Flip through your apps

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Watch interviews from the conference floor at the 2009 Google I/O Developer Sandbox. Developers chat with us on their apps and share technical as well as business insights on challenges and best practices.

Company interviewed: Crazy Pixel Productions

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The Guggenheim Museum and Google SketchUp have teamed up to launch the the Design It: Shelter Competition. From June 8th to August 23rd of 2009, we're inviting people to design a shelter for a site anywhere in the world. Choose a location in Google Earth, build a model with Google SketchUp and upload your design to the Google 3D Warehouse.

For more information and to sign up, visit http://www.guggenheim.org/shelter

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O3D allows you to create rich 3D web applications using JavaScript. This talk will primarily cover best practices for getting 2D and 3D content into O3D. We will also explore the API's advanced features, primarily through demos and coding examples to keep the session fun.

Vangelis Kokkevis, Gregg Tavares

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This session will feature a panel of developers such as Large Animal and Crazy Pixel, who have spent these last few weeks developing gaming and entertainment applications using O3D. We'll discuss their experience developing on a new API, including the features they liked, the technical challenges they faced and the advice they have for web developers who want to create new interactive 3D graphics applications based on O3D.

Henry Bridge, Wade Tinney, Brian McRae

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This talk is about MakerBot, a new low-cost, open-source CNC fabrication robot produced by MakerBot Industries. MakerBot is an evolution of the RepRap project. Adam Mayer, one of the three founders of MakerBot Industries, will be on hand to present and demonstrate MakerBot and answer questions.

Adam Mayer is one of the three founders of MakerBot Industries, and one of the core members of NYC Resistor, a hacker collective in downtown Brooklyn.

Presented by Adam Mayer.
Google Tech Talk
June 1, 2009

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Watch interviews from the conference floor at the 2009 Google I/O Developer Sandbox. Developers chat with us on their apps and share technical as well as business insights on challenges and best practices.

Company interviewed: Large Animal Games

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O3D allows you to create rich 3D web applications using JavaScript. This talk will primarily cover best practices for getting 2D and 3D content into O3D. We will also explore the API's advanced features, primarily through demos and coding examples to keep the session fun.

For those who are attending Google I/O 2009 (http://code.google.com/io/), these video are an opportunity to hear from some of the speakers in advance. The speakers introduce their topic and provide a preview of one or more topics that will be covered in their talks.

Vangelis Kokkevis & Gregg Tavares

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This video demonstrates a visual search web application. The application was created by Disney / ABC and presented at Google I/O's Developer Sandbox. To render 3D graphics in the browser, Disney used O3D, an open-source web API for creating rich, interactive 3D applications in the browser. Learn more about O3D at http://code.google.com/apis/o3d. To learn more about Disney's developer efforts visit http://developer.abc.com/

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This video describes step-by-step how to use photographs, Google Earth, Google SketchUp and the 3D Warehouse to create and upload a model for consideration in the Google Earth 3D Building layer. If you are interested in placing models in the official 3D Building Layer of Google Earth, this video show you exactly how to do it.

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Learn to make your own money in Photoshop! Bert teaches you how to make coins by applying textures to a 3D cylinder object.

Gather your materials
The first step of making a 3D coin in Photoshop is to get an image of the front and back side of the coin. You can use a scanner to capture both sides of a quarter at 300 dpi. When you have the image, use the marquee tool to copy and paste each side into a new file.

Make a 3D replica of the coin
Create a grey 3D cylinder in your original image file by choosing 3D > New Shape from Layer > Cylinder. Shrink the cylinder's height using the 3D controls that exist in your image canvas so that the shape looks similar to a quarter. Then, rotate and scale the diameter to match the size of the coins in your scan. You no longer need your original image, and you can fill the background with white.

Apply textures to different parts of the 3D object
In the 3D Materials panel, you will see that the coin is made of 3 parts: the Cylinder Material, the Top Material, and the Bottom Material. Each are indicated with different colors. Clicking on any of these materials activates that particular area of the image, and we can apply a texture. Place the face of the coin on the Top Material alongside the area where Diffuse is defined. Place the tail side of the coin in the Bottom Material, also alongside Diffuse. The ribbing of the coin will go in to Cylinder Material.

Create ribbing texture for the Cylinder Material
Bert creates a vertical strip filled with grey and applies a bevel. We need a continuous tone of highlight to shadow, so create a pattern from this image (Edit > Define Pattern). Apply this pattern to a new image file, and save as a file such as "ribbing.psd". Then, apply this file as a texture to the Cylinder Material alongside the Bump definition area.

Apply lighting to the 3D coin
Add a spot light to the coin. Adjust as necessary to create the desired luminance. Rotate the coin to see the lighting effects on your finalized coin.

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In this episode I will demonstrate how to wrap text around a three-dimensional globe in Inkscape v.046.

I used a fairly new extension from Gerrit Karius (aka G33K) called Bezier Envelope. If you want to follow along or use the Bezier Envelope for whatever future purpose then be sure to download it here. Thanks Gerrit.

by heathenx

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Architects and engineers will love this episode about 3D lighting. Bert demonstrates how to add lighting to a 3D model car.

Obtain a 3D model car and add lighting
Download a 3d model from the web. You can often find these for free. In the 3d control panel, scale, rotate and position the car to your desired working size. Open the 3d (Lights) panel and you can adjust the Infinite lights to brighten or darken the color of the car. Changing the color of the light source can also make the paint of the car appear as a different color.

Illuminate the inside of your 3D model car
A Point Light can be applied to car inside the cabin. This will illuminate the interior of the car like a light bulb.

Add texture and reflection to a 3D model
In the 3d (Materials) panel, you can load a texture through the Environment tool. You can load a photo and it will be reflected on the 3d model, much like a moving vehicle through a neighborhood like San Francisco. As you rotate your model, the reflection changes accordingly.

Check out the inside of your 3d Model
The Cross Section functionality in the 3d (Scene) panel can create a plane that splits your 3d model in half, allowing you to see the insides of your 3d model. Adjust the intersection, offset, and tilts upon the X, Y, or Z axis to change your view.

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3D functionality is a huge part of Adobe Photoshop CS4. Bert shows you some tips in applying light sources to your 3D projects.

Create a 3d object
This week, Bert teaches us that 3D is not just about angles, shapes, and depth. Lighting is equally as important. We begin with a 900x600, RGB file set to 72dpi. Fill screen with a solid blue in a new layer. Turn the layer into a 3D Postcard so we can apply lights. In 3D controls, you can scale down the solid block of color and apply rotations.

A note about resolution in your Photoshop files
If working in print, your resolution should be double your halftone screen. i.e. If the magazine prints at 150 line screen, you need 300 dpi. If working for the computer screen only, use 72dpi as it speeds up the computing speed when working on images. Higher resolution requires more time for processing.

About 3D lighting
There are 3 different sources of light, which can be controlled in the 3D (Lights) panel: Point lights, spot lights, and infinite lights. In this window you can also adjust the lighting source position, color, intensity and angle.

Point lights
Point lights are simulate the light from a regular lightbulb.

Spot lights
Spot lights shoot the light out at an angle like a cone - narrow at first, then widening as the light travels.

Infinite lights
Infinite light is like an ambient light, much like sunlight. Changing the angle of the Infinite light will lighten or darken your image with more coverage. You can also use Infinite light much like a photographer's reflection screen to hide shadows.

Adjusting light properties
- Hotspot and Fallout values will change the softness of the light's edges.
- Attenuation determines the distance of how far the light travels, and you can set inner and outer values to manipulate the light to be realistic with distance.

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Windows Presentation Foundation (formerly code named "Avalon") is Microsoft's new graphical presentation technology, with support for advanced typography and layout, rich media integration, and vector and 3D graphics. WPF changes the way designers and developers collaborate. In this designer-oriented session, learn about the processes, technologies, and design tools available for WPF applications that run in the browser or on the desktop.

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How can you move your existing browser application toward a richer experience without breaking your development budget? This session presents the path toward WPF by stressing incremental improvements to your Web application that leverage WPF features such as advanced typography and layout, vector and 3D graphics. We embed WPF into existing Web applications, run WPF applications in the browser, and help you decide when to build a full WPF application.

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You may have seen how to create a spearing or 3-D formula such as =SUM(Jan:Dec!B3). In Episode 974, an amazing way to create a 3D reference to non-contiguous sheets.

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• Fracture layers and manipulate in 3D space with ease
• Use expressions, scripts and create a distressed title

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Numerous scientists and engineers have discovered the value of the Google Earth application and Keyhole Markup Language as a medium for research and teaching in earth science, life science, and environmental science. Google SketchUp, on the other hand, has been used mainly for designing buildings and for recreational 3D modeling.This talk demonstrates the use of Google SketchUp to create Collada models that have Earth and Planetary Science applications on the virtual globe. Sample applications include plate tectonics, geophysics, atmospheric science, and the generation of paleoDEMs that represent the earth's landscape during previous geological periods.

Presenter: Declan De Paor

Director of the Pretlow Planetarium and Research Professor of Geophysics at Old Dominion University, Norfolk VA.

Declan obtained a PhD from the National University of Ireland in 1981. He came to the U.S. in 1983 as a Senior Fulbright Scholar and has since worked at Johns Hopkins University, Boston College, Harvard University, Boston University, and Old dominion University. His main research interests are strain and kinematic analysis of deformed rocks and digital mapping of geologic structures.

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• Use Sure Target preset to achieve advanced 3d moves
• Learn advanced tips and create "3d-looking" titles

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Adobe Photoshop's Principal Product Manager joins Bert again to continue explaining lots of the new features in CS4 (Creative Suite 4).

• Camera Raw (over 200 formats natively supported inside of Photoshop)
• Simple painting and graduated filer/gradient tools inside the RAW environment (the cool thing about doing it in RAW is that all the settings are non-destrictive - same as some of the features in Adobe Lightroom)
• Dial in adjustments using brushing tools in camera RAW
• A plugin called pixel bender that harnesses the power of the GPU to let you do a ton of things on the fly (look for the pixel bender at labs.adobe.com)
• Applying photos as a texture onto a 3D surface
• 3D navigator tool for rotating on multiple axes
• Controlling lights and sources of light in 3D images
• Painting Directly on 3D surfaces
• Mixing 2D and 3D together - applying 2D imagery to a 3D environment

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The recent increase in demand for 3D content, for a wide variety of purposes, has led to a corresponding increase in the number and diversity of people using 3D modeling software. It has also amplified the pressure to deliver 3D models on tight budgets, and at pace. These combined pressures have driven an increase in the sophistication of 3D modelling software, but also a new focus on its usability. VideoTrace represents a significant change in the way 3D models are made, and exemplifies a new kind of interface design. The VideoTrace user sketches the shape they require over a frame of a video sequence, and automated image analysis techniques generate the model. The interface is thus intuitive, and easy to use, but supported by strong mathematical analysis. It allows unskilled users to achieve models that would be impossible using more conventional modelling software, and skilled users to dramatically improve their accuracy and productivity.

Speaker: Anton van den Hengel
Anton van den Hengel is the Director of the Australian Centre for Visual Technologies, a Director of PunchCard Visual Technologies Pty Ltd, and an Associate Professor in Computer Vision at the University of Adelaide, South Australia. Dr van den Hengel's primary research interests are in interactive 3D modeling from image sets and large-scale video surveillance.

Google Tech Talks
April, 15 2008

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We explored the basics of sections in one of the Toolbar videos, this video goes deeper into sections to show how to adjust the section display, embed multiple sections in groups and components and create section animations.

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• Create a spinning orb that self animates with time
• Convert to 3D layers and animate the camera with DOF

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"In this tutorial, you'll learn how to combine stock images and 3D text into a cool poster. We'll use an icy theme for it and color it the way we want. You'll see it's not that hard to create a simple appealing poster with effective use of text and imagery" – Ben Merckx

Created by Gavin Steele.

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How to use the 3D pen tool, gradients and the spatter brush to build a better space craft.

To create a trail of smoke following the rocket, Bert creates a new image. First, he fills a layer with a neutral color, used the render>fiber filter and adjusts the variance and strengths. Bert adjusts the perspective , adds a gaussian blur and brush stroke>spatter to give it a soft and smoky feel.

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Bert transforms a city's skyline using Illustrator, Photoshop and the concept of perspective.

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• Control 3D layers so they fade away in the distance
• Create a cool design and manipulate the powerful preset

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Scenes in SketchUp allow you to save camera views, shadows, styles and many other settings, then animate those settings. Learn how to use scenes and about the various settings you can change.

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When we are working on a Web design project, we quite often need icons to show commands like add, delete, or edit. With the Web 2.0 trend, the use of badges and subtle 3D has become very popular. In this tutorial, I will show you how to create a really easy and very nice 3D effect to be used in either buttons and icons or elements that need some depth – Fabio

Created by Gavin Steele.

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In this tutorial I will show you some very easy techniques, using gradients and layer styles, that we can use to produce nice subtle 3D effects in our web designs – Fabio

Created by Gavin Steele.

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Bert welcomes Morty, the Illustrator expert to discuss designing creatively in 3-D with Illustrator.

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Exploring the 3d abilities of Illustrator, Bert demonstrates a reflection effect.

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You've asked for help with 3D concepts in Illustrator: Bert's going to show you how to wrap an invisible 3 dimensional shape made in the 3D Extrude and Bevel tool with Map Art tool. Curled ribbons for campaign posters are just the beginning!

"Lot of viewers have requested a lot of things in Illustator" says Bert Monroy so he's gonna give you some tools and concepts to play with in this essential art tool.

In this episode, Bert walks you thru some basic 3D concepts in Illustrator: making an invisible 3 dimensional effect using the 3D Extrude and Bevel tool, then using the Map Art tool to wrap a Symbol he's created around the 3D shape.

What's he creating? Custom graphics, in this case, star covered curled ribbons, using some basic drawings.

"It's what we map onto that invisible 3 dimensional shape that becomes the final illustration" says Bert. (By clicking the Invisible Geometry button in Map Art, the 3D shape disappears, and you have the mapped graphics all by themselves.)

This is just the beginning: Remember: the best way to learn is to sit there and play!

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Page Curl? You don't need a plugin to make a page curl in Photoshop. You need the warp tool... and a bit of detail work. Bert walks you thru a 2D and a 3D version in this special viewer request edition!

Do a search on page curl in Google, and you'll find quite a few plugins dedicated to making that effect happen in Photoshop and The GIMP.

In this episode, Photoshop mavin Bert Monroy shows you how easy it is to make a page curl without a special plugin. All it takes is a fresh layer, and the Warp Tool!

He walks thru two versions: one looking head on at the book, and a second 3D version looking at the book from an angle. Cool stuff, and Bert takes the process step by step.

Bert has made his source files available for this episode available here

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Cosmic radiation presents a very real threat to astronauts. As part of a NASA funded project to evaluate the cancer risks of a trip to Mars, Dr. Costes' team has been collecting hundreds of gigabytes of 3D and 4D imagery showing the traversal of cosmic particles in human cells, and characterizing the DNA damage along those tracks to reveal the existence of DNA repair factories.

In addition to sharing his project with us, Dr. Costes will discuss how they've overcome some of the challenges in 3D image registration and segmentation, pattern recognition and classification, and storing, organizing and browsing through thousands of images and experimental measurements.

Speaker: Sylvain Costes
Dr. Costes is a principal investigator in the Life Sciences Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Google Tech Talks
April, 22 2008

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Emulate 3D. Utilizing vanishing points. Within Photoshop.

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Man-made environments possess many regularities which can be efficiently exploited for 3D dense reconstruction from multiple widely separated views. We present an approach utilizing properties as piecewise planarity and restricted number of plane orientations to suppress the ambiguities causing failures of standard dense stereo methods. We formulate the problem of 3D reconstruction as one of MRF inference over an image presegmented into superpixels.

Using this representation, we propose novel robust cost measures which handle favorably problematic scenarios containing many repetitive structures and textureless or low textured regions. We demonstrate our approach on several low textured wide-baseline scenes demonstrating superior performance compared to previously proposed methods.

Speaker: B. Micusik, J. Kosecka

Google Tech Talks
April, 7 2008

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Make a wine bottle. In realistic 3D. With Illustrator.

Bert has made his source files available for this episode available here

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Cosmic radiation presents a very real threat to astronauts. As part of a NASA funded project to evaluate the cancer risks of a trip to Mars, Dr. Costes' team has been collecting hundreds of gigabytes of 3D and 4D imagery showing the traversal of cosmic particles in human cells, and characterizing the DNA damage along those tracks to reveal the existence of DNA repair factories.

In addition to sharing his project with us, Dr. Costes will discuss how they've overcome some of the challenges in 3D image registration and segmentation, pattern recognition and classification, and storing, organizing and browsing through thousands of images and experimental measurements.

Speaker: Sylvain Costes
Dr. Costes is a principal investigator in the Life Sciences Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Google Tech Talks
April, 22 2008

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"Viewfinder" is a novel method for users to spatially situate, or "find the pose," of their photographs, and then to view these photographs, along with others, as perfectly aligned overlays in a 3D world model such as Google Earth. Our objective is to provide a straightforward procedure for geo-locating photos of any kind, and our approach is to engage a community of users for a certain amount of human help. We specify that a 10-year-old should be able to find the pose of a photo in less than a minute, and we are convinced that this goal is achievable.

Our work to date, supported by a Google Research Award, was intended to be fast, lean, and focused on a single piece of a larger puzzle: posing and viewing arbitrary photos in pre-existing 3D models (not custom-recorded photos and not model building, though we hope our work will be useful in these areas). In addition to presenting Viewfinder specifics, the larger puzzle itself will be examined.

Speaker: Michael Naimark
Michael Naimark, Viewfinder Project Director

Michael Naimark has made interactive "moviemaps" of Aspen from the street, Paris from the sidewalk, San Francisco from the air, Karlsruhe from the rail, Banff from hiking trails, and stereo-panoramic movies in Jerusalem, Dubrovnik, Angkor, and Timbuktu. His work is an unusual combination of optimism and activism, for example, it currently ranks #1 on Google searches for both VR webcams and camera zapper. Naimark received the World Technology Award for the Arts in 2002 and was the subject of a 20-year retrospective at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena in 2005. He currently serves on the Visiting Committee for the MIT Media Lab and on the faculty in the Interactive Media Division of the USC School for Cinematic Arts. For more information, please visit http://www.naimark.net .

Google Tech Talks
April, 14 2008

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Kindle discount! Watch podcasts on your TV, AT&T vs. Verizon vs. Sprint for Mobile Internet. Print What You Like!

Want to get a Kindle on the cheap? According to PCMag.com, you'll get a $50 discount of use the code "OPRAHWINFREY" by November 1st!

Want to watch podcasts directly on your TV? We have lots of ideas for you, David!

Warren's looking for a way to stream his audio collection from home when he travels, whether it's to the office, or to an Internet connection much farther away. If you've got a PC, then you should check out Orb. You download it to your computer, and then select the kind of media that you want to share with yourself (or others) on the go. It's free, and you can stream to almost anything: a Mac, a phone, or even a gaming console.

But there are other options, such as Jinzora and Avvenu. Jinzora is a bit more complicated, because you're actually setting up a home web server. Avvenu enables you to stream your library to your Windows Mobile smartphone.

This week's Freebie Download Pick: VirtuaWin. Do you feel like you're running out of available desktop space in Windows? Do you envy OS X's Spaces or Linux's multi- console function? VirtuaWin is an open source tool that allows you create multiple virtual desktops that allow you to expand your desktop as much as you need.

"I am about to take a 10,000+ mile road trip around the U.S. I would like to have internet access wherever I go. Which service has the fastest connection and best coverage - AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint." Sounds, epic, Erik, we've got a reccos for you... and watch out: if you go over 5GB of downloads, it could get VERY expensive.

How much video RAM do you need when you're upgrading your video card? Honestly, Anthony your issues will resolve more around the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) you pick, since that will determine your VRAM size and type!

Website We Just Can't Get Enough of!" This week's pick is PrintWhatYouLike.com! This site helps you to take the web page you want to print, and modify it to just have what you want on paper. This is great, especially when there's no printer-ready version. No more being stuck with three pages of full-color ads and other crap that you don't need!

Yi emailed from Jakarta... he's giving a thumbs up for the Asus Eee Box as a do it all home server and says: I use it for BitTorrent, http downloads, hamachi, as an FTP server, and even run Folding@Home on it" and adds "I love it. It's cheap, very quiet, don't take much space, and it comes with 2 years warranty!" Thanks for the info, Yi!

We got a dogpile of responses on Ethan's search for a new router. They can pretty much be sorted into three piles. The biggest pile said get a router than can run DD-WRT or the Tomato firmware.

A much smaller pile said build a router out of an old PC... SmoothWall, M0n0Wall, Untangle and the Astaro Security Gateway each had their fans.

The smallest pile -two letters- suggested a pair of routers. Jamal says the Linksys WRT600N Wireless-N Gigabit Router with Storage Link if money is no object, while Clark wrote in to say the Apple Airport Extreme is worth the apple tax!

JD's having mysterious problems running 3D programs like 3DS Max and Maya in Vista! The good news it's not a refresh rate issue... the bad news is you might have to update both programs... here's a like from Autodesk on how to implement workarounds for some of your problems.

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Picking in-ear headphones, Walmart kills digital music collections, Use Google Earth KML Routes with your GPS, Veronica's Favorite iPhone Apps, DLP Projector Bulb Tips, The Geekiest Bike Around

This week's Freebie download pick is the best Vista tweaking tool evah: WinBubble. (Props to Lawrence Albert for writing this and making it free!) Think of the incredibly fun PowerToys tweaking tools Microsoft released for Windows 98, 2000 and XP... then turn it up a notch. Security tweaks, desktop and icon customization, performance... you can even change the startup screen (or your Windows Experience Index score). If you've got Vista, you'll want this program.

Monty is in hard drive heck... we've got the fix: replace the motherboard (aka CMOS) battery, or, hey, buy that new motherboard and quad core processor. (Which will also require new memory, a new graphics card and an upgraded power supply... and, since you want more than 4 PCI slots, a new case. Ouch!)

DRM Sucks volume 27: Wal*Mart shutting down DRM server, nuking your music collection. Bad Walmart, very bad!

Wonder if Walmart is making room for a new -DRM free- digital music sales program wrapped around Sandisk's slotMusic system.

Sean wants to know how mouse DPI effects gaming... we walk Sean through Dots Per Inch, Counts Per Inch and ... the Polling Rate!

Send us a video qustion! Just record yourself in front a video camera asking a question no longer than 15 seconds. Then up load them to YouTube and email tekzilla@revision3.com a link with "Video Question" in the subject line. (No attachments, please!)

This week's "Website We Just Can't Get Enough Of" is Fantastic Contraption. As geeks, we have a tendency to enjoy building things, and that's why Fantastic Contraption is the greatest time-waster / brain teaser Veronica's found in a long time! (Even tho you have a seemingly simple objective: get the pink ball into the goal, by constructing a vehicle of sorts.)

Tony has a photo editing question... or, more accurately, a problem with a new software package. (100% CPU loading when you try to do anything) We walk him thru some potential fixes, and remind everybody that new applications that have just hit the street can be tough, and chock full o' lots of new and exciting problems. This is a great time to start checking the forums for your product/its users! (BTW, There are some good Lightroom 2 performance tweaks here!)

PS - we love the CPU Performance Charts at Toms Hardware... a great way to figure out how long in the tooth your CPU is getting.

Bicycle GPS? We didn't expect a rash of GPS questions from cyclists after our $200 GPS roundup, but we got one. Short answer, use any GPS device, or if you're looking for something that's more cycling computer than GPS, check out Garmin's Edge series "GPS enabled cycle computers." (Think heart rate and cadence monitors, even support for ANT+ power meters.

Planning your travel routes in Google Earth is fun, but getting .KML, er, Keyhole Markup Language routes into your GPS can be a pain... in fact, transferring any data between GPS devices can be a pain. GPSbabel "converts waypoints, tracks, and routes between popular GPS receivers and mapping programs. It also has powerful manipulation tools for such data," it's free, and runs on just about any OS. Hope that helps ya, Scott!

And if you want to get a serious travel geek on, check out your basic GPS enabled picture taking YBike... it's a hoot.

Our favorite iPhone Apps? OK Chris. Veronica picked Phoneflix, ToDo, Urbanspoon and Wurdle... Patrick is big on Apple's Remote, TideGraph... and can't wait to face off BunsenTech's Dynolicious and InMotions PocketDyno+

As a follow up, Veronica teaches Patrick how to get rid of apps you don't like on the iPhone and iPod touch.

Sukh in NJ has worn out the bulb in his Samsung DLP, we give him info on where to buy that new bulb, why lowering the brightness won't save your bulb (or your LCD/Plasma backlight!), and why he shouldn't turn the machine off when leaving the room (for less than an hour). Props PCMag.com's most excellent HDTV reviewer Robert Heron for helping us out with this one!

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The Photoshop Guys had to pull themselves together and move on with the show after the loss of our dear, departed Camera Two.

So What Have We Learned?

• Scott has a tutorial on creating a 3D product box using Free Transform and the Perspective command.
• Dave shares some keyboard commands for adjusting your type layers without using the mouse or tool palettes.
• Special guest Wes Maggio is visiting from Wacom and he’s got some tips for using a Wacom tablet and integrating pressure sensitivity into your workflow.
• Matt demonstrates how to simulate a graduated neutral density filter using a layer style.
• Scott’s One For The Road Tip is about using the Custom Shape tool.

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Scott Kelby is out of town, but the rest of the Photoshop Guys are here and ready to take up the slack.

So What Have We Learned?

• Corey has a new tutorial on how to use Photoshop to illustrate a sunrise from scratch. It was inspired by his new class at the upcoming Photoshop World Conference.
• Matt shares a retouching tip for removing tan lines. This one’s great for wedding photos because most brides like to lay out in the sun before the wedding and sometimes it really shows.
• Dave plays around with a Photoshop add-on product from Strata and explores some of the 3D capabilities of CS3.
• Corey’s One For The Road Tip is about how to create a quick hot-key for your favorite Photoshop function.

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Corey and RC share the hosting duties this week. Join them as they demonstrate some new Photoshop tricks.

So What Have We Learned?

• RC has a tutorial about creating animations in Photoshop to use in rollover states for your menu items after you bring them over to Dreamweaver.
• Corey sets out to clarify the steps that are involved in a previous tutorial about creating 3D tubes using the Smudge tool.
• Deke McClelland finishes up his two-part tutorial on creating laser beams that shoot out of a mad scientist’s eyes.
• Corey’s One For The Road tip is a keyboard shortcut for grouping selected layers.

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The state of Alabama has built a common operating picture, called "Virtual Alabama," which is shared by over 1,000 government agencies. Virtual Alabama uses Google Earth Enterprise, a secure version of Google Earth that agencies can run in their own data centers to build a globe with their own geospatial data.

Find more information at http://earth.google.com/enterprise/virtual_alabama.html

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Method on how to draw a sphere in SketchUp. Textual directions available at http://sketchup.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=39024

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Corey Barker and Felix Nelson return with eye-popping creative techniques.

So What Have We Learned:

• Felix shows you how to recreate the Scanner Darkly effect with Poster Edges and strokes. Tip courtesy of Margie Rosenstein.
• Corey demonstrates the multiple plane feature in Photoshop CS3’s Vanishing Point filter while creating a cool, abstract background.
• Felix turns a flat image into a 3D magazine spread with highlights and gradients.
• Plus! The Top 10 Reasons You Might be a Photoshop Addict, courtesy of NAPP forum members.

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Matt and Dave serve up some unusual fare and answer your questions.

So What Have We Learned?

• Matt shows you how to create funky 3D text effects using simple strokes and the Warp tool
• Dave demonstrates some of the functions in Photoshop you may never have used before - Apply Image

Ask the Photoshop Guys:
Matt and Dave answer some questions we’ve received from viewers:

• How do you make your own custom color gradient?
• How do you unlink the Layers Mask?

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