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There is no single, one-size-fits-all tool to design presentation graphics whether your design goal is a small still image for the web or a fully animated HDTV resolution HD-DVD menu. We just have to mix and match, use and combine the best tools available for the job.

The pages in this section are not restricted to DVD graphic design. Techniques and concepts presented here can be applied to any commercial 2D and 3D projects. I created these pages so that potential graphic developers and designers may want to be aware of the power and quality of open-source graphics software where commercial software is either too expensive or simply cannot deliver. All images you are about to see in this section have been created on demand with open-source software.

There are many reasons to use open-source software. In my particular case, I use open-source technology since it works on my server Linux platform within the desired Unix security model. The technology supports complete automation. The images are generated by the server scripts without manual intervention.

I use Gimp to generate 2D graphic images since there is no native Adobe Photoshop for Fedora Core servers. Pov-ray and Blender/Yafray for 3D rendering instead of 3D Max and Lightwave. The Flash animation section is created with ActionScript instead of the traditional Macromedia desktop tools.

In a nutshell, just use your imagination and pick a set of design tools that you are comfortable with. Tools that teach you while you are learning and do not require a massive amount of training. Here is a brief summary.

If your work requires a lot of lighting and subtle shadows, go with 3D. 3D solutions may be slow and difficult to learn but it can give you results faster and in many cases not possible with a traditional 2D application. When possible, try to use a simpler design which do not take a lot of resources. A simple design does not mean that it is of low quality. In many cases, less is more.

If your work requires animation, you need to learn Flash and ActionScript. This is the scripting engine of Flash technology that brings to life otherwise a mundane picture or boring lines of text. Unfortunately, it is not easy to learn this scripting language since it employs the concept of object-oriented language. ActionScript lets you create animation quickly in an automated fashion and can create complex animated scenes that are virtually impossible to achieve with just desktop GUI tools.

You can use the resources in this section to generate both 2D and 3D graphics with high-quality commercial typefaces for your menu or logo design with web interface simplicity. Enjoy!


There are many excellent and free software packages that can produce 2D and 3D graphics with quality that is comparable or better than their commercial equivalence.

While deploying the Linux-based Fedora Core opearting system on this server, I decided to add graphic capability to the web server by integrating ImageMagick, Gimp, PovRay, and Yafray. These are are the open source equivalent of Photoshop and major 3D software.

The following section demonstrates traditional true 3D designs with ray tracing and radiosity. You will experience realistic lighting and soft shadows, true 3D depth and perspective, what makes a 3D rendering easily look superior to even the best of traditional 2D technology.
Add impact to your web pages and presentations, optimized for top on-screen quality with true 3D text logo design.
You can generate this seamless geometric pattern at any display resolution without losing image details or clarity.

This section helps you understand and create various text effects and styles such as drop shadows, images in text, outlined fonts, plasma, and fire, etc.

I also placed a large collection of Photoshop and Flash tutorials on this sever database for your convenience. These resouces cover many concepts and techniques written by experienced authors that will definitely improve your design skills. The database is updated nightly to remove dead and inappropriate links.

Current samples include the following pages:
Photoshop tutorials: If you want to create DVD menus yourself with professional quality, Adobe Photoshop is a great tool to consider. Despite its steep learning curve, there are plenty of high-quality free tutorials on the net to help you started in the right direction.
Flash tutorials: You will find among these pages a very large and comprehensive collection of many high-quality Macromedia Flash tutorials, tips and tricks written by many professional Flash authors and artists all over the world.
This article summarizes those basic features which I found essential and useful to my graphic design work. By understanding the principles behind these popular effects well, you can then build a solid foundation to come up with your own million design variations.
Text effects using Gimp
1. This plasma effect is a computer- based visual effect that uses cycles of changing colors to give the illusion of hot gas movement.
2. The effect traces the outline of each character of a text string to generate an embellishment contour having the outer and inner border.
3. This effect displays the surface of the text with a stylish weave-like criss-crossed pattern.
4. This text effect creates types in their shiny metallic chrome appearance. You can add a color hue to the standard black and white chrome.
5. This text effect creates types in their shiny metallic gold appearance. You can specify different gold patterns with dark brown spot reflections.
6. There are twenty variations from the basic fire color pattern. These variations include blue and magenta tints designed to blend well to your graphics.
7. This text effect creates types with color patches similar to patterns found in cattle hide. The color patches can also be used for camouflage design.
8. This text effect creates types in their shiny metallic gold appearance filled with bling-bling diamonds. This style offers four variations of the rusty gold patterns and makes the small stones look more reflective.
9. This text effect creates types in their metallic silver appearance filled with bling-bling diamonds. This style looks best on dark background which makes the small stones look more reflective.
10. This text effect creates types in their classy glass appearance against a silk background pattern. This style offers four variations of the folds and contours commonly seen in silk fabric.
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