Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. I'm going to show you how to create this powerful,
superhero-style, emblem of a letter from scratch.
This tutorial is in 2 parts. In the first part,
I'll show you how to create this carbon fiber background and design the template for
your emblem. In Part 2, I'll show you how to add color, texture and dimension.
The first step is make your foreground and background colors white and black, respectively.
It they aren't, click this icon to make them black and white and invert them by clicking this icon.
Create a new document by going to File and New. Name it whatever you'd like.
Make its Width: 1550 pixels, its Height: 870 pixels and the Resolution: 150 pixels per inch.
The Color Mode is RGB and 8 bits per Channel. Open your list of Background Contents
and click "Background Color". Then, click OK.
Make a copy of the background
by pressing Ctrl + J on Windows or Cmd + J on a Mac.
Go to View and make sure Rulers and Snap are
checked. If they aren't, just click on them. Go to the ruler on the left and drag out a
guideline to the center of your document. It'll snap in place because we have "Snap"
checked. If you don't see the guideline, press Ctrl or Cmd + H. Go to the ruler at the top
and drag down another guideline to the center.
Open your Gradient Tool and make sure your Click the
Radial gradient icon is active. Click the gradient box, which opens the Gradient Editor.
Click the top, left preset thumbnail, which represents your foreground and background
colors. Click the lower, left Stop and the color box. In the Brightness field, type in
50%. This gives us 50% grey. Then, click OK on both windows.
Go to the middle and press and hold "Shift"
as you drag a gradient line to the right edge of your document. Then, release.
Go to Filter and Filter Gallery. Open the Distort folder and click "Glass".
Make the Texture: Tiny Lens, the Distortion: 20, the Smoothness: 1 and the Scaling: 50%.
Then, click OK.
Click the New layer icon to make a new layer.
Open your Pen Tool and choose "Path".
If you're working on version CS5 or earlier, the Path Tool is here.
Click approximately here on your guideline and release.
Click again approximately here. This draws a straight
path. Release and press and hold Shift as you click again approximately here to add
a 45 degree path. Holding Shift adheres the path to 45, 90 and 180 degrees. Release and
press and hold Shift again as you click on the guide line to add a horizontal path. Release
and press and hold Shift again as you click your first anchor point to close the path.
Right-click directly on the path and click "Make Selection". Keep the Feather Radius
0 pixels and click OK. We'll fill the selection with black and since black is the background
color, press Ctrl or Cmd + Delete. To deselect it, press Ctrl or Cmd + D.
Make a copy of it.
Go to Edit, Transform and Flip Horizontal.
Press "v" to open your Move Tool and press and hold Shift
as you slide it across until it snaps to the vertical guide line.
Merge the 2 shapes by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + E.
Hide the guide lines by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + H.
Double-click on an empty area of the shape layer to open its Layer Style window.
Click "Inner Glow". Change the Blend Mode to Normal and the Opacity: 100%. Make the
Technique: Precise and the Source: Edge. Make the Choke: 100% and the Size: 45 pixels.
Click "Stroke".
Make the Size: 12 pixels and the Position: Inside. Then, click OK.
Click off the eyeball next to the gradient background to hide the layer.
We're ready to add text.
Open your Horizontal Type Tool and choose a heavy font. I'm using "Kilogram Regular".
If you'd like to use this font as well, I provided its link in the video's description
or project files. Temporarily make its size 100 points, Sharp and Center Alignment.
The color should be white.
Click in the middle and type your character. For this font, I'm using upper case.
To enlarge it, click your Move Tool and open your Transform Tool by and pressing Ctrl or
Cmd + T. Go to a corner and when you see a diagonal, double-arrow, press and hold Alt
or Option + Shift as you drag it out. To reposition it, go inside the Transform and move it. You'll
probably notice it's not moving smoothly. That's because "Snap" is still active. Go
back to View and click "Snap" to deactivate it.
Continue to reposition and resize it.
Don't be concerned with the areas of your text that are outside the background shape.
We'll take of that next. To accept the Transform, press Enter or Return.
Click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask next to the text.
Using the layer mask, we'll hide areas of
the text that extends past the background shape. Open your Rectangular Marquee Tool
and drag a selection over the top of your character. We'll fill the selection with black
and since black is the foreground color, press Alt or Option + Delete. Then, deselect it.
Open your Pencil Tool and the Pencil Picker. Make its size approximately 70 pixels and
its Hardness and Opacity: 100%. The, press Enter or Return. If you don't see your pencil,
you probably have the Shift key active. If you do, just press the “CapLocks” key
to see your pencil. Now, draw over the bottom areas of your character that extend past the
background shape. Click the large "T" to make your text active. Open the Channels panel.
If you don't see it, go to Window and Channels. Click the small circular icon at the bottom
to make a selection of the image on your canvas. Open back your Layers panel and click the
New Layer icon to make a new layer. In this empty layer, fill the selection with black.
Then, deselect it. Make the gradient background visible
and hide the text and the original background shape.
In Part 2, I'll show you how to transform it into a powerful, superhero-style emblem.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. Thanks for watching!