Select the “Sand dunes” layer, select the Clone Stamp tool and holding the Option (Alt) key, click somewhere on the sand. Using the Burn Tool, burn some shadows on the “Rock Texture” layer.

Then use the Magic Wand tool to select the front face of the 3D text on the Smart Object layer and delete the selection on the “Rock Texture” layer. Change the Blending mode to Overlay.Ĭtrl (Command) + Click on Smart Object miniature to select the text shape, then Ctrl (Command) + Shift + I to invert the selection, then hit DEL to delete the extra texture (on the “Rock Texture” layer). Paste the “Rock Texture” into a new layer above the 3D smart object. Then, Select all (Ctrl + A or Command + A) and copy the selection. Go To Filter > Distort > Displace, search for “map.psd” and set both the Horizontal and Vertical values to 50. Now, let’s save the previous document as “Displace texture”, delete the raster 3D text and paste this image on a new layer. Save the document as Map.psd somewhere in your Desktop. Then go to Layer > Rasterize > Smart object. Select the Smart object layer, right click on the layer and select Duplicate Layer > Destination: New, and Name: Map. This way the text will match the scene lightening. Next, go to Filter > Render > Lighting Effects and set the values as shown below. Then paste the 3D text (created on Step 1) as a Smart Object. Let’s open Photoshop, create a new document ( 1280 x 1024 px) and put this image as a background. Then copy (Ctrl or Command + C) the 3D text. Then go to Effect > 3D > Extrude & Bevel, and set the values as shown below. I’m using the Impact typeface and this foreground color: # CCCCCC. On a blank document type the text in Illustrator. Here’s a quick preview of the image that we will be creating: Try it out and feel free to post links to your own variations, we’d love to see what you come up with. Let’s get started and create a truly awesome 3D effect in just a few short steps. All images are free to download and here are the links: 1, 2, 3, 4 To get started, go ahead and download all the images used from the Sxh.hu website. You need to have medium to advanced knowledge of Photoshop in order to complete this tutorial. In this tutorial we’ll create a realistic 3D text scene using Photoshop with a little help from Illustrator for the 3D text.

Make 3d text in illustrator