Retrocity/Godspeed Likewise, if you need a hand, I have lots of bits & pices I could let you have. Rob (tryptych@yahoo.com)

Nice idea. I agree with the view on lens flares too, but I suggest you try something like Knoll Lensflare or the KPT one rather than the smae-old-same-old Photoshop one that everyone uses. Also, just add a small point. It doesnt have to blind people.

Looks like a case of RTFM, I'm afraid, as I don't think many people would buy them. Frankly, anything an action can do, you can usually do yourself even quicker when you get the knack. Examine the actions steps and see how it operates. Sorry, thats all I can say.

How about a hints & tips section. Just quick 1 or 2 para helpful bit that most people go "Ooooh! I didnt know you could do that." For instance: How to straighten scans. Use the ruler tool and lay it down a straight surface of the scanned, wonky image. Use Image/Transform/Rotate/Arbitrary and the degree difference from the horizontal/vertical will be already there. Just hit "rotate" and your'e done.

Dear Sirs. As a regular reader of the London Times, I am to writing to fully support Retrocity here. I am also a Photoshop pro, and always willing to help Newbies, pros and even Poser users. I think it unfair for the semi-proficient majority on here to roll their eyes in disgust when someone asks "How do I save a JPEG"? And while I'm on a gripe, people like Slynky etc - If you haven't actually got something constructive to say, please put a sock in it. I don't like having to wade through pages of detrius to find useful titbits of information. If you want to whine on about how good Amiga Deluxe Paint is or whatever, do it in the chatroom; thats what it's there for. Signed P.Knutt (Colonel)(Ret'd)(Mrs.)

If you have to use a very small font size, set the text anti-aliasing to "none" - this will produce chunky type, but it will be far more readable.

LOL! Easy when you know how. Incidentally, a useful trick for good outlines is the "Smart Blur" function. Copy the layer you need, desaturate it, and smart blur it with "outline only". Invert this and then you can overlay this on the original. I find it quite effective.

Slice tool is a useful function within Image Ready for Web Designers. However, Adobe, in their infinite wisdom have decided to drop it into Photoshop in an attempt to get it to do everything including make the coffee. Sorry, but Photoshop is getting cluttered with irrelavant functions and gimmicks.

Eye Candy 4000, or Super Blade Pro will do all of that and much more.

Photoshop filters will not work within Premiere as they are for static effects, not time based ones. However, Premiere will now accept most After Effects plugins, of which there are bucketloads available, including a lot of shareware ones, so you might find something there.

Overlay works, as does lighting effects. A further simple way is to use a greyscale bitmap and use the "custom texture" within the texturiser plugin.

The Alien Skin "Xenofex" plugin has an excellent "erode" function which gives your image a nice corrupted edge.

Photoshop does not import 3D data. It is a bitmap editor. That's like asking why Poser cant import your Excel spreadsheet. Horses for courses. Deep Paint does however include a Photoshop plugin that will transfer bitmaps with UV mapping co-ordinates, including the wireframe overlay on a seperate Photoshop layer to allow you to paint it within Photoshop and then transfer it back to map the 3D object. I recommend you get "Texture Weapons" to go with Deep Paint as this makes life a LOT easier.

Also allow enough scratch disk space as PS uses its own temp file instead of the Windows one.

Interesting point about "Computer Arts". Future publishing are renowned for producing populist crap aimed at late teens. Technically they are always behind. In UK, if you want a good graphics mag, get Digit. It's the same price and far superior.