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Apr
28

Fake 3D in Photoshop

by Dave Harfield

16 Well, that was easy but…

152-58-16
If we want to use other objects with less rectangular shapes, we have a slightly more difficult job matching perspective. However, there’s a very easy trick we can use to help this. Let’s try a disc. On a new layer, draw a circle.

17 Be square
Do the same sort of tricks and effects you did to your first object to make it look a bit nicer. Once you have merged these layers together, draw a big square that just encompasses the circle on a new layer underneath. Use a contrasting colour so it stands out from the circle.

18 Much easier!
Now match your new object’s perspective to the grid as before, but make sure you have both your circle and square layers selected. Luckily, transforming them both at the same time is no problem for Photoshop. Match the grid lines up to the transform box as before. Once you have done that, you can simply delete the square layer. A circle isn’t too much of a problem, but for more complex shapes, this technique really helps.

19 Pesky shadows

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Adding shadows between objects is one of the best ways at creating the illusion of depth, and also one way in which 3D programs produce amazing results much more easily than Photoshop. The easiest way to have the shadows is associated with the object they are falling on, rather than with the object they are casting. Here, create a new layer above the object you want the shadows to fall on, and group it with the object layer (Alt-click on the line between the two layers).

20 Make the icon illustrations selectable as one

152-58-20

In order to make the icons selectable as one object, we converted the vectors to objects. Do this by following Object>Path>Outline Stroke. Next up, we selected the objects we wanted as one, then divided (from the Pathfinder tool), ungrouped and finally merged them. Now the icon is selectable as one single object with the details as knockouts

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27 Comments »

  • Useful Links #1 | AREA 1 said:

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  • Juan said:

    Pretty, I like it

  • Best Of The Week Inspirational Imagery 5/1 - Creattica Daily said:

    [...] Fake 3D [...]

  • koen buysse said:

    it strongly reminds me of Heiko Klug’s work…
    just view some of his (amazing) older works in his portfolio @ http://www.jesar-one.com/
    great tut…

  • John said:

    Some more informations and bigger screenshots would help a lot.

    I’m currently stuck at the “Object>Path>Outline Stroke” part. Where can I find “Object>Path>Outline Stroke”?

    I have absolutely no idea, really.

  • David said:

    This makes me think that I should start using Maya.

  • moih60 said:

    great tutorial ….added to my blog
    thanks for ur sharing

  • Best Of The Week Inspirational Imagery 5/1 « Internet Turnkey Websites said:

    [...] Fake 3D [...]

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    [...] Fake 3D in Photoshop [...]

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  • photo retouching said:

    A really impressive result! Thanks for sharing this.

  • adi_waru said:

    waaahhhhh

    that so hard……

  • christina said:

    Hi there,

    im stuck on step 20!

    where is the “object>path>outline stroke”?

    and could you explain that step in more detail, it is a little vague for me a novice :)

    peace, Christina

  • Krzycho_666 said:

    Very nice effect – but it should be done in illustrator ;)

  • Chanson Jon said:

    nice work!!
    i like it

  • saigee said:

    very nice tutorial ,,excellent !

  • Edz said:

    great tutorial :) !

    as with the others, got stuck on step 20 but i’m guessing it’s a step from some other illustrator tutorial maybe?

    anyhow i still wanted to finish the tutorial & for those interested, here’s what i did to get the cast shadow effect:

    1- select the depth layer of our Disc object (the white merged layers)
    2- ctrl + click on one of the layer thumb to select the filled area of the layer
    3- now what i did was transform the selection by Select > Transform Selection. I slightly enlarged the selection to the area we want filled as the casted shadow
    4- select the empty layer from which we need the shadow to be casted, & use the gradient tool (black to transparent, linear) to create the shadow within our selection. I also used 80% opacity & Soft Light blending mode to get the effect I wanted. you can use whatever gives you the effect you find best

    this turned out looking fine but not quite as realistic as i’d hoped! any suggestions for alternatives?

  • DM said:

    to Сhristina and John:

    object>path>outline – I think it’s from Illustrator… Don’t know why they mentioned it in ps tutorial

  • DM said:

    but, very nice! like it

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  • Brandon said:

    Hi, the link is not setup right for http://www.webdesignermag.co.uk/tutorial-files/issue-152-tutorial-files/

    The link only reads: ttp://www.webdesignermag.co.uk/tutorial-files/issue-152-tutorial-files/

    And so since the h is missing, causes the link to be bad.

  • Rick said:

    This looks like torture… lol.. I am a 3D modeler and use 3ds max, why not just learn 3ds max instead of putting yourself through all of this? It would take a lot longer to do it this way then in max.

  • Cool Springs said:

    That is amazing, thank you for sharing. Im not sure if my first few trys at 3D images will be decent but Im motivated! I really like how you present things in a practical way, where I leave feeling like Ive really learned something I can do.

  • Connor Oakes said:

    Hey, i’m a graphic design student.. A bit more accustomed to Illustrator for this kind of work, but I’m definetely going to give this a whirl tomorrow in my hour class, see what results I can get. Looks promising!

  • tuna said:

    great work, I like it.

  • Michelle said:

    really cool tutorial, I am going to share it through my own blog and twitter :)

  • ubrgeek said:

    I love it. Would be great if there was an option to look at a printable version with everything on one page …

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