Introducing Adobe Aero: Step into a New Reality
Immersive media is proving to be a powerful storytelling medium, and completely changing how we interact with the world around us.
With augmented reality (AR), we can merge digital content with the physical world to create and deliver next-generation experiences. Everything becomes a creative canvas to the millions of people who want to tell their stories in new and exciting ways—artists can build deeper emotional connections and brands can connect in a more meaningful way with their customers. With AR, the impossible become a new reality, and the only limit is our imaginations.
Today at Adobe MAX, we’re thrilled to debut Adobe Aero as part of Adobe Creative Cloud. Aero is the first tool that allows designers to build and share immersive experiences in AR—without any coding skills. It’s now available as a free mobile iOS app for phones and tablets.
Allison Torneros, also known as Hueman, an Oakland-based graffiti artist, explains how Adobe Aero is changing her creative workflow and the way AR can expand her murals into an interactive experience.
We built Adobe Aero with creatives, for creatives
Already, our work with artists in the early stages of Aero has given us a glimpse of its potential to broaden creative expression. During Aero’s private beta, which launched at Adobe MAX last year, we received strong participation from thousands of users within our creative community. We also launched the Adobe AR Residency program to work in collaboration with our creative community to build the best tool for the people who will use it. Throughout the program, we invited artists to pursue their wildest AR dreams using Aero, and to provide feedback directly with our product team to shape the tool.
Our collaboration with those involved in the private beta was foundational in shaping Aero’s development – from its UI and design to features and capabilities. Here are some highlights of Aero features available today:
- Intuitive authoring – Aero doesn’t require any coding – it’s intuitive without sacrificing quality of the final result. Build AR experiences with a visual UI, and step-by-step instructions will take you through creating your first AR scene.
- Animation – Use your hands and your device to place objects in space, shape their paths, and add triggers so viewers can interact with your objects.
- Assets at your fingertips – Hundreds of free starter assets available right in the app, plus the ability to import a broad set of 2D and 3D file formats including vector graphics, Adobe Photoshop files, OBJ, FBX, Collada, glTF, and many more.
- Easy publishing and sharing – Release your project into the world by sharing it directly on social or sending the experience to others via the Aero app.
What will designers do with Aero?
Digital is no longer confined to a single screen – it’s permeating throughout physical spaces and the real world. AR can free us from boundaries of the screen and transform any environment to a digital stage. For the last two years, we’ve seen some amazing artists use immersive media to bring “impossible” visions to life at our Festival of the Impossible (FOI). The work has been deeply emotional and engaging, blending reality with the surreal in innovative, unexpected ways.
For example, Gabe Barcia-Colombo, mixed-media artist, Adobe AR Resident and FOI participant, recently updated his project, “Descent,” with Aero. Using AR, it allows visitors to look inside the dreams—and hopes and fears—of avatars he developed from scans of real people.
“The thing I like about working in interactive media is that you can bring things off the screen and into the real world, and you can really cause this amazing effect in people where they don’t realize how this is possible,” says Gabe.
Gabe Barcia Colombo’s project, “Descent.”
Experience Aero 1.0 at MAX
If you’re joining us at MAX, stop by the 3D & AR village in the Community Pavilion, South Hall, where you can experience Aero first-hand at the following:
- Gabe’s project Descent at The Gallery of the Impossible
- Terminator: Dark Fate experience, powered by Adobe Aero. You’ll enter a 3D scene from the movie and use an iOS device to capture and share video or photos of yourself being chased by a virtual Terminator in AR! Created by Justin Patton, Adobe graphic arts manager; and Vlad Petkovic, artist for Adobe 3D and immersive
- You can also check out the Aero booth and join my session on Storytelling in AR: Building an Interactive Experience with Project Aero (S6108).
The next steps for Adobe Aero
As an emerging technology, AR is still coming together with several hardware and software components, but we see it as the next logical frontier to transform digital experiences – from artistic renderings to retail experiences.
I’m very excited for Aero to be out in the wild and see what all of you will create with it. We’re building it with the community and for the community, and in the coming months we will be listening to your voice and feedback.
Follow our community’s artwork on our new 3D and AR Instagram channel, download Aero for iOS in the App store, and sign-up here to request access to the private beta of Adobe Aero for desktop.
