Photoshop Impasto Hot! ✓

Her flat stroke lifted off the screen . The white parts of the stroke became towering peaks; the black parts, deep valleys; the grays, smooth slopes. Photoshop had built a 3D model of her stroke—a digital mountain range of paint.

The magic happened.

She began with a grayscale image of a single, violent brushstroke, painted with a rough, chalky brush on a transparent layer. She saved it as a PSD. Then, she went to 3D > New Mesh from Grayscale > Plane . photoshop impasto

She created a second layer, a vibrant red poppy petal. She placed the 3D mesh above it. Then, in the 3D panel, she changed the mesh’s material. She set the color to the red petal layer. She turned the Shine and Reflection way down, but cranked the Bump map to 100%—using her original grayscale stroke as the bump. Her flat stroke lifted off the screen

The stroke had volume. It caught an imaginary light from the upper left. The peak of the stroke was a bright, clean red, while the deep crevices were a rich, shadowed crimson. It looked like wet, thick oil paint. The magic happened