Second Life and Virtual Worlds
Adobe updates their software often. Recently they updated Photoshop (15.5.0). I just got the previous version figured out… now things have moved around again.
This image required I clip me out of the picture and put in a shadow and background. The entire refine selection process has changed. I had to go find a tutorial. Here is the tutorial that got me started on the right foot.
Those of us subscribing to the Adobe CC have received a set of updates. One of which is the latest version of Photoshop.
They have moved things around. So, some of the features I regularly use are not where I expect them to be. Annoying. But, once I get used to the changes, it will be better. Less clicks. And there is a new feature for masking and selection.
There are some tutorials coming out from Adobe showing what is new in the latest releases of Photoshop. This one is on the font selection changes made recently. See: Adobe Typekit.
We now have far more ways to find fonts and preview them than we used to have.
There is now an easy way to deal with missing fonts you may find when working with a colleague’s files.
Another new feature is smarter Smart Guides. Scroll down for the tutorial.
There are changes in linking Smart Objects.
Honour has a post up titled: How Deep is Your Field in Second Life? She was having a problem getting the viewer’s Depth of Field (DoF) feature to work. She links to Ricco Saenz’s explanation of how to get it working: How to actually capture depth of field on your SL photos. But, not why it does what is does.
DoF is one thing I have found I cannot control in my RL S4’s camera, or have yet to learn how. It is a reason I still use my Sony digital camera for RL imaging. DoF is something I seldom use in Second Life™ because I prefer the control I have in Photoshop. But, I can imagine that some will find DoF more usable in the viewer than adding it in post production.
Last Thursday Strawberry Singh did a tutorial on how to make a cutout for making Flat Whoevers. See: Making a Flat Cutout for Second Life using Photoshop. The tutorial is simple and straight forward. You get everything you need to know to make a decent cutout. But, there are some Photoshop tools that make the process much easier and provide a much better result.
The new Photoshop CC and CS6 (think it is in CS5.5 too) have a feature called Refine Edge. If you are trying to trim hair or fur out of a background, you have to learn about this tool. Check out the 10 minute video.
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The video is made by Howard Pinsky. It is on the pro side, which for me means no rambling, tangents, or umm-haa’s. It is to the point, clear, and crisp. I subscribed to his channel. If you use Photoshop and are still learning, and who isn’t still learning, then this is a good channel for you.
Some news is coming in on Adobe’s change to a monthly release plan. It seems it is being well accepted. Adobe’s published earning is beating the street’s estimates. See Tech Crunch for details: Adobe’s Q2 Earnings Beat Street With $1.011B In Revenue, $0.36 EPS, 700K Paying Creative Cloud Subscribers or 92% of their users.
New features are rolling out in the CC version of the software. Below is a Photoshop change in how it works with 3D painting.
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A longer and more detailed Q&A about the new CC is here: Adobe MAX: What’s New in Photoshop CC. This is mostly and audio with slides. And while it uses Photoshop in the title, this is more about how CC works.
I plan to sign up this month.