Upper image: 17-pixel deep
pink glow above 29-pixel gold glow.
Lower image: Additional 5-pixel
gold glow above the two others.
In this tutorial, you'll learn how
to put a single, double, or triple multicolored glow behind your text.
Here are the steps to create a fiery glow and suggestions for additional
treatments including beveling the text, as shown in the image above:
1. Open
a new black Canvas 380 x 200 pixels, 300 ppi.
2. Click
the Text tool, click the Canvas, and in the Controls:Text
dialog box, choose a bold/fat font, then adjust the Point Size to
24
and
Tracking
to whatever makes the letter spacing look right for the font you're using.
(Do a test, then Edit/Undo, or Ctrl/Command+Z, and try again.)
3. In
the Art Materials palette RGB Color section, set the color
to (blue):
R:39
G:12
B:244
4. Type
some
text using the final Tracking setting.
5. In
the
Objects
palette Layers section, click the Group button, then the
Collapse
button, and click Commit All to put the text Shapes on a Layer.
6. Double-click
the
Layer and, in the Layer Attributes dialog box, rename the Layer
Text,
or whatever name makes sense to you. For instance, you might name it whatever
word it spells out. For this tutorial, we'll call it Text.
7. In
the
Objects
palette Masks list, highlight the Text Mask.
8. In
the
Masks
menu, choose Copy Mask and click OK.
New Mask 1 will
appear in the Masks list below Text Mask.
9. Highlight
the
Text
Mask and, in the Layers section menu, choose
New Layer
and rename it Glow-5 pixels-gold.
10. With
the
Glow-5
pixels-gold layer highlighted, in the Masks section, choose
Load Selection (or from the
Select
menu, choose Load Selection, and choose
New Mask 1).
11. With
the
Glow-5
pixels-gold layer highlighted, in the Select menu, choose Feather
and type
5 or 6 (the number will depend on the font and text
size you're using and the effect you want to achieve, but we want to keep
this part of the glow relatively narrow).
12. In
the
Art
Materials palette RGB Color section, set the color to (gold):
R:244
G:164
B:12
13. With
the
Glow-5
pixels-gold layer highlighted, use Effects/Fillor
Ctrl/Command+F
to fill the selection.
14. In
the
Layers
list, click and drag the Glow-5 pixels-gold layer below the
Text layer.
15. Create
a
New
Layer, rename it Glow-17 pixels-pink, Load Selection
New Mask 1, Feather 17
pixels and Ctrl/Command+F to fill the selection with
deep pink:
R:252
G:10
B:227
16. In
the
Layers
list, click and drag the Glow-17 pixels-pink layer below the Glow-5
pixels-gold layer.
17. Create
a
New
Layer, rename it Glow-29 pixels-gold, Load Selection
New Mask 1, Feather 29
pixels and Ctrl/Command+F to fill the selection with gold:
R:244
G:164
B:12
18. In
the
Layers
list, click and drag the Glow-29 pixels-gold layer below the Glow-17
pixels-pink layer. Now you have a stack of three glow layers below
the Text layer. Click the Eye icon for each glow layer to
close it and see how different glow combinations look together.
Some additional,
optional treatments, then a last NOTE about glow layers and saving files:
BEVEL WORLD
- Highlight the
Text layer, then go to the Objects palette,
Dynamic
Layers section, click the Bevel World icon (or choose it from
the drop down list), then click the Apply button and experiment
with the settings to get the effect you want. In the sample image above,
I chose a Pattern and moved the Reflection slider to the
right to make it reflect from the text's surface. Move the Bevel World
dialog box to the side of your screen so you can see the effect on your
image before clicking the Done button. This is the Pattern
I used as a reflection. As you can see, it doesn't take anything fancy
to get an interesting reflection, just some color and contrast.
APPLY LIGHTING
- Highlight the Text Layer, and in the Effects menu, choose
Surface
Control, Apply Lighting.
APPLY SURFACE
TEXTURE - Highlight the Text Layer,
and in the Effects menu, choose Surface Control, Apply
Surface Texture and experiment with the settings. You can pick a new
Paper
or Pattern (Original Luminance uses the current
Pattern)
while the dialog box is still open and see the effect in the Preview
window.
NOTE:
Remember that you can have as many different glow effects for one piece
of text as you want, and use them one at a time by shutting all other layers
temporarily, leaving only the text layer and chosen glow layer, or set
of glow layers, open. Once you're happy with a pair of text and glow layers
(or a group of glow layers with the text layer), group them, then copy
(Ctrl/Command+C) and paste them into a new image (Edit menu,
Paste
Into New Image). In the new image, Collapse the Group, then drop the
Layer to the Canvas and save the image in any non-Painter RIFF format,
depending on how you're going to use the image.
-
TIFF at 300 ppi is good
for
printing.
-
Images for the Web can be as
low as 72 ppi.
-
JPEG is good for images with
smooth
color transitions.
-
GIF for transparent GIFs, images
that have areas of flat color, or for line art.
Be sure to save your master file
as a RIFF so you can retain the Layers and work on it again if you
want.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial
and find lots of ways of our own to
add a little "Glow" to your life.
In any case...
Have Fun!
:o)
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