The Weekly Birdbath for July 30th - August 5th

 

July 30th - August 5th, 2011

by Cobra405/Mizagorn/Redstar/Mpeutz

UH! clap, clap. uh huh. psheeeer! Rims and kicks, FX, shakers and blips. Here's a fascinating master mix that's house, beat box, or hip hop - take your pick. Our phenom man tashuan16 humbly presents an enjoyable groove that stirs your dance emotion. Take a listen, and be prepared to wish you, too, are on this island getaway.

beat box island.egg on Aviary.

TheDoctor7777

Do you like quirky, out of left field, why didn't I think of that art? Well so do we and that is why TheDoctor7777 is in the spotlight this week. Steampunk, fantasy, weapons and some wild inventions will leave you shouting for more. Pop over to his gallery, the adventure is just beginning. Some of our favorites:

While I was mentoring LunaOwl and trying to help her create a seamless tile in Phoenix, I enlisted the help of our resident Peacock wizard, mpeutz. Mike created an Offset Blackbox and a video to show us all how to use it. Looks like the mentor needed mentoring. See the tut here along with LunaOwl's amazing seamless tile image.

Peacock is a great way to create almost anything your imagination can come up with. But what if you have a challenge that limits the resources you can use? Redstar came up with this amazing hubs Minimalist challenge... use only Spirolina, Drop Shadow, and Shape Draw. Enjoy these entries, be inspired, and see what YOU can come up with!

Have you ever looked at Undiscovered Creations? (Go to Discover creations -> Undiscovered Creations from the main menu.) We're trying to decide if this area is a great place to find new talent... or is it a place for inappropriate material? Is it a boon or a bane? Weigh in here with your comments!

Tip - Getting Started with Peacock

Peacock is an awesome application - and my first love on Aviary! However, it can be a bit daunting for new users to jump into. This week's video is a quick primer on how Peacock works. If you still have questions after watching the video, you should head on over to the Aviary forums and ask for some tips from our awesome community

[youtube width="550" height="344"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G94a3SQN1zA[/youtube]

The Weekly Birdbath for July 23rd - 29th

  July 23rd - 29thby Cobra405/Mizagorn/Redstar/Mpeutz

At Aviary, we like to spend a lot of time showcasing new talent. If you've seen and listened to more than one Birdbath, then you know what we're talking about. That's the way we roll at Aviary.

This week, however, to inspire and motivate you, we're going to focus on and shamelessly plug the two best music artists we have. The amount of time these guys spend mixing brain-blowing good music is phenomenal. Each of them actually deserve a special spotlight, but for now, you can get a taste of delicious audio delight right here.

First off is Jdogg247, who not only is a killer music manipulator, but is also a fantastic Raven artist. Add humor and helpfulness - you've got one of Aviary's top favorites. Let's explore "Plastic" - a totally original, tripped out journey into the unreal side of thought. Multiple effects, clip reversals, and a superb use of massive amounts of Roc instruments:

Plastic.egg on Aviary.

Next is our freakingly, unreally talented styromus. This artist quietly creates things you wouldn't believe possible with Roc soundbanks, imported sounds, and an unconventional ability to make engaging original music that appeals to everyone. Listen and be prepared to want to be like styromus while you delve into River Rush.

River Rush on Aviary.

Worth1000 was all so cute this week with the Raven: Kawaii 2 contest. All of the entry's were awesome but here are the top three awesomist ! is that a word, it must be look at these....

1. StillDunno 2. Yggdraassil 3. ivanildo

There is also a new Phoenix Color this 2 contest just started (scratches head, is this weeks BB tip just a coincidence) so head on over join in and maybe even win a trophy or some credits.

Bheid

There is a new kid in the flock and if you haven't met him yet (and if not, where have you been?) let me introduce you now. His username is Bheid and he has taken to Peacock like a duck to water. Not just a Peacock artist, Bheid has also created in Phoenix, Raven, Myna and Roc. Friendly, helpful and supplying some good challenges, check out his gallery to see some amazing images from someone here only 3 months. Some of our favorites:

This week's Aviator's challenge is called It's about time and you guessed it the images or songs have to have some connection to time. It was a lot of fun and it's not over yet so hop on over, there's still time Some of our favorites:

Deadmau5 VS Michael Jackson - Do You Remember The Time? - (2Jac Mashup Remix) .egg on Aviary.

Tip - Coloring Line Art

This week's tip shows you a quick and easy way to add color to your sketches and line art. It's really useful for comics, logo art, and anything else hand-drawn you want to spruce up professionally. Enjoy!

[youtube width="550" height="344"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7e0G93sqw0[/youtube]

Super Suite Updates!

Today we released more great updates for some of the apps in our flash suite: Roc (music creator), Myna (audio editor), Phoenix (image editor), and Raven (vector editor). Details below! Note: If you’ve signed up to be an alpha tester, this update won’t be huge news to you, but you can head over to the alpha testing changelog to get a peek at what’s coming up next 

Roc

The last update of Myna included a built-in version of Roc which allowed you to create and edit beats directly in Myna. Today's update brings a couple more exciting new features:

• Change the tempo with the traditional dragging method, or with the new arrows for more precise results.
• A completely overhauled instrument panel! Sort by instrument or category, and enjoy the new alphabetical organization for easier searching :)

We've also updated the standalone version of Roc with some features that previously were only available in the version within Myna: shorter sound names, instrument names on each track, and a collapsible sidebar.

Myna

Enjoy all the new functionalities of Roc-in-Myna, plus copy and paste effects from one clip to another (a much-requested improvement). You can access this new feature from the context menu.

Phoenix

Some major performance improvements for the tools:

• Improved brush, eraser, dodge/burn, and clone tools
• Added flow parameter to brush tool: set how much color is being laid down by the brush
• Improved edge burning on soft brushes
• New eyedropper shortcut: press shift with the brush or paintbucket tools selected to sample colors

This version of Phoenix will also allow you to paste in copied bitmaps! This means, for example, that you could just copy a picture from a website and paste it into the image editor instead of having to download and import the image. We think this will improve your workflow greatly :)

Raven

• Save .egg files to your desktop and load them whenever you want to continue editing. This is a great option for backing up your files, or for those times when you need to save your creations quickly. (This is also currently available in Phoenix. We're working on rolling it out to all apps!)
• You can now save path filters. Phew!
• Added path operations: union, subtract, difference and invert. You can find these under the menu "Path operations." To use them, you must have 2 path objects selected.

To try these new features out, just launch any of our apps and get to it! As always, if you can’t wait to see the next wave of features, feel free to try them out before they're officially released by signing up at www.aviary.com/alphatester.

We love your feedback - whether it's an exclamation of joy or a suggestion for how we could do better. Let us know what you think of these new features!!

Raven Updates: Path Filters!

More exciting news from the world of Aviary updates: we've just released a new version of Raven which adds support for path filters!!! Note: If you've signed up to be an alpha tester, this update won't be huge news to you. BUT if you head over to the alpha testing changelog, we don't think you'll be disappointed by what's next :)

Path filters will be especially life-changing for those Aviary users who have been asking us for one feature for ages: text to path. That's right, you can now turn your text into any shape you want with one click!!!

Here are the details:

• You can now add and edit filters (but remember, only on path shapes). Right-click on the canvas with the Transform tool selected, and then right-click on a path in the layer panel, or use the menu in the layers panel.
• Available filters in this first version: Dotted line, Wave Line, Fat Line, Text to Path. Try them all, there are really infinite possibilities for what you can do with them on top of your vectors!

Limitations:

• You can’t export filters as pdf/eps (yet).
• Duplicating a shape won't duplicate the filters.

As always, if you can't wait to see the next wave of features, feel free to get a peek at the next updates to our vector editor by signing up at www.aviary.com/alphatester.

To try out the new path filters, just launch Raven. Here's a quick overview, if you've never used them before!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STztprIu4ws[/youtube]

Updates to image editors!

Get ready for the best news you've heard since we started 30 days of Roc!

We're thrilled to announce that as of this morning we've released some significant updates to 3 of our most popular editors: Phoenix (advanced image editor), Raven (vector editor) and Falcon (image markup editor). Generally, the most significant improvements are to the stability of the applications, so they should all run more smoothly. Here's the list of all the changes; you may recognize some from your list of 2011 feature requests ;)

• Import and export layered .psd files!
• Improved brush performance. Brushes are noticeably faster and smoother.
• Larger slider handles for easier control.
• 1:1 zoom function. The new button located next to the zoom slider will return your view to 100%.
• Color variation parameter for brush. This new function will randomly switch the color of the brush between the set foreground and background colors.
• New and improved smudge tool. The smudge brush now fades out, giving a more natural smudge effect.
• Eraser Alpha controls greatly improved. The eraser's alpha is now reflected on the canvas, so you're able to erase at less than 100% alpha.
• Simple and custom brushes combined into one tool.
• Layer Masks work with luminosity instead of alpha. They'll now use the luminosity channel (lightness) for masking instead of the alpha channel (opacity). Note: the mask thumbnail in the layers panel is not yet updating.
• Improved history panel. You'll notice that the items in the history panel now better reflect the actions you perform in the application.
• Fixed persistent color picker issue. Toucan color palettes will now be retained in the color picker as they should be.
• Tons of performance improvements.

• Added smart layers. You can now rasterize ("flatten") and edit shapes in Peacock and Phoenix!
• Merge layers. Rasterize and combine multiple layers to reduce your file size.
• Better font selection. You can now preview fonts before choosing one.
• Text background colors. Customize the background area behind a font with its own color.
• Typographic case functions. You can switch your text between upper and lower case, and set small caps for some fonts.
• Fixed issue where workspace would dim while picking colors.
• Fixed persistent color picker issue. Toucan color palettes will now be retained in the color picker as they should be.
• Fixed an error which was preventing text to flip properly.
• Added duplicate command. Right click on any object and choose Duplicate to create a copy.
• Tons of performance improvements.

• Changes in selection/deselection mechanics. Last drawn shape remains selected for a quicker workflow. Note: Press enter to deselect the object and continue working.
• Changes in text object. Press enter to commit editing, or shift enter to add a new line.
• Unified effects for text and shapes. The shape and text effects behave the same way for each type of element, for a smoother editing experience.
• Slider now controls the actual text size instead of changing the effect strength. (In other words, it will no longer just increase the size of the shadow/outline.)
• Tons of performance improvements.

We're really happy to have been able to release these updates, and we can't wait to see what new creations you guys come up with!

Remember that you can always contact us to submit other feature requests or bug reports. We'll keep doing our best to make sure you have the best experience possible with our tools :)

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