Embeddable Google Books

Google Operating System has taught me how to do this too, and you can browse up to 20% of the book. You'll have to get rid of the script's line breaks if posting to Blogger, and sorry the Blogger template is stuck at this width.

CS4 at SFMograph October 16

On Oct 16, 2008 SFMograph hosts a look at Adobe Production Premium CS4 featuring Adobe After Effects. It's at Adobe in SF; RSVP required.

Update: Matt Silverman, Creative Director at Phoenix Designs (and sfmograph co-host) will break down the motion graphics stinger his team created for the Adobe CS4 launch. "Created in collaboration with Nando Costa from Portland design studio Nervo, and Barcelona's Vasava, the piece explores the CS4 Master Collection as we travel through the Nervo and Vasava artwork. Phoenix completed this heavy AE project in After Effects CS4 (along with Photoshop CS4, Maya, and Cinema4D), and will go over some of the new features which they used to complete the animation including 3D model import and separate X/Y/Z transforms, as well as go over an interesting use of 3D transmission layers with falloff lighting using Buena Depth Cue. Bring the kids for this one... it's going to be swell. A QuickTime of the stinger can be seen here."

"Plug-in of the Month" for October is MochaAE.

CS4 Learning Centers at Layers & Photoshop User

Layers Magazine has a CS4 Learning Center with video reviews and tips for most of the CS4 applications, including After Effects.

Also, Photoshop User has more specific video at its Photoshop CS4 Learning Center. In particular, check out the less flashy new features like the Adjustment Panel, Dodge & Burn, On-Image Controls (also works in Hue/Sat and Curves), Live Brush Previews, and the Mask Panel (with dynamic edges).

Update: Richard Harrington is posting a growing library of video on Photoshop CS4 in different places, like his CSFour.com.

CS4 AVCHD Editing + big AE feature list

Dave Helmly at Adobe has comments and a movie at an Intro to CS4 and New AVCHD Editing.

Todd Kopriva details an unordered, approximately comprehensive list of new features in After Effects CS4.

SF Cutters Sept 25 @ Adobe

SF Cutters with support from SF Mograph and Digital Cinema Society is having the "Meeting of the Year" Sept 25 at Adobe in San Francisco.

The agenda includes CS4 Production Premium, G Tech storage, and "Mini Reel" finalists -- and of course door prizes. This meeting is free, but you do need to pre-register to make sure there is a badge waiting for you and that you get refreshments courtesy of Adobe.

By the way there are other AE user group meetings the 25th including New York and Dallas, and in the LA area Adobe CS4 at Editor's Lounge on the 26th.

Spilling the beans on Pixel Bender

david van brink comments on the Kevin Goldsmith post Spilling the beans... Pixel Bender in CS4:

"Pixel Bender is Adobe’s way of packaging up (essentially) OpenGL Shader Language, for use as effects plugins to their imaging products.

The outcome will be a lot of extremely cool effects plugins. Some of these will be old effects that run much faster, meaning we can use them more freely. Some of these will new effects that would have been prohibitively slow, but are now merely non-realtime."

In CS4 can you share these pieces of code, like the early shaders and filters done for Flash 10 pictured above (from Pixelero and Mr.doob, or even something akin to Fluffy)? I'm not sure, but After Effects is supposed to support the whole set of Pixel Bender functions, while Flash currently supports only a smaller subset, e.g., no GPU acceleration.

As noted earlier today, the Cartoon filter is a Pixel Bender filter, and the other 2 new GPU-accelerated effects, Turbulent Noise and Bilateral Blur, probably are too. And from an old post here, Pixel Bender in action in the Flash beta.

Update: Create Digital Motion (9/25) covers the same ground as this post and attracted clarifying comments by Kevin Goldsmith:

"Pixel Bender runs on the GPU in the Toolkit, in Photoshop and in After Effects. Photoshop’s new pan-rotate-and-zoom of super large images is also using the GPU. Premiere is using GPU acceleration built on AIF technologies, but does not support Pixel Bender filters in CS4.

Flash runs Pixel Bender multi-threaded on the CPU in 10.0

Peter’s original point is absolutely correct. Adobe was already using GPU acceleration before CS4, but in CS4 we’re pushing it even further. We’re also doing a lot of work on scaling for bigger numbers of multiple-cores. Run a complex Pixel Bender filter in FP 10 on an 4 or 8 core system and watch the CPU utilization."

Update 2: Kevin Goldsmith adds more with CPU, GPU, multi-core.

PETA Urges Ben & Jerry's to Use Human Breast Milk

from SFist:

"PETA Urges Ben & Jerry's to Use Human Breast Milk"