Engraving metal

Trying to make a tag texture to upload and make a tag to be linked to my fellow slave's collar. So I hunt around and pull up this tutorial so I can do the engraved gold look, like the tag is made of gold and was engraved with the text. So I find this tutorial...

http://www.creativemac.com/2003/09_sep/tutorials/psfoil030908.htm

And I start by making a circle with the Ellipse Tool, make a white circle, Text Tool and put in the text, move the text with the Move Tool so it's centered, clicked the -> button on the Layer box and select Merge Visable (as the tutorial presumes the image is one layer, some picture you loaded into PS) as Flatten Image kept deleting the circle so the entire image is white with the text. I wind up with this...

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a395/llloyd4/Photoshop-TagCreation-Before.jpg

Anyway, I run though the tutorial and I wind up with this after the Bas Relief step...

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a395/llloyd4/Photoshop-TagCreation-After.jpg

Which, obviously, by what the picture shows in the tutorial and what I got, I did something wrong. Help? All I need is a gold disc , heart, some other shape that looks like an artist used an engraving tool to put the text into the disc itself. Oh, FYI, this is Photoshop version 6.0... Thanks!

Rose

Basically they want you to do the .2 high pass, then add the Bas Relief filter with 15 detail. You can add a gradient layer style but you don't have to. I tried it and it works as they say. Start -NOT- at their first step, but at the point in the tutorial where they say "If you're using an image's natural texture rather than creating your own, as I am, the process is almost identical..." on page 2.

If I were doing it I'd probably make the shape, add a metallic style. Write the text, add a style to the text.

It looks to me like what you did was follow the instructions perfectly for that first page, making a "pitted texture", as shown in the last picture on the second page.

If you ignore the first page, as Osprey said, I think you'll be fine. You want the instructions for "Using the image's natural texture."

It's going to give you a fairly faint image, though. If that's what you want, fine; but if you are looking for something that's a little easier to read, you might be happier with this tutorialj.

Just to give you an alternative.

Yeah, as with PS 6 I don't have the Horizontal Text Tool, at least the Type Tool doesn't have the little -> on it to let me drop down and pick other Type tools. I need to get the latest PS I know, but the high price of it, usually, keeps me with the freebie version I got with my printer ages ago. But, thanks all! I'll try your suggestions! Or try to try your suggestions dispite the tutorial saying use the "Horizontal Text Tool" when I don't have one.

Rose

<peeks at Adobe.com and croaks!> 650$ for CS2, ow! Great program but I ain't gonna download it illegally to use it, but at prices like that, us little guys are screwed...

<peers at the tutorial> Not *quite* what I want... Here, as Niven wrote in his Ringworld series... Why try to describe sex when you have a perfectly good bed. This was done by Ashley Petunia for one of my alts, and no, it doesn't feel right to ask her how she did it, she does this for a living, why would she help competition and reduce the sales she might make, ya know?

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a395/llloyd4/nametagsample.jpg

See how it just looks like the metal was etched, you can see metal at the bottom of each letter, the other tutorial, though good (and has to be adapted as I am doing this on gold, not steel. ) and I thank you all for the tutorial link, but that's the effect I am trying to do on this name tag. Anyone know how this was done? Thanks! <Hug! to anyone who will accept it>

Rose

Last night I spent a minute doing this: Gold Thingy
which is just a round thing with a metallic style and lettering with a clear but shadowed style (would look better with shadow moved a bit but I did it fast).

You can use the styles you have, make your own, or use styles made by other people.

Rose, the only text tool you have is the Horizontal. Since it's the only one, they didn't bother to name it. Newer versions have Vertical, Horizontal Mask, and Vertical Mask.

You can do pretty much what you want by just making a gradient for your metal disk, applying some noise, and then using a Bevel and Emboss style. Play around until you see something you like.

For a "crisper" cut, you might want to try using an Inner Shadow on the type, and then making a Highlight layer manually by selecting the Layer Transparency (Hold Command/ctrl and click the Thumbnail, then Invert the Selection,) making a new layer above the type, and filling the selection with the Highlight color.

Then hold down the Option/alt key, and click on the line between the layers, to make the Text a Clipping layer. That will hide everything that's not above a pixel in the layer below. Use the Move tool (v) to nudge the Highlight up a couple of pixels, so you can see it, and there you go.

Or you might want to look at Flaming Pear's Super Blade Pro . It's a plugin that will let you make just about any kind of embossed, raised, or otherwise manipulated effect you want, and it's not expensive at all.

(Also, don't forget that, if you do decide to upgrade to the newest PS, you'll be paying an Upgrade price, not the full price. )

Ah, hmm...



Been playing around, Ashley said to use the pillow emboss. But fiddling with it and I can't get rid of the black of the text nor the shadow surrounding it. Was thinking if I could select transparent as a color swatch I could type the text in transparent and maybe do an inner shadow thingy and the pillow emboss and *maybe*, but I am totally unsure.



Will have to check it out and see, and try the above, as the text is rather hidden except for the Inner Shadow. Just like real metal that has been stamped or an engraver taken to it, so if light hits it directly it vanishs, but put the light to one side and it appears again.



Even if you are seperated by 3 full revision numbers or more? Mine is version 6, the newest is CS2 which is, like, 9 or 10? Most software will want you to buy full after that major of a change, I know Eudora does. Thank you again.

Rose

Don't know if it's already in Photoshop 6, but the trick to get rid of base colour is 'Fill' slider (also located in 'advanced blending' section of effect panel, named 'fill opacity' there.

By reducing fill amount down to near 0 you remove the base shape that defines emboss, while the emboss effect/shading itself remains intact.

For what's worth, inner bevel with chisel hard mode, direction set to down and moderate depth ... with ~20% amount of fill and blend mode of main text set to multiply or linear burn so it darkens the etched area... results in pretty much the look you're after.

hth ^^;

If you have a legal copy of PS 6, you may be be able to upgrade to CS2 for US $170. Quite the bargain.

I've never looked at it myself, but the free program called GIMP is supposed to be just as good as photoshop...and someone made a free plugin for it that makes it look/function much like photoshop itself. You might want to try that.

Oh, there we go, a *lot* better, though her gold looks more realistic than mine even though I am using the gold gradient and adding noise. Oh well, I'll figure that out. Thanks all!

Rose