bevel tut request

[preahkumpii]

I have searched for a good bevel tutorial that can do any shape (not just a rectangular shape) and have not been able to find one to suit me. I have tried to figure out how to make a good bevel that has a fair amount of flexibility with the blur, size, and other attributes. At this page, http://www.arraich.com/effects1/bevelandemboss.htm the second paragraph gives a little hint about Photoshop's method of making a bevel. I was not able to do it. I can make the crescent-shaped layers that would make the beveled lights and shadows, but when I apply a gaussian blur, it doesn't work well. Can anyone help?

Preahkumpii

[Mr Frojo]

Therse a bevel plugin. Look in the plugin section.

[preahkumpii]

Therse a bevel plugin. Look in the plugin section.

This bevel plugin only does bevels for a rectangular shape. I wanted something that would work for any shape, including text. I know there's no plugin to do it. That's why I was looking for a tutorial, and a rather advanced one at that.

Preahkumpii

[david.atwell]

Try using Pyro's Outline plugin. Just put the item you want to bevel on its own layer; duplicate that layer twice, and run an Outline on both- one in white or gray, and the other in black. Erase it so that the highlights match correctly from the way you have light coming, and voila! Beveled non-rectangle.

Does that help?

[preahkumpii]

I tried Pyro's outline object plugin. This did not work because it adds the outline in addition to the shape/text/object. This makes the bevel not a part of the actual object. However, from this I got to thinking of another way to do it. I simply made two new layers after the object layer. With tolerance set to 0, I highlight all but the object. Then, paint bucket fill the selection black on one layer, then white on another. Then, for each layer I ran a gaussian blur to whatever softness I wanted. Then I used the gradient tool set on transparency mode to fade out the black and white to create the beveled look. Last, I select all but the object again, then delete the excess black and white from the layers. This leaves a beveled object. You can even control the "choke" of the bevel by reducing the size of the selection when you select the original object. Then, do the above and it causes the bevel to be thicker. The only problem with this method it that it only works on normal shapes (rectangles, circles, ovals, triangles, etc.) but not on text. With text and odd shapes, you can do the bevel the first way mentioned, which makes the bevel options somewhat limited, but the method using the resize selection technique will not work because text cannot be resized without distortion problems. Any other help would be good.

Preahkumpii

[david.atwell]

You've actually hit on what my next suggestion was going to be :-)

1. Type on one layer.

2. Duplicate said layer twice.

3. Gaussian blur the top layer.

4. Shift+click with the magic wand outside blurred text, with tolerance low. This selects all but a smaller version of the text. Play with the tolerance to get what you want.

5. Delete that selected area!

6. Ctrl+i to invert selection.

7. On the middle layer, delete selected area again.

8. Back on the top layer, filled rectangle, with black color; use it to fill in the entire selection.

9. Ctrl+d to deselect.

10. Duplicate middle layer.

11. Ctrl+Shift+i to invert colors on the duplicate.

12. Erase the black from where the highlights will be and the white from where the shadows will be.

13. Et voila!

This may be what you described, but I didn't understand entirely :-)

By the way, your Eliot quote is one of my FAVORITE quotes ever. He was an awesome guy.

[preahkumpii]

4. Magic wand outside blurred text, with tolerance low. This selects all but a smaller version of the text. Play with the tolerance to get what you want.

You lost me a bit here. When you gaussian blur the top layer, then select outside the blurred text with low tolerance, a larger version of the text is selected. So, I raised the tolerance to about 68 or so to select a smaller version of the text. I then tried to follow your tutorial, but got a little lost. I ended up going back to what I suggested in my last post. It worked okay. One of the main problems with this method is when using the magic wand, anti-aliasing is lost, creating choppy edges. I don't think this was the case with the first method I used, but only when resizing the shape/text is done. So, that problem remains. Also, the manual labor of erasing the highlights or shadows is somewhat annoying. One good thing out of it is that the gaussian blur selection thing you showed me was neat. I never knew how to select a smaller version of an object.

Still looking ,

Preahkumpii

[david.atwell]

I just edited that particular step to be shift+click. I had forgotten about that! :oops: I also had forgotten how many layers I had, down toward the bottom. :oops: again! Changed that step, too.

Anyway, what this does is create four separate layers: The topmost is the inner "core" of the text, which I was just keeping as a reference for where the middle of each element was. The next one down is the white highlight layer, and the one below that is the black shadow layer. The bottom layer, which you should probably adjust the brightness/contrast on to make the shadow more prominent, is the base of the text.

In thinking more about this, I think I'd add a couple more steps:

14. Change brighness/contrast on the bottom layer so that the shadows will have something to do.

15. Lower the opacity of the highlight layer and the shadow layers so that they're acting on the bottom layer rather than overriding it (consider playing with the blend modes, too; Overlay, maybe?).

16. Make the top layer invisible.

17. Run feather or gaussian blur on the highlight and shadow layers to taste.

Does that clarify things a bit?

[preahkumpii]

I have been fooling around trying to manually reproduce the bevels found here:

http://www.joesfilters.com/joes_bevel_and_emboss, but I have had some problems. The primary problem is the ability to remove the shaded/highighted layers in a directional sort of way, creating the effect of light. Using the erase tool is not very efficient and is pretty time consuming. Besides, it does not produce very good results. Any ideas as to how to erase the shadow layers so the shadows/highlights look half-way realistic and directional?

Preahkumpii

[preahkumpii]

david.atwell, I think I found a really good way to do the bevel using the alpha mask plug-in. Previously, the object with the bevel shading/highlighting would be jagged on the edges, like without anti-aliasing. Using the alpha mask, you can keep the anti-aliasing. It looks really sharp that way. The only problem is with sharp turns, holes, or concave parts of objects. This produces a sort of goofy look. For instance, the shading/highlight on the letter "A" looks rather odd (that is, on the hole in the middle). It there any way to make the black/white layer look right after offsetting it from the original object and applying a gaussian blur? Am I being clear? It seems not. The shading/highlights are not extending all the way to the corners of the objects in these cases.

Preahkumpii

[david.atwell]

I'm not sure if I understand you completely, but have you tried BoltBait's Feather plugin? (available here: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2498 )

Let me know if that helps. It would be a bit easier than the Alpha Mask.

[preahkumpii]

Once I figured out exactly how to use the alpha mask, it was quite easy. I have not tried the feather plugin yet. Notice the below picture, the edges are smooth by using the alpha mask, which is excellent. The problem mentioned in the previous post is shown in the second picture. It is the inside of the A and at the sharp corners which look abnormal or unnatural. Any ideas?

Preahkumpii