Introducing the Photoshop 3D Workspace

New world of 3D in Photoshop! Whether you are a seasoned Photoshop user who wants to learn a little
more about the new 3D environment in Photoshop CS3 Extended or a 3D designer looking to improve your creations by using the tools in Photoshop, this book has something for you.

The 3D environment in Photoshop is limited compared to the 3D environments that can be found in modeling programs. That’s because Photoshop isn’t meant to create, redesign, or even animate 3D objects or scenes. What it is meant for is what it already does an incredible job of doing: using its powerful filters, styles, and other paint tools to improve the way a 3D image looks dramatically and to create fantastic composites. I’m going to start at the very beginning, showing you the basics of the new 3D workspace, and how to manipulate objects in the workspace. Then I’ll show you how you can change the look of a 3D object by editing its textures or applying filters and styles to it. I’ll wrap up by showing you how you can use all these tools in conjunction with masks to create image composites using 3D objects.

Because I want you to be able to follow along, and to some extent create the same effects that I create, I use the 3D models that come with your Photoshop installer DVD. If you didn’t buy Photoshop in a bundle, these
bonus content files are contained on the same DVD as the Photoshop application. If you did buy Photoshop in a bundle, with Design Premium for example, you received a content DVD as well as an application DVD that includes the 3D models. Every time I use a model provided by Photoshop, I will remind you that you can find it in the bonus content, and I will tell you how to browse to it.


Working with 3D objects in Photoshop will soon become second nature for you. The 3D models provided by Photoshop are well done but very basic, especially in the textures (or lack of textures) provided. This makes them perfect for learning how the tools in Photoshop can really enhance how they look. As you learn new concepts, please play around with other models provided by Photoshop or some of your own. The techniques I am going to show you will work just as well on sophisticated 3D models as the simple ones you’ll be using in this book. First things first: Before you can have fun with 3D models, you have to start at the beginning. This chapter covers an introduction to 3D basics, including 3D file types, the 3D environment, and an in-depth overview of the Layers palette.