In case I haven’t kept you fully apprised, I’ve been whiling away the past few months working on a series of video courses that explain the massive (if amazingly intricate) 3D capabilities of Photoshop CS5 Extended. And all I have to say is—while the topic is all very challenging and stuff—I’m having something very closely resembling a blast.

The first course, Photoshop CS5 Extended One-on-One: 3D Fundamentals, is this very minute available for immediate viewing at my 24/7 video publisher lynda.com. The second, 3D Objects, will be out by this month’s end. And the third, 3D Scenes, I began recording as recently as yesterday. Pictured below is the outcome of the first project, in which we create a photorealistic camera—altogether from scratch—using a dozen shape layers, Photoshop CS5’s Repoussé, and a ginormous spherical panorama. If you currently regard Photoshop as “powerful,” put that notion in a tiny vial marked Shrink Me and get ready for something much, much larger.

Click the image for a larger preview. (It’s a bit noisy. Although extraordinarily powerful, Photoshop is not the world’s fastest rendering engine. Thankfully, you can interrupt a render anytime you like. But noise, as shown here, is the repercussion.) Again, it’s 100% Photoshop. Did you know the program could do such things? Back in 2010, me neither. Stay tuned for more.