is Adobe CC worth getting now?
polycounter lvl 3
I use Photoshop CS6, Illustrator and Aftereffcts heavily, mainly for 2d illustration , texture making and motion graphcis, didn't see much benefits until recently I have been keeping hearing good things about the latest CC updates, wondering how are they doing now?
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Just to echo everyone else, upgrading to CC from CS6 just isn't worth it at this point
Edit: Sorry I should have read, specifically it is not worth it for Photoshop, I cannot speak to the other applications
It's an interesting question on polycount, particularly since its 3D users here.
For 2D artists (like me) it's incredibly good value, at least in my eyes. I use mostly all of the apps, Flash, InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, After-Effects. I have access to everything, plus I can save directly to the cloud, meaning I can work on files when I'm travelling (MacBook Air) and when I'm at home on my PC. The features are really suited to me and it's always being updated with cool things.
As a 3D artist I'd find it to be a very difficult purchase to justify at the current pricing.
You do realize you can turn that off right? http://blogs.adobe.com/jkost/2014/10/photoshops-new-welcome-screen-in-photoshop-cc.html "Note: to disable the Welcome screen, click Dont show Welcome Screen Again at the bottom of the New Features panel. Choose Help > Welcome Screen to enable it at a later time."
The live update layers in CC is beyond worth it for the mere cost of $9.99 a month or $19 a month for photoshop + behance pro. If you do the basic, it takes you something around 4-5 years to fully pay the price for a previous version, yet in that time, all updates are free and quite frequent.
For example you can use 16 bit depth/ height map as a source to generate few masks as layer compositions and then use those compositions as invisible clipping layers instead of usual destructive masks ( with a help of clipping groups) inside master 8 bit file. Al this having the connection live and adjustable any time.
Sounds cool in theory but unfortunately still far from being convenient because of a few limitations.
Although I found this a nice replacement for Substance Designer that even being totally node based has its own limitations.
The subtitle features and audio match stuff would be a lifesaver.
However, if you're using it just for Photoshop I'd stick with anything CS5 and above as mentioned earlier.
--EDIT--
Forgot to mention Lightroom (after seeing Earthquakes Post) If you do any kind of photo editing whatsoever then you definitely need Lightroom. Especially if you do large batches and watermarking. It is very much worth the monthly cost.
OTOH, if you're happy with your current version, or you need more Adobe products (full CC is $50/m which is harder to swallow) no reason to switch.
I would imagine CC is best if you ever want to work from a tablet or touch display maybe?
CC is the only way i could ever afford photoshop anyway.
Other than that, it's been worth it for me.
Only issues ive ever experienced have been in the most recent update - PSCC now ONLY opens on my primary Monitor. It won't stick to my Cintiq for some reason. I can move it there, but the app does not remember that I placed it on the 2nd monitor, ever. Has only happened from the updates in the past few weeks. I may try nuking PS entirely and reinstalling.
Its faster than older versions, has more utility than CS6 with some other transform options, but if you're happy with what you've got there isn't a huge need to upgrade.
The subscription is 100% worth it though, and would recommend it to anyone. I love it.
If you know how/need to use multiple Adobe apps, like Illustrator or After Effects, CC is a no brainer.
Of course, I say this just a few weeks after I shelled out $700 for CS6, but I was still running on CS2 so far as the last license I bought outright. I had an "educational" license to CS5, but really just wanted something permanent. Definitely more the sort of person who prefers to just pay for something once.
But it's a great deal as a whole, I'd go for CC if you don't have CS5 or 6 already. otherwise, probably not worth it.
It was obtained through family that works in education, so more of a, "Hey, you can obtain this cheaper than I can, let me buy it through you" sort of things. Not registered to my name, so I wanted another license to use for professional work going forward.
Now, the $123 Max subscription can go eat itself...
If you can get your work done with what you have, keep it. If not, upgrade.
Has the 3d texturing improved lately? I need to revisit that since last year.
Performance has improved a lot, along with bugs.
It also still doesn't paint over seams as well as it should.
It's passable but still behind something like Mudbox for me.
I do find CC has some nice features over cs6 for layer management, but not enough to make me move away from my cs6 license. I use Photoshop cs6 at home and work has some CC licenses floating around.
Could you not just get the two apps as single apps totalling 20-30?
cant do that, once you get more than a app you get it all and pay the full 50.
Photo editing. Vector illustration. Video editing. Compositing. Web design. Audio editing. PDF. As an artist, there's just too much value to be found in that $600/year package. You can make the argument that there are freebie solutions like GIMP, Inkscape, LightWorks, Blender, BlueGriffon, & Audacity. However, in practice, these "solutions" are often much more trouble than they're worth. Only a few, like Blender, are supported and developed to the level which most people here would need. There definitely is an "Adobe advantage" that can't be adequately met elsewhere.
IMO, to not find this package worth it, it probably means that you're already using some of the commercial alternatives like Nuke, Vegas, or Sound Forge. Even then, there are definitely pipeline gaps that would still make Adobe CC worth the price of admission.
Plus, subscription keeps you on an upgrade path. With CS6, you're locked. It'll just look and feel older as time wears on. Compatibility, as well as compliance, will really become an issue down the line.
My only complaint? Some of the bundled apps are fluff. I can see why some people might use them, but I wouldn't. I stick to the 7 bigger apps in the suite.
If the $50/month price seems like a lot, consider that the older Master Collection cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $2,600. You'd have to subscribe to CC for 4+ years to even come close to that. In those same 4 years, you probably would have upgraded your perpetual license anyway. Maybe a few times. CC is a cheaper solution in the long term.
Even if all you get is Photoshop, the price is still worth it. With their Photography plan, you can get PS for as low as $10/month. $20/month if you need that extra cloud storage above 2GB.
I only need Photoshop and Illustrator for the work I am doing.
I'm sure this is the case for most people here. If anything most people might even just need Photoshop. That being the case, I can see why Adobe has offered a cheaper single subscription option for just Photoshop.
If you're actually using a majority of the apps, a subscription for $50 is definitely worth it!
Also, the way I see it, even if you don't need a certain app today, it's nice to have it on hand for tomorrow. That was always one of the key benefits of having the CS6 Master Collection. Acrobat or Dreamweaver might have sat collecting dust all last month until, suddenly, you realized that you couldn't live without it for stuff you were doing THIS month. It happens.
Again, even if you've got deep hate for subscriptions, it's hard to deny how much cheaper Adobe has made everything. Do the math. If you bought the Master Collection for $2,600 and then upgraded every year for the next 3 years after at $1k a pop, you'd spend $5,600+ after those 4 years. Subscribe to CC at $50/month and still you'd only spend $2,400 in that same period.
I get the hate for subscriptions. I do. I too would much rather pay for something once and keep it forever. That's why, for my own sanity, I recently hopped off of the ADSK crazy train. (I'm now one Newtek's own crazy train, but that's another story. At least I'm not being forced into another subscription.) Sometimes, you don't even want or need what a new version has to offer either. Sometimes, a new version can make a good product worse. All the more reason not to upgrade. Like I said, I get the hate.
I resisted going to CC for that first year or so. The idea made me wretch for all of the above reason. I even tried to cheap out and get reasonably comparable products with perpetual licenses. Corel PaintShop Pro. Sony Movie Studio. Inkscape. Foxit. Komozer. Sound Forge. ETC and so on.
Some of the alternatives were actually pretty solid (eg. Sound Forge). Others, like Corel PSP just fell so short. Even if you could ignore that it only did RGB work, it quickly got annoying how certain features existed, but didn't work quite as well as the Photoshop version. I got to miss Adobe's layer handing or the convenience of smaller features like the healing brush. I had to remap every keyboard shortcut too.
All in all, I had a miserable experience using alternatives to the Adobe software I had become familiar with over the past 20 years. Once you go Adobe, it's hard to go back. That's why, while I know that there's a strong case to be made for Foundry's node-based Nuke, I'm stuck on AE. I'm not too ashamed to admit that I'm an Adobe fanboy.
Forget what I have to say. Just do the math. Ask yourself how much longer you can keep using the older CS6 apps before you have to upgrade. 2 years? 3? 4 or 5? Eventually, like it or not, Adobe will turn you to the "dark side" and you'll be a CC user. At that point, you'll ask yourself why you waited so long. It's worth every penny.