In this tutorial, I will show you how to turn a Disney shop sign into your own customized one! I took the picture the 7th of January 2006 when visiting EuroDisney with my girlfriend, and I took this shot to use it for a cool tutorial:
Click here to download the image you'll be working with.
My end result, so you'll know what to get in the end:
Ok first off, download the image I provided you with and open it in Photoshop.
We will erase the original letters first, but before we do that we will "back up" some of the material we will use later, namely the lights! Why recreate if you can duplicate
Duplicating the lights
Select the Elliptical Marquee Tool
On a side, you can click while holding shift to draw perfect circles, but thats not really needed here. Just select one of the working lights (there are broken ones too, which we select as well afterwards) and copy it. It will appear in a new layer on top of the background layer (= the original image)
Repeat this step if you want to get a high detail and therefore selecting different working lights. If you want to include some broken lights you can select these too. I copied one broken light to show you this in the end result.
So you'll end up with the original layer, plus a number of new layers on top of this, which all represent one light, either broken or working.
Remembering the colours
If you want it to look exactly like the original, you have to take a closer look at the colours used. Select the Eyedropper Tool
Just click a number of times and write down the hex values. I believe it doesnt really matter that much, and only used two colours of orange to apply a gradient later on.
Erasing the original text
An important step in the process is erasing the original text 'ICE CREAM', so you can place your own text in there later on. For this we will not simply use the eraser or delete button, but the Clone Stamp Tool
Select a brush with a size around 20, make it smaller if you want more detail, make it bigger if you want to finish as quick as possible..
Now select an area next to a letter, and hold Alt while clicking it.
If you never used this tool before, save your work first, as it can get messed up (been there..). Just play around with it and see what suits you best. I prefer a few strokes and then replacing the starting point by Alt+clicking somewhere else. Try to make it look as realistic as possible, but don't worry if it looks a little bad, since the letters will be placed on top later on, covering most of the area!
My result looks like this:
As you can see there are some areas that could have been worked out better, but I simply don't care.. the letters will come next remember!
Placing the new text
And ofcourse we will place the text 13 DOTS in the sign, you will all do, and help spread the word about this wonderful forum!
![whoosh[1].gif](http://www.13dots.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/whoosh[1].gif)
You might add your own text, but I bet it doesnt look as good...!For the text I used the following settings:
(Open this window by clicking Ctrl+T when you are typing your text. You can also access it via Window - Character)
When you placed your text, double click on the layer to open the Layer Style Window and apply the following settings:
You can use other settings ofcourse, as long as you think it lpooks good it's ok! This is just a guideline, not the only way to accomplish a nice result!
What we have so far:
Adding the lights
Now remember we duplicated the lights at the beginning? We will now use them to decorate the text and finish it off!
Duplicate your layer that includes the working light a number of times, and place it on the text. Don't put the lights to close to one another, electricity is expensive!! `-^
Leave some room for the broken lights, so where you want to place a broken light, you just leave a gap.
When done you click on the little eye next to the text layer and the background layer, so they turn to invisible. Select one of the lights and click Shift+Ctrl+E, merging the visible layers!
Double click on the new layer holding all the lights, opening the Layer Style Window again. Apply these settings to make the lights glow:
Now all thats left is to place the broken lights. Just move them in and copy the layers when needed. I then selected a soft Brush with a black colour to make it look as if it actually left a burn mark on the sign.
All that's left is to say "OOHHHHH WOW!!!" and to be happy with your own customized street sign!
Hope you enjoyed it
13dots is at Euro Disney.
