Text effects are an important application in Photoshop. Experts from all walks of life have a lot of tutorials on creating unique effect fonts. Many of them are based on 3D. To show a three-dimensional effect in a flat image, it is actually not It is a difficult thing. It is important for users to have an understanding of the three-dimensional effect. This tutorial is designed to help everyone establish a basic three-dimensional sense and lay the foundation for everyone to learn other 3D effects. The tutorial is relatively simple, but the extension application is very extensive, and it is suitable for PS novices to draw inferences from one example.
light source
Before we start the tutorial, let's take a look at how a light source affects an object. As shown in the picture, there is a cube in the middle of the picture, and there is a bright light source in the upper left corner of it. When light hits the cube, it creates a shadow on the other side. This kind of shadow has a completely different effect from the shadow (referred to as layer style) in Photoshop, which makes the object appear to pop up on the paper. If we want to make an object have a three-dimensional sense, we don't need to read boring textbooks. The light and shadow here are the answer.
Light source effect explanation
1. Our tutorial starts with a subtle linear gradient, from dark gray to gray-black. Did you notice that the upper left side of the picture is brighter than the lower right side? Because the author wants to place the light source in the upper left corner.
Figure 1
2. Now we start to place the text. The author is used to using a font called "Agency FB". They look compact and tough, and set the foreground color to gray-blue #c2c8d4.
Figure 2
3. Hold down Ctrl and click the left mouse button on the text layer just now to load the selection, and then create a new layer. On the new layer, keeping the selection selected, use the Gradient Tool to draw a linear gradient from #495a79 to transparent, from the lower right to the upper left. You will get the effect as shown below.
Figure 3
4. Press "D" on the keyboard to restore the default background color, hold down Ctrl and click the text layer to load the selection, and create a new layer under the text layer. Now press the down arrow on your keyboard once and the right arrow once (i.e. move 1 pixel down and to the right) and use Alt+Backspace to fill it with black. Repeat this set of movements 30 times.
Note that you are moving only the selection and not the filled black block. It is best to keep the selection tool selected. If you select the move tool, you will move the black fill color block and the selection at the same time when operating the keyboard. You will only fill the same position repeatedly.
Figure 4
5. The picture below is the effect you should get now. Deselect the shadow layer and go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur with an Angle of -45 degrees and a Distance of 30 pixels.
Figure 5
6. Set the shadow layer to Multiply and 40% Opacity. Then hold down the Shift key and press the right arrow and down arrow on the keyboard once. This will make each movement 10 pixels. Now you may also see some blurry shadows above and to the left of the letters. Use a soft eraser to erase the shadows that shouldn't be there (remember the analysis of shadows at the beginning of this article?).
Figure 6
7. Duplicate the shadow layer once, hold down Shift again and move it down and to the right. Use the Motion Blur filter, set the Distance to 50 pixels, and set the blending mode of this layer to Multiply and the Opacity to 20%. This will make shadow transitions smoother.
Figure 7
8. Create a new layer on top of all layers, hold down Ctrl and click the text layer to load the selection, and fill the new layer with white. Don't cancel the selection range first, press "↓" and "→" on the keyboard once, and then press "DELETE" to delete the selection content.
All that's left now is the little white line, set the layer opacity to 80%.
Figure 8