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Thursday, January 29, 2009

How to make animated gif with PhotoShop / ImageReady

1. Open up photoshop

2. Open images you want to use.

3. Crop all images the same size - add text if desired, then either flatten the image or 'merge visible' I like 'command E' (shortcuts are my friend)

4. I like to open a new blank canvas to paste them all in to, that way I can save it separate from all of the other images.

5. Copy and Paste each image to that one new canvas - You are creating a layer for each image, but since they are all the same size and opaque, you only see one image, basically just like stacking up pieces of paper, they're all there, but you can only see the top one. (Command A - select all, Command C - copy, click on new canvas, Command V - paste)

6. There is a nice little button in my version of photoshop that is at the bottom of the 'tools' bar "Edit in ImageReady" - it is also under 'File'

7. Image Ready opens up.

8. Make sure the animation window and layers window are both open. If not, go to 'window' and click to select them

9. This is where it started to get a little confusing for me, but once I did it a couple times, its really a cinch. One image, the top image, will appear in the animation window. Depending on how you layered the images and what image you want to have first will depend on the next step. It all has to do with the visibility (that little eye in the layers window). I usually layer mine so the first image ends up being #1 and at the bottom. So I deselect all of the visibility of the layers above it. Now I have the first image in the animation window.

10. To ad the second frame click the 'duplicate' icon in the animation window (should be right next to the trash can)

11. In the Layers window, click to make the second window visible. Now you should have two frames in your animation window with two different images. Continue to duplicate and adjust visibility based on what you want.

12. Once you have finished adding each frame, you need to adjust the time each frame will be visible. You will see a 0 sec under each frame, click the down arrow and change the time. For this animation I did 2 sec - you can experiment to what works best for you and by pressing the 'play' button can have a preview.

13. When you get the timing down, you're ready to save! Go to 'File' and 'Save Optimized As' and you are done!There is obviously a lot more that you can do and honestly I don't know most of it! But that is the basic on how to make an animated ad! You can upload it to flickr or email simply as you would any other photo. When I first uploaded it to flickr, I thought it hadn't worked, but to view the animation you go to 'all sizes' and then the animation will work.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

How to make a Gradient Menu Bar in Photoshop ?

Reference : http://www.webdesign.org/web/photoshop/web-layout/how-to-make-a-gradient-menu-bar.4837.html

1. For this Gradient Menu Bar tutorial, you will need to start off by creating a new image from scratch. It is best to have your width very high while the height is low. A 100x20 pixel canvas (default 72 resolution) with a white background will do.

2. Create a new layer in this image. This new layer will be used for the Gradient Menu Bar. Immediately fill this layer with a color of your choice. For this example, I chose a blue.

3. Right click on the new layer and open up the Blending Options and select Gradient Overlay.

4. In the Gradient Overlay options, select Overlay as your Blend Mode. The Gradient will be the Black to White selection but with this new Overlay blend it will adopt the Blue scheme we have chosen for our layer. Modifying the Scale like so will bring interesting effects to your Gradient Menu Bar.



IIS 6.0 : How to switch between the 32-bit versions and the 64-bit version of ASP.NET 2.0 on a 64-bit version of Windows

Reference : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/894435/en-us

ASP.NET 1.1, 32-bit version
To run the 32-bit version of ASP.NET 1.1, follow these steps:
  1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
  2. Type the following command to enable the 32-bit mode:
    cscript %SYSTEMDRIVE%\inetpub\adminscripts\adsutil.vbs SET W3SVC/AppPools/Enable32bitAppOnWin64 1
  3. Type the following command to install the version of ASP.NET 1.1 and to install the script maps at the IIS root and under:
    %SYSTEMROOT%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\aspnet_regiis.exe -i
  4. Make sure that the status of ASP.NET version 1.1.4322 is set to Allowed in the Web service extension list in Internet Information Services Manager.
ASP.NET 2.0, 32-bit version
To run the 32-bit version of ASP.NET 2.0, follow these steps:
  1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
  2. Type the following command to enable the 32-bit mode:
    cscript %SYSTEMDRIVE%\inetpub\adminscripts\adsutil.vbs SET W3SVC/AppPools/Enable32bitAppOnWin64 1
  3. Type the following command to install the version of ASP.NET 2.0 (32-bit) and to install the script maps at the IIS root and under:
    %SYSTEMROOT%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_regiis.exe -i
  4. Make sure that the status of ASP.NET version 2.0.50727 (32-bit) is set to Allowed in the Web service extension list in Internet Information Services Manager.
ASP.NET 2.0, 64-bit version
To run the 64-bit version of ASP.NET 2.0, follow these steps:
  1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
  2. Type the following command to disable the 32-bit mode:
    cscript %SYSTEMDRIVE%\inetpub\adminscripts\adsutil.vbs SET W3SVC/AppPools/Enable32bitAppOnWin64 0
  3. Type the following command to install the version of ASP.NET 2.0 and to install the script maps at the IIS root and under:
    %SYSTEMROOT%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727\aspnet_regiis.exe -i
  4. Make sure that the status of ASP.NET version 2.0.50727 is set to Allowed in the Web service extension list in Internet Information Services Manager.
Note The build version of ASP.NET 2.0 may differ depending on what the currently released build version is. These steps are for build version 2.0.50727.