Adobe is set to announce a new AI-powered photo editing tool at next week’s Adobe Max event, making it easier to alter photos without prior editing experience. according to Promotional video (Watched via Technical point), A new “object-aware editing engine”—dubbed Project Stardust—automatically identifies individual objects in regular images, allowing them to be easily moved and changed. It’s similar to the Magic Editor that Google announced yesterday for its new Pixel phones, but it’s supposedly more powerful.
A quick demo of the new software shows how objects in a photograph — such as the yellow bag and its shadow in the sample image — are automatically recognized and selected as if they were separated using Photoshop’s Lasso tool. The clip then shows how objects can be moved, deleted, or otherwise manipulated as if they were stored in a separate layer, with the missing space behind them automatically filled in to match the rest of their surroundings.
Project Stardust includes something similar to “Contextual taskbar“which debuted in Photoshop earlier this year, can automatically detect the next steps in your design process and allow you to make quick adjustments. In the demo video, selecting a blurry crowd of people in the background of the image triggers a ‘Remove’ button Distractions” on the taskbar, which automatically deletes the crowd when you click on it.
The new editing engine features some of the same generative AI capabilities as Adobe’s Firefly-powered Photoshop tools. Adobe’s project manager, Aya Philémon, can be seen selecting an area of the image and entering text into the floating taskbar, prompting her to fill the selected area with AI-generated flowers. In another clip, the same feature is used to replace individual items of clothing on a mannequin by selecting the item (for example, a jacket or sneakers) and then describing a new item of clothing to drop.
These automated design tools are becoming more popular along with developments in generative artificial intelligence. Canva has similar editing tools available to automatically remove or modify objects in photos, as does Google Photos’ Magic Editor tool that ships with Pixel 8 devices. However, details of Project Stardust are scant, and Philémon claims that the features announced So far it’s “just a small part” of its capabilities, and he promises that the new engine will “revolutionize how we interact with Adobe products.” We’ll find out more about Adobe’s upcoming AI releases at Adobe Max next weekwhich launches on October 10.