Create 3D text in 3DS Max

1. Create a 2D text in 3DS Max

This tutorial will show you how to create 3D text characters that can be used for icons signatures, webpage headers and it is overall a great tutorial for a beginner. It will give you quick view of what can be done in a few steps and show you basic work flow in 3DS Max.

O.K. let's get started!

/ First, we want to create some text that will later be seen as 3D text. Let's say we want to put '3D TEXT'' as 3D text.
  1. On the right side of the 3DS Max click 'Create'
  2. Click 'Shapes'
  3. Click on the button 'Text'
When you do this, menu will appear under 'Text' button.
/ Search for the 'Parameters' and delete text that says 'MAX Text'. Now add your own text, in this case this is '3D TEXT'. Now click in the 'Front view' viewport, the 2D text shape will appear in the viewport.

2. Extruding 2D text into 3D text

/ What we want to do now is to make this 2D text shape into 3D text shape. We do this with the extrusion. First select the 2D text shape, then go to 'Modify' and click onto menu 'Modifier list'. Long menu will appear, now search for the 'Extrude' and click it. What you did right now, is that 2D shape is become a 3D shape already, however the text is like a thin plate. It does not have any depth so it does not look like 3D text. We will take care of that in the next part of the tutorial.

/ Click on the 'Segments' and change value from 0 to 10. Now set 'Amount' parameter to 100. As you can see 3D text now appears.

3. Set material for 3D text


/ Now we can set material to the 3D text object, so that it will look nicer.
  1. Click on 'Material Editor' icon
  2. Click on 'Diffuse' color channel (default 1)
  3. From the 'Color Selector' choose any color
  4. Now click 'Assign material to selection' and close 'Material Editor'
3D text will now appear as red just the way we wanted.

4. Set lights and shadows

/ To make 3D text scene render better we will now add some lights, also 3D text object will cast shadows onto itself.
  1. Click on 'Create'
  2. then click 'Lights' and make sure the menu states “standard”
  3. Click button 'Target Spot'
  4. Under 'General Parameters' find 'Shadows' and turn it ON

5. Position lights

/ Now we are ready to position light into the scene.
  1. Click on 'Top' viewport and position lights left and right
  2. now click on 'Left' viewport to position lights height
  3. Help yourself with the picture on left

6. Create floor

/ We will add a floor to the scene so that overall look of the render will look better.
  1. Click 'Create' on main menu
  2. Click 'Geometry'
  3. Click on button 'Plane'
  4. Now click and drag mouse in 'Top' viewport to create plane that will be used as a floor to the scene (left bottom picture)
  5. Check in 'Perspective' viewport your scene (right bottom picture)
  6. Render your image to see final results

7. 3D Text Tutorial Completed

Congratulations, you have completed basic 3D text tutorial! You have learned:
  1. Create 2D and 3D Text
  2. Set material to objects
  3. Create and set lights with shadows
  4. Create plane (floor) for better scene rendering
  5. Rendering