Art has always been hand-in-hand with technology’s progression throughout the years, but in its base, it has always been a human instinct. In the stone ages, early man had created drawings on cave walls that showed the use of their right hemisphere, a part of the brain directly responsible for creativity. Many early humans used colors from several naturally occurring materials (iron for red, coal for black) despite the times.
Millions of years pass, and using paint to create realistic images was born. According to this write-up by Britannica, the French word Renaissance means “rebirth,” which points to man’s new interest in nature and everyday life. The renaissance period of Europe during the 15th century was a starting point of gradual modernization in all forms of art, be it in the form of paintings, building structures, and even performance arts.
Fast forward into our modern world, and technology has somehow blended with art as well. It has become an indispensable part of creating and inventing that might have catapulted civilization’s fast progression. And just like in the past, art came hand-in-hand with the technology and embodied the modern paint, brush, and easel: Adobe software programs that enable sketching, painting, and drawing on your desktop or tablet.
History of Adobe Inc.
Adobe Inc. was founded by former employees of Xerox, John Warnock, and Charles Geschke in 1982. The two men had created a programming language that will serve as the base of Adobe’s multiple software in the future. When Xerox refused to publicize the program, Warnock and Geschke decided to create their own company, naming it after the creek found in Los Altos, California.
Since then, the company has created multiple software catering to digital art. Photoshop, Lightroom, and Premiere pro are some of its art-centric programs. Progressing further, it branched out to several fields with Adobe Marketing Cloud, Adobe Experience Manager, etc. Ultimately, it then created Adobe’s Creative Cloud, where several of their existing programs (plus new ones with enhanced/added tools) are housed for easy use instead of being utilized separately. Holistically, however, Adobe is a company that focuses on creation rather than being a tool to use on existing documents.
What Is Adobe Creative Cloud?
Adobe Creative Cloud is a service where adobe software products can be found all in one place. Whether you buy it individually or as the Adobe creative cloud, you’ll be provided with cloud storage. A monthly subscription is needed to access this service from the company.
Creative Cloud focuses on the artistic aspect of the company. It is specialized so designers can take advantage of Adobe’s video editing, website forming, and graphic art features.
What Is It Used For?
Many companies and creative directors use several apps found in Adobe. This is because of Adobe’s versatility and availability of advanced tools used in different situations. For example, Premiere Pro has been used in many TV shows since its release in 2003. James Cameron’s Avatar, Gone Girl by David Fincher, and the famous Ryan Reynolds’ most popular film Deadpool all use Adobe Premiere Pro in their basic and major edits.
Newspapers like The New York Times also use Creative Cloud or CC for their edits, especially InDesign. Other major magazines all around the world use Photoshop, as well as aspiring new website owners.
But as a beginner reading this, you might find yourself intimidated by the amount of software they have and the different tools and interface each program presents. With that, you can always check Adobe Creative Cloud tutorials to help you in your self-study. Some tutorials may include Adobe CC with its bundle, which will come at a reasonable price compared to buying it all on its own.
Other than that, Adobe’s CC can be used in a variety of ways. One example is using the program to design your very own background or logo for an aspiring company. Instead of hiring a graphic artist for this, you can try your hand at art using Adobe Illustrator in creating your designs. Get help with colors and swatches in Photoshop or InDesign. You can even convert an image you want into vectors using the same programs.
What Adobe Creative Cloud Can Offer
This service can be considered a starter kit for aspiring business owners who want to jump-start their website. It can enable both creativity and collaboration despite having no experience in coding.
From video editing to website publishing, Adobe CC can cater to any of your needs. This app does many types of documents and projects and lets you save via cloud storage, and not only are they accessible in any logged-in device, but also available if the owner wants to share said file or project.
How Much Does It Cost?
Before, you can install any of Adobe’s programs via a CD. As a business over the internet has almost become a norm, you can get your Adobe CC online and pay a monthly subscription. Said subscription can range anywhere from $10 to $50, depending on which plan you choose.
The first plan is for individuals wanting to focus on Photography. The photography plan for an individual user is $10 per month, and this includes both Photoshop and Lightroom CC with 1 Terabyte worth of cloud storage.
If you wish to get a single app plan, it can cost around $20 per month. You can choose between apps like Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, or Adobe XD CC. The third and fourth plans are an all-apps plan, including all the apps found in it. It can cost you $50 for the third one, and $80 if you want to include Adobe’s Stock Plan.
Another special plan meant for students and teachers is also available at $20 per month for the first year and $30 the next year and beyond. This plan is an all-apps plan.
Technicalities You Should Know
After choosing a subscription plan, the site is dashboard will enable you, the user, to download the software included in your package. For example, if you chose the photography plan, Adobe.com will allow you to download Photoshop and Lightroom CC. If it’s an all-apps plan, you’ll be enabled to download all the existing apps included in Adobe CC.
If a user wants to go mobile, it is as easy as downloading the app from the iTunes App Store and downloading the specific app (Photoshop, for example). There, you should be able to log-in to your Creative Cloud account and have access to your files. Many mobile counterparts of Adobe CC apps are available for download and use. Royalty-free images and Fonts can be accessed directly in the app as well.
Updates on Adobe Creative Cloud as Of 2020
Adobe Photoshop
Being one of the most popular programs in Adobe’s arsenal, Photoshop has one of the most extensive changes and adjustments for Creative Cloud users. Changes to the properties panel location, Smart convert for layers, improvements to Warp Transform, and improvements to layers for brightness are just some of the known adjustments.
As of September 2020, there’s not much change except for the addressing of bugs. Found here: https://feedback.photoshop.com/conversations/photoshop/photoshop-shiftresizing-a-corner-handle-disables-smart-guides-snapping/5f5f45134b561a3d4232e409, it was resolved early last month. The user is popped into the smart guides affected when one tries to resize while holding the shift key.
There is also the availability of Photoshop for iPads. It is known to work just as fluidly as its desktop counterparts. With 500 or more layers, retouching, and editing capabilities, it seems the only thing Adobe can do is bring standard features to the tablet experience, which they promised they would.
Adobe After Effects
Another minor update this September, after effects are subjected to slight changes. These include enhancement for channel combiner and channel effects, which are now GPU accelerated. Another update concerns itself with the Roto Brush effect from the motion graphics template. It can directly be imported to Premiere Pro.
Adobe Illustrator
Updates for this program will focus on stability and faster performance. Files are now able to download in the background, and twice as fast as they had claimed. The rendering will be quick as well if effects such as drop shadows and Gaussians blurs are used. You can also preview your work in the Illustrator before saving it; a long-overdue feature everyone is glad to have finally.
Like Photoshop, Illustrator will also be coming to the iPad. The drawback is it’ll be in beta form, and it will take almost another year to be considered usable for professional work on the tablet officially.
Adobe Premiere Pro
This one was the program with the most updates and bug fixes last month. Some of them include:
- Scene edits – Automatically detect and enables the addition of modifications where cuts can be found
- HDR – A more vibrant and dynamic change using the new Rec.2100 HLG color space.
- Export Faster with Proxies – For those who wish to have a quick save without concerning much with resolution.
- Other known bugs were fixed.
