Monday, December 17, 2012

Adobe Creative Cloud Review: Is it worth upgrading?


Every time Adobe rolls around the latest version of Creative Suite everybody asks the question "is it worth upgrading?" The answer even if you're just interested in Photoshop CS6 is a firm "yes"; however the addition of a Creative Cloud subscription makes it an even easier, more definitive "yes".

Photoshop CS6


Erodible tipped brushes give you more realistic brush marks
First off, Photoshop CS6 is a fantastic upgrade. It is much faster (just use the Liquify Tool and you'll instantly spot the difference!) and has many new features both big and small that are very welcome. The new dark interface is something that I didn't have a strong feeling about either way; but after changing it back to the old default grey I soon appreciated the new look.



From a creative point of view the new Blur Gallery is very impressive and gives much more control over Blurs then we've ever had previously (you can now edit Blurs in the real time!), and the new Erodible tipped brushes are an excellent new addition to help make realistic pencil, charcoal and dry media style effects. 

Photoshop CS6 lets you edit blurs in real time




Another new feature which almost makes it worth the price of upgrade itself is Auto-recovery! Photoshop makes a background save for you every few minutes so if you have an unexpected crash you won't have lost much work; Photoshop will automatically try to recover the file for you. This has he saved me losing out on a lot of time and work already!

The only small downside to all of this advancement is that you will need to have a fairly up to date system to take advantage of Photoshop CS6, if you're only using 4gig of RAM you will find your system may start to struggle so users of 32bit O/S will find that now may be the time to finally upgrade to a 64bit O/S to have everything running smoothly.



Adobe Creative cloud


When I first heard about Creative Cloud I was a bit suspicious; subscription based services aren't always good value for money, however Adobe has managed to offer something pretty reasonable (although yes, once again living in UK does mean we don't get as good a deal as Americans do, come on Adobe, you can fix this!). For the monthly subscription price you get access to the entire CS6 Master Suite, so if you find yourself suddenly needing to do something vectorised you could download the latest version of illustrator or if you needed to do some web design work you can download Dreamweaver, for example.

Creative Cloud lets you access your files remotely.




You're not tied to one specific version of the software either; you can download a Mac version of Photoshop for your workplace and a PC version at home (for example). You're also given access to 20 Gig of storage space; which isn't just to say that you've got another version of Dropbox available to you; the Creative Cloud allows other people to view your files without downloading them and let's them do things like turning Layer visibility is on and off to look at files in more detail. It would be perfect for showing clients files that are 'work in progress'.



Adobe aren't resting on their laurels either; the Creative Cloud subscription offers continual updates to software and new features exclusive to creative cloud members. In the latest batch of updates you can now download a desktop sync app called Creative Cloud Connection, this allows you to automatically sync files just by saving into a desktop folder.



You can find out more details about Adobe's Creative Cloud pricing structure and features below: 
Adobe Creative Cloud lets you choose from various pricing options
 For more information please visit
www.adobe.com/uk.



Playr 3: The world's best webcomic based on Parenting and Gaming brought to you by the award-winning David and Sarah Cousens! http://playr3.tumblr.com/ 


Thursday, November 29, 2012

Chell from Valve Software's Portal 2

Chell from Valve Software's Portal 2

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Wednesday, November 28, 2012

David and Sarah Cousens aka Cool Surface

David and Sarah Cousens a.k.a. Cool Surface
Time for a new profile illustration.

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Playr 3: The world's best webcomic based on Parenting and Gaming brought to you by the award-winning David and Sarah Cousens! http://playr3.tumblr.com/ 

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Avengers Phase 2

Avengers Phase 2
With Avengers Assemble being released; Joss Whedon's Avengers Phase 1 (the lead up to the first Avengers movie including the first 2 Iron Man films, the Incredible Hulk, Thor and Captain America) is complete.
 
Issue 73 SciFiNow Magazine takes a look at how Avengers Phase 2 is shaping up with a look at Iron Man 3 and discusses the sequels to Thor, Captain America, a possible Hulk movie and the upcoming SHIELD TV series which means I got to illustrate the Avengers!
 
You can see more about SciFiNow on their website and follow SciFiNow on Twitter


Have fun,
David





You can Follow me!
Twitter - http://twitter.com/DavidCousens
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DeviantArt - http://coolsurface.deviantart.com/
Playr 3: The world's best webcomic based on Parenting and Gaming brought to you by the award-winning David and Sarah Cousens! http://playr3.tumblr.com/ 

Monday, September 24, 2012

Star Wars Underworld - illustrations for SciFiNow Magazine

Star Wars Underworld would focus on the Bounty Hunters
Issue 70 SciFiNow Magazine features an article focusing on what could's likely to happen in the upcoming Star Wars live-action TV series: Star Wars Underworld. 

The series is set after the prequel trilogy and before the classic trilogy and focuses on the dark and seedy underworld of the Star Wars universe. It was great fun illustrating what some of the possible plot-lines could focus on!
  You can see more about SciFiNow on their website and follow SciFiNow on Twitter


Have fun,
David





You can Follow me!
Twitter - http://twitter.com/DavidCousens
Tumblr -
 http://CoolSurface.tumblr.com/

DeviantArt - http://coolsurface.deviantart.com/
Playr 3: The world's best webcomic based on Parenting and Gaming brought to you by the award-winning David and Sarah Cousens! http://playr3.tumblr.com/ 

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Advanced Photoshop issue 100

'Vintage' illustration by David Cousens
Way back in 2006, Advanced Photoshop magazine featured the first ever internationally published appearance of a then unheard-of (yet still very handsome) illustrator  David Cousens. (If you dig through the archives of this blog you can still see the original post where I was awarded 'Best in show' in issue #23 of AP's Peer Pressure section). 

The editor of Advanced Photoshop at the time, Emma Cake (now Emma Davenport founder of Big Bouquet photography) took a liking to my work and commissioned me to produce and my first ever illustration tutorial in the following issue, cementing a long working relationship with Advanced Photoshop that goes on through to this day. 

To celebrate its 100th issue, Advanced Photoshop has commissioned some of its favourite artists that the magazine has featured over the years and I was honoured to be asked to provide this Vintage inspired illustration.  Thanks to Emma Davenport, Julie Bassett and Adam Smith for all of the support over the years.

Advanced Photoshop issue 100 is available to buy in the UK now and you can also follow them on twitter.
Have fun,
David


You can Follow me!
Twitter - http://twitter.com/DavidCousens
Tumblr - http://CoolSurface.tumblr.com/
DeviantArt - http://coolsurface.deviantart.com/


Playr 3: The world's best new webcomic based on Parenting and Gaming brought to you by the award-winning David and Sarah Cousens! http://playr3.tumblr.com/ 

Wednesday, July 04, 2012

"Shut Up Wesley!" SciFiNow Magazine celebrates 25 years of Star Tek: The Next Generation

It's the 25th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation so SciFiNow magazine is celebrating with a great retrospective covering a lot of the aspects of the landmark show including frank discussions about where the show went right and wrong, the most popular story arcs of the show, a look at the ground-breaking special effects and a humourous look at everybody's favourite "love to hate" character, the teenaged ill-fitted jumper enthusiast played by Wil Wheaton; Wesley Crusher! 


You can see more about SciFiNow on their website and follow SciFiNow on Twitter and you can also follow Wil Wheaton on Twitter too!.


Have fun,
David


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Playr 3: The world's best new webcomic based on Parenting and Gaming brought to you by the award-winning David and Sarah Cousens! http://playr3.tumblr.com/ 

Thursday, June 28, 2012

IntoUniversity CV builder game coming soon!

 IntoUniversity is an organisation that.aim to provide a national network of high quality, local learning centres where young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are inspired to acheive.

In September they're launching a CV builder game that I was lucky enough to be able to produce the illustrations for. It will take students on a journey through different zones where they learn about careers and build up their own CV.

 Here are some of the maps and modes of Transports that players will use to get across them.
I'll post some more images from this soon.

Have fun,
David

New! Playr 3: The world's best new webcomic based on Parenting and Gaming brought to you by the award-winning David and Sarah Cousens! http://playr3.tumblr.com/ 



Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker Link colour study

A Quick colour study of a slightly older Wind Waker Link returning to the Forest Temple
 
 Have fun,
David
New! Playr 3: The world's best new webcomic based on Parenting and Gaming brought to you by the award-winning David and Sarah Cousens! http://playr3.tumblr.com/ 

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

"The 50 Most Memorable Deaths in Sci-Fi" illustration- SciFiNow issue 67

For the last few months I've been working on some projects that I'm not allowed to share with you until they get released (hence the relatively sparse updates here recently) but fortunately I've done more work for SciFiNow Magazine that I can show you as SciFiNow issue 67 is out now and amongst a whole host of other fun about Prometheus and True Blood, there is a feature on the 50 Most Memorable Deaths in Sci-Fi which includes the illustration I made for the feature. 

The Walking Dead, Indiana Jones and Russell Edgington in one image? SciFiNow commissions are great fun.

You can see more about SciFiNow on their website and follow SciFiNow on Twitter
Have fun,
David
New! Playr 3: The world's best new webcomic based on Parenting and Gaming brought to you by the award-winning David and Sarah Cousens! http://playr3.tumblr.com/ 

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

SciFi Now Magazine - The 10 Best Seasons You'll Never See

Angel Season 6: The world literally goes to hell!
Issue 64 of SciFi Now Magazine includes a feature of "The 10 Best Season you'll never see" which looks at what would have happened if some of your favourite cult sci-fi and fantasy shows had not been cancelled before their time (and if it would have saved them) including Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Farscape, Stargate Universe and Caprica. 

Here is a taster of some of my images that appear in the magazine, check out the issue for more!
Caprica Season 2: 'The Chief' helps Zoe Graystone evolve the Cylons
Farscape Season 5
Stargate Universe (SGU) Season 3 would see Eli in control of the Destiny and dealing with energy based life forms and his own sanity!



You can see more about SciFi Now on their website and follow SciFi Now on Twitter
Have fun,
David
New! Playr 3: The world's best new webcomic based on Parenting and Gaming brought to you by the award-winning David and Sarah Cousens! http://playr3.tumblr.com/