Photoshop and illustrator tutorials.

This tutorial will learn you how to make cool effects with standard letters.
You do not need a lot of Photoshop experience to follow this tutorial.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

1: Get an image that you like.
    I used this one, because I will make the Halo logo in this tutorial.
   Call this layer “image layer”

2: Type a piece of text in a new layer. In this case, I typed “Halo” in the font “halo”. (A font as you might know, is a type of letters. For instance, fonts are Verdana, Times New Roman and
    Tahoma)
    Do not give the letters any specific color. Just keep them white.

3: Now move the under laying image so that the parts you want to be IN the letters, are directly underneath the word(s) you just typed. In my case, I flipped the image horizontally, so that I had   
   the Master Chiefs helmet right underneath the widest part of the word Halo.

4: While still working in the image layer, CTRL+click on the little box next to the text layer, in the layer style box. This should bring up the selection of the letters you just wrote.
    Now, you still are working in the image layer. Do the following:
    Press: CTRL+SHIFT+I (invert the selection)
    Press: DELETE

5: Now make your text layer invisible, by clicking on the little eye icon next to it in the layer style box. You will now see the text you just wrote, only now in with the image inside.

 PLEASE NOTE: The text you come up with, is fixed. Because it is now an image, you can not make changes to the words you have typed. Therefore, make sure you are completely satisfied with what you have written before making an image out of it.

What you have done, is basically slicing away everything in the image layer, except for the selection of the text. As a result, the image layer now has the shape of the text in the layer above, only still with its image in it.

I came up with this:

Also, you can try this for many logos. For instance, look at these of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings and Spiderman. The trick is to find a good font that matches or is completely the same, as the one used in the original logo.
Also, you can just choose any font you want and use any cool image you like, to make something completely new. For instance, you can also use it in for a nice different kind of forum signature. Instead of having a standard square, you can also fit the image in your name in the forums!

Good fonts are found here: www.dafont.com How to use them is told on the website.