Glitter Text in Photoshop 7
You'll need:
- a 'background' glitter fill
- a clear glitter fill
- Photoshop 7 and ImageReady 7 or newer (from Adobe^)
Open up ImageReady and open the clear fill and background fill.
Activate the background fill's window by clicking on it, then go to File » Jump To » Adobe Photoshop 7.0.
Make the bottom frame active (click on it) and hide all other frames:
Go to Edit » Define Pattern.
Hide the first frame, select the second frame, go to Edit » Define Pattern, hide the second frame, select the third frame, go to Edit » Define Pattern.
You've just loaded up the background fill, ready for use - you can now close the background fill's window in Photoshop and ImageReady. :) Now for the clear fill...
Go back to ImageReady, make sure the clear fill's window is active, then go to File » Jump To » Adobe Photoshop 7.0.
The clear fill has black sparkles so you could see them when saving the fill but we need to make the sparkles white. We'll do this while we're defining each frame as a pattern...
Make sure only the first frame is visible and selected:
Invert the colours by pressing Ctrl and i at the same time. The black sparkles will now be white.
Go to Edit » Define Pattern.
Hide the first frame, select the second frame, Ctrl + i, Edit » Define Pattern, hide the second frame, select the third frame, Ctrl + i, Edit » Define Pattern.
That's the clear fill done. You can now close the clear fill window as we won't be needing it anymore. ;)
Go to File » New and use these settings:
Select the text tool by either clicking on the icon (
) or just press "T" on your keyboard. ;)
Choose whatever font you want, at any size (the larger the better, though). I'll be using 'Grobold' at 72pt.
Type your name or a phrase:
In your layers window, at the bottom, you'll see the Add Layer Style button: 
. Click on this icon, then choose "Bevel and Emboss".
These are the settings I'll be using, you're welcome to use them too if you want:
Press Ctrl on your keyboard, while clicking on the text layer; this will select the opaque pixels on the layer.
Either press Ctrl+Shift+N to create a new layer, or click the New Layer icon (
), which is at the bottom of the layers window.
Go to Select » Modify » Expand and type in "2", then press OK.
Set your foreground colour to white, select the paint bucket tool (press G on your keyboard) and click on your text.
Make another new layer, go to Select » Modify » Expand and type in "6". Set your foreground colour to black, then click on the white blob that was your text. You should now have a big black blob. ;)
Drop the selection by pressing Ctrl + D on your keyboard, then click again on the black blob; this makes sure there are no semi-transparent pixels.
Your 'wonderful' glitter text should look like this so far:
Let's sort out the layers before we go any further...
Click on the layer with the black blob, and while your mouse is still held down on it, "pull" it below the text layer:
Click on the layer with the white blob, while your mouse is still held down on it, "pull" in between the black blob layer and the text layer.
Your glitter text should now look like this:
Select the layer with the black blob and press Ctrl + J twice, to duplicate the layer. You'll end up with three black layers.
Choose your paint bucket tool. Under the "File, Edit, Image" menu, you'll have another menu with options for the paint bucket tool. Select "Pattern" from the drop down menu, then choose one frame from the background fill from the patterns list.
Click on the top black blob layer; it'll change from black blob to silver blob. ;)
Click on the middle black blob layer, choose a different frame from the background fill, click on your text.
Click on the bottom black blob layer, choose the last frame from the background fill, click on your text.
Click on your text layer and create three new layers above this. Press Ctrl while you click on one of the background fill layers (it doesn't matter which one), then pick the layer closest to your text layer, select the paint bucket tool, choose the first frame from the clear fill in the patterns list and click on your text.
It'll look like this:
Click on the layer above the one that's currently selected, choose the second frame from the clear fill (from the patterns list) and click on your text.
Click on the top layer, choose the third and final frame from the clear fill, then click on your text. You can now drop the selection (Ctrl+D).
It looks a bit of a mess at the moment, huh?
It's time to animate the glitter text!
Go to File » Jump To » ImageReady.
See where it says "0 sec"? Click it and choose "0.1 seconds", then click the Duplicate Current Frame icon twice (it looks like the New Layer one from Photoshop ;)).
You should have three frames:
Select the first frame, then hide "layer 5" and "layer 4".
Select the second frame, hide "layer 3", show "layer 4" and hide "layer 2 copy 2".
Select the third frame, hide "layer 3", hide "layer 4", show "layer 5", hide "layer 2 copy 2" and hide "layer 2 copy".
To animate something in ImageReady, you need to make each frame different to the others by hiding / showing different layers. It seems kind of difficult and long winded at first but you'll quickly get used to it. :)
To save your glitter text, first go to Image » Trim, leave the settings as they are and just press "OK", go to File » Save Optimized As, choose where to save the glitter text and name it.
You should have this:
