Freeform

About 2 weeks ago Apple launched Freeform and described it as a powerful new app designed for creative brainstorming and collaboration.

Freeform is available for iPhone, iPad, and Mac and requires the latest versions of the operating systems.

If you have not yet had a look at it a good place to start would be with the many, many videos available on YouTube.

Please share your thoughts by adding comments below.

If there is sufficient interest this app could be discussed at the Creativity SIG in February 2023.

Creative Holiday Activity

If you have time over the holidays to become familiar with Procreate for your iPad and Apple Pencil* a good place to start is with the Beginner Videos at https://education.procreate.com/beginners-series. The videos are available on YouTube however I suggest you follow the above link as it has the videos and PDF files that can be downloaded and followed at any time without an internet connection. This is part of ProcreateEducation and if you explore the Site you will see mention of the phrases such as ‘classroom’, ‘lessons’, and ’students’. Don’t worry the content is applicable to all of us.

If you want the Procreate Handbook it is available at: https://procreate.com/handbook/procreate.

* An Apple Pencil (or substitute) is not essential but does add to the Procreate experience. It gives access to brushes that respond to the pressure and tilt of the pencil. Having said that digital artists used Procreate for 3 or 4 years before the Apple Pencil was available. Procreate wasn’t born in the heart of Silicon Valley, but in Old Beach, Tasmania. The company remains in Tasmania and one of the brushes is named Old Beach.

Notes from November Creativity SIG

At the November SIG meeting members shared things they have recently tried to improve their digital life.

One discovery was using quartz filters within the Preview app to reduce the file size of a PDF.
Further details are available via the internet. Search for ‘add quartz filters to Preview using ColorSync utility’. There was also an article on page 33 of AUSOM News, March 2022 (with a follow-up article in April). In addition, there is a MacMost video at https://macmost.com/compress-pdfs-on-your-mac-with-preview-or-an-automator-quick-action.html

Members then shared ideas about ways to manage Keynote on their Mac while viewing their presenter notes (using Zoom).

Other topics covered were removing the background from images in iOS16, and using and creating QR codes.

A video of the session is available at https://ausom.net.au/video/

Creative Photo Display

At the Creativity SIG in September 2022 discussion centred around CREATIVE ways of taking photos. See AUSOM News, Sept 2022, page 29

Members were encouraged to enter their Creative photos into the ASCCA Digital Photo competition — see details AUSOM News, Sept 2022, page 20.

Finally, we looked at creative ways photos might be displayed. There is a PDF available showing the many display examples.

Cards in Pages

At the Creativity SIG in August 2022, we will look at using the Pages app to create cards. Commencing with using the templates available with Pages.

If you would like the Pages document we created it is available here:

If you would like to experiment further with the topics covered during the SIG I have provided an archive of 5 Sample files.

Continue reading “Cards in Pages”

Beginners Series – Procreate

Procreate has introduced new Beginners Series for those starting out with Procreate and the iPad.

An excellent place to start exploring art and animation using an iPad and Apple Pencil. Getting started with anything new is challenging, but this step-by-step walk-through makes learning easy and fun.

It is currently a free four-part video series. I have just completed working through the 2nd video and have enjoyed learning something new at each step. If you follow along while shown the various steps involved, completing the four lessons will leave you with three unique artworks and one animation you will be proud to show to your friends.

The Beginners Series resources were made available for download on July 25 on Procreate’s website (https://education.procreate.art/beginners-series) and viewable at Procreate’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/Procreate).

Leave a comment below and don’t forget to tell your friends you found out about this at AUSOM.