In this Awesome^★Photoshop tutorial, i’m going to show you how to create a really awesome 3D Donut using Photoshop CS4 Extended. Through out this tutorial you’re going to learn much about texturing 3D objects in Photoshop. We’ll create the 3D donut, and use some tricks to create the reflection and the shadow. This one will take some time to complete, i suggest you to start with a big cup of coffee.

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Here is the Final Image
Before we start lets see the final image we’ll create through out this tutorial. You can download the layered PSD document here.

Before You Start | Tutorial Details:

Software Used: Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended, 3D Studio Max (optional)
Tutorial Time:
Difficulty Level: ★★★★★

Files to Download:
> download the 3D Donut Model
> download the Environment Map

Create or Download the Donut
In Photoshop CS4 Extended there is a 3D > New Shape From Layer > Donut command which creates a 3D Donut object. But instead of this one, i prefer using a higher detailed donut model in this tutorial. You can create one in this step using 3D Studio Max or you can download the exported model just by clicking here. So if you decided to download it you can jump to step 2. Otherwise just open up 3D Studio Max, in the Create Panel, choose Standard Primitives and click on Torus. Cretae a Torus object, then go to Modify Panel and use thesee settings for the torus: Radius 1 => 40, Radius 2 => 21, Segments => 120 and Sides => 50. Now we’ll export this model to use in Photoshop. Go to File > Export Selected, name the file "Donut" and set File Format to Wavefront Object (OBJ). Hit Save, and Hit OK in the OBJ Exporter dialog. We won’t need to use 3DS Max again, so you can close it.

Bring to Photoshop
Now fire up Photoshop, create a new document which is 900 pixels high and 900 pixels wide at a Resolution of 300 pixels/inch. Make sure Color Mode is set to RGB. Go to 3D > New Layer From 3D File and select the file you have exported or downloaded.

Camera Setup
Get the 3D Orbit Tool, click on the canvas and drag to change the orientation of the camera, trying to get a look like in the below image. Then get the 3D Zoom Tool and zoom out a little. Open the 3D Panel by double clicking the little cube icon on the Layer Thumbnail. Set Anti-alias to best and set Global Ambient Color to #505050.

Lights Setup
Now we’ll setup the lights. Open the 3D Panel menu and choose Replace Lights. Select the Hard Lights.p3l file. Select the Inıfinite Light 3 0 and set Intensity to 0,5.

The Material
Before starting with the textures, lets see what kind of texture maps we’re going to create and how they are going to build the final material. We’ll use five different textures. We’ll create the Diffuse Texture first which will define basicly how the donut will look like. Then we’ll create a Bump Texture that defines the bumped areas. The Glossiness Texture will define the glossy parts of the donut. The Reflectivity Texture will define which parts of our donut will be reflecting it’s environment that we’ll add later.

Diffuse – The Dough
OK. Let’s start with the diffuse texture. The first thing we’ll do is to rename the material. In the 3D Panel, double clickt the material name "__PS_3D_Default" and change it to "Donut". Uncheck Two Sided. Click the Edit the Diffuse Texture button and select New Texture. A new document dialog box will come up. Set Width to 500 pixels and Height to 1000 pixels, set Resolution at 300 pixels/inch and hit OK. Now we have created an empty document and assigned it as the diffuse texture to our 3D model. What we need to do now is to open that document and modify it.

Diffuse – The Dough
Click the Edit the Diffuse Texture button and choose Open Texture. The texture document will open in a new window. Set your Foreground Color to # ffb464 and Background Color to # ffd077. Go to Filter > Render > Clouds.

Diffuse – The Dough
Get a vertical guide and snap it to the center of the document. Now get the Gradient Tool. Set Foreground Color to # ffeabb. Open the Gradient Picker and select Foreground to Transparent. Make sure it is set to Linear Gradient. Paint the left and right edges like in the below image. Then set it to Reflected Gradient and paint the light area in the center starting from the guide line as shown in the below image.

Diffuse – The Dough
Let’s see how our texture is looking like on our 3D model. Go to "Donut.PSD" document. A Photoshop Format Options dialog box may appear because photoshop is saving the texture document that you modified in order to update it on the model. Hit OK to continue. We’re not finished with the diffuse texture so go back to the diffuse texture document which was automatically named "Donut_Material – Diffuse.psb".

Diffuse – The Glaze
Create a new layer and name it "Glaze". Get the Rectengular Marquee Tool and select the left half of the canvas. Go to Select > Transform Selection and set the Horizontal Scale at 60% and apply. Fill the selection with color # ee0044. Hit Command+D to deselect.