Tag Archives: Adobe

Creative Cloud : Massive Update

Software,

As announced at Adobe MAX 2013 – the new suite of creative tools from Adobe has now gone live. The distribution method is quite different from past years of course – since the new CC apps are only available through Creative Cloud.

Creative Cloud
Your favorite tools are about to get even better. Introducing Creative Cloud™ desktop applications, including Adobe® Photoshop® CC and Illustrator® CC. They’re the next generation of CS tools. Get hundreds of all-new features. Keep your entire creative world in sync — files, feedback from team members, fonts, settings, and updates. And, as always, your applications live on your desktop, not in a browser and not in the cloud.

There are a lot of neat new features across the board [and a complete rewrite in terms of Flash Professional CC!] but the most compelling new feature of these apps for me is that while they have gone live today… they won’t be frozen in time for 12-18 months as the case has been with past releases. Because these applications are distributed through the Creative Cloud – they can be updated much, much more often. I happen to know, for instance, that one of my favourite applications has two more pretty major updates coming this year alone! That’s really something, no?

Applications of particular note in regard to my recent and upcoming work in support of these applications are highlighted here…

FlFlash Professional CC
Re-engineered from the ground up, 64-bit Flash Professional CC is more modular and delivers unprecedented speed and stability. Easily manage multiple large files, publish more quickly, and experience a more responsive timeline.

[I have a DVD on Flash Professional CC which will be published soon.]

PsPhotoshop CC
More freedom, speed, and power to make incredible images real. You’ll get dozens of new and reinvented features, including the most advanced sharpening tool available.

[Try the new LevelUp extension for Photoshop CC!]

AnEdge Animate CC
Edge Animate CC will enable greater creative expression and efficiency. New features like motion paths, templates, and the option to host files using an Adobe CDN make Edge Animate even easier to use.

[Have a look at my Edge Animate books and videos.]

RfEdge Reflow CC (preview)
Creating responsive designs is a snap with the visual and interactive user interface in Edge Reflow. Ease the pain of designing for multiple screen sizes by using a resizable design surface and media query breakpoints.

[My new course on Edge Reflow is live at Lynda.com!]

Adobe and the Flash Gaming Landscape

Presentation, , , ,

I had the opportunity this month to speak at the Rocky Mountain Adobe User Group about gaming, Flash, Adobe, et cetera alongside Jun Heider who talked about Apache Flex. Here are my slides:

There have been a lot of changes with the Flash Platform over the past year or two  plus a lot of changes in the web landscape in general. The role of Flash is shifting and Adobe is adapting to this shift by focusing engineering efforts, tooling, and community library support to the two areas in which Flash really excels: gaming and premium video experiences. In this session, we’ll have a look at the momentum behind Flash Gaming and see how Flash Builder 4.7, Flash Professional CS6, and Adobe Scout contribute to this momentum while taking advantage of the new Adobe Gaming SDK and the support of Stage3D libraries like Starling, Away3D, and Feathers. Interested in how to get started in game development with the Flash Platform? Don’t miss this session!

The recordings of both my talk and Jun’s Introduction to Apache Flex 4.9 can be accessed as well.

Education Exchange 2013 Refresh

Community, ,

This week, Adobe released a totally revamped version of the Adobe Education Exchange!

Hey! Look who is quoted on the homepage!

Hey! Look who is quoted on the homepage!


For those unfamiliar; over the past two years or so, the Education Exchange has provided a way for educators to share resources, materials, content, and whatnot to anyone else registered with the exchange. There is also a place set aside for discussions that was introduced last year. The new updates not only redesign the entire system – but also create a more personable environment for collaboration and sharing. There are two features that I’ll highlight here: public profiles and a new points system with a growing set of badges.

Public Profiles
profile
Member profiles are now more public and provide a much greater amount of visibility to a member. Included in the profile are links to other networks, a rundown of EDEX contributions, involvement, and personal network statistics.

Points System and Badges
badges A set of earnable badges are also displayed upon the profile page alongside an activity stream. Some of these are small changes… but I think they’ll do well to enable members to better interface with one another and with the exchange.

I’d recommend that anyone involved in K12 or Higher Education register and contribute to this great resource!

Create the Web: Announcing the Adobe Edge Family!

Software,

During the Create the Web event in San Francisco today, Adobe is making a number of major new tooling and service announcements having to do specifically with web standards. Not only are these announcements centered around advances such as CSS Filters and other standards work being discussed; but also a huge reveal in the form of a major new product line… all under the umbrella of Adobe Edge.

[Disclaimer: I'm writing this all about a week before the event - so hopefully nothing changes drastically! I'll be writing another post here afterwards with my post-event thoughts.]

Edge Products and Services

The main thing I’m writing about here are all of the Adobe Edge products and services that are being announced, released, previewed, et cetera. here are a few things to know about all of these items in order to get a perspective on why Adobe is doing this. Each of these items is being developed with the following in mind:

  • They are being optimized for creating beautiful mobile ready content and apps. Not just desktop tooling – this is for the whole web!
  • Adobe wants to stay on top of evolving web technologies including HTML5 and beyond through the development and maintenance of this product line.
  • This all represents more of a task-focused workflow. It is the user’s choice to use each piece individually, together, or alongside other tools.
  • This is all meant to aid productivity without hiding the underlying technologies used. This stuff is built directly to support creatives in harnessing the power of today’s web.
  • These tools will allow users to choose specific frameworks that work best for them.

Edge Animate


This is the product formally known as Edge Preview (1-7). The slickest way I’ve seen to be able to animate web content and provide interactivity using web standards! The killer news aside from reaching 1.0 – is that this version of Edge Animate is going to be FREE! Some of you may know that I have written a book on Edge Animate with Packt Publishing. The book is currently in production and should be out in a few weeks.

Edge Code


This is a product-ized version of the open source Brackets project. A web editor built using standard web technologies. The relationship of Brackets to Edge Code is very similar to the relationship between Apache Cordova and PhoneGap; the former being the open source version of the latter.

Edge Reflow


Edge Reflow is a responsive layout application. Taking some of the responsive layout visualization and tooling from Edge Animate and taking it to a whole other level – this is the one Edge tool that isn’t quite available yet, being that it is so very new.

Edge Inspect


This is “Adobe Shadow” version 1.0 – providing the ability to test web layout and functionality across devices over a network. I’ve worked with Shadow a bit and even write about using Edge Animate and Edge Inspect together in my book. It’s an awesome little tool.

Edge Web Fonts


Similar to some other free web font services available today (Google Web Fonts), Edge Web Fonts is a collection of free web fonts that can be consumed by anyone and is build upon the TypeKit infrastructure. It includes a selection of really nice typefaces from Adobe, TypeKit, Google, and others.

PhoneGap Build


While not branded as a “Edge” service, specifically; PhoneGap Build takes a lot of the hassle out of compiling a PhoneGap application for multiple operating systems. With integrated Dreamweaver CS6 and Edge Code support, application can be built remotely and then installed and tested on a variety of supported platforms without the need to install and configure multiple build environments.

Part of Creative Cloud

One of the best parts of all this is that if you have a Creative Cloud subscription – you already have access to all these tools and services. If you are not part of the Creative Cloud, you can sign up for the FREE starter subscription and receive a large portion of Edge tooling and services for free.
The above chart goes into some detail around the subscription levels and some of the restrictions involved with the free service as opposed to a full Creative Cloud membership. In my opinion – this is almost too good to be true – but it is!

What about Flash?

Well, this is an event around the web standards side of things – but the Flash Platform is set to receive some nice words as well during a few of the talks (as I understand it). Those who aren’t deeply involved in both web pillars (HTML & Flash) from Adobe’s perspective could see the focus on web standards at this event to be another Flash snub (see November 2011). Please do not look at it that way. Have faith – Adobe is heavily invested in the Flash Platform as well and there are some pretty major announcements coming up around that soon.

Adobe is in a great position right now because they can innovate at their own pace with Flash Platform technologies while creating awesome tooling for the web standards crowd and leverage a lot of the neat stuff gained from the work with Flash to contribute to the greater web. If you happen to have a stake in both of these areas – you really cannot lose. It’s a great place to be!

Adobe Certified Associate Educator

Recognition,

During the Adobe Education Leader Institute each year, AELs have the opportunity to become certified in the Adobe Certified Associate (ACA) exams managed through Certiport. I took the three certification exams for CS4 (during that timeframe) and have skipped the past two years so figured it was time to go ahead and take them again for Adobe Creative Suite 6.

This year though, we could also opt to become validated as an Adobe Certified Associate Educator on top of taking the regular exams. “An Adobe Certified Associate Educator is an Adobe Certified Associate who has taken his or her skills to the next level and provides instruction on Adobe products.” It basically means that we can pass the exams and that we have also taught this material for a number of years.

Here are my new certifications:
ACA Educator in Rich Media Communication using Adobe Flash® CS6
ACA Educator in Visual Communication using Adobe Photoshop® CS6
ACA Educator in Web Communication using Adobe Dreamweaver® CS6

I know a lot of people put little stock in such certifications – but they are quite fun to take and definitely require a good overall understanding of the products involved.