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So you thought you'd always be a member in good standing of the Photoshop Club, simply by upgrading every second or third version? With the recent announcement of mandatory Creative Cloud subscriptions to Photoshop and the other applications that once formed a part of its Creative Suites, Adobe has effectively shattered that illusion. So welcome to the new world, in which you'll be shelling out each month and every month until the next millennium for the right to run Photoshop. And if you stop subscribing? Good luck opening your files with a third-party application.
The animago awards have been spotlighting great work in the digital media production and visualisation domains since 1997. The 2012 awards were revealed last week, chosen from a field of 950 entries submitted from more than 50 countries. I've included all the award winners here, with some being teasers and others the entire work. Above is the launch trailer for Mass Effect 3: Take Earth Back. Created by Digic Pictures, Hungary, it snagged Best Post Production. You'll find some great work here. My favorites? The Chase, for its relentless action and amusing finish, and the sobering Ending Fishing. Although, the Cartier clip is visually stunning. Okay, okay, I liked all of them. Well, all except that weird Jury's Prize winner. Someone explain that to me.
Or so it would seem, judging by a new book release from German publisher Gestalten. While ancient and widespread, until recently in the West, tattoos marked those bearing them as being somehow apart, as members of mysterious tribes with vaguely disturbing belief systems and practices. But we've now reached the point where your grandmother could show up at the family barbeque sporting a butterfly or a flower and barely an eyebrow would be raised. The act of being tattooed has become so banal that it's no more exotic than getting your ears pierced. And somehow that banality has sucked all the life out of a long and rich decorative art. Admittedly, we don't all want to look like the ominously tattooed inmates in Russian prisons (search on "russian prison tattoo"), but still.
When Creative Suite 6 ships, sometime within the next few months, Adobe is hoping you'll purchase a subscription to its Creative Cloud, which is a central component of the release. Let me restate that: Adobe is really, REALLY hoping you'll pop for a subscription. And when you look closely at this cloud-based "creative hub," as Adobe calls it, it's not hard to see why, since it solves a lot of problems for the firm.
We humans are frightened by a lot of things but for most of us the scariest thing of all is contemplating the future. Not a future in which all is happiness and bliss but one in which something horrible pops up out of nowhere to grab us by the throat. Some unforeseen event so overwhelming that our lives are forever damaged. Ready and waiting to respond to this fear is, of course, the insurance industry.
Admit it, you've always wanted to have a giant skeleton emerging from your living-room wall, haven't you? No? Hmmm. Wait, I see the problem. Sorry, I was confusing this with my other blogging gig for Fangoria. Skeletons! Silly me, of course you don't crave oversize images of the living dead or alien surfers or giant bitmapped doughnuts (well, maybe that last one). So let's approach this from your perspective, that of a creative type in constant quest for new revenue streams and fresh services to offer your clients.
Who amongst us has not been tempted to make use of an image found via Google Image Search? In the past, you would have been wise to avoid that temptation, since in most cases this would have run counter to the intent of the image creator. But Google has recently added the ability to determine the usage rights connected with such images, which is good news for those either seeking or creating imagery.
There are some applications that I just can't get excited about upgrading. My copy of Word, for example, is antediluvian, and yet it still provides all the functionality I need. Given that there are now open source and online alternatives, there's probably nothing Microsoft could do to induce me to upgrade, short of giving it away. I imagine I'm not the only one with this attitude. The situation is different, however, when it comes to graphics and publishing applications. Or is it?
For the uninitiated, it may come as a surprise to hear that Graphics.com plays host to four ongoing design contests and challenges. While they all have in common a connection with a Jupiterimages stock content site, each provides a different way for you to participate and express your creativity, whether graphically or from a design perspective, ranging from an open-ended approach to those that have quite rigorous requirements. They're all fun to participate in and provide a way to stretch out a bit, freed from the day-to-day rigors of paid work. They also offer the potential to take home subscriptions to Photos.com, AbleStock.com or liquidlibrary.com.
I think that most readers of the Graphic Design Forum blogs are aware that the site is part of the Graphics.com Network. But it's less well understood that the Network is in turn a member of JupiterOnlineMedia, itself a division of Jupitermedia Corporation (don't worry, there will be no pop quiz). Another division of Jupitermedia is Jupiterimages, which has grown from consisting originally just of Clipart.com and Photos.com, to including a wealth of stock content sites, covering everything from royalty-free microstock, to high-end photos, illustrations, music, footage and Flash clips.
