Here’s something interesting! Looks like these folks are trying to make a learning game for Creative Cloud. Click here if you want to learn more.
Learn Creative Cloud by playing a game
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Category Archives: Photoshop
Photoshop CS6 quick reference guide available
Can’t remember the shortcut for your favorite Photoshop tool or menu item? There’s a fantastic new tool for Photoshop CS6 users. It’s called the Photoshop CS6 Quick Reference Guide. This handy little web app allows you to search for tool and menu names. The results supply you with a short definition of the tool or menu item, its shortcut and its location. In many cases, a link to a help article or tutorial is provided so you can learn how to use that feature.
It’s easy to use. Simply enter a term in the Search field:
Depending on the search term, you may get a long list of results. You can filter those results by using the checkboxes available at the top of the results list. Simply check one or more of those boxes and click Update to filter your results and narrow your search.
This tool was created by Julia Grummel and Janelle Flores, two of Adobe’s Digital Media Interns. It is a beta version which means that it is a work in progress. But comments and suggestions are welcome. All in all, it is an extremely useful tool.
Creating animations with a hand-drawn look
One of the challenges of creating digital animations is making them look organic. Sometimes the result of a digital animation is just too smooth and perfect looking. There are ways around this if you are looking to give your animation a hand-drawn and organic feel. Ben Markus, one of our student interns last summer, has created a tutorial series that teaches you ways of using Photoshop and After Effects to give your animations a hand-drawn look. He starts with the basics so even a non-animator like me can create a really cool organic animation. Give it a try, its really fun!
Great new place to start learning Photoshop
Are you a Photoshop beginner? If so, the new Photoshop for Beginners forum is bound to be of help. Its a place to ask questions, learn the basics about Photoshop, and find answers from patient, knowledgeable people. Check it out and let me know what you think.
Learn Photoshop while playing
Play LevelUp for Photoshop, a new gamification approach to learning. Not only will you improve your image editing skills, but you may even win prizes. Download the free game. For more information, see the LevelUp for Photoshop Facebook page.
Getting started with digital imaging?
If you want to understand some of the basic concepts behind digital photography and editing digital images, you should check out these Key Concepts pages. Each one is a very quick read. I highly recommend taking a peek before you dive into learning how to use any of these programs. Here is the list of Key Concepts for Photoshop and Lightroom:
Digital image basics
- Aliasing & Anti-aliasing*
- Bounding box
- Canvas*
- Color mode or Image mode
- Compression
- Raster & Vector*
- Resolution
- Sample
- Zoom
Layers
Photo adjustments
Special effects
Transformations
Here is the list of Key Concepts for Photoshop Elements 9:
Digital image basics
- Aliasing & Anti-aliasing
- Canvas
- Color mode or Image mode
- Compression
- Keywords
- Raster & Vector
- Resolution
- Sample
- Selection
- Zoom
Layers
Photo adjustments
Special effects
Transformations
CS5 getting started tutorials
Here are links to tutorials and learning resources that will help you get started with Creative Suite 5. These are for both beginners and experienced users.
- Photoshop CS5: getting started & tutorials
- InDesign CS5: getting started & tutorials
- Illustrator CS5: getting started & tutorials
- After Effects CS5: getting started & tutorials
- Premiere Pro CS5: getting started & tutorials
- Flash Professional CS5: getting started & tutorials
- Flash Catalyst CS5: getting started & tutorials (for designers)
- Flash Catalyst CS5: getting started & tutorials (for developers)
- Dreamweaver CS5: getting started & tutorials
- Fireworks CS5: getting started & tutorials
- Flash Builder 4: getting started
Tutorial list for Adobe products
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a list of Adobe tutorials that you could scan through quickly? Wish you didn’t have to wade through search results full of irrelevant content? What you need is a comprehensive tutorial list! Adobe has created just the list for you. They’ve got lists of all the tutorials (both video and text) that live on Adobe.com for 11 different products. The lists contain tutorials for multiple versions of the products, with the most recent tutorials on the top. You can sign up for an RSS feed to find out when new tutorials are added to the list.
Check out these lists for some really great tutorials (including CS5):
Photoshop CS5 new features are awesome!
In just 3 days you’ll be able to see all the new features available in Creative Suite 5. Adobe has been giving some “sneak peeks” at some of those features. In case you’ve somehow missed all the buzz about those features, here are a couple of places you should check out. There are some great videos that demonstrate the new features. I highly recommend watching at least these two videos:
Where to find out about the new CS5 apps:
Next week I’ll post about some of the places you can find good learning material about CS5.
Photoshop shortcuts
Do you spend hours and hours working in Photoshop? If so, you can save loads of time by using shortcuts. Even learning and using just a couple of shortcuts can increase your efficiency and productivity by hours over time. Here is a very thorough article on keyboard shortcuts by Tom Giannattasio. It’s loaded with illustrations and is definitely worth bookmarking.
There is also a goldmine of information about keyboard shortcuts in the online Photoshop Help. Check out these two items:
If you are already using shortcuts and wonder about some of the reasoning behind the shortcut changes in Photoshop CS4, you should read John Nack’s blog post about it called, Shortcut changes in PSCS4.
