Microsoft Overhauls ‘Paint’, Advances Your Drawings to a New Dimension

You remember Microsoft Paint, right? It’s the cheesy little program from your childhood that was prepackaged with Windows, and undoubtedly spawned the creation of a countless number of terrible, two-dimensional doodles. Not anymore, it seems.

Microsoft announced at its New York event Wednesday that the lovable program from our childhood is growing up. Called Paint 3D, the new app will now let you create three-dimensional drawings and 3D freeform objects. Additionally, the included Doodle Sketch tool will turn any 2D drawing into a 3D object automatically.

You’ll still be able to draw terrible doodles, no doubt. But this time around, they’ll be in 3D.

Paint 3D will let you import photo scans from cameras, and even from Minecraft. To show off that feature, Microsoft general manager Megan Saunders demonstrated Paint 3D at the company’s event by importing a 3D scan of a sandcastle, and positioning it into a scene over a beach background, Engadget reported.

The new Paint app will also let you export your creations to various social media outlets, rendered in 3D — and Microsoft said that users will be able to create their own custom emojis. There’s also a community-like feature built into the app, where users can take bits and pieces from other Paint 3D users, and mix them together to make an entirely new piece.

Not everyone is happy with the update, though. Dami Lee from The Verge, for example, wrote that the beauty of the original and timeless MS Paint was “its limitations.” Though, she did add that 3D paint might be a “gateway software” to inspire children to pursue creative fields like 3D modeling and animation.

The new version of MS Paint was announced alongside a suite of other software enhancements Microsoft is calling its “Creators Update.” PowerPoint, for example, is also getting the 3D upgrade treatment. The update will also bring augmented reality and 4K video game streaming to Windows when it rolls out in early 2017.