ChrisHPZ
Power User
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Hi PSG'ers, how we doing. So for the last few weeks I've been toying with Ps's 3D tools with the help of some Lynda.com tuts. I'll be the first to admit that this has been a daunting thing to learn for me; mostly because I haven't had any hands on practice with 3D before. Anyway, the image below is the latest from yours truly. I learned about Depth Maps, what they do and how they work. Here's the lowdown. Basically, a 3D depth map works with black, white and shades of grey to deliver extrusions and intrusions. Think of it this way, white creates hills, black creates valleys, and shades of grey essentially do both depending on the brightness value. Ok, so with that in mind Ps has the perfect yet seemingly useless filter for laying the groundwork when working with depth maps. Enter Filter>Render>Clouds. When creating a depth map with this filter, it is entirely possible and quite easy to make those awesome terrain maps that we see coming out of Maya or some other nosebleed 3D application. Also, Ps's depth map does not have to be constrained to terrain maps. It can also be used for 3D structures. On the right side of this image is some kind of alien structure and it was made with a simple diamond gradient then converted to a depth map. Parts of the structure that rise represent the white portions of the gradient, and the opposite for the black areas of the gradient. That's what I did with this image. Now you might notice that the focal point of this image is the terrain and structure, and the shadows in the foreground area of the mountains. Somehow it made sense to arrange the lighting like this because of the mist, clouds, or whatever you want to call it behind the terrain. Although I don't have scientific evidence that this is how it would look in real life, it looked good so I went with it. Creating the depth map is easy enough. What I really wanted to concentrate on this time around was lighting. I've been told before that the lighting in my images has not always been "right". And I agree. One thing at a time I guess. Oh yeah, I'm well aware that there's some areas in the terrain that could've used some more attention. But the truth of the matter is that 8GB of RAM, a high end video card and processor only go so far. I crashed Photoshop 6 or 7 times during this composition. Inspiration for this image came from listening to a show called The Universe. Anyway, hope everyone enjoys.
