[Hall of tricks]
In this exercise we will learn how to fill the outlined text
with a texture. The white area inside the text can be selected, turned into an
object then applied a texture of your choice. In the Gradient
Outlined Text exercise we learned to add colored light in the text, in this one I'll
show you how easy it is to make a copy instead of the 'bright' area inside the text.
Finally, we will use the Background Designer to fill it with a texture.
As shown in the above example, the effect can be very
interesting. You might want to look at the Outlined Text
exercise to review how I use light to make the text outlined but leave the Specular
light to white. In the example below, I used a Swis721 BT font at 70 points.
Now we need an easy way to select the inner
part of the text only.
- Press Ctrl+D to create a duplicate of your
image (use the Window menu or Ctrl+F6 to return to the
first one).
- Press Spacebar to select the
background image, then choose Fill from the Edit menu.
- Choose a color that clashes with the color of
the text (I always choose the bright red), then click OK.
- Right-click anywhere in your image an select Merge
All. Remember, we're working on a copy of the original.
- Click the Magic Wand tool and
set Similarity to 150. Also make sure Search Connected Pixel
is not enabled.
- Now click in the white part of the text. A
higher value for Similarity will insure that you also select the
dithering inside the text. A value too little will only (and only) select the white.
Zoom very close to see for yourself.
- Finally right-click in the selection and
choose Convert to object.
At this point all we got is the inner part of
the text converted to an object. Now let's apply some interesting effects to it.
- Press the Spacebar to
select the background and press Del. Click the object created in
the previous step.
- Choose Background Designer
from the Web menu.
- Make SURE that the Apply
on image option is selected.
- Choose a Schema (I choose Texture
14 for my example).
- Pick a color from the thumbnail (I choose
the first one).
- Play with the different Background
types until you're satisfied
- Finally click OK.
In the following steps we will apply a bevel shape to the
object with the Button designer and adjust its color with
- Choose Button Designer from
the Web menu and select Any Shape.
- In the Basic tab set Light
Elevation to at least 60. This will give more glow to the image
- In the Bevel tab select the
second bevel type
- Click OK.
Now you might want to adjust the color of
our object since the Background Designer didn't offer much choice of
color after all. Make sure the object is selected and:
- Choose Hue & Saturation
from the Format menu
- Drag the Hue slider to
change the color until you're happy.
- Drag the Saturation slider
to make the color darker or paler.
- Click OK when done.
Now it's time to apply this beautiful
creation to our original text.
- While the object is still selected choose Copy
from the Edit menu
- Use the Window menu to go
back to the original outlined text (or press Ctrl+F6. I love
keyboard shortcuts).
- Choose Paste then As
An Object from the Edit menu.
- Zoom at 4x and drag the object to match the
outlined area of the text.
- Finally click the Text Tool,
select the original text. You'll know your on it when you see a T
in the mouse pointer.
- From the Style control,
select Shadow then again from the Style control select Options
under Shadow and set the option as follow:
If you want to move the text and the
texture around, click the Pick Tool and drag a rectangle around both
object and relocate them. Finally, right-click anywhere and choose Merge All.
