You might already know LiveSurface, a stock-image library that featured preset grids optimized to work with Photoshop’s Vanishing Point feature. Now the crew behind it has announced the beta of LiveSurface Context, a unique 2.5D app with a built-in artwork store.
Founder Joshua Distler writes,

The app makes design exploration & visualization (for both designer and client) much faster and more fluid by acting as a kind of next-generation WYSIWYG tool. Designers can work naturally inside Illustrator and visualize their concepts rendered photographically with a click. With it you can:

• Work inside Illustrator and preview ideas rendered in photographic realism with just a click.
• Simulate a variety of inks and materials (such as foil, emboss, fluorescent) by simply choosing swatches in Illustrator.
• Download surfaces by drag and drop; surfaces are automatically re-rendered at hi-res when the download completes.
• Resize and/or rotate Plus Surfaces with a few clicks.
• Output very hi-res renderings in the background, without interruption to workflow.

The app drew a nice write-up in Fast Company. Here’s a quick demo of browsing for photographic templates, then applying artwork:

More info is in 9to5Mac’s write-up.