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Powerful styling for Photoshop
Now we get into the fun part as we experiment with all these settings. Now if we were just after a straight effect, we'd be done by now. But no, I've got to see what's under the hood...
Once I started playing with the program, it becomes obvious there are litterally hundreds of possibilities. From one of many surface styles you can begin to model your image. That's only the beginning. Using either of several mapping palettes, containing 48 preset maps that you can flip or mirror. (How many combinations is that? Do the math!) Then you're given vector anchors and handles to make your own path. How sweet is that? To that, add any of dozens of texture maps and you've got a killer powerhouse. So, for example, you could do this:
Here, they've mapped a metal ID tag on a metal ball chain -- and it's almost photographic in realism! How cool is that?
Just playing around in moments, I produced this result. I changed the type, inverted one of the maps, and changed the color slightly. It was easy. Since Path Styler uses the actual paths to create bevels, they are much sharper than the bevels created with the traditional 2D embossing technique used by Photoshop and other plug-ins. Path-based bevels do not have the typical soft look and, in addition to the rounded joins at corners, bevels can have angled and sharp-edged joins as well.
But all that's still boring, right? How about let's flex these muscles a little bit. How about we don't want a cool chrome look. How about we need some Bronze?
Remember: same path, same font, etc. I click the Bronze preset. Presto. Then I flip the contour... PRESTO - another font, another look all together! Still not excited?
NEXT: How about something a little more bizarre?
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