Yesterday Adobe unveiled CS6 and the new Adobe Creative Cloud—if you missed the big announcement, here are some of the big changes and updates.

Adobe Edge and Adobe Muse: One of the biggest changes to CS6 is the addition of two new programs—Adobe Edge and Adobe Muse. Using Adobe Edge, you can create animated web content using HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript. Adobe Muse is great news for designers, allowing them to create websites without writing code. Adobe Edge and Muse will be updated regularly and will be included in the Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. Creative Cloud gives users access to regular updates rather than waiting for new releases.

Photoshop: Adobe released Photoshop CS6 Beta several weeks before the launch to receive feedback from its users—there were more than 1/2 a million downloads in just the first week of its release! New changes coming to Photoshop include a darker user interface, new Content-Aware Move, Extend and Patch Tools, Skin-Aware Masking with Face Detection, Blur Gallery for creating shallow depth of field, tilt-shift blur and graduated blur, a redesigned crop tool, auto-recovery and much more.

Illustrator: New changes coming to Illustrator include an updated tracing engine, a new pattern creator tool, more variable-width strokes, the ability to add gradients to strokes, Gaussian Blur effects and an improved interface.

There are more changes coming in CS6 and we will continue reviewing other applications in another post. Let us know what you think about CS6 and the new Creative Cloud. Will you be upgrading?

The types of projects that this software application can be used for are basic things such as books, magazines, flyers, posters, newspapers and even brochures.

Users who want to use Adobe Indesign to make their own books can do so by way of this software application’s typography features. This means that users can utilize it to design text-only books as well as those that include illustrations or graphics. Users can even automatically compile a table of contents just by setting a certain style for the chapter headings.

This software application is great for newspapers as well as magazines, simply because it features a wide array of controls that relate to typography and text options. Users can finely adjust the font size as well as the kerning and the leading. The page production feature of this software application allows a competent management of a complete publication (whether it be a newspaper or a magazine), and this is why commercial printers actually believe in publications that were designed with Adobe Indesign.

As for posters: Sure, programs such as Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop can handle them, too. It’s just that, for example, if you have Creative Suite, and there is a greater amount of info that may be handled in solely a few words rather than whole sentences, Adobe Indesign is one’s best bet.

Professionals who have to design brochures a lot like to rely on Adobe Indesign to help them out in this regard. One reason for this software application’s strength in this regard is its integration with other programs in the Creative Suite of Adobe, programs such as Acrobat and Illustrator. For example, elements of design may be worked on individually in a program like Illustrator prior to being imported to a document from Adobe Indesign.

Based on all of the above examples, it is obvious that Adobe Indesign should be the choice of professionals who work in the print and graphics design industries. It is not only that the software application features a lot of options based upon what you want to do with a certain job type, but it is also that this software application works really well with other programs in the Creative Suite. Thus, this means that Adobe Indesign is a program that works well both on its own as well as in accordance with other programs that can complement it.

Adobe Indesign can enhance the value and presentation quality of your products when you know how to use it correctly. Learn how to use Adobe Indesign in our Colorado facility from a qualified expert in the product. Find out more about this Adobe Indesign Training where you will receive Adobe Indesign Knowledge.

Illustrator CS5 added two new drawing modes: Draw Behind and Draw Inside. Draw behind simply means that the arrangement of your objects will appear in the opposite order of the default mode. Any object drawn will appear behind all current objects on your art board. The biggest change to the Drawing Modes panel is the addition of the Draw Inside mode. Think of it as another way to create a clipping mask. A dotted line will indicate that the Draw Inside mode is activated (example below). The first object drawn in this mode will be the “mask” for any other object drawn. In the example below, the 2nd object drawn was the blue square and it is masked to fit in the circle shape.

You can use the Draw Inside mode for other objects such as lines, text and brush strokes. It’s easy to use and helps you work more efficiently!

Adobe Creative Cloud will be available in the first half of 2012. Creative Cloud will be available through a monthly subscription plan ($49.99/month). What do you get with your subscription?

• All the CS tools
• Adobe Touch Apps
• Device and PC sync
• Cloud storage (20GB)
• Adobe Business Catalyst
• Adobe Typekit
• Adobe Digital Publishing Suite
• Immediate access to new features, products, services as soon as they are released

It is an exciting time to be an Adobe user and I for one can’t wait for the release of Adobe Creative Cloud!

One of the great features of the Mixer Brush is that you can paint from scratch or you can use an existing image to transform into a realistic painting. And it’s very easy!

Step 1: Open the photo you want to use for your painting in Photoshop

Step 2: You want to keep the original photo intact, so create a duplicate layer of your background layer

Step 3: You want to adjust the Mixer Brush settings so that you are using the colors from the original photo to paint. I recommend starting with a large brush and removing a lot of the detail from the original photo. The magic of the Mixer Brush is that you can add detail back in. In this step, select the Mixer Brush you want to use.

Step 4: The different settings that will affect how your brush color interacts with the canvas (original photo) are the wetness of the paint, the load of the brush, and the mix ratio between the paint and canvas. If you are pulling the colors directly from an image (like I did below), make sure “Load the brush after each stroke” is turned off in the Control panel. Experiment with the different settings until you find what works for you. I highly recommend painting in Photoshop using a Wacom drawing tablet—it recognizes pressure, angle and it is just easier to use than a mouse!

Step 5: In the step above, I used a large brush and painted over the original photo rather quickly, removing a lot of the detail. In the last step, I add some of the detail back in. I first decided what my focal point of the painting is. My favorite part of the photo is the door and I wanted to make it pop. So I added a new transparent layer to my Photoshop document to add more detail back into the truck door. When you are painting on the transparent layer you want to make sure you have “Sample All Layers” checked in the Control Panel—you can see I don’t have it checked in my example below. Use a smaller brush and paint back over the area you want to add detail. Important note: make sure you have your original layer you were painting on turned off when you are adding detail. I have added my detail back in—you can now see much more detail in the lady’s face on the truck door. This painting still needs some touch up, but I’m well on my way to having a painting from my original photograph!

The first feature is the perspective drawing feature. You can open a perspective grid and set it the way you want the grid to appear. From here, you can start your artwork on the grid. What makes this tool really unique is that you can set images on the grid and it will automatically adjust it for you based on the perspective. That means that if a window is on the far end of the grid, it will look smaller than one that is close to the center.

This will really help you save a lot of time when coming up with designs that call for using images and setting in different perspectives. The best example that can help you understand is drawing multiple windows on a building. You will not have to create multiple graphics of the window in order to show the various angles.

The second feature is the features that make designing with strokes more intuitive. You can vary the width of your strokes, get better control of dashed lines, and create accurate arrowheads. These tools allow you to just work on your drawing and play around with the strokes after you finish so you don’t have to keep editing your work as you move forward with your project.

The third feature is the improved multiple artboards feature. Now you can work on up to 100 artboards at one time. You now have more options from being able to reorder your artboards, name them, define the rows and columns, and also copy one artboard to another relatively quickly to combine multiple works with minimum hassle.

The fourth feature that you will find useful is the shapebuilder tool. Now you can easily combine, edit, and fill shapes. You do this by moving your mouse over individual shapes and creating a whole new shape making it seem like you painstakingly created that shape to begin with.

This is perfect for the logo designer that works with many shapes. It is also great for people that use symbols for maps, presentations, and guides. This will make everything more intuitive and will give you the control that you’ve always wanted as a designer.

Basically, the Adobe Illustrator CS5 is improved to give you more options and save you hours of work. If you are a professional, those hours that you save can easily justify the cost of upgrading to the new version. Some of the features are in CS4 but have been made better. Those using CS3 will be able to catch up on the features that were originally presented in CS4.

There are companies who can provide in-house training in the use of Adobe software, though not all businesses are an equally good fit for this kind of training program. It is true that some companies, especially sole proprietorships and businesses with only a few employees may find that individual study or training is the best match for their needs, but for many companies, in-house training to get the best results out of Adobe Creative Suite makes excellent sense. Keep reading for a few points to help you make the decision about whether in-house Adobe training is the right choice for your company.

If your company has at least ten employees whose most important duties are graphic design, layout, web design or other creative specialties where Adobe Creative Suite is the best tool for the job, then in-house training is most likely the best way to go. Especially if your company is a forward thinking operation which is always ahead of the curve and makes a point of adopting new technologies eagerly in order to get an edge over your competition, making sure that your staff, especially those who spend their workday engaged in creative work are properly trained to use Adobe software is an excellent move.

Companies which emphasize the importance of continuing education for their employees and embrace the idea of lifelong learning and career development are a natural fit for in-house Adobe training. While it isn’t strictly necessary to have Adobe training, having facilities in your company’s offices which are tailored to facilitate this kind of professional training can be a big plus. For instance, if your company has a room which has wireless access or a large number of workstations for your employees along with an overhead projector and screen for presentations, then this can make it easier for your staff to learn the material.

If yours is a business which stresses continuing education for your staff, especially when it comes to the tools of the trade, then it’s definitely time to consider bringing in the experts to ensure that your employees are up to speed with the latest in design and creative production software – and since each new release of the Adobe Creative Suite contains new improvements, it’s an ongoing process of learning which can keep your company ahead of the competition.

After Effects is actually a much older product then you may realize, because version one was released as far back as January 1993. Since then there have been no less than 23 versions and partial versions of After Effects, and so the codebase is now extremely refined and streamlined which makes it a pleasure to use.

The latest CS 5.5 version has added in a whole slew of new features that videographers who use the software will love, including:

Camera Lens Blur Warp Stabilizer Effect Source Timecode Support Expanded R3D Features Timecode Effect Enhancements

And many more.

Which new features you hone in on will largely depend on how you use the software. As for example being able to import SWF files is a massive boon if you are an expert Adobe Flash user, as it opens up a whole new world of opportunities to change Flash files that a web developer has already sweated over into compelling visual effects for much wider mediums such as television or cinema.

There is also the fact that the software is now available in 64Bit mode, which is a massive boost for productivity over the 32BIT version. The difference in terms of processing speeds between older versions of After Effects and the new 5.5 version is quite striking.

In terms of individual features that make the software worthy of an upgrade from version 5, the most striking is the Warp Stabilizer feature.

The way that this works is to stabilize video footage that is out of focus or shaky, either through the unsteady hand of the cameraman, or because footage was filmed without stabilization options being active on the video camera during filming.

After Effects then takes this footage and through the magic of its digital wizardry stabilizes the footage.

It really is rather incredible to behold how quickly you can change an unusable piece of footage and turn it into something that looks like it was shot by a professional videographer.

The software also offers some very neat new postproduction features that speed up some of the more mundane, but necessary parts of the creative process and has a great new scaling option that is integrated into Warp Stabilizer.

The new After Effects CS 5.5 is a worthy upgrade to the old version, and with the addition of some compelling new features, and a lot of polishing of old features, it is an upgrade that is well worth checking out.

Discover how to use the special features in Adobe After Effects CS5 and CS5.5 to create award winning video effects from an experienced professional. Learn more about the Adobe video editing program through our Adobe After Effects CS5.5 Training.

Layout Skills
When it comes to making an effective website, the layout of the website is one of the most important things. The layout is the structure of the page, how much space is between each item on the page, the margins around the content, and the way the page is presented. Learning layout is so much more than learning how to use whitespace effectively, as you will need to learn the rule of thirds, margins, and 101 other tricks and techniques.

Graphic Design Skills
Laying out the website is only the first step, and you have to create the nifty graphics that will be used for your website. Aside from the text that you will use, you have to choose the right color scheme, template, theme, and patterns that will make your website look professional, fun, light, or whatever tone you are going for. Learning graphic design is something that is easy to do, but it takes years to become a true expert that can make web pages that are attractive and professional.

Photo Editing Skills
Yes, you will need to edit photos to use for your website. Editing photos doesn’t just mean shrinking them or making them larger, but it means learning how to use the photos to the best advantage, how to crop and slice the photos properly, and even how to choose the best photos for your website. While the text of the website is important for rankings and marketing, the images that you use are there to attract readers. You have to attain the proper balance between content and images, and learning photo editing is imperative.

Writing Skills
Unless you want to spend money on hiring freelance writers to come up with the content of your website, you will need to develop the ability to write at least a few simple articles a month. The content you place on your site will be important for not only your SEO, but also for providing value to your visitors. If you skip out on the writing skills, you may end up with a very boring website.

Coding Skills
The final step in the design of your website is putting it all together in the web page, and this is often the hardest part. Learning the codes that are needed will enable you to get your website up and running, and will enable you to make a professional website. You will need to learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and a few other languages that will help you make dynamic websites that will be attractive and professional.

Discover how to use the special features in Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 and CS5.5 to create professional looking websites from an experienced professional. Learn more about this web design program through our Adobe Dreamweaver CS5.5 Training.

Below is an graphic broken down into it’s most basic shapes—several ovals and a rectangle. Next the shapes are put together to form what will be a mug. To actually draw a mug with one of the drawing tools would be fairly difficult unless you had extensive knowledge of the pen tool. Using simple shapes to build your objects guarantees that you will have nice curves, symmetry and most importantly...it’s simple!

Once you have your shapes arranged, you will use the Shape Builder to add shapes together and subtract shapes from other shapes. Drag the Shape Builder tool across shapes you want to add together. Use your Option (Mac) or Alt (PC) to switch the tool to subtract. The final result is below:

A simple way to make a mug in Illustrator—once I had the shapes drawn, it took me around 20–30 seconds to create the illustration above. Now that is fast and efficient. Thank you Adobe Illustrator Shape Builder!