12 Days of Christmas for Digital Colorists – Holiday Gift Guide

It’s that time of year again, time to start thinking about your holiday list’s.  No matter if you are preparing for Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa or Chinese New Year (you already missed Ramadan, sorry) you need to let people know what you want.  There is no point in someone sending you socks when you could have nibs for your tablet pen–costs about the same.

This week I’ve decided to ease your burden with some ideas for that hard to buy for colorist.  (If you are the hard to buy for colorist simply print this out or send the link to whomever you want.) The Master Digital Color elves have scoured Amazon.com to find links for many of these holiday gift suggestions.

Here we go in no particular order….

1. A copy of Photoshop CS4.  (A real, legit copy.  I know some of you out there have “borrowed copies”–that won’t fly in the real world so pony up–or ask grandma to pony up!)
   
2. A Wacom tablet.  (In the studio we really like the Bamboo, runs about $100 and does what you need.  If you’ve got a rich aunt you can ask for a bigger size or one with more doodads but the Bamboo will work fine.)
   

3. A copy of Hi-Fi Color for Comics.  (Come on you know I had to put that in there.)
   

4. A paid pre-order for Master Digital Color (See above.)
   

5. Nibs for you tablet pen.  (Those little buggers go out at the worst time, always good to have back-ups.)
   

6. Pantone Guide to Communicating with Color by L. Eisemann. (This is really more for graphic designers but it’s a groovy book about the feelings colors evoke, design ideas, color palettes, and a brief history of color.)

7. A subscription to a coffee of the month club.  I like http://www.caffevita.com you get chocolate AND coffee with them. (We work bizarre hours sometimes and a cup of joe goes a long way to meeting a deadline.)
   
   
8. Whiteboard and marker set.  (What? you ask… you’d be amazed how much easier it is to glance up and see when something is due, how many pages you have left, etc. if you stick it up on the wall.  Of course this implies you will actually update it.)
   

9. A copy of iLife. (This assumes you have a Mac, if you don’t that should be #1 on the list!!!  Anyway, iLife is a great creative outlet, you get iWeb which allows any five-year-old to make professional looking webpages.  iDVD which allows any five-year-old to make a great movie.  Garageband which allows any five-year-old to make music–are you seeing a pattern here?)

10. iTunes gift cards. (These can be picked up anywhere from the grocery store to Target or even sent via email.  You don’t have to be an Apple fan to appreciate all the things offered on iTunes–books, videos, movies, University classes, podcasts, etc.  All good stuff to have on in the background while you work.)
    

11. Comfy pajamas, I recommend http://www.Pajamagram.com. (See #7.)
    
    
12. A gift certificate to the gym, a martial arts class, yoga, tennis center, something.  (We spend entirely too much time inside, on our butts, in front of computers–get outside and play already!)
    

What do you want this holiday season (other than peace on earth and goodwill toward man?)  Give us some suggestions!

Kristy Miller

VP, Development

Hi-Fi Design