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A few days ago, I decided to make a special present for my girlfriend. I also thought this technique could be used by others that have the same plan, so here it goes. I will teach you some nice techniques that could improve your experience and also help you make a great gift.
Step 1
First of all, create a new document and fill it with black.
Step 2
Now import your 3D text and position it as you want. For making this text, I used Xara 3D. It is a very simple program that you can use. Next add some shadows to each letter.
Step 3
The thing I want to achieve here is to make some kind of colorful clouds behind the text. This technique is also known as “nebula,” so it is most likely that you will know about this effect.
To do this we will use the Brush Tool first with a Hardness set to 0%. Make a new layer, and chose a blue color and paint behind the text.
Step 4
On the same layer, paint a red color over sections of the blue. Experiment to find the outcome you like best.
Step 5
Now use a yellow color and do the same as above.
Step 6
Now paint a white area as above.
Step 7
We will make it blurry now. Go to Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set the Radius as you like.
Step 8
Now we need to make it look dustier. Create a new layer and fill it with black.
- Go to Filter > Render > Clouds
- Set its blending mode to Overlay
- Duplicate the layer
Step 9
I want to give the text faces a light neon look. For this we must select each letter face. Use the Pen Tool for this.
Step 10
Make a new layer over the L letter and call it L face:
- Press Ctrl-Enter (Command+Return on a Mac)
- Fill the selection with any light color
- Follow the settings below to add the effect to the letters.
Step 11
Now use the Dodge Tool, set the Exposure to 55%, and make the face of the letters lighter by brushing over them.
Step 12
Duplicate L face layer, remove the Effects and set it to Overlay.
Step 13
Use the same technique for all the other letters and don’t forget to put each letter face over its letter so that you will keep the composition as you first put it together.
Step 14
Now I want to make a background. Go to the bottom of the layer list and make a new layer over the background layer.
Step 15
Select a dark pink color for the foreground and black for the background. Use the radial gradient:
Step 16
Use the Gradient Tool and make something like this:
Step 17
I don’t want to see the clouds on that pink, so I will mask it using the Mask Tool.
Step 18
The image is almost finished. Now what we need to do is make some of the clouds and dust go over the letters so that they look more realistic. To do this you need to copy the clouds and dust layers and move them on top of all the layers.
Step 19
Merge them together and mask or delete some of it. As you can see in the example, I have masked most of it because I am going to make a smaller cloud and use it for this effect. I used Linear Light for the Blending Mode.
Step 20
Now I will explain how to make some really nice tentacles that you could use with this effect.
Make a new layer and call it “Green” because green is the color we will use here. Select a green color in the foreground (31b14a), and using the Pen Tool draw a path that you would like the tentacle to follow.
Step 21
Select the Brush Tool and make sure you select a small brush size. I chose 1 pixel. Use these settings to make the brush, and use a Pen Pressure effect.
Step 22
Now select the Pen Tool again, right-click (Option or Alt-Click on a Mac) and select Stroke Path.
Before you hit Ok on the screen that appears, make sure you check the Simulate Pressure.
This is what you should get:
Step 23
Now using the same path, you need to make some more strokes but this time modify the shape of the path a little and use different tones.
Something like this:
Step 24
Do the exact steps all over again at least 8 or 10 times starting from Step 20. But don’t forget to use different tones of green and also modify the shape of the path.
When you are finished, you should get something like this:
Step 25
Now use the brush tool and simply draw over your path. Don’t worry, you don’t need to follow the path exactly. I use a tablet and this gives me more precision but this is not needed.
Next, using the brush tool do something like this:
Step 26
Now use these settings to make it shiny:
Step 27
In the end, mask the part of the tentacle behind the text.
Step 28
Make more tentacles using different colors and different shapes.
Here is my result:
Conclusion
In the end, you can add some more clouds or change the background with a nice texture or other color.
Happy Valentines!
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Cool! i’ve always wondered how people did this. Thumbs up :)
holy moly, thats immense, well done :)
Thank you guys.
umm for the xara3d i can’t import those files, it says its the wrong type of file, help, but other than that really well done
http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/tutorials/index.cfm?featureid=1617
It looks like cheaper version of Shinybinary.com.
can you give me more precisions on the step 8? i don’t understand how to do the cloud. can you help me please?
Tilt: In Xara 3D Save As PNG and after that import it into Photoshop.
I want to know how doing more precisely the effect of clouds
please XD
And can you tell me the name of the font that you use for the example?
Glad to see the “Holiday Card” Theme continue on PSD Tuts. Even though I didn’t follow this one for valentines day, I look forward to the future ones.
Copying badly Nik Ainley’s style…. ok, you said you did some research n you were inspired by him. But there’s almost the same tut by himself @ computerarts ?! wtf even used the same xara 3d style…. The level here is dropping as I’m browsing the latest tuts.
I like the paths tho’ the other is crap.
little bummed you didn’t show how to do the clouds at the very end that go over the letters.
hmm like http://shinybinary.com/ greats jobs!
cool, i really appreciate you posting this….im learning a lot….
Oh no ! very beautiful ^^ … i like it … Thanks for share it …
ugly
Really beautiful work.
I used Blender on Mac. http://www.blender.org for 3D work. Open source + free. Script friendly.
It’s not intuitive, but with the tutorial, things move along quickly.
for step 8 ppl, i made a new layer, went to filter, went to render- clouds. when that was done i right click on they layer and go to blending options and from the drop down menu you select overlay. After that i copyed the could layer and it looked fine.
A horrible, horrible mutilation of Nik Ainley’s (shinybinary) original tutorial.
A shameless ripoff. The link has been posted above several times.
Can’t believe you’re taking people’s credit for something you know you didn’t make.
And making excuses too, couldn’t find instructions when you searched for them. Hah! It’s the first link when you search for a shinybinary tutorial.
Unbelievably arrogant ripoff.
You just added some random horrible crap to make it look original. You should be ashamed of yourself. And I know you know full well you ripped it off. Dick.
And by the way this looks absolutely garbage.
I am sorry to make you feel this way Bender but at least have some respect for the community here and watch your language.
As for this tutorial. The great artist Nik Ainley was my first inspiration to do this and some more.
Thank you and I hope next time you watch your temper.
just to add to benders statement and your denying have you asked nik ainley if you coult post this ?
since this is not just showing how something is done this is showing how his work is done
exact same font even that just shows lack of originality :O
if you have respect for the works of someone then ask permission
very beautiful
Wow, honestly, Bender.
He has already mentioned he was inspired by Nik Ainley, and he wanted to know how to do it. He wasn’t being selfish, he wanted everybody else to learn something or at least take a step towards it. I’m definitely sure that Nik Ainley would never have a problem with a tutorial like this, considering he published his own tutorial in Advanced Photoshop Magazine already.
This was designed to be a step up to help fellow designers, and he was being original so that it wasn’t a 100% lift of Nik’s style.
Hopefully you can understand that designers need a lot of help, this was one of them.
He isn’t taking Ainley’s credit, Constantin made this himself so it wasn’t a rip-off, it was an inspired technical study into Ainley’s style.
You know and I know it doesn’t look like total garbage. Grow up, dick.
Husam, my problem is not with a tutorial that shows how to emulate some great artist’s work.
My problem is he copied Nik Ainley’s _tutorial_ and then had the balls to claim he had searched for a tutorial but hadn’t found one. That this tutorial is all his own concluding. And at the same time he even uses the same exact unheard of 3d program mentioned in Nik’s tutorial.
And just to be frank, it really is pretty damn awful. No where near the usual level of tutorials on this site. Fine if you like it.
Don’t argue guys. Bender has a different opinion. Leave it be.
I took a look into your work Husam Elfaki and I think you should write some tutorials. You really made some great effects and use great colors. :p
wanted to try this tut sooooo bad i downloaded the xara demoversion, but how do I seperate the letters?
Ok everyone stop fighting and can you PLEASE tell me what is the name of the font used? Thank you!
damn I would like to do something like that but I didnt know how to use the fu***ng 3D program(just like a noob) XD
Very cool…nice effect! thanks for the post!
josiepop: you need to make each letter at a time.
the fonts used are VOMZOM and another one that I can’t remember, sorry. Get it from here: http://www.dafont.com/vomzom
Step 8 doesn’t work for me. It makes more of an ugly neon effect and deletes most of the brushing…
how can i have the letter without the background in “XARAâ€â€¦ or did you erase in photoshop…. (its a lot of work if thats how you did it). maybe im missing something…
another.. save it PNG in XARA but i could not open it in photshop as PDF
Thank You for this TUT. Like you, i was impressed by the work of Nik ainley and i was curious to lnow HOW he did made that!!! and thanks of you and other guys, Now, i know. It gives me an idea. the idea to know that nothing is impossible to do.
I don’t think that you copied Nik Ainley, You are just inspired , ’cause Nik Ainley uses decorative and floral designs and you don’t. So..
Good Work and thanks for the share. I’ll try it soon (I hope)
HI NICE TUT! THANK YOU FOR SHARING……..IM A NEW USER AND I HAVE A QUESTION HOW TO I IMPORT THE TEXT FROM 3DXARA TO PHOTOSHOP….CAN U PLZ TELL ME THANK YOU!!
just looking through some old some tutorials and came across this. Can’t believe PSDtuts posted this cos its pretty much a copy and paste of Nik Ainleys tutorial here: http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/tutorials/index.cfm?featureid=1617&pn=5
If I remember correctly another guy did a tutorial same as Nik ainleys and it caused a riot and got deleted, whats up with this?? In my opinion this is worse than the other guy because the result is exactly the same,same font etc, just not as good. Why couldn’t PSDtuts just post the link to Niks tutorial rather than get someone to rip it off.
I’d rather see this deleted and replaced with a link to niks tutorial because I followed both and the result I got from Nik’s was ten times better. Just had to voice my opinion.
Just checked Nik Ainleys tutorial here:
http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/tutorials/index.cfm?featureid=1617&pn=5
Personally, I like this one better. It’s all personal taste and preference.
How to make step 21? I can’t figure out how to make a line like in example. End of line smoothly disappear. I took hard round 1 pixel brush. in my settings minimum roundes is available when Roundness Jitter is minimum 1%. I realy appreciate your help. paul
Thanks for Posting.
Great Tut.
really pretty!! I would like to know in Xara 3D which is the form of used style and also the police ( FONT ) thank you!
very fantastic! what a pity, i dont get the xara 3D
Hey there,
great tut. !!!
Where can I get Xara3D 6 for mac ?
I really like to buy that programm.. but I just found it for Windows 2000/XP ..
greetz
tony
How can I download the photoshop What is this?
Someone would be so kind of darmelo
Pofabor
We thank him for much
:D
Hi, awesome tutorial!
But how do I get the text from XARA to photoshop? I tried exporting it and saving it as PNG with a white background but is there anyway to better import it and transparent?
THANKS!
Linked back to from here: http://www.presidiastudios.com/blog/valentines-day-3d-text-effect/
Brilliant as always.. i like how you have used the cloud filter.. you have got the little clouds in the final pic.. really cool, just can’t seem to do it myself!
It’s too great to be true,
I’ll try to do it later
ciro, from Argentina
wow, you are arrogant