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tomaugerdotcom
Known Participant
April 18, 2011
Answered

CS5 - Wrap label around a cylinder (like wine label or pop can)

  • April 18, 2011
  • 3 replies
  • 54533 views

[This is not a Windows-specific question, I hate to exclude Mac users from this answer, but there is no platform-neutral forum here]

In Photoshop CS3 and earlier, taking a layer, such as a label for a wine bottle or jar, wrapping it around a 3D cylinder and compositing it to an image (of the actual jar or bottle) was almost trivially easy.

Unfortunately, with the advanced 3D tools available in CS4+, the simplicity of the Wrap > Cylinder option seems to have been lost.

Wrapping a complex texture around a cylinder (full coverage, top to bottom) is possible, but how about wrapping a label (especially one that has a die-cut ie: not full coverage)?

A couple of quick searches have surprisingly turned up no tutorials on the subject. Has what was once such a simple technique become so technical and obscure?

Can someone point me to a tutorial (written or video), or provide a list of steps here on this forum?

Thanks!

      This topic has been closed for replies.
      Correct answer SG...

      Hi,

      Outline for this exercise is to generate a 3D cylinder, create artwork you want to wrap around the cylinder, duplicate and modify that artwork to be used as a mask, and then arrange the 3D element on an image to composite together.

      So the basic steps I used to do this:

      1) New 1024px x 512px, RGB doc w/White background.

      2) 3D> New Mesh from Grayscale> Cylinder.

      3) Window> 3D. Select the material 'Background'.

      4) In the lower section of that 3D panel, select the Opacity texture pop-up and choose 'Remove Texture' (you will be adding one back in step 10).

      5) In the same area select the Diffuse texture pop-up and choose 'OpenTexture...'

      6) Here's where you add the label graphics that you want bending around the cylinder. I used a text layer w/stroke layer style for this example.

      7) When you have the artwork as you want it, Layer> Duplicate Layer... to a new file.  This new file will be used for the Opacity texture which masks off the area of the label to give you irregular shapes (ie. die-cut).

      8) Select all the layer pixels and change them to white, then on a new layer below fill it black. This is your new Opacity map. Save it to a working directory for use in the next step, and close the file. Also save and close the artwork file from step 5/6 (it is stored as a smart object in the original file from step 1)

      10) back with the original file from step 1 (with the 3D layer selected) in the lower section of the 3D panel, select the Opacity texture pop-up and choose 'Load Texture...'. Browse to the opacity texture from step 8 and choose 'Open'.

      11) You should now see just your label artwork wrapping in a cylindrical shape. You can use the 3D Camera Rotate tool to view the various angles.

      12) now, bring in your jar image for compositing. This is where manipulating the 3D layer to align the scale and perspective can get tricky. I try to just use the 3D camera tools for this work (with global object scaling an exception). I also use the 'Shaded Illustration' Rendering preset to help visualize.

      Hopefully this gets at some of your questions. Here's a related Dr. Brown title for CS4 that demos the interaction and re-enforces the texture mapping aspects: http://tv.adobe.com/watch/the-russell-brown-show/creating-transparent-3d-globe-graphics/

      regards,

      steve

      3 replies

      SG...
      Adobe Employee
      SG...
      Adobe Employee
      April 19, 2011

      tomaugerdotcom wrote:


      In Photoshop CS3 and earlier, taking a layer, such as a label for a wine bottle or jar, wrapping it around a 3D cylinder and compositing it to an image (of the actual jar or bottle) was almost trivially easy.

      Unfortunately, with the advanced 3D tools available in CS4+, the simplicity of the Wrap > Cylinder option seems to have been lost.


      Do you have pointers to this older workflow? It almost sounds like a 3rd party plug-in (ie. where is Wrap> Cylinder option?).

      I'll  agree that the 3D tools have added a lot of power and complexity. I'll  see if Russell Brown has any tutorial's that speak directly to die-cut  label wrapping. Do you have experience or desire to use 3D modeling  apps, or are you hoping to just use Ps for this? I ask because the  'object' that you're wrapping labels on will often drive the ease of  success.

      I can try and put together a fairly straight  forward case of using Ps 3D tools to create a 3D jar die-cut label and  post here soon.

      regards,

      steve

      T
      tomaugerdotcomAuthor
      Known Participant
      April 19, 2011

      Do you have pointers to this older workflow? It almost sounds like a 3rd party plug-in (ie. where is Wrap> Cylinder option?).

      Ha, yes, I'm showing my age (I've been using PS since 1990 - before "Fast Eddy" release). After a little bit of back searching, it was actually in PS9 where they had a 3D Transform Filter - I can't remember whether it was at the top of the Filters menu or inside Filters > Render. It was a very simplistic wrapping dialog box where you had onboard mapping, orbiting and camera controls, which then rendered out a static, rasterized Layer after pressing OK. Primitive but very straightforward.

      T
      tomaugerdotcomAuthor
      Known Participant
      April 25, 2011

      Awesome, Steve, thanks so much for the super-detailed answer. I'll need a bit of time to digest some of the finer points relating to greyscale->mesh generation and slope.

      As for how I've found the experience thus far (and this, coming from a guy who has taught SoftImage, 3DS and Maya at the college level for years), I eagerly looked into it when CS4 introduced the new tools, and quickly discarded since it seemed extremely finnicky; then more recently in CS5 I've been trying to do some experimentation and am running into roadblock after roadblock; including crashes and memory issue. I suppose 4Gb isn't sufficient these days (though my 3D apps don't seem to be complaining as long as I watch my poly counts).

      My belief, being a Photoshop Old Timer, is that Photoshop has lost its way, since 5.0. I truly don't believe that 3D has a significant place in the app, considering there is so much software out there that does a better job. If rotoscoping is the use-case then I thought that simple 3D integration, such as that which Strata CX brought into Photoshop CS with their 3D plugin, is largely sufficient for most applications.

      I certainly appreciate a tighter workflow integration between PS and the 3D apps, but with so much specialization and excellence out there, I think Photoshop should still strive to remain best-in-class rather than Jack-of-all-Trades. There are so many areas in which the development money could be better spent (most notably the Holy Grail, ie masking - the Refine Mask feature needs to be re-architected from the ground up) than trying to duplicate 3D functionality. I just don't think Photoshop is architected to be optimized for it.

      Anyway, sorry for the rant. I'm going to keep plugging away at it because my students are clamoring for more in that area, and right now 3D is the "undiscovered country" of Photoshop, so if you're teaching that, you've got "the edge" as it were. I just wish there would be less crossover: each tool for its job.

      I would be interested to learn more about the PS roadmap, to understand the use cases that are justifying this massive development investment in 3D. It may be that I'm coming at this from the wrong perspective altogether.

      Thanks again Steve, for the engaging discussion, and the help thus far!

      Tom


      Just one more thing, now that I'm thinking of it. When we think about the evolution of Adobe's only major 3D product (Adobe Dimensions), its eventual integration into Illustrator was a natural and logical move, and its current state is pretty usable, all things told (though the mesh resolution and rendering algorithms could use with a major overhaul). The use cases (packaging and simple 3D illustration) are pretty compelling and fit well within the capabilities and mandate of the app.

      Photoshop's early 3D Transform features had a lot of the same charm - simple, effective (though buggy) and a very straightforward mapping to some basic use cases (wrapping stuff on basic primitives to match objects in the scene). Although the 3D Transform was very primitive, it was very well suited to the simple uses we had for it and felt like a natural extension of the Photoshop toolkit.

      T

      K
      kuzus
      Participant
      April 18, 2011

      Difficult

      T
      tomaugerdotcomAuthor
      Known Participant
      April 18, 2011

      I should probably point out that I'm not looking for a hack or simulation like using Free Warp, or Shear on the visible half of the label. I would like to see how to do it using the 3D tools:

      1. adjusting the scaling of the label, and avoiding distortion

      2. changing the positioning of the label relative to the reference image (ie: how high or low it sits on the jar or bottle)

      3. in the case of irregularly-shaped labels (ie: with die-cuts) how to ensure transparency that matches the shape of the label

      4. how to match the 3D primitive / camera angle / perspective distortion to the reference object in the photograph

      All this used to be so easy and now seems like you need a background in 3D rendering and animation in order to do the same tasks.

      Noel Carboni
      Noel Carboni
      Legend
      April 18, 2011

      I don't have Extended, but there was a thread here a while back where labeling a wine bottle was discussed I think....

      Ah, here:  http://forums.adobe.com/thread/791137

      -Noel

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      tomaugerdotcomAuthor
      Known Participant
      April 18, 2011

      Thanks Noel, that is a fairly detailed post. But it doesn't specifically address irregularly-shaped labels (ie: die-cuts)...

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