Creating A Cool 3D Product Box Right Inside Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended Version |

Here is a nice Photoshop tutorial to create a 3D product box. This tutorial requires the Adobe Photoshop CS4 extended edition. Otherwise you will not have access to the cool 3d features and menus that this product offers. Also working with 3d inside Photoshop means that the user should have some basic knowledge about the world of 3d designing. So this tutorial is not for the beginners who just got their hands on Photoshop.

Step 1

Create a new document.

Step 2

Make a new layer and name it ‘background’.

Step 3

Choose the foreground color of your choice and then apply it on the ‘background’ layer.

Step 4

Now right click on the ‘background’ layer and choose to duplicate it.

Step 5

Apply the Filter -> artistic-> film grain effect on the duplicated ‘background’ layer.

Step 6

Adjust the values of the film grain effects to your choice.

Step 7

Now lower the opacity of the ‘background copy’ layer.

Step 8

Now your composition looks like this.

Step 9

Make a new layer and name it ‘light’.

Step 10

Select the gradient tool.

Step 11

Choose the radial gradient option.

Step 12

And edit the gradient option to start from a light color and end in a dark color.

Step 13

With the radial gradient tool, make a gradient on the ‘light’ layer. It will look like this.

Step 14

Change the blending mode of the ‘light’ layer to overlay and bring its opacity down to about 55% – 65%.

Step 15

Now your composition starts to have a texture and cool lighting.

Step 16

Take the horizontal type tool.

Step 17

With the tool write the text of your choice. I have opted for tutmaze.com

Step 18

Now make a new layer group and name it texts.

Step 19

Place this layer groups above all other layers.

Step 20

Now select the initial text layer and bring down its opacity. The idea is to add other texts while keeping the original text as a reference.

Step 21

Get random, get creative and bombard the document with an array of texts. Make sure to use different fonts, font sizes to give it a life of its own. An be careful to see that all these texts are inside the layer group ‘texts’.

Step 22

Duplicate the ‘texts’ layer group.

Step 23

Select the duplicated layer group and right click on it and select the merge group option.

Step 24

Bring the merged group above all other layers and hide the original ‘texts’ group.

Step 25

Now select the initial main text layer and holding Ctrl, click on the layer thumbnail. This will load its selection.

Step 26

Click on the merged texts layer and press Ctrl + J. A new layer will be formed and if you hide the merged texts layer, you can see the effect as shown here.

Step 27

Turn back the merged texts layer ON.

Step 28

Right click on it and choose blending options. Add a color overlay effect.

Step 29

Turn down the opacity of the merged texts layer.

Step 30

Duplicate the merged texts layer.

Step 31

And in the new layer thus formed apply a filter, filter -> Blur -> Motion Blur.

Step 32

Adjust the values to obtain an effect of your choice.

Step 33

Bring down the opacity of the motion blurred merged texts layer.

Step 34

Tweak the opacity of the original texts layer so as to get the desired effect.

Step 35

Create a new layer.

Step 36

With the new layer selected, select the Image -> apply image option

Step 37

Now select the Filter -> Render -> Lighting Effects

Step 38

Adjust the values of the lighting to get an effect of light falling from above angle

Step 39

Your composition will look like this

Step 40

Save your composition to a desired location as an appropriate file type

Step 41

Now create another new document

Step 42

Create a new layer

Step 43

Select the option, 3D -> New shape from layer -> Cube

Step 44

Instantly you can see the layer change to a 3d layer. Now we have to ply the textures. For that double click on the ‘layer 1’ which is seen inside the textures > diffuse of the new 3d layer. This will open up a new document named ‘layer 1.psb’ . Hold shift and drag in the earlier saved image.

Step 45

Resize the brought in image to fit the ‘layer 1.psb’ document

Step 46

Select the 3d rotate tool with the 3d layer selected

Step 47

This will bring up a new 3d handler on the left top portion of your composition and can be used to scale, rotate and move the 3d object.

Step 48

Use it to scale down the cube so that it looks like a box

Step 49

Move the object around to a position of your choice.

Step 50

And scale it to fit into the scene

Step 51

Now double click on the back_material and bottom_material textures to apply texture to the back and side. Repeat the procedures of steps 44 and 45

Step 52

Now duplicate the 3d layer

Step 53

Select the duplicated 3d layer and move it down so as to create a reflection of the original 3d object.

Step 54

Double click on the layer_1 texture of the new duplicated layer and transform the texture by flipping it vertically so that we get a true reflection like effect

Step 55

Transform the bottom_material texture in the same way

Step 56

This is how your composition will look now

Step 57

Select the 3d layer copy that you made and click on the add vector mask option

Step 58

Select the gradient tool and create a gradient from pure white to pure black.

Step 59

Select the vector mask thumbnail of the 3d reflection layer and draw the gradient from top to bottom. This will create an effect of a fading reflection.

Step 60

Create a new text layer

Step 61

With the text layer selected choose 3D – > New 3D post card from layer option

Step 62

This will make the text layer to be in 3D and can be manipulated by the 3d rotate tool

Step 63

Duplicate the 3d text layer

Step 64

Double click on the text in the textures of the new duplicated layer and transform it so as to look like a reflection

Step 65

Move the reflected text layer to its position

Step 66

Add a small shadow for both the text layers using the blending option tool and also give a fading out effect to the 3d text reflection layer by following the procedures mentioned in steps 57, 58 and 59

Step 67

Click on the 3d tab and click on the small bulb shapped tab (Filter by : lights). Click on the bottom pull down menu and select the New Spot light option. Move the new spot light to the desired position using the buttons labelled as Rotate the light (1), Drag the light (2) and Slide the light (3)

Step 68

This is how your composition will look like after adding the light to the front potion of the 3d box.

Step 69

Follow steps 67 and 68 to create a light for the side of the box. To turn of the light and its related lines and markings just click the button toggle lights (1).

Step 70

Make a new layer for the background. Take the gradient tool to give an amazing background. I have used the radial gradient option and chose my starting color as red and the end color as black. Be sure to move the entire gradient layer right down to the bottom of the remaining layers.