A closer look at Adobe's new Photoshop and CS4 in videos

[AppleInsider]

Since announcing its new Creative Suite 4.0 product family on Tuesday, Adobe has gone on to published some videos demonstrating features of the new Mac version of Photoshop Extended, which also includes support for Multi-Touch Macs.

Multi-Touch support

Although unmentioned by Adobe in its press releases, Wired points out that Photoshop CS4 includes support for the Multi-Touch trackpads currently found on Apple's MacBook Pro and MacBook Air notebooks.

Users can reportedly pinch to zoom in and out, twist an image and also 'throw' a picture across the screen by holding down the space bar and clicking and dragging the image when it's in a zoomed state.

The end result is something akin to scrolling on the iPhone, Wired says.

Photoshop CS4 features

Meanwhile, Adobe fellow Russell Brown has published a number of short video clips demonstrating other features of Photoshop CS4 Extended for the Mac, primarily those revolving around the software's new 3D capabilities.

Content-Aware Scale



Content-aware scaling is essentially a next-generation Transform tool that automatically detects the areas of complexity of an image, then only scales -- or squeezes -- the areas of the image with the least complexity. It's supported by a number of settings, one of which offers protection of skin tones and another that lets the user set a threshold on content-aware scales. Users can also choose to "protect" a portion of an image during a scale, producing a variety of desired results.

Spherical Panorama



Photoshop's new Spherical Panorama feature lets users project a 2D image into a 3D space, thereby wrapping the image around the inside of a sphere to create a panorama. Using supporting tools also new to Photoshop, users can stitch together a complete 360 degree walkthrough of a room.

3D Quick Look



One of the new 3D features in Photoshop CS4 Extended is the ability to change the lighting of a scene, add new lights, or delete lights that came with the original model. Another allows for painting directly onto a 3D object, where brush strokes follow the three-dimensional path of an object rather than that of a flat canvas. Meanwhile, an anaglyphic preview mode allows users to put on blue and red 3D glass to view an image in 3D on screen or via a printout.

3D Mesh from Grayscale



Another 3D feature is "3D Mesh from Grayscale," which converts 2D grayscale images into 3D objects. 3D depth maps can then be generated directly from the image itself.

3D Eclipse Animation



A third 3D feature covered in Brown's tutorial shows how a 3D solar eclipse animation can be simulated from 2D images.

Creative Suite 4.0 Feature tours

Separately, Adobe has published a number of product feature tours covering its new Design Premium, Web Premium and Production Premium bundles, as well as Photoshop CS4, InDesign CS4 and Dreamweaver CS4.

Design Premium CS4



Web Premium CS4



Production Premium CS4



Photoshop CS4



Photoshop CS4 Extended



InDesign CS4



Flash CS4



Illustrator CS4



Dreamweaver CS4



Adobe is currently taking pre-orders through its website for all of its CS4 bundles ahead of their release next month.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[eAi]

Content-aware scaling is certainly impressive, but I'm not sure anything else listed here catches my eye...

[palegolas]

Originally Posted by eAi

Content-aware scaling is certainly impressive, but I'm not sure anything else listed here catches my eye...

I agree! That looked fantastic.
It will be interesting to see how good it works in high resolution.

[JeffDM]

I'm working through the videos right now. The example used to demonstrate "Mesh from Grayscale" doesn't demonstrate the feature well. a lot of the resulting 3D "canyon" rises higher than the plateau, and yet the narrator says it looks realistic! I had experimented with the general idea several years ago, making an image to a CNC cut path, and the basic problem I had is that a lot of work needs to be done to make sure that the brightness really does correspond to a depth, at least within reason. I don't know if that can be done very well with a photo or not, seems like a lot of work to make it right.

[iVlad]

These are agreat videos. Great new features, but still its weird that Adobe didn't support 64bit Mac.

[Virgil-TB2]

Wow. Who the heck is Russell Brown and why hasn't anyone killed him yet?

Some of the worst videos I've seen in a while, and super-duper over the top hyperbolic enthusiasm!!!!! (not to mention the classic "whiny" voice).

Here's a hint Russell, a video is about moving images and it tells a story. These huge files could be replaced by two static pictures and tell the story much better.

[bloggerblog]

Wait a minute, these are really nice features! So much for the CS4 is a "bug fix" rumors.
Go figure...

[bugsnw]

That 3D canyon thing was a bust, but in general, this looks like a lot more than a bug fix. Some of the features look really cool.

For detailed work, the zooming/rotating/moving tools are amazing. Watching them in action almost makes me reach for the credit card...

[Sybaritic]

Even Illustrator has nice updated features. Adobe's least intuitive software (rivaled perhaps by Flash) is entering puberty.

[flinch13]

Seems like a pretty big hint that Apple's going to implement some sort of multi-touch feature on its new macs.

Just think about it; there hasn't been new iMacs for quite a while, and the displays are LONG overdue for an upgrade. The technology has been tested and perfected in the iPhone and iPod touch. It's only a matter of time before it gets to Apple's computers, and what better time for that than the release of high profile programs that support multitouch?

All of this 3D object manipulation stuff is being made high-profile because of multitouch, that seems certain to me.

[james_mac]

ugh... yes, Photoshop has "more features"... but I don't want all these features!!!! Who wants to be doing 3D animation in Photoshop!!! Talk about bloatware!

[SpamSandwich]

Actually the 3D improvements in Photoshop can be very helpful for instances where one is mixing photo backgrounds and models of displays or buildings. These are smart updates.

I'm really excited with the small, but intelligent improvements to Illustrator. I am really looking forward to getting the software now.

[Crtaylor]

Photoshop CS4 has already astounded me even though its not in the wild yet. One could possibly map someone's face in 3D with this. Even though Photoshop is not totally a 3D program, it certainly will make doing 3D a whole lot easier.

[SpamSandwich]

Originally Posted by james_mac

ugh... yes, Photoshop has "more features"... but I don't want all these features!!!! Who wants to be doing 3D animation in Photoshop!!! Talk about bloatware!

You can always get the 'regular' version if you don't need the extended version features.

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by SpamSandwich

You can always get the 'regular' version if you don't need the extended version features.

Or even, not upgrade! But I suppose that might not work so well if you have to trade files with people that did upgrade. Then that's a bummer.

[bloggerblog]

Originally Posted by JeffDM

Or even, not upgrade! But I suppose that might not work so well if you have to trade files with people that did upgrade. Then that's a bummer.

You can always saved your files as layered TIFFs I guess besides Photoshop is one of those apps that are very friendly when it comes to reverse compatibility.

I'm glad Adobe is taking 3D more seriously, I'd like to see even better 3D features in Illustrator.

[SpamSandwich]

Originally Posted by bloggerblog

You can always saved your files as layered TIFFs I guess besides Photoshop is one of those apps that are very friendly when it comes to reverse compatibility.

I'm glad Adobe is taking 3D more seriously, I'd like to see even better 3D features in Illustrator.

My question is what kind of 3D export options are there, if any. I'd love to be able to texture my models directly in Photoshop, then export to my other 3D programs for animation. I know, it shouldn't be compared with high-end paint programs, but still...