Design.CreativeFan » Text Effects

Vintage Typography Tutorial using Ornamental Styles

essfero — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 21:51:10 +0000

Vintage and ornamental typography can yield some truly impressive effects for graphic designers, and have applications in everything from poster design to logo design. Vintage typography can involve ornamental or floral elements, vectors, as well as some vibrant colors contrasted against the background.

Today, we have a great vintage typography tutorial for you to follow along with. You’ll see how to use a scanned image as the basis for ornamental text, and then how to work with stock images and Photoshop to create a vintage typography artwork.

If you like this vintage typography tutorial, check out our other great text effect tutorials:

Hope you find this vintage typography tutorial entertaining and informative!

In this tutorial we will look at the process of creating interesting work “Vintage Typography”, based on the photo-manipulation and collage. The idea to create such work came to me after I reviewed the old photo of the “Ex-Libris”, I really liked the concept of the picture and I decided to revive this work, add bright paints, etc. So, to repeat the effect created in this tutorial, you will need: page image of the “Ex-Libris”, some brushes, some vectors, Topaz Labs filter, the patience, cup of the coffee and about 3 hours of working.

Vintage Typography Tutorial Preview:

Vintage Typography Tutorial – Tools Used:

Adobe Photoshop
Stock images
Topaz Clean filter

Vintage Typography Tutorial – Links & resources:

“Ex-Libris” ornament: http://i53.tinypic.com/2d76eeh.jpg
Topaz Clean: http://www.topazlabs.com/downloads/index.php
Background texture: http://bashcorpo.deviantart.com/art/Grungy-paper-texture-v-5-22966998
Background brush: http://www.premiumpixels.com/freebies/28-high-resolution-watercolour-brushes/
Ornament brushes: http://browse.deviantart.com/resources/applications/psbrushes/?qh=§ion=&q=ornaments
Victorian Let Plain font: http://www.azfonts.net/load_font/victorian_let_plain-1_0.html

Vintage Typography Tutorial Step 1

Let’s to begin! To begin, create a new document size of 700-860px. And using “Extras” tool (Ctrl + H), create a vertical line of the center, it will help us to centering the work in the future.

Vintage Typography Tutorial Step 2

The first thing to do we’ll create the background. This is a simple combination of paper-stock and brushes in the form of paint. Paste the texture of the paper as shown below.

Then create a new layer (Shift + Ctrl + N), select the paint brush, adjust the color to #abad90 and apply some brushing; then change the layer’s blending mode to “Screen” and adjust the opacity at 75%. You should get some like this:

Vintage Typography Tutorial Step 3

To make the background is more colorful I added contrast and tint of green. To do this, go to “Layer – New Adjustment Layer – Brightness/Contrast” and adjust the contrast to + 63.

In the same way, make a new mask for Hue/Saturation; settings you can see below:

Here’s what we have at the moment:

Vintage Typography Tutorial Step 4

Now, time to build our actual artwork. Import the image of “Ex Libris”.

Now we should cut the main element of the image. For this I’ll use “Pen-Tool”, you can also use any other suitable method for you. So, let’s go!

Red mask shows the element that we need to cut from the image:

We should get a similar result:

Vintage Typography Tutorial Step 5

At the moment our ornament has a very poor quality, so we will use the “Topaz Clean” filter. Settings are shown below:

Now our ornament should look more smooth and qualitatively!

Vintage Typography Tutorial Step 6

Now make a stroke at the ornament using the layer style. It will make the ornament is more expressive. Also smudge the pieces of the book using the “Smudge Tool”.

PS. at this stage, you can remove the “Extras”, simply press “Ctrl + H”.

Vintage Typography Tutorial Step 7

Okay, now create a new layer on the top. Again choose “Smudge Tool” and tick the “Sample All Layers”, configure a soft brush to 4px. and smudge the “EX LIBRIS” inscription.

As a result, we get:

Vintage Typography Tutorial Step 8

Now select any font that you like, personally, I chose “Rockwell” and write on the clear place “Vintage”. Right-click on the text-layer and click “Rasterize Type”, this is helping us to easily edit the text in the future. Then press “Ctrl + T” and use a deformation. Edit the text to effect of wave.

Vintage Typography Tutorial Step 9

Okay, now again, using the “Type Tool” write the text “Vintage Typography” at the bottom of the ornament. For the text I used the font “VictorianLetPlain”.

Vintage Typography Tutorial Step 10

PS. using the same method as the early, I reduced the saturation a bit and added a more brightness.

At this stage, our layers must look something like this:

Vintage Typography Tutorial Step 11

Now we need to make the letter “A”. For this I have not used any fonts, and just drew it myself. You can use any font you chosen. I used the standart lines and “Pen-Tool”, that’s what I got:

Vintage Typography Tutorial Step 12

Now when we have a letter, edit his style of this layer like this:

Vintage Typography Tutorial Step 13

Now is the time to decorate our ornament. For this I used the brushes of different sets. I don’t want you to follow the pattern, so show your imagination at this stage and use any Brushes you liked/Custom Shapes you like. So, create a new layer on top of the “BG Brush” and draw the ornament like this:

Vintage Typography Tutorial Step 14

Now the most basic and creative part of the work: we need to paint our ornament! Here you can fully demonstrate their imagination based on my steps. So let’s go to experimentation!

To easily focus on the parts of the ornament, I’ll create separate groups (Ctrl + G). All we need is: “Pen-Tool” and “Pin Light” blending mode.

So create a new group on top of all layers. It also create a new layer and put a “Pin Light” blending mode, now select the area you want using “Pen-Tool” and fill it by colour. By following the steps:

Layers should look something like this:

PS. To the each of layers I added the adjustment-mask to changing hues.

Vintage Typography Tutorial Step 15

In the same way create the other parts.

Vintage Typography Tutorial Step 16

Using “Pen-Tool” I painted a small detail in the form of ribbons on the letter “A” for efficiency.

Vintage Typography Tutorial Step 17

To make work is more smooth I used “Topaz Clean” filter with the same settings as the early. But above all create the layers into one layer, and then copy the image, and then return back all layers using “Ctrl + Alt + Z” and paste it on top of other layers. Here’s how it looks:

Vintage Typography Tutorial Step 18

Okay, now just apply the filter “Topaz Clean” as we did earlier.

Vintage Typography Tutorial Step 19

For the efficiency we are creating a new editing layer “Layer – New Adjustment Layer – Brightness/Contrast” with these settings:

Vintage Typography Tutorial Step 20

Now we need to make ornament is larger and make it more colorful. To do this, repeat step 17 to get a new layer with the image on top.

Select the “Dodge Tool” (O) and taking all of this modes of this instrument make a beautiful glare.

Here is our job “Before” and “After”.

Vintage Typography Tutorial Step 21

To make the image prettier and bigger repeat step 17. Click “Image-Adjustments-Black/White” and adjust the settings as shown below.

I take an eraser to erase unnecessary parts:

Vintage Typography Tutorial Step 22

To smooth the edges of the ornament and make the colors more saturated repeat step 17. Apply the filter “Blur – Gaussian Blur”. Adjust the layer’s blending mode to “Overlay” and make the opacity to 30%.

Vintage Typography Tutorial Step 23

Create a new “Layer – New Adjustment Layer – Hue/Saturation” and make the background with blue accent.

Vintage Typography Tutorial Step 24

The same method, create a new layer “Layer – New Adjustment Layer to” Brightness/Contrast “and add the brightness in the center of the image, and then decrease the brightness on the sides. This step will focus our attention on the ornament.

Vintage Typography Tutorial Step 25

I always consider the best options, so in the end, I decided to completely change the colors of the ornament. To do this, I just created a new “Layer – New Adjustment Layer Hue/Saturation” – with these settings:

And once again with the same settings:

Here’s what we have at the moment:

Vintage Typography Tutorial Step 26

This is the final step. I just added a little light, some highlights and corrected a couple of details, plus added a white frame. In the end, we have a finished work.

I hope you liked my tutorial, and you found it something interesting for you.

Create Colorful Ornamental Text Photoshop Tutorial

Joe Moore — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 20:18:19 +0000

Continuing our series of text effect Photoshop tutorials, this week, we’ll be looking at how to use shapes (similar in style to those from our recent surreal tutorials) to create an ornamental text effect in Photoshop. You’ll see how to wield the pen tool to create shapes, and how to paint as well as burn the shapes to create a 3D illusion.

Next, you’ll see how to use these shapes to form letters and create a fun colorful text effect.

A few other Photoshop text effect tutorials you might be interested in are:

Enjoy!

Tools used:

Adobe Photoshop

Final Image Preview

Step 1: Document Creation/Background Creation

As usual, we will start by creating a new document. The size of and DPI of your document is up to you but keep in mind that its much easier to size something down then to boost up the size! Having said that I went with 3000*2000 with a DPI of 300. Once you document is created we need to create a background, like normal we will start (and finish this time) with a simple gradient. With your colors set to light grey and white select the gradient tool (the one with the black on the outside and white on the inside) and draw a gradient like I have in the below screenshot. Keep in mind that if you just want the solid grey that’s fine, the white is not a dominant trait in the background so you can take it out if you like.

Now its time to start our text! To do this switch your type tool on (T on your keyboard) and set your type up as mine is in the below screenshot. Keep in mind that this is a taste issue, the font can be changed as you like (as well as the text).

Now that you have it set up its time to drop your text down. I was originally going to do “I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me” from the Beck song, not that I’m a huge fan or anything, but I ran out of time, so for me, “I’m a loser” will suffice. But you can place down any text you like for this.

Now due to the strange kerning of this font, I kept the “I am” text and “Loser” text on two separate layers, which is why they are represented here in yellow and red.

Now its time to hollow it out! To do this click the F on your layers menu and select “Stroke”. Once you have done that set yours up as mine is in the below screenshot.

Now once you have pressed ok change the FILL for your layer to 0% and leave the opacity at 100%. This should result in something like the below screenshot.

Now the “Loser” text.

Step 2: Shape creation

Now its time to make our shapes. We have discussed this before but it has been brought to our attention that some still don’t know exactly how to do it, so, this time around we hope to show the technique with a little bit more depth and clarity.

Now make a new layer and fill it with blue.

Now go ahead and grab your pen tool, P on your keyboard and set it up like mine is in the below screenshot.

Now just make a random loopy shape. Something like a distorted bean should work fine.

Once your shape is finished and closed (all the lines connect) right click and select make selection and then just press ok when the dialog box comes up.

Now we have a selection of our shape that we can cut and paste back into the document.

Now its time to dodge our blue shape and then burn it, this is the process that takes the flat 2D shape and makes it into a 3D shape.

So to start off press O on your keyboard and set your dodge tool up as mine is in the below screenshot, then just right click and set your brush up like mine in the below screenshot. Keep in mind my document size when you see my brush size, if your working on a document smaller like 1200*800 you will need to obviousally use a smaller brush!

Now just go along one of the sides with your brush, you see that it goes from dark blue to a light shade of cyan, this inturn becomes the side that’s in the light.

Now we can switch over to our burn tool, with the same brush and repeat this process on the opposite side.

Now despite the fact that there is no direct light source in our document you should still go with the basic idea of how this works. Take for instance the below screenshot, light comes from one side and hits the shape, this being our cyan side, the opposing side is darker because the light is not shinging on it, this in turn is the burnt side.

For now you could say our shape is complete and ready to be incorparated into the text. But why do thar if you can use this shape to make two other shapes? This can save you allot of time if done correctly, so lets go over how to go about doing it.

Start off by rotating your shape 90 degrees then apply a twirl filter like I have done below.

This should turn your shape into something like the below screenshot.

This in turn is another useable shape for us! But wait, what if we liquified this shape?

Take a look at the below screenshot. Using the warp forward tool, I pushed inward on the right side, grabbed the right ‘tail’ and pulled it out and then grabbed the top section and did a 2 shaped motion. This turned the shape into the below screenshot.

This turned the shape into the below screenshot.

Remember this shape could also be twirled if you wanted!

But now its time to start making a lot of shpaes. Below is some screen caps of my shapes during creation.

I kept all of my shapes (un-3D’d) on a single layer, they look like the below screenshot.

Now lets take a look at two of my 3D shapes.

These both look fine, but we don’t want to make a all blue text piece (well maybe you do)!

So lets adjust the hue with our hue and saturation editor.

This makes our shape look like the below screenshot. And as you can see, its still 3D.

Whats the point? Well lets do it again.

This is NOT 3D. So on to the point, move carefully with your hue adjustments, or you could wind up with something like the above screenshot which is flat and well… boring. If you happen to run into this, maybe you cant seem to get a specific color the way you want it the way to go about fixing this is to just re-dodge/burn it in while it is the new color.

So now just continue make shapes! Once you have a unbelivable amount of shapes created in a variety of colors we can continue on to placement!

Step3: Text placement

Ok, so now we have our text made, hollowed out and we have a smogesborg of shapes its time to start throwing them down on the canvas!

So lets start off with the L in “loser” by placing a shape in the bottom section of it. Try to keep your shape in side the L’s outline.

Now just continue building up wards (or downwards), do not start in the middle and work your way out, this method just does not work as well at all.

As you can see in the above two screenshots another thing to keep in mind is color placement, as we have stated before, we do not want a all blue piece! So vary those colors! Put some green with blue or red, don’t bunch them all together!

Now as you can see in the below screenshot, my shapes do infact leave the saftey zone so to speak. But this is okay if you have just one or two shapes that barley drift outwards, what you don’t want is long pieces sticking out that obstruct the shape of your letter so much so that the letter is no longer recognizeable.

My finished L looks like the below screenshot.

Now continue on with the rest of your letters, my finished font looks like the below screenshot.

I then duplicated all of my shapes, grayscaled the duplicated layer and set it to overlay at 50% opacity. This is not required but in my case it helped define the highlights and shadows of my shapes.

And now we are done, I hoped this time we shed all of the ‘light’ on this needed so you can go on to create your own works of art using this great and simple technique! The below screenshot is my finished image.

I hope you enjoyed reading my tutorial and wound up with an image you like! Or came out with knowing a few new tricks! If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask.

Also, if you have any ideas for future tutorials please say so!

Create a Festive Ornamental Christmas Text Effect

Joe Moore — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 21:22:39 +0000

Christmas offers a plethora of fun design possibilities, with ornaments, stockings, candy canes, reindeer, lights, trees and other items playing signature roles in decoration for the season. One of the most requested Photoshop christmas tutorials is a beautiful text effect tutorial, so in this tutorial, we’ll be looking at how to make an ornamental text effect.

You’ll learn how to create 3D Studio Max 3D text, and then how to import it into Photoshop to create a holiday text effect. You’ll see how to decorate your text with holiday themed items, and how to bring the composition together.

If you liked this text effect tutorial, check out our other PS text effect tutorials:

Happy holidays!

Tools used:

Adobe Photoshop
3DS Max
Various stock images

Final Image Preview

Step 1: 3D text creation

So to start off we will begin by opening up 3DS max and starting a new scene.

Once you have done that we can head over to the create toolbar on the right hand side of your screen. You will want to select the spline tab and then choose text as I have done in the below screen shot.

Now just drop it into your view port!

Once you have done this we can head back over to the modify tab and adjust our settings for our text. Here you can manipulate the font, size and kerning of your text. You can play with settings as you like for the tutorial but we will be using the following.

Now just repeat this process, this time using “Christmas” as your text.

My scene now looks like the below screen shot.

Now we can select the merry text again and head back over to our modifiers so we can make it three dimensional. Click the drop down on the modifier tab and choose bevel, once you have done that set yours up as mine is in the below screen shot.

Now do the same thing for the Christmas text.

Our scene now looks like the below screenshot.

Now that our text is made its time to create a material for it, so go ahead and press m on your keyboard to open up the material editor so we can get started! Once your material editor is open just choose one of the orbs any orb will do and set the color diffuse up as white and your done! If you wanted something extra you could use a falloff map on your reflection section as I have done with my material below, but this is not required and doesn’t have a very drastic effect on the final outcome.

My material:

Which in turn looks like:

Now with your orb selected drag and drop it on top of your two 3D words, this should apply the material to your words.

Once the material has been applied there’s not much left to do! We could apply some modifiers bend, taper or twist but its fine as is. So now let’s render, open up your render settings by pressing F10 on your keyboard and filling in your desired document size. I went with 4000*4000 but the size is really up to you and how large your final image will be.

My render came out looking like the below screenshot.

Step 2: Text implementation and BG creation

Now its time to open up Photoshop, once it has opened, go ahead and create a new document at your desired size. I went with 3000*2000 but you can use whatever you like, be sure to keep your renders resolution in size when creating your document!

Once you document has been created go ahead and fill this with black. Now using a large soft brush 300px soft draw on the canvas with white, try to create a quick spotlight like effect.

Once that is done apply a Gaussian blur with a radius of 250 px twice and drop your text in.

Now while holding CTRL on your keyboard click your text layer, this will make a selection around the text.

Now just go back to your background layer and copy the selection. Once that is done paste this over your text and set the blending mode to soft light at 50%. This in turn will cause the right hand sides of the text to become darker and the middle section to become brighter, making the text blend better with the scene.

Once that is done its time to start the coloring! So grab a color of your choice I went with blue and drop it into a new layer under your text layer.

Set this layer up as an overlay layer at 100% opacity.

Now we will repeat this step only over the text, use the previously described method of making a selection around the text and then just fill on a new layer. Set this new layers opacity to about 25% and set the blending mode to overlay.

Now we can head over to SXC to grab a quick light stock to add to our scene. It can be found here : http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=847029

Put this layer on top of all the previous layers and set the opacity to 20% and the blending mode to screen.

Now in the spirit of giving, we will be using a stock brush set provided by Meldir, she has graciously created these and allowed them for use, so a big thank you to her! Her snow flake brush set can be found here :
http://browse.deviantart.com/resources/applications/?qh=§ion=&q=snowflake#/d812eu

Once you have the brush set installed go ahead and make a new layer for our snowflakes! Now open up your brush editor and select one of the many beautiful snowflakes that you would like to use, once you have found one you prefer go ahead and set your brush up as mine is in the below screen shot.

In doing this, we will make it so our brush will randomly plop out with various sizes and rotations, thus making the process much easier!

Now go ahead and plop some snowflakes down on a new layer beneath your text. Once you have done that apply a slight Gaussian blur, a radius of about 4 should do.

Now repeat this process but this time we will not blur them. I kept mine small this time but you can use some big ones to if you like! Its your design and experimentation will only make it better!

Step 3: Christmas props

Now its time to start adding in all of those Christmas time stocks, ribbons, lights and ornaments we all be added in. Our first stock will be a bow/ribbon and can be found here :
http://www.sxc.hu/pic/l/f/fa/fangol/1321208_58931672.jpg

Once you have the stock dropped into your new scene just isolate it out as you would any other stock.

Now we can duplicate this layer, hide the original and turn the new duplicated layer into a clipping mask for our text layer. To do this with the text layer selected hold alt and click the line between the text layer and the bow layer. Now only parts of the bow, which are on the text are visible! Once this is done slide the bow around until only part of the ribbon is showing like I have done in the below screenshot.

Now duplicate this layer a few more times and move them around so it appears as if the ribbon is sliding up the letter. Once you have done this enough times unhide the original, remove the ribbon and place the bow on the text, since we want the entire bow visible a clipping mask is not required for this step.

You can add this were ever you like, I added another set up top on the merry text as well, but this time I left out the bow.

Our document now looks like the below screen shot.

Now we can head back over to SXC and grab another bow and repeat the process!

The new bow can be found at : http://www.sxc.hu/pic/l/n/na/nazreth/1063045_72610999.jpg

This time however we don’t need a clipping mask, just remove the white and any ribbon parts you don’t need and place!

As you can see mine goes into one of the ‘holes’ in my letters, I pushed this section of the ribbon down to create a sense of perspective using the smudge tool. If your bow does this as well I would suggest you do the same so it does not appear flat.

Now we can grab our first ornament, which like the previous stock images is also on SXC. http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=1071454

Just simply isolate this out and place it so it appears as if its going into or under one of the letters.

Once you have done that you can if you want create a string that wraps around the letter. To do this just select the color of the string in the stock image using you eye drop tool and then grab the 3px hard brush and simply draw a line!

Now we can grab our next ornament. It is located at http://www.sxc.hu/pic/l/l/li/lizbethone/744367_86764146.jpg

Just isolate this out and repeat the above process for placement. However this time if you want change the hue to red so it does not blend in too much with the blue background.

Once you have placed your ornament you can use the previously discussed clipping mask technique to apply a small ribbon along the letter so it looks like the ornaments ribbon has been wrapped around several times.

The next ornament can be found at http://www.sxc.hu/photo/744365

Again, just isolate this stock out and place it. If you like adjust the hue with the hue and saturation editor. This time, don’t worry about the ribbon effect just place it as I have in the below screen shot.

Step 4: Ornaments continued, lights added and various other stocks

Now we can head over to Deviantart and grab a pack of pre isolated stock orbs provided by the wonderful redheadstock aka obsidianDawn.com. Again, they are providing a free resource which is of great quality so a big thank you to them!

Once you have downloaded the pack you will notice that they are all transparent pngs, so no isolation is necessary! Which will be a huge help to us time wise, so again, a huge thank you to the obsidianDawn.com crew! Once you have opened it up choose a ornament you like and place it as you see fit!

Now continue on adding in more ornaments from the pack as well as any you find on the web. I will be using one of the ribbons and about three ornaments from the obsidian pack and the rest is from SXC as well as Shutterstock. Take your time when placing these stocks as they are very key to the design of the piece.

Various ornament stock images:

My document now looks like the below screen shot.

Now, to help out with depth you can take a large ornament and place it in one of the corners and apply a Gaussian blur. I used a red one found on SXC and applied a Gaussian blur with a radius of about 10. Once that is done, you can do the same thing with a few small ornaments or even with some of the ribbon from the stock pack.

Once you have created some depth with the blurred ornaments we can head back over to Deviantart and grab another redheadstock/Obsidiandawn.com pack. This time it’s Christmas lights!

The wonderful pack can be found here: http://redheadstock.deviantart.com/art/Christmas-Lights-PNGs-106685197

Once you have opened it choose your favorite and place it!

As you can see in the below screenshots, mine all go off the sides at the end of the strand. This is something you want yours to do as well, the strand should not appear as if its dangling freely, it will create a flat appearance and this is not something we want to happen!

Now, let’s say you wanted to use one of the light strand on one of the loops of your letters, this can easily be achieved. Just simply past in the strand and open up your liquefy filter. Once the filter has opened, use the forward warp tool to push the middle of your strand down, thus creating a curve!

Now continue applying the light as you see fit! Remember though that you can make them appear like they are drooping with your liquefy filter!

Our document now looks like the below screenshot.

Now we can add in some candy canes!

The candy cane is located at: http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=374311

Just isolate this candy cane out and place it on your text. Put it upright so it appears as if it is hanging, then erase the section that covers over your text to finish the illusion.

Now you can throw some candy canes to the sides and blur them as we did with the ornaments!

And now we are done! I added in a few extra bits, a glowing star, Santa hat and a tiny present, all of which is located on SXC, and then just sized it down. The final image looks like the below screen shot.

I hope you enjoyed reading my tutorial and wound up with an image you like, or came out with knowing a few new tricks! If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask.

Also, if you have any ideas for future tutorials, please say so!

Create a CMYK 3D Text Effect in Photoshop and 3D Studio Max

Eric Shafer — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 21:56:37 +0000

3D Text effects are highly popular, and we’ve published a few tutorials on them before. There are almost endless possibilities, with glossy or reflective 3D text, or grungy, dark text, or intricate and ornate 3D text. However, some of the power in 3D text effects can be created by utilizing the paths of the text, and then decomposing the letters into smaller shapes. This results in a unique and stylish text effect that you can apply to a large number of situations.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to use Photoshop and 3D Studio Max (though any 3D program will work) to create a unique 3D PS text effect using fundamental shapes.

If you need more text effect tutorials, check out these other tutorials, some of which are 3D Studio max 3d tutorials as well:

Enjoy the tutorial and please share it with your friends and share your results with us in the comments.

Tools Used:

Adobe Photoshop
3DS Max
Stock images

Final Image Preview

Step 1: Text creation and additional ball creation

So to start off we will begin by opening up 3DS max and starting a new scene.

Now just drop it into your view port!

Once you have done this we can head back over to the modify tab and adjust our settings for our text. I will be leaving the font, size and kerning all the same but you can modify these if you like. If you do not want to adjust any of the above discussed settings then just proceed by changing the text. I went with CMYK but any text would work. I would go with lower letter words or abbreviations thought. In the end, the longer the word the more balls that you must use which means more lag and more chance of your scene crashing.

Your scene should look something like the below screenshot.

Now we can move on to our material editor to create the materials for our balls. If you are familiar with our past tutorials you will remember this screen. If you are not familiar all that needs to be done here is to select one of the balls and then choose a new diffuse color and your done! I made my colors CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) to correlate with the typo but any colors will do.

If you want to add a reflection and are using mental ray/Vray you can place a falloff map in your reflection map section just like we did in the Hello Color tutorial.

Now its time to start making spheres, so head over to your create tab and select sphere, set yours up as mine and drop one into your viewport.

As you can see in the last image, I’m working in the top viewport (you can access this by pressing T on your keyboard), this makes the entire design much easier by allowing you to keep all of your balls on one plane. I would suggest doing this the entire time up until you start building up your letters.

Once you have placed your first sphere you can press M on your keyboard to bring the material editor back up. This time you will want to click the material sphere (I went with blue) and drag it onto your sphere in your view port. Once you have done that your first sphere should be colored!

Now we can click our viewport sphere, while it is selected switch over to your move tool and move it over while holding shift. A dialog like the below one should appear. This in turn will create a duplicate of the first sphere.

Once you click ok you will see your duplicated sphere appear.

Once you see it you can place it and color as we did previously.

Now continue duplicating your spheres and coloring them. Be sure to stay inside the lines for the most part!

You will notice that this is a somewhat tedious procedure however we can speed it up once you reach a point similar to mine in the below screenshot.

Now select all of your balls and duplicate these as we have done the others.

Next we can switch over to our rotate tool and turn these until they are lined up with the typo outline.

You may need to move some balls around and recolor them so they don’t appear too clustered (a lot of blues in one spot for example) but once that’s done you have saved a ton of time!

Now just continue on until you have filled up all of your letters! Be sure to stay in the lines and avoid clustering colors as much as possible!

My type looks like the below screenshot.

Once your type is done just delete the typo outline and we are done! Well, not quite, we still need to render it. To render your typo press F10 on your keyboard and input your desired size, you can use any size you like but obviously the bigger the better!

Now that your render is finished you can create a new scene (or hide your type). Once you have done this just drop in some large balls and color them accordingly to your previously used colors.

Render these and we are done with all of our 3DS work!

Step 2: Back ground creation and typo implementation

The first thing we need to do is open up our text in photoshop. Mine looks like the below screenshot.

I did not like the fact that it was horizontal so I used the marquee tool (M on your keyboard) to move the C and the M above the Y and K. You do not have to do this but if you want it can help create a bit more flare to your type.

Now its time to create a document for our newly created text .So depending upon your type size, set up a new canvas (CTRL N on your keyboard). I went with a 3000*2000 sized document but you can use whatever you like, remember to keep the size of your type in mind!

Once you new document has been created grab the fill tool (G on the keyboard) and fill the canvas with pure black.

Now we can create a new layer (Ctrl shift n on your keyboard) and doodle a random shape in white with the paint brush (B on your keyboard).

Once you have done this merge the two layers (CTRL SHIFT E on your keyboard) and apply a Gaussian blur with a radius of 250px. Apply this blur about twice and your document should look similar to mine in the below screenshot.

Next just drop your text in and place it so it appears as if the light is shining from behind the text.

Now we can drop in a ton of the orbs we created in the end of the 3DS section. If you don’t have enough that’s ok! Just hold ALT on your keyboard when moving the orbs to duplicate them, then all you need to do is free transform them and before you know it your canvas will be filled with orbs!

However, if you duplicate them or you just drop it in be sure the sizes of your orbs vary a little bit.

Step 3: Ray creation and additional background elements added

Our next step is to create the rays of light coming off the orbs. These are quite easily created using the radial blur filter in your filter>blur dialog.
So start off by duplicating your small orb layer. Once that is done drag it beneath the original small orb layer and apply a filter blur>radial blur. Once the dialog comes up crank it up to 100% and set it to radial blur zoom. Apply the filter to get an effect similar to the below screenshot.

Right now its very faint but we can fix that! Press CTRL SHIFT F on your keyboard to fade the last applied filter (the radial blur), set the blending mode for this to screen and press ok. Once you have done this apply the filter again and fade it again. Do this about 4 times and the effect should now look like the below screenshot.

The above screen shot is very grainy and is not what we want at all. To fix this we will apply a Gaussian blur which is found in the filter drop down under blur. Set yours up as mine is in the below screen shot and hit ok.

The effect now looks like the below screenshot.

But we don’t want the trails in front of the orbs only behind them. To fix this we can grab a standard eraser (Press E on your keyboard to select the eraser tool) and erase out the streaks in front of the orbs.

Now we need to spruce up the back ground a tad before we move on. To do this create a new layer under everything except your gradient layer, fill this layer with the fill tool like we did previously but this time use something like blue. Se this layers blending mode to overlay and set the opacity to about 50% opacity. This should create a slight blue hue for our background making it much more vibrant.

Now we can grab some more orbs (larger this time) and place them all over the edges/middle of the screen. These will be blurred to create a sense of depth. To do this simply apply the same Gaussian blur that we applied earlier however this time set the radius to about 10px and hit ok.

Now to spruce up the background some more!

To do this we will create a duplicate of our text layer and drag it down so it is only above the blue overlay layer and the gradient layer. Once you have done this apply a few Gaussian blurs with a radius of 250px.

Now we can grab a free cloud stock image (or a purchased one) from a stock site such as Sxc.hu or deviantart.com I will be using the below image.

Now all we will do is drag this layer in place it beneath the orb layers and set it to overlay at 100% and we are done!

You could continue to add to the piece if you wanted to by adding in stars/nebula pieces etc… but you don’t have to. My final image looks like the below screenshot.

I hope you enjoyed reading my tutorial and wound up with an image you like! Or came out with knowing a few new tricks! If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask.

Also, if you have any ideas for future tutorials please say so!

Colorful Candy 3D Text Effect in Photoshop and 3D Studio Max Tutorial

Joe Moore — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:38:20 +0000

Text effects are a common way to spice up typography for graphic design. Instead of using a plain font with a solid color, a text effect can create a visual impactful design. There are a variety of effects that can be applied, from 3D to inset typography and everything in between.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create colorful candy 3D text using Photoshop and 3D Studio Max, and how to incorporate a few other 3D elements into a final Photoshop artwork. You’ll get a great look at how to model and texture 3D text and how to render it using v-ray, and how to then composite it together in Photoshop.

Let’s get started!

Tools used:

3D studio max – Vray (not required)
Adobe Photoshop

Final Image Preview:

Step 1: Text creation

First off we will need to open up 3D studio max. If you are unfamiliar with 3D studio max you should read up on my other 3D text tutorial here : http://design.creativefan.com/create-a-beautiful-3d-text-composition/

Next we will go to the right hand side and choose the text tool like in the below screen shot.

Once you have selected the text tool go ahead click somewhere on the screen, this will drop the MAX TEXT into your perspective.

Now we need to go into our texts parameters and change them so they look a little better. We can also go ahead and change the text from MAX TEXT to Hello.

As of now, our text should look something like the below screen shot.

Now create another text object, set it with the same settings but change the text to Color. Once you have done this move your Color text over to the right as I have done in the below screen shot.

Next, with our Hello text selected, we will go to our modifier drop down and select Bevel. This modifier will turn our flat 2D text, into 3D text.

Once you have selected bevel, set your screen shot up as mine in the below screen shot.

Now we can click our drop down modifier (still with the Hello text selected) and choose bend. The bend modifier will obviously bend the text, this will in turn make it much more interesting.

Our text should now look like the below screenshot but your text color may look a little different.

Now just apply the same effects to the Color text.

Now its time to start building our material, so to start off press M on your keyboard to open the material dialog box. The dialog box should look something like the below screen shot, granted, yours will be all grey.

If you do not have Vray, yours will all say standard rather than Vray. In this case, click the button and change it to “RayTrace” it should transfer over nicely.

Now, on to the diffuse map creation. Click the box next to the Diffuse color and select falloff. Once you have done this set your bar graph and all the settings as I have done below.

Then you will select two noise maps, one for the yellow color and one for the red. To set these you just need to click where it says “MAP #” and select noise.

Next we can go back to the first dialog on our material editor. Once you have done this click the small gray box next to the reflection color. Once you have done this set your map as a falloff, then set your gradient off as mine Is in the below screen shot.

Your material should look similar to mine in the top left hand corner.

Now just drag and drop your sphere onto your two text objects. Doing this will apply the new material to the text.

Step 2: Light setup and rendering

Now we need to go back to our creation tool bar on the right hand side. Once you have done this select the light icon, if you don’t have Vray you will select standard and then choose omni.

Once you have created the light pull it way down beneath the text.

Now set yours up as mine is. You can see where I circled Vray, on this, if you’re not using Vray select standard here.

Next create another light and place it way above the text as I have done here.

The settings for this light should be like the below screenshot.

Below is screen shot of my left view frame. You can see from here how far away both my above text light and under text light are from the text.

Now just render! To bring up your render settings press F10 on your keyboard. This will allow you to set up your size and any alternative settings. I rendered my text at 4500*4500, but you can do whatever size you like.

Step 3: Extra shape creation

Before starting we need to remove our text, but you want to keep the lights as are. After this we can continue on.
Ok, to start off we need to examine our creation tool bar located on the right. In the below screen shot you can see the standard object creation menu. Listed are all the basic shapes you can use in 3DS.

If you check standard parameters and then select extended parameters It will look like the below screen shot.

Now, if we look at both dialog boxes we can see all of the shapes we will be using to create our shapes. We don’t need any fancy modifiers or anything just the basic shapes. Below I marked all the shapes I used to create my set of shapes. All you need to do is click and drop them on the canvas!

My perspective view now looks like the below screen shot.

Once you have done this open up your material editor once again. This time we will make two new materials. Everything will be the exact same as our last material except this time we will not use a map for our diffuse, instead we will use just a standard color.

Now we will create the yellow. Again, it will be the same as the previous material but with yellow as our diffuse color rather than red.

Now just randomly apply these three mats to your shapes and hit render!

Step 4: Photoshop work, document creation and basic setup

First off we will need to create a new document. You will want to base this off your text size; I went with 3500*2500. Next we need to drop our text in and size it to fit in the center as I have done in the below screen shot.
The text dropped in:

The text sized:

Now we need to start on our back ground. To do this create a new layer under your text. Next fill it with black and draw all over it with white as I have done in the below screen shot.

Now just apply a few Gaussian blurs with a radius of 250px. After you have done this your document should look something like the below screen shot.

Next we need to color our gradient. To do this choose a dark aqua blue and fill it on a new layer. Once you have done this, just set the layers blending style to overlay and your done!

Step 5: Text manipulation and shape incorporation

Now we need to duplicate our text layer and set it to overlay. Once you have done this we can go to our filter drop down and select Filter>Artistic>Plastic wrap. Once you have select plastic wrap (while on your overlay layer) set yours up with the below settings:

Highlight strength: 20
Detail: 1
Smoothness: 15

Now just apply the filter. Your result should look something like the below screen shot when zoomed in.

Next you need to drop in a few of your shapes as I have done in the below screen shot. Once you have done that you will need to apply the same effect as we did above. My document now looks like the below screenshot.

Now we can set a few a few more shapes in and blur them. This will create a nice light effect as well as helping to create a sense of depth. I applied my blur with a radius of 34px, but yours will depend on the initial size of your shapes.

Step 6: Drip painting, finishing touches and closing

Now its time to start adding in some drips and blobs to our text. There are various ways to do this; I will be using my brush tool as I have done in previous tutorials. I would suggest you use this method unless you’re fairly well versed with the pen tool. A tutorial on how to paint drips is located here on creative fan at: http://design.creativefan.com/create-a-fantastic-environmental-awareness-composition/

Now just start painting on drips! Its important that your color is the same as the part of the text where we begin painting, to ensure that your color is the same use your eye drop and select a color from your start point. I went with the top section of the H and choose a deep red that’s almost brown. Once I did that I painted the first drip.

As you can see in the below screenshot its important that you have highlights as well as shadows. Below you can see an example of this.

You can create the shadows and highlights using the burn tool/dodge tool. You could also set your brush up as overlay and paint these on with your brush. But its up to you, there’s no easy way to do this.

Now continue on painting.

Try to spread your drips around and change their size up as well as their color.

Once you have created enough drips to where you are satisfied. My document now looks like the below screen shot.

Now we need to create our shadow. To do this grab all of your layers except the background layers and merge them. Once you have done this duplicate this layer. The newly duplicated layer will be our shadow. To create the shadow go ahead and go to your edit tab, once you have done this select transform > distort. Once you have selected the distort tool go ahead and use the points on the sides and corners and smash the text down as I have done in the below screen shot.

Once you have done this go ahead and press enter to apply the effect. Now we need to make the text completely black, you can do this with your level editor. Just move the triangle on the far left hand side all the way over to the far right hand side. Now apply a Gaussian blur with a radius of about 10. Once you have done this set your layer up as overlay. Your shadow should look something like the below screen shot.

Now its time to create some simple light effects using the Gaussian blur tool. So to start off create a new layer and make a small thin line using the marquee tool.

Once you have done this we can apply a motion blur, the motion blur filter is located at Filter>Blur>Motion blur. Once your dialog is open set your blur up as mine is in the below screenshot.

Our line now looks like the below screen shot.

Now duplicate your layer and go to your edit tab, then select Transform>rotate 90 degrees. Once you have done this you should have a cross as I have below.

Now just merge these two layers down and set it up as a screen layer (or linear dodge) and place a few on some of your texts highlights.

And we are done! My below image looks like the below screen shot.

I hope you enjoyed reading my tutorial! I hope you came out with a nice piece, learned a thing or two or at least got some inspiration for your next creation. Remember if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask. And if you have any ideas for future tutorials please don’t hesitate to let someone know!

Create a Stunning Liquid Text Effect in Photoshop

Joe Moore — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:51:42 +0000

To sort of wrap up our series on using liquid effects for design, today, we will look at how to use liquid photostocks to create a gorgeous and stunning liquid text effect in Photoshop. By using some clever techniques, we can warp liquids into a variety of shapes to meet our needs. In this case, you’ll learn how to create letters from liquids, and then add in some extra effects for a dynamic composition.

All you need is Photoshop and some free stock images, so let’s get started! You’ll absolutely love this PS text effect!

Also, don’t forget to suggest tutorials in the comments!

Tools used:

Adobe Photoshop
Various stock images

Final Image Preview:

Step 1: Document creation and water stock selection

To start off we will need to create a new document. We will be working with a canvas size of 3000*2000; once the image is finished we can size the image down to 1200*800.

Now we will need a mass selection of stock images to create our text. I have used various stocks that I have collected from shutter stock however if you do not want to get your stocks from shutter stock than you can use stock images from sites such as SXC and Deviantart. Below is a list of stocks that you can use for this.
Stock links:

Step 2: Water stock manipulation

Once you have obtained your stock images you will need to begin to mold them into your water letters. I will show you how I molded the images in the steps below. Keep in mind thought that my canvas is white during the screenshots; however the canvas size should be black. Also in case you didn’t know, if you set the liquid layer down as a screen layer then the back ground will be removed , anything that still remains after this can be fixed with the level editor and or the eraser tool. For more information you can read the following tutorial that explains how to manipulate water stocks. http://design.creativefan.com/create-a-vibrant-colorful-alcohol-product-ad/

My stock images look like the below screen shots:

To start off I used my curved stock image and dropped it into my canvas.

Next I duplicated it and filled it 180 degrees. Once that was done I pushed the two curves together to create my splash S.

Once that was done I merged the two layers down into one layer and cleaned it up a bit with the eraser tool and level editor.

Next I started on the P. To do this I again used my curved stock, I free transformed it so it would sit upright and then erased out a few segments so it appeared like a hook.

Next I grabbed my curved stock and turned it so it would complete the circle at the top of the P.

Next I used the same curve stock to lengthen the tail of the P.

Next I used a single stock image to construct the L.

Now just continue on until you have created your water ‘splash’! Keep in mind that you will want to keep the hard edges away as best as possible and also that you can use filters such as the liquefy filter to help aid in the creation of the letters forms.

Step 3: Incorporating stock elements and designs into your splash text.

Once all of the letters have been created it is time to start contemplating your design. To start off we need some color. To do this create a new layer above the splash layer and draw all over it with a blue brush; any brush will do for this.

Now apply two Gaussian blurs, each with a radius of 250. Once this is done set the layers opacity to 15%.

Next create a new layer underneath the text layer and repeat this process. This time however use a lighter blue and set the opacity higher than the previous layer, depending on how bright you want your colors to appear. I went with an opacity of about 25%.

Now that we have created the basic layout for our scene we need to start building it up and what better way than with a few jelly fishes? So we can now go head over to SXC (you will need an account, but its free so sign up!) to grab the first jelly fish stock http://www.sxc.hu/photo/843107 Now just copy this jellyfish into our document in Photoshop so we can begin editing it into our piece.

We will begin our editing process by performing an auto level adjustment. This will adjust the brightness, darkness and contrast based upon the scene. Once this has been done your jellyfish should look similar to mine (minus the white backdrop).

Now we can press ‘E’ on the keyboard to grab the eraser tool; we will then right click and grab the standard 300px soft brush, we want to change the hardness to 100% rather than 0. Once we have our brush set up we will just quickly erase all the debris that are floating around in there with him. Try and get the strange over saturated red patches as well as all the little floating things. Once you have erased all you can see your image should look like mine below.

Now to further enhance the jellyfish we will be doing a manual edit of the levels. To do this we will need to pres ‘CTRL L’ on the keyboard, we will be moving the far left triangle over to the right a little bit and then pressing ok or ‘ENTER’ on the keyboard. Doing the manual adjustment will darken all the blacks in the scene and cause the grays to become pitch black which is a very good thing.

Now just place it in your scene and set the layer as a screen layer.

Now we can repeat this process with the following stock image and then place it as we have done with the previous stock. http://www.sxc.hu/pic/l/z/ze/zenpixel/234636_6457.jpg

Next we will start adding in some fish! The first of which can be found here
http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=895395
So head over to Sxc again and grab and drop this into your document as I have done.

Now we can use the magic wand tool just like we did with the phone. So to start off we will press ‘W’ on the keyboard to grab the wand tool, we will leave its tolerance at 25%. With the magic wand tool enabled we can start clicking around our fish, if we hold the ‘SHIFT’ key down after the initial click we should be able to keep the current selection and only add to it. Once you have clicked all around the fish your selection should look similar to mine in the below screenshot.

Now enable a layer mask and invert it to make only the fish visible.

Now just clean up around your fish and tada! He is all isolated out!

Now we can place him around our splash text.

The next stock fish we will use is located on deviantart which can be found here http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs11/i/2006/248/7/9/Fish_Stock_1_by_Shoofly_Stock.jpg

Once you have copied and pasted the fish’s into your document we will start by pressing ‘M’ on our keyboard to bring the marquee tool back up. With the marquee tool back up we can make a selection around the middle fish. Once you have made a selection around him you can press ‘CTRL C’ and followed by ‘CTRL V’ this will copy what we had selected and then paste it. Once we have pasted the duplicate of our fish we can hide the original layer by selecting the eye icon on the layer toolbar. With the original layer hidden we can begin isolating our fish with the magic wand tool. So press ‘W’ on the keyboard to bring the magic wand tool back up and select the white around the fish, once you have selected the white you can press ‘DEL’ on your keyboard to remove it and now our fish is isolated!

Now we can continue on using various fish stocks until we have the canvas filled to our liking. Below I have compiled a list of fish stocks that you can use to finish this step in your design, the main thing here is to keep it varied, you don’t want any conformity in your scene.
Fish stocks

Be sure to vary your fishs size as well, this will help break away from any conformity! Also as you can see in the below images; I have also isolated some fish and set their opacity very low, to help create a sense of depth, I would suggest you do the same but its not a requirement.

My image now looks something like the below screen shot.

Once I had dropped all of my fish in I went ahead and isolated a turtle and placed it inside of my A.

When doing this the most important factor was that I erased all of the water that covered the turtle.

If you would like to add the turtle into your scene you can find a similar one located on SXC at http://www.sxc.hu/photo/833619

Step 4: Adding in extra splashes and closing.

As of now the piece could be considered done. However I wanted to add something a tad bit extra, to do this I used an blurred water stock located on SXC. This stock image is located here http://www.sxc.hu/photo/884261

We will set this layer up as a screen as we did with our first water stocks and then erase everything but the top splashes.
Now just duplicate it and transform it around a few times and your done!

My final image looks like the below screen shot.
I hope you enjoyed my tutorial and have picked up a few tricks or two along the way. If you have any questions regarding a step or need any assistance don’t hesitate to ask!

The Making of "Climb" – An Awesome 3D Text Composition in Photoshop

Leonardo Dentico — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:27:46 +0000

Using textures applied to text is an effective way to create dynamic looking text, and even creating 3D style text effects solely in Photoshop. Using some photomanipulation techniques, textures can be applied and blended together to create a surreal work with a realistic feeling.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create 3D text within Photoshop, along with a nice stylish background, and then apply textures and bring out some awesome details in your work.

Let’s get started. If you have any questions or feedback, please let us know in the comments!

Tools Used:

Adobe Photoshop

Final Image Preview:

Step 1

Open a new document (mine is 2400×1082,we will resize everything in the end, to have better views of details during the work) filled with black. Take a big soft brush, paint a circle on the left to create the source light.

Go to Layer>New adjustment layer>Color balance and do the same as show below:

You’ll have now something like this:

Select a hard brush, low dimensions, and paint a white circle in the middle of your source light, now increase dimensions of the brush, reduce its opacity(you can find opacity percentage on the upper bar), paint another circle. Repeat this process again and again to have a result similar to this:

Step 2

Select, now the text tool (the “T” in the sidebar on left) and write something. In my work i used the word “climb”. Right click on the text level and choose “rasterize”, then press CTRL+T or cmd+T to edit dimensions. Use the warp tool to warp the text (you can find it on the upper bar of PS and it is symbolized with the little figure in Image 1),and try to get a similar result as image 1, shown below.

You have now to apply a nice wall texture you can find on many sites such as CGtextures.com. To apply it to the text you have to create a new level and move the texture on the level above the text, now right click->create clipping mask, and you should get what is shown below:

Many people prefer to use a 3D program for this sort of thing, but I honestly don’t like it, as I want to give an artistic and imperfect style to my works. So, to create depth for the text we will just create a new level, put it in the below to previous text layers one, and paint with an hard brush the various sides of the letter with any color, like below:

After that, we will apply the same wall texture on this level with the same technique we previously used.

This time just use any adjustment such as curves or levels to make the sights brighter since they’re “touched” by light more than the front part. Lighting is key in these artworks.

Use the dodge tool (on the left sidebar), set to “midtones” in the upper bar,to make some parts lighter, just painting where you need light.

Step 3

Make a new layer, take some bricks stock images and put them into the new layer,try to give them a direction with the transform tool (you get it with CTRL+T or cmd+T), so it seems like they are moving all together because of an explosion as like as in Image1. You can either paint this using your mouse, or duplicate and smudge, or duplicate and apply a motion blur.

Burn the ones which are more distant from the light, to create more depth.

Create some colored shapes as in Image 2, using your pen tool:

Simply using the pen tool to make these shapes, duplicate them and put one on each other as in this detail screenshot:

Create different types of them, rectangular, rounded, whatever you want…reduplicate everything, move it a little bit (CTRL or cmd+click and drag) and lower layer’s opacity,you’ll get the “move” effect as in the detail shot above. To create the stroke and the outer glow, just click twice on the shape layer and you’ll get a window, thick “stroke” and chose white as color, thick “outer glow” and choose white again, play with the settings to have a nice result.

Step 4

Burn all parts which aren’t exposed to light,and dodge the ones which are, using burn and dodge tool in the sidebar.

Go to the textures’ layers, make a new layer, right click on the layer and choose “create clipping mask”, as like as “blue blending” in my image.

Set it to “Overlay” and paint some blue parts,to blend the text with the background, reduce layer’s opacity if necessary. This will help the lighting match a bit more.

You will now have something like this:

Step 5

Here we are to the final step, we are going to add grass the same way we created the wall text: paint some grass in a new layer of any colour (in my PSD it’s white).

Next, add a clipping mask and the grass texture:

You’ll have a result like shown below. I also adjusted something with brightness and contrast,increase lights and shadows’ strength.

Our work is almost finished!! you can add details as like trees, windows and ladders, they are just stock images cut and pasted with some blending adjustments. You can also give a final adjustment with curves or levels or whatever you want, image 4 is my final result.

When you’re sure your work is finished reduce the size (800\900 px wide), make a new layer->image->apply image,and after go to filters->sharpen, to make details more visible.

Create a Cool 3D Graffiti Text Effect using Line Art in Photoshop

Joe Moore — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:41:11 +0000

Graffiti style text has a variety of applications in modern art, advertising and other forms of design. While it can be created with 3D programs, similar effects can also be achieved using pure Photoshop.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to take a line art sketch of text and turn it into a 3D graffiti style text effect using some simple techniques and stock images. You’ll learn how to take a concept, add the initial coloring, then use some well placed images to achieve a 3D effect, then finally use some brushes to add awesome extra effects.

Let’s get started!

Tools used:

Adobe Photoshop
Sketch or line art
Stock images

Final Image Preview:

Step 1: Obtaining or creating your own line art

The line art is the foundation to the final piece, without it we would have nothing. So where do you get it? The line art I used was created by a good friend named Sempai-tem (http://sempai-tem.deviantart.com/ )who collaborated with me on the creation of this piece. However you can create your own, find some on the net or just make a wireframe in a 3D application. Regardless of how you get it just make sure it’s something that you like.

The BXXX line art looks like the below screen shot.

Once you obtain your line art its important to figure out how you want to ‘transfer’ it into a digital piece. You have a few options; the pen tool, the paint brush, illustrator, the line tool etc… In the next few steps I will try and explain how I transferred Sempai’s line art into a digital piece and once that is done I will show you how to continue on to the final piece.

So step one, create a new document in Photoshop. As far as canvas size goes go with a ratio you like, I went with 2000*3000. Now just change your background color to black.

Next create a new layer and grab your 3px hard brush. Now trace the line art in white (or another color if you choose to do so).

While you still have the brush enabled start to draw lines along the top of your line art. This will be were our water ends, it’s the tip of the waves inside of our line art. If your water lines look rough don’t worry about it, the final piece is going to look very chaotic and the roughness of your lines will only add to the wonderful anarchy.

You can also take this time to shade some of your line art. This will help later on in determining where the light source could be, plus it looks cool!

Now we need to color our line art. To do this we will create a new layer and then grab a new brush.

Since we are going for a water theme I would suggest using a blue colored brush however the actual variation of blue does not matter. When filling your line art in use a lighter blue in the center and as you work your way out switch to darker tones of blue.

Also be sure to keep all of your colors inside of the lines, I know we want it chaotic but we don’t want it looking sloppy.

Now using the same brush on a new layer we will paint some shadows around the edges of our line art.

Step 2: Bringing life to the piece

So now that we have our line art colored we need to start dropping in stocks to make things a bit more interesting. So we can head over to Sxc and grab this stock image of the coral reef for starters :

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1106518

Next we can free transform it down to about half the size and then grab a soft large erase and erase a good bit of it out. Be sure to erase any part that goes out of your line art!

If you’re having troubles with the colors mating up you can use your smudge tool with a soft brush to help and mix the colors.

Now we just repeat the process with a few other stocks, below Is a list of stocks that would work great for this!

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/289370

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/703374

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/785400

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/205441

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1224059

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/902726

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/550988

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/520853

Next we can start adding in some fish and other animals. So to start off the fish isolation we will head over to Sxc once again and grab this stock http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=226753

Once you have copied our fish into our Photoshop documents we can then press ‘CTRL SHIFT L’ to apply a level adjustment. However for these fish this step is optional, as you can see by my screen shot the fish only truly is adjusted on his bottom side, so it’s a personal taste, one I prefer but you may not. Now we need to cut that fish out of the white background. But there is no reason to further complicate things, so for this isolation we can just use the magic wand tool. To enable the magic wand tool press ‘W’ on your keyboard; once the tool is enabled go ahead and set your tolerance to 31% and then just click away. You will see it really only takes one click to isolate the little fish. Once you have grabbed it with the magic wand we can press the ‘DELETE’ key on our keyboard to erase that selection out.

Now just place him were ever you like and we are done with the first fish!

Now we will go back to Sxc again and grab this starfish http://www.sxc.hu/photo/204970 and paste him into our document.

Once our starfish is in the document we will begin isolating him out the same way we have isolated our fish. So press ‘W’ on the keyboard to enable the magic wand tool; with the magic wand tool select all the white as well as all the grey shadow areas around our starfish.

Now that we have our selection we can press ‘DEL’ on our keyboard to remove it all. Now we need to free transform the starfish as well as place him. To do this we will press ‘CTRL SHIFT T’ on the keyboard to enable the free transform tool and just drop the star fish down to a size you like. Now just place him somewhere on your line art and ta –da!

I choose to go back to the 3px brush and draw some lines as if the star fish is sliding and leaving goo behind but this is not necessary.

Now we can repeat this process with this stock image http://www.sxc.hu/photo/204974

Now we just continue isolating and placing fish/animal life all around and in our line art. I have compiled a list below of very nice stocks that you can use when doing this:

Step 3: Adding a bit of flare to the final piece

To start off we will go back again to Sxc and grab this stock of the shore.

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1152037

Once you have dropped this into your document we will need to apply a layer mask and then invert it so nothing Is visible. **to apply a layer mask click the icon that looks like a square with a circle in the middle on your layer palette**

Once you have done this just grab one of your splatter brushes and throw down a few splates. Now move the layer to the very bottom and you should have something that looks similar to the below screenshot. But do note that you can do this as many times as you like with various stocks so long as you like the outcome.

Now we can start adding in a few splash stocks. First off go ahead and grab this wonderfull water splash stock located at Sxc.

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1131843

Now just grab your elliptical marquee tool and select the top splash section as I have done in the below screenshot. Once you have this selected clear everything else.

Now, set your blending mode to screen and place it along the outside of your line art.

Next up is this stock image http://www.sxc.hu/photo/884261

We will repeat the above process of selecting only the part of the splash we want, erasing the rest, setting the blending mode to screen and placement.

Now we can just drop in a few more splashes and we are done with the splash section! Below is another list of splash stocks that would work great for this:

However keep in mind that when using splash stocks that have color you must desaturate them (CTRL SHIFT U).

Finally we will finish off with some bubbles. Bubbles are extremely easy to draw, but very hard to find nice stock of. So we will be drawing them. To do so set your brush up as mine in the below screenshot and then draw a few spheres with a light source and your done!

Now we are done! I hope you enjoyed reading this tutorial and picked up a few things along the way. If you have any questions regarding a procedure I used in the final creation or a step your didn’t understand please don’t hesitate to ask!

Create an Awesome Funky Text Effect

Bruno Kenzo — Wed, 12 May 2010 19:21:45 +0000

Funky, abstract text effects can yield incredibly stunning results. Whether they’re fiery and explosive, cool and sleek, retro, or intricate vector compositions, the techniques used in abstract text effects are applicable across nearly all fields of design.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn step by step, with a plethora of details and screenshots, how to create an awesome funky text effect. Master digital artist Bruno Kenzo will take you through his detailed workflow that he used in the creation of his work, FUNK-IT, which has received significant recognition in the design community including a Daily Deviation on deviantART. You’ll learn the use of clipping masks, a variety of layer modes and blending techniques, along with a variety of other effects for this awesome and funky text effect.

Let us know what you think in the comments, and hope you enjoy the tutorial!

Tools Used:

Adobe Photoshop
Stock Images (see below)

Resources:

Nebulas (by Hameed from DeviantART): http://hameed.deviantart.com/art/Nebula-v1-1471411
3D Renders – DJ Equipment, Headphones, Spray… (by K3nzuS): http://k3nzus.deviantart.com/art/Some-Stuff-1-156008354
Smoke (by SXC): http://www.sxc.hu/photo/935916
Bokeh Effect (by Media Militia): http://mediamilitia.com/bokeh-effects-pack-42-free-images/
Texture – Zebra Stripes (by SXC): http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1141274
Other 3D Elements: http://planetrenders.net/renders/

Final Image Preview (Click for the incredible full view):

Hi everyone! First of all, thanks for reading this tutorial and I hope you can learn something, not only how to create a work like this, but also to use in other works. During this tutorial I will explain some tips and effects that I think fit very well with any style. =)

You will learn how to create a high quality “funky” effect for your text with some vibrant colors and many details! So, let’s start!

Create a new document on Photoshop and set the size that you prefer, for this job I used 40 x 15 cm 200dpi and 16bits/channel, because I printed it and with 16 bits the gradients become smoother.
So, add a Radial Gradient with the following settings:

Add some nebulas stocks and change the blend mode to Linear Dodge (Add) and Fill: 60%.
Add the text that you prefer and choose one font with a “thick body” like Impact, DaddyDontDisco, Geist RND, because you will have more area to work.

Start doing some strokes around the word:
1- Select the letter that you want to apply the stroke.

2- Go to Edit > Stroke and use the values like the following image.

3- Choose some basic colors like yellow, red, black, white, or something like these, and move a few pixels up and right. Try some blend modes like Color Dodge or Linear Dodge (Add), because they fit very well.
Or if you prefer, you can use the layer Blending Options, but I don’t recommend this, because if you are starting with Photoshop, it is a little difficult to change the Blend Mode.

Choose some texture images and make a Clipping Mask with the text:
1- Select the letter that you want to make a Clipping Mask.
2- Place the stock image on another layer like the following image.
3- Then, select only the stock image and go to Layer > Create Clipping Mask (Ctrl + Alt + G).
4- A little arrow will appear on the stock image layer. This indicates that the stock image is linked with the letter layer.

5- Select both layers and go to Layer > Merge Down (Ctrl + E). They will turn a unique layer.
6- Change the blend mode to Soft Light or Overlay, move a few pixels and press Delete. So you will get something like the following images:

Now we will start the Clipping Mask Part: choose some stocks or 3D renders that fit with the style that you are working.
I chose some of my old Cinema 4D renders like headphones, stereo, DJ equipment, guns and some abstracts.

Place the renders each one on a different layer like the following image: the Red Layer is the group (Ctrl + G), the Yellow Layers are all the clipping masks, and the Blue Layer is the text object.

In this case I chose one of my DJ equipment render. The layers that are inside of the red bracket are linked (Clipping Mask) with the typography (yellow layer). Try some blend modes like Color Dodge, Linear Dodge (Add), Overlay, Soft Light and Screen, and change the Opacity and Fill like you prefer.

Here are more examples about this effect:

Add some 3D particles (explosion effect) in your work and change the blend mode to Soft Light or Overlay.

Now we will add more details: choose some 3D spheres, change the blend mode to Soft Light or Overlay and change the Opacity like you prefer.

And here are more examples:

Choose some 3D renders and add them in your work. In this example desaturate it (Shift + Ctrl + U), so I rotate it and change the blend mode to Color Dodge. In this case all the objects are on Color Dodge, Linear Dodge, Screen, Overlay or Screen and they are inside the 3D Objects Group.

More examples:

Now we will add some brush lines (if you have a Pen Tablet your work will become easier). Try to use one pixel (diameter) and basic colors like red, black or white.

And now, I think is the most important part of this tutorial: illumination and colors.
Choose a Bokeh Effect texture with vibrant colors like red with orange or yellow and change the blend mode to Overlay, varying the Opacity to fit better in the composition.

Besides this, add some Adjustment Layers like Levels, Selective Color and Curves to adjust the illumination of your work. To improve some parts, use the Brush Tool with a soft round brush and change the blend mode to Soft Light or Overlay. The Levels and Brush settings are something like the image.

Here are some examples:

Add some 3D spheres in the foreground and background. So apply Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set the radius between 3-5 pixels. Try some blend modes like Normal or Overlay, because they fit very well.

Finally, we are done! Fix some details. Apply a Sharpen Filter, etc…
And here is the Layer Window with all the objects.

So, I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and learned something. I also hope to do more tutorials of my work and thanks for reading! =)

Create A Dynamic Shattering Text Effect

Joe Moore — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 17:59:09 +0000

When it comes to text effects, the sky is the limit. You can light it on fire, drench it in water, freeze it, explode it, make it glow with neon colors, or engrave it in beautiful metallic fashion. Unfortunately, many of the text effect tutorials on the internet yield rather low-quality results.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a high quality, dynamic shattering effect for text. You’ll first be guided through the 3D creation of the text, and then the process of shattering it, then you’ll learn how to use the power of Photoshop to create a brilliant and unique result.

As always, questions, comments and suggestions are welcome, just let us know!

Tools Used:

3D Studio max or Cinema 4D
Photoshop

Final Image Preview:

Step 1: Type creation and rendering

To start off we can go way over to the right and click the icon that looks like a square, a circle and a triangle all arranged behind one another. It should be in the middle of the sphere and light icon. This is the shapes icon. Once that is selected, go ahead and click the text button. With the text button selected, the toolbar on the right should now have new tabs on it, “Rendering”, “Interpolation” and “Parameters”. We will go to the “Parameters” tab to edit our text.

Choose to align to the left and select your font, which can be anything you like, I went with Arial for this scene. Set your size to 100 and put a “2” in the text box. Now, just click on the screen to drop your text. Since we will be beveling and arranging our text all independently, it’s a good idea to do each number by itself. This means that we will repeat this process for each number in the word equation independently.

With the “2” selected, choose the arc shaped tab on the right hand side entitled “Modify”. It should be to the right of the arrow button. This will allow us to change the settings for our text. We won’t be changing any settings, but we will add a “Modifier”, so click the drop down menu entitled “Modifiers” and select “Bevel”.

With bevel selected, we can change the parameters of the bevel itself now. Beveling the “2” will create a 3D “2” rather than just a group of splines. So we want to go down to the “Bevel Values” tab and make our adjustments. You want to leave the start outline at 0 and only adjust the “Level 1:” sections, in this section we will increase the height by 6.5.

Your 2 should now look like mine in the below screenshot.

Now just repeat the process for the remaining numbers in the equation. I think it’s a good idea to rotate each letter so it appears as if they are not perfectly aligned but you can do it however you like. Mine came out looking like the below screen shot.

Once you’re satisfied with your equation we will start blowing it apart. To do this we will go back to the far right hand side and select the ‘space warp’ icon, this icon will look like a wave and will be 4 icons over from the sphere.

Once we have clicked the space warp icon we can click the ‘Forces’ toolbar and select ‘Geometric/Deformable’ from the selections. This will bring up all the deformers that 3DS has in its arsenal, for this project we can select the bomb button.

Now we can click on the screen to create our bomb; we will only create a single bomb to start out. However in the end you can have as many as you like.

Now we can go to the “Bind to space warp” icon, this should be up in the top left. The icon looks like a window, a wave and a red magnet. Once you have selected this we need to click our bomb and drag it to one or more numbers. When you click and drag it will create a dashed line, make sure you drag until you get it to where it is hitting the number though, if you stop short then later nothing will happen!

Now we need to click our bomb and choose the arc shaped tab on the right hand side entitled “Modify” this will allow us to change the settings for our bomb. Once you have selected this we can see all the parameters for our bomb. Set your parameters the same as mine in the below screenshot, if would like a more thorough explanation of how bombs work and what each parameter does check out my other tutorial on Creative fan: http://design.creativefan.com/create-a-stunning-3d-liquid-explosion-artwork/

Once you have done this repeat this step with the remaining numbers in your equation. I would suggest that when doing that you take a peek at the above link to my other tut and vary your settings by changing;

Falloff
Spin
Chaos
Change the strength, and change it from negative to positive

Once that is done you need to go to the bottom to what I call the “Time stamp”. It will look like a time line; once you find it bump it up to 6 or higher depending on your bombs. I went with 7 because the falloff and strengths were low on my bombs.

My equation looks like the below screen shot now.

Our next step is to apply the material and render. So to open your material editor press ‘M’ on your keyboard; once that opens up set your material up as mine is in the below screenshot.

Now just select all your numbers and click the third icon from the left hand side of your material editor. It should look like a sphere pointing to a square.

Now we are all setup to start the rendering process. To open your render menu press F10 on your screen. Once you have done that a screen will pop up with all kinds of parameters, we will just be adjusting the size. I went with a size of 2000*3000 since that’s the document size I’m going for in the final piece, but you can choose whatever you like.

Now just hit render! Once it’s done rendering go ahead and save it as a .PNG where you can find it later. Next we will be creating a wire frame render. To do this we will press ‘F10’ on the keyboard once again, when the render settings come up we will leave everything the same as before but we will click the ‘Renderer’ toolbar at the top. This will show all of our more advanced render settings, select the checkbox entitled ‘Force wireframe’ and press render. We will then save this render as a png as we did in the previous step.

Finally we will create some bomb bits flying off our text. To do this we need to click the time stamp at the bottom and drag it way over to 56; this should cause a drastic explosion.

Next we can render it a final time, be sure to turn the force wire frame off before you do it though!

Step 2: Star creation/Scene setup

So to start off go ahead and open up Photoshop and set up your document; the size of your document is up to you and what your creating but keep your render size in the back of your mind while doing this! I went with a size of 2000*3000.

Once you have your document open fill it with black and create a new layer. Fill the new layer with black just as we did the first layer.

Next we need to add our noise in. To do this go to “Filter”>”Noise”>”Add Noise” and set yours up as mine is in the below screen shot.

Your star field should look something like the below screenshot now.

Our next step is to edit the levels for our star field. Doing this will get rid of the grey stars and help open up some negative space so they don’t look so clustered and awful. So go ahead and press “CTRL L” on your keyboard to open up your level editor and set yours up as mine is in the below screenshot. The three triangles are in order of right to left, black level, gray level and the white level. I have moved the grey level over closer to the black level. This will result in the grays becoming whiter. The white level was then moved to closer to the grey level which means the white spots have become even whiter.

Your star field should now look something like mine in the below screenshot.

Go ahead and click the layer mask button on your layer tab, it should look like a square with a circle in the middle. Now we can apply another filter, this time one called “Difference clouds”. Basically it will render some cloud like blobs in black and white causing our stars to only be seen where the white clouds are on the layer mask. To apply this filter click “Filter”>”Render”>”Difference clouds”. Your results should look something like the below screenshot, however keep in mind that the difference cloud filter is randomly generated.

Now you can adjust the levels and play with other filters to get something that suits you. I used a small 3px hard brush with white and painted some brighter stars to go with my noise stars. The stars I painted are the same size as my noise stars so it’s just basically putting a random dot on your canvas if you wanted to do this.

Step 3: Render setup

Next we can drop our render and our bits into the document. Once you have positioned them both in you may need to clean up your bits layer if there is too much in it. To do this use a large hard eraser and take your time. You don’t want to wind up with any half erased polygons! After I cleaned my bits render up my image looked like the below screenshot.

Next we can drop in our wireframe render, once it has been dropped in be sure to grey scale it and auto level it! Also be sure to place your wire frame on top of the main render layer and make sure it’s aligned correctly with the main render layer.

Next we can grab our elliptical marquee tool, with the marquee tool enabled set your feather up to about 55px. Now just make a bunch of random selections on your wireframe layer as I have done in the below screenshot.

Once you have your selections go ahead and open your hue and saturation adjuster and set it up as mine is in the below screenshot.

Your wire selections should now be pink! Now just repeat the process of making selections but this time set your hue and saturation adjustment up as the below screen shot.

Now your document should look similar to mine in the below screenshot.

Step 4: Painting/Sketching

Now we move on to the fun stuff! Well not just the fun stuff but the long task of painting atop our renders. So to start off create a new layer atop all of our previous layers and then grab your 3px hard brush.

Now look at the 2 on your render. Really look at it. See those spaces were polygons are literally coming off or separating? This is where we will start. These gaps and divides make for the simplest places to begin our painting and give off a nice effect.

So to start off grab your two colors (pink and blue) and start outlining your polygons shapes and then filling them in with the opposite color. I started off by outlining the bulk of the 2 and then moving in to some of the big polygons. It’s a good idea to try and make your polygons appear 3d if you can, since all you really have to do is draw a few extra lines and fill them in.

Now start filling in and tracing out some of those bits that are flying off your 2. Be sure not to cluster up to much of one color, you don’t want it to look like a sea of blue polygons in the end!

Now you can start filling in larger polygons on your 2. For example I filled a very large polygon with pink in the below screenshot. And I also drew some pink lines around my blue wireframes. Remember variation and randomness is the key here!

Next we can create a new layer under the two and fill it up with a color. I used pink, but if yours has a lot of pink already then you can use blue. The main thing here is to not get out from under your 2 otherwise it will just look bad.

Now our 2 is done!

Our next step is to repeat these above steps on all the remaining layers, however there are a few tips for you to keep in mind:

Vary up your colors! Don’t put to many pinks side by side!
Try and make a lot of your polygons 3d!
Don’t worry about being 100% perfect but take your time! There should be no circle shaped polygons in this piece!
Play with your brush opacity; it can help create some much nicer effects than you might think.
Think about early grade school geometry when drawing over your polygons. Don’t start making up your own shapes!

My finished letters came out looking like the below screenshots.

Step 4.5: Drips.

Drawing drips is something I do on well, all of my pieces. But you don’t have to. However if you want to this is how I would suggest doing it.

Start by drawing a V shape. The top or open part of the V should be where your drip meets the object, whereas the bottom part is where it is dripping. Take your time with these and go slowly. I know it seems easy enough, but it’s very easy to ruin your drip if you rush.

If you’re having trouble with your drips here are some tips on how to achieve a better looking drip:

Stick to the V method! I know it may seem juvenile but everyone starts somewhere.
Keep the drips the same color as the object its coming from, you don’t want a polygon that’s blue dripping pink do you?
Think about gravity! How would it drip in real life?
If you can, twirl your colors together. For example if you have a pink and blue polygon dripping why not have the drips meet and intertwine?

Below are a few screenshots of my drips.

Step 5: Lines and closing

To finish the piece off we can grab the line tool and just create some lines coming off our object. I chose to make mine feathered by erasing the edges with a soft 300px eraser but you don’t have to if you don’t want to.

Now we are done! So merge your layers (size it down if you need to) and apply a sharpen filter and your done!

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial and learned a thing or two; or at least got a cool looking picture in the process. Thanks for reading!