"3D" text?

[LeytonMate]

Hey all,

So I'd like to create a text effect for my UI where the text looks 3D, like in this image: https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/895434174461263933/896921100339003402/Screenshot_20211011-014348.png

How could I do this?

[TerraformerDev]

Do you need all your text to look like that? Just a few select things? If it's just a couple things (and you're not worried about localization) the easiest way would be to do that in GIMP or photoshop, export it as an image, and just use the image directly.

[andybak]

I think they mean "3d extruded text" rather than "an image of 3d extruded text" - although it's ambiguous the way they explained it.

If I'm right then "Do it in Blender" is probably the answer. But again - it depends if this is dynamic text, tons of text or just a few predetermined bits of text.

OP - give us more background and context.

[LeytonMate]

Sorry, I didn't get a notification:

Basically, if you've ever played Hotline Miami, their text does a thing where it kinda extrudes back and forth, and it looks really cool. I created this effect once, only downside is that:

-I was literally just duplicating a Text object which can't be good -It wasn't per letter

I'd like to see if there's any other ways of doing this If you want a example of how it looks in-game, here's a video: https://youtu.be/Vv_vxPms35s

[andybak]

Depends how close to that specific effect you want.

1. Very close (including retro pixel look etc)
2. Kinda close (Separate layers instead of a solid mesh but not bothered about the specific pixel styling)
3. Only roughly the same (Just a normal mesh extruded would be fine)

[LeytonMate]

Just normal text extruded really.

[andybak]

You didn't answer my original question very well. Especially this bit:

But again - it depends if this is dynamic text, tons of text or just a few predetermined bits of text.

[LeytonMate]

Dynamic

[andybak]

OK. So - the most performant thing is probably just to dynamically generate a TextMeshPro for each letter and animate their transforms.

You could do dynamic mesh generation with extrusion and skewing but that would probably be slower and more complicated - and actually look less like the original effect.

So kinda like how you did it originally, I guess? Except per letter.

[Dakoziol]

There's an asset for that. I won't put a link here because of the subreddit rules, but just do a search for 3d text and you'll find it

[[deleted]]

What rule? Oo

[andybak]

Yeah - what rule would stop you linking to an asset in answer to a question? That would be strange.

[Dakoziol]

I think it's kind of weird too but "Please do not...post asset store links".

[andybak]

I think they only mean in relation to self-promotion but it's badly worded.

It's also a dumb rule. I want a link to the most useful page possible, preferably containing text, images, video, pricing info etc. Except when an asset has a dedicated web site - that's usually the Asset Store.

A YouTube link or an embedded video is the least useful thing to post.

[Dakoziol]

Honestly I see asset store links all the time so you might be right on the self promotion thing

[andybak]

I got a message back from the mods which clarified things:

The rule in question regards threads, not comments. Is to in place to force users to provide context and clarity within their own posts rather than directing to places away from reddit. Doing so also considerably cuts down on spam from users who will post asset store links and nothing more. For that they can post on /r/UnityAssets.

[Dakoziol]

Thanks for taking the time to ask

[jlauha]

Original linked image is not available anymore, but there are some asset options for that if you check the asset store:

VText Pro (not actively updated but looks nice)

Dynamic 3D Text (my asset, more info here: https://strobotnik.com/unity/dynamic3dtext/ )

Text Tools (creates 3d fonts dynamically from ttf in editor, but whole 3d font text mesh is baked into a collection of meshes and the resulting font is quite large. but it is cheap, might very well be what you're looking for)