Photoshop CS3 Extended is pretty sweet - just upgraded last weekend. You can bring video directly into it if you want and apply traditional Photoshop filters. Smart filters are amazing - infinitely adjustable. Selection refinement is amazing & the new camera raw interface is awesome as well..... I could go on, but definitely see PS CS3E as a "have to have" for what I do.
Just purchased it myself w the lightroom bundle ,as i do a lot with stills and eeding to catalog.
The video tutorials on the adobe site are excelent as well, ..now to wait until monday when its scheduled to arrive.!!!
I am do pretty much all my titling in Photoshop, seeing as I can can get better text control and use psd file with many layers for many titles. Still is too bad that Vegas cant read psd layers.
but look fwd to using them more in DVDA with the help of Kieth Kolbo and his DVD.
I just got my Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium Edition in the mail today. It took 24 minutes to install... I hate bloatware... but with that being said, I think this is going to be a great collection of software for me to utilize.
How much rotoscoping do you do on a regular basis? I have been considering purchasing either Commotion or a new product called Motor from Imagineer Systems. I have alot of rotoscoping projects and need some intuitive automation.
From what I recall, Adobe allows academic products to be used for profit. Over on the adobe forums there are a couple threads and maybe even the wiki under premiere that says you can use Adobe products for profit. Ill see if I can kick it up.
It would be great if they do - perhaps I inadvertantly applied their statement about Macromedia products to Photoshop. Here's what I was referring to:
"What are the limitations on the use of the Macromedia software students acquire as part of the Student Licensing Option?
Licenses purchased as part of the Student Licensing Option may be used by students for use on their personally owned or leased computers, and may not be used for any commercial purposes."
I have been considering purchasing either Commotion or a new product called Motor from Imagineer Systems. I have alot of rotoscoping projects and need some intuitive automation.
If you're doing planar roto, Motor is vastly superior to Commotion, simply no comparison. Minutes to hours or even days.
"Do I read correctly that CS3 includes the flash encoder? I can encode my AVI work in FLV or SWF?"
I own the lesser Adobe Premium Elements 3.0 and it does allow export (encoding) of your video project as FLV with the choice of either version 7 or 8 using Sorensen or On2. Single pass only.
Is that because you've purchased the encoders separately? I've got a fresh install of PS CS3-E & Vegas 7. I don't have such options, so my guess is that Elements is making the external encoders available if you have them (rather than natively).
I've never used Photoshop, having cut my teeth on an early version of Paint Shop Pro. Those few times I've come across Adobe software, it's always seemed non-intuitive to me. Are there things for which Photoshop is essential, or is it more of an accepted standard because of its dominance in the industry?
"or is it more of an accepted standard because of its dominance in the industry?"
I would say, yes. Actually, Paint Shop Pro does pretty much everything Photoshop does for considerably less money. In fact, in many ways, Paint Shop Pro does more than Photoshop. But Photoshop does dominate the graphics industry in the same way that Avid dominates the NLE industry. In the case of both Photoshop and Avid, being the biggest doesn't mean the best.
I have Avid, I have Premiere and I have Photoshop. If I'm doing something on my own, I go straight for Paint Shop Pro and Vegas to get my work done. If I need to interact with other post houses, then it's Photoshop and Avid. That's just the way it is.
or is it more of an accepted standard because of its dominance in the industry
I have to disagree, as least as of late, i have owned PSP for many versions and it does do ALOT of what PS does but there are many things that PS now offers that far surpass PSP's abilties.
In addition the latest version of PSP (XI)is Horrible compared to PSP 10, worst upgrade i ever purchased, i discovered a bug in the software they never caught(.pngs and .gif would not output alpha channel) it took them like 5 months to fix it then their latest release takes so long to load and crashes for me 90 percent of the time. I dont even use it, support was equally bad.
Besides the other fact that PSP cannot output .psd's with alpha either makes it harder to work with.
PS CS versions offer more control ,if you do a lot of still image editing, compositing. things like smart filters, Vanishing point and the new abilities of CS3 ext. , video as well as 3D mapping.
Maybe not for everyone, and I am not blowing Adobes horn,tot tell you the truth, im a little nervous. there is a big issue w installing CS3 if you had the Beta installed (I did) . The Adobe forums are blowing up with the inabilty to installed the purchased version.
Im hoping I dont have the same problem. So we will see when it arrives.
Like I said the previous version of PSP 10(X) does do many of the simple photo editing sometimes way faster than PS.
I still use it about 50% of the time.
I have just found that for titling, I use PS almost exclusively now, in the form of .psd's . and when it comes to exporting either .psd's OR .png's you dont have to go thru all the steps you need to to export a .png out of PSP to preserve the alpha channel.(PSP you must use the .png wizard or exporter to save the alpha channel. you cant just save it with that extension.