It’s the end of October, and we have some teeth-chatteringly great 3D Assets to share, the MAX-imum level of event news possible, and a big recognition of Substance on the gogglebox (or the TV, for the non-Brits). Let’s go!
Substance News
Substance 3D Viewer unveiled at Adobe MAX
Adobe MAX took place in Miami this year, and the Substance 3D team were delighted to be able to meet so many members of the 3D community in person. One of the big pieces of news covered this year was the release of Substance 3D Viewer (beta), an app allowing you to view and edit 3D files, and incorporate them into your 2D Photoshop projects as Smart Objects – sort of an ‘Acrobat for 3D objects,’ if you will. For more information on Viewer, check out this blogpost on Photoshop updates (scroll down), and you can try out Substance 3D Viewer (beta) right now in the Photoshop (beta) app.
We also held a range of sessions covering subjects such as how artists can advance their design skills working with 3D, how to create awesome custom designs on footwear, effective CMF workflows in the industrial, automotive, and packaging industries, using Substance apps to create outstanding 3D visuals in After Effects, and much more.
Enormous thanks to everybody who was able to attend. We’ll see you again next year!
Coming Soon: Substance Days in Los Angeles
Substance Days in Los Angeles will take place on November 14, at the Pacific Design Center. This time around, guest speakers from both Activision Blizzard and Laundry Studio will be presenting how 3D is driving change across entertainment and creative industries, and Tapestry-Coach will detail the phenomenal impact that 3D is having on the fashion industry.
And of course, the Substance 3D team will be on hand to present product roadmaps, provide insight into the latest releases – and just to generally chat and hang out. It’s the perfect time to meet the people behind the software, to share experiences, and to give your feedback.
Note: you need to register to attend! You can register for the event, and get more information, right here, right now.
Coming Soon: Substance 3D at Motion Plus Design
Motion Plus Design is a huge Motion Design festival, with events taking place throughout the year, in cities around the world. The Substance 3D team will be at this year’s Paris edition of the event, on November 23 at the Théâtre de la Madeleine.
As part of an excellent lineup of Motion Design specialists, our own Guillaume Meyer will be introducing some of the best product innovations within the Substance 3D toolset to speed up your Motion Design workflow.
For more information, and to register for the event, take a look right here.
Substance 3D at LightBox Expo
Not Dinner
More event news! The Substance team were also present at LightBox Expo in Pasadena, on October 25. Nikie Monteleone and Giovanni Nakpil from the Substance team, along with 3D artist Charles Ellison, discussed the creation of the frankly epic artwork, Not Dinner – a humongous mural printed out and displayed at the event, from initial concept right through to final rendering.
Artists Giovanni Nakpil, Nikie Monteleone and Laura Vitolina, three members of the team behind Not Dinner
A new release of Substance 3D Modeler
This latest release of Modeler brings the previously-in-beta Primitives workflow into the retail version of the app. That is, you can now use basic shapes to create complex geometry, and these primitives can be converted into clay and sculpted by hand. 6 new Combine modes have been added to primitives (Inset, Extrude, Groove, Repel, Avoid, and Tongue) granting even more control how primitives interact with one another.
A tram sculpted with Modeler, for the animated scene Ronda
This update also introduces a range of other features, such as Logitech MX Ink support, shape detection mode for resolution increase, and more. See the release notes for this version for more info.
Substance 3D Painter at the Emmys
As mentioned last month, the Substance 3D Painter team was recently nominated for an Emmy award for the creation and development of the industry-standard texturing tool, used to create visual effects for thousands of TV shows – including, to pick out a recent handful, Star Wars: Ahsoka, The Mandalorian, Fallout, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Shogun, The Last of Us, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and Game of Thrones: House of the Dragon.
Representing the Substance 3D team, from left to right: François Cottin, Alexandre Chassany, Jérémie Noguer, Cedric Marchessoux, Sébastien Deguy, and Alexis Khouri
Sébastien Deguy, founder of Allegorithmic and Vice President of 3D&I at Adobe, commented online: I want to express my highest level of gratitude to everyone involved in the inception, development and success of Substance Painter, from the early days of doodling with particle painting and 8K multi-channel GPU-only and realtime painting, to version 10.0, 10 years later, still introducing unique features like on-mesh vector drawing… The teams keep amazing me, and the way our customers (and sometimes friends) use the tool to produce the most amazing visual productions humankind has ever seen is a very, very special feeling.
Thanks to everybody who’s been part of the journey with us.
Substance Online
Create a Stylized Clover Material
Our own Celine Dameron walks us through her process of using Substance 3D Designer’s new Quantize Color and Kuwahara Filter nodes to create a wonderful stylized clover material. Absolutely outstanding.
Ronda: an Astounding Animated Scene
Earlier this year, for GDC, Casimir Perez and Giovanni Nakpil created a short animated scene to showcase the possibilities available when sculpting in Modeler. The result was Ronda, a toymaker’s interpretation of southern Spain. Here, Cas and Gio walk us through their process.
3D Assets for Food and Organic Materials
Now that the Substance 3D Assets library can be accessed directly in Painter, we’ve been looking at some specific sectors that can benefit from a ready stock of pre-made assets. Here, we’re looking at food, and at organic materials more generally. Mmm, scrumptious.
Just in time for Halloween, we’re showcasing a range of tooth and jaw assets, suitable for modeling animals, zombies, or spooooky vampires – or, actually, for people. Giovanni Nakpil talks about how having a good set of pre-made gnashers is a huge time-saver when creating characters.
Featured Artist
This month, our featured artist is Erik Scotti. Beginning his journey into 3D art in 2014 with simple text animations, Erik completed various specialized courses and masterclasses, before setting up as a freelance 3D artist, focusing on texturing and rendering.
What’s the most important thing to keep in mind when creating a piece of artwork? For me, the most important aspects of creating artwork are the details and the joy of the process. Each piece should tell a story and invite viewers to engage with it, so I focus on crafting details that enhance that narrative. Having fun while creating is just as essential; it’s what brings life and authenticity to the work and makes each project fulfilling.
Pencils
Can you talk about one of your favorite projects? One of my favorite projects is Pencils, where I focused on bringing textures and realism to everyday objects. Using Substance 3D Painter, I had a lot of fun crafting the wood textures and working on subtle details like worn edges to give each pencil character. The tool allowed me to experiment freely with materials and layering, creating a sense of authenticity in the simplicity of these objects.
What advice would you give to someone aspiring to become a 3D artist? My advice is to focus on what you enjoy most, as there’s so much variety in 3D art, which is one of the things that makes it so exciting. Be patient with yourself; it takes time to develop skills and refine details, but every bit of effort adds up to make your work unique. Stay curious and keep experimenting!
You can find more of Erik's work on his Instagram, his Artstation page, and his website.
... and also
This month, our Featured Node is the Spline Mapper. Technical Artist Louise Melin gives the node some love:
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The Spline Mapper is a great tool when you want to place an input along a path. You can think of it as a sort of rolling brush: simply draw a spline and the mapper will generate UVs for you to map any input on. Even better: it also accounts for your spline height and thickness! |
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That’s all for October. Have a creeeeepy Halloween, if that’s your bag, and we’ll see you next month.
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