This is a very easy effect that makes text look like it's been sculptedfrom beach sand. The appearance is reminiscent of the small ripples leftin sand as the tide rolls out.
Start by opening a new file (File: New), 400 x 150 (or whatever sizeyou need for your text), with 16 million colors and a black background.
Now place your text. A wide, rounded font seems to work best forthis effect. Here I've used Lingwalla Black Bold, 72 point. When the TextDialog opens, make sure that the boxes marked Antialias and Floatingare both checked. For your text color, select a light blue-green (RGB 0,255, 255.)
Next, we need to play with the text a bit. First expand your selectionby about 4 pixels (Selections, Modify: Expand.) If you are using a smallertext size (say, 65 point, as in the page title), you might want to expandby only two pixels to keep the final result clear enough to read. You shouldsee the marquis (the marching ants) move out from your text.
Now add a bit of Wind Deformation (Image, Deformations:Wind.) Setthe Strength to 15, and the direction from the Left.
Next, a little Gaussian Blur is needed (Image, Blur: Gaussian Blur.)Set the Radius to 8.
Okay, here's where we start to make the ripples. Go the Image, Effects:Chrome. Set Flaws to 7, Brightness to 0, make sure the Use Original Colorbox is UNchecked, and set the color to white. You should get some interestingblack to white gradients inside your text.
To get the 3D ripple effect, simply apply the Emboss filter (Image,other: Emboss.)
Gray is obviously the wrong color for sand, so we are going to adjustthings a bit here. Leaving your selection active, create a new layer (Layers:NewRaster Layer.) In the Blend Mode dropdown menu, choose Hard Light. Nowset your foreground color to a deep golden brown (RGB 173, 140, 74.) Onthe new layer, use the Flood Fill tool or Airbrush to color in your selection.The text will change to the golden brown without losing the ripples.
Now go to your Layers Menu or Palette and select the Backgroundlayer again. The text is the right color, but it needs to be more grainy.To get that sandy look we add some Noise (Image, Noise: Add.) Set the %Noise to 40, and check the box marked Uniform.
To make the background sandy, we first invert the selection (Selections:Invert),and then use the Flood Fill tool (set to Solid Color) to fill in the backgroundwith the golden brown.
Next add some Uniform noise to the background. This time set the% Noise to 20.
Finally, deselect everything (CTRL D) and save your file as a JPGor GIF.
If you're creating a page with a beach theme you might want to createa small square of sandy texture to use as your background.
