Is this an effect you can do in Photoshop or Illustrator?

[Tribegal]

Hello all,

Photoshop newbie here! I'm wondering if the effect in the attached photo is something that can be done in photoshop. I have an inkling it's something better suited for Illustrator, but eh.



How do you get the orange outline to go around the dropshadow. Is the black space between the white letters and the orange outline even a drop shadow? Also, how do you make the drow shadowy black space transparent so that you can put it on different color backgrounds?

Thanks!

 

[IamSam]

Hello and welcome to PSG.

This can easily be done in Photoshop.

The orange/red line around the drop shadow is just a layer style stroke effect added to a copy of the text layer in black and then moved down and to the right.

Here's a quick example without the grunge factor.

 

[IamSam]

Here's a version which is a little more true to the original as far as strokes are concerned.

 

[IamSam]

As far as making the drop shadow transparent..........it can be done, but it would be really hard to explain.
If I have time tomorrow, I will try and make a quick tut video on the effect.

 

[Tribegal]

Whoa! That was fast. I guess you guys aren't photoshopgurus for nothing, lol.Thank you so much IamSam! I think I can follow this. As far as the transparent drop shadow, I look forward to your video. Thanks again!

 

[Tribegal]

Also, in the purple one, how would you take the black stroke out and make it transparent all around so the purple shows. I want to put these graphics on shirts and I want to be able to use them on different color shirts. I want transparency all around the white text so the color of the shirt appears as the stroke around it and dropshadow. Does that make sense?

 

[IamSam]

Also, in the purple one, how would you take the black stroke out and make it transparent all around so the purple shows. I want to put these graphics on shirts and I want to be able to use them on different color shirts. I want transparency all around the white text so the color of the shirt appears as the stroke around it and dropshadow. Does that make sense?

Not sure what you mean. Like this?

 

[Tribegal]

Yes! Exactly like that! I've been playing around with the previous steps and I can pretty much get everything except the transparent parts. It's so frustrating, but it's mostly because I picked some more advanced concepts to tackle as a newbie. lol

 

[Tribegal]

Does this effect call for the use of smart objects?

 

[IamSam]

No smart objects were used.

Ok let me see if I can explain what I have done.

The above effect was created using three text layers.

This was the first. It was the main text layer with a stroke via layer style.


The second layer was just a copy of the first only I made the text black.


I used the Move Tool to move layer 2 down and to the right to simulate a drop shadow.


More to come in next post...........

 

[IamSam]

Next, I highlighted layers 1 and 2 and duplicated them (Cmd/Cntrl + J) the merged them (Cmd/Cntrl + E).
This process rastorizes the layers. I then selected the layers content by hitting Cmd/Cntrl + mouse click the layers thumbnail.
I filled the selection with white and stroked it with red.



Next, I removed the white by lowering the layers fill opacity.
I was left with just the stroke.


Now we have this with all three layers turned on....


All that's left to do is to go back to layer 2 and turn it's layers fill opacity to 0%.
Go back to layer 1 and turn off it's stroke.

 

[IamSam]

Disregard the stroke/effects on layer 2 (Those were there from another experiment).

 

[Tribegal]

This is precisely what I needed, and it seems quite simpler than I imagined. Thank you so much, IamSam for your help! :youtheman:

 

[Tom Mann]

As always, superb advice by Sam.

FWIW, as a little aside, I'll add that the few times I've needed something like this, but not all the control described above, I've simply iteratively used the drop shadow layer effect followed by the "merge UP" command (ALT+SHIFT+CNTL+E) to build up a series of layers, each containing one more ring. For the example below, I used zero displacement, a "spread" of around 90%, and the contour that looks like an upside-down parabola. To save memory, one can delete lower layers in the stack as you build your way upwards.

Once you get into the rhythm of the necessary keystrokes, one can build up a deeply nested set of external, equally-spaced, narrow (if you want) colored rings very quickly. With that particular contour (parabolic), as you can see, the quasi-annular spaces between the (red) rings are transparent. (see attached).

If, with each iteration or every several iterations, one changes the color or the other parameters of the drop shadow as you are building up the layer stack, one can get a dizzying array of fx.

Tom M