Adobe began shipping the much anticipated CS3 design and Web software bundles. Additionally, Adobe has added several software titles to Labs.

Amongst the new Beta software in Labs is:

• Adobe After Effects CS3 Pro
• Adobe Premiere CS3 Pro
• Adobe Soundbooth CS3 beta 3
• Flash Lite for BREW Publisher for Flash CS3 Professional prerelease
• knowhow (preview)

After Effects and Premiere have been long overdue. I am very excited to play with both titles. Soundbooth is great and new beta versions are always fun.

The Flash Lite for BREW Publisher is obviously needed. I am very happy that Adobe released this tool. The only thing they neglected to include was a Mac bundle (sigh). I am sure that there are other developers that will only use one licenced copy of Flash CS3 (in my case on my Mac), and will need to create Mod/Mif files from it.

I am also very happy to see the knowhow demo. It seems like a great panel to add to the CS3 suite.

knowhow is a technology preview that delivers single-click, contextual access to relevant help information from a panel in Adobe® Creative Suite® 3 software. knowhow gives users access to a wide variety of information—basic tool descriptions and short cuts, Adobe Help content, as well as community-generated tutorials, tips, and techniques on the web.

Tags: Adobe, CS3, Design, developer, Flash, Flash Lite, ie, PR, punchkick, Tutorials
Posted in Adobe, BREW, CS3, Design, Dreamweaver, Flash, Flash Lite, Illustrator, Mobile, Photoshop, Verizon Wireless

First let me preface this by saying that this trick currently is only support by Flash Player. Flash Lite does not support PNG-8 files with alpha made with Fireworks (Note that it may be a handset issue and not a Flash Lite issue). If you want to petition for this feature, feel free to comment and I will pass the “signatures” along.

I understand that you can create a PNG-8 image file with alpha transparency using Adobe Photoshop. However, those files are far more inferior than a PNG-8 image that is created using Fireworks. I will demonstrate why a Photoshop PNG-8 lags behind a Fireworks PNG-8 in the follow paragraphs.

First off, PNG-24 looks better than anything else, but the filesizes are much larger than any other format. The ideal goal would be to create a PNG-8 with alpha that looks like a PNG-24—Fireworks comes close. Both Adobe Photoshop and Fireworks allow you to save a PNG-8 file with alpha, however, a Fireworks PNG-8 lets you combine color data with alpha much like a PNG-24.

To get a clearer understanding of what I mean, create a file with Adobe Photoshop and set the background to transparent. Next, create a new layer—fill it with content—then blur it to death. You will have created pixel data that has both color and alpha transparency. Use the “Save For Web” dialog and notice the differences between the PNG-24 and the PNG-8. The PNG-8 will be much smaller, but look much worse than the PNG-24. Click the image to see a larger version—it shows what I mean.

Next, take that PNG-24 and import it into Fireworks. In the “Optimize” panel, match the settings that I used and select File >> Export. You will be exporting a 256 color, PNG-8 with alpha transparency (you may not even need all 256 colors).



Finally, review the different options for image files that use transparency. As you can see, the PNG-8 created with Fireworks looks almost exactly the same as the Photoshop PNG-24, however, it is less than 1/3 the file size. This method of creating PNG-8 files with alpha will benifit any Web designer that creates Flash Web sites or banners.

Photoshop PNG-24

Fireworks PNG-8

Photoshop PNG-8

Tags: Adobe, colors, Design, Flash, Flash Lite, flash player, ie, PR, punchkick, Tutorials
Posted in Adobe, CS3, Design, Flash, Photoshop, Punchkick Interactive

It’s very exciting that the (INTEL NATIVE!) CS3 has been released. This is meant to highlight the major new features. Mainly, integration, integration, integration. I will be updating this as the presentation from Adobe goes on.

Photoshop Extended

Flash Video integrated.

Import Video frames to layers.

Stack Mode blends changes in pixels between frames of video.

Color Widget built using Apollo.

Dreamweaver

GUI AJAX Integration. Dreamweaver CS3 has GUI widgets that you can drag and drop onto your Web design. XML controlled data.

Check browser compatibility tool shows coding problems before they start. Dreamweaver checks for problems with every major Web browser.

CSS Advisor is a new, community run Web site within Adobe.com.

Illustrator

Illustrator integrates seamlessly with Flash and now includes some of the Flash-style editing tools.

Live Color.

Flash

File::Import:: — Dialog Box looks to the layers of Photoshop and Illustrator files and automatically creates movie clips and dynamic text boxes based on the layers you choose. VERY EASY .ILL and .PSD integration.

You can now save “styles” for your animations. This allows you to copy motion tweens as Action Script 3.0. Then-you can paste the Action Script somewhere else and duplicate the animations.

Video Production

INTEL NATIVE!!!!!!!!!

Now you can import SWFs into After Effects CS3! The animation is retained! It’s about time.

AMG! Now you can import Photoshop’s vanishing points and animate a 3D model of a still image in After Effects CS3.

Puppet Tool: Lets you take a still image and it lets you create organic character animations. AMG! You must see the demo of this. It is amazing.

Dynamic Link Feature: On the Mac, bring After Effects CS3 compositions and dynamically link them into Premere Pro CS3. Then, edit the original file back in After Effects with no need to render.

Time Remapping is premere pro feature that lets you add variable speed time changes on video content. This means, you can go from normal speed, to slow-mo, to high speed, all within the Premere Pro CS timeline.

AMG! Amazing. Amazing. Visual editor within Adobe Soundbooth lets you delete background sound out of audio files with a marquee tool.

Adobe Encore is available on the Mac, finally.

Author once, then you can output three different files. Standard Deff, Blu-Ray Hi Deff, or Flash.

The Flash output from Encore brings in interactive features such as menu screens and subtitles.

Adobe Media Encoder lets you output directly to mobile devices.

Device Central

Integrated into nearly every component of the Creative Suite.

Several hundred devices.

Emulates processor performance of devices.

Preview video from Adobe Media Encoder.

NOW FOR THE PACKAGES:
Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium
Design content for today — and tomorrow — with Adobe® Creative Suite® 3 Design Premium software. Design Premium combines all-new versions of essential tools for professional page layout, image editing, illustration, and Adobe PDF workflows with new tools for creating engaging websites, interactive experiences, and mobile content.

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium
Adobe® Creative Suite® 3 Web Premium software offers a complete solution for creating interactive websites, applications, user interfaces, presentations, mobile device content, and other digital experiences. Get everything you need to prototype your project, design assets, build web experiences, and efficiently maintain and update content. Work on your choice of Mac or Windows®.

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection
Express your ideas in print, on the web, in film and video, and on mobile devices with Adobe® Creative Suite® 3 Master Collection software. Combines Adobe InDesign® CS3, Photoshop® CS3 Extended, Illustrator® CS3, Acrobat® 8 Professional, Flash® CS3 Professional, Dreamweaver® CS3, Fireworks® CS3, Contribute® CS3, After Effects® CS3 Professional, Adobe Premiere® Pro CS3, Soundbooth™ CS3, and Encore® CS3, and also includes Adobe Bridge CS3, Version Cue® CS3, Device Central CS3, Dynamic Link, Adobe OnLocation™ CS3 (Windows® only), and Ultra® CS3 (Windows only).

Links
http://www.adobe.com/creativelicense/
http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/launchevent/webcast/
http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/design/
http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/web/
http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/production/
http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/mastercollection/

Tags: Adobe, Advergames, CS3, css, Design, Flash, ie, Mobile, mobile devices, Mobile Marketing, PDA, PR, punchkick, update
Posted in Adobe, CS3, Design, Dreamweaver, Flash, Flash Lite, Illustrator, Mobile, Mobile Marketing, Mobile Video, Photoshop, Press Release, Punchkick Interactive