Adobe CC

[Wingsley]

I've been doing desktop publishing work for a business office I work with, and in exchange they sponsored a year's subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud ("CC"). I now have full access to all CC apps.

In the past, I've done piecemeal work with certain apps; older versions of Photoshop, PS Elements, InDesign, and even a tiny bit of Illustrator. Now, I'm working with all-new software, the very latest, and there are so many apps that I don't know where to begin.

I'd like to do some drawings or maybe some 3D artwork to give myself some practice work to build up my skills. I'd definitely like to do things in Illustrator since I never had very much experience with it. I would also like to use Photoshop to "kitbash" some ship designs using parts from sources like the late, great Vance.

But one question remains: how do I learn elementary 3D, and what Adobe apps can I use to do it?

Also: are there any useful tutorials anywhere that I can pick up Photoshop skills to learn how to kitbash?

 

[Finn]

play with it.

 

[sojourner]

I didn't think Adobe had a 3d modelling app.

 

[Wingsley]

Other than After Effects, I'm not sure it does.

 

[Ptrope]

I believe that Adobe CC has ties to external 3D apps, but I don't know which ones. As for learning 3D, you might look into Blender, or SketchUp, at least to get an idea of what is possible for free (I think there's still a free SketchUp version, yes?).

 

[-SS-]

Yeah SketchUp and Blender are both free. SketchUp is great if you're like me and just want to see quick, rough 3D visualizations of things, though you can do some more complex stuff as well. If you really want to get serious into 3D modeling you should probably learn Blender, though it's very hard to figure out (for me anyway).

Illustrator is wonderful and you should use it for all the things.

 

[Wingsley]

I have an asset in my corner: I have an ongoing subscription to Lynda.com, and Lynda has a SketchUp 2016 tutorial.

I'm on a late-model iMac running MacOS 10.10. Sketchup will work there, right?

 

[Ptrope]

https://help.sketchup.com/en/article/36208

Appears you're good

DAZ also has Hexagon 2.5 available for only $19.95 - it's a pretty full-featured modeler that also includes texture painting and UV-mapping features; maybe not the absolute cutting edge of 3D, but very hard to beat that price

http://www.daz3d.com/hexagon-2-5-download-version

 

[Wingsley]

Lynda has tutorials for SketchUp 2016 and a 2014 tutorial for Blender. Don't see anything for Daz Hexagon.

I downloaded SketchUp. Will have to look at the Lynda tutorial and get up to speed on it.

 

[MGagen]

Ages ago, Adobe used to have a 3D app called Dimensions, but they abandoned development of it. It was very useful and unique in that its main use was to create vector output. You could make 3D objects for logos and so forth and rather than rendering raster-based images, you could make beautiful line art Postscript illustrations.

I have abandoned Adobe, after decades of using their products professionally. After years of dutifully purchasing upgrades, I am not about to begin renting the software from them now. Your employer is footing the rental bill for a year; but just be prepared to lose access to your work once they stop paying the monthly fee...

 

[Venardhi]

You don't have to use their cloud storage. Just save your files offline. They still work.

 

[MGagen]

But if you don't continue to rent the software, how do you open them?