BFA blog coming to life!

Welcome again friends to the Big Fun Arts blog. On this blog I will be posting instructional videos starting with Fireworks CS4. Fireworks has been one of my favorite web design applications since its inception in the late 1990's.

What is Fireworks?
Fireworks is unique among graphics applications because, not only was it specifically designed for creating and exporting web graphics, but it combines both types of computer graphics into one program.

Those of us who have been around the block a few times (like myself) and are familiar with tools such as Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand, PaintShop Pro and Adobe Photoshop will be used to working with tools like those found in Fireworks. Fireworks combines the main aspects of both vector and bitmap (otherwise known as raster graphics) programs into one program.

Fireworks Is a Graphics Development Application
There are two types, or modes of computer graphics: vector graphics and bitmap graphics. Computers can display graphics in either vector or bitmap format. Fireworks uses both types of graphics. which gives you amazing drawing, designing, and editing capabilities.

Each mode is radically different from the other. Vectors are mathematical equations that describe a line as it passes between two points in space. Vector graphic equations describe the length, direction, edpoint, and other attributes of a vector object.

Bitmap images are just what they sound like–a map, or grid, that's filled in with bits (color or not). The bits mesh to form an image, similar to television. (Get dangerously close to a T.V. and all you see is colored dots.)"

In my next post we will take a tour of the Fireworks interface, so stay tuned!

Rudner, A.E. (2002). Fireworks MX Fundamentals.
Indianapolis, IN: New Riders Publishing.


~enthusiastically
Abigail ;-)