At today’s new product event, Microsoft’s rallying cry has been “3D for everyone”. The unlikely standard bearer? An overhauled version of MS Paint, its legendary digital art tool.
The new, 3D-focused Paint will give users the ability to work in three axes using a variety of new tools. There’s a “magic select” tool, which can pull foreground subjects in an image out from their background easily, and a “doodle” feature, which instantly turns any 2D drawings into 3D renders. All the extant 2D brush, pen and pencil tools will have the ability to interact with 3D objects as well. Microsoft is also planning on adding 3D scanning to all Windows phones, though the timeline for the rollout is unclear.
A robust library of 3D objects to play with in Paint will be provided by Remix. The company is also partnering with Sketchup to build out the library of 3D clipart. Sharing to Facebook is supported natively. But most impressively — Paint projects will be able to be 3D printed right from the app.
Microsoft’s fresh coat of Paint will be available in the Windows 10 Creators Update which ships next autumn.