How to take a drawn grid and essentially rotate in the z-plane?

Question

I'm very new at graphic design, so my apologies if this is a very basic question :) I have access to Adobe Photoshop CS 5.1.

I have a series of grids that are currently flat on the 2d cartesian plane, and I actually have 2 layers (not in the photoshop sense, 2 actual layers) of grids to display. So, to display them, I want to "tilt" them in all 3 dimensions, so that I can illustrate relationships between them.

Hopefully this makes sense. My question is very simple: how! I am having a tough time figuring out how to do this while keeping it clean. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

If you have the extended version of CS5 you can convert them into 3D postcard layers as Adobe like to call it:

Then space one layer on the Z-axis, then use the camera rotate tool to get the angle you like. Move the light around to produce shadow etc.

If you want the line between the two layer you will need to import an object (or create a cube than you shrink to make it thin rectangular) and apply texture and transparent map to get the dotted effect. Of course the option is to draw it in manually.

If you don't want to use the 3D functionality you can always use the transform tool and apply perspective manually, or use the vanishing tool to create a 3D grid which you can snap the individual layers to.