Flaring letters or fonts

[PhotoMill Profile Private message]

I have seen it somewhere over the course of many years but cannot find it anywhere. Would anyone know of a site that I could find an app which would give me the "flaring fonts" or an "etched in stone" type of action. The best sample that comes to mind is in the movie "The Ten Commandments" where the tablet is written by the finger of God and the letters are burning (flaring) and smoking in the stone tablet. Remember the scene ??

Any help on this one really appreciated.

Tks...
...Steve

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

If you mean you want to create an image where the letters looked etched and burning (but a stationary image), then most photo editors allow you to do strange things with embossing as well as a number of other effects (glow, flame etc). If you are looking to create a video sequence where the "flames" are live, I don't know how to do that. If you want to have the letters appear as if you are writing them, you could use a utility like visisketch Pro which allows you to create a dynamic mask and "reveal" things underneath. When you say "action", I am not sure if you are refering to an "action" type shot where things are happening or an "action" as in "Photoshop action" that is sort of like a script that does things for you in Photoshop.

Digital juice ( http://www.digitaljuice.com ) has some nice fonts, but they are not animated and one of their FAQ questions says that to do that you would need to use an animation program.

mikey

[heckydog Profile Private message]

I could see how to do it with 3 different programs. Photoshop for the lettering and chiseled in stone effect. I've already done that with fake hieroglyphics After Effects to animate the lettering, with masks most likely. That I haven't tried yet. Then Particle Illusion to add the flames and smoke. I've done lots of that. What guy doesn't like to make smoke, fire, and explosions

Now, this is the extent of my knowledge of the software that I use. There may very well be something out there that can do it in one swell foop

Sounds like an interesting challenge.

Joe

[dnmilikan]

Duplicate post. Moderator pls delete.

[dnmilikan]

From what you describe the effect can be obtained with Bluff Titler. In Bluff Titler use the writer function, place a texture on the font and attach the flame particles to the text.

Good luck,
Donald Miller

[PhotoMill Profile Private message]

Thanks for the answers all. The effect would be used for the opening of a show. It's going to be the 10th anniversary of an event and I was hoping to open it with a pyrotechnic style of "burning in stone" basically on a local stone church wall, of which I have photos. I thought it would be a pretty nifty way to open the show. Flaring letters coming out of the stone and smoking at the same time starting from one end of "Site of the 10th Anniversary" and ending at the other. Then the smoke disappears and the stone wall is left with the lettering. Almost like graffiti, but quite a bit more dramatic.

I'll keep looking but in the mean time, if you have website suggestions, I am all ears and eyes.

Tks again...
...Steve

[heckydog Profile Private message]

Something like this maybe:

http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewsho ... 5595&alb=0 2.7MB, 10 seconds long

The sound is supposed to fade out at the end. It does on the timeline just not in the px file

Joe

[duglas50 Profile Private messageWebsite]

Hey Joe,
That was really cool or should I say really hot. Care to tell us how that was done.

Doug

[heckydog Profile Private message]

1. Photoshop CS3 to create the text over a background I found with google. The text is Arial Bold and I used the Horizontal Mask Tool.

2. Alien Skin Eye Candy Impact to create the bevelling. I prefer it over the bevel available in photoshop because I can put it on it's own layer. I could've used a thinner font and made it look more like it was chiselled.

3. After Effects CS3 to keyframe the masking of the text. Then outputted as numbered png files. In this case there was 300 png files.

4. Particle Illusion 3 to add the smoke, flames, and sparks. I used a standard effect called, oddly enough, Flame, Torch, Sparks. There was one or two other effects I might have used instead but I had to pick one and this was it.

5. Output the whole thing as a wmv file which I then imported into PSP to make the demo show.

Donald suggested BluffTitler. That's a possibility too. I use it a lot myself. I opted to do it this way in order to get the sparks, smoke, and flames as realistic as possible. BT tends to be a little slower in making particles.

Joe

[duglas50 Profile Private messageWebsite]

Thanks for the explaination Joe. Looks like I need to add to my arsenal of software.

Doug

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

I prefer it over the bevel available in photoshop because I can put it on it's own layer.

Joe, you can put it on its own layer in CS3. I know because I do this all the time. While those marching ants are still going around the letters, press ^J to get the letters onto their own layer, and then do the bevel/emboss trick. Since the shadowing applied with the bevel is translucent, it shows the layer beneath. Or did I misunderstand what you were doing? (Always a possibility.)

Barbara

[heckydog Profile Private message]

Joe, you can put it on its own layer in CS3. I know because I do this all the time. While those marching ants are still going around the letters, press ^J to get the letters onto their own layer, and then do the bevel/emboss trick. Since the shadowing applied with the bevel is translucent, it shows the layer beneath. Or did I misunderstand what you were doing? (Always a possibility.)

Barbara

I was referring to just the bevel itself without the text. Eye Candy Impact gives you the option to put the bevel on it's own layer. If I don't like how the bevel looks I can just delete that layer and try again. I know there are ways to do that in photoshop but I'm used to working this way with Eye Candy.

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/5171 ... 093006.jpg

In this picture, I have separated the bevel from the text. You can also see the two layers in the layers palette. The bevel looks darker because I made the text white so it would be easier to see. Eye Candy also offers more bevel options than photoshop. Heck, if it didn't, there'd be no reason to buy it

In addition to the bevels it also has extrusions, perspective shadows, brushed metal, chrome, and a bunch of other effects. I've had it for a few years and I use it quite a bit.

Joe

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

Well, darn it all, Joe! Now I want some of that there Eye Candy!

Barbara

[heckydog Profile Private message]

Well, darn it all, Joe! Now I want some of that there Eye Candy!

Barbara

Ask and ye shall receive!

http://alienskin.com/

Joe

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

Joe, it's a hundred dollars!!!!!!!!

Barbara