For this tutorial you'll need the Blade Pro plugin and the LemonJello preset created by Tony Cheroke. You can find this very usefulpreset at , in the Graphics Section, Set Number 12.Thanks Tony!
Start by opening a new file, about 450 x 150 pixels, 16 million colorswith a black background. We'll create a new layer to work on (Layers:New)so that you can change the background later. Lay down some text in white.A good sized bulky font works best. Here I've used Arial Black, 72 pt.
Now using Blade Pro, apply the Lemon Jello Preset. You shouldget nice translucent yellow text.
Next, go to Colors, Adjust: Hue/ Saturation/ Lightness. Set the Hueto 0, the Saturation to 100, and the lightness to 36. You should get somevery white highlights.
The yellow color of the preset would interfere with thew effectthat we're after, so we're going to get rid of that next. Go to Colors:Grey Scale. Your text should become almost white again. But don't worry,the highlights we want are still there. When you're done, increase thecolors back to 16 million (Colors, Increase Color Depth: 16 Million Colors).
Apply a Hotwax Coating (Image, Other: Hotwax Coating) to your graphicnow. It will darken up quite a bit.
To brighten up the lighter areas, first go to Colors, Adjust: Hue/Saturation/Lightness.Use the same settings as before. When you're done, go to colors, Adjust:Brightness and Contrast. Set the Contrast to 31, and the Brightness to-6.
to create that transparent effect, first copy your text (Edit: Copy)Now set your background color to white, hit Delete (yes, your text willdisappear), and paste your text back as a transparent selection (Edit,Paste: As a Transparent Selection.)
Some of the inner edges here are a bit sharp and somewhat pixelated.To fix that, start by going to Selection, Modify: Expand. Increase yourselection by two pixels. you should see the Marquis increase in size. Toget the proper effect with smaller text sizes, you may need to decreasethis expansion to 1 pixel. Experiment to find out what works best withyour font.
Now to smooth those edges, we apply the Soften filter. (Image, Blur:Soften). The edges become softer, but the graphic has also blurred quitea bit.
To counteract the Blur, we first apply the emboss filter (Image,Other: Emboss)
Then we apply Sharpen More (Image, Sharpen: Sharpen More)
Then finally the Edge Enhance filter (Image, Edge: Enhance).
If you want to change the background, now is the time. Dark backgroundswork best. Here I've added a dark blue background texture. Remember, beforeyou try to change the background, you must select the Background Layerin the Layer Pallette or Menu.
To finish up, add a few highlights. This can be done using Eyecandy,or simply by creating a highlight sparkle in a separate window and pastingit in. The highlight here is just 4 crossed lines, pasted into the toplayer. Save your graphic as a JPG or GIF.
