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Filed under: Distribution •Editing •Interactive •Motion Graphics •NAB 2010 •NAB 2010 Insight •NAB 2010 Post •Pre-Production •Production •Visual Effects •Web Video •

Adobe Community Leaders Summit

Adobe Repoussé

Speaking of eye candy, one promising technology is Adobe Repoussé, which is described as “a new research system for the interactive enhancement of 2D art with 3D geometry.” In layman’s terms, that means interesting ways to extrude, inflate, and bevel vector artwork (such as text, logos, and freeform shapes) into 3D objects. Here’s a link to a paper on the technology; note on page 5 that not all of the examples are softly inflated objects like the ones you see below:

images courtesy Adobe Systems

The Adobe Labs site mentions Repoussé in conjunction with Illustrator and Photoshop. And in the past, Photoshop has been the vessel for recent 3D advances: Vanishing Point Exchange in CS3; importing and texturing models (in addition to basic extrusion) in CS4. For reference, the workflow with these previous technologies has been to do the work in Photoshop, then import and animate a camera around them (in conjunction with other 3D layers) in After Effects. This synergy is acceptable, as many After Effects users also own Photoshop, but it would be nice to see the front end of these or their equivalents reside inside After Effects as well. (And no, that’s not a broad hint at an imminent feature; it’s an honest desire shared by many users.)

Adobe has already sneak-previewed other still-image based technologies assigned to Photoshop. Various bootleg videos exist; the cleanest copies are on the Adobe Photoshop Facebook Video page, which includes future technology videos on Content-Aware Fill (think the Healing Brush on steroids, based on their previously-shown PatchMatch technology), as well as other tricks such as natural media brushes and adaptation of the After Effects Puppet tool.

Flash Catalyst

Still image and linear media artists looking to shorten their learning curve as they cross over into interactive web work will no doubt be very interested in Adobe Flash Catalyst (formerly known as Thermo), which is currently in public beta on Adobe Labs. You can import a layered Photoshop or Illustrator file, edited video (as FLVs or F4Vs), or pre-built SWF animations, and then quickly hook up behaviors for scrollbars and buttons. Button actions can transition the viewer to additional pages. The final output is a SWF that you can embed in your webpage:

Flash Catalyst has a dual market: In additional to creating SWFs for direct use on the web, interface designers can use Flash Catalyst to create interactive mockups. Flash Catalyst project files can be opened in Adobe Flash Builder (formerly Flex Builder) - also currently in public beta on Adobe Labs - where web developers can add the back-end programming. It’s an attempt to more logically divide the web workflow between “designer” and “developer.” (Note: Flash Catalyst project files currently can not be opened in Flash Professional; only Flash Builder.)

If you’re an editor or still-image designer, Flash Catalyst can quickly expand your web design skills. It’s relatively easy to learn, and provides an intuitive way to add interactivity to your artwork, which is important when you only need to occasionally create micro sites for clients. However, its timeline (as implemented in the beta version we were shown) was a bit non-intuitive for users already familiar with the likes of After Effects or Premiere. We were told it was designed more with a Photoshop artist in mind, and it is admittedly challenging to represent interactive content on a linear timeline; we hope feedback during the open beta helps streamline its functionality.

A Peek…But Not Much More…

Of course, we’d love to spill the beans on everything we know, but as we said before, “Those who know don’t say; those who say don’t know” (or at the very least, they risk the wrath of Adobe). Trust us: When the time comes, we’ll have plenty to say. In the meantime, we hope this helped catch you up on some of the future technologies and products Adobe has already announced.

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