Realistic 3D Flag in Photoshop

Posted in Design on February 21, 2009 – 6:26 am by Gabriel

Realistic 3D Flag in Photoshop

With the help of this tutorial you will learn how to create a very realistic 3D looking flag in Photoshop.

Before we begin, download the necessary files (ZIP) including the final PSD file. Aside from Photoshop, flag.jpg and silk.psd are pretty much all we need to continue. As you’ll see, the process is very quick and effective. Please note that these files have the same dimensions (resolution). This is important for an accurate “rendering” of the flag’s texture.

Step 1

Open up the flag.jpg image in Photoshop. Go to Filter > Distort > Displace… and use the settings in the image below.

Realistic 3D Flag in Photoshop

A “Choose a Displacement Map” popup appears. Browse to where you saved the silk.psd file and open it. This applies the information from silk.psd as the displacement map for our flag image. You should have something that looks like the image below:

Realistic 3D Flag in Photoshop

Notice that although the displacement map was successfully applied, all we’ve got so far is a distorted (or should I say “displaced”) image of the flag. We’re going to add that last ingredient in the final step below.

Step 3

Open up silk.psd in Photoshop and do a Ctrl+A (Select All), then Ctrl+C (Copy) to select the pixels of the silk image and copy them into the Clipboard. Switch to our flag file and paste the silk image over the Background layer. Go ahead and switch the silk layer’s blending mode to Overlay — and there you have it: a cool looking flag/fabric with a nice texture on it.

Realistic 3D Flag in Photoshop
Tips

Always keep both the flag and silk/fabric files at the same resolution in order for the displacement to work correctly.

You can use your own flag and silk images, but always desaturate the silk texture to enable the displacement map to work correctly, as well as not alter the colors of the flag when you are adjusting its blending mode.

Thanks everyone for reading and I’m waiting to see the flags you got after following this tutorial :)

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  1. 11 Comments for Realistic 3D Flag in Photoshop

  2. Out of ideas I think :)
    This tutorial is not so succeeded like the others :)

  3. No, it was supposed to be quick and dirty.

  4. It might have been quick and dirty, but a great result nonetheless, thanks.

  5. thanks

  6. Gravatar

    ultrasound technician

    Wow this is a great resource.. I’m enjoying it.. good article

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