"3D Thigh Pads" - A fun way to customize your team with small/low memory images
Hey dudes. Recently been having fun adding images to my teams that go on the thigh pad to make it looks like they are the custom pads becoming more popular with some players like JJ in the attached image. The process isn't all that hard and I've been happy with the results, so I wanted to share my process in case anyone else wanted to try it out, and if you do try it and get any cool results, I'd love to see your work! Easy to add too because I'm guessing almost everyone always has extra layer slots available on the pants, and since the images are mostly transparent they're super small size and won't add much to your total image size if you're pushing the limit.
If you try it and something doesn't make sense, please just let me know and I'll try to answer any questions.
- If like me you do not have photoshop, photopea.com is a great free editor in-browser. I would start there.
- Load in the image you want to make look 3D. It needs to have no background, and looks best if there's empty space throughout the logo too rather than solid colors (this helps give the illusion of depth/height at multiple spots on the logo).
- Right click the layer for your logo and convert to smart object.
- Just above the list of layers, change "Fill" for your logo to 0% (it'll disappear on your screen for now).
- Double click into your logo layer to open Layer Style.
- Check the boxes for "Bevel and Emboss" as well as "Contour".
- Click on Bevel and Emboss category and copy the settings in slide 2 of the attached images.
Note: Play with the 2 opacity sliders at the bottom if you'd like; 25 and 25 is just a starting point and you might have to load them in and see how they look on the uni before you decide. For white jersey pants, you'd want the top (white) opacity to be higher because it's going to be harder to see it, and the bottom (black) opacity to be lower and more subtle, since it's already going to pop. So for white pants, maybe something like 50 on the top opacity slider, 10 on the bottom, and vice versa for black jersey pants. 25/25 would work decent on medium colors. I added a few examples of recent ones I've made on slides 3 and 4.
One thing you can try is changing the background layer of the project in photopea to be the same color as your jersey pants to help decide what sliders are best. Do this by double-clicking on the Background layer in the layers list to open Layer Style, then click "Color Overlay" and set it to the color you need to match your jersey.
Also, if the objects in your logo are bigger or smaller than the ones I used, you might also try adjusting the size slider at the top to see if you like a different number more than 10.
Good luck fellas! Appreciate everyone always sharing ideas, assets, recent teams etc.