TUTORIAL

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3D EFFECTS IN

PHOTOSHOP
By combining the versatility of Photoshop with a range of rich, home-made 3D textures, its possible to produce some truly original 3D effects. The secret is in the textures...
While we were hard at work putting together this months striking cover, created by the brilliant Studio Liddell, someone walking past our senior art editors screen stopped and said, Can I just ask you how you created that image? It was all done in Photoshop, we replied. Wow! he said. This is the kind of reaction you want when youve spent the best part of a week perfecting an image. Its all in the detail you see, and this months Photoshop masterclass will teach you techniques that will enable you to build a detailed 3D effect from just a simple sketch. Youll be using the wide range of tools available in the Filter drop-down menu and Toolbox palette to create an image that has depth, solidity and character. Whatever your style, scanned photos, objects and digital photography are

brilliant elements, that will add an original third dimension to your work and leave people puzzled about what youve used. Make use of scanned fabrics, buttons, kapok, bacon, hair, leather, maps, skin, wallpaper, paper, or anything else you can t in your scanner to get just the right skin texture. There really are no rules. Open your mind up, and if you see a texture or pattern you like, scan it, because youre sure to nd a use for it some time. These rich textures will add a depth to your images that would otherwise be tricky to achieve. Turn the page for a full tutorial on how to create realistic 3D effects in Photoshop.
Cover and main illustration by Studio Liddell www.studioliddell.com Tutorial by Connie Wilson www.hardcawillustration.com

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PHOTOSHOP LEARN 3D SHADING TECHNIQUES

DOWNLOAD

TIME LENGTH

20 hours
INFO
Connie Wilson originally trained as a painter, but found that working digitally more suited her style. She now works as a freelance illustrator. Call 07792 692658, email caw@hardcawillustration.com or visit www.hardcawillustration.com to nd out more.

Select the skin layer copy, paste it ve times and allocate a tone and colour to each using Brightness/Contrast and Colour Balance. Starting from the top layer, use a dark greyish brown (#221A29), a dull red (#841A2A), a dull blue (#1F4A75), a eshy peach (#BD6B52), a dull yellow (#E7C198), and an almost white tone (#FFFFF7).

First make a sketch of the image you would like to use, or use my original sketch, included on the cover CD. Your scanned sketch will be the base for your image, so now is the time to make any alterations, large or small, to the image and its composition. Scan your sketch and open the image in Photoshop.

Use the eye.jpg from the CD to create the iris and make adjustments. To alter the reection, use the Selection tool to Cut and Paste another area onto that reection and use a hard round brush to create a new one. You can also rotate the eyes to show where the light source is coming from using the Move tool. Create the whites of the eyes using a greyish tone and add both highlights and colour to the eyeball to indicate veins using a dark pink tone, and a ne, hard, round brush. Roughly place the skin texture from the cover CD within its selected area, leaving a little excess outside of the lines. You can neaten this off once the area has been painted. Now add registration marks at the top left and bottom right-hand corners of the image. This will allow you to align the skin layers when they are copied and pasted.

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ON THE EDGE
If, like me, you nd using the Lasso tool frustrating, use it to roughly select your outline, then click on the Quick Mask mode to load the semi-transparent mask and use a Rubber/Brush to either remove or add areas of the mask. Use the Navigation tool to get right in to those areas of detail that may be missed and you will easily achieve clean crisp outlines. Add the red layer, give it a 75 per cent Opacity and remove the dark areas. Continue this process with the remaining layers. The white layer must remain intact.

Now return to the eye and add the eshy parts of the inner eyelids. Select a eshy pink tone from the Colour palette and choose a hard round brush to apply it using various size strokes from nine to 30.

Hide the skin layers 2, 3, 4 and 5 and start to erase layer 6. Give layers 1 and 6 a transparency of 50 per cent. Then, using the Eraser at 25 per cent Opacity, choose a brush and start to erase the darkest areas of each layer from top to bottom where you want lighter areas to show through.

STAND OUT
When trying to give solidity to an object within your image , try and use some perspective. If you are placing a button onto an image, for example, dont just place an unaltered scan. Use the Move tool to select it, and then in the Edit drop menu select either the Skew, Distort or Perspective tools to change its shape. This way itll look like its sitting on the surface you assigned it to.

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Once you have removed all of the unwanted areas, and are happy with the image so far, merge all of the skin layers and make adjustments where needed. This is your opportunity to add tone, lighten areas, change colour values, or correct the shape of noses, cheeks and eyes.

You can now add freckles and random black dots to the face on a separate layer using a Brush of your choice. Change the Blending Mode from Normal to Overlay. This will allow the dots to blend and the texture to come through from underneath.

Try to remove as much of layer 6 as you can. Most of this layer should be removed by the time you have nished, leaving only creases, nostrils and ne lines.

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PHOTOSHOP

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When you are happy with the tones and shading, use the Eraser tool and a brush to clean up the edges. Make sure that the brush is set to 100 per cent Opacity.

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Once you are happy with the colours and tones of the hair, merge the layers and blur the edges as they move further away. You can then start to lightly desaturate the edges using the Quick Mask mode and a brush.

MATCH THEM UP
If using different elements (scanned photos or objects), ensure that they blend together within the image. Use the Hue/Saturation, Colour or Filter palettes to get the right light, shadow, colour tones and texture qualities. Your objects will soon look like they were meant to be together. Import hairtexture.jpeg from the cover CD. Create three layers and use the Selection Marquee to mark the area in a circle or oval shape. Select Inverse, delete any extra unwanted hair and assign a dark, medium and a light tone to the image. Work in the same way as you did for the skin (step 5), but ensure that the middle tone is more vibrant. Choose a round hard brush and apply a colour to the lips. Try to give the lips a glossy, plump look. Select the colours you want to use, the choice is up to you, but its best to keep it fairly neutral.

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TIME TO REFLECT
If you need to create a face, use either a mirror to view a reection of your work or ip the image horizontally. You will see things youve never noticed before when the image is reected back to front.

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Now place a screen to the left-hand side. Use the Perspective tool from the drop-box menu to transform the perspective. Drag the corners in so that the end furthest away from you gets smaller. Add a Gradient to the screen to make it darker at the top (and contrast with the background), and add a Gaussian Blur to give the image depth of eld.

Use a Selection Marquee to roughly select the lens areas of the sunglasses and then use the Eraser, diffused at 50 per cent, to delete the lower edge of the lens. This will give you a faded out look. On separate layers add high and low lights where required and use another layer to create the frame.

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Import silk.jpg from the cover CD a texture made from scanned brocade. You can now create the shirt by drawing a plain black and white shirt and darkening it using the brightness/contrast mode. Overlay the imported texture with a Blending Mode set at Hard Light. This will automatically provide you with a purple colour.

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Model the hand using the techniques you used for the face. Bring all of the elements together if you have created them in different les. Merge all of the layers and Copy and Paste them into your nal image. Make any necessary colour adjustments and add eyebrows and a diamond earring and shadow to the ear lobe (provided on the CD). Make any last minute tweaks until you are happy with the image and youre done.

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For the background, use a plain backdrop of your choice and add a contrasting gradient to make your gure stand out.

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