This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Gothic Chiseled Type Effect
Sure the Harry Potter movies had some amazing special effects, but did you see that beautifully beveled logo? That thing is a Layer Styles work of art. What may be most amazing about it is that the entire thing is created in just one dialog box (the Layer Styles dialog). So here's a look at how to turn some plain gray type into a gold gothic chiseled effect that is pure gold at the box office.
- Step ONE. Open a new document in RGB mode at 300 ppi. Press “d” to set black as your Foreground color. Fill your Background layer with black by pressing Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace). In the Toolbox, click on the Foreground Color Swatch and set your Foreground color to a medium gray in the Color Picker and click OK.
- Step TWO. Press the letter “t” to get the Type tool and create your type (the font shown here is a freeware font named “Harry Potter”). You can find out how to obtain this font from this book's companion Web site (www.scottkelbybooks.com). To get the font to look right, you'll have to highlight some of the letters and shift them above the Baseline using the Character palette (as shown here, with the letter “n”).
- Step THREE. Some letters, like the “n” in “Henry” and the “e” in “Poster,” will need a smaller point size, so highlight those letters and reduce the point size in either the Options Bar or the Character palette. (Most of the letters in this example are at 90 point, but I lowered the “n” and “e” to only 60 points.)
- Step FOUR. Choose Bevel and Emboss from the Layer Style pop-up menu at the bottom of the Layers palette. Choose Chisel Hard for Technique, increase the Depth to 251%, and the Size to 27. (Note: For low-res, 72 ppi images, lower the Size to 6.) Under Shading, set your Angle to 0° and Altitude to 42°. Click the Gloss Contour down arrow to open Contour Picker. Click the arrow at upper right and choose Contours in the pop-up menu. Click OK and choose “Peaks” (as shown). Turn on the Anti-Aliasing checkbox. Change the Highlight Blend Mode from Screen to Color Dodge, and click on the Highlight Color Swatch and change it to orange in the Color Picker (the build shown here is R=224, G=193, B=8).
- Step FIVE. In the list of Layer Styles on the left side of the dialog, click directly on the word Color Overlay to make its options visible. Click on the Color Swatch and choose a gold color (the build shown here is R=208, G=119, B=8).
- Step SIX. Click OK and your gray type is transformed into the gold chiseled look shown here.
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