Making 3D from a 2D object

[delux0r]

Hello friends,

If i only would have the blue Word "NEON", how can i make it in 3D? In this case the red letter block behind?

 

Thanks.

[v_kyr]

Hi and welcome!

The easiest and quickest would possibly be to power duplicate (cmd-j on Macs, Ctrl-j on Win) the text multiple times in small position change steps. Here I've used just a few duplicates so you can see that it's just a stack of text layers then (you would use a bunch of more duplicates in finer smaller distance steps so that no stairs are there) ...

Instead it's also possible to recreate the red part with drawing such vector shapes. Another other way to recreate that would be, to try with the Isometric Mode in Affinity Designer, in order to give it a better 3D effect.

See also the online help and the Designer Tutorials here and for your task there then ...

• Copy, paste and power duplicate
• Square and triangular grids
• Isometric design and grid setup
• Advanced axonometric grid setup

 

 

[firstdefence]

Are you using Affinity Designer or Affinity Photo?

If you are using Affinity Photo you can use a plugin called Alien Skin Eye Candy, they have a free trial and in combination with Affinity Photo it would be very easy to make that image or a version of it. At the moment Eye Candy only works in the Affinity Photo 1.9.0.206 beta version Mac but works from 1.8.5 versions on windows.

Example made using Eye Candy and Affinity fx for the neon glow, for the curious the font used was Neon Club Music: Bold.

 

[delux0r]

Thanks for the answers. I only bought Affinity Photo, so i dont have Designer.

14 hours ago, v_kyr said:

Hi and welcome!

The easiest and quickest would possibly be to power duplicate (cmd-j on Macs, Ctrl-j on Win) the text multiple times in small position change steps. Here I've used just a few duplicates so you can see that it's just a stack of text layers then (you would use a bunch of more duplicates in finer smaller distance steps so that no stairs are there) ...

To make this without seeing steps would need a lot of layers. Doenst eat that to many resources?

 

14 hours ago, v_kyr said:

Instead it's also possible to recreate the red part with drawing such vector shapes.

This sounds interessting. It there a tutorial so see it?

 

5 hours ago, firstdefence said:

Are you using Affinity Designer or Affinity Photo?

If you are using Affinity Photo you can use a plugin called Alien Skin Eye Candy, they have a free trial and in combination with Affinity Photo it would be very easy to make that image or a version of it. At the moment Eye Candy only works in the Affinity Photo 1.9.0.206 beta version Mac but works from 1.8.5 versions on windows.

This sounds great. But at the moment i do not want to buy more stuff or plugins cause i am acutally testing out, if handling with graphics is my thing

 

In the following video at 4:16, he starts to make a block from the "100K" font by drawing it or something...

I am also interessted in the voilet glow effect he did

 

 

Edited January 8, 2021 by delux0r

[MEB]

Hi @delux0r,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
He's simply creating a selection with the Polygonal Lasso Tool, filling it with grey color and then stretching/adjusting it as needed to fit the image perspective, in other words, he is creating the depth manually drawing it by hand (no automated way used).

[delux0r]

31 minutes ago, MEB said:

In other words, he is creating the depth manually drawing it by hand (no automated way used).

okay. thats not so easy right? i tried it with the grid distortion tool but then my whole font is going crooked

At 4:17 he turned the whole 100K on the axis. and which tool he uses to draw that? sorry i am too new

Edited January 8, 2021 by delux0r

[prophet]

44 minutes ago, delux0r said:

To make this without seeing steps would need a lot of layers. Doenst eat that to many resources?

If you're up for it, you can do some manual vector work to clean up @v_kyr's background shapes. Photo doesn't make it easy, but the same geometry booleans found in Designer are in there (right click > geometry > add). Just make many copies of text, outline curves, "add" them together and remove the unnecessary nodes. Can be a bit tricky on curved letters depending on the "angle" of the shadow.

[delux0r]

cool thanks. when u can tell my how to "outline curves" i can try

[prophet]

1 minute ago, delux0r said:

cool thanks. when u can tell my how to "outline curves" i can try

 

[v_kyr]

57 minutes ago, delux0r said:

I only bought Affinity Photo, so i dont have Designer.

Power duplicate works the same in Affinity Photo ...

1 hour ago, delux0r said:

To make this without seeing steps would need a lot of layers. Doenst eat that to many resources?

Nope, since the text isn't treated initially as pixel layers here, that shouldn't be a problem at all. Even if you apply some fx effects on the top and bottom etc. text layers (these will get rasterized bitmaps on export then). Further you can group all those layers together, which is having them like in named categories then (similar as shown in the above Eye Candy screenshot with the pixel layers that this creates).

 

1 hour ago, delux0r said:

This sounds interessting. It there a tutorial so see it?

@prophet already has shown an halfway easy way here!

[catlover]

This might be suitable - you'd have to manipulate it to your liking, such as making the top layer neon,  but the basics are there.

Look down the thread, for the Reply created & posted by First Defence in 2018.

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/54547-editable-3d-text-in-designer/&tab=comments#comment-346728

[Dazmondo77]

42 minutes ago, prophet said:

If you're up for it, you can do some manual vector work to clean up @v_kyr's background shapes.

Thats currently the best way to do it and is really easy by just deleting nodes you don't want 👍 Prophet

[v_kyr]

Another way by reusing some of the before used technics is shown in this video here. - Another one shows how to keep a 3D effect editable (see here), I think the next APhoto version supports symbols too.

[delux0r]

Thanks for your help guys. This videos are great too!

There i have a last question to that.

5 hours ago, MEB said:

in other words, he is creating the depth manually drawing it by hand (no automated way used).

It sounds stupid, but how can i draw manually the blocks behint my letters or my 2D logo (picutre) ?

[firstdefence]

Not stupid at all, This is a doc to show how I drew the 3D extrude, You can jog back and forth in the history panel to get a kind of time-lapse effect of what I've done.

3D Text manually.afdesign

You can use this as a reference to draw the rest.

Tip: Only draw what can be seen.

[v_kyr]

The most difficult parts here are always the rounded characters and to get the gaps (empty space) in certain characters looking right.

Though there are also a bunch of software tools and online services which are specialized for the creation of 3D text, either as bitmaps or vectors. - Just one powerful online tool example for vectors here!

[delux0r]

On 1/8/2021 at 10:10 PM, firstdefence said:

Not stupid at all, This is a doc to show how I drew the 3D extrude, You can jog back and forth in the history panel to get a kind of time-lapse effect of what I've done.

3D Text manually.afdesign

 

Wow that is great, i learned a log while recreating it. Thanks a lot!

 

9 hours ago, v_kyr said:

Though there are also a bunch of software tools and online services which are specialized for the creation of 3D text, either as bitmaps or vectors. - Just one powerful online tool example for vectors here!

This looks very interessting to make 3D objects from fonts. Is it possible to do it with picutres too? For example a textlogo from a musicband?

[v_kyr]

1 hour ago, delux0r said:

This looks very interessting to make 3D objects from fonts. Is it possible to do it with picutres too? For example a textlogo from a musicband?

Not sure what you mean with picture here? - You have to show an example!

If you meant providing an image (aka pixels) instead of "text" as input for such tools, no I doubt that most of these want some sort of text or vectors as input.

[delux0r]

21 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

If you meant providing an image (aka pixels) instead of "text" as input for such tools, no I doubt that most of these want some sort of text or vectors as input.

ye, for example when i want to 3D this picutre 

[v_kyr]

Ah I see, the crappy metall one (LOL). - Well Ok take a look here ...

Here's the font I used for that ...

• Metallica

However, in case you need as final bitmaps such more crazy fonts and the like then as 3D text image output, take a look at this generator ...

• 3D Text Effect Logo Generator

Ok now it's time for you to play around with all these things, good luck!

 

[firstdefence]

6 hours ago, delux0r said:

ye, for example when i want to 3D this picutre 

Because the bounds of the image are rectangular i.e the black box, if you used a 3D generator you would end up with a cube not 3D Metallica text. The image would need to have transparency i.e no black box just the text.

[delux0r]

ok, the metallica logo was just an example. when u use the font of metallica its also a text and not a picture.

The question was, if there is a tool like the 3D generator for text, which also works for test as pictures (jpg, png). 

I understood now, that i can draw it by myself. I tried it but i failed whyle trying to move the logo on the z axis. Is there a possibility like the red arrows? (with a picture, not a text/font)

[v_kyr]

For such things like 3D text etc. you have to distinguish between vector and pixel (raster/bitmaps) graphics.

Manipulating 2D graphics into 3D is much easier and exactly with vectors than trying to do so with a pixel/raster presentation of a graphics. - With bitmaps graphics (raster images, aka rectangular pixel areas) you can change simpler overall rectangular area perspective and warp things ...

... but you can't perform the same things as with vectors (mathematical point/bezier etc. definitions) in/for a 3-dimensional space. - That's also why CAD and modeling programs for construction and drawing work with vectors instead of bitmaps.

49 minutes ago, delux0r said:

The question was, if there is a tool like the 3D generator for text, which also works for test as pictures (jpg, png).

Never saw one which can do that with bitmaps so far!

[firstdefence]

The images I've used to produce 3D text above are all raster images because the plugins I've used require a raster/pixel image to work. The image below is a png file and can be used to make 3D text.

 

[delux0r]

ok thanks a lot guys, i will try some stuff

By the way, is there a discord channel from this community here for some "live" talks?