Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
com
WRAPPING TEXT IN 3D
In this Photoshop tutorial, we’re going to learn how to easily wrap text around a 3D object in Photoshop, without the need
for any 3D software. We’re going to be wrapping our text around a planet, but you can use this same basic technique to
wrap text around just about anything. You’ll need Photoshop CS or higher for this tutorial, since we’ll be using Photoshop’s
“text on a path” feature, and then we’ll be using Free Transform to reshape our text into a 3D perspective. Finally, we’ll be
using a layer mask to hide the text where it passes behind the object, giving us our final 3D effect.
Here’s the image of the planet (good old Planet Earth) And here’s what the image will look like after wrapping our
I’ll be wrapping the text around: 3D text around it:
Step 2: Drag A Selection Around The Object, A Bit Larger Than The Object Itself
With my Elliptical Marquee Tool selected, I’m going to position my mouse as close to the center of the planet as possible
to start with. Then I’m going to hold down my Shift key to constrain my selection to a perfect circle and I’m going to
hold down my Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) key to tell Photoshop to use the point I’m about to click on as the center of my
selection, so the selection extends out in all directions from that point. Then I’m simply going to click in the center of the
planet and drag out a selection until my selection is a bit larger than the planet, giving my text room to wrap around it.
As soon as you click on the icon, Photoshop converts the selection into a path, and the new
“Work Path” appears in the Paths palette:
And if we look back in our image, we can see that the dotted lines
of our selection have been replaced with a thin solid line, which
is our path:
We can now use this path, along with the “text on a path” feature
in Photoshop CS and higher, to add our text, which we’ll do
next.
With the Type Tool selected, go up to the Options Bar at the top of the screen and select your font and font size. This 3D
effect works best if you use a font with thick letters, so I’m going to choose Helvetica Black as my font. You can choose
whichever font you like from the ones you have installed on your system, but again, try to pick one with nice thick letters,
and also one that’s easily readable. You’ll need to experiment with the size of your font, since it will depend a lot on the
size of the object you’re wrapping your text around and even more so on the size and resolution of the image you’re using.
I’m using a 14pt font size for this tutorial, but again, you’ll need to experiment on your own with your image:
Click on the color swatch in the Options Bar to select a color for the text.
Click OK once you’ve chosen your color to exit out of the dialog box.
If you look closely, you can see that I’ve run into a small problem. There isn’t enough space
along my path to fit in all my text, and the word “EARTH” in the top left has been cut off. To
fix that, I’m going to double-click directly on the type layer’s thumbnail in the Layers palette,
which is going to tell Photoshop to select all of my text at once:
To space both sentences an equal distance apart and close up that large gap at the top, I’m going to click my mouse
between the two sentences at the bottom (between the words “EARTH” and “WELCOME” ) and again holding down Alt
(Win) / Option (Mac), I’m going to press my left bracket key a few times to add a little extra space between the two words
until the text looks equally balanced all along the path.
When I’m happy with the spacing of my text, I’m going to press Ctrl+H (Win) / Command+H (Mac) to hide the path from
view, leaving me with just my planet and my text circled and nicely spaced around it (next page):
This Photoshop Tutorial © 2008 Steve Patterson, Photoshop Essentials.com.
Not To Be Reproduced Or Redistributed Without Permission.
4
Photoshop Tutorial: Wrapping Text in 3D By Steve Patterson, Photoshop Essentials.com
Our text is now circling around the planet but it looks very two-dimensional
and not very interesting. We’re going to bring it into the third dimension
next.
This adds a layer mask to the text layer, and it also adds a layer mask thumbnail in the Layers
palette. We can tell that the layer mask is currently selected because the thumbnail has a
white highlight border around it:
Step 10: Paint With Black Inside The Selection To Hide The Text
With our layer mask added to the text layer and a selection around the planet, we can easily hide the text that’s
supposed to be behind the planet by simply painting over the text. First we need our brush, so select the Brush
Tool from the Tools palette, or press B on your keyboard:
Then, with black as your Foreground color, simply paint over the text you want
to hide. Since we’re painting on the layer mask, not the layer itself, we won’t
be painting black on the image. Instead, anywhere where we paint with black
will hide the contents of the layer. I need to hide the text in the top part of the
planet, so I’ll paint over it with my Brush Tool. Thanks to the selection I created,
I don’t have to worry about being sloppy with my brush and accidentally painting
beyond the edge of the planet, since Photoshop will only allow me to paint inside
the selection. Anywhere I paint outside of it is ignored:
Paint over the text you want to hide with the Brush Tool.
Only the text inside the selection will be affected.
Continue painting over the text until you’ve hidden everything that needs
to be hidden. When you’re done, press Ctrl+D (Win) / Command+D
(Mac) to remove the selection. If your path under the text became visible
again, press Ctrl+H (Win) / Command+H (Mac) to hide it from view.
Here’s my image after painting over the text along the top to hide it,
creating the illusion that the text is now circling the planet in 3D:
This brings up the Layer Style dialog box set to the Gradient Overlay options in the middle column. By default, Photoshop
gives us a black to white gradient, which is what we want. Rather than using the gradient to colorize our text though and
Click OK when you’re done to exit out of the dialog box and apply the Gradient Overlay style to the text, and you’re
done!
Here’s the final effect with my simple lighting effect added to the text: