Photoshop's Vanishing Point - Part Two

In the first exercise on Vanishing Point, you looked at how this new filter can produce some amazing results in Photoshop CS2. Cloning and removing objects from photos in ways that were almost impossible before can be done fairly quickly and accurately using Vanishing Point. However, there is an added aspect to Vanishing Point that is a real time-saver.

Tutorial Author: Matt Kloskowski

Matt is an instructor for DesignMentor Training where he instructs an online class in advanced Adobe Photoshop. Author of Extreme Photoshop and Illustrator Most Wanted, Matt is certified as an Adobe Certified Expert  and as a Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD). Matt writes weekly columns for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) and Mac Design magazine's Web site and features for Create Magazine's Studio column. Matt's tutorials have been used in over 15 schools throughout the United States and translated into seven languages.

At a Glance

Photoshop is a program often used to transform objects and images. One such popular task is taking a logo or image and adding it to the surface of an object. However, unless this object is shot straight-on, there will inevitably be some perspective involved. In previous versions of Photoshop, you'd use Free Transform to make a logo fit to an object. The problem with this method is that it is prone to error and slightly time-consuming. You never really know if you're getting good results, and you always have to guess the perspective. However, in Photoshop CS2 Vanishing Point offers an alternative.

Before you see how Vanishing Point can help, take a look at how things used to be. In Photoshop, open "Truck.psd" provided with this exercise. In the Layers palette, you'll see it has two layers: Logo and Truck.

Target the Logo layer, and choose Edit > Free Transform (Ctrl/Cmd + T). This will place a bounding box around the logo. Now manipulate the handles of the box so the logo fits on the truck and matches perspective. You'll need to use the Ctrl/Cmd keys and the Alt/Option keys to skew and move the logo into place. Press Enter/Return to accept the transformation. Did you succeed? If so, you should have something similar to this image.

If you failed, you may have something closer to this.

Either way, you've probably realized this method is a pain in the neck! Plus, you never really know if you've nailed the perspective or not.

Try It Out

1. Now, try this same exercise using Vanishing Point. Open the truck image again, or choose File > Revert if you still have it open. The trick to using Vanishing Point for this purpose is to copy the logo to Photoshop's clipboard before applying the filter.

2. Target the Logo layer, then choose Select > All (Ctrl/Cmd + A). Now choose Edit > Copy (Ctrl/Cmd + C). Hide the Logo layer by deselecting (Ctrl/Cmd + D), then click the Create a new layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to add a blank layer to the top of the Layers palette.

3. With the new blank layer selected, choose Filter > Vanishing Point. Select the Create Plane Tool, and create a four-point perspective plane on the side of the truck (if one is not created already).

4. Now Paste (Ctrl/Cmd + V) your copied logo into the Vanishing Point dialog box. It should appear at the top-left of the window with a bounding box around it. Click in the box and drag the logo inside the borders of the perspective plane. As you begin to move it over the grid, Photoshop will snap it into perspective automatically.

5. Your logo is probably too big for the truck. To fix this, choose the Transform Tool and Shift-click on a handle of the logo box to scale it down a bit. Reposition it and you're done. Voilà! You created instant perfect perspective much easier than using Free Transform!

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