Most designers prefer to create automotive and motorsport liveries in 2D using popular tools like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. If you’re already been indoctrinated by Adobe and their impressive creative cloud suite, then trying your hand at Adobe Dimension shouldn’t be all that difficult for you either. With the help of Adobe Dimension, you’ll be creating your first 3D car livery graphics in no time.

Advantages of 3D Vehicle Liveries

When it comes to a traditional 2D car livery, dealing with perspective and understanding the dimensions of a vehicle, especially if you don’t have a scale line drawing can prove daunting, impeding your ability to do what you love best: designing.

If you have access to a high-quality 3D model of the car you’re working with, it becomes immediately apparent why a product like Adobe Dimension is a smart way to go. Once successfully applied to a model, you can visually test your livery from every angle to make sure it looks flawless on your vehicle. You don’t have to try to anticipate every curve and dimension of the vehicle when interpreting a 2D photograph of it.

Finally, whether it’s for your own enjoyment or to sell a concept to a client, seeing a perfect-to-life recreation of your vehicle’s livery design in 3D can be a far more rewarding and invaluable selling tool.

Access Adobe Dimension through Creative Cloud

Before you can start creating, you’ll have to download the latest version of Adobe Dimension. Once you’re logged into your Creative Cloud app, if you don’t see Dimension in the list of available apps, go ahead and search for it in the top of the page search bar.

Unlike some of Adobe’s other 3D programs, Dimension is included in a standard creative cloud subscription.

Import Your 3D Car Model

Adobe Dimension offers a number of starter assets you can use to explore features and practice how to use the available tools. For the sake of this overview, simply click on the plus icon to import a custom asset. This is a great opportunity to try out one of our HD models available in our online shop.

You can manage your model in the upper right of the screen under the Scene section. You’ll notice that we have designed the vehicle so that moveable components are their own objects. With an object selected, you can apply a preset material by navigating to the left under Adobe Standard Materials and Substance Materials.

Apply Your Design to the Model

If you’ve already created graphics, logos, and liveries, you can easily apply them directly onto your car model. Ensure you have the proper object selected in the Scene section, and under Actions simply click on the Place Graphic on Model button.

This will open a dialogue box for you to locate the design from a folder on your computer to bring into the scene. Once loaded, Dimension will automatically place the image onto the surface of your model, just as if you’d applied an actual vinyl graphic in real life. Using the basic selection tools, you can resize and adjust the position of your graphic.

Set the Background Environment and Lighting

Once you’re satisfied with the placement of your vehicle livery, click on Environment in the scene tab. From here you can set a background image and even adjust the quality of lighting for your render.

You’ll notice under Actions an option to Match Image. Clicking this button is an easy way to let Dimension automatically configure everything for you. You have three choices you can check to control the size of the canvas the lighting cast on your model, and also the ability to match the camera perspective to the background image.

Exporting or Rendering Your Scene

Adobe Dimension manipulates the materials (the 3D aspect of a model that controls how the model’s surfaces appear) so you can export the object as a 3D file. This allows you to bring the object and your new livery design into other 3D programs, such as Blender.

You can also generate a 2D render as well. If you wish to do this, simply switch to the Render page by clicking on Render in the upper left of the workspace. There are a few render settings to choose from. Depending on the performance level of your computer, higher levels of quality will take much longer to render properly.

Show off Car Livery with Stunning Realism

And just like that, you’re done! Creating 3D vehicle graphics and car livery with Adobe Dimension is a breeze, and the results speak for themselves. Graphic designers shouldn’t have any trouble selling their designs and ideas when clients can see it right before their eyes!

Whether you’re a hobbyist or a professional designer, Motorsport Graphics offers a wide collection of realistic car models. Models are handcrafted in 3D, so that designers like you can keep doing what you love: designing vehicle liveries, while also experiencing the future of graphic design.

There are so many advantages to working in 3D, we hope this article has been helpful and that you’ll apply one of your designs to a Motorsport Graphic 3D model today!

Want to find out more about how to create great a 3D car livery using Adobe products? Join our mailing list below and we’ll let you know how.