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This article we have a series of new articles, with Iniiii reviewing the new release of Creative Suite 4 from Adobe as well as tips and tricks from Reaver. I hope you enjoy this issue and learn a lot.

Regards,
Cookthechef

Note: All of the graphics displayed on this page are copyrighted by their owners. You may NOT do anything to these graphics, including, but not limited to, using, editing them, or claiming them as your own, without the consent of the owner.

Adobe Photoshop CS4 Review - By: Iniiii

As many of you will know, Adobe is famous for their software, particularly the professional graphic program Photoshop. Mid October, they released their latest range of products, Creative Suite 4 (CS4). There are many programs included under the CS4 umbrella. Dreamweaver, Flash, Illustrator, the majority of which are available individually from Adobe, or alternatively, there are six Creative Suites, bundled in different combinations of the excellent software that Adobe provide, catered specifically towards different fields of the graphic design industry. Of course, all include Adobe's flagship product: Photoshop, the focus of this article.

As with the previous edition, Creative Suite 3, there are two versions: Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop CS4 Extended, the latter having a wider range of tools, such as 3D image generation and modelling, at it's disposal than the previous. Here, I'll give you the lowdown on what's new in the graphic industry's program of choice.

Photoshop CS4 is available on Vista in both 32 bit and 64 bit modes. The 64 bit edition enables computers with plenty of RAM to work on very large images with considerable ease, and less hard disk swapping. Unfortunately, the 64 bit version is not available on Apple Mac.

Layout

One of the first things you'll notice in CS4 is the layout. It's much more simple and spaced out than previous versions, with a huge working area. There is also the addition of tabbed file browsing, an incredibly useful feature for flicking through your open documents, first seen in older versions of Fireworks, a little asterisk displays on the tab when the work is unsaved, a subtle feature, but incredibly useful. In the extended version there is a dedicated 3D menu, giving access to new 3D features such as 3D paint mode (we'll take a more in depth look at this later). Another notable difference is a new toolbar along the top, with easy access to handy features such as Adobe Bridge, screen modes and the new Rotate View tool, which rotates the entire image (this feature requires an OpenGL-accelerated graphics card.) There's also the essentials button, from which you can rifle through a selection of workspaces, all designed for a specific purpose, and easily add your own.

Features

The new feature in CS4 that everyone is talking about is the Content-Aware Scale option. This enables you to resize an image without losing areas you want to keep, like people or buildings. You select the area you want to protect, and Photoshop won't touch the selected areas when you resize. A tricky feature to explain, and the best way to understand what it does it to use it yourself, but kiss goodbye to 'house of mirrors' people in your pictures.

Another useful addition which you may have heard of before is Kuler, a colour scheme selector extension. (Also available online at http://kuler.adobe.com/.) Now integrated into Photoshop, Kuler connects to the internet to bring back the most popular Kuler Schemes, rated by users, from the site. (To use Kuler at all, you need an internet connection.)

A nice addition to Photoshop is another extension called Connections, a professional method for sharing projects with others through Adobe, which is easy to use once registered. (Internet connection required.)

Two really noticeable features in CS4 are the new pallets; adjustments and masks. The adjustments pallete gives quick access to all the usual adjustment layers, with some nice presets for some ready-made effects. A simple feature, yet highly useful. A new adjustment has also been added: Vibrance, which increases saturation in less saturated colours whilst protecting skin tones. The masks pallete allows for quick creation of masks (be they pixel or vector) and then adjust the Density and Feather sliders until satisfied. Two simple features, but make the program much easier to use.

Improvements

As previously mentioned, you can rotate your canvas to any desired angle, perfect for when working with a tablet. Panning and zooming have also been improved, with much smoother control and faster response over what your doing, as well as improved quality when viewing at odd magnification percentages. A pixel grid has also been added for accurate editing close up. However, these features (excluding the pixel grid) require an OpenGL-accelerated graphics card to work.

The ability to print has also been improved, with much better integration to popular printers from Epson, HP and Canon, making colour problems a thing of the past. 3D tools have also been improved, you can easily apply 2D images to 3D objects, with impressive results. Still quite privative, but it's still a nice useful feature to have, and who knows what new 3D features will be improved next time. (Requires Extended version of Photoshop.)

All the little features, such as tabbed file browsing, will really speed up your workflow, which means more creating time and less fiddling with the program to find, and do, what you want.

So, is it worth upgrading?

If you plan on graphic design as a future career, or focus and making larger art, then definitely. If you focus on smaller art, and don't have any plans for a career in the industry, then you're best sticking with what you have. If you are going to upgrade however, it's worth spending some money on getting a great computer, with plenty of RAM, multiple hard drives and a decent graphics card (OpenGL-Accelerated), as the features you'll miss out on without these are excellent.

There are even more improvements in CS4, it would take an incredibly long time to list them all, so these are the key, and most noticeable, improvements from CS3.

If you do want to upgrade, and are in any form of eduction, Adobe do some excellent student discounts through their online store (www.adobe.com). All you need is a form of academic ID, and you get the same product as everyone else, at less than a quarter of the price.

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Design Cases: Simplicity - By: Reaver

In the design cases article, we highlight a new style each month that can help bring new levels to your art. This month, our art style, or better put, lack of art style, is simplicity. Simplicity isn't about laziness, but rather the enhancement of the message itself. Often, people will over complicate their work, which results in a overwhelming feeling for the viewer. Using simplicity allows you to control the focus of your viewer to an object.

Case One:

Planet with a busy background Planet with a plain background

In the first example, we see a simple planet render placed on a very "busy" background. While it may be a bit more exciting then then it's counterpart of the right, it distracts your audience from the planet itself, and the concept of space is lost.

The right graphic shows us the same planet isolated to a background of black. The concept that space pieces are trying to convey often is loneliness, and the way to show how alone we are in the universe, so a simple isolated planet works better.

Case Two:

http://www.reddit.com/

The popular user driven content website (Think Digg.com), uses one of the most simplistic designs you could imagine. The fact that Reddit's design features usability over style is one of the reasons that makes Reddit as popular as it is. Your not bombarded with flashy but useless displays, but rather with the tools you need to utilize their site. Their design is based around the top blue bar, with a set of modules moving down from there.

Following the standard link colour, Reddit has built a design and colour scheme that works across a variety of browsers virtually seamlessly. This is a pleasant side-effect from keeping your design simple.

Tip: Simplicity doesn't have to mean dull. A complex object that is tied into a piece can give your work a new sense of unity. One example of this can be found within CooktheChef's Sal's worm piece.

Simplicity Resources:

iStockPhoto's supply of "Isolated to White" images. While these images may cost you some money, they are most definitely worth it if you can't find what you want elsewhere.

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