Apply 2D art to a 3D model

Use assets in the Gelato Scene CC Library to follow along with this tutorial. Click Save to copy the library into your own account so you can access assets directly in Dimension.

Note: You need to be signed into your Adobe Creative Cloud account with your Adobe ID to copy assets. Get anAdobe ID if you don’t have one.

Add a 3D model of a gelato container. Choose File > Import > 3D model and locate “GelatoPint.”

The model appears in the scene already aligned to the camera perspective. Click anywhere on the model and drag to reposition the container along the ground plane using the onscreen widget. (You can also use the magenta handle on the widget to do this.)

Select GelatoPint in the Scene panel on the right, and then click the Blue Plastic material in the Materials panel on the left.

To refine the container’s appearance, expand GelatoPint in the Scene panel. Select Blue Plastic. You can change material attributes such as Base Color, Glow, and Roughness in the Properties panel below the Scene panel.

Next, you’ll apply a gold metallic foil effect to the container lid. With the Magic Wand tool (W), click the band on the lid to select it, and then click Damaged Gold in the Materials panel.

Note: There are two additional models in this document — GlassCup and Spoon. You can practice applying materials and repositioning them.

Open the Gelato Scene library in the Creative Cloud Libraries panel. Drag the “Gatsby Label” art and hover over the bottom portion of the gelato container until it’s highlighted. Then drop in place to apply the label artwork.

Note: We created the label artwork in Adobe Illustrator CC and saved it in the PNG format. Then we added it to a CC library to be accessible in other apps.

With the Select and Move tool (V), carefully position the label on the gelato container:

You can use the same technique to add the “Gelato Logo” artwork to the lid.

To refine the decal’s appearance, select “decal” in the Scene panel and adjust its properties. We increased the Metallic property and the Roughness to make it stand out.

There are a couple of additional ways to use your own 2D artwork as a decal or logo.

With the specific part of the model selected in the Scene panel:

Choose File > Import >

Click the Render tab at the top. Specify the quality setting, choose an export format, and add a destination for the file. Click Render. We selected Low (Fast) quality and the PSD format. When the rendering is complete, click Open in Photoshop.

Note: Rendering can take some time depending on the scene complexity and the quality setting you choose, but getting photorealistic lighting and shadows in the rendered image is worth the wait.

The final rendering opens in Adobe Photoshop CC. If you selected PSD format, the artwork is organized in layers, which makes it easy to edit and refine elements separately in Photoshop.

The rendered image and the background image are placed on separate layers. The Additional Layers group includes mask layers for Depth and other types of selections.

To add an illusion of depth, we converted the Background layer to a Smart Object (right-click and select Convert to Smart Object). With the layer selected, we added a blur (choose Filter > Blur Gallery > Tilt Shift). Additionally, we duplicated the Rendered Image layer and applied a Soft Light Blend Mode at 50% opacity to make the gelato container stand out.