600 Credits For Best Text Tutorial!

thanks, and so far i like krusifix and i like bloodandiron but he doesnt have a tutorial yet only a pic

 

Okay, worked hard to finnish it on time so you can move on
Have fun


Text tutorial

This lesson is probably one of the most important lessons. Many sigs i see go wrong on this area. The text is very important for a sig. You can make such a beautiful sig, but when the text is screwed up your sig is doomed. In this lesson i will tell you some about the basic use of text, and ill give some examples of how you can make a good text.

Each signature requires a different text layout, its up to you to judge that!

Tools we are going to use:

- Type tool.

- Brush tool.

- Rectangular Marqueel tool.

Starting

Okay first to know is where we can get nice fonts. Mostly i got to http://www.dafont.com There are many nice and good font, take your time to browse around a bit. To install the font unzip them in C:/WINDOWS/FONTS and they are installed and ready to use.

I will demonstrate the text effects on a sig i made. The effects we are going to learn are:
*Beveled text.
*Glowing text.
*Warped text.
*Pixel text.

TIP: Set the aa to smooth for the main text.(You can find it in the optionsbar when you have the type tool selected)

Beveled Text
Beveled text mostly look the best on a bold looking font, we are going to use 'Arial' for this first tutorial.
Use your type tool to type your text. I use white as my foreground color, remember to place your text layer ontop of all you layers.



Now right click that text layer and select the 'Blending options'. The window that will pop-up allows us to make changes to the text. So lest get started!

1. Select the 'Drop shadow' option, the text will now drop a shadow on the rest of the sig. This brings more depth in our product.

2. Select the 'Inner shadow' option. This will make a shadowed edge on the sides of your text. Look in the window if you see the opacity slide. Set this to about 40%.

3. Select the 'Bevel and Embross' Option. This will transform your text into more 3d like text. Look around and try to find the size slide Always set the size to 0 or 1 Or else your text will look bad...

4. Select the 'Stroke' option. This will put an outline around your text. Make the stroke 1 pixel, now hit the red color, and set it to black. Last thing to change is the opactity, set that to 40%.

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Next few steps are custom! You can either apply them or chose to not apply.

5. Select the 'Color Overlay' option. By hitting that red area you can select another color for your text.

6. Select the 'Gradient overlay' option. By hitting the gradient you can make your own gradient.

I used the Gradient overlay and here is my result.



TIP: Place your text under the colorlayer, this will blend the text more

Warped text
Warped text means simply that the text isnt in a straight line, but rather in all sorts of curves. We have to complete the beveled text before we can start with the warped text. So i will use this signature again:



1. Select the Type tool, and look above in the options bar for the next icon:

2. Press it, and a window will pop-up.

3. Look for the 'Arc' option. You see that the text is changing, but it doesnt look to good righ now, so lets set the 'Bend' to 20%.

This is what i got out of this:



TIP: Play around with the options untill you find what you need, and what looks good offcourse.


Glowing text
This is a fairly simple technique to create a nice looking text for your signatures. For this tutorial we need a simple, thin and stylish Font. I will use Times new roman for this, at around 30 in size.

1. Type your text in a White color to start with.

2. Because the text is smaller its also less visable, so we have to duplicate it once.



3. Go layer -> Duplicate layer. The font is more visable now.

4. Now right click on the top Text layer, and go to blending options.

5. Select the 'Drop shadow' option, the text will now drop a shadow on the rest of the sig. This brings more depth in our product.

6. Select the 'Outer glow' option, the text will have an outer glow now. Click on the yellow color and set it to white.

 

Part II




Result so far:



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If you like the text, plz leave it the way you have it now. I will explain now how to get a stylish bar underneath your text.

1. Go Layer -> New layer

2. Now select your brush tool () and select a 1 pixel hardround brush, and draw a line underneath your text.
Hold the Shift key for a straight line.Its doesnt matter if the line is longer then your text, or not equal devided among both sides, we will corect that layer on.

My result:



3. Now select your Rectangular Marqueel tool, and select two areas like in the example (Hold shift while making the second).



4. Go Select -> Feather, and set this to 8 pixels.

5. Hit the Delete key once.

6. Go Select -> Deselect.

7. Now right click on the Line layer, and go to blending options.

8. Select the 'Outer glow' option, the text will have an outer glow now. Click on the yellow color and set it to white.

Now you should have something like i have down here:




Pixel fonts
Pixel fonts are the most misused fonts ever. They are designed to be simple and gentle, this means that you should not apply many effects on them and keep them small.
Most pixel fonts can be used best between 8 and 10 pixels in size. Its also very important to set the aa to NONE.
The two most important don'ts on pixel fonts:
- Never use them to big.
- Never apply Bevel and embross.
- Always set the aa to none!

The pixel fonts i use:
Visitor download here. (Use around 8 pixels)
Silkscreen download here. (Use around 12/10 pixels)

After knowing that not much can go wrong on using pixel fonts, this is the way to use them:




Good luck all on your text!

 

thanks a lot man nice tutorial, definitly one of the best

 

Well its simple and aimed at the people who just recently start working on gfx. I am making an entire lesson serie abour sigs and creating them

 

I'll make a tut now, so if you can wait a bit I'd appreciate it.

 

This should be interesting.

 

yes it should maynerd got the best text on gr

 

wohohoh, really good text tuts guys

 

cant wait to see maynards

 

here is the link to the video tut bullet

hope you like it

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/18511044/

 

Pfft, Maynard better post his tut on the forums. No PM'ing it to bullet.


However, in a SOTW thread or something, you were talking about how the text was just messing with the transformations and blending it in. It takes a lot of creativity to pull that off well though.

 

if Maynard is as good as all of you say he is I can't wait for his tut that bullet's paying for lol

 

if it is good u have to think about this... i am paying 300 creds for it if it is the best