Design.CreativeFan

The Making of “Climb” – An Awesome 3D Text Composition in Photoshop

Leonardo Dentico — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:27:46 +0000

Using textures applied to text is an effective way to create dynamic looking text, and even creating 3D style text effects solely in Photoshop. Using some photomanipulation techniques, textures can be applied and blended together to create a surreal work with a realistic feeling.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create 3D text within Photoshop, along with a nice stylish background, and then apply textures and bring out some awesome details in your work.

Let’s get started. If you have any questions or feedback, please let us know in the comments!

Tools Used:

Adobe Photoshop

Final Image Preview:

Step 1

Open a new document (mine is 2400×1082,we will resize everything in the end, to have better views of details during the work) filled with black. Take a big soft brush, paint a circle on the left to create the source light.

Go to Layer>New adjustment layer>Color balance and do the same as show below:

You’ll have now something like this:

Select a hard brush, low dimensions, and paint a white circle in the middle of your source light, now increase dimensions of the brush, reduce its opacity(you can find opacity percentage on the upper bar), paint another circle. Repeat this process again and again to have a result similar to this:

Step 2

Select, now the text tool (the “T” in the sidebar on left) and write something. In my work i used the word “climb”. Right click on the text level and choose “rasterize”, then press CTRL+T or cmd+T to edit dimensions. Use the warp tool to warp the text (you can find it on the upper bar of PS and it is symbolized with the little figure in Image 1),and try to get a similar result as image 1, shown below.

You have now to apply a nice wall texture you can find on many sites such as CGtextures.com. To apply it to the text you have to create a new level and move the texture on the level above the text, now right click->create clipping mask, and you should get what is shown below:

Many people prefer to use a 3D program for this sort of thing, but I honestly don’t like it, as I want to give an artistic and imperfect style to my works. So, to create depth for the text we will just create a new level, put it in the below to previous text layers one, and paint with an hard brush the various sides of the letter with any color, like below:

After that, we will apply the same wall texture on this level with the same technique we previously used.

This time just use any adjustment such as curves or levels to make the sights brighter since they’re “touched” by light more than the front part. Lighting is key in these artworks.

Use the dodge tool (on the left sidebar), set to “midtones” in the upper bar,to make some parts lighter, just painting where you need light.

Step 3

Make a new layer, take some bricks stock images and put them into the new layer,try to give them a direction with the transform tool (you get it with CTRL+T or cmd+T), so it seems like they are moving all together because of an explosion as like as in Image1. You can either paint this using your mouse, or duplicate and smudge, or duplicate and apply a motion blur.

Burn the ones which are more distant from the light, to create more depth.

Create some colored shapes as in Image 2, using your pen tool:

Simply using the pen tool to make these shapes, duplicate them and put one on each other as in this detail screenshot:

Create different types of them, rectangular, rounded, whatever you want…reduplicate everything, move it a little bit (CTRL or cmd+click and drag) and lower layer’s opacity,you’ll get the “move” effect as in the detail shot above. To create the stroke and the outer glow, just click twice on the shape layer and you’ll get a window, thick “stroke” and chose white as color, thick “outer glow” and choose white again, play with the settings to have a nice result.

Step 4

Burn all parts which aren’t exposed to light,and dodge the ones which are, using burn and dodge tool in the sidebar.

Go to the textures’ layers, make a new layer, right click on the layer and choose “create clipping mask”, as like as “blue blending” in my image.

Set it to “Overlay” and paint some blue parts,to blend the text with the background, reduce layer’s opacity if necessary. This will help the lighting match a bit more.

You will now have something like this:

Step 5

Here we are to the final step, we are going to add grass the same way we created the wall text: paint some grass in a new layer of any colour (in my PSD it’s white).

Next, add a clipping mask and the grass texture:

You’ll have a result like shown below. I also adjusted something with brightness and contrast,increase lights and shadows’ strength.

Our work is almost finished!! you can add details as like trees, windows and ladders, they are just stock images cut and pasted with some blending adjustments. You can also give a final adjustment with curves or levels or whatever you want, image 4 is my final result.

When you’re sure your work is finished reduce the size (800\900 px wide), make a new layer->image->apply image,and after go to filters->sharpen, to make details more visible.

Create a Dramatic Urban Raining Composition with 3D Elements

Joe Moore — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:20:58 +0000

Urban scenes can be used to create dramatic works of digital art. The grunge feel of graffiti, concrete and the darker textures can result in great environments for a design or artwork. Perhaps typified by movies like Sin City, the grayscales of urban environments, particularly when combined with rain, are captivating.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to take some stock photos and create a dramatic urban environment, complete with rain, and then build a design composition around it using some 3D elements. You’ll learn how to create a nice raining effect, and how to use urban styles to enhance your work.

If you have any questions, let us know in the comments. We’re always accepting suggestions as well!

Tools used:

Adobe Photoshop
Photo stocks
3D render stocks

Final Image Preview:

Step 1: Document creation and background setup

To start off we need to create a new document. I would suggest a 2000*3000 document but if you cannot work at a size that large then just work at a size that works good for you.

Now we need to get our background stock. We will be trying to create some sort of urban decay type scene so any road shots, store fronts, or city shots will work. My background stock looks like the below screen shot and you can get it at ShutterStock.com

Once you have your background stock we need to drop them into our document and begin editing them. Your editing will depend on your stock back ground, mine consisted of clone stamping out a few sections to clean up some areas and then clone stamped it to fit the my target document. It looks like the below screen shot now.

Now we need to grey scale the image and adjust the levels. To do this we need to press ‘CTRL SHIFT L’ and then ‘CTRL SHIFT U’ on your keyboard. My image now looks like the below screen shot.

Once that is done we will create a new layer and set the blending mode to overlay. Once you have done that we need to grab some splatter/brush stroke brushes and throw them around. The point here is to darken the image whilst applying texture. If you don’t have any brushes you can read my tutorial here on creative fan, use a texture or find some brushes on the net.
Just splat them around in black and then switch to white around any lights if your background image has any. My image now looks like the below screen shot.

If your image is not as dark at the bottom as you would like you can repeat this step on another layer as many times as necessary. I had to create an additional layer to create the effect that the background is fading to black.

Step 2: Rain creation

Now we need to create a new layer and fill it with black. Once that is done we need to apply a noise filter. So go to your filter drop down and select noise>add noise and then set yours up as mine is in the below screen shot.

Your layer should appear as mine does now in the below screen shot.

Now we need to create a motion blur. To apply this filter we can go to our filter drop down menu and select blur>motion blur. Once you have done this set yours up as mine is in the below screen shot.

Your layer should now look something like the below screen shot now.

Next we need to apply a manual level adjustment; to do this press CTRL L on your keyboard and set your level editor up as mine is in the below screen shot.

Your layer should now look something like the below screen shot.

Now we need to apply a layer mask. Once that is done go to your filter drop down and select render>difference clouds. Once you have applied this filter apply it again around 2/3 times and then set the blending mode to screen. My image now looks like the below screen shot.

Now duplicate the layer, on the new layers mask apply the filter one last time and reduce the opacity to around 50%.

Step 3: Figure implementation.

Now you need to find a stock image. The stock image I chose was a very popular stock that you can find on shutterstock.com. It looks like the below screen shot.

Once you have isolated out your figure you can drop them into your document under your rain layers. Now we can grey scale our figure by pressing CTRL SHIFT U. Once that has been done you need to fade the grey scale, to fade the grey scale press CTRL SHIFT F on your keyboard. Fade the grey scale by about 55% and press ok. My image now looks like the below screen shot.

Next you need to do the same effect with the splatter brushes on the figure. When you do this be certain that you don’t get any of the brushes off the figure, keep them only on the figure. My image now looks like the below screen shot.

Step 3 part 2: Rain drop creation.

Now we need to grab a standard three Px brush like the below screen shot.

Now we need to create a new layer and start drawing small circle shapes bouncing off the figure. Try and space the circles out as much as possible and keep their opacities random as well as their size.

Continue drawing the circles as well as drawing some water streaks on your figure as if the water is sliding down him or her. Its best to stay focused on one significant area and then move to the next area.

Now once you finish with the first area you can move into the next area. I started moving downward towards the arms/hands.

Next once you have added a lot of circles (rain drops) you can start adding some hashed lines as if the splashes are moving so fast that they are blurred.

Step 4: Graffiti implementation

Now we can add in some graffiti stocks in to help produce more of the urban decay effect. To start off we can grab a stock from CG textures:

http://cgtextures.com/login.php?&texid=7066&destination=texview.php?id=7066&PHPSESSID=418f77724472d17169673b32a8d66258

Once you have dropped the stock in you will need to grey scale it as we did with the other stocks. Next we need to adjust the levels as we did before. Set your levels up as mine is in the below screen shot.

The image should now look like the below screen shot.

Once you have done this set the layer up as multiply layer and just place it where you like.

I duplicated mine, inverted it, set the blending mode up as screen and placed it a second time.

Now you just need to repeat this process a few times until your image has the right ‘feel’ to it. Below is a list of stocks that I used to create the effect on my image as well as a few screen shots to show you how the process went about.

Stocks:

If you’re having trouble it’s easier to use a single stock multiple times as we did with the SICK stock. Keep in mind that you can use it as a multiply layer or a screen layer and that size can be varied multiple times to help vary the stocks up.

Step 5: Render implementation and closing

Now we need some renders to place behind the stock image. I used a few of my own as well as some from Angelius Hellions pack.

Render packs:

Just drop them in, grey scale them and place them behind the render as I have done here. If you like you can apply a few colors but I chose not to. You can also apply the splash effects as we did with the figure if you would like.

Well that’s all; all you need to do now is size it down and sharpen it. I hope you enjoyed reading my tutorial and you came out with a nice looking image. My image looks like the below screen shot. If you have any questions regarding my images creation please don’t hesitate to ask!

Achieving Visual Sharpness in Design and Art with Photoshop

Joe Moore — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:57:08 +0000

Sharpening images is one of the most fundamental elements of graphic design; however a lot of people struggle with this key process in their designs. Without proper sharpening, an image can look flat, dull and uninteresting, but if oversharpened, artifacts and grains will be introduced that will detract from the design.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn what a sharp image should look like and the many ways of sharpening one of your designs to achieve the maximum visual appeal.

Let’s get started.

What is a sharp image? Well below are two screen shots of one of my older pieces. The first image is the sharpened version while the second one is the unsharpened version. See if you can spot the key differences.

The first thing you would notice is the first image, when compared to the second, seems very blurry. The second image has crisp details, strong bold edges and sharper well… everything. While the first images edges are flat and dull, they seem to smudge into one another.

What is too sharp?
There is no real standard for over sharpening but I think we can all agree that any time a image has any noise like artifacts due to sharpening its been over sharpened.

So how do you sharpen an image? Well there’s a ton of ways actually but first we need to discuss what to sharpen!

In the above images I have made some circles in red and blue to show what areas will take to sharpening and what areas will potentionally suffer. The blue areas like the background and skin are all very easy to sharpen. They have a tendency to take much more sharpening then other parts of an image. The red spots however are your trouble spots. They look wonderful sharpened but just a tad too much and they will get grainy in a second. Examples of other red spots to spot in your images would include:

Any geometric pattern that’s tightly knit
Scan lines
Star fields
Grass
Hair
Feathers
Splatters
Patterns
Text
Etc…

For example the below scan lines brush is over sharpened.

Whilst blue areas would be:

Skin and other ‘Flat’ areas
Water
Gradient
Dull textures
Thick lines
Or any other areas that has minimal disruption and appears as I stated above, ‘Flat’.

So as you can see 90% of our designs feature areas that could be sharpened more so than others. Or areas that are too sharp whilst other areas are under sharpened. How do we address this issue? By properly sharpening!

So how do we effectively sharpen our images? There are numerous ways such as the sharpen filter, high pass filter etc… But now it’s time we discuss each process and which ones best for you. Let’s start with the sharpen filter. The sharpen filter is great for some images, but for images that have a variety of different shapes/textures and designs in them then it might not work as well as some of our other options. Take for instance the below image. It is our unsharpened image from before, with a scan line on it and 2 sharpen filters applied. Take note of our red and blue areas from earlier and how they look now.

Without the scan line the image itself would be fine. But my point is, it won’t always be fine, there will be instances when you have something in your design such as the above scan line. So what should you do? Well we will discuss that later on.

Next up is the sharpen more filter; we will not discuss much about it since the name says it all. However it’s usually about 2 and a half sharpen filters. I have yet to use it and I doubt I ever will.

Now we can discuss the sharpen edges filter.

This is another filter that I have not found a use for as of yet. What does it do? Well it sharpens the edges! But why would you want just the edges of your design sharpened? I haven’t a clue, this filter like the last, is a filter you should just over look when sharpening your images.

Now let’s discuss the unsharpen mask. This tool is a tad bit more complex that then last few and has more uses! However with its increase in uses comes the decline in flexibility.

This filter consists of 3 slides. The first one is the most important it’s your amount setting. This is the % of sharpening your image will receive. The next setting is radius, this setting is a little bit odd. If increased the sharpness % goes down and it applies an overlay like effect. This could be very useful in some scenes but it seems far too limited. The last slide is the threshold slide I have tried to figure out what its purpose is but I cannot, from what I can tell it decreases the sharpness when the threshold level is increased. Which seems somewhat pointless when you already have an amount %. An example of the outcome is shown below.

This has potential but what if you had a large number of red sections (see above) and very little blue areas? By the time the blue areas are sharpened the red areas will be destroyed!

Our next sharpen technique is one of my favorites. It’s the high pass filter. The high pass filter is often used to create HDRI like effects; however one of the key elements in a HDRI image is sharp details!

So how do you use it? When you apply a high pass filter your only setting is “Radius” now the more you increase this the less defined the result will be. Higher radius are used to create the moody color tones in HDRI images. We will use a lower setting like the above to create just the amount of detail we want. Next we need to fade the result, I choose a soft light blending mode because it affects the outcome the least. Once this is done you apply your favorite sharpening method, I chose to apply a sharpen filter followed by manually sharpening the image. An example of the outcome is below, but keep in mind you don’t have to fade this; you could duplicate your image, apply the effect, set the blending mode on the layer and then merge it.

Finally we are left with the best choice and the choice I always use. Manually sharpening gives you the same bang for your buck that the filters do but provides flexibility that the others just don’t have. How to use it? Well it’s easy; it’s just like a normal brush. My set up is as follows.

If you have a tablet now is the time to use it! The set up I have above applies more sharpen % based off how hard you press with the pen but if you don’t have a pen this is no problem. Why the low %? well the sharpen tool works like the burn tool and dodge tool; meaning the longer you leave it over one area without releasing the mouse button the sharper it becomes. I prefer the larger feathered brush because this way we aren’t applying a sharpen to one set area, we are slowly and methodically applying the sharpen to the entire image. This way, if you take your time and carefully sharpen the red areas and then move to the blues you could have a perfectly sharpened image in no time!

But let’s say you sharpened your image and now it’s time to submit it or present it to the world and you need to size it down. What will happen? Well it’s safe to say that the image will not retain its sharpness, but if you play with the image interpolation algorithms this may not be the case!

Photoshop offers 5 different ways of sizing your images up and down. Bicubic is the most common because it’s the most effective. It works by selecting a pixel and then referencing it to all of the pixels that are on its sides, and since a pixel is a square this means it references all the pixels on all four sides of the pixel. Photoshop offers 3 Bicubic settings they are:

Standard Bicubic – just a standard size down
Bicubic smoother – Its sizes the image down and tries to smooth the pixels down to prevent any artifacts
Bicubic sharpener – This method does the opposite of the above, it sharpens the images pixels as it sizes them

What’s left?
Bilinear – This method is very similar to Bicubic except for the fact that it rather than addressing all of the side’s of a pixel it only address the pixels to the left and right of a corresponding pixel.

Nearest neighbor – It addresses the closest pixel to the original pixel and should only be used when enlarging an image. When used to shrink an image it will appear over sharpened.

So what does all of this mean? Well not much to the average designer such as you or me. My recommendation for large scale images that need to be sized down for easier viewing? And what method should you use to sharpen an image? Sharpen your image manually and then size it down using the Bicubic algorithm. Once that is done re-sharpen it manually. It’s the best way to sharpen an image.

I hope after reading this that you will take it upon yourself to look at the way you sharpen your images. Do they look sharp enough? Could certain areas be sharper? And in turn, I hope you find a way to sharpen your images to your liking; providing you with a crisp image every time. Have any questions or suggestions? Drop a comment and I’ll be happy to help!

Composite an iMac Render into an Incredible Apple Advertisement

Bruno Kenzo — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 18:33:53 +0000

A little while back, when CG.CreativeFan had just launched, we published a tutorial about modeling, texturing and rendering an iMac in Cinema4D that would be the basis for a product advertisement tutorial in the future. Well, the wait is over, as here is the promised tutorial.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to take a 3D render of an iMac, and composite it into a scene. You’ll then learn how to take a variety of 3D abstract elements, textures and images to create an incredible advertisement. You’ll learn about composition, color usage and the use of abstract elements in design.

Hi everyone! First of all, thanks for reading this tutorial and I hope you can learn something, not only how to create an artwork like this, but also to use in other artworks. During this tutorial I will explain some tips and effects that I think fit very well with any style. =) You will learn how to create a high quality fictitious advertising with some cool effects and many details! I think it’s an easy tutorial, but you need some understanding of composition, color and of course, good taste! So, let’s start!

Tools Used

Photoshop
iMac Render from CG.CreativeFan tutorial: http://cg.creativefan.com/model-texture-and-render-an-imac-in-cinema4d/

Resources

3D Renders – iMac, Spheres, Particles… (by K3nzuS) http://k3nzus.deviantart.com/art/Some-Stuff-2-169562709?q=1&qo=1
Carbon Pattern (DeviantART) http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=§ion=&global=1&q=carbon+pattern
Texture – Old Paper (DevianART) http://ofruin-stock.deviantart.com/art/Old-paper-33-stock-72496013?q=boost%3Apopular+old+paper&qo=9
Splatter / Paint Tossing (Media Militia) http://mediamilitia.com/paint-tossing/

Final Image Preview

Create a new document on Photoshop and set the size that you prefer, for this job I used 800 x 1200 pixels, 72dpi and 8bits/channel, because I did this artwork just for viewing on the Internet.
So, add a Linear Gradient with the following settings:

Add an Old Paper Texture, desaturate it (Shift + Ctrl + I) and change the blend mode to Multiply and Opacity: 30-50%.

After that, change the Levels settings to something like the following image. So, the texture will become softer.

Add your iMac render (you can use the render that you did, or if you prefer, you can download my render pack). I placed one big render in the middle and smaller ones around, forming a triangle, because the composition fits better.

So, we will do some adjustments on the renders. Select a Soft Round Brush, Opacity: 10-20% and start doing some clicks on the corners. Try some blend modes like Normal, Soft Light and Overlay, you can obtain some interesting results.

Here are more examples:

Now, we will make the shadow of the main iMac. Create a white circle shape (this is the “spot light” that illuminates the floor) and go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and choose Radius: 2-3 pixels.

Create a black circle shape, smaller than the first one (this is the twilight/soft shadow) and go to Gaussian Blur again.

Create another black circle shape, smaller than the others and go to Gaussian Blur, but now, choose the Radius: 1-2 pixels.

Now, we will add some abstracts in our scene. Select these “aqua renders” and place them behind the iMac renders. To fit better and improve the composition, try to rotate and resize these renders.

Instead of using only purple renders, you can use white ones too. Copy some of them and desaturate (Shift + Ctrl + U). After that, add a Levels layer and change its settings to something like the image. And you can obtain a result like this:

Now, select these “black spheres” and add them in your artwork. And again, change its color to something more interesting. Create a new layer, fill it with pink or purple and create a Clipping Mask (Ctrl + Alt + G). So, change the blend mode to Screen.

After that, select these “green abstracts”, desaturate it and add a Levels layer with this config:

So, you will obtain something like this:

And again, to improve the composition, rotate and resize these renders. Here are some examples:

Follow this same sequence with these “spirals”:
Desaturate > Create a clipping mask > Change the blend mode to Screen.

Now, select the Brush Tool and choose a Hard Round Brush, Opacity: 15-25%. The size, choose according the composition. Here are some colors that I think fit very well.

It’s pretty hard to see, but here are some examples. Ranging in size and color, you can get something like this:

Now, select those “green abstracts” again (after that treatment) and change the Opacity: 10-15%. So, place them behind the iMac renders. You can use this effect too with those “black spheres”.

After that, we will do some pen lines. First, select the Brush Tool and choose a Hard Round Brush with Size: 1 pixel and Opacity: 100%. So, select the Pen Tool and clink on the second icon “Paths” like the image:

Then, make a curve, click with the right button and choose Stroke Path option. On the Stroke Path window, choose Brush and click Ok. And now, you have a cool line which fits very well with the composition. Moreover, this type of line is used to join separate elements.

Here are more examples:

Create more white lines and go to the Blending Options properties. Go to the Stroke tab and change its settings like the following image.

So, a neon light will be created. Here is an example:

Now, select these “particles”, desaturate them and change the Opacity: 40%. Place them behind the iMac renders.

After that, select some of these “splatter/paint tossing” images.

Place them behind the other elements and change the Blend Mode to Screen or Overlay.

Here are more examples:

Create a new layer and fill it with any color. Go to the Blending Options properties. On the Pattern Overlay tab, select one carbon fiber pattern.

Place it behind the iMac like a floor. Then, create a new layer, select both and merge them (Ctrl + E).

Now, you can erase some parts, like an infinite floor. And change the Blend Mode to Soft Light and Opacity: 60%.

And finally, we will do the typography. In this case I chose Arial Rounded, 25pt, Crisp. Go to the Blending Options and on the Stroke tab change some values.

Choose a cool slogan that fits with the image and place the Apple logo.

So, I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and learned something. I also hope to do more tutorials of my work and thanks for reading! =)

Combine 3D Geometric Shapes and Flowing Lines for a Sleek iPhone Ad

Joe Moore — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 18:10:21 +0000

Abstract and geometric 3D shapes are an incredibly useful element when designing. They create the illusion of motion, add diversity to an artwork, and also provide an excellent splash of color. When combined with flowing lines, it can create a beautiful cosmic style background that can work well in a variety of situations.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a variety of 3D geometric shapes and combine them with some abstract flowing lines and a splash of color to create a vibrant and exciting sleek iPhone product advertisement. You’ll walk away with added knowledge of how to use these techniques in your own work.

If you have any questions, let us know in the comments. Let’s get started!

Tools Used:

Adobe Photoshop
3DS Max

Final Image Preview:

Step 1: 3DS shape creation

We will begin this tutorial by opening 3DS Max. These shapes can also be created in other 3D applications such as Cinema4D, Maya and Blender, however if you are familiar in making similar shapes to what we will be making in a different program such as Illustrator; by all means use that program and just skip ahead to the post work sections. If not, well then open up 3DS and let’s get started!

In this section I will show you how to create 3 basic shapes that we can later use to bring life to an otherwise boring piece. Our first shape will be the square. So click the icon that says box and create a square.

Next we will need to create a material; we will be using the same material for all of our shapes so its important to get it right! To begin, we can press ‘M’ on our keyboard; this will open up the material editor. Next we can select the first sphere and then click the large button under the grid that says “Standard”. This will bring up a new window which will show us all the types of materials to choose from, we will select “Architectural” and select ‘ok’.

Next we will set it up as it appears in the below screenshot.

Now click and drag your sphere and drop it directly on top of your square to apply the material. Your square should now look something like the below screenshot.

Now we need to render! So press F10 on your keyboard to open the render settings. We will adjust the output size to about 1850*1850. Then hit render!

Once you have rendered your shape go ahead and save it as a PNG. Then make about 6/7 variations of your cube. Change the perspective and angles to make it appear not so repetitive in the final piece. Once you have done those delete your square and let’s move on to our next shape! Our next shape is a O or a tube if you like. So we can go back over to the section where we originally selected “BOX” and this time select “TUBE”. Once you have created your tube apply the material and tada!

Like the last one, the tube should have about 6 or so variations!
Our last shape will be a plus sign. To create the plus sign we need to go way over to the right and click the icon that looks like a square, a circle and a triangle all arranged behind one another. It should be in the middle of the sphere and light icon. This is the shapes icon. Once that is selected, go ahead and click the text button. Then just put a plus sign in and your screen should look similar to mine in the below screen shot.

With the “+” selected, choose the arc shaped tab on the right hand side entitled “Modify”. It should be the right of the arrow button. This will allow us to change the settings for our text. We won’t be changing any settings, but we will add a “Modifier”, so click the drop down menu entitled “Modifiers” and select “Bevel”. Once you have chosen the bevel option set your screen up as mine is in the below screen shot.

Now your plus should look something like the below screenshot, do note that this is without our material applied!

And now we can render this as well!

This is where we will stop, however it isn’t were you have to stop! You could for instance make some shapes that look like “/’,”?”,”>” or various other characters; you could also create some spheres or triangles! Just be sure to experiment, with 3D, you can make nearly anything.

Step 2: Scene Setup and Postwork of 3D

First off we will open up Photoshop and create a new document; our document size should be 2000*3000. Once that is done invert the background color to black. Now we need to open up all of those shapes we made and bring them into the scene. To make things easier we will be making one giant mess of shapes and then later altering it. So drag one shape in your document at a time, size it down to about 50% and apply a diffuse filter. The diffuse filter is located at Filter>Stylize>Diffuse>Anistropic. When dragging your shapes in be sure to vary the sizes, have some tiny and some large (50% of the original size should be the largest you use). Also vary your shapes colors and placement.
My array of shapes looks like the below screenshot.

You can see in my close up how I duplicated a shape, changed the hue and moved it to the side of the original shape to make a more interesting color scheme. This is a good idea to try but its not the only idea, you could for instance trace your shapes in another color or use blending modes and layer masks to create duo-tone shapes. Again just be sure to experiment!

Once you have made your array, merge all the layers except the background and then duplicate the shape layers about 10 times just to be safe.
Next we need to drop in our phone. The stock of the Iphone we will be using is located at : http://media.obsessable.com/media/2008/09/18/iphone-3g.jpg once you have obtained the stock image go ahead and drop it in your new document. Now we need to isolate the phone out, I would suggest you use whatever isolation method you prefer when doing this. However it is a very simple isolation so I will be using the magic wand tool with a tolerance of 30%.

My isolated phone looks like the below screen shot.

Now duplicate your phone layer and go up to your filter tab; we will be using the high pass filter so go to filter>other>high pass and set the % at 77. Once you have done this change the blending mode to overlay. This will help our phone have a better contrast rather than just a regular overlay layer.
The newly modified phone now looks like:

Step 3: Shape Implementation

To start off incorporating our shapes we will grab one of our layer copies and remove about 90% of the shapes with our eraser. Next we will apply a Gaussian blur. To apply the Gaussian blur go to your Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set it up as it appears in the below screen shot.

Our scene now looks like the below screen shot.

Now we can grab another one of our merged layers and size it down to about 50% and place it beneath the phone. You will want to do this about 5 times, each time slightly adjust the hue by about +5 or -5% and change the angle when free transforming it.

Now we grab your soft 200px eraser, set the opacity to 35% and erase some of the shapes slightly so it appears as if they are drifting away.

Now continue placing more shapes. At this point it’s a good idea to open up your shapes once again and bring in two or three shapes at a decent size to place around the phone. That way everything’s not so tiny.

Once you have placed all of your shapes you want to place and brought in some bigger ones we need to open up one shape and drag it in at its actual size. Once you have done that place it in the corner and apply a Gaussian blur with a radius of 9.

Step 4: Background creation

Now we need to create a new layer beneath all of our existing layers. Once you have done that grab any brush you like (a standard 100px hard brush will work fine) and select two colors. I went with pink and blue as they work very well together. Once you have done this use this brush with these colors and draw all over the canvas as I have done in the below screenshot.

Now we can apply a Gaussian blur with a radius of 250 twice. Then set the layer opacity to 15%. Now we can repeat this step on another layer. Once you have done that your scene should look similar to the below screenshot.

If you zoom in closely you will notice that the blur has caused some strange ripple effects! This is exactly what we want so don’t be upset when you see these!

Now we will repeated the above process again, this time rather than leaving the layer mode as normal we will change it to color dodge with an opacity of 100%. This can be applied as many times as you like, I did mine about 2 more times and also incorporated yellow into the my two colors. Also when doing this be sure that your color dodge layers are above the previously created normal layers otherwise this will not work!

Now we will do the same again, this time however we will do it on a layer that’s above the phone. And once it’s done you will need to delete everything except the colors that are atop of the phone. This layer should be set as overlay at 100%.

Step 5: Light stocks and closing

To finish off our piece we will need to add in something more, something to help bring everything together. That will be light stocks! So we will head over to SXC and grab this stock and drop it into our document.
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1114780

If you don’t want to use stock images for this part, you can easily create your own flowing lines:

Once you have dropped the above stock into your document you will need to drag it beneath the phone, free transform it to about 50% its normal size and set the blending mode to screen. Now just move it about so that it barley sticks out.

Now do the above process again, this time on the opposite side.

Now drag a copy of both of these layers above the phone and remove about 80% of the stock that’s on the phone. This will leave the impression as if it were barley creeping onto the phone.

Now we will grab our final stock, it is located at:
http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=1111541

This stock we will make a screen layer with opacity of about 10%. Now just leave it at its original size and angle it and we are done!

My finished piece looks like the below screen shot.

I hope you enjoyed reading this tutorial and maybe learned a thing or two! If you have any questions regarding a technique don’t be afraid to post a message and ask!