Groundbreaking immersive experiences.

Since 2017, leading brands such as Red Bull, Lenovo and Microsoft have turned to Rock Paper Reality for groundbreaking 3D and XR innovations that drive consumer engagement and connection.

A major component of Rock Paper Reality’s storytelling involves delivering a premium look and feel, with graphics so photorealistic that customers feel like they’re looking at something that actually exists. However, artists must balance the desire for quality with considerations about performance, as high-polygon models often take much longer to load, making them especially inappropriate for interactive web or mobile experiences.

"We want to deliver content that is a true storytelling experience, using 3D, augmented reality, and other technologies to help solve real-world problems creatively," says Patrick Johnson, CEO and Co-Founder of Rock Paper Reality.

Rock Paper Reality artists address the needs for quality, performance, and speed by using the Adobe Substance 3D Collection. The 3D apps make it faster and easier than ever for artists to create and apply photorealistic textures and materials that turn low-poly 3D models into stunning pieces of art.

“We’re a small agency of 20 people, but demand has doubled over the past year as technologies like AR become more accessible through the web,” explains Johnson. “Adobe Substance 3D has been pivotal for helping us keep up with growth by streamlining our 3D workflows and allowing artists to handle more content while delivering the high quality that our customers expect.”

Mouth-watering augmented reality

When popular ice cream brand Ben & Jerry’s released its new line of Sundae pints in Europe, the brand wanted a unique way to introduce customers to the new product. Unlike a typical pint of ice cream, Sundae has clear layers with many different textures: ice cream with chunky mix-ins, light whipped topping, smooth sauce, and crunchy crumbles on top.

Rock Paper Reality decided to make a Rube Goldberg-inspired AR game where customers can make their own Sundaes, learn exactly what goes into every layer, and then even get the Sundae delivered to their home. Preston Platt, CTO and Co-Founder of Rock Paper Reality, recognized that to get customers’ mouths watering, artists would need to make sure to convey the many flavors and textures of the Sundae accurately.

“We decided to create the entire Ben & Jerry’s project through the Substance 3D Collection to make sure that all of the different ingredients and pieces of the AR game felt like they existed in the same world,” explains Platt. “It ended up saving us close to 50% on resources by requiring fewer people and less time on each asset.”

Starting with the 3D model created in Maya, Substance 3D Painter baked all of the mesh maps in one easy step, creating the normal maps and height maps that smart materials rely upon to automatically add naturalistic imperfections. Artists could easily drag materials and textures into place, painting masks to adjust and layer them as needed.

Using Substance 3D Sampler, artists quickly turned the real-life packaging into a photoreal material. For other objects, from fluffy ice cream to metallic ice cream scoops, the team relied on Substance 3D Assets library to find high-quality smart materials, or they created their own seamless materials using Adobe Substance 3D Designer — eliminating time spent refining designs and removing seams. The final designs were imported into Adobe Aero, which designers used to create the AR Sundae Maker game.

“Substance 3D Painter is fantastic at micro-details, like those imperfect swirls in a whipped topping or scratches at the edges of a paper cup. It makes everything look real instead of plastic,” says Platt. “It’s a lot simpler than using other tools. It does its job really, really well. That makes our jobs easier. I’d say I saved 60% of my time per asset, which could mean days of work saved.”

Developing next-generation immersive experiences

Rock Paper Reality continues to push boundaries for 3D technologies. Customers have seen more retail sales, increased visits from event attendees, and greater fundraising engagement.

The agency has also delivered transformative experiences for Lenovo, using 3D and AR/virtual reality (VR) to create digital workspaces where multiple team members can collaborate on projects securely.

Designers often start in Adobe Creative Cloud, using apps such as Photoshop, Illustrator, and XD to storyboard projects. UX/UI designers turn to Substance 3D Stager to mock up 3D spaces and understand how scenes should look through a website, phone, or VR headset. UX/UI designers don’t need deep 3D knowledge to use the app, which frees up 3D artists and reduces the time needed to prototype scenes by 40%. The team also uses Premiere Pro and After Effects to create videos that give users a quick preview and encourage greater engagement.

“You don't need a huge team to pull this off,” says Johnson. “You just need creativity, efficient tools, and a passion for storytelling. We use Adobe Substance 3D Collection for everything.”

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