Build A 3D City Scene

James Paterson shows how to composite 3D objects into your images using Photoshop’s powerful 3D tools and some free resources

Although it may be viewed primarily as a photo-editing program, Photoshop has all kinds of tools that cater for other uses too. Not least are the 3D tools. Photoshop offers a wide array of tools that let us manipulate 3D shapes and composite them into our 2D photos. Master a few fundamental skills and you’ll be able to create 3D composite scenes like this – useful if you want to create a fantastical street scene. It’s also handy if you’re planning on helping plan and build some sort of grand architectural project!

Photoshop’s 3D modelling tools are fairly limited compared to dedicated 3D software like Cinema 4D – you can only make rudimentary shapes and simple objects. However, you are also able to open common 3D files, so you can make use of shapes and objects created elsewhere – like the free ready-made building we’ve used here, downloaded from the site archive3d.net – search for ‘building zaha hadid’ if you want to use the same as us.