Today, Adobe staged a slick, on-line video presentation of its Creative Suite 5, which includes the computer programs Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Premiere, After Effects, and Flash.

Shipping by mid May, the new versions of the programs will used by creative design professionals working across print, video, and the Web. Packages of the new software will cost between US$1,299 and US$2,599, with upgrade and volume licensing pricing available.

Among the highlights of CS5 are the move to full 64-bit programming for Apple computers with Intel chips, and the automating of a number of tasks that used to be tedious, manual chores.

The most stunning example is the new Content-Aware Fill feature in Photoshop CS5. This tool simplifies one of the most difficult tasks in photo manipulation, that of object removal.

In the example shown here, the original beach image includes a wrecked rowboat. In the past, to remove that object from the photo would have required painstaking effort. Hours of it.

With Content-Aware Fill, however, users need simply to select the object to be removed, and click a button. Photoshop does the rest, by identifying what needs to be removed, and then determining what appears in the remaining space.

The same technique can be used to make images bigger. In the beach scene, Content-Aware Fill was used to make the photograph taller and wider with no sign of alteration.

A similar tool in After Effects simplifies the lives of video and special effects designers. Roto Brush automates the arduous rotoscoping process that is used to digitally remove objects from video.

New on-line services are being delivered by Adobe in its CS Live offering, and include CS Review, which provides the ability to review and comment on works in progress, and the BrowserLab, which allows users to preview HTML pages in a variety of browser and computer configurations and compare configurations side-to-side and even one on top of another using “onionskin view”.

CS Live will be available free for a time, after which Adobe will be charging for the services, although pricing was not announced.

A more significant strategic shift with Creative Suite 5, though, is the move to make the tools platform agnostic. The idea is to emphasize creation over computer system or code.

Device Central means that creators can more easily export their work optimized for the wide array of mobile devices that exist, and Flash Catalyst enables designers to create Flash content without having to do any coding.

Because Apple does not support Flash on the iPhone and iPad, Adobe’s new Flash Professional includes a feature that will convert Flash files into versions which can be deployed on those devices.

Apple, though, is trying to prevent just such a workaround. The new terms of service being proposed for the new iPhone 4.0 operating system requires that applications for Apple’s iPhone and iPad be created using the programming code native to the devices.

Apple says the move is being made to ensure quality control over the software that gets created for its platforms.

Tech journalists and designers quoted by Adobe keep calling CS5 a “game changer”. The automated features in Photoshop and After Effects will certainly change the lives of photographers and VFX wizards.

Whether CS5 will similarly enhance the lives of developers wanting to turn their Flash creations into files usable by Apple’s iPhone and iPad remains to be seen.

Cross-posted at the Georgia Straight

In today’s Georgia Straight is my latest feature, detailing the troubles faced by the Elan Awards in its short four-year history.

They used to be called the Canadian Awards for the Electronic and Animated Arts, but the awards program never really did the Canadian industries justice.

Judging by the luminosity of its hosts, the Elan Awards show would appear to have been a hit. William Shatner, Seth MacFarlane (the creator of Family Guy), and Tom Kenny (the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants) have all served as master of ceremonies for the formerly Vancouver-based awards ceremony that recognizes outstanding achievement in video-game development and animation.

In today’s Georgia Straight is my feature review of the beautiful but flawed God of War III:

God of War III begins with a bang exactly where the second game in the trilogy ends: with Kratos, the protagonist, on the shoulder of Gaia as the Titans assault Mount Olympus.

and the somewhat juvenile Dante’s Inferno:

The Dante of this video game is not much like Dante Alighieri, the medieval poet, and the game itself is not much like the first cantica of his epic poem, The Divine Comedy, for which it is named.

If you like frantic action games filled with blood, you won’t go wrong with either of these titles, despite their problems.

Just published by the Globe & Mail is my review of God of War III, the final game in Sony’s trilogy of action games featuring the vengeful Kratos.

In God of War III chains are a prominent feature. Fitting, given that Kratos, the protagonist of Sony’s video game trilogy, feels that his life has been bound by the whimsy of the Greek pantheon.

In today’s edition of the Georgia Straight is my feature review of Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain, which is a fundamentally different video game experience.

Some are comparing it to film, but I think it’s more like playing a novel.

You’re going to hate Heavy Rain for the first hour you play it. That’s because this video game is different from anything you’ve ever played before, and it takes some getting used to. By the time you’ve finished the game—it’ll take about 10 hours the first time—your opinion may not have changed. Or maybe you’ll love it.