Illustrator CS

[Tonya]

The new 3D effects are what's tempting me, but I'm wondering if it's worth the money. Has anyone else upgraded to Illustrator CS yet? What do you think?

[AlexKogan]

hi there, Dynagirl

I haven't upgraded yet (gee, I haven't even got the 10th version), but according to what I gather from various people that have, it most probably is worth its price.

The 3D effects are basically extruding and 3D rotation. Here's an example: http://www.illustratorworld.com/cgi/databa...view.pl?id=3549 (http://www.illustratorworld.com/cgi/database/art/view.pl?id=3549)

You set the light source (don't know if it's global or local, though), you can do Lathe, you can map to 3D surfaces, you can even make 3D versions of packages from 2D art (although I don't know if they made it an automatical process or not).

You can save the transformations as a Style and apply it to any object afterwards.

As for the rest of the things that are worth the price, they took care of the speed problem which was (and is!) a culprit in 9 and 10. According to people who've tried CS, it is speedy.

Besides, they've changed completely the text engine. That is, they just killed the old one and made a new one from zero. It works (at last!) with Unicode, it supports text styles, it basically does more or less the same that ID's text engine does. The only problem with the new text engine is the backwards compatibility. For there is no such thing. You have to export your CS documents into older versions, not Save As. You can open older versions documents and either convert the text into the new version with the risk of loosing format, or import it as a complete block similar to linked images in older versions. You can't edit such "linked" text, but you can convert it to the new version whenever you want.

Thus, if you have many files made with older versions with many text in them and you workflow depends on the files and their textformatting, you may probably think it twice before upgrading.

All said is a second hand information, I haven't seen the program myself, but I've been keeping myself informed just because I really like AI.

Hope this'll help.

Cheers!

[Raja]

Wow, great insight, Kogan. Thanks

:tup:

[AlexKogan]

The pleasure is all mine, Raja :)

Here's Mordy Golding's thread about announcing AI CS on Adobe Illustrator Forums: http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?14...246@.2ccd909d/0 (http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?14@1.rcdcbzdcBYd.44246@.2ccd909d/0)

Lots of information there. Besides, it's still an open thread for anyone who wants to ask a question.

Cheers!

[Michael]

Yeh thanks Alex.

I've been looking at the CS version of Photoshop with it's new layer comps, text on path and even Flash export (which is luring me).

I was reading that you can customise keyboard shortcuts and print them out for reference.

[hotnuts21]

Sounds like a good bit of kit, with the 3d tools could you take a photo and a plan and turn something into a 3d model with it?

For example a lifeboat?

[Tonya]

COOL!! I'm drooling now. Something tells me I'll be laying out the cash very soon.

[SideFX]

Wow I am interested in both CS versions of Photoshop and Illustrator as the new feature's seem useful. I can see myself upgrading with in about 4 months :tup: probably MArch is a better estimate as its my B Day :woot:

[KelliShaver]

Definately putting this one on the Christmas list. It looks a bit more exciting than the PS upgrade, even, though layer comps, etc. are very tempting.

I've always loved Illustrator, so much more potential and functionality in that program than a lot of people realize.