Other effects with extrusion

[Sark]

Hi Sally

Sally said....I started off on Adobe Illustrator and hated DRAW until I really had to use it. Hence I was really good and still am with Illustrator, but prefer DRAW in nearly every way now because it is so much more user friendly and efficient.

Compatibility with PS is of course a factor in Illustrators success, but when professionals invest time in learning a program, they’ll generally stick with. I learnt Draw first, so I’m more aware of how crude Illustrator is in some respects. If I had learnt Illustrator first I would have just accepted that was how things worked and it must be for a good reason.

Sally said....The problem with progress is that it takes someone producing software no longer tied to the past brilliance of a program.[/q]

This is why each new upgrade of a program just adds bloat. To justify the purchase, an upgrade has to be significantly different, but developers are frightened of changing the basic way in which things work. What you get are (often unnecessary) additions rather than improvements. Corel is more guilty here than Adobe, in my opinion. I do wonder where these programs can go in the future. What can they keep adding?

Now onto your challenge.

Firstly, I should point out that I don’t have Paint installed, and whilst I could use Draws Bitmap filters, these are way too slow. So, everything was carried out in PS (apart from creating the original Black path in Draw and exporting as a .png on a transparent background). Secondly, I’ve attempted this without simply applying a Metal effect Action or Style. I didn’t manage to match your result. I struggled with the mottled dirty look of the lead, and whilst I could have achieved something similar by just overlaying an effect, I’m guessing you achieved your effect in the process of creating the lead, rather than overlaying?

I created the image in two basic parts. The lead was created first. The glass was then created and placed below the lead stripping. After importing the Black path (.png) I carried out the following for the lead.

1...Duplicate Black path
2...Add white layer below duplicate & merge duplicate with white layer
3...Apply Spatter effect filter
4...Blur 6 pix
5...Duplicate and apply Difference mode to Duplicate
6...Offset duplicate 6 pix vertically and horizontally
7...Merge top layer down and invert
8...Apply levels to suit
9...Group with original Black path
10..Create merged copy
11..Apply Bevel and Emboss effect
12..Add layer below merged copy
13..Load selection from original Black path and expand by 4pix and fill with Black paint. Blur 3 pix
14..Link all and Create New Set from Linked


The Stained glass was created as follows.

1...Load original Black path as selection. Contract by 2 pix and Invert
2...Add new layer and Fill selection spaces with colour
3...Apply Bevel & Emboss
4...Apply Lens Flare filter several times
5...Apply Plastic wrap filter
6...Increase Saturation to +100
7...Create Merged copy of Glass layer only
8...Apply Ocean Ripple filter
9...Apply 1 pix Blur

The lead differs in look from your version, but looks OK. Just requires a bit of ageing, or dirtying up. Paint also clearly has a better Lens Flare filter than PS. I’ll be interested to see how you approached this. I’m guessing it was a lot quicker with potentially more consistent results, and maybe you worked with strokes?

Sark