Surface Lab
Give your type some weight. Turn a logo into polished chrome, a title into sculpted ice, or a simple shape into a soft fabric cushion. Surface Lab brings materials, relief, texture, and lighting together in one Cavalry filter, with your original artwork still editable underneath.
Start with one of 33 presets, then make it your own. Change the bevel, move the reflections, add a few folds, or bring color into the highlights. A small lighting change can take the same surface from quiet and understated to bright and glossy.
Main features
A material library with room to experiment
Dedicated shape presets add domed balloons, inflated gloss, liquid chrome, sculpted glass, a satin rectangular body, and finely textured round and rectangular finishes. Body shaping gives large shapes a curved face, while surface distortion adds broad undulations to their reflections. Dome and Rectangular bodies work independently of the edge bevel. Silhouette mode builds inflation from the input outline, including holes and concave shapes, for hearts, stars, lettering and irregular forms.
The presets cover polished chrome, satin silver, brushed aluminum, chiseled metals, enamel, ceramic, rubber, pearlescent finishes, holographic foil, balloons, woven fabrics, ice, glass, and diamonds.
Each is a complete starting point with editable surface, material, texture, and lighting settings. Keep the look close to the preset or combine its parts with something else: a chiseled profile with a plastic finish, a metallic surface with wrinkles, or an inflated shape with shifting iridescent color.
Shape the surface
Seven bevel profiles range from a simple rounded edge to a defined chisel or a full, inflated form. Adjust width and depth, switch between raised and recessed relief, and use Outline Rounding when the silhouette should follow the finish.
Four Surface Scale settings accommodate small details and larger lettering. For images and textured artwork, brightness can drive the relief as well as alpha.
Reflections you can art-direct
Choose from Classic, Softboxes, Strip Lights, Ring Light, and Window studio layouts. Rotate the reflections, change their size, and set their contrast to bring out the shape of the material. The reflection patterns are built in, so there is no environment map to source or set up.
A main light, ambient fill, and optional fill and rim lights give you control over the rest of the lighting. Use a soft fill to reveal dark areas, a colored rim to separate the edge, or a narrow highlight to emphasize a polished bevel.
Texture that catches the light
Fine grain, brushing, hammered detail, linen, and cotton add character to a clean surface. Bump and polish variation can be adjusted separately, so a finish can have visible texture without heavy relief.
Wrinkles add larger folds for crumpled foil, balloons, and cushions. Separate controls for spacing, length, reach, and variation help shape those folds around the artwork. Woven texture and soft fabric sheen complete the fabric looks.
Ice, glass, and faceted gems
Sculpted ice combines uneven relief with angular cracks and patches of frost. Clear, Frosted, and Dispersion glass offer three distinct starting points, while Transmission lets the background show through without fading every reflection equally.
Glass Dispersion adds color fringes to reflections and light highlights. For gem treatments, Cut Diamond and Brilliant Diamond provide different facet patterns, with Diamond Fire adding colored flashes to the studio reflections. These finishes are especially effective in motion, as the lighting moves across their surfaces.
Iridescence and animated lighting
Add broad, shifting color with Iridescence for holographic foil, pearlescent metal, or colorful balloons. Adjust the number of bands, vary them across the artwork, and animate Color Shift to move through the palette.
Studio Rotation and the light controls can be keyframed or driven with Cavalry behaviours and expressions. Keep the artwork still and let the lighting carry the animation, or use the effect on moving, editable type and shapes.
Typical uses
- Material-rich titles, logos, and brand graphics
- Chrome lettering and chiseled metallic finishes
- Inflated type, foil balloons, and holographic accents
- Fabric lettering, cushions, and woven surfaces
- Ice, glass, and diamond-style treatments
- Embossed or recessed image detail
- Animated reflection sweeps and lighting studies
Working in Cavalry
Surface Lab works directly on your 2D artwork. It creates dimensional shading without a modeling step, while keeping the controls available in Cavalry. Mix blends the treatment with the source, and separate height, normal, lighting, and contact-shading views help when refining a look.