I'm trying to make a skybox that sort of does this:I need a ring to be visible below the player, and I can't use a flat line across the front, back, left, and right images because that will make a square.

If I could work with the vertices (like in modelling software), I know that this could be done by doing this......and then moving the vertices back so that there's 6 squares again.
But I don't have anything that can do that.

How do you do this in Photoshop or Gimp?

use a big circular model? i wish they made a plugin or something for ps that would make 2d-skyboxing easier... I bet rim will have a solution for you tho..

)

ACtually I think there is a tool( or plugin) dedicated to 3D skyboxes.

I've looked exhaustively for just such a thing and i finally gave up. the closest thing i was able to find was a semi-useful tool called SkyPaint

Pleez post a link to plugin if you find it!!

Well I have Terragen, but this is a simple, fading-color skybox so Terragen is no good.
And models aren't good for skyboxes either, since the lighting on them is inconsistent thanks to smoothing and whatnot.

I'm trying to do this by taking screenshots from Milkshape's view panels now, so we'll see how that turns out.

Edit: Ninja'd by Captain. I'll check that out if Milkshape doesn't give me the results I want.

You'd need to do exactly that (pictured in 1st post). Open all (affected) images in photoshop, and arrange them that way in a single canvas. Do what you have to, then export them back to the original files.

You can't just take a vertex and move it around in image editing like you can in 3D modelling unless I'm missing something
It has to start with the trapezoids and become squares later, otherwise the circle becomes 4 "bumps" when the cube is formed.

Milkshape didn't work. The polygons distorted the image when I resized them... should have expected that.

Going to check out this skypaint thing now.

Edit: Damn, skypaint is archaic. I can only use MS Paint brushes with it, and that just won't do at all.

No. You start with your first drawing: Pick up all the affected parts and arrange them on a single canvas - preferably each one in its own layer.

Then, you select each one with the rectangular marquee tool, then right click > Free transform. Hold control and move each vertex the way you would you do in Hammer, and repeat for all four sides. You should end up with your second diagram.

Add the circle, and perform the above step backwards to morph the views back to their square shape.

I'll make you some screenshots if this is unclear.

Is there a way to do that in Gimp? That's what I have.
Edit: Never mind, it's the perspective tool.
This is a pain, and very imprecise
I might just forget about trying to do this. It doesn't seem worth the annoyances.

I don't know in Gimp, but in Photoshop you could use guide lines you can snap to, to maintain precision.

Gimp doesn't even seem to support layers that aren't rectangles. Reshaping them into a trapezoid just results in a bigger rectangle, so it can't be resized back into the smaller square and look the way it needs to look.

Edit: Yeah, this isn't worth the trouble. I'm doing something else.
Thanks for your help guys.

I still think it's not too hard, with PS at least. Send me a PM if you'd like me to try.