Adobe concentrated its Creative Cloud 2017 updates heavily in newer media areas as it announced an After Effects improvement to render 3D elements up to 20 times faster, a Premier Pro update that automatically detect and create settings for different types of virtual reality content, and a new project, Project Felix, to aid in the creation of photo-realistic images by combining 2D and 3D assets. Meanwhile, cloud-based document collaboration across Creative Cloud, universal search in Photoshop, and other new features improve usability across a number of applications.
Photoshop
Photoshop improvements are a bit light, but mostly center around features that make it easier to use and refinements to the Face-Aware Liquify tool. A new universal search bar will allow users to find “tools, panels, menus, Adobe Stock assets, help content, and tutorials,” according to a press release. Meanwhile, Liquify is faster, and Face-Aware Liquify now allows independent adjustments to each eye, a preview checkbox, and ability to toggle widgets on and off in the workspace. There are no updates on Lightroom as of this moment.
Adobe Stock and Typekit
Adobe Stock, which is now integrated across the Creative Cloud suite, is also receiving a massive update as its contributor portal comes out of beta. Thanks to a partnership with Reuters, Adobe Stock now benefits from the availability of the news agency’s extensive library of photos and video footage covering news, sports, and entertainment events. Additionally, Adobe Stock users will now have the ability to easily license historical news footage from over a million news clips in Reuters’ archive library for a variety of uses. This Reuters partnership is a huge win for Adobe Stock, as it will allow easy and affordable access to a variety of newsworthy content.
Adobe Stock also has a new visual search feature, which really shines when you build multiple images to create an ideal search. A press demo revealed how one can search for images similar to one of a coffee cup, then click on an image of tea, and then select images with more greenery in the background to quickly narrow down the selection to a variety of strikingly similar images with similar levels of green backgrounds and a steaming tea cup to find just the one that works for your project. This will undoubtedly become a favorite way to search for many designers looking for something quite specific or similar to something they already have, but with a small twist. Visual search of stock within Photoshop (and not just through the Adobe Stock website) is “coming soon.”
Meanwhile, partnerships with font foundries such as Frere-Jones Type, Type Network/Font Bureau, and Émigré will allow for easier management and purchase of individual fonts through the new Adobe Typekit marketplace.
Project Felix
Project Felix is a new design tool that allows users to combine two-dimensional and three-dimensional assets to easily create “product shot comps, scene visualization, and abstract design.” A demo of the program seemed quite promising, as it showed how easy it was to overlay an image of a logo or label over a 3D file of a bottle, add a three-dimensional splash, and place all of these objects in a matching two-dimensional environment to create a photo-realistic mockup that could be used for advertising pitches, client meetings, and more. Project Felix will be available in beta later this year.
Cloud-Based Document Collaboration
Documents in several applications including Adobe XD and Premiere Pro (and other video applications) will feature real-time, co-editing capabilities for Creative Cloud and Creative Cloud Team and Enterprise members depending on the application and timing. Co-editing will be available in beta for Adobe XD beginning next year for all Creative Cloud members while the feature dubbed as Team Projects for Premier Pro, After Effects, and Prelude will be available soon for Team and Enterprise members.
This continued focus on real-time collaboration capabilities likely points to future expansion of similar features across the Creative Cloud suite in the not-too-distant future.
Odds and Ends
In addition, there are a number of announcements for other Adobe products from Adobe Premier to mobile applications. As these might be of less interest to our photo-oriented readership, they’re mentioned below in a shortened format:
- All mobile applications are now available on Android (recent releases include Photoshop Fix, Photoshop Sketch, and Comp CC)
- Premiere Pro will have an Auto-Aware VR feature that detects the type of virtual-reality content and determines VR settings behind the scenes for your content where appropriate
- Character Animator’s character puppet creation and animation is now faster and integrates better with Photoshop and Illustrator
- Creative Cloud subscribers can now remove all Adobe branding from content created within Adobe Spark (other exclusive features will also be announced later for CC members)
Unless otherwise stated, these updates will be available later this year. I am currently at Adobe MAX and will, along with some of our other writers, have updates when and where appropriate.