Adobe Creates the Pen Tool Game

For my students who need to practice the Pen Tool, Adobe’s created an adorable online game to practice it’s usage. The pen tool is important in Adobe Illustrator (of course), but also in Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere, InDesign, Animate… there’s a version of it in almost every Adobe App!

Check out the game here: https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/illustrator/how-to/pen-tool-game.html

MacPhun Aurora HDR and Plotagraph Offer EXTENDED!

Firstly – I need you all to know – MacPhun has their apps for Windows machine in BETA – you will soon be able to get all these cool features I’ve been touting on Windows!

But, I’m really writing to let you know that the Aurora HDR and Plotagraph Offer has been extended until Sunday – June 4th!

Plotagraph Pro allows you to animate PART of an image and create video or animated gifs to use. Check out my first attempts at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_7zXumUEow
https://youtu.be/V4suaTH-noo

This offer is available for as low as $89 (a $186 value) if you use coupon code SGANS_DISC at checkout.

Click here to see the deal!

Aurora HDR 2017 PAIRED with Plotagraph Pro!!!

Starting today, MacPhun is offering

Aurora HDR 2017($99) and a 3 month Plotagraph Pro+ Membership ($87 value) for as low as $89 when they use Coupon Code SGANS_DISC.

If you haven’t heard of Plotagraph before, it is SaaS-based solution that allows you to bring your photos to life. From a single JPEG, Plotoagraph Pro can create MP4, animated GIFs and more; with endless skies, flowing streams, crashing waves and of course far more abstract artwork than that. For a quick overview about the software, watch this quick video, or this longer video, and to see some incredible animated images created with it check out the gallery here.

Aurora HDR 2017 and Plotagraph Pro

Plotagraph Pro pairs well with the depth and contrast that you develop in Aurora HDR 2017, so you can create your own truly living photo.

You Get:
Aurora HDR 2017, The world’s most powerful HDR image editor for the Mac.
Plotagraph Pro+ Membership (3 months) – Bring your photos to life, animate from a single JPEG.

Remember to use Coupon Code SGANS_DISC to get the discounted price of $89. Without the coupon, the cost is $99.

A Useful Clarification of the Term “Image Resolution” in Digital Images

In so many of my classes, particularly Photoshop, Digital Photography and the Video applications, we discuss image resolution – or DPI – dots per inch (or PPI – pixels per inch). For the most part, my students seem to grasp the concepts from when I teach in (as I describe it) “Stephanese“. But here’s another discussion on the subject – this time in “CreativeBloqese“.

Check out this article from CreativeBloq.com for further clarification on the subject of pixel resolution (height/width/depth) of an image for print and for screen viewing:
http://www.creativebloq.com/graphic-design/what-is-dpi-image-resolution-71515673/2

Premiere Pro Multi-Camera Editing Idea – WITHOUT Synced Cameras

For my Premiere students…

In our Advanced classes, we learn to edit a Multicamera sequence, when several cameras have been used, simultaneously.

Today, Rocketstock’s blog has a very interesting article  for an alternative use of Multicamera editing – when using a variety of clips from various shoots. I think you may find it inspiring for a new and efficient workflow. Take a look!
https://www.rocketstock.com/blog/edit-videos-with-multi-cam-sequence/?utm_source=RocketStock+Updates&utm_campaign=11a2cf663f-RS_Blog_Updates_04212017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_74052b2af9-11a2cf663f-429325757

Adobe is Severely Limiting it’s Font Installations

In a recent article on InDesign Secrets, I can finally find the reason why so many of my InDesign classes have been having font errors when using files from the Adobe courseware. It seems that InDesign – and all of the Adobe programs, for that matter, are no longer installing the fonts that used to come with the programs! I’ve been using Adobe programs for too many  years than I want to count, so of course, I have the fonts installed, but so many of my students are downloading demo software for their classes, and work in an environment with security limitations, so they can’t easily access Adobe’s Typekit (part of the Creative Cloud suite).

In my opinion, this is a terrible move on Adobe’s part, and I can’t quite figure out why they’re choosing to do it. Over the years, I’ve seen Adobe seemingly losing touch with their users in quite a few ways, but in software that’s ABOUT design, I can’t imagine what they’re thinking.

To view the post on InDesignSecrets.com, please visit http://indesignsecrets.com/adobe-drops-fonts-leaves-users-stranded.php

There’s an earlier article about the issue here: http://indesignsecrets.com/happened-fonts-indesign.php   (which includes a work-around)

And, for a list of the fonts originally installed, and mostly still necessary, please see Adobe’s article here: http://www.adobe.com/products/type/creative-suite-6-installed-fonts.html

As for me, I’ve backed up ALL of my installed fonts into a directory I use for my font management program. I suggest you do the same. If you’d like instructions for doing so, please comment on this post.

 

Good deal on Adobe Training Videos by TrainSimple

I’m not usually one to suggest people learn from others, considering Adobe Training is what I do – but I firmly believe that giving students ideas for supplemental learning can always help them to practice what I teach and help to embed the information they learn in my classes.

So, I thought sharing a deal on a lifetime subscription to TrainSimple’s Adobe Training might be helpful to those who want reference information, and ways to practice what I teach. Take a look at this deal – good ONLY today!

https://deals.cultofmac.com/sales/lifetime-of-train-simple-adobe-training

BACKUP – automatically to the Cloud

BACKUP!!!

So, you guys know I’m very neurotic about backing up my files, and I found this service that gives you unlimited space for automatic backups – IN THE CLOUD!

I have dual hard drive backups in my home office, PLUS a separate backup for my startup drive. But living in SoCal, with earthquakes, I’ve always been concerned about earthquake damage hurting my backups, leaving me with nothing.

Recently, I discovered BackBlaze.com. for $50/year, they offer unlimited space for backups, allow the backup of external drives, retain backups for 30 days, and will back up almost everything (system files and Applications won’t get backed up). I have 4 internal drives and several externals. All of my media (photos, videos, and even the files created as temporary files for my video editing), all of my office work files, personal files – and it’s safe and encrypted. All offsite, and all for $50! There isn’t a limit on file size, either – so my largest multi-gig files can be uploaded. It’s not exceptionally speedy, but I can even control the speed of the backups.

I highly recommend checking them out at BackBlaze.com.

Adobe Premiere Pro CC to include MorphCut

Adobe Premiere Pro CC to include MorphCut – There’s something with the potential for greatness coming to the new Adobe Premiere Pro. In the right hands, this can be used for smoothing edits between different portions of a continuous clip, without having to cut over to a B roll, making (interviews in particular) edits cleaner and fixing a potential slew of problems.
My worry is what it’s going to do in the wrong hands. For example, the hands of politicians, news media, unscrupulous attorneys…
Take a look:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6wPUtKg-Ac

New Adobe Character Animation Application Shown at NAB

At the NAB Conference from April 11th to April 16th, Adobe announced a new app, coming to Adobe Creative Cloud members.

Adobe Character Animator does just what it says it will do. You can use pre-created characters that appear to come with the app, or you can create your characters using Photoshop or Illustrator and animate them. I believe I’m initially most impressed with the facial recognition and animation activation, which takes prompts directly from your webcam.

Of course, version 1 of anything will have it’s issues – but this looks really promising!!!

http://www.rgbhq.com/nab-2015-adobe-character-animator-preview/