In this tutorial, we will explain how to combine Photoshop CS6′s 3D tools with Filter Forge to create a metallic 3D logo that is built "Forge" tough. Let’s get started!

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Tutorial Assets

The following assets were used during the production of this tutorial.

• Mikodacs font.
• Ford Script font.
• Antique Metal by Rawn (RawArt).
• Concrete/Tarmac by Little Bill.
• Crystal by Anna Klishina.
• Diff Tint Looks by lipebianc.
• Grunge by Kochubey.
• Concrete Floors Damaged 0047 (Meduim 1600 x 1207) from CGTextures.
• Decay Brushes BEST by Leichnam.

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Downloading Filter Forge and the Filters used

First, you need to download Filter Forge from the plugin’s website. Once you download it, run the installation file, and that’s it! It will be added inside Photoshop under the Filter menu. Super easy to install.
To launch the plugin and start adding some filters, go to Filter > Filter Forge > Filter Forge 3. You’ll find a couple of already existing filters under a number of categories. You’ll also find a “Filter Library: Download more filters” link to the top right side of the plugin’s window. Click the link to start downloading filters.
The link will take you to the Filters page on the plugin’s website. You can search for almost any filter among the amazing 9000+ filters available. Just type the keywords you want to find filters for, and click the Search button.
Once you get your search results, click the filter’s name.
This will open the filter’s page. Click the “Open this filter in Filter Forge” button to install the filter. If you get a message asking you to confirm, just click Yes or OK. The Filter will then be added to the other filters you have.
You can search for the downloaded filters by typing their names or a related keyword in the plugin’s search box.
Make sure to download all the filters in the Tutorial Assets section before you continue with the tutorial.

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1. Create the Basic Frame and the Text

Step 1

Create a new 1000 x 1000 px document, and set the Resolution to 300. Fill the Background with the color #dcdcdc.

Step 2

Set the Foreground color to White, pick the Rectangle Tool, then click and drag to create a 588 x 611 px rectangle.

Step 3

Duplicate the rectangle shape layer.

Step 4

With the Rectangle Tool still active (selected), in the Options bar, change the Fill to None, and the Stroke to Black with the Size 10.

Step 5

Click the Set shape stroke type icon, then set the Align: to Outside.

Step 6

Create the text you want to place in the upper part of the rectangle in All Caps, using the color Black, and the font Mikodacs. In the Character panel (Window > Character), set the Size to 45 and the Tracking value to 100.

Step 7

Create the text in the lower part using the same font, color, and size, but change the Tracking value to 50.
Make sure that the bottom text’s layer is below the upper text’s layer. Having the same order of layers will make following the tutorial easier.
Please note that the colors used here are just to differentiate the parts of the design. And the values used depend on the text created. So feel free to adjust your values depending on the text you’re using and how you want it to look.

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2. Create the Ellipse and the Text in the Middle

Step 1

Pick the Ellipse Tool, set the Foreground color to #dcdcdc, then create an ellipse in the center of the rectangle. Place the ellipse shape layer between the two text layers.

Step 2

Duplicate the ellipse layer.

Step 3

With the Ellipse Tool still active, in the Options bar, change the Fill to None, and the Stroke to Black with the Size 4. Then, change the Align: to Outside as well.

Step 4

Create the text you want to place in the ellipse using the font Ford Script. Change the Tracking value to -25, then resize the text until it fits within the ellipse.

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3. Adding Guides and Creating Frame Circles

Step 1

Next, we are going to create some guides to add circles on the outer frame of the rectangle. To do so, show the Rulers (View > Rulers), pick the Move Tool, then click and drag a ruler to create a guide.

Step 2

Start by adding one vertical guide in the middle of the right and left sides, and one horizontal guide in the middle of the upper and lower sides.

Step 3

Then, add two more vertical guides, and two more horizontal ones as shown below. You can move any guide by clicking and dragging it whenever you need to.

Step 4

Pick the Ellipse Tool once again, then, in the Options bar, click the geometry settings icon. Set the Fixed Size dimensions to 20, and check the From Center box.
Place the cursor where the rulers intersect, then click and slightly drag to create a fixed size circle shape. You can move the circle around before you release the mouse button if needed.

Step 5

Click the Combine Shapes icon in the Options bar, then add the remaining circles as shown below.

Step 6

Once you’re done, hide the guides (View > (uncheck) Show Guides).

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4. Converting to 3D Layers

Step 1

Now, we will convert each layer to a 3D one, except for the Background layer. Select the layer, if it is a shape layer, go to 3D > New 3D Extrusion from Selected Path. If it is a text layer, go to 3D > New 3D Extrusion from Layer.

Step 2

Select all 3D layers, then go to 3D > Merge 3D Layers. This will place all layers in one layer, which means they are all put in the same scene as well.

Step 3

Select the Move Tool, and check the far right side of the Options bar. You’ll notice some new 3D icons. Those icons are the set of 3D Modes. When you choose one of them, you can click and drag to perform changes on the selected 3D element.
For example, if you click and drag in any empty area of the 3D scene, you can change the Camera View.

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5. Modifying the Meshes

Step 1

To access the 3D mesh settings and properties, you’ll need to open two panels: The 3D panel, and the Properties panel (both found under the Window menu).
The 3D panel has all the components of the 3D scene, and when you click the name of any of those, you’ll be able to access its settings in the Properties panel. So make sure to always select the name of the element you want to modify in the 3D panel before you change its settings in the Properties panel.
Start by clicking the Rectangle 1 mesh name, then change the Texture Mapping to Tile, and the Depth to 30. In fact, make sure to change all the meshes’ Texture Mapping to Tile. This will tile the texture nicely instead of stretching it or leaving empty areas.
In the following steps, we’ll be changing the Depth values of the different meshes.

Step 2

Rectangle 1 copy – 80.

Step 3

Lower Text Layer – 50.

Ellipse 1 – 30.

Ellipse 1 copy – 50.

Middle Text Layer – 30.

Upper Text Layer – 50.

Ellipse 2 – 30.

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6. Moving the Meshes

Step 1

Start selecting and moving the meshes so that they are all visible and well positioned in the scene. Click the mesh in the 3D scene (or select its name in the 3D panel), and use the 3D axis to make any changes.
The arrows at the ends of the axis move the mesh, the part below them is used for rotation, and the cubes are used for scaling. The cube in the center is used to scale the object uniformly. All you need to do is click and drag the wanted part.

Step 2

Make sure to click the Current View tab if you want to change the camera angle. Do not rotate the meshes yet. Once you’re done, you should get a result similar to the one below.

Step 3

You can check the final result from different angles to make sure everything is in place.

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7. Creating the Metal Texture

Step 1

Create a new 1000 x 1000 px document with a Resolution value of 72.

Step 2

Go to Filter > Filter Forge > Filter Forge 3, and choose the Antique Metal filter under the Building category.
Choose the fifth preset, then, under the Settings tab, change the Size, pixels value to 750.

Step 3

This will create the main texture.

Step 4

Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. Change the Hue to 125 and the Saturation to 60.

Step 5

Go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast. Change the Brightness to 20 and the Contrast to 100.
Go to File > Save, and save the texture as a jpeg image with the name Metal Texture.

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8. Creating The Main Material

Step 1

Back to the original document, click the Rectangle 1 copy Front Inflation Material in the 3D panel. In the Properties panel, click the Diffuse texture icon, and choose Replace Texture. Then, browse for and open the Metal Texture image.

Step 2

Click the Diffuse texture icon again, then choose Edit UV Properties. Set the U Scale and V Scale values to 100%, and the U Offset and V Offset values to 0%.

Step 3

Change the Specular color to #333333, the Illumination and Ambient colors to #000000, and the Shine value to 70%.

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9. Saving and Re-applying the Material

Step 1

We will apply the material to some other meshes as well. So let’s save it and re-apply it instead of recreating it each time. To do so, click the material preview box arrow, then the pop-up menu arrow to the right, and choose New Material.

Step 2

Type in a name for the material and click OK.

Step 3

Press and hold the SHIFT key, then click the remaining Rectangle 1 copy materials. Open the Material picker, and scroll down to click the saved material.

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10. Modifying the Main Material

Step 1

Select the lower text Front Inflation Material, apply the saved material, then open the Diffuse Texture Properties dialog box to edit the UV Properties.

Step 2

Change the U Scale to 50%, the V Scale to 13%, the U Offset to 25%, and the V Offset to 18%.

Step 3

Save the modified material using a new name. Here, “Text” is added to the original name, since this is the material that will be applied to the text meshes in the scene.

Step 4

Start selecting the materials of every text mesh, and apply the text material to all of them.

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11. Creating the Front Texture

Step 1

Create another new 1000 x 1000 px document, then go to Filter > Filter Forge > Filter Forge 3. Choose the Concrete/Tarmac filter under the Stone category, choose the first preset, and under the Settings tab, change the Background Color to #232528 and the Foreground Color to #0D0E1A.

Step 2

This will create the texture that we will use for the inner rectangle material.

Step 3

Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation, change the Saturation to -20 and the Lightness to -15.

Go to File > Save, and save the texture as a jpeg image with the name Front Texture.

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12. Creating the Front Material

Step 1

In the original document, click the Rectangle 1 Front Inflation Material in the 3D panel. In the Properties panel, click the Diffuse texture icon, and choose Replace Texture. Then, browse for and open the Front Texture image.

Step 2

Change the Shine value to 80%.

Step 3

Click the Bump folder icon and choose New Texture.

Step 4

Again, type 1000 px for both the Width and Height values.

Step 5

Click the Bump texture icon and choose Edit Texture.

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13. Creating the Bump Texture

Step 1

This will open the texture file. Go to Filter > Filter Forge > Filter Forge 3. Then, choose the Crystal filter under the Stone category. Pick the default preset and modify its Settings as shown below.

Step 2

You can notice how the texture has dark and bright variations. The lighter values will create raised surface areas and the darker values will create flatter surface areas. Save the file then go back to the original document.

Step 3

Open the Texture Properties box, then change the U Scale to 60%, the V Scale to 70%, the U Offset to 20%, and the V Offset to 15%. There is no need to modify the other inner rectangle materials as they won’t show up anyway.

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14. Cap Settings

Step 1

Select the Ellipse 1 Front Inflation Material. Change the Diffuse color to #020a2b, the Specular color to #384478, the Illumination color to #000000, and the Ambient color to #030303. Then, change the Shine to 50%, and the Roughness to 10%.

Step 2

Select the Ellipse 1 mesh name, then click the Cap icon in the Properties panel. Under Inflate, change the Angle to -20° and the Strength to 3%. This will make the inner ellipse look a bit concave.

Step 3

Select the Ellipse 2 mesh name, then click the Cap icon, and under Bevel, change the Width to 15%, and the Contour to Cone – Inverted. Then, apply the Metal Texture to the Ellipse 2 materials.

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15. Positioning the Meshes

Step 1

Select all the meshes’ names in the 3D panel.

Step 2

Rotate the meshes 73° around the X axis.

Step 3

Go to 3D > Snap Object to Ground Plane to make sure that the meshes are on the ground plane, not sinking in it or floating over it.

Step 4

If needed, select the Current View tab in the 3D panel, and zoom in or out, or change the camera angle using the Move Tool‘s 3D Modes.

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16. Lighting

Step 1

Select the Infinite Light 1 tab, then change its Intensity to 30%, and its Shadow Softness to 100%.

Step 2

Click the Coordinates icon in the Properties panel, and use the values below.

Step 3

Click the Add new Light to Scene icon down the 3D panel, and choose New Spot Light.

Step 4

You can move the light around and try some different settings, or you can just use the settings below. (The Light Falloff values are 12757.32 for the Inner option, and 16953.91 for the Outer.)

Step 5

As for the Coordinates, the Position values are, X : 504.2473, Y : 1407.3415, Z : -352.3357.

Step 6

Click the Add new Light to Scene icon down the 3D panel, and choose New Point Light.

Step 7

Change the Intensity to 110%, and un-check the Shadows box.

Step 8

Click the text in the middle’s Front Inflation Material tab, and change the Specular color to #7d7d7d. This will make it look brighter.

Step 9

Select the Point Light again, then move it closer to the right side of the ellipse.

Step 10

Finish modifying the scene and the lighting, then go to 3D > Render. This will render the scene. If for any reason you want to stop the rendering, you can click anywhere in the document.

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17. Building the Background

Step 1

When the rendering is finished, go to File > Save As, and save a copy of the file, because we will rasterize the 3D layer. So save a copy to keep the original 3D layer in.
Select the 3D layer, then go to Layer > Rasterize > 3D.

Step 2

Create a new layer below the rasterized layer and call it Black. Then, select the Brush Tool, set the Foreground color to Black, and use a large soft round brush to paint the upper half of the background with black.

Step 3

Place the concrete texture image below the Black layer, then resize it and move it around until you like the result.

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18. Modifying the Background

Step 1

Make the rasterized and Black layers invisible by clicking the eye icons next to them. Choose some pieces of the background to duplicate and move separately.

Step 2

Pick the Magnetic Lasso Tool, then click and drag to select the first piece.

Step 3

Press CTRL/CMD + J to duplicate the selected piece in a separate layer. Then, select the Concrete layer again, and repeat the same steps to duplicate the other pieces.

Step 4

Make the invisible layers visible (by clicking the empty boxes of the eye icons). Move, resize, and rotate the duplicated pieces and place them around the 3D mesh. You can also us the Eraser Tool to remove any unwanted parts.

Step 5

Double click one of the pieces’ layer, and apply a simple Drop Shadow effect. Un-check the Use Global Light box, change the Angle to 105, the Distance to 18, and the Size to 10.

Step 6

Apply the same layer style to the other pieces’ layers. (You can right click the styled layer, choose Copy Layer Style, then CTRL/CMD + Click the other layers, right click one of them, and choose Paste Layer Style).

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19. Shadows and Cracks

Step 1

Set the Foreground color to #564a2e, create a new layer below the Black layer, call it Color Overlay, change its Blend Mode to Multiply, and its Opacity to 75%. Pick the Brush Tool, and with the same soft round brush, paint the lower half (or two thirds) of the background. This will add some vintage coloring to the concrete texture.

Step 2

Change the Foreground color to #020202, create a new layer on top of all layers, call it Shadow, change its Blend Mode to Color Burn, and use a small brush size to add a shadow line where the 3D mesh touches the ground.

Step 3

Create another new layer below the 3D mesh layer, call it Brush, and change its Blend Mode to Color Burn. Change the Brush Opacity value in the Options bar to 80%, then choose some of the crack brushes from the pack to add some cracks where the corners of the 3D mesh are placed.

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20. Modify Coloring and Add Grunge

Step 1

Duplicate the 3D mesh layer, then CTRL/CMD + Click the copy‘s thumbnail to create a selection.

Step 2

Go to Filter Forge, and choose the Diff Tint Looks filter under the Photo category. Select the second preset, and modify the Settings as shown below.

Step 3

This will enhance the coloring a bit.

Step 4

Open Filter Forge again, and choose the Grunge filter under the Photo category as well. Pick the eighth preset and modify its Settings.

Step 5

This will apply some strong grunge.

Step 6

Go to Select > Deselect to get rid of the selection, then change the duplicated 3D mesh layer’s Blend Mode to Overlay, and its Opacity to 30%.

Step 7

Click the Create new fill or adjustment layer icon down the Layers panel and choose Hue/Saturation. Place the adjustment layer on top of all layers.

Step 8

Select Blues from the drop down menu, then change the Saturation to -11 and the Lightness to -46.

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21. Final Touches

Step 1

Create a new layer on top of all layers, call it Corners, change its Blend Mode to Multiply and its Opacity to 60%. Then with the #020202 Foreground color, and a big soft brush, paint near the bottom corners and the edges around to add a subtle vignette. Zoom out so that you can see the parts outside the document boundaries.

Step 2

Save the PSD file, then save it as a jpeg image, and open that image.
Change the Foreground color to #cccccc, pick the Brush Tool, and in the Options bar, change the Blend Mode to Vivid Light, and make sure that the Opacity is still set to 80% (don’t forget to reset those back to Normal and 100% when you finish this tutorial.
Start adding some bright spots on the areas you want to make brighter.

Step 3

You can change the size of the brush according to the size of the area you want to brighten.

Step 4

This is optional. Open the Diff Tint Looks filter once again, choose the second preset, and use the values below.

Step 5

This will enhance the coloring and add a very nice vintage feel to the final result.

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Conclusion

In this tutorial, we used a combination of shape and text layers to create our primary 3D object. We then used a couple of Filter Forge’s texture filters to create several materials. We added Lights and changed a couple of the coordinate values of the 3D elements to finalize the scene. After rendering the scene, we created a background, added some shadows and cracks, and a few color adjustments. To finish everything off, some Filter Forge filters were used to enhance the coloring. We hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and please feel free to leave your comments, suggestions, and your results below.