How To Create A 3D Logo In Photoshop

Posted on 19. Sep, 2009 by Shawn Ramsey in Design, Featured

This tutorial will show you a very easy way to create a grungy 3D logo in just a few minutes using Photoshop. This same technique can be applied to many different designs to add the effect to just about anything. I’ll show you the basic steps and take it a little further by adding some texture and lighting effects.

Step 1:

Create a new document 500 X 250 px and fill it with the color 1e5e8a.

Step 2:

Create a text layer and type out your text. I used Arial with a font style of Black at 80 pt with anti-aliasing set at Crisp and the color f9dfdf.

I also set the tracking to -90 in the Character Palette to close the distance between each letter.

The Character Palette options can be located here.

After completing the steps above you should have something similar to the image below.

Step 3:

Once satisfied with the text, right-click on the text layer and select Rasterize Type. Then go to Edit>Transform>Perspective and drag the bottom of the text outwards to change the perspective to something similar to below.

Step 4:

Now lets create a brush out of the text. Hold CTRL and left-click on the text thumbnail in layers to select all of the text characters.

Go to Edit>Define Brush Preset… and name the brush whatever you wish. Go to Select>Deselect (CTRL+D) to deselect the text.

Step 5:

Create a new layer and grab your brush tool. Look through your brushes to find the one that you just created, it should be the last brush on the list. In your Brushes Palette window, select Brush Tip Shape and change the Spacing to 1%. Make sure that Smoothing is selected as well.

Step 6:

On your new layer, with the brush tool, hold down shift and drag upward with the left mouse button.

You’ll notice that the base appears blurry, lets strengthen it by right-clicking and Duplicating the layer. Now merge these two layers by highlighting both layers (hold the CTRL key to select more than one layer at a time) , right-clicking and selecting Merge Layers. Go ahead and drag this new layer below your original text layer as well.

Drop the merged base layer Opacity to 50% so that it is darker than the original text and align the base layer just below the original text. Use your arrow keys to fine-tune the alignment.

The text has now taken on a 3D appearance. You could use this as a good starting point for adding your own effects to the design. I’m going to take it a little further and add some texture and a few other elements.

Step 7:

Merge all of the layers except for the background layer. Right-Click on this layer and choose Blending Options. Add a Drop Shadow with the same options as below.

Add an Inner Shadow with these options.

Your text should be looking something like this now.

Step 8:

Now lets add some texture to the image. Find a texture that suits you and open it up in Photoshop. I chose this concrete basement wall texture.

Drag the texture into your 3D Text Project. Right-Click the layer and select Create Clipping Mask to have it show only where the text is. Drag the texture around until it looks natural. Dropping the Fill or Opacity down to around 50% will help with the effect.

Step 9:

You can play with the lighting effects by adding a Gradient Overlay from black to transparent to the text layer. I chose these options.

And here is the final product.

Drag a black to transparent Gradient in Behind Mode with an Opacity of 48% diagonally from the bottom left and right corner to add a little bit of lighting effect to the background.

Final product with the background gradient.