Adobe said Tuesday it is launching the latest version of its image generation model, Firefly Image 5. The company is also adding more features to the Firefly website, including support for more third-party models and the ability to generate speech and soundtracks. Specifically, the update allows artists to come up with their own image models using their existing art.
The Image 5 can now work at a native resolution of up to 4 megapixels, which is a huge increase from the previous generation model, which could natively generate images at 1 megapixel but would then upscale them to 4 megapixels. The company said the new model is also better able to represent humans.
Image 5 also enables layered and gesture-based editing – the model treats different objects as layers and allows you to edit them using gestures, or use tools such as resizing and rotating. The company said that it ensures that when you edit these layers, the detail and integrity of the image is not compromised.
Adobe’s Firefly site has supported third-party models from AI labs like OpenAI, Google, Runway, Topaz, and Flux to increase its appeal to its creative customer base, and now the company is taking it a step further by letting users create custom models based on their art style. Currently in a closed beta, the feature lets users drag and drop assets like images, illustrations, and sketches to create a custom image model based on their style.
The company is also adding some new features to its Firefly website, which was redesigned earlier this year. The site now lets you use prompt boxes to switch between creating images or videos, choose which AI model you want to work with, change the aspect ratio, and more. The site’s home page now displays your files and recent generation history, and you also get shortcuts to other Adobe apps (these were previously housed in a menu).
Adobe has also redesigned the video creation and editing tools to support layers and timeline-based editing. This design change is currently only available in private beta, and will eventually be made available to users.
Firefly is also getting two new audio features: Users can now use AI signals to generate entire soundtracks and speech using ElevenLabs’ models for video. There’s also a new way to easily get prompts: add keywords and sections by simply selecting words from the Word Cloud.
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As its competitors like Canva add AI to their platforms, Adobe is trying to cater to new-age creators who are increasingly using AI in their workflows. “We’re thinking about the target audience for Firefly is what we call creators or next-generation creative professionals. I think these are emerging creative people who are GenAI-oriented. They like to use GenAI in all of their workloads,” Alexandru Costin, the company’s VP of Generative AI, told TechCrunch on a call.
He said that with Firefly, the company now has more freedom to add new features and play with the interface because it doesn’t have to commit to the muscle memory of creative professionals who may be used to certain workflows in Adobe’s existing Creative Cloud tools.
