At Adobe MAX last week in Miami, B&T was on hand to witness this year’s Sneaks – the latest early-stage innovations and exciting advancements across photography, video, audio, 3D and design. Nine projects were highlighted, where engineers and research scientists reveal prototype ideas and technologies.
Award-winning actress Awkwafina co-hosted the program, providing attendees with a glimpse into the future of creativity. Living up to her name, she was perhaps the most awkward host we’d witnessed in recent years. Note to Adobe: you should make Shaquille O’Neal a regular co-host!
As is always the most adorable part of Adobe Sneaks, the projects are always presented by the young Adobe employees who worked on them rather than a polished executive making it one of the most human and approachable sessions at the three-day conference.
This year’s Sneaks spotlighted the limitless potential for re-imagining creative workflows, bringing creative pros more speed, precision and power than ever and making it easier for them to explore ideas and cut production time down from days to just minutes. A few of these projects may even become key features in Adobe products, trusted by millions of customers worldwide:
Project Perfect Blend
Project Perfect Blend can make it easier to add people or objects into another image, adjusting color, lighting, and even shadows to blend naturally. Masking technology has improved for better foregrounds, and generative AI helps create custom backgrounds. This project focuses on natural blending and realistic shadow casting to make the process smoother and more lifelike.
Project Clean Machine
With Project Clean Machine, unwanted flashes from things like photo flashes or fireworks, as well as objects briefly blocking the camera, can easily be removed from photos or videos. It can even detect and automatically remove camera flashes in videos, making it super handy for cleaning up footage.
Project In Motion
Project In Motion lets you turn a custom shape animation into a video just by describing what you want — like “pistachio ice cream.” Using generative AI, you can explore new animation workflows and convert text into animation based on an initial After Effects project. Plus, you can add a style reference image to mix and match styles with your prompt for a unique touch.
Project Know How
Project Know How envisions the future of content provenance by demonstrating the durability of Content Credentials across both digital and physical spaces. Through fingerprinting and watermarking, users can quickly trace the origins of videos and images to their original source, even when visible Content Credentials metadata has been stripped. Project Know How exemplifies how Adobe continues to help build trust and promote transparency across all forms of content.
Project Turntable
With Project Turntable, you can easily rotate 2D vector art in 3D, and it’ll still look like 2D art from any new angle. Just click a button and drag a slider to spin your graphics around, much like manipulating a 3D object. The best part? Even after the rotation, the vector graphics stay true to the original shape, so you don’t lose any of the design’s essence.
Project Super Sonic
With Project Super Sonic, you can generate sound effects for your video simply by using a prompt, or you can click on objects in the video to create sounds without any prompts. You can even control the timing of these sounds with your voice, making it super intuitive. Add and layer sounds directly in the timeline, mix background and foreground effects, and choose from variations of prompts to get just the right sound. It’s a cool way to enhance your videos with custom audio that fits perfectly.
Project Scenic
Project Scenic makes 2D image creation easier by letting you build a 3D scene layout with a copilot prompt. This tool helps you control the camera and tweak individual objects, guiding the image generation process. This system reduces the trial-and-error of adjusting layouts and camera views by letting you edit 3D scenes more precisely. Plus, “regional prompting” lets you make specific changes to objects in your images.
Project Remix A Lot
Project Remix A Lot makes it super easy to turn a sketch into a polished design. You can start with a rough idea and then refine it using an inspiration image. The tool uses generative AI to guide you through the creative process, letting you adjust your design to fit various shapes and sizes, even irregular ones. It’s like having a personalized creative assistant that helps you convert sketches into editable graphics and keeps your style intact across different canvases.
Project Hi-Fi
Project Hi-Fi can be a game-changer for image creation. You can capture any part of your screen and use it as a guide to quickly create high-quality images with AI. These images can then be easily brought into Adobe Photoshop for further editing. By leveraging advanced models, Project Hi-Fi boosts both productivity and creativity, turning your screen content into detailed visuals with real-time AI technology. It’s a seamless way to transform your design concepts into polished images effortlessly.