Comments
Richard Davies wrote: The UK has a good crop of technology pioneers in cloud computing - for example ElasticHosts, FlexiScale, Flexiant, OnApp - and also some strong government initiatives such as G-Cloud. We will have to see whether this kind of technical leadership converts into swift mass-market adoption or not.
Cloud Expo on Google News

SYS-CON.TV
Cloud Expo & Virtualization 2009 East
PLATINUM SPONSORS:
IBM
Smarter Business Solutions Through Dynamic Infrastructure
IBM
Smarter Insights: How the CIO Becomes a Hero Again
Microsoft
Windows Azure
GOLD SPONSORS:
Appsense
Why VDI?
CA
Maximizing the Business Value of Virtualization in Enterprise and Cloud Computing Environments
ExactTarget
Messaging in the Cloud - Email, SMS and Voice
Freedom OSS
Stairway to the Cloud
Sun
Sun's Incubation Platform: Helping Startups Serve the Enterprise
POWER PANELS:
Cloud Computing & Enterprise IT: Cost & Operational Benefits
How and Why is a Flexible IT Infrastructure the Key To the Future?
Click For 2008 West
Event Webcasts
Call in the Specialist
Call in the Specialist

I have to begin this month's article with a confession. Each year, because of my articles and books, software publishers send me piles of free software with the hope that I will do an article about their product. I use the software and then, at some point, start feeling guilty. So, in that light, this is my periodic attempt at assuaging my conscience; hopefully, I'll give you some good advice.

Fireworks MX is a great program that can do a lot. But in today's "job must be done by yesterday" world, the concept of object-oriented programming is here to stay. The whole philosophy behind OOP is that you use a prebuilt solution and just plug in the information. This saves hours of potential trial-and-error development.

The software tools I discuss here are both relatively inexpensive and compatible (directly or indirectly) with the MX environment.

Alien Skin Software
This company has had a strong association with Fireworks for quite some time now. As a matter of fact, a "lite" version of its products, Eye Candy 4000 and Alien Skin Splat, ships with Fireworks MX 2004. These are filter programs that will allow you to create special effects quickly.

The full version of Eye Candy 4000 comes with 23 easy-to-use filters. As an example, you could apply the melt filter to a photograph and end up with something like Image I. This could be the easy road to becoming the next Salvador Dali in melting time.

How many hours have you spent trying to get that glass button effect? The glass filter will give you the effect shown in Image II, among others, quickly and easily. The interface will allow you to change color, shading, transparency, etc.

The full version of the Splat program will give you some great frame and edging effects.

As an example, the cameo shown in Image III was created with just a few clicks.

I could have achieved the same effect by using a masking technique. However, this image was created within seconds with just a few simple clicks.

Xenofex 2 offers 14 additional filters for such exotic effects as electricity, smoke, crumpled paper, jigsaw puzzle, etc.

Image Doctor will allow you to repair damaged images by removing scratches, spots, and various compression errors.

Why reinvent the wheel? It took me a considerable amount of time to recreate what these filters did with a few simple keystrokes in an easy-to-use interface.

You can purchase these filters, and download demo versions, at www.alienskin.com. They also have special package pricing.

Auto FX
This series of filters are available in two versions: stand alone and plug-in. However, as of this writing, the plug-in versions are not available directly for Fireworks. The plug-in versions are available only for Photoshop, Corel Photo Paint, and Jasc Paint Shop Pro.

I happen to be a user of Paint Shop Pro, and as a result I was able to install these filters as a plug-in. Once I did that, I was able to access the plug-ins with Fireworks.

These filter packages offer some very sophisticated effects. As an example, the Mystical Lighting package gives you ways to play with an image's lighting. Image IV offers an example.

As an experiment, I found the graphic in Image IV on their Web site. I was able to reproduce the results within about 15 minutes. Unfortunately, space does not permit me to show you many of the interesting variations I was able to create.

As a designer, I'm always looking for interesting things to do with text. One of the filters of the Dreamsuite Series of filters will allow you to turn ordinary text into something like Image V.

The Mystical Tint package will allow you to work some magic with the image's colors. This is shown in Image VI.

Again, I was able to create a number of variations that I do not have room to reproduce here. Experimenting with the interface of these filter packages opened up a number of fascinating possibilities.

Demo versions, a number of examples, and pricing are available at www.autofx.com. As I stated at the outset, you can use this as a freestanding program and then export into Fireworks.

You will be amazed.

WildForm
Not all the samples were for Fireworks. As you may know, there are a number of programs to augment Flash MX. Among the best programs I have seen is Wildfx. This simple, and inexpensive, package will give you an unbelievable 400 text effects. You open it up, type the text, pick the effect, and the job is done.

The interface is shown in Image VII.

I can easily export the SWF file and then incorporate it into a Flash movie. If 400 text effects are not enough, you can get a low cost supplemental package that will give you an additional 200 effects.

If you want to put a Flash movie together, using multiple SWF files, quickly, you can use the companion product called Linx. This will allow you to easily take SWF files and just dropping them onto a timeline.

The interface is shown in Image VIII.

Please remember that I am not using Linx as a substitute for Flash MX. However, it helped me speed up some of the more routine tasks.

I am finding the Wildform programs increasingly important to help speed up my workflow. Information about these programs can be found at www.wildform.com.

Conclusion
This is only a small sampling of the third-party market building around Macromedia's MX line. Each of these programs can speed up the workflow process by offering specialized functionality and reducing graphics process down to a few simple keystrokes.

Are they worth the investment?

Only you can decide that. However, in my practice, each of these programs has saved me hours and, in one case, days of work. This translates out to profitability that could outweigh the initial cost.

Give the demos a try. I don't think you will be disappointed.

About Charles E. Brown
Charles E. Brown is the former editor-in-chief of MX Developer's Journal. He is the author of Fireworks MX from Zero to Hero and Beginning Dreamweaver MX. He also contributed to The Macromedia Studio MX Bible. Charles is a senior trainer for FMC on the MX product family.

In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.

Register | Sign-in

Reader Feedback: Page 1 of 1

You have to put the references to images as links in the text! It is extremely annoying to scroll dowm find a link, look at it, hit back, scroll up and search the spot you where in the text. This goes for the whole site.


Your Feedback
Timo Pulkkinen wrote: You have to put the references to images as links in the text! It is extremely annoying to scroll dowm find a link, look at it, hit back, scroll up and search the spot you where in the text. This goes for the whole site.
Latest Cloud Developer Stories
Can you bring services from the cloud to your customers faster and have them adopt it with ease of use or bring the power of bundled services to the fingertips of your clients without creating new rigid ‘apps stove pipes'? Do you want to prevent your business running away to publ...
OCZ Technology Group, a provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, on Tuesday announced the Z-Drive R4 CloudServ PCI Express (PCIe) flash storage solution, designed to accelerate cloud computing applications and reduce operating expe...
Many organizations have embraced, or are considering, the benefits of cloud computing – speed, flexibility, increased expertise, shared workload, reduced costs, etc. The benefits are many – but so are the risks. What are the threats to cloud security? Which parties assume respons...
In August 2011, SHI Enterprise Solutions (ESS) division launched the SHI Cloud, offering reliable and cost-effective industrial-grade cloud computing platforms. That same division achieved an 82 percent increase in revenue over 2010.
SoftLayer Technologies on Tuesday announced the immediate worldwide availability of SoftLayer Object Storage, a redundant and highly scalable cloud storage service that allows users to easily store, search and retrieve data across the Internet, with optional CDN connectivity, or ...
Subscribe to the World's Most Powerful Newsletters
Subscribe to Our Rss Feeds & Get Your SYS-CON News Live!
Click to Add our RSS Feeds to the Service of Your Choice:
Google Reader or Homepage Add to My Yahoo! Subscribe with Bloglines Subscribe in NewsGator Online
myFeedster Add to My AOL Subscribe in Rojo Add 'Hugg' to Newsburst from CNET News.com Kinja Digest View Additional SYS-CON Feeds
Publish Your Article! Please send it to editorial(at)sys-con.com!

Advertise on this site! Contact advertising(at)sys-con.com! 201 802-3021

SYS-CON Featured Whitepapers
ADS BY GOOGLE

Breaking Cloud Computing News
A new collaboration between a telecommunications infrastructure firm and a data center services prov...