Rayna — Thu, 10 Feb 2000 15:50:00 +0000

FreeToys,

Well if you have any experience with Macromedia products you will know that their learning curve is a bit high. I definitly needed the manual for this one The nice thing about it is how it and Dreamweaver work together.

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Rayna
Triple Orbit

FreeToys — Thu, 10 Feb 2000 13:01:00 +0000

Hi Rayna,

I just ordered FireWorks

What can you tell us about it?

Rayna — Thu, 10 Feb 2000 02:38:00 +0000

I know I am coming into this thread a bit late but the first graphics program I bought was Ulead Photo Impact. It came highly recommended from an online friend. Although I have several graphics prgrams now, CorelDRAW 9, Corel Photo Paint 9, and Fireworks 3, I ALWAYS go back to PhotoImpact in a pinch. It is an awsome program with great features, and you just can't beat the price Ulead offers a a free 30 day trial also! http://www.ulead.com

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Rayna
Triple Orbit

Tue, 08 Feb 2000 19:50:00 +0000

Would I be right in thinking my old (2yrs) Mac G3 powerbook isnt going to be suitable for all this?
Errr... what to get?
Any must haves or comments?

Megan — Tue, 08 Feb 2000 15:35:00 +0000

Gif Construction kit is a good easy tool for anmiation, but I would be careful with animated gif's - they tend to get very annoying.

Since we're talking about technologies to learn, I would add in CSS and dHTML in Justin's second cateogry. Also read up on cross-browser compatibility and how to design for different screen resolutions. Those two can get to be a very big problem, especially since in the not so distant future there will be yet another major browser that renders things totally differently from the others (mozilla).

Justin S — Tue, 08 Feb 2000 13:31:00 +0000

IMO = In My Opinion

Well as far as animation/gif software goes, they are all really pretty easy to use. There are a lot at www.download.com

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Tue, 08 Feb 2000 09:30:00 +0000

Thanks heaps for all that, Im wrapt I found this site, its ace!
What about animation software does anyone know of a basic one? (really, really basic that is)

By the way whats an IMO?

Mon, 07 Feb 2000 21:48:00 +0000

Well I started with Paint Shop Pro. I didn't know anything about graphics at all and I learned what I was doing after about 2 days of playing around with it.

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~Parker T.~
Formerly-sixflags111

Justin S — Mon, 07 Feb 2000 16:18:00 +0000

Yeah- I agree with Megs. You should first start out with learning:

HTML

General Layout/Design

PSP or Photoshop. I started with Photoshop, and although harder then PSP, was very easy to learn. But maybe that's just me

Then after you learn those I would recommend the following:

JavaScript

Macromedia Flash

Fireworks

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe FreeHand

Then if you still want stuff even more fun, then check out:

Bryce 4

3D Studio Max

Rhino

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Ineffable Designs [www.ineffabledesigns.com]

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Megan — Mon, 07 Feb 2000 14:43:00 +0000

Well, IMO you probably shouldn't start with the software you listed there. All three of those can be very overwhelming, especially to a "greenie".

For image editing, you might want to start by downloading a freebie off the net, just to see how image editors generally work and how to use the basic tools. Then try Paint Shop Pro. It's more powerful than freebie stuff but not quite as overwhelming as photoshop. You can get a free 30 day trial at http://www.jasc.com. THere are lots of PSP tutorials on the 'net.

Do you know HTML already? If not, get going on that as well.