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Creating Reflective Gold Text with Photoshop


This tutorial shows the steps required to create reflective gold text.

Open a new file at 400x200 pixels with the dpi set at 72 and the mode set to RGB. I'll show the images at 200x100 to save loading time.

Set the foreground color to R: 242, G: 248, B: 60 and the background color to R: 160, G: 107, B: 10.

Use the linear gradient tool with the "foreground to background" option set and fill the image from top to bottom

figure 6.1


Switch to the default colors. This can be done by clicking on the small black and white squares in the lower left-hand corner of the color swatch:

figure 6.2


Swap the foreground and background colors by clicking on the small curved arrow in the upper right-hand corner of the color swatch. The foreground choice should be white and the background choice should be black.

Create a new layer by clicking on the rectangle icon with the bent up corner in the layers palette.

Enter some text using the text tool. I used the Modern font at 150 points with bold and anti-aliased checked. Center the text by pressing Ctrl-X and then Ctrl-V. (Cut and Paste).

figure 6.3


Make the background layer current by clicking on its entry in the layer palette.

Use SELECT, INVERSE to invert the selection and press the delete key.

Delete layer1 by dragging its icon (in the layers palette) down to the small trash can icon. This will leave the selected gold text on a black background.

figure 6.4


Make a copy of the background layer by clicking on the layer in the layer palette and dragging it down to the new layer icon (the rectangle with the bent up corner).

Make the background layer current again by clicking on its icon in the layer palette. Choose SELECT, ALL and press the delete key. Choose SELECT, NONE.

At this point you should have a solid black rectangle for the background layer and the gold gradient text in the layer above.

Click on the channel tab in the layer palette to bring up the channel palette and create a new channel. (This is done by clicking on the rectangle icon with the bent corner, the same as creating a new layer in the layer palette.)

On the new channel enter the same text and center it. Change the foreground color to a mid-gray by clicking on the white foreground color square in the color swatch and choosing a gray color from the left side of the color picker area in the dialog box that pops up. (I used RGB = 121, 121, 121.)

Use EDIT, STROKE with "4 pixels" and "e;inside" as the options. This will outline the white text with gray.

figure 6.5


Choose FILTER, BLUR, GAUSSIAN BLUR set at 3.0. Choose SELECT, NONE and run the gaussian blur again, this time with the setting at 1.0. This will help kill some of the jaggies that might be created.

figure 6.6


Click the layers tab to go back to the layers palette. Make the text (background copy) layer the current layer. Use the magic wand tool to select all of the black background. Any areas inside of the letters can be added to the selection by clicking the mouse in those areas while holding down the shift key.

Once all of the background is selected choose SELECT, INVERSE to select the text.

Choose FILTERS, RENDER, LIGHTING EFFECTS and use the following settings:

• Style: 2AMSPOT
• Light Type: SPOTLIGHT
• Intensity: 17
• Focus: 34
• Gloss: 50
• Material: 50
• Exposure: 0
• Ambience: 4
• Texture Channel: #4
• White is High: Checked
• Height: 50

Manipulate the light so that it comes in from the top-left, and be sure that all of the selected letters are bright. This can be done by drawing the light closer to the letters and widening the oval to a circular shape.

figure 6.7


De-select the selection by choosing SELECTIONS, NONE.

figure 6.8





That's it

 

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