Adobe cuddles up with Blender with new plug-ins for Substance and Mixamo

The Substance brand gives Adobe considerably more reach.

The Substance 3D add-on enables the use of Substance 3D materials directly in Blender. Catering to all industries-Game, VFX, or Design the Substance 3D add-on for Blender delivers a seamless experience with optimized features for enhanced productivity.

You can access the Substance 3D tab in the 3D view or in the shader Editor. The plugin automatically creates a set of textures from the material and feeds them into the BSDF shader.

The Substance plug-in enables users to access and edit materials directly. After installing the new Substance 3D add-on, users will see a new Substance 3D tab in the Shader editor and the 3D view.

Once an SBSAR file is loaded, the new Substance 3D tab will show your material and enable you to change the parameters and presets. (Source: Adobe)

To speed workflows, it’s possible to automatically assign materials to objects. The Substance 3D tab lets users change the parameters in the properties window (ctrl+shift+U). Users can revert back to the default material, or go back to custom settings. Presets can be created by duplicating and saving the material.

The addition of a Mixamo plug-in to Blender turns out to be pretty big news as well. Adobe’s plug-in enables Blender users to create their own characters and send them to Mixamo for rigging using the IK auto-control. After rigging, it’s possible to select a motion from the Mixamo mo-cap selection and add it to the rigged character and export. The exchange back and forth between Blender and Adobe is enabled by FBX support on both sides.

Both plug-ins can be downloaded from Adobe as Beta tools for now. It’s all free but they are asking the price of an Adobe ID, which by now most artists have probably given up and signed up for because Adobe does offer enough free stuff to wear down the average grouchy artist’s resistance.

Adobe announced that they joined the Blender Foundation’s Development Fund as a corporate Gold member. Contributions from corporate members directly support core Blender development, for generally approved projects on blender.org. Adobe’s support of Blender fills out Adobe’s commitment and helps Adobe’s customers find their way to Blender when they need to work within both worlds, which is the more common option for now.

About Adobe

Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences. For more information, visit www.adobe.com

About Blender

Blender Foundation’s mission is to bring the best 3D CG technology in the hands of artists as free/open source software.

What is the Blender Development Fund?

The Blender Development Fund accepts donations to support activities to provide free and open accessible services for all Blender contributors – including professionals and corporations – on the blender.org websites. Support activities include bug fixing, code reviews, technical documentation and onboarding.

The fund will also provide grants and subsidies to developers on generic and widely agreed development projects.

Learn more at fund.blender.org