Tips & Tricks

One of the best ways to enhance your final images is to apply some post- processing work with the help of image manipulation software like Photoshop and basic rendering applications. There are numerous packages out there that deliver the same or similar results but we will stick with Photoshop for image editing since it is the most commonly used by the professionals. Here at Tips & Tricks we will select and publish some off site/on site links of the most commonly used ’tricks of the trade’ and a few new ones. We will also include a few nice little tutorials on rendering techniques too. Treat this area as a library of useful ideas and methods for post-processing and come back and have a go at them when you need to. We will also feature the most popular modeling, animation and rendering packages available off the shelf. We are certain that these tips & tricks will greatly improve your skills and your final presentation.

How to Draw People – three simple tips by Jim Leggitt

If you cannot draw a figure from imagination, trace it from a photograph, recycle a figure from a previous drawing or incorporate a computer generated figure.  I have a collection of figures from SketchUp that I commonly use to trace from. Take digital photos of people in a shopping mall or a retail street and begin your own collection of people images to trace from.

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Basic Principles of Digital Matte Painting by Daniel Johnson

Digital Matte Painting is a huge creative field that can add wonder and excitement to static film shots. Learn about digital matte painting principles, like set extension, camera mapping, as well as professional tips that matte painters employ. See this brief overview of the process.

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Perspective Basics: A Draw Through Technique by Gavin L

Want to learn some basic perspective drawing skills? Gavin states ” Be it for a design, illustration or just for leisure, you can use this new technique to assist you with your work. If you were trying to communicate designs quickly it wouldn’t be realistic to try and incorporate this technique perfectly every time. But I hope that learning this may improve your overall work flow where you need it ” We will all learn something from this great tutorial.

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Landscape Composition Rules by Johannes Vloothuis

Tips on composition of your landscape art by Johannes Vloothuis

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V-Ray Rendering an Interior Scene by Trinity3D.com

Render an interior scene using V-Ray.

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Create Stunning 3D Text Free with SketchUp by Joshua Johnson

A great little tutorial on how to  create awesome 3D text with Google SketchUp and Photoshop.

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Fake a Water Reflection by Jo Cole

Create realistic water reflections using Photoshop, a photo and a displacement map in this quick and simple tutorial by Jo Cole. Don’t worry if you have never ventured into the world of displacement maps before – they are very easy to use.

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Fixing Lighting Irregularities in Self Tiling Maps by Jeremy Birn

If you get color and lighting shifts running across your original image, this tutorial shows how to get rid of overall color and brightness shifts before making a tiling map.

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SketchUp Shortcut: A Master 2D People Model by Jim Leggitt

Have you ever been bogged down locating and inserting 2D people into a Google SketchUp model?  If you don’t have well organized component files and are spending way too much time trying to find 2D people on 3D Warehouse, then there is an easy solution for you. This nice working idea by Jim Leggitt will get you organized!

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Carpet Tutorial – V-Ray for SketchUp by Eric

Nice little tutorial by Eric on applying material and bump map to produce some nice carpet!

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Digital Watercolor Architectural Rendering in Photoshop by Scott Baumberger

‘Mountain Lodge’ is a step by step guide to making a digital watercolor rendering in PhotoShop. This model was built in SketchUp and AutoCad and all files were then compiled in one model file in 3D Studio Max for rendering. Scott has a great technique and eye for detail. Don’t miss this one!

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Understanding IES Lights by Atul Dravid

This tutorial will teach you how to use IES files in your scenes. You need to have a basic understanding of 3ds max work-flow and at least one IES file with you to complete this tutorial.

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HDRi Sky Lighting Tutorial by Peter Guthrie

A quick tutorial on how to use HDRi Skydomes by Peter Guthrie.  Peter is a freelance visualization artist based in Falun, Sweden.

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Guide to Photoshop’s 3D Tools by Alvaro Guzman

Alvaro Guzman shows you how to  open a 3D file to rotating, scaling and moving it, working with meshes, creating textures or even materials, adding lights, and more. This tutorial covers most of the secrets of the useful feature 3D Tools of Photoshop CS4 Extended. If you have it, why don’t you try? I can assure you that you will discover a brand new world of infinite possibilities.

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Making an Interior Scene by Kuba Dabrowski

In this tutorial I will show you how to create a simple interior scene based on a reference photo, using 3D Studio Max. I wanted to make it basic and simple for beginners without any complicated advanced settings.

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Add Lighting to 3D Model in Photoshop by Stephen Burns

Stephen Burns uses Photoshop to apply 3D lighting to a model and the photographic background that he has added behind it. There are three other parts in this series.

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Easy Watercolor Painting Effect – In Photoshop by Steve Patterson

In this Photoshop tutorial Steve Patterson shows us how to make an imgae look more like a watercolor painting. This effect works best on images where maintaining rich colors and strong contrast is more important than keeping any fine details, since you will be losing alot of detail with this effect.

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Realistic Watercolor Effect – In Photoshop by DesignSpot.net

Even if its name might suggest it, it’s not always sufficient to apply the “Watercolor” filter to obtain a realistic watercolor effect. Here is a simple technique that gives you more control on the painting and texture parameters.

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Line Art Watercolor Tip – Using Filter/ Blending Options by Developingwebs.net

A quick and simple technique to achieve a simple line art watercolor effect using a Filter and Blending option in Photoshop. You can adjust the options to suit your own needs and achieve different results. Experiment!

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Render Tip – Use Self Glow for Backlit Objects by Al Hart

Self Glow illuminates a surface as if it had light shining on it, without actually making it a light. For objects which you want to appear bright, but which don’t need to illuminate other objects, this is much faster than making lights out of them.

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Render Tip – Use Special Water Effects by Al Hart

Adding special effects such as bump maps to water material is a great way to add realism because bump maps add depth and detail to materials. In the case of this model, the bump maps add the ripples on top of the water we are all use to seeing on any body of water like a lake or a pool.

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Creating a “Bloom Effect” by Ofer Zelichover

This great little tutorial by Ofer Zelichover describes how to create a “bloom” effect. A bloom effect makes the image look brighter and have a “hazy” look to it. Creating this effect is very simple, and is done as a post render process.

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Painting a Landscape by Alain Descamps

CGArena published a detailed step-by-step tutorial on how to paint a landscape with the digital painting and editing software Photoshop. Alain Descamps, the tutorial’s french author, shows us how by illustrating his technique.

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Digital Marker Coloring by mirage studio 7

Color your sketches digitally with PhotoShop. I’m not going to show you how to use marker pens to color your sketches using the conventional way, its going to be the digitally done using PhotoShop instead. The image below is an example of a digitally colored sketch using PhotoShop. The best part is you are able to undo your mistakes!

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Adobe Photoshop CS2 Image Masking Tutorial by mirage studio 7

When it comes to presentation, inserting raster images of human and trees gives it an overall feeling of liveliness. The whole idea is to counter the mono tone feeling of line drawings, especially when it comes to presenting your work to someone who is not in the field of architecture.

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Gradient Masks Over AutoCAD With Photoshop by mirage studio 7

Learn how to create this gradient effect where CAD lines fade into the perspective.
When it comes to architectural presentation boards, CAD programs fall further behind expectations and more and more people are using other software tools to create their presentations that meet their needs. Adobe’s Photoshop and Illustrator are some of the most popular tools when it comes to preparing presentation boards. In this article, we will look at one of the most common effects architecture students and illustrators love to play with but find difficult to figure out.  The Gradient Mask!

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Color Scheme and Digital Printing Guide by mirage studio 7

Tips on how to get the best out of printing like: what type of file format should I use? Jpeg or Tiff?
Or what Dpi settings should I use when composing my presentation boards/3D perspective?

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Creating Seamless Textures by mirage studio 7

Create your own custom seamless texture with this guide.Creating your own seamless texture is a simple process. It requires only a few simple steps to follow.

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Eye level Common Error Tutorial by mirage studio 7

Besides line weight mistakes in a presentation boards, the other most common mistake would be the perspective view. Having said that most of us make simple mistakes in our perspective view. Included below is one good example of a bad perspective view with errors. What is the mistake?

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Add a Border to Your Image by FrozenGothDreams

If you want to create a border around your image in PhotoShop here is the quick tutorial that will help you out.

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Sky Replacement Tutorial by Jeff Wignall

Changing or swapping skies using simple PhotoShop techniques. Give your landscapes better looking skies!

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Adding New Skies Tutorial – Using Masks by Patrick Winfield

Sometimes you get an amazing landscape shot, but the sky is so drab and lacks  emotion. Out in the field you can not control this aspect of the weather, but with some post production in PhotoShop you can create some interesting new images.

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Add Realistic Rainbow Tutorial by Chris Patterson

In this PhotoShop photo effects tutorial we’re going to learn how to easily add a rainbow, even a double rainbow, to a photo. Of course as with most photo effects, it helps if you start with the right type of image.

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Beautiful Morning Haze Tutorial by Chris Ford

Make your normal landscape images look memorable. Follow this PhotoShop tutorial to learn how to add a mystical morning haze to any image.

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Adding Sunlight Through The Trees by Steve Patterson

In this tutorial we’re going to learn how to add beams of sunlight through trees, which is not only a great way to make an image look more interesting, it’s also a lot easier to do than you might think, as we’ll see.

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Create Realistic Fog by Edvard Erlandson

This is a simple but effective tutorial on how to add a realistic fog effect to a photo. Adding fog can be a very effective way of making it look more mystic or romantic.

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Cropping and Framing by Edvard Erlandson

Cropping and framing a picture will enhance the impact of the picture and make the picture look more professional.

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Creating Shadows for Complex Objects by AskPhotoshop.com

Creating a shadow for a complex object is a little more involved than the freehand shading . In this tutorial we’ll create a shadow for a more intricate object, a complex tree .

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Creating Background Blur by Digiretus.com

An aesthetic trick often used in photography is the emphasis of the main theme against other areas of the picture by using a small depth of focus. An object or a face can spectacularly stand out against a blurred, homogeneous background.

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