Paint 3D: Did Microsoft ruin Paint for everyone or breathe new life into it?

Microsoft announced on Wednesday that Paint, the staple desktop software for creating and editing images that everyone and their grandmothers have used at some point in their lives, is now going 3D with the update. Windows Creators Day. Paint 3D will let you create 3D images and share them with others on SketchUp, or even on Facebook (time of 3D memes, maybe?). You can also export your 3D creations to Minecraft, or even bring them into the real world if you have a 3D printer.

The message is clear: paint is no longer just for rough scribbles. This is for well-designed doodles now. Kidding aside, this begs a question: Did Microsoft just ruin Paint for everyone, or did it breathe new life into the software?

Paint has never been anyone’s primary image editor, but it’s gotten a lot of love due to its ease of use as well as the nostalgia factor, not to mention the LOL-worthy images that have been created in Paint and shared on the Internet. And then there were those artists who proved to everyone that creating amazing drawings with just MS Paint is also possible. While there were many haters, Paint also held a place in the hearts of Windows users who scribbled on it while waiting for the super-slow Internet of the 1990s and 2000s to come online.

With this update however, Paint 3D has transformed into a performance oriented software for those who want to create quality original 3D content. You can take a photo with your smartphone (from any angle), transfer the file to Paint and edit it in 3D mode with just one click. Not only can you make basic edits to the captured image, but you can also overlay other objects to create a new 3D composition. Options like resizing images, adding stickers, using 3D brush to fill different colors, are all here. You can even create custom emojis to share with your friends. Remix offers users a library of 3D objects for the new Paint, while SketchUp is the source for 3D clipart. Community sharing allows you to take other people’s drawings to use in your own works.

If Microsoft can convince users to embrace Paint 3D as a tool to express their creative side in three dimensions, we could well be inundated with a new wave of user-generated content. Communities like Remix are a great way for users to share their 3D designs, while Paint 3D’s native Facebook integration will bring those creations to the masses. We saw this happen with Super Mario Maker, which allowed users to create their own game levels, and Coca Cola’s Share a Coke campaign. Snapchat and Vine are also examples of easy-to-use platforms that allow creators to post user-generated content; Although much of the content is amateur, there are some well-made videos as well.

Of course, Paint isn’t the only software that allows users to create 3D models, but it comes with a huge user base (100 million users, according to Microsoft). If Paint 3D gets the traction Microsoft must be hoping for, it has the potential to turn Remix into as active and thriving a community as DeviantArt or 500px. It can become an online 3D art gallery for users to show off whatever they have created or enjoy what others around the world are creating.

But will Paint 3D retain the simple user interface that has made it a favorite among users despite its many limitations? Will nostalgic users of the original Paint accept the 3D version? Or has Microsoft, in the process of stuffing the software with features that make it more fit for the modern age, destroyed the charm it had?

The modern reinvention of Microsoft Paint may make it an infinitely more useful tool than it ever was. But it can also alienate those who liked the software for its minimal functionality and for the laughable images most people used it to create. Remember that MS Paint has held up over the years, not because of its capabilities, but because of its limitations, ease of use, and the nostalgia associated with it. The feature-laden version may simply tempt users to turn to other software for their basic image creation/editing tasks.

But there is always hope. It won’t come as a surprise if much of the 3D content turns out to be crude and too ridiculous to take seriously, which has always been the appeal of Paint creations. Paint 3D and its users may well continue the tradition, with some 3D drawings that are definitely worth sharing in a sea of ​​fun art.

It will be a while (the new version will be available to the public from next year) before it becomes clear where the content of Paint 3D is headed, before we know if this update makes Paint the darling of artists, or destroy software that hasn’t seen much change in its three decades of existence but has remained close to the hearts of Windows users.