Photoshop CS3 Beta Preview

When Adobe released the Photoshop CS3 public beta on December 15, 2006, lynda.com and best-selling author, Deke McClelland, released Photoshop CS3 Beta One-on-One Preview, a series of free video tutorials, which showcase the new features in Photoshop CS3.

lynda.com and Deke McClelland have now released expanded and comprehensive video training course available exclusively to subscribers of the Online Training Library(tm). This series is now available to subscribers and is listed below the free videos.

It teaches essential skills, such as making selections, retouching, and managing layers. It also teaches more advanced skills such as applying Layer Effects and styles, using Adjustment layers, and Smart Objects. New features to Photoshop CS3 such as Vanishing Point 2.0 and Smart Filters are also covered. Exercise files accompany the tutorials.

Download Photoshop CS3 beta here.

12th International Conference on Animation, Effects, Realtime and Content, May 1.-4.

Started thirteen years ago, fmx has grown into a leading event for Digital Content in Europe attracting visitors and speakers from all over the world. After a successful co-operation in 2006, fmx/07 will again run back-to-back with the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film (April 26 to May 01, 2007).

Animation studios, effect houses, game developers, production companies and postproduction facilities present their latest achievements. Researchers, hard- and software vendors and users debate new technologies and practical application. Creators, financial backers and distributors talk to each other and pitch projects. Graduates and freelancers meet recruiters looking for new talents.

Tuesday, May 1 The conference kicks off with a full day of lectures and events, many in cooperation with the 14th Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film (ITFS). The Animation Production Day presents business-to-business knowledge for producers and distributors while the fmx/conference deals with production aspects of animated television series and feature films. The day culminates in the joint ITFS awards ceremony and fmx kick-off.

Wednesday, May 2 fmx/forum kicks in with workshops and suites, fmx/expo exhibitors open their doors, fmx/recruiting begins hooking people up with people, the pitchings of European Talents takes place. fmx/review surveys the latest in interactive content creation with a keynote by Jean-Charles Hourcade, Thomson on new trends, markets and opportunities. fmx/conference starts with talks on procedural animation, new animated features, visual effects and non-photorealistic rendering.

Thursday, May 3 fmx/conference turns to the anatomy of characters with the Virtual Humans Forum, the Digital Cinema Day begins, Indian and other Asian companies take the spotlight, as do the Visual Computing Cluster and the Eyes & Ears Junior Showcase.

Friday, May 4 Games and Visual Effects are a main focus of fmx/conference, with an introduction by Joseph Olin of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. The Virtual Humans forum and Digital Cinema Day also continue, and the Adobe roadmap marks the focus of this year's flashconference.

fmx/07 is organized by the Institute of Animation, Visual Effects & Digital Postproduction of Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg.

Alex Toth

Toth's contributions to the comics medium are not widely known among casual fans. He did much of his comics work outside the current mainstream of superhero comics, concentrating instead on such subjects as hot rod racing, romance, horror, and action-adventure.
His stint on Disney's Zorro is highly regarded and has been reprinted in trade paperback form several times and there are two volumes of The Alex Toth Reader published by Pure Imagination which focuses on his work for Standard and Western publishing, but otherwise the bulk of his shorter stories can be difficult to locate. Nonetheless, he is widely regarded as an "artist's artist" and is often lumped among such greats as Will Eisner and Jack Kirby as one of the undisputed masters of the sequential storytelling medium.

Journalist Tom Spurgeon wrote that Toth possessed "an almost transcendent understanding of the power of art as a visual story component", and called him "one of the handful of people who could seriously enter into Greatest Comic Book Artist of All-Time discussions" and "a giant of 20th Century cartoon design." He was formally inducted into the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1990.

In the past few years he contributed to the magazines Comic Book Artist and Alter Ego writing columns titled "Before I Forget" and "Who cares? I do!" respectively. In 2006 Billy Ingram and James Counts of TVparty [5] produced a book titled "Dear John: The Alex Toth Doodle Book" cataloguing his correspondence with John Hitchcock, published by Octopus Press.



Alex Toth may be one of the world's greatest comic artist. His influence is seen in the work of talents as diverse as Jordi Bernet and Kevin Nowlan. The purpose of this gallery is to present his art in its purest form, uncolored and as it was originally drawn.

The Official Alex Toth Website

PAINTER™ Award

PAINTER™ showcases the world's finest digital artwork using Corel's® natural media painting program, Painter.

PAINTER exhibits 209 works by 135 artists across diverse categories such as Portraits, Concept Art, Fantasy, Editorial Illustration and Abstract art. The PAINTER Awards are selected by an industry renowned panel of Painter artists.

PAINTER is presented in a high quality volume consisting of 192 pages and is available at Ballistic Publishing in a leather-bound Special Edition and Soft Cover.

Take a look at the winning artwork here.