If you've been waiting to upgrade some of your Adobe products, now is the time snag an upgrade at a lower price!

• Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium Upgrade Path 2
  (Upgrade from Creative Suite or Macromedia Studio)
  Reduced from $1,199 to $1,099
• Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Standard Upgrade Path 2
  (Upgrade from Flash or Dreamweaver)
  Reduced from $799 to $599

Labels: Adobe, After Effects, Dreamweaver, Flash, Premiere Pro

Our friends at Wildform have a great tool for quickly encoding, combining, animating and adding titles and effects to multiple video files: Wildform Flair. The program outputs to Flash and lets you create really eye-catching video presentations and projects that are perfect for distribution on the Web or CD. It uses the latest, high-quality Flash 9 video codec with full support for alpha channel transparency

Easily create outstanding Flash and video presentations, convert PowerPoint to Flash, author demos, tutorials and simulations and generate LMS compliant quizzes. Flair lets you create advanced Flash multimedia projects without any programming!

Features:

• Create advanced Flash projects without knowing Flash
• Convert your PowerPoint files to Flash
• Record on-screen activity
• Create quizzes (SCORM & AICC compliant)
• Convert video to high quality Flash (using the latest VP6 codec)
• Capture video and audio
• Generate high impact Flash text effects
• Animate your work and add interactivity
• Output small files sizes to share via the web, CD-ROMs and email
• Comes with over $2000 of valuable bonus downloads

What you can do:

• Create professional Flash & video presentations
• Convert PowerPoint to Flash
• Author E-learning quizzes and courses
• Generate demos, tutorials and simulations
• Produce multimedia websites, slide shows & ads

Here's a brief presentation on Flair's unique video capabilities, and view a product tour here.

Labels: Flair, Flash, Wildform

• Converting Bitmaps to Vectors in Flash - the latest Adobe Creative Suite podcast
• Logo Creation tutorial with Photoshop - From Dennis Radeke's The Genesis Project Blog
• Putting video inside the Photoshop UI - John Nack has an interesting article on his blog about this topic
• Camera Stabilization in AE (a gift from AE CS3 Studio Techniques) - From Mark Christiansen's Flowseeker blog. Mark walks you through a 5 minutes tutorial from FxGuide tv.
• Easy ways to green your post house from Post Magazine
• Motionworks Explosion Challenge: 1 week left Make a better explosion with Trapcode Particular and win a $500 voucher for Red Giant Software!
• Workflow Management in Cinema 4D v.10.5 Kai Pedersen's tutorial at Studio Daily

Labels: After Effects, Flash, Genesis Project, Photoshop

Sign up today for some free video seminars from Adobe! Here is a sampling of the classes:

• Creating Animations with After Effects and output to Flash
• After Effects 101 part 2: Creating motion backgrounds and elements
• Capture the best footage possible from your video camera and save editing time with OnLocation and Premiere Pro
• Working with Photoshop Extended to use with Premiere Pro and After Effects
• Create DVD motion menus that wow your audience using Adobe After Effects CS

There are a few more on the list as well. Classes start September 27 and go through late November.

Labels: Adobe, After Effects, Encore, Flash, OnLocation, Photoshop, Premiere Pro

Today, August 31, is the last day to register for Best in the SW at pre-conference prices. Don't forget!

Be inspired at Best in the SW
Meet the artists who created animations and visual effects for The Bourne Ultimatum, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Disney, The Simpsons and Nickelodeon.

Top Hollywood animators, motion graphics artists and VFX artists are coming to the Best in the SW: Flash Animation and Motion Graphics Festival to share their skills, work, and professional insights in panel discussions and workshop sessions. See how screen graphics were created for The Bourne Ultimatum. Learn about the VFX pipeline used in Star Wars. Discover how Disney and Nickelodeon animators are using Flash in their workflow. Learn new skills and techniques to apply to your own work in motion graphics, title design, broadcast design and animation.

This is the first time such a wealth of industry talent has come to one place—at the same time and in one location, ready to take you beyond technique to the art of Flash animation, broadcast design and motion graphics. Best in the SW covers it all: concepts, design and execution, in panels and sessions that include:

• The Art of Screen Graphics: The Bourne Ultimatum
• Flash Goes to Hollywood
• Advanced Cameras and Lighting in After Effects
• Flash Animation: The Art of Illusion
• Apple Motion: Meet the new 3D
• Character Animation Techniques in Flash
• Complex Animation Made Easy
• The Anatomy of VFXs
• Directing an Animated Feature
• Motion Graphics and VFX in Hollywood
• Zona Design: Design Made to Move
• Learn. Network. Celebrate the best.

Join the 2007 Best in the SW speakers, industry leaders and Adobe pros for a casual kickoff party in the Atrium at the Embassy Suites Hotel on October 8th. The conference opens on the 9th with Adobe favorite Michael Coleman giving a tour of the hottest motion graphics, broadcast design, and animation studios in the country using Flash and After Effects, followed by our annual Best in the SW: Flash Animation & Motion Graphics Awards program.

Be transported.
View the 2007 Domie Award winners and 40 minutes of the most innovative full-dome animations, motion graphics, and works of art at an after-hours party at the ARTS Labs Digital Media Garage on October 10th. Full-dome video is a rapidly growing medium with over 125 immersive displays deployed worldwide in planetariums and special-venue theaters. Freed from the "tyranny of the frame," artists transport viewers into fully immersive, mind-bending environments and alternate worlds as they explore storytelling techniques for this new medium.

An while you're at the ARTS Lab - join the party! We're blocking the street and making room for fun! Join the 2007 Best in the SW speakers, industry leaders and Adobe pros for an evening of food, drinks and music. See live motion capture demonstrations. Enjoy a unique visual sound design experience by artist Carla Barlow. Network with fellow attendees, enjoy food and drink, and be prepared for an evening of fun!

Take your pick.
Choose from the 3-day conference pass or full-festival pass that includes an extra day of pre-conference workshops. Then work hands-on with a pro in 2 days of post-conference intensives.

Best in the SW will be held at the Embassy Suites hotel in Albuquerque from October 8-11, 2007. For more information on conference events, or to register, visit www.bestinthesw.com.

Best in the SW 2007 speakers include:

• Zoa Martinez: A&E Networks, Animal Planet, Chrysler, Disney/ESPN, Dodge, HBO, SKY Italia, Time Warner/NY1
• Phil Nibbelink: Disney, Casper, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, An American Tail, We're Back
• Mark Coleran: The Bourne Ultimatum, Mission Impossible 3, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• Stanton Cruse: ABC, Slacker Cats, MTV 2, Where My Dogs At, Cartoon Network
• Trish & Chris Meyer: Cybermotion, CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, The Learning Channel, HBO, PBS
• Alex Lindsay: Industrial Light & Magic, Titan AE, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
• Chris Georgenes: Leapfrog, Nicktoons, Teletubbies, New Balance, Hasbro, Fuse TV, Carnegie Hall, PBS
• Dr. Woohoo: Fila, Bank of America, eTrade, CamelBak, Nike Golf, Nascar, Taylormade, NBC
• Ehren Addis: Universal Studios, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Old Navy, Atlantis, Motorola, Sketchers
• Michael Coleman: Adobe - Product Manager for Adobe After Effects
• Kevan O'Brien: Adobe - Video Expert

Labels: Adobe, After Effects, Best in SW, CyberMotion, Event, Flash

HDTV Quality Web Video Reaches the Masses With Industry Standard Video Codec in Flash Player

San Jose, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- Aug. 21, 2007 Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the latest update for Adobe® Flash® Player 9 software, code-named Moviestar, which includes H.264 standard video support -- the same standard deployed in Blu-Ray® and HD-DVD(R) high definition video players -- and High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) audio support, as well as hardware accelerated, multi-core enhanced full screen video playback. These advancements will extend Adobe's leadership position in Web video by enabling the delivery of HD television quality and premium audio content through the ubiquitous Adobe Flash Player and pave the way to expand rich media Flash experiences on the desktop and H.264 ready consumer devices. The latest update for Adobe Flash Player 9 will be available in beta for immediate download later today on Adobe Labs.

With H.264 encoding already available in Adobe Premiere® Pro and Adobe After Effects® software, H.264 playback is now enabled in Adobe Flash Player, and will be supported by the Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) and applications developed with Adobe AIR(TM) software, including Adobe Media Player(TM). Adobe AIR is a cross-operating system application runtime that enables developers to use their existing skills to build and deploy rich Internet applications to the desktop. The Adobe Media Player, which leverages Adobe's Emmy(R) Award winning Flash architecture, delivers engaging video experiences to viewers while offering content publishers new abilities to distribute, track and build businesses around their media assets.

"Adobe is committed to providing a seamless creation-to-playback solution that allows creatives and developers to produce video and rich-media once, and then deploy that content across the widest array of distribution and playback environments," said John Loiacono, senior vice president of Creative Solutions at Adobe. "Already a broadly adopted industry standard, the inclusion of the H.264 codec in Adobe Flash Player, Adobe AIR, the Creative Suite(R) product line, and the upcoming Adobe Media Player will accelerate customer workflows, enabling the creation and repurpose of high-quality Web video content without extra development costs."

Broader Reach for Video Consumers

Adobe Flash Player content reaches over 98 percent of Internet-enabled desktops, as well as a wide range of devices. Today, both live and on demand television shows are being delivered online with video that can be viewed using Adobe Flash Player, and the technology also powers the video capabilities of social networking sites such YouTube and MySpace. As Adobe expands Flash experiences outside the Web browser, content can be shared across different devices and people can get great video experiences on the video players of their choice, including the upcoming Adobe Media Player. Consumers can also stream user-generated content such as home movies from Adobe Premiere® Elements with Adobe Flash Player and play video movies on handheld, portable devices.

"MTV Networks has consistently led the industry in making its popular music, entertainment and comedy programming available everywhere so our audiences can stay in touch with all the great content they love from CMT, COMEDY CENTRAL, Logo, MTV, Nickelodeon, Spike and VH1," said Nick Rockwell, senior vice president and chief technology officer for MTV Networks. "Flash is an important part of that strategy and Adobe's support of H.264 in Adobe Flash Player, Adobe AIR and the upcoming Adobe Media Player will ensure that we continue to deliver high-quality video to our diverse audiences who expect it."

Content developers can reduce the cost of encoding and preparing data for distribution with H.264 and HE-AAC support in Adobe Flash Player, since these standards are already integrated into their existing authoring workflows. In addition, Adobe is working with an ecosystem of video encoding partners to expand rich media Flash experiences that already support these standards.

Availability

The public beta version of the update to Adobe Flash Player 9 software, code-named Moviestar, which includes H.264 and HE-AAC functionality, will be available later today as a free download from Adobe Labs. The final release is expected to be available via update in the fall. Demonstrations of Adobe Flash(R) Media Server and Adobe Flash Media Encoder supporting the new codecs will be held during the IBC 2007 at the RAI Exhibition and Congress Center in Amsterdam, September 7- 11 (Stand 7.721) and again at the Adobe MAX conference in Chicago, which begins September 30th.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated

Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information -- anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit http://www.adobe.com.

Labels: Adobe, After Effects, Flash, Premiere Pro

Roll-Out Completes Largest Software Release in Adobe's 25-Year History

SAN JOSE, Calif. - July 2, 2007 - Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the immediate availability of Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium and Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection software. Adobe Production Premium CS3 is the industry's most comprehensive collection of integrated cross-platform post-production software tools, helping video professionals deliver stunning results for film, broadcast, DVD, Web, and mobile devices. Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection combines 12 of Adobe's new design and development products in a single box - the most comprehensive creative environment ever delivered.

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium and Master Collection ship today in North America, with other language versions - including French, German and Japanese - available by mid July. With Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Editions and Creative Suite 3 Web Editions already in market and receiving rave customer reviews, this completes the roll-out of the company's revolutionary Creative Suite 3 family, the largest software release in Adobe's 25-year history.

"One word: integration. People around the world will be amazed by how easy it is to move among applications in Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection and Production Premium," said Jason Zada, executive creative director and founder of EVB, a digital content marketing agency in San Francisco, CA. "Because our workflow is so heavily based on moving very quickly through applications, this new Adobe software will save us hundreds of hours that we can put back into our projects."

Capture-to-Delivery Workflow with Production Premium
Now available for both PC and Mac platforms, Adobe Production Premium integrates time-saving workflow technologies with milestone releases of Adobe After Effects® CS3 Professional, Adobe Premiere® Pro CS3, Adobe Encore® CS3, Adobe Photoshop® CS3 Extended, Adobe Illustrator® CS3, Adobe Flash® CS3 Professional, and Adobe® Soundbooth^TM CS3, which can also be purchased as stand-alone applications. Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 software offers enhanced features such as new format support and a unique Time Remapping tool that improves slow motion and variable speed effects. After Effects CS3 software offers Shape Layers for drawing and animating vector shapes; the Puppet tool for stretching and manipulating 2D images as lifelike animations; and the Brainstorm tool for interactively generating and previewing animation variations. For audio, Soundbooth CS3 software enables post-production professionals to clean up recordings, polish voiceovers, customize music and sound effects-even if audio production isn't their specialty.

Special additions to Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium include Adobe OnLocation^TM CS3 for direct-to-disk recording and monitoring and Adobe Ultra® CS3 software for easy chroma keying. For Macintosh users, Adobe OnLocation requires Boot Camp and Windows (purchased separately) or a separate Windows® based computer. Adobe Ultra CS3 is only included in the Windows edition.

The Best Creative Tools Come Together
Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection combines all of Adobe's flagship creative products, for the design and delivery of high-impact content across media - from print and the Web, to interactive applications, mobile devices, video and film. Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection includes all-new versions of Adobe InDesign® CS3, Photoshop® CS3 Extended, Illustrator® CS3, Flash® CS3 Professional, Dreamweaver® CS3, Fireworks® CS3, Contribute® CS3, After Effects® CS3 Professional, Adobe Premiere Pro® CS3, Soundbooth® CS3, and Encore® CS3, as well as Acrobat® 8 Professional software.

Pricing and Availability
Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium and Master Collection software will support Intel based Macintosh systems, Microsoft® Windows® XP, and Windows Vista^TM.

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection and Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium are immediately available in the US and Canada through Adobe Authorized Resellers and the Adobe Store at www.adobe.com/store . The estimated street price for the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection is US$2,499. The estimated street price for Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium is US$1,699. There are numerous upgrade paths available for Adobe customers. For more detailed information about features, upgrade policies, pricing, and international versions, please visit: .

About Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information - anytime, anywhere and through any medium.

Labels: Adobe, After Effects, Creative Suite, Flash, Premiere Pro, Soundbooth

Check out some new Flash tutorials by Collis Ta'eed of FlashDen.net.

• Bend and Snap - Using Shape Tweens to do something different
• Super Zoom - Using a sequence of images to zoom in and out

I'll be adding a few more tutorials from Collis later this week. Enjoy!

Labels: Adobe, Flash, Tutorial