Create a realistic leopard fur typography in Photoshop

Richie

In this tutorial, we will learn how to create an animal inspired fur typography. Typography has always been an inspiration. After writing an article about the most inspirational typography, I was quite eager to try the fur typography, which I happened to see in Behance, quite some time ago. As i was experimenting with some brushes in Photoshop, I realized that it had a default ‘Grass’ brush which could be easily used to create this awesome typography. So, I sat down and experimented and this is what I came up with. Just for information, I am totally against cruelty to animals. I think these innocent and poor animals need compassion as they mean no harm to us and help us maintain the balance of life in nature. Well, I hope people realize that and help them survive and breed like they desire to be. Anyways, Let us move on the the tutorial now. I also have plans of releasing an awesome Safari inspired Social Icon set in a day or two. So, keep watching this space :)

Step 1:

As usual, open Photoshop and create a new document with size 500 x 300 px or anything bigger. Using the Type Tool(T), type a letter. I used the font Helvetica (yes.. finally, I bought the font :’) )

Step 2:

Click on the Brush tool(B) and press F5 to bring out the settings panel. We will be using the default brush provided in Photoshop which appears like a grass. Apply the following settings.

Step 3:

Create a new Layer above the text layer start brushing the outline of the text. Use the image below for reference.

Tip : Set the brush size proportional to the size of the fur/texture you will be using later

Step 4:

Depending upon the shape of the text, keep changing the angle of the brush by just rotating the axis as shown above. I have shown the process. Use the images as reference

Step 5:

Make sure the angle and the Flipping is always proportional to the shape and the direction of the text.

Step 6:

Finally, our brush layer must look something like this :

Step 6:

Now, CTRL + Click the brushed layer to get the selection as shown below:

Step 7:

Using the Lasso Tool and the option set to ‘Add to Selection’, create a selection as shown below. This is to include the inner part of the text as well.

MAKE SURE THE OPTION IS SELECTED AS ‘ADD TO SELECTION’

Step 8:

Complete the entire inner unselected part in the similar manner.

Step 9:

Finally, our text must be looking something like this:

Step 10 :

Now, Grab the ‘Leopard Texture’ from here and paste it in the document. With the selection active, click on the texture and press SHIFT + CTRL + I to invert the selection. (We need to remove everything else that does not belong the the selected part)

Step 11 :

Now, Press Delete key to remove that extra part. Finally, make the text and the brush layer invisible by clicking on the tiny eye next to the layers and press CTRL + D to remove the selection. Our fux text looks something like this :

That’s all folks. We learnt how to create a fur typography in easy steps. This method can be adopted to create any kind of typography with hair/fur on them. I added a road stock image from Google Images and increased the levels of the ‘R’ and added a few shadows to create this :

Well, I have also added links to some pretty good fur textures ( I hope it is artificial). You can download them and start creating you own typography. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find quality textures. I searched a lot, but in vain. This is all I could gather.

Cheetah :

Golden Retriever :

Animal Prints and Brushes:

Fur Textures :

Well, In a day or two, I shall release the Safari Inspired Social Icons. Here is a glimpse of what It looks like. Please provide comments and let me know how you feel about this tutorial and the icons. Thank you :)

If you think, the article was good, why don’t you subscribe to them and get them whenever it is ready RSS Feed or you can follow me on twitter : @richbugger