Preconference Training

Preconference Bundles

Preconference bundles are focused, extended courses of learning. Bundled with a full MAX conference pass, these preconference trainings run from one-and-a-half to three days so that you can fully immerse yourself in a topic and technology.

Welcome Reception

Creative Cloud@MAX: Designing Digital Content

Mon 10/31 thru Tues 11/1 with full conference pass

Get a hands-on guided tour of what’s new for designers in Creative Cloud. See how to make your work more efficient, more inspired, and connected across your desktop and mobile devices.

Learn More

Creative Cloud@MAX: Designing Digital Content

From mobile to desktop, from application to application, and from creative to creative—Creative Cloud makes accessing and sharing your ideas and assets friction-free.

This exciting day and a half, hands-on training provides a guided exploration of how Creative Cloud can make your work more efficient and more inspired.

Learn what’s new for designers in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Muse, and more. Leverage Creative Cloud Libraries for workflow integration between applications.

Turn your ideas and inspirations into production-ready assets and incorporate beautiful Adobe Stock images and video. And with CreativeSync your apps and assets are connected across your desktop and mobile devices, so you can do great work anywhere.

Featured products:

  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Adobe InDesign
  • Adobe Muse
  • See moreSee less

    Get a hands-on guided tour of what’s new for designers in Creative Cloud. See how to make your work more efficient, more inspired, and connected across your desktop and mobile devices.

Russell Brown@MAX Presents: A Halloween Sci-fi Creature Spectacular

Russell Brown@MAX Presents:
A Halloween Sci-fi Creature Spectacular

Mon 10/31 thru Wed 11/2 with full conference pass

Join Adobe Principal Creative Director Russell Brown and his distinguished team of designers for this hands-on training course. Bring a costume and leave with a sci-fi skateboard deck and a mastery of new skills in advanced image editing.

Learn More

Russell Brown@MAX Presents: A Halloween Sci-fi Creature Spectacular

Bringing the greatest sci-fi fantasy to life with great design and photography

Russell Brown@MAX is a hands-on course designed for art directors, designers, illustrators, and photographers to learn advanced imaging techniques to use with Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Illustrator, as well as some of Adobe’s latest mobile tools. Led by Adobe Principal Creative Director and world-renowned Vulcan Russell Brown, in collaboration with his distinguished team of creative creatures, this course gives you the opportunity to work with some of the best designers and instructors in the industry.

Discover the potential for using all the Creative Cloud tools as a powerful source of creativity for designers.

This year’s creature-themed training will show you how to capture, edit, and composite compelling skateboard decks and t-shirt designs using Lightroom, Photoshop, and Illustrator. Also, we will be working closely with the Santa Cruz skateboard company this year and developing our Halloween themed deck designs based on their CREATURE brand. As an added incentive the best CREATURE deck design from class will be chosen by the Santa Cruz art director and printed as a limited edition offering. WOW! Everything about this year’s event will involve you as a performer and character in your own skateboard marketing campaign. We’ll have makeup professionals to help you turn yourself into your favorite sci-fi character from television or the movies. Bring your own costumes and let us help you enter a whole new world of reality. Then, using the latest desktop and mobile applications, we’ll capture, edit and turn your vision into compelling graphic imagery. When we’re done, each student will have mastered some great new skills in advanced image editing and discovered unique ways to use Adobe’s latest mobile tools. Taught using Apple iMac computers, Russell Brown@MAX features a limited class size and an intimate, inspiring environment for in-depth instruction.

We will print our skateboard decks using a Roland printer and display them for the entire MAX audience to see. Each designer will also create a companion t-shirt design to launch their new skateboarding product line. The t-shirts will be printed on the amazing Epson garment printer.

But wait—there’s more!

This year, in honor of Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy, we’ll attempt to have over 25 participants dress up as Mr. Spock and walk through the streets of San Diego. We’ll interact with the local earthlings and have a group photo taken to commemorate the event. Total creative insanity at its best!

This is an opportunity you won’t want to miss. We’ll provide a set of Vulcan ears and an Enterprise uniform to the first 25 students who want to participate in this Halloween sci-fi spectacular. All you need to bring is a pair of black pants (pointed black boots are optional.)

Featured products:

  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Adobe Lightroom Desktop
  • Adobe Draw
  • Adobe Lightroom Mobile
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Adobe Stock
  • Adobe Sketch
  • and more

What to expect:

  • Inspiring and informative presentations from industry experts
  • Printed skateboard decks for each student
  • The best deck design will be added to the Santa Cruz skateboard catalogue as a limited edition offering
  • MAX gallery exhibit displaying all class projects
  • Live makeup demonstrations from Hollywood experts
  • Professional photography studio - BYO smartphone, iPad, or camera for taking photos

Instructors:

  • Russell Brown
  • Chris Converse
  • Von Glitschka
  • Aaron Grimes
  • Orlando Arocena
  • Doug Menuez
  • Sean Teegarden
  • Julieanne Kost
  • Rayce Bird
  • Brian Yap

Monday, 9am–5pm, Tuesday, 9am–5pm, Wednesday, 1pm–5pm

  • See moreSee less

    Russell Brown@MAX is a hands-on course designed for art directors, designers, illustrators, and photographers to learn advanced imaging techniques to use with Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Illustrator, as well as some of Adobe’s latest mobile tools. Led by Adobe Principal Creative Director and world-renowned Vulcan Russell Brown, in collaboration with his distinguished team of creative creatures, this course gives you the opportunity to work with some of the best designers and instructors in the industry.

Preconference Labs

Preconference labs give you the time to go deep with a product or skill. They are half-day to full-day presentations, demonstrations and hands-on exercises led by Adobe and industry experts. We’ll provide the equipment; all you have to do is show up.

(Preconference labs are an additional fee to the conference fee.)

Build a Responsive Website in Adobe Muse—No Code Required

Instructor: Dani Beaumont, Principal Product Manager, Adobe Muse CC

Break free from template-based web design without having to learn HTML, CSS or JavaScript. In this one-day, hands-on workshop, you’ll see how easy it is to use Adobe Muse CC to create cutting edge web designs including flat design, mobile design, scroll effects and responsive design for any size screen. Plus integrate fully customized blogs, shopping carts, contact forms and more. Learn tips to preview, test and update before you take your site live. You’ll leave with the knowledge of how to deliver professional, unique desktop and mobile sites that meet the latest web standards, load quickly, are search engine optimized and automatically adapt when viewed on any size screen or device.


Platform: Mac lab

Building HTML5 Games with Adobe Animate CC

Instructor: Dan Carr

Animate CC is one of the fastest and easiest ways to create animations and games for the HTML5 canvas. If you’re already animating in Flash Professional, you’ll see how to turn your creations into sprites that can interact with the user and other elements on the screen. If you’re already familiar with the canvas, you’ll see how Animate CC makes complex shape drawing, animation and sprite sheet generation simple and transparent.

In this preconference lab, you will:

  • Explore game development concepts in Animate CC
  • Learn how to build a simple game on the canvas
  • Build an animated scene and add basic game logic using supplied behaviors

Type: Lab
Platform: Mac

Designing and Prototyping Better User Experiences

Instructors: Ben Hsieh and Demian Borba

User experience is more important than ever before. Users today—whether on a mobile app or a desktop—evaluate the products and services they’re researching and look closely at the overall experience of how easily they can find the information. A designer’s approach to web and app design has to ensure that the end-to-end user experience is seamless. Designers also need to understand how the key elements of research, wireframing, visual design, interaction design, prototyping, previewing and sharing all contribute to successful design. See how Adobe Creative Cloud solutions, including Photoshop, Illustrator and Adobe Experience Design CC (Preview), make it easier than ever to design and prototype experiences that can be shared with and tested by users before moving into production.

In this session, which combines hands-on work and lecture, you’ll learn:

  • A framework for selecting appropriate research methods given the product life cycle stage
  • Best practices and pitfalls for moderating usability sessions
  • Techniques for bitmap editing in Photoshop and icon creation in Illustrator
  • How to bring your existing assets into Adobe Experience Design CC (Preview) to help complete projects quickly


Platform: Workshop and Mac

Hand-drawn Type and Lettering Workshop

Instructor: Dr. Shelley Gruendler

This full-day Type Camp workshop will refresh your creativity, strengthen your confidence and remind you how to use your hands to create. Led by expert typographer, designer and educator Dr. Shelly Gruendler, you’ll explore different hand lettering styles with the versatile parallel pen—some typical and some unexpected—as well as what to do with your hand lettering once you’ve finished, including digital fine-tuning. By the end of this workshop, you’ll not only know how to create a variety of letterforms, but through this experimentation, you’ll learn what is possible when you simply look at letters in a different way.

Type: Creativity Workshop

Hands-on Time-lapse Training with your Camera and Adobe Creative Cloud

Instructor: Richard Harrington

Have you ever wanted to create time-lapse movies? Master this creative style of photography in this full-day hands-on lab. Master trainer Richard Harrington will begin the day with an overview of key skills before you head down to San Diego’s historic Gaslamp District to shoot. Make sure to bring your DSLR or mirrorless camera. The afternoon will be spent back in the lab room to develop and assemble your movies.

Attendees will leave this training with new skills to shoot and develop time-lapse images, including:

  • How to capture time-lapse sequences using your DSLR or mirrorless camera
  • How to eliminate flicker when capturing a time-lapse
  • How to choose the best aperture, shutter speed, interval and ISO
  • How to develop time-lapse photos using Photoshop or Photoshop Lightroom
  • How to assemble time-lapse sequences with Photoshop, After Effects or Adobe Premiere Pro


Platform: PC

Jumpstart your Designs – Mobile Sketch Walk

Instructor: Rob Generette III, illustrator, educator

Enjoy the beautiful Marina district in sunny San Diego while you capture the inspiration around you with your mobile device camera, plus sketch and draw expressively on your mobile devices using the powerful and free Adobe Creative Cloud mobile apps. Get tips and guidance from incredible illustrators and vector art monsters. Learn new styles and fresh techniques. Then spend the afternoon in the studio as you learn how to take your creative assets into production-ready designs and layouts. You’ll leave inspired and ready to evolve your concept and design process so that you can work anywhere, anytime inspiration strikes.


Platform: Mac lab

Make Responsive Design Second Nature

Instructors: Andre Jay Meissner, Simon Widjaja and Daniel Connerth

This hands-on lab takes coding designers beyond just talking about the usual paradigms of responsive web design. You’ll master what’s possible today and in the future to apply adaptable designs to your real world projects. This lab is suitable for responsive web design beginners and also provides pro tips for advanced web developers.

  • Improve your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and use a variety of Creative Cloud apps
  • Set up your asset creation pipeline and efficiently create scalable graphics and responsive imagery
  • Learn best practices for performance budgeting, progressive enhancement and touch interfaces

Type: Lab
Platform: Mac

Image Imaginarium

Instructors: Bonny Pierce Lhotka and Jake Weien

Click! Another snapshot taken. Will it ever see the light of day? Will it reside in the confines of your cell phone, or will you make something tangible that you can hold and share in the "real" world? Will it just be a boring paper print or something more unique?

Lose yourself in the creative process in this hands-on workshop presented by the folks that provided the Tintype Booth in the Adobe Make It Experience at MAX last year.

Bring in and wear your Halloween costumes to create selfies like no other. Still life objects are welcome too, as we will have lights and studio areas to capture images using “The Visionator” — the hand-held, handmade, cell phone distortion filter apparatus, to be found only at The Image Imaginarium.

In this hands-on workshop you will:

  • Experience the creation of one-of-a-kind works of art that all start OUTSIDE your cell phone and finish as an image transfer onto a tangible canvas of hard plastic or metal
  • Immerse yourself in the creative process BEFORE your finger snaps the shot
  • Receive and use your very own “Visionator” — the hand-held, handmade, cellphone photo distortion filter apparatus
  • Expand your techniques and Adobe mobile app knowledge using your pre-filtered pics inside Adobe Capture, Adobe Photoshop Express, Adobe Fix*, and Adobe Mix on your mobile phone
  • Magically print directly from your phone to Epson printers wirelessly
  • Allow these tactile experiences to springboard your creativity and lead to new visual explorations
  • Kick off your MAX week with self-rewarding art made only for you

Prerequisites:

  • Mobile device with a camera is required
  • No advanced software knowledge needed
  • Download the following mobile apps prior to attending:
    • Epson iPrint**
    • Adobe Capture
    • Adobe Photoshop Express
    • Adobe Photoshop Fix
    • Adobe Photoshop Mix

* All Adobe Mobile Apps listed are available for both Android and iOS devices except Adobe Fix (iOS only). Sorry, Windows OS phones will not work for this workshop.
** Required app for workshop

Type: Creativity Workshop

Shoot—Composite—Create

Instructors: Katrin Eismann and Jason Hoppe

Expand your creative repertoire by learning how to shoot photos and using them to build composite images that can be used in a variety of design projects. Join internationally recognized Sony Artisan photographer, artist, author and educator Katrin Eismann and Adobe Certified Expert and composting and design instructor veteran Jason Hoppe as they guide you in this action-packed preconference session. You’ll start by learning how lighting, posing and framing subjects can make the difference between good and great photography. Then you’ll hit the streets of San Diego in a photo walk to shoot photographs of an assortment of characters in different settings. Back in a lab, you’ll use compositing tricks in Photoshop to combine your photos with other photos and add effects to create images that are limited only by your imagination. Finally, you’ll add stylized text to complete a poster that will be printed and displayed and yours to keep at the end of MAX. You’ll learn new skills and immediately put them to use to create imagery that exceeds what you previously thought was possible. No previous photography experience is necessary. You will need a camera (phones are fine). Photoshop understanding is highly recommended.

Type: Photo walk & lab
Platform: Mac

Amandine Comte, France

  • Build a Responsive Website in Adobe Muse—No Code Required

    Instructor: Dani Beaumont, Principal Product Manager, Adobe Muse CC

    Break free from template-based web design without having to learn HTML, CSS or JavaScript. In this one-day, hands-on workshop, you’ll see how easy it is to use Adobe Muse CC to create cutting edge web designs including flat design, mobile design, scroll effects and responsive design for any size screen. Plus integrate fully customized blogs, shopping carts, contact forms and more. Learn tips to preview, test and update before you take your site live. You’ll leave with the knowledge of how to deliver professional, unique desktop and mobile sites that meet the latest web standards, load quickly, are search engine optimized and automatically adapt when viewed on any size screen or device.


    Platform: Mac lab

  • Building HTML5 Games with Adobe Animate CC

    Instructor: Dan Carr

    Animate CC is one of the fastest and easiest ways to create animations and games for the HTML5 canvas. If you’re already animating in Flash Professional, you’ll see how to turn your creations into sprites that can interact with the user and other elements on the screen. If you’re already familiar with the canvas, you’ll see how Animate CC makes complex shape drawing, animation and sprite sheet generation simple and transparent.

    In this preconference lab, you will:

    • Explore game development concepts in Animate CC
    • Learn how to build a simple game on the canvas
    • Build an animated scene and add basic game logic using supplied behaviors

    Type: Lab
    Platform: Mac

  • Designing and Prototyping Better User Experiences

    Instructor: Ben Hsieh and Demian Borba

    User experience is more important than ever before. Users today—whether on a mobile app or a desktop—evaluate the products and services they’re researching and look closely at the overall experience of how easily they can find the information. A designer’s approach to web and app design has to ensure that the end-to-end user experience is seamless. Designers also need to understand how the key elements of research, wireframing, visual design, interaction design, prototyping, previewing and sharing all contribute to successful design. See how Adobe Creative Cloud solutions, including Photoshop, Illustrator and Adobe Experience Design CC (Preview), make it easier than ever to design and prototype experiences that can be shared with and tested by users before moving into production.

    In this session, which combines hands-on work and lecture, you’ll learn:

    • A framework for selecting appropriate research methods given the product life cycle stage
    • Best practices and pitfalls for moderating usability sessions
    • Techniques for bitmap editing in Photoshop and icon creation in Illustrator
    • How to bring your existing assets into Adobe Experience Design CC (Preview) to help complete projects quickly


    Platform: Workshop and Mac

  • Hand-drawn Type and Lettering Workshop

    Instructor: Dr. Shelley Gruendler

    This full-day Type Camp workshop will refresh your creativity, strengthen your confidence and remind you how to use your hands to create. Led by expert typographer, designer and educator Dr. Shelly Gruendler, you’ll explore different hand lettering styles with the versatile parallel pen—some typical and some unexpected—as well as what to do with your hand lettering once you’ve finished, including digital fine-tuning. By the end of this workshop, you’ll not only know how to create a variety of letterforms, but through this experimentation, you’ll learn what is possible when you simply look at letters in a different way.

    Type: Creativity Workshop

  • Hands-on Time-lapse Training with your Camera and Adobe Creative Cloud

    Instructor: Richard Harrington

    Have you ever wanted to create time-lapse movies? Master this creative style of photography in this full-day hands-on lab. Master trainer Richard Harrington will begin the day with an overview of key skills before you head down to San Diego’s historic Gaslamp District to shoot. Make sure to bring your DSLR or mirrorless camera. The afternoon will be spent back in the lab room to develop and assemble your movies.

    Attendees will leave this training with new skills to shoot and develop time-lapse images, including:

    • How to capture time-lapse sequences using your DSLR or mirrorless camera
    • How to eliminate flicker when capturing a time-lapse
    • How to choose the best aperture, shutter speed, interval and ISO
    • How to develop time-lapse photos using Photoshop or Photoshop Lightroom
    • How to assemble time-lapse sequences with Photoshop, After Effects or Adobe Premiere Pro


    Platform: PC

  • Jumpstart your Designs – Mobile Sketch Walk

    Instructor: Rob Generette III, illustrator, educator

    Enjoy the beautiful Marina district in sunny San Diego while you capture the inspiration around you with your mobile device camera, plus sketch and draw expressively on your mobile devices using the powerful and free Adobe Creative Cloud mobile apps. Get tips and guidance from incredible illustrators and vector art monsters. Learn new styles and fresh techniques. Then spend the afternoon in the studio as you learn how to take your creative assets into production-ready designs and layouts. You’ll leave inspired and ready to evolve your concept and design process so that you can work anywhere, anytime inspiration strikes.


    Platform: Mac lab

  • Make Responsive Design Second Nature

    Instructor: Andre Jay Meissner, Simon Widjaja and Daniel Connerth

    This hands-on lab takes coding designers beyond just talking about the usual paradigms of responsive web design. You’ll master what’s possible today and in the future to apply adaptable designs to your real world projects. This lab is suitable for responsive web design beginners and also provides pro tips for advanced web developers.

    • Improve your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and use a variety of Creative Cloud apps
    • Set up your asset creation pipeline and efficiently create scalable graphics and responsive imagery
    • Learn best practices for performance budgeting, progressive enhancement and touch interfaces

    Type: Lab
    Platform: Mac

  • Image Imaginarium

    Instructor: Bonny Pierce Lhotka and Jake Weien

    Click! Another snapshot taken. Will it ever see the light of day? Will it reside in the confines of your cell phone, or will you make something tangible that you can hold and share in the "real" world? Will it just be a boring paper print or something more unique?

    Lose yourself in the creative process in this hands-on workshop presented by the folks that provided the Tintype Booth in the Adobe Make It Experience at MAX last year.

    Bring in and wear your Halloween costumes to create selfies like no other. Still life objects are welcome too, as we will have lights and studio areas to capture images using “The Visionator” — the hand-held, handmade, cell phone distortion filter apparatus, to be found only at The Image Imaginarium.

    In this hands-on workshop you will:

    • Experience the creation of one-of-a-kind works of art that all start OUTSIDE your cell phone and finish as an image transfer onto a tangible canvas of hard plastic or metal
    • Immerse yourself in the creative process BEFORE your finger snaps the shot
    • Receive and use your very own “Visionator” — the hand-held, handmade, cellphone photo distortion filter apparatus
    • Expand your techniques and Adobe mobile app knowledge using your pre-filtered pics inside Adobe Capture, Adobe Photoshop Express, Adobe Fix*, and Adobe Mix on your mobile phone
    • Magically print directly from your phone to Epson printers wirelessly
    • Allow these tactile experiences to springboard your creativity and lead to new visual explorations
    • Kick off your MAX week with self-rewarding art made only for you

    Prerequisites:

    • Mobile device with a camera is required
    • No advanced software knowledge needed
    • Download the following mobile apps prior to attending:
      • Epson iPrint**
      • Adobe Capture
      • Adobe Photoshop Express
      • Adobe Photoshop Fix
      • Adobe Photoshop Mix

    * All Adobe Mobile Apps listed are available for both Android and iOS devices except Adobe Fix (iOS only). Sorry, Windows OS phones will not work for this workshop.
    ** Required app for workshop

    Type: Creativity Workshop

  • Shoot—Composite—Create

    Instructor: Katrin Eismann and Jason Hoppe

    Expand your creative repertoire by learning how to shoot photos and using them to build composite images that can be used in a variety of design projects. Join internationally recognized Sony Artisan photographer, artist, author and educator Katrin Eismann and Adobe Certified Expert and composting and design instructor veteran Jason Hoppe as they guide you in this action-packed preconference session. You’ll start by learning how lighting, posing and framing subjects can make the difference between good and great photography. Then you’ll hit the streets of San Diego in a photo walk to shoot photographs of an assortment of characters in different settings. Back in a lab, you’ll use compositing tricks in Photoshop to combine your photos with other photos and add effects to create images that are limited only by your imagination. Finally, you’ll add stylized text to complete a poster that will be printed and displayed and yours to keep at the end of MAX. You’ll learn new skills and immediately put them to use to create imagery that exceeds what you previously thought was possible. No previous photography experience is necessary. You will need a camera (phones are fine). Photoshop understanding is highly recommended.

    Type: Photo walk & lab
    Platform: Mac

Join Our Mailing List

Join the mailing list and be the first to hear about all things MAX.

Sign up now