Try using a different host. That one won't work for me.

Alright, this one looks like it's for GBA or DS. However, that's all I know.

Is it Jade Empire?

Long, boring, pointless cut-scenes. That, and very crappy boss fights. Little things that make you go "FOR CHRIST'S SAKE!"

I've never played the original MG & MG2 games. Do you know how I could get them?

Alright then. Go ahead and rip off your arm, freeze it, and sell it. Then, you should have about enough to buy a PS3. Get it when it comes out

Anybody play any of the MGS games? I've played MGS, 2, and 3. How about you? What'd you think of them?

You can make text look pretty simple, which is a more modern style of design. However, you can also make it jump out at you. That's a style that's starting to be used more and more.

One of the ways you can do this is by using a metallic effect that makes the text look beveled out at the user without literally beveling it. Doing this is so simple that it barely deserves its own tutorial. It's useful enough to where it does, though.

This tutorial can be used for any graphic editing program that has text and gradient overlays with blend modes. That's all we'll be using.

Start off with just a simple background so you can see the effect. I'd recommend something gray or dark.


Now, just slap some text on it. You can use whatever font you want. I'd recommend something that's even horizontally. The font I used here is called "Espionage".


Make sure the text is a very light (almost white) color. #EFEFEF is the color I used.

Now, just slap a gradient overlay onto it. Do not change the colors, do not use a premade gradient. Just use the default black to white.


Next, change the blend mode of the gradient overlay to "multiply". This will hide the white and lighter colors while keeping the black and darker ones. You can already see the top dulling a bit. Now, just lower the opacity to something medium, around 50%.


Finally, just put a stroke or something on it to make it blend into everything around it.


Now you look me in the eye and tell me that's not a decent effect. You can use this on anything of any size. Just remember that the opacity needs to change with size. The smaller the object, the lower the opacity. The larger, the higher.

Again, it's a simple effect. You can also reverse the gradient to make it look like an indent, if you want. Work off of this however you please.

Alright, let's take a look at turning any rendered style of text into a decent gradient reaction. The end result will look like this:


First, just start off with a normal image. Create a background and make some text. Then, modify the text however you want. Give it some nice properties and make it look good.


Once you're satisfied, go ahead and duplicate the layer. Then, make sure that in the layer stack, you move it to right below the original text. If you put a gradient overlay on top of it, open up the blending options, and check "reverse gradient". That'll make sure it shows up like an exact reflection.


Now, this next step may or may not be necessary. It acted weird for me when I didn't do this, but that might not be the case for you. Try to skip this next step and see if it works. If not, reset your image to before the next step, and go ahead and do it. I recommend against it, as you will not be able to change the text or blending options after you do it, but if you must, you must.

Right click on the layer that'll become your reflection, and click "Group Into New Smart Object". That'll merge all of the blending options together into one solid image. Right click on it again, and choose "Rasterize". Needless to say, this rasterizes the layer. After doing these two steps, you won't be able to modify anything in the layer. Thus, don't do this unless the next step doesn't work.

Now, find the "Add Layer Mask" button. It's at the bottom of your layer stack to the left.


Now, select the gradient tool () and make a swipe across the image.


You'll end up with something like the example above. Keep trying different approaches until you get it. Remember that if you hold down the "shift" key, it'll remain perfectly straight while you pull it down.

I hope this tutorial was helpful. Thank you.

Alright, so you want to know how to make that type of glassy effect that you see on gradients in a lot of forums? Well, it's really quite simple. First, just start out with a blank canvas.


Now, create a new layer for your gradient. Select the color that you want to base the gradient off of, and fill-in your layer with it.


Ok, now for the gradient. Open-up the blending options for that layer, and go to the "Gradient Overlay". This is the hard part. For your first color, choose a color slightly darker than your base color. For your second color, choose a color slightly lighter.


Now, still in the "Gradient Overlay" field, select "reflected" from the "Style" field.


You can see it starting to come together, can't you? All we need now is a glare. Create a new layer above your gradient layer. Use a marquee to select half of the canvas vertically, but all of it horizontally. Fill it with pure white.


You're practically done. All that's left is to lower the opacity of that layer. DO NOT change the blending options. Just change the layer opacity to something between 5 & 15%.


Well, there you have it! A perfect glassy effect that can be used anywhere. You can use it as a cool effect in banners, a nice menu background, or for gradients. The possibilities are endless.

"Can't not"? Please try to avoid double-negatives, as they make you seem more rednecky than you already are.

Anyways, I can hardly read that. People with a screen resolution higher than 1024x768 (which is what I use) will not be able to even know those are letters. Try beefing-up the font size a bit.

You don't really need PhotoShop to make an avatar. You can do it in any GFX program. Just make sure that it's an image no bigger than 100px by 100px.

uploads.roddyinnovations.com/users/Scorpian8867/veohglassplayback.png

That's all I have done, so far. It looks best against a dark background, so save it and open it up in something.