Image editing for the rest of us
In this tutorial, I will show you how to create a very nice text effect inspired by the colors and some light effects used in the work of a great digital artist who uses the name Empire. His work can be seen at empireisok.com.
Step 1
Open Pixelmator and create a new document; I used 800×600 pixels. Then with the Gradient Tool (G), fill the background layer with a gradient using black and dark grey.
Step 2
With the Type Tool (T), type the text you want. The font I’m using is Tango BT.
Step 3
Add a new layer on top of the text layer, and then, using the Gradient Tool (G), fill the layer with a gradient from pink to cyan. After that, go to Layer>Create Clipping Mask, and you will see only the text with a gradient.
Step 4
Create a new layer on top of the gradient layer and change the Blending to Screen. Again, go to Layer>Create Clipping Mask. Using the Gradient Tool (G), fill the layer with a gradient from white to black. The white will be in the center, and the black will be towards the top.
Step 5
Add another layer and go to Layer>Create Clipping Mask. Then change the Blending to Multiply. With the Gradient Tool (G), fill the layer with a gradient from black to white. The black will be in the center of the text and the white will be towards the bottom of the page.
Step 6
Duplicate the text layer and move it to the top in front of the other layers. Then go to Layer>Rasterize Type Layer. Next, go to Edit>Stroke. Use White for the color and 1 for the Width.
Step 7
Select all layers used to create the text effect, and then go to Layer>Merge Layers. Next, go to Edit>Transform>Perspective. Then distort the text a little bit, using the image below as a reference.
Step 8
Duplicate the text effect group and move it 1 pixel up and to the left. Repeat this step 4 times.
Step 9
Duplicate the text layer that is on the top of the others and go to Edit>Stroke. Use 3 pixels and Center. Select black as the color. After that, go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. For the Radius, use 4px.
Step 10
With the Eraser Tool (E), start deleting the right side of each letter in order to add a 3D effect to the type.
Step 11
Duplicate the text layer that has all the effects and go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 20 pixels for the Radius. Next, change the Blending to Screen.
Step 12
Duplicate the text layer again and go to Filter>Blur>Zoom Blur. Use 25 for the Amount. Check out the image below for a reference.
Step 13
Now let’s add some textures. I used 2 old paper textures using Multiply for the Blending. One of them, the darkest one, will stay in front of the other layers while the other one will stay in front of the gradient layer only.
Step 14
Add a new layer on top of the paper layer and go to Filter>Generator>Clouds. Use black and white for the color. Then change the Blending to Color Dodge.
Step 15
Add another layer and fill it with white. Make sure you have black and white for the background and foreground colors; then go to Filter>Genereator>Stripes. Use 2 for the Width and 100 for the Sharpness. After that, change the Blending to Color Dodge.
Step 16
Go to Edit>Transform>Rotate 90º CW.
Step 17
With the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M), create 4 rectangular selections like the image below. Then go to Edit>Inverse.
Step 18
Select the layer with the stripes and go to Layer>Add Layer Mask.
Step 19
Select the mask of the layer and go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 45 for the Radius. Check out the image below as a reference.
Step 20
Let’s add more light effects. Create a new layer, and with the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M), create a selection. Then with the Gradient Tool (G), using black and white for the color, fill the layer with a gradient so it looks like the image below. After that, go to Edit>Transform>Scale. Reduce the height only.
Step 21
With the Eraser Tool (E), delete the edges of the light to make it fade away. Then just duplicate and rotate them to create a triangle.
Step 22
Now add another layer on top of the others but beneath the dark paper texture. The paper texture will be in front of all layers. Then use some grunge brushes and paint the edges to give an old-fashioned feel to the image. The brushes I used were from Misprintedtype (www.misprintedtype.com/v4).
Step 23
Select all layers and duplicate them. Then select only the duplicated layers and go to Layer>Merge Layers. Next, go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 20 pixels for the Radius and press OK. Then change the Blending to Screen. Using the Eraser Tool (E), delete some areas to make the glow effect less strong.
Conclusion
The steps might seem a bit complex, but the effect is quite simple to achieve. It’s pretty much gradients with some blurs. The important thing is to pay attention to the details and try different solutions to overcome the lack of Layer Styles to create the bevel effect like we did using strokes and gaussian blur.
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July 13th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
Nice tutorial!!!
July 14th, 2009 at 4:03 am
Wow!
July 14th, 2009 at 11:36 am
[...] ‘80s Style Text Effect in Pixelmator via Pixelmator [...]
July 16th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
i don’t know why but you’re tutorials always end me up with something completely wrong
July 19th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
love the tutorial,
“i don’t know why but you’re tutorials always end me up with something completely wrong” I’m in the same boat. post picture of your settings for the gradient and maybe a screen cast I can’t get this to turn out right either.
July 19th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
BTW I’m having issues with step 3-6 and where is step 4?
July 19th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
Hi, This tutorial looks amazing but I agree with Chad and Kyle, something isn’t right. I tried to create it step by step and it’s just not working out. Can you please review your steps?
July 26th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Thirded! For steps 3-6 I can’t get to work for whatever reason..
July 28th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Hey you should put more information as well as a pic of the layers that you are working on, since it is supposed to be for beginners.
I’m only saying this because I’m learning to use the program and got lost pretty quick.
Most of it went well but I could get the desired effect.
July 28th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
wow I had not read all the comments, and surprinsigly I got lost at steps 4, 5 & 6.
Mine looked totally different.
I hope that someday you guys fix up this, we are costumers you know! LOL
July 28th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
I see you added step 4 but it doesn’t help this tutorial. Can you please review your steps and add more info. I bought the program because I was impressed with this tutorial. It makes the program very frustrating to use. It’s a shame that none of us can make it work.
July 31st, 2009 at 9:08 am
awesome!
August 4th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
I really hope this tutorial could be fixed…
since there are costumers who bought the program as I did.
Please guys from pixelmator… help us with this issue.
Someone from pixelmator contacted me 2 weeks ago and said they will fix the problem in 1 or 2 days…. its been 2 weeks….
:S
August 9th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Wow, so lame that this never got fixed. I wasted so much time trying to follow steps that are wrong, and thinking I was the dumb one.
Well the program is great, but how can you invest so much time into creating a tutorial, then never even look at the comments… to see if anyone is learning what you were trying to teach?!!
August 14th, 2009 at 1:31 am
I think the problem people are having with steps 4 and 5 is the gradient tool setup.
If you set the tool up with 4 stops, (1.black 0%, 2.white, 3.black, 4.white 100%). Then if you drag 2 all the way to the left 0% and 3 all the way to the right 100%, you should be able to get the desired effect.
Also, in step 9 why not just offset a black text layer?
August 25th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
It is the software that is paid for, the tutorial is provided free and voluntarily and often not produced by the Pixelmator developers.
A screencast would be ideal. Personally, I often refer to Don McAllister’s Screencast – SCO0168 – of Pixelmator and that one video is where I learned most of what I know of far about Pixelmator.
Watch the screencast:
http://www.screencastsonline.com/index_files/SCO0168-pixelmator.php
September 9th, 2009 at 7:47 am
For step 6, I did it like this:
- Duplicate, rasterize and move the copy of text layer to the top as in the original instructions
- Use the magic wand and click the empty space around the text, then use Cmd-Shift-i to invert selection (or Edit > Inverse)
- Once you have the text surrounded by selection, use the eraser tool to empty the layer from the original text
- Now you can do as told (setting the stroke to 1px white)
This tutorial is impressive, but those few steps REALLY demand a bit of rewriting!!!
September 27th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
hey folks, step back and review the tutorials on gradations, then you will be good to go with these steps.
works perfectly!!!
October 3rd, 2009 at 10:30 am
Same! even from step one, on my pixelmator everything is too bright… in the tutorial everything is way more darker than it is in my tutorial. I don’t know why, something is missing in the tutorial…
October 24th, 2009 at 8:08 am
Hi, good tutorial but the step 4 is to hard and i don’t understand of it :(
March 7th, 2010 at 2:31 pm
It’s usual to abduzeedo. Make tutorial in little other way than originally created picture. Just analyze pixelmator file.
May 28th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
I really don’t like your tutorials. You always forget to mention doing something, so my result is very different from yours. In this tut it went wrong several times, but I just made something up myself. But I cant figure out what you did, but didn’t write in the tutorial, at Step 15-16. Yours turns blueish all of the sudden… Mine just stays yellow.