How to Make 3D Text in Affinity Designer

Final product image — What You'll Be Creating

For making 3D text, Affinity Designer might not be your first choice, but it's definitely possible, and this tutorial will teach you how to do it. The end result will be editable, so this is a nice bonus.

If you don't have time to learn how to make 3D text in Affinity Designer, you can always try Envato Elements, where you can get unlimited downloads of fonts, graphics, photos, actions, and much more, that are ready to be used in your projects.

What You'll Learn in This Tutorial

How to make 3D text in Affinity Designer
How to make editable 3D text using the Symbols panel
How to use Layer Effects

How to Make 3D Text in Affinity Designer

Step 1

In Affinity Designer 3D text is possible. Let me show you how.

Open a new document of about 1500 x 900 px, 72 DPI, and RGB Color mode. Now, grab the Artistic Type Tool (T) and write "COLORE" on your artboard using the Krophed Font, with a size of 202 pt. In the Character panel (View > Studio > Character), increase the Vertical Scale to 110% in order to make the text a little taller.

Open the Symbols panel by going to View > Studio > Symbols. While the text stays selected, click on Create to turn it into a symbol. This Affinity 3D text is based on symbols.

how to save symbol in Affinity Designer — For this tutorial, I'm using the Krophed Font from Envato Elements.

Step 2

In the Layers panel, right-click on the existing Symbol layer and choose Duplicate from the menu. This will create a copy above. Now, zoom in up to 1000% on the corner of one of the letters and move the top Symbol layer a little to the right and downwards. Make sure that Enable Snapping is not checked in the Toolbar at the top of the document.

Step 3

Continue to duplicate the Symbol layers and always move the top one to the right and downwards. Alternatively, you can press the shortcut Control-J, and Designer will do this automatically for you.

Step 4

Keep duplicating and moving the Symbol layers but stop before the letters touch each other. I have 25 layers in total.

Now we have something that looks like a 3D effect, right?

Step 5

Scroll down to the bottom of the Layers panel, open the last Symbol layer in the list, and select the COLORE text. Before you do anything, you must go to the Symbols panel and remove the synchronization. The Sync is off when the button is gray. Now, click on Layer Effects at the bottom of the Layers panel to open the entire Layer Effects window. Check Color Overlay and set the color to bright green.

Blend mode: Normal
Opacity: 100%

Step 6

Once you're done with the Color Overlay effect, go back to the Symbols panel and put the synchronization back on. The Sync is on when the button is black.

Next, move this Symbol layer from the back of the list up to the front by going to Layer > Arrange > Move to Front (Control-Shift-]), and you will be able to see the green text.

If everything was done correctly so far, the 3D text is editable. You can change the text and the font too.

Step 7

Select the Symbol layer right under the green layer and move it to the bottom of the Layers panel by dragging it manually or by going to Layer > Arrange > Move to Back (Control-Shift-[). Open the Symbol layer, select the COLORE text, and then remove the Sync in the Symbols panel. Open the Layer Effects window and check the Gaussian Blur effect. Apply a Radius of 5 px and hit Close. Once you're done, don't forget to turn Sync back on in the Symbols panel.

This action will create a light shadow under the Affinity 3D text.

Step 8

Locate the shadow layer created in the previous step in the Layers panel, right-click on it, and choose Duplicate from the menu. Let's work with the copy at the bottom. Remove the Sync in the Symbols panel, and then open the Layer Effects window and increase the Radius to 10 px. Move the layer a little to the right and downwards to offset it. Also, reduce the Opacity of this layer to 60% if needed. When all the changes are done, put Sync back on in the Symbols panel so that the 3D text can still be edited.

Step 9

Let's get organized. Put the two shadow layers at the bottom of the Layers panel in a group and name it shadows. Now, select all the layers in between the shadows and the top green layer, and before you do anything, remove the Sync in the Symbols panel. Click on Layer Effects at the bottom of the Layers panel to open the entire window; then check the Gradient Overlay effect. Choose a purple-to-pink gradient to give this 3D text a cool Y2K look.

Blend mode: Normal
Opacity: 100%
Type: Linear
Angle: 90 degrees

Once done, hit Close, and then put Sync back on in the Symbols panel.

how to color 3D text in Affinity Designer

Let's check if the Affinity Designer 3D text is still editable.

Step 10

To add a highlight to the text, select the "COLORE" text under the top green Symbol layer and first, remove the Sync in the Symbols panel. Open the Layer Effects window, check the Bevel/Emboss effect, and apply the settings shown below. Hit Close and then put the Sync back on in the Symbols panel.

how to add highlight on Affinity 3D text

Step 11

Let's also add an outline. Keep the same "COLORE" text selected, remove the Sync, and then open the Layer Effects window. Check the Outline effect and apply the settings shown below. Once done, hit Close and then put the Sync back on in the Symbols panel.

This is the final 3D text:

Congratulations! You're Done!

Now you know how to make 3D text in Affinity Designer. The text is editable as long as you remember to remove the sync before you apply, change settings, or make any type of edits, and remember to put the Sync back on after you're done. This is the trick. Feel free to make it your own by changing the font, editing the text, or using any other color palette that you fancy.

You can find a lot of sources of inspiration and resources ready to be used at Envato Elements, from fonts to graphics, photos, actions, and so much more. They will surely help you to improve your work.

3d text affinity designer tutorial final image

Background used: Futuristic Purple Gradient Backgrounds.

Want to Learn More About Affinity Designer?

Did you like this tutorial on how to make Affinity Designer 3D text? We have loads of tutorials on Envato Tuts+ that teach many other useful techniques. Here's a list of tutorials specially made for you. Take a look!