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Microsoft Paint 3D is a cooler and more modern version of a classic app

By Koh Wanzi - on 27 Oct 2016, 12:18am

Microsoft Paint 3D is a cooler and more modern version of a classic app

At its Surface event today, Microsoft announced Paint 3D, a revamped version of the familiar Windows app. Paint 3D is a part of the upcoming Windows 10 Creators Update, which Microsoft says will arrive sometime in early 2017. Still, the standalone app was actually put online earlier this month and is available for anyone to download.

Microsoft is clearly making a huge bet on 3D. With catchy tag lines about how everyone is a creator, and how easy 3D content would be to create and share, the update of the classic Windows app to better sync with its vision appears almost emblematic of a massive paradigm shift.

With the update, Paint went from a boring app that hardly anyone uses to a fancy creativity tool. It now supports 3D objects, so users can create 3D models with objects artfully located as they choose along three axes.

But a more interesting feature is probably the ability to take photos and turn select objects into 3D objects, courtesy of what Microsoft calls a magic selection tool. You’ll even be able to convert a 2D doodle into a 3D image. In addition, a sticker tool lets you grab any 2D image and apply it to a 3D object like a texture.

That said, not everything in the old Paint is going away. Microsoft says all the usual 2D pens and pencils will work on any 3D object, and it demonstrated this to great effect in creating a personalized 3D emoji.

Finally, Microsoft trotted out news of an online community called Remix 3D. The focus is on Minecraft, and users will be able to directly export objects from the game and 3D print their creations and those of others.

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