Workflows
There is no single "correct" workflow. In design, the only rule is that anything goes. Explore the shifting workflow patterns emerging across design communities today.
31 articles
6 min read· 6 min read
One click gets you most of a portrait cutout. The hair is where it falls apart. Pulling together Adobe's documentation and several independent tutorials, here's how to choose between Cloud and Device, refine the edge without turning hair into a helmet, and deal with the color fringe that's usually left behind.
Photo & Imaging
6 min read· 6 min read
Lightroom and Photoshop now give you several ways to enlarge a photo, from free Super Resolution to credit-based Topaz Gigapixel and Bloom models. Pulling together Adobe's documentation and several independent tests, here's how to choose one by subject, prep the file, and check the result where it counts: on paper.
Photo & Imaging
5 min read· 5 min read
Most people use Boards as a place to dump generations. Across Adobe's tutorials and independent write-ups, a better pattern shows up: boards with one job each, references that steer generation, and a clean handoff to Photoshop.
Brand & Graphic, Photo & Imaging
7 min read· 7 min read
Object Matte replaced Roto Brush in After Effects 26.2, and it changes the job from painting a selection to clicking on one. Pulling together Adobe's guidance, early coverage, and what users are running into, here's a workflow from first click to a matte you can actually composite with.
Motion & Video
7 min read· 7 min read
Webflow can draft alt text for a whole site in one pass, and Framer plugins can too. Accessibility guides agree the drafts describe what an image looks like, not why it's on the page. Here's how to sort, generate, and review so the result actually helps screen reader users.
Web
6 min read· 6 min read
Cycles' denoiser is on by default, so most people never touch its settings. Pulling together Blender's manual and several long Blender Artists threads, here's how to set it up for stills and animation, and where the advice disagrees.
3D
7 min read· 7 min read
Firefly Custom Models can learn your illustration style from 10 to 30 images. Pulling together Adobe's docs and several independent write-ups, here's how to curate, caption, test, and actually use one.
Illustration, Brand & Graphic
7 min read· 7 min read
Cinema 4D now ships with its own MCP server, so Claude or ChatGPT can rename, reorganize, and check your scenes for you. Pulling together Maxon's docs and several early write-ups, here's how to set it up and where it actually earns its keep.
3D, Motion & Video
6 min read· 6 min read
Turntable can spin a flat character or object around and hand you dozens of editable views, but it's picky about what you feed it. Pulling together Adobe's docs, hands-on reviews, and early tester reports, here's how to prep art for it and what to do with the results.
Illustration, Brand & Graphic
5 min read· 5 min read
Enhance Speech can rescue a phone-mic interview in one click, and it can also leave a voice sounding hollow or robotic. Pulling together Adobe's own notes, several guides, and what editors report in Adobe's forums, here's how to use it without overdoing it.
Motion & Video
6 min read· 6 min read
Auto Style reads a block of text, works out what's a heading, a list, or body copy, and applies a Style Pack of your own paragraph styles. Set it up carefully and it turns "can we see it in a different font?" into a one-click change.
Brand & Graphic
6 min read· 6 min read
Sampler's AI-powered Image to Material can pull a full PBR material out of a single phone photo. Getting one that tiles cleanly and holds up on a render takes a few more steps. Here's the path, pulled together from Adobe's docs and several independent guides.
3D
6 min read· 6 min read
FigJam can group a wall of interview stickies by topic and write a summary of each pile in seconds. Pulling together Figma's docs, a competing approach in Miro, and what researchers have found when they test these tools, here's how to use that speed without letting it make your calls.
UI/UX
5 min read· 5 min read
More clients show up with a logo they made in an image generator and a request to "just clean it up." Drawing on several designers' write-ups and general vector practice, here's how to scope the job, rebuild the mark properly, and have the ownership conversation before you deliver.
Brand & Graphic
6 min read· 6 min read
Lightroom doesn't copy an AI mask from one photo to the next. It copies the instructions and redraws the mask on every frame. Pulling together several independent guides and Adobe community threads, here's how to batch subject, sky, and people masks so they actually land where you meant them to.
Photo & Imaging
6 min read· 6 min read
Content-Aware Fill can erase a boom mic, a sign, or a passerby from a shot, but only if you pick the right fill method and feed it the right mask. Pulling together Adobe's docs and several independent tutorials, here's a fuller workflow, including where the guides disagree.
Motion & Video
6 min read· 6 min read
A client sends a flattened JPEG or a file with every word outlined, and nobody knows the typeface. Pulling together Adobe's docs and several independent guides, here's how to get good matches out of Retype, what it no longer does, and how to check a match before you commit to it.
Brand & Graphic
5 min read· 5 min read
Lightroom's Remove tool now packs Generative Remove plus one-click Distraction Removal for people, reflections, and dust. Pulling together Adobe's own guidance and several independent guides, here's how to pick the right mode, brush it properly, and know when to hand off to Photoshop.
Photo & Imaging
6 min read· 6 min read
Illustrator's Mockup feature wraps vector art onto a photo of a real object and keeps it editable. Pulling together Adobe's docs and several independent write-ups, here's how to set it up, which photos it handles well, and where you'll still need to finish by hand.
Brand & Graphic
6 min read· 6 min read
Harmonize matches a pasted-in subject's light and color to its new scene in one click. Pulling together Adobe's own tutorial and several hands-on guides, here's how to set it up, where it goes soft, and how to finish the job by hand.
Photo & Imaging
6 min read· 6 min read
Style references, sref codes, moodboards, and personalization all promise a consistent look, and they behave quite differently. Pulling together Midjourney's docs and several practitioners' write-ups, here's how to build a look that holds across a whole campaign.
Photo & Imaging, Brand & Graphic
6 min read· 6 min read
Generative Extend can save a shot that's a few frames too short, and it can also hand you a brightness bump or a soft, flickery tail. Pulling together Adobe's own notes and several hands-on reviews, here's how to use it where it holds up.
Motion & Video
6 min read· 6 min read
Meshy, Tripo, and similar tools get you a convincing model in minutes, with geometry that's rarely ready for anything. Pulling together Blender's manual and several independent guides, here's a cleanup path and where the advice disagrees.
3D
6 min read· 6 min read
Figma can build custom shader fills and effects from a plain-language prompt, including animated and cursor-reactive ones. Pulling together Figma's docs, independent write-ups, and forum threads, here's how to use them and where they still fall short.
UI/UX, Web
6 min read· 6 min read
Text to Vector Graphic gives you real paths, but often far more of them than you'd draw yourself. Pulling together Adobe's docs and several independent guides, here's a workflow from prompt to a file you'd actually hand off.
Illustration, Brand & Graphic
6 min read· 6 min read
Magic Mask can isolate a moving person or object without rotoscoping, but most frustration comes from over-guiding it and fixing the wrong frame. Pulling together several guides, here's a workflow from first click to a cached matte you can grade against in real time.
Motion & Video, Photo & Imaging
5 min read· 5 min read
Most people try Generative Recolor once, get a random palette, and move on. Pulling together several tutorials, here's a fuller workflow: prep the art so the AI can actually see your colors, explore broadly, save what works, then snap it back to a real brand palette.
Illustration, Brand & Graphic
4 min read· 4 min read
Developer Vishwas Gopinath's write-up on connecting Claude Code to Figma's MCP server still holds up as a technique, though Figma has since replaced his exact setup steps with a plugin-based flow. Here's why it's worth doing and where Figma's current instructions actually live.
Web, UI/UX
4 min read· 4 min read
Designer Roberto Moreno Celta's published breakdown of why most Figma variable setups collapse, and the naming and handoff workflow he uses instead to keep design and code actually in sync.
Web, UI/UX
5 min read· 5 min read
Most people who use Firefly inside Photoshop know two moves: fill a resize, erase an object. A look across Adobe's own documentation and independent tutorials turns up a model picker, a free removal path, and a reference-image workflow most people never open.
Photo & Imaging, Brand & Graphic, Web
3 min read· 3 min read
A write-up of Nolen Jonker's XDA walkthrough: connect Claude to Affinity, let it do the tedious layer renaming and color swaps, then keep the good ones as scripts. Updated for Affinity 3.3's new Scripting Studio.
Brand & Graphic, Illustration