Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you how to create your own retro,
constructivist-design, text poster. I provided a Photoshop file that you can
download, so you can follow along.
Its link is located in the video description or project files.
It includes two paper images that we'll use for textures.
We'll make a copy of the folded paper
by pressing Ctrl + J on a PC or Cmd + J
on a Mac. Go to Filter,
Blur and Gaussian Blur. Blur it 2 pixels.
We'll use this blurred paper
as a "displacement map". The displacement map will conform our text and graphics
to the contours of the folded paper. Go to
"Layer" and "Duplicate Layer". Click
"New" and type in "Displacement".
Then, click OK. Go to "File"
and "Save As". Save it to your desktop
as a PSD file.
Then, click "Save".
If you see this window, click OK.
Close the tab of the Displacement file.
We can trash the blurred paper
says we saved it to our desktop. We're ready to add text.
It could be lyrics, a poem, a speech
or an excerpt from a book; anything you find inspirational.
For this example, I'll choose the prose-poem,
by American writer, Max Ehrmann, entitled,
"Desiderata". Highlight your block of text
and press Cntrl or Cmd + C to copy it.
Then, in a new browser window, type in
"Wordle.net". Wordle
automatically generates designs called, "word clouds".
comprised of text. Click "Create".
Click inside the blank area and press Ctrl
or Cmd + V to paste your text into it
or you can also choose to type out your own text in this area.
You can make specific words larger in your design.
The size of a particular word is directly proportional to the number of
times that word appears in your block of text.
For example, since I want the word "peace"
to be one of the largest words in my design, I'll type it
or copy it 6 times. I'll continue to highlight and copy words that I want to
stand out.
Since I'd like the word, "God" to be the largest,
I'll add it the most amount of times. When you're done,
click "Go" and Wordle will create a "word cloud"
featuring words that appeared most in your body of text.
Click "Language". I'd like to make all the text
uppercase, so I'll click on it. Click "Font"
and choose a typeface. You may have different fonts that are listed here.
For this example, I'll use, "League Gothic".
Click "Layout". I'll choose, "Straighter Edges"
and "Mostly Horizontal".
Click, "Color". You can
opt to create your color palette or choose one of the presets.
For this example, I'll choose, "Milk Paints".
You can also opt to keep the exact palette colors
or choose degrees of variation. For this example,
I'll choose, "A Little Variation". Click
"Open in Window" and maximize it to full screen.
Press the "Print Screen" key
at the top of your keyboard. It's located to the right
of the F12 key. Then, close the window.
Minimize your Browser and go to "File"
and "New". Then, click OK.
Press Ctrl or Cmd + V to paste the full screen image
onto your document. Press Ctrl
or Cmd + E to merge these two layers into one.
Press Ctrl or Cmd + A to select it
and Ctrl or Cmd + C to copy it.
Click on the tab of the original PSD file that you downloaded
and press Ctrl or Cmd + V to paste the Wordle
image onto it. To get rid of the information
above and below the words, you can paint them out using your brush or pencil
tools
or open your "Rectangular Marquee Tool"
and carefully drag a rectangle just over the words.
Invert the selection by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + Shift + I.
We'll fill it with white
and since white is the background color, press Ctrl
or Cmd + Delete. To delete the selection,
press Ctrl or Cmd + D.
Drag the top layer below the "stain paper" layer.
Click off the eyeballs of the paper layers to hide them.
Press Ctrl or Cmd + G to make a "group folder"
and Ctrl-click or Cmd- click on the thumbnail
of one of the paper layers to make a selection of its shape.
Click on the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask of the selection
next to the folder.
This will apply the layer mask to all the layers that are
and will be in this folder. Click on the word layer
to make it active and click on the "New Layer" icon
to make a new layer above it. Drag out
a rectangular selection approximately one quarter inch
in from the edge of the poster. Invert the selection
and fill it with white. Then, delete the selection.
We're ready to frame it with angular color shapes
Make the word layer active and open your Pen Tool.
Click, "Shape". If you have CS5 or earlier,
click this icon. Click on the "Fill" color box
and this icon to open the "Color Picker".
Click on a character to pick up its color
and click OK.
Click outside the poster... release your
mouse or pen and click again near a character.
Release and click again outside the poster.
Release and click to another point still outside the poster.
Release again and click on the first point to close the path.
You know you closed the path when you see a small circle
next to the pen symbol. To create
a new angular shape, click on another area outside the poster
and repeat the steps.
Click on the "Fill" color box... the color picker
and click on a character that has a different color.
Continue to make angular shapes filled with colors
picked up from characters on your design.
Make as many shapes as you like to frame your design.
If you want to close the color swatches, press
Enter or Return. If you want to reposition a shape,
press Ctrl or Cmd + T to open your Transform Tool.
Then, click on the shape and move it. To adjust the angle,
go to a corner and when you see a curved, double-arrow,
rotate it to an angle you like. Then, press Enter or Return.
I'll pick a different color for this shape.
Then, I'll close the color swatches. To hide the path,
press Ctrl or Cmd + H. I'd like to add the name of this prose-poem here
on this shape, so I'll open my "Horizontal Type Tool"
and choose a font. I'll use the same font as I chose
in Wordle, which was "League Gothic".
The Size is approximately, 95 points,
"Sharp", "Left Alignment" and black for the color.
Type out your text. To reposition it,
open your Move Tool and move it over one of the shapes.
To angle it, open your Transform Tool
and rotate it. You can also re-size it if you like.
When you're happy with its size, angle
and position, press Enter or Return. To change its color,
click on the "fx"icon and choose, "Color Overlay".
Click on the color box
and pick a color. I'll choose white. I'll close the Color Picker
and the Layer Style window. Scroll down to the bottom
and make the background active. We'll fill it with
white and since white is the background color,
press Ctrl or Cmd + Delete. Make a "composite snapshot"
of your image by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E
for Windows or Cmd +Shift + opt + E for a Mac.
Make the background active again
and press Alt or Opt + Delete
to fill it with black. Make the "composite snapshot" active
and drag it up and place it just below the "stained paper".
We're ready to add the displacement map to the poster.
Go to "Filter", "Distort"
and "Displace". Make the "Horizontal and Vertical Scales": 5...
the "Displacement Map": "Stretch to Fit" and the "Undefined Areas":
"Repeat Edge Pixels". Then, click OK. Open your desktop,
click "Displacement", then click
"Open". Notice there are subtle, but important, displacements in the shape of
the text.
Ctrl-click or Cmd-click on the thumbnail
of one of the paper layers to make a selection of its shape.
press Ctrl or Cmd + J
to cut the poster from its background using the selection
and copy it to its own layer. Now,
we can trash the composite snapshot, since we don't need it anymore.
Make the "stained paper" active
and visible. Change the Blend Mode
to "Multiply". Make the "folded paper"
active and visible. Change
its blend mode to "Multiply", as well. Notice how the displacement map
wrapped the text and shapes around the contours
the folded paper. To make your poster
a bit brighter, make another composite snapshot
and open your "Levels" window
by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + L. Drag the "Input" white slider
to where the histogram begins to rise. Then, click OK.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!