Lesson Content

Planning cross-application production.

Complex creative production often spans multiple applications – raster retouching in Photoshop, vector design in Illustrator, layout in InDesign. An AI-assisted workflow plan identifies: which production tasks use which Firefly tools; which application environment each Firefly tool operates in; what handoff format moves assets between applications; and what the quality review requirements are at each handoff point. Planning before starting prevents workflow inefficiency from discovering application limitations mid-production.

Moving AI-generated assets between applications.

Asset handoff between applications: AI-generated raster images (from Photoshop Generate Image or Firefly web) placed in Illustrator as embedded or linked raster images; AI-generated vector assets (from Illustrator Text to Vector Graphic) exported as SVG or EPS for use in other Creative Cloud apps or web; Photoshop composites with generative layers saved as PSD for preservation of layer structure, or flattened to PNG/JPG for placement in Illustrator layouts. Choose handoff formats that preserve editability at the appropriate application boundary.

Tool and application assignment by task.

Matching production tasks to the most appropriate tool and environment: Object removal and image retouching -> Photoshop (Generative Fill, Remove Tool); Background generation and image compositing -> Photoshop (Generate Image); Text to image generation without compositing -> Firefly web; Text Effects typography -> Firefly web; Icon and vector illustration generation -> Illustrator (Text to Vector Graphic); Vector color variation -> Illustrator (Generative Recolor). Clear task-to-tool assignment prevents inefficient tool use.

Building the cross-application workflow.

A sample cross-application campaign production workflow: Firefly web – generate initial concept imagery (Text to Image, rapid concept testing without credit-intensive Photoshop session); Photoshop – retouch and composite selected concept (Generative Fill for object removal, Generate Image for background extension, Reference Image for consistency); Illustrator – generate icon and illustration assets for the campaign (Text to Vector Graphic, Generative Recolor for brand palette); final assembly in InDesign or Photoshop using raster exports of all elements. Each tool handles the task it does best.