On October 14, 2024, Adobe kicked off Adobe MAX 2024, the world's largest creativity conference, in Miami Beach, Florida. At the event, Adobe introduced a sweeping array of new features, AI capabilities, and updates across its Creative Cloud suite of applications, aiming to empower creators with unprecedented tools for ideation, creation, and collaboration.
A major focus of Adobe's announcements was the expansion of its Adobe Firefly family of generative AI models, designed to be commercially safe for use by professionals. Key developments include:
- Introduction of the Firefly Video Model (beta): This new model enables creators to generate video from text and image prompts, extend video clips, and smooth out transitions. It will be deeply integrated into Adobe Premiere Pro.
- Firefly Image 3 Model: The latest iteration generates images four times faster than previous versions.
- Enhancements to Firefly Vector Model (beta): Provides more creative control to designers using Adobe Illustrator.
- Firefly Services and Custom Models: Enterprise customers like Deloitte, Gatorade, IBM, IPG Health and Mattel are leveraging these capabilities to speed up and scale content production for marketing use cases.
- Usage milestone: Adobe Firefly has now been used to generate over 13 billion images.
Adobe emphasized that Firefly is designed to be safe for commercial use, addressing concerns about copyright and intellectual property issues that have surrounded some other AI image generation tools.
Photoshop Updates
Adobe unveiled several new capabilities for Photoshop, enhancing its power, speed, and user control:
- Distraction Removal: New smart technology to help remove people, wires, poles and other distractions from images.
- Generative Workspace (beta): Helps designers ideate, brainstorm, and iterate concepts simultaneously.
- Substance 3D Viewer (beta): Offers new ways for graphic designers to view and edit 3D objects while working with 2D designs in Photoshop.
- General availability of Firefly-powered features: Generative Fill, Generative Expand, Generate Similar, and Generate Background are now fully released, powered by Firefly's Image 3 Model.
Illustrator Enhancements
For designers using Illustrator, Adobe introduced:
- Objects on Path: Allows users to quickly attach, arrange and move objects along any path on their artboard.
- Enhanced Image Trace: Makes it easier and faster to convert images to vectors.
- Generative Shape Fill (beta): Powered by the Firefly Vector Model, this feature helps designers quickly add detailed vectors to shapes for unique designs.
- Project Neo (beta): A web app for seamless creation and editing of 3D designs.
Frame.io Updates
Adobe announced the general availability of an all-new version of Frame.io, expanding beyond video post-production to support collaboration in audio, photo, design, and other creative workflows. Key updates include:
- Expanded Camera to Cloud ecosystem: Now includes Canon, Nikon, and Leica, providing a faster and more secure way to transfer media from set to post-production teams.
Adobe Express for Enterprise
Adobe showcased new enterprise capabilities for Adobe Express, designed to:
- Supercharge employees with AI
- Enable teams with access to approved assets
- Help businesses protect their brand
The company demonstrated how Express integrates with apps like Photoshop and Illustrator, allowing creative teams to extend their work to marketing, sales, HR, and communications teams.
GenStudio for Performance Marketing
Adobe announced the general availability of Adobe GenStudio for Performance Marketing, the latest enterprise application within Adobe GenStudio. This end-to-end content supply chain solution optimizes the process of planning, creating, managing, activating, and measuring content for marketing campaigns and personalized customer experiences.
Key features of GenStudio for Performance Marketing include:
- Self-service, generative AI-first application
- Empowers brands to maximize content created by creative teams for paid social ads, marketing emails, and display ads at scale
- Bridges the gap between creative teams and marketing teams
- Expanded partnerships with Google's Campaign Manager 360, Meta, Microsoft Advertising, Snap, and TikTok for instant campaign activation and performance insights
Creative Exploration and Ideation
Adobe previewed new ways for creators to ideate and explore concepts:
- Project Concept: A new capability for multiplayer, collaborative creative concept development, allowing real-time image remixing for live concepting on a single canvas.
- Photoshop's Generative Workspace (beta): Helps designers ideate, brainstorm, and iterate concepts simultaneously.
Empowering the Next Generation
Adobe announced a global initiative aimed at developing AI literacy, content creation, and digital marketing skills:
- Goal: Help 30 million next-generation learners and teachers using Adobe Express
- Expansion of Adobe Digital Academy
- Partnerships with education partners and nonprofits for training, certifications, and career pathways
- $100M commitment through donations, scholarships, product access, and partnerships
Community Support
In light of recent natural disasters affecting Florida, Adobe and the Adobe Foundation have made significant contributions:
- $1M donation to the American Red Cross and World Central Kitchen
- Matching donations from Adobe MAX attendees, sponsors, and employees
- Grant to The Miami Foundation to support the local creative community
Premiere Pro Updates
Adobe introduced Generative Extend in Premiere Pro (beta), powered by the Firefly Video model. This innovative feature allows video editors to:
- Extend clips to cover gaps in footage
- Smooth out transitions
- Hold shots longer for perfectly timed edits
- Add lifelike, photorealistic video and audio extensions by clicking and dragging edit points
- Correct eye-lines or actions that shift unexpectedly mid-shot
- Extend ambient "room tone" to smooth out audio edits
The tool is designed to work in the background, allowing editors to continue working while extensions are generated. While Generative Extend has some limitations in its beta form (e.g., specific resolution, aspect ratio, and frame rate requirements), Adobe is actively seeking user feedback to expand its capabilities.
Adobe Firefly Video Model
The introduction of the Firefly Video Model brings powerful new capabilities to video creation:
Text-to-Video:
- Generate B-Roll footage from text prompts
- Create insert shots for timelines
- Visualize difficult-to-capture or expensive shots for pre-production planning
- Generate placeholder shots for visual effects work
Image-to-Video:
- Create complementary shots from existing content or still images
- Change the original motion or intent of existing shots
Adobe emphasized the importance of detailed prompts for best results, suggesting a structure that includes shot type description, character, action, location, and aesthetic details.
Commitment to Responsible AI
Throughout its announcements, Adobe stressed its commitment to responsible AI development:
- AI Ethics principles of accountability, responsibility, and transparency
- Firefly models trained only on licensed content and public domain material, never on customer content
- Integration of Content Credentials for attribution and provenance of AI-generated content
- Participation in the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) to promote transparency in digital content