Perhaps the best praise has been from Adobe themselves: "We're happy to see support for 3D workflows in Photoshop CS3 Extended from valued ecosystem partners like Strata," said Kevin Connor, Senior Director of Product Management, Professional Digital Imaging, Adobe. "Strata 3D along with Photoshop CS3 Extended means "Creatives" can take full advantage of the power of the Photoshop image editing toolset and paint engine for editing 3D and motion based content."

Now we're bringing the workflow-bending power of the Design 3D[in] back into the fold with additions to Strata 3D CX, our flagship 3D modeling, texturing and rendering application. Take your Photoshop work to the next level with instant access to 3D from Photoshop CS3 and instant transport of assets, renders and more to Photoshop from Strata 3D CX 5.5.

All the features of Design 3D[in] that you've seen so far are now completely within Strata 3D CX 5.5

Take full advantage of an integrated 3D/2D workflow
Strata 3D CX 5.5 integrates with Photoshop CS3 in a number of key ways.

1. View video of Photo-Matching workflow

   Match scenes from Photoshop to scenes in Strata 3D CX
   
   Use the Vanishing Point filter from Photoshop to define the 3d perspective of a photograph. You can then send that 3D plane, fully texture-mapped, into a new 3D scene in Strata 3D CX 5.5, with the full photograph loaded into the background for quick and simple photo perspective matching. Product designers and Architectural users will appreciate the ease that Strata 3D CX 5.5 accomplishes a very commonplace and time-consuming process.
   
   Take the guess-work out of creating photo-realistic 3D scenes that match up simply to your photographic reference.
   
   

2. View video of a PSD-First workflow

   Start thinking about the result first
   
   Start your design process in Photoshop, by creating the background, copy, and other elements first. Then, choose from thousands of objects on Google's 3d Warehouse, or match the document to a Strata 3D scene, where you can choose from Strata's included library objects or build entirely new objects from scratch with a fully-featured 3D application. Take models from Google, to Photoshop, to Strata 3D CX 5.5 and move real-time models and fully masked and layered photoshop renders between both applications with ease.
   
   Virtually combine the saved intermediate files of both Photoshop and Strata 3D CX into one workflow to reduce your daily file management tasks significantly, and start thinking more about how your 2D and 3D design works together.
   
   

3. View a Mutli-Tool workflow

   Adds to your Photoshop workflow AND your 3D workflow
   
   The increased workflow links between Photoshop and Strata 3D CX can increase your productivity and expand your creative options whether you come from a 2D Photoshop background, or from a 3D background, whether in Strata 3D or not.
   
   Strata integrates well with other 3D applications and formats, can export Flash video animation, imports Adobe standard vector formats, such as PDF and AI, exports Vector SWF and AI renders (with the Strata 3D Vector plug-in), as well as internal links to Photoshop for 3D tasks, such as dynamically linked PSD texture maps, and the ability to distribute individual Photoshop layers to different texture channels. With the addition of layered Photoshop renders in version 5, and the transport of fully masked, layered renders directly from CX 5.5 to Photoshop, Strata 3D CX is the most integral 3D solution for Photoshop users.
   
   It's not "best of class", it's inventing a new class of 3D software.
   
   

The Same Designer Friendly Application You've Grown to Love

Interface Familiarity

Entering a new world can be confusing. Strata 3D CX takes artists into the third-dimension using familiar and friendly interface elements that make the journey a pleasure. New palette features such as Docking, Stacking, Expert Settings and Auto-Collapse have been added. The new Status palette includes a History tab for multiple undos. Strata 3D CX 5.0 works the way you expect.

LUA Scripting Power

Strata 3D CX 5.0 provides new scripting power via the popular Lua scripting language. Used by a host of 3D games and engines, Lua gives the user the power to add almost any feature or effect they desire. And for those not inclined to do scripting they can rely on an army of third-party developers and users to create and share new scripts. Scripts that ship with Strata 3D CX 5.0 include Twist, Bend, Wave and more.

Quad Modeling

The most powerful modeling technique going is SDS (subdivision surface) - and Strata 3D CX 5.0 takes it even further by adding support for Quad Meshes and the Catmull-Clark algorithm. The CX Polyspline modeler has also added the new Magic Wand tool, support for Mirror, Bridge, Connect, Flip, Unify and more.

Animation Control

CX 5.0 introduces the Motion Stopwatch and an all new bones and IK (inverse kinematics) system has been added.

Adobe Layers

Possibly the most powerful new features in Strata 3D CX 5.0 are the Adobe connection features. These include improved native Photoshop file import for linked 3D textures and improved native Illustrator import to create 3D objects ; and Render to Layers where each image component gets rendered out as a separate layer in a native Photoshop ".psd" file .

Strata Design 3D[in] vs. Strata 3D CX 5.5