Building Layer Styles.pdf

Blast from the Past: Building Layer Styles

by Al Ward

Action Fx Photoshop Resources

http://actionfx.com

Author, 'Photoshop for Right Brainers: The Art of Photo Manipulation', Sybex www.amazon.com

Author, 'Al Ward's Photoshop Productivity Toolkit: Over 600 Time Saving Actions', Sybex www.amazon.com

Looking back over my tutorials over the past few months, I realize I’ve again neglected to include much on type effects. True, the actions area is chock full

o’ Type Effects I’ve submitted, but I haven’t been writing on the subject of late. So let’s turn back the hands of time again and revisit an old friend of mine:

The Type Effect.

AS you are probably well aware, type is what first interested me in Photoshop years ago… that has never changed. I’m often asked how I go about building

the effects I offer here, in the NAPP Newsletter, or on my website. To be honest, once you have the process down creating new effects is simply a matter of

tweaking what you already know or have already done. Sometimes just a few simple tweaks to a Layer Style will drastically alter the end effect.

Allow me to demonstrate. I’ve created a background pattern out of a wood grain photo that I’ve manipulated with layers and masks to be seamless (which

really won’t matter for this particular tutorial).

Let’s say I want my layer style to match the pattern on the wood, for an etched effect of some sort. The first thing I want to do is go to Edit>Define Pattern

and save the image as a custom pattern to use in a few minutes.

I’ll create a new type layer above the background. The color of the type really isn’t important.

Before breaking out the carving tools, I’ll open the Layer Styles dialog box for the type layer and overlay the text with my pattern. The important thing here

is that the grain matches the background, so with the Scale set to 100% I’ll uncheck Link with Layer and press the Snap to Origin button. The type will now

be invisible in the image as the pattern overlay is perfectly blended to the background.

Now I will apply the default Bevel by simply turning it on in the Layer Styles dialog box. The type begins to appear, looking embossed in the wood with soft,

sanded edges.

Changing the character of the Bevel by manipulating the bevel and embossed settings as seen in the screen capture below is simply the result of trial and

error.

By manipulating the direction of the lighting, the amount of the bevel, the type of bevel, and the colors applied as shadows and highlights, the type now

appears to be etched from the surface of the wood or stamped into the wood texture.

As it appears now, the type still seems sanded or soft. This can be changed and’ roughened up a bit’ by using the same pattern as an applied texture. Again

my settings are seen in the capture below. As with the pattern overlay, uncheck Link with Layer before clicking on Snap to Origin.

An inner glow with the blend mode set to Multiply and the color changed to a dark brownish gray will help with the illusion of depth.

A gradient overlay will also help in this regard.

I will move my layers palette to the side so we can better see what is going on with the text.

As I’m working with a 300 ppi image, I’m going to apply a slight blur to remove some jaggies… I’ll leave that up to you though.

Keep in mind this is still simply a type layer with some white text: all we've done is added a few extra characteristics. Any of these effects we can simply

turn on or turn off via the Layer Styles dialog box.

Another cool trick we can use to alter the appearance of our text and how it relates to the wood beneath the is to change our bevel options. There is an

option in the bevel and emboss settings that allows us to apply the bevel to a stroke. Knowing what we do about Photoshop, we can use a pattern to stroke

(or outline) the text. Hmmmmm..

Let's give that a try and see what happens. I'll open the stroke options in the Layer Styles dialog box and simply apply a patterned stroke, using the pattern

we created and have used over and over again.

Now I will change the settings in the Bevel/Emboss area to accommodate the new Pattern Stroke.

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