Painted wall

Just a little update to let you know what Ive been up to :)
I am currently working from a tut on how to create a painted and peeled wall..

I still have some ideas to work in etc but the tut I am working from is well..really not my style ;) so I am making mine a bit 'darker'. As soon as I get this down right I will make up my own tut :)




I also just completed another tut on chiselled walls.. result..

I will post some tut links soon!

Creating metal Cut out plate

ok so there are many ways of doing this and just as many ways of tweaking it afterwards.. I will provide a simplified version and then maybe I can add mini tips for any elements you like in the actual original [img]http://www.imvu.com/shop/product.php?products_id=2038861[/img]frame image...











CREATE A BACKGROUND
first of all - colour your background - you can change it later but it just helps to have something you can contrast against :)




CREATE A METAL PLATE
create a new layer and use any filter you are familiar with to create a brushed steel texture - I have used the brushed steel filter in my photoshop plug ins but you can use a hair texture(yep!!) that will mimic the effect - just make sure its reasonably 'soft' -that is play around with the blur tool but keep the edges sharp - what we are now creating is the "metal plate"




CREATE A SHAPE CUTOUT GUIDE/TEMPLATE
create a new layer - write in your text or create a shape you want as your 'cut out' - do this in black or white - make it a solid colour so you can easily select it later - if in photoshop make sure you rasterize your text when you are happy. You need sharp edges for a clean 'cutout' look later so keep that in mind for your design



PUNCH OUT YOUR SHAPE
now select the parts you want to cutout in the shape/text layer - tip: in photoshop hold down the shift key if you are using magic wand and want to select multiple areas (such as individual letters).




PUNCH OUT YOUR SAHPE .2
now that you have your cutout areas selected according to your shape 'template' layer, select the metal plate layer and click delete-




REVIEW YOUR WORK!
turn off the shape layer for now - you should see the shape/text cut out of the metal plate!




MAKE A DETAIL LAYER - RUST
now, before we continue -make sure you are in the metal plate layer - select around the metal plate and create a new layer - this will ensure your area selection carries over into the new layer... apply a filter that you like which mimics 'rust' - if you don't have one simply fill the area with a solid colour for now - we will fix this later. For now we just want to preserve a duplicate layer with the same sharp edges as the metal plate so we can apply some detail later on. Once you have done this, turn that layer off (hide it)

SELECT...


NEW LAYER...


RUST/FILTER...


****(ADDED: at this point if you want to make an edge detail on the plate, either duplicate the metal plate layer or ideally, make a new layer keeping the selection and refer to the next /end of this thread for details - then return to this point)



MAKE THE PLATE DIMENSIONAL - DROP SHADOWS
now go back to your [color=red]metal plate layer[/color] and apply a drop shadow or perspective shadow to the layer - your plate appears to have a real engraved look!




REVIEW YOUR WORK!



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DETAIL LAYER- RUST:
you can now go [color=red]back to your shape layer[/color] and reselect the cut outs


SELECT the rust layer


DELETE
and press delete - again this will cut out the shape/text from the rust now as well.




REVIEW!!
I have made the rust layer slightly transparent...
deselect everything, turn off the shape layer and see your finished product!


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That outer edge detail I talked about!!


At the point where you are making a layer for your potential rust detail - invert your selection (this will make the outer area of the metal plate) create a new layer and apply a glow - this will give you the old edge look in my frame..I create a separate layer because I may want to soften the edge darkness later on by making the layer more transparent...

select - invert



apply glow



I use a rust filter for my rust in PhotoShop - but you may have something similar - you can use a cloud effect and make it more transparent or perhaps you can figure something else out?

You can also make effects like rust smudges from the letters and add screws to the corners and so on.. You could cut out edges roughly from the plate and add a glow detail inside that area to make the plate look dented or well used... theres plenty you can do with this!! let me know where you want to go from here! offer your own additions! :) but most of all enjoy making! (post your results too!)

Heres what can be achieved.... This is my simple catalogue frame for my imvu products using this effect and adding some features such as corrosion drips to the letters and screws to the plate...


cheers
SB :)

Creating curved text in Photoshop

This tut is to show you a couple of ways of creating and tweaking curved or shaped text in photoshop. I will show you two methods, you may enjoy or prefer one or the other so make sure you read over both and decide how you would like to approach it :)

PLEASE NOTE: clicking on the images will open them in the window and make them actual size if you need to view them closer :)

Text Warp Methods:
First of all type in the text that you want to use.


Ensure you are still in the text mode and click on the WARP TEXT tool in the upper menu bar. You will see a box pop up with a drop down menu. This menu is filled with selections of various preset warping functions such as a fish shape, flag warp and so on. You also have some tweaking bars that allow you to play around with the horizontal and vertical warping as well as a bend function on most presets. All of this allows you to warp your text.


Now, select the ARC preset - you will notice that your text automatically changes to the default arc - play around with the bend function to see what happens - tweak it to get it as close as possible to what you need. Try not to worry too much about size as you can adjust the size using the scale function later - you can also tweak further by using the warp tool later. So just get it as close as possible for now :)

You will see that by playing with the bend slider that you can bend the text either up or down...

When you are reasonably happy clock OK.


TWEAKING
If your text turns out a bit wonky, don't panic! The text warp function isn't perfect. You can tweak the text by using the edit/transform/warp function.

Its important to not that if you are still in the text tool and your text has not been rasterized, you will get a limited selection of what you can do - you will get one waypoint to warp like this...


if you see that, dont touch anything on the image just press return and then deselect the text tool and select the pointer tool. You need to right click on the text layer in your layer window and select/apply "rasterize layer". This turns the text into a normal layer.



now re do the edit/transform/warp function - you should see a whole different picture!! Notice the multiple waypoints? These allow you to pull, push and move that section of the text - it allows you to do anything from change structures of pictures to make slight tweaks - in this case the warp-ability will allow you to make sure your text looks super smooth, in line, and just how you want it!! Play around with those and see what you can come up with :)

ANOTHER WAY!

Another way of doing this once you understand those basic concepts is to rasterize your text, then go to edit/transform/warp and you will see the customization tools in the top tool bar...
This all does the same thing..so see which way you like to do all of it.

I prefer the text warp first only because I cant help but wonder if thats the best method seeming its made specifically for text? But you may find the regular warp tool more to your liking - its up to you from here!!!