Open new canvas. 400x400px, 72dpi, white
background.Click on channels panel and create a new channel, by clicking
on new channel icon.
Make sure your
foreground color is set to white, and background to black. Select
your text tool and a chunky sort of font. In this example I used
Brushscript, set at 300pt. Type your first letter in the centre of
the canvas. The canvas will turn red until you have typed your
letter and deselected the text tool. It will be highlighted as a
selection (marching ants).
Duplicate this channel by dragging 'Original'
onto new channel icon. Rename this Texture + Your Letter. (In this
example it is called TextureP).
Hit Ctrl+D to deselect. With texture channel highlighted go to
Filter ---> Blur ---> Gaussian Blur. Select a blur setting that
gives a good blur but leaves the letter legible. (For Brushscript
font, a blur of 6 was used). Save file.
To remove the fuzziness
from the letter, Ctrl+Click on Original channel (OriginalP in this
example). This highlights the letter with marching ants. Go to
Select ---> Inverse---> Hit Delete key. Ctrl+D to deselect.
Now click on your layers panel and create a new layer (new layer icon
beside the trashcan).
Choose a foreground color for the letter and hit
Alt+backspace to fill the new layer (P layer) with that colour.
Go to Filter ---> Render ---> Lighting Effects. Play
around with the lighting till you get an effect you are happy with, then
click ok. Ctrl+Click on Original (Original P in this instance) in
the Channel Panel. Marching ants will appear around your letter.
Select ---> Inverse ---> Delete to remove the colored background.
Double click on the letter layer to bring up blending options and
select drop shadow.
Voila! First letter complete. You now need to
repeat the foregoing steps for another two letters. This time choose
a 'loop' type font such as Edwardian Script or French Script. In
this example, Edwardian Script was used, set at 250pt and the blur was 3.
When you have finished you should have 6 alpha channels (Original+Letter1,
Texture 1; Original+Letter2, Texture2, Original+Letter3, Texture3) and 4
layers (original background and 3 letter layers). In this example
the drop shadow was only used on the first letter (P) and not on the
others. Save regularly. If you want to apply any other effects
to the letters do so at this point. Once you have all your letters the way
you want them you need to arrange and loop them.
Once you have the letters arranged as you want them,
you need to select the eraser tool. Use a hard eraser, not a
feathered eraser because we want a clean edge. You may wish to
change the opacity of the two letters you are working on so that the
outline of the letter below clearly shows through. You can zoom in
for this part.
Remember, the idea is to make the letters look
like they are looped together so you need to carefully select the areas to
erase, otherwise you may end up with letters that look like they are
behind rather than looped.
Here is a completed one. This example is using color only.
