3D in Photoshop

by Jim Zuckerman

Andromeda Software, Inc. makes a Photoshop plug-in that easily allows you to get involved in using 3D objects in your photos. Their plug-in 3D-Luxe gives you four objects to work with – a cube, sphere, a plane, and a cylinder. Within the software, you manipulate the size and orientation of each object (for example, the cube can become a long, flat rectangle), and then you can ‘texture map’ one of your photos onto the 3D object. The photo can be wrapped around the object as a single image or, as in the case of the picture below, you can ‘tile’ the photo so it repeats over the entire surface.

To make the composite that you see here, I used the sphere that comes with 3D-Luxe to texture map a picture of clouds onto it, and then I used the same cloud photo as a background for the sphere. The sphere was merely cut and pasted onto the clouds. I then cut and pasted a photo of my wife onto the surreal cloud combination to complete this fantasy juxtaposition. There are much more sophisticated 3D programs and 3D models that you can get, but for an inexpensive and relatively easy way to begin working with three- dimensional objects, this plug-in from Andromeda is great. It opens up a new avenue of creativity for you.