FlashFilm Fest (HUFFDA) Cancelled

I'm sorry to report that the Harrisburg University FlashFilm Fest has been cancelled due to low registration numbers. CPAUG was to hold a meeting during the Fest along with the bi-annual CS4 software raffle. An alternate meeting place and agenda has not been secured yet so if you have meeting space or would like to present (any topic) in October, could you please contact me at cpaugManager@gmail.com? Thank you.

Flashpitt -- October 15 - 16, 2009 - UG Discount

Flashpitt
October 15 - 16, 2009
Sheraton Station Square
Pittsburgh, PA

Flashpitt is a conference for interactive designers, developers and artists. It's a chance to take a break from the daily grind to recharge, learn and be inspired. All without venturing too far from home or spending a whole lot of cash. Flashpitt is small because we think it's easier to make connections and learn when you can't get lost in the crowd.

On Thursday October 15th we'll have four half-day workshops on topics ranging from beginning to advanced subjects. Friday October 16th will feature a full day of lecture-style sessions in two tracks.

We have a user group discount for CPAUG members. Please email me at CpaugManager@gmail.com for the coupon code. You must be on our mailing list to qualify for the discount.

Adobe Summer of Community - Recorded sessions list (so far)

• Demonstrating the promise of Master Collection: A true cross-media workflow from Video to Print (w/ a little web on the side) by Tim Plumer, Jr. (Adobe) -http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/p61247540

• ColdFusion and Flex Magic by Nick Kwiatkowski - http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/p62931769/

• Behind the Scenes of The Flex Show - Trials and Tribulations of Producing a Podcast by Jeffry Houser and John Wilker - http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/p78465175/

• Fireworks vs Photoshop: The showdown by Dee Sadler - http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/p98068797/

• Getting Dirty with the Flex SDK by Nate Beck - http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/p88453631/

• Setting Up Your Corporate Library by Jonathan Campos - http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/p75269437/

• ActionScript 3.0 for Designers by Lou Barber - http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/p94818394/

• What’s Next for TLF (Text Layout Framework)? by Robin Briggs - http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/p14434421/

• Manipulating Flash, AE and PS Assets Using Pixel Bender by Paul Trani - http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/p43962439/

Electronics Recycling (Dauphin County + Other locals)

Great news Central PA folks: You can now drop off electronics for recycling year round at Dauphin County Recycling Center (DCRC).

http://www.dauphincounty.org/waste-management-recycling/recycling/new-materials-recycling-facility/

Fees (most are free for Dauphin County residents and small fees for others):

http://www.dauphincounty.org/waste-management-recycling/recycling/new-materials-recycling-facility/12221/data.pdf

Directions:

From Harrisburg traveling South on Cameron Street towards Steelton Borough, turn left at Hbg Public Works sign. DCRC is first building on right.

Dauphin County Recycling Center Regular hours of operation are Monday - Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The following Saturday's (same time of operation) in 2009:

- September 5 / 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

- October 3 / 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

- November 7 / 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

- December 5 / 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

If you have any questions about products you would like to recycle, or would like other information about the Recycling Center, please feel free to contact the facility Recycling at 717-982-6772

5 Secrets of the Photoshop Crop Tool (via Digitial Photography School)

"If you’re used to clicking the crop tool dragging the tool over your image and pressing Enter, it may surprise you to know that there are other options that you can use when cropping in Photoshop.

Here are my five “best-kept secrets” of the Photoshop crop tool...."

Read more: http://digital-photography-school.com/5-secrets-of-the-photoshop-crop-tool#ixzz0ORp78P8X

Illustrator ring shape via overlapping crescents effect (via Veerle's Blog)

"Illustrator ring shape via overlapping crescents effect Today I have a very easy to follow step-by-step tutorial for people who just started out with Illustrator. This is another request from a reader who asked if I could explain how to draw this ring shape (see image on the left). Looking at this shape I can see it’s made of 2 overlapping crescents which are then rotated at 45 degrees. There is also this interesting overlapping effect which adds a bit of unrealistic depth effect which makes me think of the work of M.C. Escher. This time I thought it would be a good idea to work with screenshots again… "

Full tutorial at: http://veerle.duoh.com/blog/comments/illustrator_ring_shape_via_overlapping_crescents_effect/

Photoshop.com Hosts Videos up to 2GB in Size (Via Lifehacker)

"It's too late to make much of an impact on our call for the best video-sharing sites, but today online photo editor Photoshop.com announced that they're now allowing users to upload and share videos up to 2GB in size.

Unfortunately Adobe hasn't done much to make its video sharing tool stand out. For one, you can't currently edit videos at all, which seems to us like the only reason you might consider uploading your videos to Photoshop.com in the first place. You also can't embed videos, unless I'm missing something. The 2GB file size seems decent, but you're actually limited to 2GB of space on your entire Photoshop.com free account, so one big video upload and you're done. (Note: You can only upload videos up to 200MB in size via the web interface. For larger videos, you'll need to download their Adobe Air Uploader—which I couldn't even find, even after digging around the site and checking their support. Update: Here's the answer.)

In short, then: It's cool to see Photoshop join the video sharing world, and editing would be a great feature if it were there, but they're going to have to step it up if they want to attract anyone to use it."

http://lifehacker.com/5342729/photoshopcom-hosts-videos-up-to-2gb-in-size

The Best Adobe Illustrator Text Effect Tutorials (via Creative Nerds)

"A collection of the best adobe illustrator effect tutorials from around the web. The article features over 20 tutorials which will each show you new tips and illustrator tricks."

Full article at: http://creativenerds.co.uk/tutorials/the-best-adobe-illustrator-text-effect-tutorials/

Showcase your Photos Using the Vanishing Point Filter in Photoshop (via Digital Photography School)

"This fun Photoshop technique lets you showcase your photos on a computer screen or billboard and it uses the vanishing point filter to distort and crop the image.

The Vanishing Point Filter was first introduced with Photoshop CS2 so you will need Photoshop CS2 or later for this project."

Read more: http://digital-photography-school.com/showcase-your-photos-using-the-vanishing-point-filter#ixzz0ORmuplVa

Adobe Shortcut App Makes Finding Hotkeys Easier (via Lifehacker)

"Windows/Mac/Linux: The free Adobe Shortcut App gives fast access to look up keyboard shortcuts for the entire array of Adobe products from one simple place. Adobe Shortcut App for AIR [Adobe AIR Marketplace via Digital Inspiration]

Once you've installed the Adobe AIR application, you can choose a program from the buttons on the top, and find a shortcut using the search box, browsing, or even adding them to a favorites list. You can switch between viewing Windows or Mac shortcuts, or even view the cheat sheet in PDF format. It's a quick and easy way to look up the shortcuts without having to pull out the help file. Adobe Shortcut App is a free download for all platforms, requires Adobe AIR."

Full article: http://lifehacker.com/5339994/adobe-shortcut-app-makes-finding-hotkeys-easier

Live Connect Webcasts from Adobe for User Group Community!

These are special webcasts put on by Adobe especially for the User Group community! Everyone is welcome to "attend" the meeting via the Adobe Connect URLs listed below. Here's the "Adobe Summer of Community" TechWeds schedule.

ALL SESSIONS WILL BE RECORDED. Archived recording urls for 2009 can be found at: http://groups.adobe.com/resources/d317ea5253/summary. If you are unable to view this part of the site, please let me know (cpaugManager@gmail.com) and I'll send you a link to the recording.

8/12 at 1pm - ColdFusion & Flex Magic by Nick Kwiatkowski (UGM). Meeting URL: https://admin.na3.acrobat.com/_a204547676/techweds2009/

8/19 at 1pm - Demonstrating the promise of Master Collection: A true cross-media workflow from Video to Print (with a little web on the side) by Tim Plumer, Jr. (Adobe). Meeting URL: https://admin.na3.acrobat.com/_a204547676/techweds2009/

Hope you can attend!

10 Simple Steps to Better Photoshop Performance (via Smashing Magazine)

"Before getting started with Photoshop, we all should have first visited the “Edit > Preferences” menu and change the “Performance” settings to fit our personal taste and computer specifications, but this isn’t always the case – in many situations designers simply forget these aspects.

If you never changed the default performance settings in your Photoshop or you just want to double check them to improve the Photoshop performance, here are 10 important and useful points that you may want to consider."

Full article and tips at: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/08/13/10-simple-steps-to-better-photoshop-performance/

August Meeting Recap: Casual Meeting at Panera

Thanks to those who attended the meeting. We had some good talks about Adobe stuff and then some. Some of the topics we covered and conversations we had were:

• The new Gmail iPhone app "GPush" that just became available a few hours before the meeting. This is a 3rd party app that uses "push" to send your gmail to you instantly. General consensus among the iPhone owners: We can't live without it.
• Adobe Lightroom. What is it, how's it different from Photoshop? Who should use it? Be sure to attend our September meeting on Lightroom.
• Photo viewers: What viewers we used to open various types of image files? Windows Photo Viewer and Picassa quick viewer.
• Rumors about that Tapplet
• General thoughts on Windows 7: It's not too bad...way better than Vista.
• Using Debugar to view your website designs/dev in many versions of Internet Explorer
• Using Adobe Bridge CS4: Vast performance improvements over CS3
• ...and other fun stuff like Netflix, the Roku player, and our favorite movies and TV shows which include Dawn of the Dead (the new one), 28 Days Later, Full Metal Jacket, Pulp Fiction, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Real Geniuses (no kidding), Dexter, Psyche and more. New movies that we've seen or want to: GI Joe, rec/Quarantine, District 9.

15 Great Free Online File Sharing Alternatives (via hongkiat)

"Today’s technology and machines (whether it’s PC or Mac) are certainly capable of processing large original files like .PSD (Photoshop) and .AI (Illustrator) but the bad news is the sharing part aren’t . These files are fairly large in size and cumbersome to share with peers and clients. Two ways we would generally used – e-mailing and sharing via hosting account. Not saying it’s bad but e-mail comes with attachment limitation and usually doesn’t allow anything more than 100Mb. On the other hand sharing via web hosting account allows you to upload as big as your account can take but it also means the file is exposed by anyone who knows its direct path.

File-sharing web services solve most of these problems. They are free (most of them and they allow large files to be sent securely. Here are some free file-sharing sites we come to know and if you share files with friends or peers via Internet frequently, you might want to consider getting them done this way. "

Full article and list at: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/15-great-free-online-file-sharing-alternatives/

Web Sites Using Flash Instead of Browser Cookies to Track Your Activity (via Lifehacker)

"Wired reports that over half of the web's most popular sites are using Flash to track users who block traditional browser cookies.

The findings come from a UC Berkeley study, which also found that only four of these top web sites using Flash cookies mention them in their privacy policies. From Wired:

Unlike traditional browser cookies, Flash cookies are relatively unknown to web users, and they are not controlled through the cookie privacy controls in a browser. That means even if a user thinks they have cleared their computer of tracking objects, they most likely have not."

Full article at: http://lifehacker.com/5334984/web-sites-using-flash-instead-of-browser-cookies-to-track-your-activity

Real World Print Production with Adobe Creative Suite: Preparing Raster Images (via Peachpit)

Learn how to turn digital images into beautiful prints using Adobe Creative Suite.

Whether you acquire an image from a scanner, a digital camera, a royalty-free CD with 1,000,000 images, or a stock photography vendor, it's made out of pixels. Pixel is shorthand for picture element, the smallest unit of information in a digitized image. Even though pictures on your monitor look like smooth transitions of color, zoom in sufficiently and you'll see all the little square pixels that actually make up the image.

Full article at: http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1374385

Creating a Replicator Effect with Premiere Elements 7 (via Peachpit)

Paul Ekert, author of Creating Hollywood-Style Movies with Adobe Premiere Elements 7, shows how to use standard features in Premiere Elements 7 to re-create the replicator effect made famous by the TV show 'Star Trek: The Next Generation.'

The TV show Star Trek: The Next Generation introduced various special effects to the Star Trek universe, but one that stands out in many people's minds is Captain Picard ordering "Tea, Earl Grey, hot" from his replicator, a wall dispenser that can magically materialize pretty much any food or drink. In this article, you'll learn how to create this effect.

Full article at: http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1374788

URL Shorteners: Handy but Risky (via Peachpit)

RL shorteners are handy for Twitter and IM, but they are not without security risks. Joel Postman explores the downside.

Full article at: http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1356048

Simple Lightroom Image Fixing Workflow (via Digital Photography School)

Article at: http://digital-photography-school.com/simple-lightroom-image-fixing-workflow

70 Tutorials Using Photoshop To Design A Website (via Creative Nerds)

"This article features a huge amount of Photoshop web design tutorials, which will teach you simple effects which can be combined together in order to create a great website design. Theses tutorials are perfect for first time Photoshop users because there short and sweet. "

Tutorial at: http://creativenerds.co.uk/tutorials/70-tutorials-using-photoshop-to-design-a-website/

How to Sync Photoshop Presets on Multiple Computers (via BittBox by Jay Hilgert)

"If you have multiple computers, and you use both of them quite frequently (like myself), then you understand that syncing 2 computers is a never-ending battle. Syncing files is hard enough, but I want to share a workflow tip with everyone that will make your lives easier when switching back-and-forth between machines.

I want to show you how to sync all your Photoshop Presets (Brushes, Actions, etc.) on multiple computers. This will speed up your design workflow, and increase productivity. For example, you download and install a new set of brushes in Photoshop on your laptop, then you get home, and the new brushes have already been downloaded and installed on your desktop. (Note: you can do this for Illustrator, InDesign, etc. I’m just using PS as an example.)"

Article at: http://www.bittbox.com/photoshop/how-to-sync-photoshop-presets-on-multiple-computers/

August Meeting: Casual Meeting at Panera Bread (Union Deposit)

Date and Time:

August 17, 2009 from 6:30pm - 8:00pm

Address:

Panera Bread
4263 Union Deposit Road, Harrisburg, 17111
google map

Please RSVP at http://groups.adobe.com/posts/b4dcac5d60 (bottom of page) or email cpaugManager@gmail.com so we know how many seats to try and reserve.

Agenda:

Relax and share your tips and tricks!

Share tips and tricks that we've learned at this casual meeting. Show a cool website with Panera's free WiFi, talk about project concerns, receive some inspiration from others, show off some favorite websites, and get to know your CPAUG members. Got a laptop? Bring it and take advantage of Panera's free WiFi.

*** NOTE THE NEW, LATER TIME! ***

Note: You are responsible for your own refreshments.

Meetings are always free of charge and open to the public.

Link: Panera Menu

Give O'Reilly "Cookbooks" video feedback and be entered to win $200 worth of ebooks!

From O'Reilly:

If you've used our popular programming Cookbooks, you know just how useful they can be in helping you solve all kinds of programming problems. (And if you haven't used our Cookbooks, check them out on our website. You can download sample recipes by clicking on specific book titles and selecting "Sample Recipes.")

We've received many requests for videos that present the Cookbook recipes step-by-step, so we recently created 4 sample clips that are available online.

Now we're eager to gather your feedback.

All you have to do is watch the sample video and tell us what you think about it. When you complete the survey, we'll automatically enter you into a special drawing.* Three winners will receive the opportunity to select a collection of O'Reilly ebooks valued at up to $200.

*The drawing will be held on August 19, 2009. The winners will be notified via email. If we don't hear back from a winner within 14 days, the prize will be awarded to another survey respondent. Winners will have 90 days to make ebook selections.

For more information, go to training.oreilly.com/videosurvey

16 Design Blogs For Learning Illustrator (via Creative Nerds)

"There’s a lack of good illustrator blogs out their at the moment, so I’ve decided to compile a roundup of a 16 of my own personal favourite design blogs for learning how to use illustrator."

http://creativenerds.co.uk/articles/16-design-blogs-for-learning-illustrator/

The Most 10 Common Mistakes Web Designers Make (via Noupe)

There are plenty of mistakes web designers (especially new ones) make when designing websites. Everything from poor design to simple oversight happen every day. But with a little diligence, they can easily be avoided.

Here are ten of the most common mistakes web designers make, along with examples of sites who do things right. Some of these are easy to correct if you’re aware of, others might take a bit more time. But all are fixable and worth the time and effort to correct. While this is by no means a comprehensive list of common errors, it is a good starting point.

Full article: http://www.noupe.com/design/ten-most-common-design-mistakes.html

Suite Deal: Upgrade to Adobe Creative Suite 4 and Save US$100

For a limited-time, save US$100 when you upgrade from an earlier version of Adobe® Creative Suite®, Production Studio, or Macromedia® Studio to Creative Suite 4. Don’t miss out — offer ends August 31, 2009.

This offer is available through the online Adobe Store or 800-585-0774, or through the Adobe Volume License Store or 800-443-8158.

Complete details at http://www.adobe.com/special/upgrade2suite/