To
start off, open up your 3D image in
Photoshop.
If you want to follow along using this
exact file, then you can get it here.
It's a good habit to right away duplicate
your base layer, so you're always working
on top of a copy of the original (left
click on layer, choose duplicate layer).
Then, lock and hide your base layer,
just to be safe.
Right away the solid-light-blue-negative-space
attracts the eye, so that's got to be
replaced by something a little more
divided. If you're ultracool then you'll
have created the background in 3d and
can skip this step, but if your not
ultracool then you can do things this
way.
Choosing
an background image:
The background image is only meant to
take up negative space, meaning it should
be something that does not attract attention
and the more it blends in, the better.
For this reason, a blurrier diffused
image will be used.
I'm
going to choose this picture by 3dTotal's
WebGuru Tom for my background, simply
because it has elements that work for
my piece and Tom will probably get a
kick outa this. Now, as it is, this
image won't work so well as a background...
But
after heavy doctoring it'll be perfect!
By cropping, rotating the image, blurring,
and adjusting the levels I was able
to create something that sufficiently
broke up the background area for me.
(I planned ahead a little with this,
so trust me, it should look OK in the
end). You
can grab this image to work with here.
Creating
a background will be a little different
in every scenario. You can use just
about anything to create something that
blend in and no one will notice. In
fact, the less it's noticed, the better.
Once you've got your background ready,
then copy and paste it into a new layer
on your 3d piece. Now open your Channels
Palette and hold the Control button
while left clicking on the "Alpha"
or "Alpha 1" Channel.
This
loads the channel as a selection.
(Ctrl+click works for layers and masks
as well, by the way).
You may need to invert your selection,
depending on whether or not your alpha
channel had the background as black
or white. Ctrl+click will select whatever
is white in the channel, which you
can see (in the tiny thumbnail in
the picture just above) is the foreground,
not the background.
If it's necessary to select the invert,
simple hold Control and Shift while
you tap the "I" key. Regardless,
you want a selection of what your
background will be.
Now,
click back on the Layers Palette and
click on your layer with the "background"
(be careful not to mix this up with
the "Background" layer,
which is Photoshop's default name for
the lowest layer in your stack of layers)
By clicking the little mask layer icon,
you'll automatically create a mask over
the layer in the shape of your alpha
channel.
This
is what you'd end up with.
It
doesn't look like much, but it's a start.
Now's a good time to invest in some
good habits. Rename your layers so you
won't get confused later on. I renamed
my base layer as "original",
my base copy as "work copy"
and my masked 'background' image as
"negative space". You may
need to unlock the bottom layer to change
it's name.
It's
also a good idea to unlink the mask
from the layer. Do this by clicking
the little link/unlink symbol. After
you unlink the mask, click on the little
layer thumbnail to manipulate just the
layer. Click on the mask thumbnail to
manipulate just the mask. You would
link the mask and layer when you want
to manipulate them together.
The final good habit to get into is
to save. A lot. Save this file as a
.psd to preserve all the channels and
layers.
Now
that the background is in place, we
need to adjust it so that it looks like
it fits better. The original negative
space was a light blue that I had selected
to match the image, so by lowering the
layer opacity I can let a little bit
of that blue shine through.
By
changing the blending mode of the layer
to overlay, I was able to increase the
negative space's illuminance.
I brightened the opacity again too,
finally settling on 85%. This more luminous
feel will become helpful later on when
we begin to work with the backlighting
glow.
For
now the background is about done, and
we're ready to move on to the next step,
Glows and Highlights.
