Cookie Cutter Text

This technique produces very nice 3D text that has lots ofdepth to it. It's very similar to my 3D Block Letters tutorial, but witha variation that gives a much different final look. Start by opening anew file,

about 450x200 pixels, 16 million colors with a white background.Add some text. Light or medium colors work best. I would suggest a fontwith some width to it. This is Lingwalla Black Bold, 72 pt.

Deselectyour text when you are done. (Selections:None)

Go to Image, Blur: Motion Blur. Set the angle at 45 degrees, andthe Intensity at 20 pixels. This is where we get our first hint of the3D effect. It just needs to be enhanced a little.

Using your Selection Tool, draw a rectangle around your text. Copythe text (Edit:Copy). Now set your Background color to white and hit thedelete key. Your text will disappear, but don't worry. We still have iton the clipboard. Now paste the text back as a Transparent Selection (Edit,Paste: As Transparent Selection) You should see the Marquis around theedges of your text now.

Now we begin enhancing that 3D effect. First we apply a Hotwax coating(Image, Other:Hotwax.)

Then we smooth it out to get some of the highlights. We do this byapplying our Motion Blur again (Image, Blur: Motion Blur). Just keep thesame setting you did the first time. I realize this looks like a mess rightnow, but it gets much better soon.

You may have noticed that the image has a lot of jagged, blocky edges.We need to clean these up a bit. In a way, we're going to apply a "manual"antialias. Go to Selections, Modify: Expand. Expand your selection by onepixel. Now Soften the image (Image, Blur: Soften). The edges become muchsmoother and blend into the white background.

Now we make it look more like real text again. Simply add your originaltext, and position it to the lower left. Try to make the edges match upperfectly. This gives the final "Block 3d " effect. Now we apply the variation.Remember: Don't deselect your text.

Contract your text by about 3 pixels (Selections, Modify: Contract).You should see the Marquis move in, leaving a nice edge.

Here's the depth effect. Go to Image, Effects: Cutout. Leave FillInterior with Color UNCHECKED, and set the Shadow color to Black, the Opacityto 100, the Blur to 10, and the Vertical and Horizontal offsets to 4 or5. There you go, text that looks like the face has been carved out.

You can adjust the thickness of your text easily by adjusting theintensity of the Motion Blur. The text below was done using a blur of only15. The font used was Partridge, 72 point.

Email me at State_of_Entropy@hotmail.com

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Tutorials for PSP 4, 5, 6, and 7 as well as presets and tutorials for the BladePro plugin.