Coming up on today’s epsiode:

We take a look at how to animate extruding text in Maya. Animating extruded text is a nice effect to get the attention of your audience and it always makes for good screen candy.

If you use a custom font you can import an Illustrator file. For this example we will create the text inside Maya. We go to the create menu > create > text > option box. Enter in some text. Set output for curves. You can create a curve, or use an arc tool. Go under create > arc tools to make arc. Go into the side view and click to create a small arc.

Reset the pivot point the center by clicking the home key to bring up the editor. Then go to modify pivot > center pivot. I like to rebuild the curve to make sure it has an even number of  CV points. With the curve still selected go under the surfaces menu then

Rebuild surfaces > option box

Use the settings

• uniform
• 0 to 1
• keep ends
• for this example, I’ll use spans to 4
• degree to cubic

Position the curve close to the text. Back in the Surface menu we’ll go to the Extrudes option box

Use the settings to

• Tube for style
• At path for result position
• Component for pivot
• Profile for the orientation
• Complete the curve

and output to NURBS

Now we can select the letters curves first, then shift select the curve. If your letters have holes, Shift select letter’s outer curve first then shift select the inner curve. Center the pivot for each letter. then go ahead and Extrude each letter.

Select the outline and under Surface fill each letter with a Planer. Ok, so now that we have all the letters extruded, we can start to animate the letter’s extrude.

First lets increase the extrude quality, by going into the attributes for each surface. Under the Tessellation > enable Display > Primary Tessellation Attributes. Here you can set the uv’s to “Best Guess Based on Screen Size”. You can control the text through the curve we’ve create for the extrude. Just keyframe the point position to animate. To animate along the curve we’ll go into our options for the extrude node.

In the Channel box select the input for the sub curve of each letter. Here you can keyframe the Min and Max values
to animate for text!

To add a tapper, we’ll go into the extrude node and adjust the scale properties. Adjust your animation curves, camera and check your render!

Alright, and that is how to animate text extrusions inside Maya.

I’m Pedro for Pixil.info. See you guys next time!

Coming up on this episode of Pixil:
Today, we’ll look at how remote editing has become easier with the introduction of Final cut 7.Streaming draft previews is accomplished with the new iChat Theater option.

This very useful feature is great way to show off the latest cut to your clients. This option essentially  feeds your Final Cut Canvas screen to an iChat video message. Lets check out how the workflow I use in performing an iChat remote edit. When preforming a remote edit, it always helps to see a better frame rate. Editing across the net is never fun, but sometime necessary when completing deadlines.

When combined with remote access software, like logmein, iChat one can use a more powerful machine to edit off location! To do this we active the remote software on the remote computer. Offsite we log in and active iChat on both computers. Using two different iChat accounts we’ll message the control the host computer through Final Cut. We’ll start off by going into Final Cut

Under: View > iChat Theater > Start Sharing

Hit OK to active. While still in the remote account, go to the iChat buddy list and connect to the controller account. On the control computer, accept the invite. Using a second monitor, we can drag the iChat video screen over. Okay, and now we have a better frame rate to remotely edit to!

Okay and that’s how control final cut with iChat. This isn’t the best editing experience, but on a deadline it gets the job done. And that’s it for this episode of Pixil.info. I’m Pedro for Pixil.info See you next time!

Coming up on today’s episode:

Ok Guys this is a big one! This Episode, I will show a method that will fix the RROD (Red Ring Of Death). You’ll need the following tools and equipment to repair the xbox360. If done correctly, your xbox360 will come back to life. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to post. Hope you enjoyed this episode of Younoob.net

• Presto Griddle
• Heat Gun (500F)
• Arctic Silver Remover or Alcohol/Goo Gone
• Arctic Silver 5
• 4 Machine Screws 1/2″
• Aluminum Foil
• Metal Tape
• hex ScrewDriver T-10
• Small Screwdriver Kit
• 8 M5-.80 x10 Machine Screws
• 16 #10 Flat Washers [Nylon]
• 16 5mm Flat Washers [Metal]

so lets start off by removing the casing. (Plenty of Videos and tutorials online for opening the xbox360). We will begin by removing the faceplate followed by the top and bottom cover. You will need to remove the 6 main screws, to remove the side caseing.(Diagram in shownotes)

Remove the face power board by unscrewing the 3 screws. Then Remove all the remaining undercarriage screws. After the case is removed, Flip Motherboard you will see the X-clamps, You will need to carefully remove them using a small Flat-head screwdriver, and remove the Heat Sinks. Use rubbing alcohol and a q-tip and carefully clean the 2 main chips until they shine.

Take off the DVD power and Sata Cables from the motherboard.

Now take some Aluminum Foil and some metal tape, cover all the conductors except the area we will be heating up with the heatgun. Use the four 2″ machine screws, adjust with a bolt to about 1/2″ then place in motherboard. hoist the motherboard above the griddle 1/2″. Preheat the griddle to 350ºF. Let set for 5 minutes. Heat the exposed H(ANA) Chip and the GPU using the Heat Gun at medium heat. Use a circular motion for 4 minutes. 1″-2″ away from the chips. (Do not burn any parts). Let set for 35-40 minutes.

Remove motherboard from griddle. Remove aluminum foil. Clean up any tape access (if any). Apply arctic silver (small amount) to the chips. Spread and flatten an even coat of article silver using a credit card or a trowel.

[Optional Step] Replace the X-Clamps.

Now this step is optional but i like to replace the xclamps also, so we will remove all the bolts from the Heat sinks and clean the surface. Use 8 M5-.80 x 10 Machine Screws to put metal and nylon washers on both sides of the motherboard. (Nylon washers touch both sides of motherboard)

Then Carefully Screw the heatsinks into place evenly. Partial Reassemble the Xbox360. Place motherboard and all main hardware back into the metal casing, Power on and if done correctly in most cases your xbox360 will come back to life. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to post. Hope you enjoyed this episode of Younoob.net

Coming up on today’s epsiode:

Optimize your iPhone games performance by Baking Texture Light Maps using Maya 2010. Today will be using Maya Baked Lightmaps to speed up game performance. The trick is getting fewer texture draw calls by baking your shadows into the texture.

First will start by creating a texture sheet. A texture sheet holds all of the textures that are used to make up characters and other models in the game. So by combining textures into one file, you can get a faster performance by using less cycles for each texture. For this tutorial we’ll be combining all the textures that make up this cell room.

For this example we’ll use a size of 1024×786. After all the textures are combined, make sure even plain color shaders are also in the Texture sheet.

Link all your texture UVs to the sheet.

Now we’ll Adjust the lighting in the scene, check the render to see the were the shadow are casting.

Now Select all polygons and in the polygons menu under

Mesh < Combine

Create a automatic poly projection for all the ploys in the polygons menu under

Create < UVs < Automatic Mapping Option Box

Using the default settings, under UV Set make sure the UV set name is: lightmap hit apply

Go into your UV Texture Editor and select the new UV set under: UV Sets < and then the lightmap uv set You can switch to original uv coordinates if you need to here

While still having the ploys selected go to the Render Menu Under:

Lighting/Shading < Batch Bake (metal ray) Option Box

The under Settings options check Back Shadows, the rest should be ok

under

Texture Bake Set Override Color mode < only light

Under prefix: use the name of the room to easily spot them out

For the iPhone will use the X and Y resolution of 256×256. Didn’t get any higher quality with a higher number so, We can leave the Number of samples to 4.

Fill Texture seams at: 3.0

Make sure Override mesh UV set assignments is checked with the UV set name to: lightmap

Click on convert to bake the map, This shouldn’t take too long

Ok, now if we look in our project file under

renderData/mentalray/lightmap/.

You can see the room0_lightmap.tif Maya created. Open it up to check it out, Pretty good

Ok we now have both of the UV sets in the scene and the baked lightmap.

Now we have to go to each object in the visible scene and create a Layered Texture shader for each. Then we have to attach the textures and UVs to the baked shadow’s UV set.

We can do this by right clicking on an object Assign new Texture < layeredTexture

Object goes green, The first layer will hold the lightmap file. Add another file node and link it to the lightmap. For the Blend mode use: multiply.

now we can go to the second layer and select a file node. We’ll link that to the color texture sheet. The blend mode should be at: none.

Now we can link the UV sets together for this object and it’s texture.

To set up the UV relationship we’ll go Under

Window < Relationship Editors < UV Linking < UV-centric

Scroll down to find the texture for this object. By default both are linked to the color texture. Select the lightmap and link it to the lightmap UVs

Map1 should deselect the light map UVs from the color UVs.

Now let’s test link by going into the UV Texture Editor and switching between the sets.

Now lets do a test render of the scene with the light off. If linked properly the shadows from any objects should still be in the render!

Now we just have to attach each object and texture to the lighmap UVs, thats how to bake light maps in maya. Hope this helps in optimizing your next iPhone/iPad game.

Coming up on today’s epsiode:

Remotely Editing in Final Cut on your iPhone

Being able to remotely monitor renders and edits, is a major timesaving workflow that can really speed up production.

In addition to being able to upload client previews, you can obviously edit through any application on the the host computer.

I like using the term editing at a red light, because although i don’t advise you edit while driving, I do use red light time to monitor edits or quickly catch and correct small mistakes during production.

Couple of apps that let you remote your computer, I use log me in. You can setup an account for free, and works at decent speeds over 3g.

Although only recommend for extremely tight deadlines, patients is required – especially when over a 3g connection.

Install on your Mac or PC. You can get the iPhone version from the AppStore. Link your accounts and your good to go.

If you’re on the same wifi network , I use Jaadu.

For your computer setup, Go to Screen Sharing setup and enable remote access under VNC. Setup a password , and your ready to remotely monitor and control.

Those are just a couple of ways you can use an iPhone for remote monitoring and editing, on the go. Thats it for this episode of pixil.info, see ya next time.

Coming up on today’s epsiode:

GridIron’s Software Flow is a very unique program for creative professionals. It’s basically a tool that helps you track and manage all the files that go into creating a project. Let me show you what I mean. So one of the best features flow has to offer is that it allows you to visually see the structure of a project. If you use various programs to create a project, flow can actually see the connection between all the files.

What’s great is that this works for websites, print documents, video composites, just about anything!… So It helps you streamline your workflow, and keeps you on top of your project. So flow looks like this, looks like a cluster right now but we can organize it down so it looks less messy. So I can right click on the images, and select group similar, you’ll notice it groups all the images per file format, JPG, PNG, GIF, very nice! You can also make custom groups. I’ll make all these individual files into a group and I’ll call it downloads. A quick way to see contents in the groups is to right click and select Show Group Contents.. Alright and its starting to look a lot more organized.

Now lets take a look at another example. Here’s a Photoshop file. You can actually see all the layers and bins inside the document, very cool. Here’s an after effects project, same thing, you can see the structure of the composition.

Alright and there you have it. That’s a quick demo of Flow. Now there’s a whole bunch of other features like versioning, time tracking, tagging and bookmarking, but we’ll save that for another episode, so until next time, see you later.

Coming up on today’s epsiode:

Find out how to make simple animations in Flash CS4 using Action Script 2.

Right off the bat I make a new layer and I call it actions. It is always best practice to have your actions on its own layer without graphics. So I start every project off by adding an Actions layer and locking it.

On layer one, grab the oval tool make sure that you don’t have a stroke color and draw a circle on the screen. Hold down shift to constrain the proportions. With the object now selected lets hit the hot key F8, this is going to bring up the Convert to Symbol Dialog box.

Make it a movie clip and give it a name of red Ball. Now you should see a movie clip in you library called red Ball. Whatever name you give it if the library doesn’t matter. It’s the instance name that Action Script will be looking for. So select the movie clip and locate your properties panel. In this panel is where you will see a place for an instance name. Lets give it a name of ball. Now select your actions layer and press F9 to get your action panel up.

With our actions panel open the first thing we need to do is import what functionality we want to use. WE want tweens and easing. So go ahead and import them by typing “import mx.transitions.Tween; import mx.transitions.easing.

The import of tweens is finding a folder with premade tween animation script. The same thing can be said about the easing. But notice on the easing I typed a .* this is telling action script that I want to load all of the easing types so I can use them.

Now that we have imported the functionality we can begin animating. To declare a new tween you need to type out new tween open and close (). In side the () flash is expecting 7 parameters.

• The object that you are wanting to target
• What property you want to effect.
• Tween type and easing type.
• Starting location or starting percentage
• Ending location or ending percentage
• Duration
• True if you want the duration to last in seconds or False if you want the duration to last in frame

So lests tackle it. The first parameter is what object I want to effect so I am going to put ball comma. Next is the property, note you have to put this one in quotes, so I want the ball to fall down so quote underscore y quote comma. Here comes the tween and easing type, there are several types of tweens and easing we will cover only one, don’t worry I made a cheat sheet that you can take and reference for all the types, I want it to bounce and have a bit of ease out. If this part didn’t turn blue then you spelled something wrong, this part is very case sensitive.

Next I want to start the balls position from zero. This number will take the ball from where ever it is at and place it at the y coordinate of zero. If you wanted it to start from where it is on the stage then simply type ball._y here. This says were ever the ball is start here. Next is the ending location. Since I used a numeric value in the previos one I will add a numeric value to this one. But lets say I want it to move 200 pixils from where it is at simply type ball._y + 200.

The last two are important to each other , if the last parameter is false then the number will represent a duration in frames. But if the last one is true then the previous number is take place over seconds. So lets add 2 comma true. This says take 2 seconds to play out.Go ahead and test movie and see what happens. You just made action script animate your ball. Don’t forget to grab my cheat sheets and source file at Jermbo.com

Coming up on today’s epsiode:

We’re going to look at how we use Jaddu and Veency for monitoring and controlling cameras in production.

Remote-Controlled captures with Jaadu

First we’re going to look at how jaddu can help during production. While working on multiple projects we’re able to monitor and control camera captures. Its a geat tool for this type of workflow. Inside jadu we have access to a keyboard and function keys.

It’s also a great lifesaver when the crew can monitor renders while finishing a game. For remote access you can also use log me in to access homes, offices and servers. You can control any of your macs connected from any where with a wifi or 3G connection.

Next we’ll look at better iPhone screen captures with veency.

iPhone screen capturing with Veency

Instead on getting fingers in the way when reviewing applications, you can record what’s displayed on the iPhone screen. We use veency to control and record iPhone screen captures. Once connected, you can use your favorite screen capture program to capture whats running on phone.

And there you have it, a couple iPhone workflows we use in production. Thats all for this episode of Pixil.info See ya next time.

Coming up on today’s epsiode:

How to create a 3D Box and animate it using the new 3D Tools and Features in Flash CS4.

Step 1: Create a square shape

Start by drawing out simple square. Hold down the shift key to constrain the proportions. Now lets change the solid fill to a gradient by going the color palette, and lets change the type to a Linear gradient. Next lets remove the stroke, just goto the stroke color picker and choose the None option.

Now lets make sure our square is in the center of the stage, we can do that by going to the align panel and click on the horizontal and vertical align buttons.

Step 2: Position & Convert into a Movie Clip

Okay next lets convert this shape into a movie clip, just right click and select Convert to Symbol… alright now lets nest this symbol inside another movie clip, and lets name this one 3D Box. So inside the 3D box movie clip is where we’ll be setting up the 3D layers.

Step 3: Duplicate Layers for Each Box Side

Alright so now we can just copy and paste a few of these squares on some new layers. And lets name each copy after a side of the 3D Box such as top, bottom, left and right.

Step 4: Rotate Each Side 90º & Position in Place

Now lets convert all the frames into motion tweens by selecting them, right clicking and Create Motion Tween. Now lets start with the top layer and rotate the X axis 90 degrees. You can hold down the shift key to constrained your rotation. Next we can go inside the motion editor to ensure our rotation was a either a positive value, or a negative one. Just to make sure everything is set the name.

Now we’ll want to move this top layer up about half of the way. So just calculate half the height of the square and move it up so it sets on top. I like to use the 3D Position and View Panel to do this because you can easily change the values there.

Now lets repeat this process for the bottom layer. But this time we’ll want move the half way down, so again just change the value in the 3D Position and View Panel. Alright so next lets start on the left and right squares. Starting with left, lets rotate the Y axis 90 degrees and shift it over to the left about half of the width of the square. Again we can go inside the motion edition to check our values. Alright now we can repeat the same process for the right square, but don’t forget to move it to the right side instead of the left!

Step 5: Test 3D Box Rotation

So once we finish all rotating and positioning, we should be left with a picture frame looking set of rectangles. So lets jump out of the movie clip and goto scene 1. Now lets select our 3D rotation tool and watch as I rotate the box on its Y axis. Pretty sweet huh?

Step 6: Add Drop Shadow

Lets select our bottom layer, and lets goto the filters section in the properties panel and licks pick drop shadow. Lets change the blur X and Y values to something big like 100 pixels, change the quality to high, and distance to 0.

Step 7: Animate 3D Box Rotating

So now lets jump out to our main timeline and lets add a few move frames. Now Ill be using the motion editor to animate the 3D Box and have spin on it Y axis. So lets convert it the frames into a motion tween by right clicking on the frame bar and selecting convert to motion tween. Now we can scrub over to the last frame and then goto the motion editor. So if we want to just rotate the box spinning from left to right, we can simply change the Rotation Y value to 360 degrees.

Test out the animation by pressing cmd+renturn (cntrl+return on PC).

Coming up on today’s epsiode:

We’re going to take a look at Photoshop’s new 3D features.

Adobe added features but deleted some compatibility available in CS3. Being able to import Product models for print, video and web makes a very efficient workflow.

Although new camera control abilities were added in CS4, an incredibly useful ability is no longer there.

Features add and deleted

3D mesh animation support no longer works in CS4. This mean 3D models with animated parts no longer playback inside photoshop. The new 3D UI has deleted the timeline scrubber for the mesh. Making layer styles out of one object with different product stages would be a great workflow. You can still use CS3 for this, but wont be playback in CS4. Hopefully Adobe is able to bring this feature back. Being able to save all collateral as one psd file would save a lot of headaches. So to use playback, I import my Maya model into 3D Max and export it as a .3DS file.

CS3 Mesh Animation Workflow

You can just open it photoshop cs3. Then just set each layer at the need keyframe. Now set a layer comp for each state.

Coming up on today’s epsiode:

Burning a Nintendo Wii game backup & Installing The Homebrew Channel.

Burning Wii Backup

OK, first we are going to burn a wii backup disk, here we got a Modified Wii with FW 3.4U with a Wiikey Installed. Lets take a look at the Burning workflow process. This only pertains to Modified Wii’s Support Playing BackUp Disks.

Preparing the Wii Backup .ISO image. Most wii backups are about 4.37gb. Use WiiBrickBlocker to remove any Region updates that may harm your wii. Remember, NEVER update from outside your wii’s region.

Once completed we are going to be changing the region of the wii iso, open RegionFrii, There are 3 different types of regions to choose from, Europe, US, Japan, the game we are burning is the New Naruto Shippuden EX3 only released in Japan. so we will select our own current region, in my case it is US, click convert.

Imgburn, clonecd, and Nero, work for windows, but i prefer to use my Mac Built In Disk Utility to burn the wii backup, I burn at 2x to 4x but never higher than that. you can burn both + and -R’s. If you use +r’s then they have to be booktyped to – rom. I recommend useing Sony for Japaneese regional Backups, i have had a few problems with other brand disks when burning Foreign games. Onced finished burining do a quick test on the wii to make sure your game can be played.

Alright and there ya have it! Burning your wii backups!

Installing Homebrew Channel

It allows Installations of The HomeBrew Browser, Apps, Games, and Utilities! We are going to be needing A FAT Formated SD Card, (preferably a 2GB) a copy of The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess with your consoles region. My current version of the wii is Updated to 3.4U some features may have some problems with certain homebrew apps and utilities. some utilities may not work properly a downgrade is optional.

First we are going to take the twilight hack v0.1 beta2, saved game file. Place it in the SD card in /private/wii/title/rzde/data.bin. Put your SD card in your Wii and turn it on. Go into Wii Options –> Data Management –> Save Data –> Wii.

Find your Zelda save, click on it, click “Erase”, and click Yes. Open the SD card and select the “Twilight Hack” save that corresponds to your game region. Click copy and then yes. Now exit out of the menu.

If you are using System Menu 3.4, you must use the hack right away or it may reset and you’ll have to start over.

Insert The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess game disc and run the game. Depending on what type of game and consol region you have, you have a choice on what save file to load. since i have a 0A-2 USA Zelda disk with a USA console, i will use the second save slot.

Once in the game, turn and talk to the man standing to the side. Follow threw with the install. Restart the Wii and you will have the Wii HOMEBREW CHANNEL.

Coming up on today’s epsiode:

Jermbo shows us some cool techniques to turn a sketch into a vector masterpiece!

I have opened my sketch in Adobe Illustrator CS4. The very first thing I like to do is lock my original art layer, and give it a name of BG. And now add a new layer and call it base. Generally I like to do 95% of my drawing on one layer but there are times when it is necessary to add more, but I will cross that when I get there.

Make sure that the layer called base is selected, you know this by the blue highlight over the layer. Grab the direct select tool and then the pen tool. Go down to your foreground and stroke icons and make sure the fill is set to none. You can do that by clicking on the fill box to bring it to the front and the selecting the box with the line through it. It’s the third little box. The first one is for a solid color and the second one is for a gradient fill. Now let’s begin the vectorization! I am going to start at the peace holding hand. And what I am doing is outlining the entire hand not worrying about the details in side.

If you noticed that sometimes I don’t place the node exactly where I want it, I simply press the space bar while the mouse button is still down and move it where I want it to be. Now I am going into the detail parts. Take a few moments and outline the rest on the guy and add the line detail on the inside.

One trick that I use for the circle eyes and other objects is grab the oval tool in to tool bar or hit the “L” key, the draw the perfect circle. Don’t forget to save often!

When you think you have everything outlined and all the detail added, turn off the sketch layer. Now turn it back on to see if there is any detail that you might have missed, do this until all the detail is complete.

Filling Process

This part is important. I grabbed all of the outsides of the outlines, leaving the detail lines alone, and gave them a fill. What! This is all out of whack. Don’t worry because we are going to take a few seconds to place them where we need them. I want to now go over some hot keys with you. I could send a lot of time selecting an object that I want to move and go to appearance and send back or send front , but that is too time consuming.

Instead I am going to use Control plus the Left Bracket key to send back one level. ( Command left bracket on a Mac. ) I am going to continues hitting that combination until that Item is behind the other item. For example notice the shirt sleeve is above the arm, that’s not right, I know I want that all the way in the back, so I am going to hit Control plus Shift plus Left Bracket to send it to back. Just use Command instead of control on a Mac. The Same thing with the ear.

But notice one eye brow is covered up by the hair, sending it back isn’t the right thing to do so lets send it all the way to the front. The process is the same sending something back or forth, the difference is the bracket key. So we want to sent this one to the front, lets hit Control plus Shift plus Right Bracket key and BOOM! Its on top. Go ahead and pick some base colors you like for the shirt hair skin and necklace spikes . The blob bruch is coming up.

Blob Brush Features

Now for the Blob brush! I want oto go over a few settings first so double click on the blob brush icon and the options will show up. Since I am using a wacom tablet then this helps the tool be the best it can. I like to keep selected unchecked and selection limits merged also unchecked. They both do exactly what they say.

Fidelity at the lowest number 0.5 allows you to record exactly what movements you make. The higher the number, 20 being the max, the more the computer tried to guess to what you meant. So my number is 2.5, here it copies the right amount of information while fixing the small errors for me. Smoothness does exactly what it says, I like to keep this at 7. If you don’t have a tablet set then the rest doesn’t really apply to you. But I do so I will explain what they do.

Size is the size of the brush. I am going to change the fixed to Pressure so I can let the amount of pressure I place on my pen decide how big the brush is. The variation slider is saying how small can be or how big it will be. I like to set it at about 4 or 5 pts that way I get a nice variation.

The other two options can be summed up the same way as the first. Just note that you cannot have variation on roundness if it is at 100%, it needs to be less than 90% to be able to vary

Now that I have the explanation out of the way lets draw! Here I grab a fill color that is a little darker the skin and start to fill I n a shadow. So I am going to pick a light source and add a shadow to the opposite side. As you can see this is going to take some tweaking but it is a hell of a lot faster that using the pen tool and making each point, and you get a more natural flow to it. So now Illustrator is now a true illustration tool. And its as simple as that. So take a few moments to apply this to the rest of the drawing. Next is the new improved gradient tool.

Using the Gradient tool

Now that you have the art looking the way you want it I think a nice gradient in the background will look nice. So lest make a square and send it to the very back.give it a gradient and drag a color in the icon like normal. Grab the gradient tool and lookie here the display is different you have a bar. Now roll over that bar and notice that stubs appear and incicate what colors are where now double click that stub and up pops a in place edit that allows you to change your color. Ok now change the other stub. Lets add a new stub.. it’s as simple as double clicking on an empty area, and as you change colors add new colors notice that it is changing on the shape also. This makes the gradient tool 100 times more powerful and useful.

Lets change it to a radial gradient and notice the display changes to a circle you can still edit the gradient stubs but here you can grab the black dots on the out side circle and either manipulate the roundness or length of the radial and place the radial where it looks the best.

CS4 now has transparency in gradients! Now more transparent masks and all that other jazz. Just click on the sutb that you want to be transparent and change the setting to zero. To prove that this is a true transparency I will put a new shape behind the gradient and give it a color other than white and there you have it!

Go ahead and take the image I was using off of my site and practice this a few times. Don’t be afraid of trying this technique with your own sketches.

Coming up on today’s epsiode:

Back up your Xbox 360 games!

Burning a Xbox360 Backup for the NME2.0 Chip. This model has the BenQ DVD drive, installed with the NME2.0 Mod-chip. Lets take a look at the workflow process.

Step1: Backing up your XBOX 360 Game

So once you have a successful Xbox360 Game dump, you should end up with two files, a .dvd and a .iso file. You can check out our article on YouNoob.net for more info.

Step2: Changing the Region with XDVD Mulleter Beta 10

Okay so after backing up your game, you’ll want to change the Region of the game using XDVD Mulleter Beta 10 for windows. It must either be Region Free or your console region.

Step 3: Converting the Backup to be NME Compatible.

We’ll be using the offical NME software NME Associator.

• Part 1. Open the Associator and go to the Extract Tab, Here we’ll extract the Security Sector (or .ss file) from the .ISO. Then select the iso and save out your .ss file. in the same folder as your .iso and .dvd
• Part 2. You’ll need merge the .ss file with the current .iso file. Next select your iso and browse for your .ss file, and then hit Convert.
• Part 3. This will act as our fail safe. So lets make sure your dump is fully converted. So goto the convert tab, select the ISO, and click Create.
• If everything went correctly, you’re game dump should now be NME compatible.

Step 4: Burning your backup

There are two different programs that can burn your backup. IMGBurn and CloneCD. In this tutorial we will be using IMGBurn. Before burning we must make sure our preferences are correct for burning the xbox360 disk. You will need a blank DVD+R DL.

I recommend Verbatim brand, as they are the highest quality and most reliable.

• Part 1. Change your Booktype to your current DVD burner.
• Part 2. Under the Tools / Settings file menu, go to the write tab and you will see “Layer Break” options. Select “User Specified” place this sequence of numbers: 1913760. This gives us the correct spacing between the data when burning the disk.

Step 5: Ready to burn

Ok! Now its ready to burn

• Part 1. Click ok and save your settings
• Part 2. Click Write Image file to disk
• Part 3. For the Source, select the .dvd file of your 360 dump, NOT THE ISO FILE!!
• Part4. Set your burn speed to 2.4x. Uncheck Verify. then you are ready to burn!

And there ya have it, a successfully burnt xbox 360 backup. I hope you enjoyed the tutorial and please post your feedback and comments on Pixil.info and Younoob.net. Extra information can be found in the Show notes. Thanks and happy hacking.

Coming up on today’s epsiode:

Posting your content online, using your iPhone

Today we’re gonna take a look at keeping up with your social sites while your on the go. Being stuck at a red light might not seem like the best place to keep up with the latest breaking news. But if your in terrible traffic, being able to scan the latest headline can help you keep your sanity.

My favorite rss reader for this is Google’s mobile reader. It’s very easy to read, and share content. You can star an iteam to read later. Sharing will post stories you like to other services like friendfeed or a blog. You can also attach notes with comments.

My next favorite iPhone app is Qik. Qik allows you to broadcast live video. This opens the door to turing you into your own broadcasting station. You can edit your titles by clicking on the screen. Your titles and tags can default to the last used if you forget. You can control wether you want your video to be public or private. Here you can toggle audio and user chats. When recording, you can send twitter a link to your recordings. When your finished recording, the red text on the top right tells how much of the video is finished uploading.

Now we’ll look at posting pictures. My preferred method of uploading and tagging my photos, is through Klick. Klick links to your Flickr account. You can acces all of your contacts photos. We can use the geo-location features to find photos taken around your area. You can upload your photos under the more tab, and pick a photo from the camera roll. You also take a picture from with klick.

And now my last one for this episode is, Netshare. Netshare allows you to link up your phone’s net connection to your laptop. Although the iPhone can juggle many task, there’s still times when you’ll need a computer. And there you have it, a couple of my on the go iphone work flows, utilizing these apps on the go can really help empower your mobile office.

So thats it for this episode of pixil.info, see ya next time

Coming up on today’s epsiode:

We take a look at using layer comps to change the overall looks of a layout.

In a past episode, we talked about using layer comps to save time when building out websites. Today we going to take a closer look at layer comps, and how they can change the entire look of your project.

Alright so lets say your client likes the layout… but ask you to change the color scheme. Lets also say our client doesn’t know exactly which colors to choose. Instead of picking just one, our client suggests several color schemes. So the best way to do this… in a non-destructive way, is to use Layer Comps.

Step 1: Create a new layer comp.

First, save our project’s current state, so lets open up the layer comps palette and click the create new button. Lets go over these three check boxes.

• Visibility keeps track of what layers turned on or off
• Position stores the location of your layers.
• and Appearance holds all of your layer style information.

So depending on how drastic you want your layout to change, you’ll need to check the appropriate boxes. In this example all use all three.

Step 2: Changing your layout.

Now that we’ve saved our current state, lets start changing stuff around! First I’ll start with changing the colors. I’ll be using layer styles to do this. So once the color is changed on this first layer, we’ll copy that layer’s “layer style” and paste it on other layers with similar attributes. Check out how I can change all of these text layers at one. To do this, I’m using the cmd+shift while clicking on each layer. Right click, and paste the layer style. Works great in situations like this.

Alright next, I’m going to flip the sidebar and content. I’ll need to change the position of the gradient on the sidebar background color. Next, Lets switch to the header image to something more appealing. Just turn this one on… and the other one off.Alright, once your happy with your changes, lets save it out as a new layer comp. So in the layer comp palette, create new, leave those boxes checked and okay!

Now lets switch between these two colors. Okay looks pretty good, so now lets setup another color. So just repeating the same steps from before. Alright here we are….. It’s pretty amazing switching thru layer comps like this. Sorta resembles Javascript Style Sheet switching.

Alright so with all that done. Let’s export these out. I’ll be using the “Layer Comps to Files” export script. If your on CS4, you’ll notice adobe added a few new file formats. Alright and with that, you’ve just created an advanced layer comp workflow. Take a moment to play around with the position and appearance, try to create something totally different!

Coming up on today’s epsiode:

Jermbo shows us his painting techniques in photoshop.

Well lets go a head and open up photoshop. I like to start out with a sketch and scan it in so i have a good base to start painting on. The first thing I like to do is make a white layer and place it on the bottom on the layers.

Then I set the sketch to about 50% opacity. make a new blank layer on top of the sketch and start painting. I have completed some of the painting before but you can see the layers of what i have done. On that first layer above the sketch I grabbed the brush set the opacity to 20 or 25% and slopped on color to get a basic color pallet. Once the base colors are placed down, i make a new layer and start blending the colors together.

I like to use the eye dropper to pick my next color, that way the colors stay in the came range. I turn on and off the sketch and bg layer to see my progress at times. Now that I am happy with the hands i will start on the bg. the easiest thing I do is make a new layer and set it behind the hands layer.

Coming up on today’s epsiode:

Using layer comps and smart objects to set up sub-pages and ready-to export slices for web build out. By creating slices inside of smart objects and organize your layers and folders, this can drastically help you structure your comp for buildout.

Layer Comps for Build Out

Layer comp are a convenient way to store a snapshot of certain aspects in a document. Here we’re able to save a layer’s visibility. Take a look at these two layer comps, text on and text off. When we cycle thru these two you’ll notice that all this is really doesing is turn off and on the soon-to-be HTML text.By having your comp setup this way, it allows us to quickly export slices with out having to worry about the html text getting exported along with a background image.

Smart Objects & Slicing

Here we have an entire sub-page reside in one smart object. Inside our smart oubject we have slices and layer comps. Thats right folks, smart objects support slices. By converting your sub-page into a smart object, your able to create new slices for each new page. Also, notice we have our handy text on and text off layer comps. This is essential for exporting your slices.

So in addition to converting your sub-pages into a smart objects, lets take a look at how we have our navigation set up. Here you’ll find our favorite text on and text off layer comps. We also have our slices.

Just by looking at the layout, you’ll notice we have it set up for the CSS sliding doors technique. This basically allows one background image contain different anchor states. so If you’ve done css menus before, you know the drill. thats basically all their is to the navigation.

Alright so to sum thing ups, lets take a look at what we’ve learned.

• Use layer comps to set up sub-pages and ready-to export slices.
• Create your slices inside of smart objects.
• Organize your layers and folders to help you structure your sub-pages.
• Don’t forget you can convert pieces of your website into smart objects.