How to Create Colorful Wooden 3D Text

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

Photoshop is a powerful tool for creating all sorts of imagery but it does have its limitations. While Photoshop does have some fantastic tools for creating 3D text, there are other applications that are often better suited for the job. That is why many illustrators use a combination of Photoshop and some other 3D application to help create 3D text. In this tutorial, we will show you how to use Cinema 4D to create wooden 3D text and then how to use Photoshop to add the final touches. Let’s get started!

---

Tutorial Assets

Please download the following assets before beginning work on this tutorial.

• Wood Texture 1
• Wood Texture 2

---

1. Create the Background

Step 1

We start in Cinema 4D. Create a New Document (Command/Ctrl + N or File > New). Give the document equal width and height of 1000px in Render Settings (Render > Edit Render Settings).

Step 2

Create a background object.

Step 3

Create a new material and give it the name ‘Background’.

Step 4

Give the material the desired color for the background. The original image uses the following color.

Step 5

Apply this material to the background object by dragging the material from the materials panel, up to the background object in the objects panel.

---

2. Create a Character

Step 1

Create a MoText object (MoGraph > MoText).
Under the Object tab in the MoText Object input the following values.

• Depth set to -500cm
• Subdivision set to 50
• Text set to E
• Font set to Knockout HTF71-FullMiddlewt (if you do not own this typeface then choose another)

Step 2

Under the Caps tab in the MoText Object input the following values.

• Start set to None
• End set to Fillet Cap
• Steps set to 3
• Radius set to 1cm

Step 3

In the Coord tab in the MoText Object input the following values. These values will centre the MoText object so that they align with the deformers we will add in the next steps.

• Z set to 250cm
• Y set to -67cmp

---

3. Apply Deformers

Step 1

Adding deformers to the MoText character will give us control over the bending and twisting of each. First we will add a bend deformer. Add one to the scene, and make it a child of the MoText object.

Step 2

In the Object tab in the Bend deformer Object input the following values.

• Size set to 250cm – 510cm – 250cm
• Mode set to Within Box

Step 3

In the Coord tab in the Bend deformer Object input the following values.

• Y set to 67
• Z set to -250
• H set to 90°
• B set to 90°

Step 4

Now add a twist deformer to the scene, and make it a child of the MoText object. Give this deformer the same values as the bend deformer in its Object tab.

• Size set to 250cm – 510cm – 250cm
• Mode set to Within Box

Step 5

And again we will give this deformer the same values in its Coord tab.

• Y set to 67
• Z set to -250
• H set to 90°
• B set to 90°

---

4. Create Remaining Characters

Step 1

Now that we have a MoText object setup with a bend deformer and a twist deformer, we can duplicate this object to create the remaining characters.

Rename the MoText Object ‘E’.

Step 2

Copy and paste the MoText object, and Rename the new MoText object ‘V’.

Step 3

In the new MoText object change the value of the Text field to ‘V’.

• Text set to V

Step 4

Change the view to Front.

Step 5

Reposition the V MoText object beside the E.

Step 6

Repeat steps 1-5 for the remaining letters. Renaming each MoText object and changing the value in its Text field. You can typeset the characters manually, or give them following values to each of the MoText objects:

E

• X set to 12
• Y set to 485

V

• X set to 150
• Y set to 485

E

• X set to 270
• Y set to 485

R

• X set to 385
• Y set to 485

Y

• X set to 495
• Y set to 485

T

• X set to 8
• Y set to 340

H

• X set to 132
• Y set to 340

I

• X set to 235
• Y set to 340

N

• X set to 336
• Y set to 340

G

• X set to 463
• Y set to 340

I

• X set to -6
• Y set to 190

N

• X set to 95
• Y set to 190

I

• X set to 250
• Y set to 190

T

• X set to 340
• Y set to 190

S

• X set to 460
• Y set to 190

P

• X set to 13
• Y set to 40

L

• X set to 123
• Y set to 40

A

• X set to 240
• Y set to 40

C

• X set to 354
• Y set to 40

E

• X set to 470
• Y set to 40

The result will look like the following:

Return the view to Perspective.

---

5. Add a Camera

Step 1

Add a camera to the scene.

We need to position the camera low with a slight upwards tilt to give the composition the correct perspective. Either manually position the camera until it matches the composition of the original image, or give the camera the following values in its Coord panel.

• X set to 740
• Y set to 116
• Z set to -1035
• H set to 27°
• P set to 14°

Step 2

Once you are happy with the position of the camera in position, lock it in place using a protection tag. Right click on the Camera object and add a protection tag from the CINEMA 4D Tags menu.

---

6. Apply Deformers to Each Character

Step 1

We can now apply a combination of the bend and twist deformers to each MoText character to achieve the warped effect in the final image.

To apply the bend deformation on a MoText character, select the bend deformer that is a child of that MoText character and adjust the number of degrees in the Strength and Angle fields.

The number of degrees bend input into the Strength field will be applied in the direction specified in degrees in the Angle. For example a value of 90° in the Strength field and a value of 0° in the Angle field of the bend deformer will bend the character so that the character face now points directly up. A value of 90° in the Strength field and a value of 180° in the Angle field will bend the character so that the character face now points directly down. Experiment with these values to get a feel for how the bend deformer works.

To apply the twist deformation of a MoText character, select the twist deformer that is a child of that MoText character and adjust the number of degrees in the Strength field.

The twist deformer will twist the MoText character so that the angle of the face twists the number of degrees input into the Strength field. For example a value of 90° in the Strength field of the twist deformer will twist the character so that the characters face now lies on its side. A value of 180 in the Strength field will twist the character so that the characters face is now upside down. Again I encourage you to experiment with the twist deformer to better understand it.

You can manually apply these deformers to match the composition to the final image, or input the following values into the deformers for each character:

E

Bend Deformer:

• Strength set to -14
• Angle set to 43°

Twist Deformer:

• Strength set to -19

V

Bend Deformer:

• Strength set to -23
• Angle set to 13°

Twist Deformer:

• Strength set to 10

E

Bend Deformer:

• Strength set to -21
• Angle set to -1°

Twist Deformer:

• Strength set to 13

R

Bend Deformer:

• Strength set to 19
• Angle set to -23°

Twist Deformer:

• Strength set to 5

Y

Bend Deformer:

• Strength set to -9
• Angle set to -59°

Twist Deformer:

• Strength set to -22

T

Bend Deformer:

• Strength set to -15
• Angle set to -93°

Twist Deformer:

• Strength set to -23

H

Bend Deformer:

• Strength set to -18
• Angle set to -31°

Twist Deformer:

• Strength set to -8

I

Bend Deformer:

• Strength set to 19
• Angle set to -4°

Twist Deformer:

• Strength set to -10

N

Bend Deformer:

• Strength set to 18
• Angle set to 145°

Twist Deformer:

• Strength set to -7

G

Bend Deformer:

• Strength set to -17
• Angle set to 103°

Twist Deformer:

• Strength set to -19

I

Bend Deformer:

• Strength set to -9
• Angle set to -87°

Twist Deformer:

• Strength set to -13

N

Bend Deformer:

• Strength set to -8
• Angle set to 31°

Twist Deformer:

• Strength set to 0

I

Bend Deformer:

• Strength set to 11
• Angle set to 6°

Twist Deformer:

• Strength set to -1

T

Bend Deformer:

• Strength set to 13
• Angle set to -29°

Twist Deformer:

• Strength set to 19

S

Bend Deformer:

• Strength set to 11
• Angle set to -69°

Twist Deformer:

• Strength set to -8

The characters P, L, A, C and E don’t have any deformers applied to them.

The result should look like this:

---

7. Create and Apply Materials

Step 1

Now that the composition is complete we can apply materials to it. There are 8 materials used in this piece. The background (which we have already created), the Side Grain material for the side of each character, the end grain material for the face of each character. Therer are also 5 different coloured paint materials for over the top of the end grain material.

Before we create the material in Cinema 4D we need to adjust the Wood Texture 1 image you downloaded at the beginning of the tutorial. Open the image in Photoshop and add a new adjustment layer by clicking the ‘Create new fill or adjustment layer’ button at the bottom of the layers panel.

Select ‘Hue/Saturation’ from this menu and give the adjustment layer the following values.

• Hue set to -5
• Saturation set to -40

Rotate the image 90° Clockwise (Image > Image Rotation > 90° CW) and the save the image as a jpg in the same location.

Step 2

Now return to Cinema 4D and create a new material. Give it the name ‘Side Grain’. In the color menu within the material editor, click the arrow menu next to ‘Texture’ and then click ‘Load Image’. Select the image from the location you saved it before.

Step 3

We can now apply this material to the sides of the characters. To do this we will first need to break the MoText Objects into Polygon Objects so that the textures can be applied to different areas of the characters.

Select all of the MoText Objects, then right click and select Current State to Object.

Step 4

Delete all of the original MoText objects. This will leave behind only the null and polygon objects created in the previous step. Expand one of remaining null objects and its children until it looks like this. To demonstrate I have chosen the Y in EVERY.

Step 5

We want to apply the Side Grain texture to the Polygon Object (Triangle icon) with the name ‘Y’. Do this by dragging the Side Grain material from the Materials panel up onto this Polygon object. Now rename this Polygon Object ‘Side’.

Step 6

Select the material tag for the Polygon Object ‘Y’. Make sure that projection is set to UVW Mapping and set the value for Tiles U to 4.

• Projection set to UVW Mapping
• Tiles U set to 4

Note that later when you apply this material to the remaining characters, the value of Tiles U will vary for each character because the length around the edge of each character varies. For example the character ‘I’ only needs the texture to be tiled about 2 times because the length of the edge for an ‘I’ is less than the ‘Y’. Adjust the Tiles U for each character until the scale of this material look consistent over all Characters.