Download Tutorial Files Here!
This is the deepest, most comprehensive tutorial out there for creating the official DOOM logo, the old logo, the retro logo, the one that we all know and love. The video is a long and complex video so I have this written guide to breeze through it quickly. If you need more detail, be sure to watch the video and I guarantee that you will learn more about Photoshop in this video than you ever have before. We’ll cover how to use 3D in Photoshop, splitting extrusions, adding complex textures, building depth, adding highlights, exporting masks, and dozens of other things. Check out the video and I hope you love it! PRO TIP: If you check the video out on YouTube, I’ve placed a video guide with clickable links to every part of the tutorial so you can skip through the tutorial quickly to build this effect fast!
Gathering the Resources: Free Fonts & Textures
Before we get going with this tutorial, you’ll want to download the font right here and also download the tek-wall texture from this Russian website (??) that has all kinds of amazing DOOM game textures. You’ll also want to sign up for my email newsletter above and if you have your pop-up blocker disabled temporarily, you will get a pop up tab that will be a direct download for the pyramid stone texture as well as a DOOM texture brush pack I made and a PSD of the finished effect.
Laying out the Type
Use the DOOM font that you downloaded and type out “DOOM” at 1200pt. The “D” should be the Left style typeface and the “OOM” should be the Right style typeface. Right-click the Type layer and choose “Convert to Shape Layer” and then select the right-side “O” with the Direct Selection Tool and flip the letter horizontally. Next, select all the anchor points on the bottom part of both “O”’s and nudge them upward with the arrow keys.
Convert to 3D: Setting Extrusion and Bevel
Right-click the shape layer and choose “New 3D Extrusion From Selected Layer.” Set the extrusion to 175px and choose the “Deform” icon and set the Vertical Shear to -35 degrees. Also add a 15% bevel onto this 3D object.
Finding the Perfect Angle: Moving Type in 3D Space
We want to rotate each letter individually so we need to split this thing apart. Go 3D>Split Extrusion and select one of the “O”’s at a time and go to the coordinates area and the rotation on the Y axis by 5 degrees for one “O” and -5 degrees for the other “O”. Do the same for the “D” and “M”, but rotate these by 15 degrees +/-.
How to Create Masks from Parts of 3D Object
Once we have all the letters in their proper places, you’ll want to change your document’s background color to black. Next, reduce the color intensity of the Environment to “0” and shut off any lights that we have turned on and also select the extrusion and bevel textures and set the “Illumination” color to complete black. Go to the Channel panel and right click on the Blue channel and choose “Duplicate Channel” and choose to duplicate it out to a new document. Repeat this process for the bevel and the extrusion faces of the 3D object as well. Check out the video to see exactly how I do this if you have any problems.
Rendering your 3D in Photoshop (Optional Step)
To smooth things out a little bit, hit the Render icon at the bottom of the Properties panel and wait between 5-35 minutes for your text to render (this all depends on the Ray Trace settings in your Properties>3D settings)
Adding the Pyramid Stone Texture to the 3D Extrusions (manually)
Next, we want to drag the top-most layer from the Pyramid texture PSD into the document and then use Edit>Free Transform and Skew, Distort, and Scale the texture into place. Use the Polygonal Lasso tool to make an exact selection of one part of the extrusion and create a mask to seal the texture into each part of the extrusion. Check out the video to see how I use Smart Objects and mask each individual side of the letters.
Adding the “tek-wall” Texture
Drag the “tek-wall” texture into the document and duplicate it 15-18x and drag out so it covers all of the top-middle area of all the letters. Cmd/Ctrl + Click the channel that we created for the faces of the letters and mask this tek-wall to the letters. Check out the video to see how I create a double triangle to get the perfect angle on the mask for this texture. It’s tricky, but an awesome trick to know!
Adding the Pyramid Stone Texture
Once we’ve placed the tek-wall texture, we want to drag in the top layer from the pyramid PSD that you downloaded from the beginning of this article over into the DOOM text PSD. We want this texture to be below the tek-wall and then load the face of the 3D text as a selection and mask the pyramid texture to the front of the text.
Burning and Adding Shadows to the Face of the Letters
Create a new layer beneath the tek-wall layer and grab a large, soft-edged brush and paint black along the bottom edges of the tek-wall and mask this layer to the faces of our letters using the mask we exported earlier in the tutorial. Also add a very small, high-intensity, semi-hard-edged shadow beneath the edge of the tek-wall.
Tearing the Edges of “tek-wall” Metal
Select the tek-wall layer and grab the regular Lasso tool and create a jaggy selection across one part of the bottom of the tek-wall and click the mask attached to this layer and fill that jaggy selection with black to create a cut effect on the edge of the texture. Repeat this all along the edge of the tek-wall.
Adjust the Lighting on the “tek-wall”
Create a new layer just above the tek-wall layer and go Edit>Fill and fill it with 50% gray and then set the blend mode of the layer to Overlay. Use the Polygonal Lasso tool to create a selection (go Select>Modify>Feather to soften the selection) across the top of the text and hit Cmd/Ctrl + L to open Levels and increase the blacks to create a shadow across the top of the tek-wall. Create a another selection along the diagonal edges of the tek-wall and soften that selection and use Levels to brighten up this part of the tek-wall texture. Hit Cmd/Ctrl + Alt/Opt + G to clip this 50% gray layer to the tek-wall layer.
Placing Highlights on the Extrusion Edges
Create a layer above all the textures and load each individual piece of extrusion once again and use the Line Tool (underneath the shape tools in the tool bar) set to 1px line weight to draw little white lines on the vertical edges of the extrusion where you would expect to see light glistening off the edges. Set this layer to the blend mode Overlay to help the highlights blend with the textures much more.
Adding Depth and Shape to the Bevels
Create a new layer above our extrusion highlights layer and fill this layer with gray by going Edit>Fill and select 50% gray and then set this layer to the blend mode of Overlay. Use the Polygonal Lasso tool and select corners of the bevel where perpendicular/angled sides run into each other. Use the Dodge and Burn tools to either lighten or darken one side of the bevel corner to really accentuate when the bevels run into each other and add a ton of depth and 3-dimensionality to our DOOM logo.
The Many Highlights of the Bevel
Creating the highlights on the edges of this logo is one of the most important steps in this process to create a really amazing effect. Between creating the complex selections and blending and fading these effects together, I highly recommend you check out the video tutorial above around the 45:00-52:00 mark of the video. I think it’ll be very helpful!
Blending Highlights: The Power of the Eraser Tool
Once you have some layers of highlights in place, grab the Eraser tool and set the eraser tip to a 3px soft-edged brush and gently erase the edges of your highlights to smooth any hard pixel areas and blend all of your highlight edges beautifully into the bevels and body of the 3D text.
Burning and Adding Shadows to the Extrusions
Add a Curves Adjustment Layer above the pyramid textures that we applied to the sides/extrusion of the 3D type and drag the white point 90% of the way downward toward the bottom right corner of the Curves graph area. Fill the mask with black to hide all the darkening effect and use the Polygonal Lasso tool to select one side of the extrusion at a time and use a large, soft-edged brush set to 10% opacity and gently shade in the sides and bottom of the extrusion. Repeat this for all the pieces of the extrusion.
Adjustment Layers to Complete the Color Effects
Load your extrusions, bevels, and letter faces as a selection using the Channels panel and the masks we exported earlier. I added a Color Balance adjustment layer which I used to boost the Reds, Magentas, and Yellows (and also added some Blue to the highlights.) To see the Hue/Saturation, Vibrance adjustment, Black and White layer, Levels, Curves, and more I used to finalize the color and tone of the text effect, check out the video above around the 1 hour 5 minutes (01:05:00) mark.
Adding Grain to Complete the Effect and Blend the Colors and Tones
I added a double layer of grain using the technique I explain in this tutorial to blend all the colors and tones together and help clean up any areas that look jagged. You can also check out the video around the 1 hour, 11 minutes, 30 seconds, (01:11:30) mark.
Behold the Finished Product: Check out the Video for much more detail!
Check out the finished logo in the new environment in which I placed it. Make sure to enter your email address above to download the finished PSD file and the brush pack for creating your own textures! Thanks for checking out this tutorial, I hope you loved it!
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