Intro to Pixel Bender + Aviary Peacock

There's a recording of yesterday's presentation by Kevin Goldsmith of an Introduction to Pixel Bender for Photoshop and AfterEffects at the Creative Suite Developer Summit.

Also interesting is Mario Klingemann in Adobe TV's Here Be Pixels on node-based image processing in the Flash/AIR-based Aviary Peacock (intro below).

Sumo Paint & free web image editors

Sumo Paint is a free image editor that works inside your web browser, without requiring a sign-up. It has many of Photoshop's main features organized in a familiar way and seems to offer somewhat better tools (with a recent upgrade) than most other free Flash-based image editors. (via Ko Maruyama)

Other options do offer a different mix of tools and focus though, so you might try these in a pinch too: Photoshop Express, Picnik (has API for external embedding), Fotoflexer, and Aviary Phoenix.

Update: In July 2009 ReadWriteWeb noted Free Alternatives to Photoshop With All the Bells, Whistles, Filters, & Layers. They didn't mention Gimp with GimpShop, but those haven't satisfied much anyway.

Thermo: Adobe's new RIA design tool

Adobe Edge is featuring a sneak peek video on Thermo, code name for an RIA design tool under development at Adobe. Flash the app is enervating for someone used to After Effects, and I've tried using it in every version since Future Splash Animator 1. I'm not sure why Flash never moved to the way of mTropolis with it's easy to use messenger model.

Thermo is the sort of technology metaphor I'd like to see in the Production Premium suite. Instead of limited templates for producing Flash versions of a DVD, I'd like to see new tools more like this, even as an Adobe Elements "Flash Toy" with only branching and looping at first, then migrating to more complex setup with effects and nodes/pipes/flowcharts. Or even better a reimagining and rewrite of After Effects and maybe Flash. If video over the web continues to grow, new tools that share creation metaphors and integrate media creation and interactivity could be useful. Aviary seems to be inching towards this with their RIA/AIR apps.