Do you believe that this...
IS NOT A REAL 3D!!!
In fact, this is made from 1 smart object!
And Yes! you can update it with 1 SINGLE CLICK.
Also Control its depth, and lighting!
Let's jump into Photoshop and get started!
Let's start by opening the PSD file included in the video description.
The download links for these three files can be found in the video description below.
Just select the PSD file and open it.
I created this file to save your time and allow you to focus only on creating the 3D text.
You will get 2 backgrounds, and you can switch between them by hiding the top one like that.
Also, there is a smart object with a text layer inside, and this will be our starting point.
You can open this smart object by double-clicking it like that.
And there you will find the text layer. and I will tell you why it's inside a smart object in the last step.
Now Let's close it and get back to our main document.
First, Select the "Text" layer and press CTRL+J to duplicate it.
double-click it to open its layer style
Select the Gradient overlay to apply a gradient to it.
Click on this "Reset" button to bring back the photoshop default values.
then click on this gradient bar, and let's make a gradient.
Just drop some pins on the gradient bar and edit their colors to make a simple gold gradient like this one.
OR just use the gradients provided in the video description.
To import them, just click on this "Import" button, then select the gradient file and click Load.
Choose the gradient you want and click OK.
leave all other values at their defaults and click OK.
Now let's select the "Text" layer again and duplicate it with CTRL+J.
drag that duplicated layer it to the top like that.
Double-click it to open its layer style.
And for this layer, choose the Stroke style.
Reset to Default.
Then change the stroke color to "d 0 b 9 7 4".
Increase the Stroke Size to 6px, and click OK to submit.
Now I want to hide this grey color and keep only the stroke visible.
And this can be done by making Fill 0%
Decreasing Fill to 0% will hide the layer itself and keep its layer style visible
Create the 3D Depth.
Int his step, we're gonna add a 3d depth to this text
I will start by hiding these 2 layers and add some layer styles to the bottom one.
After that, I will duplicate it several times with different sizes to make a 3d depth.
Let's see how to do that!
First, Select "Stroke", but this time change its size to 20px
Also change the color to "d1ac65", then click OK.
After that, I'm gonna select "Bevel & Emboss"
And Let's reset it to its defaults to have the same starting point.
Now from the style menu, choose "Stroke Emboss".
And this will apply the Bevel&Emboss to the "stroke" only (not the whole layer).
Keep the bevel technique smooth, and increase its depth to 50%
Also, increase the bevel size to something like 70 or 80px.
And I will skip this shading angle right now, as we'll get back to it later.
And for the Gloss contour, let's use this zigzag shape, to distribute more shadows & Highlights on the stroke like that.
And for the highlights areas let's change its blending mode to Color Dodge. This will make it more shiny like this.
And finally, let's decrease the opacity of the shadows to something like 25%.
And here is the result!
Now I'm gonna check this Contour thing to increase the light distributions even more.
Just change it to the same previous graph, and increase the Range to something like 75%
Let's zoom in to see the result!
You may see these sharp lines.
And you can hide them by getting back to this "Soften" slider and increase it to something like 3 or 4, to fade them away like that.
Now click OK and let's finish this up.
We will use an action to create the 3d depth with just a few clicks!
unhide the top 2 layers, and go to Window> Actions to open the actions panel.
From this little icon choose "Load Actions".
Select the action that you've just downloaded, and click Load.
Open the Action folder, and select the action itself.
Now select the "Text" layer, and click on this little run icon.
Click on the Run for around 30 or 40 times
Each time you run the action, it duplicates the current layer and scale it down a little bit to 99.75% in both width and height.
And all layers together above each other will make that 3d depth right here!
Now select the bottom layer, hold the SHIFT key, and select the main "Text" layer to select all of them
Press CTRL+G to group them. and change the group name to "Depth"
Also, hold the SHIFT key and group the top 2 layers with the depth group like that.
Name the group as you want, and let's move on to the next step to add some adjustment layers.
Adjustments
First, select the group and let's add a Brightness&Contrast layer above it.
Increase Contrast to 100, and decrease Brightness to -20
then create a clipping mask to let the layer affect only the "3D text" group below.
Create a Levels layer with a clipping mask
Change it to 25, 0.9, and 255
Finally, let's create a Hue & Saturation layer, and also clip mask it.
Decrease Saturation to -30, and shift Hue to -5
And here is before and after.
You may notice that the gradient became too dark especially from the middle.
So I'm gonna select the gradient layer and double click it to open its layer style again.
And add a satin style from here.
just change color to white, with normal blending mode, 30% opacity, and set distance and size as you want.
I really like the result at this point.
But when I zoomed-in I found that the stroke also is too flat and need some styling.
So I opened its layer style to add a Bevel & Emboss like before.
After resetting to defaults, I changed the bevel Style to "Stroke Emboss"
with this zigzag contour again.
and finally decreased the shadow opacity to 25% as it was too dark right there.
I think it is better now! Now let's do some magic in the next step!.
Update the Text with a Single Click
These smart objects were copied from 1 single layer, and as a result they are now connected together.
Once your update any layer of them, all other smart objects will get the same update.
So let's double-click on any smart object thumbnail to open it.
Once you're inside the smart object, you can add the text you want with any font you like.
Press CTRL+S to update the smart objects.
get back to you main document! AND HERE WE GO!
So whatever text you add inside the smart object, will become a 3d after pressing CTRL+S.
You may notice also that the depth direction changes by changing the text position inside the smart object..
And the depth is directing to the center like that
So you you can control the direction of the 3d by changing the text position inside the smart object.
And yes you can change the light direction, just open the "Bevel & Emboss" of any layer.
and inside the shading dialog box, click inside the angle circle to change the 3d lighting like that.
Since "Use Global Light" is checked, once you update the angle in one layer, all other layers will get the same update.
And finally, to control the 3d length: you can hide the layers from bottom to top like that.
don't forget to save this project as a PSD file from File> Save As for any future use.
And that's it for today! just LIKE the video if you want to help us & SUBSCRIBE for more free tutorials.
Thanks for Watching!