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Bitmap Texture Overlay fx for Text


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I just purchased Affinity Photo (AP), since Photoshop CS (PS) won't run on my new Mac and I refuse to rent software (Photoshop CC), unless it is absolutely necessary.

That said, there is a feature that I use a lot, in PS, that I have not yet been able to duplicate, in AP. That feature is placing bitmap texture on 3D beveled text. It's a snap, in PS, but I've chased it for several days and although I can create a respectable shiny metallic font in AP, I'm stymied by how to overlay texture on top of the font.

Included here, are two examples of where I have used this capability. One is for a book cover that I designed the text appears to be cut out of a bar of gold. The other is for a business website. On that one, the surface of the text appears to be brushed chrome that is beveled on the edges. I have used a variety of other surface treatments, as well. In each case, it was done with a "pattern overlay".

I'm hoping that some AP guru, who knows as much about AP as I know about PS, can point me in the right direction. I really don't want to be forced to rent Adobe software. Help…

Thanks in advance.

RichDontPayTax-cov-tet.thumb.jpg.4a760cc5fa7833b7c5e6bd075fb3e109.jpg

rv-inspector-motorhome-text1.thumb.jpg.4b388dc8e0cce23e74a6fdab1d3dccef.jpg

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A good start would be the Styles panel. Apply a metallic style to your text and have a look at the FX on how this effect was achieved. Or if you do not like the surface, place a pattern of your choice and move it into the text frame and then apply your other effects.

------
Windows 10 | i5-8500 CPU | Intel UHD 630 Graphics | 32 GB RAM | Latest Retail and Beta versions of complete Affinity range installed

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Hi,

You can place your bitmap image into your document and right click 'Convert to Curves', this gives you the option to add the selected bitmap to the styles category, adding the fx effects also before saving, you can also do the same with the gradient tool and changing the 'Type' to a Bitmap fill and right click, Create Style.

 

Capture4.PNG

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9 hours ago, GarryP said:

Are these the sort of things you want?
These are easy to do by putting an image inside the text layer and applying a Bevel/Emboss Effect.
Note the use of a different Profile (and some other settings) in the Bevel/Emboss Effect of each to give a different sort of ‘look’.

textured-text.afphoto

Annotation 2019-12-04 093400.png

Garry, these are definitely headed in the right direction. Each one has something of what I'm trying to achieve. I like the texture in the top text, though the texture extends into the bevel. I like the brushed metal on the bottom, though it has no flat surface. For some jobs, I need to use a wide font, such as Arial Black. That means that I have a large flat space to fill.

I'm trying to find a way to apply the texture to the flat front surface of the text, and yet leave the beveled edges shiny.

The first image is a zoomed part of the original that was created in PS. The second image is the closest I have been able to achieve, in AP. You can see the significant difference and why this is important to me. The original PS version stands out well, either on a light or dark background, whereas, the AP version tends to wash out on a dark background. I really need that bitmap texture on the surface of the font.

You've definitely got me headed in the right direction and I'm going to play with the text, based on your advice. But from what I see, I think the overlay covers the outline (bevel), too. At least I have something more to work with.

Thanks.

rv-insp-z.jpg.28cf520e4efb850793e5f55a6ed72339.jpg

rv-insp-zoom1.thumb.jpg.6103b3d98f38d7c06c6cbdf2842599c2.jpg

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I’ve been able to get the attached sample by using multiple layers and a mix of effects but I’m still not satisfied with it.
It simply doesn’t have the ‘bling factor’ that is shown in your Photoshop examples and it looks too ‘flat’ to me.
Also, there are more layers than I would like there to be.
More experimentation is needed.

Annotation 2019-12-05 085553.png

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Here’s the original document.
Please note that it’s a result of experimentation and hasn’t been optimised in any way (number of layers and/or effects could be reduced and various settings could be improved).
Also, I haven’t looked at using Adjustments or Filters to improve it yet, so that could be something to try.

brushed-steel-face.afphoto

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23 hours ago, GarryP said:

I’ve been able to get the attached sample by using multiple layers and a mix of effects but I’m still not satisfied with it.
It simply doesn’t have the ‘bling factor’ that is shown in your Photoshop examples and it looks too ‘flat’ to me.
Also, there are more layers than I would like there to be.
More experimentation is needed.

Annotation 2019-12-05 085553.png

Garry, you've done better than me. I got rather close to that. But when I got the face of the text to look good, the bevel was way too dark and I couldn't get it to lighten up enough to have that gleam. Yours is definitely headed in the right direction. But as you say, it does not yet have that "bling factor".

You might try using a straight line (lower left to upper right) "Bevel/Emboss" profile. That will produce what Adobe calls a "Chisel Hard" effect on the bevel. I fins that produces sharper reflections in Affinity Photo. I'm just guessing, but it looks like you may have either a lot of Ambient Light or possibly Source Light emanating from 90 Elevation. It's possible that you have more than one source of light, as well. Any of these can reduce specific reflections.

I would be interested in learning more about how you got this far. It's something I think I could work with.

Thanks.

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JohnG, the afphoto document I attached in my last post pretty much tells you how I got to this point but I couldn’t really explain what’s going on.
The layers are – as far as I can remember – named for the effects (etc.) that have been used on each but it was the result of a lot of playing around so I couldn’t say which part does what to the overall result.
Someone who really knows what they’re doing could probably tidy it up and give it that extra shine but I’m just throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks.

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Thanks, Garry. I'm still working on it.

ut as a backup, I just installed MacOS Mojave, under VMware Fusion and I intend to install the Adobe CS6 Suite on that virtual machine. I still plan to use Affinity Photo and Designer as my primary design tools. But this way, I will have CS6 archived on a virtual machine, should I need one of those tools. After all, when I do a book cover, EVERYTHING has to be 110% perfect, So if I run into a problem with AP, on such a project, I can fall back on the software I have become a guru on. Hopefully, I'll reach guru status on Affinity products soon and won't need to keep Adobe products around, as a backup.

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Well, as a backup, I did manage to get the Adobe CS6 Premium Suite to run on my Catalina MBPro, under VMWare Fusion.

I'm still working on a way to get my various specialty fonts to look as good or better in AP, as they do in PS. Photoshop and Dreamweaver are the only reasons why I even need VMWare. I do have a Windoze virtual machine. But it's not an absolute necessity. The only reason I have it, is to be able test web pages I create, to insure that the page looks correct in Internet Exploder, on a computer running Windoze.

But getting back to the point, while AP is now my new go-to photo and design app, I have manage to get PS CS6 running on my Catalina Mac, to handle those hopefully rare situations where I can't figure out a way to do something in AP. Similarly, Affinity Designer (AD) is replacing Adobe Illustrator (AI) and Adobe Fireworks (FW), as my go-to vector design app. But I still have AI and FW available, on a virtual machine, just in case.

If Affinity will fill in those last few missing features, such as a "Bitmap Overlay" in Effects, the only reason I would have for keeping anything Adobe on my system would be Flash.

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You can fill text with a bitmap in the following way (credit to @v_kyr in this thread):

Use the Artistic Text tool to write some random text.

Drag the Gradient Tool over it.

In the Context toolbar, set the fill to Bitmap

1992854734_Screenshot2019-12-07at09_14_21.png.403e999ec7209e8c001879fced157fe2.png

This will present a file chooser dialog - choose your .jpg or .png

Adjust the size and position of the inserted image using the Gradient Tool

1867780765_Screenshot2019-12-07at09_16_40.thumb.png.48e75e041f2ec16c452ad326c8b9018e.png

Add Layer Effects to taste

2081176451_Screenshot2019-12-07at09_20_40.thumb.png.ca315198bf8a60e498df3b45a67a49b1.png

Hope this helps...

 

Affinity Photo 2.0.3,  Affinity Designer 2.0.3, Affinity Publisher 2.0.3, Mac OSX 13, 2018 MacBook Pro 15" Intel.

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h_d: Is that what a “Bitmap Overlay” is, or is that just a bitmap fill? I’m wondering what JohnG means by “Bitmap Overlay” and whether it does something specific as I’ve not heard the term before and it might mean a certain thing in whatever software it comes from.

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The term overlay (IMHO) usually implies to lay something on top of something else (so to lay over...) and not to fill. - So probably more in the sense like here ...

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2 hours ago, GarryP said:

h_d: Is that what a “Bitmap Overlay” is, or is that just a bitmap fill? I’m wondering what JohnG means by “Bitmap Overlay” and whether it does something specific as I’ve not heard the term before and it might mean a certain thing in whatever software it comes from.

@JohnG seems to be talking about layer effects (fx), and Photoshop does have a layer effect for applying a color, gradient, or pattern.

I've found one description here, but it describes this as:

Quote

Color, Gradient, and Pattern Overlay

Fills the layer’s content with a color, gradient, or pattern.

Given that description, it would seem like it should do the same thing as filling a layer's content using the gradient tool set to solid, gradient, or bitmap. So I'm not sure why JohnG isn't getting the desired results.

-- Walt
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With a pattern overlay in PS, you can use "ANY" image that has a pattern that you want to use, regardless of color or brightness and you can then use the overlay tools to eliminate all but the pattern. So, when I was looking for a pattern for my shiny brushed chrome beveled font, I wasn't restricted to light silver images. For example, the bright brushed chrome font below was created with the dark pattern that follows.

rv-insp-z.jpg.7bb386ee8a50e5f8929649972143c4a3.jpgpattern2.thumb.jpg.f695f99da72f87c04cc86d0063ddbbf3.jpg

If I wanted to use that pattern as a fill, rather than an overlay, to achieve the same effect, I would have to do a lot of pre-manipulation of the pattern, to change it to a lighter color. Then, if wasn't exactly what I wanted, I would have to go back to the original and do more manipulations. When it's an overlay, everything is done with a slider and the result is live. Tremendous time saver.

Having a feature like this in AP and AD would be a huge, Huge HUGE time saver. I've worked for hours and hours, in AP, trying to get to a font that is now getting rather close to the original font, but still lacking that bling factor. By contrast, I created the original font in two or three minutes in PS CS6.

The reason this works is because the pattern overlay is below the gradient overlay and color overlay, in the PS FX tools. The color and gradient overlays thus change the appearance of the pattern overlay. How much it changes and in what way, just depends on which blend and opacity you use.

I use this feature all the time, to create unique, attention-grabbing fonts for book covers (see the partial book cover image in the opening post), websites, and such. GarryP hit the nail on the head, when he called it the "bling factor". I would love to leave Adobe completely behind. But until Affinity adds a pattern overlay that will make it possible to quickly and easily achieve this kind of bling in fonts and images, I'm stuck having to flip back to PS CS6, under VMWare Fusion, to handle this kind of work. Fortunately, I have 4T of disk on this laptop, so the additional disk space is not an issue. It's just a pain to have to jump through those hoops. I really hope that Affinity will soon add a pattern overlay to their Effects tools.

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6 hours ago, JohnG said:

With a pattern overlay in PS, you can use "ANY" image that has a pattern that you want to use, regardless of color or brightness and you can then use the overlay tools to eliminate all but the pattern. So, when I was looking for a pattern for my shiny brushed chrome beveled font, I wasn't restricted to light silver images. For example, the bright brushed chrome font below was created with the dark pattern that follows.

Is this what you want? With my bit-mapped filled text layer selected I went to the top menu and chose Layer >> New Adjustment >> Colour Balance. My sister's Bloomsbury fabric pattern certainly isn't 'bling' but I can easily make whatever adjustments I want while it's there filling the text. No need to '...go back to the original'. 

adjust layers.jpg

adjust layers2.jpg

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CPC, unless I'm missing something, I've tried that and there is still one problem.

When I do a color balance adjustment, I see the original text, not the final output text. Am I missing something. Is there a way, in AP, to do a color balance adjustment on the original image, while viewing the effect of those changes on the final output product.

This is a workaround. But without being able to see the effect on the final output, it means that you have to move a slider, save, look at the output image, go back into the color adjustment and repeat and keep up with this cycle till you find an acceptable image. With a pattern overlay, you move a slider and you see the effect of what that slider is doing to the final output in real-time. Anything that is not real-time, is not an acceptable fix. I have already spent many hours, over several days, trying to create an effect in AP, that I originally did in two or three minutes, in PS. A lot of that AP work was going back and forth between the original image and the final output appearance. It's not only about features. There is almost always a way to work around missing features. But those work-arounds take time. So, it's really as much about time as anything.

I think Paul Simon described my situation well (Hazy Shade of Winter):

Quote

Time, time, time. See what's become of me,
While I looked around for my (Affinity Photo) possibilities,
I was so hard to please.

 

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OK, this is beginning to look better. It's still not as easy and fast to create it, as in PS. But the bling is finally beginning to come out. It still needs work, though and it takes a lot of time. But, thanks to help from you guys, it's headed in the right direction and I think the end is in sight. But this is just one font. There are several others, that I routinely use, with different textures and colors, that I will have to learn how to deal with, as well.

One of the remaining problems is that, in order to get the bling effect I'm trying to achieve, I needed to duplicate the exact text, as only an "outer" outline. Actually it's duplicated twice. It's not serious. But if I should have to change just one letter, I would have to change it in each of the three levels. What can I say? It's a work-around. It's just easier, in PS, with the availability of a bitmap pattern overlay. I hope that Affinity 

Here is what I have, so far with both white and black background.

rv-insp-afph.thumb.jpg.b53fe7f9fb1e3ccbe0f15d1e3a327d1d.jpg

rv-insp-blkbg-afph.thumb.jpg.2ff8a88f4c848054c4b9c60fce754e45.jpg

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