In this week’s video, I show you how to create professional-quality movie poster credits in Adobe Illustrator. Now in case you’re thinking, “Hmm, gosh, I don’t give a crap about making movie credits,” well, that’s not really the point. And now, in case you’re thinking, “No really, Deke, when I say I don’t give a crap, I mean, literally, I would not give you an ounce of my own crap to learn how to make movie poster credits,” yes, you’ve made yourself clear. (And crudely so. You’re normally so nice. What is with you today?) But here’s the thing. My movie is not really about movie credits. It’s about this amazing hidden Asian font feature in Illustrator known as Warichu. Which rhymes with really cool. Which it is.

Here’s the official description from lynda.com:

This week, Deke’s free technique shows you how to create authentic-looking movie credits in Illustrator, using a secret Asian-language type setting revealed to him by our own Mordy Golding. The trick is to exploit the Warichu feature—available to all Illustrator users—which is designed for stacking characters within a single line of type. In this technique, Deke reveals how the feature allows you to gracefully stack two words, one on top of another, and then adjust the size, create a character style that saves those settings, and then apply it down the line to all the people who helped make your imaginary movie possible.

Any designer or budding movie promoter who’s obsessed with typesetting (and doesn’t that include most of you?) knows that the standard movie credits in a promotional poster stack the two-word job title before the linear presentation of each contributor’s name. So text that initially looks like this…

...ends up looking like this:

If you were inspired by a Deke’s Technique from a few weeks back, “Designing an Indiana Jones-Style Logo,” then this technique will allow you to create some credits at the bottom of your poster that will convince your audience that you know how to properly hype your latest entirely theoretical but professionally promoted cinematic endeavor. And if you’d like specific instruction on putting the two techniques together, check out this movie from the “Illustrator and Photoshop” chapter of Deke’s Illustrator CS5 One-on-One: Advanced course, “Two ways to place a pixel-based image.” (Note: the weekly techniques are free, but you’ll need to be a logged in member of lynda.com  to watch the full Illustrator course.)

And Deke will be back next week with another free technique.

Next week, I’ll attack y’all with my hybrid image technique. In the meantime, kiss your children, love your mate, and enjoy the sunshine.