In this Photoshop tutorial, you are going to learn how to create some 3D text using only Photoshop. The mood we will strive to incorporate in our piece is dark and grungy. We are going to use consistent lighting, layer styles to create shadows for our type, Photoshop filters, and more. We will finish off our scene by adding a dark textured background that seems to fade out as it approaches the edge of the canvas — a popular design technique.
final result of the tutorial:
Step 1: Open Photoshop and Set Up Your Canva
Open up Photoshop and create a new 900x900px document at 72 dpi.
Step 2: Add the Text
Next, we want to create some text, so let’s use the Horizontal Type Tool (T) to type the text "TYPE" using Franklin Gothic Heavy, or a similar heavy font.
We are going to change the text to a orange color so that it stands out from the black background that we will be creating later on.
We are also going to adjust the kerning of our text by holding down Alt/Option and using the left and right arrows so that the spacing between the letters are to your liking.
Step 3: Duplicate the Text
To start making the 3D effect, we are going to duplicate the text we have by pressing Ctrl/Cmd + J. We should adjust the color so we will be able to differentiate the text face and the text sides.
Also, the text color of this text layer will be the base color for the darker text sides, so let’s use a darker orange color.
We are also going to shrink down the darker text because it will be farther away from us, in terms of perspective.Use the Free Transform command (Ctrl/Cmd + T), hold down Alt/Option + Shift, and then shrink the text down a little bit (to around 90%). Use the Move Tool (V) to move it down a bit and so we can give our text the depth and thickness that we want.
Step 4: Connecting the Text
We want to go around to each letter and connect the corners so that it creates the sides of the text. Create a new layer (Layer > New > Layer), and using the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L) make a shape that connects the two corners as shown below, then fill it with our dark red color.
Step 5: Embossing the Text Face
Let’s add some effects to our text face. Click on the text face layer in the Layers Panel to make it our active layer, and then go to Layer > Layer Style > Bevel and Emboss. Make sure the angle of the bevel is pointed towards the top right so that our lighting is consistent.
Step 6: Adjust the Light of the Text
Now to add a little bit of lighting to the face of our text, we are going to give it a gradient by going to Layer > Layer Style > Gradient Overlay.
Step 7: Adding a Texture to the Background
We can now start working on our background. First, though, change the Background layer’s fill to black. One way to do this is to press Ctrl/Cmd + A to select the entire canvas, then hit Shift + F5 to open the Fill dialog window, which you can use to fill the selection with black (#000000).
Go and get the Texture 1 for our background. Bring the texture into our document. Rotate the texture using Free Transform (Ctrl/Cmd + T) as well as shrink it down so that it is equal to the width of our canvas.
Step 8: Fade Out the Texture
We are going to fade out the texture, and to do this, we first want to find the center of the canvas. Go to View and make sure Snap is checked (you can toggle Snap on and off by pressing Shift + Ctrl/Cmd + ;).
Now bring a horizontal guide to the center; when the guide reaches the center, it should snap in place. Do the same for a vertical guide.
Now go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All. Fill the mask with black, and then use the Gradient Tool (G) with its gradient set to White, Transparent to make a gradient starting from the center.
Click on the mask layer, and using the Free Transform command (Ctrl/Cmd + T), bring the top and bottom in by clicking-and-dragging the top transform control in while holding Alt/Option so that none of the edges of the texture show up.
You should end up with the texture fading out in an oval shape as it gets closer to the edge of our canvas.
Step 9: Mask Away Parts of the Shadow
Go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All. Using a black, 100px brush with Hardness at 0%, start painting away the black parts of the shadow on the top and right, where the light source would be for each black layer.
Step 10: Adding a Texture to the Text
Get the grungy texture from Zen Textures and bring it into Photoshop. Size the texture so that it is a little bit bigger than the width of the text.
Ctrl/Cmd + click on each layer and go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All. This will make the texture show up only on the text.
Change the Blend Mode of this layer to Soft light and turn the Opacity down to 40%.
Step 11: Add a Gradient Map Adjustment Layer
Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map. Add a Blue to Yellow gradient and drop the Opacity down to 10%.
Step 12: Adding the Sub Text
Using Franklin Gothic Demi Condensed (or a similar font of your choice), let’s type out "DESIGN INSTRUCT" in white.
Change the Blend Mode of the text layer to Overlay, and duplicate the text by pressing Ctrl/Cmd + J. This will give us a sort of lighted text look.
