Today we are going to take an object/text, change it from 2-D to 3-D
and give it some realistic effects. We are going to be using Illustrator
to create the object, then bring it into Photoshop to add highlights
and shadows.
Step 1
So lets open up Illustrator and create a 5â€x5†document. Create
some text or a logo. Now you want to make sure you pick a color other
than black or white or grays, so that we can pick up some of the shadows
on the object.
Step 2
Alright, now we want to turn our object 3-D, so go to
Effect>3-D>Extrude & Bevel. My settings are shown below, but
depending on what you are using for an object it may be different. What
we are trying to achieve here is an interesting angle. Play around with
the settings until you get something you like. Make sure you change
around the lighting to get the most amount of contrast to make it easier
later on.
Step 3
That’s all we are going to do in Illustrator, so now copy your
image (apple+c) and paste it into a 1680x1050px Photoshop document.
Stretch it out to fill the space. Since it is a vector image we can
stretch it out when it is first pasted into Photoshop and it will not
get distorted. After you press the check box it gets converted to a
raster image and will distort, so make sure you get a size you like. You
can always make it smaller, just not bigger.
Step 4
Now we are going to setup a background. So first change the layer
name to 3-D text and the hiding it by clicking on the eye on the left
side of the layers.
Step 5
Lets grab this wooden texture
here and bring it into our document. Resize it so it fits the size of the document.
Step 6
We are going to give the wood some darker color, so we are going to
go in and grab a dark brown color. Now go to the elliptical marquee
tool, set your feather to 100px and make a circle about the size,
vertically of the document.
Step 7
Now press apple + shift + I to select the inverse and fill the space
with the brown with option + delete. Change the layer’s blend mode to
overlay.
Step 8
Make a circle, like with the brown, but this time we are going to
pick an yellow/orange color and make a circle in the bottom right
corner. Fill the circle with the yellow and change the blend mode to
overlay.
Step 9
Take that yellow layer and stretch it out so it fills the area
without the brown we filled earlier. Hold down option + shift to keep
the yellow in the bottom right.
Step 10
So at this point our image is starting to have a light source from
the bottom right. Lets make it brighter in that corner to really make it
look like the thats the source of the light. Lets make a new layer
above our yellow one and create a radial gradient from the bottom right
corner. Change the blending mode to overlay. Now we need to copy the
layer a couple times to make it brighter. So do apple+j twice.
Step 11
Now it’s time to bring in our logo. Make sure you have your 3-D text
clicked, then use your magic wand to click on the face of the type. Make
sure the tolerance of the magic wand is at 12. Now press apple + j.
This will give you a new layer with the face of the type on it.
Step 12
Repeat step 11 except, use the magic want to select the sides of the text.
Step 13
Now we are going to add some highlights and shadows to the face of
the text. Lets create a new layer, apple + click on the text face layer
to load it. Click on your gradient and select a yellow color, similar to
the one we used on the bottom right corner. Click and drag your
gradient from the bottom right corner of the text to the top left corner
of the text. Change the blend mode to overlay.
Step 14
With the type face still highlighted, create a new layer and make a
smaller gradient using white. Change the blend mode to overlay.
Step 15
Grab a dark brownish-red color and drag a small gradient from the opposite corner and change the blend mode to multiply.
Step 16
Now click on the side text layer and press apple + m to pull up the
curves window. Set it to something like below, the sides are going to be
dark because there isn’t really any light hitting them.
Step 17
Now we need to figure out what the path of the light is so we can
make some shadows. We do this by creating two lines both starting at the
bottom right corner, out light source, and touching the corner of the
widest spot, ours being the bottom corner on the D and the top corner on
the d, like so.
Step 18
Now that we know roughly were the shadow is going to start, we can
start buidling it. Take your polygonal tool and cut out a shape like
below, and fill it black. Make sure the shape doesn’t go to the right of
the text. Now drag that layer so it is below the text.
Step 19
Now we are going to modify the shape we just made, so first off I
want to create a layer mask. I do this by clicking on the square with a
circle inside of it, on the layers pallette.
Step 20
Go in and start painting around with the black brush until you get something more natural looking, like below.
Step 21
We can get rid of the two lines we made, because we arent’ going to
need them any more. We need to give the text some texture, because right
now it doesn’t look very real. Over at
Lost and Taken
the have just added these film textures that will work perfect for us,
grab one of these and bring it into your document. Size the texture so
it has somewhat of a similar angle to your text. Do an apple + click to
load your text face, apple + i to get the inverse of the text face, and
delete.
Step 22
Finally I’m going to add a bevel to the text face layer to give it more of an edge like below.
Thats it. Keep playing around with it, there are always more details you can do to it. This is what I got.
Final
