Preserved Topic: imac like text

snice phong is down is there any other place thar has a imac like text tutoral?

The so called IMAC plastic or Aqua effect.

Pretty simple ultimately, if you have some PS knowledge already. I think Anson's method is something close to what I use too.


1) Create a type layer the shade you want your IMAC text.


2) Make a selection of that layer. (PC users hold down control and click on the type layer...MAC users, use the Command button and do the same)

3) Create a New Layer. Go to SELECT>>>MODIFY>>>CONTRACT...Use at your discretion depending on the size of the graphic. (Anywhere between 1, and 16 is used) You might have to make multiple contractions if your graphic is large. You want your selection to be contracted to about three quarters, to a half of the size it looked before.


4) Now go to SELECT>>>MODIFY>>>FEATHER, and feather a sickening amount, like 20-40. Fill the Selection on the New Layer with white, and set the blending menu on this Layer to "Color Dodge" play with the opacity until it looks like an inner glowing colour. SELECT>>>INVERSE...EDIT>>>CLEAR (do these to clear any pixels outside the type area) Name this Layer Inner Glow.


5) Make another Ctrl (or Command) key Selection of the Type Layer, and go to the Channels Palette. Create a New Channel, and name it "Raised" (or anything that you'll remember, personally..I don't care <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/wink.gif"> ). Fill the selection on the Raised Channel, with white.


6) With the Mask Selection still in place, go to FILTERS>>>BLUR>>>GAUSSIAN BLUR. Make your first blur intense, (again depending on the graphic size etc)use 20 or so. Now, do another Gaussian Blur, but cut the amount in half. Then another, cutting it in half again, etc. Until you get a smooth gradient from light middle, to a dark outside.


7) SELECT>>>INVERSE.....EDIT>>>CLEAR. Do both these on that channel, to remove any "halo" from the edge of your Raised Channel.


8) Go back to the Layers Palette...Create a New Layer above the Inner Glow Layer. Name it Contrast. Make ANOTHER Ctrl key Selection, and fill with BLACK this time, on the Contrast Layer.


9) Go to FILTERS>>>RENDER>>>LIGHTING EFFECTS. Now, I'm not going to go into Lighting Effects here, go check out Doc's tutorials on LE if you need more instruction than what I'll give here <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/smile.gif"> Create a Light from the top left diagonally down to the bottom right. Make it Directional, and moderately intense. Use the Raised Channel in the Channel Box, Check the White Is High box, and set the height somewhere around Maximum(Mountainous). Make sure that you can see the highlights on the top left, and the rest of the preview type looks a dark to medium grey. Click OK


10) If the layer looks bumpy, grainy, ridgey, etc. Keep the Selection intact, and do a Gaussian Blur (3 or so should do it) so it's smoooooth. SELECT>>>INVERSE...EDIT>>>CLEAR. Now SELECT>>>DESELECT. Set the Contrast Layer blending menu to Screen.


11) While still on the Contrast Layer, go to IMAGE>>>ADJUST>>>CURVES. The Graph shows a diagonal line from bottom to top. You want to create two points on that line (click on the line in two places). One near the bottom left (aim around the first vertical line over), and another near the top right (again, next line over from the edge)


12) Drag the bottom left point up toward the top, and drag the top right point toward the bottom. You'll see the preview starting to change, find a happy medium that doesn't look too grainy, or too dull. I'd use graphics to show, but I'm being lazy..just try it <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/biggrin.gif">


13) Create a drop shadow that is the same colour as what you want the type to be, and keep the opacity of the shadow low...then lower the opacity of the Type Layer until you get your desired effect.


And that's about it...a quickie, but hopefully from there you can input your own ideas and tricks. If you play with the curves, the brightness and contrast, and the blending menu type on the Contrast Layer, you'll get different effects.

Hope it helps a bit.


Peter

P.S. Guys, feel free to add to this, or tell everyone where I'm screwed in the head...hehe.

(gone for birfday cake)



ICQ:# 10237808

[This message has been edited by DarkGarden (edited 09-08-2000).]

DarkGarden, you rock. I've been watching the log images you created for the GurusNetwork, and I must say, you're damn good at what you do! Nothing like a nice, clear, concise how-to, with just enough left to the reader so they can make their own decisions and create something unique! Thanks, I liked this.

Your pal, -doc-

Doc:

I'm not sure you know how much of a compliment I take your post as. Coming from someone that I see as a pioneer and consumate professional in web graphics, I am truly flattered. All derriere smooching aside, it's due in part to seeing your site ages ago that made me become involved in learning PS.

I'm an oddity around here, I know, when I say...I'd never actually taken any of your tutorials. In my drive to teach myself, I didn't discover your brilliant "Hands On" section until well after I was deeply entrenched in my Adobe-ness. I'd visited the site (back before it was ozones.com I do believe...in the near new "visi" days if I recall), of course, and seeing what you were doing with 3D work in 2D programs, I was inspired greatly (when people used to ask if I had a "mentor" for what I was trying to accomplish graphically, I most often referred them to your site)...but apparently I was too stupid to head to the tutorials sections <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/mad.gif">

HOWEVER (as this is becoming a novel), after finally going through them well past the fact, I was impressed with how clear and concise you made each step, how you didn't talk down to the reader, or talk over their heads. They taught me as well, and for that I'm grateful. If anyone deserves credit for the step by steps I write, I'd have to say it's you sir.

And now with the dismissal of the Mutual Admiration Society...I'll just take the compliment, say thank you quite graciously, and hope we get a chance to work together at some point.

~tips the imaginary hat~

Peter



ICQ:# 10237808

[This message has been edited by DarkGarden (edited 09-08-2000).]

Cool! My favorite thing to hear is that I was one of the ones who helped someone to decide to go into this industry, makes me even happier when they turned out to be good, too! Like you, I simply learned the hard way, poking at the app until something cool happened, poking some more, forgetting what it was that I did to get that effect, reverse engineering it again by following a completely different path, etc. etc... repeat as necessary! <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/biggrin.gif"> Eventually you've screwed up so many times and followed so many wrong paths, you end up learning to do things that nobody else dreamed of! (Or at least finding a totally new way of doing it!) It's surprising to me still, I've learned so many cool things along the way, but even now folks who've used Photoshop for only a few weeks will surprise me with some basic "thing" I've missed! I love learning new stuff. I like your tutes, it'll be fun working with you on the GurusNetwork, which I think has the potential to completely eclipse my own site as far as traffic and usefulness. (MY site will always be "cooler", though! <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/cool.gif"> ) Glad to have you here in the Asylum, if I ever fire up ICQ I'll give you a jingle, cool?

Your pal, -doc-



[This message has been edited by DocOzone (edited 09-08-2000).]

Get a room, you two...

Har Har =P

What if your sole lot in life was to serve as a warning to others?

Ahh yes quite a mutual admiration society we have going on here!

heh.

But really DarkGarden I've checked out a lot of your work and it is great so you two deserve each other! I'm definately more of a front end coder than any sort of designer so I'm jealous as hell of you two, you both have great talent


Walking the Earth like Kane

Oh bit babee...stuff any jealousy away.

Doc and I both work our fingers to the bone, handcrafting our graphics with exacto knives and slide rules....

What?.....Photoshop does it for us? Oh well, be jealous then <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/tongue.gif">

Seriously though, I came from a background in fine arts, and physics, so taking the next step to new media was natural. I sort of separate Art and Design these days, on some levels anyway, but it's nice to see someone (anyone) appreciate it. Lord knows clients are always saying "It's pretty...but will it sell" <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/wink.gif">

To be honest, I envy cutters. Code is so clean compared to doing the graphic work, and the level of my functional design online is always determined by how interactively it can be coded. I'm learning PHP, and some PERL now myself, but there's nothing I love more than working with a good cutter (an upcoming project of mine is exactly that, myself doing the graphic work and some of the physics, while my partner, a codeGod in his own right, does all the dirty work).

So..<sniffle>...Code, and Graphic Geeks of the World.....UNITE....and we can make even more uselessly fun and mindnumbing online junk.


hehe


Peter

P.S....and bit....thanks <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/biggrin.gif">





ICQ:# 10237808

OK, mutual admiration aside, heh. I just picked on Peter because we havn't really had a chance to talk yet! Looking at my career overall, I'd have to say that having the *combination* of art/design skills along with the coding knowledge has given me a hell of an edge. Think about it, if you're a coder, you can be "part of the coding team", relegated to being just a useful team member, nothing more. If you just know graphics, then it's just a matter of picking the right graphics person, interchangeable. I end up working as the bridge between our high-end techies and the softer branding departments. As such, I get to be *the* most influential guy on every one of our heaviest projects, I'm the only one who knows everything! It's nice, you don't get locked in one room or the other, you can move around and do what's most fun. This thread should probably end up in the "Careers" section, what were we supposed to be talking about, anyway?

Your pal, -doc-