The Tube Effect

I don't know about you, but add a few sparkles, put it on a toothpaste box...Would you brush your teeth with it?
Like the neon effect this will work with brush strokes or large type. On the above picture I did not apply the background until last. I will explain how to single out your Tube  or the background later. For now lets do some more channel ops (chops).

1. Make any color image using brush strokes or large type on a white background.

2. Now duplicate image using Image>Calculate>Duplicate.

3. Gaussion Blur  second image by 4 pixels. 

4. Offset  your blurred image by going to Filter>Other>Offset. Enter a value of -3  x  -4.

5. Subtract your second image from your first image using Image>Calculate>Subtract. Make sure the offset value in your destination  dialog box is set to 0.

6. Invert image by going to Image>Map>Invert.

This clock used to be just black and white
line art. There are many
ways to incorperate
color into the design.
You may choose the
fill command and fill
your image with color
using the Add  orDarken
Only  modes.

Now let's single out just the art so we may add a background or add some textures or colors to the selection.

1. Go back to your original first image, the plain line art,  (hopefully you haven't thrown this away yet). Select your image using the Magic Wand  tool. Shift-Click the Magic Wand tool to select more than one item.

2. Now go to Edit>Copy or âŒ˜-C.

3. Now go back to your third shaded image and paste your copy onto this using Edit>Paste) or âŒ˜-V. Your pasted image should fit perfectly onto your picture. If it doesn't, then nudge your selection with the arrow keys on your keyboard. If your arrow keys move the image too much, then set the Curser Key Distance  to .001 or .003 in the Photoshop preferences dialog.

4. Once you have the selection fitting perfectly on your image, go to Edit>Composite Controls. Set the opacity to 1. Hit O.K.

5. Now go to (selection>inverse). Now apply the grow command (selection>grow), This will clean up the edges so you don't have the little specs of white on the edges of your image after you apply a backround color or texture.

6. Now go to Selection>Inverse and then go to Selection>Save Selection. Now you can apply colors and textures to your selection or inverse this selection to apply a background of some sort. If you need to get back to this selection after deselecting just use Selection>Load Selection.

Here, I applied a  KPT texture to my
tube image using
the Procedural
Blend  mode. I did
not have to single
out my selection
before doing this.

The treble cleff is the result of using the tube technique on plain
black type.