Mastering Adobe Creative Suite 3 (How Do I Do That?)
I was lucky enough to attend the Adobe Creative Suite 3 release in NYC this week. I have a review coming out soon, so I don't want to say too much here (don't want to step on toes). But, I can say CS3 looks pretty sweet-ass. So the question is, how can I go about mastering these 13 products? How do I have time for that? Ok, maybe not mastering, but certainly these are all products I should have a working understanding of... without at least a working understanding of all of them, how am I supposed to know what is "possible".
My first thought was classes. I have always loves learning through classes (yes, I am one of those people who loved school). I wonder if I can find classes that are product primers. CS3 is so new, it will probably be a while till you can take a class in any of them.
But then I think, is a class the right way to go? What am I gonna learn from a class that I won't learn from a $60 product Bible or manual? Of course, learning visually for me is much better than reading. Plus, the beauty of a class is that you learn things you didn't know to ask about (god I love community learning!).
I used to be pretty good at Photoshop (before I realized that Fireworks was superior). I used to be really good at Flash, at least Flash 6/7. AS3 is completely beyond me. Luckily, it's all similar to previous AS script versions (from what I am told) so I have a good base. Illustrator I have never been good at even though I have had to tinker in it for years. FLEX builds on AS3 so I am sure I will be able to pick that up easier than I think. I figure I don't need to know video editing at this point, so those types of products can be very low on the priority list.
Maybe I need to do a Product-A-Month learning bonanza. Each month, I get the product and what ever "For Dummies" or "Bible" or whatever manual I feel will be the most helpful and just dive right in. It's time for me to branch out of my ColdFusion-only world.
Now, all I need to do is stop working out, dump my girlfriend, disown my friends, stop talking to my family, quite my job, and never leave my apartment.... and I should have all the time I need :)
Reader Comments
Dude, I wonder how you have time to post blog articles with intricate code snippets now. I can't seem to find the time to do anything useful!
@Donnie,
I don't sleep a whole lot :) But seriously, my ability to cool things is very limited. I might make a lot of stuff - but it's all very short terms things that don't require a lot of time and are pretty much all ColdFusion and javascript. I rarely every branch out, which is what I would like to start doing. How is that going to be possible ??? NO IDEAS :D
But hey, if it was easy, would it be worth it?