Wizard of Oz text help needed

[carriecountry]

Hi,

 

I'm new here and looking for some assistance with text effects. I want to use text effects on a Wizard of Oz themed project, but have not been able to find any useful tutorials for the right effects. I'm a mid-level beginner when using Paint.NET, so my knowledge of Photoshop type of work is limited.

 

I want to use a font that looks like the opening title of the movie. The best one I can find is Kansas Rainbow, but I haven't been able to find a free version of it. Does anyone know where I can find one?

 

I would like for the text to be that Oz shade of emerald, while featuring the embossed/glass and shine effect, as it looks on a large portion of their logos. However, this text will most likely be printed on the paper that has the thickness that's between regular and cardstock (unless I decide on cardstock), so I'm curious as to how much any emboss/glass or shine effect would show? I also don't know if shimmer paper would help, since the text might appear "in front of" (for lack of better terms) the paper? Not sure how the 3D effects show on the paper?

 

It would be a dream to find a font that already has the Oz emerald color and/or text effects applied to it, so that all you have to do is type what you want, but I'm guessing that may not exist? I'm open to using an Emerald colored paper and the gold color for the text, in case there's a font that's already gold embossed, etc. I feel like I might could figure this out in Sony Vegas (from previous text experience), but I'm not able to use it on my current PC. I haven't been able to find any color numbers (not sure of the proper term) to obtain that perfect emerald shade. But again, I'm completely open to the gold, especially if I can find emerald shimmer paper. The more I think about it, the more I think it might be the better option, assuming I can find it.

 

Any thoughts and suggestions would be sincerely appreciated.

 

THANKS!!!

 

 

 

 

Edited June 15, 2016 by carriecountry

[Eli]

You may need to use the Oblique effect for the upper text.

You can give the glossy look with EER's  Red's Bevel objets or with MJW's Texture Shader.

 

 

Edited June 17, 2016 by Eli

[Ego Eram Reputo]

You can give the glossy look with EER's Bevel objet

You can't. EER hasn't written Bevel Object!

Select every triangle and use any of the bevel effects sucha as EER Red's Object bevel.

It gets the name of the author right - or it gets the hose again

[Red ochre]

... and the ice!

[Eli]

I can't believe I did it again. Must be a permanent senior moment. 

[carriecountry]

You may need to use the Oblique effect for the upper text.

You can give the glossy look with EER's  Red's Bevel objets or with MJW's Texture Shader.

 

 

 

Do you think any of that beveled 3d look will show up after printed or just the shadows?

Edited June 22, 2016 by carriecountry

[carriecountry]

Is there a text fill option available, to do with this any font?

 

[Eli]

Do you think any of that beveled 3d look will show up after printed or just the shadows?

 

There should be no troubles if you take your image to your local photo printer on the other hand if you have a crapy colour printer, as I do, the colours may not be what you see on your monitor.

 

 

Is there a text fill option available, to do with this any font?

 

 

it is an image inside text. There is a tutorial on how to add an image to text. You may take a look at this link as well : Picture Text effect.

 

 

 

[carriecountry]

There should be no troubles if you take your image to your local photo printer on the other hand if you have a crapy colour printer, as I do, the colours may not be what you see on your monitor.

 

 

 

it is an image inside text. There is a tutorial on how to add an image to text. You may take a look at this link as well : Picture Text effect.

 

 

 

 

 

I haven't tried the beveling or anything yet, but I looked over that first link you gave me (the 2nd one seemed to confuse me more, probably b/c it involved extra steps), and I was able to get the brick into the letters. However, I ran into the same problem as someone else posted...the holes, like in A and D, etc., are not cut-out. I changed the magic wand to globally, but then the brick wouldn't show. What should I do to cut-out the holes? Maybe I'm missing a step somewhere?

[Eli]

I will show you a method to add an image into any type of text. This is what I will be making:

 

 

I will use the following effects:

- Alpha Mask...

- Outline Object

- Hue and Saturation (adjustment)

- Gaussian blur

- AA's Assistant

 

1. Type your text on a transparent layer. Use black as the color for the text. 

 

 

2. Add a new layer and bring into this layer any image. Now go back to the layer containing the black text and copy it to the clipboard (Ctrl +c).

 

 

3. For this step you need to go to the layer containig the image and run the Alpha Mask... effect.  Make sure to tick the box Invert Mask.

 

4. I decided to add a brownish outline using the Outline Object effect.

 

 

5. To create the shadow, duplicate the Flower image layer (I renamed it Shadow) and adjust the lightness to make it completely black.

 

 

6. Move the Shadow layer below the Flowers image layer and use the Gaussian Blur effect.

 

 

7. Select the entire Shadow layer and move it just a bit to the right.

 

 

8. Add a background layer (Green).

 

 

9. To soften the jagged edges of the text use the AA's Assistant effect.

 

 

That is it! 

[carriecountry]

There should be no troubles if you take your image to your local photo printer on the other hand if you have a crapy colour printer, as I do, the colours may not be what you see on your monitor.

 

 

 

it is an image inside text. There is a tutorial on how to add an image to text. You may take a look at this link as well : Picture Text effect.

 

 

 

 

I'm so sorry for the late reply; I haven't been able to work on it until yesterday. I downloaded the plugins, so I will try to do the steps you said either tonight or tomorrow. However, I'm having trouble finding the brick picture I need. The one you have above seems almost perfect, except for the pink lines and thinner bricks (I'm going to be applying something to them after printing). I tried to use the brick texture/fill in Paint.NET, but the lines were too small, and I didn't know how to change them. Because of the particular medium I'm using to add to it after printing, I need something that doesn't have white space between bricks or varying colors or sizes of bricks. So I decided to see if I could find a pic I needed and just change the color, but due to my limited graphic design knowledge, I don't know how to.

 

For example, does this type of picture (pasted below) allow you to change the color of the bricks without losing the black lines/outline of the brick? Or is there an easy way in Paint.NET to make a brick outline that I can easily put yellow between the lines? I also wasn't sure if I had to find a certain type of vector or outline or file type in order to change the color and keep the lines.

 

http://tremendouswallpapers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/red-brick-wall-texture.jpg

Edited July 12, 2016 by carriecountry

[Eli]

This is the Bricks effect made by Jesse Chunn. You can create the bricks of any size...

 

The texture can be added later. I remember seen several tutorials on this...

 

I found it : Another Brick in The Wall.

Edited July 12, 2016 by Eli

[Darty]

9. To soften the jagged edges of the text use the AA's Assistant effect.

 

 

I want to jump in here again. Soften the edges?

If you look closely to the top of P and h and in the rounding of h/o, you can still clearly see pixel row differences.

As mentioned in this topic a smoother plugin would be Basic Antialias. It smoothens those pixels over a longer range, creating a more natural curve.

Explore for yourself.

[carriecountry]

This is the Bricks effect made by Jesse Chunn. You can create the bricks of any size...

 

The texture can be added later. I remember seen several tutorials on this...

 

I found it : Another Brick in The Wall.

 

I'm still playing with the brick size and tutorial to get the fill-in to look right with the letters. Is there an easy way to change the font size of letters in a layer, after you've already clicked off of them? It wants me to type a new word, instead of allowing me to edit the size of the current one, which is something I never could figure out how to do in PDN.

 

It also seems it's hard to get the bevel to show when the bricks are smaller, but that may be unavoidable. It's not a huge deal, though, especially since I'll add the 3D medium to it after printing.

 

As for the tutorial, I'm not doing any of the cloud or mortar textures, though maybe I should consider the mortar one and see how that looks. Either way, when I duplicate and add both drop shadows, am I merging all the layers down into the original one or ? I kinda get stuck a little bit after applying both drop shadows, since I have multiple layers at that point.

I want to jump in here again. Soften the edges?

If you look closely to the top of P and h and in the rounding of h/o, you can still clearly see pixel row differences.

As mentioned in this topic a smoother plugin would be Basic Antialias. It smoothens those pixels over a longer range, creating a more natural curve.

Explore for yourself.

 

I downloaded Basic. Just use it by itself or use both it and AA?

Edited July 13, 2016 by carriecountry

[Darty]

I downloaded Basic. Just use it by itself or use both it and AA?

That depends on the amount you want to be transparent. Basic Antialias just smoothens the longer lines, but there's no option to do this for 2 or more pixels deep into the image. AA or Feather can do this, although they don't make the longer lines smooth, resulting in still seeing those blocks along a curve. If you want to make the surroundings more transparent, deeper into the text, then use both (starting with BasicAntialias of course).

TIP: You can just try it out to see what it does and how both situations turn out.

[carriecountry]

That depends on the amount you want to be transparent. Basic Antialias just smoothens the longer lines, but there's no option to do this for 2 or more pixels deep into the image. AA or Feather can do this, although they don't make the longer lines smooth, resulting in still seeing those blocks along a curve. If you want to make the surroundings more transparent, deeper into the text, then use both (starting with BasicAntialias of course).

TIP: You can just try it out to see what it does and how both situations turn out.

 

Oh start with BA. I don't think I noticed a huge difference between them or by using both, but I'm not using highly detailed graphics (they're small) anyway, so it's probably hard for me to see. I'm gonna try again though, to see if I notice more difference the 2nd time around.

 

Btw, Eli may be busy (which is fine...it's taking me a long time to respond anyway...haven't had much time to work on the project), but are you able to answer the questions I asked them (about the merging and font size, etc.) in my last post (where I quoted you)?

Edited July 18, 2016 by carriecountry

[Darty]

... are you able to answer the questions I asked them (about the merging and font size, etc.) in my last post (where I quoted you)?

 

Sorry, I've never used Paint.Net for Text (yet), so I won't be able to help you get answers for those problems.

 

I don't think I noticed a huge difference between them or by using both, but I'm not using highly detailed graphics (they're small)

 

That could be possible, if you use small objects, then it'll be harder to see.

The demo image Eli used was big enough to see it. You can use a new big text-object, just to test the effects on a bigger scale.

Use BA to smoothen the round edges (longer horizontal/vertical lines) and AA or Feather (I prefer this) to "Fade In". Use a bigger number to Fade In more and see the result.

In the past I've tried a bigger Feather amount to try to hide the edges, but this doesn't work at all. BA fixed this and is enough already.

Although this has no option to fade in at all, so I use Feather with 1 too (depending on image sometimes 2).

High Feather values aren't really needed, unless you want people to be able to see through a bigger amount of the surroundings of an object (For example a circle of light, without an obvious round border).

[Eli]

I'm still playing with the brick size and tutorial to get the fill-in to look right with the letters. Is there an easy way to change the font size of letters in a layer, after you've already clicked off of them? It wants me to type a new word, instead of allowing me to edit the size of the current one, which is something I never could figure out how to do in PDN.

Paint.net does not work as a word processor. Everytime you type some text Paint.net converts it to pixels (an image). So it is not possible to modify the text font or size.