Augmented Reality at Adobe MAX: How Project Aero Will Put the Power of AR in the Hands of Designers

Project Aero in action at Adobe MAX 2018.

Adobe MAX is an incredible chance, every year, to come together as a creative community and celebrate how far we’ve come while looking ahead to the future of design and creation. That’s why MAX was a perfect opportunity to announce Project Aero, a completely integrated augmented reality tool that will allow designers to create augmented reality experiences, no coding skills required.

AR is a truly transformative medium; a way for designers to create experiences that blend the physical and digital worlds. It’s still early days for Aero, with its private beta just beginning, but already the excitement over its announcement is huge. Keep reading to see all the Aero news that came out of MAX and learn more about how you can get involved.

Bringing AR to your Creative Cloud workflow

On the Adobe MAX main stage, during his keynote address, Adobe’s Chief Product Officer and Executive Vice President for Creative Cloud Scott Belsky and unveiled our AR strategy.

“AR will be nothing without amazing, interactive, animated content enriching this new medium. It really is our responsibility at Adobe to ensure that your tools, the tools you’re using, provide a bridge to tomorrow’s mediums like AR,” said Scott.

Project Aero will be an AR authoring tool, but it will also connect with other tools and link with your digital assets from platforms like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Dimension, all while tapping into Adobe Sensei AI technology and a thriving ecosystem of integrations and extensions. Designers will be able to author AR experiences without learning to code, and use existing Creative Cloud tools in new ways to bring their work to life in AR. Imagine placing 2D and 3D artwork, client projects, and more in the real world around you, using cutting-edge light and texturing effects that make them hyper-realistic; that is the power of Aero.

Immersive design and marketing opportunities

Project Aero, and Adobe’s overall AR strategy, will have an effect beyond the design process. The implications for the future of immersive marketing experiences are huge, and that was also clear during the keynote address. Adobe’s Chief Technology Officer Abhay Parasnis welcomed Simone Cesano, Adidas’s senior director of design technology, to the stage to explain how Adidas is approaching an AR revolution in its marketing and creative efforts.

“AR creates a new digital canvas that we can use to tell unique stories with incredible depth, and still keep it intuitive for the consumer,” said Simone, as he explained why the iconic sportswear company is so excited to work closely with the Project Aero team. “The potential is endless,” he said, referring to Aero and AR’s ability to transform how consumers learn about and interact with products.

Adidas products, displayed in AR using Project Aero.

The ability to create immersive experiences with AR will have implications beyond the business world, too, as artists create using Project Aero as well. At MAX, Adobe Creative Resident Nadine Kolodziey transformed her art into an AR canvas at the Creative Residency booth. It was a glimpse into her overarching goal for her time with Adobe. “To merge analog, research-based illustration into a [augmented reality version] where the community can experience what I’ve been discovering in my own studio,” she said.

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The best is yet to come

Since Adobe MAX, Project Aero has already picked up more momentum. At Apple’s October event, amid the announcement of Apple’s powerful new iPad Pro, Adobe product manager Chantel Benson showed off the upcoming Photoshop for iPad and Project Aero. It is a hint at how Adobe is committed to making creating AR experiences accessible for designers, in Photoshop and beyond, and making use of the world’s most powerful hardware and technologies.

It was an Adobe MAX of Jurassic proportions for the Project Aero team, which showed off the technology with help from a T-Rex.

To get more information on Project Aero, and stay on top of the latest news about Adobe’s AR strategy, sign up to our newsletter to receive updates. If you’re a designer and are interested in taking part in Project Aero’s private beta, you can apply using this form. We’re committed to working with the community to create Project Aero, both before and after its release in 2019. Adobe MAX was just the first step, and we hope you’ll come with us on this journey as we work to create a game-changing AR authoring tool that will make it easy for designers to create impactful immersive content.