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3D Logo in Photoshop and Cinema 4D

by Rinn, January 5, 2007 posted in Design

This tutorial will guide you through the process of taking a 2D low-res logo taken from the web, altering it into a vector shape and giving it a 3 dimensional look in Cinema 4D.


1. This is the Shadowness.com logo that we’re going to be tracing over using the Pen Tool in Photoshop. If you already have the paths made for your logo, you can skip straight to Step 4.

2. Since the logo that I’ve chosen to use is very small, I have zoomed up on the image. Now in order to trace the object with the Pen Tool, we need to lay down the anchor points on any edges and corners of the logo. I have shown where I’m going to lay my anchor points with the red dots. Once you lay down the anchor points, you will have something that look like this:

3. Now, click and hold on the Pen Tool icon. Select the “Add Anchor Point” option, click on the edges and drag the points to where you want the curves to appear. You might have to do a little bit of tweaking here and there to get the the curves right. Here’s what the logo looked like after this step:

4. Now that you’ve traced your logo, go to File>Export>Paths to Illustrator then save it as “logo.ai”.

In this tutorial, I used Cinema 4D to make the logo 3D. This tutorial can really be adapted in any other 3D program if you have basic knowledge of using splines and deformers.

5. Open up the “logo.ai” file in your 3D program (most 3D programs have .ai support). The pen lines you made in Photoshop have been made into a spline object. The imported file looks like this:

6. Go to Objects>Nurbs>Extrude Nurbs and drop the logo spline under the Extrude Nurb object and put in the same setting as the image below:

What you end up with is an extruded spline object.

7. You probably noticed that the object looks very linear and a bit jaggedy. So click on the logo spline, and change the spline setting to this:

However, you notice that you’ve lost some of the hard edges on your logo. So press “K” on your keyboard and you will get the knife tool. Drag the knife tool near the edges where you want that hard edge. You will notice that once you knife the spline, the edge will become more pronounced.

8. Here you’ll probably want to smooth out the logo a bit. Click on the Extrude Nurbs object, then select the Caps sub menu, and change the settings to the image below:

9. Next, I went up to Objects>Primitive>Tube in order to create a ring around the logo. These are the settings I used on the Tube Object:

10. I thought that the logo looked a bit boring without any bends, so I put a wrap deformer on it. I placed the Extruded Nurbs (the logo) and the Tube in a null object (and easy way to do this is to select both the Tube and the Extrude Nurb and hit Alt+G). Then I clicked Objects>Deformation>Wrap and dragged it into the Null Object we just created. Here are the settings I used on the Wrap Object:

11. Now, we have to prepare to render this. First I created an enviroment object (Objects>Scene>Enviroment) and checked on the Enable Fog option in the Enviroment settings. Next, I put a material onto the logo. The material I used can be downloaded HERE.

12. Go to Render>Render Settings and click on Output in the submenu and set it to whatever resolution you would like to have. Then click on the Save submenu and click on the Alpha Channel, Straight Channel, and Separate Channel box. That way, when you open up the logo in Photoshop, you can go to your channels Menu and delete the background from the logo. Now go to Render>Render to Pictures Viewer, and you’re done!

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Digital Girl Photo Manipulation Part 1

by Rinn, January 3, 2007 posted in Graphics

This tutorial will show you how to make a Digital Girl. This tutorial is intended for intermediate to advanced Photoshop users.

Step 1:

  • Start off by finding an image you of a model that you would like to use. I used a picture of Jarah Mariano, and I used the pen tool in ‘Shape Layers’ mode and outlined the outside contour of her body.
  • With the newly created shape layer rename is “Model”, and set the color to #B9C2D3 and put its fill opacity to about 77%.
  • Then add a Stroke layer style with the stroke color set to white, and a 2px stroke radius. The image should look something like this:

Step 2:

  • So now we want to have only the image of the model without the background. Make sure that your on the layer with the model’s image on it.
  • Hold down the ctrl button and click on the “Model” shape layer you just created. You’ll get a dotted line around the outline of the model. With your Rectangle Marque Tool, left click on the document, and click on “Layer via Copy”. That should have created a new layer with only the model on it, and the background should be transparent.
  • You can now change the background to a gradient or any color you wish. I made the background color black:

Step 3:

  • Now we’re going to trace the inner contours of her body including the clothes she’s wearing. To being with, click on your brush tool, and set it to a “Hard Round Brush” and set the radius to 2px. Create a new layer, and using the Pen Tool set to ‘Paths’ mode, start tracing an inner contour of the model’s body.
  • Once you have one inner contour finished, right click and select “Stroke Path”. Make sure that when you get the Stroke popup menu, that you have tool set to Brush and keep the ‘Simulate Pressure’ box unchecked. You should now have a stroke line on the new layer you created.
  • Repeat this step until you have all the contours of her body stroked. I Recommend that you put the contours of the models face, and clothes, on two separate layers so you can tweak them later. Once you finish creating all the inner body contours, put those layers into a layer set. Your Image should now look something like this:

Step 4:

  • Now, hide the inner countour layers and the ‘Model’ shape layer, and have the layer with the model’s image selected.
  • Have the layer with the model on it selected and desaturate the image (ctrl+shift+u)
  • Go up to Image>Adjustments>Curves, and set your curves so that the shading on the model’s body looks something like this:

NOTE: You can do the curves on a ‘new fill or adjustment layer’, but you’ll have the merge the two layers anyways, so I recommend just putting the curves in at one shot.

Step 5:

  • Go to Filter>Noise>Median, and set the median to 1px. Your image should look something like this:


Step 6: Go to Filter>Artistic>Plastic Wrap and put in these settings:



Step 7:

  • Go to Filter>Noise>Median again, and have the radius set to 1px.
  • Make all the contour files you hid in step 4 visible.
  • Select the ‘Model’ layer shape and set the blending mode to “Multiply” and put an Outer Glow layer style:

Now put on an Inner Shadow layer style:

Now add a stroke Layer Style:

Step 8:

  • Now, with the inner contour strokes we created in step 2, set their blending mode to Soft Light.
  • I wanted to make the stroke lines of the model’s face less noticeable, lowered the opacity until I got the effect I liked. Your finished image should look like this:

A/N: I apologize if this tutorial was a bit confusing for beginners. I may go back and simplify the steps more if people request for it. :)

BONUS TIP:

  • I was looking at the image and i wasn’t happy with how the Plast Wrap filter left some parts of the image looking a bit…odd. So to fix that problem I used the Dodge and Burn tool to darken/lighten certain areas of the image.

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