Tag Archives: adobe photoshop

Designers take note: a freemium version of Photoshop is in the works

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Adobe Photoshop is still the king of the graphics software industry, by name if not in practice. It is still the bread and butter of artists, designers, illustrators, and creatives, even when there are more focused applications available, like ones for making comics or manga, for example. Despite its popularity, getting legitimate access to Photoshop isn’t as ubiquitous and as easy as, say, a Web browser or even the operating system running on your computer. There is a price to pay and one that must be paid regularly. But that could be changing soon as Adobe experiments with a new strategy that will make Photoshop more than just a household name but also a presence in every household, school, or office. And it will be doing so by using that business model that everyone seems to love or love to hate: freemium.

Designer: Adobe

Adobe announced its new initiative to bring some of its products to the web browser back in October, mostly as a way for artists to collaborate quickly without having to fire up the full Photoshop version on their computers or iPads. The features of the web experience were unsurprisingly basic and revolved more around core editing tools and annotations than any of Photoshop’s advanced features. Adobe, however, may have realized they were missing out on an opportunity and is now experimenting with the idea of using that web app as a sort of trial version to hook more potential customers into its ecosystem.

The idea, according to The Verge, is to turn Photoshop on the Web as the freemium version of its product, a term that has replaced the trialware and demoware of old. Users will be given a carefully selected set of tools with basic functionality, enough for them to get most of their work done but not enough to truly harness the power of the software. If they want to finish the extra mile, they’d have to pay for an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, which is the current requirement to even use Photoshop in web browsers.

This experiment is currently being conducted only in Canada, and a lot of the details are still up in the air. For example, it isn’t clear yet where Adobe will draw the line as far as freemium features go. In the meantime, it will continue adding features to the web experience, which also raises the question of where Adobe plans to draw the line between web and desktop experiences. Naturally, the web version will be less powerful than the full thing, but it would be nice to know what to expect.

It also remains to be seen how well this idea will fly with Adobe users. The change from a one-time purchase to a recurring subscription was and still is met with criticism and resistance. Adopting another controversial business model probably won’t do Adobe’s image any favors, but it probably doesn’t need to anyway. Despite cries and complaints about Creative Cloud, Photoshop remains a giant in its category and a cash cow for Adobe. With this freemium Photoshop, it can cast its net even wider, possibly including students using Chromebooks in schools to get them started early in becoming familiar with the Photoshop way of doing things.

The post Designers take note: a freemium version of Photoshop is in the works first appeared on Yanko Design.

This modern eco-home features a garden roof and integrates the surrounding forest into its design!

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Hugging House is a modern eco-home architecture concept that features a garden roof and incorporates the natural landscape of the land into its layout.

Noticing the devasting changes that come with climate change, most modern architects look to the natural world for inspiration to help preserve it. Whether that means building a self-sustainable home using a ‘passive house’ construction method or incorporating biophilia into the design scheme, architects interpret earth’s many ecosystems in exciting and different ways.

Cuba-based Veliz Arquitecto conceptualized a modern eco home called Hugging House that integrates the land’s rolling terrain and surrounding trees into the layout of the building.

Hugging House is a large, bi-level, cantilevered home located somewhere with dense forestry and overhead treetop canopies. The two sections that comprise Hugging House merge together as if in an embrace. Concrete slabs comprise the home’s surrounding driveway that leads to the ground level and outdoor leisure areas.

Veliz Arquitecto’s Hugging House is still only in its conceptual phase, but if brought to life, Hugging House’s location would be fully incorporated into the layout of the home. Describing the design in his own words, Veliz Arquitectos notes, “We have taken advantage of the slopes of the land in order to create visual connections at different heights with the existing vegetation and beyond the landscape, as well as [used] the premises with which we always try to characterize the project.”

Choosing to merge the outdoor areas with the home’s entire layout led to some exciting design choices including a garden roof and abstract overall frame. The Hugging House’s garden roof is located in a terrace-like enclosure where residents can lay out and feel as close to nature as if they were sitting on the ground below.

In addition to the garden roof, Hugging House features a swimming pool, fire pit, and concrete driveway. On the inside, residents and guests can enjoy a living room, kitchen, dining room, bathroom, and laundry room.

Designer: Veliz Arquitecto

The inside also features garden walls and ceilings to further the home’s biophilic design principle. 

Upstairs, natural stone walls give the bedroom a sultry, cozy appeal.

The dining area and bar room feature bright and dark design elements respectively. 

A floating staircase brings guests from the living room to the second floor. 

This nontraditional A-frame style cabin blends classic and modern design elements for an inspired new look!

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Pisqal is a small, bilevel concept residence envisioned on the beach and inspired by the traditional A-frame cabin, hosting a myriad of classic and contemporary design elements that give Pisqal its distinct, alternative look.

Usually with A-frame cabins, what you see is what you get. From the outside, an A-frame cabin’s general floor plan can be figured out with few surprises. There’s a cozy appeal found in the familiarity and simplicity of A-frame cabins. Borrowing the A-frame cabin’s traditional shape and charming feel, architects Yaser Rashid Shomali and Yasin Rashid Shomali from Shomali Design Studio conceptualized an inventive A-frame cabin called Pisqal that incorporates abstract structural elements, giving the traditional cabin a contemporary twist.

Split evenly between two floors, Pisqal comprises around 70-square-meters in area, forming a cubic frame that backdrops the cabin’s A-frame style eaves. The designers behind Pisqal chose a cubic frame to border the cabin’s A-frame style eaves to create more interior space. Inside the cabin, the Shomali designers gave the home an open-floor layout, with the living areas contained to the first floor and the main bedroom occupying the entire top floor. With such an open-air layout, quirky design elements were incorporated like a ladder that replaced a traditional staircase, bringing residents from the cabin’s ground floor to its loft bedroom.

Envisioned on a beach, even the location of Pisqal challenges the A-frame cabin and brings it into a new light. Following the open feel throughout the house, Shomali Design Studio squared each room off with floor-to-ceiling glass windows that bring guests up close and personal to the outdoor seaside views. Interior design elements like white linen curtains and unfinished wooden walls also help to brighten up each room, collecting pools of natural sunlight that pour in through the glazed windows.

Designer: Shomali Design Studio

This 3D architectural design envisions a modernist villa designed for a family of five in the hills of San Sebastián, Spain!

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Rico Villa is a cantilevered, modernist architectural 3D visualization designed for a family of five in the mountains of San Sebastián, Spain.

Known for their modernist structures that flair with midcentury elements, the latest from architectural visual designers, Amirhossein Nourbakhsh and Mohammadreza Norouz envisions a contemporary villa for a family of five in the hills of San Sebastián, Spain. In collaboration with Didformat Studio, the two designers took to the rich natural surroundings of the mountains for inspiration throughout the design process. Towering right above a calm pond, Rico Villa is a bilevel, cantilevered concrete structure with an idyllic, midcentury personality.

The beauty of modernist architecture is found in its simplicity. Generally recognized for the incorporation of semi-outdoor spaces, clean framing, and bulbous geometric elements, modernist architecture stands out for acute attention to the home’s details. Outfitting Rico Villa’s exterior with modernist design elements, Nourbakhsh and Mohammadreza incorporated semi-outdoor spaces on all sides of the home. Guests would be able to access Rico Villa from its north and south sides (via garage entrance on one side) and immediately find overhead concrete covering while still outside the villa. To enter the home’s interior, an internal set of staircases and elevators bring guests from one floor to the next.

On the first level, guests can enjoy a semi-outdoor space before entering the first floor’s interior. Cantilevered by design, the first floor’s semi-outdoor space is wedged right the gap between the two floors. Then, when guests are inside, they can escape to one of the many semi-enclosed terraces available onsite. Floor-to-ceiling windows expand the inside of the home and offer unfettered views of the natural surroundings, once more blurring the line between outdoor and indoor spaces. Sunlight also pours in through Rico Villa’s lengthy skylights, brightening the inside of the family home throughout the day.

Designers: Amirhossein Nourbakhsh and Mohammadreza Norouz

Posed beside a still pond, Rico Villa’s modernist edge is softened with its idyllic location.

The post This 3D architectural design envisions a modernist villa designed for a family of five in the hills of San Sebastián, Spain! first appeared on Yanko Design.

This all-black cabin finds balance between escape and mystery with floor-to-ceiling mountainside windows!

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The Bali House from CASA Studio is a cantilevered multi-level mountain retreat with fully glazed glass windows for an almost-all-glass exterior, open-air terraces that offer unobstructed views, and sophisticated living areas with dark stone and warm wooden elements.

It’s hard not to fantasize about our future dream home. Open-air terrace walkways, somewhere with plenty of sunset views, a semi-outdoor dining room, skylights galore. Using 3dsmax, Corona Renderer, and Adobe Photoshop, interior photography and CGI studio, CASA creates 3D visualizations of architectural plans and their interiors for clients in advertising and PR. Designing the escapist homes of our dreams is their job at Casa, and their latest called Bali House features an almost entirely glass facade and a cantilevered frame.

The Bali House seems to be tucked away in the mountains, somewhere with a subtropical climate. Lodged into the mountainside, the Bali House keeps an obscure profile, with a jet black finish and unadorned exterior. On the property’s wood-slatted ground level, an infinity pool takes center stage beside a lounge and roofed dining area. The outside deck area is accessible by a set of stairs that connect to the home’s first floor. The first floor’s kitchen follows the same enigmatic design scheme as the home’s exterior.

Frosted dark stone countertops refine and cool down the kitchen’s rustic wooden panels, giving the kitchen a cozy yet elegant personality. The living area swaps out the home’s sturdy, rectangular elements for playful, circular touches. The standing, arched light fixture almost grazes the ceiling and the room’s circular floor rug showcases a round coffee table in its center. Exiting the living area, a set of stairs leads to the main bedroom and washing areas.

The stairs from the living room bring you to the home’s primary bedroom where a king-sized bed wrapped in ash grey sheets and fluffed with houndstooth pillows. Warm lighting emanates from a smoky grey glass light fixture to set the mood for the bedroom: suave, yet cozy. Walking from the bedroom to the bathroom, a walk-in closet divides the two, and residents are greeted with an open-air layout. The bathroom’s sink, tub, and shower are kept in the same room without doors or borders to separate them, giving the bathroom a subdued mature ambiance ideal for newlyweds and solo travelers.

Designer: CASA

This glass fishbowl-like home has us re-thinking about how we connect with nature

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Now that we’ve been inside our homes for over a year now living in a fishbowl doesn’t sound all that bad. However, while many architects are turning to semi-outdoor designs to develop public facilities like restaurants and storefronts, the upcoming trend for homes in this new era finds their indoor spaces merging with the outdoors to get some natural airflow a good breeze. Architecture studio Veliz Arquitectos conceptualized what it might look like to turn a fishbowl into a modern house, turning an entire glass globe into a two-story home.

Envisioned somewhere in a snowy grassland, the Fishbowl House mimics the shape of a crystal ball, propped up on three sturdy wooden pillars that connect to the home’s exterior with a steel fastener. If ever constructed, the Fishbowl House would be entirely made from glass, merging the exterior with the interior. Inside, plants fill the scene, harmonizing with the natural world outside. Constructed from wood, the flooring and semi-outdoor deck helps to warm up the glass facade and make the cabin feel much closer to the natural world. Otherwise, guests can start up a fire in the home’s integrated fireplace for a cozy night of stargazing. For the days and nights, you’d like a little bit more privacy, curtains that seem to be constructed from wood descend from the home’s ceiling to cover the whole of Fishbowl House’s interior.

Veliz Arquitectos conceptualized the Fishbowl House to evoke a sense of safety for those living inside. Lifted above the ground, the Fishbowl House’s entrance is inaccessible without help from a stair or ladder extension. Yet, when the home’s curtains are drawn, the home gives off a den-like quality, oozing with warmth and comfort. Inspired to create a refuge in response to the constricted living situations brought on by the pandemic, Veliz Arquitectos notes, “The Glass Fishbowl protects us apparently, but it can be very fragile, inside it is the safest place and our best memories from the outside wrap us.”

While the design stands out from the crowd for sure, it may be taking things too far. Ironic, isn’t it that we are finally placing ourselves into glass bowls as we did to our pets so long ago. Sure, the world is all about new experiences, and love it or hate it, there is no way you will ignore a house like this. While it is pretty to look at, given the nature of glass, there is almost zero possibility we’ll ever get to see this in real. ANd for sure never ina typhoon zone!

Designer: Veliz Arquitectos

Curtains descend from the Fishbowl House’s ceiling to bring some privacy to an otherwise transparent glasshouse.

Propped up on wooden pillars, three metal fasteners join the pillars to the house’s exterior facade.

Totally transparent from every angle, the Fishbowl House features a warm lighting fixture for when the sunlight doesn’t pour in through the glass facade.

The home comprises two levels, the bottom houses the living area while the top floor keeps the home’s bedroom.

Positioned against the night sky, the Fishbowl House provides the perfect viewing spot for stargazing.

Filled to its brim with plant life, the Fishbowl House merges the outdoors with the indoors from the inside, out.

This cliffside cabin is supported by five suspension cables for a daunting jungle retreat!

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3D visualizer and architectural designer Thilina Liyanage conceptualizes remote, escapist hideouts and villas stationed in rugged rainforests and off the sides of jungle cliffs. Most of Liyanage’s designs stand out for their intricate interweaving of natural materials like what appears to be bamboo and wooden beams to create life-size models of wildlife and other forms of nature. His most recent architectural conceptualization takes a new approach and envisions a cabin perched above steep cliff sides, one that is entirely made from glazed glass facades and metal cladding.

Liyanage’s Cliff Cabin, as he calls it, suspends from the side of a mountain, hovering in midair. In his 3D conceptualization, Liyanage visualizes Cliff Cabin locked in place above four support beams that are bored into the cliffside to create a secure enough foundation for Cliff Cabin to rest atop. In addition to its bottom support, four high-tensile cables are attached to the cabin’s roof and balance the cabin by drawing it back away from the cliff’s edge, evenly distributing the weight of the cabin. Globular spheres lock the cables in place and add an elegant and tidy touch to the cabin as a whole.

Cliff Cabin takes on a primarily triangular shape, with right triangle glass facades sharpening the cabin’s sides and protruding out to their center of convergence. Cliff Cabin is more modern in design compared to Liyanage’s previous architectural visualizations, lending room for the exterior to mainly consist of metal cladding and glass windows. Inside, however, Liyanage’s Cliff Cabin seems to be entirely made up of natural wood elements, creating a cozy ambiance in contrast to the durable and daunting exterior. The cabin’s natural wood accents and metal overhead awnings seem to merge on the cabin’s deck, where a metal roof protects the cabin’s guests from bad weather and wooden panels line the floor below.

Designer: Thilina Liyanage

Suspended above a mountainside with support from high-tensile cables and steel beams, Cliff Cabin is as eye-catching as it is daunting.

Clif Cabin perches from the cliffside like a life-size bird’s nest.

Taking on a triangular shape, Cliff Cabin is more modern by design with glass window skylights and metal roof cladding.

Cliff Cabin’s weight is evenly distributed across the four metal beams that work as the structure’s foundation as well as the four high-tensile suspension cables.

While the exterior of Cliff Cabin is entirely constructed from glass and metal, the cabin’s interior finds warmth in natural wood elements.

Photoshop’s new AI features include neural filters and sky replacement

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Adobe has released new versions of Photoshop for desktop and iPad with a bunch more AI-powered features. The Sky Replacement tool that Adobe added to the latest version of Photoshop Elements is now available in the full version of the software. The f...

Adobe’s Photoshop and Fresco for iPad are now bundled for $10 a month

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If you’re creative who depends on your iPad, you have some potential savings to look forward to. Starting today, iPad owners who subscribe to Photoshop on iPad will also get access to Adobe Fresco Premium as part of a new app bundle. Similarly, if yo...