# Photoshop experts: How do I get this effect?



## itistoday (Jun 20, 2005)

How do I create this effect in photoshop, it's as if someone cut out the letters "StarCraft" in black paper and shined a light through:







I tried creating two layers of identical text and using radial blur on the top one, but I could not get anything near this, expecially since radial blur would only really work near the ends of the text, but not in the center the way this image shows it.


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## Lt Major Burns (Jun 20, 2005)

argh that's so frustrating!

i've been trying for like half an hour and i'm nowhere near close! there must be a way 

my guess is that is a 3d effect. it_ is_ light shining through holes....


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## itistoday (Jun 20, 2005)

Lt Major Burns said:
			
		

> argh that's so frustrating!
> 
> i've been trying for like half an hour and i'm nowhere near close! there must be a way
> 
> my guess is that is a 3d effect. it_ is_ light shining through holes....


Yeah that's what I was thinking... maybe they used some 3D app like 3D Studio Max...


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## agusgriego (Jun 21, 2005)

You can do that easily in After Effects and a plug-in called trapcode shine.
in PS i think you could do it with radial blur set to zoom though...


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## texanpenguin (Jun 21, 2005)

I had a shot at it, and reproduced the effect reasonably in Photoshop.

It wouldn't attach, so I've put it on my Photobucket. Check out

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y192/texanpenguin/MacOSXZoomEffect.png

The colours are wacky like that by my own choosing (very easy to accomplish).

If you'd like instructions on how I did it, let me know and I'll see if I can't oblige  (mostly the Zoom function of the Radial Blur).


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## Lt Major Burns (Jun 21, 2005)

yeah i got that far, but i wanted the middle letters to basically fill the top-to-bottom, making the overall image almost sqaure in dimensions


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## mw84 (Jun 21, 2005)

To me it looks like hes created a white background layer and then a second black one. Then done the text on this second layer, cut it out to expose the white background underneath and giving the star craft text the white colour. Then used the eraser tool on the same layer, on a pressure sensitive setting to drag the edge of the lettering in the various directions to give the effect of light shining through the back.

Easier way: use just one layer, write star craft then use the smudge tool on pressure sensitive mode to drag the edge of the lettering for the same effect.

He's probably blurred and or softened it a bit too.

EDIT: there's probably filters that will do this for you too. I know there was a built in one on Paintshop Pro where you could select lighting from any chosen position to give this effect. As it doesn't look too professional that is probably what they've done.


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## itistoday (Jun 22, 2005)

agusgriego said:
			
		

> You can do that easily in After Effects and a plug-in called trapcode shine.
> in PS i think you could do it with radial blur set to zoom though...


Yes, I was recently informed of this, and since it's a video that I got that shot from, I think they might have actually used that plugin.  It is an amazing plugin...


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## itistoday (Jun 22, 2005)

texanpenguin said:
			
		

> I had a shot at it, and reproduced the effect reasonably in Photoshop.
> 
> It wouldn't attach, so I've put it on my Photobucket. Check out
> 
> ...


Well that's better than what I was able to get, but it's still not quite the same effect.  The differences are most noticible near the center of the text.  Notice, for example, how the zoom is very different on the "OSX" than at the "M" in the beginning.  It doesn't seem as if light were shining through the text as it does with the starcraft image (it almost seems like a dropshadow).  Also, near the center the shine effect does not go as high as the starcraft image, and it stays at a uniform height throughout, while the starcraft shine seems to vary in height. I think that whoever made the StarCraft effect probably used Trapcode Shine, here's a video tutorial of it in action: http://www.trapcode.com/in_action/shine_intro.html


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