Everything’s coming together for mobile creativity

In the development of all successful technologies there comes a tipping point… I believe we are at that tipping point now with mobile creative tools.

In the development of all successful technologies there comes a tipping point — a moment when technology, design, availability, and an understanding of the needs of the market all mature and that technology suddenly seems not only viable, but inevitable. I believe we are at that tipping point now with mobile creative tools.

Being able to create anywhere is obviously an important part of why these tools are so useful. But it’s far from the only reason. Among the others:

• Technology: Previous generations of mobile devices would stumble under the intense demands of photo editing or creating complex illustrations. Today’s mobile chips are exceptionally powerful and capable of handling most creative tasks.
• Interface: The combination of an iPad and the remarkably precise Apple Pencil makes for a natural, intuitive, and familiar interface, basically mirroring the way most of us began creating, with a pencil or crayon on paper.
• Availability: With an instant-on mobile device, you can start creating at the speed of thought. We all know that creative ideas can be fleeting, and by the time you get to your computer, boot up, and sign on, your spark may have gone out.
• Connection: Most mobile devices are always connected, making it easy to find the creative ingredients you need or share your idea with people who can help make it better.

It may seem ironic that mobile products are having a moment just as we’re all cooped up. But even though where we can go is limited, it’s still vital that we get away from our desks (or couches or wherever we spend most of our workdays). “I love to sit in the garden and start my creative process on the iPad,” one user told us recently about using Illustrator on the iPad. “It feels natural.”

New ways to create

Enabling new ways to create is one of the things we love about working on Creative Cloud and our team has been working hard on new features and services that make mobile creativity even more powerful and more collaborative.

One amazing new capability that’s coming soon is animation in Adobe Fresco, our drawing and painting app (available on Apple and Windows tablets and the iPhone) that replicates the look and behavior of natural media like oils, watercolors, and charcoals.

With the animation feature, you’ll be able to add motion to Fresco drawings and paintings. You can apply a separate timeline to individual layers and even paint a path and have parts of your drawing follow that path, as the fireflies do in Kyle T. Webster’s animation below.

One of Photoshop’s creative superpowers is its brushes, highly versatile tools that support and augment your photo compositing, retouching and masking work. Not only are there hundreds of brushes available — everything from a Keith Haring-inspired felt tip marker brush to an artful paint spatter — you can also craft your own brush to make your work completely unique. When you find — or make — a brush you love, you want it always accessible. And soon, you’ll be able to load your brushes onto Photoshop on the iPad, meaning that all the great brushes you’ve discovered or created on Photoshop on the desktop will be close at hand on the iPad as well.

Our work on mobile applications is often driven by the feedback we get from customers. For instance, over the past few months, we’ve added the ability to rotate the canvas to both Illustrator and Photoshop on the iPad. That may seem like a small change, but users told us it’s a huge advantage to be able to move around their projects and draw in more natural ways. It’s so popular, in fact, that we’re also bringing the same capability to Illustrator on the desktop.

We’re committed to co-creating our mobile apps with our customers, so we’ve built in easy ways for users to suggest new features and we regularly update them on the new capabilities we’re working on.

We’re also adding ways you can bring what inspires you in the world into your creative projects. You can use Adobe Capture, one of my favorite apps, to capture a shape, like a flower or a statue, then use that shape as the basis of a drawing or painting in Fresco. Check out the way artist Alice Lee uses Capture in the video below.

Collaborative by default

Today’s generation of creatives are collaborative by default and we’re continuously adding features that make it easier to work together within our mobile applications. The foundation of much of our collaboration work is cloud documents, Creative Cloud projects that you save directly to the cloud so that they’re available across devices and platforms and always up-to-date. The flexibility and convenience of cloud documents has enabled some powerful collaborative features.

For instance, we’ve recently launched the ability to invite someone to edit your project in Photoshop, Illustrator, or Fresco. You simply send a friend or co-worker a message within the application and once you’ve finished working in the project, they can jump in and add to it. Since Fresco and Photoshop share the same file format, you can pass projects between the two apps. That’s great if you’re skilled in drawing, but need some help with the editing and compositing magic that Photoshop provides.

If you ever dislike a change that you or a collaborator makes to a project, it’s no problem. With cloud docs, you can scroll through the previous versions of a project and choose the version you prefer.

If you’re interested in taking your creativity mobile, we’re making it easy to get started with a new Design Mobile Bundle that we’re launching today. The bundle includes Photoshop on the iPad, Illustrator on the iPad, Fresco on the iPad and iPhone, and other apps, along with access to services like Adobe Fonts, Behance, and Portfolio, plus 100 GB of storage, all for $14.99 per month or $149.99 per year.

Ultimately, inspiration is what drives creativity and mobile tools allow creativity to start at the moment of inspiration. As soon as an idea strikes, you can start bringing it to life, in a way that’s as natural as a pencil and sketchbook but with the versatility and power of digital creation and a continuous connection to creative assets and collaborators. That’s a revolution that’s gaining momentum daily and we are excited to be a part of it.