Locked lesson.
About this lesson
Create inflatable text with the 3D properties in Photoshop.
Exercise files
Download the Photoshop file used in the video tutorial and try the lesson yourself.
Bubbly Text.psd8.1 MB
Quick reference
Topic: 3D Bubbly Text
Create inflatable text with the 3D properties in Photoshop.
When to use
Develop some more skills in Photoshop 3D. Including individual letter coloring, textures, lights and bevels, it’s very different from the 2D world in Photoshop and with more depth.
Instructions
Set up the text layer
- Set color to light blue. Hold down Option or Alt + delete or backspace to fill background.
- Select ‘Type Tool’ and set font to large and thick (bubbly) font of choice (white).
- Type out the word.
Convert to 3D
- With text layer selected.
- Menu/3D/New 3D Extrusion from Selected Layer.
- From the top of the options bar of the workspace you can now move, rotate, and scale objects and position.
Edit Text 3D properties and make it Bubbly
- Make sure the Properties panel is active (Menu/Window/Properties).
- Select the text (the mesh in the properties window, click on it in the canvas).
- Select the shape pre-set thumbnail, inflate.
- At the top of the properties window select the cap tab.
- Change sides to front and back.
- In the inflate section increase the strength.
- Select the 3D mesh again and decrease the 3D depth until inflation meets.
Set the material shine
- At the bottom of the properties panel select all the existing materials.
- Set: Shine: 60%, Reflection: 60%.
Split the Latters and change their colors
- Go to Menu/3D/Split Extrusion.
- In the properties panel the individual letters material are split into folders. Select all the Material for the letter:
- Change the Diffuse color,
- Repeat for each letter.
Change the Orientation
- In the canvas you will be able to select each letter individually.
- Rotate each letter to add some variation.
Add a reflection
- In the properties panel - Environment section:
- Ground Plane. Opacity: 40%,
- Roughness: 60%.
Adjust the lights
- In the properties panel, select the light.
- Ten grab the handle to adjust direction and position.
- In the properties panel change the color and intensity values.
- Render to see 3D project (render can take a while).
- 00:04 Hey, everyone.
- 00:05 Howard Penske here with the 3D Photoshop tutorial.
- 00:08 And today, I'm gonna be showing you how to create 3D bubbly text,
- 00:12 just like you see here.
- 00:13 And what's cool about this design is that we're gonna be starting with a single
- 00:16 text layer.
- 00:17 And then splitting it up into multiple meshes, so
- 00:20 you can edit each letter individually.
- 00:22 So I'm starting with a 1280 by 720 pixel document.
- 00:25 But what is nice about working in a 3D environment is you
- 00:28 are pretty much working in a vector format.
- 00:30 So, later on you can enlarge or shrink that design as big or
- 00:34 as small as you want it.
- 00:35 And you really won't lose any quality.
- 00:37 Now to fill in the background layer, I'm gonna select a nice blue color from my
- 00:41 color picker right over here, I'm gonna select that color, I love that color.
- 00:45 And to fill that background with that color, I'm simply gonna hold down my
- 00:48 Alt or Option key, Option on the Mac, Alt on Windows.
- 00:51 And press Delete or Back Space.
- 00:53 And now that the background is in place, we can start adding our text.
- 00:57 Over in the toolbars on the left, I am going to grab my horizontal type tool and
- 01:00 I'm going to set the color to, let's say, white.
- 01:02 Right now, it really doesn't matter.
- 01:04 And in my font picker, I'm going to select a nice bubbly font.
- 01:08 And another nice thing about working in 3D is that at any point you can always go
- 01:13 back and change the text and not lose your 3D properties.
- 01:16 So, I'm going to choose this text right here, and
- 01:19 I'm going to type out my name in the center of the document.
- 01:22 So there we go. I'm going to move it in the middle, and
- 01:25 once again it doesn't matter how big or
- 01:26 small your text is because you can always enlarge it later on.
- 01:29 But if you want, you can hop back in the type tool, shortcut key T,
- 01:33 and then enlarge the text as you please.
- 01:35 So I'm going to set it around 200 pixels,
- 01:37 right about there, and position it in the center of my document.
- 01:41 So, now that our type is in place, we need to bring it into the third dimension.
- 01:45 Now, just a quick heads up, 3D only works in Photoshop CS6-Extended or Photoshop CC.
- 01:52 If you have CS6 Extended or Photoshop CC and you don't see the 3D menu at the top,
- 01:57 then your graphics card or operating system may not be supported.
- 02:01 So now to bring this text into 3D, if you have your Type Tool selected,
- 02:04 you can click on the 3D button at the far right side.
- 02:07 Or under the 3D menu,
- 02:09 you can simply choose New 3D Extrusion from Selected Layer.
- 02:12 And in a second, Photoshop will ask you if you want to switch to the 3D workspace.
- 02:16 Sure, why not?
- 02:18 And then you'll see your nice three text built right into the work space.
- 02:22 Now, by default your current view is active which you can see right here in
- 02:25 the 3D panel and
- 02:26 up at the top on the options bar, you have your different modes.
- 02:29 So you can rotate, roll, drag, slide, or scale.
- 02:34 Right now, I have Rotate selected.
- 02:36 So, if I just click and drag in my workspace, I'm gonna actually rotate
- 02:39 the 3D view so I can see my text from a different perspective.
- 02:42 Just like that.
- 02:44 Now in terms of editing our text, we first need to select it.
- 02:46 And we can either do that by clicking on the base 3D mesh in the 3D panel or
- 02:50 we can just simply click on the text in our document just like that.
- 02:53 And you'll see the access around the text which allows you to move, rotate, or
- 02:58 scale that text on the X, Y or Z axis.
- 03:02 So to begin our editing, let's shape out the text a little bit.
- 03:04 Over to the right in the Properties panel, we can select a shape preset.
- 03:08 We have options such as Bevel, Bevel With Frame, Bevel With Contour, Inflate, or
- 03:14 Pillow Inflate and you have a whole ton more down below.
- 03:16 Now, for this example because we want it a little bit bubbly,
- 03:19 we're gonna chose the Inflate option just to get us started.
- 03:22 But we're not gonna leave it at that because it's not bubbly enough.
- 03:26 So, to manually adjust the inflation or
- 03:28 bevel we're gonna go to this option right here at the top, which is Cap, and then at
- 03:32 the top, we have options for Bevel, and then down below, we have Inflate.
- 03:36 So, for this case,
- 03:37 I'm gonna simply increase the strength until my text looks a little more bubbly.
- 03:41 But you'll notice if I grab my current view and
- 03:43 then rotate, that is only being applied to the front of the text.
- 03:46 I also want it to be applied to the back.
- 03:49 So, what we have to do is to go back to the mesh, go back to Cap,
- 03:52 and at the top where it says Sides, select Front and Back.
- 03:57 That way when you increase the strength is not only going to be applied to the front,
- 04:00 but the back as well.
- 04:01 So, if I grab my current view one more time, and rotate around,
- 04:04 you are now going to see we have a little bit of inflation on the back of
- 04:07 our text in addition to the front which is exactly what we want.
- 04:12 Now, for this case, the text is a little bit too thick, so
- 04:14 I am simply going to select the 3D mesh one more time, and
- 04:17 very subtly decrease the extrusion depth somewhere around 50.
- 04:21 Good, that's looking a little bit better, so
- 04:23 now we can move on to defining our materials.
- 04:26 So right in the 3D panel,
- 04:27 right below the 3D mesh, we have all of our different materials.
- 04:31 From the front, the front bevel, extrusion, back beveled, and
- 04:34 back inflation.
- 04:35 Now for this design the materials are going to be very similar.
- 04:38 So, what we're able to do is select one of the material, hold down the shift key, and
- 04:41 then select the last one.
- 04:43 That will allow us to edit all of them at once.
- 04:46 For right now,
- 04:46 we're not gonna worry too much about the color, which is your diffuse option.
- 04:50 But just to show you how that works, I'm gonna set it to a nice bring orange, and
- 04:53 you'll notice the color fo the 3D text changes.
- 04:56 But it's looking a little bit boring, so
- 04:57 what we're gonna do, we're gonna adjust a few things.
- 04:59 The first thing I'm gonna increase is the reflection.
- 05:02 That'll really give it a nice, bubbly look to it.
- 05:04 I'm going to set the reflection somewhere around 60%,
- 05:07 and then the shine can be adjusted as well.
- 05:09 If you increase this value, the highlights will tighten up on your mesh.
- 05:13 But if you decrease it, they'll be more spread out.
- 05:16 So for this example, I'm going to leave it somewhere around 60%,
- 05:19 just like the reflection and that will leave us with a nice bubbly look.
- 05:23 And if we press the Render button at the bottom of the Properties panel,
- 05:26 Photoshop will start putting all of this together and start rendering out our text.
- 05:30 Now, just like with any 3D design program,
- 05:33 the first few passes are gonna be pretty ugly.
- 05:35 You're gonna see a lot of grain and everything just won't look that great.
- 05:38 But as you let it render, that grain will start to disappear and
- 05:41 you'll be left with a nice sharp result.
- 05:44 So I"m gonna press Escape to stop the render, because we're not finished yet.
- 05:46 And at this point we want to split up our extrusion.
- 05:49 So, we can edit each letter individually.
- 05:51 And that can be done at the top under the 3D menu.
- 05:53 And you're gonna select Split Extrusion.
- 05:57 And what that's gonna do, we're gonna press OK, is take each and
- 06:00 every letter and give it it's own mesh.
- 06:01 So, you're gonna see right down here we have a new group.
- 06:04 And if we expand that, we can now edit each letter individually.
- 06:07 Now sometimes Photoshop will name each letter individually for
- 06:10 you, but if not you can simply double click and you can name it O.
- 06:13 And you can scroll down.
- 06:15 This is the W.
- 06:16 I'm going to name that W.
- 06:17 Scroll down a little bit more.
- 06:20 Here's the A.
- 06:21 Scroll down.
- 06:23 There's the R.
- 06:24 And finally we have the D down at the bottom, there we go.
- 06:27 So, now we can start editing our letters individually.
- 06:30 I'm gonna scroll back up to the top where the O is.
- 06:32 I'm gonna select all the materials of this letter.
- 06:34 And I'm gonna change the diffuse color.
- 06:36 So for this one, I'm gonna set it to a nice pinkish red color right about there.
- 06:42 Then, I'm gonna scroll down to the W.
- 06:43 I'm gonna set this to let's say, a greenish yellow color right about there.
- 06:49 Scroll down to the A, select all those materials.
- 06:53 This one will be set to a blue.
- 06:57 Let's scroll down one more time, or
- 06:59 two more times, to the R, this one will be set to a darker red.
- 07:04 And finally right down to the D, we are going to choose a dark black for this one.
- 07:11 And press OK.
- 07:12 So, now we have each letter individually colored.
- 07:15 And because the mesh was split up, we can now select each letter and rotate or
- 07:19 move it individually as well.
- 07:21 So I'm gonna go through and
- 07:22 simply rotate each letter so they're on a little bit of an angle.
- 07:25 Just like this.
- 07:27 I can go to the W, rotate it towards me a little bit.
- 07:30 Grab the A, I'll leave it right around there.
- 07:33 The R, I'm going to rotate it back that way.
- 07:35 And the D, I'm going to rotate it this way as well.
- 07:38 And you can also move them individually right from your work space just like this.
- 07:43 And to see how things are looking, we can press our Render button one more time and
- 07:46 Photoshop will start putting all this stuff together.
- 07:48 And once again the first pass,
- 07:50 the first few passes are going to be a little bit grainy, but
- 07:53 after a few minutes of rendering, we're going to start to see a much nicer result.
- 07:57 I'm gonna cancel out this render.
- 07:58 And there are few more things you may wanna take a look at.
- 08:00 If you scroll up to the top to where Environment is, this will allow you to
- 08:04 set a reflection on the ground plane which is basically where your mesh is sitting.
- 08:09 And right now it's set to zero, so there's no reflection.
- 08:11 So I can increase this, let's say to 40%.
- 08:14 And if I render it, you're gonna see we have a very sharp reflection.
- 08:18 I want it a little bit softened out, so
- 08:20 I'm gonna increase the roughness, let's say to around 60%.
- 08:23 And if I render that again, the relection's gonna look a lot softer.
- 08:27 And as the render progresses, it's gonna look smoother and smoother and smoother.
- 08:31 Another thing you may wanna take a look at is the infinite light,
- 08:34 which is right here.
- 08:35 When you have a light source selected in Photoshop, you have this handle in
- 08:38 the middle which will allow you to simply grab it and move the light.
- 08:41 And you'll see the shadow update in real time.
- 08:44 So if you want a nice long shadow you can just pull it right down here and
- 08:47 you can see that we have a nice shadow going back in the background.
- 08:51 And the light also has properties, too.
- 08:53 If you wanted your shadow soft, just like the reflection,
- 08:56 you can increase the softness value in the Properties panel.
- 08:59 You can change the color of the light if you wanted to.
- 09:01 And you can change the intensity if the light is a little bit too bright.
- 09:04 So one more time, let's go ahead and
- 09:05 render this out and Photoshop will start to put together the shadows,
- 09:09 the highlights, the reflections, all this stuff.
- 09:12 And as your render progresses, it's gonna look nicer and nicer.
- 09:15 And just like you learned before, if you choose the current view,
- 09:18 you can rotate to get the exact perspective that you're looking for.
- 09:20 So if you wanted a more dead on angle, you can do that.
- 09:23 If you want it more from the side, you can definitely do that.
- 09:25 And at any point in the future, you can always grab your letters individually and
- 09:29 move them closer together, further apart, back in space, doesn't really matter.
- 09:33 You have full control over your 3D mesh.
- 09:36 And as I mentioned at the beginning, you can enlarge or
- 09:38 shrink your mesh and you won't lose quality.
- 09:41 So, if I grab the H and I grab the box in the middle to scale it uniformly,
- 09:45 I can simply make the H a lot bigger.
- 09:47 Now you're going to notice it's going a little bit below the ground plane.
- 09:50 So when that happens,
- 09:51 over in the 3D panel, click on the Menu, and choose Move Object to Ground Plane.
- 09:56 And that will snap it right to the ground plane, where you can move it back or
- 10:00 forward or any which way you like, and you'll have a nice sharp mesh.
- 10:04 No quality is lost at all.
- 10:06 And to finish it off, I'm gonna grab the current view,
- 10:08 I'm going to switch over to my pan, and move it this way just a little bit.
- 10:13 And I can finally press Render and
- 10:14 just let it sit for a few minutes until I get the final result.
- 10:18 And after probably about five minutes or so, you should have a nice, sharp,
- 10:22 smooth, free bubbly text which you created completely in Photoshop.
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