3D basics (Photoshop Extended)



Photoshop lets you open and work with 3D files created by programs like Adobe® Acrobat® 3D Version 8, 3D Studio Max, Alias, Maya, and Google Earth. Photoshop supports the following 3D file formats: U3D, 3DS, OBJ, KMZ, and DAE.

3D files can contain one or more of the following components:

Meshes
Provide the underlying structure of a 3D model. A mesh is often visualized as a wireframe, a skeletal structure built from thousands of individual polygons. A 3D model always has at least one mesh, and may combine multiple meshes. In Photoshop you can view meshes in a variety of render modes, and manipulate meshes independently of each other. While you can’t alter the actual polygons in a mesh, you can change its orientation and transform it by scaling along different axes. You can also create your own 3D meshes, using pre-supplied shapes or by converting existing 2D layers.

Materials
A mesh can have one or more materials associated with it, which control the appearance of all or part of the mesh. The material in turn relies on subcomponents called texture maps, whose cumulative effect creates the appearance of a material. The texture map itself is a 2D image file that creates various qualities such as color, pattern, shininess, or bumpiness. A Photoshop material can use up to nine different texture map types to define its overall appearance. See 3D Materials settings (Photoshop Extended).

Lights
Types include Infinite, Spot, and Point. You can move and adjust color and intensity of existing lights, and add new lights to your 3D scene.

3D files opened in Photoshop retain their textures, rendering, and lighting information. You can move or animate 3D models, change render modes, edit or add lights, or combined multiple 3D models into one 3D scene.

Textures appear as entries under a 3D layer in the Layers panel. You can open and edit textures separately as 2D files, or edit textures directly on the model, using Photoshop painting and adjustment tools.

You can also create 3D content from scratch within Photoshop, using a 2D layer as a starting point:

  • Wrap 2D layers around a variety of shape presets, such as cubes, spheres, cylinders, cones, or pyramids.

  • Create 3D postcards (planes which you can position and light in 3D space).

  • Create 3D meshes from grayscale or text layers.

You can add multiple 3D layers to an image, combine a 3D layer with two-dimensional (2D) layers to create a backdrop for your 3D content, or convert a 3D layer into a 2D layer or a Smart Object.

Note: To edit the polygon mesh of the 3D model itself, you must use a 3D authoring program.

For a video on working with 3D files in Photoshop, see www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4004_ps.

About OpenGL

OpenGL is a software and hardware standard that accelerates video processing when working with large or complex images, such as 3D files. OpenGL requires a video adapter that supports the OpenGL standard. Your performance when opening, moving, and editing 3D models is significantly improved on a system with OpenGL installed.

Note: If OpenGL is not detected on your system, Photoshop uses software-only ray-trace rendering to display 3D files.

If OpenGL is present on your system, you can enable it in Photoshop Preferences.

  1. Do one of the following:

    • (Windows) Choose Edit > Preferences > Performance.

    • (Mac OS) Choose Photoshop > Preferences > Performance.

  2. In the GPU pane, select Enable OpenGL Drawing.

  3. Click OK. The preference affects new (not currently open) windows. No restart is necessary.

Note: Enable OpenGL Drawing must be selected to display the 3D Axis, Ground Plane, and Lights widget.

Open a 3D file

You can open a 3D file on its own or add it to an open Photoshop file as a 3D layer. When adding a file as a 3D layer, the layer uses the dimensions of the existing file. A 3D layer contains the 3D model and a transparent background.

Photoshop can open the following 3D formats: U3D, 3DS, OBJ, DAE (Collada), and KMZ (Google Earth).

 Do one of the following:

  • Choose File > Open, and select a 3D file to open.

  • With a document open, choose 3D > New Layer From 3D File, then select a 3D file to open. This adds an existing 3D file as a layer to your current file.

Note: A 3D layer does not preserve any background or alpha information from the original 3D file.

If you add a 3D file layer to an existing file, it appears above the currently selected layer and becomes the active layer.