Photoshop Text Effects: Wrapping Text in 3D

Step 9: Make A Selection Around Your Object

I want to hide the text that's supposed to be behind the planet, so I'm going to grab my Elliptical Marquee Tool once again and, just as I did at the beginning of this tutorial, I'm going to use it to drag out a selection around the planet. This time though, I want my selection to extend only to the edge of the planet, not an area around the outside of it like we did before. So once again, I'm going to click approximately in the center of the planet, and holding down Shift+Alt (Win) / Shift+Option (Mac), I'm going to drag out a circular selection around the planet. If I need to reposition my selection as I'm dragging, I'll again hold down my spacebar and move the selection around on the screen as needed, then I'll release the spacebar and continue dragging.

Here's my image with my planet selected:

Step 10: Paint With Black Inside The Selection To Hide The Text

With our layer mask added to the text layer and a selection around the planet, we can easily hide the text that's supposed to be behind the planet by simply painting over the text. First we need our brush, so select the Brush Tool from the Tools palette, or press B on your keyboard:

Then, with black as your Foreground color, simply paint over the text you want to hide. Since we're painting on the layer mask, not the layer itself, we won't be painting black on the image. Instead, anywhere where we paint with black will hide the contents of the layer. I need to hide the text in the top part of the planet, so I'll paint over it with my Brush Tool. Thanks to the selection I created, I don't have to worry about being sloppy with my brush and accidentally painting beyond the edge of the planet, since Photoshop will only allow me to paint inside the selection. Anywhere I paint outside of it is ignored:

Continue painting over the text until you've hidden everything that needs to be hidden. When you're done, press Ctrl+D (Win) / Command+D (Mac) to remove the selection. If your path under the text became visible again, press Ctrl+H (Win) / Command+H (Mac) to hide it from view.

Here's my image after painting over the text along the top to hide it, creating the illusion that the text is now circling the planet in 3D:

Step 11: Add A Gradient Overlay Layer Style

To finish things off, let's add a bit of lighting to our text using one of Photoshop's Layer Styles. Click on the Layer Styles icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Then select Gradient Overlay from the list:

This brings up the Layer Style dialog box set to the Gradient Overlay options in the middle column. By default, Photoshop gives us a black to white gradient, which is what we want. Rather than using the gradient to colorize our text though and make it black and white, we're going to use it to add a simple lighting effect. First, change the Blend Mode option at the top from "Normal" to Vivid Light by clicking on the down-pointing arrow to the right of the word "Normal" and selecting "Vivid Light" from the list. Then lower the Opacity value down to about 60%. Finally, change the Angle option at the bottom to 0°:

Click OK when you're done to exit out of the dialog box and apply the Gradient Overlay style to the text, and you're done!

Here's the final effect with my simple lighting effect added to the text:

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