Sunday 8 June 2014

Street Glitz

Anyone remember ChrisF's Hollywood Glamour texteffect ?


Well that was fun, because i was so fascinated by Chris' excellent result that i wanted to create something similar and one of my experiments was the green glittery Phase2 text.


Last week i finally found the lost xcf on my computer and thought i could write a tutorial.
Unfortunately i cant remember how i did the glitter, which is funny because my techniques are pretty samey and predictable.

So i will present a variation of the Phase2 effect today.


01. Start with a canvas of 1000x500px, colour: #bababa.

02. I made the texture with a grunge brush. Unfortunately i cant remember which one.
Possible, it was xBlblx's Grunge Brush Set, treated with G'MIC Pastell Art.
You can find the set here:


Obviously any other grunge brush, texture (concrete for example) or technique will do.
Or you can use mine (open in new tab and save):


03. Set the mode to 'Soft Light' at approx 45%, then merge down.

04. Next type your Base-Text.
Im using the font: 'Kaushan Script' at 284px in a #b3de27 green.
You can get that font here:

05. Alpha select your text, save it to a channel and a path, then deselect !


NOTE:
In this tutorial i will set up the basic design first and the decorating later.
Normally i would do it the other way round:
Make the text, add bevels, texture, etc. and then build up the composition.

06. For a Shadow-Mat, alpha select your text, grow the selection by 15px and fill it on a new transparent layer with a 20ies gray (#343434).
Convert the selection to a path then deselect.

To make the edges nicer, stroke the path on the same layer, with the same colour by 3px.

If there are some gaps left, fill them with a brush.


07. On a new transparent layer underneath your text, Stroke the path by 7px with a medium gray (#808080).


Now for the decoration:

08. Add an Inner Shadow to the Base-Text.
a) alpha to select Base-Text
b) invert
c) fill with a darker shade of the green we used for the text: #002e1b
d) deselect
e) Gaussian Blur by 20px
f) Offset by x: -2; y: -4 ('Layer → Transform → Offset')
d) add layermask from channel
e) set Mode to 'Hard Light'
f) adjust blur with an alpha-curve at coordinates approx: 121/172


09. For the Highlight:
a) create new transparent layer on top of the Base-Text-layer (name it Highlight-Base) and turn it off !
b) alpha select your base text and shrink it by 3px
c) fill with any colour (i used red for visibility)
d) use the values from my screenshot
(adjust Angle and Altitude so that you get a nice highlight, depending on the font, that can vary)


e) delete the shadow-layer
f) tighten the highlight with an alpha-curve (thats why i used the high value of soften (= blur) in the first place) – again, this curve can vary, depending on your project !
Use the Force, Gimper !  ;)


g) i like to set the Mode to 'Addition' for the strongest white, but 'Screen' will do as well


For reasons unknown to me, the path of the Shadow-Mat has a few artifacts (little triangles).
You will have to delete them manually with the Paths-Tool.


With that done:

10. Create a new layer on top of the Shadow-Mat (name it Shadow-Mat-Stroke) and stroke the Shadow-Mat path with a 40ies gray (#656565) by 2px, then Gaussian Blur it by 1px to smooth the slightly jaggy looking edges.


11. Add a Dropshadow to the Shadow-Mat:
a) alpha select Shadow-Mat
b) fill with black on a new transparent layer (named Dropshadow)
c) Blur by 12px
d) set Mode to 'Multiply' at 75%


12. Activate the Stroke layer and apply a Bevel, with the following values.


13. I added a Mini-Shadow under the base-text layer:
a) create new tansparent layer underneath the Base-Text
b) alpha select Base-Text, fill with black
c) Gaussian Blur by 1px

The effect is very subtle !


And last, the killer feature, you've been all waiting for: the Glitter !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

14.
a) Duplicate the green Base-Text and rename it Glitz.
b) Apply the Cubism Filter (Filters → Artistic → Cubism) with the following values:


c) Apply a layermask from channel.
d) set the Mode to 'Soft Light'

15.
a) Duplicate the Base-Text again, put it on top of the Glitz-Layer and name it Glitz 2.
b) Apply the Mosaic Filter (Filters → Distorts → Mosaic)


c) alpha select the Base-Text and shrink by 5px
d) apply a layermask from selection, then deselect
e) with the layermask active, Gaussian Blur it by 5px for a softer transition
d) with the Glitz 2 layer active apply 'Adjust Hue/Lightning/Saturation'
Make sure the yellow channel is ticked !






Did a few tiny tweaks on this one for better contrast.


And with a few more tweaks this looks like cherry strawberry (hi ofnuts).



Aaaand another version that is from the development phase:


1 comment:

Wallace said...

Love the Phase2 text effect.