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So, we have our curved text as we want it, but how do we
create our own flaming text effect (no pun intended!)? If you
click the curved text image, and look at your layers dialogue box,
you'll notice that it's composed of two layers. Highlight the
background layer, and delete (Ctrl + X) it leaving just the curved
text on a transparent background. Finally, make sure your image
has sufficient space - you may want to use Layer to Imagesize on
the layers menu (RMC over the layers dialogue box), and then Shift
+ C to crop the image to your liking.
Remember an earlier dream of text that looked as though it had
caught fire? To try and create an effect like this, we need to go
through several stages: firstly we need to be able to select parts
of the text and fill them with a fiery gradient. Once that has
been achieved for all parts of the text, we can then use the smudge
tool to create tufts of flames coming up from the letters.
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First we need to select one word at a time and apply a
gradient. To get a clean selection on a transparent background,
use the Alpha to Selection option on the layers menu. This will
select the entire text, so we need to quickly de-select everything
except the word we want to fill, which in this case is the central
word. Click the freehand selection tool, and press the Ctrl key.
You should see the cursor change to an arrow head with a minus next
to it. Now draw round the words you don't want selected keeping
the Ctrl key pressed down and dragging the mouse ( you need to
close the loop you draw). Soon you should be left with just the
central word of the arch selected.
Now click on the gradient fill tool. The default gradient is the
smooth german flag which is uncannily suitably for our needs. First
double click on the gradient tool icon to and change the default
blend to 'Custom from Editor'. To use our custom gradient, click at
the bottom of your selected letters, and drag the mouse vertically
upwards to the top of the letters, and release the mouse key. You
should have a gradient filled word as the screenshot shows.
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We keep selecting, de-selecting and filling until all the words
are filled as we want them. We can now smudge the letters using
the smudge tool (the finger!) and select the brushes dialogue box
to get the degree of smudging we want (File -> Dialogues -> Brushes
from the toolbox menu). |
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Finally, we need to paste our flaming text into the
poster. First resize the flaming text image to the same width as
our poster, 8 inches. Then once again, we select Alpha to Selection
from the layers menu, and press Ctrl + C to copy the selection.
Next click to focus the poster, and with the mouse over the layers
dialogue, press Ctrl + N to make a new layer. Now click on the
poster and press Ctrl + V to paste the text into the new layer.
Once it's done this, you move the mouse over the text and press 'm'
(the cursor should change to a four-headed arrow) and drag with the
mouse to move the floating selection to where you want it. Once
you're happy, anchor the layer by choosing RMC -> Anchor layer from
the layers menu.
Now move on to the next lesson...
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