Strata is now offering free online demonstrations on how to use Strata 3D tools with Adobe’s tools. This online demonstration is live and gives you the chance to ask questions. You can sign up for a session here:

http://www.strata.com/seminars

Hope I see you there!

There are few things a designer or artist can appreciate more than exposure and recognition for his/her work. Right now, howdesign.com is giving us such a chance.

From now until May 1st, HOW Design is hosting a competition of sorts in which designers are able to submit their best corporate work to be judged and possibly printed in HOW’s February 2010 issue. The categories are many, ranging from Consumer Products to Non-Profit to Entertainment, meaning virtually any professional work is acceptable. The format regulations are also very open, allowing “samples of annual reports, brochures, catalogs, direct mail, book and magazine covers and interior pages, invitations, announcements, greeting cards, letterhead, logos, packaging, posters, print advertising, calendars, wearables, 3D objects and other print projects.”

That’s a lot of different forms of art. Feel free to knock yourselves out.

There is a fee however; $50 for a single entry, and $75 for a “Campaign,” meaning 3 or more pieces that go together as a series. It’s a bit pricey, but it’s also a great chance to get circulated, so it may very well be worth it.

You’ll need to act quickly, because after April 15th, there’s a $25 late fee slapped on all entries. The doors will be completely shut on May 1st.

Entrants will find out whether they’ve won by January 2010. There are a lot of prizes, many of which include getting your designs noticed by people who care, so I’d recommend giving it a shot!

For more details, check out the contest’s info site at http://www.howdesign.com/in-howsedesignawards/, or you can e-mail them at HOW-competition@fwpubs.com or call (513) 531-2690 ext. 11402.

Good luck!

Hey everyone, this is Chris Bringhurst. I’m excited to be the voice for 3D Adobe integration with my blog here at 3DLayer.com. Even though I’m new to the blogging scene, I’ve been exploring graphics, animation and film-making for a long time. As I venture into the world of mixing design, art, 3D and Adobe, I’ll be sharing these experiences here. I’d also like to tell some of your stories. I’d even love to hear your requests for tutorials, news - or any ideas for that matter. The floor is open!

The approach I’m taking with this blog is: “As someone new to adding 3D to the Adobe toolset, what do I need to know?”. I’ll be covering some of the 3D tools available to add 3D to your workflow, primarily from Strata (a sponsor of this site - full disclosure!).

If anyone ever has a question about how to do a particular task with 3D in/with Adobe, or knows an interesting tidbit or technique that they think others might benefit from, please feel free to contact me at chrisb@3DLayer.com, or just leave a comment here on the blog, and I will do my best to create a blog entry around it. This way, we all get to learn together.

I look forward to a chance to work with each of you! Thanks for your support, and you’ll be hearing from me again soon.

-Chris

If you happen to be in the neighborhood of the Orange Country Convention Center in Orlando, Florida… be sure to stop by Photoshop World booth #705. You can catch live demos of Strata 3D CX 5.5 and the 3d[in] plug-ins at the Strata booth.

Photoshop World, April 2-4, 20008

Today I posted a tutorial I’ve been wanting to do for a while. It shows some techniques for using the 3D texturing features in Photoshop CS 3 Extended. The 3D model was created in Strata 3D CX 5.5 and sent to a 3D Layer. The end result is a graphically flexible design motif for your retro and/or geek projects.

Texturing in Photoshop CS3 Extended

I’ve received a few questions about using the Vanishing Point Filter to export 3D planes (grids) for use in Strata 3D CX. I’m working on a video to help explain this. Here’s a good starter video to help understand the basics of creating 3D grids in the VP Filter.

PhotoshopSupport.com VP Filter

The Strata 3D[in] Match plug-in uses these 3D planes to setup a 3D environment in which you can place 3D objects in the same perspective of the photo! Here’s a previous tutorial which explains the concept a little better.

3D Power TV: Episode 15

CGArena’s latest 3D challenge ‘Ancient Times’ is in progress - work in progress that is. This challenge requires entrants to post the WIP images for the community to critique. Check out the challenge page for details.

Our friend Colin Smith from PhotoshopCafe has posted the final entries from their lastest Design Challenge: Design a Video Game Cover.

Several nice designs showing 2D and 3D skills.

I just got the news that Strata released an upgrade to the Strata CX Suite. In a nutshell, the technology from Strata’s 3D[in] plug-ins for Photoshop CS3 Extended is now integrated into the Suite. I think that old & new Strata 3D CX users will be pleased with the back-and-forth between 3D CX and Photoshop CS3 extended.

As a Photoshop user looking to incorporate 3D into my projects I think that the Strata CX Suite is the missing link. Although Photoshop has the ability to view and rotate/transform 3D objects it lacks the creation and editing tools. The CX Suite provides the 3D and creation tools, as well as the output tools.

Cool Features:

• Send a 3D model to PS as a 3D layer
• Send a finished rendering to PS as separate layers (shadow layer, reflection layer, color layer, etc)
• Send a PS image to a 3D background for tracing or placement
• Send a 3D model direct from PS to PDF or HTML and it embeds the 3D object (you read that correctly)
• Link PS files as 3D textures - changes made are automatically updated in the 3D texture

I’ve been doing a lot of DVD product shots lately and have found it very useful to set up a template in 3D CX. I can easily replace the DVD artwork by hiding/showing different layers and exporting the 3D object to PS. I then export the PS document (including the 3D object) to a PDF file that anyone can view in Acrobat Reader.

Watch for an upcoming podcast on that project.