Adobe acquires Oculus’ 3D sculpting platform Medium

In Virtual Reality News

December 6, 2019 – Oculus and Adobe have today announced that Oculus’ immersive 3D sculpting platform, Medium, has been acquired by Adobe. To date, Medium has been used by game developers, indie VR developers, feature film concept artists, VFX artists, makers, and more.

Adobe is one of the world’s leading creation software companies, and provides 3D and immersive tools for artists, including Adobe Dimension and the Substance tools suite. Medium joining  Adobe brings both new talent and technology to Adobe, and will likely help to solidify Medium’s position as a professional sculpting application.

When Medium was launched alongside the original Oculus Touch controllers in December 2016, its goal was to explore VR applications beyond gaming and provide artists with a new way to create. Since then, Oculus has seen professionals and amateurs alike incorporate Medium into their production pipelines. Oculus even launched a season of Esports dedicated to competitive sculpting with Medium.

Sebastien Deguy, founder and CEO of Allegorithmic, which was acquired by Adobe in January this year, commented: “Medium has been a beacon of creativity in the VR space, pushing creative and technical boundaries of 3D modeling. 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.”

According to Oculus, today’s announcement marks an important milestone for the VR community, as it demonstrates VR’s maturation and value in the realms of productivity and non-gaming use cases.

For existing Medium users, nothing will be changing for them today. The app is currently still free when users activate new Oculus Touch controllers on the Oculus Store. More features, improvements, and other developments can be expected from Adobe in 2020 as Medium continues to evolve.

Neither company disclosed the acquisition amount.

Image credit: Oculus/Adobe

About the author

Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.

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