Hello! Due to popular demand I have written up this tutorial for making Doc Ozone's "gullwing" logo-text, which I refer to as Sky Taffy. Make sure to come back to the Forum and tell me what you think.

Let me point out that I use Photoshop 5.0 and a PC with Windows 98. I am not familiar with any other versions of Photoshop, or with the Mac OS, so my apologies for any discrepancies. Also, YES I took Doc's color/font settins...it's his logo I'm copying, so may as well copy the rest, eh?



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Create a new image, whatever size and shape you want - work with a big canvas to give yourself plenty of room to work in, and to help the intensity of your Lens Flares along.

There are lot's of ways to go right from the start here -- pick out a font you like, or hand draw your logo. Make sure, either way, that your letters are thick enough to accomodate the thickness of the border and a nice wide strip of sky.

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Fill your background with the color/texture you want, and create a new layer. Use your text marquee tool, and type your letters one at a time so you can place them individually.

If your font is not thick enough, expand it (Select --> Modify --> Expand). To keep your text level, drag a guide down to the bottom of your text and make sure "snap to guides" is checked.

Fill your selection with whatever color you like. I used (RGB) 225, 143, 0, but play around.

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Select the Layer 1 Transparency (right-click on the thumbnail for Layer 1 on the layers pallet, choose "Select Layer Transparency").

Save the selection as a new channel (click on the white-circle icon on the channels pallet). Go to the new channel, and with the text still selected, blur it -- go to "Filter --> Blur --> Gaussian Blur" and blur at 4-5 pixels, and again at 2-3 pixels. Deselct and blur again at 1 pixel to smooth the jagged edge.

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Okay, time for everybody's favorite filter! Go to "Filter --> Render --> Lighting Effects. Make sure you choose Alpha 1 (the channel you saved your selection as) as your texture channel, and tick the "White is high" box. You don't want to get too shiny and you don't want too much contrast either -- set the "ambiance" fairly high. Here are the settings I used:

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Create a new layer. Select the Layer 1 transparency again, and contract it (Select --> Modify --> Contract) by about 5-8 pixels. Then smooth it (Select --> Modify --> Smooth) by 3-5 pixels.

Set your foreground color to an *almost* white blue, and your background as a medium-dark blue. Make sure you're on your new layer, and go to "Filter --> Render --> Clouds". That shoud give you a relatively sky like look, although I imagine Doc used a pic of some sky on his.

Now, everyone's *other* favorite Filter (and by everyone I mean Doc Ozone of course!) Go to "Filter --> Render --> Lens Flare". Play around with different brightness settings, and place them pretty much randomly. The number of lens flares to use depends on how big your logo is.


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Okay, now for the bevels. Select the Layer 2 transparency, feather it by 1, and Inverse the selection. Nudge the selection Up 1 and Right 1, and DECREASE the Brightness by 100% (Image --> Adjust --> Brightness/Contrast). Nudge the selection Down 2 and Left 2, and INCREASE the brightness by 100%. That'll bevel the inner section.

Alright, now select the Layer 2 Transparency again, and feather it by 2-3 pixels. Make sure Layer 1 is your active layer now. Nudge the selection Up 2 and Right 2, and DECREASE the brightness by 100%. Nudge it back Down 4 and Left 4, and INCREASE the brightness by 100%. You may have to repeat this part to get a bright enough highlight and a dark enough shadow -- see how it goes.

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Okay, all we have left is a drop shadow. Select the Layer 1 Transparency and feather it by about 3. Create a new layer in between the Background and Layer 1. Nudge your selection Down and Left by about 4-5 pixels, and fill it with Black - 90%. That'll about do it...play around with some variations along the way. For example, in Step 2, before you save the selection as a new channel, apply an effect or two - "ripple" works well, so does "sphere" and "twirl". And of course, just tweak, tweak, tweak at the end until you get something better than what you had!

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Well, let me know what you guys think of all this.... I enjoyed writing it up, and I hope it helps somebody out : ) Feel free to Email me with your comments questions and insults! See ya back at the Forum.


- This tutorial copyright ©2000 by DL-44, all rights reserved. -
- Date & Time: Saturday, July 12, 2025 03:59AM GMT -
- Last updated: Thursday, July 27, 2000 -

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