In this day and age, digital artists have a wealth of different tools and applications to choose from. However, one brand stands out amongst the crowd; Adobe. Previously, artists would have to pay for each application individually, often totalling thousands of dollars to get a complete suite.
However, these days Adobe has made a subscription based model called Creative Cloud, allowing digital artists, professionals and everyone in between to gain access to their entire range of creative products for a monthly fee.
Today we will explore how digital artists in particular can make use of this subscription, what they get, and how it all works. Enjoy!
About Adobe Creative Cloud Services
As mentioned in the intro, the Creative Cloud is a collection of many different tools and apps, allowing you to bring whichever vision you have to life. Here you will find familiar names, such as Photoshop, Premiere Pro and Illustrator, as well as many others.
And as the name suggests, all of this works in the cloud, allowing you to store all your files online, meaning it is easy and convenient to change between different devices, or sharing files and finished projects with clients, friends and coworkers.
With a full subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud, you will get more than 20 different applications. This might seem overwhelming if you are not familiar with the specific applications, in which case we recommend that you consider signing up for Adobe tutorials that are designed for the tool you are looking to use.
Adobe Suite Integrations
Another selling point of using the Creative Cloud service, is that many Adobe applications are integrated with each other, allowing you to create digital art in Photoshop, and import it quickly into After Effects for using as a visual effect for instance.
You can create so-called shared libraries where each of the integrated apps can access your files directly as well, making sure that all your work shares the same consistency, design elements and overall feel.
And of course, you can easily share your projects with another digital artist for further improvement or changes, making it easy to collaborate on any project, no matter the size of your team.
Subscribing to Adobe Creative Cloud
In order to gain access to all these features, users are required to create an account and then pay a subscription fee. As of writing, Adobe currently offers three different plans:
- The individual plan
- The student plan
- The team plan
The most common for hobby artists and solo freelancers is the individual plan, as this provides full access to the entire suite of different Adobe applications and tools, and also offers cloud storage as well as regular updates. The price is also lower than the team plan. At the moment, Adobe charges USD $60 per month for complete access, however it is possible to subscribe to specific applications for a lower fee.
If you are currently studying, you can make use of the student plan for a lower price than the individual plan, but with most of the features included. This can typically be a great way to try out different applications while in design school or learning web development, without breaking the bank.
Lastly, we have the team plans. Adobe has created these plans to make it easy for companies and larger groups to work together, with collaborative features enabled and more. However, this is also more expensive, currently around USD $90 per month.
Depending on your specific needs, you might want to try different plans at different times. You can choose to subscribe on a monthly basis, or if you already know ahead of time which plan you will be using, you can also subscribe for a full year at a slight discount.
