Inlay Enameled Text

lynxster4 · November 12

Hello everyone! We will be making this:

Plugins needed: Invert Colors - Built in

Gaussian Blur - Built in

Paste Alpha-Fill from Clipboard-Feather-Bevel Object (found in Boltbait's pack)

Texture Shader (by MJW)

Edge Expander (by MJW)

AA's Assistant (found in dpy's pack)

Gaussian Blur-clamped (by toe_head)

Emaps needed: Download from my Dropbox

The first few steps are taken from MJW’s tutorial here. Used with his permission.

Please note that the Texture Shader settings are unique for this example only.

Spoiler

New canvas 800 x 600, add new transparent layer above
Type the text in black (I used Francisco Lucas Briosa, 288, bold), align text Find the font here.

Merge black text down onto white background, Adjustments-->Invert Colors
Copy image to Clipboard (Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C)

Apply Blurs-->Gaussian Blur at 8

Apply Object-->BB’s Paste Alpha at default (you now have white text on transparent background)

Add new layer below, fill with color 64,64,64 (so you can see what you’re doing)
Duplicate text layer (2) times

Open 1st emap image in PDN and copy to Clipboard (Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C)

Uncheck top 2 text layers and return to TEXT1 layer
On this layer apply Effects-->Height Maps-->Texture Shader at these settings:
Image – Clipboard
Clipboard Image Size – 9.2923
Clipboard Image Offset – 0.5333, 0.4333
Clipboard Image Rotation – default (0.00)
Clipboard Image Mapping Method – Reflection Map (Equirectangular)
Mapping Displacement – 0.406
Texture Height Scale – 5.84
Texture Height Curvature – default (0.000)
Make sure Intensity Increases with Height is checked
Uncheck Use Alpha from Texture
Ambient Light Color – 60, 60, 60
Directional Color – 255, 255, 255
Directional Light Direction – keep at default (all zero’s)
Directional Light Intensity at default (1.00)
Specularity – 0.300
Specular Concentration – 45.00
Apply Surface Color to Highlight – Do Not Check
Antialias – Check and set to 6

Go to TEXT2 layer and check it, apply Object-->Edge Expander at just enough distance to cover below letter outline (in this instance, 😎

Select canvas with Magic Wand (global) and return to TEXT1 layer and hit the Delete key

Uncheck TEXT2 layer and move to bottom as you are done with it
Go to TEXT1 layer and apply 1 or 2 AA’s Assistant (Object Menu)

Open 2nd emap and copy it to the Clipboard

Check TEXT3 layer and Select the TEXT3 canvas with Magic Wand (global) and invert (Ctrl+I), create new layer above it and Fill from Clipboard the image at 0.113, 0.213, zoom 0.091, tiling and mirror both directions

While still selected apply Blurs-->Gaussian Blur-clamped at 20, then deselect
(You could set this layer to multiply if you wish or leave it on normal)

Merge new layer down onto TEXT3 layer, apply Object-->Feather at 4

On TEXT3 layer apply Object-->Bevel object at 135, 4, 0.50, hard edge checked, keep original checked, no drop shadow ---- Colors Tab – Light Color white (255,255,255) and Dark Color 96, 96, 96

Apply an AA’s Assistant on TEXT3 layer and you are finished!

There are so many possibilities with this technique. If you use a different font or a different emap image the settings for Texture Shader will have to change. Use what looks best for you and what you are trying to achieve.

I tried this on some Shapes I made. I found it will work on something very simple.
If you have too many lines in the shape it just gets all muddied.

Also, make your own emap images. I found @frio's Seamless Simplex Clouds works great for this. Here are some examples.

A simple Christmas Tree shape: