[oldmacfan]

I have been teaching myself this software for awhile now and just starting to understand it better.

What I am trying to do is manipulate the 3d perspective of an imported object with in the master. The object has it's own layer and I can move it around in 2d, but I can't seem to figure out how to move it in 3d.

A. Is this possible?

B. If it is, can someone point me in the right direction?

C. If not possible in PhotoShop, can someone point me to another program where I might be able to manipulate the object and then export it for use in PhotoShop?

Thank you in advance.

OMF

[curiousuburb]

There are a limited number of "3d" displacement tools in PS.
If you're looking for mesh level editing akin to 3d software, you might look into Painter (which has a 'paint on model' function), but it really depends on what you're trying to achieve. There are workarounds for some techniques that might give you acceptable results despite not being true 3d manipulations.

Can you provide more detail on the layer you're trying to use and how you want to modify it?

There may be free alternatives depending on what you're looking for.

[oldmacfan]

I will try to explain this as best I can.

If I have a picture of a room with a shelf and a blank picture frame, as my master, and a picture of my kids as the object. I want to be able to place the pic of my kids in the frame and adjust the viewing perspective of the added object so that it appears to be in the frame for real.

I am not worried about lighting or shading at this point.

Or another example would be when some of these guys do mockups on future macs they usually have the screen on, in the pic, and the screen shot is in proper perspective in relation to the screen it self.

[johnq]

That's just a simple Edit:Transform:Distort.

You simply select the thing you want distorted, do Edit:Transform:Distort and manipulate the handles as you need to. There is also a Perspective transform but I like Distort better.

None of this is true 3D, just merely warping the image...

Of course, I'm only in PS 7... :( I'm sure there are more nifty ways to do it now...but most people used the above prior to CS.

[Moogs]

This is essentially correct. In order to create the intended effect of moving the "subject" (as you refer to it) a certain amount along the perceived Z-axis in the room(depth), you'll have to use the distort tool to create the relative sizes and shaping of the people in the room. That's the whole deal about people further away from the camera appearing relatively smaller, etc.

You're also going to have to pay attention to the way the light is falling on the objects around them and mimic that light as if it were falling on the people in the same way. And, you'll eventually have to soften the edges of the people enough that they don't look like they were plastered on top of another image.