Today we will demonstrate how to create a nice spherical 3D puzzle using Photoshop CS5 Extended’s 3D tools. Let’s get started!

Tutorial Assets

The following assets were used during the production of this tutorial.

• Clouds and Water
• Hand 32
• Default Photoshop’s Puzzle Texture (In case you don’t have it you can search for something similar)

Step 1 – Creating a New Document

Go to File > New and create a new blank document, on the dialog set Width and Height values to 600px, and Resolution to 72. Set the background color to White, and hit OK.

Step 2 – Color Fill Layer

At the bottom of Layers Panel, click on the Create new fill or adjustment layer icon and select Solid Color… on the color picker set the color to: #C7C7C7 which is a nice gray, and hit ok, now you have a fill layer to work with.

Step 3 – Create a 3D Sphere From a Layer

Now let’s start with the main element of this tutorial: the actual sphere. Select the previous’ step Fill Layer on the Layers Panel, then on the menu bar click on 3D > New Shape From Layer > Sphere. This process will create a nice gray sphere on your document, you can edit it this layer as a 3D object, rotate it, scale it, and more… we will see how to do it forward. Change the 3D Layer name to "Sphere" on Layers Panel.

Step 4 – Scale the 3D Object

Now we will slide the sphere a little bit to make it look closer to us using the Slide Tool under the 3D tools. On the Tool bar, look for the 3D tools section, by default the active tool is the 3D Object Rotate Tool, click and hold over it to see the different options, you can see them as well on the Options Panel which is on top of the Photoshop Workspace. Select the 3D Object Slide Tool, click and drag cover the sphere to slide it front and back, try to get something like the bottom of the following image.

If you want to dig into the 3D Tools, you can take a look at this Basic Guide, which describes all the different options of Photoshop’s CS4 3D Tools.

Step 5

We will add a reflected texture to our sphere, but first we need to edit the texture to have it ready. Open the "Clouds and Water" image. We will edit this image in order to leave it ready to be applied as a texture, this is an optional step, you can skip it and jump to the Step 8 and apply the texture image as is.

I rather prefer doing the following edition before creating a texture to avoid undesired sharpen areas with ‘lines’ on the texture. Using the Rectangular Marquee Tool, select a perfect square from the picture (you can hold the Shift key while dragging to have a squared selection) then Copy (Command/Ctrl + C) the selection.

Step 6

Create a New Document, set the Width and Height values to 1200px and the Resolution to 72 pixels per inch. Paste the copied image and using the Move Tool (select the Show Transform Controls checkbox on the top Options Panel) scale the pasted image in order to exactly match the new document boundaries.

Then, go to Filter > Other > Offset, on the dialog change the Horizontal value between 500 and 600. You should have something like the bottom of the image below.

Step 7

Next we need to hide the line dividing the image, on the Tools Bar, select the Clone Tool, holding the Option / Alt Key, click on a spot which will be the source of the cloning, then paint as if you are using the Brush Tool all across the merging line. Try to get something like the image below. Finally save the document with a descriptive name like "sky texture.psd". (editor：admin)