Adobe CS4 Design

The Adobe CS4 applications include high photo, video and animation software. If you are looking to create Quicktime content, you can do it with both Adobe Premiere CS4 and Adobe After Effects CS4. Whether you want to simply convert a file or create a Quicktime movie from scratch, the process only takes minutes and the resulting video is compatible with any Quicktime player or for use again in the CS4 applications.

Adobe Premiere

1. Step 1

   Start a new project in Adobe Premiere. Name the project “Quicktime conversion” or something memorable in case you need to return to it later.

2. Step 2

   Import your video files by clicking on the “Project Window” and selecting “Import.” Create new video files like counters, black and titles by going to the “New” section in the file menu.

3. Step 3

   Drag the videos down to the “Video” slots in the “Timeline” section. Edit and trim the video using Adobe’s selection of the tools.

4. Step 4

   Add effects and transitions to the project by clicking on the “Effects” tab in the “Project Window.” Click and drag the effects down to the clip you want to use them on. See a preview of your final video by pressing “Enter” on the keyboard.

5. Step 5

   Export the video as a Quicktime video by going to “File,” “Export” and then selecting “Movie.” Click on the drop-down menu and select the “Quicktime” video format. Click on the “Entire Sequence” check box and make sure the “Audio” and “Video” boxes are checked as well.

6. Step 6

   Play the video in a Quicktime player to make sure it has converted correctly.

Adobe After Effects

7. Step 1

   Open After Effects and a new project will automatically start. Create a new composition by right-clicking in the “Project” window and selecting “New Composition.” Select the length of the composition and choose the size of the video that you want.

8. Step 2

   Drag and drop video, photo and audio files to the “Project Window.” Create bins to keep files more organized if you are using multiple files.

9. Step 3

   Add media to the composition by dragging them to the “Timeline Window.” Organize the files and use the “Preview Monitor” to see how they will look for the final video.

10. Step 4

    Animate the different objects for the video by adding key frames. Key frames are added for different attributes by expanding the media files and changing settings under the “Transform” menu. Click on the “Clock” icon to activate the key frames.

11. Step 5

    Watch a preview of the video and export a final Quicktime movie by going to “File,” “Export” and then selecting “Quicktime Movie.” Select a name for the output movie and press “OK” to render a final video. Test the video in a Quicktime player to make sure it worked properly.

With Photoshop you can create some robust graphics. One of the more popular effects is the rivet or screw, which gives the appearance that an object is being held in place on your monitor screen like a picture hanging on a wall. In this tutorial I will show you how to accomplish this simple task in just a few steps.

1. Launch Adobe Photoshop and open a new project. Select “web” as the preset so that the size of your stage is 600×480. This will give you plenty of room to work through this tutorial.
2. Step 2

   
   

   Unlock the background layer by double clicking the layer’s thumbnail in the layers panel. Rename the layer “main shape”.

3. Step 3

   
   

   Display the “styles” panel by clicking “window” from the main menu at the top then click “styles” in the submenu that appears.

4. Step 4

   
   

   Change your styles to “web styles”. To do that, click the menu down arrow icon located to the right of the “styles” tab on the “styles” panel as shown in the picture associated with this step. When the pop up menu appears select “web styles”.

5. Step 5

   
   

   On the message box that appears (shown in the picture associated with this step) just click “ok”.

6. Step 6

   
   

   On the styles panel choose the chrome style effect that is circled in the picture associated with this step.

7. Step 7

   
   

   You should see your stage area filled in with the style and if you look at your layers panel you will notice that your “main shape” layer has the effects of this style underneath of it.

8. Step 8

   
   

   Duplicate the “main shape” layer by selecting it and then pressing the “CTRL+J” keys at the same time. You will now see a new layer called “main shape copy”. Rename the layer to read “rivet”.

9. Step 9

   
   

   Make sure the layer called “rivet” is selected. If not then select it by clicking on the layer name just once so that it is highlighted. Select the elliptical marquee selection tool (as shown in the picture associated with this step).

10. Step 10

    
    

    This is where you create the rivet. While holding down the shift key, left click the mouse anywhere on the stage and while holding down the left mouse button, drag the cursor to create a small cursor. Holding the shift key allows you to draw a pefect circle. See the picture associated with this step.

11. Step 11

    
    

    Press the CTRL+SHIFT+I keys at the same time. This inverses your selection. In other words it will select everything outside the circle you just drew.

12. Step 12

    
    

    Press the delete key to delete everything that is selected, then press CTRL+D to accept the changes you just made. You now have created your rivet. If you want to create more of them, simply select the “rivet” layer and press CTRL+J to duplicate the layer, and use the move tool to move

One of the keys to successful websites lies in creating a really efficient website that loads fast. And one of the best ways to accomplish this is to make sure that as many of your images as possible are in GIF format. GIF images are smaller and therefore load faster. They also have the added advantage of preserving any transparency in the image. It is quite easy in Photoshop to convert other image formats into GIFs.

1. Start Photoshop. Then go to File, and select “Open.” In the window that opens, browse to the image file you want to work on and double-click on it.
2. Step 2

   Make any necessary changes to the image, such as cropping or resizing. Go to File, and select “Save As.” Name the file. In “Type,” select “PSD.”

3. Step 3

   Go to File, and select “Save for Web.” In the dialog box that opens, go to the upper right and change the file type to GIF. Click on the “Four Up” tab. Then, from the multiple previews presented, select the version that has the smallest file size listed below it, while still preserving the image quality.

4. Step 4

   Click “Enter” on your keyboard. Then name the file and click “OK.” The GIF is now ready to be used.

Did you take a photo that has too much shine on it because of the flash? Maybe you were at a bad angle and the photo has a shadow you would like to get rid of. Here in this tutorial you will learn how to reduce both scenarios with just a few mouse clicks.

1. Launch Adobe Photoshop CS4 and open the photo you wish to work with. In this tutorial I am using a photo of George Foreman the former heavyweight boxing champion. You will notice that George has a shiny spot on the top of his head, and a shadown on the left side (your left not his) of his face. I have circled both in the picture.
2. Step 2

   First we are going to remove the shiny spot. In order to do that we will use the clone stamp tool. Create a new layer in photoshop and call it “shine”

3. Step 3

   Activate the clone stamp tool by pressing the letter “s” on your keyboard. The icon on your tools panel will turn into what looks like a rubber stamp.

4. Step 4

   On the options bar at the top (circled in red in the picture), select a soft edge brush, change the mode to darken your opacity to 20% (you can toy with this number to get the affect you are looking for) and set the sample dropdown box to “all layers”.

5. Step 5

   Now you need to grab a sample that will cover the shiny spot in the photo. To do this look for a small area in your photo that would closely resemble what would be where the shiny part is. In my example I am going to choose a portion directly next to the shiny part so it blends in better. The grab the sample, press the “alt” on your keyboard and click the left mouse button.

6. Step 6

   Now all that is left is to paint that sample you grabbed above over top the shiny area. To do that simply click the left mouse button over the shiny area and paint it in.

With this super easy tutorial you can add some interesting graphics ro your website, a poster, picture, you name it. In this tutorial I am going to show you how to create the top of a screw as shown in the picture associated with this tutorial. It’s easy to do and once you learn it I am sure it will spark some creativity to enhance it.

1. Launch Adobe Photoshop CS4 and select “File” then select “New”. When the “New” window appears give it a name of “screw” and select “Web” from the “preset” drop down box then click “Ok”.
2. Step 2

   
   

   You now have a default layer called “Background”. Double click on the “background” layer so you can unlock it. When the “New Layer” window appears, give your layer the name “Screw” and then click the “Ok” button.

3. Step 3

   
   

   Select the “elliptical marquee tool” from your tools panel as shown in the picture.

4. Step 4

   
   

   With your tool selected, hold down the shift key (this makes a perfect circle) and draw a circle about the size of a screw head as shown in the picture associated with this step.

5. Step 5

   
   

   You need to save this selection, so in order to do that, go to “Select”, then on the submenu choose “Save Selection”.

6. Step 6

   
   

   On the “Save Selection” window that appears type in the name “Screw” in the box labeled “Name” then click the “Ok” button.

7. Step 7

   Press the CTRL+D keys together to remove the selection for now.

8. Step 8

   
   

   Load your styles window by going to “Window” then selecting “Styles” from the submenu.

9. Step 9

   
   

   When the styles window appears, click the styles menu drop down arrow located to the right of the tab that reads style, and select “Web Styles” from the menu.

10. Step 10

    Select your “Paint Bucket Tool” from your tools panel.

11. Step 11

    
    

    With your paint bucket selected choose the web style as circled in the picture with this step and fill in yoru canvass area by clickin on the canvass. Your screen should look similar to what is in the picture.

12. Step 12

    
    

    Make sure your layer is selected by clicking on it once. Load in our selection that we made earlier by going to “Select” then choosing “Load Selection”.

13. Step 13

    
    

    On the “Load Selection” window that appears, select “Screw” from the channel dropdown box as circled in the picture.

14. Step 14

    
    

    Your selection is now back on the screen. We need to invert it and then deleted everything outside the selection. To do this we press the CTRL+SHIFT+I keys all at the same time then press the “delete” key to get rid of everything. When you are done press the CTRL+D keys to accept the changes.

15. Step 15

    
    

    Select the rectangle drawing tool from your tools panel.

16. Step 16

    
    

    At the top you will see additional options that appear when you select the rectangle drawing tool. One of them is color. Click on it to select a color. Choose a dark gray. This will serve as the color of the slot in the screw.

17. Step 17

    For this next step you might need to zoom in on your picture to get a better view. To zoom in just press the CTRL and the “+” keys at the same time.

18. Step 18

    
    

    With the rectangle tool, starting at the top of the screw, and just underneath the outter edge, drawn a vertical thin box. This represents the slot in the screw.

19. Step 19

    Merge the new shape layer that you just drew in the step above, and the screw layer. To do this, select both layers and then press the CTRL+E keys at the same time.

20. Step 20

    
    

    You now have the screw. One final step is to turn it about 45 degrees and to do that press the CTRL+T keys to activate the transform tool, and move your mouse pointer to one of the corners until it looks like the arrow is bending around the corner, once you see that you can turn the screw. Once you have it turned, click the checkmark located at the top and to the right to accept your changes.