This tutorial has been published at graphics.com also.

I am always amazed by artists who can texture a scene in photoshop & give it a 3D look or a photo-realistic look. This is a very simple example to demonstrate the same concept. This approach saves a lot of time - instead of experimenting with textures in 3d, do it in Photoshop. Once you are clear about the final look, do it in 3D.

The idea for this project came when I recently saw a small engine vent in a vehicle. I drew a couple of simple sketches & finally settled down on this. I was tempted to start modeling in 3D & develop the concept along the way but decided to start in photoshop & explore the possibilities first. After a few trials, I ended up with an image like the finished one & dropped the idea of doing it in 3D altogether. Hence, this photoshop tutorial.

1) Drawing the vent

I drew an ellipse & tilted it slightly to the left. To get an extruded look, I duplicated a copy of the ellipse, made it white & offset it slightly to the bottom left, using the other ellipse as a mask. A set of thick horizontal lines were then rotated & masked. The vent on the wall is already taking shape.

To make the edges of the lines into a saw tooth shape, I deleted the extra portion of each line with the Polygonal Lasso Tool. Next, an off-white elliptical border was painted & blurred slightly, to give a beveled look to the wall edge. With a little refinement, my base template is ready. I could have prepared it in 3d also but this is supposed to be Photoshop tutorial !

2) Adding textures

I wanted to create a rusty vent with the rust dripping onto the walls & I found an image with sufficient details to get started. I placed it in such a way that the stain on the wall was exactly below the vent. Using a mask, reveal the vent. Increase contrast to bring out details.

To convert the dirty stain to a rust color, I overlayed it with an orange tint & burnt the stains. Only the stained areas were then masked out & composited onto our earlier image. This gives me a dull de-saturated wall with patches of rust here & there.

3) Detailing & lighting

Cut on the wall - Paint black along the cuts in the wall using the drawing as a reference. Reduce layer opacity, paint beveled edges, add a slight shadow for the inset wall & add a 2nd shadow diagonally.

Burn the corner junctions of the wall to simulate soft shadows and dirt. The wall at this stage is very grayish. To fix this, I made a copy of the wall layer & increased its saturation drastically, blurred it slightly & then blended this onto the wall. Add a tint of orange to the plate colors, do some more burning & the scene is almost ready.

A few more refinements & additional shadows on the wall & vent complete the picture. Using Photoshop like this as a pre-visualization tool really fast forwards the creation process.

Back to Photoshop tutorials