Text engraved in wood effect

MH
Posted By
Marlene_Hochberg
Oct 1, 2008
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1702
Replies
19
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Closed
Using CS3.

I’ve got text superimposed on a photo of wood in ID (Text was added in ID.) Client wants the text to look like it’s engraved in the wood. I don’t think I can do this in ID.

Many years ago I did something similar in PS with text on a marble background, and it took many steps to accomplish.

What’s the best way to do the wood engraving? I’d like to avoid having to go through zillions of steps, because I anticipate changes in the project.

TIA,

Marlene
Related Tags
effect engraved text wood
JM
J_Maloney
Oct 1, 2008
For burned wood: <http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.59b5ca5a/0>

This one < http://www.photoshoptalent.com/photoshop-tutorials/engraving -text-in-wood.php> is great for engraved text. Here’s a whole bunch of wood tuts <http://www.pslover.com/similar/Engraving_Text_in_Wood>.

J
MV
Mathias_Vejerslev
Oct 1, 2008
<http://www.2morrow.dk/75ppi/3dtext/default.htm>

Best way takes lots of steps.

BTW, you can now use Photoshops Layer Effects Stroke / Shapeburst instead of Kais Power Tools.
MH
Marlene_Hochberg
Oct 2, 2008
I spent two hours fiddling with various techniques, and ended up using the easiest. (Basically copy and paste the wood background into the text, darken the text, then apply inner shadow.)

I’m not wild about the way it looks, but the text is pretty small — 13 point — so maybe this is as good as it gets.

I wanted to use that Italian tutorial at

<http://spasquini.interfree.it/tutorial.htm?t02031>

but since I don’t understand Italian, I had to pass it up. Too bad, because I really wanted to "Applicate Disturbo." (My husband thought Disturbo would be a good name for a superhero …)

Anyway, I was out of time. As usual, I was thrown this curve at the last minute.

Marlene
JM
J_Maloney
Oct 2, 2008
Noise, Captain Noise.

(Noise, motion blur, wind)

<http://www.google.com/language_tools>
MH
Marlene_Hochberg
Oct 2, 2008
All your base are belong to us.

I tried two different translators — Google and Babelfish — but neither could translate the Italian page.
DM
Don_McCahill
Oct 2, 2008
If it was only 13 point text, then the two hours you spent was a lot less than two hours actually engraving in real wood. (Can you even engrave text that small in wood?)
JJ
John Joslin
Oct 2, 2008
Marlene

That Italian tutorial gives a very realistic impression of hot metal "branding" on a whisky crate.

You said you wanted "carved". I remember that tutorial with marble but that was before the present options for blending a text layer.

Just create the text and try experimenting with a Bevel and Emboss effect, set it to Overlay and lower the opacity a bit.
MH
Marlene_Hochberg
Oct 3, 2008
I argued that the text was too small to "engrave," but I did not win.

I got approval on the effect I used, but now I have a new question — I created text on a circular path in InDesign. How do I get that into Photoshop?? I need to be able to paste the wood photo into the letters and then do the other fiddling with them.

I tried copy/paste and got something called a vector smart object, but it’s apparently much smarter than I am. I’m guessing a vector is fine — I don’t think the text needs to actually be editable text, as long as I’ve got vector shapes into which I can paste the wood image — but I can’t get it to behave.

IIRC, when I did the original engraved text — which was on a straight line, not a curve — I used the horizontal type mask tool, but I have to deal in curves now.

Marlene
MH
Marlene_Hochberg
Oct 4, 2008
Okay, I’m getting desperate now. This job has to go to press Monday morning. I’ve spent hours trying to figure out how to work with a vector smart object, and it’s beyond me. And yes, I’ve read the help files, but don’t see what I need to know.

I created the text on a circular path in ID, but it doesn’t matter whether I place or copy/paste it from ID or from AI (I’ve tried both, dozens of times). I get that vector smart object, and I can’t figure out how to copy and paste the wood photo into the type. I also tried converting the text to outlines in AI and placing that.

Doesn’t make any difference. I can’t figure out how to select the vector shapes and fill them. If I use the magic wand to select the text (it’s all the same color) and then paste in the wood photo, the edges get way too bitmappy.

Can someone please point me in the right direction?

Thanks,

Marlene
JJ
John Joslin
Oct 4, 2008
You seem to be making the job much too complicated. It’s hard to advise without seeing what you are trying to do but it may be better to go back to square one and think it through using techniques you understand.

This way the text remains editable:

<http://imageshack.us>

I did that in 3 minutes as an example of what I’m thinking.
MH
Marlene_Hochberg
Oct 4, 2008
Your example looks more embossed than engraved to me, but the general idea is the same — fill the text with the wood grain and make it look 3D.

To clarify, I know how to get the effect I want in PS, but only when I create the text in PS.

What I can’t figure out is how to apply the effect to vector shapes (the text on a curve) that I did NOT create in PS.

(I used to be able to do this in earlier versions of PS — I’d copy a vector shape in AI, paste it into PS, select it, and apply a new fill or paste a photo into the shape.)

I’ve been able to copy from AI into PS (I’ve tried pasting as paths and as shapes) and select the shapes (with the direct selection or paths tool), but can’t figure out how to fill or paste into them. Every time I try, the entire photo is pasted into the layer, not into the shapes.

I tried creating a work path after selecting the shapes, but that gave me really jagged edges.

Either this stuff has gotten more difficult, or I’ve gotten stupider.

I think all I need to know is how to select the shapes/paths (whichever I should be using when I paste into PS) and fill/paste into them.

Once I’ve been able to do that, I can apply the rest of the effects that I used successfully on the straight-line text I created in PS.

Frankly, if I had known this was part of the job, I would probably have turned it down. But the engraving request was thrown at me after the layout was completed.

I’ve now officially been up all night trying to figure this out. And I’ve got several other jobs that are due Monday morning. 🙁

Marlene
JJ
John Joslin
Oct 4, 2008
OK.

With the path from Illustrator in Photoshop file, convert the path into a selection.

Load the wood texture on to the clipboard and do Edit > Paste into.

Then apply your bevel or whatever effect you want.

<http://imageshack.us>
MH
Marlene_Hochberg
Oct 4, 2008
Excellent! I must have done something wrong when I tried to convert the path into a selection the first time (or three).

This works fine.

Thanks,

Marlene
JJ
John Joslin
Oct 4, 2008
🙂
SU
Sergei_Urlof
Oct 4, 2008
"Load the wood texture on to the clipboard"…

How do I load a texture onto the clipboard? And in which application do I load it (Ai, Ps)? When I make rectangle in Ai so that I can actually see a woodgrain texture, copying that results in a rectangle – not a fill that I can paste into the Photoshop selection.

Obviously I am missing something here.
JJ
John Joslin
Oct 4, 2008
How do I load a texture onto the clipboard?

Assuming you have the texture as an image file; open in PS, select all, copy.
MH
Marlene_Hochberg
Oct 6, 2008
This is so weird. On Saturday, I was able to copy vector shapes from AI and paste them into PS as paths (when I’d click on Paste, I’d get the different options for how to paste). But it wasn’t happening today.

And yes, I have the correct clipboard prefs in AI (PDF and AICB, preserve paths) selected.

What am I doing wrong today that I did correctly the day before? <g>

I did get the job completed, but would still like to know how to get that Paste as Paths thing to work in PS again.
MV
Mathias_Vejerslev
Oct 6, 2008
Try drag and drop.
P
Phosphor
Oct 6, 2008
"Your example looks more embossed than engraved to me."

That’s nothing more than optical illusion, and brain trickery.

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