Creating the Colors, Layers and Styles
First we are going to setup a document with all the necessary elements
for the effect. Make sure your document measurement is set to Points.
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| In a new document, create some new layers named
Reflections and Bevel. Put them in the order that
you see above.
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Then you will need to make some new colors in
the Color list (or Swatches).
Above are the CMYK mixtures to use for the base colors (Blue,
Light Blue, Ground). Then create a 50% Tint of the Blue. Also
create 75% and 25%Tints of the Ground color. |
Now we will be creating a bunch of new Styles to use for the various
objects we'll be creating. Below are the names of the Styles and the colors
to use in the Gradient fills, as well as the angle of the fill.
To quickly create new Styles, draw a rectangle (with no stroke)
for each fill as described below. Then select the rectangle and in the
Style palette pull-down menu, choose New. This will create
a new Style based on your selection. Name it and continue with the remaining
fill Styles.
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| Sky to Ground
Gradient fill
Blue -> 25% Ground
270° |
Ground to Sky
Gradient fill
25% Ground -> Blue
270° |
Ground Grad
Gradient fill
75% Ground ->
25% Ground
270° |
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| Horizon
Gradient fill
Black -> 75% Ground
270° |
Sky Grad
Gradient fill
50% Blue -> Light Blue
270° |
Sky to White
Gradient fill
Light Blue -> White
270° |
There, now we have all the assets for the rest of the tutorial. This
may seem like a lot of things to worry about, but believe me, it all comes
together later.
Building the object bevels
The next series of steps are pretty lengthy so it may be easier for you
to print this tutorial out while you are working on it. Just click
in this frame and use the Print command.
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| 1) Click on the Bevel layer
to activate it. Then type a large letter to start with. For this
tutorial it's best to use a fat sans serif font. I used Futura
Bold at 200 points. Throughout this tutorial, you may see
me use different letters to show different circumstances you may
come across for other letters you use in the future.
Convert this letter to paths, and set the Fill to None and give
it a Black Stroke. |
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| 2) Now you'll want to delete
some extra points that may be in the letter. Some corner
areas may have two points like shown above in the zoomed area.
Just remove one of the points since it will be easier to create
the bevels later.
If the letter is joined as a composite path, you can select points
by holding the Option(Alt) key as you click. |
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| 3) Next, Clone the
whole letter and put the clone on the Reflections layer.
Hide the Reflections layer for now.
Select the letter on the Bevel layer and Clone it one
more time.
WOW, a lot of clones huh? Well I hope that wasn't too confusing
for you. Here's a recap. You should have one clone on the Reflections
layer, and two clones on the Bevel layer. Ready to continue? Here
we go... |
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| 4) Select the top clone elements
and bring up the Inset Path dialog by either using the
Toolbar icon or going under the Modify menu -> Alter Path.
In this dialog, enter 1 for the Steps and use -7
for the Inset amount. Make sure that the Join option is set at
squared. You can modify the Inset amount to make the bevel
either thinner or thicker.
When you hit OK, you should see the clone expand like shown above.
If your letter has knockouts like shown above, then Split
both clones under the Modify menu. |
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| 5) Now Shift-select only the
Corner points of the paths like shown above. Ignore any
points that appear on the curves.
While the points are selected, Split them under the Modify
menu. |
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| 6) Next it's time to join
all of the bevel parts together. Select the corresponding paths
from the inner and outer shapes. Then Join them together.
Go into the Object Inspector palette and click the Closed
option.
Repeat this for all of the paths in your letter. To check to
see if you've joined them all, select all of the paths and give
them a temporary fill. This makes it easier to see what you've
missed. |
| Special Note |
| 
What you wanted What
you got instead
Sometimes when joining certain paths, FreeHand will join
the closest points together instead of the points that
should be joined.
To fix this, select one of the points. Then with either
the Bezigon or Pen tool, click to the other
point you want to join to. If the points don't automatically
join, drag-select around the points and Join them together.
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| When you are finished joining the paths, you should now have
a bunch of bevel shapes like shown above.
Now we are ready to starting adding some color to this letter.
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Filling the object bevels
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| The bevels sometimes pose some interesting combinations of
the reflections. Bevels that face down, will reflect more of the
ground, while bevels facing up, reflect more of the sky. Curvy
bevels will sometimes reflect both.
The next part of this tutorial will show what kinds of fills
to use when faced with different types of bevels. |
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| Vertical bevels will reflect both the sky and
the ground.
Use the Sky to Ground style. |
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Curves bevels that face outward will also reflect
the sky and ground.
Use the Sky to Ground style. |
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| Inner facing curved bevels will reflect the sky
and ground in reverse.
Use the Ground to Sky style. |
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Bevels that face upwards will reflect a lighter
sky.
Fill with 50% Blue and no Stroke. |
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| Downward facing bevels reflect a diffused ground.
Use the Ground Grad style. |
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Downward facing horizontal bevels, reflect only
the ground.
Fill with 75% Ground and no Stroke. |
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| Bevels that face upwards, reflect just the sky.
Fill with Blue and no Stroke. |
Other curved shapes and serifs
It gets more complicated with really curvy bevels and serifs that may
be in your letters. Below are how to handle those.
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| Draw two Rectangles over the top of the upper
curved bevel. The seam of the rectangles should be about where
the curve starts to go back upwards like shown above. |
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Fill the top rectangle with the Sky to Ground
style and use Ground to Sky for the bottom rectangle. Lines
for clarity only.
Select both rectangles and Cut them. Then select the bevel
and Paste Inside. |
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| Repeat those steps very similarly for the lower
bevel. Fill the top rectangle with Ground to Sky and the
lower with Sky to Ground. Lines for clarity only.
Select both rectangles and Cut them. Then select the bevel
and Paste Inside. |
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Next, set the Strokes of the bevels to None.
You should have two bevels that look like above. That is starting
to look great! |
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| Serifs can be pretty confusing, but if you think about what
is reflected, it makes sense.
Use a similar technique as before creating rectangles that cover
the bevel. Make sure that the seams touch where the curves change
direction. Use the fill styles as shown above. |
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| Another daunting bevel type could be like the one shown above
where the curves go all over the place.
Using similar techniques as described before, create a new fill
wherever the curve starts the change. |
At this point, you may be asking yourself, "Why aren't we using the multicolored
Gradient fills instead of all these paste insides?"
I thought about that too. This tutorial was originally written before
the multicolored gradients were introduced, and I started playing with
creating all these gradients instead of using paste insides.
The problem I started to see appear was when there were different letter
shape bevels. Since each bevel shape has different needs, I found myself
adjusting the placement of the colors in the Gradient palette in order
to fit that particular shape. Using the rectangle paste insides gave me
more accurate results as far as the placement in those extreme curve areas
where the colors may shift. It was much easier to control the rectangle
placement rather than adjusting the gradient colors. Not to mention that
I would have needed to create a new style for every different gradient
I was going to come across... not fun.
But of course, that's my preference. If you would like to experiment
with creating multicolor gradients instead of using the rectangle paste
insides, go for it. Now let's finish off the chrome effect.
Creating the reflection
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| 1) First hide the Bevel layer
and make the Reflection layer visible.
Draw a Rectangle across the top of the letter. If you
have more than one letter, make it's width cover all of them.
The placement of the rectangle is completely up to you. This
is where the horizon of the reflection will be. |
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| 2) Bring up the Knife Tool
dialog by double-clicking on the Knife Tool.
Pick the FreeHand setting, with a width of 0. Also
make sure that Close cut paths is turned on. |
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| 3) Keeping the
rectangle selected, make a wavy cut across the entire width
of the rectangle like shown above.
You should now have two pieces to create the horizon area. |
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4) Fill the top
piece with the Sky to White style. Use the Horizon
style for the bottom piece. |
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| 5) Cover the rest
of the letter (or letters) with three more rectangles so they
touch, but not overlap like shown above. |
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6) Fill in the
rectangles using the Styles and color shown. Lines for clarity
only.
Select all the parts and Cut them.
If the letter has knockouts like this one, then select those
parts and Join them together. |
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| Select the letter shape and Paste Inside. Give the
letter a 1 point White stroke.
Finally, reveal the Bevel layer and there you have a beautiful
Chrome letter. |
Well I hope you survived this tutorial. There were many things here that
I hope you learned from it. These include using Styles to easily create
similar fills as well as how to use Paste Insides to solve certain problems
with Gradient fills covering really curvy shapes. Not to mention how to
look at objects and understand how they work in real life such as how
the chrome reflects things around it.
I know that when I first learned this technique, it helped me keep things
organized on layers and naming colors to easily track down colors.
I highly recommend you experimenting with other shapes besides words.
There are all kinds of things out there that may pose challenging circumstances.
For instance, try to make a chrome object out of an odd symbol in any
Dingbat font. Be warned however, that the more letters or objects you
will be making into chrome, the longer it will take.
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