Create Awesome Text Made of 3D Blocks PsAwesome Awesome Photoshop Tut...

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Create Awesome Text Made of 3D Blocks

22 July 2010, Eren Gksel

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Change the Render Settings Select Scene on the 3D Panel and click Render Settings, use these: Face Style => Ray Traced, Enable Line Rendering => Checked, Edge Style => Constant, Crease Threshold => 2.

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Adjust the Lights Go to 3D Panel and select the Infinite Light 2. Set Intensity to 0,5 and set Color to #9999aa. Uncheck Create Shadows. Now select Infinite Light 1. Set Intensity to 2, click the Rotate the Light Button, click and drag on the canvas to rotate the light to get some nice shadows.

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Edit the Diffuse Texture In the Layers Panel, double click the 3D Diffuse Texture of the "3D" layer, this will open up the layered texture document in a new window. Apply a Gradient Overlay to "Mosaic" layer using these settings: Blend Mode => Overlay, Gradient => Blue, Red, Yellow.

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Edit the Diffuse Texture Now create a new layer on top, get the Gradient Tool, pick Spectrum gradient and set Style to Radial. Fill the layer diagonally as in the below image. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply with a Radius of 100 pixels. Then Alt-click the line between "Layer 1" and "3D" layers to mask the rainbow. Set Layer Opacity to 80%.

Fix the Edges On the perpendicular faces, a few pixels of diffuse image is streched along the face and looks disturbing. To fix this, well expand the border of the text outwards by applying an Outer Glow Layer Style to the "3D" text layer. Use these settings: Blend Mode => Normal, Opacity => 75%, Color => #d2c6bd, Spread => 29% and Size => 5px. Well also apply an Inner Shadow to darken the edges slightly using these settings: Opacity => 50%, Size => 45px.

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Fix the Edges We have the same problem on the top and left far perpendicular faces. To fix these, go to "Border" layer and double click the Stroke Layer Style and change size to 82.

Create the Self Illumination Texture Now well create a Self Illumination texture and lighter pixels in this image will be self illuminated on our 3d model. First go back to "Awesome Blocks" document and double click the "3D Depth" texture to open it in a new window. Well not change anything on this texture but well use it as a template to create the self illumination one. Go to Image > Duplicate Image and name it "Self Illumination".

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Edit the Self Illumination Texture Delete the "Border copy" and "Border" layers and fill the "Mosaic" layer with Black.

Edit the Self Illumination Texture Apply an Inner Shadow Layer Style to "3D" layer using these settings: Opacity => 100, Choke => 25%, Size => 55px. Set Layer Opacity to 35%. Turn off the Stroke Layer Style.

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Edit the Self Illumination Texture Put Some Lights Create a new layer named "Lights", get the Elliptical Marquee Tool and select a little circle and fill it with #6d6d6d. Place the duplicates of this circle regularly on the text, then select all circle layers and merge them. Apply a Gaussian Blur filter with a Radius of 7 pixels and apply an Outer Glow Layer Style and use these settings: Color => White, Opacity => 10% and Size => 5px. Now save this document as "Self Illumination.psb".

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Assign the Self Illumination Texture Now go back to "Awesome Blocks" document, go to 3D Panel, select the 3D Material. Click the Edit Self Illumination Texture button and choose Load Texture and load the "Self Illumination.psb" file.

Some More Render Settings Select the 3D Material in the 3D Panel and set Reflectivity to 25 to get some reflections. Select the Scene in the 3D Panel now and set Anti-Alias to Best to achieve a smoother result. If you are planning to play around with textures and lights, i suggest you to set that to Draft, otherwise it may take too long for Photoshop to update the changes you made.

Congratulations Its almost done. Now go to 3D > Rasterize to convert the 3D layer into a regular layer. Then get the Polygonal Lasso Tool, select the faces outside the thick 3d border

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and clear. Below is my final image. I hope you liked this tutorial and had fun making it.

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What People Said About This Post:

1. andrecj July 22, 2010 at 10:23 pm Hi, WoW, this one looks amazing, pretty cool. :) is it possible to do with photoshop cs5, instead of cs4 extended?? Reply

Raphael July 23, 2010 at 3:46 am Yes, but it must be the Extended versions because of the 3D tools. Reply

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2. Richie July 23, 2010 at 4:55 am This is really cool Ive never used the 3D tools to such an extent before.. This tutorial is really worth looking over and over again.. Fantastic work, Eren but do most of the users use Extended Version? Reply

Eren Gksel July 23, 2010 at 6:59 am Thanks Richie, i know most users may not be using extended versions, but i think some of these tutorials might be useful giving them some ideas of what can be done using 3d capabilities of photoshop. I totally agree that the majority of the tutorials should be written for the standard versions, and i try to keep it that way, but if i have a result i love, honestly i cant help writing a 3D one :) Reply

3. Joseph Knight July 23, 2010 at 12:34 pm Please let CS5 users know at the beginning of the article that they must have their 3D rendering settings set to Ray Tracer in order to get it to look like yours. Otherwise there are no shadows rendered in preview and step 12 specifically calls for nice shadows. Some people might lose patches of hair. Reply

Eren Gksel July 25, 2010 at 10:46 pm Hi Joseph, the Face Style is set to Ray Traced at step 11. Ill have a look if that works for CS5 or not and ill fix it shortly. Thanks. Reply

4. Phil July 23, 2010 at 1:54 pm Great site you have here and Im really glad I found you. top work on the tutorials, real complex and looks like you certainly know your photoshop. Nice one. Reply

5. Habieb July 23, 2010 at 8:40 pm Wow it is so amazing text effect Reply

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6. Print Place Coupon Codes July 23, 2010 at 11:54 pm Couldnt you do this easier with the filter extrude? Reply

7. omer July 24, 2010 at 9:35 am http://psd.tutsplus.com/tutorials/3d/how-to-create-3d-text-blocks-in-photoshop/ Reply

Eren Gksel July 24, 2010 at 11:26 am yeah, what a coincidence? thats mine too :) Reply

8. Raphael July 25, 2010 at 4:02 am Can anyone help me please? When I try to aply the 3D Effect (3D > New Mesh From Grayscale > Plane) when working with a rectangular shape, my artwork is reduced Reply

9. Alex July 25, 2010 at 5:56 am Wow, I wish I had CS5! Reply

10. Frank July 25, 2010 at 6:20 pm Hi Eren, This is fun! i recently asked you for a 3d tutorial using blender for the 3d. Now i see that is not neccesary at all. From now on ill be using photoshop! Didnt find such an easy to follow 3d tutorial untill now. Thanks! Keep on making these cristal clear tutorials and let me learn! Reply

Eren Gksel July 25, 2010 at 11:01 pm Hi Frank, im glad you liked the tutorial.

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i mostly prefer writing tutorials focused on Photoshop and avoid writing ones which go deep in other applications like 3ds Max or Cinema 4D. On the other hand, using some other software in conjunction with Photoshop can deliver great results and im planning to write some trying not to go into much detail about other softwares and keeping the major focus on Photoshop. Thanks. Reply

11. George August 12, 2010 at 11:24 am Hi all. My name is George and use PS CS3 Extended. Can someone tell me how to instal the Font. Reply

12. tello September 11, 2010 at 2:53 pm GREAT Tutorial thats amazing Reply

13. Anchal September 22, 2010 at 6:49 pm i dont have the option of ray traced in render settings at step 11.. Reply

14. Logomondo December 31, 2010 at 12:46 pm Another fantastic tutorial . Your site is always fascinating. Keep it up. =D Reply

15. YOSHI March 4, 2011 at 1:11 pm HOW TO ADD BORDER Reply

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