B I R T H   O F   A N   I L L U S T R A T I O N

At last we're ready to build the illustration on the computer in FreeHand, our program of choice for this kind of work. Our final draft is scanned and placed on a background layer in FreeHand as a guide. This is similar to using tracing paper (what we call tissue) or acetate to ink over a pencil sketch, as we used to do in the old predigital days. Here's the nearly finished FreeHand illustration, with callouts in place, ready to be placed on the page:

For the illustrations in Multimedia in Action, we decided to go beyond our usual hard-edged style. We converted all 100 or so pieces of art from vector-based FreeHand EPS files into pixel-based Photoshop TIFFs. What all this technobabble means is that we could add photorealistic touches like soft shadows, glows, and transparency, as shown in the final version below:

Compare this finished figure with the author's original input. Strangely enough, it's just what he asked for -- but with the Ideas to Images touch! If you'd like to see more illustrations in this style, please check out the Multimedia in Action section of our Portfolio. You can also see this figure on the finished book page in the part of the Portfolio dealing with publication design.

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This page last updated on 10 January 2000.

e-mail: ideas@sonic.net

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