Need help ASAP! How to do this in Illustrator instead of Photoshop (Burnt wood text)

[mwenz]

OK. It's been a long time since I made that file and it took a bit of noggin scratching to figure out what I did.

Make a copy of the burnt text.
Delete the effects using the Appearance panel.
Set the Opacity to 100%
Change the color to black.
Add enough of a stroke (in black) to obtain the amount of over-sized look to the burnt text copy. I think I used about 16 pt.
Create a transparent rectangle behind the burnt text copy large enough around the burnt text copy so the following effects don't get clipped by its bounding box.
Select both the text and the transparent rectangle.
Now using the Object menu, convert to an image using the Rasterize command.
Effect, Blur, Gaussian blur. 20 pixels should be about right.
From the Effect menu, Artistic, Film Grain. For the values on the right, I used (from top to bottom) 4,0,10.

Now, your copy likely is going to be lighter. I used the Phantasm plug-in to darken it. Shouldn't matter too much in the eventual effect.

In the appearance panel with the burnt text copy selected, click on the Opacity link. Set it to Color Burn, 20%.

Take care, Mike

[designer101]

OK. It's been a long time since I made that file and it took a bit of noggin scratching to figure out what I did.

Make a copy of the burnt text.
Delete the effects using the Appearance panel.
Set the Opacity to 100%
Change the color to black.
Add enough of a stroke (in black) to obtain the amount of over-sized look to the burnt text copy. I think I used about 16 pt.
Create a transparent rectangle behind the burnt text copy large enough around the burnt text copy so the following effects don't get clipped by its bounding box.
Select both the text and the transparent rectangle.
Now using the Object menu, convert to an image using the Rasterize command.
Effect, Blur, Gaussian blur. 20 pixels should be about right.
From the Effect menu, Artistic, Film Grain. For the values on the right, I used (from top to bottom) 4,0,10.

Now, your copy likely is going to be lighter. I used the Phantasm plug-in to darken it. Shouldn't matter too much in the eventual effect.

In the appearance panel with the burnt text copy selected, click on the Opacity link. Set it to Color Burn, 20%.

Take care, Mike

one word Mike - AWESOME!! Thank you so so much for taking the time to do this and help me out - I really appreciate it - you have no idea how much!

Cheers!

[mwenz]

You're very welcome. And it's always good to hear back something has been of help, so thank you for your post.

Take care, Mike

[designer101]

You're very welcome. And it's always good to hear back something has been of help, so thank you for your post.

Take care, Mike

Hi Mike!

Ok - I'm quite embarrassed by this - but I'm about to pull my hair out; as I was in the process of trying to re-create the burnt text I stumbled upon a really nice effect I made on my text; it consists of 3 layers of the text - the main bottom text with a fill and stroke color, the layer on top is a mask with a gradient fill and then the top layer is 100% overlay with a black fill. I now need to apply these same effects to another text object and I can not for the life of me figure out what I did so I can re-create it - the primary problem I'm having is with that middle layer - when I open the appearance panel and go the opacity options - it shows this layer has a clipping mask; when I release the mask - the image shows the word as a gradient surrounded by a black box - I have no idea how I did this - in your infinite wisdom - could you take a look at my file and see if you can tell what I did? Here's a link to download it: http://www.hosting456.com/smokin.ai

Thank you in advance

[mwenz]

Hi Mike!

Ok - I'm quite embarrassed by this - but I'm about to pull my hair out; as I was in the process of trying to re-create the burnt text I stumbled upon a really nice effect I made on my text; it consists of 3 layers of the text - the main bottom text with a fill and stroke color, the layer on top is a mask with a gradient fill and then the top layer is 100% overlay with a black fill. I now need to apply these same effects to another text object and I can not for the life of me figure out what I did so I can re-create it - the primary problem I'm having is with that middle layer - when I open the appearance panel and go the opacity options - it shows this layer has a clipping mask; when I release the mask - the image shows the word as a gradient surrounded by a black box - I have no idea how I did this - in your infinite wisdom - could you take a look at my file and see if you can tell what I did? Here's a link to download it: http://www.hosting456.com/smokin.ai

Thank you in advance

Heh, heh, you grossly overestimate my Auntie Illy abilities. Truth is, I avoid Illustrator as much as humanly possible. I mainly use Xara Designer Pro, even on work that eventually has to go into Illy for final touches and or to save out so I can give a client an Illustrator file.

That said, I *think* how you began the middle layer is by using an inner glow and at some point made it into an opacity mask.

In the screen shot my version is the bottom one and the middle layer has an inner glow but to make it work appearance-wise, but uses a different transparency blend mode.

Take care, Mike

[designer101]

Heh, heh, you grossly overestimate my Auntie Illy abilities. Truth is, I avoid Illustrator as much as humanly possible. I mainly use Xara Designer Pro, even on work that eventually has to go into Illy for final touches and or to save out so I can give a client an Illustrator file.

That said, I *think* how you began the middle layer is by using an inner glow and at some point made it into an opacity mask.

In the screen shot my version is the bottom one and the middle layer has an inner glow but to make it work appearance-wise, but uses a different transparency blend mode.

Take care, Mike

Once again - thank you - so glad I found someone who can answer my questions (and so timely too) - so so grateful, thank you!!

[AndFarr]

I don't have or use Illustrator, but this sounded like a fun challenge so I gave it a whirl in Xara Designer pro instead.
Note that I equalized the shadow on the wood as I felt that it was distracting from the text effect.
Here is my attempt.
- Andy