An illusion of a text floating in thin air along side some skyscraper attracts the eye, but is not always easy to make it look realistic. This post explains how to achieve the same effect in your dynamic imaging and web-to-print templates.

Before you start

• Import the image of a skyscraper that you will use as a background in your CorelDRAW template document.
• Create an Artistic text frame and turn it into a variable web-to-print field with the character formatting matching option.

In a nutshell, we’re going to assign a perspective effect to the variable web-to-print text frame using the building’s perspective as reference.

Perspective effect

The most important thing in this technique is achieving a correct perspective effect in order to get a valid optical illusion. The safest way to ensure this is to draw temporary reference lines for the top and bottom border of the text frame.

Activate CorelDRAW Polyline tool and draw a line that follows a row of windows on the building.

Note. Repeat the same step for the bottom border as well.

The vertical reference line should be similar to the buildings vertical edge only slightly leaned towards its top end. Our reference lines are basically borders of the building in the photo if it was actually wider.

Now that we have the reference borders set up, we can assign a perspective effect to the dummy text frame. Select the text frame and go to Effects/Add Perspective in the top menu of CorelDRAW.

You should see a grid formed over the dummy text frame. Drag the corner nodes to their intended position using the border lines, we made earlier, for reference.

Note. Delete the reference lines when done.

The result should be similar to this.

3D appearance

Let’s add a small shadow to the text frame. This will make it more readable and will give it a 3D look. Duplicate the dummy text frame, place the copy under the original one in your Object Manager (Window/Dockers/Object Manager) and assign a darker gray color fill to it.

Use CorelDRAW Pick tool to slightly move the darker background copy of the text frame to the bottom right.

Note. Use the light source direction in the background building photo for reference.

The result should be similar to this.

All done!

Our web-to-print software can handle this effect easily! Upload the template into your catalog and test it. This is a dynamic imaging template but the technique can be applied to web-to-print templates as well.

Download the FREE CorelDRAW template file.