A (98)

FROM IDEA TO FINISHED

ARTWORK

WORK IN

PROGRESS

Progress 2: Composite scene

Progress 3: Final effects

ANTON EGOROV

http://www.behance.net/egorov

OUR EXPERT

Egorov is a self-taught CG artist

living in Saint Petersburg who mixes

Photoshop with 3D applications to

create stunning infographics and

illustrations. He is currently working

worldwide as a freelancer.

TAKE OFF

CREATE YOUR SCENE USING MATTE PAINTING TECHNIQUES

02

ROUGH SKETCH

Open the supplied ‘draft-render.png’ file and

place it into the scene so that it looks great in both

size frames. Hide the Sizes group. Now your task is

to create the background of the artwork. Paint a

scene using any kind of rough brush, photos and

whatever else you want.

01

CREATE WORKSPACE

Create a new document

at 3600 x 3600px. A square

format is handy when creating

multipurpose images. Make a

grey background layer and a

group. Name the group ‘Sizes’.

Create two layers at 16:9 and A4,

fill them with dark grey and set

their Opacities at 70%. Make

rectangular holes in them sized

3600 x 2025px and 2776 x 3567px.

03

DRAFT LANDSCAPE

You now need a pile of misty photos. Go to

a photo stock site and collect as many as you can.

Replace the sketch with preview photos. Place them

using rough masks and colour corrections. We used

‘25817889’, ‘25817914’, ‘25014376’, ‘25013547’ and

‘2640502’ from istockphoto.com.

Progress 1: Create a sketch

BRING YOUR 3D RENDER TO LIFE USING PHOTOSHOP TRICKS

AND MATTE PAINTING TECHNIQUES

TRANSFORM 3D RENDERS

N

owadays it’s hard to be a Photoshop artist

and not use 3D at all, just as it is to be a

3D artist and not use Photoshop. The

most modern techniques overlap different

branches of computer graphics, creating images

like never seen before. Over the following pages,

you will see that 3D post-production isn’t harder

than the usual compositing techniques that you are

used to. It isn’t a strict cookbook only teaching you

how to create aeroplanes, as you can apply these

methods to any type of 3D render. On the way you’ll

pick up some Photoshop tricks that will be helpful

in many different cases.

At the beginning of the tutorial you’ll learn how to

create a landscape background from scratch, from

sketch to photo compositing and colour correction,

using matte painting techniques. You will then

polish a 3D render using a lot of adjustments and

differently blended layers, and will discover which

passes of a 3D render can be very helpful for

post-production. You will then learn how to

composite photos again to create a photoreal

cockpit. By the end of the tutorial, you will have

learnt how to easily add some special effects like a

burning rocket trail and scattered particles. So don’t

delay, let’s go!

SOURCE FILES

On FileSilo.co.uk/bks-609, you can

find the basic 3D render files. The

photos for compositing and special

effects can be found atcgtextures.

com and istockphoto.com.

TRANSFORM 3D RENDERS