Polished Stone Text - by Spacific Designs.com

POLISHED STONE TEXT

In this tutorial, We'll create some Polished Stone with a Southwestern Accent.

This Tutorial has a psd file supplied on the CD in the Samples folder. Go to the folder and open it. Double-Click on the file named Polished Stone and it will open in Photoshop. Begin at Step 6. (Alternately, just begin at Step 1.)

1.) Create a New file, 800 X 600 pixels at 225 ppi on a white background.

2.) Go to Layer > New > Layer... and when the pop-up appears, name this layer Pattern then click the OK button. In the Tool palette... click on the Foreground color to open the Color-Picker. Enter #663300 at the bottom input box, then click the OK button to close.

Now, go to Edit > Fill . When the Fill dialog box appears, be sure Foreground is selected and Opacity is 100%, then click OK. The layer will fill completely with this selected color.

3.) Select and hold curser on the Marquee tool until the pop-out panel appears, then select the Single Row Marquee tool.

4.) Go to Window > Swatches to open the Swatches palette (if not visible). In the Swatches palette, click the triangle

at the top right corner, and a pop-out menu will appear. Select KS Southwestern Colors. (These are the colors I choose to work with.) Once the New Swatch palette loads, click the triangle

again and this time Select Small List.

5.) Now, click somewhere about the Center of the work area to start a Selection. Select the Eyedropper Tool

and click a color from the Swatches palette. Go to Edit > Stroke. When the pop-up appears, use a Width between 1 to 4. Also select Outside for Location then click OK. Click a new location on the work area. Repeat process changing Foreground color often and changing Width of Stroke. Fill Center half of work area with many bands of colors. When you are finished, press Ctrl+D to Deselect Selection.

6.) Go to Filter > Wave. When the Filter appears, select Sine and Repeat Edge Pixels, then click the Randomize button until you see a wave pattern you would like to work with then click the OK button to apply.

We'll add a little sand here, go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise... and when the Filter appears, adjust to settings below then click OK to apply.

Here is the transformed image.

7.) At this point, We need to Save the image into memory for future use. Press Ctrl+A to create a Selection around image. Next, use Ctrl+C to copy. Ctrl+D now to Deselect Selection. (Image has now been copied to the clipboard.)

8.) Press D on the keyboard to set the Foreground and Background colors to the default. Select the Horizontal Type tool

, then in the Options bar (located top of program) select Arial Black Regular 36pt Sharp.

In the Tool palette... select the Edit in Quick Mask Mode button

, then click on the work area (Canvas will turn red) and type your text across the Center.

9.) Next, click the Commit button

(located in the top Options bar).

10.) Use Ctrl+T to bring up the Free Transform bounding box, and in the Options bar... Enter 200% for Height.

11.) Once again, click the Commit button

. Next, click the Edit in Standard Mode button

. Go to Select > Modify > Smooth... and when the dialog box appears, enter 6, then click the OK button to apply.

A clear Selection with a rounding of Edges to type should be visible at this point.

12.) Go to Edit > Clear. (This will create a cookie cutter effect to text.)

13.) Go to Window > Styles to open the Styles palette (if not visible). In the Styles palette... click on the style named Polished Stone

and remaining effects will be applied. (Alternately, you can click here to apply settings manually.)

Text is now completed, compare work to image Above. Should have a similar appearance.

But what about creating just Stones? This is now a simple endeavor. Remember the image we Saved to the clipboard? In the Layers palette... click on the Create a new layer button

. This will generate a new blank layer in which to work. Go to Edit > Paste (Ctrl+V). The Saved image will fill the layer. Press Shift+M on the keyboard, you may have to do this several times to select the Elliptical Marquee tool

, then Click+Drag on the work area to create an oval.

Go to Select > Invert. Now, go to Edit > Clear. Use Ctrl+D to Deselect Selection.

In the Styles palette... click on the style named Polished Stone

. That's all there is to it!

Select the Move tool

and Click+Drag Stone to reposition on the work area. Generate as many Stones as needed by using the methods stated above.

TIP: To rotate them, use Ctrl+T to bring up the Free Transform bounding box, then simply place the curser to the outside corner of the box, then Click+Drag in the direction you wish to rotate. Double-Click inside the box to apply transformation.