Adobe MAX 2025 Sneaks: Where AI, creativity, and play collide

Each year, Adobe MAX Sneaks offers a glimpse into some of the boldest, most imaginative ideas emerging from Adobe’s research and engineering teams. It’s where experimental technology meets creative curiosity — and where innovation often finds its way into the products millions of people use every day. A highlight for many at MAX, Sneaks gives our talented engineers and researchers a chance to share inspiration, exchange ideas, and gather feedback directly from the creative community.

This year’s Sneaks, hosted by Emmy and Critics Choice-nominated comedian, writer, and actress Jessica Williams, brought the energy, humor, and inspiration to match the innovation on display. From new ways to edit light and sound, to turning still photos into immersive 3D worlds, this year’s lineup showed how AI is expanding what’s possible in creative expression — making it faster, more intuitive, and more fun.

Reimagining Images

Project Surface Swap

Project Surface Swap uses AI-powered texture recognition to select and swap materials seamlessly, keeping lighting and perspective intact. Instantly change the look of any surface or material — from a sofa’s upholstery to a wood floor — right from a photo. It’s perfect for interior designers, photographers and anyone who wants to visualize new possibilities before making real-world changes.  

Project Light Touch
Lighting defines mood, but once the photo is shot, it’s traditionally fixed in place. Project Light Touch flips that idea. This generative AI tool lets you reshape light sources after capture — turning day to night, adding drama, or adjusting focus and emotion without reshoots. It’s like having total control over the sun and studio lights, all in post.

Project Turn Style
Move beyond flat images with Project Turn Style, a breakthrough that lets you edit 2D objects as if they were 3D. Rotate, reangle, or reposition elements within an image while maintaining their natural texture, lighting, and detail. The result: limitless creative control and dynamic storytelling.

Project Trace Erase
Say goodbye to clunky object removal. Project Trace Erase doesn’t just erase — it understands. Powered by diffusion transformer models, it removes objects and their shadows, reflections, and environmental distortions, delivering perfectly natural, context-aware edits with almost no manual cleanup.

Project New Depths
Step into the world of 3D photography. Project New Depths brings intuitive editing tools to “radiance fields” (3D photos), allowing artists to tweak color, shape, and composition in three-dimensional space. It makes editing depth as easy as adjusting brightness — ushering in the next generation of visual storytelling.

Project Scene It
Project Scene It blends precision and artistry by letting creators control both the structure and style of 3D scenes. Built on Image-to-3D and 3D-to-Image technologies, it allows tagging of individual objects with reference images, preserving each object’s unique look while freely moving it in 3D space. It’s a new frontier for designing vivid, lifelike worlds.

Revolutionizing Video and Motion

Project Frame Forward

Forget frame-by-frame video editing. Project Frame Forward applies changes across entire videos based on one annotated frame and with a simple text prompt. It brings the precision of photo editing to video, dramatically speeding up production without sacrificing quality.

Project Motion Map
Bring your illustrations to life. Project Motion Map uses AI to analyze static vector graphics and automatically animate them in ways that feel intentional and expressive — no keyframes or manual rigging required. The result is effortless motion design that still reflects the creator’s intent.

Transforming Sound and Storytelling

Project Sound Stager
Sound is emotion. Project Sound Stager helps creators design it like never before. By analyzing a video’s visuals, pacing, and emotional tone, it automatically generates layered soundscapes using expert sound design logic. You can even collaborate conversationally with an AI “sound designer” to tweak the final mix.

Project Clean Take
Editing dialogue just got smoother. Project Clean Take uses AI to correct mispronunciations, isolate voices, remove noise, and refine delivery — all in seconds. It’s a powerful assistant for podcasters, filmmakers, and anyone seeking studio-quality sound without the studio.

Sneaks are all about sharing bold, creative experiments with the community — and getting their feedback, interest, and energy. The latter was easy to find with Jessica Williams at the helm. Her humor and charm embody what makes Sneaks so special: the perfect blend of art, technology, and personality.

What begins as a bold experiment at Sneaks often becomes tomorrow’s creative superpower — and we can’t wait to see where these ideas go next.