Tutorials::Text on a Plain Background

Intro

For this tutorial, I'm going to show you how to get cool text on a plain background that you can't really do anything with. (Examples: 1 2 3)

This is what you will be making:

Step 1

First, create a new canvas any size you want, but I will be using 300x150 pixels. Fill the canvas with black.

Step 2

Then, using white, type in the text that you would like to use. You can also add some brushes if you want. Make sure you don't merge visible; you want the text and brushes to be seperate from the black background.

Step 3

You may have put your different text and brushes on different layers. If so, merge them into one layer. (look below)

This is what my layers look like:

To merge them onto one layer, click on the eye next to the background layer. After you click on it, the eye should disappear. It should only be the text that is visible on the canvas. By clicking the eye, you can turn off or turn on the layer visiblity.
Click on the arrow in the top right corner of the layers window and select "Merge Visible". Now, you can click on the box where the eye used to be on the background layer.

Step 4

Pick a texture that you like. I will be using this texture. Paste the texture onto the canvas and move that layer under the background layer.

Step 5

Hit the ctrl button on your keyboard and hold it while you click on the text/brush layer with your mouse. Now you should get something like this:

Step 6

Select the background layer. Using the eraser, try to erase the whole layer. You may notice that nothing really happens, but just keep doing it. ;)

Step 7

Now you can click on the eye next to the text/brush layer to see what you have. Tada! You can only see the texture where the text or brushes were, because when you selected the text/brushes and erased the background layer, it only erased the parts that were inside the dashed lines. Now hit Ctrl+D (Select>Deselect).

Step 8

You may like it how it is, but you can still move the texture around to see what part of the texture would work best. This is what I ended up with:

And that's basically it! There are lots of ways to do this, but I usually do the way I explained above. You can also keep the text white and put a texture over it. This is what I did in this blend. You don't always have to use a texture, either. You can use a regular picture, or even part of the blend that you are adding it to. It would be better though if it had a variety of colors. By the way, you don't always have to use white on black.
Hope this tutorial helped! :)

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