Adobe tests 3D rotation tool for 2D drawings

One of Adobe's new intriguing projects will help 2D artists with their work. Project Turntable is one of the new "Sneaks" demonstrations at this week's Adobe MAX conference. This Adobe Illustrator tool allows artists to transform 2D vector images into 3D models you can rotate around the axis of the screen.

As shown in the demo, the knight fighting the dragon is being faced in different directions. Adobe researcher Zhiqin Chen pointed out this task would usually require "redraw[ing] the entire shape, which is going to take a lot of time." All Chen had to do was select the warrior and tap on the "Generate views" button to get this machine-generated 3D model of the knight.

The rotation covers a full 360 degrees in about 20-degree increments. It shows unseen parts of the image (like the back of the head of the warrior and side views of the sword he's holding). There were a couple of demos shown during the presentation as well that moved along the horizontal axis. You can watch it above.

What's notable about this experiment, as Ars Technica noted, is that it augments the original work of human artists instead of replacing everything entirely using artificial intelligence. It helps artists save time without it erasing or overtaking their style or original work.

Project Turntable is not yet available to the public and the company cautions that it might not make it to market. However, the reception from the demo might encourage them to release it commercially.