Today at the annual MAX Conference, Adobe announced a significant update to the Creative Cloud, the company’s flagship software solution for creative professionals. Available on June 17th and packed with over 100 new features across the applications, the Creative Cloud re-imagines the creative process through a set of desktop applications and sophisticated cross-device collaboration and publishing capabilities. All of this will now be branded under the “CC” release and the Adobe Creative Suite will no longer be an option for purchase without purchasing the Creative Cloud.
Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen took to the stage to introduce an interesting line up of speakers as he reflected upon the past and painted a picture of the new creative future. The show started with a dazzling showcase of creative work that included over 100 pieces of art collected from around the world through an online collaboration of influencers. In order to present this work, Adobe utilized 40 synchronized projectors, rendering a half billion pixels per second. Narayen wasted no time sharing the vision of Adobe Systems and the next generation of the Creative Cloud explaining that your creative source files can be stored, synced and shared, via Creative Cloud, on Mac OS, Windows, iOS and Android; and Behance, the world’s leading online creative community. Creative professionals can now showcase work, get feedback on projects and gain global exposure. With Creative Cloud publishing finished work has never been easier, with enhanced services that build and power websites, mobile apps, tablet publications, online portfolios, and content for virtually any medium and device.
A Creative Evolution — Creative Tools: Keynote May 6th Video
The Demos!
First up, Terry White took the stage showing off a host of new tools that introduce the most advanced deblurring and sharpening technologies to date. The new Camera Shake Reduction tool analyzes and corrects for blur from camera movement to produce better quality images. The new Smart Sharpen tool uses adaptive sharpening algorithms to minimize noise effects while producing high-quality image results. He also showed off the new Radial Gradient tool that offers powerful controls to draw attention to the focus of an image without applying a standard vignette, and the Upright tool automatically straightens horizons and applies perspective corrections without distorting the image.
He also showcased Adobe llustrator CC by demoing new features including a Touch Type tool that allows characters to be manipulated as individual objects with support for multitouch devices, bitmap images used in brushes, and CSS Extraction.
What’s New in Adobe Creative Cloud for Designers Video
Next, Jason Levine presented some jaw dropping Adobe After Effects demos. Probably the most impressive demo of the day was the Live 3D Pipeline between After Effects CC and Cinema 4D. With Cinama 4D, you can build your own models, download your own photos and use the enhanced 3D camera tracker. He also showed off the Refine Edge feature that allows you separate difficult foreground elements—such as hair and create high-quality matting results.
Also, Adobe has announced that “with the next version of Adobe Premiere Pro, editors can work the way they want, with increased customization capabilities, significant new shortcuts for faster, keyboard-driven editing, Link & Locate to quickly relink media, and an expanded set of supported media formats let editors work smarter and faster. It also has more powerful color workflows with the addition of the Lumetri™ Deep Color Engine, to easily apply rich color grading looks directly in Adobe Premiere Pro.” Adobe Press Release
Adobe Creative Cloud Overview for Video Pros Video
What’s New for Web Designers and Developers? Jeff Veen took to the stage and explained the fundamental belief at Adobe is that the web is now ready for a totally new set of web design and development solutions, … enter Adobe Edge. In the next few minutes of the presentation, he integrated some of the assets created in Adobe Photoshop, Premiere, and After Effects into a responsive web design scenario – “The Adventure Company Website”.
These demos revealed some great new export functionality from Photoshop for the web designer including two new features, “Generate Web Assets” and “Edge Reflow Project”. Adobe Edge Reflow improvements include improved layout capabilities, more powerful styling features, performance, and integration with the other Adobe CC software. One impressive example displayed the ability to control the canvas element by element for ease of exchange between designer and developer. You can also add CSS filters easily and then test with Adobe Edge Inspect.
What’s New in Adobe Creative Cloud for Web Pros Video
At this point if you were not blown away with the new features and functionality, well … the show was just getting started. Other updates included a preview of the new Kuler app, iPhone Creative Cloud app, fonts for the desktop and so many other features that will be included in the new Adobe Creative Cloud. Also, Behance is now integrated with Creative Cloud, so creative professionals can showcase their work, get feedback on project comps, and gain global exposure. With Creative Cloud publishing has never been easier, with services that build and power websites, mobile apps, tablet publications, online portfolios, and content for virtually any medium and device.
Adobe also announced that all new features will be coming to Creative Cloud users starting June 17 at which time Adobe will be ending support for CS6 with all new features coming to Adobe Creative Cloud subscribers only. Obviously, this is a big change for everyone, but some facts that we know include the ability to download and work with at least one back version of the software. So, if you subscribe to the new Creative Cloud CC, you will still be able to download and work with Adobe CS6 versions. Also, the Adobe Creative Cloud includes versions for both Mac and Windows as well as the ability to automatically synchronize between the desktop, cloud and mobile devices. Designers can designate shared folders and invite others to collaborate. Edits are stored with version history so users can share their files with confidence and currently all individual members receive 20GB of storage. For more information on this new offer from Adobe Systems be sure to check out: Adobe.com/go/creativevision
