4 minute read
An Adobe MAX one-on-one discussion about Substance 3D with François Cottin, Senior Director of Marketing for 3D at Adobe.
At Adobe MAX 2024, one of the standout topics was Adobe’s ongoing efforts to democratize 3D content creation and make it accessible to a wider range of users.
I sat down with François Cottin, Senior Director of Marketing for 3D at Adobe, to discuss the latest developments in Adobe’s Substance 3D suite, its integration with other industry tools, and the future of 3D in creative workflows. Here are the key takeaways.
1. Making 3D accessible to more creatives
Adobe’s Substance 3D suite aims to bring 3D content creation to a broader audience, including those who may never become 3D experts.
“3D has been reserved for a while to experts, but it used to be the same with video,” Cottin explains. “Remember, 12-15 years ago, video was only for a few experts with super beefy machines, handling very complex workflows. And then it democratized into being used by millions of people—pros and also even consumers today. Something similar is happening with 3D today.
“We wanted to join Adobe to bring these 3D capabilities to way more than 3D experts,” Cottin says, referencing the acquisition of Allegorithmic by Adobe. “And this is an extension of it to also bring 3D to people who will never become 3D experts.”
“This is all about bringing the ability to use assets that are designed by 3D pros in graphic design workflows,” he notes. “We’ve heard so many times from graphic designers that they now have access to databases of especially physical products. But until today, the graphic design team had to ask the 3D experts, ‘Can you create a render for me with this angle?’ Now they can just import the file natively in Photoshop and do this stuff in the context of their creation.”
2. Seamless integration with industry tools
Adobe is enhancing workflows by integrating Substance 3D tools with other industry-standard applications like Maxon’s Cinema 4D and Adobe After Effects.
“We’ve worked very closely with our partners from Maxon to streamline the workflow across our apps,” Cottin says. “In motion design, people use Substance, Cinema 4D, and After Effects, and the seamlessness of the workflow is absolutely critical for these users.”
Cottin highlighted a demonstration where a character is modeled in ZBrush, textured in Substance Painter, animated in Cinema 4D, and then composited in After Effects.
“You create a really high-end motion design sequence, all with this workflow that allows for a lot of fluidity and seamlessness."
3. Introducing Substance 3D Viewer and Project Neo
Adobe unveiled two new beta tools at MAX, both aimed at bridging the gap between 3D experts and other creatives: Substance 3D Viewer and Project Neo.
Substance 3D Viewer:
“It’s a universal 3D viewer that allows you to load almost any 3D file. It reads over 70 formats immediately on any machine and starts up extremely fast,” Cottin explains.
The Viewer is connected natively to Photoshop, allowing users to import 3D files as Smart Objects.
“You can rotate it, pose it, choose your camera angle, adjust lighting—all within Photoshop,” he says. “This brings the ability to use assets designed by 3D pros in graphic design workflows.”
Project Neo:
Project Neo aims to bring 3D capabilities to vector design, familiar to Illustrator users.
“You can design a square; you can also design a cube and then turn the cube,” Cottin says. “It’s designed with graphic designers in mind, so it feels very familiar.”
This tool allows for easy adjustments of camera angles and lighting, making it less daunting for designers to incorporate 3D elements into their work.
“It’s all about bringing the ability to use assets that are designed by 3D pros in graphic design workflows."
4. Collaboration and community engagement
Adobe is committed to building these new tools with direct input from the community.
“These tools are in beta, which means we’re building them with our users,” Cottin emphasizes. “We’ll take the decisions on the roadmap and what we want to prioritize together.”
“This is core to our DNA,” he says. “We always design the products with the experts in all these categories.”
Cottin also mentions Adobe’s involvement with local motion design communities and how well the collaborative efforts have been received.
“They love the fact that it’s so user-centric, what we’re doing, and seeing companies collaborate deeply on improving the workflow.”
5. The future of 3D in Video Workflows
Good news for those of us who prefer it when the pretty pictures are moving! While the new tools are currently focused on graphic design and motion design, there is potential for deeper integration with video editing applications like Adobe Premiere Pro.
“We have a lot of demand to bring these elements to video,” Cottin says. “Just importing a 3D file in, let’s say, Premiere, and compositing it easily with your background is the need of most of the users.
"We already have demand from the video people. We build the tools for our users. I don’t want to promise anything, but of course, we are considering it.”
Cottin also notes that the Substance tools are designed to be accessible at various levels of expertise.
“The whole thing is how much you want to edit the 3D asset itself,” he explains. “If you just want to incorporate a 3D element into a video today, it’s through After Effects with the native 3D capabilities that we have now.”
Bridging the Gap between 2D and 3D creatives
Adobe’s ongoing efforts with Substance 3D aim to make 3D content creation more accessible, integrating seamlessly with existing workflows and familiar tools.
“Everyone should feel good to now handle 3D assets and add them to their videos,” Cottin says. “Depending on where they are in their journey, thats always a good thing to do.”
A scene created with Substance 3D Painter
tl;dr
- Adobe aims to democratize 3D content creation and make it accessible to a wider range of users through its Substance 3D suite.
- The integration of Substance 3D tools with industry-standard applications like Maxon’s Cinema 4D and Adobe After Effects enhances workflows for users.
- Adobe introduced two new beta tools at MAX, Substance 3D Viewer and Project Neo, to bridge the gap between 3D experts and other creatives.
- There is potential for deeper integration of 3D elements with video editing applications like Adobe Premiere Pro in the future.
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