Wax Text Tutorial

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Tutorial: Wax Symbol

This the wax symbol tutorial. This is my second tutorial, I hope you like it. I will assume that you have a moderate amount of knowledge in the way of Photoshop. I will use alpha channels, lighting effects and multiple layers to create this text. Isn't that a nice picture. I haven't seen tutorials on this type of effect. I was doing a monogram design for a friend and I had mentioned that I could make a wax seal type of effect. He said okay. It wasn't that hard at all.

Okay, first create a new file that is 400x400 pixels. The bigger the better. You might want to set up some guides in the center. There will be a few more circles made in this tutorial and it could help.

Okay here is where you will decide how big you want our seal to be. Create a new layer named Wax Back and use the ellipticle marque tool to create a cirle (hold shift for perfect circle).

I chose a nice deep red color since that is what the classic symbol is. I will put some different colored examples at the bottom so that you can see what the variations look like.

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Wax Text Tutorial

Next we will create a new layer name Border. This will be the outside of the seal. This next part is a little weird so try to follow me. Make a lumpy selection kind of like the example pic. It just makes it look like excess wax. Then fill it with the color, red in this case.

Here is the tricky part. Load the selecion from the Wax Backlayer. Then contract it one pixel by select/modify/ contract. After that clear the middle of the the border layer. It should look something like the picture.

Now load the selection of the Border layer. Click on the channels tab and save the selection as an alpha channel, or selction/save selection.

With it still selected we will use guassian blur to make a 3d effect. Blur it in stages. What I mean is that I used a blur of 7, then 5, then 3, and finally 1. This gives it a nice smooth rendering when we apply lightling effects. If you have blurred it to heavily it will look black and rather flat. After you are done blurring it select the inverse (ctr+I) and hit delete. This is to clear the "jaggies". We will now do the lighting effects. Click on the picture to view my settings. Note: Save your light settings when you
get a good one. Sometimes it is hard to remember what the settings are

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Wax Text Tutorial

Now that doesn't look terribly great...yet. What you must do now is apply a drop shadow and bevel emboss. Click on the picture to see my settings. After this it looks much better

Now doesn't that look better.

It seems really dark though doesn't it. So we will apply the same lighing effect on the Wax Back layer as we did on the Border layer. Just hit ctrl+f. If it doesn't work redo the lighting effect, just have no alpha channel selected. Should look like example.

Gold examples click to enlarge.

The rest is really easy. Okay, create a new layer named Inner Rim. On that layer make a circle just a little smaller than the inside border. You can see what I mean in the picture if you click on it. I have hidden the Wax Back layer so you can see the selection easier. Oh this is where the guides you made ealier come in handy. If you didn't make them no big deal at all. Just eyeball it. I did ^_^

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Wax Text Tutorial

While on the Inner Rim layer go to edit/stroke. Have it about 10. Then load the selection. Now we will repeat the steps we used to create the border. So create an alpha channel and blur it, I started the blur at 4 and worked my way down. Don't forget to select the inverse and delete the "jaggies"

Now you have something that looks like this. Go back to the layers menuy and click on the Inner Rim layer. Apply the same lighting effects to this layer as we did earlier. EXCEPT have the alpha 2 channel selected instead of alpha 1.

You should have something that looks similar to this. To finish off the wax effect on the Inner Rim layer just copy your effects used on the Border layer.

By now you should be a pro with the lighting effects and alpha channels. Since your so good we will use them one last time. The Coup De Grace, the text. I used Script MT Bold and it was 95 pt. You can of course use whatever font you would like. Always remeber the effect we are going for here. Make sure to render the layer(right click on the T symbol then there is a pop up menu). Save the selection, blur it; I used 6,4,1 then delete the "jaggies". Repeat the lighting effect for the text this time with alpha channel 3. Also add the drop shadow and bevel emboss effect onto that layer. Same setting as others except use outer bevel.

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Wax Text Tutorial

Your layer menu should look something like this

Viola it is done.

Some quick seals I did. Click to enlarge

I would really apreciate feedback on this tutorial. Or if you have any questions drop me a line at Ghost
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