Can object backgrounds be customized?

Yes! Edit background color and lighting, or drop in custom artwork to serve as your background.

Can I change the base material of an object?

Yes! The easiest way to change the base material of an object is to drag-and-drop a full-bleed rectangle that covers the whole artwork area and set that artwork layer to the base material you desire. Then, set this layer behind your other artwork.

Can I drag and drop video files?

Yes! Drag and drop supports JPEG, PNG, vector and MOV files.

Individual students can get discounted pricing on our yearly Pro Plan. Students should contact us from their school email account to receive the promo code for the discount.

For approved institutions, we have an educational Studio Group subscription that includes multiple students under one account. The pricing for this option varies depending on the number of licenses you would need.

Does LiveSurface still offer a plugin for Illustrator?

Yes! While LiveSurface works as a standalone app, you can still work directly in Adobe Illustrator using the LiveSurface plugin. Download LiveSurface with plugin support from our downloads page, or install the LiveSurface plugin by selecting Install Plugins from the LiveSurface menu.

Legacy concepts can be exported from the legacy app and then imported into the new version at your convenience. Simply select Import or Export Concepts from the File menu.

When re-edited in the new LiveSurface, the look of those concepts may change (usually for the better, but they will look different). You can keep the legacy app around and use that in parallel with the new app in cases where you want to have things look exactly the same as before.

When you license/pay for a subscription in LiveSurface, you are licensing use of the surface imagery under our standard Presentation Usage License.

Presentation usage is restricted to presentation, visualization and other non-public display, including use inside a design firm and client presentation. Presentation usage also covers the display of portfolio items on a user’s own homepage. It does not, however, cover display of these items on another site, such as a design magazine’s web site.

Extending usage licensing options are available at an additional cost. For more about extended licensing, contact support@livesurface.com.

How do you customize the material effects?

LiveSurface includes a library of default materials and with a few slider controls (macOS only, for now), it’s possible to create nearly every material. Color tint, smoothness, reflectivity, metallicity, glow, transparency can be edited with precision from Advanced controls.

Projects are stored locally on your Mac. To move them to another Mac, you can do the following:

1. Update to the latest version of LiveSurface on both machines.
2. Quit LiveSurface on both machines.
3. Locate the LiveSurface folder in your user Documents folder on the origin Mac.
4. Copy the LiveSurface folder to the same location on the destination Mac (Caution: This will overwrite existing projects on the destination Mac; see instructions below for merging original projects).
5. Launch LiveSurface on the destination Mac. You should see all project folders and their contents as they were on the origin Mac.

To merge existing projects with new ones:

Rather than dragging the whole LiveSurface folder, drag the contents of the LiveSurface > V2 > Projects folder into the same folder on your new Mac.

If there are folder name conflicts, you can rename the folders in Finder.

LiveSurface requires correct permissions in order to access its project folders in your user Documents folder. Sometimes this permission can be inadvertently disabled by an OS update or by declining a Documents access request.

When this happens, project folders will disappear completely from the LiveSurface window sidebar. But the project folders are still there in the Documents folder.

In order to reset LiveSurface’s permissions, and restore display of your project folders in the LiveSurface sidebar:

1. Open System Settings (macOS)
2. Click Privacy & Security
3. Click Files & Folders
4. Find LiveSurface in the list and expand it using the chevron to its left
5. Look for Documents Folder and enable it

The good news is that when project folders are deleted they are simply moved to the Trash. To restore you project(s):

1. Quit LiveSurface.
2. Locate the project folder (naming will be the same as it was in LiveSurface) in your Mac’s Trash.
3. Drag the folder from the Trash into Documents/LiveSurface/V2/Projects.
4. Restart LiveSurface.

The project folder should show up in LiveSurface and be ready for use!

To redeem your points:

1. Sign into your LiveSurface account at account.livesurface.com
2. Select the Points tab.
3. There, you will see a summary of your points and what’s available to redeem.
4. Select Redeem.

Your free month will be applied. It’s important to remember that you need to have a current paid subscription and that points can take a few days to be applied to your subscription. The purchase will be reflected on your Account > Points page and you should receive a confirmation email.

We offer Studio Group plans for organizations that need more than a single user under one account. Every Studio Group is made up of one admin user and linked users. Linked users activate using activation codes that are provided with your receipt as well as from the LiveSurface.com site account page. The admin user can make changes to the account and enable/disable activation codes remotely. Linked users do not have the ability to make any account changes and their copy of LiveSurface remains activated so long as the account subscription is active.

To purchase a Studio Group plan and receive activation codes, visit www.livesurface.com/plans

1. Sign in to your LiveSurface account at account.livesurface.com or select Manage Account from the app Account menu.
2. Select Subscriptions.
3. Select Stop to halt auto-renewal. This will leave your subscription active until the end of the current billing cycle.

Once you have canceled auto-renewal, you will have the option to immediately terminate access by selecting Cancel. By canceling your subscription, your subscription and billing will end immediately, and you will be refunded for any prorated fees.

We appreciate your support in upgrading. The way to do this is to purchase a new subscription (without canceling as an upgrade will automatically replace your current subscription).

To upgrade via app:
1. Launch LiveSurface
2. Select Upgrade from the Account menu
3. Click next, select the preferred subscription and complete the purchasing steps.

To upgrade via website:
1. Visit our plans at www.livesurface.com/plans
2. Select your preferred subscription and complete the purchasing steps.

Upgrading your account should automatically give you a prorated credit for the month. Please note that there is no prorated credit for downgrading your subscription.

Can I resize surfaces in the app?

Yes, Plus Surfaces (look for the Plus name and Plus badge on surface thumbnails) allow you to easily resize precisely by editing size details in the toolbar (macOS) or action bar.

Are surfaces added to the library regularly?

Yes! Our Content team, in collaboration with photographers and designers, continue to curate and publish new surfaces to the library. Once a surface is published, it is immediately available to active subscribers.