Create a realistic leopard fur typography in Photoshop
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 fur 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 and added a few shadows to create this :
You can download new textures of fur and start creating you own typography styles.
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Great Tutorial,
I’m already looking forward to the icon set!
It’s time that you get your own, custom wordpress theme btw. – let me know if you need any help with that (free of charge of course).
Awesome!! I would love to have my own theme :’) I am so glad to get your help on creating a new theme for this site
Thanks a lot for helping me out, guys :)
You have my mail address, so why don’t you write a mail when you have some time, so we can talk about it!
Awesome tutorial Richie! The outcome is beautiful :)
Thanks Nik. I am eager to release the icons. I loved doing it :)
Great techniques! May be useful for something besides text too.
Yes, you are right, Chris. As you can see, I will be creating some of the icons using this technique and releasing it. :)
Great job! Nice and easy tutorial to follow. The Safari collection looks great.
Thanks a lot, Jad. I hope to release the icons set within a few days, so watch out :)
Excellent images… wow!!
Thank you so much :)
this will definitely help to improve photoshop skills…..superb tutorial!!!
Thanks a lot, Adi. I’m glad that you found it useful :)
Great, biz biz! I cannot wait for the icon set. the step #5 in this tutorial really impresses me! Well done, Richie!
Thanks a ton, Lam. It means so much to me coming from you. Thanks for dropping by as well :)
I shall release it as soon as possible…
Aha this is amazing! So simple yet it looks plai awesome! I’m going to try this right now. I might go a step further and try reptile prints =D
Awesome typography, thanks for the tutorial
I’m glad you like the tutorial, Imon :D
Great idea and it looks so real! I like it 200%
Thanks a lot ‘dude’. Yep, thats what the title says :D
Excellent tut, you inspired in
http://artdesigner.lv/archives/429
Grettings ;)
this doesn’t work for me.
i couldn’t get on it because it was blocked.
What exactly was blocked??
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nice post. thanks.
I’ve seen alot of tutes but none that have prompted me to comment – very nice indeed.
this is a great little tutorial :D
Every single one of the pictures is broken
Great tutorial thanks
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Merely wanna comment on few general things, The website design and style is perfect, the articles is rattling great :D.
Awesome… Thanks for the wonderful tut..
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What I have is a tiny Letter, and HUGE pieces of fur/grass. ( I’m using Times new Roman 76 pt) . Image 1500 X 1080 pixels. Canvas Size 21 W X 15 H) What am I doing wrong? What size is your image? Beginner thanks you for any help.
Jan, I’m not quite sure what you are having trouble with. Could you please be more elaborate? Thank you
Richie, Is there anyway to post the image of what I have on my screen? (Just image a one inch letter with 10 inch fur!) Thanks for responding, but I don’t know how to explain it better. Obviously no one else is having this problem.
You can use the Print screen button on your keyboard and whatever you have on your desktop will be copied to clipboard. Then you can go any image editor(photoshop, paint) and then paste it and save it..
Then upload the saved image on imgur.com and give me the direct link. I hope that helped…