Getting a friction-free 3D workflow is as easy as 1, 2, 3.
As a 3D artist, you know how to wield specialized tools to create stunning characters, environments, and products that wow clients. But getting from concept to delivery isn’t always a smooth process. A lack of workflow standardization and app integration can create speed bumps that take time and energy away from doing your most important work.
Moving to a more consolidated, connected ecosystem of 3D design tools like Adobe Substance 3D can help you streamline your 3D pipeline, collaborate more seamlessly with other artists, and speed up your creative development process. Explore 10 key reasons to simplify your 3D tools and workflows.
Streamline your 3D pipeline.
1. Minimize switching between apps. Use integrated tools to make task transition seamless. “With an integrated tool like Adobe Substance 3D, it’s easy to pass assets between different applications. It takes only minutes — you don’t have to worry about exports, formats, things like that,” says Adobe 3D artist Aditi Kapoor.
2. Use tools with similar controls. Working with platforms that share common shortcuts and menus can reduce friction and shorten the learning curve. “Substance connects seamlessly to Creative Cloud apps like Illustrator and Photoshop. You can design a logo in Illustrator, and when you make changes, they immediately appear in your 3D texturing or staging apps,” says Adobe 3D artist Michael Tanzillo.
3. Automate time-intensive steps whenever possible. “UV unwrapping is probably the most time-consuming task in my workflow. The auto-unwrap capabilities in Substance shrink that time from days to literally hours,” notes Kapoor.
Simplify creative collaboration.
4. Streamline the creative review and approval process. “I love the Share for Review tool in Substance 3D Stager. With a button click, I can share a textured and lit 3D model with a public link for stakeholders to provide feedback,” says Tanzillo.
5. Centralize file repositories for easy storage and search. Digging around to find source files or sending individual assets back and forth can be a huge drain on time. Centralizing asset storage can help your team save time and avoid confusion at every stage of your workflow.
6. Use cloud-based tools to support remote collaboration. ”Even if you have two artists in two different parts of the country or the world, they can share assets in the cloud and see the same thing in real time,” says Tanzillo.
Accelerate your creative development cycle.
7. Shortcut creative builds with 3D content collections. “Substance 3D Assets are a massive time saver. They give you a launching-off point and a huge leg-up because you don’t have to create everything from scratch — you have so many options to start from,” says Tanzillo.
8. Increase iteration at every phase to get to final faster. “You can concept stuff really fast when integrations, automations, and content collections save so much time,” says Kapoor. These tools can help you get the exact look you want with less manual effort.
9. Sample real-world materials and let nature do the work. Sometimes, creating a custom material is necessary. In other cases, it’s easier to turn real-world materials into a reusable 3D texture. Tools like Substance 3D Sampler make it easy to create realistic surfaces with just your smartphone camera, automated AI processing, and a simple set of sliders.
10. Simplify the file import and export process. Different 3D design programs support different file types — and keeping track of which programs support which types can be a headache. “Substance works with all kinds of file types, including USD — so you can send and receive just about anything to your team, and the files are usable both inside and outside the Adobe ecosystem — so there’s a lot of versatility,” says Kapoor.
Adobe can help.
Smart creative apps and an ever-growing library of production-quality assets combine in the Adobe Substance 3D Collection to make 3D design more approachable than ever. Easy to use and impossible to outgrow, these tools are transforming workflows for designers of all backgrounds and across industries, allowing them to create stunning content at warp speed.