Photoshop

Define and adjust perspective planes in Vanishing Point

  1. In the Vanishing Point dialog box, select the Create Plane tool  and click in the preview image to add the four corner nodes.

    Try to use a rectangular object or a plane area in the image as a guide when creating the perspective plane. To help with node placement, hold down the “x” key to zoom into the preview image. As you add corner nodes, you can delete the last node if it’s not correct by pressing the Backspace key (Windows) or Delete key (Mac OS). You can also reposition a node by dragging it.

  2. Select the Edit Plane tool  and do one or more of the following:

    • To reshape the perspective plane, drag a corner node.

    • To adjust the grid, enter a value in the Grid Size text box or click the down arrow and move the slider. You can also adjust the grid size when the Create Plane tool is selected.

    • To move the plane, click inside the plane and drag.

    • To scale the plane, drag an edge node in a segment of the bounding box.

      Dragging an edge node to increase the size of a plane to accommodate your edits

      The bounding box and grid of a perspective plane is normally blue. If there’s a problem with the placement of the corner nodes, the plane is invalid, and the bounding box and grid turn either red or yellow. When your plane is invalid, move the corner nodes until the bounding box and grid are blue.

      If you have overlapping planes, Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) to cycle through the overlapping planes.
      Overlapping planes

Create related perspective planes

After creating a plane in Vanishing Point, you can create (tear off) additional planes that share the same perspective. Once a second plane is torn off from the initial perspective plane, you can tear off additional planes from the second plane and so forth. You can tear off as many planes as you want. Although new planes tear off at 90° angles, you can adjust them to any angle. This is useful for making seamless edits between surfaces, matching the geometry of a complex scene. For example, corner cabinets in a kitchen can be part of a continuous surface. In addition to adjusting the angles of a related perspective plane, you can always resize the plane using the Edit Plane tool.

  1. Select the Create Plane tool or Edit Plane tool and Ctrl-drag (Windows) or Command-drag (Mac OS) an edge node of an existing plane’s bounding box (not a corner node).

    The new plane is torn off at a 90° angle to the original plane.

    Note: If a newly created plane does not properly line up with the image, select the Edit Plane tool and move a corner node to adjust the plane. When you adjust one plane, all the connected planes are affected.
    Tearing off multiple planes keeps the planes related to each other so your edits are scaled and oriented in the proper perspective.

  2. (Optional) Do one of the following to change the angle of the newly torn off plane:

    • With either the Edit Plane tool or Create Plane tool selected, Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) the center edge node on the side that’s opposite from the axis of rotation.

    • Enter a value in the Angle text box.

    • Move the Angle slider.

    Note: Once you create a new (child) plane from an existing (parent) plane, you can no longer adjust the angle of the parent plane.

Bounding box and grid alerts in Vanishing Point

The bounding box and grid change colors to indicate the plane’s current condition. If your plane is invalid, move a corner node until the bounding box and grid are blue.

Blue
Indicates a valid plane. Keep in mind that a valid plane doesn’t guarantee results with the proper perspective. You must make sure that the bounding box and grid accurately line up with geometric elements or a plane area in the image.

Red
Indicates an invalid plane. Vanishing Point cannot calculate the plane’s aspect ratio. You won’t be able to tear off a perpendicular plane from a red invalid plane. Although it’s possible to make edits in a (red) invalid plane, the results will not be oriented properly.

Yellow
Indicates an invalid plane. All the vanishing points of the plane cannot be resolved. Although it’s possible to tear off a perpendicular plane or make edits in a yellow invalid plane, the results will not be oriented properly.

Show or hide the grid, active selections, and perspective plane boundaries

 Choose Show Edges from the Vanishing Point menu.
Note: Selections temporarily show when they are resized or repositioned even if Show Edges is turned off.

Adjust the spacing of the perspective plane grid

 Do any of the following:

  • Select the Edit Plane  or the Create Plane  tool, and then enter a Grid Size value in the tool options area.

  • (Photoshop Extended only) Select the Measure tool  and then select Link Measurements To Grid in the tool options area. Drag the Measure tool in a plane and enter a Length value in the tool options area.