This tutorial shows how you can make a quite good-looking text effect rather easily using a single add-on and some selection tricks.

Step 1

Pick a suitable background image. In the example we have simply used the Generate > Tile add-on to fill a blank new canvas with a cloud pattern, although you could just as well have loaded an existing image.

Step 2

Switch to selection mode and use the text tool to make type your text. For this particular effect, a "round" font gives the best-looking results (we've used VAG Rounded in the example). Note that the bumpmap add-on (which we'll use later on to create the effect) is by no means limited to text selections, but its effect is easiest to demonstrate using text.

Step 3

The bumpmap add-on uses the selection map as a "height map" and then "lights" the image under an adjustable angle and elevation. The selection as it stands after Step 2 changes quite "abruptly" (apart from anti-aliasing effects) so using it as a bumpmap directly would result in very "sharp" transitions. To change this, we use the Gaussian Blur add-on to make the selection map more "fuzzy". So after this step, the selection (to be used as a bump map) can be thought of as having the "steep steps" smoothed out into gradual slopes.

Step 4

Switching back to Drawing mode and fiddling with the various parameters of the bumpmap add-on yields the end result. The "Angle" and "Elevation" sliders in the add-on are for positioning the position of the virtual light source; the "Specular" slider can be thought of as controlling the type of "material" the canvas is made of - a matte material (such as paper) has almost no specular reflection properties, whereas a "shiny" material (such as glass or plastic) has a high specular reflection. The particular "translucent" effect is achieved by setting the "Translucent" slider to a nonzero value, and setting the light color to light cyan.