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AlanGilbertson
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Community Expert
February 12, 2025
Question

Monthly Cross-Product Challenge #1

  • February 12, 2025
  • 39 replies
  • 14039 views

Welcome to a new kind of Creative Challenge, where you get the chance to play with all your favorite Adobe tools, and perhaps try out some you’ve never used before!

How to participate:

You don’t have to be an expert! This is for anyone at any skill level. The main thing is to have a go, and let the joy of creating be its own reward.

 

Generate a starter image or a vector drawing based on the theme of the challenge, using Firefly, Adobe Express, Photoshop, or text-to-vector in Illustrator. Expand the image into a finished product of your choice using at least one other app from Creative Cloud and/or Substance 3D. The point of the challenge is to work across apps, so this is important. Bonus kudos for incorporating Adobe Fonts, Adobe Stock, or Substance 3D Community Assets. Video is okay too.

 

When you're done, save an image, screenshot, or video clip of your final artwork, post it here as a reply to this post, and tell us your process and which tools you used.

 

There are no prizes other than the joy of creating and the experience gained in making different tools work together to a final creative product.

Challenge 1: Animal Life

Begin in Firefly, Photoshop, Adobe Express, or Illustrator (vector) Generate a starter image of an exotic animal, fish, insect, or other arthropod (no limits, so long as it's alive). Ancient animals are okay, so if you’re a dinosaur fan, go for it! Create an environment around it, using Photoshop or Illustrator or any other Adobe tools you prefer. Add other creatures or plants to tell a story and complete the scene. Be as poetic or as whimsical as you like!

 

Here’s one idea: A cuttlefish birthday party!

It started as a Firefly generated drawing of a cuttlefish. In Photoshop, after removing some debris with the Remove Tool, I added the crab and expanded coral reef using Generative Fill after enlarging the image with the Crop tool. The balloon and the party hat are Generative Fill using the Selection Brush at 70%.  The birthday cake is from Adobe Stock (the water put the flames out, sadly), with an overall color tint to blend with the scene. Shrimps are Generative Fill (Selection Brush again). Finally, I took the whole scene into the Camera Raw filter to enhance the watercolor-and-ink look with the Clarity slider and desaturate the colors.

39 replies

Peru Bob
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 22, 2025

@mj
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 28, 2025

Gonna be some good growing medium when they're done!

fbeaume
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 22, 2025

Creative Race

fbeaume
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 22, 2025

I generated my 2 creative animals with Firefly using 2 quick homemade composite as composition reference.
Then generate a Farwest desert background (lot of remove and clean steps) then try to blend the firefly images together.

Community Expert
February 23, 2025

Fantastic! 

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 22, 2025

I created this nice zebra tycoon. They started a business of knitted zebras. So this took me a while, I had to knit the zebras first 😄 , take photos and add them into the scene. Add some ornament frames to present the zebras in a nice fashion. And then also add yarn and more yarn.

 

The images in the background are too bright, but this is the official portrait and they had to be somewhat recognizable, so it took me some dodging and burning to make them shine despite the bad lighting in this old-fashioned office 😄 

 

I decided against the cigar, because the zebras would smell pretty badly. Customers would not appreciate.

AlanGilbertson
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 22, 2025

Beautiful! I suppose this is the Chief Executive Zebra? (Isn't this fun? What a wonderful create!)

I know zebra knitting takes a while. My grandmother used to knit zebras on weekends, but her specialty was crocheting cobras.

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 22, 2025

Yes, this is the CEZ of the company.

 

How nice to hear that your grandma knit zebras! I've never met another person who does that.

Community Expert
February 21, 2025

 

Archaeopteryx with blue feathers in a Jurassic forest

I don't thing this how Archaoepteryx is exactly represented ... Archaeopteryx is a feathered dinosaur that is sometimes called the ‘first bird’. This winged creature is the first to demonstrate the existence of an evolutionary link between birds and reptiles.

AlanGilbertson
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 22, 2025

Looking good. What was your workflow after generating the original image? This isn't a prompt-only challenge!

Community Expert
February 22, 2025

Exactly Alan, I did a prompt-challenge. Sorry, I read too fast.
Next month, I'll be doing a real Cross-Product Challenge!

GeekyGirlRex7295714
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 21, 2025

I started in Firefly with this prompt: steampunk frog king sitting on a lily pad throne

Then took it into Photoshop for more fun.

 

Writer | Developer | Facilitator | Geek!
AlanGilbertson
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 21, 2025

Way to go! He definitely looks like he's expecting a royal kiss from a passing princess.

Disenoideas
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 21, 2025

Hello here some images showing the Sofa Safari collection. I have had several exhibitions with these creations, here are some images and the camel on the chesterfiled is one of the latest additions to the Sofa Safari.

All Made using Adobe Firefly and Adobe Express to actually create the design from scratch. the main character in each image has been helped with Adobe firefly and the rest of the image is put togther with several images to create the overall effect. The backgrounds are not generated, they are all collages using multiple images to create the backgrouns, even the florrs and the shadows are imported PNG shadows. 

AlanGilbertson
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 21, 2025

Wonderful work! That's is exactly the kind of creative thinking this challenge is about. I think a lot of folks are going to take inspiration from these.

Disenoideas
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 22, 2025

Thanks very much Alan, im glad that you like them.

 

Tina_Irvine
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 21, 2025

1. FIREFLY: Prompt - “side profile of cartoon ladybug laying on its back with it's mouth opened really wide.” (not quite, but this one worked lol)

2. ILLUSTRATOR: Prompt - “popsicles melting on the ground. Amusement park scenery in the background.” Cleaned up some odd parts on the left side of the image (weird line and sky gradient). Added drips / shadows / highlights to popsicle. Isolated popsicle. Created the bug’s view of the popsicle.

3. PHOTOSHOP: Isolated lady bug, repositioned antennas, cleaned up eye and shell; added shadows at base of new antennas. Merged bug layers and brought both the bug and popsicle images into one file. Added shadows under the bug and changed its lighting, added/blended popsicle reflections into the eyes.

 

AlanGilbertson
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 21, 2025

Fantastic, Tina! That's a great workflow, too. Thanks for the detailed breakdown. (I can totally see the final result as a sticker!)

Tina_Irvine
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 21, 2025

Thanks so much @AlanGilbertson! ☺️

derekwatson
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 20, 2025

 

Started with the empty room, generated alien on the beanbag reading on an iPad. Added the plant, aquarium and frame with spalsh screen, rug and mountain!

Derek Watson
Tina_Irvine
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 21, 2025

This is amazing!

Valdair Leonardo
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 17, 2025

 

an eagle made of pure gold at the top of the highest alp in the swiss apls, she looks like she's waiting for someone to come back in the very cold winter below water

AlanGilbertson
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 17, 2025

Nice start. Where's the rest?

Valdair Leonardo
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 18, 2025

Had a short time to create, will take it to the video part in firefly to check how it turnes out, I have some ideas in my mind  =D

Ashraful_Islam
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 17, 2025

I started with Firefly and completed it on Photoshop Web.

AlanGilbertson
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 17, 2025

That is fantastic (in the literal and colloquial senses of the word). If they ever do a Sci-Fi steampunk version of "Finding Nemo," this dude is going to be one of the stars! 😊

Ashraful_Islam
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 24, 2025

Definitely. 👍