February 09, 2012

Photoshop.next sneak #3: Dashed & dotted lines

Note the presence of controls for “real” stroke & fill (not dependent on the modal layer style dialog) on the options bar.

[Via Rob Cantor]

February 08, 2012

You can put 16GB of RAM in a MacBook Pro

I mention it A) because I just ordered a new machine*, and B) people seem not to know about this capacity. Adobe’s Jason Levine says the upgrade is fast, easy–and now cheap.

I’ve always been a sucka for tons of memory, having jammed an eye-popping 512MB into my first PowerBook at Adobe (2000!). When I priced an 8GB upgrade on Apple.com 3 years ago, it cost $1200–as much as a MacBook + Apple TV. Now Apple will let you go from 4 to 8GB for $200. Strangely, though, they don’t list a 16GB option–which OWC offers for $249.

*This is part of my perverse effort to bring you high-DPI laptops: by ordering a current machine now, I ensure the arrival of a better option moments later. (See also my sales of ADBE and pretty much any other stock or commodity, ever.) I am, if nothing else, a man who *gives*.

February 06, 2012

Photoshop events in NYC this week

• Thursday, February 9 Event Meetup: Hosted at the School of Visual Arts with special guest SVA alum and pro photographer Sarah Silver. Bryan O’Neil Hughes, Photoshop Sr. Product Manager, will demo.
• Saturday, February 11 Event Meetup: Hosted at pro photographer Sarah Silver’s NYC studio.  Bryan will demo.

February 03, 2012

Canada sends a (Lego) man to space

“A tip of the hat to America’s hat.” :-)

[Via]

February 02, 2012

Photoshop.next: Sneak peek #2

Background save, anyone? How about massively faster Liquify?

Both of these features have been in the team’s sights for a long time, but they kept getting derailed by things like the Carbon-to-Cocoa conversion effort. Nice to have that behind us.

February 01, 2012

Scott Kelby: “Why I Think Lightroom 4 is Going To Sell Like Crazy”

He writes,

“Your photos look better processed in Lightroom 4. Period… The improvements in Lightroom’s Development module are so significant, and so much better than what we’ve ever had before, that I think you’ll be hard-pressed to find most anyone still using Lightroom 3 in just a few months from now.”

As Bryan demos & notes in the Photoshop sneak below, the same engine is coming to PS, and you can try it out in LR4 right now.

January 28, 2012

Photoshop in Romanian protests

“Text says ‘We want cheaper Photoshop! Down with Comic Sans!,’” reports the excellently named Marius-Remus Mate.

Jon Stewart one mentioned that American troops were teaching Afghan kids to play baseball. Whole families were really getting into the spirit of the game, he said, showing a dad in the stands holding a sign reading “ESPN: Execute Some Pashtuns Now!” Ah Photoshop, you do get around.

January 24, 2012

How warring rabbits led to 3D in Photoshop

Lagomorphs, man–lagomorphs.

January 22, 2012

A marriage proposal in Lego

Margot once sent me a stop-motion valentine involving Lego Chewbacca, so these kids are right up my alley:

January 21, 2012

Glimpses of Guatemala

In brief, stand-out things I saw in my first few hours: A bus with the Virgin Mary on the side and a Confederate flag in the back window; a truck whooshing up on me and displaying a crowd of peeing cows with Stars of David branded on their rumps; another bus whose windshield featured a three-eyed graffiti smiley face above a bunch of unpatched bullet holes; and hopped-up paramilitary pickups laden with soliders and emblazoned with the word “Quiche” (gourmet troopers?).

I snagged photos (of very uneven quality) of some of this and hope to share them soon. I’m finding, though, that photo-editing workflows on iPad remain about as graceful as a toddler–full of both promise & constant painful wipeouts.

January 20, 2012

Robo-publishing engage in 3, 2,…

Well, the day has come, and I’m off to Guatemala. Thanks for all the kind wishes of support & great camera advice! (I ended up grabbing a Nikon 1 from the Photoshop QE folks, but clearly the market is full of excellent choices.)

I promise I’ll try hard to unplug and fully engage with the experience. I’m really trying to tell myself I can get by with just an iPad, though until I’m in the air my hand will keep flying up, Strangelove-style, to grab my Mac.

Regarding the blog, I’ve queued up daily content to carry through to the end of January. After that, it’s likely to be radio silence for a few days at least (well, unless I have some downtime and write up a–DOWN, hand!!).

Catch you on the flipside,
J.

PS–Sorry if your comments get caught in the moderation queue for excessively long periods. I’ll try to check it when I can.

January 16, 2012

Recharging my spiritual batteries

I am a lucky, lucky man.

I’m blessed with a wonderful wife, amazing kids, and a great job. For the last 12 years I’ve somehow gotten paid to spend time with terrifically bright people (customers & colleagues), helping to build the tools I love.

I’m ashamed, though, that I don’t appreciate these things the way I should. Too often over the last few years, I’ve been fried or worse. How can I change that?

Adobe wisely encourages employees to take a sabbatical* every five years. I’ve decided to take a belated one starting today, and on Friday I’m heading to Guatemala to do a couple weeks of service work** through Cross-Cultural Solutions.  I have no delusions about saving the world myself, much less in two weeks.  If I can improve my perspective, though, making myself more grateful and perceptive, I’ll count this time as a great success.

I’m still figuring out just how active I’ll keep the blog in my absence.  I have this crazy fear of/aversion to the prospect of letting people down, of wasting your time by failing to keep content flowing. (I mean, what sane, balanced person would stoke this damn fire every day? ;-)) Maybe that’s part of the perspective I need to gain: the world won’t end without me or my blog. Still, though, I have a big backlog I can queue up…

I’ll ping you with a few travel photography ideas and questions over the next few days–then hit the trail.

Incidentally, I happened upon this quotation today (via Wordsmith) and found it appropriate:

I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs. -Frederick Douglass, Former slave, abolitionist, editor, and orator (1817-1895)

*Sabbatical length depends on length of service; the longer you’ve worked here, the longer the time off. My current “10 year” one runs for five weeks.

**These things aren’t cheap, and I thought about soliciting donations to support my trip. Truth is, though, many people and causes need help much more urgently. If the spirit moves you, please consider supporting CCS so that another person can volunteer, or support another worthwhile NGO (Doctors Without Borders being my favorite). Thanks!

Video: Cooking with Photoshop

Vintage fun, worth another look:

[Via Veronique Brossier]

January 14, 2012

Minority Report-style window

Very cool, although:

A) I was just thinking “My windows are plenty fragile, but their carbon footprint is too low.”
B) What’s with the prominent “Don’t Touch” sign below this touch screen?

[Via Tobias Hoellrich]

January 12, 2012

Free Russell Brown photo workshops in LA

Russell Brown & artist Bonny Pierce Lhotka are presenting a couple of free half-day workshops next weekend (Jan. 21-22nd) in Los Angeles. [Update: I'm told that the classes are now sold out.]

Russell will lead the class in an introduction to using mobile software Apps with lots of opportunity for creative expression!  Props, costumes, tin-type backgrounds, printed backgrounds and a professional lighting kit by Westcott will be made available to help students take fantastic mobile photos. […]

Bonny will teach the “cooking” of aluminum plates to create antiques surfaces that look decades old.  After distressing, washing and cooking the plates, participates will compose and alter both the plate and the image that has been printed on a transfer film.

January 10, 2012

Fotoshop by Adobé

Fauxtanical hydro-jargon microbead extraction for the win!!

Behind the scenes:

[Via Jim Geduldick & Serge Jespers]

January 03, 2012

Skitch: Beautifully simple screenshot markup for iPad

Free, too:

More info is on the Evernote team blog.

December 31, 2011

World’s Largest LEGO Christmas Tree

Seems like a nice way to ring out the year: The crew at Bright Bricks (“The UK’s only LEGO Certified Professional”–who knew there were such things?) has put together the world’s largest Lego Christmas tree. Check out a nice set of photos, or just the little vid below:

“Larger-than-life alveoli”

Kind of puts the “creep” back into “crepuscular.”

Check out more photos and details.

December 30, 2011

Crazy magnet-thing levitates your crap

“Isaac Newton just pooped his pants.” Oh my. (Or, as Core77 puts it, “Electromagnets Now Powerful Enough to Repel Good Taste.”) So, now this happens:

I’ll be sure to try one with my un-backed-up hard drive.

December 26, 2011

Mac nerd friends: A little help here?

“Hello, my name is John, and I practice unprotected computing…” (“Hello, John.”)

Until I upgraded my Mac to Lion, I was a rigorous user of Time Machine: I’d plug in a Drobo at work, and I’d connect to a Time Capsule at home. It paid off when my hard drive died & my bacon was saved.

Ever since moving to Lion, though, I’ve been unable to back up. Connecting to either backup produces a “Preparing to back up” cycle that can last for hours or even days. It’s unusable to the point that I think I should just wipe the backups and start fresh.

Here’s where more problems ensue, however:

• Deleting the backup from the Drobo was incredibly slow, to the point that I reformatted the drives and thus somehow rendered them inoperable (!). I need to carve out time to work with Drobo tech support, but I haven’t been able yet.
• I can’t wipe my Time Capsule (which contains other data), and due to space constraints, I can’t start a new Time Machine backup without trashing the first. I fear the process taking more hours or days.
• Okay, fine–for now I’ll just buy a new, fresh, cheap hard drive. Without doing research (!), I grabbed a big Seagate 2TB USB 3.0 drive. “No prob,” I figured, “this thing should be USB 2.0-compatible and more future-proof.” Now, however…
• After reformatting the drive, Time Machine backups continuously fail. Things seems to go great for tens or even hundreds of GB of data–then simply stall out forever. This has happened several times, always at different points, even across reformatting.
• Okay, fine–forget Time Machine, let’s do Carbon Copy Cloner. Unfortunately, even after reformatting (again) per CCC’s instructions, the backup failed ~66GB in. Given the TM failures, I’m not inclined to try again.

So, here’s what I’m wondering:

• Is there something wrong with the data on my Mac–something that would cause old backups to stall & new ones to fail?  And if so, is there a diagnostic I can run to find & hopefully fix the problem?
• Is there something screwy with Mac OS support for USB 3.0 devices?
• Is there something screwy with this particular drive?

My Google-fu has failed to provide a solution, so thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide.

December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas, everyone

Wherever you are, and whatever holidays you may celebrate this time of year, I wish you great peace and happiness. Thanks for reading & for making it possible for me to do this fascinating, occasionally frustrating, often greatly rewarding job.

All the best to you and yours, now and in 2012,
J. (+M & the Micronaxx)

December 24, 2011

A marriage proposal via Internet memes

At Christmas (or almost), here’s something awfully sweet:

Of the shoot the groom’s co-conspirators write,

We went to venue a day before to scout the place, discuss how to hide those cameras and look at how to be invisible.

On that day, we were all dressed in black. Talked using walkies. Used wine bottles, glasses, cutleries, vases and flowers as cover. We sat around the restaurant as guests but with our cameras on. And yes, we achieved total invisibility. Audrey walked into the restaurant, sat with her friends and never noticed us.

Not until the prime time when Tim revealed himself with meme place cards that was part of his proposal. That was when all the cameras (all 4 in total) started rolling.

The bride shares an after-action play-by-play on her blog.

December 23, 2011

Globetrotting, robo-dancing Japanese businessmen

As Towelie might say, “I have no idea what’s goin’ on right now…” I kinda like it, though.

Read more about these guys here. [Via Bill Roberts]

December 21, 2011

Time lapse: Sydney harbor

Think we’ve beaten the tilt-shift faux miniature thing entirely into the ground yet? Me neither! Here’s another fun one:

[Via]

December 09, 2011

Students: Enter the Adobe Design Achievement Awards

Check it out:

Students are invited to compete in 13 categories, including Game Design and Development, as well as Application Development and Mobile Design. Since the ADAA competition began in 2001, nearly 25,000 students from 73 countries have been involved; in 2011, a record 4,600 entries were submitted.

Free to enter and open to students, faculty and staff of higher education institutions worldwide, the 2012 ADAA will be judged by a panel of international design experts in three independent judging sessions. Submission deadlines are January 27, April 27, and June 22, 2012.

Semifinalists will be announced after each judging session, providing participants with early visibility into their competition status. In October, finalists will be invited to attend the ADAA awards ceremony in Los Angeles, Calif., where winners will be announced and awarded Adobe software and cash prizes.

[Via]

December 08, 2011

Hidden Gem: Editing Video in Photoshop CS5 Extended

Bryan O’Neil Hughes provides a 2-minute overview:

December 06, 2011

SF Photoshop User Group tonight: Creative Digital Post-Processing

Starts tonight at 6:30pm at Adobe San Francisco (see details):

In this presentation, master photographer Harold Davis explains his complete digital workflow starting with his digital photography techniques. He shows how he uses multi-RAW processing and hand-HDR with layering to enhance original photos.

Along the way, Harold will demonstrate how he uses the LAB color space to improve imagery and create special color effects.

Finally, Harold will discuss how his images are prepared for publication and archived in the books he packages for major publishers, including Focal Press.

There will be ample time for Q&A, so please bring your questions for Harold to this presentation.

November 30, 2011

Alfred for Mac hits 1.0

The brilliant little utility Alfred has reached v1 status after a couple of years of public testing.  For me it’s an invaluable way to launch apps & start Web searches quickly (in my case I hit Opt-space from any app, then start typing a name or query) and to get multi-clipboard functionality.  For some reason I could never get into the command-line Quicksilver or other multi-clipboard tools, but Alfred hits a sweet spot.

The app is free, but the paid Powerpack (which enables multi-clipboard support and numerous other features) is well worth the £12 price.

November 24, 2011

The future of advertising? Cat videos.

(Come on, it’s Thanksgiving; you weren’t working anyway, were you? Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!)

[Via Sebastian Marketsmueller]

November 21, 2011

Gone fishing (for turkey)

I’m taking the week off to squire young dudes around chilly Illinois, but I’ve scheduled some blog posts to auto-publish over the course of the week. I mention it because I’ve seen a few comments asking questions or requesting feedback, and I didn’t want you to think that I was working normally & blowing off replying.

November 15, 2011

What’s Creative Cloud & why should you care?

View PSD layers, Illustrator artboards, and InDesign spreads on the Web; share files with teammates; and more. Here’s a 1-minute tour of the new Creative Cloud:

November 11, 2011

Happy Veterans Day from some Adobe vets

A few years ago I was giving some boo-hoo rant about my job’s frustrations to a co-worker when I noticed a little Abrams tank model on his desk. When I inquired he casually answered that he’d been a tank commander in Bosnia, modestly mentioning some of the responsibilities he’d shouldered in his early 20′s. Way to put my challenges in perspective, sir.

In this brief clip, veterans now working at Adobe share thoughts on how their military service experiences have helped shape their careers.

November 09, 2011

SF Photoshop User Group meets tomorrow evening

Come hear photographer Mark Lindsay talk about ”Inspired Compositing and Masking” starting at 6:30pm at Adobe San Francisco. Check out the MeetUp page for details & to vote on topics that Mark should cover in depth.

November 02, 2011

Eye candy: Motion FX for OS X

I can’t claim I find this slick, free app from Autodesk useful, per se–but hey, who hasn’t wanted to spew fire from his eye sockets from time to time?

November 01, 2011

Clarity vs. Obfuscation: Steve Jobs & Occupy Wall Street

I have no intention of making this blog a political one, but I did find interesting Frank Rich’s insight into the phenomenon of Occupy Wall Street protesters mourning Steve Jobs, a multi-billionaire:

Yet those demonstrators who celebrated Jobs were not necessarily hypocrites… Jobs’s genius… was his ability “to strip away the excess layers of business, design, and innovation until only the simple, elegant reality remained.” The supposed genius of modern Wall Street is the exact reverse, piling on excess layers of business and innovation on ever thinner and more exotic creations until simple reality is distorted and obscured.

Just food for thought. (Oh, and if you haven’t read Michael Lewis’s The Big Short, you’re missing out. I’m halfway through his follow-up, Boomerang, and it’s similarly compelling.)

October 26, 2011

Last chance to switch to Premiere Pro CS5.5 and get 50% off

This special offer ends Monday, Oct. 31.  It’s a great deal even for someone who just wants Photoshop, since the price of the suite is less than Photoshop alone (!). [Via Todd Kopriva]

Sneak Peek: Automatic replacement of dialog tracks

Dwight Schrute gets outsourced using some clever technology that matches the timing of vocal tracks, letting you swap one for the other. Very cool.

October 24, 2011

Saturday: iPad Photo Workflow & Portfolio Design

If you’ll happen to be in New York on Saturday, check out this session at PhotoPlus (8:45-11:45 AM) from our friends Dan Marcolina & Matthew Richmond.

Dan plans to deconstruct some of his favorite interactive photo experiences including “World Without Photoshop” and the “iObsessed Companion“. He’ll show you how to create a portfolio for the App store by using Adobe Indesign and the new Adobe Digital Publishing Suite. (Here’s their iPad portfolio, Printeractivideo.) He’ll also explain the cross devices benefits of authoring with the unique, in the cloud, toolset called SlideRocket. As a bonus he’ll share some insights from producing the Book iPhone Obsessed, photo editing experiments with apps that includes the use QR Codes for triggering mobile formatted portfolios of work.

Matthew plans to show:

• PhotoSmith and Lightroom workflow
• A handful of mobile/tablet-friendly Web gallery solutions
  • Some mainstream options
  • Some just good frameworks/snippets for those crafting HTML (example)
• Some non-Adobe photo portfolio apps & solutions for iPad
• Eye-Fi card to iPad/iPhone workflow
• How to build full-bleed Photo ePub files for iPad/iBooks
  • Essentially it’s CSS & HTML, hacking away at a example file. Not for the faint of heart but really cool.

October 22, 2011

Video: AlphaDog robot

I propose some new government branding: “DARPA: Hey, What Could Go Wrong?” I’m going to dream of this thing c-c-coming to k-k-kill me:

It can haul 400 pounds of gear 20 miles on a single charge. Read all about it. [Via John Dowdell]

October 12, 2011

Photoshop User Group talks video, Tuesday in SJ

If you’re shooting video with a DSLR (or if you’d like to be), come check out this session (Tuesday, Oct. 18 starting at 6:30pm) at Adobe’s San Jose HQ:

Michael Lewis is a Quality Assurance Engineer at Adobe Systems, Inc.  He is currently a member of the Adobe Premiere Pro team, but began his career at Adobe on the Adobe Photoshop team.  While he enjoys working for a company that is continually at the forefront of digital imaging, he can still be found on weekends shooting with his favorite Super 8mm film camera.

Daniel Brown worked for Adobe Systems Inc. in the role of “Senior Evangelist” on the Photoshop, Premiere, and After Effects teams applying his experience “in the trenches” to product development, demonstrations, and communication with customers at industry events worldwide.In 2001, Daniel got his first taste of both diving and, simultaneously, underwater photography and has been hooked ever since. He’s been a lecturer at numerous Digital Shootout events and regularly contributes to Stephen Frink’s week-long “Digital Immersion” classes in Key Largo, Florida.

For RSVP details, etc., please see the Evite (linked above).

October 11, 2011

Lightroom 50% off, today only

Check it out. Offer ends tonight, October 11, 2011 at 11:59 p.m. PT; valid in North America only.

October 08, 2011

Optimizing Premiere Pro performance

If you’re a serious video editor and want to know how to set up a great workstation, check out Dennis Radeke’s “Diving into NVIDIA GPU’s and what they mean for Premiere Pro.”

October 06, 2011

The Photoshop Team Remembers Steve Jobs

Great recollections from Russell Brown, Mark Hamburg, and many others.

The Lightroom team on Steve & the Mac

From the team’s Facebook page:

Photoshop was invented on the Mac. The Mac is a key development platform for the entire digital imaging team, particularly Lightroom that was first launched at Macworld. Steve Jobs was a visionary who inspired tech innovation. We are grateful for his contributions and sorry for this loss. – The Lightroom Team

Adobe’s founders remember Steve Jobs

From John Warnock & Chuck Geschke:

“We met Steve Jobs about 3 months after we started Adobe. He called us and said: ‘I hear you guys are doing great things – can we meet?’ He came over to our tiny office in Mountain View and saw the early stages of PostScript. He got the concept immediately and we started about 5 months of negotiations over our first contract. Apple invested $2.5 million into Adobe and gave us an advance on royalties. This allowed us to help Apple build the first LaserWriter. Without Steve’s vision and incredible willingness to take risk, Adobe would not be what it is today. We owe an enormous debt to Steve and his vision.

“We have always had great admiration and respect for Steve. The world is a better place because of him, and his absence will leave a huge hole in the world of technology.”

And from the Adobe.com home page:

“Steve was a unique visionary and his influence as a technology innovator will be sorely missed. This is a sad day for the entire industry, and we offer our deepest sympathy to his family.”— Shantanu Narayen, president and CEO, Adobe Systems

LayerVault: “Simple version control for designers”

The service promises simple cloud backup & versioning of PSDs & other formats:

If the LayerVault guys can crack this particular nut, God bless ‘em. Years ago Adobe Version Cue tried integrating check-in & versioning into Creative Suite apps, but designers didn’t bite. Later GridIron Flow arrived with what I thought was brilliant auto-versioning, but I haven’t seen it get wide adoption. It’s just hard to move people beyond the dirt-simple “final,” “finalfinal,” “finalfinal02,” approach they’ve used for 20+ years.

October 05, 2011

“What’s up, geeks?”

Not a bad way to spend an evening with a customer:

Thanks, Weezer, for rocking way the hell out.

October 02, 2011

Watch this week’s Adobe MAX keynotes live online

See what I and many others have been working on, live tomorrow & Tuesday:

Monday, October 3, 9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. PDT)
Creativity unleashed

Join Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch and guests to learn how Adobe is transforming the creative process across mobile devices, personal computers, and the cloud.

Tuesday, October 4, 10 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. PDT)
Creating the very best user experiences

Join us as we explore the best solutions for delivering highly expressive and usable experiences, both in the browser and as apps. We’ll look at a variety of technologies and products, highlighting current opportunities, and peering into the not-so-distant future.

Come see us at MAX

In addition to presenting some new technology in the Adobe booth, I’ll be on hand for the following sessions that you might find interesting.

(more…)

October 01, 2011

Video: Crazy legs

Utterly amazing dancing to “Pumped Up Kicks.” (Make sure to give it a minute.)

It reminds me of this Levi’s classic from ~10 years (!) ago:

September 30, 2011

Rivers Cuomo, Photoshop fan

Solid. Apparently he scans everything into Photoshop Elements & organizes it there:

September 29, 2011

Video: Using tool presets in Photoshop CS5

Julieanne Kost shows off one of the most perennially underused capabilities in Photoshop–namely, the ability to create & use presets that store settings for tools (e.g. common crop dimensions, type styles*, brushes with colors, etc.).

* It’s true, tool presets aren’t as powerful as live type styles (ones where changing the style changes layers to which it’s been applied), but they’re still handy.

September 28, 2011

Demo/Q&A Friday: Mastering the Premiere Pro Timeline

Live at noon on Friday:

The timeline panel in Adobe Premiere Pro is where the story comes together… In this session you’ll learn essential operations and advanced features like replace edit, creating custom transitions, and using Adobe Dynamic Link to exchange files with Adobe After Effects and Audition. The session is being run by Richard Harrington of RHED Pixel.

September 27, 2011

Get 30% off Photoshop CS5, today only

Check it! (Offer applies in North America only through 11:59pm Pacific time tonight.)

Adobe teams up with Automatic Duck

The move will enhance Premiere Pro’s workflow integration. PM Al Mooney writes:

I’m absolutely thrilled to be able to say that Adobe and Automatic Duck are now partnering with the aim of bringing absolute best-of-breed workflow integration into Premiere Pro. This means that, as we work together, Premiere Pro’s ability to integrate with the industry’s other leading tools using technologies like AAF, XML and OMF will get stronger and stronger. And so Premiere’s ability to be a good citizen in all kinds of broadcast and post-production workflows will get better and better.

Recent/related: Adobe acquires IRIDAS video tools

September 25, 2011

Tom Selleck’s moustache makes every movie better

Now that’s some good image compositing.

[Via]

September 22, 2011

Ooh eeh ooh, MAX looks just like Buddy Holly

Weezer’s playing Adobe MAX the week after next!  (If you haven’t yet registered, there’s still time.)

I used to joke that the one good thing I’d done at Adobe was to get Run-D.M.C. to play our party at Flashforward 2000.  Seems that once a decade, at least, we’re due for hosting a really good band.  (And this time I won’t embarrass myself by trying on shell-toe Adidas & a Kangol hat.)

September 20, 2011

Adobe introduces Photoshop Elements 10, Premiere Elements 10

The apps add a wealth of new features, including what looks like a really interesting “search photos by object” capability. Here’s a 1-minute overview:

For more on details like 64-bit video handling & AVCHD support for high-def output, check out an interview with PM Bob Gager. Each app has a list price of $99, and bundled together they’re $149.

September 14, 2011

Muse (HTML authoring) demo/Q&A Friday

Check it out:

In this Ask a CS Pro session, Muse PM Dani Beaumont will show you how Muse allows you to include arbitrary HTML code in your project. We’ll take a look at how you can easily add elements like Google Maps, YouTube videos, Facebook ‘Like’ buttons and such. We’ll even get a little more edgy and look at embedding Flash slideshows and blogs from platforms like Tumblr.

Friday, noon Pacific time (converter).

September 13, 2011

Wacom introduces a new 24″ Cintiq

Looks lovely:

The Cintiq 24HD features a generous 24″ display (1920 x 1200 resolution), a 92% Adobe RGB color gamut, a wide viewing angle, and an adjustable stand for hours of comfortable and productive use.

Core77 writes,

The part of the 24HD we’re most excited about is a new physical design feature which incorporates solid industrial design thinking to solve an ergonomic issue: How can we get this massive tablet into multiple working positions that we favor? The answer comes in the form of a well-thought-out base and adjustable supporting arms that move and lock the tablet into a variety of positions.

Adobe acquires IRIDAS video tools

Sounds like some fast, powerful color grading & HDR tools are coming to the Production Premium suite. According to the press release,

The addition of IRIDAS technology includes SpeedGrade, an award-winning toolset for Stereo 3D, RAW processing, color grading and finishing of digital content. IRIDAS offers the only non-destructive tools for primary and secondary color correction that are optimized for multi-core CPU and GPU performance.

Adobe’s video apps have been on a tear lately, with more exciting developments to come. (My wife works in that group & I love getting peeks at what’s brewing.)

Update: The team requests (and is getting lots of) feedback on the acquisition.

September 11, 2011

Recent stop-motion goodness

This cleverness from down under reminds me of vintage Saturday Night Live titles:

[Via]

Elsewhere, Joe Clarke’s Tchaikovsky Timelapse features stop-motion animation of the animator himself at work:

[Via]

September 10, 2011

Fanhattan: Search for shows across Netflix, Hulu, etc.

A friend of mine is just about to start working at Fanhattan.  I’d never heard of the service, but having just signed up for Hulu Plus, I was wishing for a way to find out what shows are available there vs. on Netflix, iTunes, Vudu, Amazon, etc. Well, here we are:

The iPad app is pretty dope: Not only does it show you where program X is available, it can launch the needed app and start the show.  In my experience it’s not perfect (I can’t get Netflix to launch, and backing out of viewing a show’s details dumps me back at the top level of the app), but the search alone is invaluable–and free.

How these guys plan to make money, I have no idea (premium placements, referral fees?); happily I’ll leave that to my friend to sweat.

September 09, 2011

A new Photoshop Hall of Famer

I’d like to extend warm congratulations to my friend and fellow PM, Bryan O’Neil Hughes, on his induction into the Photoshop Hall of Fame this week. Well done!

I spent my first two years at Adobe bouncing coast to coast (three times in 24 months!), and I found myself pretty strung out and lonely. Bryan & his family welcomed me to California and helped me start putting down roots–something for which I’ll forever be grateful. For my part I helped convince Bryan to turn his charisma & charm in a more public-facing direction, trying out the product management game. (I mean, if they let me do it, for God’s sake, how hard could it be? ;-))

Anyway, Hughes, congrats from all your friends & colleagues on the Photoshop team, and thanks for all you do.

[Related: Bryan's Content-Aware Fill demo that's drawn more than 4 million views--an even drawn a Hughes impostor from College Humor.]

September 07, 2011

Live Q&A on Adobe Carousel, tomorrow at 1pm

I’m doing my best to field lots of good questions coming in regarding Adobe Carousel, but if you want to talk with a real product expert and get a more in-depth demo, come back tomorrow at 1pm Pacific time for a chat with team member Christopher Quek.

Watch today’s Photoshop World keynote, live

I promise it’ll be newsworthy. The show will air 9am-10:30am Pacific time on PhotoshopWorld.com.

September 04, 2011

Type/Illustration: Ridiculous sign pranks

Back in college I had a summer roommate named Johnny, a super bright guy who was studying Arabic en route to Georgetown Law. He was quite well versed in world affairs, able to talk at length about all sorts of crises, etc. That’s why it was all the more bizarre–and delightful–to see him coolly reading the Washington Post each morning, calmly taking out a ballpoint pen, and then drawing puke lines & mustaches on all the world leaders.

Clearly I’m a sucker for that sort of thing, though I’m still slightly embarrassed at how many times I laughed out loud at these sign hacks.

September 03, 2011

Video: MÖBIUS stop-motion sculpture

Nifty:

Twenty-one large triangles animated by Melbourne, throughout Federation Square. MÖBIUS is a sculpture that can be configured into many cyclical patterns and behave as though it is eating itself, whilst sinking into the ground.

The result is an optical illusion and a time-lapse of people interacting with the sculpture and moving through Melbourne’s landmark location throughout the day.

MÖBIUS was animated over two weeks Friday, Saturday & Sundaybetween the 6th and 20th of May 2011.

[Via]

August 19, 2011

Video: Stephen Colbert’s head goes to space

3D printer, weather balloon, GPS-enabled phone, & camera = good times.

Now, who’s up for giving my head a lift?

August 18, 2011

A PSD for Lion

Jonatan Castro has created a layered PSD file for designers targeting Mac OS X Lion. HTH, as the kids say. [Via]

Grill a Photoshop PM, live today

Bonus for me: it’s not me. ;-) Check out a live chat today at 4pm Eastern/1pm Pacific:

If you ever wanted some one-on-one time with Adobe’s Senior Product Manager for Photoshop, well…today’s your day. We’re doing a special bonus LIVE episode of ‘The Grid” today and Bryan is our in-studio guest, taking your questions on the air about….well…anything!

Send your questions now (and during the show) via Twitter—just include the hashtag #grillbryan, or you can just post a question on Scott Kelby’s blog. Hope you’ll join us for a history-making live event, today at 4:00 pm EDT, on “The Grid.”

[Via Andrew Kavanagh]

August 17, 2011

Demo/Q&A Friday: Introducing Muse

Join us at noon Pacific (time zone calculator):

In this Ask a Pro session, Dani Beaumont, Muse Product Manager, will show you how Muse makes designing websites as easy as creating print layouts. Muse (code name) is a preview of a new product from Adobe that allows designers to design and publish HTML websites without writing code. Dani will showcase the robust design tools, demonstrate how to add interactivity to your site and then show how easy it is to publish your site.

The Connect room will open up 15 minutes before the session starts. At that time please sign in as a guest to join.

August 16, 2011

Muse Hits 120,000 Downloads In One Day

Nice. Thanks for all the lively feedback here and elsewhere. I’m passing your comments along to the team. [Via]

August 14, 2011

LIQUID~DO: Experimental AV art

You can read all about making this art via the molecular-dynamic process of salvation solvation, involving a key component of milk fat, palmitic acid, and C12H25SO4Na (sodium dodetsilsulfonat)–or, like me, you can just zone out with some Sunday-morning prettiness:

[Via Mark Coleran]

August 11, 2011

Save $200 registering for Adobe MAX

Early bird registration has been extended until the end of August, so you can sign up now for the show (Oct. 1-5 in Los Angeles). I’ll be there, and I promise we’ll be showing some really exciting stuff. Here’s more info on MAX.

August 08, 2011

Video: How Businessweek gets made

A fun, tongue-in-cheek, whirlwind tour of the making of a magazine:

[Via]

August 07, 2011

[OT] Mac remote access & Mail advice?

Greetings from rural Illinois, “The Land Connectivity Forgot,” where I’ve just set up my parents’ new iMac. We’ve had some minor hiccups (e.g. repeatedly explaining that an “app store” is neither a physical place nor something that mails you CDs; realizing that N-finger gestures are going to be the source of many panicked “Oh, Jaahn, it disappeared” calls), but overall things are good.

In particular I’m delighted with how well FaceTime is running. I don’t know whether their ISP splurged and added a second upstream cocktail straw, or whether the combo of new hardware/compression has done the trick, but it seems to be a vast improvement over our excruciatingly laggy iChat sessions.

Two questions, though:

• I want to connect to their machine, wake it up, and drive anytime, regardless of whether they’re around. (Yes, they’re cool with this.) iChat requires someone to accept my screen-sharing request. What’s a more robust alternative? Do I have to spring for Apple Remote Desktop? I’ve occasionally used VNC clients, but do those require me to know the other machine’s (static) IP address?
• Why, for the love of God, can’t Mail on Lion import a mailbox (.mbox) from Mail on Leopard? I’ve tried every method I can think of (archiving, exporting), but I always get a “some [meaning all] messages could not be imported” error. I’ve even tried dragging everything into my mom’s Gmail account, thinking I could upload from the old machine & download it onto the newer one, but the messages never seem to reach the server. I’ve tried downloading the new Outlook, but it requires 10.5.8, and the old iMac won’t accept its admin password (needed to run a system update).

Yes yes, #firstworldproblems, to be sure, but any advice would be most welcome. Thanks in advance!

August 04, 2011

Ask a Pro tomorrow: Creating demo reels

This week’s live Q&A:

Carey Dissmore will talk about the importance of demo reels, and provide an overview of the editing workflow in Premiere Pro from the perspective of an editor who is comfortable with Final Cut Pro. Carey will also share the similarities, differences and unique advantages of Premiere Pro, including its tight integration with other products in the Adobe Production Premium bundle such as After Effects, Photoshop and Audition.

We’ll see you Friday, August 5, at 12 p.m. Pacific (time zone converter) in our Connect Room. The room will open up 15 minutes before the session starts. At this time, please sign in as a guest to join.

Video: The Photoshop Experience in San Francisco

(Sounds a little like some acid-rock holdover, doesn’t it?)

If you haven’t yet checked out the Photoshop store at 550 Sutter, you still have from now through Saturday to do so (see the remaining schedule of events). Here’s what it’s like:

August 03, 2011

Chat with Chris Cox this Saturday

How does Photoshop…?
Why won’t Photoshop…?
What does Photoshop mean by…?
When will Photoshop…?
Where does Photoshop…?
Could Adobe…?

Longtime Photoshop engineer Chris Cox will be answering questions as the featured guest on RetouchPRO Live, starting at 4pm Central time this Saturday. The cost to attend is $10. Chris’s brief bio:

Chris Cox’s education is in Physics with a minor in painting – and he’s still not sure how he got this deep into software. He is currently a senior engineer on the Photoshop team responsible for performance, color management, and other random large features. Things he’s done in Photoshop: presets, half the file formats, 16 bit/channel, 32 bit/channel, documents over 30k pixels, files over 2Gig, and more adjustments and filters than he can recall right now.

August 02, 2011

Come to the Adobe HTML5 Camp in New York this Friday

Meet the folks building Adobe Edge, the guys behind the new Expressive Web showcase site, the founders of Ajaxian, and more this Friday starting at 9am at the Hudson Theater on W44th.

Sign up here.

July 29, 2011

Reminder: Photowalk today at 3:30 in SF

Hope to see you there!

July 23, 2011

First-person Pac-Man

If two minutes ago you’d asked me to imagine Pac-Man crossbred with the Karma Police video, I’d have kinda scratched my head. Well, that was two minutes ago.

[Via]

July 22, 2011

Win a Leica, Canon, iPad, & more tomorrow in SF!

To celebrate tomorrow’s Photoshop store launch in San Francisco, the team is giving away Adobe software, Canon and Leica cameras, and iPad 2s.

“Get in early,” they write, “because the first 100 attendees will also receive iTunes gift cards, with some valued at up to $100.” Here’s the Facebook event page, and here’s the schedule of all that’s going on (including Scott Kelby’s “Light It. Shoot It. Retouch It.” session tomorrow).

July 21, 2011

Experience “Photoshop & You” in San Francisco

Laser etching!
Giant posters!
T-shirt making!
Photowalks!
Dogs & cats living together, mass hysteria!

Starting this Saturday & running through August 6, the Photoshop team will be in Union Square, taking over 550 Sutter Street in SF to conduct hands-on training & demos–and it’s all for a good cause.

Luminaries like Russell Brown, Scott Kelby, and others will be on hand to teach & consult.  The days are jammed, so check out the full range of events and register for what are going to be popular events.  (Russell’s laser-shirt-printing-lab-thing accepts 5 registrations per hour.)  Many engineers & other team members will be dropping in, and they write,

We’ll also have some cool Photoshop gear for sale, as well as a special 15% discount off regularly priced Adobe software. The best part? The net proceeds from the sale of Photoshop gear will go directly to Adobe Youth Voices (AYV).

Hope to see you there,
J.

July 19, 2011

Photoshop Elements joins the Mac App Store

I’m pleased to see that the #1-selling consumer photo-editing software, Photoshop Elements, has just become available for download via the Mac App Store for $79. According to the press release, new features include the following:

Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 Guided Edits offer easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions for creating artistic effects such as Out of Bounds for making photos leap off the page, Pop Art for creating retro-style images, or Perfect Portraits for easy retouching. Users can instantly remove clutter from photos or repair imperfections with one stroke of the Spot Healing Brush, which uses powerful content-aware technology adapted from Photoshop CS5.

Check out the product pages for screenshots & more info.

Reminder: Attend Adobe’s HTML5 Camp, Friday in SF

Sign up here (and/or if you’ll be in Tokyo in August, look here):

• 5:00 pm – 5:45 pm Food and Drink
• 5:45 pm – 6:00 pm Welcome & Opening Remarks
• 6:00 pm – 6:45 pm The State of the Web – Dion Almaer and Ben Galbraith from Ajaxian
• 6:45 pm – 7:30 pm Adobe Dreamweaver CS5.5 and HTML5 & jQuery Mobile – Greg Rewis
• 7:30 pm – 7:45 pm Break
• 7:45 pm – 8:15 pm Google Chrome Evangelist Topic Q&A
• 8:15 pm – 9:00 pm Adobe Edge Demo and Open Discussion – Mark Anders and Doug Winnie
• 9:00 pm – 9:45 pm Deconstructing an HTML5 Project start to finish – Big Spaceship Web Designer
• 9:45 pm – 10:00 pm Wrap-up & Closing

July 15, 2011

Scott Kelby photo workshop July 29

Our friend Dave Cross passes along news of an upcoming photo workshop in Florida:

On July 29, a small group of people will get a very rare opportunity to learn from none other than Scott Kelby. Scott will be teaching a one day hands-on workshop in Tampa called Light it. Shoot it. Retouch it – Hands-on. Students will learn all about studio lighting and portrait retouching from the world’s best selling author on these subjects. Only 12 spots left!

If you’re looking for small-group, hands-on classes on Photoshop, Adobe Certified Instructor Dave Cross has a full range of classes available at the Dave Cross Workshops.

July 12, 2011

YouTube stabilization: Nice!

I read a few months ago that YouTube was planning to offer video stabilization for one’s uploaded clips. It’s not easy to find, but if you go to youtube.com/editor, you can drag a clip into the project timeline, then press the little magic wand icon to show the editing UI. The process is a bit convoluted: Why you can’t just set a flag to stabilize video on upload, or see this UI during the upload/tagging process, I don’t know. Perhaps that’s coming, and meanwhile it’s a little lame to pick nits with a free, fast service.

I’ve tried only one test movie so far, but I’m quite pleased with the results. Here are before & after clips. (Note that stabilizing a clip will result in a second copy on YouTube, requiring you to copy over captions, tags, etc.)

Original:

Stabilized:

July 01, 2011

Gone fishin’

I’ll be taking the week of July 4th off work for some R&R with our family. I’ll try to queue up some interesting content before I go, but please note that I won’t be able to reply to comments (or to free any that get stuck in the moderation queue) until July 11th. Have a fire-crackin’, chip-dip-snackin’, bratwurst-packin’, artery-shellackin’ Fourth!

Photoshop & body image

You may have seen recent headlines like “Photoshopping Sends Unhealthy Message to America’s Youth, [American Medical Association] Says.”  The Photoshop team agrees, and you can see the AMA statement plus PM director Maria Yap’s thoughts on the Photoshop.com blog.

June 29, 2011

Help people with disabilities access your PDFs

Check out a live demo/Q&A session this Friday at noon Pacific:

Creating Accessible PDFs using InDesign CS5.5 .  In this session Noha Edell shows how to use new features in InDesign CS5.5 to create PDF documents that people with disabilities can access more effectively.

With InDesign CS5.5, you can:

• Ensure content flows in the expected order using the new Articles panel
• More easily add, edit and view alt text attributes that are associated with an image or object
• Be confident that accessible tables and lists are automatically generated

With Acrobat X Pro, you can:

• Add finishing touches to the exported PDF to ensure a successful accessibility full check
• Never forget a step – guided Actions streamline the accessibility verification and checking process

June 20, 2011

Great Photoshop cloning tips you probably don’t know

You’ve cloned & healed things in Photoshop, right? And you had no idea that you could scale, rotate, and flip the clone source before applying it, right? (Well, being the kind of weirdo who’d actually read this blog, maybe you did, but 99% of people seem not to.) If you spend any amount of time cloning or healing but haven’t used the Clone Source panel, do yourself a favor and spend 4 minutes with Brian Wood‘s overview:

June 16, 2011

“Ask a CS Pro” recordings available

It’s great to attend Adobe’s “Ask a CS Pro” sessions live, so you can ask questions of the presenters. The recordings remain valuable, however, and in case they’re of interest, I’ve linked to a whole stack that cover everything from Photoshop & Illustrator to Web & digital publishing to video workflows & optimization.

Read on for the full list. (more…)

June 15, 2011

Ask a Pro: InDesign Explorations in Typography

Check out a live demo/Q&A session this Friday at noon Pacific time:

Join Carolina de Bartolo for Ask a CS Pro and learn how to take command of your text type and set it legibly, hierarchically and beautifully. Carolina will share some of the common and not-so-common ways to indicate paragraphs from her recent book, Explorations in Typography: Mastering the Art of Fine Typesetting.

Please RSVP here.

[Update: The recording is now available.]

June 13, 2011

Sign up for Adobe MAX

Registration is now open to attend Adobe MAX, set to happen October 1-5 in Los Angeles. I’ll be there and… well, you’ll see. Hope you can join us.

June 08, 2011

Ask a Pro: Illustrator color techniques on Friday

On Friday at noon Pacific time, Illustrator PM Brenda Sutherland will provide a tour of useful color tips & techniques. She’ll cover how to:

• Easily swap colors in any type of vector art, including gradients and patterns
• Create new color combinations and experiment with different color harmonies
• Save, organize and access your colors through libraries
• Share color groups with Adobe Kuler, and learn about other amazing but little-known ways of working with color in Illustrator.

You can sign up here.

June 04, 2011

“Lightroom Tips and Tricks” next Thursday in SF

Photographers, if you’ll be in San Francisco on Thursday evening, this session might be up your alley:

Join Lightroom product manager Tom Hogarty for a session on Lightroom tips and tricks. Learn important methods for speeding your workflow, getting the most out of your images and extending Lightroom with key plug-ins.  Tom will focus on real world workflows and will and share tips from his experience as the Lightroom product manager since 2005.

May 28, 2011

Video: Unspeakably masterful Tetris playing

What on earth, besides a vague computer graphics connection, does this have to do with the general thrust of my blog? Not a ton, but it’s just a pleasure to see someone do something so well. As Jason Kottke puts it,

It starts getting insane around the 3:00 mark and then, at 5 minutes in, all the blocks turn invisible and he keeps right on going! It’s like he’s playing blindfold speed chess on the hood of a stock car!! I mean, !!!!!

Even more tangential: I love that someone has created “Bastard Tetris,” a game specifically designed to make you feel bad by choosing the worst possible block at any moment.

May 22, 2011

Video: Terrific projection mapping for Hyundai

What amazing options exist for visual storytellers these days.

[Via]

May 20, 2011

Machiavellian thought o’ the day

I’ve heard about totalitarian regimes using Facebook to promote “anti-government” rallies, then simply arresting whoever shows up.  Seems like a ruthless manager could take a similar cue: Invite employees to “training sessions” on things like how to use the new travel website, then fire anyone who attends–figuring that if you’re dumb & idle enough to attend such a thing, you mustn’t be worth keeping.

Of course, if that test were applied to people with time to write blog posts like this… uh, forget I said anything.

May 19, 2011

Potential JPEG bug in Lightroom 3.4 and Camera Raw 6.4

Ugh. The bug seems quite rare (affecting JPEG files from one camera found to date), and it should be fixed by next week, but because it could lead to file corruption, the team wants to provide a heads-up. See Tom Hogarty’s post for more details.

May 17, 2011

Orchestral Daft Punk

Just clearing the palate for a sec, enjoying some Irish kids enjoying the heck out of music:

[Via]

May 16, 2011

Let’s grab a beer Wednesday in SF

Designer Shyama Golden (whose portfolio I’ve mentioned previously) has set up a happy hour for designers this Wednesday in San Francisco, 6-9pm. Interesting folks like Sebastiaan de With & former Adobe/now Apple UI designer Johnnie Manzari should be there, and I’m planning to attend. As always I’d love to hear what you’d like Adobe to be doing vis-à-vis mobile devices.

Also a reminder that if you’ll be a bit south tomorrow night, you’re welcome to check out the San José Photoshop User Group meeting; see previous post for details.

May 12, 2011

PUG meeting next Tuesday in SJ

If you’ll be in San José next Tuesday evening, drop by Adobe HQ (map) for a Photoshop User Group meeting featuring Lee Varis:

Lee Varis is a photographer, educator and digital imaging artist, based in LA. He will present a brief overview of his 30 year imaging career and show some of the movie posters and other interesting projects he has worked on in the first portion of the presentation.

For the second half Lee will demonstrate his “10 Channel Workflow”, a radical new image enhancement routine. The workflow is based on applying individual channel luminosity to the color image to manipulate tonal separation and contrast apart from the color. This approach can create sophisticated effects that could not be achieved any other way. Read on for more details.

(more…)

April 30, 2011

Kinect wants to kill you

Seriously, meatbag: you’re going down.

[Via]

April 26, 2011

Keep your stylus on a swivel

The interesting little PenMoto project aims to let you switch between stylus & keyboard use more easily. Check it:

If nothing else I want to see a Kill Bill-style shot of design geeks coming down a hallway, flipping handfuls of these things like butterfly knives. (Bahm BAHM bum.) [Via]

April 21, 2011

SliceMaster lets Photoshop save multiple slice sets

Ever wanted to switch among multiple slice sets in Photoshop (e.g. to manage multiple pages within a single PSD)? If so check out SliceMaster from Electric Iris. As the quick demo video shows, the tool lets you associate slices with layers, then switch among them easily. [Via Jeff Tranberry]

April 10, 2011

Get blog updates via email

As an alternative to RSS, Twitter, and Facebook updates that accompany new blog posts here, you can now opt to get notifications (including context excerpts) via email. I’ve added a widget to the right-hand nav area.  If you sign up & run into any problems, please let me know via comments. (In case you’re curious, I’m using the Subscribe2 plug-in for WordPress.)

April 02, 2011

Connection (light sculpture)

I’ve long dug the beautiful light work of United Visual Artists. Check out some recent loveliness:

March 30, 2011

Introducing the Photoshop Family Feedback Site

I’m delighted to see the launch of the Photoshop Family Feedback Site (feedback.photoshop.com), a resource for learning about the app & influencing the team with ideas and requests.  PM Jeff Tranberry has written an intro & FAQ:

Do you have an idea for a feature that would help your workflow? Is there a small change that could be made to make your life a little easier? Let us know!

We will read every post and use the information and rankings you provide to help inform the future of our products.

This feedback site in not an official support channel. We welcome you to use this site to post questions in search of answers – and hopefully – more often than not, your questions will be answered by either someone from the user community or someone from one of the product teams.

Jeff notes that the feedback site won’t replace the user-to-user forums, but over time it may replace feature request and bug reporting form.  ”The advantage,” he writes, “is that customers will have better insight on what requests have been made and will have the opportunity to help rate and rank those requests for future consideration.”

And with that, please let us know what you think.

March 29, 2011

Video: The Most Useless Machine

Delightfully simple & absurd:

[Via]

March 21, 2011

Super Mario as a first-person shooter

Heh–a novel visualization of classic computer imagery:

[Via]

March 19, 2011

“Ask the Web Experts” panel discussion April 5

Whether or not you’ll be in San Jose in a couple of weeks, this may be of interest:

“Ask the Web Experts” Free Adobe User Group Meeting

April 5, 2011 – 6 pm

Adobe San Jose – broadcast live via Adobe Connect

Register here.

Our Experts Panel:

• Sid Maestre, Developer Evangelist, Paypal, Manager, “Bay Area Mobile” User Group
• Doug Winnie, Principal Product Manager, Interactive Design and Workflow Lab at Adobe Systems, Inc.
• Richard Galvan, Product Manager, Adobe Flash Professional CS5
• David Hogue, Vice President, Interaction Design, Fluid, Inc., Co-Manager, “Fire on the Bay” Fireworks User Group

Agenda:

6:00-6:15 – Introduction, Raffle ticket sales

6:15-8:00 – Discussion of trends in web, mobile, interactive design – examples of good/bad design

8:00-8:15 – Break

8:15-9:00 – Questions from the Audience, Raffle Drawing

March 06, 2011

Handsome HTML5 from BLITZ

I’ve long admired the work of BLITZ Agency, from the Flash/Wiimote collaborative drawing tool they made several years ago to the lovely CS5 launch materials.  Check out their new site (“powered by #tigerblood,” they note) for a great pairing of graphic design with HTML savvy.

Speaking of HTML5 (or “HTML,” as the cool kids now apparently say), there just may be some interesting news coming out this week. Stay tuned.

March 04, 2011

SneakPeek for iPad previews AI, InDesign docs

The $9.99 SneakPeek for iOS enables an iPad to preview Illustrator & InDesign documents, even showing fonts & colors used in the latter.  In a comprehensive overview, Adobe evangelist Terry White says, “This app is a must have for the InDesign and Illustrator users out there. It’s also an Art Director’s dream come true.”  Nice.

March 02, 2011

“Mr. Stacks” automates storyboard layout in Photoshop

Bryan Denman’s Mr. Stacks “is a Photoshop script that rapidly generates storyboards, stacks, and PDF(s) for CD check-ins, client-ish presentations, and whatever else it is you do. Helping to Nail some of the most monotonous tasks in art direction.” Check it out in action:

February 28, 2011

DesignScene adds Instapaper integration

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that DesignScene for iPad, a tool for browsing feeds of visual inspiration, really needed support for saving links to Instapaper (critical for me as I surf around looking for ways to link-bomb you). I’m delighted to see that a new update adds just that; thanks, guys!

February 25, 2011

Video: Crafty CGI Sapporo commercial

“A friend just emailed me this Sapporo commercial,” writes reader Trent, “and I thought, while watching it, that this is in John Nack’s wheelhouse.” I’m inclined to agree. (Full-screen viewing recommended.)

February 24, 2011

Behind the scenes with a foley artist

Just as I was graduating from college & researching a design career, I found myself at the Chicago studio of JoBe Cerny, who’s (quietly) known at the voice of the Pillsbury Doughboy & as the silent Cheer detergent pitchman from the 80′s. I found his foley (sound effects) setup fascinating. I similarly enjoyed this glimpse into the world of foley pro Gary Hecker:

SoundWorks Collection: Gary Hecker – Veteran Foley Artist from Michael Coleman on Vimeo.

[Via]

February 19, 2011

Photoshop turns 21!

The date almost got past me, but with a few hours left on this February 19th, I’d like to wish Adobe Photoshop a happy 21st birthday! This being the US, the app can now legally drink, and I trust it’s getting its bits sloshed at the Caravan. You can see the team hoisting a few glasses via Facebook.

What a long, interesting road it’s been, as you can see in this infographic on The Evolution of Photoshop. Thanks as always to the Knoll brothers, Mark Hamburg, Russell Brown, and all the other unreasonably talented folks who’ve brought us the app over the years–and to all the customers who’ve let me play my small part in the Photoshop journey.

February 14, 2011

Save 10% on CS5 apps for Valentine’s Day

From today through Wednesday night (Feb. 16 at 11:59pm PST), customers in North America can save 10% on a full or upgrade version of CS5 Suites & individual CS5 apps for Valentine’s Day.  Please use offer code FEBCS10SM at check out on the Adobe.com store.

February 11, 2011

Funky music video generated using Kinect data

…with a side of Processing & Cinema 4D:

[Via Kim Pimmel]

February 09, 2011

Who’s driving the Photoshop ship?

As I’ve mentioned a few times, ever since the CS5 release started coming in for a landing, I’ve been working to develop new mobile applications at Adobe. On Photoshop I always worked with a talented group of fellow product managers, but my blog audience may not yet know them well. I’m overdue in helping to set that right, so I asked them to introduce themselves:

Bryan O’Neil Hughes is the Senior Product Manager for both Photoshop and Bridge and a pinch-hitter for the Lightroom team. Since 1999 he has helped to test, drive, demonstrate, and lead development of Adobe’s professional digital imaging applications. Bryan is the Photoshop team’s primary worldwide spokesman and can often be found leading seminars, user groups, and workshops. Before joining Adobe, he was a professional photographer and retoucher. Beyond Adobe, Hughes is a published photographer, editor, and author. He is also a driving instructor for the BMW Car Club of America. When he isn’t driving very quickly, he enjoys running marathons very slowly [Infinitely faster than I would. --J.].

Zorana Gee, M.B.A, is a Product Manager for Photoshop and Photoshop Extended. She has been on the Photoshop team for over 10 years and involved with Photoshop Extended from the beginning. Zorana is instrumental in the 3D effort as well as driving many other feature improvements within Photoshop. She is a published author of 3D in Photoshop: the Ultimate Guide for Creative Professionals and the iPad app Photoshop 3D Guide. Zorana speaks worldwide representing Adobe and the Photoshop family line of professional products. Outside of Adobe, her time is often spent teaching the art of Capoeira to her community. She has been training and teaching Capoeira for over 12 years and holds a black-belt (equivalent).

Pam Clark is the Group Product Manager for Photoshop where she helps define the future of the product, works with the teams to create each version and then ship it out the door to customers. She is also heavily involved in Photoshop’s social media activities on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. If you don’t see her in the office (next to mine), she’s probably out miss-hitting balls [Her words! --J.] on the tennis court.

As for me, I still sit with the Photoshop team, and I remain passionate about helping info flow in both directions.  I’ll try to keep posting interesting bits, and I’m happy to help pass your thoughts to Bryan, Pam, Z., and the rest of the crew.

February 07, 2011

Russell Brown’s speaking in SF Thursday

[Update: I'm brain dead, and the event is scheduled for Thursday, not Wednesday. Sorry about the confusion. --J.]

Russell Brown’s presentation last month drew the biggest crowd we’ve ever had for a Photoshop User Group meeting in San Jose. In case you missed it and will be around San Francisco Thursday night (6:30 start), you’re welcome to come by Adobe SF (but please RSVP as remaining space is limited):

Using your iPad, iPhone or Galaxy Tab as a Photography Portfolio

In the first part of the evening, Russell will spotlight an collection of useful tips for publishing your photo portfolio to your favorite portable devices. Learn some techniques for exporting images from Photoshop CS5 as an album without having to navigate through iPhoto. Also discover the wonders of PDF export from Adobe Bridge CS5 and see how to publish your own portfolio books to share with others.

Create Natural Toned HDR Images, and the Wonders of Camera RAW & Smart Objects

OK, we have seen the classic over-saturated, and super-sharpened HDR photos, but now it’s time to move to the next level of HDR imaging. Russell will discuss some of his favorite new methods for a new, more gentle and realistic looking HDR toning. This process may have you revisiting some of your earlier HDR shots and processing them again. All these techniques will be done using HDR Pro in Photoshop CS5. Also covered in this part of the evening will be Dr. Brown’s Photoshop tips for working with Camera RAW images in combination with Smart Objects. Learn the true art of Photoshop creativity with these nondestructive techniques.

And to top it all off, Russell will be graciously offering some great raffle items!

February 05, 2011

Slow performance in CS5 with optional plug-ins

If you’ve installed optional plug-ins in Photoshop CS5 and are experiencing slow performance, please check out this tech note.

February 04, 2011

Vintage Photoshop quote o’ the day

“If you have never seen Photoshop, you’ve missed one of those glorious rare moments when software approaches perfection. Adobe is humble about Photoshop, calling it a ‘photo design and production tool,’ but no one who’s used Photoshop is so reserved.”

– Byte magazine, April 1993 [Via Kevin Connor, who's been on the team nearly that long and who was cleaning some old boxes out of his office]

Video: What Would Neptune Look Like if it Orbited Earth?

Brad Goodspeed used After Effects to create an interesting planetary visualization. “The basic idea is, each planet you see is the size it would appear in the sky if it shared an orbit with the moon, 380,000 kms from earth.”

See his post for more details. [Via]

February 03, 2011

Volkswagen: The Force!

Too terrific not to share:

(says the guy who, 10+ years on, still thinks that turning his key to roll all his Golf’s & Jetta’s windows up/down is kinda magical) [Via]

I’ll be on The Big Web Show today

If you’re interested in the intersection of Photoshop & Web/screen design, you might want to tune into The Big Web Show (hosted by Jeffrey Zeldman & Dan Benjamin) today at 12pm Eastern/9am Pacific. Improving the Web design & animation process is what drew me to work at Adobe, so it’ll be fun to get back to my roots.

January 28, 2011

Video: Kids vs. old-school technology

“I recently heard of a grade school child coming across a old corded telephone in a junk shop,” notes blogger Michael DiTullo, “and exclaiming to her parent ‘look, this way you won’t lose your phone!’” I feel this way whenever our little guys try to push a button on my laptop screen by, well, actually pushing it. Related cuteness/puzzlement ensues:

January 26, 2011

“In Soviet Russia, photo ‘shops YOU!”

Somehow I never quite got to this 1987 gem when it made the rounds a few months back. Without further ado, then:

[Via]

January 24, 2011

Esprit de Corps, JNack Style

Headed into the third day of passionate, contentious, and ultimately very rewarding conversations with a new team, I sent them this image. Seems to have struck the right chord.

January 19, 2011

Video: “Minnesota Death Star”

17 seconds very well spent. :-)

January 11, 2011

Adobe employees: “It Gets Better.”

I’m really pleased & proud to see so many friends & colleagues participating in the It Gets Better project. I found the piece below quite moving. Well done, guys, and thanks.

Reminder: Russell talks HDR, iPad portfolios tonight

Russell Brown will be speaking this evening at Adobe SJ. Please see previous entry for details & RSVP info. And yes, by popular demand we’ll plan to record & post the session for those who can’t attend in person.

January 10, 2011

Video: The effects in Boardwalk Empire

I’m always a sucker for behind-the-scenes peeks like this one from Brainstorm Digital:

[Via]

January 05, 2011

Quote o’ the day

“Everything I did in my life that was worthwhile, I caught hell for.” — Chief Justice Earl Warren [Via California's new AG, Kamala Harris]

Plotting a hell-catching, ass-kicking 2011,
J.

Video: CMYKilla!

“Please do not watch this video,” writes Scott Kelby, “if you’re one of those really serious types that’s going to post a ‘Mr. Kelby, I am very disappointed in you…’ comment.” I couldn’t put it better myself.

I found this video funny and really well done, but it contains a Bad Word, so please skip it if that sort of thing bothers you.

(Incidentally, Photoshop does have a dedicated red eye tool.) [Via Barkin Aygun]

January 04, 2011

(rt) Holiday leftovers: Assorted design links

• Aural:
  • Tonematrix is a delightful little audio toy from Andre Michelle [Via J. Peterson]
  • Alec Baldwin has made the first truly funny NPR solicitation I’ve ever heard.
• “Reclined Jabba, Salacious Crumb Variation”: Star Wars Yoga. [Via]
• This chair + the hot sun would make your butt look like a Whopper.
• “Soylent.PSD”? The TidyPSD service will organize your Photoshop files for $9/apiece (down from $29, I believe).
• Sculpture
  • Dig these little traffic-cone “ducks” (second photo down).
  • Interesting optical effects created by machined metal “pixels.”

January 03, 2011

Come see Russell Brown talk iPad portfolios, HDR Jan. 11

If you’ll be around San Jose next Tuesday, the evening of Jan. 11, come see Russell Brown present a double session to the Photoshop User Group at Adobe HQ:

Using your iPad, iPhone or Galaxy Tab as a Photography Portfolio

In the first part of the evening Dr. Brown will spotlight an incredible collection of useful tips and techniques for publishing your photo portfolio to your favorite portable devices. Learn some techniques for exporting images from Adobe Photoshop CS5 as an album without having to navigate through iPhoto.

Also discover the wonders of PDF export from Adobe Bridge CS5 and learn to publish your own portfolio books that you can share with others.

——-

Creating Natural Toned HDR Images, and the Wonders of Camera RAW & Smart Objects

OK, we have all seen the classic over saturated, and super sharpened HDR techniques, but now it’s time to move to the next level of HDR imaging.

In this presentation, Dr. Brown will discuss some of his favorite new techniques for a more gentle and realistic looking HDR toning. This process may have you revisiting some of your earlier HDR shots and processing them again. All these techniques will be done using HDR Pro in Photoshop CS5.

Also covered in this part of the evening will be Dr. Brown’s  Photoshop techniques for working with Camera Raw images in combination with Smart Objects.

Learn the true art of Photoshop creativity with these nondestructive techniques.

As always we’ll offer free pizza and drinks starting at 6:30, with the session commencing at 7. Please RSVP online if you plan to attend.

December 24, 2010

Not a creature is stirring…

With Adobe taking a break for the rest of the year, I’m going to lay low for a few days, squire around a couple of rowdy tots, and generally enjoy Christmas with the family.  Thanks as always for reading the blog and for giving me the chance to work on interesting projects here.  I wish you and yours all the best for a peaceful, blessed holiday season.  I’ll soon return to pepper your consciousness with silly, bullet-listed ephemera. :-)  Until then…

Cheers,
J.

December 22, 2010

Video: It’s a bird, it’s a multi-plane airplane

Oh, now this just doesn’t look safe:

If you like the technique, see also Nike’s “Human Chain” ad:

[Via]

December 21, 2010

(rt) Entirely random design bits

• Cool industrial chops: I dig Tokujin Yoshioka’s Transparent Cell Phone.
• Creatures:
  • You can give your cat a Van Gogh’s Ear toy. Really. I have no words for this.
  • Owls! Super cute felt iPad sleeves and iPhone cases.
• Playing with light: check out interesting photos and sculptures.

December 20, 2010

Christmas iPad Choreography

Rather delightful:

December 17, 2010

Video: Holiday wishes from Adobe XD

Heh: a little stop-motion fun from the design team in SF:

Update: How could I omit the making-of vids? Thanks to Kim Pimmel (the guy in purple) for the pointer:

December 16, 2010

Video: Modern Times

According to PetaPixel, Modern Times “is a low/no budget film created entirely against a green screen with friends as actors.”

As often happens, I find the making-of video more fascinating than the more polished outcome:

[Via Mark Coleran]

Learn to make iPad magazines, tomorrow at noon

If using InDesign to publish to tablets is up your alley, check out this live demo/Q&A session:

Upcoming Ask a CS Pro: Friday, Dec 17th,  12pm PST: Producing publications with Digital Publishing Suite! Learn how to use the tools and viewer technology of Adobe Digital Publishing Suite to produce publications for the iPad and other tablet devices.  Join Chris Converse from Codify Design to learn how to use the designer-friendly Digital Publishing Suite tools now available on Adobe Labs to create compelling content that combine the richness of print design with the interactivity of digital.

Dave Dickson and other members of the Digital Publishing team will be fielding questions alongside Chris. [Update: the recording is now online.]

December 14, 2010

Video: Lego Antikythera Mechanism

Apple software engineer Andrew Carol pieced 1,500 Lego Technic blocks together to recreate a Greek computer that laid lost on a sea floor for 2,000 years:

[Via Deb D'Andrea]

December 13, 2010

Urban Dictionary: PHOBAR

Hah!

PHOBAR: -adjective, Acronym for ‘PHOtoshopped* Beyond All Recognition.’ A play on the the more popular acronym FUBAR: ‘F’d Up Beyond All Recognition,’ PHOBAR** refers to an image, usually a photo of a person, that has been retouched and airbrushed with digital image manipulation software on a computer so significantly, that the person in the photo is barely recognizable.

[Via Greg Geisler]

*Sorry as always, Adobe Legal.
**Not to be confused with a Vietnamese eatery, or CATOBAR, about which I was reading this morning

December 11, 2010

Video: “We Got More”

Gondrian! Escheresque! Inceptionoid!

I can’t help but think of Michel Gondry’s brilliant vid for “Come Into My World,” which you should see if you haven’t. (Give it a minute to get rolling.)

December 09, 2010

Design students: Win a trip to Taipei

The Adobe Design Achievement Awards

celebrate student and faculty achievement. The competition showcases individual and group projects & honors the most talented and promising student graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, animators, digital filmmakers, developers and computer artists.

Prizes include a trip to Taipei, cash, copies of CS5 Master Collection, and more.  Check out the site to see details (FAQ) and to submit your entry.  (You actually have a while–’til June 24, 2011–but if you’ve got good stuff now, why wait?)

December 02, 2010

A “No Color Management” print utility for Photoshop

For many years Photoshop supported a “No Color Management” printing mode.  Unfortunately the option caused user confusion, and it was difficult for Adobe & Apple to continue supporting.  In the course of modernizing Photoshop’s foundations (moving to Cocoa, 64-bit, Quartz, etc.) in CS5, we dropped this feature.

There are, however, people who need to print without color management. They print color targets which are then used to generate printer profiles for new printer/paper/ink combinations. These users range from printer manufactures to third-party ink suppliers to power users like Andrew Rodney who supply their own high quality profiles.

Therefore we’ve created the Adobe Color Print Utility, a simple app designed solely to enable printing without color management.  This way we’ve been able to simplify the Photoshop printing pipeline (both in terms of user experience & code maintenance) while offering power users a needed tool.  Please see the tech note for more application details.

What if Dropbox offered time tracking, versioning, & more?

Answer: You’d have something like the just-released GridIron Flow 2.0.  It can save your butt, for free. Why would you not start using it immediately?

The company has radically redefined what was already a unique & very powerful piece of software, enabling file sync & collaboration on top of automatic versioning.  Oh, and instead of costing a couple of hundred bucks per seat, it’s now free (!), with paid upgrades if you need more capabilities.  Read on for details.

I praised Flow 1.0 as being like an airbag, staying out of your way until it saves your bacon–by automatically versioning your files (think realtime Time Machine, with beautiful Adobe integration).  Trouble is, because the app is so unique, it’s sometimes hard for people to wrap their heads around & pay for up front.

The barrier to entry, however, is now zero.

The free product, Flow Essentials, tracks all files in a creative project and displays them in a visual map. You can now define projects and identify teams of people that will be part of the workflow. Flow 2 Essentials enables realtime collaboration, enabling users to add notes to nodes on the map, and to send emails (linking recipient to the node on that map) to the team or a subset of the group. The map allows you to see who worked on each asset, the size of the asset, and any attached notes.

This is all provided, along with 4GB of online Overflow storage (the Dropbox-style part), for free.  Unlike Dropbox (of which I’m a fan, by the way), Flow doesn’t require moving assets into specific folders; you can move and rename them while staying synced.

They also offer three premium services, each for $10/month per user, or $20/mo./user for all three (no contract required):

1. Time Manager allows you to review the time you have invested on each asset, and provides a control feature to allow amortizing total time across multiple projects. It also displays percentage of time spent in each creative application and offers a manual entry mechanism that allows you to include time that is not file based (e.g. design & client meetings, phone calls, etc.).
2. Versioning enables automatic file versioning & allows you to lock, delete, branch or drill down on any specific version. Versions are saved locally by default.
3. Overflow shares not only the asset but versions of that asset as well. The premium service adds 50GB to the 4GB of storage provided for in Essentials.

Why am I promoting this app?  Do I or Adobe get some kind of kickback for sales? Nope. It’s just that having been a Web designer in a big agency, I know the pain of lost/overwritten files & the drag of filling out timesheet.  What’s it worth to help fix those problems?  More than the cost of a few coffees a month, I’m guessing.

If you take Flow for a spin, please share your impressions via the comments.

December 01, 2010

Sweet animation software, c. 1990

One, I can’t tell you how badly I wanted to do computer animation in my youth.  An Apple IIgs ad featuring a rocket blasting off nearly made my head blast off.  Two, it’s hard to imagine that the app below predated Flash by just five years (FutureSplash by less).

[Via]

On a related note, I was struck by David Pogue noting today, “Think of all the commonplace tech that didn’t even exist 10 years ago: HDTV, Blu-ray, GPS, Wi-Fi, Gmail, YouTube, iPod, iPhone, Kindle, Xbox, Wii, Facebook, Twitter, Android, online music stores, streaming movies and on and on.”

Previously: Old-school imaging: Warhol on the Amiga.

Video: Animated paper makes a “Train of Thought”

Leo Bridle & Ben Thomas labored for 9 months to create their all-analog “Train of Thought“:

As often happens, I found the making-of video (in this case involving some Photoshop plus what one imagines were a heck of a lot of papercuts) even more interesting:

November 30, 2010

Adobe goes a little greener

I know it’s small potatoes* in the big scheme of things, but I’m always proud when I hear about Adobe improving its environmental impact.  I just saw an internal note about some changes happening this month:

• Eliminating bottled water from all break rooms and kitchens
• Adding dual-flush toilets to restrooms to increase water efficiency
• Moving to paper towels with 100% recycled content
• Offering soy milk and organic, fair-trade coffee in break rooms
• Replacing compact fluorescent lamps in elevator lobbies

Previously: Adobe HQ gets fuel cells, windmills, more efficient HVAC.

*free-range, no-kill, locally grown, hemp-infused, patchouli-scented small potatoes, perhaps

November 29, 2010

I won on Jeopardy, baby (oooh)

Well, I’ll be damned. From tonight’s show, I’m told:

[Via Winston Hendrickson]

Photoshop Elements half off ’til Tuesday

Customers in North America can get the new Photoshop Elements 9 for $49 until Tuesday afternoon:

Offer ends November 30, 2010, at 5:00 p.m. PST. When purchasing through the online Adobe Store, you must enter offer code SAVE2010 in the shopping cart prior to checking out when prompted to do so. To purchase by phone, call 800-585-0774 and mention offer code SAVE2010. Savings are limited to one discount per product per customer.

PS–Sorry if I just embedded Voices Carry in your head.

November 21, 2010

Video: A mesmerizing, fluid-filled dress

When you say, “600 ft. of knitted tubing powered by a pump located in the backpack,” I say, “Christmas for Margot!” Well, perhaps not, but Charlie Bucket is onto something pretty rad. (Instead of resorting to the opposing cliches of either silver body suits or post-apocalyptic ripped sweaters, why don’t movies depict more visually active clothing in the future?)

More info is on what gets my name for URL o’ the year, CasualProfanity.com. [Via]

November 17, 2010

A new BrowserLab team blog

Cross-browser testing tends to suck, and the Adobe BrowserLab team is working to make it better.  If you’re interested in hearing their thoughts and providing feedback, please check out the BrowserLab Team Blog.

November 16, 2010

There’s now a Photoshop channel on YouTube

“So I got that goin’ for me, which is nice.” :-)  Check it out.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the Adobe TV team is working to add support for non-Flash-enabled devices (leveraging the HTML5 Video tag).  In the meantime the YouTube channel provides an alternate way to access many of the same clips on those devices.

November 14, 2010

Adobe Audition Mac beta now available

You can now download a Mac preview version of Audition, Adobe’s pro audio editor that was formerly Windows-only.  According to the Adobe Labs page,

Adobe Audition for Mac brings modern audio post-production to the Mac platform. Familiar tools for audio editing, multitrack mixing and recording meet improved performance, greater workflow flexibility, and new features such as native 5.1 surround support and new effects. Plus, the best-of-breed audio sweetening and restoration tools in Audition make it easy to clean up production audio.

Check out the product page for an FAQ and more.

November 06, 2010

Quote of the Week

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Confucius

Taking it to heart,
J.

November 05, 2010

Learn about BrowserLab at noon

Cross-browser debugging: the eternal joy!  Things can at least suck less with the help of Adobe BrowserLab.  A live Q&A is going on today at noon Pacific:

Learn how Adobe BrowserLab, an Adobe CS Live service, solves this problem by showing you how your web pages look on popular browsers and operating systems – without having them installed. You’ll learn how to preview your content and use the various diagnostics tools that help you pinpoint issues.

[time zone converter]

November 03, 2010

SF Photoshop User Group meeting tomorrow

In case you’re in San Francisco and feel like joining us:

We are pleased to have visual effects artist Lisa Yimm return for another great presentation.

Join Lisa for a walk-through the workflow and creative possibilities available with Red Giant Software’s Magic Bullet PhotoLooks 1.5 and Photoshop CS5.

PhotoLooks is a unique set of color-correction and image enhancement tools that can speed up your workflow and spark your creativity with built-in presets that help you easily achieve some of today’s most recognizable film and television “Looks” like CSI:Miami, The Matrix, and Band of Brothers.

The event starts at 6:30.  Please RSVP & get other details here.

November 02, 2010

Photoshop SJ User Group meeting next Wednesday

Hope to see you there:

Bryan O’Neil Hughes will present “Hidden Gems”, showing lesser known features and workflows in Photoshop CS5. Michael Lewis will give an introductory talk about tips and techniques for shooting DSLR video, useful accessories, advantages/disadvantages of different cameras and file formats, getting the files into a computer, and a very brief look at project workflow and editing.

We’ll have pizza and drinks at 6:30, and the meeting will start at 7:00, in the Park Conference Room of Adobe Systems’ East Tower, 321 Park Avenue, San Jose.

Please see the Evite for details & to RSVP.

October 31, 2010

Brief Mac tips for parents of tots

Here’s a little something to cleanse the palette from all the Flash/HTML5/etc. bits.

The other day designer Khoi Vinh remarked on his young daughter’s iPhone fascination, lamenting the lack of a toddler mode that could do things like override the home button. Like many parents I know, I’m in just the same boat, as our two toddlers abscond with & modify my phone and iPad.  I can’t offer a lot of tips, though I heartily recommend the fun little audio app Bebot.  15-mo.-old Henry now drags me the tablet demanding “Bebop, bebop!”

On the Mac, however, I’ve found a very winning combo: Alfred (a Quicksilver-style launcher utility) plus AlphaBaby, a shape, letter, and sound generator–both free. I feel like a missile defense system, where milliseconds of reaction time make all the difference between success & disaster. The Alfred/AlphaBaby combo means that I can simply hit Opt-Space, then type “A” to select AlphaBaby and launch it. Unngh, in your faces, little dudes! :-)

Hope that’s of use to someone. Any other advice and suggestions are welcome.

October 27, 2010

Eye-roll o’ the day

In response to Adobe demoing a new HTML5 authoring/animation tool, I’ve seen a few comments like this:

“Adobe could have been pioneering this about 6 years ago, but better late than never!”

Here’s the thing, guys: I came to Adobe ten years ago specifically to build a Web-standards-based animation tool, LiveMotion, because we were told that ubiquitous browser support for SVG & more was right around the corner.  And even before that, Macromedia and Adobe had both deployed timelines (in Dreamweaver and GoLive) for animating with JavaScript, DHTML, SMIL, etc.  Point is, some of us have been working for a long time to make things better, and it’s nice to see browsers* making such efforts more viable.

So, please excuse me if I get a little peevish in response to some of the righteous finger-wagging.  Thanks for your understanding.

*By the way, speaking of finger-wagging, Adobe isn’t just waiting for browsers to get better. More on that in a bit.

October 25, 2010

Watch today’s Adobe MAX 2010 keynote live

Lots of interesting info will be forthcoming in Adobe’s keynote presentations today & tomorrow.  I’ve had a little hand in whipping up some cool stuff for today, and I’m looking forward to seeing other secret sauce unveiled.  Check out the sessions live:

Welcome to the Revolution
Monday, October 25, 9:30 am-11:30 am PDT (convert time zone)

We are in the midst of a revolution across a variety of screens, new input methods, new formats, and new distribution models. Join Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch as he shares insights, future perspectives, and plenty of demos.

 

User Experience: The Next Generation
Tuesday, October 26, 10:00 am-12:00 pm PDT (convert time zone)

User expectations and experiences are evolving rapidly, and Adobe has long taken the lead in creating the tools and services to design for the future. Join us to be inspired (and, yes, entertained) as we show you the future of building interactive and engaging experiences in ways you’ve yet to imagine.

October 24, 2010

Do you have PSD?

“Qualities of PSD include supernatural powers of imagination and an overwhelming desire to constantly make the world more beautiful.” Heh heh–really cute stuff:

Props to the crew from Hyperakt. [Via Tobias Hoellrich]

October 23, 2010

Nokia + microscope + 3D printer = Tiny stop motion

The folks at Aardman Animations have created “the world’s smallest stop-motion animation character,” filming the results using a Nokia N8 paired with a microscope:

The making-of video (in which After Effects makes a little cameo) is fascinating:

[Via]

October 20, 2010

Fireworks “Ask A Pro” session today

I know that it sometimes seems that Photoshop and Fireworks are at odds (at least per comments left by passionate Fireworks users anytime I ask about PS & the Web), but it really is a great app.  If you’re free today and want to learn more, read on.

Join David Hogue for Ask a CS Pro: Fireworks CS5 for Designers & Developers, today at 1pm PDT.  If you are new to Fireworks, just upgraded from an older version, a developer who uses it for image slicing and optimization, or a designer who uses other tools and wants to know what Fireworks is all about, join us for an interactive online discussion where we will highlight some of the new features and lesser known features of Fireworks.

October 18, 2010

Wanted: GPU ninja

If you’re a recent college grad (undergrad or graduate studies), and if you’ve got solid chops working with graphics processors, check out this job description (for Seattle or the SF Bay Area).  Believe me, there’s no shortage of interesting stuff on which we can collaborate.

October 14, 2010

Photoshop: One million Facebook fans & growing

Put your finger to the corner of your mouth: The Photoshop Facebook page has passed one miiiillion fans.  (You hear the footsteps, Bieber? We’re coming for you, haircut.)  Adobe director Maria Yap talks about how the page has quadrupled in popularity since last summer, adding:

We hope you’ll join us throughout the week for some fun and giveaways as we celebrate YOU. Today, leave a comment below answering the question, “If we could make one improvement to Photoshop specifically for YOU, what would it be?” We’ll pick 5 random people from the comments to receive a free copy of both Photoshop and Lightroom as a thank you for your dedication. [Note: Please submit the comments via the FB page, not via this post.]

Thanks to everyone for your enthusiasm, support, and passionate feedback!

October 13, 2010

Leonard Nimoy vs. Russell Brown in a Vulcan throw-down

Crazy. According to Flash evangelist Ted Patrick,

At Adobe MAX 2010, Leonard Nimoy will be joining us as Host for MAX Awards and Sneaks. Given his presence at Sneaks, the team is going all out. We have 10 amazing sneaks from Adobe research labs, Colin Moock is hosting Star Trek trivia with Megaphone between Awards and Sneaks, there are some fairly serious costumes in development, and it is sure to be a great time.

In response, Adobe’s Russell Brown–who you will have no trouble believing already had a Vulcan get-up just lying around–writes,

In honor of Mr. Nimoy attending the show, the crazy Russell Brown of Adobe will make an appearance as a Vulcan on Tuesday, October 26th. Look for Mr. Brown at the show!

September 30, 2010

Photoshop sessions at MAX

Adobe MAX is just a few weeks away.  I many other Adobe people are working away on cool stuff to show there, so I hope you can make it.  Photoshop PMs Bryan O’Neil Hughes & Zorana Gee will be presenting Photoshop CS5, so read on for details of what they’ll be showing (and when).

(more…)

September 29, 2010

Adobe HQ installs fuel cells

Adobe keeps taking steps to make its San José headquarters more energy efficient.  Following the installation of toddler-delighting windmills earlier in the year, the company has installed a set of fuel cells:

Adobe’s ‘Bloom boxes’ are expected to generate approximately 30 percent of the energy required to power the three San Jose headquarters towers. Using the fuel cells, Adobe expects to reduce its carbon footprint by approximately 121.5 million pounds over 10 years, which is equivalent to taking 1,810 compact cars off the road annually.

Cool.  Here’s the full press release.

September 28, 2010

DSLR video session this Friday featuring PS, Premiere Pro

Video expert Richard Harrington will be presenting an Ask a CS Pro session this Friday, October 1st, at 10am PDT covering the use of Premiere Pro & Photoshop CS5 Extended for DSLR video shooting. Richard knows the ins & outs of video in Photoshop (yes, there’s video in Photoshop), so expect to learn some new ways of working.

September 24, 2010

Video: OK Go + Dogs

Just look at this dog video. Just look at it. :-)

Someone once said that OK Go is a bunch of video artists masquerading as a band. I think that about nails it. More info is on the band’s site. [Via Margot Nack]

[Update: Gizmodo has more making-of info & pictures. "12 trainers, two furniture movers, 12 dogs, one goat, 38 buckets, and a bunch of furniture..."] [Via]

September 20, 2010

Ask a Pro about Dreamweaver & HTML5

If you’re interested in details on Dreamweaver CS5′s new HTML5 support, check out this session with Web developer David Powers, this Friday, Sept 24th at 11am PDT.

September 19, 2010

(rt) Random design interestingness

September 17, 2010

A deep dive on Photoshop & scalability

A few years ago I posted what turned out to be a popular article on “What’s the story with Photoshop & multi-core?”  In it Photoshop architect Russell Williams explains, in accessible terms, some of the challenges involved in splitting up processing tasks across processors/cores.

Now Russell has sat down with Intel architect Clem Cole for a deeper discussion of Photoshop & scalability.  They cover everything from the early days of DayStar multiprocessor systems (did I just move some dust in your brain?) to the latest developments around GPUs, OpenCL, and more. [Via Dave Howe]

Video demo: Using a solid-state drive with Creative Suite

That’s one impressive launch-time improvement:

September 16, 2010

Are you the next great Adobe Web PM?

I’m a pissed-off Web designer at heart.  I came to work at Adobe because I was sick of software getting in the way of my ideas, and rather than just bitch about it, I wanted to try making things better.

Now there’s an opening for a new Sr. Product Manager, Web Design.  Job description highlights:

As the Web Design Product Manager, you are responsible for defining and managing Adobe’s efforts to enable designers to create websites and online businesses. You must have a deep understanding of the design market, web workflows and a passion for creating great products. [...]

You know the ins and outs of web and design workflows, products and related technologies.[...] You are the product champion, an effective evangelist with the ability to inspire others with your vision. At the same time, you must be able to recognize a good idea and act on it, regardless of where it came from. [...] Ultimately, you are decisive, care about the details, and are not afraid to lead. If you don’t like to be the center of attention, you need not apply.

I know the new product that’s in development, and it’s cool.  If, like me, you love the Web & want to improve the way visual people create for it, and if you’re up for living in Seattle, drop these guys a line.

September 12, 2010

Video: A World Without Photoshop

Heh–fun from our friends at Chopping Block:

Matthew Richmond shares some details about the project on the team blog.

September 09, 2010

Capturing HDR video using two 5D’s & a beam splitter

Interesting:

Minimal additional details are on Engadget. [Via Foster Brereton]

September 06, 2010

Webinar: “Photoshop From the Ground Up,” Sept. 23

From Adobe Creative Suite User Group of San Jose organizer Sally Cox:

Join us online for our new webinar series, starting with “Photoshop: From the Ground Up – Part 1″ on September 23, beginning at 6 pm. All levels of expertise can benefit from this free series.

These online meetings will cover all major aspects of Photoshop, beginning with the basics. (more…)

September 02, 2010

List: Lens profiles available in LR/ACR

A reader recently asked whether there’s a running list of lens profiles (enabling automatic correction of distortions) included in Lightroom 3.x & Camera Raw 6.x.  Why yes, yes there is. [Via Tom Hogarty]

Photography from Iraq: Drawing down & looking back

• As President Obama announces the official withdrawal of US combat forces from Iraq, the NY Times presents an interactive photography retrospective, Drawing Down and Moving Ahead in Iraq.
• The Denver Post starts with images of the withdrawal, then moves back to feature photography from the course of the war.  Rough and gripping, and essential to remember.

September 01, 2010

Video: Inflatable Bag Monsters

Super cool street art from Joshua Allen Harris:

[Via Ellis Vener]

August 27, 2010

Video: The Wooden Camera

Camera + computer + 830 wood blocks = groovy.

Here’s more info on the project. [Via]

August 25, 2010

Want to talk Adobe + tablets at Photoshop World?

If you’ll be in Vegas next week and want to give me a piece of your mind, bounce ideas back and forth, etc., please let me know.  I arrive Wednesday afternoon and fly out on Friday.

August 24, 2010

Mac Photoshop users needed for benchmarking

The Retouch Artists Photoshop Speed Test is being updated to a new version (2.0) in the near future.  Test creator James Alexander is looking for beta testers both to test the action and to provide times for the site’s baselines. Testers need to have standard stock configuration of current Apple machines that are currently being sold on Apple.com.

If you’re interested, please send an email with your system specs. James notes that he welcomes suggestions on what to include in the test, regardless of whether you’re currently able to perform testing.

August 19, 2010

“Ask a Pro” tomorrow with Bryan Hughes

Should be a good session:

Learn about the new features of Photoshop CS5 and get your questions answered in the upcoming Ask a CS Pro Session with Photoshop Senior Product Manager Bryan O’Neil Hughes. Join us this Friday Aug 20th at 12 noon PDT!  RSVP here.

That the session will be recorded and posted to the Creative Suite Facebook page soon after the event, alongside recordings of the previous sessions.

Tangentially related: I need to make time soon to help you get to know Photoshop PMs Bryan, Zorana Gee, and Pam Clark better.  More to come.

August 18, 2010

Adobe photowalk in SF next Saturday

Tom Hogarty & Bryan O’Neil Hughes are leading a photowalk this next Saturday. Slots have filled up fast, but a few should still be available. Check out the event details if you’re interested.

August 17, 2010

Apple updates 10.6.4 graphics

The 10.6.4 update to Snow Leopard introduced some conflicts with Photoshop and other applications that leverage graphics hardware.  The just-released Snow Leopard Graphics Update should help address these problems.  If you apply the update and continue to have trouble in Photoshop or other Adobe apps, please let us know.

August 15, 2010

Video: Musical sculptures

Finn’s watching this with me, saying “What is *that*, what is *that*?” I’m not sure I can answer, but Felix Thorn sure makes some interesting stuff.

[Via]

August 14, 2010

Adobe Drive 2 now available on Labs

This one’s admittedly esoteric, but potentially interesting.

Adobe Drive lets Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign work more easily with asset management systems.  A preview version of Drive 2.0 for CS5 is ready for download from Adobe Labs, enabling you to:

• Open and save files directly from the CMS/DAM server
• Enter check-in or version comments
• View multiple versions of managed files
• Browse/search the CMS/DAM server for assets based on metadata

The interesting part is that Drive connects with third-party systems that support the CMIS standard.  I don’t have more details at the moment, but I’d like to see working with Photoshop and Subversion et al. made simpler.

August 09, 2010

Contest: Design a shirt for Adobe MAX

Designers & illustrators sometimes ask how to get their work featured on Adobe posters, etc. Here’s one opportunity:

Win $2000 + a copy of Adobe® Creative Suite® 5 Design Premium software (MSRP US$1899) if your design is chosen the winner in the Threadless t-shirt design competition. Just use your design talents to create a tee inspired by the MAXtopia theme for Adobe MAX 2010. Contest ends August 29th, so don’t delay.

The purpose of the submissions relating to this promotion is to create a stand-alone design inspired by the challenge, not a brand tee. Your design should not have brand names or logos on it.

Visit the Threadless site for rules & other info–and good luck.

August 04, 2010

Please welcome…

As part of our family Egg:Basket Concentration Regimen 2010, I’m delighted to say that my wife Margot Liggett Nack has accepted a program management job at Adobe.  (Maybe the talk about Adobe being the second-best tech company to work for* finally wore her down.) She’ll be joining the digital video group in a few weeks to build… The Future (more details later).

As my friend Adolfo notes, “Now Adobe has 50% market penetration among Nacks (or Liggett-Nacks).” Two down, two to go.  In any case, welcome, hon!

*Curse your free food, Google!

Reminder: Learn DSLR video workflows tomorrow in SF

Tomorrow at Adobe’s San Francisco office, Adobe evangelist Jason Levine will be showing the “Fundamentals of Working With DSLR Video;” please see the sign-up page and the notes below for more info.  If you can’t wait or can’t attend, you might want to check out “Getting Started with Premiere Pro CS5,” a recorded demo/Q&A session with filmmaker Dave Basulto.

For Jason’s session:

Learn the fundamentals of working with DSLR footage natively inside Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Photoshop. From basic import, creating sequences, adding effects and transitions, all the way through export. We’ll also cover questions regarding transcoding footage and using DSLR video with green screen.

Prior to Adobe, Jason was a full-time recording and mastering engineer, working in studios coast-to-coast, engineering hundreds of recordings from Classical to Country, Rock to Reggae. In 2008 alone, Jason presented to over 75,000 people from San Francisco to Singapore, Amsterdam to Auckland, and everywhere in between.

August 02, 2010

Video: Projected Art

This super cool project applied artwork to the exterior of an English mansion:

If nothing else, jump to the Pac-Man section around the 3:45 mark. [Via]

August 01, 2010

Lightroom 3 at CS User Group SJ on Tuesday

Creative Suite of San Jose User Group organizer Sally Cox notes that they’re meeting at 6pm Pacific Time on Tuesday evening to cover Lightroom 3.0.

Adobe San Jose (345 Park Ave.) – or join us online via Adobe ConnectPro. All meetings are recorded, though you must join to view past recordings (membership is free).

Agenda:

6:00-6:15 Introduction
6:15-6:45 Jason Eskridge
6:45-7:00 Q&A
7:00-7:30 New Features
7:30 Break
7:45 Workflow tips
8:15 -8:45 Open Forum for Members

July 29, 2010

Video: Giant Army

Ultimately kind of a drag, but beautifully rendered:

[Via]

July 25, 2010

Info on Creative Suite extensibility

CS5 is the most consistently, easily extensible Creative Suite yet.  If customizing & connecting Photoshop, InDesign, and other apps is up your alley, check out the Creative Suite SDK Team blog for demos, links, and more info.

July 24, 2010

Mortal Kombat fatalities on paper

Heh–fun with papercraft:

[Via]

July 23, 2010

Video: “Seaweed”

As Linda Richman might say, “Discuss.”

[Via]

July 21, 2010

Video: Local layering ideas

Jim McCann is a graphics researcher (you might remember his interesting work with gradient-domain painting), and I’m happy to say he’s joining the Adobe advanced technology staff. He has some ideas about dealing with the limitations of traditional graphical layering models (as seen in Photoshop, After Effects, Flash, etc.):

For more videos & papers on the subject, check out the project page. [Via Jerry Harris]

July 20, 2010

Oily Photoshop action (plus UFOs)

• BP has caught flak for digitally altering an image of their crisis response HQ.  ”‘Normally we only use Photoshop for the typical purposes of color correction and cropping,’ [a company spokesman] said in an e-mail. ‘In this case they copied and pasted three ROV screen images in the original photo over three screens that were not running video feeds at the time.’” [Via Noah Mittman]
• Meanwhile UFOs over China are being attributed to Photoshop work.  It’s kind of a weird, sloppy article, though: no details are given about how Photoshop (or anything else) could or did produce the video included on the page, and in any event what’s shown is a UFO (that is, an unidentified flying object); it’s just not necessarily an object of extraterrestrial origin. [Via Pete Falco]
• Update: There must be something in the water (no pun intended), as now the controversial action is spreading to golf.

July 19, 2010

Sample interactive content made in InDesign CS5

Speaking of InDesign and rich publishing, here’s an example of the sort of interactive content (here displayed through Flash) that can be generated in CS5. (Click the main image to display the document.)

Ten years ago Michael Ninness brought me to Adobe to work on LiveMotion, and he went on to product-manage InDesign CS5. I’ve kidded him that a decade later, he managed to transplant LiveMotion 1.0′s heart into ID. I’m kidding, but it is cool to see a number of the features and concepts that customers liked back then–e.g. preset animation styles, easy button creation/interactivity assignment–brought forward. Now, unlike then, the content can also integrate with the Flash authoring environment, meaning you can get a fast, code-free start without eventually hitting a wall.

Details on Adobe’s forthcoming Digital Magazine Solution

The folks working on Adobe’s Digital Magazine Solution have posted some additional details on what’s coming:

Late this summer, we’ll post these new publishing technologies on Adobe Labs… Publishers can add interactivity without writing code via InDesign and create monetizable digital magazines for the Apple iPad – with other platforms and devices expected in the future. [...]

With layouts in hand, production teams package the assets using the new Digital Content Bundler utility that allows publishers to import vertical and horizontal InDesign CS5 layouts, add metadata, (article title & description, issue number, etc.) and export them into a new “.issue” format. [...]

Previously we announced the Digital Content Viewer for Apple iPad; in the future we also expect to develop the Digital Content Viewer on Adobe AIR for desktops and other devices.

Check out the whole post for more info & additional links.

July 18, 2010

Video: “Photoshop Handsome”

“Chest pumped elegantly elephantine
southern hemisphere by Calvin Klein…”

There really is a song called “Photoshop Handsome”:

See also a review & lyrics. Madness. [Via Claudio Calligaris]

July 16, 2010

Airlines vs. iPads

The exact times I want to read magazines on a tablet are the exact times I can’t.

What are the odds we can get the publishing industry to throw some blows at the airline industry (or FAA), finally nixing the prohibition on using electronic devices during taxi, takeoff, and ascent/descent?  I’m typing this on a plane where I’ve got a couple of paper magazines* stashed, ready for landing–this despite also carrying an iPad.  I bought the mags for reading when my laptop is verboten.  Wasting paper sucks, but at least this way I can, y’know, actually read the content during my downtime.

For bonus points, SFO’s anachronistic for-pay WiFi needs to die screaming. Paying eight bucks to access the net to then pay for tablet mags was a non-starter.

*A retronym in the vein of “acoustic guitars.”

July 15, 2010

Learn DSLR video workflows with Adobe

On August 5 at Adobe’s San Francisco office, Adobe evangelist Jason Levine will be showing the “Fundamentals of Working With DSLR Video;” please see the sign-up page and the notes below for more info.  If you can’t wait or can’t attend, you might want to check out “Getting Started with Premiere Pro CS5,” a recorded demo/Q&A session with filmmaker Dave Basulto.

For Jason’s session:

Learn the fundamentals of working with DSLR footage natively inside Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Photoshop. From basic import, creating sequences, adding effects and transitions, all the way through export. We’ll also cover questions regarding transcoding footage and using DSLR video with green screen.

Prior to Adobe, Jason was a full-time recording and mastering engineer, working in studios coast-to-coast, engineering hundreds of recordings from Classical to Country, Rock to Reggae. In 2008 alone, Jason presented to over 75,000 people from San Francisco to Singapore, Amsterdam to Auckland, and everywhere in between.

Video: Combining Smart Filters with Pixel Bender

Russell Brown is back in action, showing off how to apply Pixel Bender filters non-destructively to raw image data inside Photoshop CS5, creating some cool illustration effects.

July 13, 2010

SJ Photoshop User Group meeting next Tuesday

The San José Photoshop User Group will be meeting next Tuesday evening at Adobe HQ, featuring photographer Suzette Allen.  According to the RSVP page:

Suzette Allen is always focused on efficiency, but this time, she will be showing some of the fun things you can do with Photoshop (including painting with CS5!) and the design tools (like making brushes and templates) that take a wee bit of time but can turn into profits as you re-use them creatively in templates. Of course she will show you how to save time with the amazing new features of CS5 as well. Be prepared for a fun and creative evening that will get you inspired to pursue your own creative vision.

Pizza & drinks will be served at 6:30, and the presentation begins at 7.  For directions and other details, please check out the Evite.

July 12, 2010

HTML isn’t about Web pages

Or rather, it isn’t just about Web pages.  Responding to my post about CSS as the new Photoshop, Neven Mrgan makes some good points about HTML & CSS as a general purpose graphical system:

That assumption is that Nack is talking about creating web pages. I don’t believe he is… This is not the web Zeldman is interested in. It’s no web at all, in fact. [...]

Look at any of Apple’s stores on the iPad – App Store, iTunes Store, iBookstore. Heck, look at the iTunes Store on your computer: it’s all made with HTML and CSS. Why? Because in the year 2010, if you’re going to be describing layouts, it’s not a bad call to describe them using very well adopted, rapidly developing technologies. [...]

There’s no pride or glory in tweaking number after number and reloading a page to make sure my drop shadow looks nice.

On this last point, I’m hopeful that if Photoshop made it possible to copy/export styled text and objects as HTML/CSS, developers would accept the generated code.  There are only so many ways to specify box dimensions & borders, right?

More broadly, people are clearly interested in doing demanding, print-quality typesetting using HTML, the better to create things like magazines for tablets.  I’m encouraged to see work that enables better text breaking, kerning pairs & ligatures, proportional leading, and more. Onward and upward.

One other thing: I’ve gotten to know Neven a bit after he (justifiably) needled Photoshop for its admitted hodgepodge of UI elements. I’ve never managed to finish my long and detailed response, but in it I talk about how using Web elements (e.g. embedded WebKit) makes it hard–if not impossible–to match everything with OS-native controls.  I go on to cite numerous examples of Apple’s Web content not matching Aqua, etc.  The point is, the more powerful & ubiquitous Web content becomes, the more we’ll deal with the challenges of making the complete desktop/online experience feel cohesive.

Behind the scenes of “AT-AT Day Afternoon”

Having logged lots of childhood hours with these toys, I really dug Patrick Boivin’s AT-AT Day Afternoon when it made the rounds a couple of weeks ago:

Now he’s shared some background info in a CNET interview & has posted a behind-the-scenes video, briefly showing Photoshop video layers in action:

July 10, 2010

Stephen Colbert + Photoshop save the Gulf!

The secret must be in his flappy-fingered typing style:

[Via Mordy Golding & John Lin]

July 07, 2010

May I bring you a coffee?

The After Effects team has long done “ship trips,” wherein they hang around a design shop, production facility, etc., watching over customers’ shoulders while generally trying to make themselves unobtrusive/useful (e.g. bringing bagels, etc.).  Seeing someone doing real work is different than just talking about what they might like or need.

A number of my colleagues are enjoying some well-deserved R&R this month, so things are a bit quiet at the ranch, and I’m kind of itching to re-connect with the real world of design and production.  If you’re a designer in the Bay Area who wouldn’t mind having some spiky-haired, slightly over-solicitous guy hang around your workspace a bit, please let me know so that we can try to sync schedules.

July 05, 2010

Video: The Art of Analog Computing

Heh–good fun with (actual) cut-n’-paste from the folks at Melt Media. (Let’s hear it for flying toasters!)

Photoshop gets its 15 seconds of fame around the 1:40 mark. (For a really deep trip in that vein, see Russell Brown’s Photoshop Space Odyssey.) [Via Marc Pawliger]

Your bugs, you will show me them, please

I’m glad to hear that people seem pretty happy with the Photoshop CS5 update, but there’s always room to improve. If and when you encounter bugs in Photoshop or other Adobe apps, however, please report them via the online bug form.

Also, in case you’re wondering whether anyone actually looks at crash reports that come in, the answer is emphatically yes. It’s really helpful if you take a second to jot down your email address. That way, if we need more info about what you’re experiencing, we can drop you a line. (I know, this should never be necessary, and I know it’s an extra inconvenience, but we’re grateful for any data you can provide to help make the apps better.)

July 02, 2010

“CSS is the new Photoshop” (?)

Shawn Blanc hit on a great, if perhaps deliberately overstated, phrase on Monday that pegs an important trend: Cascading Style Sheets can create a great deal of artwork now, without reliance on bitmap graphics.  He points to impressive iOS icons from Louis Harboe among other examples.

He’s not alone: Håkon Wium Lie from Opera predicts that CSS3 could eliminate half the images used on the Web.  You can use various graphical tools to generate things like CSS gradients and rounded corners.  As people can do more and more in code, it makes sense to ask whether even to use Photoshop in designing Web content.

I think Adobe should be freaking out a bit, but in a constructive way.

HTML’s new graphical richness means great opportunities to generate efficient, visually expressive content.  ”What is missing today,” says Michael Slade, “is the modern day equivalent of Illustrator and PageMaker for CSS, HTML5 and JavaScript.”

Of course, this is far easier said than done.  As I noted the other day, “Almost no one would look inside, say, an EPS file and harrumph, ‘Well, that’s not how I’d write PostScript’–but they absolutely do that with HTML.”  Over the last 15 years, innumerable smart people have tried and failed to make WYSIWYG HTML design tools whose output got respect. And yet it strikes me as unreasonable to say, “Spend a bunch of time perfecting your design in PS/AI, then throw it all away and start again!”

As for Photoshop, we could either teach the app to speak HTML natively (via live HTML layers), or we could translate Photoshop-native artwork into HTML (e.g. “copy this button/text as HTML/CSS”).  It’s not yet clear to me, however, how such code would smoothly integrate into one’s projects.

At the moment I have more questions than answers.  If you have ideas on the subject, please lay ‘em on us.

[Note: Ideas need not include, "Put your heads in the sand and say that people simply have to switch from Photoshop/Illustrator to Fireworks."  FW is a great app, but that suggestion is a non-starter.]

July 01, 2010

Filter Forge 2.0 arrives

The new version of Filter Forge, a visual (node-based) tool for creating your own filter effects, has been released for Mac and Windows.  According to the developers, new features include:

• Support for non-seamless filters
• Unrestricted transform components (Move, Scale, Rotate, etc.)
• Full support for HDR colors (they may even have negative RGB values)
• Instant filter search (searches your collection of downloaded filters)
• ‘Bomber’ component for spraying particles (very fast, very versatile)
• Lua scripting (Lua is a fast scripting language also used by Lightroom)
• Photorealistic lighting (shadows via Ambient Occlusion, point/area lights etc.)

Neat stuff.

June 30, 2010

Higher pay hurts performance, & other interesting ideas

• Good: Daniel Pink on motivation (with or without free sandwiches).
• Also good: The RSAnimate project, illustrating interesting ideas.
• Even better: The two combined:

Busted links? Let me know.

One more (hopefully last) bit of current blog housekeeping: Some folks mentioned encountering broken links here following the move to WordPress, and I’ve been working with the blog admins to fix the problems.  If you spot any continued problems (broken links or otherwise), please let me know via comments or email (jnack at adobe).  Thanks.

June 29, 2010

Blog housekeeping: Notice anything different?

Answer: Hopefully not.  We moved this blog over to a WordPress foundation yesterday, but there shouldn’t be any visible changes or disruptions, including to permalinks and RSS subscriptions.  If you hit any snags, please let me know.

One somewhat minor, hopefully temporary problem is that comments listed on the right side of the main page no longer include an excerpt.  I know that some of my teammates scan that list so that they can jump in with replies when needed, so we’ll try to fix the problem.

Thanks to the folks at blog consultancy Firmdot for making the move so painless.

Design bits: Shape-shifting Bimmers & more

• You didn’t want to want to walk through a 140-meter long PVC habitrail?  Uh, okay–then I guess this Spanish guy misunderstood.
• BMW created a shape-shifting car made of fabric? Really?  Cool, but man, if getting keyed wasn’t bad enough already…
• Dyson’s bladeless Air Multiplier fans look pretty amazing, though claiming that they end the horrors of regular-fan “buffeting” seems like a stretch (selling the need right in the box, as we sometimes say).

June 28, 2010

Huge multitouch wall at the World’s Fair

The Wall of Chile  at the 2010 Shanghai World’s Fair features a 4-by-1.2 meter (13-by-4 foot) display wall that enables visitors to access more than six hours of high-definition video and thousands of photographs.

Here are more info & more projects from the creators.

June 25, 2010

Interesting ideas, beautifully illustrated

If you’ve got 10 minutes–or even one or two–I think you’ll enjoy this little talk by Philip Zimbardo, cleverly illustrated by Cognitive Media:

[Via]

June 24, 2010

Video: The High Line evolves

It’s a little off topic from my usual blogging fare, but I love seeing how New York’s High Line park has evolved & will continue to develop:

I haven’t been back to NYC since the park opened (thanks, kids!), so maybe I can live vicariously through Tom & Bryan. (*cough* You know they’re doing a photo walk nearby on Saturday, right? *cough*)
Here’s some context for the video. [Via]

June 23, 2010

20,000 comments & counting

Lordy, lordy: roughly five years after its launch, this blog has racked up some 20,000 reader comments:

That’s just as I’d have it, and it says more about the Photoshop/Adobe community than it does about me. I’ve always wanted the blog to be about others’ voices as much as mine (okay, almost as much!), and reader feedback has proven invaluable. Whether it’s opining on new product ideas, puking on the app icons, exchanging product tips, or even trying to steal Photoshop, I’m always eager to hear what people are thinking & trying to achieve.
Thanks so much for your generous feedback, and here’s to the next 20,000 (!),
J.

PS–I believe the honor of being #20k goes to my pal Adolfo Rozenfeld, who was in fact remarking on approaching 20k–appropriately meta & self-referential.

Adobe’s bringing pro audio editor Audition to the Mac

I’m delighted to hear that Adobe is bringing Audition to the Mac. As video evangelist Jason Levine explains in the videos below, this professional audio software packs a big, fast wallop. If nothing else, go to around the 3:20 mark in the first vid below to see how you can use Photoshop-style painting and Spot Healing brushes to edit audio (!):

The public beta should be available later this year, and you can sign up to be notified when it’s ready to download.

June 21, 2010

Video: Stop motion animated with wood

“There’s a guy riding his horse, he makes a big tree house, has dinner with a bunch of ghosts and then everything gets cut down by some scissor birds. Very random, very beautiful.” That seems about right.

Check out the behind-the-scenes video for a taste of the crazy amount of work that went into the production.

June 18, 2010

Video: “Lightrails” interactive installation

If you’ve ever wanted to step right into a Daft Punk video, you may be in luck:

[Via]

June 15, 2010

CS5 Summit in NYC next week

Next Friday (June 25th) from 4:30-7:30 pm, Scott Kelby & crew will be joining Adobe folks for a free Photoshop CS5 Summit:

You’ll see exactly how Scott, Matt, Dave, RC, and Corey (NAPP’s own Photoshop team) plug the amazing new features of CS5 right into their daily Photoshop workflow. Plus, you’ll be able to meet one-on-one with Adobe’s own Photoshop and Lightroom product managers (Bryan Hughes, and Tom Hogarty) and get your questions answered direct from the source.

We’ll have drawings for some very cool giveaways, including versions of Photoshop CS5, Lightroom 3, tickets to the Photoshop World Conference, and much more. You’ll have a blast, you’ll learn a lot, and best of all – it’s all free! But it doesn’t happen if you’re not there!

Check out the event page for sign-up & location details.

June 11, 2010

Video performance hotness in CS5

The 64-bit-native CS5 video apps are faster than ever. I just saw this blurb in email:

• On average, 130 different benchmark tests are more than twice as fast in Premiere Pro CS5 than in CS4.
• Working with XDCAM footage in CS5 with a CUDA-accelerated card is more than six times faster than CS4. In software-only mode, it’s still about 33% faster.
• Compared to CS4, working with R3D footage takes about two thirds of the time in software-only mode–and about half the time with a CUDA card.
• Simple rotoscoping tasks take one tenth the time they required in CS4, and the time savings for complex, real-world projects are likely to be even more significant.

I’ll try to point to more details when I see them posted publicly.

June 07, 2010

Upcoming Photoshop, Lightroom, and CS5 video sessions

The folks at Fotocare in NYC will be hosting CS5 and Lightroom 3 sessions in a couple of weeks:

Join us in welcoming Adobe specialists, Bryan O’Neil Hughes and Tom Hogarty as they present Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3. In these workshops you will learn the new features in Photoshop and Lightroom. See how to use the new tools to enhance your workflow, making it easier and faster.

June 28th:
Photoshop CS5 : 10:00AM – 12:00PM
Lightroom 3 : 2:00PM – 4:00PM

June 29th
Lightroom 3 : 10:00AM – 12:00PM
Photoshop CS5 : 2:00PM – 4:00PM

RSVP Required
Email: seminars@fotocare.com
Phone: 212-741-2990

Meanwhile on July 13 the Creative Suite User Group of San José will be hosting their first all-video meeting, and the last of their three CS5 launch events. Event organizer Sally Cox writes,

Join us for product demos, raffles, baked goods and other surprises, it’s all free! Meet us at Adobe San Jose or join us online via Adobe Connect Pro. Sign up here.

June 05, 2010

HOW Now

I’m headed to the HOW Conference in Denver on Sunday. If you’ll be at the show and want to say hello, talk about Photoshop, tablet apps, etc., please drop me a line (jnack at adobe). I’ll be floating around the Adobe booth Sunday evening and midday Monday-Tuesday. I’m told that the uniform consists of black t-shirt plus “stylish jeans” and sneakers. How bold would it be to rock a pair of mom jeans and, I dunno, some British Knights?

Video: LEGO printer

Ah, but does it use PostScript??

(Name CAPITALIZED to avoid abuse from brand pedants.) [Via]

June 03, 2010

Camera Raw 6.1 now available

Camera Raw 6.1 is now available for Photoshop CS5 & Bridge CS5. The release adds lens correction (see previous demo), improves performance, & fixes a crashing bug on OS X. The release includes camera support for the following models:

• Canon EOS 550D (Digital Rebel T2i/ EOS Kiss X4 Digital)
• Kodak Z981
• Leaf Aptus-II 8
• Leaf Aptus-II 10R
• Mamiya DM40
• Olympus E-PL1
• Olympus E-600
• Panasonic G2
• Panasonic G10
• Sony A450

For release notes please see the Lightroom Journal.

June 02, 2010

A note to Fireworks users

Thanks for all the feedback about my HTML layers idea. In the comments I think I can see the exact moment when someone on a Fireworks forum/list linked to the post and suggested that everyone pile on in hopes of getting the feature into FW instead of PS. For what it’s worth, I’ve been asking the FW team for four years to implement some version of this idea. They’ve liked the concept, but for whatever reason the work hasn’t happened.
A request: If you voted in the survey & rated the idea lower in hopes of getting the feature into Fireworks, please revise your vote and assess just the merits of the idea in general. Thanks.

June 01, 2010

Feedback, please: HTML5 layers in Photoshop?

Let’s start by acknowledging that A) I’m possibly totally crazy, and B) what I’m describing may well never happen. I want, however, to present an idea that you might find interesting. Whether it’s worth pursuing is up to you.

[Update: Fireworks fans, please see this quick note.]

What if Photoshop implemented native HTML as a layer type? Just like the app currently supports special layer types for text, 3D, and video, it could use the WebKit engine (which CS5 already embeds) to display HTML content. Among other things you’d get pixel-accurate Web rendering (text and shapes); the ability to style objects via CSS parameters (enabling effects like dotted lines); data-driven 2D and 3D graphics; and high fidelity Web output (HTML as HTML).

On a really general level, I’m proposing that Photoshop enable programmable layers, opening the door to things like much smarter objects–everything from intelligently resizing buttons (think 9-slice) to smart shapes as seen in FreeHand and Fireworks.

If this sounds interesting, please read on in this post’s extended entry.

(more…)

May 28, 2010

Your eventual decapitation, demoed

Somewhere, a dude you kept at arm’s length in high school is preparing to “take a little off the top” of all of us:

Here’s a bit more info. [Via Mark Coleran]

May 24, 2010

Julieanne Kost demoing CS5 this Thursday in DC

This Thursday (May 27) the Washington DC chapter of ASMP is hosting a talk from Adobe evangelist Julieanne Kost. According to the Web site, the event will feature a giveaway of one copy of Photoshop CS5, plus Julieanne demonstrating the following improvements:

• New selection technologies and tools
• Content-Aware Fill
• New tools for HDR imaging with HDR Pro
• Automated correction of lens distortion in Adobe Camera Raw 6
• Improved raw conversions, noise removal, additive grain in Adobe Camera Raw 6
• Puppet Warp – Transform on steroids
• New brush engine for a natural media look with Mixer Brush and Bristle tips
• Integrated Lab B&W action for an easy and interactive way to convert color images
• Accelerated workflow with GPU-enabled cropping and new, integrated Adobe® Mini Bridge panel
• Improved integration with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom® and much more

PS–So take that, folks who complain that I never blog about East Coast Photoshop events. ;-)

May 22, 2010

Video: Optical illusion o’ the day

Bizarre:

Check out the inventor’s site for more info, including building instructions. [Via]

May 20, 2010

Demo: Illustrator + HTML5

Round 2 in “a little less conversation, a little more action:”
Today during the keynote at Google’s I/O conference, Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch demoed Illustrator and Dreamweaver working together to create interactive Web graphics:

I should hasten to note that although Illustrator has supported creation of interactive, open-standard SVG for 10 years, the exact capability shown here isn’t part of Illustrator CS5. HTML5 is a work in progress, and not everything could make it into the current release, but work continues and we’ll keep sharing details as they become available.
See also from last fall: Sneak peek: Illustrator + Flash + Dreamweaver -> CANVAS

May 05, 2010

My Decade at Adobe

Looking out on the Lake Washington Ship Canal & drawbridge outside of Adobe’s Seattle office today, I’m hit by a profound sense of déjà vu: I looked at the same scene exactly 10 years ago, my first day at Adobe & working in this office.

I’d given up my Flash & HTML design gig, moved out from New York, and joined a team that set out to make a great new Web animation product.

• Back then the open-standard SVG was just about to take over the world (for real!), and we were getting set to support it. We’d export Flash SWF files, too, but fundamentally we wanted to support open standards.
• The browser wars were still blazing away, bringing rapid innovation in HTML.
• We were starting to see hardware-accelerated Web content, and it seemed inevitable that such support would soon be widespread.

Well, you know, funny stuff happens… But here we are, exactly 10 years later, and I’m looking at today’s headlines:

• Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch: We’re Going To Make The Best Tools In The World For HTML5.
• Microsoft is supporting SVG and talking open standards. (Hey, it’s only a decade late; but so it goes…)
• Browser innovation is once again red hot, with Google showing off Chrome speed, and MSFT, Apple, and others leveraging GPUs.
• Flash Player is being optimized for GPUs on mobile & desktop systems.

Interesting times, to say the least.

In the intervening decade I moved coast-to-coast two more times with Adobe, hung up my flamed shoes & the flamed Volvo I bought in Seattle, met & married a great Seattle girl, had two most excellent boys, and got to help design, build, and support five versions of perhaps the most important graphics application in the world.

And now I’m about to take on some brand new challenges. More details to come, soon.

May 02, 2010

CS user group meeting at Adobe SJ HQ on Tuesday

User group organizer Sally Cox writes,

The Adobe Creative Suite User Group of San Jose is holding their first of three CS5 launch party meetings on Tuesday, May 4 at Adobe San Jose. This meeting will focus on Design Premium CS5, and will be broadcast online via Adobe Connect Pro. They will cover all the Design Premium apps, raffle off great prizes and their guest speaker is Chris MacAskill from new sponsor SmugMug.
June 1 is Web Premium, July 13 is Production Premium. Check out the site for more info about these and other exciting events, including an online-only InDesign workshop and a San Jose Photowalk. The best part? All their events are free!

April 29, 2010

Panic’s new Transmit 4 rocks

Hats off to the guys at Panic on releasing the great new Transmit 4! Transmit has been my workhorse FTP app for years, and I’ve been beta testing the new release for several months. (I find it refreshing to help debug someone else’s app for a change!) I think you’ll love the big & small improvements, including the ability to mount servers as disks (enabling things like editing files directly using Photoshop).
As it happens, earlier this year our UI designer Matthew Bice and I went to Portland to spend a day with Cabel, Neven, and their team. (As you’d imagine, Photoshop and Illustrator get a workout in their design and production work.) As John Gruber notes, “their office is like a movie set of a cool software office.” Maybe now that Transmit 4 has been released, they’ll have time to show some of the recent awesomeness they’ve added. Just two quick tastes: They’ve got a Lego version of the famous Panic truck, and they’ve created custom pixel-art bathroom signage. Too bad I can’t find my picture of the burger-with-glazed-donut-as-bun+milkshake lunch with which they tried to explode my heart.
Anyway, congrats on the great release, guys!

April 23, 2010

BrushViewQL displays Photoshop brushes in Finder

Dave Girard from Ars Technica points out BrushViewQL, a Mac OS Quick Look plug-in that displays the contents of Photoshop brush files. Nice.

April 22, 2010

PS CS5 demo, Q&A next Tuesday in SF

The San Francisco chapter of the Advertising Photographers of America is hosting a demo event next Tuesday:

LEFTSPACE, 2055 Bryant, San Francisco

6:00 PM Members (& Guests) Only Networking Social Hour

Special CS5 Cool Features Presentation from 7:00 to 9:00 PM

• Featuring Bryan O’Neil Hughes, Adobe Photoshop Product Manager
• Free Raffle – One extremely lucky winner will receive a copy of CS5 !
• Free Admission, but before April 23, you must RSVP: info@apasf.com
• Event is for APA members only, but each member can also bring 1 guest

April 20, 2010

Ask a Creative Suite Pro Your Questions on Thursday

On Thursday Adobe Creative Suite evangelists Greg Rewis (Web), Jason Levine (video/audio), and Terry White (print, photo, etc.) will be hosting a live chat. Terry writes,

This special Q&A session will take place Thursday, April 22th @ 11 AM PDT (2 PM EDT (GMT-4). and it will take place via Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro. Here’s the URL: http://my.adobe.acrobat.com/askcspro

Sign on as a GUEST with your real name. While there is no pre-registration required, this session will be limited to 100 attendees. So it’s first come, first served. I advise you to log in 15 minutes before the 11 AM start time as we plan to start on time.

April 18, 2010

CS5 on Tuesday at SJ Photoshop User Group meeting

The San José Photoshop User Group is meeting on Tuesday evening. Event organizer Dan Clark writes,

Now that Adobe has announced CS5, we can tell you more about the upcoming meeting. Bryan O’Neil Hughes, the Photoshop Product Manager, will show Photoshop CS5, including the new Camera Raw, Content Aware Fill brush, new painting brushes, new HDR controls, Puppet Warp tool, and much more.

We’ll have pizza and drinks at 6:30, and the meeting will start at 7:00, in the Park Conference Room of Adobe Systems’ East Tower, 321 Park Avenue, San Jose. To park underneath the Adobe building, use the Almaden Avenue entrance, under the East Tower. If the security guard at the parking entrance asks for an Adobe contact, use Bryan O’Neil Hughes’s name. He’s our contact there (as well as a Photoshop Product Manager).
Please feel free to forward this email to anyone you know who might be interested. If they would like to be on our email list, have them respond to: dan@weinberg-clark.com.

April 16, 2010

I’ll be in the CS5 Webinar today at 2pm EDT

Late-breaking news: I’ll be joining Scott Kelby & crew in today’s CS5 Webinar at 2pm Eastern/11am Pacific. Hope you can join us.

April 15, 2010

Hughes talks JDI today at 1:30PM Eastern

Scott Kelby writes,

Just a quickie: We’ve got Bryan O’Neil Hughes, Photoshop Product Manager, as a call-in guest on our 1:30 PM EDT free Photoshop CS5 Webinar, and he’s going to be talking about Adobe’s JDI (Just Do It) initiative to enhance and improve existing features in Photoshop to make our daily lives easier (and there are a TON of JDI’s in CS5).

Bonus: Scott notes, “We’re giving away another free upgrade to CS5 on today’s show, so don’t miss it!”

April 13, 2010

Photoshop CS5 Ask-A-Pro live this Thursday

My colleagues Julieanne Kost and Bryan O’Neil Hughes will be holding a live Q&A via Twitter this Thursday at noon Pacific (time zone info). Borrowing from the Facebook page:

Now that Photoshop CS5 has officially been revealed, the Twitterverse is brimming with questions. Now is your chance to have your Photoshop CS5 questions answered LIVE on Twitter by Bryan O’Neil Hughes, Photoshop product manager, and Julieanne Kost, Adobe digital imaging evangelist.

Simply follow Photoshop on Twitter, and on Thursday, April 15, from noon to 1 p.m. PDT, tweet your questions to @Photoshop. Be sure to include the #AskAPro hashtag so we can answer your questions.

March 29, 2010

Video: Tron vs. Saul Bass

It seems I’ll never grow tired of this homage-idiom:

[Via] The stills are also viewable in poster form.
[Previously: Star Wars vs. Saul Bass]

March 28, 2010

Video: Tiny robot fiesta

I have no real idea what Julia Yu Tsao and her tiny robots are up to, but I kind of like it.

[Via]

March 27, 2010

(rt) Type: Mohawks, handy utilities, & more

• CopyPasteCharacter.com offers a super simple, handy way to copy oddball text characters.
• Typographic posters: I love the F-as-an-island.
• “TYPOSEXUAL“: Typographical mohawk worn by Oded Ezer.
• “Sign Out” is an interesting project showing signage with the text removed. [Via]
• Enjoy some rich, dimensional type from Michele Angelo. [Via]

March 26, 2010

Video: More Content-Aware awesomeness (joke)

Heh–now even if the dog eats your homework, Photoshop can make things right.

[Via reader Matt] The warm reaction to the demo makes me think a bit of Tenacious D (“I did not mean/To blow your mind…“).

March 21, 2010

A tablet demo too far

I find this concept demo both beautiful & technically impressive:

I have a very hard time thinking, however, that this represents the future of magazine publishing–any more than that such rich short films would take over the magazine world via CD-ROMs.
Sure, hardware’s better and the delivery pipe is fatter, but the cost of producing something visually beautiful & creative remains (and will remain) much higher than shoving text into a template. When moving content online, publishers often trade dollars for pennies, and even high profile sites grind out content for a pittance (e.g. I’ve read that Gawker pays its writers $12 per post).
Then there’s the question of audience demand–especially in terms of increased willingness to pay. If people want this kind of richness, why isn’t it all over the Web right now? I worked on rich, interactive narratives on Urban Desires, a side venture at my old Web agency, more than 10 years ago. All that graphical cleverness came and went, replaced by simple content management systems that enable quick sharing of text & images.
Thinking that tablets will change everything makes me remember an article in The Onion’s Our Dumb Century, ostensibly written in the late 40′s. It breathlessly trumpeted how the new marvel of television would revolutionize society for the better (“Every man a professor!”)–not like that tawdry, shallow radio and those filthy newspapers and books. No, this time everything would be different… It was a great satire of dotcom hype in ’99 and remains a good corrective to tablet hype in ’10.
Believe me, I’m very excited about tablets (counting the days), and I think you’ll really dig how forthcoming Adobe tools will make it much easier (and thus more cost-effective, and thus more plausible) to add richness to content. I just think we’d do well to keep our expectations realistic.

March 18, 2010

If you’re still on CS1 and want to upgrade, now’s a good time

If you own a product from the first generation of the Creative Suite (e.g. Photoshop CS, released in 2003) and want to be able to upgrade it to a more recent version, now’s a good time to pull the trigger.
I’m not hinting about the possible timing of future releases. I am noting, however, that Adobe introduced a “three versions back” policy a couple of years ago. That means that you can upgrade from CS, CS2, or CS3 to the current version (CS4). When the current version goes up by one, so will the cutoff for upgrades. Therefore if you’re holding onto a copy of CS and may want to upgrade it at some point, well, you shouldn’t wait too long.

Video: Why do we climb?

Photographer Alexandre Buisse is a triple threat, making me feel soft, lazy, and photographically underachieving. He brings his lens to some pretty amazing locales, as you can see here (full-screen viewing recommended):

For a less frenetic presentation, check out his site.

March 17, 2010

Video: The end of publishing (?)

Clever:

[Via Adam Pratt]

Lasers, Russell Brown, & you (this summer)

Adobe’s own Russell Brown is planning a 1.5-day, hands-on course teaching advanced painting tips and techniques using the newest version of Adobe Photoshop. The course runs June 5-6 in conjunction with the HOW Design Conference in Denver, CO:

This inspirational event is designed for graphic designers, art directors, and creative directors looking for creative new ways to use Adobe Photoshop in their projects. Photographers might enjoy this event as well and should definitely consider taking this class. Take note, this is not a good class for a beginning user of Photoshop.

This class will be focused on advanced painting techniques found in the latest version of Photoshop. There will also be some basic use of Adobe Illustrator in class for those who are interested in avatar mask experimentation. If learning how to use all the new creative brushes, textures and presets in Adobe Photoshop sounds interesting, then this is the class for you!

I’m planning to be there, so I hope to see you in person.

March 16, 2010

Happy 10th birthday to InDesign

Hard as it is to believe, Adobe InDesign is celebrating a decade of shaking up the world of design & publishing. Hats off to the team for having the skills, guts, and fortitude to build such a powerful, game-changing application–and on their behalf, thanks to all the customers who’ve made ID a success. Check out the 10th anniversary site to see in interactive timeline, favorite tips from designers, and more.

Oh, and now photographer/designer Ricky Trickartt crafted this great little birthday cake:

Excellent stuff, Ricky; thanks. [Via his Flickr stream]

Update: See also this superfly cake from the Twin Cities InDesign User Group.

March 15, 2010

Photoshop: The first demo to Adobe (re-created)

What exactly did John Knoll do while pitching Photoshop (then a project he was doing with his brother Thomas) to Adobe back in 1989? In this video he shows that original demo.

March 12, 2010

Video: “The Way Things Go”

Think “That recent OKGO video, but with way more stuff blowing up real good“:

[Via]

March 08, 2010

What motivates you (besides sandwiches)?

A few weeks ago I visited the nearby Googleplex to hear a talk from Daniel Pink, author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. His talk is well worth a listen, maybe as background during lunch:

Oddly enough, I make a cameo around the 2:30 mark. I was already a touch nervous about whether it was entirely legit for me to attend, despite being invited by friend & Google employee Marc Pawliger. I’d also heard Daniel on NPR talking about experiments in which subjects had to solve problems on the fly (e.g. how do you stick a box of candles to the wall?)–and of course Google is known for testing people.
Getting immediately called before the audience, therefore, was nerve wracking: Oh my God, these people are going to figure out I’m an impostor, I’m going to eat it on some stupid puzzle, and I’m going to make Adobe look bad by extension. Fortunately, however, the worst that awaited me was some Cheetos (at the expense of a free meal in the vaunted Google cafeteria).
As I say, the talk is worthwhile, and I’ll comment more soon on Autonomy, Mastery, and Progress, especially as I’ve faced my own struggles recently. [Thanks to Marc for hosting me, Google for posting the video, and of course Daniel for the sandwich.]

Lynda.com iPhone app offers mobile PS training

You can put training for Photoshop, Lightroom, and other Adobe apps in your pocket via the new Lynda.com iPhone app. According to the site,

Courses are often divided by chapters, and within chapters, there are individual tutorial movies. These are all listed in order on the course page. Start watching a course by tapping the first tutorial movie title, and the movie will start to play. Once it is over, move on to the next movie.

For links to other Photoshop-training-on-iPhone resources, please see my previous post.

March 04, 2010

Print and ePublishing Conference coming to Seattle in May

Longtime layout and publishing expert David Blatner brought the upcoming Print and ePublishing Conference he’s organizing to my attention, and I’m passing along the news in case it’s up your alley:

Join the world’s top InDesign experts and the Adobe InDesign team, May 12-14 in Seattle for the InDesign event of the year! Find answers and valuable insight on the topics publishing for eBooks, print, interactive documents, and more! Be inspired by fresh ideas and new products. Includes 1-day pre-conference tutorials, then 2-day multi-track conference.

• InDesign CS “X”*: What to Expect
• Boosting efficiency with InDesign’s automation features
• Best practices for a cross-media workflow
• Creating and managing ePub and Kindle documents
• Working with Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and Flash
• XML, XSL, and You

I’ve really had just a glimpse myself, but I can at least tell you that the InDesign team has been working hard on some very slick stuff.

Adobe tops the list of most admired software companies

So says Fortune. Very cool.
Who topped the list for laziest? ;-)

Video: OKGO’s amazing Rube Goldberg contraption

Check out Wired’s story on the making of the video, including behind-the-scenes videos with the crew.

March 01, 2010

Video: Nuit Blanche

A little Monday morning interestingness, in the slowest of slow mo:

See also the greenscreen-heavy making-of video:

[Via]

February 27, 2010

Video: Nobody Beats the Drum

I suppose I’ll always be a sucker for stop-motion music vids. This piece for the excellently named Nobody Beats the Drum is no Fell in Love with a Girl (or Sledgehammer), but it’s good, psychedelic fun nonetheless:

[Update: The funny making-of video is well worth a look.] [Via]

February 25, 2010

Layer Tennis commentary from the players

Khoi Vinh & Nicholas Felton have posted some interesting behind-the-scenes commentary on the Layer Tennis match in which I participated on Friday. It’s fun to hear what was going through the players’ minds & to learn more about what went into each volley. (It turns out the shiny black thing was a Samsung remote, though I still prefer to think of it as a Pez-dispensing 2001 monolith.)

February 23, 2010

Video: A killer Photoshop space odyssey

Man, after 25 years, there’s still only one Russell Brown. The Adobe creative director stole the show during last Thursday’s Photoshop 20th Anniversary celebration, cleverly combining analog & digital. Give it a minute to get rolling & you won’t be disappointed.

February 21, 2010

Video: Photoshop 20th anniversary tribute, made in PS 1.0.7

Aw, shucks–check out this thoughtful & clever Photoshop 20th anniversary tribute made by Giovanni Antico using Photoshop 1.0.7:

I’m sure the team will love it, Giovanni; thanks!

February 20, 2010

Photoshop Tennis art + my commentary now online

I had a ball narrating yesterday’s bout of Photoshop–er, Layer–Tennis. All ten quick rounds are now online (note the little 1-10 nav bar on the right just below the image). I was pleased to make fun of hipsters & Sun Tzu, quote my two-year-old & AJ Soprano, and reference Joy Division & Danzig. (You’ll see.)
Many thanks to hosts Jim Coudal & team, and to competitors Khoi & Nicholas, for a great time. (Coincidentally, given the subject matter of Khoi’s final volley, I was wearing the perfect shirt at the time, featuring a skull shooting lasers out of its eyes.)

February 19, 2010

Check out 20th Anniversary Photoshop Tennis live today

Layer tennis–the popular online sport where designers lob a file back and forth, tweaking and riffing on one another’s work–originated as “Photoshop tennis,” and today designers Khoi Vinh (design director of NYTimes.com) & Nicholas Felton will play a special Photoshop-only match. I’ll be providing running color commentary. Here’s my match preview.
The match starts today at 3pm Eastern Standard Time (noon in California), so grab a free ticket. I hope to see you there.
J.

Photoshop 1.0.7 running on an iPhone!

Always up for a crazy challenge, Russell Brown teamed up with the folks at Ansca Mobile to bring Photoshop 1.0.7 (released Feb. 19, 1990) to an iPhone in 2010!

February 18, 2010

Video: The creators of Photoshop look back (and forward)

After 20 years, Adobe Creative Director Russell Brown sits down with Photoshop co-creators Thomas & John Knoll as well as original Photoshop PM Steve Guttman. If nothing else, check out the 1990 demo (from a much hairier Russell on the morning talk circuit) that kicks things off.
Excellent stuff, guys. From all of us who’ve been touched by Photoshop all these years, thanks for sharing, and for all you did & continue to do.

Photoshop 20th anniversary podcast, more

• Bryan O’Neil Hughes & I got our drink on with Deke McClelland & Colleen Wheeler, foolishly recording the results for a special Martini Hour 20th Anniversary Podcast.
• PhotoshopNews features a gallery of historic Photoshop splash screens, including various once-secret beta screens.
• Check out the Photoshop app icon over time. I still remember how much I liked the 3.0 icon when it arrived, and how disappointed I was when 4.0 dropped back to black and red. (In fact, replacing it may be how I learned to copy/paste icons on the Mac.) To date, no single post on this blog has generated even as many comments as the CS3 icons.

Photoshop turns 20! Come celebrate with us.

Wow–time flies when you’re becoming a verb, eh?

It’s kind of overwhelming to realize that as of today, Adobe has been shipping Photoshop for twenty years. I’m at a loss to give any kind of proper overview, though I’ll try to do so soon. In the meantime:

We’re having a bit of a bash in San Francisco tonight, and you can join us live. The webcast starts tonight at 7:30 pm Pacific Time (10:30 EST).

Coincidentally, and related in the sense of how much the interaction language of Photoshop has become second nature, reader Ryan Hakes passed along this fun “Cooking with Photoshop” video:

Hope you can join us tonight.

February 15, 2010

Fake Photoshop tip o’ the day

“Well, you didn’t hear it from me, but if you use your Wacom pen to move up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, select the Brush tool, select the Path Select tool, Start — you’ll unlock the secret cow level, get full powerups, and 30 additional pixels.” — Chris Cox, Photoshop engineer
[Niiice. --J.]

Ian Hickson today: “I was mistaken”

Regarding Adobe blocking HTML5, that is. So, there’s that, then.
Now join me, won’t you, in holding your breath while we wait for various bomb-throwing Mac fan sites to issue a clarification/apology for totally blowing it on this one. (Man, I’m starting to… feel faint… *thunk*)
[Update: I see that Daring Fireball & Apple Insider have posted updates. Thanks.]

February 14, 2010

Adobe is “sabotaging” HTML5??

In a word, bullshit.

Apple Insider–via an article whose writer can’t be bothered even to spell the names of several participants (Ian Hickson, Dave McAllister) correctly, to say nothing of doing other fact checking–accuses Adobe of saying one thing (that it supports the development of HTML5 and other standards) while working to delay & destroy those standards. Wow–so lurid, it must be true!!

Um, no. Here’s a clarifying comment from Adobe rep Larry Masinter:

No part of HTML5 is, or was ever, “blocked” in the W3C HTML Working Group — not HTML5, not Canvas 2D Graphics, not Microdata, not Video — not by me, not by Adobe.

Neither Adobe nor I oppose, are fighting, are trying to stop, slow down, hinder, oppose, or harm HTML5, Canvas 2D Graphics, Microdata, video in HTML, or any of the other significant features in HTML5.

Claims otherwise are false. Any other disclaimers needed?

There are some things that are wrong with the spec I’d like to see fixed. There are some things that are really, really, wrong with the process that I’d like to improve.

I’ve been working on web standards since the beginning of the web in the early 90s, and standards for even longer; long before I joined Adobe. My opinions don’t come from Adobe, and I don’t get approval or direction. I hate to see decades of work on web architecture messed up in the short-term interest of grabbing control of the web platform for a few vendors to own. If you think that position doesn’t match what you imagine Adobe’s position is, well, I’m glad Adobe’s planning to support HTML5 in its products.

As for the HTML standards process: I’ve worked in scores of standards groups in IETF and W3C, as well as a few others here and there, and I’ve never seen anything as bad as this one, with people abusing their official positions to grandstand and promote proprietary advantage. I’ve blogged some about this, but I’d rather fix things along.

I think progress of HTML5 in W3C could be faster if the subsections on graphics and metadata could (if not now, then eventually) be moved to separate subgroups focused on those topics. The organization of work in W3C is determined by the “charters” of working group and the “scope” of he charters, so saying work is “out of scope” even if you are marking a snapshot of the (already published) documents as “Working Draft”, means you might rewrite the “Status of This Document” section to say that it might move. That’s what I was asking for, in the somewhat stilted language of “objection”.

If you want to know who is sending in technical objections, you can see the working group mailing list at http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/. And if you want to see more of my opinions, I’m also on the W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG) and post there a lot, see http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-tag/; the TAG often discusses HTML5.

Any more questions about my opinion? My email address should be easy to find.

I should note that I’m not involved in Adobe’s relationships with these standards bodies. Others with more direct involvement will likely share more detail soon. In the meantime, I’m posting this for two reasons:

1. A number of people have posted angry, accusatory comments here & via my Twitter feed, demanding an explanation.
2. I’m angry and depressed about the total ignorance/laziness of online “journalists” and the sheer credulity of their readers. For God’s sake, guys, do the most rudimentary due diligence before you start defaming people who’ve devoted their entire careers to the advancement of standards. Have enough respect for your profession to take the impact of your words seriously.

Addendum: Here are some comments from an HTML WG member, Shelley Powers, who is not affiliated with Adobe:

“Photoshop Amateur Magazine”

Heh–great work from Lunchbreath:

Check out his Flickr stream & Core77. [Via]

February 06, 2010

Sneak peek: Future Photoshop masking technology

In this brief demo, Photoshop PM Bryan O’Neil Hughes shows off some new selection technology that offers better edge detection and masking results in less time–even with tricky images like hair:

(You can see it in higher resolution on Facebook.)
Hopefully this helps explain why we put the Extract filter out to pasture in CS4.
[Update: See also another great mask made with Photoshop :-). (Via Steven Johnson)]

February 03, 2010

iPhone icon PSD template; SF meeting tomorrow

Sebastiaan de With has created a pixel-perfect icon template for iPhone/iPad development. “It’s made up entirely of shape layers and layer effects,” he writes, “and should be completely pixel-accurate.” [Via]
Speaking of using Photoshop & iPhone development, the San Francisco Photoshop User Group is meeting tomorrow (Thursday) night starting at 6:30, with a focus on mobile development:

Marine Leroux of Bamboudesign Inc. will showcase how easy it is to design iPhone apps efficiently with Photoshop. Through a step by step method combined with tips for smart user experience design, she’ll guide you from sketching an app interface to designing it in Photoshop, building libraries and template files to expedite the design process. She’ll define Apple’s design requirements and the workflow between design, development, and publishing of an iPhone app to the App Store.

Interesting time lapse panorama

“Stop motion tilt-shift meets tracking,” says the creator of this video. I’m not sure what to call it, but it’s kind of intriguing.

[Via]

January 29, 2010

If Adobe made an iPad app…

…or apps for other tablets and/or smartphones, for that matter, what would you want it to be?
Believe me, there’s no shortage of ideas here, nor is this something we just started thinking about (quite the contrary). We’re just curious about what you think, need, and want. Any feedback is most welcome.
Thanks,
J.

January 28, 2010

Steve Jobs vs. Gordon Gekko

iPad/Wall Street 2 tie-in FTW!

["There's no reason you couldn't use it to make calls using Skype... Then again, you might look a little bizarre walking through the airport holding this giant clipboard up to your ear." -- David Pogue]

“Ask an Adobe Engineer”: RetouchPRO LIVE with Chris Cox

Well known (infamous? :-)) Photoshop brainiac Chris Cox will be appearing on the RetouchPRO LIVE this Saturday:

Although Chris Cox posts regularly in the Adobe support forums, many of you probably have never heard of him. But every single one of you has a favorite Photoshop feature that he is largely responsible for. Sometimes it seems there’s not an area of Photoshop that Chris hasn’t either written from scratch or vastly improved.

On the next RetouchPRO LIVE, Chris will answer questions from the audience about Photoshop’s history, future, and innermost workings.

And we’ll be watching his desktop live, so he can show examples while he explains how Photoshop works.

Saturday, January 30, 4pm CST (see link for other time zones). See the site for details and ticket sales.

January 25, 2010

Star Wars vs. Saul Bass

Fantastic.

[Via] If you’re not familiar with Bass’s work, see classics like the titles for The Man With The Golden Arm.

January 24, 2010

(rt) Type: Awesome alphabets & more

• A is for Awesome: I’m loving these alphabet illustrations by Paul Thurlby.
• “The Godfather of Noise“: letterforms made from audio objects.
• Check out some slick type in the “Wikitype” project (generated from random Wikipedia entries). [Via]

• Bokar is a fun 40′s-style streamlined font.

January 21, 2010

Photoshop magnets upgraded to CS4

The great Photoshop-UI-style magnets that appeared last year have been upgraded to CS4. Very nice, though I’ve always joked that to upgrade one’s icon-emblazoned swag, we should just distribute Sharpies & tell people to black out the “Ps.” [Via]

January 17, 2010

Type-n-Walk (‘n Not Die)

It’s sobering, though unsurprising, to hear that “distracted walking” due to cellphones now routinely lands people in the emergency room. Being a nervous parent who yet can’t help getting bored while his toddler relocates the umpteenth pile of wood chips at the park, I’m always afraid of becoming a cautionary tale: The Guy Whose Kid Fell Down A Well While Dad Tweeted or something.

Now Type-n-Walk proposes a novel (if only partial) solution–a video feed of the real world that runs underneath your text:

[Via Michael Coleman]

January 15, 2010

Trippy, amazing video projection onto buildings

Now this you don’t see every day:

Here’s more info from the creators. [Via]

January 14, 2010

Batch-creating PNGs or CMYK JPEGs from Photoshop

If you’ve ever wishes that Photoshop’s Image Processor script offered the ability to create PNG and/or CMYK JPEG files, you’re in luck: scripter Mike Hale has modified the script to add these options. Thanks, Mike. [Via Jeff Tranberry]
For what it’s worth, we’re trying to implement more features via scripting for exactly this reason: if you want something to work differently, you don’t have to wait on Adobe to change it. Instead, if you’re willing to learn a little JavaScript (or bribe someone who knows it), you can get what you want more quickly.

January 12, 2010

Time lapse: Building an Avatar in Photoshop

Groovy. [Via Jim Geduldick]

January 11, 2010

Adobe HQ installs 20 new wind turbines

The Adobe building & maintenance staff sure keeps busy during company breaks: in the fall they installed more efficient HVAC systems, and over the holiday break they installed 20 Windspire wind turbines at the San José HQ:

Adobe estimates that it can get about 2,500 kWh per year per turbine. Comparatively speaking, the U.S. Department of Energy estimates that a typical U.S. home consumes ~11,000 kWh per year. So these turbines, in the aggregate, provide enough electricity to power about 5 typical U.S. homes.

Considering that wind has always made opening & closing the doors leading to the patio/basketball court inordinately difficult*, I predict good things. Here’s more info on the effort.
* Wind strength & the attendant humiliation always correlate to the hotness of whoever is walking by. Too bad we can’t harness that.
[Update: Here's a rather cool time-lapse video of a wind turbine being assembled. [Via]]

How Adobe (and others) got everything wrong initially

Interesting:

Pyra was started to build a project-management app, not Blogger. Flickr’s company was building a game. eBay was going to sell auction software. Initial assumptions are almost always wrong.

From Ten Rules For Web Startups. [Via]

I’ve heard Drs. Warnock & Geschke talk about how they started Adobe with the intention of selling printing hardware, and how they shopped this idea around and around until they finally agreed to do what customers wanted: just sell them the software. They depict it as something of a forehead-slapping moment that changed everything.

Tangentially related: I’ve mentioned it previously, but I always like this anecdote:

The hands-on nature of the startup was communicated to everyone the company brought onboard. For years, Warnock and Geschke hand-delivered a bottle of champagne or cognac and a dozen roses to a new hire’s house. The employee arrived at work to find hammer, ruler, and screwdriver on a desk, which were to be used for hanging up shelves, pictures, and so on.

“From the start we wanted them to have the mentality that everyone sweeps the floor around here,” says Geschke, adding that while the hand tools may be gone, the ethic persists today.

From Inside the Publishing Revolution.

January 09, 2010

Feedback, please: The “Replace Files” dialog in Save for Web

Moving Photoshop from Apple’s Carbon to Cocoa technologies is an enormously long endeavor with many subtleties. The process makes us consider certain functional changes, and for technical reasons not worth elaborating on here, we’re thinking of dropping the Save for Web sub-dialog that lets one choose which files on disk to replace. (Here’s a screenshot.)
We’re not taking about dropping all of Save for Web, obviously–just about making a file replacement operation all-or-nothing. If you chose to export a sliced PSD, selected “Images And HTML,” and replaced the HTML file Photoshop generates, all the images would be automatically replaced.
If that would be a problem for you (i.e. if you’re slicing up images, then saving & electing to replace only some of the files), please speak up. Otherwise, it’s done.
Thanks,
J.

January 08, 2010

San José Photoshop User Group meets Tuesday night

The next Photoshop User Group meeting is scheduled for next Tuesday evening. According to the event page,

• Jim Tierney from Digital Anarchy will demo a range of their products, such as Primatte Chromakey, Knoll Light Factory, Backdrop Designer, Texture Anarchy, 3D Invigorator and more.
• Photoshop PM Bryan O’Neil Hughes will show an in-depth presentation of the new Lightroom 3 Beta.

We’ll have pizza and drinks at 6:30, and the meeting will start at 7:00, in the Park Conference Room of Adobe Systems’ East Tower, 321 Park Avenue, San Jose. To park underneath the Adobe building, use the Almaden Avenue entrance, under the East Tower. If the security guard at the parking entrance asks for an Adobe contact, use Bryan O’Neil Hughes’s name. He’s our contact there (as well as a Photoshop PM).

Please feel free to forward this email to anyone you know who might be interested. If they would like to be on our email list, have them respond to dan@weinberg-clark.com.

Call for Entries: Adobe Design Achievement Awards

The Adobe Design Achievement Awards celebrate student achievement in both individual and group projects. As the awards site says, “Higher education students can submit entries created with Adobe software to earn a chance at winning recognition, travel, Adobe software, and winners receive cash prizes.”

Individuals and groups may win in one of a dozen categories from three media areas:

• Interactive Media: Browser-Based Design, Non-Browser Based Design, Application Development, Mobile Design, Installation Design
• Motion and Video: Animation, Live Action, Motion Graphics
• Traditional Media: Illustration, Packaging, Photography, Print Communications

Individual category winners receive:

• US$3,000 cash, a winner’s certificate, and a 3D award
• Adobe® Creative Suite® 4 Master Collection education version
• Complimentary round-trip economy class airfare to Los Angeles and two nights’ accommodation in lodgings.
• Access to Adobe MAX for the duration of the ADAA ceremony and related ADAA events in Los Angeles, California.
• A one-year mentorship with a design leader.
• Be appointed to an Icograda Youth Advisory Panel.

Check out the prizes page for more info. You can also access ADAA Live! to view previous entries and currently submitted student projects in real-time. [Via]

January 07, 2010

The price of memory vs. the price of gold

Photoshop engineer John Peterson (creator of Photomerge, among other things) made an interesting observation today:

In the CES hype, I noticed that 64GB SD Cards are now available, for $600 a pop.

For comparison:

A SD Card weighs about 2 grams. Gold is currently about $36/gram, so the 64GB cards cost eight times their weight in gold.

The card has a volume of about 1.5 cc. Gold has a density of 19.32 g/cc, so a solid gold SD card would take almost 29g of gold, or about $1,000 worth. Of course, the gold card would probably hold its value better over time.

January 06, 2010

Why I must never take vacation

Having returned to work after nearly two weeks off, I walked by a new Greek place yesterday with my friend Hughes and his wife Alex. We each took a sample bit of shoe leather (er, gyro) on a toothpick. Maybe 60 seconds later, we’d walked into a difference restaurant, and I noticed that I was idly picking my teeth. When I saw that Alex also had a toothpick, I started to freak out a little. Where the hell did I get this toothpick, I thought, and how come she has one, too??

Cripes. I was very much in the Office Space “I wouldn’t say I’ve been missing it…” zone. I’m on the mend, but remind me not to make any big personal/product decisions for a while.

Instant love: Cinch & SizeUp

Man, I can’t tell you the last time I parted with $20 so quickly: Irradiated Software’s Cinch and SizeUp are companion Mac utilities that facilitate common window-resizing tasks:

• Cinch ($7) lets you “drag any standard window to the left or right edge of a screen to resize it to fill that half of the screen, or drag to the top of the screen to zoom it full-screen.” [Via]
• SizeUp ($13) lets you perform similar operations via the keyboard.

Done and done. Just yesterday I was playing with CSS Edit, experimenting with some new kid-blog tweaks (a work in progress, but coming right along) and wished I had an easy way to tile the windows. Bingo; cash on the barrel.

Mostly unrelated note: I can’t begin to imagine how or why people use Macs without Default Folder installed. Also, yes, I realize that Windows 7 offers built-in functionality like what Cinch provides. Good for everybody.

January 05, 2010

San José CS User Group meeting tonight

The San Jose Creative Suite User Group is meeting this evening at Adobe HQ starting at 6pm. Group organizer Sally Cox writes,

Park in the Adobe Garage on the Park Avenue side and tell the security guard you are there for the Creative Suite User Group meeting. Our Adobe contact is Sarah Fiedor, if they ask. Our meeting is in the same room as last month, “Park”.

We are having a HUGE turnout, so the guest list was submitted yesterday to make it easier on Adobe Security. We are providing a sandwich bar and of course, baked goods.

World’s largest spherical panorama, plus others

• Jeffrey Martin has created what’s billed as the largest spherical panorama in the world–an 18-gigapixel whopper shot high above Prague. [Via Jeff Tranberry]
• Bernard Custard Gascó passes along some 360º panoramas from Ethiopia, featuring the monolithic Church of St. George and the people of the Mursi Tribe.
• Andreas Hollstroem points out this whopping 26-gigapixel panorama of Dresden.

January 04, 2010

Upgrading Photoshop doesn’t require a previous installation

There’s an eternal misconception that if you buy an upgrade to Photoshop (or other Adobe software) and get a new computer, you must first install your older version(s) before installing the new upgrade. That’s not necessary. The upgrade will look for a valid previous installation, but that’s just a convenience feature meant to spare you having to type in your old serial number alongside your new one.
One other tip, as long as I’m boring you with minutiae: You can paste your serial number into the installer. That might not be obvious as the serial number field is comprised of several small text fields, but the installer is smart enough to spread digits across the fields when pasted. Therefore when getting a new version, I take a moment to type the serial first into a text document, after which I copy it & paste it into the installer. The extra steps may be worthwhile later in case you need to re-install, etc.

December 30, 2009

Interesting green-screen montage

I’m kind of astonished at the amount of digital compositing that now goes on, as shown in this set of clips. Sure, in many of these cases it makes obvious sense, but in others, was it really easier/more cost-effective to do a composite than just to have the crew walk outside? Apparently so.

[Via]

December 25, 2009

Merry Christmas, everyone

Wherever you are, and whatever holidays you may celebrate this time of year, I wish you great peace and happiness. Thanks for reading & for making it possible for me to do this fascinating, frustrating, often greatly rewarding job.
Oh, and our toddler Finn just walked up and would like you to know:

bvvdddgr xzxgm//jgzzzzzzzzzzzzafhh hmmm/k;/;’\dsamnnnnn .mvbj. wq

I’d like to think he’s working on a highly sophisticated encryption algorithm, but somehow I doubt it. :-) (Note to self: Time to fire up AlphaBaby.)
All the best for the rest of ’09 and a great start to 2010,
J.

December 22, 2009

(rt) Photography: Nanosecond fireballs, high-speed fluids, & more

• India: One billion+ people, one 11 ft. mustache. (Yes, but will it bring all the girls to the yard?)
• Funky animated stereo photos of old Japan. [Via Russell Brown]
• Dig the beautiful, sometimes dark, photography & portfolio from Ville Varumo. [Via]
• Splash downs:
  • Mark Mawson drops paint in water & beautifully photographs the results.
  • More lovely high-speed fluids photography. [Via] @petapixel)

• Speaking of high speeds, here’s an interesting short read on “Rapatronic Nuclear Photographs“–capturing nanosecond fireballs (in the 1940s!). [Via]
• The free Gorillacam app for iPhone looks great. It offers time lapse, burst mode, a bubble level, & more. [Via]

December 19, 2009

“Enhance!” A funny montage of fake image processing

During the screening of Avatar yesterday, the Photoshop team burst into spontaneous laughter when a character uttered the magic word:

At least I did get to give the on-screen effects crew behind CSI some good-natured grief a couple of years back.
[Via Stu Maschwitz & everyone ever]

December 17, 2009

New Photoshop contest from Deke McClelland

Our friend Deke McClelland has been posting a series of videos counting down the Top 40 Features in Photoshop, and now he’s kicked off a related contest:

Create a magnificent piece of artwork that celebrates your favorite features of Photoshop. But you must do so using not fewer than three of the Top 40 Features I’ve posted so far. (Note that you’ll need to be a member of dekeOnline to participate so that you can post your artwork and include comments.)

DEADLINE: December 22, 2009, 5p.m. Pacific

Prizes include an Olympus E-620, a free premium subscription to lynda.com, signed copies of all three CS4 One-on-One books, and more. Check out Deke’s site for more information.

Previously: Me on Deke’s Martini Hour podcast.

December 14, 2009

How could we improve Photoshop for iPhone developers?

If you use Photoshop in conjunction with mobile development (iPhone or otherwise) and have ideas on how we could streamline your workflow, please let us know. It’s not as if we lack ideas, but rather than risk biasing your responses, I’ll leave the query open-ended. If there’s feedback you’d prefer to send directly, I’m jnack at adobe.
Thanks,
J.

December 12, 2009

(rt) Type: Ampersandwiches, Aoles, & more

• Mmm–Ampersandwich! Fun shirt for type geeks. [Via]
• “Truth Sucks“: Love the crazy attention to detail, if not the message, in this typography.
• Ouch: a simple, funny remix of the new AOL (er, Aol) logo.
• “COMPUTEA FOAMS“: Vintage type. Stu Maschwitz says, “Lid of a box in my parents’ attic. Font Of Win.”
• I dig the clever, minimalist type on a self-promo tee for a personal trainer.

December 11, 2009

Download Photoshop help as PDF

Here’s a small but potentially useful bit of info: you can download a PDF copy of the help for Photoshop CS4 by clicking the “View Help PDF” link in the top-left corner of the app help page. (And, what the heck, here’s the direct link.) The same is be true for other Adobe applications.

This is obviously handy if you’re frequently working offline. In the future, you’ll be able to download help content right from within the new Adobe desktop help app, currently available for testing via Adobe Labs.

PS–You can redistribute the content & more as it’s tagged with a Creative Commons license.

December 08, 2009

Psst… want some Uggs?

You know, I’ve heard that Ugg boots can let us warm and comfortable. So If you want to buy some gifts to you lovers or friends.I think is a right choose.
Ugh. Apparently spammers now know the answer to “2+2.” Unfortunately it seems that Movable Type’s* anti-spam features (at least as we’re using them) are completely ineffective. When I try to batch-delete these messages, the server times out with an error.
Anyway, if you’re subscribing to the blog’s comment feed, sorry about this.
*No need to tell me to use some other blog software, thanks; that’s not my call.

December 04, 2009

Video: Tablet publishing demo

The team at Sports Illustrated has created an interesting mockup of how the magazine could be made interactive on a tablet. It’s worth hitting the fullscreen button:

Here’s more info on the project.
I’ll admit, when I’ve seen InDesign adding interactive authoring features, integration with Flash, placement of video content, etc., I’ve raised my eyebrows a touch. Seeing how publishers would like to evolve their offerings, however, the logic & direction seem much more clear. (As I’ve heard InDesign PM Michael Ninness remark, “Print isn’t dead, but print only is dying.)

December 03, 2009

Video: Excellent stop-motion paper animation

“Somewhere a Kindle is ashamed…” Check out Going West from Maurice Gee:

[Via]

December 02, 2009

Illustration: Great marriage proposals

• Check out this excellent 8-foot illustration featuring Guy Shields’s hidden message. [Via]
• It reminds me of how our friend Matthew (of Chopping Block fame) popped the question a few years back. (Their later, wordless baby announcement was pretty inspired, too.)
• “Watch her surname change before your eyes!” Here’s a pretty great save the date postcard from Josh Korwin and Alyssa Zukas.

December 01, 2009

A color perception optical illusion

Should you encounter someone who doubts the importance of context in color perception, you might try whipping out this little demonstration:

[Via]

November 28, 2009

SJ Suite User Group meets on Tuesday

If you’re in the Bay Area on Tuesday, you might want to check out this gathering at Adobe HQ:

We will have a short but info-packed ColdFusion demo by Sid Maestre, manager of the Bay Area ColdFusion User Group. Then our panel experts will each show you some cool tricks for each of the Creative Suite Design Premium apps. We will take your questions and comments after the presentation.
So many of you have responded “yes” to attending, so we have moved to a larger meeting room – “Park”. Remember: parking is free in the Adobe garage. Jot down Sarah Fiedor’s name, as she is our Adobe contact. Let the Security Guard know you are there for the CS user group meeting.

More info is on the group meeting page.

Save $129 on Lightroom

It’s $169.99 on Amazon right now (US only) instead of $299; just thought you’d want to know. :-)
[Update: I'm told the deal may not last long, so I suggest pulling the trigger quickly if you're so inclined.]

November 27, 2009

Adobe sneak peek: Major GPU acceleration for video

Adobe video specialist Dennis Radeke shares quite a few details about how Adobe is leveraging graphics processors (GPUs) to greatly accelerate common operations in Adobe video apps. Taking this together with After Effects & Premiere Pro going 64-bit, I think a lot of Adobe video customers will be very happy. Check out his post for more info.
Inevitably this news will raise questions about what’ll happen with Photoshop. I can’t get into a lot of details, but here are a few points offhand:

• We’re working together with other Adobe teams, including the video & Flash teams, on core GPU & multicore acceleration technology. That’s how we’ve started delivering GPU-based features, including Pixel Bender in Photoshop.
• It’s a long and tricky road, as folks who ran into driver incompatibilities, etc. in CS4 can attest.
• To that point, we think technologies like OpenCL are exciting, but they’re young. Dennis notes that some new features are NVIDIA-only right now and points out, “Given a choice between doing it with CUDA or not doing it for a while [while waiting for] OpenCL, we chose the former.”
• Obviously we want Adobe apps to run as well as possible regardless of your configuration. Just as they used to optimize for both PowerPC and Intel/AMD chips, Adobe engineers continue to work closely with multiple manufacturers (Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, and others) to wring the most out of their hardware. Again, this is where standardization will help, but it does take time.

November 24, 2009

Would you miss “copy” being added to layers in PS?

We’ve heard a number of requests (e.g. here, here) for the ability to make Photoshop stop adding the word “copy” to layer names when duplicating layers. Out of curiosity, does anyone actually like this behavior? If not, it should be easy enough simply to stop adding “copy.” If some people really like the existing behavior, however, we’d do well to add a preference.
Therefore please speak up if you like the existing behavior. If you’d be happy with “copy” going away, great, but no need to speak up.
Thanks,
J.

November 23, 2009

Photoshop “vs.” Fireworks: Quick clarifications

Thanks for all the feedback in response to the survey I posted earlier today. I feel I should clarify a few things.

• I’m touchy about hearing things like “As soon as Adobe bought Fireworks, the PS guys would be trying to kill it. Good job, mission accomplished.” To set the record straight, Adobe bought and revived Fireworks. To the best of my knowledge the app hadn’t gotten much love, to say the least, in its last couple of years with Macromedia. (Did they add anything in Studio 8?) And when Adobe was in the process of acquiring Macromedia, I spoke up strongly in support of Fireworks. Just thought you should know.
• The list I posted isn’t a promise or a hint that the Photoshop team will undertake any–much less all–of this work. As I say, it’s just my aggregation of some of the suggestions I’ve heard a number of times. I thought it would be handy to collect them for your input.
• Likewise, it isn’t a hint about the future of Fireworks or anything else. Sometimes a survey is just a survey.
• Believe me, we’re sensitive to the subject of “bloat,” and I’m actively pitching ideas (here’s one) for how the apps can better integrate without just duplicating one another. Having said that, we can’t err too far in the other direction, saying that if one app does something, no others can do it (or do it well). It’s possible for apps to have different core missions and yet have tools & capabilities in common. (To that end, people flamed us for not moving animated GIF import from ImageReady to Photoshop, feeling it was a conspiracy to force them to buy Fireworks. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.)
• People have always complained that Photoshop does too many things. I guarantee that whoever added text for the first time got an earful about it not being a “photographic” feature, and probably caught static from other Adobe teams. So it goes. Of course, people always say, “Stop adding anything new… except this handful of things for me, personally.” And they always push us to “simplify” and “just reduce” the application, yet they flip out if you take away their cherished anachronism. I always think of the Onion article, “98 Percent Of U.S. Commuters Favor Public Transportation For Others.”
• We have serious ideas about how to break this logjam, but there are no silver bullets, and it’s not going to happen overnight. But it is happening.
• Finally, a couple of practical tips: Here’s a Lorem Ipsum generator for PS, and here’s the GridMaker panel.

Feedback, please: Graphic & Web design enhancements in Photoshop

I am, at heart, a Web designer, and I came to Adobe to improve the ways software could help design and build Web content. Therefore I’m keenly interested in advancing Photoshop’s graphic & Web design chops.

Below you’ll find some of the ideas that have bubbled up in discussions on this blog and elsewhere. The list isn’t exhaustive (I tried to keep the length reasonable), and it’s not a promise or a hint about what might be in development. Think of it as just a quick straw poll to gauge temperature.

DRAWING

• Better vector drawing tools
• Better control over strokes and fills, including dashed lines
• Better Illustrator integration (e.g. make using Illustrator inside Photoshop as easy as double-clicking to edit a symbol in Flash or Illustrator)

RICHER/SMARTER OBJECTS

• Buttons with states (editable Up, Down, Over, etc.)
• Intelligent widgets (e.g. buttons that resize smartly (a la 9-Slice); button bars that automatically scale/add buttons when resized; arrows with variable heads that orient themselves to path direction; etc.)
• Ability to edit widget skins & to switch among skins (e.g. flip a button from Mac to Windows, or iPhone to Android)
• Intelligent, skinnable charts (including ones with live data feeds)

FILE ORGANIZATION/MGMT.

• Linked files (edit one document & have the change reflected in several documents that link to it)
• Symbols (reusable objects that can be dragged in from a Library panel)
• Type styles (edit a style definition in order to update multiple type layers at once)

OUTPUT & INTEGRATION

• High fidelity Web output (e.g. dashed lines that convert to CSS definitions)
• Pixel-accurate Web rendering (i.e. text and objects that appear exactly as they would in a browser)
• Better integration with Flash and Web authoring tools (e.g. components that translate with code & behaviors intact)

To help measure your interest, I’ve put these ideas into a quick survey. Please take a minute to let us know which ones are most interesting, and feel free to add comments via this post.

Thanks, and looking forward to hearing your thoughts,

J.

[Update: I've posted some clarifications in response to comments below.]

November 17, 2009

Incredible wildlife encounter for NatGeo photog

This is your head.
This is your camera.
This is your head & camera inside the mouth of a giant leopard seal…
Paul Nicklen gives new meaning to “stay frosty“:

Amazing (even more so when viewed in high def). [Via]

November 14, 2009

Creepy image science: Your face as a puppet

Girls will be boys and boys will be girls through this funky facial mapping/animation software. NPR’s Science Friday writes:

“Like a digital video puppet, the facial expressions of one person can be cloned in real time and mapped onto the digital face of another person. Barry-John Theobald, computer scientist at the University of East Anglia, explains the technique and Steven Boker, of the University of Virginia, explains what facial cloning can reveal about human nature.”

Check it out:

[Update: The embedding code seems to be spazzing out at the moment, so I suggest watching the video on the SciFri site.]

November 13, 2009

Milton Glaser on drawing

It’s easy (especially for me) to get hung up on digital tools, so I found it refreshing to spend 4 minutes listening to Milton Glaser talk about drawing–especially about how, in his opinion, art schools have let digital training compromise the fundamentals.

[Via]

November 12, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Retro posters, profane pterodactyls, & more

• Vintage posters:
  • Neat Russian posters from the ’70s.
  • Cool 60′s-style posters celebrating the International Year of Astronomy.
• Offbeat:
  • Killer! Big-Headed Papercraft Self Portrait using Photoshop + 3D. [Via]
  • View the source of this page for a bizarre Easter egg.
  • Creepy & excellent: The skeletons of Charlie Brown, Hello Kitty, & others. [Via]
  • “We did it for the show.” (“America’s dream family” indeed…) The shirt is now available for purchase. [Via]
• Excellent pixelated Halloween costume (“Low Resolution”). [Via]

November 11, 2009

SF PUG Thursday: Optimizing Photoshop performance

Tomorrow evening (Thursday), all-around smart/interesting guy Adam Jerugim from the Photoshop team will be speaking at the San Francisco Photoshop User Group meeting:

The talk will focus on Photoshop performance best practices to help enable users to get the most out of Photoshop with their current hardware setup. In addition, there will be guidance provided for users that plan on buying new hardware or upgrading their existing Photoshop & Lightroom systems. Information will also be provided about tools you can use to optimize your specific workflow, GPUs, and running 64-bit applications.

Our speaker, Adam Jerugim, has been part of the Photoshop engineering team for the last 10 years and is mainly responsible for performance and hardware compatibility testing. In addition to being an avid photographer, he is also working to complete his MFA in Digital Arts and New Media at UC Santa Cruz.

See the event page for more info. For a slide deck from Adam & co. on the subject of optimizing Photoshop performance, see previous.

November 09, 2009

Thanks for the raw processing feedback

Wow–what an amazing online community: I’m overwhelmed by all the detailed & generous feedback I’ve been receiving in response to yesterday’s query. Yes, there’s plenty of brain-dead self parody out there, but I’m really pleased by the number of people eager to help make things better.
I’m kind of buried in the resulting mail just now, so sorry if it takes me a little while to reply.

November 07, 2009

Illustrator + Map Data = Interactive Flash

Illustrator PM David Macy points out a couple examples of converting static graphics into dynamic and interactive experiences bound with data and published through Flash. He writes, “These were created using an Illustrator plugin called MAPublisher that can import GIS data and export interactive SWF.

• First is an interactive map of US unemployment published on Forbes.com.
• The second, simpler example is a map of The Who’s 1997 Quadrophenia Tour in Europe.”

November 03, 2009

A pair of visual juxtapositions

• Who’s a tender little death’s head, then? ‘Till Death Do Us Part. [Via]
• The Lions & Lambs* logo nicely pairs these moral foes.

Utterly tangential: In March, Stephen Colbert said, “I’m coming in like a lion, and going out like a lamb-fed lion.”

November 02, 2009

San José Photoshop User Group next Tuesday evening

The San José Photoshop User Group is meeting next Tuesday, Nov. 10, at the Adobe SJ office (map). Pizza and drinks kick off at 6:30pm, with talks beginning at 7. The meeting will feature two speakers. As group organizer Dan Clark writes,

Jim Tierney is from plug-in maker Digital Anarchy. He will demo a range of their products, such as Primatte Chromakey, Knoll Light Factory, Backdrop Designer, Texture Anarchy, 3D Invigorator and more.

Jim McCrary was Chief Photographer at the A&M Records photo studio for many years. He shot over 300 album covers along with related publicity and advertising work. Among his many classic album covers are Carole King’s “Tapestry”, Lee Michaels’ “5th” and Joe Cocker’s “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” and many others. From 1974 through 1990 he operated his own studio on La Brea Avenue in Hollywood, specializing in technically difficult photographic still-life problems, as well as difficult personality portraits.

The meeting will start at 7:00, in the Park Conference Room of Adobe Systems’ East Tower, 321 Park Avenue, San Jose. To park underneath the Adobe building, use the Almaden Avenue entrance, under the East Tower. If the security guard at the parking entrance asks for an Adobe contact, use Bryan O’Neil Hughes’s name. Please RSVP to Dan Clark. See you there.

October 24, 2009

New Filter Forge 2.0 for PS beta

Filter Forge, the node-based tool for visually creating Photoshop filters, has announced a beta of version 2.0. According to lead developer Vladimir Golovin, new features include: