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Using Adobe’s Cloud to improve your employability
Using Adobe’s Cloud to improve your employability
Including a ‘lite’ plug-in version of Cinema 4D with After Effects, and with more 3D applications on the way from Adobe, at Soho Editors we've certainly noticed this affecting the training enquiries we receive. In fact, there were so many recent requests for C4D training, C4D developer Maxon asked us to become an authorised training centre, which we now are.
It’s not hard to see why that is so, a dedicated 3D application has always been somewhat conspicuous by its absence from the Adobe’s pot-pourri of creative applications, until fairly recently that is. Now however, Creative Cloud subscribers who are willing to explore After Effects a little bit are finding themselves with access to one of the nicest and most capable 3D modelling programs there is, a program which, under any other circumstances, they’d be shelling out three grand to be able to play around with. Yet this is only the start of Adobe’s serious charge into the 3D world; we’re on the verge of an embarrassment of riches from Adobe as far as 3D content creation and manipulation is concerned. Sure, there are some 3D extrude effects in Illustrator, and Photoshop has been able to import, export and even generate a few 3D polygons for several versions even linking through to After Effects via the VPE function, but useful as such features are, these alone do not make Adobe the go to choice for 3D content creation. That is about to change however, recently, Adobe have been showing off a trial version of a new application - Adobe Fuse - which if all goes to plan, will work via Photoshop to allow users to create convincing 3D characters from a set of body parts, which they are then able to dress, pose, light, then export or render as a still or animation, utilising a set of pre-rigged moves. Anyone familiar with SmithMicro’s long time favourite of 3D modellers - Poser - which we at Soho do occasionally train people on, will be familiar with this concept, as it does basically the same thing. Hopefully, we might see Fuse able to import the vast amount of content available for Poser, since Poser has been around for years. Fingers crossed eh?
Presently you can download and trial a beta version of Adobe Fuse, then render poses and animations via third party website, Mixamo, they being a 3D start up company which Adobe have in fact now acquired, thus we can expect the process for rendering from Fuse to change and be incorporated directly into the Creative Cloud, but as it stands we can still get an interesting look at what will be forthcoming via the Mixamo website. Whether via After Effects, Fuse, Photoshop or Cinema 4D, all of this shiny and new Adobe 3D CGI capability makes it possible to create the kind of visual effects which, only a few years ago, would have had you throwing a few million quid at the likes of Industrial Light and Magic to be able to achieve, so it certainly makes that Creative Cloud subscription fee more palatable. If this kind of thing keeps up, a CC subscription is going look like the bargain of the century, although as I always say to people who come on our courses, the Creative Cloud is only good value if you are making use of it, there is little point in only using one or two of the vast array of software you have available to you, then complaining about the price of entry.
So it will be interesting to see where access to all these fancy bits of software will take people when - but for having a Creative Cloud subscription - they might never have considered exploring even looking at, let alone learning how to use them. Whatever happens, one thing I do know from trends such as this, is that it will have an impact on what skills people will not only want to acquire, but very likely what skills they will actually be expected to have when turning up for freelance gigs at post-production houses. We've already seen this happen at Soho Editors, with many enquiries from freelancers about expanding their skills, and being that Soho Editors doesn't merely train people, but also provides freelance staff, we certainly know this is the way the wind is blowing. It used to be the case that post-production freelancers could get away with knowing maybe Premiere, Final Cut and perhaps a bit of Photoshop and still easily find gigs, but these days when people have access to literally every Adobe application via their Creative Cloud subscription, if they don’t expand their skill set, they’ll be vying for that freelance position against someone who has done, and has all that on their showreel too.
Guess who the client will pick for that lucrative freelance gig out of those two people? So if you’re a freelancer and you've got a Creative Cloud subscription, don’t say I didn't tell you that getting a few more strings to your bow was a good idea! See you one a training course soon.
Author Alan Bradbury - Senior Adobe Instructor
Using Adobe’s Cloud to improve your employability
Including a ‘lite’ plug-in version of Cinema 4D with After Effects, and with more 3D applications on the way from Adobe, at Soho Editors we've certainly noticed this affecting the training enquiries we receive. In fact, there were so many recent requests for C4D training, C4D developer Maxon asked us to become an authorised training centre, which we now are.
It’s not hard to see why that is so, a dedicated 3D application has always been somewhat conspicuous by its absence from the Adobe’s pot-pourri of creative applications, until fairly recently that is. Now however, Creative Cloud subscribers who are willing to explore After Effects a little bit are finding themselves with access to one of the nicest and most capable 3D modelling programs there is, a program which, under any other circumstances, they’d be shelling out three grand to be able to play around with. Yet this is only the start of Adobe’s serious charge into the 3D world; we’re on the verge of an embarrassment of riches from Adobe as far as 3D content creation and manipulation is concerned. Sure, there are some 3D extrude effects in Illustrator, and Photoshop has been able to import, export and even generate a few 3D polygons for several versions even linking through to After Effects via the VPE function, but useful as such features are, these alone do not make Adobe the go to choice for 3D content creation. That is about to change however, recently, Adobe have been showing off a trial version of a new application - Adobe Fuse - which if all goes to plan, will work via Photoshop to allow users to create convincing 3D characters from a set of body parts, which they are then able to dress, pose, light, then export or render as a still or animation, utilising a set of pre-rigged moves. Anyone familiar with SmithMicro’s long time favourite of 3D modellers - Poser - which we at Soho do occasionally train people on, will be familiar with this concept, as it does basically the same thing. Hopefully, we might see Fuse able to import the vast amount of content available for Poser, since Poser has been around for years. Fingers crossed eh?
Presently you can download and trial a beta version of Adobe Fuse, then render poses and animations via third party website, Mixamo, they being a 3D start up company which Adobe have in fact now acquired, thus we can expect the process for rendering from Fuse to change and be incorporated directly into the Creative Cloud, but as it stands we can still get an interesting look at what will be forthcoming via the Mixamo website. Whether via After Effects, Fuse, Photoshop or Cinema 4D, all of this shiny and new Adobe 3D CGI capability makes it possible to create the kind of visual effects which, only a few years ago, would have had you throwing a few million quid at the likes of Industrial Light and Magic to be able to achieve, so it certainly makes that Creative Cloud subscription fee more palatable. If this kind of thing keeps up, a CC subscription is going look like the bargain of the century, although as I always say to people who come on our courses, the Creative Cloud is only good value if you are making use of it, there is little point in only using one or two of the vast array of software you have available to you, then complaining about the price of entry.
So it will be interesting to see where access to all these fancy bits of software will take people when - but for having a Creative Cloud subscription - they might never have considered exploring even looking at, let alone learning how to use them. Whatever happens, one thing I do know from trends such as this, is that it will have an impact on what skills people will not only want to acquire, but very likely what skills they will actually be expected to have when turning up for freelance gigs at post-production houses. We've already seen this happen at Soho Editors, with many enquiries from freelancers about expanding their skills, and being that Soho Editors doesn't merely train people, but also provides freelance staff, we certainly know this is the way the wind is blowing. It used to be the case that post-production freelancers could get away with knowing maybe Premiere, Final Cut and perhaps a bit of Photoshop and still easily find gigs, but these days when people have access to literally every Adobe application via their Creative Cloud subscription, if they don’t expand their skill set, they’ll be vying for that freelance position against someone who has done, and has all that on their showreel too.
Guess who the client will pick for that lucrative freelance gig out of those two people? So if you’re a freelancer and you've got a Creative Cloud subscription, don’t say I didn't tell you that getting a few more strings to your bow was a good idea! See you one a training course soon.
Author Alan Bradbury - Senior Adobe Instructor