Tricky FLEXLM aw.dat setting for Maya 2008

I was setting up the aw.dat file by putting the Ethernet address in it,but the license application refused it. Turns out it's because I put in the address shown on "FlexLM license utilities", and it includes all three of my Ethernet addresses: one for my physical network card, while two for my VMWare virtual network card. Removing the virtual ones and put in only the the Ethernet address of my physical network card solved the problem.

Learning SketchUp 6 thru tutorial videos from SketchUp 5

It's very nice for Google to put up tons of videos for people to learn SketchUp. The problem, though, was that while the training videos are in version 5, the latest version is version 6, and there some UI difference between the two versions. For instance, the Display Setting feature become Styles. The color of line is now being set in Style setting instead of under the Window menu. No biggy, but cost me some time to find it out.

Photoshop CS3 with Wacom, problem solved

I installed Photoshop CS3 Extended and found Wacom working OK. So it's just the portable version that screwed up.

Photoshop CS3 with Wacom

Photoshop CS3 doesn't do pressure sensitive on my Wacom tablet! Could it be caused by the fact that I am using a Portable version?

CSS and Firework CS3 ... Sigh

Firework CS3 continuously having trouble running properly on my machine. After using it for a while, the left column of tool set will got all frozen for no good reason. I got so fed up that I quited using CS3 and using Firework MX 2004 instead. But MX 2004 has it's own problem:

• It doesn't provide as rich button transparency and shadow effect.
• It does not work with Aero class engine, forcing the UI to rollback to basic rendering.

On a totally different issue, I was being tortured by CSS for the last 24 hours. I need to keep fight and fight in order to get the result I want. sigh.

Found a way to do light lines.

Here's the effect that I want to create, and this is the answer.

Color Match Tutorial video for Photoshop CS2

This video is awesome. After watching it, I completely understand how color matching works!

Text wrap changed in Illustrator CS3

I was trying to following the instruction at this site to apply text wrapping, but then later I found out from Adobe official site that the command for Text Wrap was changed in CS3.

In CS3, to create multiple column, I should first select text area, then select command [Type] [Area Type Options...].

To create Text wrap, I first select text and wrap around objects (on the top of the text), and then select menu [Object][Text Wrap][Make].

Not too bad.

Illustrator CS3 Problems to resolve

When I do design, I hate switching between my right brain (for creativity) and my left brain (for logical thinking). So I tend to clear up all the technical issues about design before I move ahead my design work. Right now I have these tasks that need to resolve, some Illustrator CS3 related while some Photoshop CS3 realted:

Photoshop CS3 related

• Figure out how to color correct a bunch of photos before working on composition.
  Match the color in different images using Match Color command
  

Illustrator CS3 related

• Flow text around graphics.
  Here's the solution.
  
  
• Separate Text from text path
  Turn outs it's more like you select a corner handle, and the drag a text area. It's very much link to the text flow
  
  
• Hot Linkage between Photoshop CS3 and Illustrator CS3
  This is in fact MUCH EASIER than I thought, and works even with my Portable version of Photoshop CS3 and Illustrator CS3. Here's how you do it:
• In your Windows Explorer, make sure that psd file is associated to your Photoshop app. In my case I associated it to Photoshop CS3 portable.
• In Illustrator, select the imported psd object, and thus select the menu [Edit][Edit Original]
• Photoshop will be laoded, and so will your psd document. After you finish editing, save.
• When you get back to Illustrator, there will be a message saying that the source has change and ask for update confirmation. Accept it you got the modified psd object. Awesome.
  I also found an awesome new feature in Photoshop CS3 for creating DuoTone photo from color photo. Just select [Image][Adjustment][Black & White]. This gives you much better control on converting photo to duotone. Awesome.
  
  
• Add a think border to photo (from Photoshop)
• Short cut of Illustrator CS3. These short cust makes me feel like I am playing musical keyboard when working on graphic, but hell they are essential when I do a lot of graphic manipulation.
• Export Photoshop Path to Illustrator. This is easy.
  
  
• Copy layer between two Illustrator document.
  This is supposed to be the solution.
  But actually I found a better solution: use the [Edit] [Paste in Front] will paste the objects that I copied from one document to the new document and keep the position of all items.
  
  
• Create transperant Glass effect in Illustrator
  This site would be a good start .... keep searching ...
  
  
• Learn how to use Live Color and Color Guide effectively.
  This awesome video demonstrates what Live Color is about.
  
  
• Figure out how to consistent join two object
  Couldn't believe that I keep forgetting how to do it:
• Select the two objects you wan to join.
• Bring up Pathfinder, click the union icon on "Shape Modes"
• select menu [Object][Expand Apperance...]
• done.
  
  
• Find out how to modify effect history.
  Turns out the solution is pretty straight forward : Just bring up the "Appearance" Window and modify all the applied effects.
  
  

3D Studio Max 9 - At least it's stable

I was a bit frustrated by the 3D Studio Max 8 SP3. The application kept hanging up at some strange place. I finally got so feed up with it that I installed 3D Studio Max 9 and started using it. It seemed to work pretty well, and no crash so far.