Video Tutorials: Creating Color-Changing Mockups in Photoshop

Yo, party people! I was asked to do this particular set of tutorials in video form, so I’m breaking away from my usual text-and-screenshot methods and stepping out of the ol’ comfort zone! Here are a pair of videos covering how to take a photo of a plain white object and making it so you can change the color of that object (video 1) and how to create a Photoshop smart object so you can easily place an endless number of designs in your mockup (video 1).


Part 1, 15 minutes. If you can’t see the embedded video, you can click through to YouTube to see it.


Part 2, 10 minutes. If you can’t see the embedded video,, you can click through to YouTube to see it.

Both tutorials are made using the most recent version of Photoshop (at this time): Creative Cloud 2018, also known as version 19.1.1.

In part 1, I go over how to use a layer mask to take a plain white object (in this case, a coffee mug I got for 50¢ at a thrift shop) and make it so that you can recolor that object any way you like:

Color changing mockup tutorial part 1

And in part 2, I move on to cover how to use a smart object so that you can place any design on your mockup, and reuse that mockup for tons of future designs with ease.

Color changing mockup tutorial part 2

If you want to follow along with the videos using the exact same images and tools, I’ve put the photo of the plain white coffee cup and a copy of my handy-dandy smart object grid in a ZIP file for you. Grab it here at the Google Drive.