For years, many creatives saw 3D creativity as equal parts exciting and forbidding. We were blown away by the enveloping, fantastical worlds game developers built and the incredibly immersive 3D visual effects in movies, but many of us thought creating in 3D was too technically demanding.

The last year has changed that — when the pandemic made getting together for photo shoots and other creative projects impossible, companies turned to 3D to create. Thousands of companies discovered that creating in 3D not only gave them incredible creative freedom, but that it was also faster, cheaper, more scalable and more sustainable.

To empower creatives to succeed in 3D, Adobe has released the Adobe Substance 3D Collection, a suite of interoperable tools and services that support 3D creativity from the beginning to the end of any project.

⇒ Get up to 20% off Adobe Substance 3D Collection for Teams until 31 December 2021 when you buy through Dax Data

The collection has an exceptional heritage in the 3D community. Its foundation is the Substance suite, which has been used for years to create the vast majority of triple-A game titles, including Half Life Alyx and Microsoft Flight Simulator, along with movies like Blade Runner 2049 and Tenet (both Oscar winners for best visual effects), design, architecture and more. The team behind Substance joined Adobe two years ago and has since been at work building a suite of powerful, accessible and integrated 3D tools.

The team’s goal was to build tools that are easy to learn, but impossible to outgrow, so that there are no limits to your creativity. Substance 3D provides the cutting-edge technology that veteran 3D artists require, while making the medium accessible for new 3D enthusiasts. It uses the power of artificial intelligence to eliminate much of the technical complexity of 3D design and features the “what you see is what you get” interface artists are familiar with from Photoshop or Illustrator. And the collection isn’t just about tools; it includes thousands of models, textures, lighting systems and other assets you can use to jump-start your projects.

The Substance 3D collection

Substance 3D Stager: Built on the foundation established by Adobe Dimension, Stager lets you easily assemble models, materials and lighting in a 3D scene and produce stunning virtual photographs and renderings.
Substance 3D Painter: Often called the Photoshop of 3D, Painter allows you to apply textures to a 3D object. Those detailed and infinitely customisable textures are key to making 3D objects seem so realistic that you can imagine reaching out and touching them.
Substance 3D Sampler: Built on the foundation of Substance Alchemist, Sampler makes creating materials simple. You can bring in a photo and quickly apply filters and mix elements to produce a texture or other material in a matter of minutes.
Substance 3D Designer: Create your own customisable textures, materials and even 3D models from scratch.

Substance 3D asset library

Adobe’s content team has created thousands of customisable 3D assets, including models, lights and materials. The models include everything from a rusty screwdriver to an aeroplane cabin wall and cover all sorts of uses, from fashion and car design to architecture and games – everything you need to get a head start on whatever project you’re planning and make your scene rich with detail and nuance. And you’ll be able to see how these expertly created assets were made so you can apply the same techniques to your own creations.

This collection is just the beginning of Adobe’s 3D innovation, which can be seen through the beta of Substance 3D Modeler, a modelling tool that allows you to create your own 3D objects. Modeler uses a VR interface to recreate the natural, organic feeling of sculpting clay with your hands, and it lets you interact with your model on the desktop so you can leverage the precision of mouse and tablet controls.

One of the exciting things about 3D creativity is how versatile it is. While many designers are using 3D now to create marketing images and product catalogues, it’s also capable of creating entire immersive worlds in virtual or augmented reality that are purely the product of a creative person’s imagination.

Contact Dax Data to get started on your 3D creative journey and to take advantage of 20% off Adobe Substance 3D Collection until 31 December!