Adobe has acquired French software vendor Allegorithmic, with plans to incorporate the company’s Substance tools for 3D content creation into its Creative Cloud offerings. Adobe said the move will bring new 3D and immersive workflow possibilities to users of its software.

The purchase brings Allegorithmic’s Substance Designer, Substance Painter and Substance Source under the Adobe umbrella. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Adobe noted that it has been an investor in Allegorithmic since 2017. In an FAQ on the acquisition, Adobe said it expected at least some of Allegorithmic’s employees to move to Adobe. Allegorithmic CEO Sebastien Deguy, who founded the company in 2001, will become Adobe’s VP of 3D and immersive, reporting to Creative Cloud Chief Product Officer and EVP Scott Belsky.

Allegorithmic wowed SIGGRAPH last year with Project Alchemist, a powerful but surprisingly intuitive interface for working with PBR materials — the surfaces that enhance the realistic appearance and behavior of 3D models and environments. Using AI-driven tools, users would be able to convert a simple photograph into a full-fledged material for use in 3D scenes, including relighting the surface for realism. It has been compared to Adobe Lightroom or even a PDF reader for materials — a way to quickly preview and/or easily manipulate substances.

Creative Cloud Is Going 3D

In a blog post, Belsky positioned the Allegorithmic acquisition as just the latest in a series of moves bringing Creative Cloud into the 3D design world, citing last year’s introduction of the Adobe Dimension CC 3D toolset and tech preview of upcoming AR authoring tool Project Aero. Dimension already allows users to import PBR materials and geometry from Substance.

“We are seeing an increasing appetite from customers to leverage 3D technology across media, entertainment, retail and marketing to design and deliver fully immersive experiences,” Belsky said in a prepared statement. “Creative Cloud is the creativity platform for all, and Substance products are a natural complement to existing Creative Cloud apps that are used in the creation of immersive content, including Photoshop, Dimension, After Effects and Project Aero.”

“Adobe is bringing Allegorithmic on board so that we can, along with the incredible talent at Adobe which has already been working on 3D projects and research, invent the next generation of 3D creative tools, with Substance as a flagship product, but also combining Adobe’s own current 3D initiatives like Adobe Dimension, and more,” Deguy wrote in an essay at medium.com.

It’s not clear whether Allegorithmic’s tools will eventually be fully integrated in various Adobe Creative Cloud products, a la the former Speedgrade CC, or if they will continue to exist as standalone offerings. Adobe offered no specific plans beyond promising more details “over the coming months” and saying no changes are expected to the current pricing model for Allegorithmic customers “at this point.” In a blog post, Allegorithmic said “new and more flexible subscription offers” will be added soon.

Adobe: www.adobe.com