Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Manual (Page 584)

577 Last updated 1/10/2010
Chapter 19: 3D and technical imaging
Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended supports a variety of 3D file formats. You can manipulate and merge existing 3D
objects, create new 3D objects, edit and create 3D textures, and combine 3D objects with 2D images.
Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended also offers powerful tools for technical image analysis and editing, including
MATLAB integration, support for DICOM medical imaging formats, and image stack technology for sophisticated
image enhancement. Measurement tools let you precisely measure complex image content and record and export
measurement data.
3D overview (Photoshop Extended)
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) ” on page 585.
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.