PHOTOSHOP NOW PACKS IN MORE 3D TOOLS THAN EVER BEFORE, AND
PROFESSIONAL 3D ARTISTS ARE USING THE PROGRAM WITH INCREASINGFREQUENCY. WE GET THEM TO SHARE THEIR TOP TIPS AND EXPERT ADVICE
3D & PHOTOSHOP:
THE COMPLETE GUIDE
O
bviously, there are some artists for
whom 3D and a dedicated 3D package
is a must. Most likely, you can’t work
in movies or games without those
skills. But there is an increasing band of artists
for whom 3D is one arrow in their bow, one way
they can provide the imagery their client – or
heart – desires. And for these merry travellers,
the fact that Photoshop can now open 3D files
and has its own 3D workspace to edit these files
in is a dream come true.
“Everything I do in 3D is to get the best
possible base for the image by providing
photorealistic materials and lighting, but
Photoshop is where the magic happens,
accentuating colours, contrast, point of attention
for the viewer’s eye and expressing an overall
mood in the image,” says Frédéric Müller
(www.fredericmueller.ch), who works in Maya,
Mudbox, HDR Lightstudio and Photoshop.
Cristian Koch (www.cristiankoch.de)is
another artist who uses 3D almost all the time,
due to the creative freedom it gives him. There’s
the “option of playing with the camera, this
gives me new framing or light options which in
traditional 2D would mean, take the photo againor make another drawing, which I cannot find
convenient in terms of production.” In addition,
he finds the “blend of art and engineering” that
3D offers exciting. “What made me go down the
road of 3D was my lack of drawing skills,” he
admits, “and that I realised, that I have a good
spatial ability... But what pushed me more was
my passion for creating images and being able
to sometimes ‘bend the reality’, and 3D opened
that door.”So what 3D reality-bending can Photoshop
accomplish? The first thing people tend to
mention is its ability to extrude 3D type, but
having a 3D workspace within the image editor
does allow for more than that. You can create
your own basic 3D shapes, you can edit ones you
created elsewhere or models you’ve bought, and
you can prep for 3D printing. This is why Koch
says Photoshop’s 3D workspace is “extremely
useful, as it allows me to quickly draft without© Andrei Lacatusu