Adobe releases Project Felix in beta
Adobe has released Project Felix, its work-in-progress software for rendering and compositing 3D assets into 2D images, as a free beta to anyone with a paid Creative Cloud subscription.
A simple rendering and compositing tool for ‘graphic designers, not 3D experts’
Announced at Adobe’s MAX 2016 event last month, Project Felix is a tool for rendering 3D assets and compositing them into 2D images aimed at “graphic designers, not 3D experts”.
Suggested uses include product design and visualistion, concept mock-ups and illustrations.
Create composite images through an intuitive drag-and-drop and slider-based workflow
Users can import 3D models in OBJ format, then assign readymade materials via a drag-and-drop workflow. Materials are stored internally in Nvidia’s MDL format, also used in tools like IRay and mental ray.
Lighting is image-based, with the option to import HDRIs in HDR, EXR or IBL format, then adjust the results in the interactive real-time preview, using simple slider-based controls.
The HDRI can also be used as a background image for the scene, with Project Felix automatically detecting the horizon line and and providing gridlines to help users position the 3D model.
Finished composites can be exported as PSD files for adjustment in Photoshop, or any other image-editing application that supports the file format.
The software comes with a free starter library of models, materials and lights, and is integrated with Adobe Stock, Adobe’s online library of commercial stock assets.
Pricing and availability
Project Felix is available as a free beta to anyone with a commercial subscription to Adobe’s Creative Cloud.
The software is compatible with Windows 10 and Mac OS X 10.10 only, and you’ll need a reasonably powerful workstation: Adobe recommends at least 16GB of RAM and a GeForce GTX 970 GPU or equivalent.
New Creative Cloud subscriptions cost $19.99/month for single applications ($9.99/month for Photoshop and Lightroom) or $49.99/month for all of Adobe’s creative software.