How To Paint 3d In Photoshop

In this Photoshop Text Effects tutorial, we're going to learn how to easily wrap text around a 3D object in Photoshop, without the need for any 3D software. We're going to be wrapping our text around a planet, but you can use this same basic technique to wrap text around just about anything. You'll need Photoshop CS or higher for this tutorial, since we'll be using Photoshop's 'text on a path' feature, and then we'll be using Free Transform to reshape our text into a 3D perspective. Finally, we'll be using a layer mask to hide the text where it passes behind the object, giving us our final 3D effect.

1. Adobe Paint 3d
2. Editing Photos In Paint 3d
3. Paint Bucket Tool Photoshop Cc
4. How To Paint 3d In Photoshop Brushes

Prepare your Photoshop file for 3D printing You will then be directed to the i.materialise upload page. Upload the 3D file that you just saved on your computer and you will instantly see the price for your high-quality 3D print. Upload your Photoshop 3D file and get your 3D print.

Here's the image of the planet (good old Planet Earth) I'll be wrapping the text around:

• Now go to the new menu drop-down called '3D'. Select 'New Shape from Layer' and choose 'Spherical Panorama'. Your panorama will now become a 3D space with the photo surrounding the viewer. Converting a 2D image into a 3D sphere is a highly mathematical task.
• I use Photoshop's 3D paint features just about every day. It's not my go-to 3D paint program, though. I tend to use Mudbox to do most of the heavy lifting, since it's infinitely faster to work with, it's far more stable and reliable, and because it's a true 3D paint program, as opposed to Photoshop's oddball hybrid of 3D and 2D, it's just easier.

And here's what the image will look like after wrapping our 3D text around it:

Let's get started!

Step 1: Select The Elliptical Marquee Tool

The first thing I need to do for this effect is to drag out a circular selection around the planet, and for that, I'll use the tool that Photoshop includes for just such a task, the Elliptical Marquee Tool. Select it from the Tools palette. By default, it's hiding behind the Rectangular Marquee Tool, so you'll need to click on the Rectangular Marquee Tool and hold your mouse down for a second or two until the small fly out menu appears, and then select the Elliptical Marquee Tool from the list:

Step 2: Drag A Selection Around The Object, A Bit Larger Than The Object Itself

With my Elliptical Marquee Tool selected, I'm going to position my mouse as close to the center of the planet as possible to start with. Then I'm going to hold down my Shift key to constrain my selection to a perfect circle and I'm going to hold down my Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) key to tell Photoshop to use the point I'm about to click on as the center of my selection, so the selection extends out in all directions from that point. Then I'm simply going to click in the center of the planet and drag out a selection until my selection is a bit larger than the planet, giving my text room to wrap around it.

Chances are, the spot where I initially clicked my mouse was not the dead center of the planet, which means my selection will need to be repositioned. To move the selection around on the screen and reposition it as I'm dragging it out, I'll hold down my spacebar, which allows me to move the selection around wherever I want it, and then I'll release the spacebar to continue dragging the selection larger.

Continue dragging and repositioning the selection until it's properly aligned with the object and a bit larger than the object itself:

Step 3: Convert The Selection Into A Path

We now have our selection around the object, and we're going to use it to add our text to the image, using Photoshop's 'text on a path' feature. Problem is, our selection is a selection, not a path. Fortunately, Photoshop makes it easy to convert any selection into a path. To do that, switch over to your Paths palette, which you'll find grouped in by default with the Layers and Channels palettes. The Paths palette will appear empty, since we currently don't have any paths in our document. To convert the selection into a path, click on the Make Work Path From Selection icon at the bottom of the Paths palette (it's the third icon from the right):

As soon as you click on the icon, Photoshop converts the selection into a path, and the new 'Work Path' appears in the Paths palette:

Adobe Paint 3d

And if we look back in our image, we can see that the dotted lines of our selection have been replaced with a thin solid line, which is our path:

We can now use this path, along with the 'text on a path' feature in Photoshop CS and higher, to add our text, which we'll do next.

Step 4: Select The Type Tool

Switch back over to your Layers palette at this point. It's time to add our text. For that, we need to use Photoshop's Type Tool, so either select if from the Tools palette or press the letter T on your keyboard:

With the Type Tool selected, go up to the Options Bar at the top of the screen and select your font and font size. This 3D effect works best if you use a font with thick letters, so I'm going to choose Helvetica Black as my font. You can choose whichever font you like from the ones you have installed on your system, but again, try to pick one with nice thick letters, and also one that's easily readable. You'll need to experiment with the size of your font, since it will depend a lot on the size of the object you're wrapping your text around and even more so on the size and resolution of the image you're using. I'm using a 14pt font size for this tutorial, but again, you'll need to experiment on your own with your image:

Step 5: Choose A Color For Your Text

While you're up in the Options Bar, let's choose a color for our text. To do that, click on the color swatch:

This brings up Photoshop's Color Picker where you can choose whichever color you like for your text. I'm going to choose a bright yellowish-orange color, which should stand out nicely against the mostly blue planet as well as the black background:

Click OK once you've chosen your color to exit out of the dialog box.

Step 6: Type Your Text Along The Circular Path

With our font, font size and text color selected, we can add our text, and we want to add it so that it follows along the circular path we've created. To do that, move your mouse cursor over the part of the path where you want to begin typing. I'm going to start my text somewhere along the top of the path. As you move your mouse cursor over the path, you'll notice that the cursor changes from having a dotted square around it to a squiggly line running through it. That squiggly line tells you that you're about to type directly on the path and that your text will follow along the shape of the path, which is exactly what we want. To add your type, simply click on the path and begin typing. The effect will work best if you use all capital letters. I'm going to type 'WELCOME TO PLANET EARTH':

Since I want my text to appear to fully wrap around the planet, I'm going to type the exact same sentence again at the end of it:

If you look closely, you can see that I've run into a small problem. There isn't enough space along my path to fit in all my text, and the word 'EARTH' in the top left has been cut off. To fix that, I'm going to double-click directly on the type layer's thumbnail in the Layers palette, which is going to tell Photoshop to select all of my text at once:

My text will appear highlighted in white in my image. Then, with my text selected, I'm going to hold down my Alt (Win) / Option key and press the left arrow key on my keyboard a couple of times to close up the space between the letters until there's enough room to fit in all of my text and the word 'EARTH' appears:

To space both sentences an equal distance apart and close up that large gap at the top, I'm going to click my mouse between the two sentences at the bottom (between the words 'EARTH' and 'WELCOME' ) and again holding down Alt (Win) / Option (Mac), I'm going to press my left bracket key a few times to add a little extra space between the two words until the text looks equally balanced all along the path.

When I'm happy with the spacing of my text, I'm going to press Ctrl+H (Win) / Command+H (Mac) to hide the path from view, leaving me with just my planet and my text circled and nicely spaced around it:

Our text is now circling around the planet but it looks very much two-dimensional and not very interesting. We're going to bring it into the third dimension next.

Step 7: Use Free Transform To Distort The Text Into A 3D Perspective

Now comes the fun part. We're going to convert our text into 3D! Or at least, we're going to create the illusion that it's 3D, anyway. Photoshop isn't a true 3D program, but we can still fake it. To do that, we'll use Photoshop's Free Transform command. With the type layer selected in the Layers palette, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+T (Win) / Command+T (Mac) to bring up the Free Transform handles around the text:

To bend my text into a 3D perspective, I'm going to hold down Ctrl+Alt (Win) / Command+Option (Mac) and then drag the Free Transform handle in the top right corner in towards the center of the planet. The further inward I drag, the more of a 3D perspective I create with my text:

When you're happy with the way your text looks, press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) to accept the transformation:

Step 8: Add A Layer Mask To The Text Layer

Things are definitely starting to look more 3D, except for one minor detail. Our text isn't wrapping around the object, it's just sitting there in front of it. To really give us a 3D look, we need to hide the text in the areas where it's supposed to be behind the object, and we can do that using a layer mask. With the text layer still selected, click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

This adds a layer mask to the text layer, and it also adds a layer mask thumbnail in the Layers palette. We can tell that the layer mask is currently selected because the thumbnail has a white highlight border around it:

Step 9: Make A Selection Around Your Object

I want to hide the text that's supposed to be behind the planet, so I'm going to grab my Elliptical Marquee Tool once again and, just as I did at the beginning of this tutorial, I'm going to use it to drag out a selection around the planet. This time though, I want my selection to extend only to the edge of the planet, not an area around the outside of it like we did before. So once again, I'm going to click approximately in the center of the planet, and holding down Shift+Alt (Win) / Shift+Option (Mac), I'm going to drag out a circular selection around the planet. If I need to reposition my selection as I'm dragging, I'll again hold down my spacebar and move the selection around on the screen as needed, then I'll release the spacebar and continue dragging.

Here's my image with my planet selected:

Step 10: Paint With Black Inside The Selection To Hide The Text

With our layer mask added to the text layer and a selection around the planet, we can easily hide the text that's supposed to be behind the planet by simply painting over the text. First we need our brush, so select the Brush Tool from the Tools palette, or press B on your keyboard:

Editing Photos In Paint 3d

Then, with black as your Foreground color, simply paint over the text you want to hide. Since we're painting on the layer mask, not the layer itself, we won't be painting black on the image. Instead, anywhere where we paint with black will hide the contents of the layer. I need to hide the text in the top part of the planet, so I'll paint over it with my Brush Tool. Thanks to the selection I created, I don't have to worry about being sloppy with my brush and accidentally painting beyond the edge of the planet, since Photoshop will only allow me to paint inside the selection. Anywhere I paint outside of it is ignored:

Continue painting over the text until you've hidden everything that needs to be hidden. When you're done, press Ctrl+D (Win) / Command+D (Mac) to remove the selection. If your path under the text became visible again, press Ctrl+H (Win) / Command+H (Mac) to hide it from view.

Here's my image after painting over the text along the top to hide it, creating the illusion that the text is now circling the planet in 3D:

Step 11: Add A Gradient Overlay Layer Style

To finish things off, let's add a bit of lighting to our text using one of Photoshop's Layer Styles. Click on the Layer Styles icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Then select Gradient Overlay from the list:

This brings up the Layer Style dialog box set to the Gradient Overlay options in the middle column. By default, Photoshop gives us a black to white gradient, which is what we want. Rather than using the gradient to colorize our text though and make it black and white, we're going to use it to add a simple lighting effect. First, change the Blend Mode option at the top from 'Normal' to Vivid Light by clicking on the down-pointing arrow to the right of the word 'Normal' and selecting 'Vivid Light' from the list. Then lower the Opacity value down to about 60%. Finally, change the Angle option at the bottom to 0°:

Paint Bucket Tool Photoshop Cc

Click OK when you're done to exit out of the dialog box and apply the Gradient Overlay style to the text, and you're done! Here's the final effect with my simple lighting effect added to the text:

Where to go next...

And there we have it! Visit our Text Effects or Photo Effects sections for more Photoshop effects tutorials!

You can export an image of your model as it appears in the 3D View as a .psd file. Mudbox saves an image of the 3D view and sends it to Photoshop, where you can create new paint textures or perform touch up work with Photoshop tools, keeping the view of your 3D model as a reference. You can then re-import the paint layer back into Mudbox and update with the changes you made in Photoshop.

Best practices

For best results, consider the following tips before exporting an image of your Mudbox screen to Photoshop.

• Turn off the 3D grid and wireframe display options. (Disable Display > Grid and Display > Wireframe.)
• Turn off all viewport filters (in the Viewport Filter window.)
• Subdivide to about 100,000 to 200,000 visible polygons.

  If you will click Use 2X Screen Size in the Save Screen Image window, you can double this figure, or Use 4X Screen Size, you can quadruple. If you have too many polygons, single pixel dropouts can occur when you re-import the paint layer.

• Paint on portions of the surface that are mostly normal (90 degrees) to the camera position.

  Paint on surface areas that are somewhat oblique can appear smeared when you re-import the paint layer. Once the angle of the surface relative to the camera is greater than 65 degrees off normal, the projection falls off sharply.

• Remember that this workflow supports 8 bits per channel (unlike Export a paint channel containing multiple layers or Export a single paint layer). HDR information can be lost in this process.

To export an image of your Mudbox screen to Photoshop

1. (In Mudbox) Set up your model in the 3D View as you want it to appear on the paint layer in Photoshop. (Dolly, track or tumble the view as required.)
2. In the Paint Layers window, solo the diffuse paint layer you want to export with the image of the 3D View. (See Solo a paint layer.)

   Soloing the layer makes it the only visible paint layer, temporarily hiding any other diffuse layers that are not required.

   Note

   Diffuse paint layers are the only layer type available for export and re-import using this workflow.

3. Select File > Export Screen to PSD from the main menu bar (Windows Hotkey: Alt + E) (Mac OS X Hotkey: Command + E).

   The Export Screen Image to PSD window appears.

4. Set the resolution you want for the exported image, then click Export to PSD.

   You can enter a custom Width and Height for the image (in pixels), click Use Screen Size to automatically set the Width and Height to your current screen resolution, or click Use 2X Screen Size or Use 4X Screen Size for greater resolution.

   Note

   If you enter custom Width and Height values, ensure that the resulting image aspect ratio matches the screen resolution exactly. Otherwise, the texture may not align correctly with the model when re-imported. Using an exact integer multiple of the current screen size is recommended.

5. In the file browser window that appears, set the directory path, enter a filename, then click Save.

   Mudbox automatically launches Photoshop and the file appears in the Canvas view. If Photoshop doesn't launch automatically, see Troubleshoot paint layers.

   Note Mudbox materials containing high specular values or reflection maps do not display in Photoshop exactly as they appear in Mudbox. This does not affect your paint layer work, and will appear correct again in Mudbox when you re-import the file.

   In Photoshop, the Layers window (Hotkey: F7) contains five layers exported from Mudbox (listed in order from bottom to top):

   Expand here for more information on each layer exported from Mudbox.
6. (In Photoshop) Perform any paint work or edits as required on the Mudbox Texture layer.

   If you create any other paint layers in the file, merge them with the Mudbox Texture layer before saving the file and returning to work in Mudbox.

   Important When editing the file in Photoshop, do not change the Layer blend mode setting nor any of the original layer names. Changing the layer names can prevent Mudbox from aligning the camera correctly, or determining the correct paint layer to apply as a stencil.
7. Save the .psd file (File > Save).
8. (In Mudbox) With the original model loaded in the 3D View, and the original paint layer selected, select File > Reimport from PSD (Windows Hotkey: Alt + R) (Mac OS X Hotkey: Command + R).
   Note

   Mudbox projects the paint onto the selected layer. You can select a different layer than the original if you want to apply the Photoshop edits to a different layer.

9. In the Reimport from PSD window that appears, select the file you saved in Photoshop and click Open.

   Importing the PSD file causes the following to occur:

   • Resets the camera view to the position it had when the PSD file was originally exported.
   • The pixels in the original paint layer are compared with the pixels in the Mudbox Texture layer from the .psd file; any pixels that changed based on the edits in the .psd file are automatically projected onto the model and the model is updated.
   • If Mudbox determines that the PSD file is valid, the following HUD message is displayed: Modifications found in Imported Layer --autoprojecting.

     The projection of the edited pixels within the PSD file occurs on the model.

   NoteReimport from PSD uses the stencil tool. If you have a stencil currently selected, it is replaced with the imported texture. When the re-import and auto-projection are successful, the stencil remains hidden. If the auto-projection does not occur as expected, or you receive an error message stating a problem within the PSD file the stencil may be displayed in the 3D View. It can also be manually displayed by pressing the Q key. In these situations, refer to the Troubleshoot paint layers topic for possible solutions.
10. Save the file in Mudbox to ensure the Photoshop edits are updated in the original texture files associated with the diffuse paint layer.

Related topics

Mudbox and Photoshop overview

Save or export paint layers

How To Paint 3d In Photoshop Brushes

Troubleshoot paint layers