Adobe Photoshop CC – Essentials Training Course vs Figma UI UX Design Essentials

28+ hours of video covering selection tools, masking, retouching, compositing, typography, colour adjustments, and web and print workflows — enough breadth to take a true beginner through to confident intermediate work. Updated January 2025 to reflect the current Photoshop CC interface. Capped at 4.6 because a handful of reviewers noted pacing inconsistencies between sections and limited coverage of advanced compositing techniques like frequency separation or channel masking.

Daniel Walter Scott holds both Adobe Certified Instructor (ACI) and Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) credentials and runs Bring Your Own Laptop (BYOL), a dedicated Adobe training platform. Reviewers consistently describe him as enthusiastic, clear, and well-matched in pace to complete beginners. The fractional deduction reflects occasional feedback that the delivery can feel slightly over-cheerful, and that advanced learners find the hand-holding unnecessary.

At Udemy sale prices of $12–15 — which occur several times per month — for 28+ hours of content with lifetime access and future updates, the value proposition is very strong. The ceiling is that the list price is artificially inflated, and a small minority of learners paid nearer the full rate and felt the experience did not match the premium positioning.

Projects span logo design, poster creation, social media graphics, and photo retouching — real-world artefacts rather than contrived exercises. Each project ships with downloadable starter assets. The limitation is Udemy's Q&A-only feedback loop: no peer review and no instructor critique of individual submissions. You produce work but receive no evaluation unless you post in the discussion board and happen to get a response.

Covers the workflows a junior designer or freelancer actually uses: masking, smart objects, retouching, layer styles, and basic compositing. Several learners noted they applied skills from the course in paid client work within weeks. The ceiling: the course stops before advanced techniques like 3D, complex channel masking, and Lightroom integration.

111 lessons span UX/UI basics through advanced auto layout, components, variants and interactive prototyping. Comprehensive for a subscription course; slightly capped because Figma ships new features faster than course updates follow.

Daniel Scott is Adobe-certified with 14+ years of teaching experience and founder of Bring Your Own Laptop. His methodical, shortcut-dense style is consistently praised by independent reviewers as clear, practical, and professional.

The Skillshare subscription (~$14/month) also unlocks the companion advanced Figma course at no extra cost. No completion certificate and the rising subscription price are the main drags on value.

Real desktop and mobile projects produce shareable portfolio pieces with genuine creative latitude. Depth of feedback is limited compared to mentored programmes; learners self-assess their output.

Auto layout, components, variants, constraints and prototyping are exactly the skills hiring managers test for. The frames-over-groups discipline and shortcut density transfer immediately to professional Figma workflows.