Introducing Adobe Substance 3D Stager and Dimension update!

[JMathews]

Hi everyone!  Jeanette here, lead product manager for Dimension.  It's been a little while since I've had an announcement for the community, but I'm very happy to be able to break the silence on some exciting news.

Today we launched a new application - Adobe Substance 3D Stager!  Stager is built by the same team that built Dimension with a shared foundation for some technology while also being a bit reimagined.  Where Dimension was a general purpose application that was intended for those new to 3D to learn, Stager is a dedicated scene staging application that is more powerful for professional 3D artists while retaining it's approachability for those learning 3D.

So what are some of the key differences between Dimension and Stager?

• Dimension was more general purpose where Stager is specifically part of the new Substance 3D Collection which offers multiple applications for an end-to-end 3D workflow including modeling, texturing, and staging.
• The rendering engine has been updated and reworked to the Adobe Mercury Rendering Engine.  This engine is multi-technique, including both real time and ray tracing in a single engine.  It is built with entire new infrastructure for modernizing techniques, improving performance and scaling to be available on more hardware.
• Stager's material system has been updated for a new version of the Adobe Standard Material definition with tons of new effects like displacement, subsurface scattering, dispersion, clear coat, sheen, anisotropy, and more.
• Stager includes a variety of general new staging features including collision based layout, multi-camera resolution outputs, physical lights, and much more.

What does this mean for Dimension?

• Dimension will continue to be available as part of Creative Cloud All Apps plans - there is no change to it's availability!  To see Dimension Creative Cloud desktop go to settings > apps > and enable "Show older apps" setting.
• Dimension doesn't have any major planned releases right now  - we'll be putting new features into Stager, but we will provide support updates for Dimension!
• You can open Dimension files in Stager to take advantage of all the new features - also try Stager out for a full 30 day free trial!

Want to learn more about everything?  Check out some of these resources:

• Adobe.com 3D & Augmented Reality page
• Adobe.com Substance 3D Stager page

We're really excited about the opportunity to build a new family of 3D applications that work seamlessly to provide an end-to-end experience for modeling, texturing, and staging 3D models and scenes and we hope you enjoy the new Substance 3D Stager app!

--

Edit: 8/17

Thank you all for the great conversation on Dimension and Stager.  It's clear there's a lot of passion and excitement for amazing staging apps, and I take my duty to the community seriously.  Please know that all of your concerns about pricing, confusion on the Dimension status, and Stager future, have been escalated to our leadership teams and we're working on some possible improvements!

Here's a round up of the latest information based on some questions and discussion that have happened in various threads:

Dimension

• Dimension is still part of Creative Cloud All Apps plan.
• Dimension is currently hidden by deafult on Creative Cloud Desktop.
• To see Dimension you must go to CCD > Preference > Apps > and enable "Show older apps"
• The "Show older apps" option may be disabled by administrators for education and enterprise organizations.
• We are actively working to REVERSE this so that Dimension is not hidden, as it is confusing and inaccurate.
• Update 8/19: This is now reversed!  Dimension is available by default and you no longer need to enable "Show older apps".
• Dimension is NOT end-of-lifed, but we are not working on new features for it (at this time).

Stager

• Stager is exclusive to the Substance 3D Collection plan. 
• There are currently not any single app plans for Substance apps - we are investigating this possibility!
• It is not currently planned that any Substance apps will be added to the CC All Apps plans.
• HOWEVER, the exception is that Substance 3D Collection is free for those with CC All Apps for Higher Education.
• HOWEVER, the limitation is that Substance 3D Collection for Higher Education is available for Shared Device Licensing (SDL) and Feature Restricted Licensing (FRL).  It is not yet available for Named User Licensing (NUL).
• We hope to work on Named User Licensing for Higher Edu support, but I don't have a clear timeline on that.  It's months at least.  Unfortunately there's little we can do to accellerate this.  Adobe licensing land is a bit complicated and we have people working on it!

As always I try to be as transparent as possible with the community, but there's limits to what I can say on a public forum.  Everything is subject to change, and I will do my best to communicate as we move forward!

[Luke5E6A]

love the work you guys put into this app but its unbelievable that you'd block already preexisting paying users from getting further features in what could be their main program. I use dimensions for each one of my projects and have been eagerly waiting for new features just for Adobe to tell me I have to pay another 30$ USD a month on top of my already expensive creative cloud subscription. this is completely unbelievable.

[bryanua]

Yes, it seems that after spending all of the time I did to learn how to model custom objects from shapes in Illustrator, into Photoshop and then bringing them into Dimension (and still not have all of the abilities to do what I would like with animating and eventually bringing them into something like After Effects), why would I want to pay more money and continue to have to increase my learning curve with these new applications, when I could've just spent all of this time and become more skilled at the FREE application Blender which allows me to do what I need and oh so much more? Seems like folks may move this route, Adobe?

[ahazen1419]

I think your point of view is on every one's mind! This new addition should be added to the existing list of Adobe Creative Cloud apps

[jbellomo]

Thank you for bringing up blender, why can a free app have all the apps in one but adobe keeps making new programs that people need to learn. they cant even keep the keystrokes and lingo he same between the apps. They think it was a big accomplishment they now naming all the apps with the same version. the politics must run deep in the company. can see divinci taking over

[bryanua]

Hi @JMathews, I just wanted to touch base to see if you could comment on this more. It's been nearly a year since I posted this and it seems at least once a week, to this day, I'm still getting someone who 'likes' my comment, meaning others are still finding frustration by the way that Adobe has handled the introduction of the Substance acquisition and integration and the results of the acquistion degrading our Creative Cloud subscription features, ie. removal of 3D tools from Photoshop, no additional development on Dimension, etc. They are taking their frustration to the message boards and finding a similar sentiment in what I wrote nearly a year ago.

Back when you first started this thread, you seemed so excited to share about this news and wanted to hear our feedback. We've given a good deal of feedback, and nearly a year later, I personally, am not thrilled with the way things have continued to progress with Adobe and its apps/plans. As I mentioned before, Adobe presented tools to its users that we took a chance on, investigated, invested time to learn to use and then found useful in our work and to have them removed, while still being charged the same amount for our plans just doesn't make any sense.

[itsMeJimmy]

It does seem fairly odd that they haven't even considered some alternative packages that include the Substance products at this point. Although, I also fear that they are angling to offer more things as new price points (ie instead of offering items/things in updates, that they will now come at a price).

Also, on a side note, my son is now in college and entering some digital art classes. I considered getting him his own Adobe subscription, but I thought he might get more out of the Substance package instead...but they don't even offer Educational discounts on the Substance stuff. I just don't get it.

It seems like making it a part of a package or THE package would benefit them more than they realize, but since they don't even comment on it or consider it, it just feels like they don't care about their subscribers at all honestly.

[jbellomo]

At this point Adobe is taking away the 3d capibilties in PS, not upgrading Dimension and most likely taking it away so they can sell a 3D package of apps. If they were planning on including it in the Premiere After Effects pkg I'm sure something would have surfaced by now. THey are into nickle and diming us to death now.

[Ian Dack]

Good luck getting a reply. Early on I attempted to move over to Substance but it's awful, so much slower than Dimensions. It was requested that I send over my project files in order to see why Substance was working slowly. No response, no feedback to this day. Adobe's customer service is as shocking as their pricing strategy.

[Thomas Logan Art]

I think 1997 was the last time I felt like Adobe gave a Sh#% about
customers.--
*Thomas Logan*
e. info@thebostonartist.com
w. thebostonartist.com
*text. (617) 650-8212*

[Omeed5E15]

I'm excited about this but I'm already paying for the Adobe All Apps plan, so doesn't seem fair. I recommend adding these apps to a new all apps plan at a more reasonable price. 

[JeanetteMathews]

Just a comment on the pricing - we believe it's best for everyone if we keep the plans separate.  3D is not used by everyone and we didn't want to increase the price of the All Apps plans for all users.  Having separate plans allows you to choose the 2D or 3D apps if you need only one - or both if you need both!

Dimension remains available as part of Creative Cloud All Apps for continued use!  The Substance 3D app ecosystem is a new more powerful end-to-end 3D offering that will continue to grow.  

We hope that this makes it flexible for you to make choices about what you need.

[Luke5E6A]

I also see that apparently with the education plan substance programs are included? Im on an education plan and it still says I need to purchase? any help?

[Luke5E6A]

The plan is through a university

[JMathews]

Yes, this is correct!  Substance 3D Collection is included for the Creative Cloud All Apps for higher education.  It is NOT included in K-12 EDU plans.  However, these are still rolling out and should be available on June 28th.

[Luke5E6A]

I've noticed they still are yet to be added? was there a delay

[JMathews]

There was a delay in the roll out indeed!  It should be available starting today, June 28th - though may take a few days to roll out to everyone still.

[Luke5E6A]

Any updates on the education rollout?

[JMathews]

I did check in!  They said it will take up to two weeks to still roll out to everyone.  Sorry about the delay and the lack of up front information on this.  It's coming to all!

[Luke5E6A]

still no change 😞

[timothyBellarch]

Hi Jenette,

I am on the higher education plan (University) and I'm not seeing Substance included yet. Do you know if the rollout is completed yet and if so, is there something I need to do to get no charge access?

Thank you!

[JMathews]

Hi @timothyBellarch I checked in on this and indeed there was a delay with the rollout for EDU.  The team is working on it, but I'm not sure of an ETA right now! 

[timothyBellarch]

Okay, thanks. I'm looking to move my students into Stager from Dimension next spring. I want to make sure I have time to test and run the program.

Tim

[dani.norvik]

Hi JMathews - I remember you from last year's Adobe MAX sessions on Adobe Dimension. You and your team did amazing work. I loved the tutorials and I was so inspired that I ended up incorporating AD into my curriculum [for HigerEd]. I just registered again for the MAX in October only to find out that AD was dropped and a few new apps [Substance] were added. That is great but the fact remains that those of us that invested time, energy and resources into AD app are now left stranded. To make things worse, it's not clear if "Substance" will be added to the Adobe CC plan according to a few of your costumer reps. Now, I know in the comments here it says that Substance apps will be added to the Adobe CC Educator Plan but it has been back-tracked a few times now. It's now August 17 and not available for download [only for an additional purchase]. Our semester starts next week and if AD is no longer updating [hence, a viable app], then the curriculum I just finished building is not sustainable. This is a big problem [a fail on my end as an educator for not properly assessing the future of this app within Adobe]. In order to fix this, I now need to re-learn the new apps and re-do the curriculum on time for the next semester. But, we also have deadlines to work with and with every day that passes, all of us as educators feel the added pressure to re-design any coursework that previously included AD. I understand I am partiality ranting right now but it does not seem that everyone at Adobe understands that dependability in the digital world is the most essential component. So, when is Substance actually being added to the Creative Plan? I certainly do not mean disrespect but I have a lot of work to do and another purcahse will not fly [at least not in a major public university]. 

[JMathews]

I'm glad you enjoyed the Dimension MAX sessions!  I'm sorry for any confusion with the Dimension/Stager launch messaging, I'll try to update the original post with the latest information as well, but here's the lay of the land!

Dimension

• Dimension is still part of Creative Cloud All Apps plan.
• Dimension is currently hidden by deafult on Creative Cloud Desktop.
• To see Dimension you must go to CCD > Preference > Apps > and enable "Show older apps"
• The "Show older apps" option may be disabled by administrators for education and enterprise organizations.
• We are actively working to REVERSE this so that Dimension is not hidden, as it is confusing and inaccurate.
• Dimension is NOT end-of-lifed, but we are not working on new features for it (at this time).

Stager

• Stager is exclusive to the Substance 3D Collection plan. 
• It is not currently planned that any Substance apps will be added to the CC All Apps plan.  This could change in the future, as always, but at least right now, it is not planned.
• HOWEVER, the exception is for education.  Substance 3D Collection is free for those with CC All Apps for Higher Education.
• HOWEVER, the limitation is that Substance 3D Collection for Higher Education is available for Shared Device Licensing (SDL) and Feature Restricted Licensing (FRL).  It is not yet available for Named User Licensing (NUL).
• We hope to work on Named User Licensing for Higher Edu support, but I don't have a clear timeline on that.  It's months at least.  Unfortunately there's little we can do to accellerate this.  Adobe licensing land is a bit complicated and we have people working on it!

As always I try to be as transparent as possible with the community, but there's limits to what I can say on a public forum.  Everything is subject to change, and I will do my best to communicate as we move forward!