February 2022 - The Return of 3D and more....

THIS MONTH: Texturelabs 3D Extrude Plugin, Upcoming Adobe Live Stream, Pencil Sketch Tutorial, New Textures!

Hello everyone!

Well I've been absolutely glued to the screen this month, getting close to wrapping up something I'm very excited to announce... the first Texturelabs Plugin for Photoshop!

As you likely know, the native 3D workspace is being removed from Photoshop. The truth is, it was never a very intuitive feature, with many bugs that have persisted right up to the end.

However, I've been running experiments to create 3D effects independent of the 3D Workspace for some time. So over the last several months, I buckled down and learned how to code within the new Adobe UXP Platform.

The result: a simple, straightforward tool for generating 3D extrusions from virtually any element in Photoshop. The user-interface is still in skeleton form (that's the big challenge this week), but so far I'm happy to say... it works!

A FEW OF THE FEATURES:

True interactive shadows with control over lighting direction, shadow opacity, softness, and style

Traditional perspective, along with more graphic orthographic extrusion options

This one is crazy! Texture mapping that actually wraps around the edges of things (I could never really get that working in the old 3D Workspace)

Extrude anything and every - logos, shapes, typography, vector elements, groups, single elements, multiple elements...

THE PLUGIN PLAN

The way these plugins work is that in order to distribute them commercially, you need to go through the approval process with Adobe (seems fair). I first need to dial in the user interface - I want it to be super intuitive. Then, I thought I'd post a working Beta version to you here on Patreon to try out and see if you have any thoughts, ideas, or problems. Keep an eye out for that post - I'm aiming for the beginning of next week!

Further down the road, there are some really cool opportunities with the new UXP plugin platform. Color Bleed Effect with all kinds of adjustable options, instant Ultra-Chrome effects, vector style images, and more...

OTHER NEWS

UPCOMING ADOBE LIVE STREAM!

I was very excited to receive an invitation to be a guest on Adobe Live for a... gulp... 4 hour tutorial! I had a great chat with Tim and Samantha from Adobe - we kicked around a few ideas and put the dates on the calendar - a 2 hour live stream on both May 2nd and May 3rd. Gotta say, I'm a bit nervous, but I think it's going to be a really fun event. We'll have the chat window going, making some stuff in real time, putting some of the ol' Texturelabs techniques to the test. Hope some of you guys can join. I'll post more info as it gets closer!

NEW TUTORIAL THIS MONTH

Perhaps you got a chance to check out the Pencil Sketch tutorial. It's a fun one - I think I may have to work some Art History Brush into the Adobe stream. I'll be shifting my brain back into tutorial-mode in the next week or so, as I get v1 of the plugin squared away!

NEW TEXTURES

Ok... February is a short month! But a few new things on the site... I did pop by the art store and bought some of the fancy-pants paper to shoot. Trying to explain to an employee what I was using the paper for was comedy gold, but I think we ended up with some useful images! You can find everything new in the Newest section on the site... here are a few faves:

Hope everyone is doing well. I'll keep you posted on the plugin and anything else new shortly. As always, a HUUUUGE thank you for your support of the project!

Cheers,

Brady