Here is a simple tutorial that walks the artist through the process of creating text inside of a splash graphic. I also like to think of this as a “Wax Stamp” or “Wax Seal”, the kind you typically see when letters are sealed on the back of the envelope with a wax imprint.
Another good idea for these is using them for signatures or to draw attention to sections of your website. The splash always seems to draw the eye, because it signifies a sense of motion and activity.
Step-by-Step Instructions:
1. Open Photoshop.
2. Click File > New from the Main Menu.
3. Fill in the values below:
4. After the page loads, you should have a 500×500 dimension square canvas to work on.
5. Make sure to create a layer titled “Splash” for the splash graphic. Select this layer to work on it.
6. Use pen tool to draw outline of splash.
7. You can fine tune the smoothness of the splash curves by using the direct selection tool.
8. Select the circle tool and make circle paths of various sizes around the blob shape.
9. Right click on any part of any path, then choose “Make Selection” from the pop-up.
10. The “Make Selection” pop-up will appear, make sure feather is set to zero (0).
11. All the paths for the shapes you created should now be selections like the image below:
12. Select the Paint Bucket tool and fill the selection with a color of your choice.
13. Right click the “Splash” layer in the layers palette and choose “Blending Options”.
14. In the Bevel and Emboss section, change the values as shown below:
15. In the Drop Shadow section, change the values as shown below:
16. Click OK to close out and the resulting image should look similar to the one below:
17. Choose the Text tool, select the font of your choice, and choose white for the text color.
18. Type a message across the splash graphic.
19. Select Edit > Transform from the main menu.
20. Adjust the shape handles on the bounding box around the text to the size you want inside the bulk of the splash shape.
21. Select the magic wand and click anywhere in the white space off to the side (not on the text itself).
22. Click Select > Inverse from the main menu.
23. Now click on the eye next to the Splash Text layer in the Layers palette so that it disappears.
24. Then click on the Splash layer to make it the active layer.
25. Click the Delete key and you should now have the text removed from the splash blob.
26. You’re done!
