This Tutorial will show you how to easily create a 3d vase with smooth shading. You will be able to apply the concepts taught in this tutorial to other items also.
To start off create a 500 by 500 document with a black background. Create a new layer and fill it with the color you want your vase to be, I chose a light blue. Now add Filter-Noise-Add Noise. The settings are 5% Gaussian and monochromatic.
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Yours should now look like the above image.
Now you can add a symbol on the vase if you like. I chose to just add on a nice, well I have no idea, but I like it.
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Place your symbol in the center on the same layer as your texture like this.
Now you are ready to move on to making this look 3d. To continue you can use the easy and realistic way to create 3d objects in Photoshop by downloading the 3d Transform filter from this website http://www.freeflashmenu.com/3dtransform.htm. Now I know some of you may be thinking this is a useless filter but I will ask you now to continue with this tutorial and you will learn that this assumption is incorrect.
Create a new layer and fill it with white. Now go to Filter-3d Transform.
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Drag out a cylinder like the one shown above.
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Now use the add anchor point tool to distort it into the above shape.
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Again use the add anchor point tool to make your shape like the one above
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Use the Trackball and Pan tools to position it like the above image. If yours has a white background then refer to the settings below to change it. The shading only shows if you rotate it to the other side, try and have the majority of your object covered by shading.
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Apply these setting in the options to get the best and most high quality effect.
You now have 3 layers one with just a background of black one with a texture and symbol and one with a white 3d object with shading. Now all there is to be done is to transfer your texture to the 3d object. At this point it is a good idea to lower the opacity of your top layer (3d object) and position it so that it is at the right place as to have the symbol where you want it to be on it when you are finished. Raise the opacity of your top layer again and we are ready to continue. Select everything on you top layer (3d object) by holding Ctrl and clicking the small thumbnail showing what is on it that is located in the layers window.
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Everything is now selected.
Now apply Filter-Blur-Gaussian Blur with a Radius of 3.5. Keep your selection.
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Gaussian blurred so that the shading is smooth, the selection is also still there.
Click on you second layer and go to Select-Inverse then hit delete to delete all of the texture that is outside the border of your 3d objects, you can now deselect.
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You can see some of the edges of your texture due to the Gaussian blur, this will make a dramatic backlight effect later on.
Click your top layer and set its blending mode to multiply, then duplicate the layer to increase the shading.
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Shading is now applied to the texture.
The rest of this tutorial won\'t really be anything new but it will make it look more 3d and also a bit more like a vase.
Now I am going to show you how to create the hole that shows the inside of the vase. Create a new layer in between the texture and the first shading layer. Make a selection like the one shown below with the elliptical marquee tool.
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the selection should seem to be on the same 3d plane as the top of the vase.
Select the gradient tool and make or select an already made gradient from black to transparency. Now drag the gradient tool from the centre horizontally and bottom vertically up to the top of your document.
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Here is what your tool should look like before you release
Now lower the opacity of this layer to %50.
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It should now look like this.
to create a rounded off lip to the jar select the top half of it then Select-Feather and use 5 as your settings, now go to Filter-Blur-Gaussian Blur and blur it with a radius of 1.5.
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This image shows the selection and how it will look after the Gaussian blur.
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This technique is very easy and can be used to achieve amazing results, below is my finished vase after I added flowers. Something to remember is that you are not limited to vases with this technique; you could also try other objects like an apple, a can, an hourglass. I'm even going to try making some vines like this. I hope you learned something from this and I want to see what other objects or different vases you can come up with. Goodbye.
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Also can the admin of this forum or someone else who has a high rank on this forum please submit this to Good-Tutorials/Pixel2Life as I want it to count towards 13 Dots reputation.