See how to create fake 3D glossy text in photoshop. This final result, when done right can be VERY convincing... I came across this technique while I was working on a current project and wanted a cool 3D type effect, so this is what I came up with, and thought it would be fun to share with Pxleyes...
NOTE: I AM UNAWARE OF WHAT KEYSTROKES WORK ON A PC IN COMPARISON TO THE OPTION AND COMMAND KEYS ON A MAC... THOSE KEYS ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THIS TUTORIAL... but it shouldn't be that hard to follow along. :)
Difficulty- Intermediate
Required version of photoshop- ANY
Time to complete- 45 mins to 1 hour.
The reasoning it takes so long to complete is cause the techniques to get the final to look as good as it does requires a strong attention to detail. It is a very slow and meticulous process, but the results are uncanny to that of actual 3D, and once you get the technique down, its actually a fairly simple process.
!!!ENJOY!!!
Step 1
Step 1- Create a document at 800 pixels wide and 1000 pixels high at 300 dpi. The reason for this very large canvas is for 3 reasons.
The first reason is cause when you create something like this in photoshop and installing it into a project, you want it to be fairly large so that when you scale it, you wont lose the quality because it will most likely be larger than how you are using it. If it were smaller than how you plan on losing it, then when you scale it larger it will lose quality, where as if you scale down the quality pretty much stays the same. After all we are working with raster images, not vector.
Secondly is that when you work on a large scale basis you can have more detail and more room to get creative, thus having less limits. When we are done here you will have your one letter.
The third is basically that we will have more space to work in and you wont have your type hanging off the side getting cut off by the boundaries of your document.
Step 2
Step 2- First what we want to do is use a typeface that is easy to read, and fairly simple. For this tutorial I have decided to use a typeface called 'Defeqto' which you can download for free at www.dafont.com.
I will be working with the letter 'B' but you can use any typeface you like. I personally think it looks pretty cool with this typeface, and it works well with this technique, but feel free to use any typeface you like. Then right click on your type layer, and select "raterize type'. This will make it editable.
Step 3
Step 3-
(this part is just cleaning up your typeface as needed if you wish to. You can skip this step and go to step 6 and continue if you would rather just rush through this or if you don't need to clean up your type and learn the techniques more time-efficiently)
Now as cool as this typeface is, lets face it, when its blown up its obviously not that clean and a bit rough around the edges, so were going to clean that up. So I want to clean up the edges. Get out your circular marquee tool, or ks 'M'. Hold Shift+ Command to create a circle selection working from the center (where you initially click) outwards so that your selection is about the same as the curvature of the type. You can tell from figure 1 that I didn't really have the circle lined up quite right, so I want to right click, and select 'transform selection'. Then I will line up my selection with the type as shown in figure 2. Then resize your selection so that it works in to the type like figure 3. Then simply delete what you have selected. This will make the type smooth like we want. Apply this as needed.
Step 4
Step 4- If you need to get the outside edges, just make a selection like I have here, and simply inverse your selection by either going to menu tab 'SELECT/INVERSE' or ks 'Shift+Command+I'. Then grab your eraser tool both opacity and flow at 100%. Erase the edges that you want to disappear. once you have cleaned up all of that head on to the next step.
Step 5
Step 5- Pen tool time... lets round off some of these edges. take your pen tool and draw out a smooth path for your edge like I have shown in figure 1. Right click and select 'make selection'. Make sure the feather radius is 0.2 pixels. You don't want your edge to be too hard or is looks funny. Apply this to any other part of the type that may need 'treatment'. Figure 3 shows what I came up with.
Step 6
Step 6- Here is the part where we make the type 3D with that cool neon glow inside with a little bit of perspective. with your 'B' selection made, go to menu tab 'EDIT/FREE TRANSFORM' or ks 'Command+T'. With your free transform active, hold Shift+option+Command and drag the right corner (any corner) and move your curser towards the center of the outer edge between the two anchor points that you are effecting as shown in figure 1. Or you could drag outside but you will lose precious resolution...High res in work like this is key for quality.
Now, of course you can tell it looks a bit distorted... so what we want to do is grab the side anchor on the free transform box and pull it in like so in figure 2. Hit enter to finish your transformation.
Step 7
Step 7- Now to give it depth. A lot of this is up to eyeing what your working on when it comes to which direction you want your 3D view to be. You need to make sure that what you do looks real, and not some cheap 3D attempt. You don't want the depth of your object to look skewed like a messed up z axis. Haha!!! with that said, ill keep it simple.
Grab your move tool and with your 'B' layer selected (I dont know why it wouldnt) Hold 'Option+Command' and hit the RIGHT arrow key 18 times to make 18 copies of your B layer. After you do this, select the copied layers while holding either Shift or Command and get layers 'copy 8, 9, and 10' and Merge them by either right clicking on them and selecting 'MERGE LAYERS' at the bottom of the menu, or hitting ks 'Command+E'. Make sure that layers 'copy 8 thru 10' are now one single layer. Name this new merged layer "GLOW". Then go into 'IMAGE/ADJUSTMENTS/HUE AND SATURATION' or ks 'Command+U' and turn the lightness all the way up.
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