Built for motion. Ready for 3D.

Strategic leadership, UX-informed decision making, persona development, and cross-functional collaboration behind the Adobe Substance 3D motion graphics campaign.

Role: Art Director (UX research, creative direction, design, storytelling, and strategic leadership)

Leadership Skills: Strategic Storytelling Leadership | Cross-Functional Alignment | Vision Setting & Creative Direction | Decision-Making Under Ambiguity | Quality Elevation

View the final landing page

Demonstrated Leadership

Campaign collateral | website layout (figma), social and display static ads, gifs, video ads, digital downloads | designed by Camille Howell

Cross-functional Collaboration

Art Director (me)

Sr. Marketing Manager (1)

Product Marketing Executives (2)

AfterEffects Executive (1)

Evangelist Community Designer (1)

Studio Designer (1)

Content Writer (1)

Tools

Figma

Adobe After Effects

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Premiere Pro

Adobe Firefly

Adobe Audition

Microsoft Teams

Slack

Dropbox

Timeframe

*on-going with campaign asset updates every year

6 months+

Overview

Develop a motion-led campaign positioning Adobe Substance 3D as an intuitive, production-ready solution for motion designers already working in tools such as After Effects, Cinema 4D, Redshift, and other 3D-adjacent workflows.

The campaign focuses on removing perceived barriers to entry, demonstrating how Substance 3D integrates seamlessly into existing pipelines while expanding creative capability.

UX research identified onboarding friction and early workflow confusion as primary drivers of user drop-off, particularly among designers with partial 3D familiarity.

Competitive landscape research further revealed strong competition from Maxon and Autodesk across key 3D workflow keywords, reinforcing the need for differentiated messaging emphasizing ease, interoperability, and creative control.

The Challenge (Why This Matters)

UX research revealed that many new Substance 3D users struggle with early onboarding due to unfamiliar terminology, workflow complexity, and unclear pathways to value realization.

Key insight:

First-time users often lack domain knowledge required for initial success, indicating a need for clearer onboarding pathways and contextual guidance.

Additional research on Stager workflows showed that even experienced 3D professionals required coaching to understand system relationships between assets, variants, and scenes, highlighting the importance of simplified narrative framing in product storytelling.

Strategic Opportunity:

Position Substance 3D not as a complex technical toolset, but as a natural evolution of motion design workflows already familiar to After Effects and Cinema 4D users.

Persona Strategic Insight

UX findings indicate new users benefit from a clearly guided first success experience, reducing friction associated with setup, navigation, and workflow terminology.

Campaign messaging emphasizes: Creative Expansion Without Workflow Disruption

Substance 3D becomes an extension of the motion designer’s toolkit rather than a replacement.

Visual Storytelling Design Direction

Art Direction Approach

Leverage cinematic lighting, material realism, and dynamic motion transitions to reinforce Substance 3D’s production quality.

Visual language aligns with motion designers’ expectations for high-end output.

Motion Language & Principles

Procedural transitions reflecting material generation
Layer-based animation metaphor referencing compositing workflows
Camera moves inspired by real production pipelines

Look & Feel

Bright UI-inspired backgrounds
High-contrast materials (glass, fabric, metal)
Cinematic lighting
Subtle grid systems (nod to precision + design systems)

Storyboard Visual Journey

1. Marquee

The message is in the motion.: Create visually compelling stories with mograph VFX tools and Substance 3D.

2. Blade1

Mix, match, and work fast.: Pull assets and materials from the Assets library or capture unique ones from photos with Sampler.

3. Blade2

Portray photorealism when you need it.: Create lifelike, parametric textures and paint directly onto models with Painter.

4. Blade3

Work smarter, not harder: Substance 3D connects seamlessly with After Effects and offers deep integrations with Cinema 4D for a smooth workflow from texturing to compositing.

Cross-functional Leadership

Ensured Strategic Consistency by aligning multiple teams:

• UX Research
• Product Marketing
• Motion Design

• Content Writers
• Creative Cloud ecosystem stakeholders

This ensured that messaging accurately reflected product capabilities and roadmap direction.

Visual Storytelling achieved a balance between aspirational creative output and practical workflow clarity.

This balance positioned Substance 3D as both a professional-grade tool and an accessible creative opportunity.

Final Design

Impact

+18–25% increase in trial downloads
Improved CTR on non-branded keywords (competitive space)

Acquisition

Reduced time to first successful render
Increased tutorial completion rates

Activation

Decrease in early churn (targeting that ~85% inactivity)

Retention

Conclusion: Strategic Takeaways

Translated UX research into campaign strategy
Reframed product complexity into accessible storytelling
Unified motion, product, and marketing teams
Defined visual language across the campaign ecosystem
Positioned Substance 3D within a competitive landscape dominated by Maxon and Autodesk

Why my approach succeeded:

Applied UX research insights identifying high early drop-off among new users, informing a motion-first narrative that reduced onboarding friction and improved time-to-value
Positioned Substance 3D within an established motion design ecosystem (After Effects, Cinema 4D), strengthening adoption potential within a competitive keyword space generating over 1.7M quarterly impressions across 3D software search categories
Increased perceived accessibility for both advanced 3D motion designers and 2D motion designers expanding into 3D, supporting broader cross-product engagement across Creative Cloud
Addressed low impression share (~10%) in competitive search environments through clearer workflow-driven messaging, improving relevance and supporting stronger campaign visibility
Simplified complex product architecture through visual storytelling, improving comprehension of key concepts such as assets, materials, and rendering workflows, which research indicated were common barriers to successful adoption
Strengthened cross-functional alignment between UX research, product marketing, and engineering, ensuring campaign messaging reflected real product value and supported increased trial engagement and retention behaviors

The Campaign Balanced Inspiration with Practical Application.