I completed this tutorial about a week or so ago and I didn't take the time to create a document with all my notes like I usually do
. I have my layered canvas with some settings, so I'll share what I can remember
.
My background layer looked dull to me, so I duplicated it then changed the blend mode of the duplicate layer to hard light. I added noise to the original background layer for animation, but I didn't record the settings.
I created a drop shadow effect on the tube by duplicating the tube layer then moving it down. I offset the tube (-10, 10), gave it a gaussian blur of 5, then set the blend mode to multiply. Sometimes this drop shadow effect looks good and sometimes not. I liked it for this tag.
For my name, I used
Apple Cider Aged Font. I chose this font because it has a weathered western feel to it to match my serious-looking, gun-toting bird tube
LOL. I used a light blue for the text fill and a dark blue for the stroke (width=1). For the glow effect, I duplicated the text layer, moved it down, then changed the stroke color to the light blue color (stroke width=5). I created a drop shadow effect on the glow by duplicating glow layer, moving the layer down, changing the stroke width to 9, then setting the blend mode to multiply. This gives the text a bit of lift and depth.
For the frame layer, I followed the tutorial but I didn't like it, so I promoted the background layer (5 pixels around the outside), moved it above the frame layer, then set the blend mode to luminance legacy. I feel this frame matches the texture of the background but keeps the monochrome color of the frame.
I had fun playing with all the different blend modes to create light, dark, depth, contrast etc. I highly recommend
playing around with blend modes for your layered canvases.