Earlier in the year we reported on the new Airtight galleries that had been designed as add-ons for the Lightroom Web module. Maybe you checked out this story, downloaded these galleries and installed them. If you didn’t well not to worry, because these are now included as part of the lightroom 1.3 update and provide you with an extra set of gallery formats to compliment the standard Lightroom gallery styles.

So now that you can access these in Lightroom 1.3, let me show you some examples of these in galleries in use and point out some of the gallery options. In the Web module you have a Gallery panel, which originally contained just the Lightroom HTML and Lightroom Flash gallery options. Now that third parties have started to construct their own gallery styles for Lightroom, it has been possible to install extra gallery styles. The Airtight gallery styles started out as such a project and as I say, have now been incorporated into Lightroom 1.3. Although other styles can be installed too. You will notice in Figure 1 a few extra galleries that I downloaded from TheTurningGate.net website. Whenever you switch to one of these new gallery styles you will see all the other Web module panel options change to reveal the custom options that are associated with each particular style. Let’s begin with the Auto Viewer Gallery.

Figure 1. The Airtight AutoViewer Gallery panel options.

The AutoViewer gallery will create a self-running slideshow web gallery, for which you can adjust things like the Frame size, padding and slide duration, background and frame color. Plus you can adjust the image size and JPEG quality in the Output Settings.

Figure 2. A web browser view of the Airtight AutoViewer Gallery style in action.

Unlike some of the other gallery styles, you won’t be able to fully appreciate how the gallery style works until you hit the preview in Browser button. Figure 2 shows a screen shot of how the finished gallery page should look and if you click on the screen image here you can see an example of this gallery style in action.

Next, we have the PostcardViewer gallery style.

Figure 3. The PostcardViewer panel options.

This gallery features a rather interesting use of Flash to create the postcard layout you see shown here in the sample web browser page below. As you can see in Figure 3, there are a few more panel options here so you can set the number of columns to use plus the zoom factors for the small thumbnails and larger view images.

Figure 4. here are two views of a PostcardViewer gallery style.

The two screen shots in Figure 4 show a web browser view of the gallery in use (click on the images to see a sample gallery page). Once viewed via a browser you can try out the navigation shortcuts: use the Spacebar to toggle between the thumbnail and large image view and use the keyboard arrow keys to navigate from one postcard image to the next.

Following that, the SimpleViewer gallery style.

Figure 5. The SimpleViewer gallery panel options.

The SimpleViewer gallery is fairly similar to the standard Lightroom Flash gallery ‘paginated’ layout, such as that used for the Blue Sky template, but it also offers a few nice flourishes such as the ability to precisely control the thumbnails layout and customize the frame size and padding.

Figure 6. Here is a browser view screen shot of the SimpleViewer gallery in use. Click on the image to see a SimpleViewer gallery in action.

You may have noticed the ‘TTG’ gallery styles that are included in my Lightroom interface screen shots. These are some of the TheTurningGate.net galleries that I referred to earlier. To end with, here is a Lightroom Web module preview of a TurningGate Polaroid™ gallery style:

Figure 6. The TurningGate.net Polaroid Type I 1.2 gallery style.

With this web gallery the photos are cropped to a square format and placed in a Polaroid™ style print border and the photos presented on the page can be dragged about however you like and you click on an individual picture to see a larger view.

Pretty cool huh? I won’t go into all the details of how to install these galleries. Maybe I’ll cover that in a later tutorial. For now I do recommend that you visit the website to check out this and other Gallery folder downloads.

Bluefire Blog have published a series of tips and tricks on how to customize Web template designs in Lightroom. Click on the links to go directly to the link pages to read more about each tip.

Customizing Photoshop Lightroom 1.0 Flash Galleries with XML
The controls within the Web tab allow you to customize the Lightroom Flash Gallery templates in a lot of ways. However, you can customize them much further by editing the XML files that are generated when you export a gallery. This requires almost no knowledge of Flash or HTML, and can be done with almost any text editor.

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Add a background image
You can add a background image to a Flash Gallery generated by Photoshop Lightroom 1.0 by editing the “style.xml” file in an exported gallery (found inside the “..resources/styles” folder). The image will go behind everything else in the gallery including the Title Bar and Menu Bar (which fyi, you can set to be semi-transparent or “hidden” – covered in Tips and Tricks #2.) The background image will always fill the background of the entire gallery, so it will be “stretched” to fit any given browser window.

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Hide or Modify Header Bar and Menu Bar
The Header Bar and/or Menu Bar in a Flash Gallery generated by Photoshop Lightroom 1.0 can be turned off (hidden) or made semi-transparent by editing the style.xml file within an exported gallery (found inside the “..resources/styles” folder). This is particularly handy if you have added a background image (covered in Tips and Tricks #1) or if you are putting a gallery into an existing web page (covered in Tips and Tricks #3) and you don’t want or need “headers” in the gallery itself.

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Embedding a Flash gallery into a web page at a fixed size
When you export a Flash Gallery out of Photoshop Lightroom 1.0, it makes a web page for you (index.html) and on that page the gallery always scales to fit the browser window. That’s nice, but sometimes you want to put a gallery into your own web page with other content. If you do that, you may want to turn off the Header bar and Menu bar in the gallery itself (covered in Tips and tricks #2).

You may also want to “fix” the size of the gallery so that it does not auto-scale to fit the available space.

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Changing Image and Thumbnail Borders
If you look closely at the various Flash Gallery templates in Photoshop Lightroom 1.0, you’ll notice some variations in the “look” of image and thumbnail borders (and the drop-shadows too) but if you look in the customization controls of the app, you’ll notice there is no way to change those on any given template. Here’s how to do that manually by editing values in the “style.xml” file (found inside the “..resources/styles” folder) of an exported Flash Gallery.

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Press Release: SAN JOSE, Calif. — May 17, 2006 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced that it is sponsoring the American Pavilion Student Filmmaker Program at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, May 17 through May 28 in Cannes, France. Students representing 30 film schools in North America, the United Kingdom, India and South Africa will be paired with professional filmmakers and instructors to create documentaries on their experience at Cannes using the Adobe® Production Studio, Macromedia® Flash® and Macromedia Studio 8. Documentaries will be broadcast daily on the Adobe.com Web site.

During a three-day orientation 50 students will be trained on Adobe’s award-winning desktop digital video and audio tools, matched with mentors and broken into 14 collaborative teams. The teams will produce a three minute broadcast reporting on activities in the American Pavilion, a five minute documentary on Cannes and the festival, and a motion logo for the American Pavilion Student Filmmaker Program. Adobe will also offer students access to leading filmmakers who have used Adobe products for their Cannes submissions with daily lectures from the Pavilion.

The best student collaborative team projects will be recognized at an “It’s a Wrap Party” at the end of the Film Festival. Members from SAGIndie, the Screen Actors Guild’s program for outreach to independent producers, will judge student films in two categories: best broadcast and best in show documentary, with special recognition to entries for animation logo creation. Documentaries will automatically be entered into the 2007 Adobe Design Achievement Awards student competition. Additional information on the awards is available at www.adobe.com/education/adaa .

“Students have embraced digital filmmaking and understand the creative potential unleashed by today’s powerful digital video technologies,” said Jim Guerard, vice president of Web and Video products for Adobe. “As digital video becomes even more pervasive across the Internet and mobile platforms, student filmmakers can look forward to delivering their creative work to new audiences, unavailable to previous generations. We look forward to viewing the work of these talented story-tellers during Cannes Film Festival.”

Adobe selected professional filmmakers and instructors to participate on the faculty for the program and to mentor to the students. The faculty includes David Chai, San Jose State University; Jim Kenney, California College of Art; Kathy Smith, University of Southern California; and Bun Lee of Vancouver Film School. Past Adobe Design Achievement Awards winners and finalists Yibi Hu of Kingston University; and Khayalethus Mtshali from the Brand Communication School in South Africa will be student participants in the program; and Eric Finkelman and Evan Schoonmaker of Original City Pictures and alumni of the School of the Visual Arts will serve as industry mentors.

In the American Pavilion, Adobe will also provide a Daily Adobe Reel Ideas Studio with a true post production studio atmosphere and showcase film, animation and broadcast finalist and winners of the 2005 Adobe Design Achievement Awards. Adobe will host daily lectures on film and animation techniques using Production Studio, Flash and Studio 8. Students will also have the opportunity to practice pitching ideas for future films and documentaries with visitors to the Pavilion during “Pitchfest” sessions.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information – anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit www.adobe.com .

Microsoft on Tuesday released early versions of a new line of tools meant to lure illustrators and designers closer to Redmond’s world.

The software giant made public its trial editions, called community technology previews (CTP), of Expression Interactive Designer and Expression Graphic Designer–two products from a new line of software aimed at graphics designers and illustrators.

Formerly code-named Sparkle, Expression Interactive Designer is for building the user interface and layout of Web or Windows applications. The CTP is its first public release and Microsoft engineers have not settled on all the features, said Forrest Key, group product manager in Microsoft’s developer tools division.

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What do The Incredibles, My Favorite Martian, and The Hulk have in common?

Varying levels of entertainment value? Yes, but also animation. Animation, at least as far as Hollywood is concerned, has become a largely computer-generated medium, and a group of professional animators who’ve worked on those movies (among others) has created an online school to take the computer model one step farther. While apprentices used to learn (sometimes literally) at the feet of a master such as Chuck Jones, modern students take to the Internet.

AnimationMentor.com has been online for about 10 months, and features heavy hitters from rival companies as diverse as Pixar, Industrial Light and Magic, Disney, PDI/Dreamworks, and Sony Imageworks. It’s interesting to me, in that it demonstrates the idea that business antagonism often doesn’t coincide with artistic rivalry. Having attended a college with a large degree of arts emphasis in its curriculum, I’ve always been fascinated by the idea that the people who actually produce the product don’t carry the positions of their employers around with them, and in fact often appreciate each other’s work.

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Press Release: SAN JOSE, Calif. — Jan. 17, 2006 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced and shipped Adobe® Premiere Pro® 2.0, the latest version of its popular video editing software application. This major new release of Adobe Premiere Pro enhances productivity and delivers deeper creative control, while allowing editors to work with the latest digital formats including HDV, HD and Flash Video.

Unparalleled integration with Adobe After Effects® and Adobe Photoshop® makes it even easier for editors and artists alike to leverage layered files between these widely used applications. Plus, deeper creative control makes it possible to fine tune and adjust virtually every aspect of the production to get the desired results. Added native HD and HDV support increases the expansive list of format options in Adobe Premiere Pro, ensuring editors can work with any popular format.

“Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 sets a new standard for editing digital video on the Windows platform, giving professionals everything they need to create award-winning work,” said Jim Guerard, vice president of product management, Web and Video Solutions for Adobe. “Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 continues to address the evolving needs of the market by providing users with native support for HD, outstanding Flash Video support, and tighter integration with other Adobe applications to provide a more efficient workflow.”

Native Support for HD, SD, and HDV

Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 supports all major video formats from DV to uncompressed HD, giving editors the flexibility to meet a broad range of client needs. Users can work with material captured using popular camera formats, work in real-time and maintain image quality to deliver uncompromised results. With native support for the AJA Xena HS real time encoding card, Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 provides a complete solution for SD and HD production, allowing editors to capture, edit and layoff high-quality content. Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 also supports capture and editing of HDV content without conversion. By editing HDV content directly, the highest quality results are ensured.
Automated Review and Approval Process

Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 increases workflow productivity with the introduction of Clip Notes, a revolutionary new technology for expediting the review and approval of video content. Clip Notes uses ubiquitous PDF technology to provide a customized commenting interface for video and audio, using either Adobe Reader® or Adobe Acrobat® software. Reviewers can add timecode-accurate comments to the video, which can then be exported and returned to the editor as PDF files. Once imported into Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0, the comments are shown as markers in the timeline, providing frame-accurate feedback for the editor.

Unparalleled Adobe Integration

Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 offers unparalleled integration with Adobe After Effects 7.0, Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Adobe Encore® DVD 2.0 software, removing production bottlenecks and freeing time so users can stay focused on telling their story. When used as component of the Adobe Production Studio, Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 provides access to Adobe Dynamic Link, a workflow enhancing technology that eliminates the need for the intermediate rendering of projects. Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 also introduces the availability to export Flash Video (FLV) files, offering new integration with Macromedia® Flash® for customers who produce video for use on the web. For file management, Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 includes Adobe Bridge, a visual file browser for viewing and organizing video, audio and image files. Adobe Bridge uses XMP metadata to provide detailed information about files and provide powerful search capabilities.

Pricing and Availability

Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 for Microsoft® Windows® XP is available now through Adobe Authorized Resellers and the Adobe Store at www.adobe.com/store . Estimated street price for the full version is US$849, with upgrade pricing starting at US$199. For more detailed information about new features, upgrade policies and pricing, please visit: www.adobe.com/premierepro . Adobe Premiere Pro is also available as a component in the Premium and Standard versions of Adobe Production Studio.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated

Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information – anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit www.adobe.com .

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© 2006 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Adobe Acrobat, After Effects, Adobe Premiere, Photoshop and Reader are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All prices listed are in US Dollars and do not include taxes and shipping. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Press Release: SAN JOSE, Calif. — Jan. 17, 2006 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced and shipped Adobe® After Effects® 7.0 software, the industry standard tool for producing motion graphics and visual effects for film, video, DVD, and the Web.

Professionals can streamline their workflows to produce compelling content for any media with the new features packed in Adobe After Effects 7.0, including a re-designed, unified user interface, accelerated high-fidelity OpenGL 2.0 support, and the industry’s most comprehensive Flash Video (FLV) export capabilities. Adobe After Effects 7.0 is available as a stand-alone product or as part of Adobe Production Studio also announced today (see separate release).

“Adobe After Effects 7.0 meets the needs of the most demanding film and video professionals and allows creatives who are moving into time-based design to easily create compelling motion graphics and visual effects,” said Jim Guerard, vice president of product management, Web and Video Solutions for Adobe. “With this release, After Effects has extended its leadership role in motion graphics and visual effects, on both the Mac and Windows platforms.”

Flexible and Efficient Workflow

Adobe After Effects streamlines workflows and enhances overall productivity with a re-designed, unified user interface, featuring dockable panels. Users can eliminate overlapping windows and palettes, re-arrange panels, save custom workspaces, and control UI brightness. After Effects users can quickly create great-looking animations with hundreds of fully-customizable Animation and Behavior presets for animating text, effects, transitions, and backgrounds that can be accessed through Adobe Bridge, a full-featured file browser that can be launched independently. When used as component of the Adobe Production Studio, Adobe After Effects 7.0 provides access to Adobe Dynamic Link, a workflow enhancing technology that eliminates the need for the intermediate rendering of projects.

Expanded support for OpenGL 2.0 speeds production time by accelerating the on-screen rendering of 2D and 3D composites and delivering high fidelity support for blending modes, motion blur on 2D layers, anti-aliasing, track mattes and shadows.

Limitless Creative Control

Adobe After Effects 7.0 enables industry professionals to produce eye-catching motion graphics and sophisticated visual effects for delivery to virtually any media. The new Graph Editor makes it easy to create precise animations across multiple layers, allowing complete visual control over keyframe editing and easy synchronization of effects. New 32-bit High Dynamic Range (HDR) color support in the Professional edition allows users to match the behavior of color and light to achieve a high degree of photo-realism by compositing in 32-bit-per channel floating-point color. In the Professional edition, Timewarp utilizes motion vectors to slow down or speed up footage with smooth, crisp results and minimal artifacts. Adobe After Effects 7.0 also introduces the availability to export Flash Video (FLV) files, offering new integration with Macromedia® Flash® for customers who produce video for use on the web.

Pricing and Availability

Adobe After Effects 7.0 for Mac OS X 10.3.9 or 10.4, and Microsoft® Windows® XP is available immediately through Adobe Authorized Resellers and the Adobe Store at www.adobe.com/store . Estimated street prices for the full version are US$999 for the Professional edition and US$699 for the Standard edition. Upgrade pricing is estimated at US$199, and US$499 to upgrade from Standard to Professional edition. For more detailed information about new features, upgrade policies and pricing, please visit: www.adobe.com/aftereffects . Adobe After Effects Standard and Professional versions are also available as components in the Standard and Premium editions of Adobe Production Studio respectively.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated

Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information – anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit www.adobe.com .

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© 2006 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe, the Adobe logo, After Effects, Illustrator, Photoshop and Adobe Premiere are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Mac is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. All prices listed are in US Dollars and do not include taxes and shipping.