Everything You Need to Know About 3D Design at Adobe MAX 2018

Jamie Myrold, Adobe’s vice president of design, presents Adobe Dimension at Adobe MAX 2017.

When designers gather in Los Angeles for Adobe MAX later this year — which runs from October 15 to 17, with a preconference from October 13 to 14 — they can expect a lot of cutting-edge insights and the latest news, tips, and tricks about Adobe products just waiting for them. One of the biggest events at the conference is a series of information-packed talks and workshops focusing on the state of 3D in today’s graphic design industry.

3D is an increasingly exciting place to be, and an important tool for designers as the possibilities of what you can do with 3D as a designer for a multitude of projects keep expanding. At the forefront of this is Adobe Dimension, our 3D-design tool that makes it easy for you to compose photorealistic 3D images that combine both 2D and 3D assets to create everything from product shots and abstract art to entire scene visualizations.

To help you understand how this year’s Adobe MAX events can help you incorporate 3D into your skill-set for more efficient design and bigger career opportunities, we’ve highlighted for you the talks and labs that will show you how to level-up your 3D skills whether you are new to 3D or a seasoned 3D designer and want to learn more.

Featured sessions in this post:

• What’s New in Adobe Dimension: A Designer’s Journey Into the World of 3D
• 3D for Designers: Introduction to Adobe Dimension CC
• The New Digital Workflow for Design Teams: The 3D Revolution
• Adobe Dimension CC: Creating High-Fidelity 3D Materials

S205 – What’s New in Adobe Dimension: A Designer’s Journey Into the World of 3D

Tuesday, Oct. 16, 1:15-2:30 p.m.; Wednesday, Oct. 17, 10:15-11:30 a.m.

Sign up here

If you’re one of those designers thinking about learning 3D, but are unsure whether you can successfully make the jump, this is the talk for you. Adobe’s own Erin Kim, a senior product designer for Dimension, will discuss her journey from traditional 2D design to the possibilities of 3D (and share how she overcame her fear of getting out of her comfort zone). As she says, if she was “able to do it, then so can you.”

Erin recently chronicled her experiences moving to 3D in her article Stepping Into a New Dimension: From 2D to 3D Design, which also doubles as a simple-to-follow tutorial (complete with sample Dn files) on how you can get started in Dimension very quickly.

One of Erin Kim’s own 3D scenes, designed in Adobe Dimension. Image source: Adobe blog.

If you want to learn more about how to work in 3D as a graphic designer, then you’ve got to sign up for her talk at MAX, where she’ll talk about:

• How designers can use their 2D knowledge of graphic design to make the jump to 3D more frictionless with Match Image and interoperability with familiar 2D tools.
• How to create right away without a steep learning curve or being a 3D tools expert – learn how to use starter assets, models, preset materials, lighting, and Adobe 3D Stock.
• How to take full advantage of 3D and create stunning scenes with depth of field, multiple renders from different angles, and many more 2.0 exciting features.

L245 – 3D for Designers: Introduction to Adobe Dimension CC

Monday, Oct. 15, 3:00-4:30 p.m.; Tuesday, Oct. 16, 8:00-9:30 a.m.; Wednesday, Oct. 17, 10:30 a.m.-noon

Sign up here

Here it is! Your one-stop workshop to learn all the basics about our powerful, new 3D-tool. The beauty of Adobe Dimension is that you don’t need to be a 3D whiz or someone who’s worked with 3D for a long time to get a lot out of it in your projects.

As you’ll see firsthand in this workshop, it makes no difference whether you’re a freelancer or part of a dedicated team — Dimension empowers you to:

• Make your workflows more efficient.
• Bring your pitches, product shots, and packaging designs to life.
• Visualize your designs in a photorealistic context.

An abstract idea of what’s possible when working in Adobe Dimension. Image sources: tea cup — Adobe Stock / CGTrader; tea bag and wooden toy sailing boat — Adobe Stock / adobestock3d.

Presented by Dimension’s own product manager Jeanette Mathews, this lab invites you to roll up your sleeves with our new app, letting you enter the world of 3D with Dimension. You’ll learn the basics of:

• Composing objects and navigating custom views in 3D.
• Tailoring the look of objects using materials.
• Incorporating logos, labels, and other graphics you make onto an object.
• Combining a background picture into a 3D environment using realistic perspectives and lighting.
• Creating multilayered and realistic images that you can post-edit in Photoshop.

As a result, you’ll learn a whole new, in-demand skill-set all from this one interactive lab.

S227 – The New Digital Workflow for Design Teams: The 3D Revolution

Tuesday, Oct. 16, 8:15-9:30 a.m., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2:30-3:45 p.m.

Sign up here

In yet more proof of how quickly the digital landscape is adopting 3D, this inspiring talk from design leaders explores how the use of 3D in team workflows produces numerous benefits from both sides of the table, both agencies and big brands.

Many designers and freelancers working in teams — especially those working remotely — are already familiar with popular tools that streamline workflows: Trello, Todoist, Evernote, Asana, and Slack are just some examples. However, these tools are only aimed at productivity and organization. This talk will open your eyes to all the incredible ways the presence of 3D in workflows can speed time to market without skimping on high-quality results.

Adding colors to base materials in Adobe Dimension. Image source: Adobe blog.

Join Ross McKegney (Adobe’s director of engineering), Benny Lee, (Coca-Cola’s 3D design lead), and Carl Seibert (TiltShift Publicis’ head of strategy) to find out how 3D can:

• Be the greatest resource in your arsenal.
• Help you optimize your digital pipeline to repurpose 3D assets for marketing and design.
• Be seamlessly integrated into your design workflows along with other Creative Cloud apps like Illustrator and Photoshop.

L317 – Adobe Dimension CC: Creating High-Fidelity 3D Materials

Monday, Oct. 15, 3:00-4:30 p.m.; Tuesday, Oct. 16, 3:30-5:00 p.m.; Wednesday, Oct. 17, 8:00-9:30 a.m.

Sign up here

Knowing how to work in 3D has become a more in-demand skill than ever for designers. Whether it’s Nike or Apple, big brands have in recent years started using 3D as part of their design process, product photography, and ad campaigns, which is slowly but surely making 3D visualization a standard skill to have in the field.

There was Apple’s iPhone X commercial, as well as the ad for Nike’s KD 9: Zoom basketball shoe. Note the obvious 3D elements in various spots in both ads.

Materials and textures bring photorealism to 3D scenes, and having high-fidelity materials makes your 3D compositions look even more real, so if you’re a designer who wants to up your technical game, you should really sign up and attend this workshop. You’ll learn what a material is comprised of and how to create materials from various sources, like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Capture, and more. Presented by speakers Vlad Petkovic, art director for Adobe, and Paul Edmondson, senior graphics engineer at Adobe, this Dimension lab takes attendees on a deep dive to help you understand how to create high-fidelity materials and textures to use in your Dimension scenes.

“Bed Time Story” artwork inspired by Studio Ghibli’s “Spirited Away” and “Howl’s Moving Castle” animated feature films. Image source: Vladimir Petkovic.

Here, you’ll learn all sorts of stimulating educational concepts and techniques like:

• The concept behind material properties and how to transform textures into sophisticated 3D materials.
• How to use and edit preset materials within Adobe Dimension.
• Applying materials to 3D objects in Dimension.
• Learning new ways of using Photoshop to make textures, then taking that skill to build advanced 3D materials inside of Dimension.
• Discovering how to render out objects for your own 3D materials.

Visit the 3D design booth on the community pavilion floor

Visit the 3D booth on the community pavilion floor to experience first-hand demos, snag some sweet swag, and meet the Dimension team! A number of 3D and AR topics will be covered during onsite presentations right on the expo floor, so stop by and listen in.

Also on the community pavilion floor, Nick Campbell, owner and president of Greyscalegorilla (a personal blog on design that has quickly morphed into a go-to destination on the web for learning about 3D software and motion graphics) will share his process and walk attendees through using 3D stock and Dimension. You can find him at the Creative Cloud Experience Studio booth.

He’ll be doing a 30-minute Dimension/3D stock demo that you can find at the Creative Cloud Experience Studio booth.

A world of 3D at Adobe MAX

A leading theme at MAX this year is the burgeoning influence of 3D in graphic design. That’s why we’ve created a number of talks and workshops devoted to it, all to help the design community get a leg up.

Make sure you don’t miss any of these exciting and educational events that can significantly help you move up in your design career by exposing you to new skill sets that’ll come in handy in your future projects.

Try Adobe Dimension free with your Creative Cloud subscription. Share your work on Bēhance or Instagram with #adobedimension, and check out the incredible work created with Dimension, too.