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Hyper-lapse videos — made by combining time-lapse photography with camera movements — have been popular for a while now. But digital experience builder Teehan+Lax has now released a free tool that makes it possible to create these using shots from Google Street View. Appropriately dubbed Google Street View Hyperlapse, it can be used as-is or the open source code can be tweaked to manipulate such things as frame rate, image quality and camera movement. The clip below shows what it's capable of.

Could this be the golden age of computer graphics? There's no doubt that movie watchers and console game players are currently the happy beneficiaries of the conjunction of advanced graphics capabilities and highly talented design directors and artists. Case in point is Bradley G Munkowitz, who in the last decade has been involved in such projects as the movie Tron and, more recently, as design director for the many graphic elements within the sci-fi flick Oblivion. The clip below shows a montage of the device interfaces his team designed, which get almost as much screen time as the actors.

It was way back in 2011 that Adobe first demonstrated advanced unblurring abilities in Photoshop, thereby generating speculation that this functionality would be added to the upcoming CS6. Alas, that didn't happen and we haven't heard much of it since. In yet another teaser leading up to Adobe's MAX Creativity Conference, the firm has now released a clip, shown below, demonstrating a fully integrated version of this functionality. Will this be available in CS7? Or will it be first provided to Creative Cloud subscribers, as is increasingly the case. No word on that to date but details will no doubt be revealed during the conference, running May 4 through 8.

The latest PBS Off Book episode, dubbed Photoshop Has Changed the World, takes a look at several aspects of the impact of digital image editing on illustration, retouching and online popular culture. It's a brief but worthy effort, although there's more to all this than simply Photoshop. For example, one can agree with the claim that, "With the ability to alter any image in the media landscape, everyday people now have the means to critically comment on culture and spread their ideas virally, leveling the playing field between traditional media creators and consumers." But those "everyday people" are for the most part not creating wacky cat photos with a product that sells for $699.

Adobe is still offering a discounted rate of $29.99 for the first year of Creative Cloud (regular $49.99) for registered users of CS3 apps or suites. But in the run-up to its Adobe MAX Creativity Conference in the first week of May, the firm seems to be relentlessly expanding its subscriber base. The latest initiative to boost the subscriber count is a limited-time offer that extends the $29.99 rate to anybody and everybody — no need to be a registered user of any Adobe product. The objective would seem to be to snag not only users of ancient versions of Adobe apps but those who have, for whatever reason, never used them. Or at least, never used a legal version. This offer is available until April 19.

Funny to read how wrong tech professionals were about the iPad. They didn't get right practically anything, not the sales, not the capabilities or its effect. Next time you read an opinion from a 'pundit' remember how poor their evaluation can be.

“Any tablet computer, including Apple’s eagerly anticipated iPad, will face serious problems in generating big sales. Tablets look cool, but the reality is they don’t do anything new.”
Michael Comeau, Minyanville, 5 March 2010

Logo redesign as performance art? Design firm Sagmeister and Walsh will redesign the logo of Adobe MAX 2013: The Creativity Conference live during a 24-hour period using "a single design material, such as strings or pencil." You can tune in at 9 AM ET via Adobe's Create Now Facebook app to witness this design highwire act. A brief interview with Jessica Walsh provides some background on what to expect. Related is something called the Adobe MAX Speaker Challenge Sweepstakes. To participate in this you need to tweet which of two MAX sessions you'd rather attend, for a shot at winning not only a full conference pass and the Creative Cloud subscription that goes with it but also VIP seating at the MAX Bash. You can guess what that is. If you'll be attending this year's Adobe MAX, you can use the promo code MXSM13 when you register and save $300. Note to Art D. Rector: I was not paid by Adobe to post this.

Looks legit! ;)

The process of rotoscoping was invented almost 100 years ago by the talented American animator Max Fleischer. The process is a simple one, in which animators draw over footage to provide a realistic sense of motion. If this sounds like a primitive version of mocap, you're right. Rewind to 2013, with Adobe now showing off the rotoscoping capabilities of After Effects, past, present and future.

If Coke has stuck doggedly to the use of red and its classic script logo, Pepsi has inexplicably clung to its banal bottle design. But no more. The sixteen-year-old bottle is now out and a rather lumpy replacement is in, which looks somehow more like a weapon of mass destruction than a soft drink container. Angelique Krembs, Vice President, Pepsi Marketing, tells us that "Our single serve bottle is the most visible and tangible connection point we have with our consumers, and we love how the new bottle expresses our brand DNA." Not convinced? There's more.