It may have only gotten a 26% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but the movie Suicide Squad, has a pretty sweet movie poster and some cool graphics as well, so we’re going to create a Suicide Squad logo using the 3D tools in Photoshop. We will cover working with 3D, adding textures to our 3D objects, selecting multiple faces of a 3D object, colorizing our text, adding flares, building the background for this effect, adding the clouds overlays, adding sparks that shoot off of our text, and also adding the debris around the edges of our image to add fake depth.

Getting Started with Type

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The first thing we need to do is download this font [http://www.fontspace.com/fz/suicide-squad-font] and type out the word for which you’re creating this effect. I centered my type using the Paragraph panel and I also sized up the word “Squad” so the edges are a little wider than the word “Suicide.” You will need to right-click on this layer and choose to convert the text to a shape layer. To see exactly how I prepare the type for 3D conversion, check out the video above at the 3:10 minute mark.Creating Our 3D Text

Creating Our 3D Text

Right click on our text that has been converted to a shape layer and choose “New 3D Extrusion From Selected Layer” to convert this shape to a 3D object. Check out how I converted this to a 3D shape and started editing it at the 9:52 minute mark of the video above.Moving and Tilting the Text

Moving and Tilting the Text

Once we are in the 3D editing mode, I want to tilt the text back a little as if it is falling backward just like the text is on the official movie poster/logo examples. You can tweak and adjust as much as you like. See what I did at the 12:31 minute mark of the video at the top of this tutorial.

Adding Stone/Concrete Texture

You can select the “LAYER_NAME Front Bevel Material” from the 3D panel and load a new texture. I am loading the concrete texture that I found for this tutorial. You can download it here and then follow along with the video at the top of this tutorial at the 15:43 mark to see exactly how I do this.

Creating the Colored Background

Now that we have our basic 3D text and we’ve rendered it (check out my rendering process at the 18:34 minute mark of the video,) it’s time to create the first colored background behind our text. I found a reference image on Google Images and sampled the colors from that image and painted with a large, soft-edged brush to create a smooth, flowing colorful background. To see exactly how I did this and get more detail, check out the 20:09 minute mark of the video.

Scaling our 3D Text

You will need to right click on your 3D object and choose to convert it to a Smart Object so that you can scale the shape down a little. Convert to a Smart Object and hit Cmd/Ctrl + T and scale the text downward so the type fits a little better into the center of the document. At the 19:35 mark you can see me working with the 3D object and scaling it.

Colorize the Text

After we touch up the tones of the text, it’s time to colorize this thing! I created a new layer and set the blend mode to “Overlay” and used the Brush tool to sample colors from the background and paint around on the text where it needs to be so I can get a nice coloring on this text. Check out the video around the 25:30 mark of the video above and see how I do this.

Painting the Light Spots and the Flares

I created a new layer and set this to the blend mode “Overlay” and painted with a very light yellow color and masked this layer to the shape of the 3D text wherever I wanted little hotspots and bursts of light. Check out the 32:50 mark to see where I painted some hotspots in the video above.

Painting the Skull

Of course, we need the little skull face on the “Q”. I used the “X” brushes that you can download right here and set your foreground color to a heavy, hot pink and paint the eyes. To see how I made the nose and teeth of the skull, check out the video around the 37:45 mark of the video above.

Painting the Sparks

Next, we want to create a layer beneath all of our text, but still above the colored background and paint with a sparkle or particle style brush (check out Brusheezy for some great, free brushes) with your foreground color set to a light yellow. I also created a blast blurring effect using the Path Blur. Check out the video at the 41:25 mark to see exactly how I make this little effect.

Painting Floating Debris for Depth & Adding Clouds

The last step is to add clouds to the background and also to paint in some debris around the edges. I like to create multiple layers so I can blur large bits of debris so they appear to be closer to your point of view and build a layer of fake depth. Check out exactly how I added my clouds and added the fake depth in the video above at the 44:07 mark.

That’s the end of the tutorial! Thank you so much for checking this out! Follow me on Instagram (@tutvid) and also check me out on Snapchat (“tutvid.com”) and use the form below to signup for the tutvid newsletter! Thank you!

Check this tutorial out on Behance.net!