This should be simple enough even for a beginner. There are coffins available in free stuff sections all over these sites. Try to find one with an included texture map (not only will you get a realistic wood grain, but that grain size will give you a sense of scale for your lettering). If you don't have a ready-made texture map, you will need to map it, so a slight detour is in order. Go to Steve Cox's site and download uvmapper. There is a professional version for Windows, but for something like this, the free versions on any platform should be ample. If you need help, check the tutorial again, and ask here. OK, back to the coffin. Assuming that you have a nice oak grained coffin with brass furnishings, you might choose an appropriately formal typeface. If you have a home-made map with splash of plain brown for the texture, it's ok... choose a typeface which takes advantage of the lack of distraction. Check out "Lombardi" as an example of a florid, but legible, face. In PhotoShop, or any program with layers (PaintShopPro?), this next bit is easy. Load your texture map on one layer. Simply type the words you want on another. Play with the filters to emboss, deboss, bevel, highlight... until it looks good to you. Anti-alias, scale, move, arrange, whatever to make the text fit on the map. Save it with layers as a backup!!! Then save it flattened as your final map to use. Remember that jpgs are lossy and should only be used for final art. Carolly