learning the adobe suite

rinz

Hi I've been learning photoshop and indesign for 3 months and just started with illustrator.  I've started to get confused with the different packages, what one should I focus on first?

TheGabmeister

It really depends on what you want to do. For texture work, all you need are Photoshop and Illustrator. For video editing and compositing, then go for Premier and After Effects.

gnoop

I would say for texture work Affinity Photo and Designer pair is better than Adobe one.   They did super cool patch tool there and have macro recorder much easier to work with. Mesh deform is also easier to correct texture photo sources.    APhoto reads layered exr files nativly, has little performance issue with 16 bit depth files .  Cool and easy frequency separation tool and so on and on.

  Both don't allow  truly non-destructive  workflow but Adobe soft while capable theoretically  turns slow as hell and so complicated you wouldn't understand anything in your own mess of layers, clipping groups and blending methods.   

RacePeaceDay

Probably wont even need InDesign at all, unless you want to make a book. Illustrator is useful, you can even export vector to 3d program as a spline, or to make decals for substance painter.

IMO, focus only on Ps and Ai.

poopipe

PS primarily and illustrator if you need complicated vectors.

afx is good if you want to do video or some fancy stuff a bit easier than in photoshop but you'll know if you need to learn that.

Gnoop.. Recommending Affinity is all well and good but most businesses will expect you to use the software they already license and support so it isn't an option for the majority of professionals - regardless of how pathetic CC has become