Preserved Topic: Texturized Text

I know this is sort of a novice question and I've tried to experiment around with the program before i asked the question. I wanted to know how to make text appear through a background with a texturized surface, so that the text looks as if it has risen through the surface without having to break the pattern of the texture. Thanks for any helps i recieve.

There's several ways you can do this. The easiest way would be to make a selection of your text, copy that part of the texture, and paste it above your text layer.

Ok, here's the basic concept:


» make your texture.

» on a new layer, create your text.

» select the transparency of the text (ctrl+click on the text layer)

» create another new layer

» nudge the selection up and to the (right or left) 1-2 pixels (or more if you want more height)

» now, CTRL+ALT+CLICK on the text layer. this will select only the portion of the selection that was nudged outside of the original text area.

» nudge the selection back down and over however many pixels you nudged it up...

» fill the selection with white.


» repeat this process but nudge down and the opposite direction from the 1st time, and fill the resulting selection with black.

This will give you a highlight layer and a shadow layer, over your texture. Play with blurring these layer until you get the desired softness. If you want a soft inner edge, but a crisp outer edge to the text, do this:

» select the text layer transparency again.

» INVERSE the selection (Select » Inverse)

» on both your highlight and shadow layer, press DELETE. this will give a nive crisp outer edge.


Of course, this is but one of many techniques...there are always alternate methods to acheive any effect.

Load text Layer as selection, toss in to an Alpha channel. Gauss the Alpha channel, maybe even do a multi-tiered Gauss ala Doc. Back to the texture Layer and Lighting Effects.

Kinda gotta be careful about the light source. Might look like it was chiseled in instead of raised. Other visual clues would be great.


---
I, Warjournal, Techincal-Slop Author Extraordinaire.

See - it wasn't a novice question at all! Got some Asylum heavy hitters intrigured, and they don't even agree what's the best way


If you want a serious extrusion, it's going to be hard. I've seen a 3-D app like Bryce do some pretty neat stuff, using the text as a height map.

If all you want is to suggest a moderate amount of height without monkeying around with distorting the background texture, any of the above suggestions will do it. I'd personally lean toward lighting effects. But here's a potentially simpler route. Render a copy of the text layer (a copy, so you can get back to the text if you need to; rendered so you can filter it). Blur the copy. Emboss the blurred copy. Set embossed layer to overlay. The gray part of the embossed layer disappears (it's the "neutral" color for overlay) leaving only the highlight and shadow. This will give a pretty rounded effect. If you want to suggest a flat top, plateau sort of effect, load the original type as a selection (another good reason for having kept it) into the embossed layer, fill with 50% gray. Flat top. Any more questions? Lots to play with here. If you get stuck, post again!

[This message has been edited by Steve (edited 06-09-2001).]

See that's what I love about hangin' around here. I don't need to make any extruded text stuff, but I found a pearl of knowledge in Steve's post, to wit:

"The gray part of the embossed layer disappears (it's the "neutral" color for overlay) leaving only the highlight and shadow."

That's good to know. And I didn't. Thanks for the collateral, Steve.

Edit: Here's what I got using Steve's technique. This would work somewhat better at larger sizes, but it gets exactly what was asked as far as I can tell:


I gaussian blurred only 2 pixels (more looked too ragged at this size) then embossed and set to overlay. Then I duplicated the layer for an enhanced effect. Too sweet, Steve.

[This message has been edited by linear (edited 06-09-2001).]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I really learned a lot on this topic. I didn't know that everyone would be this patient to help me.

Thanks
- Tony

Yup... I just sit here & copy & paste...copy & paste.

In many ways i find it easier to bring up notepad and follow the instructions than bring up a full blown tutorial... I've only recently gone up to a 17 inch monitor... before it was nothing but frustrating bringing up a full blown tut...and bouncing back and forth between ps & the tut... so notepad i found was the way to go with a 'lot' of the info.

I'm always amazed...and always appreciative... thanx ppl !

Let me just add this:

with the method I suggested, if you want a crisp *inner* edge and a soft blurred outer edge (which seems to be what the other methods are leaning towards..), you can delete the text layer's transparency from the highlight and shadow layers - don't inverse the selection, just delete. voila.

all of these are good suggestions with their own particular pros and cons. good stuff to know

quick example:



( http://www/dl-44.f2s.com/sigs/extrude.jpg )




[This message has been edited by DL-44 (edited 06-10-2001).]