Materials created as part of the Substance 3D collaboration with Peclers Paris; see the Substance 3D webinar on product design visualization for more information
The end of the year approaches, but there’s still time to bring another Substance 3D Community Digest into the world before the ball drops. Here’s what’s happening in December!
Featured Artist
This month, we’re looking at the work of Zaki Abdelmounim, also known as Creatiflux. A 3D Motion Designer who started out at Al Jazeera News, Zaki subsequently joined Alkass Sports Channels, before moving into freelancing, and working with a range of top brands worldwide.
What’s the most important thing to keep in mind when creating a piece of artwork? The most important thing to keep in mind when creating a piece of artwork is maintaining a consistent style, focusing on the details, and carefully setting up the overall mood of the scene.
A consistent style gives the piece a cohesive and intentional look, ensuring it feels unified and visually engaging. Paying attention to the details of textures or forms adds richness and depth, encouraging the viewer to explore the artwork more deeply. Finally, establishing the right mood through elements like lighting, color, and composition brings the piece to life, evoking the desired emotions and enhancing its storytelling.
Can you talk about one of your favorite projects? One of my favorite projects is Kibo System, which marked my first steps into Unreal Engine 5. A significant part of the work involved using Substance Painter to create detailed textures for assets I modeled specifically for this project. Inspired by 1960s Japanese sci-fi, the goal was to design a meticulously crafted, makeshift control room filled with vintage electronics and devices. Substance played a key role in adding elements of storytelling and world-building by incorporating rough details, stickers, and subtle wear that gave character and history to the props. The centerpiece, the “Kibo System” (meaning Hope), is a dieselpunk, retro-tech early warning system designed for tracking Kaiju.
What advice would you give to someone aspiring to become a 3D artist? If you’re aspiring to become a 3D artist, my advice is to stay curious and consistent. Master the basics—modeling, texturing, and lighting, while studying real-world references to understand how things look and feel, and never rush the process.
Create as much as you can, even small projects, and don’t be afraid to make mistakes, that’s where you learn the most. Share your work, connect with other artists, and keep experimenting to grow. The 3D art world is always evolving, so stay inspired and adaptable.
Substance Online
We recently streamed the Substance 3D webinar on product design visualization, in which our team discussed how you can use the Substance 3D tools to capture high-quality digital materials, create photorealistic digital twins, set up a digital studio, and scale production, quickly and efficiently. Visit the webinar page to watch right now.
The Substance 3D news for December is up on the Adobe blog. This month features updates to Substance 3D Stager, the latest information on Substance 3D Viewer (beta), and more. Find out more on the blog.
We’ve also just posted some of the highlights from Substance Days Los Angeles. Here, we talked about scanning materials with the HP Z Captis scanner; guest speakers from Tapestry and Laundry discussed how they use the Substance apps in their day-to-day work, and Character Artist Linyao Li gave a breakdown of the creation of the Spirit Centipede Balazan, from Blizzard’s Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred. Take a look!
Vincent Gault has been delving into Substance 3D Viewer (Beta), the universal 3D model viewer with Photoshop (Beta) integration. Last month, Vincent posted his outstanding Substance 3D Viewer Intro (and head over to Vincent’s channel if you prefer to watch his guide in French or Spanish):
And this month, Vincent has continued highlighting the capabilities of Substance 3D Viewer, posting the tutorial 3D Material Showcase Template made easy with Photoshop & Substance 3D Viewer.
And finally, want to know how to make an iris in Substance 3D Designer? This tutorial by Martin Schmitter shows you how, in under seven minutes!
... and also
This month’s Featured Node, picked out by Cyril Dellenbach, is Swirl Grayscale/Color. Much as its name suggests, this allows you to take a grayscale or color input and warp it in a swirl.
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This is also useful if you want to manually create a subtle wavy effect. Moreover, the Swirl node can easily be moved or transformed using the handles in the 2D view.
That’s all for now! Keep creating, keep having fun, and we’ll see you in the New Year.
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