In this week’s free Deke’s Techniques video, Deke takes plain old type and turns it into chiseled letters of antiquity in Photoshop. The effect involves taking said ordinary type, turning it into a smart object, then adding a bunch of layer effects (of the Emboss nature mostly) and a bit of filtering.

Since this idea originally came about from a member request, I thought I’d see if I could recreate it on my own, using a different texture and type that I created myself. I used a bit of marble I found at Fotolia.com and the Trajan font that comes with Photoshop CC that Deke suggests. With just a few color adjustments during the effects application (I made my shadows a little warmer, due to the color of my background), the technique was easily transferable to my own project:

For members of lynda.com, Deke’s got an exclusive movie this week in which he shows you how to create the chiseled border around the letters by adjusting the technique to use shape layers.

If you’re not a member of lynda.com and you’d like to check this (and almost 400 other Deke’s Techniques out), you can get a free 10-day trial by signing up at lynda.com/deke. In other giveaways, if you’d like to try out the technique on a different stone background, you can find a treasure trove of granite, marble, and concrete at Fotolia.com. Check out fotolia.com/deke to choose 25 free downloaded images to use in your own projects.