As an independent author and publisher, I have to wear many hats or kilts. When I made the decision to control my creative universe, I knew I’d have to learn many new technologies for the task. I invested in Adobe Creative Suite – Master Edition CS5. Each day I try to learn something new. Today’s task was to learn the art of combing text and multiple images using Photoshop. Of course my creation had to be, well, deviously creative and be usable in later blog posts.
Here is the output of that creativity lesson:
With Photoshop I will need to learn how to covert images for book covers, marketing materials, book trailers, website, on and on. Here is what else I use in the Adobe Creative Suite:
InDesign: eBook formatting and creation.
Dreamweaver: Website creation and maintenance.
AfterEffects: Create Book Trailers.
Adobe Media Encoder: Convert the raw book trailer to various media formats.
Why go to all this effort? I have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and love to learn new and creative tools. As an author, I wield power over worlds, but I am blown away by artists who can take the author’s vision and create stunning visualizations. While I was in high school I was on the architectural design club. I also drew landscapes free hand. I hope within 2013 that I can devote enough time to sketch the characters, demons, monsters and the landscape of the world of Allivar. To do this means I will need to learn the art of human and animal form and then learn new skills in the art of digital manipulation.
I am approaching the age of 54, where most people are content with their level of knowledge and fascination. Many have resolved that life is about spending time at the lake house and golf course, which is fine. It is my hope to never stopped having a fascination with how things work. Hopefully along with physical exercise, I will be able to keep pushing all the gifts that life brings. I prefer not to waste a single moment.
