3D Stager for Print Design of Shrink Sleeves?

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
February 27, 2024
1 reply
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Hi y'all,

I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction. I've been using some limited spare time I have at work to research if there is an alternative software we can use for shrink sleeve design in regards to making an actual print file.

I know this is probably a great application to use to make a 3D *mockup* of the design to show to customers, but we're the printer; not the designers. We're currently using Esko to warp and distort artwork so that it looks "straight" after the printed image is shrunk onto the container. It's about one of the clunkiest, heavy, slow-moving, digusting applications that probably exists in the whole world, and the licensing is insanely expensive (i.e. we're paying them an arm and a leg to stress us out). I want there to be an Adobe alternative SO BAD, but I just can't find many people talking about if this (or any other Adobe product) can be used as alternative.

Is there any Adobe software that can apply distortion and warp *precisely* to the artwork so that it will print that way?

Thanks for any suggestions, links, plug-ins, etc!! If there is nothing, where can I submit a suggestion to Adobe for this, because it's starting to become one of the leading forms of packaging and there needs to be an option other than Esko.

This topic has been closed for replies.

Cyril Dellenbach

Community Manager

Hi @ccashes,

Thanks for the message.

Interesting topic, but to be honest, I'm not sure to precisely understand the 3D workflow. From what I understand, it seems to be more of a texturing work, so Substance 3D Painter will probably be the most suited Adobe app. Substance 3D Stager is dedicated to rendering, so I guess not the one you're looking for.

However, could you detail your workflow, so I can give you a better guidance?

Regards,

Cyril Dellenbach (Micro) | QA Support Artist | Adobe

ccashesAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thanks for the help! So, similarly to how Substance will essentially place a "mesh" on a 3D model to warp and distort the art to "fit" the model, we will do that with shrink sleeve art. But the distortion/warping must stay applied to the art when we're printing flat, because once it goes through a steam tunnel and conforms to the shape of the container, it needs to appear "straight." This is not reallly an issue with shrink sleeves for something like an aluminum can since the container itself is already straight. You can see the image I attached; the art on the left is how the art is warped, and the art on the right is a preview of how it will appear when it's applied to a container with many curves, and what we call "high distortion areas."

And just one more example that better shows the layflat for printing. You can see how adjusting the art on the model makes it easier to anticipate how the final product will look, but we would need to keep that warping/distortion for print because it will need to essentially be adjusted the same way for the final, physical product.

The software we currently use is clunkly, slow, and not very customizable as far as how the art is distorted. So, using Substance for image preview is perfect—especially for proofing purposes for our customers—but we would also need to be able to output a high-resolution/vector file to print flat. I can't find any information as to whether or not Substance can save/export such a file. Even if we remove any layers that might have textures, lighting, etc applied for the 3D rendering so that it will not print. We currently do that with our proofs already since we do not proof our distorted files to the customers. I'm just hoping to find a better/faster/smoother/more accurate alternative to help improve our workflow. And since Adobe is *THE* industry standard (always has been and always will be), that there must be a way to execute this within at least one application you offer.

Thanks again for any insight or direction you have 🙂