Photoshop® CS5 Bible

Chapter 24. Using Photoshop Tools to Change the Appearance of a 3D Layer

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Using 3D Paint mode

• Adding image adjustments to 3D objects

• Creating great composites

In the last two chapters, you learned how the 3D workspace in Photoshop functions to allow you to create, manipulate, and change the look of 3D objects by changing their color, texture, and lighting. In this chapter, I show you how to integrate 3D objects into the Photoshop workspace, using the tools you are probably more familiar with to paint over your 3D objects and create adjustments, styles, and filters.

The last section of this chapter walks you through some very complex exercises that demonstrate some of the tools and techniques that can be used to create a successful composite with 3D objects and images. At this point, you should be familiar with all the techniques used to create these composites, but completing these exercises gives you practice using these tools and shows you how they can work together.

3D Paint Mode

You can grab a paintbrush in Photoshop and start slapping paint on your 3D objects. The paint conforms to the 3D object because even though you are looking at your 3D object, you are changing the texture file, which is wrapped around your 3D object. This gives you the distinct advantage of being able to change areas of the texture as it is mapped to your object, instead of trying to guess where to paint in a flat, rectangular texture file.

You can paint color onto your object, of course, but you ...