New to 3D. Where Do I Begin?

[Izmael]

Hello,

Between Adobe Dimension, the Substance pack (Stager, Painter, Designer, Sampler), Aero and Fuse, I am not sure of the order to which I should be learning. 

Since I am super new to 3D, can someone put them all in order so people like me know where to begin? Real excited to start learning. Thank you. 

[rcraighead]

I'm new to Adobe's 3D tools as well (not counting the original Adobe Dimensions, circa 2000).
I think it depends on your 3D goals. Are you wanting to create product concepts? Then Dimension is a good place to start. Since it is already part of the CC app family you can download and start learning. The downside is that if you need custom models you'll still need to learn a 3rd party app (such as Blender) to create your 3D assets. But the lighting and scene building is much easier in Dimension than in Blender.

I don't yet have access to Substance since it is separate from CC. It appears it will soon have a Modeler though, which is encouraging news.

[Izmael]

Thanks for your input and good point. I think I am wanting to become more
familiar with augmented reality and 3d objects within them. The kind of
skills one would need in order to thrive within the Metaverse universe.

[Ko.Maruyama]

You might have an easier response if we know what you want to make with 3D.

Dimension is a bit limited for many things - (I'm a professional 3D modeler, animator using Cinema4D & Maya), but for someone just starting out Substance might be really overwhelming.  (I'm going to start my Substance journey soon!)

Dimension would be a great place to start thinking about manipulating elements in 3D space, consider lighting, application of textures, and rendering/compositing options.  You can graduate to Substance when you're ready.

Adobe Aero is a really fun application for your mobile device to play with AR space. "AeRo".  You can import models from anywhere to Aero (maybe from Dimension? I haven't tried yet)

There is no Photoshop Fuse anymore. (sad face) ... (very sad face).

[Izmael]

That's some helpful advice, thank you. In your opinion, is there a good Adobe subsitute for Cinema4D or Maya?

I think I will def start with Dimension, as you suggested. I am really wanting to learn how to become more skilled in the new "Metaverse" environment, so that is my motivation. I am already very familiar with illustrator, photoshop and premiere, but I want to jump on this Metaverse bandwagon and trying to figure out where to begin. It looks you are going to fit right in. 🙂

[Ko.Maruyama]

Adobe isn't trying to make a substitute for these - they all work together in a great pipeline

[Ussnorway]

Dimension, Aero and Fuse are finished and Photoshop no longer has 3D so the honest answer is to move away from Adobe to learn

Blender is free and not going anywhere so its well worth learning... SketchUp is also very good and imo less of a curve for new comers

as has been stated it helps to understand what you want to get into and what hardware you have to use because Mac limits how much you can do in 3D to Unity and Illustrator but Windows opens up Iclone

[Ko.Maruyama]

It may be difficult for a new user to know that this comment was written in hyperbole.

Both DIMENSION and AERO are still available, and are good tools to learn some 3D terminolgy with. (especially if you're not really sure what you want to do with 3D yet) - and free to you.

If anyone wanted look outside of the Adobe metaverse, then yes, there are many options, Blender3D would be the best free option.  Think about what you want to make, then you'll find the right tool (inside or outside of Adobe's catalog)

[Ussnorway]

yes they are still available but its a dead end

if the op is a Windows user and wants to spend extra $ for Stager then you could argue Dimension is still worth learning because its the same ui as Stager [Stager is just Dimension with Substance bolted into it]

Aero is just a demo and nothing more so yes have fun with it

to use Fuse you have to hack the creative cloud app [most schools don't allow cc to be installed so may still be teaching it] or you can still install the old Fuse for free off Steam... and yes the new Adobe models work in the old Steam one because they are the same thing under the hood but your average users doesn't know how to hack and Adobe isn't interested one way or the other

[Ares Hovhannesyan · Accepted solution]

Adobe Stager

Adone Sampler

Adobe Painter

Adobe Designer

 but first of all you need to go deep into documentation for materials

Substance 3D Tutorials (adobe.com)

[Izmael]

The answer I was looking for. Thank you.