Adobe CS4 Brings Bone Animation, 3D Tools

Adobe Creative Suite 4 makes a range of upgrades to all 13 applications it encompasses, including bone-based animation for Flash and new 3D tools for many other apps.

Further refining its ubiquitous line of software for creative professionals, Adobe released Creative Suite 4 on Tuesday, a bundle of 13 different applications now available in upgraded CS4 iterations. Popular programs like Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash received a range of upgrades and new tools.

Photoshop, for instance, gets a new Content Aware Scaling system that preserves vital areas as images are stretched or shrunken to new dimensions. Flash will get a new Bones tool to help animate linked objects more realistically, and several applications will get new 3D features allowing painting, compositing and animating in 3D.

CS4 will also enable more Adobe applications to access Adobe Connect, which allows creative professionals to interact with the companies they do work for more easily.

Adobe will offer CS4 in several different packages tailored to different creative fields, as well as a Master Collection that includes every application for $2,499. Other bundles include Design, Web and Production, which retail for between $1,699 and $1,799. All applications will begin shipping in October through both resellers and directly through Adobe.