Adobe releases tools to generate product images from 3D models

March 21 (Reuters) – Adobe Inc ( ADBE.O ) on Tuesday released product images without paying for multiple photo shoots, a tool aimed at helping marketing departments at e-commerce stores.

The tool, called Project Sunrise, allows marketing teams to generate new images from three-dimensional models of things like shoes, kitchen gadgets or furniture. It is designed to enable marketing professionals to provide the images they need for websites and marketing emails.

The product disrupts San Jose, Calif.-based Adobe’s long-standing business of generating and editing images and offering new technology tools for marketing and e-commerce.

For e-commerce companies with thousands of products in their catalogs in different colors and finishes, more realistic renderings have surpassed traditional photos in many applications. Companies like Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ) and Target Corp ( TGT.N ) use such an interpretation.

But because marketing campaigns are more tightly targeted, it’s created a huge amount of work for e-commerce companies, said Francois Cotin, senior director of marketing for Adobe’s Substance 3D business.

For example, Kotin said, a company that sells coffee machines may want to display the gadget differently in different countries, because German kitchens may differ from California kitchens. Most companies have to tap 3D artists to create each image.

“The big e-commerce sites, they have hundreds of people,” Kotin said. “It’s as big as the visual effects studios that work for Disney or Marvel.”

The new Adobe system automates many of the details. In the case of shoes, for example, an artist can create a 3D model of the shoe’s basic model. The software system generates different colors and textures, such as soft leather or suede, and feeds it into a web-based e-commerce system.

“This platform is used by creators on the one hand, and merchants and marketers on the other,” Kotin said.

Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Bradley Perrett

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