Photoshop : Tutorials - Create a simple 3D logo

This tutorial shows you a quick and easy way to create a simple 3D logo using the Distort Transformation in Photoshop.

1. Create a new document – 500 pixels by 500 pixels. Click on the Foreground Colour Swatch and pick a dark green colour. (I chose a green with the RGB value #336633).
   
   
   
   


2. Fill the background with the colour you selected by pressing Alt+Backspace (Windows) or Option+Delete (Mac).
   
   


3. Press "d" to set the Foreground and Background colours to their default of Black and White.
   
   
   
4. Press "x" to set your Foreground colour to white.
   
   
   
5. Select the Horizontal Type Tool () and select the following settings on the tool options bar.
   
   
   
   
   Font Family – pussycat, Size 250 (you will need to type this into the Size field and press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac)), Text aligned Centre and Anti-aliasing set to Strong.
   
   
   Add some type to your image.
   
   
   
   
   
6. Click on the Create A New Layer button in the Layers Palette.
   
   
   
   
   A new empty layer will appear in the Layers Palette.
   
   


7. Select the Elliptical Marquee tool from the toolbox.
   
   
   
   


8. Press Shift and drag out a circular selection that's larger than your type (illustrated below).
   
   
   
   
   
9. Click on the Edit menu and choose Stroke. In the Stroke dialog box, choose 20 for your Width, set the Location to Centre and set the Colour to white. Click OK. This puts a white stroke around the circular selection you made.
   
   
   
   
   
   


10. Press Ctrl+D (Windows) or Cmd+D (MAC) to deselect the circular marquee.
    
    


11. Click on the type layer in the Layers Palette and then Shift+click on the white circle layer to select both layers at the same time. Click on the Link Layers button at the bottom of the Layers Palette. Now that the layers are linked you can merge them together by pressing Ctrl+E (Windows) or Cmd+E (Mac).
    
    
    
12. Press Ctrl+T (Windows) or Cmd+T (Mac) to bring up the Free Transform bounding box.
    
    
    
    
    
    
13. Hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Cmd(Mac) key and click on the bottom-right corner point of the Free Transform bounding box, and up and to the right. (Holding down Ctrl causes the contents of the bounding box to distort.) The logo will appear to tip forward. Do the same thing with the upper left handle of the bounding box until you get a sense of perspective on the logo. Press Enter (Windows) or Return (MAC) to commit the transformation.
    
    
    

(Optional) For an extra effect, add a drop shadow. In the Layers Palette, click on the layer with the merged text and circle to make it active, and then click the Add a Layer Style button () at the bottom of the Layers palette and choose Drop Shadow from the pop-up menu.

Play around with the Drop Shadow dialog box to see which settings work best. I used the following settings:

Your final logo should look something like this: