Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. I'm going to show you how to create pop-out letter
poster designs. For your convenience, I provided this photo of a hornbill that we'll use for this
example. Feel free to use any image you like. In addition, I provided a font I’ll be using.
If you want to use a different font, just make sure its thick so we can see the image through the letter.
Click the New layer icon to make a new layer. We'll fill it with white,
but before we do, let’s check our foreground and background colors. If they aren't black and white
respectively, press "D" on your keyboard. If they're inverted, press "x". Since white is our
background color, press Ctrl or Cmd + Delete. Open your Horizontal Type Tool and in the Type Picker,
open a thick font you'd like to use. I'll make its size approximately 280 points,
but feel free to adjust this number based on the font you choose. The aliasing and alignment aren't
important for this example. Click on your document and type the first letter of your subject's name.
Open your Move Tool and center the letter over your document. Double-click the text layer to open
its Layer Style window. Click "Stroke". The Size is 15 pixels, the Position is "Outside",
the Blend Mode is "Normal, and the Opacity is 100%. Click the color box and pick a color for
the stroke. You can always change it later if you want. I already chose a color earlier. Click
"Drop Shadow". The Blend Mode is Multiply, the color is black, and the opacity is 30%.
I'll make the angle: 132 degrees, the Distance: 60 pixels, and the size: 30 pixels.
Let's collapse the Smart filters to save a bit of space in the Layers panel. Unlock the background
and drag it to the top of the Layers panel. We'll clip it to the inside of our letter by hovering our cursor
between the two layers and pressing and holding Alt or Option. When we see this clipping mask
icon, click it. Another way to do this is to go to Layer and "Create Clipping Mask".
If we want to resize our image inside the letter, press Ctrl or Cmd + T open the Transform Tool and go to a corner.
Press and hold Alt or Option as we drag it in or out. To reposition it inside the letter,
just drag it. Then, press Enter or Return. Make a copy of the layer by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J.
In this copy, we'll separate our subject from its background. There are many ways to this, however, for this
example, go to Select and Select and Mask. In earlier versions, use Refine Edge. I did in-depth
tutorials on both filters, so if you want to watch them, I provided their links below in the video description.
Click "Select Subject"
and "Refine Hair"
If there are areas that didn't fill in, just drag your cursor over them.
Click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask of the selection.
Ctrl-click or Cmd-click the large "T" of the letter to make a selection of its shape.
Invert the selection by pressing Ctrl or Cmd +Shift + i.
Open your Pencil Tool and make sure black is your foreground color. Open the Pencil Picker and pick a soft or hard round point.
Let's make its size 125 pixels. Make its Hardness 100%, its Opacity 100%, and its Smoothing: 0%.
Draw over the outside of the letter where you'd like to mask out the subject.
Then, deselect it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + D.
Double-click the top layer to open its Layer Style window.
Click "Drop Shadow". Keep all the settings the same as you had earlier, expect make its opacity 20%.
Next, we'll mask out the drop shadow inside the letter as well as the rest
of the hornbill that we don't want outside the letter. Make a new layer and Shift-click the layer
under it to make it active as well. We'll merge them together by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + E.
Click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask next to the active layer. Open the Rectangular Marquee Tool
and drag your tool over the right side of the letter right up to the stroke on the left.
We'll fill the selection with black which is the foreground color. Then, deselect it.
Next, we'll make the background into a soft radial gradient. Make the bottom layer active
and click the Adjustment layer icon. Click "Gradient".
Open the Style list and click "Radial". Open the Gradient list and click the black to white thumbnail.
Click the gradient bar to open the Gradient Editor.
Click the lower left Stop and click on a color inside the letter to pick it up.
Then, click OK on the Color Picker and the Gradient Editor to close them. Check "Reverse" to reverse the colors
and adjust the scale to widen the gradient to your liking.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. Thanks for watching!