Hi everyone, this is Anne with Graphic Design How To, and today I'm going to show you how
to make a metallic, shiny gold text effect in Adobe Illustrator CC.
All right, let's get started.
OK, so here we are in Illustrator.
And this is the effect that we're looking to create today.
So if you haven't already, go to File>New, and then just choose 'Print'
and go to 'Letter' and 'Create.'
That part doesn't really matter.
It doesn't matter what type of file you create, but you'll just want to have something like
this...just an empty blank canvas.
The first thing we want to do is create this shiny gold look.
So to do this, we're going to create a gradient.
And it's a good idea to find an already existing image that has gold in it.
So I'm going to download two images.
This one that has already a shiny gold object in it, and this candelabra because I like
this area right here for the gold.
OK, so you can download these for free, and the
links will be in my description.
OK, so I'm going to File>Place.
So I'm going to use the candelabra.
The part I want is here, so I'm just going to stretch
this image a little bit.
And now I'm going to 'Image Trace' it.
So I'm going to come up here to the top of my screen.
If you don't see this bar up here, you can go to Window>
Control.
But once it's up, you'll want to go to the little caret to the right of the 'Image Trace',
which is your tracing presets.
And then you can choose '16 colors', and it might take a minute, depending on the size
of your image.
Now we'll go to 'Swatches'.
I'm going to select all the unused ones so we don't have to mess with those.
And then just delete them with the little trashcan icon.
And now I'm going to click this, expand it with this button right up here.
And then I'm going to create a color group from this.
So I'll click this folder down at the bottom of the Swatches palette.
And we'll say 'OK.'
And now I have all of these colors to choose from.
Now these aren't quite as bright as what I want, so I'm going to come up here with this
still selected, I'm going to come up here to the 'Recolor Artwork'.
And then we'll get in here and edit these colors.
So I want them to be a little more saturated, so I want to make sure this button is clicked
with a saturation and hue.
And then I'm going to just adjust the brightness.
And then I think I'll just pull these around a little bit so that they are a little brighter
and more pronounced.
All right, that's a little closer to what we want.
Let's see what happens if we knock the saturation even further.
Yeah, that looks pretty good.
So we'll say 'OK, but it didn't update our color group.
So I'm just going to throw these away and create...and make sure this is selected...and
create a new color group with the 'Selected Artwork'.
Make sure that both of these are checked and say 'OK.'
OK, now we have a lot of cool colors to choose from.
And now we can just pull this down here.
OK, now we can get started on our gradient.
So I'm going to hit M on my keyboard to get the Rectangle Tool,
and I'll draw a long thin rectangle.
And now I'll get my Gradient Tool.
We'll go to Window> Gradient.
And I made this really wide because I like to have a lot of brighter and darker spots
on my gradient.
So I make it really long when I do this.
Let's click on the Gradient Slider, and that'll make our rectangle (if we still have it selected)
it'll make our rectangle the gradient.
So now we have two sliders.
We've got this one and this one.
OK, I'm going to get my Swatches back out.
And then we want this white to be probably the darkest color.
So we'll put it like this.
And then I'll just build this gradient with slightly lighter colors as we go.
So we can do... so we can add the colors like this.
Now what I'm seeing here when I see this gradient is maybe the brown's not working.
So I'll click the swatch and just drag it right over top of the brown one.
And do the same here.
And maybe I can just get rid of this one and this one
and see what we get.
I'm going to pull this yellow one in between.
OK, that looks pretty good.
So now I can just copy these colors and just go with darkest dark...
lighter, lightest and then back down.
So I'm going to hold OPT and click and drag this slider and pull it over here.
Hold OPT and click and drag this one, and pull it over here.
And then the same with the last one.
And you can see that really nice shine that we're getting there.
Now, there's probably a really great way to grab all these nodes at once.
Unfortunately, I do not know what it is.
So we'll have to do this manually.
But I'll speed it up, and we'll get through it really quick.
I like to have more than one of these because it adds interest because they're all a little
different.
So it doesn't look like a uniform shine that way.
All right, so we're done with our gradient.
So I'm going to close this, and we're also done with this image.
I'm going to click with my V Tool, and then just delete it.
All right, and we're very close now.
So now we just need to type the word.
So I'll hit T on my keyboard, which will take us to the Type Tool, and I'll
click once, which, if you have a newer version of Illustrator, it will give you some lorem
ipsum, which is just fine.
And I'll type 'Hello'.
Now this is going to work really well with chunkier script fonts, so that's what I recommend.
And I have one that I actually made of my own handwriting.
It's called AnneScript, and that's what you see up above there, too.
So this is really tiny.
I'm just going to click on the edge, hold SHIFT and drag it until it's big.
And now to make this look a little more hand drawn, and also just better because it doesn't
have the same baseline, I'm going to hit SHIFT T to get the Touch Type Tool.
Then we can just click on specific letters and increase them.We'll get the 'E' next.
I'm going to pull this over a little closer.
Move the L down a bit, grab this other L
and make it a little bit smaller and rotate it a little bit.
You can do that with this top note up here.
We'll move it over there.
And then I'll put this right here.
OK, so this is how I want it.
I see I have to fix something right here.
We'll do that in just a second.
But now I want to get back on my V Tool.
You can do that by hitting V on your keyboard or coming up here to the Selection Tool.
So now I have this whole word selected.
Now I'm going to go to Type and >Create Outlines or SHIFT CMD O, or SHIFT
CTRL O on a PC.
We'll need to fix part of this, so I'm going to hit Z on my keyboard, zoom in right here,
and then I'm going to use the N Tool or my Pencil Tool to just redraw this so that it
doesn't go outside that.
CMD minus to zoom out and see if there's any other problems.
It doesn't look like there is, so I'll select the whole word.
And we'll come down here to 'Pathfinder' and then Merge.
So we have one piece.
So we're very close, and there are really two ways you can do this.
You can click on the rectangle that has the gradient in it, and then click 'New Swatch'.
It'll ask you what you want to name it, and I never really rename swatches, so I'll say
'OK'.
And now we have this as a gradient swatch.
Now we can click on our word and choose the 'New Gradient Swatch,' and it's been applied
to our word.
But when you do it this way, it's a little hard to change the angle of your shiny gold
effect.
So we're going to try it a different way.
I'm going to hit the slash and question mark key to clear the fill.
And then I'm going to click on this and extend it all
the way down like this.
I'm going to send this one to the back.
So we have two things.
We've got this 'Hello'.
I'll make it black, so it's easy to see.
And we have this behind it.
We'll want to select our 'Hello' and make it a Compound Path, if it isn't already one.
Mine is already a Compound Path.
But, sometimes this won't work unless it's a compound path.
So go to Object>Compound Path and >Make if yours isn't.
OK, so let's select that, and we'll also select the gold, and then we can hit CMD 7, which
is a Clipping Mask.
OK, so now if we hit our A key, we can click the gold only, hit R and rotate it, so we
get a little more of a shininess.
We can also hit V to get on our Selection Tool and pull the size in with OPT.
And that way we get a lot more shine going on.
We're basically reducing the size of the gradient.
And now all that's left is to add a black rectangle behind it.
So hit M on your keyboard, and we'll draw a rectangle.
You can choose black from your swatches, and then SHIFT CMD [ to send it behind.
If you notice that you're not getting a lot of shine like this area right here, you can
hit M and draw another rectangle like you did before,
get your gradient back up, and add some really thin white pieces in here.
So I'll just move this over.
I'll hold OPT and drag this one and OPT and drag this one, and then I'll change that middle
one to white.
So that added a really nice sheen in there.
Now we'll hold OPT and drag this over here to get the same in these areas.
So now we can release this one by hitting OPT CMD 7 or ALT CTRL 7 on a PC,
delete it, copy and paste this one,
drag it down, send to the back.
We'll move this black piece out of the way.
And now I'm going to color this with black or something.
And now we can select both.
Hit CMD 7 and do the same thing.
We'll hit A, grab the sides, and we'll also rotate.
And now we can move our black square back.
So now we've got really shiny highlights.
And you can also do the same for low lights just like this dark area right here.
Anything that you can add a little bit of contrast will help it look more realistic.
And that's it.
All right, that was my video for this week.
If you like it, please click on the like button and I'll see you next week with another graphic
design tutorial.
Thank you!!!