Adobe releases new metaverse friendly tools for creating 3D content

Adobe Inc released a set of new software tools designed to make it easier to create three-dimensional digital objects for marketing campaigns, video games and the metaverse.

Adobe has long controlled the market for two-dimensional content production with its graphic design and photo editing tools. Last month, in the largest buyout of a privately held software company, it spent $20 billion in cash and stock to acquire competitor upstart Figma. 

However, recently Adobe has also invested in creating three-dimensional content, a field dominated by video-game-centric firms like Unity Software Inc. Such material is anticipated to play a significant role in the Metaverse, the virtual world on which Meta Platforms Inc. and other companies are banking for future revenue development.

Adobe released two tools designed to make it faster and easier to make digital objects as three-dimensional objects have long been labour-intensive for artists to create.

Adobe’s “3D Capture” tool lets users take a series of photos of a real-world object with nearly any camera – including smartphones – and then meld the photos together into a three-dimensional digital object. 

François Cottin, senior director of marketing for Substance 3D and metaverse at Adobe said that early use of the software will be for e-commerce, where, for example, a shoe seller could let users with augmented reality virtually try on sneakers to see how they look on their feet. 

Another Adobe tool that has been released allows artists to switch between editing a three-dimensional object on a desktop computer to manipulating it with their hands in a virtual reality headset. Artists can use the software and get the familiar feeling of sculpting clay which is widely used in designing cars and other objects but with the precision of working on a computer.