Part 2 – Working the Text!

Step 1: Let’s clean up the object docker a bit… we’ve got some goodies we don’t need in there. Start by removing the mask.

Then hide the original text object in the Object Docker by clicking on the hide object icon.

And finally, select the blurred image object and hit delete to remove it.

Now you should have a nice tidy Object Docker! Don’t worry… it’ll get real messy in a sec! Just click on the text overlay object and we’re ready for the next step.

Step 2: We’re going to start off by cranking up the contrast on our overlay text to enhance the color and just brighten the text right up. Now, THIS is where you need to experiment. I suggest cranking up the contrast all the way up, but play around with the Brightness slider until you see something you like. If your image is very dark, I suggest you turn up the brightness quite a bit, apply it, then re-run the tool and increase the contrast. Like I said, you have to play around with this.

So, here’s what I did with my text:

This is what I have so far:

Step 3: Once you have the text the way you like it, hit copy/paste again and make a second copy of your text. Feel free to play with the Brightness and Contrast again, or in my case, I’m going to replace the colors with a green cast. You can also just adjust the hue… works quite well.

Here are the settings I used for the color replace:

Step 3: I then take my green text and crank up the contrast yet again:

Step 4: Now it’s time to blend our two text objects together and make everything purdy! For those of you that follow my tutorials, you know what time it is! Time to break out the Interactive Object Transparency Tool!

I faded my green text downwards and slightly to the right. Once you have your fade gradient the way you like, apply the settings.

NOTE! If you don’t know how to use the Interactive Object Transparency Tool, I recommend you check out step 7 of THIS tutorial for detailed instructions on how to go about it.

Once you’ve set your transparency gradient, use the object docker to combine the two text objects together.

Please continue to page 4.