LFC4EVER

Glad you like the gold text. Made a tut for it. viewtopic.php?f=37&t=27322 Its a better version than before IMO, hope you can follow it well. The phone took a couple of days, doing random stuff in between, going out etc. I'd say a day if you work at it all day. The iPod, about an hour, headphones took 2. Thanks! Thanks! If others request a tut, i'll make one when i have time. Well, i've decided to do a planet exploding for the starfield. I've yet to begin working on it though. Load of h/w to complete over 1-week holiday. ___________ EDIT: Yay! 4k views!

This tutorial is available as a PDF. Click here to view or download it Make some Gold Text! NOTE: Some knowledge of Paint.NET may be required, and some knowledge of using Alpha Mask helps. Want to make some pretty cool text like this? You do? Well, read on! Plugins Needed: Align Object Alpha Mask - See here for more information on Alpha Mask: Clicky! Multi-color Gradient Outline Object Panelling The Method: [*:33ad8grh]Open a new image (Ctrl+N) at a fairly large size. I used 1500x300. Add a radial gradient background, using Hex: #543600 as your primary colour, and Hex: #161300 as your secondary colour. If you don't know where to insert the colour codes, just click on the "More" button in the colours window, and type or copy and paste them into the "Hex:" field. You should have something similar to this: [*:33ad8grh]Now, add a new layer :AddNewLayer: and name it "text mask". With white as your primary colour type your text in (all in capital letters). Using a font like Times New Roman gives good results, and try to use a size that covers most of the canvas. Then, Effects > Align Object. Apply these settings: Under the Both option, click the middle button(it should be the circle and at the bottom of the plugin it should say Middle Center). Your text should be nicely aligned in the middle of your canvas. Then add a new layer :AddNewLayer: , move it directly below :Down: the "text mask" layer and fill it with black. Image > Flatten :Flatten: (Ctrl + Shift + F). Your mask should look like this: Save it (Filename - text mask, Filetype - .png) somewhere like My Documents or Desktop, just make sure you know where you saved it. Then Ctrl + Z, to undo the flatten. You should be able to see your 3 layers again after you've removed the flatten. [*:33ad8grh]You can delete :Delete: your black background layer, you won't be needing that now. Now on your "text mask" layer, apply Effects > Object > Outline Object: Width: 1 Softness: Anything less than 250. Color: Black (R: 0, G: 0, B: 0) All other setting default. You should have a thin black outline around your text, like this: Add a new layer :AddNewLayer: and call it "Gold Text". This will be the actual colour of the text. Select the "text mask" layer and using the magic wand tool : Tolerance<50, Flood Mode: Global select the outside of the text, by clicking anywhere on the canvas, but not on the text itself. Then Invert Selection (Ctrl+I). Next, select the "Gold Text" layer and apply Effects > Render > Multicolour Gradient: Use these settings: De-select (Ctrl+D) :Deselect: Delete :Delete: the text mask layer, then, Effects > Object > Alpha Mask: load your mask file. Tick the Mix Alpha button and click OK! You should now have neat, anti-aliased gradient text like this: [*:33ad8grh]Duplicate :DuplicateLayer: the "Gold Text" layer 3 times. Re-name the layers so it looks like this: Now to apply some Bevel to the text. So.. For the "Light Bevel" layer: Effects > Drop Shadow: Offset X: 4 Offset Y: 0 Widening Radius: 0 Blur Radius: 0 Color: White Uncheck the "Keep Original Image" box. Then, Effects > Object > Alpha Mask: Load the mask file, and make sure the "Invert Mask" box is ticked. Then, Effects > Distort > Panelling: Move Vertical: 0 Move Horizontal: -4 Then, Effects > Blurs > Gaussian Blur: Radius: 2 Then, Effects > Object > Alpha Mask: Load the mask file, and make sure the "Invert Mask" box isn't ticked. Then, apply a blend mode on the layer. Layers > Layer Properties (F4) :Properties: , or double click the layer. Set the blend mode to "Overlay". This is what it should look like so far: For the "Dark Bevel" layer: Effects > Drop Shadow: Offset X: -4 Offset Y: 0 Widening Radius: 0 Blur Radius: 0 Color: Black Uncheck the "Keep Original Image" box. Then, Effects > Object > Alpha Mask: Load the mask file, and make sure the "Invert Mask" box is ticked. Then, Effects > Distort > Panelling: Move Vertical: 0 Move Horizontal: 3 Then, Effects > Blurs > Gaussian Blur: Radius: 2 Then, Effects > Object > Alpha Mask: Load the mask file, and make sure the "Invert Mask" box isn't ticked. Then, apply a blend mode on the layer. Layers > Layer Properties (F4) :Properties: , or double click the layer. Set the blend mode to "Reflect". You should end up with this: Now, we're nearly done so don't give up yet! For the "Shadow" layer: Effects > Drop Shadow: Offset X: 0 Offset Y: 0 Widening Radius: 0 Blur Radius: 10 Color: Black Uncheck the "Keep Original Image" box. Optional: Then, apply a blend mode on the layer. Layers > Layer Properties (F4) :Properties: , or double click the layer. Set the blend mode to "Reflect". It should now be looking like this: Well, guess what!? All you need to do now is save the .pdn of the text (just incase). Then Flatten (Ctrl+Shift+F) :Flatten: , Resize(Ctrl+R) :Resize: and set the percentage to 50%. Save it as a .png and post it here! Result: If you had any problem following this tutorial, then feel free to post and ask for help. I also hope that by following this tutorial you learnt something new; big or small. I also encourage you to try out different figures and colours to create maybe Silver Text? or Ruby? or Sapphire? or Emerald?

Try adjusting Levels :Levels: or Curves :Curves: or Curves+

Done for v2. The flow.. well, my excuse is.. its not supposed to have flow. Thanks! Changed the text, and yeah, lines were done with line/curve tool. The glow, i just did that myself, didn't look at any tuts. So.. v2: better?

100% PDN except for stock. Consists of 60+ layers

Its 15-degrees.

Hmmm, i quite like that idea. I'll think of some ideas until i get back home from school tomorrow. Maybe i'll have an amazing concept, maybe not. Glad you like the starfield, it wasn't easy.

I'm not liking the river. It looks like you just applied dents to some colours and called it done (maybe a bit of displacement?). You can do much better. Blend the river with the texture of the ground more too. Right now, its more like ground|river|ground. Maybe add a transparency gradient? Or a gradient mask with added displacement? The nebulae thing in background is a bit :? to me. It looks like its just been slapped on. Now, the far planet in the background is nicely done. I really like the texture on it, it looks really real. Great job on that! How do you make textures like that? I'm always having problems trying to make a worth planet texture, and i'd love to know how you made the one in your current piece. P.S. Sorry if i sounded a little harsh, but no pain, no gain. hehe

Well, i've put aside realistic 3D letters for a bit, because i've decided to work on a spacescape. This is the starfield i've come up with so far, but i'm not sure what kind of planet activity i should go for. I'm going for a mysterious, empty and minimal theme. Any suggestions? The real size is 1920x1200, but this is re-sized for the forum. I didn't use clouds in the starfield at all.

Thanks, i messed a bit more with the method and used it on some diamond plate metal. I don't think it turned out as well as the wood one, but it looks nice anyway.

Krutch-it, your first one is my favourite. Simple but elegant and effective. The rest don't appeal to me a lot though, for the ones that have renders in them, you should use some effects to make them blend in the with sig, add lighting etc. The blending applies for Krutch-it, christiansteele and The great 1. Try smudging or looking at some sig tutorials on how to do so. _______________________ Text embossed into wood. All PDN, except for wood. It was quite simple actually. It says water, because i was going to do liquid text on the wood, but i kinda phased it into this embossed version.

I'd lower the opacity of the light rays. They stand out a bit too much IMO.

Try Tube Oblique, or the Oblique plugin, both available in Madjik's plugin pack here: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=21592&hilit=tube+oblique

:shock: Tigerman!? Stocks: Wolverine Tiger Kinda rushed this one. If i spent more time on it, i could've made it more realistic.

If i understand what you mean, cut the parts you wish to keep using this tutorial: viewtopic.php?f=34&t=26967 Then add a new layer :AddNewLayer: under the cut-out, move down below cut-out :Down: , and fill white with :PaintBucketTool: . Hope that helped!

It looks good except for the :AntiAliasingOff: . The reflection isn't too good though. With the pencil in this position, all you need to do is flip vertically, position, transparent gradient, lower opacity/transparency. Also, lower the opacity of the glare, its a little too strong.

Downloaded plugin, tested on Vista Sample Pic. Results: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: Its amazing, i love how you can just use the black level slider and make images seem more like night and vice versa. This plugin is great for photo-manips and i'm sure everyone will be using it more often and often. You even made it work with colours that are Alpha < 255. Great job Tanel!

Images only show if it is in code. I see you're using photobucket, just copy and paste the IMG code from under the image.

Do you have the 'pyrochild.effects.common.dll in your effects folder? You need that to run most of pyrochilds plugins.

In your latest, the wind (logo) is really cool and creative. Nice job. The black background is plain though, try using a gradient for the background. It should make it look much better.

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2023 You should post there for problems with installing plugins and it also tells you how to install them in the first post of that topic.

the crocus is coming along very nicely! Great job! Just one thing though, the lines on the petals look a bit too thick and messy in places. Use line tool to perfect the "draft" brush strokes maybe? Or even Render > Bars / Gradient Bars to get the veiny line things on the petals.

Its looks the PS3/Spiderman font --> Homoarakhan _______________ cc?

That looks so real! The sausage blends amazingly well with the dog. Great job and faultless IMO. ______ :shock: What's happened to Mona Lisa? She's gone all modern! Its my LAOTW #6 entry.

Mona Lisa in the 21st Century - almost. Stocks: Mona Lisa Sunglasses Ring Notice the difference between the original sunglasses and the ones in the photo.