Adobe buys Mixamo to bring new 3D tech to Photoshop

Updated 2:13 p.m. and 2:46 Pacific with new details on the deal and clarification on the term “acqui-hire.”

Adobe is buying Mixamo, a seven-year-old 3D graphics company, to bolster its 3D offerings in Photoshop and Creative Cloud.

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This deal should not surprise anyone; Adobe’s interest in 3D has steadily grown in the last five years, such as in explorations in three-dimensional type to more recent 3D printing and modeling features. On top of all that, Adobe and Mixamo partnered back in October to develop new 3D workflows.

A spokesperson described the deal as an “acqui-hire.” Later, the same spokesperson revised the position, saying that Adobe will use Mixamo’s tech and deeming the term acqui-hire inaccurate. The company declined to disclose the purchase price.

Going forward, Mixamo says on its site that it will stop selling new services while it “works on integrating Mixamo products and services into Adobe’s offerings.” It details that it will, however, continue offering its free plan for now.

More on Adobe’s plans for Mixamo [emphasis ours]:

We plan to integrate Mixamo’s technology into Photoshop to empower designers to create, customize, manipulate, rig and animate 3D content, as well as to take advantage of tens of thousands of high quality, turnkey 3D models, starting with stock characters that can be easily pulled into projects. …

From content through capabilities, integrating Mixamo into Creative Cloud provides an incredible platform for more 3D innovation in the future. With this acquisition, we are excited to offer greater value to customers while introducing a new way of working to our design community that is looking to push the limits with 3D tools.

Last we heard, Mixamo had raised more than $11 million from Granite Ventures, AMD, and Keynote Ventures. Mixamo founder Stefano Corazza is also an investor in Matterport, another 3D modeling company.