Adobe Medium is one of the longest-running 3D modelling tools available to VR users. Starting out as an independent tool, it was first acquired by Oculus and then by Adobe in 2019. The tools in Adobe Medium are very similar to those found in several other 3D modelling platforms and environments, including Gravity Sketch, Rec Room, and Shapes XR. However, Adobe Medium is only available on the Oculus Rift headset and, as such, is not as accessible as those other tools.
The software’s key purpose is creating assets for 3D environments, which we might refer to as objects to avoid a consumerist perspective. To enable this, the programme allows users to create 3D models from primitive shapes and to light, colour, and texture those models within the app.
Users do this with an interface that requires them to access menus and sub-menus from their controllers. However, in the virtual world, they can manipulate objects in a tactile way. One key difference between Medium and its closest rival, Shapes XR, is that users can paint with shapes, and these paintings have volume. Once created, they can be manipulated like clay. Consequently, users can create industrial-looking assets that appear fabricated or more organic assets with smooth surfaces, lumps, and bumps.
The VR controllers act like sculpting tools or brushes in the virtual world, making the process intuitive, albeit labour-intensive.
Feelings
My approach has always been to find tools for rapidly creating spaces in VR. My first encounters with Adobe Medium made me question it as a tool we might use in an immersive journalism context. For the rapid creation of immersive journalism, practitioners will need access to assets rather than tools for sculpting them, which is why Shapes XR is a better choice. Although both have a similar object creation tool set, Medium is more advanced and complex from the modelling perspective, but it lacks the level of interactivity tools needed to build mechanics into those objects. More importantly, it is not specifically designed to create architectural spaces or natural environments. That said, while it may be enjoyable, it is an object-creation tool as part of a slower workflow.
Evaluation
A key problem with the software is not its complexity, although that is a consideration, but rather its availability across unlimited platforms. When I began this research, the Oculus Rift was the only headset I had access to. To set up this headset meant clearing a space, setting up sensors, plugging in cables to a computer, and ensuring the computer was updated with any necessary software before I could start creating objects and sculpting.
At the end of my research, wireless headsets are commonly used in a commercial context, yet Adobe Medium is not optimised for any of them. There are workarounds; for example, it is possible to access Oculus Rift software on a Quest using Oculus Link or Virtual Desktop, but this is not an intuitive workflow.
Another issue is that the software has not been updated since 2020, a year after Adobe acquired the tool. It is evident that Adobe is not investing a great deal of support in its continuing development. Indeed, many of Adobe’s 3D development tools remain in lab stages, and Medium does not seem to be part of that roster.
Application
If we are considering Adobe Medium as part of an immersive journalism workflow, we must view it primarily as an object creator. Let’s take a step back and focus on some of its more basic features. We might use it as an application for creating man-made objects with sculpting tools in an environment that makes 3D fabrication more effective and straightforward. Additionally, it can be used to produce more organic objects and assets, such as rocks and flora.
As VR continues to evolve, I believe it will become increasingly common to build through elements and objects, with tools like Medium playing a significant role in these workflows.
Conclusions
As VR continues to evolve, I think it will become increasingly commonplace to build elements and objects in VR, with tools like Medium being a distinct part of these workflows. But perhaps the tool will not be Medium.