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

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.

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.