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Hey everybody, how's the weather? To be more
precise, how's the weather between Montana and San Francisco?
That would include Idaho, Washington and Oregon. This weekend I
start on an adventure that is entirely foreign to me. I'm
driving to my first convention! MacWorld begins in San Francisco
on Tuesday, and though I am not a Mac guy, I'm making the trek
for the opportunity to meet a few people in the graphics field
that I look up to. Set Smooze Gun to stun...
One of the first articles I wrote for Planet
dealt with creating chrome using curves in Photoshop 5. This
week I want to talk about applying curves in Photoshop 6 for
even better effects. As always, I teach (and learn) best by
demonstration, so to begin with let's create a new image, 72 dpi
with a white background. Create a new layer, enter some large
text with the type mask tool, and fill it with black. Duplicate
this layer, and with your selection still active we are ready to
begin.
I hope that you are starting to grasp using
Layer Styles. With the top layer active, open the Blending
Options pop up.
Once Blending Options are open, highlight each
command setting down the left hand side. You will notice that
Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, Inner and Outer Glow, Bevel/Emboss,
Contour and Satin all allow you to configure curves for each
setting. What this allows us to do is, inside one layer, apply
curves to each aspect of the image on that layer. Let's say, for
example, you want to make a metal type effect that includes a
metal edge that appears contoured. To add to the realism you
want the edge to stand out from the page but contrast with the
rest of the text to appear 'etched'. Photoshop 5 required each
portion to be on it's own layer, as altering one aspect of the
text would alter the entire thing unless you had them separated
with selections.
Not so now Amigo! I'm going to take our black
text and, with one layer, show you how these work together.
To begin with, I'm going to apply a gradient overlay style to
the text for a little change from the black. In this case I went
with a white to black, top to bottom gradient.
Let's add a bevel now. Using the settings
below...
...we get this result:
The 2 controls I focused on to create this
effect were 'Technique' under Structure (switched from the
default 'soft bevel' to 'Chisel Hard' and changed the depth) and
the Gloss Contour, which applies our curve. The curve creates a
distinct separation of our shading colors. This particular curve
is called Ring-Double. We can change the curve by double
clicking the curve thumbnail and altering the settings manually.
Ok, now for the next example I changed our image
in 2 ways. I applied a gradient stroke, inside, 6 pts set to
inside. I used the copper gradient and set it to anti-aliased.
The next setting I applied dealt with the
Contour command, which is actually a sub-command of our
Bevel/Emboss feature. Double clicking the curve icon, I entered
my own settings. Here's a capture:
Basically I kept my eye on the text and played
with the Curve until I thought it looked cool. Here's the
result:
Remember that Ring-Double Curve? I'm now
applying that same curve to Inner Shadow, Inner Glow, and Outer
Glow. I've adjusted the color of the outer glow to match the hue
of my text, and filled the background with black. Here's or
metal now:
Next time we will talk about using the curves in
Shadows and Glows to enhance the illusion of depth, but now it
is time for me to go pack. I'm told San Francisco is only an 18
hour drive, and I'm looking forward to it. Until next time, be
safe!
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