286 lines
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286 lines
11 KiB
HTML
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<TITLE>
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Graphics Muse
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</HEAD>
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<BODY text="#000000" background="../gx/hammel/bg.gif"
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vlink="#fa3333" alink="#33CC33" link="#0000FA">
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<H4><IMG ALIGN=MIDDLE SRC="./gx/bat-l.gif">
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little less scary!</I>
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"<IMG ALIGN=MIDDLE SRC="./gx/bat-r.gif"> </H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<TABLE>
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<tr>
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<td valign="top">
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<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/lgpenguin.gif" ALT="Larry Ewing's Penguin Gazette"
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WIDTH="161" HEIGHT="160" border="0">
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</td>
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<td valign="center">
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<H1> The Graphics Muse </H1>
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<table>
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<tr>
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<td>by</td>
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<td><A HREF="mailto:mjhammel@csn.net">
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<IMG SRC="./gx/hammel/sig.gif" ALT="Michael J. Hammel"
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ALIGN="left" WIDTH="240" HEIGHT="23" border="0">
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</A>
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</td>
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</table>
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<td align=center colspan=2>
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<HR>
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</td>
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<td align=left colspan=2>
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<B>muse:</B>
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<OL>
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<LI><I>v;</I> to become absorbed in thought
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<LI><I>n;</I> [ fr. Any of the nine sister goddesses of learning and the
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arts in Greek Mythology ]: a source of inspiration
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</OL>
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</td>
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<tr>
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<td align=center colspan=2>
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<HR>
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</table>
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<UL>
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<LI><A HREF="#mews">Graphics Mews</A>
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<LI><A HREF="#musings">Musings</A>
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<LI><A HREF="#future">Future directions</A>
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</UL>
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<HR>
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Welcome to the Graphics Muse! This is the first in what I hope will be a
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long running monthly column relating to computer graphics on Linux systems.
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Why a "muse"? Well, except for the sisters aspect, the above definitions are
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pretty much the way I'd describe my own interest in computer graphics:
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it keeps me deep in thought and it is a daily source of inspiration.
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<P>
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This column will be divided into two sections:
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<A HREF="#mews"><I>Graphics Mews</I></A>,
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a section devoted to the latest news in graphics such as new releases of
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products (free or commercial), people in the news, conventions and
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conferences and whatever else might be of general interest to the graphics
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community, and
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<A HREF="#musings"><I>Musings</I></A>,
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a section where I can spew whatever I think
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needs to be covered more in depth. The later section I hope will cover
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things like reviews of products, tips and tricks, interviews with graphics
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people, or maybe just my philosophies on life. You'll just have to come
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back each month and see where things go.
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<P>
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I'm open to suggestions on topics for the Musings section. I'll also take
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any and all notices regarding graphics tools that are being released or
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updated. Please don't send notices as advertisements - I only want to know
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about new releases or new products. I'm only doing that to keep my workload
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down a little.
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<P>
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One thing this column <I>won't</I> cover is X programming or windowing
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API's (unless they are specifically designed for the development of
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graphics tools). There are lots of places to get information about X.
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This column is about computer graphics in general.
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<P>
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<A NAME="mews">
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<H2>Graphics Mews</H2>
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</A>
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Before I get too far into this I should note that any of the news items I
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post in this section are just that - news. Either I happened to run across
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them via some mailing list I was on, via some Usenet newsgroup, or via
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email from someone. I'm not necessarily endorsing these products (some of
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which may be commercial), I'm just letting you know I'd heard about them in
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the past month.
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<UL>
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<LI>Megahedron
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<BR>According to the announcement sent to me from Syndesis Corporation
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(the maker of this product), Megahedron is a programmable 3D graphics
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engine. It runs on a number of platforms, including Linux. You
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can check out the web site at
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<A HREF="http://www.threedee.com/">
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http://www.threedee.com/</A>.
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<LI>QT
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<BR>Troll Tech AS has released a free version of QT for the X Window
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System. QT is a complete and well-developed object-oriented program
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for developing graphical user interface applications using C++.
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For additional information check out Troll Tech's web site at
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<A HREF="http://www.troll.no/">http://www.troll.no/</A>.
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</UL>
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Thats all I've seen for this month. Software releases have been kinda
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sparse the past month for some reason.
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<P>
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<A NAME="musings">
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<H2>Musings</H2>
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</A>
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First, let me start with some shameless self-promotion:
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<A HREF="http://www.csn.net/~mjhammel/linux-graphics-howto.html">
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The Linux Graphics mini-Howto</A>
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and the
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<A HREF="http://www.csn.net/~mjhammel/povray/povray.html">
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Unix Graphics Utilities</A>
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pages. The latter of these I
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started late last year while beginning to learn about computer graphics
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through the use of POV-Ray, a 3D rendering tool. I had found that most of
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the tools available for use with POV-Ray were not Unix based (not
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specifically, anyway) so I tried to find info on Unix based tools since I
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was running Linux. After I learned a bit more about computer graphics I
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started the Linux Graphics mini-Howto in retaliation for a coworkers claims
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that doing graphics was best left to MS based systems. NOT! The tools
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need a little organizing, a few need better documentation, but in general
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you can do some very impressive graphics on Linux systems.
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<P>
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These two pages are available at:
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<br>
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<A HREF="http://www.csn.net/~mjhammel/linux-graphics-howto.html">
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http://www.csn.net/~mjhammel/linux-graphics-howto.html</A>
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and
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<br>
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<A HREF="http://www.csn.net/~mjhammel/povray/povray.html">
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http://www.csn.net/~mjhammel/povray/povray.html</A>.
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<br>
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I was offered some free web space by a couple of people so I'll be moving
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my pages sometime in the future, but probably not till after January.
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<P>
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<B>Note</B>: if you are the official maintainer of any of the packages
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listed in these pages feel free to keep me informed of new releases. The
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information there is only as good as the info I've gathered from newsgroups
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and word of mouth so far.
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<P>
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Ok, enough about me.
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<P>
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My first bit of musings revolves around the use of images in web pages.
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I get a number of e-mails from people who've seen my web pages (or possibly
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my ramblings on various newsgroups or mailing lists) asking how to do blah
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or where can I get blah to do blah for their web pages. The "where" parts
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are covered by the links mentioned above. The "how" part is a broad
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question. I'll summarize.
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<P>
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When creating graphics for your pages, keep the following things in mind:
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<OL>
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<LI>Consider your target audience:
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<UL>
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<LH>Home Users</LH>
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<LI>Most home users have slow links. Even 28.8 modems don't load
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big graphics all that fast. Keep your images small.
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<LI>Animations that are done with like cell-animations are done
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for cartoons (sequences of individual images with slight
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variations to simulate movement) require each cell to be
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loaded across the net. This is tantamount to one big image
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taking forever to load.
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<LI>Most home users are still limited to 256 colors on their displays.
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Lots of users have upgraded to better graphics cards, but how
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many people do you want to alienate with an image with 10000
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colors?
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</UL>
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<LI>
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If you want the average person to visit your page, you have to give
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them two things: content and flash. The flash has to be done using
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as little download time as possible, with as much color as you can
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squeeze in without overloading the browser (causing it to dither
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images). The content must be the reason for your pages, not the
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flash.
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<LI>Background images should be just that - in the background. Don't
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make the background so gaudy it distracts from your real content.
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<LI>Use common colormaps - this reduces the number of colors the
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browser has to allocate, leaving some space for other applications.
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X-based systems can allocate colors into private colormaps, but
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this causes that annoying "flashing" you see (try running Netscape
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with the -install option - you'll see what I mean).
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<LI>Flash can be added easily with a simple background over which you
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add some in-line transparent GIFs.
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<LI>Never use an "Under Construction" image. It's the Web. Of course
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it's under construction!
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<LI>Don't put those silly graphic dots in place of HTML list bullets.
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First, they waste the user's time downloading (each requires another
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connection to the server), and second, they break the formatting
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rules provided with HTML. It's just not good practice and they don't
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have any real value add to your pages.
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</UL>
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Now that you know some basic guidelines for your images, how do you go about
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creating the images? It depends on what kind of images you want to make.
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If you want a simple, cartoon-like image you can get a drawing program like
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xpaint. This tool is good for drawing circles and boxes and filling them
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in, using a window like a canvas to paint on the screen. However, this
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tool is limited in what you can do to the image once you've drawn it. One
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highly popular tool for a number of platforms that does this
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post-processing is Adobe Photoshop. Using a tool like this takes a bit of
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practice, but once you've mastered it you can do some rather amazing
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things. A Linux alternative to Photoshop is the
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<A HREF="http://www.XCF.Berkeley.EDU/~gimp/">
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Gimp</A>.
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The logos on this page were created with the Gimp. So was the background.
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<P>
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3D images are a whole other matter. There are actually more well-known
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tools for doing 3D work than there are for doing image manipulation (i.e.,
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tools like the Gimp). Probably the best-known of these is POV-Ray. This
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tool reads in a text file that uses a "scene description language" to describe
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how objects in the scene should be positioned and textured. The drawback
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to these tools is that they lack a point-and-click interface.
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There are separate tools available,
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known as modelers, that allow the creation of the scene files without
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actually rendering the image. In order to create a 3D image, you need to
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either learn the scene description language or learn who to use a modeler
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that will create it for you.
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<P>
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I know this is fairly basic and undetailed, but this is just my first
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column. Over time I'll try to cover both beginner and more advanced issues.
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<P>
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<A NAME="future">
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<H2>Future Directions</H2>
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</A>
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Next month: How do you create the textures that get applied to 3D images?
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Beyond that, I'm considering talking about how to use Type 1 fonts in your
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images: how to install them, how you can manipulate them with the Gimp to
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make interesting logos, etc. I'd also like to provide some tips for using
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POV-Ray and BMRT (although I have a lot to learn about the latter). And I
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might try to cover a little on how to do animations. Things are pretty
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open right now.
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<A HREF="mailto:mjhammel@csn.net">
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Let me know what you'd like to hear about!</A>
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<P>
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<HR>
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<FONT size=2>
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"Linux Gazette" Penguin courtesy of
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<A HREF="mailto:lewing@isc.tamu.edu">
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Larry Ewing</A>.
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</FONT>
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<HR>
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<center><H5>Copyright © 1996, M. J. Hammel</H5></center>
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<center> <H5>Published in Issue 11 of the Linux Gazette</H5></center>
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