New online Flash tutorial for beginners available for only $15 US

Meet the Flash is a new Flash-animated E-book designed to teach Flash beginners how to create a Flash movie. This book, recently released by Andrei (Andrew) Doubrovski, a professional photographic restoration artist and technician who previously released the “As Simple As Photoshop” study at home course for Adobe Photoshop users, created a simple and easy-to-use format. Doubrovski also is an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) in Photoshop CS.

Meet The Flash helps to speed up the learning process, as each lesson is packed with a movie clip that shows some practical usage of the lesson. The tutorials cover the program essentials used to create still graphics, animations, and text. Also, Meet The Flash offers several scripting tutorials that show how to add simple interactivity without actually learning ActionScript language. Read the rest of this entry »

The early entry deadline is 27 October 2006.

New York, NY: Building on its decade-long position as the preeminent awards for Websites, The Webby Awards launched its 11th Annual Call for Entries with the debut of major new awards in online film and video and interactive advertising. Hailed as the “Oscars of the Internet” by the New York Times and “one of the most prestigious awards in the world” by the BBC, The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet.

Joining forces with some of the biggest names in entertainment and media, including Harvey Weinstein, Showtime’s Matt Blank, R/GA’s Bob Greenberg, Wieden+Kennedy’s John Jay, The Webby Awards unveiled the world’s first major awards honoring original film and video premiering on the Internet, as well as 15 new categories recognizing outstanding achievement in interactive advertising. Read the rest of this entry »

Women In Photography International celebrates it’s 25th Anniversary with a final juried Call for Entries for 2006. Submission Deadline: Minimum 2 images, through November 25, 2006 for members and nonmembers.

Founded in 1981, Women In Photography International (WIPI) has progressed over the years to become one of the most recognized organizations for women photographers worldwide. WIPI completes the twenty-fifth year in 2006 by announcing “The Portrait” - a juried call for entries of traditional and non-traditional portrait images. “The Portrait” competition will be juried by an accomplished panel of professionals and the top 25 images as well as 50 honorable mention images will be showcased in a digital gallery on WomenInPhotography.org. Read the rest of this entry »

Wow! Ride presents its Fifth Annual Snowboard Art Contest (SBA5) this year, which like a fine wine guarantees to only get better with age. Once again offering a $1000 Grand Prize plus limited edition snowboard featuring the winning artwork, they expect the largest turnout yet from all over the globe. So put your creative caps on and start brainstorming … deadlines are earlier this year so don’t miss out!

Intent to Enter Deadline: 1 NOV 2006
Final Entry Deadline: 15 DEC 2006

For more information, including guidelines, templates, and forms, visit Ride Snowboard’s Culture Website.

Grapevine has it that you’ll see an interview with Bruce Lawson very, very soon. More contest information, a look at a new animated Flash tutorial, and another article by Shaun Crowley about Search Optimization next week.

Don’t overexert yourself this weekend! See you on Monday.

Chow, babies!

by Shaun Crowley

When a potential client types in your URL, they are not just looking to take a gallery tour of your past work. They want to know what you can offer them. That’s why the copy and structure of your online portfolio plays an important role in drumming up new business for you.

In this article I reveal 5 tips to make your online portfolio work a little harder. But, take this advice and you should find more hits to your site resulting in new graphic design assignments. Read the rest of this entry »

lynda.com Announces Release of After Effects 7 and Flash 8 Integration 2.5 hours of training in top motion graphics applications…

lynda.com, the company that specializes in self-paced career and computer training in digital media and design, today introduced After Effects 7 and Flash 8 Integration. This video training course demonstrates how to combine professional motion graphics from Adobe After Effects 7 with interactive applications created in Adobe Flash 8. From discussing the differences between Flash and After Effects to showing how to seamlessly import and export vector animations from each application, instructor Lee Brimelow explains everything involved in using the two applications in unison. The tutorial covers working with third party plug-ins, exporting QuickTime from Flash, using the Audio Spectrum and Audio Waveform effects, and creating special effects in After Effects for use in Flash. Exercise files accompany the tutorial. Read the rest of this entry »

The Grand Haven Area Arts Council located in Grand Haven, Michigan, welcomes area artists’ interpretations of vintage art posters in conjunction with the winter 2007 Central Park Players’ production of “Cabaret.” A Tony Award-winning musical, “Cabaret” is set in 1929 Berlin during the Nazis’ ascent to power. The original poster art will be on display during the 15 February – 3 March 2007 productions, and it will be auctioned off during the final performance. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Arts Council.

Entries in all mediums are welcome, and must be submitted to the Arts Council Building, 1045 Columbus, 8-15 January 2007. Complete information on submitting poster art can be found on the arts council’s Web site (www.ghaac.org).

2004-05 Grand Prize Poster by 12-yr-old Cheuk Tat Li pictured at right. Cheuk Tat Li was sponsored by the Hong Kong Metropolitan Lions Club.

It’s that time of year again, when the Lions Club International encourages pre-teens to express their feelings about international peace through posters. If you know that you have a Lions Club in your community, find out whether they’re active with this project. If not, encourage them to get neighborhood teens to participate!

“Celebrate Peace” is the theme for the 2006-07 Peace Poster Contest. Lions clubs can sponsor the program in their community for children in local schools or organized, sponsored youth groups. Students, ages 11, 12 or 13 on November 15, 2006, are eligible to participate. Through the contest, students are encouraged to visually depict their interpretation of the contest’s theme. Lions clubs must purchase a kit for each contest sponsored. The contest must be sponsored by a Lions club, so you’ll need to search for a Lions Club in the country where you reside (Here’s a link to Lions Australia, Multiple District 401, for example).

LetsSingIt (short: LSI) was founded in 1998 and is a music community where people can find music related information about almost every artists on the planet, biographies, album tracklists, lyrics, news, fanpages, pictures, your name it…LSI is pleased to announce a public competition to design a new LSI logo. For sure there will be enough talent among the LSI members and visitors to come to a whole new original logo that will represent LSI for the next couple of years. The competition is open to all designers, both professional and non-professional. The submission deadline is 15 Nov 2006. For more information, including format, rules, and information abouit the LSI site, visit the contest page at LSI.