Adobe used the recent 3D Printshow in New York to announce three new features that will be making their way into Photoshop CC. It followed up today at the 3D Printshow in London by announcing three more.
All of these features will ramp up Photoshop’s 3D and 3D printing abilities, introducing new tools, file formats, and support for additional 3D printers. Advanced Photoshop spoke to Andy Lauta, Photoshop, 3D Business Lead, Adobe, to find out more about these new features, which will be making their way into Photoshop CC in an upcoming release (the exact release date is still to be confirmed).
Describing Photoshop as “our distribution channel” for new tools and techniques, Andy Lauta gave us an overview of what we can expect to see in Photoshop in the future.
The 3D Printshow London runs from 21st-23rd May 2015. It’s open for Trade on Thursday 21 and Friday 22 May. The General Public is welcome to attend on Saturday 23 May. For more information or to buy tickets, visit the 3D Printshow website.
Got a large, high-res 3D model that you want to paint, print, or simply share with clients or friends via the web? Is it slowing down your workflow or device because it’s simply too high-res? You’ll be able to use the Simplify Mesh command from the 3D menu to reduce the amount of polygons it packs in.
Do you wish that you could apply photographic textures to your 3D models to create rich, super-realistic textures that emboss and deboss properly without hours of manual texturising? Done. You will soon be able to convert textures from a photograph into a bump map, with flexibility to control desired height and depth of embossment or imprint to create a custom, textured 3D object.
Do you ever work with models captured by a 3D scanner? Then you’ll know that they capture colour data as vertex colour, which you can’t work with effectively in Photoshop – except that you’ll soon be able to, because the new Vertex Color to Texture Conversion will interpret and allow users to edit and change these colours through creation of a Photoshop Texture.
You’ll shortly be able to take advantage of 3D Hubs’ locally based network of printers (“The Uber of 3D printing!” says Andy Lauta) to print your objects and designs in 3D wherever you are in the world.
Support for the new SVX format means you can save and print in this format as well as take advantage of its enhanced colour controls, while expanded support for the 3D PDF format within the 3D pipeline checks the model for printability and makes any necessary corrections before the 3D PDF file is created. The resulting file will be ready-to-print, meaning 3D PDF can now be used more efficiently for print job submissions.
Andy Lauta describes Tinkerine’s DittoPro as “one of the best 3D printers”, and a print profile will shortly be available for download for a future release of CC to add full support for this 3D printer.
What do you think about these new features? Do you use CC, and have you been embracing its new 3D features? Do you think Photoshop’s 3D capabilities will ever challenge the likes of Maya or 3ds Max? Let us know what you think.
If you’re interested in all things 3D, especially printing, then check out this fantastic book from our sister magazine 3D Artist. 3D Make & Print is packed with inspiration, advice and guides to help you get the most from your 3D printer. Inside, you’ll learn how to pick and prepare a new 3D printer, how to use and maintain it, and how to create your own 3D models that are perfect for printing. You’ll make models with moving parts, realistic replicas of film and game props, you’ll master the best finishing techniques for your prints and learn all about the kinds of filaments you can print with. Not only that, you’ll also get a free library of ready-made prints so you can start printing today!
Image above, 3D printed sculpture by James Stewart, created and printed using Photoshop CC, revealed at the 3D Printshow.