PW126 - Photoshop CS5 Review - Repoussé Tool

In today's show we examine one of the new 3D features in Photoshop CS5 Extended, the Repoussé Tool. This tool can be used to extrude shapes and turn them into 3D objects. I'll show you how it all works and then introduce you to another tool that does many of the same things but for far less money.

PW126 - Photoshop CS5 Review - Repoussé Tool

Comments

[Steve Bark]

Hi John,
Just a quick note about your tutorial. It was very good, but you made an error in saying that you can't animate 3D objects in CS5. Photoshop CS5 extended has extremely advanced animation capabilities and you can animate the camera view as well as the object. You can also get around the blockyness issue to some extent by starting with a high res document, 600ppi +.

Keep up the good work.

Steve

[John Arnold]

Thanks for the feedback Steve. I'm showing the edges of my knowledge there I'm afraid. I confess that 3D really isn't my thing so I was unaware of the 3D animation capabilities. I'll try to remember to mention that correction in the next show. I have to wonder, though, why 3D animation is in Photoshop at all when there are many better, more specialised tools available on the market. Seems like worditis(1) to me.

I was aware that a higher res document would ameliorate the blocky edges problem - in fact I think I mentioned that I was using a low res document for the demo and that was part of the issue. But I stand by my disappointment that vector based true type fonts can't remain as vectors when being extruded. That seems dumb when 3D is all about vectors and this rasterization step reduces the quality of the final output.

(1) Worditis - the tendancy to add features to a product regardless of their usefulness or relevance simply to have something to announce at each major version launch. See also "creeping featurism" and "bloatware"

[Mark]

Great show,

Wish you didn't use Flash, cant see this on my ipad without downloading!!

Thanks,
Mark

[John Arnold]

Thanks for the feedback. The flash thing is very much in the forefront of my mind. I'm working on some code that will make the embedded shows work on all browsers and devices. In fact I could do that right now - the only hold-up is making it forward compatible so it works on future browsers too without me having to change the code in every post again. So please keep watching. I have an iPad too and I really mean for the site to be fully working on there as soon as possible.