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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1488864
Part 3: The Messages from MAX – Our View Good companies respond to the direction of where their market is going. Great ones, like Adobe, can create that direction. Adobe is unusually forthright about what’s ahead for them, with their open public beta programs for its flagship applications and airing out some potentially remarkable capabilities at Sneaks. However, the three keynotes and crowded exhibit hall provided a lot of lines one could read between to get some ideas about how the industry will be changing and what opportunities for creatives lie ahead as well as some that may soon become dead ends. Artificial But Real Though it hasn’t quite lived up to people’s expectations in a three-dimensional, real-world environment (think self-driving cars), AI is plowing ahead in the realm of 2D images (even if they represent 3D objects). The rapid growth of AI technology has allowed Adobe Sensei do more and more while machine learning helps those features get better and better over time. Some, like Content Aware Fill, are timesavers and productivity boosters. But things like the accurate language recognition in Premiere Pro’s latest captioning rollout (along with services from Google and AWS) are rapidly encroaching on the careers of stenographers and transcribers. With the time spent on the topic at the main keynote, it is clear generative AI (GAI) is an area where Adobe is treading carefully. Seemingly overnight, it grew from assisting image searches in Adobe Stock, to building a graphic with just a few prompts. Some of the results we’ve seen from GAI over the past year would easily pass a visual Turing test. It would be very hard to tell the difference between an AI graphic and one created by an okay artist. But then again, thinking about GAI in a program like Adobe Express, which may not be great for a pro greatly gives a real leg up for people who have a good eye bult lack the experience or funding to do something similar with Photoshop or Illustrator. In either case, it will pay to keep advances in GAI on your radar over the next few years. Augmented Advertising In fleshing out its Substance 3D collection, we think that Adobe is doing something more than moving product photography, another field to be cautious about in coming years, onto the desktop with results that are indistinguishable from a lengthy and expensive studio shoot. We learned that the bulky Ikea catalog is now virtually all 3D graphics (obviously passing our visual Turing test with flying colors). Visual creatives who can work in 3D are the ones who will be benefitting most at the expense of product photogs who have to stick with a studio, camera and tripod. TikTok was in the exhibit hall for the first time. There, you could take a 3D overlay created in Substance, pin it to your face or form and instantly post it. At this point in time, these kind of pinned, animated overlays is likely the most common application of augmented reality (AR). Adobe Aero has been out in the wild for a while, working with the rest of the Creative Cloud suite to create virtual realities that blend seamlessly with the real world. There are some very cool apps and games for the newer iPhones and iPads that take advantage of the device’s LIDAR sensor and Apple’s ARKit to let you do things from playing games on your tabletop to trying out a piece of furniture in your room. But from what we’ve seen, we think there will come an inflection point where AR will become the next culture-changing leap in technology.