Adding tools that allow users to realize the 2D Toon look of comic books, cartoons, manga and anime; create spectacular clothing, fur or long hair for characters; and move data quickly back and forth between Maya and Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, an already cool program just got even cooler. Here to take budding animators and modelers from 0 to 60 fast in Maya 7 is the eagerly anticipated update to everybody’s favorite Maya tome: Maya 7: Visual QuickStart Guide! In these pages, best-selling authors Danny Riddell and Steve Anzovin use a combination of task-based instruction and strong visual aids to take readers step by step through all of Maya’s essentials: unsurpassed character rigging and posing, integration with essential production tolls such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash and more. Both beginning users, who want a thorough introduction to the topic, and more advanced users, who are looking for a convenient reference, will find what they need here in straightforward language and through readily accessible examples, peppered with tons of timesaving tips and tricks. By the end of the volume, users will be creating their own alternate universes in Maya 7!

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Philip Andrews, best-selling author and renowned photographer, shares his expert knowledge of Photoshop Elements 4.0 in this advanced guide, showing how outstanding results can be achieved using this affordable yet powerful software package. Ideal for those who have mastered the basics, this illustrated colour guide will stretch your skills to get expert results.

This completely revised and updated edition covers all the new features of version 4.0, including automatic fixes for Red Eye, the new Order Prints Pane, the Adjust Skin Tones feature and the exciting Magic Selection Brush and Magic Extractor tools. Brand new chapters are included on photo organization and management, multiple editing pathways and Photo Creations, with advice on designing photobooks, multimedia slide shows, web galleries and other inspiring projects.

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If you’re looking for an easy way to work fast in Photoshop CS2, congratulations, you’ve found it! Matt Kloskowski, Education and Curriculum Developer for the NAPP, shows you how to use the power of automation to instantly save time, money, and frustration. Once you master these powerful tools, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without them.

You’ll learn how to:

•   Effectively use Adobe Bridge to manage your images
•   Add automation using actions
•   Create smarter actions
•   Use batch processing
•   Speed up the Camera Raw workflow
•   Customize scripts
•   Fine tune filters and preferences
•   And much more!

This guide is not only packed with info, it will also show you hidden actions and automation gems that are already loaded when you install Photoshop CS2! If you want to increase your speed, and get twice the work done with half the headaches–this is the book for you!

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In The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers, Krogh brings clarity to the often overwhelming task of managing digital photographs, with a solid plan and practical advice for fellow photographers on how to file, find, protect and re-use photographs. Following a thorough overview of the DAM system and de-mystifications of metadata and digital archiving, Krogh focuses on best practices for digital photographers using Adobe Photoshop CS2. He explains how to use Adobe Bridge, the new CS2 navigational software that replaces the File Browser introduced in Photoshop 7, with full details on integrating Bridge, Camera Raw and Digital Asset Management software.

Compellingly presented in four-color format, The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers brings Krogh’s award-winning creative approach to a subject that could have been technically intimidating. Instead, Krogh’s twenty years of experience and instructive visual storytelling make this material not only accessible, but compulsory reading for serious digital photographers.

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Experience the highly visual format of the Art of Photoshop: Digital Photography Workshop and learn how to take good source photos and transform them into display-quality digital works of art with visual effects used in Adobe Photoshop. Using the beauty of the Tuscan region of Italy as a backdrop, author and artist/photographer Daniel Giordan, will take you through the steps of how to capture good source materials, how to explore the artistic effect of those images, and how to turn those explorations into richly layered and visually complex artwork using the tools available in Photoshop. This is your chance to look over the author’s shoulder as he guides you through a process of creative exploration through which he creates 10 artistic montages.

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Like the early explorers who probed the fringes of the known world with their new sextants and square-rigged ships, artists continually experiment with and adopt new technologies, and digital printings is the latest in a long line of artistic innovations

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Every graphics professional worth his or her salt knows the importance of color management. No matter how much thought artist and client put into the color scheme for a given project, all of that work is for naught if you can’t get your results to match your expectations. Enter Real World Color Management, Second Edition. In this thoroughly updated under-the-hood reference, authors Bruce Fraser, Chris Murphy, and Fred Bunting draw on their years of professional experience to show you everything you need to know about color management. Whether your final destination is print, Web, or film, Real World Color Management, Second Edition takes the mystery out of color management, covering everything from color theory and color models to understanding how devices interpret and display color. You’ll find expert advice for building and fine-tuning color profiles for input and output devices (digital cameras and scanners, displays, printers, and more), selecting the right color management workflow, and managing color within and across major design applications. Get Real World Color Management, Second Edition–and get ready to dazzle!

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Pulse-coupled neural networks represent a new and exciting advance in image processing research. When exposed to grey scale or colour images they produce a series of binary pulse images which allow the content of the image to be assessed much more accurately than from the original. In this volume Thomas Lindblad and Jason Kinser provide a much needed introduction to the topic of PCNNs. They review the theoretical foundations, and then look at a number of image processing applications including segmentation, edge extraction, texture extraction, object identification, object isolation, motion processing, foveation, noise suppression and image fusion. They also look at the PCNNs ability to process logical arguments and at how to implement it in specialised hardware. It will be of particular interest to researchers and practitioners working in image processing, especially those involved with medical, military or industrial applications. It will also be of interest to graduate-level students. (more…)

If you dont know where to start in Photoshop and feel overwhelmed with the options, then this is the book for you. With highly visual step-by-step explanations, this concise guide gives you a solid grounding in using Photoshop to edit digital images and helps you develop a full understanding of the key tools and features of Photoshop CS2. Brad Hinkel guides you through a simple image editing workflow to get you up and running fast. If you want solutions quickly and easy access to any basic step of the workflow, this guide provides the essential knowledge you need. It is filled with step-by-step projects and covers all the key new features of Photoshop CS2: Camera RAW, Reduce Noise, Smart Sharpen and Spot Healing Brush.
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