Chapter 8 Exercise Files

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Select a category from the list below.

• Colour and Gradients
• Bézier Curves and Anchor Points

Colour and Gradients

Download the photograph of a fish [PSD:1.0MB]

Open the image in Photoshop and select Save for Web and Devices… from the File menu. Choose GIF as the format, and experiment with changing the numbers of colours in the colour table. Observe the effect of the different options for the colour reduction algorithm (Perceptual, Selective, etc.). How does their performance vary as you change the number of colours?

Set the number of colours to 64 or fewer, and experiment with editing the colour table to ensure that the bright red colour in the stems of the plant on the right is retained in the GIF version. Note: If you do not have good red/green colour vision, please do not attempt this part of the exercise.

Download the gradient examples [Illustrator:99.3kB]

Download the sample gradients and open the file in Illustrator. Experiment with changing the colours and other parameters of the gradients used to fill the two ovals. Try adding extra intermediate gradient stops. Use the gradients as fills for other shapes.

Now practise creating similar gradients in Photoshop and Flash, and adjusting their parameters in those programs in the same way.