LOS ANGELES – 14,000 creators  gathered at Adobe Max 2018 in Los Angeles in pursuit of the newest Adobe Creative Cloud suite. They come from more than 60 countries to listen, learn and share about how to be creative. Keynote speakers called “magical thinkers” like film director Ron Howard and DJ/designer Questlove along with comic book artist Nicola Scott and photographer Albert Watson shared the recipes for their success.

Let’s be clear. Adobe is selling its software and wants those attending creatives or wanna be creatives to buy in the company’s subscription graphic, design, web and sharing programes whose best known program is Photoshop. There were  several hundred “how to” Adobe tools sessions and workshops to choose from in three days. Some were off beat “like can a small camera make it” in the multi-billion dollar publishing industry or the inner workings of “how to say no” to your customers.

Don’t expect the “magical thinkers” to talk about Adobe. Expect them to share what drives them in their respective work to make it to the top. They delivered.

Those  14,000 attendees were already sold but being under one big roof with each other at Adobe MAX simply re-charged their creative energy.  There’s more to paying Adobe $52.99 monthly for the right to use an amazing collection of publishing and design software. After all, in this competitive industry Adobe offers the same tools to everyone. How subscribers get fired up and how good they can be is being in the right state of mind when they left Adobe Max.

Adobe’s flagship offering called Creative Cloud was front and centre here. The main events like Keynotes and Sneak Peaks used a gigantic digital screen longer than a football field in the Los Angeles Convention Centre.  Adobe top brass lead by guru CEO  Shantanu Narayen  preached the company’s success as  did Adobe experts one what was new.

Adobe’s subscription based Creative Cloud launched in 2013 abandoning  the brick and mortar “buy once own forever” model.  It’s constantly  refreshed throughout the year saving a few goodies for Max.

With more than 100 million cloud stored illustrations and photos on Adobe Stock and more powerful apps to run on mobile, Adobe has made an art and science of keeping customers happy. Unless they occasionally raise their subscription rates! The entire Creative Cloud annual all-apps plan costs $52.99 USD monthly with 100GB online storage space. Alternatively, a special annual Photography plan which include Lightroom CC, Lightroom CC Classic, Photoshop CC and 20GB storage costs $9.99 USD monthly.  All other single apps like Illustrator CC or Adobe XD CC with 100GB storage cost $20.99 USD monthly. Check here for more Creative Cloud subscription information.

 

Now, I must tell you about the cool new features and programs added to kick start  Adobe Creative Cloud 2019. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to use Adobe, loaded with online help as you work. But it’s the rocket scientists who create the Adobe magic who are worth meeting and not necessarily ones with big titles. You meet them at the MAX Sneak Peaks  session hilariously hosted by comedian Tiffany Haddish had Adobe staffers sharing cool innovations “in progress” that may or may not make the cut.

Below are the highlight announcements. Reading through them, you get an idea of the complexity of Creative Cloud. A microcosm of programs growing online connecting users in groups of one or hundreds, working on any device from anywhere and making a little magic of their own.

TOP THREE ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Adobe previewed new iPad 2019 versions of Adobe Photoshop CC and Project Gemini, a drawing app, reinforcing the company’s commitment to delivering high-performance apps that work seamlessly across surfaces like the iPad Pro. Redesigned for a modern touch experience, Photoshop CC on iPad will deliver the power and precision of its desktop counterpart. Photoshop CC on iPad will let users open and edit native PSD files using Photoshop’s industry-standard image-editing tools and will feature the familiar Photoshop layers panel. With Photoshop CC across devices, coming first to iPad in 2019, you will be able to start your work on an iPad and seamlessly round trip all of your edits with Photoshop CC on the desktop via Creative Cloud. A new app designed to accelerate drawing and painting workflows across devices, Project Gemini, coming first to iPad in 2019, combines raster, vector and new dynamic brushes into a single app experience built for drawing. Project Gemini enables artists to use and sync their favorite Photoshop brushes and works seamlessly with Photoshop CC

• The new standalone Adobe Premiere Rush CC steals the show. It’s a first all-in-one, easy-to-use video editing app for social media creators, simplifying video creation and sharing on platforms including YouTube and Instagram. It has much of the DNA of its more serious siblings. Unleashing Social Video Content Creators with Premiere Rush CC Designed specifically for online video creators, Premiere Rush CC integrates capture, intuitive editing, simplified color, audio and motion graphics with seamless publishing to leading social platforms, such as YouTube and Instagram, all together in one easy-to-use solution. With Premiere Rush CC, content creators do not have to be video, color or audio experts to publish professional-quality videos. Premiere Rush CC harnesses the power of Premiere Pro CC and After Effects CC, offers built-in access to professionally designed Motion Graphics templates in Adobe Stock to get started quickly and features a Sensei-powered, one-click auto-duck feature to adjust music and normalize sound. It also allows access anywhere, enabling users to create compelling video projects – optimized for social distribution – on one device and publish from another with a consistent user experience across desktop and mobile.

• Adobe XD, the all-in-one UX/UI solution for designing websites and mobile apps, now features new capabilities leveraging recently acquired https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/sayspring Sayspring technology to empower designers to prototype experiences and apps for voice-powered devices, such as Amazon Echo. New voice capabilities, including voice triggers and speech playback, enable designers to create powerful experiences with screen and voice prototyping now in one application. In addition, developers can now leverage Adobe XD APIs to build plug-ins and app integrations that add new features, automate workflows and connect XD to the tools and services designers use every day.
• Today, we unveiled a portfolio of next-generation creative apps that deliver meaningful value to our community by transforming creative workflows across devices and platforms,” said Scott Belsky, chief product officer and executive vice president, Creative Cloud, Adobe. “By continuing to innovate in our flagship apps, extending into exploding segments such as experience design and social video creation, and pioneering in emerging mediums like touch, voice, 3D and augmented reality, Adobe Creative Cloud has truly become the creativity platform for all.”

 

 

 

 

 

Majour productivity enhancements with Adobe Sensei (AI) in the 2019 release of Creative Cloud delivers more than a dozen new Adobe Sensei-powered features and productivity enhancements – building on dozens of existing Sensei-powered features already available to Adobe Creative Cloud, Document Cloud and Experience Cloud customers. Adobe Sensei is a framework and set of intelligent services built into the Adobe Cloud Platform which dramatically improve the design and delivery of digital experiences. Adobe Sensei leverages the company’s massive volume of content and data assets, as well as its deep domain expertise in the creative, marketing and document segments, within a unified artificial intelligence/machine learning framework. To learn more, visit                                                                Sensei-powered features in the 2019 release include:

• An expanded Content-Aware Fill workspace in Photoshop CC that offers greater precision and control to save editors valuable time when working with their images
• A new Content-Aware Fit feature in InDesign CC that intelligently detects an image and crops or fits it to an image frame automatically
• New Freeform Gradients in Illustrator CC that enable the creation of natural gradients.
• A new tool in Character Animator CC, Characterizer, that transforms any style of portrait into a vivid, animated character.

Additional workflow improvements include a contextually-aware Properties Panel in InDesign CC to display options based on the object selected, expanded Undo and auto-resizing in Photoshop CC, a customizable toolbar in Illustrator CC and a modern UI in Bridge CC with support for bulk uploads of libraries. Creative Cloud members also get the all new Adobe Acrobat DC, which provides a completely reimagined way to share work and get it reviewed and approved without sending email attachments or managing version control.

Previewing the Future of Immersive Design                                          Adobe previewed Project Aero, a new cross-device AR authoring tool that enables creators to design augmented reality experiences. Project Aero is the first AR app built for designers and artists and was first sneaked on-stage at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference earlier this year. Project Aero enables optimal delivery of AR experiences, empowering creatives to place digital content in the real world. At Adobe MAX, Adobe showcased an AR-powered retail store of the future, revealing the exciting possibilities of immersive design experiences.

Empowering Enterprise Customers Adobe announced deeper integrations between Creative Cloud and Adobe Experience Cloud that unify creative and marketer workflows. With these integrations, brands can now easily access assets in Experience Manager within Creative Cloud apps, Adobe Stock images can be leveraged in Experience Manager, and 3D content designed with Dimension CC can be adjusted in Experience Manager and published as marketing assets.

For a comprehensive feature summary and overview of Creative Cloud innovation and new features visit:

https://theblog.adobe.com/adobe-photoshop-aero-gemini-dimension-photoshop-cc/

https://theblog.adobe.com/max-lightroom-releases/

https://theblog.adobe.com/available-now-the-latest-release-for-creative-cloud-video-and-audio-tools/

Design and Visual Storytelling: including

https://theblog.adobe.com/october-2018-release-of-adobe-xd-at-max/  https://theblog.adobe.com/illustrator-cc-2019-release-blog/  https://theblog.adobe.com/most-powerful-indesign-yet/   https://blog.adobespark.com/2018/10/15/android-users-meet-adobe-spark-post/

Services: including

https://theblog.adobe.com/whats-new-in-adobe-stock/

https://theblog.adobe.com/introducing-our-five-newest-features-on-adobe-portfolio/

https://theblog.adobe.com/typekit-is-adobe-fonts/

Pricing and Availability

Updates to Creative Cloud desktop software are now available to all Creative Cloud subscribers, including membership plans for individuals, students, teams, educational institutions, government agencies and enterprises. Adobe’s mobile apps are available for download from the iOS App Store and Google Play.

Photoshop CC on iPad, Project Aero and Project Gemini on iPad will be available in 2019. Spark Post on Android, previously available as a public beta, is now available as a 1.0 app in the Google Play store.

The all-new Premiere Rush CC, available now on Windows and macOS and via the iOS App Store (Google Play store availability coming in 2019), is offered across a series of plans tailored for customers’ unique needs

• Premiere Rush CC is available for $9.99/month to individuals, $19.99/month to teams and $29.99/month to enterprise customers. Premiere Rush CC is also included as part of All Apps, Student and Premiere Pro CC single app plans and comes with 100 GB of CC storage. Additional storage options, up to 10 TB, are also available for purchase.
• Premiere Rush CC Starter Plan: Available for free, the Starter Plan gives customers access to all Premiere Rush CC features, use of desktop and mobile apps and the ability to create an unlimited number of projects and export up to three projects for free.