3D Text

Objective: To produce a 3D text using basic tools.

Tools Used: Text Tool, Raster Deform Tool, Arrow Keys, Float, Defloat, Alpha Channel, Ellipse, Selection Tool, Flood Fill Tool

Palettes Used: Tool Options Palette, Tools Toolbar, Materials Palette, Layers Palette

Effects Used: Gradients, Hue and Saturation, Colorize, Brightness and Contrast, Drop Shadow

Text, text, text... everybody knows what text is and sees it every day. So how do you make plain old everyday text attractive? Simple! All you have to do is add some color to it, add some dimension, and a few highlights and wah-lah! Instant 3D text. There are so many ways to add appeal to your text, so we decided to start with the most basic, and the one question that we get asked the most - "How do you create a 3D looking text?"

This tutorial will teach you a very basic method of creating a 3D appearance to text which can produce some great effects! The trick however to creating truly awesome 3D text is to use a font that is not too thin or too thick when starting your project. Having a font too thick or thin, may cause the letters to become overlapped, rough, or unreadable. You should use a medium sized thickness when converting any text to an extreme 3D text, such as the “thickness” of the text presented in this tutorial.

Step 1

Start by creating a new image 300 X 120 with a white background.

On the Materials palette, click on the Background color and select the Gradient tab. Click on the image to open the available gradients. Select Duotone Red and use the following settings:

Select the Text Tool (T) and select the font and size that you wish to create.

Now, click on your image. Enter your text in the Text Entry dialog box.

Layers > Convert to Raster Layer

Adjust > Hue and Saturation > Colorize ... > Hue: 23 Saturation: 255 > Ok

Step 2

Layers > Duplicate

Select the Raster Deform Tool (D)

Now relax for a moment..... the next few steps to this image require more keyboard work than anything. Because of this, screen shots aren't really going to show you much, so please bare with me at this point.

ON YOUR KEYBOARD, hold down the SHIFT key then using the arrow keys hit the UP arrow one time. Now hit the LEFT arrow one time.

Still with me so far? Good.. okay now still on your keyboard hold down the CTRL and hit the letter "Y". If you'll take a look over at the Layers palette, you'll notice all we've actually done here is duplicate the layer (After we moved it of course!).

Again, hold down the SHIFT key then using the arrow keys hit the UP arrow one time. Now hit the LEFT arrow one time.

You want to repeat this step for whatever thickness your looking for. (Duplicate the layer then move it.) For this tutorial I've created a total of ten layers:

Now my image looks like this:

After you've reached your desired thickness Adjust > Brightness and Contrast > Brightness/Contrast... > Brightness: 48 Contrast: 15 > Ok

Selections > Select All [Keyboard shortcut: CTRL + A]

Selections > Float [Keyboard shortcut: CTRL + F]

Selections > Defloat [Keyboard shortcut: CTRL + Shift + F]

Selections > Load/Save Selection > Save Selection To Alpha Channel... > Save

Selections > Select None

Step 3

On the Layers palette, turn OFF the visibility for the very top layer and the background layer:

Highlight the second layer:

Layers > Merge > Merge Visible

Effects > 3D Effects > Drop Shadow... and use the following settings:

On the Layers palette, turn ON the visibility for the very top layer and the background layer then highlight the top layer:

Now your image should look similar to this:

Step 4

Layers > New Raster Layer... > Ok

Selections > Load/Save Selection > Load Selection From Alpha Channel... > Load.

Selections > Modify > Contract > Number of pixels: 1 > Okay.

Use the Selection Tool (S) and Selection type: Ellipse. While holding down the Ctrl key on your keyboard, remove the bottom portion of the selection ( remember it doesn't have to be perfect) like so:

On the Materials palette, set your Background color to white ( #FFFFFF)

On the Materials palette, click on the Foreground color and select the Gradient tab. Click on the image to open the available gradients. Select Fading background and use the following settings:

Select the Flood Fill Tool (F) and fill the selection.

Selections > Select None.

Congratulations!