If you are attempting to update your Illustrator CS5 to 15.0.2 and are receiving the following error, there is a solution for you. You will receive this error only if have the HTML5 pack installed.

If you have the HTML5 pack installed, remove the following files:

For Mac -

<Install Location>/Adobe Illustrator CS5/Plug-ins/Extensions/ArtStyle.aip
<Install Location>/Adobe Illustrator CS5/Plug-ins/Extensions/CharParaStyles.aip
<Install Location>/Adobe Illustrator CS5/Plug-ins/Extensions/Layers Panel.aip
<Install Location>/Adobe Illustrator CS5/Plug-ins/Illustrator Formats/SVG File Format.aip

1. Browse to the following location:

   <Install Location>/Adobe Illustrator CS5/Adobe Illustrator.app
   Ctrl+Click and choose Show Package Contents

2. Browse to the location and remove the folder Contents/Frameworks/AdobeSVGExport.framework

Restore all the files you removed from Illustrator 15.0.1 from the  backup that you took while installing HTML5 pack. If you do not have  the backup you can get the files fromhere

1. Install Illustrator 15.0.2 update through Adobe Updater.
2. Download the Illustrator CS5 HTML5 Pack and double click to mount it.
3. Follow the instructions in dmg to copy/replace the Plug-ins/Frameworks to their respective folders.
4. Launch Illustrator CS5.

and for Windows-

<Install Location>\Adobe Illustrator CS5\Plug-ins\Extensions\Art Style.aip
<Install Location>\Adobe Illustrator CS5\Plug-ins\Extensions\CharParaStyles.aip
<Install Location>\Adobe Illustrator CS5\Plug-ins\Extensions\Layers Panel.aip
<Install Location>\Adobe Illustrator CS5\Plug-ins\Illustrator Formats\SVG File Format.aip
<Install Location>\Adobe Illustrator CS5\Support Files\Contents\Windows\SVGExport.dll

Restore all the removed files from Illustrator 15.0.1 backup that  you  took while installing HTML5 pack. If you do not have the backup you  can get the files from here

1. Install Illustrator 15.0.2 update through Adobe Updater.
2. Now take the backup of files mentioned in 2a above at a location not within the <Install Location> of Illustrator.
3. Download the Illustrator CS5 HTML5 Pack and extract the contents to  <Install Location>/Adobe Illustrator  CS5/. You are prompted to replace the five files; confirm the  replacement.
4. Launch Illustrator CS5.

After you have removed these files, install the 15.0.2 update, then you can safely reinstall your HTML5 pack from Adobe Labs.

With “Cyber Monday” upon  us, I thought I would weigh in with my Holiday Wish List for Creatives. This is in no particular order, but I will unveil my “Must Have” item at the end.

1. The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby.

This is the book I give out in all my Photoshop Classes. Don’t be deceived by the title. This book covers what to do with your shots after you have taken them. From retouching to effects, every edition of this book has been phenomenal and packed with information.

(EXTRA BONUS: Kelbytraining.com is giving you a free bonus DVD with a book purchase!)

2. Photoshop User Magazine/NAPP Membership

Having been a charter year member of NAPP, I can tell you that my membership has been indispensable. Not only do you get 10 issues a year of Photoshop User (which now will include Layers Magazine content), but you get access to their website www.photoshopuser.com.

With each subscription, you will also receive a bonus DVD “The Best of Photoshop User: The Twelfth Year” with tips, tutorials and articles from the past year.

3. Adobe TV

For all of you frugal shoppers, this site is free! Adobe TV gives you access to tutorials, sneak peeks and presentations (including MAX 2010) from Adobe. A great way to keep your skills up on the latest and upcoming technology including digital publishing!

4. MacBook Pro with Solid State Drive

This is for the person willing to splurge. With the new MacBook Pros coming out with an available SSD (Solid State Drive) the speed barrier has been crushed. If you have ever complained that “My Mac is sooo slow” give one of these a spin and hold on tight. Comparison videos online show a traditional HD and SSD side by side and by far the SSD blows away anything on the market today.

5. Is my total necessity and must have item for the 2010 holiday creative shopper is…

ME! Kidding. It’s Adobe Creative Suite 5!

In my career both as a teacher and graphic designer, there have been only a few times where I have been truly excited about change in our industry. Today the hot trend is digital publishing. CS5 is the tool publishers and designers are using to create this new format. From Martha Stewart Living to Wired, magazines are taking note and brining their content to an online dynamic format using CS5. The best part is CS5 helps print designers make this transition as painless as possible using existing technologies including InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop and blending them with Flash and CSS/HTML5.

So Happy Holidays and here’s to a creative New Year!

Unfortunately, Photoshop cannot help you with something like this. Happy Thanksgiving!

Hi all,

Just a short post today in anticipation of getting back on track with my blog posts. Today I wanted to show you one quick technique that will make using the new Perspective Grid and Tools a little easier for you.

When adding items to the perspective grid, it can very confusing and difficult to edit them in perspective after the fact, especially if they are a complex object. Instead of creating directly on the grid or dragging objects into the grid, first convert your object into a symbol!

This will give you the added benefit of the symbol-editing Isolation Mode, which can be accessed by double-clicking on the symbol even while in perspective. It not only makes editing easier, but it also shows you the flat object, not in perspective!

Here is a list of the CMS related sites visited during C2′s CMS Overview

Client Side Software Packages
Adobe Dreamweaver
Adobe Contribute

Hosted CMS Solutions
LightCMS
pagelime
Adobe Business Catalyst

CMS Solutions
CushyCMS
Textpattern
WordPress
Concrete5
ExpressionEngine
Joomla!
Drupal
Django

Shopping Cart Solutions
Magento
Shopify
Amazon WebStore
Zencart
Ubercart
VirtueMart
OpenCart

Articles and Reference
Popular Server Side languages
BitNami Stacks
10 Best Content Management Systems for Designers
Top 12 CMS’s

Now that we have the basics of digital painting from a photographic source down, lets talk about stylization. Creating a painting that is photo-realistic can be a lot of work, but adding your own touches to the image will really set it apart and make it pop.

Again, I will be using the shot from iStockphoto as my base for this demonstration, and my initial setup is the same. I will mask the subject onto a new layer,  group the original images, and paint on separate layers for each part of the subject (see Part 3 for more details).

However, this time I am going to stylize each part using different techniques starting with the feathers.

After I have the initial painting completed, just like in Part 3, I am going to choose a small fine tip brush. I also make sure that if I am using a Wacom tablet and stylus, I want to check “Shape Dynamics” in the Brushes panel. Next, I will use the eyedropper (hold opt/alt when using a brush tool) to choose a lighter color from my feathers. Now I am going to use long strokes with a wet brush to pull out fine details in the edges of the feather like so:

Be sure to mix colors as you go along, using the eyedropper to load your brush with new paint. Otherwise you will have a monotone look to your image.

Next, I’m going to tackle the hair. Again this is on it’s own layer so it will not bleed color from the other parts. The technique is similar but I will change the colors, Blending Brush combination and brush size more frequently. Another great trick is to mix your own colors, don’t just rely on the photo.

Here is the hair:

Finally is skin. Skin can be a tricky component as it tends to blend into a single hue as you mix with your brush. The trick is to add some depth and detail back in after the initial painting. Choose colors from your swatches or mix your own to blend in with the skin tone.

Before adding detail – big formless blob of color:

After details:

The detail of the original photo seems to detract from the painting, so another technique is to duplicate the original subject layer, and apply a blur to it. This will help blend in any leftover original image with your painting.

Next time, in our final part of the series, I will show you how to create a painting from scratch using these techniques.

Welcome back! In part 3, we will be showing you how to bring it all together and start painting using a photograph as the starting file. (Part 5 we will paint from scratch.)

First, select what subject you would like to use for your painting. I am choosing this image, from iStockphoto because it has good contrast, interesting subject matter and will lend itself well to our demonstration.

Next, we have to set up the file for our painting. I always mask out the main subject from the background before I start. This has become so much easier in CS5 thanks to the newly revised Refine Edge options. I first start by using the Quick Select tool to make a rough selection. Then go to Refine Edge by either right-clicking on my selection,  using the button in the options bar or via the Select menu. Adjust your selection as needed.

Once you have your selection, be sure to use the Output module at the bottom of the panel to create a new layer with mask. Saves you a lot of time in the long run.

Finally, I put both the background and masked layer into a group titled “Original”. I then create a new blank layer on top of this group and label it whatever I am painting ie “Hands” or “Feather”, etc.

One great trick I have learned to use is if you do not have one of the Wacom Intuos Tablets with the 6D stylus, you can use the Rotate view feature to turn your image allowing you to paint with the brush direction instead of being limited by the size/style of brush you have chosen. Its a lot easier than changing the brush dynamics every time you move.

To start painting, choose the natural brush you wish to start with (refer to Part 2 for Brush types). I prefer to start with broad colors and brushes, so Im going to hit the feathers with a 15px Round Curve Low Bristle Percent. Be sure to check “Sample All Layers” so you can paint on a clean layer without affecting the original image.

Once the broader colors are set, then start to come in with details. One trick to try is to use a moist or dry brush setting with a complementary color or white. I normally stick with the Round Point Stiff using a small px radius.

Continue this technique, with a new layer for each part you paint. Next time, I will show you how to stylize items such as hair, eyes, hands, etc. using the brushes and blending modes.

In today’s post, I want to show you the variety of new natural brushes in Photoshop CS5. We will stick with the default brushes included in the software, although there are many more available for download online.

First, these are the new natural brushes in CS5:

They can be found in the brushes pulldown menu in the options bar (while using a brush-based tool) or in the Brushes panel.

These are the different strokes created with the brushes. These were created using a mouse so they do not have variable stroke pressure for the demonstration:

However, using a Wacom tablet and stylus, you can create a great, natural effect (especially if you use one with the new 6-D controls). When using a stylus, it can be helpful to use the Brush Preview (found under View>Show>Brush Preview).

Using the Brush panel can also yield fun results just by adjusting a few of the brush settings.

Here is an example of the various results by adjusting the Bristle Qualities:

Even using the default settings will give you a variety of results. If you do choose to adjust the Bristle settings, be sure to save the brush, or it will reset to default when you select another style brush. You can save your new brush by clicking the “New Brush” icon on the bottom right of the panel.

In the next session we are going to put these brushes to work, painting a simple shape and experimenting with various techniques.

This week I am starting a new series of how to create a digital painting in Photoshop CS5.

Today in Part 1 I will show you the different Mixer Brush settings. To choose a proper setting, you must first understand the different options at your disposal, starting with the Blending Brush Combinations.

This is the Mixer Brush, found in the tool bar, under the normal Brush Tool:

Once selected, these are your options:

1. Brush Type   2. Brushes Panel   3. Current “Load” (Swatch)   4. Load the brush after each stroke   5. Clean the brush after each stroke

6. Blending Brush Combinations – (This is what we will showcase today.)

7. Wet settings   8. Load amount   9. Mix ratio   10. Flow (think opacity)

11. Airbrush Option – this causes the brush to react like a spray can with poor results.  (I never use this option.)

12. Sample All Layers.

Blending Brush Combinations gives you a preset group of “useful” wet, load and mix combinations. Each one has a different reaction to your image and can give you great results once you are familiar with their settings.

The Blending Brush Combinations go from very little mixing to heavy mixing in order, starting with “Dry”.  Here is my starting image:

I have chosen the “Round Point Stiff” Brush from the Brush Type menu (1).

Whenever painting from a photograph, I find it helpful to lock the photo layer and paint on a new blank layer using the Sample All Layers option (12) using the clean/load brush after each brush stroke  (4&5). I sampled an average skin color from the hand. Here are the results from each blending combination:

Next week, we will take a look at the new Natural Brushes in Photoshop CS5 and the options available for each. For now, try using the Mixer Brush with different Blending Combinations and see what results you can get using just one brush.

Have fun!

Developers and mobile designers take note! Normally I post tips, tricks and product information on the blog, but today I thought I would switch it up to talk about a great mobile app.

James Conway and I are attending Photoshop World 2010 in Las Vegas at the end of this month. Normally to figure out the schedule of events you would review the website, literature and try to coordinate classes. However, Photoshop World has taken this to the next level with a very cool iPhone/iPad app from Shawn Welch (@shawnwelch). This is how a conference should use mobile devices. I dare say this is the Swiss Army Knife of conference apps.

First you can search for events and classes by date/time, instructor or course track. But that’s just the start – you can also search for exhibitors and other events throughout the conference. It live updates for room locations, schedules, and information to keep you completely up-to-date with information.  It even has a built in Twitter feed complete with #psw searches for Twitter users and news feeds from Photoshop World. You can also use Bump technology to share your schedule and information with other attendees.

Bundle all that with maps for the hotel and convention center and you have one very useful tool for this conference. Hopefully mobile developers, designers and other conference organizers will take note of this very clean design and usability to bring similar apps to other events.

Have you taken our Adobe Photoshop Course and are now looking to become an advanced user? Are you a photographer who wants your photos to pop? Short on time and want to maximize your Photoshop potential? Then we have the class for you!

Introducing C2′s new Adobe Photoshop Retouching Techniques mini-course! This course is designed for Photoshop users to advance their skill set with professional retouching techniques and effects. Not only will you be learning how to clean up those lackluster images, but we will also give you the tools you need to create works of art.

Our Photoshop mini-course is four hours and covers the following topics:

• Workflow and Bridge organization

• Importing and color correction – including Camera Raw adjustments

• Basic, intermediate and advanced portrait retouching techniques

• Advanced selection techniques; complex masks

• Lighting adjustment tricks

• Retouching landscapes

• Photomerge vs. manual stitching

• High Dynamic Range effects

• Filters and Effects

• Preparing for both print and web

and much more!

To find out more about this course or to register today click HERE or contact Kate Barrie, Training Specialist at 414-431-0062. Classes are available in both Madison and Milwaukee locations. Act now!

After presenting at the Designer/Developer Workflow Conference and seeing recent discussions on the Twittersphere, I started to realize that a lot of designers do not use Adobe Fireworks when creating comps for the web. In fact, a lot of posts would lead you to believe that Fireworks is useless, which is not an accurate perception.

Currently, many designers use Adobe Photoshop to create a webpage design and then pass it off to a developer. The developer will dissect the file, add in some code behind the scenes and output the final comp for the client. In this current workflow, it increases the project expense every time a developer has to touch this file just for comping/proposal purposes. But what if a designer could very easily add interactivity to the comp? Perhaps you need to mock up an entire site and not just a splash page? Well then this is where Fireworks steps in.

Fireworks allows you, the designer, to import layered .psd files (including live text) AND native vector files from Illustrator. You can then use those assets to flush out an entire website, not just a page. It enables you to create animations, rollovers, buttons and links for navigation and more with very easy-to-understand menus and tools. You can then add additional pages to your site using a Master Page (sound familiar?), keeping design elements and navigation consistent throughout.

The argument against Fireworks is “Photoshop has slicing and a Save for Web command, so I will just use that.” My rebuttal is yes, you can use Photoshop to create a flat page with slices with html links and some animation. Now create an entire site to show a client. You would have to create a different Photoshop file or worse yet, a single bloated file with multiple layer comps. Then, try to create a rollover or image swap without using Dreamweaver. Finally, assume that your client comes back with changes to the content or interactive elements of the site (they never do that, right?). Think of how you would have to edit either multiple files or an html file from Dreamweaver.

Editing elements in Fireworks is easy. You can make a change on either the Master Page and it propagates to the rest of the site, or manually choose to distribute to all pages on the site.

In the end, Fireworks is another way Adobe Creative Suite allows designers to take their flat, static designs and push them further into the next phase. Fireworks is something that should be in every designer’s arsenal of skills.

“When is this considered a retouched photograph and when have you gone too far?” The debate has been around for decades, popping into the mainstream media from time-to-time, but never really having a final decision. The first instance I can remember in recent times was the O.J. Simpson covers from Newsweek and Time.

Time was blasted for being irresponsible with their portrayal and lack of disclosure using the enhanced image of O.J.’s mug shot. The debate started up with people citing free speech and artistic license and Photoshop was at the heart of it all.

It has become common to refer to something as being “Photoshopped” (a term that Adobe dislikes, by the way) when referring to retouching. But when do you take it too far? How do you differentiate between reality and artistry?

Here’s my take on the whole discussion– basic retouching (wrinkles, teeth whitening, scratches, smears, etc.) is fine as long as it still represents a realistic view of the subject matter. However, once you start using Liquify to lose weight, blurring techniques to reduce the age of someone or something else drastic, then you have to ask yourself, “Is this still a realistic representation of my subject?” If not, then you have created a photo illustration. Which is fine as long as you give credit where credit is due, every time.

There is no way to regulate this, but if you give the appropriate credit it’s a step in the right direction. I would have no issue seeing a photography credit followed by a retouching credit in a publication or website. If it was an illustration or fictional work, it would give credit to the artist, just as if it were created traditionally.

In the end, you can’t always believe what you see today, but checking the credits can help.

Have you ever wondered how to find out what the closest pantone color is for your existing Illustrator artwork? How many times have you tried to convert your CMYK color to Illustrator only to find that the swatch options does not include this?

Well, here is a neat trick to convert your existing swatches (and artwork) to Pantone.

First, create a document with shapes filled with default swatches.

Next, go to your swatches panel and delete ALL your swatches.

Note: This step is great for organizing, but is not critical.  If you have swatches you need to keep, you can just skip to the next step, but be aware that you will end up with duplicate swatches.

Then, select the objects you wish to convert (in this case all) and click the “New Color Group” button located at the bottom of the swatches panel. DO NOT deselect your artwork. Keep it selected throughout this process. It saves you a step later on.

Name your group, and be sure to check “Convert Process to Global”. I prefer not to have my tints end up as separate swatches, but you can include them as well if you so choose. Click OK and you will now have a new color group with your existing colors.

Now go to your Color Guide Panel or the Options bar and click the “Edit or Apply Colors” button (the color wheel).

This will take you into the “Assign” section of the Edit or Apply Colors dialog box.

Here are the final steps to complete the conversion:

In the “Color Groups” panel on the right, click your newly created Color Group.

Next, click the “Color Reduction Options” button.

This will launch a new dialog box “Recolor Options” (I know it’s a different name than the button).

Go to the “Limit to Library” pull down and choose your Pantone Library and hit OK.

You have now mapped Pantone colors to your color group. Click OK and go back to your document.

Looking at your Swatches panel, you will notice that all of your swatches in the panel have been converted to PMS colors and your artwork has automatically converted.

This past weekend I had the privilege of speaking at the first ever Designer/Developer Workflow Conference (D2WC) in Kansas City, MO. I thought I would recap some of the highlights of the conference and talk about my presentation. The focus on this conference is the workflow between designers and the developers who work on projects together, be it applications, websites, Cold Fusion projects, etc.

There were many high-profile speakers there including Doug Winnie, Adobe Principal Product Manager for Adobe Flash Catalyst, Flash Platform Workflow and WorkflowLab (as he put it: the longest title at Adobe); Tom Green (not the comedian), Adobe Higher Education Leader, Product Advisory Boards member for Flash Media Server and Fireworks at the Adobe Corporation and Layers Magazine contributor, and Pariah Burke, Adobe InDesign Instructor and former technical lead for InDesign, InCopy, Illustrator, Photoshop, and Acrobat.

Doug Winnie opens the conference with his keynote address.

Doug Winnie opened the conference with a great keynote on “The Designer/Developers of Kansas City” which included “episodes” detailing common breakdowns in a typical workflow and how Adobe products help to address these problems.

My Designer Track presentation was “Fast Web Prototyping Using Adobe Creative Suite”.  My focus was on using Adobe Products that designers are familiar with to bring ideas to the web for clients as a working prototype that can then be passed along to a developer cleanly. First up was Adobe Illustrator, which I presented how to properly save out a vector image as an SVG file format.

Next was Photoshop. The main points were layer organization, optimizing graphics for the web with proper sizes and formats, and how to import into Adobe Fireworks. As expected, not many people had used or even seen Fireworks before. Using Fireworks, I took the flat Photoshop file, added buttons, rollovers and interactive elements with simple-to-use interface elements. I then added multiple web pages and linked each one to the Master page. Finally we tested the protoype in our web browser and exported.

Finally I was able to show how a designer can create an HTML email using Photoshop, slices and links to create stunning creations. The final step was to export out the HTML and images and import into a waiting Dreamweaver template with header and footer coding already supplied. Just cut the Photoshop HTML code and paste into the awaiting space and you are all set. Pass it over to your website admin for upload!

Speaking at the Designer/Developer "Shootout".

My second session was a Designer/Developer “Shootout,” where I participated in a panel discussion with JP Revel, Chad Udell, James Polanco and Pariah Burke. This discussion focused on issues between designers and developers in the working community. Shifts in paradigm with ad agencies, quoting projects, when to consult and communication were all hot topics. Both sides left the session with a greater understanding of the other and much more respect for the work that goes into each portion of a hybrid project.

Rob Huddleston presenting Flash Catalyst workflows.

Other sessions that were really well received covered Flash Catalyst with Rob Huddleston, Killing the “Transition” between art and code by Seb Lee-Delisle (from the UK – the farthest traveling speaker), and Tom Green’s Shaking the Toolbox presentation.

Speaking with several attendees at the start of Day 2, they were very pleased and excited about the speakers, topics and overall conference. I am happy to report that this is only the first year of this conference and speakers are already planning their trip for next year.

Many thanks to Dee Sadler, Adobe Community Professional and Certified Instructor for organizing (and inviting me to) this amazing conference. It was a huge success. Hopefully all of you will be able to attend next year and experience a first-class series of presentations from not only Adobe related speakers, but also the experts who work with this everyday.

D2WC Speakers enjoying dinner and "geek speak" before the conference.

Photos courtesy of Aaron Pederson (@aaronpederson) and Lisa Heselton (@kavka).

If you are a digital photographer then this is the week for you!

Starting this past weekend, Adobe announced the Camera Raw 6.1 update, which includes the Canon EOS 550D and several other cameras in the package.

Then onOne Software released the 64-bit, CS5 versions of its popular Photoshop Software FREE to current registered users. Details and downloads can be found on their blog.

But it just kept getting better. Adobe posted the new GPS Data Panel for Bridge, Photoshop, Fireworks, Illustrator and more. If you have a GPS-enabled camera, this is very cool tech.

And finally, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 has launched. After 600,000 downloads of the public beta, the final free trial is available for download. Upgrades are available for $99 and full versions are $299 (retail).

Recently Adobe and Condé Nast came together to develop a rich interactive version of Wired Magazine for the iPad. The results were impressive. You can view a short demo below.

And while the app is cool and fun to view, it really hit home with the fact that print is not dead. It is only the beginning.

Designers today can no longer be just a Print Designer or Web Designer, instead they must evolve to become a Communication Designer. Your project may end up being printed, but it may also downloaded as a PDF, previewed at on a mobile device as an ePub, published on a site as an interactive Flash element or any number of different outlets.

The cool thing about this is that Adobe products can help you do all of this with your existing software. Adobe InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator allow you to not only design a great printed piece, but translate that project to a new form of communication using Adobe Creative Suite 5.

For instance:

InDesign has always allowed you to publish as an interactive PDF format or an ePub format. CS5 takes that a step further and now adds animation and interactivity for Flash development.

Photoshop and Illustrator have been able to go to the web directly, or more appropriately use Fireworks or Dreamweaver to create HTML sites. And now through Flash Catalyst you can use Photoshop and Illustrator to create rich interactive experiences for Flash or Flex.

Fireworks allows you to create interactive HTML websites with minimal coding experience and a great visual interface.

Armed with this software and the knowledge provided by C2, you can evolve into the future of design. Print isn’t dead. It is only the beginning.

Having given several presentations on CS5 and seeing how people are reacting, it’s nice to get some perspective on what others think are the cool features of Illustrator and not just my two cents. So here they are.

Need to create a complex shape but lack the pen skills necessary to do so? Use the new Shape Builder tool to combine objects. Simply select the objects you wish to use then drag the Shape Builder across them and viola! Instant shapes!

The new Artboard Panel allows you to name and organize your Artboards, similar to Layers. If you are saving files that use Arboards, like .eps, individual files will be named using the Artboard names.

Use the Draw Behind feature to ignore stacking order when creating images or use Draw Inside to create an instant clipping Mask.

You can now vary your stroke width using the Width Tool. Adjust your stroke as needed and change back using the presets available in the options bar.

Given all the updates and changes to Photoshop CS5, I thought I’d highlight a few of my favorite new features so you can see just how big of an update this really is. These are just a few of the features included in CS5. Add in 64-bit support, Mini-Bridge and Repoussé among others and you can see just why people are so geeked about this.

Content-Aware Fill. A lot has been talked about this feature even before the release. Having worked with this for a while now, it does live up to the hype. Select your flawed area, hit Delete (on the background) or Shift+Delete (on a layer) to instantly bring up the fill dialog box. Choose “Content Aware” under Use and hit ok. The results are amazing. Complex textures and tones are intuitively added to replace the flawed image.

Puppet Warp. Not only is this feature fun, but very simple. Take any object on a layer, then go to Edit>Puppet Warp. Click to add handles over the automatic grid, then drag them to warp your image.

HDR Toning. Finally Photoshop can create quality HDR images with a single file through the use of the new HDR Toning adjustment. It has several presets to choose from or you can manually create your own style. This adjustment allows you to still create HDR images traditionally with several images in a series or with just one image.

Mixer Brush. This is probably my favorite new Photoshop feature in a very long time. The new Mixer Brush will give you total artistic control of your image using virtual brushes that mimic traditional techniques, such as a fan brush, dry brushing, wet media mixing, etc. The best part is, it is perfect for using a Wacom tablet and stylus. The newer Intuous series that feature the 6-point stylus work best, but even with my $59 Bamboo I can paint directly on my image or create a new masterpiece from a blank canvas. The possibilities are endless. A friend asked me the other day, “Does this mean the end of Corel Painter?” My answer is simple – yes.

April 12th was the official announcement of Adobe Creative Suite 5. With it came a lot of great features that we will be highlighting here in our blog and also LIVE in the following weeks (find out more here). It also has given us the freedom to answer some questions customers have been asking.

What is included in Creative Suite 5? This comparison chart shows the software included in the suites. The biggest changes are the addition of Flash Catalyst, the end of Design Standard, and Adobe Soundbooth is no longer available in Web Premium.

CS5 Comparison Chart

We just upgraded to CS4 recently. Now what do I do? Historically persons who purchased CS4 after or close to the announce date automatically received a voucher for a free upgrade. This may not the case this time. Check out this FAQ from Adobe regarding your eligibility here. Sources say that the product will be available by June 1.

How much does this cost?

Design Premium – $1,899  Web Premium – $1,799  Production Premium – $1,699  Master Collection – $2,599

Upgrades to an individual Suite from CS4 are $599 and from CS3 or CS2 are $799. Master Collection Upgrades start at $899. If you need help figuring out your upgrade, you can use Adobe’s Upgrade Eligibility Tool here.

What are the system requirements?

Adobe has a full listing of system requirements posted on their site here.

Is it really that different?

Yes, and it’s all for the better. CS5 has some really big changes and improvements to both the workflow efficiency of the suite and the individual applications themselves. Functions that were issues before are stable, 64-bit support (on the Mac!) and more. Photoshop alone boasts 11 new features, not including changes to existing functions. This is a “major update” according to Adobe.

So where do I learn about these new features?

From us! We will be posting videos and features here on our blog and LIVE over the next few weeks. Check our upcoming events for a full listing of CS5 events in the community, and watch your email for upcoming announcements on CS5 hands-on upgrade classes, which will be available soon after product release.

C2 has many great events coming up in the next few weeks! From $5 Fridays to our new series Mad Smart Mondays in Madison, there’s something – or several things – for everyone!

$5 FRIDAYS (MILWAUKEE)

• May 21 Designing for Mobile – Register now!
• June 18 Social Media Strategy and Design Integration – Register now!
• July 16 Best Practices in Digital Printing – Register now!
• August 20 Embracing the Future of the Web with HTML5/CSS3 – Register now!

MAD SMART MONDAYS (MADISON)

• May 24 Designing for Mobile – Register now!
• June 28* Social Media Strategy and Design Integration – Register now!
• July 19 Best Practices in Digital Printing – Register now!
• August 23 Embracing the Future of the Web with HTML5/CSS3 – Register now!

*Date changed from June 21 to June 28

Other industry Events C2 is sponsoring or attending:

• May 21 AIGA Annual Meeting – More info
• May 26 Milwaukee Adobe User Group Meeting – More info
• June 17 United AdWorkers Golf Outing – More info
• June 21 Business Marketing Association Big Swing 8th Annual golf outing – More info

Coming this FALL: Creative Transitions Seminar Series (CTSS) returns.

Madison

• September 7 Content Management Systems – Register now!
• October 5 (9 am to 4 pm) SuperUsers Unite! Masters Techniques in Photoshop, Illustrator & InDesign – Register now!
• November 9 Mobile & Web Application Design & Development – Register now!
• December 7 Advanced web design with HTML5, CSS3 and jQuery – Register now!

Save big when you register for all 4 Madison CTSS offerings at once – Register now!

Milwaukee

• September 21 Content Management Systems – Register now!
• October 19 (9 am to 4 pm) SuperUsers Unite! Masters Techniques in Photoshop, Illustrator & InDesign – Register now!
• November 16 Mobile & Web Application Design & Development – Register now!
• December 14 Advanced web design with HTML5, CSS3 and jQuery – Register now!

Save big when you register for all 4 Milwaukee CTSS offerings at once – Register now!