Posts tagged "Photoshop"

Play LevelUp – Learn Photoshop by Playing a Game of Missions

Posted on June 5, 2012 by Scott Trudeau | Comments (0)

 

Do you enjoy a bit of friendly competition?  Do you need to polish-up on your Photoshop skills?  You can do both by downloading and playing LevelUp for Photoshop!  LevelUp for Photoshop is a “game of missions” that will allow you to earn points – the more points you earn the better chance at winning prizes like Amazon gift cards and a chance to win a one-year membership to the Adobe Creative Cloud!  Heck, you also get the added benefit of learning more about Photoshop!

But you better hurry…because you must finish the game by midnight Pacific time on June 30, 2012, to be eligible for the Creative Cloud drawing.

Go check it out…http://success.adobe.com/microsites/levelup/index.html 

 

Kids Media Centre engages kids in the technology conversation

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Jim Babbage | Comments (1)

I dropped by my former stomping (er, teaching) grounds last week to say hi to my many friends at Centennial College’s School of Communication, Media and Design. And while chatting with the Dean, Nate Horowitz, about my role here at Adobe, he suggested I call on Debbie Gordon, the Director of the KidsMediaCentre at Centennial College. Debbie and I had a great chat about digital readiness in public schools and she shared with me the KMC’s new blog, just hot off the digital press last week.

The kidsmediacentre is an industry and creative content think tank at Centennial College’s Centre for Creative Communications.  Working alongside Centennial’s Children’s Entertainment Program, they research kids’ relationships with 21st century media and connect their students with industry partners to help incubate and produce the next generation of children’s entertainment and media. Their hope is to engage kids in assessing the worth and contribution of a media product or idea: what works for kids and what constitutes a good idea and value proposition for the industry. One of the kidsmediacentre’s main goals is to help bridge that gap.

Based on what I read on their site, it’s working.

The kids aren’t just listening and learning; they’re involved in the conversation. You’ll see some of their contributions on the KMC site, in a section called the Kid’s Panel. Broken into three age categories, 4-8, 9-15 and 16-19, these kids test out a review a wide variety of media and technology, from games to music, books to eBook readers, iPhone Apps to software reviews on products like Adobe Photoshop. And the reviews are remarkably on point, honest and act as a window into how kids see certain aspects of the world. I found the Kids Panel blog posts refreshing.

For example, the review on Photoshop  (Bella checks out Photoshop) examines some pretty savvy points about self image and our culture – from a 15 year old!

In the 4-8 category, 6 year old Salmah checks out the book, The Missing Piece, which was read to her class by her teacher (Gosh, I still remember those days…), and summarizes that “… it is good to keep going. When you keep going, you can learn more things.”

There are reviews of music and politics, among other things, in the 16 – 19 category. 16 year old Ian gives a very knowledgeable review of the Miles Davis album, On Green Dolphin Street.

I was impressed by the insight provided by these young people. And I think you will be, too. These are not kids who are just blindly using technology; they’re engaged, aware and see technology for what it is – a tool to help extend creativity or productivity or personal growth, not a replacement for the passion that makes those things possible in each of us.

Publish Photoshop 3D layers to PDF

Posted on September 29, 2011 by Scott Trudeau | Comments (0)

In my last tutorial I showed you how to take an image and apply that image to a 3D object in Photoshop. In this tutorial I will show you how to publish a 3D layer to PDF.  Anybody with Acrobat Reader will then be able to interact with your 3D object.

 

  1. Create a 3D object in Photoshop (tutorial here)
  2. Right click on the 3D layer
  3. Select Export 3D layer
  4. Name the file and select U3D from the Format dropdown menu
  5. Click the Save button
  6. The 3D Export Options dialogue box will open.
  7. Make sure that JPEG is selected from the Texture Format dropdown
  8. Use ECMA1  for the U3D Options

 

The steps above exported the Photoshop layer to a U3D file.  The U3D file can now be published to PDF.

 

  1. Open Adobe Acrobat X
  2. Select File>Created PDF>From File
  3. Browse to the U3D file you saved earlier
  4. An Insert 3D dialogue box will open.  Select OK (You may want to check out the “Advanced” options by clicking on the Show Advanced Options check box.  There are some neat options to play around with).
  5. Click on your 3D object to interact with it.  Also notice the 3D tool bar that appears.

Cool!  Now anybody with Acrobat Reader can view your 3D content!

Build a 3D Planet in Photoshop

Posted on August 19, 2011 by Scott Trudeau | Comments (3)

Imagine a satellite traveling thousands of miles into space, flying around distant planets, snapping pictures of their surfaces, and returning the images to Earth.  Well, it has been done, and the images are amazing (Thanks NASA).

What is even more amazing is that you can find the images using a simple Internet search (keywords:  Jupiter, surface, map) and wrap them around  3D objects created in Photoshop!

This makes for a great student project.

Here is how…http://youtu.be/uqQ9TTALw7U 

In my next tutorial I will show you how to export the 3D layer to an Acrobat PDF file.  This will allow mom, dad, or another student to view and manipulate the 3D object using the (free) Acrobat Reader.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prolific Powerhouse People: Teacher, Dr Katherine Nell McNeil

Posted on October 3, 2010 by Richard John Jenkins | Comments (4)
Dr. Katherine Nell McNeil, East County Academy of Learning, Lakeside Union School District, San Diego, California.

Dr. Katherine Nell McNeil, East County Academy of Learning, Lakeside Union School District, San Diego, California.

It’s not every day when I man an Adobe booth at an education tradeshow talking with our education customers that I suddenly see someone in front of me practically jumping up and down and waving their arms to get my attention. Usually educators stop by our Adobe booth and politely ask us questions about education pricing, when the next versions of our software is due out and where they can learn more about professional development or certification. But at the last CUE (Computer-Using Educators) Conference held in Palm Springs, CA I rapidly finished up a conversation I was having and turned my attention to the woman at our booth who now had tears streaming down her cheeks and suddenly burst out, “Adobe save’s lives! Adobe changes lives! Thank you so much for all you do!”

I stood there jaw dropped and thunderstruck not quite sure of how to respond. I recall saying something really lame like “Excuse me!? Come again!?” But the woman standing there was now so emotionally choked up she couldn’t even speak! I sensed I better do something quick before she really started crying so I took her gently by the hand and asked her to sit down in our booth so I could calm her down.

After several minutes she finally did and said, “My name is Dr. Katherine Nell McNeil. I’m a Special Education teacher from the East County Academy of Learning in the Lakeside Union School District in San Diego, California. I want you to know for all the work that Adobe does, to each employee who has had a hand in making your software a reality, you all need to know that I stand up and yell thank you.  Adobe saves lives.  Adobe changes lives. You guys are dream makers not dream breakers.  Through your products my students with severe emotional and behavioral disorders learn not only how to make award winning digital media designs, but also develop new behaviors, higher order thinking skills, academic and social skills which they previously did not possess”.

Now it was my turn to get emotional. I remember getting tears in my eyes and blurting something like “Wow! Really!? Thank you for sharing this!”  Dr McNeil went on to tell me she has been a special ed. teacher for over ten years and by using digital media design tools like Photoshop, she’s made a profound difference in many of her students behavior. She stated many of students have severe learning disabilities including Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHAD).  But through the use of digital media tools many of her kids have been able to turn their lives around by expressing themselves and building self-confidence using these tools. In fact she beamed when she informed me that several of her students won ribbons at the recent California Del Mar fair for their digital media creations made with Adobe Photoshop and other Adobe tools.

Dr McNeil's student's showing examples of their Adobe Photoshop work.

Photo sent to me from Dr McNeil & her student's showing examples of their Adobe Photoshop work including ribbons!

To learn more about this prolific powerhouse educator, Dr. McNeil and her special education teaching techniques check out this great video interview with her made by the San Diego Department of Education (SDDOE) at the link below.

Classroom of the Future Foundation Interview with Dr. McNeil

Free Lightroom 3 resources.

Posted on June 7, 2010 by Rick Miller | Comments (0)

Here are some free video training resources and an audio podcast for getting you up to speed on Adobe Lightroom 3.

Go Test-Drive Adobe CS5

Posted on April 30, 2010 by Scott Trudeau | Comments (0)

The 30-day free trial versions of Adobe CS5 products are now available for download on www.adobe.com . The trials are fully functional so you can try out all of the new tools and features.
If you need some tutorials to get you started check out tv.adobe.com .
Video: Spot Healing Brush tool – with the amazing new Content Aware option turned ON.

Adobe digital photography white papers and primers

Posted on March 20, 2010 by Rick Miller | Comments (0)

Celebrating 20 years of Photoshop!

Posted on February 19, 2010 by Rick Miller | Comments (1)

ps_20thAnnivlogo.jpg
Adobe Photoshop’s 20th Anniversary! Celebrating 20 years of Photoshop.
In the late 1980s, Thomas Knoll and John Knoll developed a pixel-imaging program — first called Display, then Image Pro, and finally Photoshop. They made a well-received presentation to Russell Brown at Adobe and then licensed Photoshop to Adobe in 1988. The rest is history.
For 20 years, the world has used Adobe Photoshop software to transform creative inspiration into nearly everything we see in print, online, and across media. It’s time to celebrate — and see what today’s Photoshop family of products can do for you.

Photoshop 20th Anniversary: Startup Memories

Posted on February 19, 2010 by Rick Miller | Comments (0)

Photoshop 20th Anniversary: Startup Memories
In this documentary, the founders of Adobe Photoshop – John Knoll, Thomas Knoll, Russell Brown, and Steve Guttman – tell the story of how an amazing coincidence of circumstances, that came together at just the right time 20 years ago, spawned a cultural paradigm shift unparalleled in our lifetime.