD file. The advantage of PSD is that layers are preserved. JPEG files instead, do not support multi-layers. Once that all the labels that you need are prepared, get ready to export them.
Hide all the layers except the first on top and the “Shape 1″ layer. Go to File > Save for Web and Devices.

From the right panel of the File > Save for Web and Devices window select the format GIF or PNG. These two formats are quite similar. They count the number of colors to save. In this case 128 can be enough. The maximum number available is 256. The major advantage of using GIF or PNG is that both support transparency. Make sure that the Transparency check box is selected, so that the round corners will not have any matte fill around.
Repeat this step as many times as the layers created.

A button have normally three status: Up, Over and Down. Up is the normal status of the button when appears in the web site. Over is the status displayed when the mouse cursor moves on it. Down is the appearance when the button is clicked. The file that you just saved should be named after the Up status of the button. Again, remember to not use capital letters and spaces. A good way name a Up button is: bn_home_up.gif, bn_contacts_up.gif, bn_products_up.gif, and so on.
To change the color for the Over status, double click the “Shape 1″ color thumbnail in the layers palette. For up status can be a good idea to select a color slightly brighter.

Repeat the exporting part for all the text layers, so you will have files named as: bn_home_over.gif, bn_contacts_over.gif, bn_products_over.gif, and so on. You can double click one more time the “Shape 1″ color thumbnail in the layers palette and select a darker color. Repeat the exporting part for all the text layers, so you will have files named as: bn_home_down.gif, bn_contacts_down.gif, bn_products_down.gif, and so on.

Hi guys,
a quick one to tell you about my self-Christmas-present:

Panasonic AG-HSC1U

I bought it in Singapore and just came back from New Zealand where I had a lot of fun with my new “toy”! The price was actually quite cheap, considering is a semi-professional.

The Panasonic AG-HSC1U is a compact 3-chip AVCHD camcorder with professional features. Weighing only 0.5 kg, this compact, handheld camcorder records beautiful, highly-accurate 1080i images in 16:9 in the new AVCHD format onto an SDHC memory card. Entry-level professionals will find the camcorder ideal for capturing natural, professional-level high definition recordings. The AG-HSC1U features a highly-sensitive 12X Leica Dicomar lens system with Optical Image Stabilizer to ensure ultra-steady, crisp shooting of both movingpictures and still images. The camcorder has a 3″ widescreen (16:9) LCD monitor and 5.1-channel surround sound five-microphone system. It can also capture 2.1 megapixel 16:9 still pictures even during video recording.

Check it out from AV8 Pte Ltd web site. They are having a promotion price.

The Raw Truth

1. What is a digital Raw file?
2. Data capture from camera’s image sensor
3. Exposure and linear capture
4. Raw vs Jpeg
5. Raw limitations
6. Adobe Camera Raw - why we use it

Author Samuel Chia (founder of The Cacao Print Studio)

When Samuel Chia was 15, he became the youngest member ever to assume the role as the Instructor of the Photographic Society of Temasek Junior College. He has trained photographers in the College and other schools for 2 years, with a body of work spanning genres from performance arts to sports.

As a part of the process of his photography, Samuel prints his own images. The print is the “final performance” of his craft. He believes in the balance of aesthetic vision and technical knowledge; they go hand in hand to fulfill the artist’s intention. He has also set up a customized printing service, The Cacao Print Studio, to allow like-minded photographers and artists, the ability to enjoy the very best of high-end archival photographic printing.

Creative things you can do for your phone using Adobe technologies and some free apps. By Stefan Wessel.

Stefan Wessels is the co-founder of Breakdesign.com, established in 2003. Breakdesign.com is now a leader in creating innovative, edgy content and solutions for emerging media, and are working with Nokia, American Express, Johnny Walker, Sony Ericsson, MTV, Disney and other leading brands. Currently Breakdesign.com is creating games and applications for all ages and demographics of early adapoters as well as building mobile community platforms to enable these groups to communicate through emerging technology.

Stefan had also spoken in Adobe MAX 2006, Ogilvy Asia Creative Directors Meet 2007, and Spike Media Awards 2006.

Dear Crew,

beside the meeting prrogram, we thought it would be a good idea to have also a menu.
Thanks to our sponsor Pixel Pixel , here’s what our guest will taste tonight before the meeting:

• Fried bee hoon noodles
• Samosa and other bite-sized finger foods
• Sandwiches
• Fried chicken
• Packet drinks

Enjoy the food… Enjoy the meeting!

Date: The meeting will be held on December 9, from 7.30 to 9.30 PM.
Venue: 81a Maude Road (along Jalan Besar), Singapore 208355 (Closest MRT Lavender)

These are my links for November 30th through December 6th:

• 8 Ideas, Techniques & Tricks for your Web Design Toolkit - PSDTUTS - As important as information and interface design are, it's the satisfied feeling of designing something that just plain looks awesome that keeps us going during those times when the creative well is dry, when you've stared at a blank canvas for hours, when you've saved a hundred attempt.psd's, and when you're fed up of design. It's because you know that when you have that finished, polished, veritable work of art up on your screen, and you've switched Photoshop into full screen mode and you're looking at it from different angles around the room, and you're basking in the glory of your perfectly positioned pixels, you just know that this is the greatest profession in the world!
• Articles about color correction - Colorist Questions
• Singapore Digital Media Festival 2008 - View Online - Digital media festival singapore 2008 podcast
• Singapore Digital Media Festival Recap - One year ago, I was scouting for ideas to develop a new conference format to replace the iX Conference event I had been helping to organise for several years. iX is a thought-leadership conference focused on Web 2.0 trends and technologies, modeled on the successful O'Reilly conferences. The annual iX Conference is organised by Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF), and up to 2007 my role had been as chair or co-chair of the organising committee.
• December meeting at Motion Elements - Welcome to December meeting, Carlsson Chee
  Synopsis > Carlsson will give the warmest welcome to the new users. Followed by the best tips and tricks from Adobe CS4 official launch.

  Welcome to MotionElements, Mark Sun
  Synopsis > Mark will give a brief introduction to MotionElements.com and
  some of our activities promoting Artists in Asia.
  Adobe Creative for Mobile, Stefan Wessels
  Synopsis > Stefan will give an overview of creative things you can do for your phone using Adobe technologies and some free apps!

  RAW Overview, Samuel Chia

  1. What is a digital Raw file?
  2. Data capture from camera’s image sensor
  3. Exposure and linear capture
  4. Raw vs Jpeg
  5. Raw limitations
  6. Adobe Camera Raw - why we use it

  9:00 > Demonstrations of Image Processing Workflow in Camera Raw, by Samuel Chia (founder of The Cacao Print Studio)

  Coverage for basic control tabs
  - basic
  - tone curve
  - detail
  - HSL/grayscale