Create 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.
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:
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.
