Gold Text Effect
In this cartoon tutorial, I'll show you how to turn regular text into golden, shiny and fancy text in Photoshop. This text effect is perfect for titles in your cartoons, or just to give a golden shine to anything in your cartoons. Let's not gold hold out any longer and get started:
For this cartoon tutorial, I'm making the gold text effect on top of a solid black layer, just for contrast. You can do this effect right over your cartoons.
1. Choose the Horizontal Type Mask Tool (T) and type out your text. Here, I'm using the font called "Anglo Text." You'll end up with a selection like this:
2. Now it's time to make the gold gradient that we'll fill the selection with. Choose a bright yellow gold for the foreground color, and a slightly less saturated yellow for the background color.
3. Choose the Gradient Tool (G) and click on the gradient preview in the tool options window. This window should open:
4. Gold objects aren't a simple gradient of yellow to light yellow. There are highlights and shadows throughout the object, so we have to add those to the gradient.
You can add new colors to the gradient by clicking below the gradient line to add a new "runner" (the little arrows). Click on the arrow to select its color. You can see in the image below that I've added four runners for shadows and highlights. You can add as many colors and runners as you want until you get the gradient you want. This is how mine turned out:
5. Click "OK," and apply the gradient by clicking and dragging it vertically along the text selection.
6. Once the gradient is applied, press Ctrl+D to remove the selection. The text is beginning to look like gold:
7. It looks good, but it's pretty flat. Give it some 3D form by making a new layer, then holding Ctrl and clicking on the text layer. This will give you a selection of the text.
8. Choose white or a very light gold color and fill the selection by pressing Alt+Delete.
9. Nudge the selection slightly by pressing the down arrow on your keyboard once, and then the right arrow on your keyboard once.
10. Press Delete to clear the selection.
11. Press Ctrl+D to remove the selection. Now you have a very thin highlight all along the top-left edges of the text.
12. Now we're going to add some shadows along the edge using the same method. Once again make a new layer and click on the text layer while holding Ctrl to select it.
13. Slightly nudge the selection by pressing the up arrow on your keyboard once and then pressing the left arrow on your keyboard once.
14. Fill the selection with a dark gold color.
15. Slightly nudge the selection once again, one up and one to the left.
16. Press Delete and then Ctrl+D, and you should have something like this:
17. What's gold text without some shine? Choose a very light gold color and make a new layer.
18. Fill the layer entirely by pressing Alt+Delete.
19. In the Layers window, press the "Add layer mask" icon. It's the 3rd icon from the left in most versions of Photoshop.
20. Fill the layer mask with black (Alt+Delete). In case you're having a hard time keeping up with all the layers, they should look something like this:
21. Choose white as your foreground color, and choose the Brush Tool (B).
22. In the Tool options window, set the brush hardness to 0%.
23. Now to make the gold text shine, just click on the spots throughout the text that you want to have a shine (all on the layer mask). Vary your brush sizes for larger or smaller shines. Here's the final result:
