Friday, December 01, 2017

Using Thor's Hammer to Crush a Tac into Cardboard

All right, not so much of a techie article, more of a choice / philosophy article.  Here goes.

Back in the late 90ies, when this thing called the interwebs was just getting going, there were all sorts of smaller software packages you could buy to do little things.  Ulead GIF animator, 3DFX suite, Bryce 3D, gosh I forget most of them at this point which makes me sad.  I didn't have a lot of money back then (still don't but relatively I'm more able to purchase things).  I loved saving my pennies and buying these little 50 dollar software packages that would allow you to do photo editing and basic 3D stuff.

But the big stuff, like Photoshop, was always out of reach to me.  So I went on this thing called usenet (ancient I know) and there was a adobe.support.whatever group.  I didn't have much money, but I worked at a winery at the time, and I could get wine dirt cheap, so I figured maybe I could reach out to Adobe and make a deal.  And it worked.  Pretty soon I exchanged emails with someone at Adobe and traded a box of various wines for a brand new version of Photoshop 4.

Now I was professional.  I loved that program and played with it a lot.  But over the years I went more of the programming route, and had less and less time to play with Photoshop.  Somewhere around version CC whatever the interface changed quite a bit.  I find sometimes with the new interface doing simple stuff takes me a bit to figure out.  If I still used Photoshop often it would be no big deal, but the truth is I just don't anymore.  And what I do use it for is often really simple, stuff free software could like Paint.Net could do really easily.

So it leaves me with a conundrum.  I've been fiercely loyal to Adobe ever since I traded with that one guy online for a case of wine for Photoshop.  I love Adobe products.  I pay for the full creative cloud (about 55 to 60 bucks a month) which gives me everything.  After Effects, Premier, the works.  And for all you get that price point in my humble opinion is an absolute bargain...if you use the tools a lot.

And there is the rub.  I don't.  I want to.  I keep setting little goals for myself to learn After Effects or Indesign.  If I don't I will give up the subscription.  The goals come and go but yet over 600 bucks a year goes out of my wallet to Adobe.

Two issues.  Expense and learning curve.  GIMP, Paint.Net, Paintshop Pro, etc... are all fairly capable programs for what I would ever use them for.  These low end "consumer grade" or freeware stuff has come a long, long way from where they were ten years ago.  Paintshop Pro is fairly compatible with Photoshop, I think it can even export PSD's and such.  Premier is awesome, but I haven't really used it since like CS1, and when I try to use it now I can figure stuff out, but it takes awhile.

There is a sale going on right now where I can get Corel's Paintshop Pro and whatever the Video Editor is called for like 80 bucks.  I've used Vegas (competing video editor to Premier and another tempting but more expensive option) before and I like it, but that Corel bundle is tempting.  About a month and a half of what I pay for Adobe's stuff.  Hell I could even buy the latest versions every year and still come out way ahead.

 I think I'm going to give up my subscription, and because of my history with Adobe it sucks.  I hesitate a bit because in a sense it is admitting defeat for me.  By giving up on the professional grade Adobe tools I am admitting to myself that I most likely will never become a professional graphic designer.  When I initially got into web development, twenty years ago, the graphic side of things is what I liked.  But I realized quickly that my talent there was limited, and focused more on coding.  That little bit of that young man getting into tech still lives and still really wants to be a "real" graphic designer, but...the reality of things is I just won't get, or make, the time to do it, nor encounter projects both at work and at home that really push me on the graphic design level.  I sadly am coming to grips with this, and thus I'm more willing to give up my Adobe subscription for the "consumer" grade stuff.  It bums me out.

But at the same time, using newer, less clunky software might actually be a key to jump starting my graphic design skills again.  With limited time, using easy to (re)learn stuff to get content out the door quickly when I do have time to play with things just might be the spark I need.  Instead of using a giant hammer to tackle a simple task, which makes the task less fun, maybe using a simple, quick, light tool to do it will get me past those simple task into more complex ones, where I actually do hit a wall and need more advanced tools to get a job done.  And if I can convince my wife to let me keep that 600 dollar yearly budget, but spend it on other things, I can purchase some 3D software I've been eyeing again.

Lastly, Adobe has changed a bit from when I first had a relationship with them.  It seems Adobe, even though their tools are still absolutely the best, is a different company now then when the were in the 90ies.  As a company they have blown a few opportunities as well.  Director could be eating Unity's lunch, but Adobe let the ball fall there.  Not sure Flash was handled like it could have been as well, heck I would have rather have seen Director pushed more than Flash.  And then when Adobe did redo Directory they just outsourced to a team of programmers and did a refresh.  Not sure how much in house talent they keep around in house.  I'm sure some, but they are doing the global outsourcing thing like everyone else.  No longer the slightly bigger Mom and Pop company that I encountered long ago.  Maybe my out for a little disloyalty :)

Well, if I ever am able to get into the swing of things, I can resubscribe I guess.  Just worry I never will as time and tide take me down other paths with software.  But the option is there.

Adobe, I love you.  Your software is still king.  But I must acknowledge that a full on graphic designer I am not, and I can make do with a lot less.  Makes me sad.  It is me not you.