LAdobe :: Los Angeles Adobe User Group

FITC San Francisco coming in August

This week, over 1100 designers and developers are converging onto Toronto for the annual FITC (formerly Flash in the Can) conference. A few years, we had our own version of FITC with FITC Hollywood. That’s not coming back any time soon but in its’ place is the new FITC San Francisco. Where better to hold this event than right near Adobe’s doorstep?

The event takes place on August 16-18th and LAdobe will be there and also offer discounts for our members. Keep checking into our site, Twitter feed and Email Blasts to learn more.

Pics from the CS5/Flash Builder Launch Party

Thanks to all who came out this past Thursday night, April 22nd to the offices of the Phelps Group for the CS5 and Flash Builder Launch Party (Part One). We totally packed the place and as you’ll see, we even had people watching from the 2nd floor staircase. Was a fantastic event as thanks to all the LA area Adobe User Group Managers who participated including LA Illustrator’s Chana Messer, LA Flex’s Tom Bray and of course your own LAdobe Managers, Adam Bell and Michele Weisbart for sharing their secrets of what’s in store for Creative Suite 5.

Special thanks to our food and drink sponsors including Patty’s Gourmet Pizza, Function Drinks and our own Garick Chan who supplied his incredible home-baked bread. Beer and Wine was supplied by Adobe.

And this is just Part One! May 27th, we will go deep into Photoshop CS5 with Photoshop Cafe’s Colin Smith for what should be a memorable night. Hope to see you at Key Code Media in Santa Monica for Part Two!

Photos courtesy of Adam Bell and Beverly Houwing.

April 22: Celebrate the launch of Creative Suite 5!

Join LAdobe on Thursday night, April 22nd at 7pm at a special location at the offices of The Phelps Group at the corner of 9th and Wilshire in Santa Monica. Parking is available on the street for free after 6pm. Remember, all LAdobe events and meetings are always free to attend with no RSVP required.

For our April meeting we’ll be celebrating the launch of Adobe Creative Suite 5 and ColdFusion Builder with a night of demos (both live and taped) featuring LAdobe’s Managers, dataTV’s Adam Bell and Michele Designs’ Michele Weisbart along with the manager of the LA Illustrator User Group, Chana Messer. We’ll go through many of the major features of Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, After Effects and many of the other apps in the new Creative Suite. What’s the can’t miss items? The stuff you could avoid. Which app got a massive upgrade and which ones stayed the course? You’ll find out all sorts of interesting material on April 22nd.

After our demos are completed (around 9:30-10), we’ll keep things going with a party featuring all sorts of music, including a RockBand tournament for prizes. So stick around for a long and fun night!

And this is just the start of our celebration of Creative Suite 5! We’ll have more in May with Colin Smith of Photoshop Cafe coming in and the finals of Photoshop Idol. And a few other surprises to come as well!

We’ll have lots of Flash Builder T-Shirts to give away along with the usual prizes from all our major publishing sponsors and free food and beverages from Patty’s Gourmet Pizza, G.F.C. Good Food Catering and Function. the Phelps Group also will provide free soda and coffee and we should have some additional food and drink sponsors to announce soon. So we hope to see you in Santa Monica at for the celebration of the new CS5 on the 22nd! Save the date and see you there!

It’s Photoshop Idol Time Again!

It’s getting close to LAdobe’s 4th Anniversary and as spring has sprung yet again,, it’s time to roll out our 4th annual Photoshop Idol competition to find the next great designer in Los Angeles and Southern California.

If you’re familiar with our previous competitions, Photoshop Idol normally is where we select three or four great portfolios and have them come to our LAdobe May meeting to compete live as they have 15 minutes to create a composition using nothing more than Photoshop, a web browser and three key ‘ingredients’ selected at random. The best design of the night wins Idol and the latest copy of Creative Suite and other great prizes from our sponsors.

This year, we’re stirring up the formula and changing things around for one year and one year only.

Many of you know that once again, Adobe is presenting it’s annual MAX user conference in LA this October and once again, LAdobe and its’ sister user groups in LA and Orange County will be presenting MiniMAX X for the locals who can’t attend either due to the excessive cost or being unable to attend due to work schedules. So once again, on October 27th, we’ll present MiniMAX at a location in Santa Monica (exact location to be determined) with six speakers each spending 15 minutes presenting tips and tricks on all sorts of Adobe apps from Photoshop to After Effects. Last year, we had a surprise when one of the keynoters showed up and did a ‘mini’ keynote presentation on the FedEx calculator created in Flex. Who knows what will happen this year on the Westside?

But we need a little help from you.

MiniMAX 9 LogoWe need a logo.

If you were at our meeting this past Thursday night, you know what we’re talking about. We’re looking for someone to creatively design a logo best emphasizing the tenth edition of MiniMAX. The logo can be themed anyway you like. Obviously think of Southern California and Los Angeles but go beyond the obvious ‘Hollywood Sign’ or ‘Beach Scene’ you see everywhere. Let’s see some real creativity!

The rules are simple. Just email your logos to LAdobe. They can be created in any program (Yes, we’ll even accept Microsoft Expression!) and can even be scans from pencil sketches. We’ll work with you on the final design if we see promise. The entries should be emailed around 8 1/2 x 11 inches or around 640×480 pixels at 72 or 96 dpi. Please do not email at print resolution (150-300dpi or more) as they will be disqualified. You can send as many entries as you like. However, only one entry per person will make the finals so we can have at least three participants. On Thursday Night, May 27th at Key Code Media in Santa Monica, we will have the finals with LAdobe managers Adam Bell and Michele Weisbart presiding along with our special guest speaker, Photoshop Cafe’s Colin Smith, who helped judge the first Photoshop Idol. Each finalist must appear that evening and do a short presentation (anywhere from 2-5 minutes) describing the logo and his or her thoughts in creating it. If the finalist does not appear by 8pm on the evening of May 27th, they are disqualified. Contestants must live in Los Angeles or Orange County, CA.

The winner of Photoshop Idol 2010 will receive a copy of one of the three bundles (Print, Production, Video) of the brand new Creative Suite 5, 2 plugin sets from Alien Skin Software and a series of books from Peachpit Press. More prizes will be announced at a later time as part of the winners’ package. All finalists will receive one Photoshop book from Peachpit as well as some swag from Adobe.

The cost of entering all LAdobe competitions is always free and complimentary and you have until May 1 to submit your entries to us. So get sketching, drawing, illustrating and thinking of what you think will be the best logo to represent MiniMAX X and GOOD LUCK to all!

FITC 15% Discount for Toronto

Now in its 9th year, FITC Toronto (occurring April 25-27) is one of the largest and longest running events of its kind in the world. With some of the most unique and engaging presenters from around the globe, FITC Toronto is an information blitz of presentations, demonstrations, and panel discussions, sandwiched between our legendary FITC parties and abundant networking opportunities. Topped off with the FITC Award Show, it’s three days and nights that will leave you inspired,energized and awed.

LAdobe Members get a 15% discount to the event by using the discount code usergroup upon checkout. Hope you can make it up to Canada for the best Flash event of the year!

Pixmac: 5 free photo credits

LAdobe User Group members are eligible for a 5 credit ($5 value) in return for putting a link to the Pixmac website on their personal website. Members will need to make an account on the Pixmac website, visit the Pixmac Buy Credits page, and enter the code ADOBE5BONUS into the “Redeem a promo code” field. 5 credits will be added to any purchase. If they have already registered, members can follow this link instead.

March 25: Last year’s Photoshop Idol winner and more Photoshop goodies

Join LAdobe on Thursday night, March 25th at 7pm at our new location at Key Code Media at 1004 Santa Monica Blvd. in Santa Monica. Parking is available on the street for free after 6pm. Remember, all LAdobe events and meetings are always free to attend with no RSVP required.

For our March meeting we have at least two presentations set for the Lightning Round. This is the portion of our program where we offer our members a chance to share a few quick tips on various Adobe apps without having to do a full program. For this Lightning Round we already have Photoshop tips in place from Dan Kaufman and David Foto and we’re looking for more. If you have an Adobe tips or series of tips and can present in anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes, please contact LAdobe with your Lightning Round ideas.

For our main presentation, we have last year’s Photoshop Idol winner, Martin Bruinsma, who is back to show off some of the latest techniques from some of the best billboard designs. With all the latest advances in billboard design thanks to the controversial digital billboards sprouting across LA, this is going to be a very interesting session.

We’ll have a number of Photoshop and other design books to give away from all our major publishing sponsors and free food and beverages from Key Code Media and Function. So we hope to see you in Santa Monica at Key Code Media on the 25th!

February 18: Special Photoshop 20th Anniversary Event in Hollywood

Join LAdobe on Thursday night, February 18th at 7:30pm at a special location at Calumet Photography on 1135 Highland Avenue in Hollywood, CA. Parking is available at their lot and also on Highland after 7pm. Since our program really won’t kick off until 7:30pm, you should have no issue with parking.

Photoshop 20th AnniversaryThis month, Adobe is celebrating the 20th anniversary of one of the greatest graphics applications of all time, Photoshop and Adobe is getting together with the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) to celebrate the anniversary of the software that changed the face of photography and design forever.

The Photoshop 20th anniversary celebration on February 18th at 7:30 p.m. pst will be streamed LIVE and feature Photoshop luminaries including NAPP’s Scott Kelby, John Loiacono, Adobe Senior Vice President and General Manager, Creative Solutions Business Unit, NAPP Photoshop gurus Dave Cross and Matt Kloskowski, Adobe Photoshop star Russell Brown, and other key members of the Adobe Photoshop team. This fun-filled night will feature a walk through Photoshop history, a glimpse into the future, and celebrates all things Photoshop.

LAdobe will be present a live big-screen presentation of the webcast and we’ll be celebrating all night. Share your Photoshop stories on how Photoshop has changed your life the last two decades to win great prizes and as always, there will be Function beverages for you that evening. In addition, the first 25 people to arrive and sign our sign-in sheet that night will win a special photo editing tool we’ll preview after the webcast concludes called Citrify. Because of the limited space of Calumet’s offices, we can only accept the first fifty attendees that evening to watch the webcast with us. So make sure you get there early! We hope to see you for the celebration this Thursday night in Hollywood!

January 28: Dreamweaver and AJAX redux

Join LAdobe on Thursday night, January 28th at 7pm at our new location at Key Code Media at 1004 Santa Monica Blvd. in Santa Monica. Yes, after almost 4 years we finally have a permanent location on the Westside! Key Code Media is dedicated to supporting the User Group community and as a result we can have meeting at both their Santa Monica as well as their Burbank location from now on. Parking is available on the street for free after 6pm. Remember, all LAdobe events and meetings are always free to attend with no RSVP required.

For our first meeting of 2010, we’re launching a new initiative. With our new location in a new decade, LAdobe wants more new speakers and presenters than ever before. We know a lot of our members would love to share their advice with their fellow peers but are always afraid of presenting due to anything from stage fright to thinking they have talk for an hour to not getting anything in return.

To that end, we’ve launched a new feature called the Lightning Round. At the beginning of each of our meeting, we’ll have as many as four members who’ll share their Adobe application tips with our audience. The presentation can be on anything. From Photoshop to Illustrator to Flash to Dreamweaver and Soundbooth to After Effects. Even legacy apps like Director or Freehand. Anything is fair game. You can even choose to present that night if our lineup isn’t already full. And you only need five minutes minimum for your presentation! No PowerPoint slides, no fancy visual effects. Just anywhere from 5-20 minutes will do it. Best of all, each of our presenters will be able to choose a prize from our monthly stash before we open up the prizes to the regular drawing. So how would you like to come to an LAdobe meeting and actually be guaranteed to win something and something you probably want! The only exception to this is large prizes like conference admissions or expensive software. But all books, clothing and all other swag are fair game. And you know by now that LAdobe has one of the best libraries of books out there in SoCal! So if you’d like to present this month, or any month (special events like MiniMAX or an Adobe speaker tour excluded), please contact LAdobe with your idea so we can promote it in advance and that you get guaranteed to present on the 28th.

From there, we’ll revisit a topic we first covered over 2 years ago. AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. It powers a lot of the most popular websites today and you see it’s effects everywhere from drop-down menu to photo galleries to slideshow and data grids. Many people say it will replace Flash as it does a lot of the same things but it native to most web browsers, it’s visible in most cases on the iPhone and other smartphones and mobile devices and it’s much more friendly to search engines. Adobe has had its’ own AJAX framework called Spry for many years but has been depreciated over time due to a lack of development at Adobe Labs. It’s still very useful though and there are now other frameworks that have free  components for Dreamweaver available for download at the Adobe Dreamweaver Exchange.

For this presentation, our user group manager, Adam Bell of dataTV, will start by revisiting Spry and then showcasing the components for JQuery, Yahoo’s YUI and Mootools that all work inside of Dreamweaver. While these components are not as flexible as Spry is, he’ll show you how you can make them work and create dynamic presentations using Dreamweaver in a data-driven webpage.

We’ll have a number of Web Design and Photoshop books to give away from all our major publishing sponsors and free food and beverages from Key Code Media and Function. So we hope to see you on our return to the Westside at Key Code Media on the 28th!

Flash Decomplier and Optimizer: 20% Discounts

Eltima Software is back with new versions of Flash Decomplier, Flash Optimizer and many other Flash related products. Flash Decompiler allows you to drag and drop your .swf files and extract all the graphics, sounds, Actionscripts and more. You can ever export out an .fla file. Excellent for those of you who need to recover work you may have lost or take over a site from another studio and not have the original .fla files. You can get a 20% discount on any of their products by going to their website and using the promotional code: FD-AUG20.

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