Adobe is set to announce a new AI-powered photo editing tool at the Adobe Max event next week that makes it much easier to modify images without prior editing experience. According a promotional video (seen via Technological point), The new “object-aware editing engine,” called Project Stardust, automatically identifies individual objects in regular photos, allowing them to be easily moved and changed. It’s similar to Google’s Magic Editor announced yesterday for its new Pixel phones, but presumably more powerful.
A quick demo of the new software shows how objects in a photo, like the yellow suitcase and its shadow in the example image, are automatically identified and selected as if they had been separated using Photoshop’s Lasso tool. The clip then demonstrates how objects can be moved, deleted, or otherwise manipulated as if they were stored on a separate layer, and the missing space behind them is automatically filled in to match the rest of their surroundings.
Project Stardust includes something similar to the “Contextual taskbar” that debuted in Photoshop earlier this year, which can automatically detect the next steps in your design process and allow you to make quick edits. In the demo video, when you select a crowd of blurry people in the background of the image, a “remove distractors” button appears in the taskbar, which automatically removes the crowd when clicked.
The new editing engine features some of the same generative AI capabilities as Photoshop tools powered by Adobe’s Firefly. Adobe project manager Aya Philémon can be seen selecting an area of the photo and entering text into a floating message on the taskbar to fill the selected space with AI-generated flowers. In another clip, the same function is used to replace individual items of clothing on a model by selecting the item (for example, a jacket or sneakers) and then describing a new item of clothing to place.
These automated design tools are becoming more common along with advances in generative AI. Canva has similar editing tools available to automatically remove or alter objects in images, as does Google Photo’s Magic Editor tool that ships with Pixel 8 devices. Still, details on Project Stardust are scarce, and Philémon claims that The features shown so far are “only a fraction” of its capabilities, promising that the new engine will “revolutionize the way we interact with Adobe products.” We’ll find out more about Adobe’s upcoming AI releases in Adobe Max next weekwhich starts on October 10.
