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Is There a Simple Way to 3D or Gradient a Complex Curve?


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Hi everyone,

My goal is pretty simple: make all text and images for a book cover 3D in a "carved block" sort of design vs a simpler layer effects method (I did mockups with 3D, embossing, and shadows). Is there a way to make a gradient along a complex curve path yet? I saw some posts from many years ago hoping for this, but didn't find any current info.

(Side note—because there will be questions that distract from the topic—the author is bold and requested the white on white, plus her fans loved the simpler layer-effects mockup version, so this lack of color is very intentional but shouldn't change the concept).

I followed some tutorials on getting my text to have that look by using an offset duplication, combining nodes, dividing shapes, pasting the top layer on again, and deleting jagged angle edges left over from the combined layers underneath. I then used the gradient tool to manually "shade" every side of every letter myself before applying some subtle layer effects to the top, bottom, and group...that took a pretty long time, and a lot of the letters had easy, straight edges. See this picture for reference on how smooth it looks:

image.thumb.png.92c1ecd30997e987c171c0b6454f64fe.png

Every shaded edge is its own unique shape, manually broken up into smaller shapes at any hard corner to add realism. A very smooth and even gradient on the straight edges.

However, the main image is a girl's back with tree branches growing out of her skin. It is much more detailed, and after vectorizing the artist's drawing, I think it would be pretty much impossible or at least take days to try to shade her this way (I did test in the area highlighted on the right in the next image...the gradient is linear, so you only see it on the right side of the spine).

And yet, I was able to make a "perfectly flowing" gradient in minutes by using the duplicate offset layers method and simply adding 2% black to each layer below and just not combining them. See the left side of this image:

image.thumb.png.c81df48b27eddb7fb3750ab483ef05d5.png

 

It looks decent from afar and gets pretty much the same effect across. But, if you look closely, it is just a bunch of layers copied, so the gradient isn't technically smooth, and the branch edges are hilariously jagged:

 

image.thumb.png.c8515edc6b4b56f01ca35670a46a28a4.png

Not at all like the letters were. This was so much faster though.

Ideally, I would love to be able to merge these layers in some way and keep the colors from each as some sort of conversion to gradient. That would be amazing!

I know there is no way to extrude. That would also be helpful, so is there any simple way to do this—to get the effect of the left side of image 2 without the jagged edges of the closeup image, instead being smooth along every curve similar to the text? Or am I better off learning how to use Blender and making it 3D there?

Thank you all!

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@G13RL and @PixelPest, thank you both. Those were my first attempts, but neither can come close to accomplishing the hard edge to gradient part (and I actually have some of those effects still subtly on the different layers to "glue the mix" as we say in the audio industry), hence my searching for a more detailed method. I had that explanation in the original first paragraph but deleted it since I mentioned the layer effects mockup later on so as not to overexplain or have a massive post 😅 Guess I will add it back in haha. Always helpful to know where to add clarity!

And yes, that original layer effects mockup I did was with an outer shadow (along with the 3D and Emboss for making the edges less soft), and, while they all liked it, it did float off the page and felt too much like a drawing and not "this-is-intentional-white-on-white-carving" to me. But I figure, if you're gonna break all rules of art and fantasy, might as well do it as high quality as possible.

I may try this Blender tutorial I found and see if I can get it not to ruin the lighting. Thanks again!

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As I feared, Blender is pretty awesome but a bit difficult to get the lighting and angle right, especially for an all-white image as it wants to use grays. I'd also have to send the entire image as opposed to the girl, or the perspective just doesn't make it.

I know Danilo Fiocco, Jhon Silva, and others have some pretty awesome vector tutorials on Affinity Designer. I may have to watch and see how they use duplicate layers and transparency to shade curves and just do some advanced shading myself.

I also had an idea to gaussian blur my simplistic duplicate layers shading, which may turn out nicely.

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@PixelPest Thanks again. I was able to get the harder edges and thicker height by using gaussian blurs after all. It also coincidentally happened to be recommended in one of the shading tutorials. A bit more work to tweak, but worth it for the effect!

image.thumb.png.59adb75c5b6b282f4dbd8d702f8e3575.png

Now to finish blending the letters and branches nicely, which is making me wish I had merged those shapes before all this 😆

Turns out, if you make a top and 3D layer(s) and then apply a Pillow effect with no highlights to the 3D layer, you can achieve—or perhaps enhance is a better word—similar results across an entire group. And since it is still direction-based, it adds nice thickening/thinning around curves.

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