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Staff · Tiger Member Joined: 03 Jul 2007 Posts: 91

This is a really cool way to swirl text and also use a tool that you probably don't use too often Polar Coordinates.

Step 1: You'll want to choose a font that is bold for this effect to work best. I chose Compacta Bold. Type a word and then rasterize the text.

Step 2: Next select the text, I used ctrl key while pressing the layer thumbnail on the layers palette.

Step 3: Go to the Select menu at the top of Photoshop and choose Modify->Contract. I used a pixel contraction number of 2, but your results will depend on the resolution. Use your best judgement to achieve the results as shown below.

Step 4: Delete the middle out.

Step 5: Flip the text 90 degrees clockwise.

Step 6: This is where it gets fun. Go to Filter->Distort->Polar Coordinates and choose "Polar to Rectangular"

Step 7: Go to Filter->Stylize->Wind and choose "Wind" and "From The Right".

Step 8: Go to Filter->Distort->Polar Coordinates again and choose "Rectangular to Polar" this will reverse the effect you applied earlier.

Step 9: Now just flip back 90 degrees counter clockwise and the effect is complete.

TigerBot · Tiger Member Joined: 19 Jun 2007

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bsmith · Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007 9:05 am Post subject:

Not sure where I would use that... but it is very cool.

I have my own trick using the Polar Coordinates tool. I'll post a tutorial in a bit.
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naj84 · Tiger Cub Joined: 10 Jun 2008 Posts: 1

I used the effect and it worked really well but I've tried to use it on large fonts and it isn't working the same way. Any suggestions? I have tried changing the amount of wind and the number of pixels I contract the outline by but it doesn't seem to work.

Any help would be great.
Thanks.

dogznbonz · Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 3:30 pm Post subject:

What is your resolution set at? The tutorial is set for 72dpi, so the settings would change a bit depending on your image resolution.

It shouldn't matter what size font you use. I have had success with all different sizes. You may just need to play with it a bit more.
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