September 23, 2008

CS4’s Zorana Gee conducts a tour of Adobe’s upcoming CS4 and CS4 Extended
By Michael Lafferty

“With each release of Photoshop we try to work with what we have and improve it”

At PAX 2007, there was the chance to visit with the development team artists that were working (at the time) on the latest expansion for Guild Wars. When asked what programs they used to illustrate concept art, the answer was quite unexpected – Photoshop.

They said that rather than use even Adobe’s Illustrator program, Photoshop gave them all the tools to create the images that would eventually become the foundations for the massively multiplayer world they were working on.

Visit any number of the home sites and fan Web sites for the more popular games and you will see a lot of fan artwork dedicated to experiences or just the joy of playing their favorite games. A variety of different medium has been used to create that artwork, but chances are the playing field may get a lot smaller when the next iteration of Photoshop – CS4 – hits the marketplace at the end of the year. Why? Because Adobe is taking great strides to make CS4 and CS4 Extended more accessible, faster, and full of 3D imaging applications that should absolutely delight any artist, as well as any photographer.

Adobe’s product manager Zorana Gee took time in late August (this story has been embargoed) to show GameZone around the program and what CS4 will bring to the table is breathtaking. Those who have used a version of Photoshop will simply salivate at the new 3D features being implemented into the program. CS4 will bring the worlds of 3D modeling, 3D artwork and photographic image rendering into alignment while presenting a powerful stable of tools that will make creating artwork relatively easier (depending on one’s experience level with the program) and infinitely more rewarding.

“Adobe is about revolutionizing the way the world engages with ideas and information. Adobe is there to free the clutter away,” Gee said. “Photoshop has been around for 18 years now and there are about 4-5 million registered users.”

When Adobe goes about developing products, it earmarks the title for one of its three big buckets of consumers. CS4 is targeting the tech at work that makes this program look like it will be not only a dynamic program for texturing and painting three-dimensional objects, but it will also incorporate the same base tools (with some improvements in terms of the program speed and intuitive brush controls) that veterans of the program have come to know and enjoy.

“CS4 is about creative control, higher efficiency, power of 3D in Photoshop and improved image analysis” Zorana stated.

CS4 Extended was the program spotlighted during the presentation, and the program (which is projected to retail for $999, with the regular CS4 listed at $699) has so many features that should have broad appeal. The Extended program offers everything in Photoshop, plus a lot more.  

First of all, in Photoshop CS4, there is the Bridge element, which is an amazing way to scan photos, organize them and work with them all from within Photoshop. If you are a digital photographer and you have loaded images from your camera onto your PC hard drive, you know that they are usually dropped in with little information, just a number. You can open the file, view in filmstrip format or thumbnail and browse the images, and then remember the number and repeat the search in Photoshop. With Bridge, that same filmstrip view is pulled up, but you are now working within Photoshop itself and can do quick image editing with the Camera Raw function, as well as group similar images into classes and then open them all in a carousel type viewing screen. Simple to use, with a dynamic user interface makes this aspect of the Photoshop package truly a great way to view and quickly edit photos.

“Bridge CS4 is a hub for all the suite applications, it now has 3D previews. For Bridge CS4, we really focused on performance and making common tasks easier to find,” Zorana said. “We want it to be quick and nimble and get you to the image as fast as you can.”

One of the biggest changes to Photoshop is the inclusion of OpenGL drawing. (OpenGL is a two- and three-dimensional graphics language that defines graphics across several platforms and in several languages). Those who were used to doing cutouts and such would remember zooming in to edges and seeing nothing but jagged pixels. With OpenGL, the “jaggies” are gone. You will get a pixel map overlay, if you wish, but the days of cutting through blocky squares, or having the magic wand (which has been replaced with a more refined tool) blow out across several color variants appears to be at an end.  

Other improvements to Photoshop in CS4 are the way dodge and burn will protect the tones, not just layer on white or black pixels. The canvas can be rotated easily for those using tablets without permanently destroying the actual image skew. True north will remain just that, even if you have rotated the canvas to get a better hand position and the top of the image is pointing straight out to your right.

“With each release of Photoshop we try to work with what we have and improve it,” Gee said.

Another example of improvement comes with a window you can pull up that contains all the programs adjustment layers. Each adjustment is done on a non-destructible layer (meaning the layer has the changes, the image’s original layer remains underneath untouched – you can drop the changes easily now), which is a very handy feature. Cloning has been given a facelift as well, with the ability to not only clone from one section to another nearby, but to also change every similar pattern anywhere within the image with one click, or to see a floating preview of what you will accomplish in the clone. As Gee explained, “there are two features here. The first is tiled painting and the ability to detect seams/edges of a repeated pattern is leveraged by the 3D engine (in Extended only). The second is actual improvement to clone tool where we allow source overlay to be clipped to brush-size – eliminating distracting overlay.”

But the part that will have the most appeal to game designers, 3D modelers and artists would have to be the changes to the 3D aspect of the program.

“We focused a lot on 3d and completely rewrote the 3D engine,” Gee said. Then she went on to state: “There are two parts to it – ability to convert 2D images to 3D and then the advanced materials and light editing capabilities.”

Photoshop CS4’s Extended programming will allow users to convert 2D images into 3D, with the ability to import primitives (which is the model used to create the depth and style of the 3D image, like a donut, a ball, a cube, et cetera) to create 3D layers, and with full access to image and camera rotation tools and modifier keys. There is even a 3D widget to do work with OpenGL and the user’s graphics card. (“Drawing of this widget depends on OGL enabled,” Gee said. “The widget itself is just a user-intuitive way to rotate object in 3D space. The latter point is more significant.”) Animation can also come into play inside Photoshop, using render settings and camera position (with four light settings inside the program; three of those settings are programmable). Photoshop will support nine materials for 3D rendering; during the demonstration a diffuse map overlay was used and then a bump map, as examples of the materials that can be edited or created.

The overall performance of the 3D elements has been improved and you can paint directly onto the 3D object. Zorana pulled up a hot rod, and first rotated it to show how the car was picking up the lighting and environmental reflections of the static photo background. Then she layered on a few graphic elements (like text) and showed how each melded into the body and carried the dynamic lighting and shadow textures from the environment. Finally, she peeled off the paint (not literally, but she delved into the layers and removed some of the exterior elements) and the roof of the car so that she could paint the interior. While a deft hand might have required to apply the colors to the image years ago, the technology is such that you can apply the color and the 3D aspect will capture the lighting highlights and shadows and texture the color appropriately. Ray Tracer for final rendering output and as a software fallback.

This is amazing stuff.

Some of the more important 3D features, according to Gee, include the ability to paint on 3D, edit and create textures, create UV overlays, real-time interactive RayTracer for rendering realistic output, animate 3D objects and render settings, improved interoperability with After Effects, round-trip 3D formats (Collada, OBJ, KMZ and U3D) – aspects that are all very compelling to gaming market.

Merging 3D layers is simply a case of matching the cameras and merging 3D layers into a single scene. … in short, this is a dream 3D tool that will take all previous thoughts about Photoshop and blow them out of the water. It was remarkable what could be achieved with some ingenuity in older versions of Photoshop, but what CS4 brings into play is a wide array of tools that are easy to use and produce amazing, professional results.

So, what does this all mean? Gamers who are delving into art work (whether straight illustrative work or 3D models) based off favorite games would have a powerhouse application and program suite to work with, and those within the 3D illustration community get an application that builds on the past steps into the medium and takes off to create a vibrant and intuitive experience. Game developers have more tools at their disposal to help create worlds that are deeper and more vibrant.

True, this is not a program for the hobbyist who just wants to remove red eye from a snapshot. But for those who are looking for a base program to absorb tentative steps into a deeper experience, CS4 looks like a program that will fulfill starting needs, and then allow growth into a deep and rich imaging experience.

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