I wanted to create a large number of new Photoshop brushes but finding the right image and having to cut, crop, and crunch the pictures became painful and boring.  Thinking a bit outside the box led me to a whole new dimension in brush making.  Why not use 3D models to quickly create Photoshop brushes ?!?!

Materials Needed:

• Adobe Photoshop CS3 or CS4 Extended
• 3DVIA for Adobe® Photoshop® plug-in

Step 1: Search for your (3D) brush image

An easy way to search for 3D models is to use the 3DVIA for Adobe® Photoshop® plug-in. You can download it free from http://www.3dvia.com/software/3dvia-labs/photoshop-3d-plugin. With the plug-in installed, use the Photoshop command File->Import->Search 3DVIA and login to 3DVIA with your free user account.

Step 2: Import 3D model

Let’s create some brushes using a plant. After the 3DVIA dialog appears, type ‘plant’ in the Model Search box and click Search. Once a list of 3D models appears, find the model named Fern and click on Import. In a few seconds, the plant should appear in Photoshop as a new image.

Step 3: Create the brush

To create the brush in Photoshop, use the menu Edit->Define Brush (or Define Brush Preset.. in CS3). Name your new brush. When you bring up the preset brushes window using Windows->Brushes or F5, you will see your new custom fern brush.

Step 4: Use your new brush

Now let’s use our new brush. Create a new image and use the gradient fill on the background layer. Create a new layer (Layer->New->Layer) so we can paint with our new brush. 

To give a bit more interest to the fern brush, let’s change a few of the brush properties. Open the brushes panel if you do not have it open Window->Brushes or F5. First off, set the foreground to a forest green and background color to black. In the Brush panel, click on Shape Dynamics and play with the sliders. I uses Size Jitter = 10%, Minimum Diameter = 1%, Angle Jitter = 10%, Roundness Jitter = 0%. Also click on Color Dynamics and try some different settings. I set the Foreground/Background Jitter to 100% and all other 0%.

With the Paintbrush tool selected, begin to click in you image and begin
painting.

Step 5: Create another brush by rotating the plant

To create another brush with a different look, make the fern image active and use the 3D tools to rotate the plant on the screen. In Photoshop CS3, you must first use the command Layer->3D layers-> Transform 3D Model. Once again, create a new brush as you did before in Step 3.

Step 6: Create a few more brushes

Continue creating new brushes with the Fern model or import any other model available on 3dvia.com. Once you have a few custom brushes, play with the Shape Dynamics, Color Dynamics, Scattering, or any of the other settings to create additional unique brushes.

Step 7: Add some creative touches

Add some text and a bit of scratches with a filter and you’re done.

Creating a custom brush with a 3D model is real easy with access to enough 3D models.

Download the PSD