Link via Adobe Edge
 For more than a decade, the idea of creating 3D animations with Adobe Flash software has intrigued designers and developers. In early 2000, Swift 3D and Vecta 3D started a frenzy with prerendered 3D vector graphics for Flash. Not so long ago, we started getting our first glimpses of real-time 3D rendering engines running in Adobe Flash Player. Since that time, we have witnessed some amazing 3D projects, websites, and games. However, developing these 3D experiences for Flash has typically been the domain of only the most advanced ActionScript developers.
FreeSpin3D is a tightly integrated 3D extension for Adobe Flash software. FreeSpin3D provides a visual workflow that’s easy enough for even novice Flash designers to understand, while offering an ActionScript API that enables advanced developers to build complex 3D projects. In this tutorial, we create a 3D project with interactive mouse and keyboard behaviors without writing a line of code. Then we look at how to animate 3D models with the Animation timeline in Flash, using motion and rotation tween functionality.
Flash CS4 Professional is available at an academic discount price of $249.
Link via Pocket-lint
 With the Apple busy educating us about touch interfaces, the possibility of a large A5 sized touchpad to accompany your desktop or laptop seems appealing, after all if your phone can multi-touch why not your computer? Can the Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch really offer you a more tactile experience over your mouse? We got touchy feely to find out.
Bamboo Pen & Touch is available for $99 from Creation Engine.
Link via MacWorld
Vignetting, in photographic terms, is an effect of a camera lens that results in the darkening of a photograph around its edges. It was long considered to be an unfortunate limitation in lens design, and as technology improved, camera lenses were engineered to minimize vignetting to improve image quality.
Ironically, vignetting has undergone a resurgence in recent years, but as an artistic technique. Used correctly, it adds emphasis and atmosphere to a photograph. You don’t need special lenses to create the effect anymore, as you can create and control such effects in an image editor.
There are many ways and many programs that let you achieve a vignette effect, but I’m going to show you one here that works well for me in Photoshop CS3 and CS4: the Gradient Fill Layer.
Photoshop CS4 Extended is available at an academic discount price of $299.
Photoshop CS4 Extended College Student Edition is available at a student discount price of $195.
 Office Professional 2007 Academic
Only $99! $100 off retail educational price of $199.
Offer good through 12/18/2009.
Link via Adobe.com
Chart showing product compatibility with Microsoft® Windows® 7 and Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Please click on the chart for the complete product compatibility list.
Link via MicroFilmmaker Magazine
 The level of polish I commented on in my previous review of modo 302 continues to improve with the latest release. Luxology continues to add carefully crafted feature sets and capabilities to its flagship modo 401. For Microfilmmakers requiring photorealism for environments or adding objects to existing footage, modo 401’s improved real-time rendering, new replicators for creating duplicate objects effortlessly, hair/fur and new animation features are a welcome expansion. Combine those with a stellar final rendering capability and modifying your personal reality has never been easier.
If you think you’ll be using green/blue screen shots and dropping in believable environments of your own creation, modo may be an ideal fit.
modo 401 Mac/Windows 1-year license (download version) is available at an education discount price of $139.
Link via PC World
If you’re thinking of buying a netbook but you’re not sure how well it’ll handle full-screen HD Flash video, Adobe has a solution. Adobe Flash Player 10.1 with GPU acceleration–now in beta–promises to dramatically improve the streaming HD video experience on computers that lack top-notch processors. If your PC has a supported Nvidia or ATI graphics card (supported cards are listed in this release notes PDF), Flash Player 10.1 will use it alongside your processor to better decode streaming video from sites like YouTube and Hulu.
Flash CS4 Professional is available at an academic discount price of $249.
 TheBrain Technologies announced that PersonalBrain 5.5, the latest version of its powerful information visualization and organization software is now available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
PersonalBrain 5.5 Feature Highlights
- Advanced reporting with display filtering. Powerful custom reports can now be defined utilizing multiple criteria including types, tags, and attachments.
- Faster, more flexible information visualization options. PersonalBrain’s popular outline view now enables unlimited parent-ward expansion. Additionally there are many improvements to the expanded view including automatic saving.
- Revamped calendar with recurring events. Users can setup events and reminders to stay on top of all project deadlines and key timelines.
- Keyboard shortcuts for virtually every feature. Power users can further customize features with their own keyboard commands.
- Integrated screen-capture capability. A powerful and convenient method for grabbing any portion of your screen to use as a zoomable Thought icon.
- Expanded preferences, Thought spellchecking, streamlined user interface and more. There are over 150 new features and improvements in PersonalBrain 5.5
PersonalBrain 5.5 Pro is available at an education discount price of $179.
PersonalBrain 5.5 Core is available at an education discount price of $89.
Link via MacWorld
 ScreenFlow 2.0 is a big step forward for the screen recording application. The addition of transitions, freeze frames, clip speed adjustments, audio ducking, and basic color adjustment tools really make ScreenFlow an all-in-one solution. It’s now something that I could use for an entire project from start to finish, instead of exporting my edited screen recordings for further processing in Final Cut Express. Those users who need higher-end features, such as real color correction or advanced titling and more control over transitions, will still want to do some work in Final Cut or Final Cut Express; for most anyone else, though, ScreenFlow should meet their needs.
Compared to Camtasia for Mac, its most direct competitor, ScreenFlow holds the edge in a few key areas. ScreenFlow does a better job at capturing high CPU usage activities, it will let you record on a second or third monitor (though only one screen at a time), and its tools for focusing attention on windows, and activities around the cursor, are better than those in Camtasia.
For now, at least, ScreenFlow’s combination of tools and performance makes it the best all-in-one screen recording and editing tool for the Mac.
ScreenFlow 2 is available at an education discount price of $94 (Boxed copy is $108).
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