How to Create a Deserted Landscape in 3ds Max

Final Result

Create 500 x 500 width and length plane with 50 segments length and width.

Open material editor and click on diffuse small square button;  select smoke procedural map and set the values as seen in the image below.

From modifier list apply Displace modifier and set its strength to 180 and click on image map button select Mtl Editor option and select diffuse color map. This is the smoke map which we have just created.

Now you will se the plane like this.

This is a pretty low poly model of your terrain. You may increase it segments to 200 to see its high poly result if your machine support it or you can increase it later just before rendering it. Let us see how it looks after increasing 200 segments.

Now create a new material and click diffuse map button and select mix type. In the mix material set first color to R:40 G:15 B:0 and the second color to
R:255 G:200 B:100 and apply to the plane in viewport.

Now click on non-button in front of mix amount and select falloff map type. Set the Falloff direction to world z-axis and now from the mix curve tab add a point on a curve and make it Bezier smooth and set the point curve as show in the image.

You will see this result when you render it.

Drag diffuse map to bump map and copy it  to generate more details.

Go to bump map and click color 1 and add noise map to it and set values as show in the image.

In the same way go to color 2 and select noise map and set its values according to the image shown below and set the bump value to 60.

press F9 to see the result.

Apply Turbosmooth modifier and set the angle of the scene at human eye level and render it again for the time being apply a gradient background by pressing 8.

Place an omni light in the scene and turn its shadows on with .5 intensity Add a camera and set its fov to 60. This will create a wide angle view of the scene. add some Fog and background map of clouds from the Environment tab (press 8 to go to environment and effect dialog box)  and set it to Layered, a color of R:165 G:150 B:135, then set Top to 120, Bottom to -100, Density to 20-40 what you like and Falloff to Top.

Press F10 to bring up the Render options, go to the Renderer tab, and find it in the Antialiasing subtab over at the Filter dropdown list select Catmullrom for sharp rendering result.

Final Result

Grunge type effect

Step 1

Firstly we need a nice font and a texture for overlay effect. You can use any font you like, I chose this font from dafont.com. After choosing your font, donwload a copy of this texture below (click to download)

Step 2

Create a new document of any size, I chose 800*600px because it provides more room later on if I want to add something extra on. Fill the background layer with black.

Use the type tool to type some text onto it using the white colour. Name this layer as “text”, right-click on the layer and go to Blending Options, use the follow settings:

Drop shadow

Bevel and Emboss

Hightlight Mode colour for Bevel and Emboss option

Gradient Overlay

Step 3

Open the texture image file you downloaded, use the selection tool to select a portion of the image and drag your selection on top of the “text” layer. Name it “texture”, right-click it and choose “create clipping mask”.

Use the curve tool to adjust the colour mixture of this layer a bit. See below for detailed curve tool setting:

Step 4

Change the layer blending option of this layer to “screen”, apply inner glow and some dark brown satin in the blending options. See below for details:

Step 5

On the “texture” layer, use a big circle brush with a low opacity and flow (30% each) and dark yellow colour to add some colour contrast on it. Below is the text effect so far:

Step 6

Duplicate the “texture” layer once, apply the “Glass” filter onto it. See below for detailed settings:

Then set the layer blending option to “Color Burn”.

Step 7

Optional: you can some extra effects on top of the duplicated texture layer. I added a dupilcated layer with a “Medium” filter on and set the layer blending option to “Color Dodge”. See below image for details:

Medium filter

Layer blending option

Ok, that’s it for this tutorial! You may want to add some more creativity onto this text effect, go ahead with it!

Below is my finished work, I added some brush effects and motion blur:

Smashing text

Introduction:

Today we will creating a Text Effect Tutorial. In this Tutorial we will be smashing the Creative Block into pieces, Literally. I will be teaching you how to use the simple tools of photoshop to your advantage and create a striking text effect. We will be breaking apart the text with simple methods and bring across a message to everyone.

Step 1:

Open up photoshop and create a new canvas with the sizes 1500 x 720px and fill it with Black #000000. Once you have that set up, grab your text tool (T) and choose a nice bold font. In this case I used MyriadBold, at a size of 70pt and Filled White #FFFFFF. I centered the text on the canvas and then rasterized the layer. To Rasterize make sure your text layer is selected and then go to Layer>Rasterize>Type – this will turn your text layer into a flat layer, ready for editing. Name the layer Creative. You should have something like this below.

Step 2:

Now that you have your Type setup on the canvas and your layer Rasterized. Its time to get editing. Grab your pen tool – make sure at the top that you have Paths option selected, we don’t want to work with Shape Layers in this tutorial. Make sure your Creative layer is selected, now use your pen tool and draw a line around the middle part of the C, then when you have closed your path make sure you right click and hit Make Selection, Make sure you choose 0 Radius when the box comes up – just hit OK. Then go to Edit>Cut (CTRL + X) Now go to Edit>Paste (CTRL + V) this should paste half the C into a new layer. By using the Move Tool (V) you are able to move the half C around and position it as you like. This is my outcome.

Pen Tool:

Outcome:

Step 3:

In this step I will show you have I made the R stretch up like that. Firstly Duplicate your Creative Layer by selecting the layer and going to Layer>Duplicate layer… Now hide that layer by clicking the Little Eye Icon next the the layer name on the left hand side. Now create a new layer below your Creative copy layer and grab your pen tool. Now create a Sharp Triangle Shape over the R and then fill it with Black #000000, be sure that you filled the layer in the New Layer you created below the Creative Copy Layer.

Now that you have your black filled shape covering your R unhide the Creative copy layer above it and then right click the layer and select Create Clipping Mask (CTRL + ALT + G). You shouldn’t see a change just yet, but grab your move tool (V) and move the Creative copy Layer down a bit, you will see it influences the feel of the R. Move the layer to a position that you are happy with.

Step 4:

Now that we have our R sorted out its time to move onto the next letters. Using the Same techniques as earlier let’s shift and delete and play around with the EATIVE text. A brief run through the steps are Make sure your Creative Layer is selected and grab your Pen tool, select the part of the letter you want to move and then Cut it, Edit>Cut (CTRL+X) and then Paste it Edit>Paste (CTRL+V) and then use the Move Tool (V) to shift the shapes around. I will give you some time now to run through the letters, I will show you the progress of my letters below.

E:

A:

T:

I:

V:

E:

Step 5:

Now that your Creative word is totaly sliced up and moved around its time to bring in our second word. “Block” Grab your type tool and Type BLOCK with the same font and a size of 40pt filled white #FFFFFF. Rasterize the layer by going to Layer>Rasterize>Type or Right Click>Rasterize. Now your word is setup and ready to go. Their is nothing fancy about cutting up the word block in this tutorial, play around and use your imagination. Select the parts and cut and paste them and move them around to create a sliced feel of the word. This was my outcome after I sliced up the word Block as well.

Step 6:

Now we are past the hard part of the tutorial. Now we are going to use stock images to just spice up the piece a bit. Firstly get yourself a nice concrete texture, I used one out of my 24 High-Res Concrete Textures available here on Creativeoverflow. I placed the concrete texture above all my other layers and then set the Blending Mode to Darken. Now, this might take some concentration, you have to Hold down CTRL + SHIFT and click each individual Layer’s Tiny Window. This will highlight the Layer with the selection tool. Go down your layers list and be sure to select all of them. This is what your selected items should look like with the texture on top.

Now go to your Texture layer and select it by just clicking on it and then select the Add Vector Mask button on your layers pallett, its right next the the FX button at the bottom. Another alternative is to go to Layer>Vector Mask>Hide all and then use your brush with white to fill the highlighted areas.

Step 7:

I know that the piece doesn’t look very attractive at the moment, but we will change that. Go to your Textured layer and select your Burn Tool (O). Set the exposure to 50% and choose a medium sized soft brush. Burn the edges of the Letters to create a contrasting effect. I have pointed them out to you in the preview below.

Step 8:

Now go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Brightness and Contrast – Set the Brightness to +14 and the Contrast to +100. This should add some depth to your Lettering, but not enough. We are going to a layer style to the sliced pieces. Double click on one of the sliced pieces and choose a Drop Shadow and. Use the settings below. then hit OK.

Now right click on your layer that you just adding the Layer Style to and select Copy Layer Style. Now Select all the Sliced Layers, excluding your two word layers (Creative and Block), Your R layer and Textured Layer. You can select them by holding down CTRL and clicking on each layers name. Once you have them all selected right click on anyone of them and select Paste Layer Style. This should add a large amount of depth and diversity to your letters.

Step 9:

Now create a new layer by going to Layer>New>Layer (CTRL+SHIFT+N) and then fill it with Black #000000 now set the blending mode of the layer to Color Dodge and select your brush tool. Use a fairly large soft brush with striking colors, example orange, Green, Pink, Blue. I used Green and orange and vaguely touched the edges of the Text. Next I created another New Layer and filled it with Black #000000, I set the Blending Mode to Overlay and grabbed my Brush tool with the same soft brush and just selected White #FFFFFF as my foreground color. I brushed on the lettering to bring out some light and highlights in the text.

Step 10:

Our final step for this tutorial is pretty basic, we use the Smashed Glass by Ryan Cooley image and import it into our Composition. We set the blending mode of the layer to Linear Dodge and we erase some of the parts that we don’t want. Now you are done with the tutorial. Hopefully you have smashed your creative block into pieces. You are more than welcome to add on your own bits and pieces, but I hope you enjoyed the tutorial.