MAX 2021 recap — creativity, community and tech come together

 

“It’s amazing how creativity helps us make sense of the world, keeps us inspired, and heals us when we need it most.” — Scott Belsky, Chief Product Officer and EVP, Creative Cloud.

Adobe MAX’s second year as a virtual experience was extraordinary. Millions of viewers from across the world came together to take part in the joy of inspiration with the creative community, and to see the latest Creative Cloud magic — including revolutionary innovation and features giving creatives new ways to collaborate, maximize efficiency, and prosper from their work. Here’s a look at some of the keynote announcements under the key themes for the 2021 Creative Cloud releases:

Enabling creative collaboration

• Photoshop and Illustrator on the web
• The announcement of Creative Cloud Spaces and Canvas
• The combination of Frame.io with Creative Cloud

Innovations to maximize creative potential

• Auto-masking in Photoshop (powered by Adobe Sensei)
• Increased speed, performance and magic in Adobe products across video, photography, 3D and more

Empowering Creative Careers

• New ways for creatives to prosper from their work, including the “hire-me” button on Behance, and the ability to offer subscriptions
• Secure Content Credentials for NFT marketplace display

Read in-depth about these releases, updates, and more in chief product officer and executive vice president of Creative Cloud Scott Belsky’s blog post.

Success is more than metrics, but the numbers are impressive: the 55 hours of global content set a new milestone for the creative community, with over 400 sessions, 500 speakers and 123 sponsors. Hundreds of thousands of attendees tuned-in around the globe from over 200 countries and territories.

A look at the future

MAX is always full of fresh tech, and the MAX Sneaks — early previews of big ideas that might become product features — are a highlight. And this year was no exception. Saturday Night Live’s Kenan Thompson joined Adobe engineers for a peek into ground-breaking technology they are working on.

Ways to work with images could get way easier. Project On Point uses an interactive posed-based descriptors to speed your image searches, Project Shadow Drop makes shadow rendering easier by automatically generating realistic shadows, and Project Strike a Pose uses a reference image of a person in a desired pose, then employs machine learning to reposition a person in an image into that pose, match the source, and factor in depth and lighting. Project Make it Pop identifies parts of an image and converts them to vector shapes, and Project In-Between generates an animated bridge between a pair of pictures and produces silky smooth slow-motion footage for short video clips. Video breakthroughs include Project Morpheus, a video editing tool that automates frame level changes, and Project Artful Frames simplifies time-consuming animation processes. Other Sneaks include Project Stylish Strokes — a tool that recovers font strokes so they can be easily stylized — and Project Sunshine, a technology taking vector graphics to the next level with automated suggestions for coloring and shading.

If you missed Sneaks, no problem. We have all the highlights right here.

Inspiring speakers

We heard from hundreds of inspirational celebrities, design luminaries, creative directors, barrier breakers, and product evangelists.

Chloé Zhao, the writer, director, and two-time Oscar® winner, shared a visual presentation highlighting the creation of new cinematic worlds and how personal experience is the root of creative vision. The renowned chef and entrepreneur, José Andrés, talked about creativity in business. And there was YouTuber Casey Neistat’s insightful conversation with Humans of New York’s Brandon Stanton. You can see these — and a ton more — on demand .

Valuable, informative sessions

Out of the over 400 sessions, labs, and creativity workshops offered, some of the most popular included:

If you missed these, no worries. They’re also available on demand, so you can watch them on your schedule.

Connecting creatives from around the world

MAX also offered new ways to interact, network, and build a richer community.

CoCreate — back for its second year — offered paid jobs to 92 creators from 38 countries to help us build a digital MAX. The creativity from this amazing cohort was seen throughout event and social content.

The Community Live Lounge connected attendees directly with Adobe product evangelists and MAX speakers to go beyond the sessions and take deeper dives into the newest products and features.

The new in-person conversation experience, Braindate, brought participants together to share passions, challenges, and the best practices that work for them.

And the Art Walks remained popular. Attendees took a virtual tour of eight cities across the globe to see how street art has lifted and inspired these communities.

This success does not happen without a lot of people.

Our team at Adobe worked tirelessly over the past year, not only to bring you product updates and innovations across Creative Cloud but also to bring this one-of-a-kind virtual event experience to life — a celebration of the creative community that inspires us and drives us.

That’s a wrap for 2021. But it doesn’t end here. Stay tuned and join the mailing list for information about MAX 2022 and be ready to see what’s next.