The guys behind Worth1000 and Plime have been tooling away at a new venture called Aviary (although it’s confusingly hosted at CreationOnTheFly.com). With Aviary, the New York based team is aiming at the rather ambitious goal of not only creating a marketplace for multimedia artwork, but a suite of robust collaborative online applications with which to create the works.
The obvious question is “why both tools and a marketplace?” As founder Avi Muchnick believes, both are needed for the other to be successful. They need a marketplace for creators to sell their works and encourage use of the tools. They need tools so they can confirm and maintain the copyright of the works created on the platform.
The lingering question is whether online tools will be of a high enough caliber to produce marketable content. So far, signs are pointing to yes.
When completed, Aviary will consist of 14 online tools of varying complexity: an image editor, color swatch generator, pattern generator, vector-based editor, 3D modeler, audio editor, music generator, video editor, desktop publishing tool, word processor, painting simulator, custom image product creator, photo analyzer, and file system to store it all on. Each of the applications is programmed in Flex, making them ready to meld with your desktop upon Adobe AIR’s public release. Adding an artsy twist, each tool will be named after a different bird.
All items created in these programs will be stored on their own file system called Rookry. From there, artists will be able to sell their creations on the open market. Even small pieces, such as patterns or sound effects will be marketable. If the works are made within Aviary, buyers will have the security of knowing they are buying an original work. If they incorporate outside content, they will be flagged as such. From within Aviary’s platform artists will also be able also create derivative works while maintaining attribution and royalty rights upon sale.
The team will be releasing the tools as they’re completed. They’re already showing some pretty serious results with their image editor (Phoenix), Vector Editor (Raven), and 3D editor (Hummingbird) outlined below:
Phoenix
Phoenix is like Photoshop without trying to replace it. You get a lot of the familiar features such as brushes, patterns, stamps, smudging, shapes, blending options, and more.
The Aviary team decided on a core feature set by polling their band of PhotoShop fanatics using Worth1000 to find Photoshop’s most frequently used features. The editor can work on an image of max dimensions of 2880 by 2880 pixels.
The editor does support importing and exporting images of familiar formats, but any Aviary work that includes an imported image not created in the suite will be marked as such in the marketplace. This will help alert buyers to the possibility that the creator doesn’t have full copyright over the work.
Raven
Raven is their vector based drawing program. It’s based on a lot of the design from Phoenix, but allows artists the flexibility of vector based drawing (e.g. easy scaling/rotation without losing quality). Raven will connect with Phoenix, allowing illustrations created in Raven to be rasterized and edited in Phoenix.
Click on the image to the right for a larger view.
Hummingbird
Hummingbird is their 3D editor designed completely in Flex. Right now they’ve just got a 3D model renderer along with some basic editing tools (element selection/deletion), but are working on a more robust UI for creating new models from scratch.
The hummingbird on the right was rendered with the engine in real time with a metallic gold skin.
Click on the image for a real time demo of the 3D rendering engine.
So this is like an online version of Adobe Creative Suite, with a built in marketplace.
Sounds great. Not sure how it can be better online than on your computer for the graphic design, but as internet speeds keep increasing this will be more and more of a viable solution.
I love all the new stuff coming out. The shear quantity of new products/companies/and technologies is astounding.
Looks pretty good. Is it going to cost anything?
“Hummingbird” is based on the open source engines: Papervision3D (www.papervision3d.org) and Away3d (www.away3d.com)
it’s cool…but they are trying to do too much. They would have been better off creating an open framework and letting other developers build for it or something. I admire their ambition, and wish them all the luck, but I don’t think this birdy is going to fly far.
Most people at who are good at this type of work have invested a significant amount of time in learning the Adobe suite of tools–it seems to me that it would make more sense to focus on the marketplace.
Well, the hope is that people will use the tools if they can make money at it through royalties in the marketplace.
Chris, every tool will be totally free.
file this along with the story about all the people editing fifty thousand cell excel sheets in google office. these online tools are still definitely in the toy category
how many pro or even self-respecting amateur artists are ditching photoshop for a javascript/flash version of microsoft paint? anyone? no one.
desktop apps are not a sin people.
Perhaps Aviary has seen problems getting a good domain name–they’re getting more scarce, thus the issue with their location.
Hummingbird is very cool, looks like I now have something to play with and check out this weekend.
Jim,
I would agree with you completely. Anyone who is good enough to produce something worth selling has probably investing his or her time on the more marketable tools, by adobe. This is a nice gimmicky, but that’s all it would be. The tipping point for a market place is not free tools, but seller and buyers, and I don’t think a gimmicky free tool based on actionscript will do that. But then again, only one in 100 would make it, and you can see why.
sooooo…why does that tiger have such big gums?
i think this looks pretty sweet, and definitely a good way to get people interested and get aspiring artists producing (since the costs of the commercial products are so prohibitive).
so how is this different from creating artwork in photoshop / illustrator and selling it on istockphoto.com?
As a creative type, I’m very excited by this. I’ve invested the time to learn Flash, but tackling a 3d program is daunting. Maybe the learning curve on Hummingbird will be easier than Swift3d? I’ll have to see.
This looks like one pretty badass tool. Love the song of the video too
GGmike, its an online tool.
Seems like an awful lot to bite off at once….but if they can do it, more power to them.
It is great to see all of these tools offered online with an ability to earn royalties in the marketplace.
@Brian - I too hope that Hummingbird has a quick learning curve.
One thing to keep in mind too is that these apps are built with Adobe AIR, so you’ll be able to use them online as well as on your desktop. Meaning you essentially get the power of connectivity to the web, and the ability for the app to access your desktop in ways a typical web app can’t.
I’ve done low poly 3d modeling and this looks pretty impressive. If they add in a skeletal animation system and export to to some well known formats, (3dmax, maya, collata) the possibilities and uses are endless.
Not too shabby, I must say…
–Kevin Fairchild
These types of tools will only get better and is good for consumers. Why should people be forced into paying a lot of money for bloated sw which requires the horsepower and memory requirements of a Cray computer..
MS, Adobe, Autodesk et al must be ’slightly’ concerned about the future of their cash cows.
even if they a team of hackers, i doubt this is is technically possible. photoshop, illustrator, 3d tools took 20 years to develops and be mature, after countless feedback with users, betas, improvements… and they just come and hope to do the same thing… it’s like wanting to get Google market’s share and product range in one year
In the screen cast there’s a quick scene where a turtle is stuck to a coffee mug. I think that’s the most logical place for something like this to end up. Go to a web site, create a nice image (or edit a photo?), slap it on a coffee mug. Even e-cards are a possibility.
Great idea, in a few years it will be useful.
“Why should people be forced into paying a lot of money for bloated sw which requires the horsepower and memory requirements of a Cray computer..”
because even moderate graphics work is indeed resource intensive???
you can download the gimp or inkscape for free, no one has to pay money for decent graphical tools
for anyone who makes their living in graphics, they already use photoshop, why would they ditch it for photoshop written in flex, which coincidentally will be an even larger resource hog??
adobe is not losing sleep tonight
heri:
“photoshop, illustrator, 3d tools took 20 years to develops and be mature”
Those programs took 20 years to develop, starting with 20-year-old hardware and no clue as to what features were wanted, or even possible. Not to mention, those are desktop apps. They had to work on a huge variety of machines. Aviary has to work on one well known server.
“after countless feedback with users, betas, improvements…”
Again, Aviary is server-based. Feedback-based improvement on server-based software is a completely different ballgame than what goes on in a company the size of Adobe or Microsoft. If Adobe wants to fix a bug or add a feature, they have to rewrite and test the code, press the CDs, redesign the boxes, ship to the stores, and hope their customers are willing to shell out a couple hundred dollars to upgrade to something they may or may not feel is worth all that money. If Aviary wants to fix a bug or add a feature, they write the code, test it, and implement. Done.
“it’s like wanting to get Google market’s share and product range in one year”
Say the same thing to Amazon, who wanted B&N’s market share and product range in a short time.
“Server-based.” Remember that phrase. It’s important.
In my opinion, this is not an art project. If we call this is an art project then we will have to call all all online editing products as art projects. We do not call Adobe as an art company, rather a software maker for artists. This project aims to be a marketplace for artists.
If their aim is to be a marketplace, why would an artist will use this service instead of istockphoto for selling rights, and why would an artist use this service instead of threadless and cafepress for selling their artwork on products. No professional artist will loose its valuable time by editing his artwork online if the product has no superiority. Are there any superiorities? If yes, than i would like to know it. And if it is worth, than we will definetly use it. Otherwise this will be just a playground for amateurs.
And one thing more, 30-40 percent of the startups in the web 2.0 boom are trying to make offline solutions online without thinking the value to the consumer. For example, if you have a practical and quick online software that edits your photos in just a few steps and not require you to be a “Professional Adobe User”, that has a value to the end customer (e.g. picnik). But if you are targeting professional people be ready for the challenge and promise a very superior thing.
I’m normally very conservative about new sites/services/applications based on the Web 2.0 cool-aid but I think there might be something to this. Perhaps I’m overly influenced by the beautiful site; maybe I’m in a mellow mood — who knows.
The bring to market place is what could actually make something like this into a viable service. How many good graphics artists are there out there that have a hard time getting their stuff into a market? And how many just plain regular folk would like a place to get such graphics without paying an arm and a leg.
Even if the people have Photoshop, I could see them eventually porting their work into this environment primarily to be able to tie into such a marketplace. True, the online tools need to be able to handle all the processes for re-creating such work, but that is not an impossible task.
Additionally, this group has a built-in customer base on which to both extract ideas for development and use for testing. That’s not something to discount, most Web 2.0 applications don’t have a built-in customer base before the tool was developed.
It really is that mapping of creative tools and marketing that makes this stand out.
Will this attract the already employed graphics artist? Unlikely. But this will open up a nice niche market for the skilled but new and/or underemployed or freelance graphics artist AND the small/medium business or personal site owner who doesn’t have a lot of bucks looking for some graphics to incorporate into their site (without worries of being sued for ‘theft’), or music to embed into their podcast or YouTube video.
Adobe is not losing sleep because this isn’t a competitor. Nor is it a competitor to Inkscape or GIMP. This is something different. Whether it ends up becoming successful or not, at a minimum, it is innovative.
And, OK yeah, I love the bird theme.
Really interesting — thought I’d point to a very similar experiment done at the MIT Media Lab recently, by John Maeda’s students:
openstudio.media.mit.edu
It seems like Aviary is a souped-up, industrial strength version of openstudio — wonder if Aviary knows about this project?
Beyond what this is or could be - I could see me using this in a heartbeat (a hummingbird’s heartbeat) just because I would be able to do some of the things I would usually do offline (and yes I actually purchase legal software).
So, now that I bought Flash CS3, Lightwave, Photoshop, Bryce Etc,, (poser lol)- what good is my computer beyond that license?
I am forever stuck trying to install legit! software (software I bought) so - even if this is a hint to the contrary - I really like the idea
Best
As a developer who works with Flash and Flex, and I might add papervision I think they have bitten of way more than they can deliver. The 3d editor just a model rendered in papervision. No innovation that I can see since there are no editing features. The idea of simple photo editors in flex is fine, but trying to create all these apps, especially the 3d one is plain silly. At the moment it all looks like vaporware to me.
Luke,
We actually have a fully functional working 3D modeller at this point, not just a renderer. A flex-based 3D modeller is far from inconceivable. As a developer you should realize that 3D in Flash was generally considered inconceivable until Papervision came out, and now new innovations based on PV3D emerge every day.
We’re definitely pushing the limits and quite proud of that fact. We wouldn’t have taken on this project if didn’t.
Best,
Avi
I think the times of people bringing up how a thing is similar to another thing (in a manner that suggest it’ll null-out) should be over. Points made in the article are clear about what these softwares orbit.
I think sometimes, people can unconsciously catch a whiff of the catch-22. It’s impossible to get stuck somewhere. The elements that cause the notions of defeat are probably not real. As in, if something seems really original to you, it’s only because you don’t know of anything else like it or the building blocks of it. If everyone in the world blinked at the same time and thought about Myspace being pointless… Myspace would disappear and nobody would exactly know where it went to.
If nothing else, perhaps the community can explore better with especial catered tools. If the whole scheme self-sustains in the ways needed for the hierarchy of authors to feed; win.
wut?
Looks good - looks to have money behind it - but - I don’t understand the business model,
Concrete Stain. I don’t know if this is correct but I can see something like the following as possible business models.
Possibility1. Aviary grants free access to Users to create new content. The creators then puts content out for customers to purchase. When a customer purchases content a small fee is applied to each purchase and that fee goes back into Aviary is income.
Possibility 2. Aviary grants free access to Users to create new content. Part of the agreement between Aviary and User states that: Aviary will get a percentage of any and all items sold through market place.
As users submit more items on the market place and more customers begin to purchase content revenue goes up. Might be slow at the start but as Shelley said this will open up the market for new artists and allow small / medium businesses to purchase work at affordable prices.
I look forward to seeing all the tools. Remember this is not just graphic content but text, audio, video publishing suite. This could lead to so many places. Just think…
A group of friends wants to create a comic book. It could be done.
Someone else wants to write a cook book. It could be done.
I have always wanted to make my own music CD. It could be done.
If this gets off the ground (I really hope it does) it could possibly be the next step in business. I’m fairly sure that Avi has thought out the possible future in this. So far his touch has been Gold lets hope he gets a trifecta with this one. I’m also sure that he will have a very large user base right out of the gate. MANY many users at Worth1000 are slavering of the upcoming release of Aviary.
Done rambling.