Tutorials

Objects in Text || @mulanjiang

Today I will be showing you how to put objects in text (wow I sound like a youtuber). For example, after this tutorial, you should be able to create something like this:

(we aren't doing the full cover though, just the text/sword part)

Step 1: do the text in a style that you like. Here, I just did plain bevel and later added some drop shadow. Put all of the text layers in a single group (this is very important). And yes, GoT because it's amazing.

The font is called "Endor" but in "Of Mists and Shadows" I drew in extra swirls

Step 2: add the object (in this case, a sword) behind the text. Steps 1 and 2 are pretty much interchangeable in terms of order so you could do step 2 first. 

Step 3: duplicate the entire text group and then merge it into a single rasterized layer. Make the original group invisible so that all you can see is the merged layer you just created.

Step 4: create a layer mask and erase parts of the text so that it looks like the sword is stuck through it (i.e. erase some of the parts that overlap with the sword). I recommend doing an alternating pattern - start at the bottom/top and erase the first overlapping area you see. Then, leave the next one intact but erase the one after that. Leave, erase, leave, erase, etc. I circled the overlapping parts in red

so it should look like this:

And that's all there really is to it! This is just the general idea - there are many other ways to get the same effect.

Hope this helped, and as always, feel free to ask any questions you may have :)