Three Amazing Projects Adobe Engineers are Working on That Will Boggle Your Mind
This week, Adobe hosted its biggest MAX conference ever in Los Angeles. More than 5,000 attendees watched Adobe announce its dramatic shift into the cloud.
The Creative Cloud move dominated the conversation at MAX, and for good reason, but everybody dropped talk of CC when it came to the Sneak Peaks at the end of the event. For those who don’t know, Adobe Sneak Peaks, or “Sneaks,” are engineer hobby projects unveiled to the audience in live demos for the first time. Some of the projects never see the light of day, while others may very well become the next leading feature of an Adobe software product. Either way, it’s fun to see what these brilliant minds are up to.
This year saw 12 Sneaks, the most ever. With great difficulty, we selected our three favourites.
1. Playing with Lighting
Photographers will often tell you that “It’s all about the lighting.” This sneak lets you experiment and play with lighting after the fact. Tweak image lighting based on a selected sample and turn your home movies into blockbuster hits (or at least make them look the part) by adjusting lighting modeled on any movie you choose.
Check out the demo here.
2. Audio Layers:
Separating desired audio from background noise is a painful process. Or rather, it was. Use a visual editor to paint the sounds you want while identifying those you don’t, and this tool will do the rest.
Check out the demo here.
3. Perspective Warp
Ever wished you had gotten closer to take a picture? Perhaps you were not right in front of your subject or took the picture from too high or low? This Photoshop sneak lets you adjust the perspective for parts of your shot while still keeping the rest of the image intact.
Check out the demo here.
“The Sneaks embody the spirit and passion for technology innovation that thrives at Adobe,” says David Wadhwani, senior vice president and general manager of Digital Media Business at Adobe. “The presentations are always a sensation at Adobe MAX; the energy and enthusiasm from the audience is electric and demonstrate that our creative customers are always ready to embrace the new.”
Unfortunately, you’ll have to tolerate Rainn Wilson in each and every Sneaks demo. While in theory having the funnyman cohost the Sneaks was probably a great idea, it resulted in little more than unnecessary distractions from brilliant technology—although Sarah Kong’s ice cold rejection of Wilson’s flirtatious advances brought the crowd to an uproar in one of the few enjoyable comedic moments (see the perspective warp demo).
