• About
  • Write For Us
  • Contact
  • Top 50 Photography Blogs
  • Resources
  • Forum

IndustryDev

  • Design
    • Photoshop
    • Lightroom
    • Camera Raw
    • Bridge
  • Development
    • HTML
    • CSS
    • Javascript
    • PHP
    • Dev Tools
    • WordPress
  • Photography
  • Blogging
  • Technology
  • Inspiration
You are here: Home / Photoshop / Adding Graffiti to a Wall Using Vanishing Point in Adobe Photoshop

Adding Graffiti to a Wall Using Vanishing Point in Adobe Photoshop

March 13, 2016

Adding Graffiti to a Wall Using Vanishing Point in Adobe Photoshop

Oftentimes, designers use Adobe Photoshop to create mockups to show clients what things may look like if a change were to be made to something. This is actually very common and I think it’s important to understand just how you can use the tools that Photoshop offers to quickly and easily accomplish such a task.

In today’s example, I’m going to pretend that someone has asked me to show them what a particular wall would look like with a specific design applied to it. Of course, these are only demonstration images, but by the end of this post, I think you’ll find that you’ll be able to take what I’ve shown you and apply it across any number of projects. All you’ll need to complete this project is a few images and about five minutes of time. I practiced going through the steps once and it took about ten minutes. The second go round, it was under two. That’s how little time it can take to learn something like this.

Now, I want to stress the versatility of the tool I’m going to introduce today. Back in a previous life (2002-2007), I used to work for a cluster of radio stations in lower New York and did a lot of design work. I frequently created graphics for billboards, vehicles and large buses. If you’ve ever heard of a car wrap or a bus back, that’s what I’m talking about. Back when I did these types of projects, I’m not sure Photoshop even had this tool, so I was forced to use templates that various print shops and ad agencies sent over to me. I now think about how much easier my life would have been if I had been exposed to Vanishing Point.

Starting Images

I’ll be using two images for this post. The first is the actual wall. I’m going to say that a friend or client sent me the image and it’s this surface they’re interested in adding the artwork to.

Example Wall Image

The second image is the artwork itself. This is what the client would like to overlay on the wall.

Example Graffiti Image

Vanishing Point

In art and design, there’s an idea called Vanishing Point. It’s a rather simple concept to understand. I’ll try to explain the area of the concept we’ll be using in this post.

In many drawings and photographs, there are lines that lead to a point in the piece of work that, if followed, will disappear or vanish. Think about standing on train tracks and looking straight down the rails as far as you could see. The point you can’t see anymore is the vanishing point. Say you’re looking down a long river or a straight highway, the same idea applies. The point at which the object disappears is called the vanishing point.


To learn more, check out this resource:

Vanishing Point on Wikipedia

If you look at the photo of the wall above and follow the lines of the large window from right to left, you’ll eventually end up at a spot that intersects. That’s the vanishing point. Vanishing points aren’t always easy to figure out, but oftentimes, they are there. You just need to get used to how to find them.

Open Files Into Photoshop

The very first task I want to take care of is to open the photos I’m going to be using into Photoshop. I’ve already done that. You can see the two tabs, plus the one I’m using for screenshots, below.

Open Tabs in Adobe Photoshop


Create New Layer

The next step is to create a new layer inside the document I’ll be using as the background. Since the wall image is the background, I’ll create a new layer in this file. The reason for the new layer is to hold the graffiti image I’ll apply later on.

New Layer in Adobe Photoshop

Copy Overlay Image to Clipboard

Now, I’m going to go to the graffiti image and select the entire thing with the Rectangular Marquee tool. To do this, I simply hit Ctrl+A to select all and then Ctrl+C to copy to the clipboard. You can see the marching ants in the screenshot below.

Select Image in Adobe Photoshop

Now, whatever I selected is sitting in the clipboard of my operating system.

Open the Vanishing Point Tool

Now, that my graffiti image is stored in the clipboard, I can click the wall tab to return to that. Next, I’ll head up to the Filter > Vanishing Point menu item and select it.

Vanishing Point Menu Item in Adobe Photoshop

This will open the Vanishing Point tool, which is in a new window inside of Photoshop.

Vanishing Point Tool in Adobe Photoshop

Now, I want to give you a quick breakdown of what exactly the Vanishing Point tool is. In the most basic sense, it’s a tool that allows you to draw a shape over an image. Once the shape is drawn, you can paste another image into it. The image you paste into it will take the form of the shape you drew. Really, that’s it. If you tried hard enough, you could probably accomplish the same task by using some sort of distort transform tool, but trust me, this method is much easier. In the sections below, I’ll clarify how to draw the shape and apply the image.

Creating a Plane

After I open the Vanishing Point tool, I’ll have the opportunity to create a plane, or in more simple terms, draw my shape. The goal here is to follow the lines that will lead to the vanishing point. In the case of the window image, these lines can be found on the wall and around the window. I’ll show you in the following screenshots.

The tool I’ll use is called Create a Plane. If you look at the screenshot above, you can see it in the left vertical toolbar. It’s the second tool down (currently selected) and has a grid icon inside of the button. Photoshop defaults to this selection when you launch the Vanishing Point tool.

Basically, the way to draw the shape is to click once on one corner of it. Then, when you let go of your mouse pointer, you’ll see that a string is following it. Head to the next corner in clockwise fashion and click it. Then, continuing to follow the plane, click the next corner and finally the last one. What you should see is an outline of the shape with a grid running through it. To better accomplish this, you can use the Ctrl+ and Ctrl- to enlarge and shrink the view. Take a look at my plane.

Create a Plane in Adobe Photoshop

I know that’s not that easy to see. Let me give you a closer view. It’s cut off a bit, but I can explain better from this one.


Vanishing Point Plane in Adobe Photoshop

Do you see how the grid follows the vanishing point? It’s larger on the right and shrinks down towards the left. It the grid continued, it would eventually vanish. Also, take notice of the lines on the wall I followed to create this grid. As I said above, I use the lines on the wall and the ones around the window. The window is the biggest giveaway here. That made this easy.

Now that the grid is made, I can hit Ctrl+V on my keyboard to paste the graffiti image into the Vanishing Point tool window. Remember – the graffiti image is still sitting in the clipboard.

Paste Image Into Vanishing Point Tool in Adobe Photoshop

After I paste the image into the tool, it’ll sit in the upper left corner, just like in the screenshot above. To move the image into the grid area, so it takes the shape of it, I’ll need to click the Transform Tool, which is the 6th one down in the vertical toolbar in the Vanishing Point tool window. If you aren’t sure which one it is, you can hover over each button with your mouse and after a few seconds, a small popup with a description of the tool will appear.

I’ll go ahead and move the image into the grid area. Watch what happens.

Image Takes Shape of Plane in Adobe Photoshop

It snapped to the shape of the grid. From here, all I need to do is drag the pasted image around a bit so it sits the way I’d like it to and then I can hit the Okay button in the upper right corner. This will close the Vanishing Point tool window and return me to the regular tabs in Photoshop.

Trimming the Window Area

Take a look at the image as it currently stands.

Graffiti on Wall


We’ve got two problems. The first is that our graffiti covers the window. Second, we can’t see and of the wall texture through the graffiti. We can fix both of these issues.

In order to clip away the part of the graffiti image that’s covering the window, I’ll need to hide the graffiti layer by clicking the little eye icon in the layer itself (making sure the layer stays selected).

Hide Layer in Adobe Photoshop

Next, I’ll use the Polygonal Lasso tool to draw a shape around where I want to remove the image.

Polygonal Lasso Tool

This works much like the previous shape tool did. Click one corner, let go of the mouse pointer and continue clicking the corners until you make it back to the very first point you clicked. When you see a small circle appear at the tip of your mouse pointer, you can click once more to close the loop. This will select the area and create the marching ants.

Selecting Area with Polygonal Lasso Tool in Adobe Photoshop

To remove the selected area, I simply hit Delete on my keyboard and I’ll end up with the screenshot above. To remove the marching ants, or deselect the area, I’ll click inside of it once.

Applying a Blend Mode

To give the overlay sort of a transparent look that will show the texture of the wall, I can use a blend mode. I went through a few of them and found that Multiply worked best. It allowed the shadow to come through and the texture to appear lifelike.

Adding Graffiti to a Wall Using Vanishing Point in Adobe Photoshop


That’s it. The project is finished and I can hand the image to my client. This will give a good idea of what some artwork would look like on his wall.

Now, I know you have questions. This was a lot of information and something is bound to be unclear. Please use the comment form below and I’d be happy to help in any way I can.

——

If you’ve enjoyed today’s post and found it helpful, please share it with a friend. Also, if you’d like to continue learning and would like our posts sent directly to your email inbox, simply sign up for our newsletter. We’ll send each and every post directly to you. Thanks!

Related posts:

  1. Warping & Adding a Gradient to Text in Adobe Photoshop
  2. How to Add a Texture to a Shape in Photoshop
  3. Adding a Color Tint to a Black & White Adjustment Layer in Adobe Photoshop
  4. How To Make a Shape Cutout in Photoshop
  5. Adding a Colorized Background to a Photograph in Adobe Photoshop

Filed Under: Photoshop

What’s Next? Email Updates!

If you enjoyed reading this post, why not consider signing up to receive others like it by email? It's so easy and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Connect With Me

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

MOST POPULAR POSTS

  • How to Set the Photo Quality in your Canon Rebel DSLR Camera Before participating in any type of photo shoot, it's i...
  • How to Adjust the Mouse Click & Scroll Settings in Windows 10 I's say this is one of the very first settings I ed...
  • How to Export Video From Adobe Photoshop When it comes to exporting and rendering video clips, t...
  • How to Apply an Adjustment to Only One Layer in Adobe Photoshop The answer is clipping. I'll tell you that right up fro...
  • How to Speed Up & Slow Down Video in Adobe Photoshop This is one of those posts that's going to be super hel...
  • Cutting Out a Shape From a Shape in Adobe Photoshop I've been using shapes for various things in Adobe Phot...
  • How to Set the Self Timer On Your Canon Rebel DSLR Camera Camera self timers are great. I was recently part of a...
  • Animating Scale, Rotation & Opacity in Adobe Photoshop I sat down a few days ago and started messing around in...
  • How to Set Your Canon Rebel Camera For Continuous Shooting Continuous Shooting mode is very important for those wh...
  • 3 Ways to Close Applications in Windows 10 This is going to be a very quick post because the topic...

Recent Comments

  • angelica blanco on How to Organize Video & Audio Project Files for Adobe Photoshop
  • pete salomone on Downloading Photos From a Digital Camera Using Adobe Bridge
  • cdn on How To Create a Slideshow For Your Lock Screen in Windows 10
  • Jay Gaulard on How to Set Your Canon Rebel Camera For Continuous Shooting
  • Deb on How to Set Your Canon Rebel Camera For Continuous Shooting

Copyright © 2021 · IndustryDev.com Web Design & Photography Blog · About · Write For Us · Contact · Privacy / Terms · Sitemap