80 Technique

CINEMA 4D Creative
Suite 2 or later
The new
way to create
3D text
3D text needs the
right depth, lighting and
texture. Nik Ainley tells
you how to do this without
re-rendering nightmares
Typography is huge at the moment in illustration, and
3D text is a big part of that. It literally gives the artist another
dimension to play with, and the power of 3D programs provides a
sense of realism that 2D typography just can’t match. This allows
for seamless blending with photos and other renders.
This tutorial explains how to create very simple 3D text
that can be generated in minutes in any 3D package – or even in 2D
software such as Illustrator – and give it life in Photoshop. The
advantage of using Photoshop is that changes in texture, colour and
lighting can be achieved much more quickly than in a 3D package. In
a 3D program you’re constantly changing things, re-rendering to see
the effect and then going back to make more changes. In Photoshop
there’s none of that waiting around, and if you know what you’re
doing the effect can be just as impressive.

Nik Ainley Time needed

A freelance 2-3 hours
illustrator and Skills
designer based in Prepare a
the UK, Nik has simple render
worked for many Add texture to
clients including a 3D object
Adobe, MTV and Add dynamic
British Airways, but colour and
still finds time for his lighting
personal artwork.
See it at www.
shinybinary.com.

Computer Arts Summer 2008 www.computerarts.co.uk

ART152.tut_4 80 10/7/08 9:30:42 am


01 First, arrange your text in a 3D
package – I’ve used CINEMA 4D and the
words ‘fresh science word’. I produced
the text outlines in Illustrator then
imported them, rather than using
CINEMA 4D’s type tools, to get much
more control over the position of each
letter. Saving as an Illustrator 3 file
minimises compatibility issues.
03 We need to add a floor, for the
shadows to fall on, and some lighting. I
used a sky object with a high luminance
to generate overall lighting. The final
render is performed with Global
Illumination turned on as well as an
Alpha Channel for just the text, to save
having to cut it out in Photoshop.
05 Mask off the bottom of the
Shadow layer. Add a layer mask and,
using a black-to-transparent gradient,
drag from the bottom up to fade the
shadow. Change the blending mode to
Multiply so only the dark areas are used.
Run the letters layer through a light
Shadow/Highlight adjustment, as well
as Auto Levels to improve the lighting.
www.computerarts.co.uk
ART152.tut_4 81
81
02 Next, you have to give the text some depth. Use an
extrude NURBS object and place your text shapes inside it.
Change the movement to vary how deep each letter becomes.
CINEMA 4D has various options for capping the extrusion –
that is, how the ends join onto the sides. I chose a small fillet
cap to round the ends very slightly.
04 Take the render into Photoshop. Use the Alpha
Channel generated by CINEMA 4D to Copy and Paste only the
letters onto a new layer. You should still have the original letters
behind with the shadows as well.
06 Next, you need to isolate the front faces of the letters
you’ve chosen. Trace around them carefully using the Pen tool
to get the best selection. Doing this in Photoshop gives much
better results than trying to produce a separate render with
just the faces showing.
Computer Arts Summer 2008
10/7/08 9:30:49 am
 82 Technique

07 Create a selection from this

path and fill with grey on a new layer for
each word above the letters. Copy the
letter faces and Paste right at the top.
Use Image>Adjustments>Curves to set
the white point to the central colour of
each letter, then change the blending
mode to Multiply and the background
layer to a deep cyan. Add a light texture
over the top set to Multiply.
08 Next, add texture to the front of the letters – I Pasted
a photo of some concrete above the face layer for ‘fresh’. Group
the face layer and the new layer created by your pasting to
create a clipping mask. Now use Edit>Transform>Distort to
match their perspectives. You could use the Vanishing Point
tool, but I find it slow and cumbersome.
09 Change the blending mode of
the texture to Multiply so that only the
dark parts of the texture are visible. If it
darkens things too much, set the white
point lower with Image>Adjustments>
Curves. Repeat this with a couple of
different textures until all three words
have been altered.

10 Use Filter>Distort>Pinch on
the background texture. A setting of
50% or so works well. Create a new layer
above the background and fill it with a
radial gradient from white to black, from
the centre outwards. Change the
blending mode to Soft Light to focus
light more centrally. I’ve also added
some Adjustment Layers at the top of
the image to change the colours a little.
11 To make the letters more interesting, import a texture
(I used scanned-in oil) and Paste it above the texture layer for
the word on your top row. Group it with the layer below so they
share a clipping group. Change the blending mode to Overlay or
Multiply so you don’t just cover up the existing textures.
12 Duplicate the old texture and
create a white layer underneath. Merge
the duplicate and white layers, Copy and
Paste the result into a new channel, and
delete that layer. Edit this channel until
it’s all black except areas representing
the darkest parts of the texture. Make a
selection from this channel and add a
layer mask to the newer texture.

13 Repeat the process for the 14 For a dramatic colour change,

other two words, using different effects create a Gradient Map Adjustment
on the front to produce some variation. Layer at the top of the image with a
For ‘science’, I imported some parallel colourful gradient. Set the blending
lines from Illustrator and matched their mode to Darken and drop the opacity to
perspective to the front of the letters, about 30%. Now use a radial gradient
though you can make a custom pattern on the layer mask to fade the effect
in Photoshop instead. towards the edges and background.
15 The final touch is to add another texture over the top
of the image but below the Adjustment Layers. Make sure it’s
mostly black with light highlights. I used the same concrete
About the font texture as for ‘fresh’, but inverted and darkened significantly.
The font used in this tutorial is Neutrino from the San Francisco-based type studio Change the blending mode to Screen and you’re done.
Neutura, run by freelance graphic artist Alexander McCracken. Alex featured in Computer Arts 149,
June 2008, when he wrote his own article explaining how to convert a font design from a sketch to
a functional electronic typeface. To find out more about Neutura, see www.neutura.org.

Computer Arts Summer 2008 www.computerarts.co.uk

ART152.tut_4 82 10/7/08 9:30:58 am