Adobe has been working really hard lately. Creative Suite 4 (CS4) might be its most substantial update yet. Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended Patch & Keygen (100% working!)
There are now lots of different options for suites, but common to all is Photoshop. Some of the new features expand on previous Creative Suite tools, while others are new. Adobe has improved Photoshop in the areas of 3D, adjustments, image viewing, animation, and many more corners of its robust toolset. Here's a look at what's new and why this upgrade may be the best deal yet.
3D tools in Photoshop CS3 Extended were fairly rudimentary. While basic, they let you import an object and do some fine-tuning of its textures. For CS4, the entire 3D section of Photoshop has been rebuilt from the ground up for maximum performance. Photoshop CS4 Extended expands the 3D toolset immensely, offering direct painting on 3D models, image wrapping, extrusions, advanced lighting, object meshes, and beautiful professional output. That last feature relies on a knockout new raytrace renderer. While CS3 was geared toward adding textures to 3D objects and performing test renders, its excellent professional output makes CS4 ready for primetime.
CS4 also gets improved GPU rendering, so it takes advantage of the latest video cards. That means swooping a camera around and spinning a 3D object happens buttery smooth. Shadows are improved; your objects can now cast shadows or catch shadows. Objects can have various attributes such as specular shine, bump textures, reflectivity, and self-illumination. Lights can be infinite, and the lighting options combined with the camera controls make it easy to rig up 3D renders. Extensive import/export options mean you can bring in and render out just about any 3D object type.
Almost all 3D commands are contained in a tabbed Parameters panel. It's actually toggled off by default. When you activate it, you are offered an array of choices. A market of third-party 3D paint and texturing programs for various 3D systems has been growing. Previously, you often would have to create all your textures in Photoshop, bring them into your third-party program, export the final object, and then import it to your main 3D program. Now you can do all your work in Photoshop CS4, up to and including the rendering.
With some of my client work, a logo is supplied. Often, I will bring it into a program such as Maxon Cinema 4D to do a little extrusion, add some specular highlights, and just spiff it up. Lately, I have been doing this right within Photoshop. In fact, a recent client wanted to subtly change the colors of their logo to match the background image more closely. I was able to make this change and add reflections and glints so the client could see the changes against the background. The best part is I could render it right out without jumping into a 3D program — which adds a lot of unneeded complexity — and Photoshop is often more inviting.
Another headline feature is that you can now use video as 3D textures in Photoshop. It may also surprise you to learn that Photoshop CS4 Extended has a fairly robust animation system built into the program, complete with a layer-based timeline that allows you to keyframe and tween your objects, camera position, render settings, colors, textures, and lighting. While it does not approach the feature set of After Effects CS4 (see p. 35 of this issue for my review), you can create some fairly robust 2D and 3D animations and render them out with excellent quality.
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