San Jose, CA—Recognizing that using 3D in 2D workflows adds better output options for interactive websites, game content, video and 3D printing, and that one of the most in-demand skills for designers is 3D, Adobe acquired Mixamo—a company that enables designers to create and customize a broad range of high-quality 3D characters and animations.
Adobe has been working to make it simpler to integrate 3D creation into the creative workflow. Their efforts began last year when the company announced new features in Adobe Photoshop CC that make 3D compositing and printing easier. The acquisition of San Francisco-based Mixamo is the next step in Adobe’s 3D progression.
In a recent company blog, Adobe explained how the acquisition would provide significant benefits for the design community with the following capabilities:
• Increase productivity by reusing assets that can now be easily customized in 3D
• Gain flexibility in making changes to lighting, environment, perspective and materials
• Generate more realistic scenes in projects with lifelike lighting, reflections and shadows
• Produce greater output options in both still and motion
• Create realistic packaging, product concepts and prototypes before manufacturing.
While Photoshop CC can currently be used to produce various 3D outputs, Mixamo’s technology will increase what users can do with Photoshop CC and 3D content while making it less complicated for more people to take advantage of those benefits.
“We plan to integrate Mixamo’s technology into Photoshop CC to empower designers to create, customize, manipulate, rig and animate 3D content, as well as to take advantage of tens of thousands of high-quality, turnkey 3D models, starting with stock characters that can be easily pulled into projects,” Adobe stated.
“Designers are increasingly being asked to create photo-realistic scenes that don’t exist in the real world. And while this is already being done in Photoshop CC today, we can push the envelope further to enable a level of precision like never before, and to make it easier for everyone to use. This is because there is a confluence of changes in 3D technologies that will make this much easier in the near future. First, the emergence of 3D scanning technology will drive demand for readily available, high-quality 3D content. Second, hardware improvements make it much easier to work with 3D content on standard devices, even tablets. Finally, we see a marriage of high-quality content and powerful tools geared toward graphic designers that make working with 3D more accessible than ever before. Mixamo helps us address these market demands and the current challenges of working with 3D.” adobe.com
