Inspiration is everywhere here at Adobe MAX! Here’s a quick recap of our events from yesterday.

Day Two Keynote: Community Inspires Creativity

David Wadhwahi, our SVP of Digital Media, opened up our day two keynote, then handed it off to creative luminaries to share their stories. We heard about breaking the brief from Paula Scher, were inspired by embracing limitations from Paul Hansen, and experienced the making-of-details from innovative creatives such as Erik Johansson and Rob Legato. Check out the playback available here for the next 24 hours.

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Sneak Peeks

There were a number of special guests at the MAX sneaks. First up, Rainn Wilson, actor and co-creator of SoulPancake, who opened up the night to talk about creativity, what it meant to him and how it was the catalyst for how SoulPancake came to be.

Then we got an early look at amazing technologies that might become product features in the future. Host Ben Forta shared the stage with Rainn and celebrity guest, actress/comedian Mary Lynn Rajskub, as we walked through exciting developments from the our engineering teams. Everything from the future of drawing, as inspired by Project Mighty, to experimenting with light in photos and videos, to audio layers to remove unwanted background noise were all shown at MAX. Check out some of the sneak peeks below.

Sneak: Playing with Light

Sneak: Perspective Warp

Sneak: Audio Layers

Stay tuned for more as we wrap up our final day at Adobe MAX 2013!

And…we’re off! Adobe MAX is buzzing today as we kicked things off with our day one keynote session, “A Creative Evolution.” We announced a slew of news today, including all-new updates to our Creative Cloud apps – Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Edge Tools & Services, and more! If you missed the keynote, watch the playback available here until tomorrow morning’s day two keynote at 10 a.m. PT or catch the community-curated version captured in Storify by MAX attendee, @GayaneAdourian.

Even more exciting, we shared an early look at a number of new explorations:

• Project Mighty – A Creative Cloud pen
• Project Napolean – Complementary to Mighty, Napolean is a digital ruler designed to bring back some of the feeling of drawing with analog tools like the t-square and triangle
• Project Context – Reimagines the editorial room for publishers

For more on MAX, join the conversation on #AdobeMAX on Twitter and Instagram and/or follow @AdobeMAX.

Watch the overview below and get all of the details from our experience design team in “Adobe XD explores the analog future.”

Adobe Creative Cloud for teams allows you and your team to get the entire collection of latest and greatest CS6 tools, along with lots of team-specific features that make working together easier than ever. So the question is; is it right for you? This series helps Adobe customers, such as creative directors and IT professionals, understand if Creative Cloud for teams is a good fit…

• Size Doesn’t Matter – Design agency? Growing startup? Regardless of your workgroup situation, Creative Cloud for teams fits.

• Cloud collaboration + latest creative tools = staying ahead of the curve – Creative Cloud for teams makes it happen. That’s right –you and your team receive the latest updates as soon as they’re available.

• Changing needs = changing team –  With Creative Cloud for teams, adding and removing licenses for team members is a walk in the park.

• HELP! – Creative Cloud for teams provides you with help when you need it. Enjoy two deep-dive expert support instances (per seat per year).

Interested in hearing how Creative Cloud for teams is benefiting Scott Kelby’s own Kelby Media Group? Check out this video to see how Creative Cloud for teams allows them to reach millions of people all over the world through websites, podcasts, online training, magazines, and more:

Got questions? Let us know in the comments below or visit us on Adobe.com. Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for more information about Creative Cloud for teams.

Adobe MAX -The Creativity Conference, is less than a week away! While you’re planning your sessions at MAX, be sure to add Denise Jacobs to your schedule. She’s the ultimate modern creative web speaker, an expert on both CSS, web design and all things creative. With publications such as The CSS Detective Guide to her most recent work on creativity, we can’t wait to hear Denise speak on “The Importance of Storytelling in Web Design” and “Unfolding Your Brain: Catapult Your Creative Productivity” at Adobe MAX next week. So dive in and get to know Denise a little better in the below Q&A, she’s pretty amazing!

Adobe: You’ve recently announced that just delivered your last article on front-end development: no more CSS for Denise. Could you expand on this professional transition you’ve undertaken?

Denise Jacobs: This transition has been a long time in the making, but my efforts over the past 2 years have finally come to fruition. Right after I finished my book, The CSS Detective Guide, in later February of 2010, I had a major epiphany that what I truly wanted to focus my work on is around creativity. It was at that time that I came up with the title “Creativity Evangelist” (and promptly bought the domain). However, my plan was also to really get established as a speaker at web design conferences, and the topics in my book were a perfect vehicle for that. Once I started to become known as a speaker, then I started shifting my content more towards my true area of interest: Creativity. So, while it looks like somewhat of a dramatic change, for me, that has been the goal all along.

When you think of creativity and gaming, Richard Hilleman is a name on the top of any list. He’s an American computer game and video game producer best known for his work creating the original Madden Football game for video game consoles for Electronic Arts. Today, Rich Hilleman works for Electronic Arts as Chief Creative Officer, and currently works in the internal University at Electronic Arts on specialized education for Producers and Development Directors. We are excited for Richard to speak on “The Magic Bullet of Web Gaming” at Adobe MAX, sharing his unique insider knowledge covering over 30 years in the industry. Check out our Q&A with him below to get a better sense of how Richard came into his great gaming success.

Adobe: As a kid what did you want to be when you grew up and did you ever imagine that you would be making video games that are so ingrained in American culture? 

Richard Hilleman: Videogames showed up for me in High School.  My exposure was more to computers.  I was lucky enough to get to spend time on computers at a very early age in a very early time.  I was pretty sure computers would change the world, but not in the ways I have seen.  How quickly computers have become situationally aware has been a big surprise.

How did you get started in gaming?  Was it be accident or by design? 

It depends on what you call games.  Unlike a lot of people in my industry, I played sports, and my grandfather raced cars.  We played a lot of board games, and I took Chess very seriously.  I never really got the war game or D&D bug, and my interest in Videogames was mostly centered on simulations.  When I came to Electronic Arts, I came to focus on computer science.  Over a couple of years, I discovered I was pretty good at game design and production.  Probably because I wasn’t making games for just myself.

Obviously the tools you use to create games are different from when you first started but is there something about game creation that hasn’t changed? 

People.  The most surprising thing about the last thirty years is how much people’s taste and interest has endured.  I talk all the time with kids in school for our business, and the most important advice I give them is to fall in love with people, not machines.  The technology moves so fast, that educational investments in specific tech almost always has less short term value than you think.  By comparison, understanding people, and the culture they occupy, will transcend the technology and give you a lifetime of returns.

What keeps you up at night or what drives you to keep making games? 

Mostly my kids.  I have been lucky enough to spend most of my career at the bleeding edge.  I still can’t wait for the future and what we can do next.

To be successful sometimes you need to fail.  Can you recall a project you worked on that did not turn out as planned and what did you learn from that process? 

I think I have failed a lot.  I remember a few years ago there was an Edge magazine article about the 500 best Videogames of all time, and the Worse 100.  I had enough entries in both lists to keep me humble.  Most of the time, when things go wrong, it was because something I knew was a risk, didn’t work out. Usually, it reminds me about taking appropriate and balanced risk. There are a far number of happy accidents, including some of my most successful titles.

What’s the best part of your job? 

The kids that are doing the job for the first time.  They reinvigorate me every day.

You grew up playing hockey so is that your favorite sport?  What’s your favorite team? 

Hockey is one of my favorites, and I still play it.  I also played a lot of Baseball  (Hockey and Baseball are perfect season compliments), and I love motor sports.  I grew up a North Star and Twins fan, and then the NStars moved.  I have been a Sharks season ticket holder since they were founded, and I had Giants Season tickets for a decade.

If you could start over again, what sport would you like to try or master and why? 

Might have started motorsports earlier.  Might have tried harder at Golf.  I think I made pretty good choices.

Do you play any non-sports related video games? Which ones or do you go old school and play board games? 

I play everything.  I truly love Chess.  I still think it is the best game ever invented, and I find the games of Morphy, Fischer and Kasporov to be as interesting and wonderful as any game I have ever made.

This will be your first time attending Adobe MAX as a speaker or attendee.  Can you tell us what inspired you to talk about this particular topic at MAX?

I think I wanted to talk about how different game play expectations are inherited from the platform and gaming context, and how those expectations are increasingly a part of the design of Mobile and Web games.  We have a lot of new customers on new platforms.  Getting these experiences to match their expectations will decide how long we keep these new players.

Is gaming your thing? If so, it’s not too late to register for Adobe MAX to attend Richard’s session titled, “The Magic Bullet of Gaming” and so much more. Don’t forget to use promo code MXSM13 during registration for $300 off!

Twisted, dark and awesome. Three words that describe the work of the creative team and visual artists that make up McFarland & Pecci. Still relatively new Creative Cloud members, these fellas have wasted no time utilizing the broad range of tools and programs to create one-of-a-kind work. A documentary film for well-known “metal core” band, Killswitch Engage? They’ve done it. High concept cover art for the Boston Phoenix? Sure. See what we mean about twisted, dark and awesome?

We engaged in a lightning round Q&A session with them to get more details on why Creative Cloud works for them. The diverse amount of products offered, the seamless syncing, constant updates, and bug fixes are just a few reasons why this duo takes creativity to a whole new level.

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Adobe: Describe a project you are currently working on or have completed with Creative Cloud.

McFarland & Pecci: We signed up for Creative Cloud a few months ago and jumped right into a few projects with Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Photoshop. McFarland & Pecci is a creative team of directors and visual artists. We create everything from high concept photo shoots to feature films and documentaries. The past few months have kept us busy in post-production on the new Killswitch Engage documentary called “New Awakening”, the new music video for CZARFACE featuring Inspectah Deck from Wu-Tang, one of the final high concept covers for the Boston Phoenix, and an upcoming ”double secret” comic book film.

What was your inspiration behind the project?

We love to tell stories, and we tend to be drawn to darker subject matter and artists that are obsessed with their craft.  The film on Killswitch Engage was a fun project that allowed us to focus on the guys as a family unit and we kept our gear tight and our crew small. The CZARFACE video is deeply rooted in our love for Grindhouse flicks and Shaw Brothers films, and the ‘End of the World’ photo shoot was completely influenced by the epic magic of Michael Bay!

How has the Creative Cloud changed your creative workflow?

We switched to Premiere Pro to simplify our workflow. Plain and simple. We shot CZARFACE with the RED EPIC in 5K with Hawk anamorphic lenses.  The piece required a lot of compositing in After Effects and color grading. The fact that I could bring the raw files right into my timeline and directly export to After Effects made our lives so much easier. A competitor’s program has really dropped the ball when it comes to professional editing these days so we were looking for a smart move. Just the time saved by not having to transcode footage from the RED and/or DSLRs was enough of a reason to make the jump to Premiere Pro.

What tools specific to Creative Cloud enable you to work more efficiently?

As mentioned earlier, all the new benefits of Premier Pro were our big draw in the video side of things, but the new version of Photoshop and its retouching tools and amazing smart layers really helped us composite these giant “End of the World” files. We have always been Adobe fans in one way or another, but having it all in one spot really helps us.  The cloud helps us keep both systems identical in our edit bays, and the constant updates have fixed a lot of software bugs already.

Describe your style of work in three words

Really F$#Kin Awesome!

Fill in the blank: I couldn’t create without _________.

Our twisted minds and the tools that can keep up with them.

What advice would you give to an individual who is considering Creative Cloud?

If you are a video editor, make the jump to Premier Pro.  Just do it. Creative Cloud is the smart choice; you sign up and download everything you need. It even runs on two systems. Makes having a post house a lot easier.

Dig their work? Check out Mcfarland & Pecci on Facebook, visit our website to see more films – www.mcfarlandandpecci.com – or follow directors @MikePecci and @Ian_McFarland on Twitter for behind the scenes content and tutorials.

We’re getting very excited for Adobe MAX! One of the many highlights of the week will be hearing multiple-Grammy winning band The Black Keys play live at our MAX Bash. To commemorate the occasion, artist Brian Yap has designed a special poster for the Bash. If you’re going to be at MAX, you can win a copy!

Here’s how:

Between April 22 (that’s today!) and April 28, send a Tweet with the hashtag #AdobeMAX and the reason why you’re the biggest fan of The Black Keys.

We’ll select winners at random from all those submitted, and you’ll be able to pick up your poster (signed by Brian Yap) at MAX. For full details, check out our MAX Tweetaway Sweepstakes Official Rules.

Let your inner fandom shine out and share The Black Keys love!

If you haven’t register for MAX yet, use promo code MXSM13 to save $300. We’ll see you at MAX!

Stephen Gates, Vice President and Creative Director for Global Brand Design at Starwood Hotels & Resorts will be joining us at Adobe MAX this year to share design and development secrets behind building Starwood’s mobile roadmap. Prior to MAX, he sat down with our Adobe Edge Inspect team to discuss how the tool has been helping his team come up with new ways to best show off their nine hotel brands. They’ve managed to accelerate their production and gain buy-in from a dispersed global team of designers, developers, strategists and stakeholders. Pretty impressive, right? Learn more about their success and get to know Stephen in our Adobe Edge Inspect Team Blog Q&A.

Want to hear more from Stephen Gates? Attend Adobe MAX and hear him talk about the “Secrets to Creating a Successful Mobile Roadmap, Apps, and Mobile Websites.” Don’t forget to enter promo code MXSM13 when you register to receive $300 off.

“You can expect a spirited, ferocious delivery of our “Tall Tales” speaking fiasco! With, some surprises….” says Aaron Draplin of Draplin Design Co. on what to expect at his Adobe MAX session this year in our Twitter Chat with him. During the Twitter Chat, many had their burning design questions answered by Aaron, while others were just excited to connect with the brilliant creative. We want to give a big thanks to those who participated – especially Aaron! Check out a quick sample of the Twitter conversation using the #AdobeMAX hashtag below.

Watch our video to learn more about Aaron Draplin’s love for junking and estate sales, and read Part II of our Q&A with him below.

Be sure to come see Aaron Draplin speak at MAX this year in his session, “Tall Tales from A Large Man”. Visit MAX.Adobe.com and don’t forget to use promo code MXSM13 when you register and save $300.

Here’s Part II from our Q&A with the “Large Man” himself:

Adobe: When you were first starting out, what’s the biggest mistake you can remember making? 

Aaron Draplin: Thinking I’d need some big degree to make it. Complete bullshit. As much as I loved going to art school and learning as much as I did, I’m pretty sure I could’ve made it on my own. I caved in to the pressure system. I thought I’d get called out for teaching myself or something. And sure, school was awesome, but man, I paid a lot for those couple of years.

How (and at what times) does a typical day start and end for you?

I’m usually out of bed by 9:00am, getting down to the shop and getting going by 10:00. And hell, I hate going to get lunch, cuz you lose an hour. I’ll work until 7:00 or 8:00pm (sometimes later), then I head home for supper, and will get the late shift going around 9:00pm—until 1:00am. I end my day by going to sleep, which is a pretty common theme.

Things you love? Or things you hate? Which influence your work more?

Things I love definitely influence the way I work, and the outcome. And I know it’s not cool to hate stuff, but hell, I’ve got some bad blood with some stuff and am not afraid to say it, and, let it fuel me to make better things. My buddy Ryno in Minneapolis made a list, and inspired by his vitriol, I did too. Here are some spirited links: Things I Love and Things I Hate.

about how to make things better, instead of selfishly tearing them down. I loved that part of school. Thank you Santiago and Kali.

If you could choose just one artist (use that term as loosely as you wish) to “surround” yourself with, who would it be? Why?

I would’ve loved to work for Saul Bass. He’s my favorite graphic designer.

Since most people will never have the opportunity to participate creatively with the Obama administration, can you tell us (in more words than “awesome”) how you felt when you learned you were getting THAT assignment?

When the Mode Project from Chicago first called me, I thought I was in trouble or something. I mean, a call like that is going to be really, really good or really, really scary. When they offered the chance to work on a logo to help the new Obama administration, I instantly accepted, cleaned off my plate and got down to it. When they call you up to the big leagues, you produce. For your country. Seriously, my heart was filled with patriotism. The chance to help out in the slightest way was a big deal to me. I freaked out a bit, then got down to work with Chris Glass from Cincinnati and we made some logos for America. Will forever be proud of that one.

And, now that you’ve completed that one… what’s your (next) “dream” project? 

I’m scheming up some kind of road trip for the fall, but have to keep my lips sealed about the details. But when I really think about it, I dream about getting enough loot in the bank to where I can slow down my pace, go explore the earth a bit more and mellow everything out some. I’ve been running pretty hot these last bunch of years, so I daydream about downshifting things in a creative way. No real specific plan comes to mind, hence why I continue to charge as hard as I do. Oh well. If I could pick something out of the air…I sure would love to design a record for the Flaming Lips. Break me off a little piece, George