Star Wars Bevel - Page 6

I’ve had a number of requests to show how the Star Wars logo was created. Don’t feel bad if you don’t happen to work for LucasArts — you can use this same technique for just about any large- sized text, not just the Star Wars logo.

Gradient Tips To switch to Photoshop's Gradient tools, press the letter "g". To bring up the Gradient Editor, switch to the Gradient tool, and in the Options Bar up top, click once on the gradient sample. To add a new Color Stop to your gradient, click anywhere below the Gradient Editor bar. To remove a Color Stop, click-and-drag downward. To edit the color of any Color Stop, double-click directly on the Color Stop itself. To change the opacity setting for the Gradient tool, press the 1 9 num-ber keys on your key-board (2= 20% , 3= 30% , etc.) while the Gradient tool is selected. To step through the blend modes in the Gradient s palette, press Shift-+. To delete a gradient, hold the Control key (PC: Right-click) and click-and-hold on the gradient you want to delete, then choose Delete Gradient from the pop-up list.

STEP ONE: Create a new blank document in RGB mode. Create your type. In this case, I used the typeface Futura Extra Bold and drew some extra black squares where the letters bleed together. It s pretty crude, but you get the idea. (The official Star Wars typeface is available on the Web. Search for Star Wars Font and you ll find dozens of sites that have it available for free download). Rasterize your type by going under the Layer menu, under Rasterize, and choosing Type.

STEP TWO: Hold the Command key (PC: Control key) , and in the Layers palette, click once on the Star Wars layer to put a selection around the type. Go under the Select menu, under Modify, and choose Expand. Enter 4 for the value and click OK. Next, create a new layer by clicking on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. Then press Option-Delete (PC: Alt- Backspace) to fill this selection with black. Press Command-D (PC: Control-D) to deselect.

	STEP THREE: We need to create two custom gradients for this effect. Click on the Gradient tool, and in the Options Bar up top, click once on the gradient sample to bring up the Gradient Editor. Double-click on the far left Color Stop (under the gradient bar) , to bring up the Color Picker. Click the Custom button at the top right of the box to bring up the Pantone Color Picker. Type the number 455 and click OK to assign Pantone 455 (a dark brown color) to the left side of your gradient.
	STEP FOUR: Now, double-click once on the right gradient Color Stop and click the Custom button again when the Color Picker appears. Type in 4525 to assign Pantone 4525 (a lighter brown) to the Color Stop on the right side of the gradient. In the Name field, name this gradient StarWars 1, then click the New button. This completes your first gradient, but don t click OK yet, because we have to build another gradient.
	STEP FIVE: While still in the Gradient Editor, drag the right Color Stop (light brown) to the left until it s about 1 4 " from the left stop. You ll notice that the name of the gradient changes to Custom. Next, hold the Option key (PC: Alt key) , click on the left stop (dark brown) , and drag it to the right, passing over the light brown stop by about 1 8 " (this creates a copy of the stop). Keep holding the Option key (PC: Alt key) and drag out light brown and dark brown Color Stops until your gradient looks approximately like the one shown above. Name this gradient StarWars 2 and click New. Click OK to exit the Gradient Editor.

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