March 13, 2008

FireworksGuru: Demon Towers

Check out Demontowers.com for Free Flash and Fireworks Extensions! The developers there are awesome and can stir up some really cool extensions. There's also an update to the Twist and Fade command that ships with Fireworks CS3.

The Demon Towers design is clean and slick. I'm a big fan of dark layouts created in Fireworks and would vote for Halloween to be a once-a-month event if I was elected President. :)

Steven Grosvenor from Demon Towers joined the Fireworks Jam Session today and what a wonderful session with Steven. He showed us the behind the scenes magic around the site architecture and he even fixed a bug with the Newsletter submission. Not only is Steven a strong Fireworks user, but he also codes like a madman with HTML/ActionScript/JavaScript/.NET/C# creating various chemical compounds to construct insane extensions for Flash and Fireworks.

I love the extensibility layer with Fireworks and Flash. Why bug engineering when you can make the panel yourself and solve your own workflow issues? Use Flash/Flex to build the User Interface via ActionScript and make calls to the JavaScript API in Fireworks, its that easy! Well I'm pumped up today, Steven just made my day. :-)

Here's the recording if you have time to watch today's session.

Posted by amusselman at 12:34 PM | Comments (3)

November 27, 2007

FireworksGuru: firetuts.com

Justin over at firetuts.com has a fresh, resourceful site for Fireworks users. I'd suggest if you have tip or trick to submit a tutorial for his site. If your looking for Fireworks tutorials Justin has posted a few already, enjoy and thanks Justin!

Posted by amusselman at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)

September 24, 2007

FireworksGuru: Lian

Today Lian aka Jose Angel Rivera Dominguez is recognized for his ability to help and effectively teach Fireworks users best practices when it comes to lighting techniques, patterns and textures to designing rich interfaces geared for HTML/CSS, Flash or even software app designs. (He has been doing this ever since I first started using Fireworks.)

Lian has been planning to update his personal site: www.liandesigner.com yet like the rest of us is too busy working day to day to promote his hard work. You can visit his temporary portfolio if you feel inclined.

Lian is famous and one of my favorite gurus I look up too when it comes to designing in Fireworks. Here's an example of one of the powerful tutorials we converted to a Fireworks Developer Center article. You'll find many of these tutorials about Fireworks hidden in Fireworks related forums.

Old Paper Effect
http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/fireworks/articles/frw8at_oldpaper.html

Here's some sites that are live Lian wanted to share with us:

Thanks to Lian for helping us all be better Fireworks designers!

Posted by amusselman at 03:00 PM | Comments (3)

August 20, 2007

FireworksGuru: John Dunning

Today is a great day as John Dunning updated his list of current Adobe Fireworks Extensions. I've always considered John to be an elite Fireworks user if not the godfather of Fireworks and its time to give him recognition as a FireworksGuru for all the insanely helpful extensions John has given to the Fireworks community. You can also find John over at fireworksguruforum.com helping people out with extending Fireworks.

Thanks John for all you do!

Posted by amusselman at 12:14 PM | Comments (0)

July 16, 2007

FireworksGuru: Rocket Theme

If any of you use Fireworks and work with Joomla templates or are thinking about using a Joomla template with Fireworks then Rocket Theme is the place for you. I have seen the Rocket Theme team output some killer templates and they also went the extra mile to make sure they are coded properly for your installing pleasure.

Why Rocket Theme you ask? Why not?! They have an excellent forum where they constantly help peeps get up to speed with Fireworks and overall make sure their community is taken care of. The amount of templates they push out is a mystery to me and the quality is top notch..amazing work especially with their latest template released called Replicant. Be sure to check out their Tutorials section where you will be able to quickly get up to speed with Fireworks and Joomla!

I've started to investigate building export scripts to work with Joomla templates so all you have to do is modify the graphics and export the template in one shot. It will take some time and attention and overall will be pretty cool once I or someone else has the time to create them.

Go Rocket Theme! :)

Posted by amusselman at 11:13 PM | Comments (0)

March 09, 2007

Fireworks Guru: Aaron Beall

Aaron Beall deserves some serious Fw love in regards to what he has accomplished with the Fireworks API and Command panels and on top of that you can find him on the Fireworks Support Forums as well as the FireworksGuru Forum.

Visit Aaron's site as well as his special site dedicated to Fireworks that contains some very nice extensions for Fw Extenders as well as for Pixel pushers.

Thanks Aaron, Keep up the great work!


Posted by amusselman at 03:04 PM | Comments (2)

July 03, 2006

FireworksGuru: Angelo Sabal aka Blue2x!

Angelo aka Blue2x deserves FireworksGuru recognition after seeing his post on the Adobe Fireworks Forum and creating small yet powerful tutorials as well as inspirational artwork created with Fireworks.

Be sure to check out more of Angleo's DeviantArt projects:

http://blue2x.deviantart.com/

Posted by amusselman at 11:20 AM | Comments (3)

February 13, 2006

Fireworks Guru: Stéphane Bergeron

Being long overdue for a new FireworksGuru post, here he is, Stéphane Bergeron.

Stephane is very unique in the Fireworks realm. He has lots of interesting tips and techniques that are spread all over the web including his latest article called Why choose Fireworks? It's a good read and really touched me which invoked me to make this post.

If you can only imagine, here I am working at Macromedia (before the acquisition) only because my passion for Fireworks has fueled me to take on this job. I realized I like to help others so Product Support was for me then all of a sudden, Adobe announces the acquisition and I started to lose my passion, wants and needs to make Fireworks be what it can be for the community to the point I started thinking if I can only purchase the Fireworks Codebase from Adobe....only to find out Adobeans (not as cool as macromedians in my opinion) used Fireworks and also wanted to make Fireworks a powerful product for us Webheads that want to get in and out and focus on the final design. With that said, I put down the check book and went along my merry way and then he writes the "Why choose Fireworks" article that boosted my self-esteem and made me realize I have forgotten about everyone else that also is passionate about Fireworks.

Thank you Stéphane for everything you have done for the community and hope you do not lose your passion in the tools that make you more productive everyday!

 

Posted by amusselman at 06:18 PM | Comments (5)

September 30, 2005

Fireworks Guru: Alex Mariño

If you've surfed the Macromedia Dreamweaver and Fireworks forums, chances are you've ran into Alex Mariño in one way or another. He enjoys hanging out in the forums or related sites to collaborate with others, solve problems and find solutions or workarounds to issues he experiences while using the Studio everyday.

"For the web design I have not found anything more powerful than the Dreamweaver - Fireworks combination. I am limited only by my imagination and technical skills in what I can create. I use them exclusively for web design and pretty much live in them everyday."

Alex currently works full time developing internal and external sites for Student Assistance Foundation as well as developing sites on the side.

Posted by amusselman at 08:50 AM | Comments (2)

September 20, 2005

Fireworks Guru: Joyce Evans

I must say...reading Joyce's tutorials or shall I say books concerning Fireworks is always exciting for me. The last book I read by her was the Zero to Hero for FWMX2004. I've referenced that book on countless occasions and was surprised to find tips I didnt even know existed in FWMX2004.

Joyce has a ton of experience in educational teaching, tutorial development, and Web Design. I would also like to mention she's the Fireworks Editor for the MX Developers Journal magazine. To find out more about Joyce, visit her Web Design Studio at www.ideadesignwebsites.com or her personal site at www.joycejevans.com for tutorials, postings, and more.

There's just something about people that are nice and willing to help someone out. It's priceless.

Thanks for being you Joyce!

Posted by amusselman at 04:25 PM | Comments (2)

August 22, 2005

Fireworks Guru: Linda Rathgeber-Stewart

Well, I've been slacking on my Other Fireworks Guru once a week post, but with good reasons!

Today, Im acknowledging Linda Rathgeber-Stewart as a Fireworks guru. Back in the day when I used to post to the Macromedia Fireworks forum looking for answers to my questions, she would reply and give me fantastic feedback, plus she would give me ideas I wouldnt have thought about, so it gives me great pleasure to give Linda my props for all the help she's given the Fireworks community with more to come with Fireworks 8 and the Studio in general.

Accomplishments:

Linda also works as a design subcontractor for Roubaix Interactive, Easter Asociates, Webeze, Electric Sage Designs, and Great Web Sights.

In April of this year she was one of a handful of designers asked to submit a Web site redesign plan for AusAID, the Australian Overseas Aid agency. (Her design was selected.) The new site should go live in about a month. Other than the occasional photo retouching in Photoshop, she works exclusively in Fireworks.

Be sure to check out her site: Playing with Fire.

Thanks Linda!!

Posted by amusselman at 04:08 PM | Comments (3)

July 21, 2005

Fireworks Guru: Jim Babbage

There's a lot of Fireworks gurus out there, but today Im giving recognition to Jim Babbage.

Jim has written over 70 articles and tutorials for Fireworks and actively participates at Community MX! (That's insane Jim!) Wow, if I were a new Fireworks user, you would be my idol Jim, but Im not saying your not my idol now, hehe. :P

It's amazing when someone that's new to Fireworks never realized how powerful the app can be in their web app arsenal. Who wants to go through all the hassle just to export images like in other apps when you can just Create > Slice > Export. I also can't tell you how many code poets/production artists I talk to on a daily basis that use Fireworks and love it. The faster you get in and get out, the faster you can head out to the beach or go hiking or whatever you enjoy to do in your spare time.

Jim's been a visual communications guru for over a decade, and his skills include digital imaging, web design, landscape, nature and commercial advertising photography. Jim currently teaches credit courses in photography/imaging and newmedia at Centennial College's Centre for Creative Communications and is also a partner at NewMedia Services.

Be sure to check out the Fireworks Developer Center and Community MX (Specifically Fireworks) to read his articles. I know I've picked up a bunch of tips from his articles and you can too!

Thanks for sharing your knowledge Jim and keep up the fantastic work!

Posted by amusselman at 10:08 AM | Comments (4)

May 29, 2005

Senocular.com and Fireworks, perfect match?

Some say Senocular is a super-humanoid while others report beast-like creature sightings in and out of the East Coast. I'll have to admit, crossing paths with this magnificent beast is truly amazing.

Heck, if you cant do it, Senocular will probably create a custom command or Flash panel so you can get the design/production work done..speaking of which, don't forget to download Senocular's Fireworks extensions, there's lots of nifty gadgets floating around there.

Enjoy!

Senocular's Fireworks Forum:

Fireworks related links:

Thank you Senocular!

Man, I look forward to seeing what you come up with next!

Posted by amusselman at 03:55 PM | Comments (0)

Check out the Fireworks "Geek Forum"

I gotta tell you...I've never seen so many hardcore Fireworks gurus in one place.

This Fireworks forum has got to be one of the best around with FW users from all over the world sharing tips, techniques, debates, improving workflows and best of all, creating a synergy for others to learn from their trial and errors. Since Fireworks is all about...well web graphics, its nice to see members can upload PNGs/JPGs directly to the threads. This feature makes the process easier for everyone to understand what the thread creator is talking about and particitpate actively.

I poked around on it yesterday and found myself diving into the "galaxies,vectors,tech interfces" thread. Sheesh...talk about some stellar creations, I decided to participate myself. I noticed no one was using the Star Auto Shape for lens flares and I gotta tell you, its pretty simple to create a flare once you learn how to interact with the Auto Shape..so...I got side-tracked with my design and created a "Lens flares using the Star Auto Shape" tutorial so others can learn how to create Flares using an Auto Shape. There's also a custom command that generates a Star background, check it out.

I'm not sure if Geek Forums has gotten a Thank you from a Macromedian before, but here's mine, "THANK YOU". You guys soo rock over there and keep up the great threads. I'll stop by more often and offer my expertise and assistance when I can.

 

Posted by amusselman at 01:57 PM | Comments (2)