David B. Weigle Information Commons
Library FindIt:
Books in the Digital Media Lab

We maintain a library of books covering most of the software on our workstations, as well as on other topics relevant to users of the lab. These are very useful if you want to teach yourself to use a piece of software and work at your own pace, or if you just want to find a solution to a specific problem you're having. The books do not circulate, but you are welcome to use them while you are in the lab.

The text of the book descriptions come from the publishers of the books.
Adobe Photoshop CS3 comes with powerful new features with huge payoffs. But it can be overwhelming to learn, even for professional photographers, graphic designers, keen amateurs, and others who already have an initial grasp of Photoshop. Acclaimed photographer Martin Evening, who wrote the best-selling previous books, 'Adobe Photoshop for Photographers', makes it easy with this new, thoroughly updated edition.
As the feature list of Adobe Photoshop continues to grow, even users with years of experience can feel overwhelmed by the many tools and methods for selecting or isolating parts of an image. Layers, channels, paths, clipping masks, layer masks, vector masks, the Pen tool, Magic Wand, and so on -- all let users work on specific regions of an image, but in fundamentally different ways. Making clean, efficient selections are essential skills for any Photoshop user, whether a graphic designer, professional photographer,
or hobbyist.
  • Learn the fundamentals of making selections, and when to choose which method
  • Blend images and replace backgrounds using layer, vector, and channel masks
  • Correct color and exposure using adjustment layers
  • Make next-to-impossible hair selections with channel masks
  • Create a non-destructive workflow, giving you total creative freedom
Get your picture-perfect guide to using all the cool features of Photoshop CS3.

Whether you're new to Photoshop, want to take your skills up a notch, or want to quickly master the new features and enhancements in Photoshop CS3, you've come to the right place. Nine easy-to-follow minibooks cover Photoshop fundamentals plus the newest tools and techniques. "Putting It Together" exercises give you hands-on experience. This is your one-stop guide to Photoshop. You'll learn to:

  • Specify size and resolution.
  • Correct contrast, color, and clarity.
  • Create top-notch selections.
  • Composite images with layers and blending modes.
  • Make adjustments with levels and curves.
  • Prep graphics for print or the Web.
Layer blending modes have been part of Photoshop for years, but because they're not easy to understand at first glance, this immensely useful feature tends to get overlooked. Photoshop Blending Modes Cookbook for Digital Photographers is the only recipe-format book that covers blending modes specifically for digital photographers.

The book covers:

  • Changing hue, saturation, luminosity, and color
  • Correcting basic color shifts
  • Repairing highlights
  • Sharpening or softening focus
  • Adjusting lighting for subtle or dramatic effects
  • Controlling contrast
  • Creating surface effects and textures
  • Adding interest to landscapes and urban scenes
  • Enhancing portraits of children and adults
  • Simulating graphics arts techiques
and much more.

Bestselling author Scott Kelby (Editor of Photoshop User magazine) is back with an amazing new collection of Photoshop Down and Dirty Tricks, including how to create the same exact effects you see every day in magazines, on TV, at the movies, and on the Web. It's more of those eye-popping, jaw-dropping special effects that made Scott's previous version an award-winning worldwide smash hit!

But this isn't just an update to his previous book--these are 100% ALL NEW EFFECTS from cover-to-cover to reflect the latest trends in Photoshop special effects and design. These are nothing but today's real world techniques--the same ones you see used by leading Photoshop photographers, designers, and special effect masters, and its all here in the only book of its kind.

With a mantra like "There are no bad originals, only bad Photoshop operators," you know best-selling author Dan Margulis is serious about exposing people to the magic of Photoshop. Nowhere is that magic more apparent than in its LAB color processing capabilities, which can make even the subtle canyon colors of rock, sand, and dirt come to vivid life. However, you may be wary of taming the complex beast. Here's your guide! In these pages, Dan shows that you can derive enormous benefits from just a few simple tools and techniques. He also demonstrates that you can take these techniques as far as you wish, employing the power-user features he describes in later chapters. Starting with canyons and progressing to faces, you will see just how quickly you can begin improving your images by following the "recipes" included here. Each chapter includes a sidebar with review questions and exercises as well as a "Closer Look" section that examines some of the principles behind the techniques. A CD includes exercise files.
After years of fielding questions at live Photoshop seminars, Dave Cross realized there were many questions that were indeed "frequently asked." Most questions seemed to start with "How come I can't," "How do I,..." or "Why won't the (blank) tool work?" This book addresses the most common Photoshop questions by providing the answers and outlining strategies that can help avoid problems in the first place.

The writing style is quick and to the point, highlighting answers to specific questions and common approaches to find the answer to any problem. This book is aimed at all levels of Photoshop users, but in particular those who want to be their own help desk!
It's a sad but undeniable fact of life: Whether you scan, shoot, or capture, the process of digitizing images introduces softness, and to get great-looking results, you'll need to sharpen the great majority of digital images. The softness introduced during digitizing results from the very nature of the digitizing process. To represent images digitally, we must transform them from continuous gradations of tone and color to points on a grid. In the process details gets "averaged" into the pixels, softening the overall appearance. For some types of printed output, further softness is introduced when the image pixels are converted to dots of ink or toner. As a result, just about every digital image requires sharpening.

But another sad fact of digital photography is that most images are sharpened badly--either not enough, too much, or using the wrong methods--creating chunky details and harsh edges. Author, Bruce Fraser is here to teach readers all they need to know about sharpening including when to use it, why it's needed, how to use the camera's features, how to recognize an image needs sharpening, how much to use, what's bad sharpening and how to fix over sharpening.
Do you spend too much time doing repetitive production tasks such as placing and replacing images, resizing them, dragging them from one document to another, and preparing images for printing instead of being creative? Do you use Adobe Photoshop CS2 and have some experience with scripting? You're in luck. Since Adobe Creative Suite 2 was created with built-in support for scripting, virtually every repetitive or time-consuming task that creative professionals have to do in the Adobe Creative Suite can be streamlined with the help of a script. This book describes how to use JavaScript to manipulate and extend Adobe Photoshop within Adobe Creative Suite 2, and provides reference information for the JavaScript objects, properties, and functions defined by Adobe's applications.

Now available in print for the first time, this scripting reference provides the information experienced JavaScript users need to create custom scripts for Photoshop, whether you're looking to automate Camera Raw options and settings, automatically resize and export large batches of images into your page-layout application, or want to automatically add metadata, like a copyright notice, to selected image files. These are just a few examples of how you can use Photoshop CS2's built-in scripting capabilities to save you from hours of repetitive tasks.
Jack is back with the update to his best-selling, award-winning Photoshop Wow! Book! Readers have hailed previous versions of Jack Davis's landmark book as the "most useful Photoshop book ever" because of its practical, real-life solutions and its value-packed CD-ROM. The The Photoshop 7 Wow! Book simply ups the ante with even more time-saving techniques completely updated for Adobe Photoshop 7.

The Photoshop 7 Wow! Book, the focus is on the visuals: Using beautiful, full-color pictures of professionally designed Photoshop projects, this volume clearly lays out the steps required to re-create these spectacular results in your own projects. To work visually, you need to think visually, and this book allows you to do just that. As with all of the titles in this popular series, the emphasis here is on results how to produce the best work in the fewest steps possible. And sometimes that means using techniques even Adobe hasn't thought of, such as the Wow! Media Painting and Layer Style techniques introduced here.

Learn from instructor-led CD-ROM tutorials at your own pace! Photoshop 7 Virtual Classroom is a revolutionary new way to learn. Weve combined a clear, step-by-step book approach with easy-to-understand multimedia tutorials. Pop in the CD-ROM and follow along as the author explains and demonstrates the techniques discussed in the text. Work at your own speed and replay the tutorials as often as needed to reinforce the books lessons.

The book is written for filmmakers at varying experience levels--taking an integrated approach to media production, and emphasizing the ways different aspects of the process work together to create a vital work of digital art:

  • Hands-on detailed examination of the artistic aspects of film and video production
  • Extensive examples use comprehensive step-by-step exercises for advanced editing techniques
  • Scenes from successful films illustrate techniques used by professionals
  • Includes a collection of professionally shot video clips, so the user can read and follow along with sets of structured exercises
  • Develops a highly refined repertoire of advanced skills in editing, effects creation, title design, and more
  • Inspires advanced readers to work with the included clips on their own and experiment with new ideas
  • Written for both Mac and PC users and covers advanced uses of both Final Cut Pro and Adobe After Effects

Written in an engaging, accessible style, DV Filmmaking provides a solid foundation of tremendous value to a beginner, while addressing the fine points of filmmaking with a level of sophistication, detail, and insight that even the most worldly director or educator can appreciate. The author draws upon his years of experience teaching at the college and graduate level, his extensive professional background as a media producer, and his unmistakable love of cinema to create a text that's not only easy to learn from, but also fun to read.

For anyone who's ever wondered what that little button does, 500 Digital Video Hints, Tips, and Techniques provides short, jargon-free, ultra-accessible answers. It's the complete guide to getting professional-quality results from a digital movie camera, whether the budding videographer is capturing a family reunion or his or her first digital feature. This colorful blend of step-by-step tutorials, quick fixes, and bullet-point lists is the perfect antidote to boring, useless technical manuals--and it's packed with buying guides, dos and don'ts, professional tips, troubleshooting advice, even how to share work with family and friends. Got a digital video camera? Get 500 Digital Video Hints, Tips, and Techniques and learn what it can do.
Two hundred and eighty images, taken from actual digital video projects, pack this portable handbook, which covers the complete spectrum of digital video production. Starting with an overview of the various types of digital equipment, formats, and basic digital processes, the focus is placed on 3 key areas: shoot, including preparation, camera movement, and sound and lighting basics; edit, covering storyboards and timelines, trimming, titles, and special effects; and share, burning to disc, sharing digital content on the Web, and more. With advice on surviving and thriving in the digital production "real world"--including how to find an audience and work as a freelance professional--this is an absolute must for anyone wanting to get a foothold this new yet growing medium.
Over the past few years, HDV has burst onto the professional video production landscape and is changing the world of high-definition acquisition. Are you ready to make the transition to HDV? Let this book, with its clear, unbiased overview of HDV, be your guide. More than a catalog of HDV products, this book provides you with perspective on the driving forces behind high-definition, technical information about digital video technologies thats easy to follow, and real-world tips for getting the most out of your HDV investment. The book also includes a tear-out focusing chart, HDV resource guide, and detailed glossary for quick reference, making it a timely and valuable resource for video professionals and students.

Working with HDV provides the answers to some of the big questions surrounding this exciting format:
- Why has HDV become so popular so quickly?
- Is HDV right for your next project?
- What are your HDV camcorder/equipment options?
- How does HDV differ from other video formats?
- Why is shooting with HDV similar to shooting with a film camera?
- How will you manage your HDV post production workflow?
- Does HDV make good business sense for your operation?
- What are the alternatives to HDV on the market?
The Hands-on Guide to Video Blogging and Podcasting provides tremendous value to those content publishers, big and small, that want to create syndicated video blog and podcast content. The simplified, plain talking break-down the authors bring to the book will give everyone the tools to plan, create, and execute a blog/podcast outlet.

This book explains these emerging media tools from a professional perspective. Quickly learn the technical aspects of video blogging and podcasting along with their business and financial ramifications.
  • Step-by-step instructions to quickly launch a Podcast or video blog
  • The basics of multimedia use in blogging and the most relevant text-blog technologies
  • Podcast and video blog technology uses in business/corporate, education, customer communication, and entertainment contexts
  • Concise, understandable breakdowns of all relevant videoblogging and Podcasting buzzwords, acronyms, and related multimedia technologies
  • Coverage of tools, production techniques, new technologies, multimedia blog basics, monetization, and licensing
  • Case studies that analyze successful for-profit and not-for-profit podcasts and video blogs
This newly updated guide from Lisa Brenneis, an undisputed master of the digital video medium, provides task-based, step-by-step instructions along with loads of visuals and time-saving tips that will help busy readers quickly find what they need to know about Final Cut Pro. Topics covered include essential editing operations and media-management strategies, transitions and motion effects, filters, rendering options, and more. This must-have reference also addresses features new to version 5: including higher quality effects, RT Extreme with Dynamic RT, closer integration with Apple's other creative tools and more.
With a multicam tool that lets you cut from more than 100 sources, real-time high-quality effects viewing made possible by Dynamic RT, the ability to capture more than 20 simultaneous audio channels, and more, its no wonder you cant wait to start using Final Cut Pro 5. This hands-on guide will get you going! Using a series of project-based tutorials, veteran director, trainer, and author Larry Jordan guides you through every stage of video editing. His real-world experiences coupled with step-by-step lessons involving real projects, will help you quickly advance your editing skills and gain experience using Final Cut Pro 5. By working alongside the book and using the exercise files and QuickTime movies provided on the accompanying DVD, youll quickly progress through the basics and on to more advanced topics like creating transitions, animation, and titles, and choosing among filter and rendering options.
Need to learn iMovie HD 6 and iDVD 6 fast? Try a Visual QuickStart! This best-selling references visual format and step-by-step, task-based instructions will have you up and running with these great iLife applications in no time. Best-selling author and iLife expert Jeff Carlson uses crystal-clear instructions, full-color illustrations, and friendly prose to introduce you to everything from using themes, tools, and effects to timeline editing to video podcasts and blogs. Youll also learn about everything new in iMovie HD 6 and iDVD 6, including motion-graphics themes, real-time effects, audio enhancements, sharing options, and more!
COVERS ALL THE NEW FEATURES OF SP4!
No one knows more about DVD authoring with DVD Studio Pro than Bruce Nazarian, and no one explains it better. His DVD Studio Pro 4 gives you:
  • A complete and thorough explanation of what a DVD is
  • Chapter-by-chapter analysis of DVD Studio Pro 4's vast array of features
  • Step-by-step tutorials that make DVD authoring simple and fun!
  • A bonus DVD disc packed with tutorials, tools, tips, and project templates, as well as sample menu graphics
  • Thorough coverage of new hi-def features and how to encode MPEG video and AC3 audio for DVD
  • Photoshop graphics tactics for successful DVD images
  • Walkthroughs on Slideshows, Menus, Markers, and Stories
  • In-depth coverage of Scripting in DVD Studio Pro 4
  • Simple Scripting strategies and techniques
  • Overviews of DVD assets, advantages, and applications -- and ways to get the most from them
  • 150 time-saving illustrations
  • Advanced techniques to try after you've mastered the basics
llustrator 9 For Dummies will show newcomers and experienced users alike how to easily get up to speed and start creating great artwork with the brand new release of Adobe Illustrator. Authored by Illustrator's product manager and foremost Illustrator expert Ted Alspach, this will be the best introductory book ever on the world's number-one professional illustration tool. Packed with great information and plenty of humor, this book is the fun and easy ticket to becoming an Illustrator artiste with out any of the pain!
Learn how to create dynamic illustrations and work effectively and powerfully with Illustrator and Photoshop! Take an exciting journey into the world of Illustrator graphics. Harness the power of Adobe Illustrator 8's new features: Brushes, Gradient Mesh objects, the Pencil tool, and the Photo Crosshatch filter. Learn how to work seamlessly between Illustrator and Photoshop, and why these great Adobe products are made for each other. Start a design in one program and finish it in the other. In the Color Studio, view images created by the best Illustrator artists in the business. Illustrator 8 f/x and design contains a variety of carefully constructed projects (illustrations) and all the files you need to practice every technique. From intermediate to expert Illustrator user, you'll find challenging and intriguing projects to complete.
This work helps in capturing ideas quickly; writing memorable tunes and songs; using loops; understanding MIDI and software instruments; understanding audio recording and real instruments; and using effects - effectively! Let's face it, for many beginners and amateur musicians new to computer-based music making, much of today's top-of-the-range recording software is far too complicated to operate. It's not like that with GarageBand. The complicated stuff remains hidden from view, with just the basic controls on display. The interface is friendly and inviting rather than off-putting, and capturing your ideas is quick and intuitive. "Keep it Simple with GarageBand" contains a series of easy music making projects for beginners and amateur musicians. Follow these simple projects and you'll not only learn how to use GarageBand effectively, you'll also pick up tons of insider tips on songwriting, constructing tunes and pro-style audio production along the way: all explained in easy-to-understand terminology. Each project is preceded by a few explanatory paragraphs with accompanying jargon busters.
Whether you're an accomplished musician or a student, Garageband is the most rewarding way to create, perform, and record your own music. In the only Apple-certified guide to Garageband, composer and master trainer Mary Plummer shows you just how easy it is to turn your Mac into a fully featured recording studio. Plummer offers a complete, self-paced course in all aspects of Garageband - from mastering the interface and basic recording techniques to the secrets of arranging a song, editing and mixing tracks, adding effects, and distributing your Garageband compositions. Fully updated for version 3, Mary covers all of Garageband's hot new features including podcast recording and iMovie scoring.
Whether you're a professional musician or a mere novice, Apple's GarageBand software has everything you need to produce commercial-quality recordings entirely on your own. Just imagine how many thousands of singers and instrumentalists remain undiscovered because they lack the capability to produce viable demos. Well, no more.

Now there's no need to assemble a backup band or book time at a professional studio--GarageBand has it covered. And GarageBand 2: The Missing Manual gives you the know-how you need to make it all happen. It's an authoritative, witty guide to constructing digital recordings with GarageBand.

Written by the master of the Missing Manual series, and a musician himself, David Pogue, this top-selling book shows you how to maximize the program's entire set of tools. Pre-recorded loops, sampled sounds, live recordings--they're all explained in easy-to-understand language. It also shows you how to apply professional-sounding effects like reverb or chorusing, and then export the finished product to iTunes, where you can download your work to an iPod, export it as an MP3, or burn it onto CDs.

Get up to speed fast and start creating dynamite Web sites!

Do you want to create a sophisticated Web site that's easy to develop and maintain? Whether you're a beginner or an experienced Web developer, this friendly guide shows you how to utilize Dreamweaver's newest enhancements to build and manage state-of-the-art, professional Web sites quickly and easily.

  • Set up your site and create new pages
  • Work with text, graphics, and links
  • Define and apply styles using CSS
  • Add audio, video, and Flash. files to your site
  • Use Dreamweaver's database features
In this full-color Designer's Notebook, eight expert French photographers reveal their secrets in using Photoshop and a collection of dedicated applications to create extraordinary panoramic photos--including some amazing 360-degree images. For anyone involved with digital imagery or animation, this groundbreaking volume demonstrates a new way of thinking about what's possible and what's required to produce these images. Originally published in France, Assembling Panoramic Photos: A Designer's Notebook is available in English for the first time. Part art book, part how-to guide, this stunning work takes you right into the studio and sits you down next to renowned digital artists as they advance step-by-step toward their final images. The showcased pieces are inspiring and avant-garde, and the techniques are instructive for a wide range of amateur and professional photographers, graphic designers, and digital artists. The artists featured in this Designer's Notebook show how they use Photoshop, Stitcher, PanaVue ImageAssembler, and other specialized tools to create high-quality panoramas and wide-angle images from a series of photos. They also show how to create virtual reality scenes with Apple's QuickTime VR in conjunction with leading-edge technologies that support 360-degree one-shot photos, cubic images, and 3D views of objects. The book offers advanced Photoshop instruction that goes beyond opening this menu, or clicking that palette. You receive expert aesthetic guidance, from start to finish, with notes and views that reveal every step of the process.
Dreamweaver MX Magic is another stellar addition to the New Riders' Magic series. To demonstrate the types of web applications that can be developed using Dreamweaver MX, we sought 14 experts from different development areas. The authors use their expertise or specialized backgrounds to help you perfect one of Dreamweaver MX's features or implement a set of tools to add functionality to a website.

One of the biggest benefits is that you, the reader, get to experience a wide variety of approaches on how to use Dreamweaver MX. In addition, since the book is project based, you can turn immediately to the topic that interests you and start digging in. The book offers tips and techniques on topics such as creating templates, using CSS, and working with databases that are sure to help you succeed!
Macs For Dummies, 7th Edition, is your complete guide to the Mac. Find out how to make movies with iMovie ; build a database with AppleWorks 6; or go wireless with the AirPort Card. Following is a hit list of just some of the things youll find in this book:

  • Understanding windows, icons, and folders
  • Getting fast with keyboard shortcuts
  • Hooking up a printer, scanner, digital camera, or PalmPilot
  • Making your way onto the Internet
  • Having fun with e-mail
  • Making your laptop battery last
  • Troubleshooting problems
  • Getting familiar with Mac OS X
It's little wonder that longtime Windows users are migrating in droves to the new Mac. They're fed up with the virus-prone Windows way of life, and they're lured by Apple's well-deserved reputation for producing great all-around computers that are reliable, user-friendly, well designed, and now--with the $500 Mac mini--extremely affordable, too.

Whether you're drawn to the Mac's stability, its stunning digital media suite, or the fact that a whole computer can look and feel as slick as your iPod, you can quickly and easily become a Mac convert. But consider yourself warned: a Mac isn't just a Windows machine in a prettier box; it's a whole different animal and a whole new computing experience.

If you're contemplating--or have already made--the switch from a Windows PC to a Mac, you need Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition. This incomparable guide delivers what Apple doesn't: everything you need to know to successfully and painlessly move to a Mac.

* Over the last few years, Adobe InDesign has made significant inroads against QuarkXPress, with adoptions by major media companies such as Meredith Corporation and Hearst Magazines; it is now the only desktop publishing program taught at many art schools
* Shows graphic designers how to get up to speed quickly on the latest InDesign release, make the most of program tools, create great page designs, add sparkle, and output to a variety of media
* The authors, both Quark experts who've converted to InDesign, offer special tips and insights to Quark users who are making (or thinking of making) the switch to InDesign
This book serves as a unique, comprehensive reference guide to digital printing for photography and fine art. It combines a thorough introduction to this expressive medium, instruction in the latest techniques, and a gallery of the best examples of digital art into a one-of-a-kind resource guide. Whether you are a photographyer, traditional or digital artist, or printmaker, this book will help you master the techniques unique to the new world of digital printing.
Fireworks MX Magic has self-contained projects including step-by-step instructions, explanations, tips, and tricks. You can customize each project or use them as launching pads for their own projects. This book covers the functional upgrades and best practices of Fireworks with special emphasis on building web graphics, animation, navigation, and integrating Fireworks into the workflow. Macromedia's Fireworks allows users to develop illustrations, manipulate photos, and design layouts while offering integration with all professional web applications including Flash, Dreamweaver, and UltraDev. CD-ROM contains all files needed to complete projects in the book.
Map historic sites, look for a new home, or analyze traffic patterns

Want to see the world? Forget packing, customs, and airport security with Google Earth, simply click and you're there. And it works just as well to find school districts and shortcuts in your hometown. This guide helps you install and customize the software, create specialized maps, tour almost any city on earth, and more!

Discover how to

  • Locate specific businesses in any city
  • Create a tour of homes for sale
  • Visit historic sites in another country
  • Insert your own 3D models
  • Find alternate routes to work
Pack pizzazz into your Web sites with Flash!

Start with simple animation, or create whole pages in Flash

The newest version of Flash offers all sorts of cool options for designing Web sites that stand out from the crowd, and this handy guide makes it easy. Enhance your site with animated graphics, boxes, or buttons; morph shapes; create text with exotically changing colors; add sound or video; and watch visitors flock to your site!

For those that would rather been shown than told how to

  • Improve publishing and productivity with the CS3 interface and templates
  • Browse, organize, and process files using Adobe Bridge and Version Cue
  • Import Photoshop and Illustrator files directly into Flash
  • Keep track of the changes in Flash on a per-object basis
  • Copy and paste graphic filters and motions
  • Create more compelling designs with built-in filter effects and gradients
  • Use blend modes to change the way the image of one object on the Stage is combined with other images
  • Preview changes to 9-slice scaled movie clips on Stage
  • Simplify common timeline and scripting tasks with Timeline Effects and Behaviors
  • Use Script Assisted mode to create scripts without detailed knowledge of ActionScript
  • Test content on different target devices using Adobe Device Central
Text and multimedia combine to create the ultimate learning experience! This large-format, illustrated guide presents instructional material in an easy-to-follow style--and the CD-ROM features the author speaking directly to you. Using a combination of moving screenshots, animation, and audiovisual presentations, he'll teach you how to use Flash 6 in no time.
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