Animated text extrusion

 In Tutorial

In this tutorial, DomQuichotte shows you how to use a preset from the Layered Extrusion bundle to easily vibrate parts of the extrusion and save it as an animated GIF.

Final result: animated GIF.

1. New document

Create a document with 1000 x 1000 pixels. The larger the picture, the harder it will be to generate a file size suitable for the web. But you can also reduce the image size during export later.

“New Document” dialog in Photoshop.

2. Background color

Create a new color fill via Layer > New Fill Layer> Solid Color and name the layer “Background Color”. Choose the yellow color #ffba00. The layer mask of the layer is not needed, so you can delete it if you want.

Type ffba00 in the appropriate text box to define the color.
Layer window with a color fill and without a layer mask.

3. Text layer

Create a new text “No Bad Vibes”. I choose the Akzidenz Grotesk Bq Super Regular font in capitals with a font size of 225pt and a line spacing of 200pt. Of course you can choose another font. The text color is unimportant as we will change it later via the panel. You should align the text field to the middle of your document, via Layer > Align Layers to Selection > Vertical Center / Horizontal Center. For this you firstly have to select the picture via Select > All.

Settings for the text layer.
Centered text on yellow background.

4. Extrusion

Open the FX-Panel with the Layered Extrusion bundle. Select the Advanced Extrusion with an orientation of -135 °. Under Basics, set the elements to 5. Select color as area and define a new color with #ff3e3e. Also activate the contour with automatic stroke, inner position and black color.

Then set the 5 elements as follows:

  • Element 1 – Extrusion: 45px, color: black
  • Element 2 – Extrusion: 8px, transparent
  • Element 3 – Extrusion: 10px, color: black
  • Element 4 – Extrusion: 6px, transparent
  • Element 5 – Extrusion: 5px, color: black

In addition, the outline should be disabled. Make sure the text layer is selected and click Create.

Text extruded with the FX-Panel.

5. Merge layers

Open the Advanced Extrusion folder in the layers panel. You’ll find the layers Element 3 and Element 5 in the extrusion folder. Select both layers and go to Layers > Merge Layers. Name the layer “Vibe 0”.

Layer windows in Photoshop. Select elements 3 and 5.

6. Duplicate layers

Duplicate the layers “Vibe 0” three times via Layer > Duplicate Layer and increase the number in the layer name by 1. Hide all new layers except “Vibe 1” (also “Vibe 0”).

The individual vibe layers.

7. Generate vibrations

Select layer “Vibe 1” and go to Filter > Distort > Ripple. Choose medium as size and set the amount to 25%. Repeat this with the other two layers. Set the amount for Vibe 2 to 50% and Vibe 3 to 100%.

Ripple dialog in Adobe Photoshop.
Text extrusion with rippled vibe 1 layer.

8. Create fame animation

Hide layers Vibe 1 – 3 and show Vibe 0. Open the timeline in Photoshop via Window > Timeline. Then click on the “Create Frame Animation” button. Set the delay of the frame to no delay (= 0 seconds). Do do that, click on the time directly below the frame.

Timeline in Photoshop. Click on the seconds to set the time.

9. Add more frames

Add a new frame and hide Vibe 0 and show Vibe 1. Repeat this two more times with Vibe 2 and Vibe 3 displayed at a time. If you now click on the play button in the timeline, the text should “throb”.

Animated text extrusion. The individual vibe levels are displayed one after the other.

10. Export animated GIF

Go to File > Export > Save for Web (Legacy). Select by preset “GIF 128 Dithered”. Reduce the image size to 500 x 500 pixels and click Save. Your animated GIF is ready now.

Export dialog for animated GIFs in Photoshop.
Recent Posts
Showing 2 comments
  • Stephanie Koppelle

    This tutorial is really easy to use. If you are familiar with photoshop you can do it in under 5 minuits otherwise it will take a little longer (like me) but i did it in 15 minuit,s step by step. A great help is the FX Panel! Without the panel and the “Layered Extrusion Pack” it would take more than one hour and i wouldn´t know how to do it. The panel and the pack are great timesavers and makes things like obove very much easier. LOve it

Leave a Comment

Start typing and press Enter to search