3D typographic effects in Photoshop

In it, type-effects guru Nik Ainley shows how to create the above image. The key is to create the letters in a 3D package first as individual characters, then bring them into Photoshop for further post work.

Through clever use of Photoshop’s masking tools and layers, Nik has created type with characters that weave in and out of each other. The characters’ faces also provide a handy canvas for further effects, such as patterns, gradients and lines.

01. Start by producing each letter separately in a 3D program, which Nik did here in Xara 3D, and import them into a Photoshop document. Keep each letter in its own layer, and then arrange them around each other, in whatever way looks good to you.

It might seem odd to create 3D text in this way, but Photoshop offers a lot more control than a 3D program and you will be able to produce a larger than life effect. To save time, the PSD file with the 3D text is included on this issue’s CD.

02. One advantage of working in Photoshop is that letters can appear to be both behind other letters while having parts in front of them at the same time. To achieve this effect, you need to mask parts of individual letters to make it appear that they’re behind others.

To mask part of a letter, start by adding a layer mask to the appropriate letter. The next step is to select which letter you want to appear in front – in the screen above, we’re making the E appear as though it’s partly in front of the H.

Select its outline by Ctrl+clickingon its layer thumbnail. Using the brush tool, brush black onto the H’s layer mask. It should now appear that the bottom tip of the E is in front of the H. Repeat this for as many letters as you like.

03. Next, you’ll start working on the lighting and shadows, starting with adding shadows onto the F. Create a new layer above letter F. To make sure the shadows fall only on the letter, give it a mask.

The shape of the mask must correspond to the shape of the F, minus parts masked off in the previous step. To do this, Ctrl+click on the F layer’s thumbnail, then Ctrl+Alt+Shift click on the layer mask’s thumbnail to get the intersection of the two. Now select your new layer and add a layer mask. It should be the same shape as your selection.

04. Using a large soft brush – say 70px – brush black onto this layer around the parts of the letter that should be in shadow. In this case, the top bit that falls behind the R and the bottom that falls behind the S. Repeat this process for each layer and you should end up with a lot more depth.

05. With the shadows on the letters done, now we need shadow on the background. Create a new layer below all of the letters. Select the outline of all your letters, and fill it with black. Run a Gaussian blur on this layer. Now, use a Warp Transform to pull it downwards slightly so it seems that the letters are floating above the background. Blur again, and drop the layer’s opacity if the shadows seem too harsh.

06. Next, add some more-controlled shadows beneath the layers to give greater depth. Create a new layer above your first shadow layer and, using a soft 50px brush, add black into this layer. Where you add it is down to what looks good. Add more underneath the base of the letters to give the impression that they’re standing up vertically.

07. Now start working on the actual letters. The first step is to isolate the front face of each letter, using either the magic wand or pen tool. When you have a face selected, create a new layer above your letter but below the letter’s shadow.

Fill it with whatever colour you want, but make it slightly darker and duller. If you have masked off part of the letter in step 2, you will need to duplicate the letter’s mask to your face layer.

08. To style each letter face we are going to use layer styles. The exact settings are really down to personal taste, but the basics are something like this: Inner Shadow: Color dodge, white, opacity 15 per cent, distance: 0px, size: 45px Inner Glow: Screen, white, opacity 75 per cent, size 2px Gradient Overlay: Soft light, black to white, opacity 100 per cent, angled to make the letter lighter at the top, darker at the bottom. Satin: Color dodge, dark grey, opacity 50 per cent, distance: 20px, size: 40px

09. Once you have got something you are happy with we are going to start working on the sides of each letter.

10. Next, you need to change the colours and lighting of the sides, as well as get them to look more consistent with each other.

To do this, you need to use Photoshop's adjustment layers. Start by selecting the outline of the F shadow s layer mask and creating a new gradient map adjustment layer just below the face layer.

11. Now it’s possible to stack additional adjustment layers above and below the layer created in step 10 to change the lightness, contrast and colours as much as you like. Next, copy the adjustment layers onto each other letter and go through making small adjustments to get a more consistent colouring.

12. To give a little extra gloss, run Filter > Artistic > Plastic wrap on the body of each letter with the settings Highlight strength 14, Detail 1, and Smoothness 14. After each filter is applied, fade it to a soft light blending mode (Edit > Face).

13. Now to bring all the colours together to give a more harmonious feel, add some adjustment layers right at the top of the image. Start by applying the same gradient map as before using a soft light blending mode at 50 per cent opacity.

14. Try different adjustment layers to get the right colours and balance. Add curves layer to lighten it, a photo filter layer to add more red, and a colour balance layer to add more orange.

Add as many or as few as you like to get the effect you want. As a final tweak, mask all these adjustment layers so that they didn’t have so much of an effect on the background colour.

15. From here you can do as much or as little as you want. Add more details to each letter, add more highlights and shadows, change the colours, whatever you can think of. This example has a few more details, but you can take it much further.

Nik Ainley

NOTE : ALL CREDITS FOR THE ORIGINAL TUTORIAL MAKER :)

=================================
=== For more tutorials keep visiting ;) ===
= http://photoshop-manic.blogspot.com =
=================================

Devil's Eye effect

I will show you how to go from this

into this

Getting started

Well first off you need an eye to work on(get a big and high resolutioned one). Or you can grab this one.

First duplicate the eye layer(and work on the
duplicated one so you can toogle back and forth later, and see the changes),to do this go to your "layer/channels/paths" window,right click the word background and chose "duplicate layer". I marked the window with red.

The Darkening

Then select the burn tool and set it's range to midtones
and exposer to 35%(the burn tool is labeled 1 and its options are circled), then burn all around the edges of the iris(the start of the eye, the colored part not the white part) till it's almost black but not quite black,then increase the size of the brush and burn the
pupil(the black part of the eye)

it should resemble this now.

Return of the Darkening

Then use the burn tool around the
whole eye(right on the eyelash line) and apply it like eyeshadow till
it starts to look heavy and dark,
like this,

Then grab the dodge tool set its range to midtones and its exposer to 35%(this is the same place the burn tool is located,just right click the burn tool icon and click on the dodge tool or you can hold down the ALT key while you burn and instead of burning it will dodge) and go inside/inbetween of the iris and pupil and make it glow.

The color layer

Now create a new layer(to do this go to your "layers/channels/paths" window and click on the icon I circled
and set the blending mode to color(to do this you make sure that the new layer is active or highlighted blue, and at the top of the layers channel you'll see a box with an arrow pointing down and inside
the box it will read "normal" click on it and a list of options will come up, change "normal" to "color"(is it all the way towards the bottom) click it, and reduce the opacity(it is located at the right of the box you just changed) of that layer to 50%, now get a nice bright
color(on your tools just double click on the top color box),now click the paintbrush tool make the mode of brush normal and set the opacity of it(the brush) to 100 and the flow to 100 and choose a brush size so that it fits inbetweeen the iris and the pupil(and keep all the sizes of the brush to a rather soft edge)and paint inside of it(I chose an orange/yellowish color).

The Glow

Now click on to your "background copy" layer again and select your dodge tool again and go right around the edge of the pupil(with a very small brush) a few times.
To get this,

Then increase the brush size and go all around and inbetween the iris and pupil where you colored.

With the "background copy" layer still active, go to
"filter-render-lighting effects" and click it,you'll see a diagram of your eye,now make the light come from the top of your eye(this is the only way I can explain it,you'll see an oval with four little squares and it will have a mouth like pacman)(LOL),the mouth of pacman is the focal point of light,put the mouth/slit above the top of the eye or any direction you think it looks best,now for the rest of the diagram,(lots of stuff huh?) well don't let it all scare ya(we will be out of this window in a jiff), you'll see two boxes to the right, pick the top one and change the color to a dark/pale looking color(I chose a dull orange)and hit ok.
This is the reaction

Now your eye should look pretty creepy about now, but if it looks to colorful you can try this: with your background copy layer still active go to "create new fill or adjustment layer" I circled it here

(that is located right under
your background and layers pallet and looks like a "ying yang" sort of, it is a circle that is halved and is black on one side and white on the other), click it and go to hue/saturation and click that,now go to the saturate and decrease it till you have a more likable product and hit
ok.
You should have something like this now.

Decolorfie the eye

Now go to your color layer and make it active(highlighted blue),with it active hover your hand/arrow over the square(the little picture of your color layer) and hold the control button down and click it(you'll see in the main picture(the big one)that the color you have painted in is now selected with the little ants(the little moving things that make you know that you have selected something), now as before click on "create new fill or adjustment layer" then click on the brightness/contrast one,increase the contrast some and decrease the brightness some till you get something you like and click ok. I kinda liked this option. :)

Now if you don't like the color you can change it,just hover your hand/arrow over the color layer you made and control click it again(you will see the ants dancing again on the main picture),and go to the "create fill or adjustment layer" then go to hue/saturation and use your hue slider bar till you get your prefered color and click ok. And there you have it an evil eye! Sorry for all the long drawn out explaining but it may be necessary for some people(I know I could have used it in some of the tutorials I've tried). This tutorial is aimed at the begginer(like myself) so they can more fully comprehend and understand. (P.S. if you have any questions just ask and I will try to explain it some more).

NOTE : ALL CREDITS FOR THE ORIGINAL TUTORIAL MAKER :)

=================================
=== For more tutorials keep visiting ;) ===
= http://photoshop-manic.blogspot.com =
=================================