Photoshop 3d modeling function in Affinity Photo

[lightwriter]

Hi there!

I am an architect, and was thinking of asking the company I work for to buy Affinity Photo, since it's much cheaper than Photoshop, and has almost all the same tools.

I have a doubt, however: does it have a section for 3d modelling? It would be important to me, not because of the 3d per se (I use Rhino and Blender for that), but because I can create realistic shadows of my entourage within 3d mode of Photoshop.

Can I replicate the same worflow in Affinity Photo?

[GarryP]

Welcome to the forums.
As far as I know there are no 3D modelling functions, as such, in Photo. There are lots of things that let you modify images of 3D stuff – live projections, perspective tools, relighting 3D renders, etc. – but no actual modelling. Basically, Photo is 2D-only, at the moment.
Designer has some tools for isometric (axonometric?) drawing and I’m sure Photo can be made to create shadows of objects in some form or other depending on your images but they may not do everything you need.

[lightwriter]

Thank you very much for your detailed answer.

The results I'm trying to obtain are these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ7UAzFv17c

Do you know if this kind of image manipulation (or similar) is possible with Affinity Photo? I'm still using the distort method in Photoshop (which I suppose exists also in Affinity Photo), but it's far from ideal, specially when the images are complex, i.e., containing several people.

[Sara72]

Hi,

Couldn’t you use the Mesh Warp tool to get this kind of shadow effect? (Sorry using the iPad version at the moment):

 

 

 

 

[GarryP]

Photo doesn’t have the 3D tools that Photoshop does so there are no extrusion/camera tools like those shown in the video.
The distort/blur/transparency method works in Photo but – as you will already know from using it in Photoshop – you need to put a lot of effort into it to get something looking good.

If you have to do a lot of this sort of work it might be better to stick with Photoshop - for now, at least - but that doesn’t stop you from asking the company to buy some copies of Photo to liberally ‘sprinkle’ around the office. You might have the benefit of the best of both worlds and those who don’t need everything that Photoshop gives could move over to Photo and save some money on expensive Adobe licences. (How many people with a Photoshop licence actually use any of the tools that aren’t also in Photo? Might not be many.)

[lightwriter]

On 9/19/2019 at 3:48 PM, summersara said:

Hi,

Couldn’t you use the Mesh Warp tool to get this kind of shadow effect? (Sorry using the iPad version at the moment):

 

 

 

 

I can use that method (indeed, that's what I normally do together with the distort tool. The problem is that the shadow is not sharp near the point the object touches the "ground", and becomes increasingly blurrier,i.e.; I can't control the slope of sharpness/blurriness with this method...

[lightwriter]

On 9/20/2019 at 9:49 AM, GarryP said:

Photo doesn’t have the 3D tools that Photoshop does so there are no extrusion/camera tools like those shown in the video.
The distort/blur/transparency method works in Photo but – as you will already know from using it in Photoshop – you need to put a lot of effort into it to get something looking good.

If you have to do a lot of this sort of work it might be better to stick with Photoshop - for now, at least - but that doesn’t stop you from asking the company to buy some copies of Photo to liberally ‘sprinkle’ around the office. You might have the benefit of the best of both worlds and those who don’t need everything that Photoshop gives could move over to Photo and save some money on expensive Adobe licences. (How many people with a Photoshop licence actually use any of the tools that aren’t also in Photo? Might not be many.)

Yes, ideally Photoshop would be the best tool for this kind of work, but we don't have the budget. My supervisor already told me that I will have a license of Affinity Photo, so I think it's time to practice it!

Is there some method of having the shadow sharp at the "feet" of the entourage, and making it blurrier towards the "head"?

[markw]

One possible method might be to use the Gradient Tool on a Gaussian Blur mask to produce a graduated blur to a shadow.
On a more complex shadow painting the mask in with a brush might work better…?
Attached is a very basic example.

 

Shadow Falloff test.afphoto

[GarryP]

Here’s a quick-and-crude before-and-after example of something a bit more lifelike using the technique above, and some others.
It would need more work for a professional presentation but it shows the basics.
I would be interested in hearing about other methods to put in my back pocket for later use.

[firstdefence]

On 9/19/2019 at 2:13 PM, lightwriter said:

Thank you very much for your detailed answer.

The results I'm trying to obtain are these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ7UAzFv17c

Do you know if this kind of image manipulation (or similar) is possible with Affinity Photo? I'm still using the distort method in Photoshop (which I suppose exists also in Affinity Photo), but it's far from ideal, specially when the images are complex, i.e., containing several people.

For all that guys work with Adobe 3D voodoo, that shadow still looks wrong. 

The background image is pretty ambiguous with regards shadows, having very little to go on, one can ballpark it that the sun is pretty high and possibly off to the left.

This is a 3D render having the sun high and off to the left, assuming the sun is directly in line with the horse.

The location, time and date the background image was taken would have helped here but understanding how a shadow would fall and it's opacity need to be taken into consideration, as well as how that shadow would interact with the ground or object it hits.