Adobe UXP Developer for Illustrator/Photoshop Automation & Garment Mockups

- Overview - We are looking for an experienced Adobe UXP developer to help us automate a garment proofing workflow that currently requires significant manual work in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. Our company creates art proofs for custom decorated apparel. Today, our sales manager manually downloads garment images, places customer artwork onto the garment in Illustrator, adds in any notes needed, then creates a proof. This works reasonably well for flat garments, but it doesn't look as professional when dealing with angled garments or products photographed from perspective angles since our sales manager doesn't have Photoshop experience. We would like to turn this into a largely automated workflow. - What We Want to Build - The ideal workflow would allow a user to select a customer, garment, decoration method, artwork version, and placement, then click a button to generate a finished proof. The system would ideally: - Locate and retrieve the correct customer artwork from our existing file/folder structure. - Determine which artwork version to use based on rules such as decoration method, number of colors, etc. - Select the appropriate garment/product image. - Automatically remove or handle backgrounds when necessary. - Position artwork according to predefined placement templates such as: Left chest Full front Full back Sleeve Hat front Other predefined placements - Create an Illustrator proof using standardized templates. - Send the artwork to Photoshop automatically. - Apply product-specific Photoshop processing, potentially including: Smart Objects Displacement maps Perspective transformations Warp/distortion Embroidery effects Print/heat-transfer effects Other techniques needed to make the artwork realistically follow the garment - Return the finished mockup to the Illustrator proof. - Export the completed customer proof as PDF or another appropriate format. The goal is to reduce a process that currently takes several minutes per proof to a few clicks, while also producing more consistent and realistic presentations. - Technical Direction - Based on our initial research, we believe an Adobe UXP plugin may be a better long-term solution than relying entirely on traditional Illustrator scripts and Photoshop Actions, particularly because the workflow needs to coordinate between Illustrator and Photoshop. However, we are open to alternative approaches if you have experience with Adobe's current APIs and believe there is a better architecture. - Initial Engagement - We would like to start with a technical discussion/feasibility assessment. We are specifically interested in understanding: - What is currently possible using Adobe UXP APIs - How Illustrator and Photoshop can communicate within this workflow - What limitations or API restrictions we should expect - Whether certain portions should use UXP, scripting, Actions, external automation, or another approach - How you would structure the plugin and asset/template system - How customer artwork and garment/product assets could be organized - An approximate development timeline - A rough development cost estimate If the project is technically feasible and we agree on an approach, we would then move into development. - Ideal Experience - You should have strong experience with: - Adobe UXP development - Adobe Illustrator scripting/plugin development - Adobe Photoshop scripting/UXP development - JavaScript - Photoshop Smart Objects and automated image manipulation - Illustrator templates and artwork placement - File and asset management - Automation of repetitive Adobe workflows Experience with apparel mockups, embroidery digitization/presentation, garment decoration, print effects, displacement maps, or product visualization would be a significant advantage. You do not necessarily need experience with our exact workflow. We are primarily looking for someone who understands Adobe's APIs deeply enough to determine what is technically possible and build a robust solution. - To Apply - Please briefly describe: - Your experience developing Adobe UXP plugins. - Any Illustrator + Photoshop automation you have built. - Whether you have worked with Smart Objects, displacement maps, perspective/warp transformations, or automated mockups. - How you would approach communication/workflow between Illustrator and Photoshop. - Any relevant examples or portfolio work. - Your initial thoughts on whether this architecture is technically feasible.