Feature Archive
Some thoughts beyond the press releases to tide you over until ship time
Eighteen months, seemingly like clockwork. A mere year-and-a-half after CS4 was released (which itself was a mere year-and-a-half after the release of CS3), Adobe has unveiled the CS5 lineup. Having had a chance to see and try the new versions for myself over the past several weeks, here are some general observations about the latest versions of Adobe's software überbundles.
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Filed under: Feature on April 12th, 2010
Tags: Adobe, CS5
In this candid and eye-opening interview, Philip Hutchison, a household name in SCORM and the man behind Pipwerks, gives his thoughts about the current state of SCORM and e-learning in general, touching on subjects such as how he became one of the go-to SCORM resources, why the authors of SCORM were trying to do too much, and how the PowerPoint-ization of training isn't a good development for e-learning.
Read the Full Interview at CampusTechnology.com...
Filed under: Feature on March 17th, 2010
Tags: SCORM
Answering some (fake) questions about Adobe's newly-unveiled distribution service
It's been a while, but Adobe's announcement of Flash Platform Services for Distribution (which we'll shorten to AFPSD for the duration) begs for the not-quite-famous "fake FAQ" treatment, where your humble host asks made-up questions of, well, himself in an attempt to make further sense of the official AFPSD press release. With that as the setup, let's get to those "frequently asked questions."
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Filed under: Feature on September 22nd, 2009
Tags: Adobe, Flash, Flash Player
Re-running the benchmarks to see which OS runs AE better
Last summer I got curious. With the advent of Intel Macs, Boot Camp, and Universal builds of After Effects, for the first time it was possible to forget about all the Intel vs. PowerPC benchmarks that had been run to that point and effectively remove hardware from the equation, focusing solely on the OS and how well AE was tuned to it. XP took the prize back then, but I'm curious again, and with Mac OS X Leopard, 64-bit Vista, and After Effects CS4 at my disposal, it's time to find out where things stand today.
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Filed under: Feature on November 24th, 2008
Tags: Adobe, After Effects, Benchmarks, CS4
Just a few observations to tide you over until shipping time
Such is the nature of the upgrade cycle: just as creative types were getting used to the CS3 line, Adobe goes and announces CS4. And while you've likely seen myriad press releases and first looks and other introductory stuff by now, here are a few "below the fold" observations based on the the experiences I've had with the CS4 betas over the last several weeks.
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Filed under: Feature on September 23rd, 2008
Tags: Adobe, After Effects, CS4, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, Photoshop
Director is back, it goes to 11, and it's ready for action
Naturally, questions are going to be raised when any software product takes a four-year hiatus, especially when the program in question happens to be a stalwart multimedia veteran like Director, the eleventh version of which was finally released several months back. Enter Adobe's Director Evangelist, Allen Partridge. Allen started out in design, but eventually dove headfirst into Director programming, giving him a unique perspective of the product from several different angles. Allen was kind enough to sit down recently for a candid discussion on where Director has been, is now, and where it may be going.
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Filed under: Feature on August 22nd, 2008
Tags: Adobe, Allen Partridge, Director
Insight on Adobe's latest Flash Player from a developer in the know
It seems that every time Adobe announces anything having to do with the Flash Platform, there is always an accompanying opportunity to talk to a representative from EffectiveUI, a Denver-based Rich Internet Application (RIA) provider which boasts a current staff of 79 and also has offices in Rochester, NY and Vancouver. As EffectiveUI is in the enviable position of getting to develop new and cool interfaces against very early versions of Adobe technology, a chance to speak with Anthony Franco, EffectiveUI's president, about Flash Player 10 and where the platform is going was too good to pass up.
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Filed under: Feature on May 28th, 2008
Tags: Adobe, Anthony Franco, EffectiveUI, Flash, Flash Player
The 2007 college football season is winding down, and while the last of the autumn leaves falls lazily from the trees in Charlottesville, VA, there's no slowdown for Erik Elvgren, senior producer and animator at the University of Virginia's Athletics Video Services Department (AVS). The last home UVA football game is only days away, and while Elvgren's animated CavMan adventures make their final 2007 showing at Scott Stadium, basketball season is already heating up, and CavMan is expected to pull duty for the Cavalier basketball team as well.
Read the Full Article at CampusTechnology.com...
Filed under: Feature on November 21st, 2007
Tags: Campus Technology, UVA
Attempting to determine the faster OS on identical hardware
There are many, many reasons to love Intel Macs, but the one I'm going to focus on today is Boot Camp. Being able to run a full copy of Windows natively on the exact same hardware as Mac OS X not only represents a 2-for-1 bang for your buck when it comes to buying a production rig, but also gives average Joes such as yours truly the opportunity to compare apples to apples (so to speak) when running cross-platform software. And with After Effects CS3 finally out in the wild (and in Intel Mac-native form, no less), it's time to see how well the Mac and Windows versions of AE do on identical hardware.
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Filed under: Feature on July 31st, 2007
Tags: Adobe, After Effects, Benchmarks, CS3
Rounding third and heading for home with After Effects, Encore, Photoshop, and the rest
Like the weekly serials of old, we left off last time with a cliffhanger. What treats were there to be found in the rest of the CS3 Production Premium bundle? Which goodies in After Effects, Encore, Photoshop Extended, and even OnLocation and Ultra would appeal to motion graphics and interactive folk? Well, you didn't have to wait too long to find out, so let's get this sucka done.
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Filed under: Feature on May 24th, 2007
Tags: Adobe, After Effects, CS3, Dreamweaver, Encore, Flash, Illustrator, Photoshop, Premiere, Soundbooth