A discussion with Dave Helmly on Digital Audio Video hardware solutions for Adobe`s video and audio application, he give us a sneak peek at some new technology for an upcoming release of Adobe Premiere Pro CS5

Adobe Mercury Playback Engine is a total gamer changer for NLE users allowing an “off the shelf” nvidia graphics card to handle the heavy requirements of today’s HD workflows also allows users to get more power from their CPUs. By using GPU and CPU in parallel, you get unbelievable performance running in a clean 64 bit operating system. Remember, all future versions of Premiere (Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 and Adobe After Effects CS5 or CS “Next”) are 64-bit only OSX 10.6 or 64-bit edition of Microsoft Windows Vista or Windows 7. By running in parallel, the CPU can take over tasks where the GPU isn’t used.

Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 – Mercury Playback Engine Sneak Peek – Part 1


Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 – Mercury Playback Engine Sneak Peek – Part 2


Adobe Mercury Playback Engine & Nvidia Quadro


Adobe Mercury Playback Engine & Video Encoding


Adobe Mercury Playback Engine & Picture-in-Picture


Adobe Mercury Playback Engine & Keying Effects


Adobe Mercury Playback Engine & Overlays and Compositing


Adobe Mercury Playback Engine & Color Correction

It was made for an online software seller by an ad agency. You can see the whole process of rebuilding the Photoshop interface here.

Structural image editing. Left to right: (a) the original image; (b) a hole is marked (magenta) and we use line constraints (red/green/blue) to improve the continuity of the roofline; (c) the hole is filled in; (d) user-supplied line constraints for retargeting; (e) retargeting using constraints eliminates two columns automatically; and (f) user translates the roof upward using reshuffling.

The project is a collaboration between Adobe, Princeton University, and the University of Washington. Presented at the technical papers session at SIGGRAPH ‘09 in New Orleans this August.


This short video demonstrates advanced image editing techniques made possible by a new algorithm we have developed for quickly finding good matches between all parts (patches) of two different image regions.
( Discover The Online Photoshop Tutorials That Reveal How To Master The Basics Of Photoshop In Just 2 Hours – Click Here! )

We have developed interactive image editing tools for Adobe Photoshop CS5 using a new randomized algorithm for quickly finding approximate nearest neighbor matches between image patches. Previous research in graphics and vision has leveraged such nearest-neighbor searches to provide a variety of high-level digital image editing tools. However, the cost of computing a field of such matches for an entire image has eluded previous efforts to provide interactive performance. Algorithm offers substantial performance improvements over the previous state of the art (20-100x), enabling its use in interactive editing tools. The key insights driving the algorithm are that some good patch matches can be found via random sampling, and that natural coherence in the imagery allows  to propagate such matches quickly to surrounding areas. We offer theoretical analysis of the convergence properties of the algorithm, as well as empirical and practical evidence for its high quality and performance. This one simple algorithm forms the basis for a variety of tools – image retargeting, completion and reshuffling – that can be used together in the context of a high-level image editing application. Finally, we propose additional intuitive constraints on the synthesis process that offer the user a level of control unavailable in previous methods.

With the growing popularity of HTML5, the popular notion is that it will be the one to finally kill off Flash. Adobe it seems, has taken this threat quite lightly, and will in fact embrace HTML5 with its Adobe CS5 suite.

In a demo showcasing the kind of workflow you will be able to expect with Adobe Creative Suite 5, Adobe surprised the attendants by showing how well Dreamweaver worked with the new HTML5 canvas, and how easy it was to leverage the canvas in Dreamweaver to display content generated in other applications.

The three demos they showed featured Adobe Dreamweaver CS5, Adobe Flash CS5, and Adobe Illustrator CS5 where content from Flash and Illustrator was added to Dreamweaver with a workflow involving FXG (Flash XML Graphics). The best thing about the workflow they establish is that it keeps the content in a vector format, making it easier to manipulate and animate afterwards.

For those who haven’t heard of FXG, it is a new XML-based specification developed by Adobe for interchanging graphic data. They have been pushing the format with CS4 as an open means of interchanging data between different Adobe products, or even third-party products, as the specification is open and XML-based. It seems FXG will have an even bigger role in Adobe CS5, and in the Flash Platform.

The workflow described in the demos is as follows:

A chart created in Adobe Illustrator CS5 needs to be inserted into a web page created in Dreamweaver.
Simply copy the chart which needs added to the web page.
In the code view in Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 select the element which will serve as a container for the vector content.
Run the Smart Paste command, and select the vector graphics option.

And there you have it! Dreamweaver will automatically create an HTML5 canvas element for displaying the chart, create an FXG file which describes the vector content copied from Illustrator, and include a JavaScript file which renders the .fxg file on the canvas!

In the same example above, if we wish to use dynamic data, or data defined in a different file.
Follow the same procedure as above, but instead of Smart Paste-ing the content as vector graphics, choose the Chart option.
This option asks for an FXG file containing the visual description of the chart, and an XML file containing the actual data. The illustrator file needs to be suitably labelled so that it can be bound to the same labels in an XML file.
Select an FXG file created from illustrator and an XML data file, and you’re done.

Dreamweaver will now automatically include a script to render the FXG file using the data from the XML file on a canvas element.

The most impressive workflow of all was the one between Flash and Dreamweaver using FXG. You have an animation created in Dreamweaver which you want to include in a web page.
Select the animation you wish to copy in Flash, and use the “Copy to HTML Canvas” command.
Again in the relevant element in Adobe Dreamweaver CS5, use the Smart Paste command, only this time selecting Animation.
Dreamweaver will automatically create a canvas element and include a JavaScript file which will render the animation described in FXG on the canvas element.


And there you have it! Animated content without Flash!

HTML5 has been as much the butt of jokes as it has been a shining light into the future, for everyone who says HTML5 will kill off Flash, there are many there to remind them that HTML5 is still years away, and who knows what Flash will become by then!

Including HTML5 in Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 only validates its purpose as an HTML editor. However making these workflows possible just shows that Adobe isn’t just including HTML5 as a specification, but intents to make full use of its functionalities, even if it means that some of it might replace features provided by their own tools.

For those who haven’t heard of FXG, it is a new XML-based specification developed by Adobe for interchanging graphic data. They have been pushing the format with CS4 as an open means of interchanging data between different Adobe products, or even third-party products, as the specification is open and XML-based. It seems FXG will have an even bigger role in Adobe CS5, and in the Flash Platform.

The workflow described in the demos is as follows:

A chart created in Adobe Illustrator CS5 needs to be inserted into a web page created in Dreamweaver.
Simply copy the chart which needs added to the web page.
In the code view in Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 select the element which will serve as a container for the vector content.
Run the Smart Paste command, and select the vector graphics option.

And there you have it! Dreamweaver will automatically create an HTML5 canvas element for displaying the chart, create an FXG file which describes the vector content copied from Illustrator, and include a JavaScript file which renders the .fxg file on the canvas!

In the same example above, if we wish to use dynamic data, or data defined in a different file.
Follow the same procedure as above, but instead of Smart Paste-ing the content as vector graphics, choose the Chart option.
This option asks for an FXG file containing the visual description of the chart, and an XML file containing the actual data. The illustrator file needs to be suitably labelled so that it can be bound to the same labels in an XML file.
Select an FXG file created from illustrator and an XML data file, and you’re done.

Dreamweaver will now automatically include a script to render the FXG file using the data from the XML file on a canvas element.

The most impressive workflow of all was the one between Flash and Dreamweaver using FXG. You have an animation created in Dreamweaver which you want to include in a web page.
Select the animation you wish to copy in Flash, and use the “Copy to HTML Canvas” command.
Again in the relevant element in Adobe Dreamweaver CS5, use the Smart Paste command, only this time selecting Animation.
Dreamweaver will automatically create a canvas element and include a JavaScript file which will render the animation described in FXG on the canvas element.


And there you have it! Animated content without Flash!

HTML5 has been as much the butt of jokes as it has been a shining light into the future, for everyone who says HTML5 will kill off Flash, there are many there to remind them that HTML5 is still years away, and who knows what Flash will become by then!

Including HTML5 in Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 only validates its purpose as an HTML editor. However making these workflows possible just shows that Adobe isn’t just including HTML5 as a specification, but intents to make full use of its functionalities, even if it means that some of it might replace features provided by their own tools.

Adobe is no longer planning to release a public beta of Adobe Flash Professional CS5. This is a change from the plan that announced in October at Adobe MAX 2009.

Since the original announcement we have seen a ton of interest in Adobe  Flash Professional CS5 and the included Packager for iPhone. Developers in the pre-release program continue to provide great feedback and take advantage of the new features. We’ve also seen a number of new applications built using ActionScript 3 and delivered to the App Store.

We are changing our plans in reaction to this strong positive feedback. We want to make sure that we can provide the earliest possible delivery of the final software to the large number of designers and developers interested in Flash Professional CS5 and the included Packager for iPhone.

We understand that some people will be disappointed. Many of us were looking forward to a beta. But in the end, we think that what is most important is to get the release version completed and in your hands as quickly as possible.

http://vimeo.com/8473809

Bryan O’Neil Hughes shows off some rather eye-popping (if we may say so) technology for synthesizing texture inside a future version of Adobe Photoshop CS5.

Basically it allows you to alter or create reality in photographs as easily as selecting an area and running the feature. Gone will be the days when photojournalists are caught with embarrassing patterns created by improperly using the stamp tool. The demonstration is so amazing that many commenters are saying it’s fake, going as far as to say it looks… “photoshopped”?

The demo starts with some small pieces, so if you’re short on time, jump to about the 2:50 mark (halfway point) for the more impressive stuff. Full-screen viewing makes it easier to see the details.

At Adobe Photoshops 20th Anniversary event in San Francisco Kevin Connor, Senior Director of Product Management for Adobe conducted alive demonstration of “Content Aware Fill” ( PatchMatch) functionality in the Adobe Photoshop CS5  code name “White Rabbit”. This functionality was demonstrated in removing a person who was standing against a wall. Rather than the background color showing through it auto filled with the texture of the wall. Another demo was conducted with an imprecise panoramic photo that had been stitched together. Empty areas were automatically filled in between and around the completed stitched photo.  Watch the video.

Adobe Photoshop CS5 – “Just Do It” Sneak Peek


Adobe Photoshop CS5 – Painting Sneak Peek


Adobe Photoshop CS5 – “Just Do It” Sneak Peek Round 2!

Photoshop Product Manager, Bryan O’Neil Hughes, gives you a glimpse of new selection technology for Adobe Photoshop CS5 that offers better edge detection and masking results in less time—even with the trickiest images, like hair. What tools do you currently use to make challenging selections?

The video shows a selection of features that are being developed by ‘Photoshop Labs’, including Painter-style brushes, a new warp tool and more.

The new brush tools aim to match that found within Corel’s Painter application. The video shows ‘wet’ paints being smudged, smeared and blended. It also shows an on-screen representation of the 3D properties of a brush, showing how it has been twisted to lay down different stroke types.

A similar system After Effects’ Puppet tool has been added to Photoshop CS5, enabling artists to warp image by placing pins into areas to lock them down, then moving the areas around them. An overlaid grid shows how the image is warped.