It depends on whether your program has a tool for gradients or not; if not, then you may just copy this and stretch it as you like, to use with the course;
Dampfplatz seems to have awkwardly sized number letters. I might recommend adjusting the size,, although I suppose that looks quirky in a way and could work.
1:53 am
For a crude 3D effect, you could copy the text layer (in PSP9, right click and Duplicate)(edited)
1:54 am
And then move the copy down and right by 1 pixel.
1:54 am
Darken the copy - notably. I applied -50 to the brightness.
1:56 am
Then repeat the process. Duplicate the darkened image layer you just created, and move it to the bottom. This time, drop the brightness by a smaller amount, let's say -10.
1:56 am
You can keep repeating this process many times to get a deeper 3D effect.
1:57 am
What I do at this point, to speed up my work, is to combine the two darkened layers I just created. I merge them into one.
1:58 am
Then, I create a duplicate from this merged layer. Instead of moving this duplicate by 1 pixel down-right, I move it by 2 pixels. I darken it by twice the amount, -20.
1:58 am
After moving but before darkening
1:58 am
After darkening
1:59 am
I can repeat the step to speed up my work even more to create a super deep 3D effect...
1:59 am
2:00 am
2:00 am
It's a pretty neat effect for being basically just copy-pasting, darkening, and shifting the image.
This is a matter of personal taste only, but I might add a bit more depth to the 3D effect too. A few more pixels/copies.
2:06 am
If you wanted to add a neat bevel effect, but without actually using the crude bevel filters offered by PSP and Photoshop, you could do it using shadows.
I select the main, topmost text layer, and select the visible pixels. In PSP9 you can do this via Select All (Ctrl+A) and then Float (Ctrl+F). Finally I invert the selection (Ctrl+Shift+I).
At this point, create a new layer for the bevel/shading effect. Every image editing program should come with a shadow tool. Use it to apply a white shadow that falls one pixel down-right.
2:10 am
Then a black shadow going the opposite way.
2:10 am
You can configure the strength of the effect here.
I thought I got the idea for the little hand-written "super" from Street Fighter 2, but it turns out they did something completely different. Maybe it was Super Ghouls 'n' Ghosts?
2:17 am
Yeah. I'll try and do that. Maybe use an actual font for it and rotate it.
and add the kind of shining edge I did on my example, but only on the 3D text part. Even brighter than seen in mine, seeing as you want to do a Wolf 3D style thing
2:20 am
I had the idea for another kind of 3D effect, so I'll demonstrate it.
I don't know if the sharpen will help here, since it's on a transparent background. I think it'll sharpen brightness differences, not the difference between transparency levels.
2:30 am
We'll do it another way
2:31 am
There may be some more proper way of increasing the contrast of transparent layers (in effect, lessening the anti-alias effect on the text), but I wouldn't know about how to do it in GIMP.
2:32 am
Instead, I'd like you to simply try selecting the text. Then invert the selection, and keep hitting delete a few times.
I was going around trying to center the contents of a png image with anti-aliasing, and I imported the image into GIMP - but then I realised I didn't know how to select all the non-transparent pixels
use the Color selector, set Select by: Alpha, check Select transparent areas and set the threshold to 0. Then click on the layer's background. This will only select the fully transparent pixels. Select > Invert and you have the selection that you originally sought.
2:35 am
However, don't set threshold to 0. Set it a bit higher, so you grab some of the blurry pixels around the edges of the text.
Going back to this for a bit; once you have applied shadows on the duplicated text layer as demonstrated here; you can start creating the effect I mean...
2:41 am
Copy this shaded layer 4 times, so you have a total of 5, (+6th, the original text. We don't care about that right now)
2:41 am
And move each to different direction - left, right, up, down, by 1 pixel. Keep the un-moved, first, shaded layer as the top layer.(edited)
That's only because I increased the opacity on that layer so I could see what it looks like. I do the work on the top layer with the background layer totally transparent.
Anyway, continuing from my other text effect idea.
What I've done here is select the text, and invert the selection. Then apply a bevel effect, by first adding a white drop shadow, going 1 pixel down-right. And a darker color shadow, going 1 pixel up-left.
Then I have copied this shaded text layer, creating 4 more copies. And moved them underneath the original, to the bottom. I have moved each copy to a different direction, by 1 pixel. Left, right, up, down.
3:13 am
Then I will merge these 5 images/layers into 1 layer.
Always moving the original copy to the top of the layer hierarchy, and then shifting the image in the four copies underneath it, one left, one right, one up, and one down by 1 pixel.
I use GIMP, MS Paint, and Chaos Edits in app GFX editor
11:26 am
Haven't used that lovely new editor yet.... If I'm going to re input all my mapdefs I'm just going to convert my engine first from sdm to sod, made enough demos next will be full length or damn near.
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