We’re going to position this light on the top-right corner of the text and have it cast a shadow diagonally. Moving a light to the perfect spot takes a bit of experience with 3D but there’s an easier way to do this. Select the Move tool and set the 3D mode to Rotate in the options bar.
In the view box located on the bottom left of your screen, drag to reposition your view so that you are looking at your 3D text from the top-right corner. Think of it like playing a first person shooter game – you want to reposition yourself so that you can shine your flashlight from the upper-right side of the text. Once you’re in the right angle, switch your 3D mode to Slide and position yourself so that you’re further away from the 3D text. When you’re in the right position, click on the Move to View button in the Properties panel to move your point light to your current view. To make your shadow more noticeable, increase your intensity. We’ll readjust this setting later. Switch back to the Default Camera view then render the scene to preview your lighting. Play around with the camera view and light intensity to get the results that you like.
Step 9
We have our shadow but it looks too solid. To improve it, we’re going to make the shadow fade by adjusting the light falloff of your point light. Make sure that you have your Point Light selected then in the Properties panel, enable the Light Falloff option. Zoom out of your document so that you can see the point light then adjust the outer light falloff setting so that the outline reaches the bottom-right of your document. Next, adjust your inner light falloff setting so that the outline reaches the top-right corner of your document. Render the scene to get a preview of the effect.
Here’s the before and after results of the light falloff setting.
Step 10
Now we’re going to go back to the 3D text, give it a bevel, and adjust the material setting. First, select the 3D text layer. In the Properties panel, click on the Cap settings then set the width to 10%. This will give your text a slight bevel on the edge.
