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Using Typography from PS to Create a 3D Text Render in C4D – Psd Plus Tutorial

May 6th in News by Miguel Santana da Silva

We have another Psd Plus tutorial exclusively available to Plus members today. If you want to take your 3D text skills to the next level, then we have an exciting tutorial for you. Discover how to create composed typography in Photoshop and then export to C4D to compose a scene! As usual, loads of great tips and techniques in this tutorial!

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Author: Miguel Santana da Silva

"Miguel is a UK-based digital artist currently finishing off an Art and Design Foundation course before starting a degree in "Digital Animation: Visual Effects" at the University of Hertfordshire. He is of Portuguese nationality and currently 19 years old. He's been meddling with digital arts since he was 13, taking a special interest in CGI and animation. You can see his online portfolio by visiting miguelsantana.net.

Learn Creative 3D Text Techniques in this Psd Plus Tutorial

In this tutorial I will be showing you step-by-step in Photoshop to edit text in order to create a neat, tight typographic image, then exporting vector information from Photoshop into Cinema 4D, where you will learn the basics of creating 3D text, building a stage, creating a studio light setup and finally rendering with Global Illumination using Vray. Also, I'm working on Part II of this tutorial, which will add more figures, rendered splashes, and interest to this scene. Look out for it in the Plus section soon.

Plus members can Log in and Download! If you're not a member, you can of course join today!

Precise and Detailed Instructions Inside

Plus members can Log in and Download! Otherwise, Join Now! Below are some sample images from the tutorial.

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PSD Plus Membership

As you know, we run a premium membership system here called 'Plus' that costs $9 a month (or $22 for 3 months!) which gives members access to the Source files for tutorials as well as periodic extra tutorials, like this one! You'll also get access to Net Plus and Vector Plus, too. If you're a Plus member, you can log in and download the tutorial. If you're not a member, you can of course join today!

Also, don't forget to subscribe to the Psdtuts+ RSS Feed to stay up to date with the latest Photoshop tutorials and articles.


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User Comments

( ADD YOURS )
  1. PG

    jossy May 6th

    me first ) nice . hopefuly i will be getting my plus membership soon enough )

    ( Reply )
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    bodhi May 6th

    Thanks!

    ( Reply )
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    loek May 6th

    Very nice :)

    ( Reply )
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    wiley May 6th

    anyone know where i can get a hold of a demo of Cinema 4D?

    ( Reply )
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      Joe May 6th

      1. PG

        hextr1p May 6th

        Or if you don’t need construction work done…

        http://www.maxon.net/

        ;)

        .H3X.

  5. PG

    George May 6th

    Hi. Write text in photoshop => “convert to shape” => File, export, paths to illustrator, save => Open Cinema 4D => File, open…, open saved .ai file => extrude NURBS => create scene => render. :)

    ( Reply )
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      Master May 6th

      LOL

      ( Reply )
    2. PG

      Edward May 6th

      -clap-

      +1 I don’t think PSDTUTs would be too happy about leaking “their” tutorial xD

      ( Reply )
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      iconz May 7th

      hehe! Good one…

      ( Reply )
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      Robbie Stewart May 7th

      rofl nicely done

      ( Reply )
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      Drumline18 May 7th

      LOOL

      Well this is a pretty good resumé, I did’nt have a premium membership but I dont need to see this tutorial as well as you way is the one I did’knew for 3d Max (or at least, it is the basics)

      ( Reply )
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    Alvaro May 6th

    awesome tut :D simple and useful

    ( Reply )
  7. PG

    Fredrik May 6th

    NIIIIICE :D

    ( Reply )
  8. PG

    Alex Beltechi May 6th

    Just what I needed :)

    ( Reply )
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    wyeko May 6th

    ooh. i’m thinkin’ i’m going to buy plus membership beacuse of this tutorial.

    ( Reply )
  10. PG

    Joe May 6th

    This is a PLUS tutorial? C’mon.

    There are so many C4D type tutorials on the web for FREE….google.

    ( Reply )
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      Zik May 6th

      Blender = free
      Google = free

      Same result in a few minutes..

      I honestly don’t see the point right now.
      Maybe I’m missing something, but then please explain.

      ( Reply )
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        accessoire May 6th

        Yeah tutorial done within ~10 minutes. Don’t see the need for a plus tut here. Except for lightning but if you learn lighting the only real way to learn is with Jeremy Birn’s “light & rendering”.

        Thanks anyway for the tut.

  11. PG

    Franky May 6th

    Cool.

    ( Reply )
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    John Dangerous May 6th

    This looks good but it would be cool to see some compositing techniques
    or some cool textures. Would love to see some more Cinema tuts. Keep them coming!

    ( Reply )
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    cssah May 6th

    very cool.thanks

    ( Reply )
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    RUGRLN May 6th

    Exactly why on Earth is this tutorial so wicked that it has to be PLUS??

    ( Reply )
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      Joe May 6th

      Exactly.

      PSDTuts is fail lately.

      ( Reply )
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      Corey May 6th

      I must agree, this wouldn’t cause anyone to buy a plus membership. I already have mine, and it’s great, but I wouldn’t buy it for this.

      However, it is a nice tutorial. Cool clean design.

      Thanks

      ( Reply )
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    BogDinamita May 6th

    gahhh… why’d it have to be plus

    ( Reply )
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      John Dangerous May 7th

      You can find the same tutorial on the net in ten different places. This is almost the exact same tutorial found on Video Copilot. The difference is on Video Copilot the text says, you guessed it, “Video Copilot”. It’s in The Blog Section dated back a couple of months.

      ( Reply )
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    moataz May 6th

    plus !! why !!

    ( Reply )
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    Peewee1002 May 6th

    Wow I just did this around about 1 hour ago with a tut… its not really that hard tbh. I find this sort of tutorial good but pointless in away being plus an all.

    ( Reply )
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      Peewee1002 May 6th

      http://www.gomediazine.com/tutorials/create-3d-objects-in-cinema-4d-from-vector-art/

      A tutorial along the same lines for those who want to try it out.

      ( Reply )
  18. PG

    amafui May 6th

    there are so many FREE tuts like this out there xD

    ( Reply )
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    Melody May 6th

    I’ve been wondering if it’s necessary to upgrade to cs4..I got connections so I can get it uber cheap but is it even worth it?

    Of course it’s plus though, it looks awesome!

    ( Reply )
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      Joe May 6th

      I don’t think the point is that it “looks awesome”. This is a very simple technique that even the most novice C4D users can do.

      The only tricky part is the Global Illumination.

      ( Reply )
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        Melody May 6th

        Ya, but also understand the marketing behind psdtuts, the tutorials are to satisfy people who don’t know how to do these techniques, not necessarily to satisfy the interests of professionally qualified users..

        To a beginner, these techniques are cool..but to a professional they are “eh…”

      2. PG

        Joe May 6th

        Still, hardly something anyone — even a novice should be charged to view. This one should’ve been a freebie.

    2. PG

      AVERY JULIAN MERSON May 7th

      Its worth it cutie

      ( Reply )
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    tomahowk May 6th

    Would this be do-able as easy as this with Blender? Maybe you could also create some tutorials combining PS and Blender, since Blender is free (and less important: open-source). That would make your tutorials available to a wider range at readers….

    ( Reply )
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      Craigsnedeker May 6th

      You probably can, it would be different than C4D though. But Blender is very awesome, IMO better than any other software.

      ( Reply )
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    Craigsnedeker May 6th

    Nice, I might try this in Blender.

    ( Reply )
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    seamus May 6th

    Anybody knows the font that is used in this tutorial?

    ( Reply )
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      adamc May 24th

      i think its avant garde alternate

      ( Reply )
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    KiLLiNGFREZZi May 6th

    This is Basic!

    Text/Vector to Spline. put in a Extruder Nurb

    The Lightning just the same. It´s a simple Studio Lightning.

    ( Reply )
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      Joe May 6th

      I didn’t subscribe the tut but I’m pretty sure that GI was used in the render settings :) Makes a huge difference when you render out.

      ( Reply )
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        KiLLiNGFREZZi May 6th

        this is Basic for a cinema4d artist. Theres no high skill render setting

        The same effect can you make with Gi and a HDRi FIle ;P

        I use this Program since Maxon Cinema 4D 6

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        Botunda Foo May 7th

        Is there a way to do GI without vRay?

  24. PG

    Nikolas May 6th

    Why this is a Plus Tutorial? :(

    ( Reply )
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      lawrence77 May 7th

      to increase some plus members :)

      ( Reply )
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    loswl May 6th

    Nice looking final image, I like the lighting, I agree with most, …3D text in C4D tutorials can be found for Free :o ) This should not be a Plus tut!

    ( Reply )
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    KiLLiNGFREZZi May 6th

    Here is a free Tut for a Studio Lighning. It is for 3d studio max but it is Portable to Cinema 4D since Version 8

    http://tinyurl.com/studio-lightning

    ( Reply )
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    Kid May 6th

    Why Photoshop? Use Illustrator and save it down to a Legacy or Illustrator 3 file type and then import into your 3d Package and put an extrude modifier on it.

    Render away.

    ( Reply )
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    JohnM. May 6th

    This is awesome! Too bad for me I don’t have a plus :(
    I’ve seen some of these in Behance and always wondered how they were made.

    Can anyone link me a to a similar tutorial. I would get the plus, but
    I don’t have a job :(

    ( Reply )
  29. PG

    hassan May 6th

    this is a plus tutorial?!! i don’t hink soo
    but anyways the look is very cool

    ( Reply )
  30. PG

    Mason Sklut May 6th

    This reminds me, I should probably get Cinema 4D :-)

    ( Reply )
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    Erik May 6th

    I do not think this tutorial belongs to plus because not many of us even have or know how to use Cinema 4D, right, guys?

    ( Reply )
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    johnny May 6th

    Nice design but this shouldnt be in the PLUS section. Maybe because they have a lot of crap tutorials lately and when something more polished than the others comes along they push into the PLUS section.

    Cmon guys, get it together!

    ( Reply )
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    Imran May 7th

    Awesome … :) . LOT OF THANKS

    ( Reply )
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    Johnny!\ May 7th

    noooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!! why plus!!!! anybody wanna tell whats inside!!

    ( Reply )
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      wyeko May 7th

      tnx for this

      ( Reply )
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      John Dangerous May 7th

      Yea, I have checked that out before. Best tutorial on the net for this simple technique.

      ( Reply )
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        nasir May 12th

        you right

  35. PG

    Marc May 7th

    I got too excited about this, found out that it’s ‘PLUS’, my excitement went down :/

    ( Reply )
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      lawrence77 May 7th

      me too! :D

      ( Reply )
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    Botunda Foo May 7th

    Ok, I bought the Plus account for this as I am new to C4D. First complaint is that the type treatment could have been done in AI but Author does not tell you this until the end of the photoshop segment. I was going through the tut going,”I guess there is a reason he is doing this in Photoshop, because this would have been way easier in AI…” No, no reason. Author even says that it would have been easier inAI. But too late. Needs to have a part that says that if you’re more comfortable in AI then use that. Secondly,I am new to C4D and not good at all with lighting. Is there any way the author can show how to achieve the lighting effects without a 3rd-party?

    All-in-all a good tut. Just the above critiques!

    ( Reply )
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    Shaw May 7th

    Couldn’t you do this tutorial using Adobe Illustrator rather than a programme that’s not related to Adobe? I’m guessing far more users have Illustrator than Cinema 4D and would prefer to see similar techniques used from C4D and used in Illustrator and then finally finished in Photoshop. Just a suggestion.

    As for the tutorial itself, i like it. Plain & simple. Good job :)

    ( Reply )
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    lawrence77 May 7th

    cool one this is what i want…. ;)
    but a PLUS one :(

    ( Reply )
  39. PG

    maldani May 7th

    Cool outcome. What’s the name of that font?

    ( Reply )
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    lawrence77 May 7th

    http://www.computerarts.co.uk/tutorials/3d__and__animation/the_new_way_to_create_3d_text

    iis this noted link tutorial and the tutorial here in psdtuts are same?

    ( Reply )
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    Mimo May 7th

    for those plus members who have seen this…how do you get the floor or wall to curve down like that…

    ( Reply )
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    tripdragon May 7th

    Just think. Some one got paid for this as well. Yeah I said it. :D And I am jellies.

    ( Reply )
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    Jason May 7th

    What type of font is that they’re using?

    ( Reply )
  44. PG

    marshal May 8th

    coooooooooooooooool

    ( Reply )
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    acedab May 8th

    i am lured to upgrade to plus. :P

    ( Reply )
  46. PG

    logolitic May 8th

    You could do so much with the text, patterns, effects and a lot more to look at least cool but this is just simple rendering with shadows and few light effects.

    ( Reply )
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    poppa bear May 8th

    anyone know what font is used here?

    ( Reply )
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    Sean Hodge May 8th

    Hey, thanks for the feedback. This first part of this two part set is aimed at Beginner 3D artists. The second Part is still aimed at beginners, or intermediate artits, though covers a whole lot more scene development in C4D.

    I think there is so much potential with mixing 3D skills and Photoshop and I’d like to work with more artists in this area. Also, we’re still working on putting together a 3D dedicated Tuts+ site. Until then, I’m happy to meet artists that can mix Photoshop and 3D together.

    Part II of this tutorial will come out this coming Wednesday. These two tutorials work independently, but I think people will have a different perspective once they see the results of the second part. The second part takes this lettering and adds a whole lot to it to make a Poster that get’s polished in Photoshop.

    Again, thanks for all the feedback!

    ( Reply )
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    Ryan May 9th

    what font is used in this tut? Been looking for it….

    ( Reply )
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    Oolong May 9th

    Any good way to export this for print? My first time using c4d… I’ve tried adjusting the render settings up to 1280×1024. Also in the render settings, I’ve changed the dpi under the save tab to 300.

    Finally, in the picture viewer (after rendering), I’ve tried saving as both a 300 dpi targa and a 300dpi tiff. Any other suggestions?

    ( Reply )
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    Miguel Santana da Silva May 10th

    The font used is ITC Avant Garde Gothic Bold:
    http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/linotype/itc-avant-garde-gothic/

    Oolong, for print you may want to increase the actual dimensions, 1280×1024 is still quite small. A4 size is 2480×3506 pixels, and A3 is 3508×4961. 300dpi targa should be fine for that.

    Thanks everyone for the feedback, sorry to hear some of you don’t think it’s worthy of the site. Part 2 will focus on adding some more elements to this scene and finalizing the event poster in Photoshop.

    ( Reply )
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      Oolong May 17th

      Sounds good. How do I do that? This is my first time with Cinema 4D. I guess this is done outside of the render settings?

      ( Reply )
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    John May 11th

    is the .c4d available for download?

    :)

    ( Reply )
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    Teon May 11th

    I really like that font. Is it a modified Avant Garde or is there an actual font.

    ( Reply )
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      Digi. June 2nd

      Its a mixture of the ITC Avant Garde Bold font with the ITC Avant Garde Gothic Alternate Bold font (the letter A), they’re rare fonts, costing around $164 for a set of 5. >_<

      ( Reply )
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    Miguel Santana da Silva May 11th

    Yes, the c4d file is included in the source files.

    ( Reply )
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      Johnny May 13th

      can someone show me how to bend the floor plz!!!!!!

      ( Reply )
      1. in the extrude nurbs object on your object list, if you expand it by pressing the plus button you should see spline objects. you just need to move the points about in those spline objects

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    nr May 14th

    my first render result is this http://yfrog.com/04captureldyj
    what can be the problem about render settings?

    ( Reply )
    1. I see, the problem seems to occur in the areas where two letters intersect… are you using vray, and does it happen even with all the lights and backdrop?

      ( Reply )
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        E. May 20th

        I’m having the exact same problem, using Cinema 4d for mac 10.5 and Vray 1.0821. I rendered your scene as you provided it.

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    E. May 20th

    If someone gets results that differ a lot because of the high intensity of the lights, try unchecking ‘No decay’ under the VrayLight > Area light. Also, put Subdivisions here to 16 or higher to remove grain in shadows and put ‘Store with irradiance map’ for even better results.

    ( Reply )
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    Maverick June 2nd

    very nice and impressive design

    ( Reply )
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    Micah June 4th

    Did anyone else do this tutorial and have trouble getting the scene set up to render correctly? Mine just wont set up the way his is in the example file.

    ( Reply )
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    antihero June 27th

    i can’t render it correctly! always got a black background :(

    ( Reply )
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    André Petrini August 16th

    Man, my final image is not rendering the Stage. Everything behind the Type is black. What can I do?

    ( Reply )
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