(Not so) Random Rant for Today (#24)

There's actually like, 101 things I could actually talk about in the journal entry. But there's so much to do, and so little time. So iunno. A shame, really. It would be nice to be able to come back even once every fortnight for a post.

Anyhow. Surprisingly, today's post will actually be about something productive. Or serious. Whatever.

Adobe Photoshop CS5. Would that ring any bells?

Yeah, apparently it's coming out in a few weeks time or something (correct me if I'm wrong), so yeah. I only got PS CS4 like, 5 months ago, and CS5 is out. >_>

But yeah. In case you didn't know, you might not have heard of a new "Content-Aware Fill" option thing in CS5. If you haven't watched it already, click on this link here to watch the YouTube video on it. Mind you, watch the whole thing, otherwise if you were like me and only skimmed it through the first time you watched it, you'll be like "WTF what just happened?". So yeah. That's the "HOLY SHIIIII-" video everyone's been talking about.

So. In a nutshell, what does content-aware fill do? Say if there is a picture of a park that you've taken. You like the grass, but you don't like the park bench that's in the way. Normally, you could delete the park bench and use the Clone Stamp tool to refill all the grass. It works, but it's just tedious.

But what the Content-Aware Fill will do is that it allows you to delete undesirable sections of images, and it will automatically fill in the resulting gap with coloured pixels, based on the area around the selection image. Essentially, when you come back from your cup of tea, you'll find that the park bench is gone and that fresh grass is in place.

No, you really can't trust that image of your best friend doing your mother anymore. So maybe that's a relaxing thought. XD

But seriously now. After this morning, I don't know why, but something occurred to me. Honestly. If Content-Aware Fill is so good, it might actually assist image thieves who steal images and claim it to be their own. I mean, all they need to do is select an existing watermark that's on the image of their choice and BAM. The dirt watermark is gone. The resulting filled area might not be exactly what had originally been on the initial image without the watermark in the way, but hell, who's going to know that? And then, the thief only needs to add THEIR OWN watermark, and suddenly, instant success. They produce a 'masterpiece artwork' in less than 5 minutes.

I mean, really now? I understand how generic photo-manipulation can be really taxing at times, especially if you have a lot of images to get through. But if it's going to assist the lazy in plagiarising work, I think Adobe should seriously consider what they are doing. It might be desirable for the person trying to cut at least 5 years off a photo of their mother. But the people who spend 48 hours on a beautiful artwork on the deviantART network might beg to differ if someone suddenly claims their artwork to be their own and there is no way to prove which is the original.

So yeah. Just my two cents for today. Your thoughts? Please leave them below.

P.S. Fuck. I was meant to be polishing my boots and brass for the cadet parade tomorrow, so I woke up at 9am. But I've spent till 10:52am watching 'Modern Warfare 2' campaign videos. >< I'm so effed. (For the record, it is Polyester Parade tomorrow)