3D AND PHOTOSHOP
QUICK TIP
There is one more technique to check your
values. Simply create a black layer on the very
top of your layer stack and set its blend mode to
Color. Now your image turns black-and-white
and you can clearly analyse your values.13
CREATE DEPTH
To create more dimension in the scene let’s
put a skyline in the background to make this
complex integrated in a huge city environment. Look
for images that fit our perspective and pay attention
to resolution. We are creating a mid-size artwork
and do not want pixelated elements in between. Drag
the skyline onto the canvas and Rasterize it. Move
the image beside our main complex and scale it
down. Select all the buildings and shore elements
you want to keep. Click on the layer mask icon to
mask the skyline. Copy the layer by pressing
Cmd/Ctrl+J and move it to the other side. Try to use
different parts of the skyline to avoid repetition.10
THE DETAILS
Now go ahead and continue refining edges
and make certain details pop out. The whole process
of adding detail can be very long. You need to figure
out by yourself how much effort you want to put in or
how much time you have been given by the client.14
COMPLETE THE SCENE
There is still one blank part of the image left in the lower area. It would be really nice to add a
water surface here, just to reflect some highlights and parts of our buildings. Create a new blank layer and
place a rectangular selection in the area where you want to illustrate the water. Now select various shades
and colours of the main and background buildings located just above with the Eyedropper tool (Shortcut I)
and paint soft vertical reflections (Alternatively: hold Alt to switch your cursor to the Color Picker, while
using the Brush tool). Now go to Filter>Distort>Wave and put in the following settings: Number of
Generators: 20, Wavelength Min. 1, Max. 25, Amplitude Min. 1, Max. 2 and Scale Horiz. 100% and Vert. 1%,
Undefined Areas: Repeat Edge Pixels. Now you have a good basis to refine the water. Do so by playing
around with the Wave filter, by adding tiny horizontal brush strokes with white and distorting the surface a
bit more with the Smudge tool.11
INSERT OVERALL REFLECTIONS
Let’s add more reflections to the
buildings and the surroundings. Create a new
layer and paint dark shapes inside the facades.
Don’t be afraid of adding too much. You are
working with layers. Everything is separate.
When you are done, create a layer mask and
reduce and refine those painted reflections. Now
go to the blend mode drop-down menu and
select Overlay. This will not only darken some
areas but push the saturation. In cases like this
Overlay is a fun and powerful effect.12
REFINE DETAILS AND CHECK VALUES
In this phase we are reconsidering the
overall brightness of the buildings one more time. At
this stage the main tower in the middle is kind of
blurring into the blue sky. A common technique to
check your composition is simply to zoom out very
far. Then you see the silhouette is not clearly
readable. So we are going to make our main focal
point pop up once more. Again create a new layer,
select the area to brighten and paint with a big soft
brush until the tower sticks out.