Animation and Learning New Software

2010 will definitely be a big year for expanding my skills in Adobe software. Ever since getting CS4 Production Premium, I've been learning After Effects, Premiere, and SoundBooth and applying them to this big ongoing animation project.

Photoshop CS4 Extended supports 3D models and rendering (although not direct manipulation of models or modeling tools) which finally frees me from my dependence on the ancient Asymetrix 3DFX software from 1995. Expect a flood of new Hovercrane renders at some point.

So far, I've re-worked all of the animation clips from before the huge system upgrade so that they are now in high definition. I'm almost at the point where new animation clips can be produced (using some of the cool new effects in Flash CS4) and this project can move forward more quickly.

To support the new widescreen format of the animation, I'm going to upgrade the video section with an improved player interface and perhaps re-work the existing videos for higher quality and lower bandwidth requirements (F4V format instead of the current FLV format).

After the animation project is finished and posted, I'm going right back to updating 2214. The estimated timeframe brings that to some time this Fall.