Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.
Yes, today, let’s talk about how to create beautiful winter scenery in Adobe Substance 3D Stager and animate it in Adobe Photoshop. This tutorial is for beginners. Even if you never used Stager before, following this step-by-step tutorial you can create your first project.
P.S. In this tutorial, I will be using all assets I downloaded for free from Adobe Stock.
Because I will be using 2D and movie files in this tutorial, first, I recommend to choose those files paying close attention to colors between them. Both files should have the same color gamma. Below, you can see two files I have chosen.
Video File
Time to open Adobe Substance 3D Stager > Create new
Click on Sphere shape in the area of the Basic shape
Press “V” on the keyboard to select Select and Transform Tool
Press and hold the Shift Key > click on the green rectangle handle > drag it down > release mouse > release the Shift Key. Now scale the ellipse size down proportionally
Click on the Materials tab to be redirected to the Materials library
From here choose any material you like to apply to the sphere. I will use a Gloss paint material because I think this material will be perfect for the winter ornament.
Now click on the selected material and Stager will apply it to the sphere.
Click on the Model Library to be redirected back to the Model Library
Scale the cylinder size down proportionally (as I did above with the sphere)
Click on the green triangle and move it up > position it above the sphere, but make sure that the bottom part of it positioned inside the sphere
From the Materials Library apply any material you like. I used Metal Rough 2
Now time to bring in the background.
Click on the Environment workspace tab from the Scene panel
You can bring the background image from your Creative Cloud Library or from any location you saved your image in. I will be using the image from my CC library. To do so click on Libraries (next to the Starter Assets workspace tab) > specify the desired library > click on the image you want to use as your background
In the Action panel (under the Scene panel) > click on Match Image tab > Specify the settings as you see in the image below > click OK
Holding the Command Key (PC: CTRL-Key) > select Sphere and Cylinder models in the Scene panel > Object > Group
Double Click on Group layer > Type “Ornament1” > press the “Enter” key
Edit > Copy > Edit > Paste
Click on Blue Triangle (Move Z) > Move it to the right
Click on the Red Dot and rotate it to the right
In the Actions panel > click on Move to Ground Icon > now the ornament positioned on the top of the surface
Note: because this tutorial is for beginners, I will stop working with assets in Stager and will jump to the last step of our project in Stager.
Click on Render to be redirected to render workspace
From the Export Setting panel > Specify the name of your file > Export format > Location. Below you can see my settings:
In the Render Settings specify > Preset. I used the High preset
Click on Render. Now, 3D Stager will start the rendering process. The speed of the rendering depends on the Preset Setting (higher preset will take a longer time to render) and your computer configuration.
When 3D Stager is finished rendering, click on the three ellipses icon in the Render Status Panel > Click on Edit in Photoshop
Open the movie file in Photoshop
Click on Video Group 1 Layer to select it > Edit > Copy
Go back to your image you created in 3D Stager > Select Background Image layer
Edit > Paste
Window > Timeline > Create Video Timeline
In the Layers Panel delete all hidden layers
Because I want to preserve the movie file length I will click on each 2d layer and match it to the movie file length.
Click on the movie file in timeline > move the file up (the bottom part of the movie file should be positioned right about the table part in our background
In the layer’s panel bring down the opacity of the movie layer down to below 45%
In the Timeline panel > click on the Setting icon > Check Loop Playback box
File > Export > Render Video
Congratulations, you have created your winter scene project!!
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