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Photoshop CS6 3D Tutorial | Written By: Kirk Nelson
Photoshop has never been known
for its 3D abilities. It is really better known as Adobe’s primary-pixel-pusher. The inclusion of 3D objects and Repousse in previous versions marked interesting forays into the realm of raytraced three dimensions. But the cumbersome workflow and less than stellar results turned away many who would otherwise welcome the new tools into their production workflow. In Photoshop CS6, Adobe has taken great pains to overcome that perception. New features, enhanced workflow, and smoother, more reliable performance all come together to make the 3D features of CS6 extended something worth paying for. Gone is the term “Repousse” and good riddance! It has been replaced with the much more sensible term, “3D extrusion.” That’s a term that even we can figure out what it means! Adobe has also created an innovative new approach to modifying the properties of the 3D elements. While using the 3D tools, objects have their own modifier displays, such as transformation cages and bevel adjustments that can be accessed right on the canvas. Even the smoothness of shadows can be adjusted by dragging on the shadow! The old slider bars are still there, but it is entirely possible to create, move, edit and adjust 3D objects without ever having to visit the panels.
instruction is spent on those steps.
Bicubic Tutorial Steps Step 1 - Stock Image Selection
The success of the entire effect rests on the quality of the base image. The shot needs to be drastically vertical so the roofs and building shapes are clearly visible. A lower, more oblique angle and the letters will not be recognizable. The shot you see here is from fotolia.com (#826018). Then use the new crop tool in CS6 to trim it down to the working area shown here.
Step 2- Bicubic Buildings
Add in the text using a simple no-serif font, Arial works nice in this case. Then with the type tool still active check the Options bar for a new 3D Extrude icon. Press it and Photoshop switches to the 3D work-
This tutorial will demonstrate some of the new 3D features and workflows available in CS6. For the project, we took some inspiration from the Inception movie posters and decided to spell the word Bicubic in large letter shaped buildings within a city. (Because the bicubic smoother interpolation is used for enlarging images in Photoshop!) Fair warning, this tutorial does contain some rather advanced compositing steps that are aimed at the more experienced user, but those are not the focus of the project. The primary point is to explore the 3D features and workflow, so most of the
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