Alucard1515
06-21-2007, 09:48 PM
Photoshop and perspective.
First off, I'm going to assume anyone reading this has a basic understanding of perspective already. I'm not going through basics of one, two, and three point perspective here. I'm just going to show you a method I sometimes use in Photoshop to help get me through some perspective problems. It's generally easier to do simple forms directly on the paper, but sometimes you have to do some complicated shapes, particularly curved shapess, and this can be aided by using Photoshop. It may not be the best way, but it's just something I do occassionally.
I generally start with a thumbnail or rough with everything indicated so I have a starting point, but I'm just showing you the method here. First of all, you'll need to establish a horizon line and vanishing points. I'm going to use two point perspective in the examples. It's usually a good idea to have your vanishing points OUTSIDE the image area to create less distortion, so I've indicated an image area with the grey box. Keep in mind, perspective can get messy. I'll usually have HUGE canvas areas just to fit the points on them (theyr're usually much further away). These examples are simplified, so they're not nearly as extreme. I'd also recommend keeping all this stuff on separate layers so if you screw something up you don't erase all this stuff. Anyway, here's the first example.
http://www.undeadart.com/temp/tut/1.gif
Now you're going to add a path for each vanishing point. I usually make them with three points just so I can see two lines from a VP at once, but as long as there's a point at the VP and one to play with, you're fine. I'd recommend zooming in to make sure the point is as close to the center of your VP as possible to make sure everything is pretty accurate.
http://www.undeadart.com/temp/tut/2.gif
These paths just make it easier to draw lines in perspective. To use the paths to do so, just select one group and then select the stroke option in the paths display. Unless you want to have a line going from the VP to the endpoint, use the marquee tool to select an area to constrain the lines drawn.
http://www.undeadart.com/temp/tut/3.gif
Now just draw out the vertical sides, and the other receding edges the same way.
http://www.undeadart.com/temp/tut/4.gif
Okay, great, now we have... a box. Let's say you wanted to do something interesting with it now, say make an archway on one side? I usually do this on the same image in a blank area, but for clarity, I'm going to draw this separately. This is fairly simple, so I won't show you ever step. Just turn the gridlines (with snap) to help line everything up, and then just use the selection tools to create a flat archway.
http://www.undeadart.com/temp/tut/5.gif
Now drag that image onto the other one and select tranform > distort. Then you'll want to drag the corners of this image to each of the corners on the side of the box. This gives you an archway in perspective!
http://www.undeadart.com/temp/tut/6.gif
Just draw in the receding lines.
http://www.undeadart.com/temp/tut/7.gif
Like I mentioned, that's just a basic example. There's a lot of different ways you could use this. I've set up small town scenes using this method a lot. It's also good for large elliptical areas or setting up grids. Generally when using this method, I just print it out then use a light box or transfer it to the paper. I wish I had some of the examples I did from Photoshop, but I generally trash them after I'm done. Here's an image I used the method with, though.
http://www.undeadart.com/gallery/death-gouche.jpg
The entire city was done using this method. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.
First off, I'm going to assume anyone reading this has a basic understanding of perspective already. I'm not going through basics of one, two, and three point perspective here. I'm just going to show you a method I sometimes use in Photoshop to help get me through some perspective problems. It's generally easier to do simple forms directly on the paper, but sometimes you have to do some complicated shapes, particularly curved shapess, and this can be aided by using Photoshop. It may not be the best way, but it's just something I do occassionally.
I generally start with a thumbnail or rough with everything indicated so I have a starting point, but I'm just showing you the method here. First of all, you'll need to establish a horizon line and vanishing points. I'm going to use two point perspective in the examples. It's usually a good idea to have your vanishing points OUTSIDE the image area to create less distortion, so I've indicated an image area with the grey box. Keep in mind, perspective can get messy. I'll usually have HUGE canvas areas just to fit the points on them (theyr're usually much further away). These examples are simplified, so they're not nearly as extreme. I'd also recommend keeping all this stuff on separate layers so if you screw something up you don't erase all this stuff. Anyway, here's the first example.
http://www.undeadart.com/temp/tut/1.gif
Now you're going to add a path for each vanishing point. I usually make them with three points just so I can see two lines from a VP at once, but as long as there's a point at the VP and one to play with, you're fine. I'd recommend zooming in to make sure the point is as close to the center of your VP as possible to make sure everything is pretty accurate.
http://www.undeadart.com/temp/tut/2.gif
These paths just make it easier to draw lines in perspective. To use the paths to do so, just select one group and then select the stroke option in the paths display. Unless you want to have a line going from the VP to the endpoint, use the marquee tool to select an area to constrain the lines drawn.
http://www.undeadart.com/temp/tut/3.gif
Now just draw out the vertical sides, and the other receding edges the same way.
http://www.undeadart.com/temp/tut/4.gif
Okay, great, now we have... a box. Let's say you wanted to do something interesting with it now, say make an archway on one side? I usually do this on the same image in a blank area, but for clarity, I'm going to draw this separately. This is fairly simple, so I won't show you ever step. Just turn the gridlines (with snap) to help line everything up, and then just use the selection tools to create a flat archway.
http://www.undeadart.com/temp/tut/5.gif
Now drag that image onto the other one and select tranform > distort. Then you'll want to drag the corners of this image to each of the corners on the side of the box. This gives you an archway in perspective!
http://www.undeadart.com/temp/tut/6.gif
Just draw in the receding lines.
http://www.undeadart.com/temp/tut/7.gif
Like I mentioned, that's just a basic example. There's a lot of different ways you could use this. I've set up small town scenes using this method a lot. It's also good for large elliptical areas or setting up grids. Generally when using this method, I just print it out then use a light box or transfer it to the paper. I wish I had some of the examples I did from Photoshop, but I generally trash them after I'm done. Here's an image I used the method with, though.
http://www.undeadart.com/gallery/death-gouche.jpg
The entire city was done using this method. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.