We had so much to share that we decided to jump in early with the Community Digest for February 2025. This month: Anna Koroleva adds a touch of eerie atmosphere in Substance 3D Assets, a look at the advantages for motion design provided by native 3D integration in After Effects, a whole caboodle of 3D educational resources, and more. And away we goooo!
Featured Artist
Beyond the Event Horizon: a collection of 3D materials by Anna Koroleva
Our Featured Artist this month is freelance 3D environment/material artist Anna Koroleva. The Substance 3D Assets library is once again adding Signature Collections by guest artists to its impressive library of resources. For the first such collection of 2025, Anna Koroleva has created Beyond the Event Horizon, a series of sci-fi-themed materials that are at once natural and organic yet architectural, non-organic matter that feels like it can grow and evolve, as well as deck plating and bulkhead materials that no derelict space hulk can do without.
Anna was kind enough to be interviewed for our article on Beyond the Event Horizon over on Behance. An extract:
"Without academic artistic education, I taught myself 3D modeling and texturing using YouTube, ArtStation resources, and online courses. I also took several courses in drawing, painting, and photography to get more common artistic knowledge. Gradually, I became more familiar with tools like 3dsMax, ZBrush, Photoshop, and V-Ray; this experience made it easier to learn Substance 3D Designer, which struck me as a very intuitive and convenient tool—creating materials in Designer felt a little like solving a puzzle. Notably, I learned a lot about Designer from Daniel Thiger—his tutorials and materials were a major reference point in my journey to becoming a material artist. I’m sure I’m not the only one who sees him as a huge influence in this field.
My material creation process depends on what material I’m making. If I’m using a real-life reference I usually start with an analysis of shapes that I need to recreate. I start by building the height, from the largest or most repetitive shapes to the smallest details.
When creating a material purely from my imagination, I usually start by experimenting and doodling in Substance Designer. After I find a pattern or element I like I continue developing my vision of the surface by adding new elements and details. This method takes more time than recreating a reference but it’s very enjoyable. The process of parametric material creation without a direct reference can typically take me from three to eight days depending on the complexity of the material. In this collection, the trim materials took me longer than anything else.
For beginner 3D and material artists, I’d recommend attending some basic modeling and texturing courses, to do a lot of practice and study the work of other artists. That’s how I learned Substance Designer—by analyzing the techniques of others. Additionally, using resources like YouTube tutorials, Substance 3D Assets, and other inspirational online content can be great ways to learn new techniques. It’s also very important to work in a studio with more experienced artists if possible and aim to improve the quality of your work."
Take a look at our interview with Anna discussing how she approach this collection, or head over to Substance 3D Assets right now to access the materials for yourself.
Substance Online
Motion Design Made Faster: The Impact of Native 3D in After Effects
2024 brought 3D workspace upgrades to After Effects, enabling creators to have a streamlined workflow combining 2D and 3D elements natively within the application. To showcase the possibilities available in such a blended motion design workflow, Wes McDermott Principal Director of Substance 3D Worldwide Evangelism, brought together to create the animated scene, ‘Got You Covered’. Take a look at our post on the Adobe blog to learn more!
Mohamed Bourouissa wins the Adobe Prize for Special Effects at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival
Each year during the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, Adobe sponsors the Adobe Prize for Special Effects. This year, we were delighted to present the award to Mohamed Bourouissa for his short film Généalogie de la Violence (‘Genealogy of Violence’), produced by Division.
Here Mohamed is joined by Laure Songal of Division and actor Bilel Chegrani and to receive the Adobe award, created by Nokat. Learn more about this film and the Prize for Special Effects on our dedicated Behance page.
Microsoft Viva brand expression: How Substance 3D empowers motion designers
Even more goodness for motion designers. When Microsoft decided to update the visual identity of its Viva platform, they asked 3D motion designer Wes Cockx to design a visual system that would scale from applications to marketing materials.
Here, Wes discusses how he used Substance 3D tools along with Maxon’s Cinema 4D and Redshift to create a range of illustrations and motion content that brought together Microsoft’s existing Fluent Design system with Viva’s identity. Take a look at our article on the Adobe blog to find out his approach.
The Adobe Substance 3D Education Resource
The Substance 3D team has over time been creating a range of resources for newcomers to the world of 3D, and for educators looking to bring 3D tools into their curriculum – whether focusing on 3D for digital fashion, product design, graphic design, automotive, footwear, or any of the other vast range of use cases for 3D tools. Now, for easy reference, these resources have been brought together on one page. Head over to the Adobe Substance 3D Education Resource for more information.
... and also
You may already be familiar with the Scatter on Spline node (which was, notably, used by Anna Koroleva in the creation of some of her Signature Collection materials, mentioned above). The latest release of Substance Designer adds an extra dimension to this approach, with its Scatter Splines on Splines node.
|
|
As you might imagine, this node allows you to place splines along the length of a parent spline, providing in-depth customization options for managing how splines are scattered, as well as providing the option to scatter simple straight splines, or to use your own custom splines.
You can learn more on the Scatter Splines on Splines documentation page. You can also watch a tutorial video on this node, right here: |
And we’re done for February. Keep creating; we’ll catch you again in March!
AdChoices