The background was created using a fountain fill.
Select the Text tool in the Toolbox and, on the property bar, change the
font to Futura XBlt BT at 120 px. Type 'OTTO' (eight).
The playcement of your text is not important as long as it fits within the
image completely. Select the object Picker tool. Look in the Objects docker
where you will see that the text is now an object.
Also note the letter 'A' on the right side of the object name. This icon
tells us the the text is an editable object.
There is a lot of information available to us at this point.
Place your cursor on the object and, after a moment a box will appear giving
details about the object underneath.
It shows the object is both active and selected, its Opacity is at 100%,
the merge mode is normal and the size of the object is 443x121 pixels.
The Objects docker include some of the same information.
The object is labeled OTTO (text object use their text string as their object
name), it is highlighted (selected) and the thumbnail has a red border (indicating
that it is active).
Click the middle top handle of the text and drag the text up to scale the
text object vertically to 200%: let go of the mouse button.
Choose file/import and select a photo, as you like, click 'open': a thumbnail
of the image you are importing appears attached to the cursor.
Click anywhere in the image window and this photo covered the text image
with its original size. Notice that in the Objects docker it is an object
floating above the text and the background.
In the Objects docker, click in the column to the right of the eye icon
and a paperclip icon appears indicating the clip to Parent mode.
If you click the text in the Objects docker to select it and drag it, you
can notice that only the portion of the checkered photo directly over the
text can be seen.
Now select the photo: again, only the portion over the object (text) is
visible.
The option of clip to parent causes the object's shape
to be clipped to the shape of the object below it in the object list: this
feature is activated by clicking in the column to the right of the eye in
the Objects docker and a paperclip icon appears to show that clip to parent
is active. |
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With the Object Picker tool, select the text object in the
Objects docker: create a mask of the text, save it as a channel and, when
prompted, name the mask channel 'Text'.
Select the Brush tool and, on the property bar, choose Airbrush and the
Soft wide cover brush type. Make the following changes: nib size=40, transparency=60.
The Brush Type now reads Custom Airbrush.
Select, with the dropper tool a color from your photo, that will be the
paint color.
In the Objects docker, select the photo checkered object: this is because
we want to apply the airbrush stroke to the photo texture.
Ensure the mask is loaded, choose the Stroke mask button on the property
bar 
and when the dialog box opens, choose Middle of mask border and OK. Repeat
this again.
Now riduce mask 10 pixels, feature= 8, inside, curved. Fill this new mask
with white and add a Gaussian blur =7 px, merge mode screen opacity 50%.
Delete mask.
At this point there is no advantage in keeping the text and the photo object
in the Cilp to parent relationship. Hold down the Shift key and select the
text.
Both object should be selected at this point. Click the 'combine objects'
button at the bottom of the Objects docker. The text and the object has
become a single object.
Also note that the name has changed to 'Object' and the 'A' icon is no longer
there.
Since we combine the object, the text can no longer be edited as text. |
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At the bottom of the Objects docker, click the new object
button.
From the Brush tool flyout, select the 'image sprayer tool'. On the property
bar, choose Brown rope. Click and drag a rope roughly the shape of the one
shown next.
Now we are going to use Clip Mask.
With the Object picker tool, ensure the top object (the rope) is selected.
Create a mask of this object. Now we are going to make this mask into a
Clip mask.
Choose Object/clip mask/ create/ from mask.
Notice the change in the object docker window shown next: another thumbnail
representing the clip mask has appeared and is active as indicated by the
red rectangle around it.
This means that any action we take on the image now is applied only to the
clip mask.
We are about to thread the rope through the letters.
Before we can do this, we need some protection so we remove only the part
of the rope that coincides with the text.
Load tha mask we saved in the channel:choose mask/load/text.
The clip mask and a regular mask can exist on the same image at the same
time: if your mask marquee is on, you can see the regular mask, but there
is no visual indication on the image of the clip mask.
We are almost ready. Select the brush tools and change the brush from the
airbrush to the Art brush: the style should be Quick Dooler.
With the paint color black, paint on the rope that crosses some letters.
Note that you are actually paint black on the mask: everywhere on the mask
you paint black, the rope become transparent.
The text mask we loaded keeps the transparency from going beyond the boundaries
of the text. Continue to paint on the rope where you want it to be transparent.
If you decide to change your mind, you can change the rope transparency
by setting the paint to white and brushing on the clip mask.
So we can say:
black = total transparency
white = no transparency
% black (grey) = different % transparency |
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The Clip mask is a mask that is attached to an individual
object.
There can only be one mask on an image, but you can apply a clip mask to
any object.
One of the primary use of the clip mask is to provide a nonpermanent transparency:
the advantage of the clip mask is that the transparency action can modify
the object at any time and becomes permanent only when you combine the clip
mask with the object.
Everything we did to the rope we could have done with the object transparency
tool or eraser tool.
The big difference is that the changes made with Object transparency tool
are permanent, while the changes made with the clip mask are only there
until you remove or change the mask.
To make the changes permanent, select Combine (which is now available as
a choice from the clip mask part of the object menu).
Choosing disable clip mask will turn off the effects of
the clip mask, but it will be still there. Selecting combine clip
mask will permanently apply the mask effects to the object.
If remove clip mask is selected, then the mask is discarded
and the object return to its pre-clip mask appearance. |
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| At the end, I added a shadow to the rope using the rope mask,
an uniform black fill, a Gaussian blur and I delete the useless shadow parts
with eraser tool. |
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