Adobe Acquires Oculus’ Sculpting App Medium
Ever since the Oculus Touch controllers were first made available in December 2016 Oculus has ensured they can aid creativity thanks to homegrown apps like Medium. A piece of sculpting software which has built a reputation as an important professional design tool, today Adobe has announced the acquisition of Medium.
Known for its suite of design apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, Dimension, Substance and many more, Adobe is one of the world leaders when it comes to software tools for creative professionals. The addition of Oculus Medium into that family certainly demonstrates its importance as a VR tool to enhance productivity across a range of use cases.
“Medium has been a beacon of creativity in the VR space, pushing creative and technical boundaries of 3D modelling,” says Sebastien Deguy, VP, 3D and Immersive at Adobe in a blog post. “The creative tool enables users to sculpt, model and paint in an immersive environment – to easily create characters, objects, environments, expressive works of art and more. The integration of Medium’s tools and technology will greatly contribute to our 3D and immersive strategy.”
While it certainly marks a turning point in Oculus Medium’s life cycle this will cast doubt over its future as a freely accessible VR app – even though it’s sold on the Oculus Store for £22.99 GBP, Medium is free with every Oculus Touch, which comes supplied with every new Oculus Rift S. The Oculus Blog does mention: “To our passionate Medium users, nothing is changing for you today. Stay tuned for more features, improvements, and other developments coming from Adobe in 2020 as Medium continues to evolve.”
“During my time at Allegorithmic (acquired by Adobe in January 2019), we’ve always looked up to Medium and seen shaping as something we’d love to tackle. The redoubled investment of Adobe in the 3D and AR space finally allowed us to join forces and bring our complementary talents together. The Substance and Medium teams are ready to work together on the next generation of 3D tools,” Deguy adds.
So there will be changes to Medium in 2020, let’s just hope they help to widen adoption. As further updates are made available, VRFocus will let you know.
https://www.vrfocus.com/2019/12/adobe-acquires-oculus-sculpting-app-medium/
