ANDY WONG
PHOTOSHOP RENDERING

Here Andy Wong will guide you through a technique he has developed to produce well composed renderings using Adobe Photoshop. Andy at the time of writing is studying for a Bachelor of Industrial Design (Honours) at Monash University, Australia and will graduate in December 2006. He has also had previous work experience at Ford Australia. You can see Andy's portfolio at,
www.cardesignnews.com/portfolios/andywong or contact him at andyw50@hotmail.com

 

I first take a copy of an old sketch and use that as my base layer (layer 1), and set the opacity to about 10%. This serves as a guide to sketch over meaning you don't have to worry so much in trying to get the perspective spot on. It takes the worry out of "making it look right" leaving you with more time to concentrate on the design.

On a new layer (layer 2) pencil in a rough idea of what you want. Here I have sketched in the major elements of the car, not worrying about the details yet. I also have put down some lines depicting where the people will be in the image. I have chosen to put people into the image as I wanted to create a scene and put the car into context. It helps reveal the environment the car has been designed for, and the type of users who will be driving it. It can also help by adding an element of humour, depending on the types of characters you add.
Remember, leave it rough and go wild (that's when you are at your most creative). Once you are finished, hide layer 1.
 

On layer 3 I have basically sketched over the rough line work, this time however in a much neater and more detailed fashion. Once you know where all the lines go it is so much easier to block in the colour. Once this is done you can hide layer 2.

Here comes the rendering part. Before I actually begin the rendering I choose a set of colours that I would like to use (like a palette, or swatches). Paint these colours onto a new layer (you can call this palette layer), and make sure there are a number of tones or gradients for each colour. On another new layer (ensuring layer 3 stays on top) I fill the page with a background colour, and set layer 3 to MULTIPLY mode. This really helps set a mood for what you are about to render later on.