Along the way, we will be using lots of textures, image adjustments, blending options and various filters. The purpose is to show you how you can use multiple texture images and combine them to create dramatic effect.

Here is a preview of the final effect I have: (click to enlarge)

To complete this tutorial, you will need to the follwing stocks:

Wave 1

Wave 2

Font

Lightning

Ok let’s get started!

PSD File for this Tutorial

You can have this PSD File for only $2.00 via Paypal! Click the link below and you will be taken to the Paypal checkout page, after payment you will be redirect to the download page automatically.

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1280px * 800px, fill the background layer with black colour and use font we downloaded (in fact you don’t have to use that font, any bold, thick font would be in this occasion) and type some text onto the canvas as shown below: (lower half of the canvas)

Apply the following layer blending options to this text layer:

Drop shadow

Outer Glow

Bevel and Emboss

Gradient Overlay

Stroke

and you will have the following effect:

Step 2

Now we want to add a bit more lighting contrast to the text so that later on when we add the waves and splashes, the effect would mix it with the surrounding environment.

So load the selection of the text layer by clicking on the thumbnail of the text layer on the layer pallette, as shown below:

Craete a new layar on top of the text layer, go to Filter > Rander > Cloud and render some cloud inside it (set foreground colour as white, background colour as black before you render), set the blending mode of this new cloud layer as “Hard Light”.

You will have the following effect:

Create another new layer on top of the cloud layer, name it as “fibre texture”, maintain the selection of the text layer and fill the selection with black colour on this “fibre texture” layer.

Go to Filter > Render > Fibre and apply the following settings:

Change the blending mode of this fibre layer to “Hard Light”, and reduce the opacity of around 25%, you will have the following effect:

Step 3

Load the Wave 1 stock image into Photoshop, use the lasso tool with a 20px – 30 feature, make a selection to the area shown below:

Copy and paste the selection onto our document, name this new layer as “wave 1″ and put it below the original text layer and just above the background layer. Desaturate this layer, resize it and erase (using a soft round brush) the outer portion of the wave, as shown below:

and you should have the following effect:

Duplicate this “wave 1″ layer once and drag it on top of all previous layers, reduce the opacity to around 85%, you will have the following effect:

You will see now the bottom of the texts are now submerged under the water, and this make the effect look more realistic.

Step 4

No we’re on the splashing effect. Load the Wave 2 stock image into Photoshop, use the lasso tool again with a 25px feather, make a selection as shown below:

Copy and paste the selection onto our canvas, name this new layer as “wave 2″ and put it on top of all previous layers, desaturate the layer and use a big soft brush to erase the edges off.  Then change the layer blending mode of this layer to “hard light”, and reduce the opacity to around 60%.

The effect you aim to achieve is shown below:

Make two duplicates of the “wave 2″ layer, resize it to a small scale, flip both of them vertically and drag them to the positions as shown below:

As you can see this adds a bit more varirations to the wave and make the effect look more interesting:

Nwe we add the ocean portion on our document and blending it in with our text. Go back to the “Wave 1″ stock image, use the rectangular marquee tool to selection and portion of the ocean as shown below:

Copy and paste this selection onto our document, name this layer as “ocean” and put it below the original text layer, but on top of the “wave 1″ layer:  (use the free transform tool to resize it a bit, as shown below)

Reduce the layer opacity of this “ocean” layer to around 90%.

Step 5

Now we’re on to the cloud bit. Go back to the “wave 1″ texture image and selection a portion of the cloud as shown below:

Copy and paste the selection on to our document, name the new layer as “cloud”, desaturate it and position the layer on top centre of the canvas as shown:

Use a big soft brush to erase the edges of this cloud layer so it blends in with the background:

Add the following two adjustment layers on top of the cloud layer, make sure to tick “use previous layer as clipping mask” option:

Levels

Curves

and you will have the following effect for the cloud:

and this overall effect for the image:

Step 6

Now we can tackle the lightning part of the text effect. Load the Lightning stock image into Photoshop, Ctrl + A to select the entire image and copy paste it onto our document. Name the new layer as “Lightning” and put it just below the “cloud” layer.

Desaturate this lightning layer, resize and position the lightning texture as shown below:

Duplicate this lightning layer a few times, resize them and scatter them around the text, so to make the overall effect look more dramatic:

Add the following Curves adjustment layer on top of all previous layers:

You will have the following effect:

Now we can paint some colour over the it: to do this, basically create a new layer and set its blending mode as “soft light”, grab the colour of your choice and paint over the layer with a big soft brush:

As you can see, I focus on the bottom of the text (with light blue), the lightning (with red), and the cloud (with dark brown). I leave the choice of the colour to you, experiment with different schemes and you may find the feel will be totally different.

Step 7

For final touch-ups, I decided to do two things:

1. Add lights coming down from the sky
2. Add text reflection on ocean water
3. Add radial blur to the lightning bit

Sounds interesting? The steps are quite simple in fact.

So we flatten the image, duplcate the background layer three times. On the first duplicated layer, desaturate the whole layer, apply the following radial blur settings to it:

Change the layer blending mode to “Screen”, drop the layer opacity to around 60%, you will have the following effect:

On the second duplicated layer, filp the layer vertically and resize it to a very thin level, change the blending mode to “Screen” and drop its opacity to 40%:

Erase the edges with a soft brush, you will have the following effect:

On the third duplicated layer, apply the following Radial Blur settings to it:

Drag the layer a bit lower, and you will have the following effect:

Apply the following layer mask on this third duplcated layer:

and you will have the following effect:

OK that’s about it! You can further adjust the contrast, lighting and perhaps apply more textures onto it. Choices are yours :)

Here is my final effect for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

Hope you enjoy this tutorial! Drop me a comment if you have any question. Cheers and have a great day!

This is an intermediate level tutorial so some steps can be a bit tricky :)

Here is a preview of the final effect: (click to enlarge)

PSD File for this Tutorial

You can have this PSD File for only $2.00 via Paypal! Click the link below and you will be taken to the Paypal checkout page, after payment you will be redirect to the download page automatically.

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized  1400px * 650px, fill the background layer with the following gradients:

Step 2

Create a new layer on top of the background called “light top”, grab a big soft round brush with a white color, do a single click on the top centre region of the canvas:

Create another create called “light bottom” and use a similar brush as mentioned above, do a single click on the centre of the canvas, resize and perspective it with free transform tool (Ctrl + T) to produce more depth for it:

Here is the effect so far:

Step 3

Type some texts on top of all previous layers we created. You can use any font you like but I preferred a big, bold font (download it here):

On the text layer, apply the following layer blending options:

Drop Shadow

Bevel and Emboss

Gradient Overlay

Stroke

Here is the effect so far:

Optional: to add a bit more depth to the text, make a duplicate this text layer, drop the opacity of the duplicated layer to around 20% and move it to the left of the original text layer a bit:

Step 4

Now let’s start make a simple brushset. Create a new document with a size of 200px * 200px, leave the background layer as white, and grab the polygon tool and draw a shape as shown below (use the distort option from the free-transform tool to adjust the shape):

The Polygon Tool:

Polygon Tool Settings:

Draw the shape:

Tip: use the trim tool to get rid of the extra height and width of the canvas.

Important: after drawing the shape, make sure you rastersize this shape layer. and make the background layer tranparent.

Once you finish the aboves, go to Edit > DefineBrush Preset:

In the box popped up, type a name for this brushset and hit “OK”, you will see the newly created brush appearing in the brush list:

Step 5

Select this newly created brush, apply the following brush dynamics to it:

Shape dynamics

Scattering

And tick the “Airbrushing” and “Smoothing” options.

Create a new layer underneath the orginal text layer, draw some random patterns as shown below with this dynamic brush, as shown below: (try adjusting the brush size)

Step 6

Now let’s spice up the effect a bit by adding some cloud over the text. So create a new layer called  “cloud”, render some cloud inside it with the cloud filter (set foreground color to a dark grey, and black background colour).

Before you render the cloud, you have to make a selection with the Lasso Tool around the text (with around 20px feather settting), then render the cloud inside the seletion.

You will have the following effect:

Change the blending mode of this cloud layer to “Screen”, you will have the following effect:

You can also duplicate, resize this cloud layer and move those duplicated layer around for more effects, as show below:

Resize

Duplicate

Step 7

To produce even more depth for the text, here is a quick way to do it: create a new layer just above the original text layer, set the blending mode of this layer to “Vivid Light”, grab a soft brush to paint some color onto it:

Add a black and white adjustment layer on top of all layers, adjust the settings accordingly, until you see there is a shadow appearing on the bottom of the text:

Here is the effect you’re aiming to achieve: (you can see now because we have a shadow under the text, the overall effect looks deeper and more attractive)

Add another color layer on top of the black and white adjustment layer, set the blending mode to “color” and paint some color on it, you will have the following effect:

Step 8

Now we’re on the best part of this tut – apply the filter effects! Firstly we flatten the image, then duplicate the background layer once and apply the following Reduce Noise filter to the duplicated layer:

and you will see the text look much clearer and the overall image looks sharper:

Duplicate this sharpened layer once, and apply the following motion blur settings to it:

You will have the following effect:

Change the blending mode of this motion blur layer to “Hard Light” and erase the portion shown blow with a big soft brush (we don’t want the whole text to be blurred)

Step 9

Go back to the sharpened text layer and make another duplication of it, drag it to the top and apply the reticulation filter to it (Filter > Sketch > Reticulation):

You will see the following effect:

Change the blending mode to “color dodge” and erase the edge of the layer off, you will have the following effect:

Optional: go to site5 such as qbrushes.net and find some grungy brushsets, and create a new layer with the blending mode set to “overlay”, paint on it with your choice of grungy brush.

Here is my effect so far:

Step 10

We’re almost done! To add some final touches, we can create a new layer on top of all other layers, render some cloud inside it and set the blending mode to “soft light”, you will have the following effect:

I also added a colour balance adjustment layer on top of all layer to finish the effect off:

and here is my final effect for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! Just one last word: always try out different layer blending modes and see what effect that bring you! Sometimes you will be surprised to see some real cool effects :)

I hope you enjoy it and find it useful and inspirational!

Until next time, have a nice day!

The purpose of this tutorial is to show you the use of the cloud filter to create various effect, such as light and shadow, as a result bringing more depth to your text effect.

I personally love the cloud filter and I think it’s so versatile and you can use it to generate amazing effect and spice up your design. The trick is how you apply it and what other options do you use to combine it with (such as selection tools, other filter effects, or layer blending mode).

Here is a preview of the final effect:

Alternative darker version: (I adjust the brightness and contrast of the final effect, and some abstract texture to it)

PSD File for this Tutorial

You can have this PSD File for only $2.00 via Paypal! Click the link below and you will be taken to the Paypal checkout page, after payment you will be redirect to the download page automatically.

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1400px * 600px (in fact size doesn’t really matter much in this tutorial), fill the background with the following gradients:

Personally I like to start with a gradient background with light grey, as it helps setting the mood for the text effect later on we will be created.

On the canvas, type a letter on the centre with a big bold font (I chose this font) as shown below:

On the text layer, apply the following blending options:

Inner Shadow

Gradient Overlay

Pattern Overlay

and you will have the following effect so far:

Step 2

Duplicate the text layer three times, disable the layer effects for those duplicated layers and put them below the original text layer. Alter the font color a bit and adjust the position of the text to the left and right of the original text layer a bit.

Your result should be looking similar to the following screenshot:

Then on each duplicated layer, add a layer mask respectively and erase a portion of the text with a soft brush on the spots as shown below:

The ulimiate goal of this step is to blend the edge of the text with the surrounding, so we can get ready for the next step.

To further increase the depth of the text, we can make a copy of any one of the duplicated text layer, replace the font color with a dark one, apply the following Gaussian Blur to the text layer: (Make sure this layer is beneath the original text layer)

You will have followin effect:

Step 3

Create a new layer on top of all previous layers called “cloud” and grab the Lasso Tool and draw a selection with 25px feather around the text, as shown below:

Go to Filter > Render > Cloud and render some cloud inside it (with white as foreground colour and dark grey as background colour)

Hint: try experimenting with different feather settings for the Lasso Tool, you will see by changing the feather, the cloud with become either thinner or thicker.

Once you finish with the rendering, resize the cloud and position it as shown below:

Duplcate the cloud layer once and position it to the lower position as shown below:

Change the blending mode of both cloud layer to “Hard Light”, you will have the following effect:

Step 4

Duplicate the cloud once more and name the duplicated layer as “shadow”, put it just above the background layer,  hit Ctrl + I to invert the colour and position it on the bottom of the text.

Change the blending mode of the shadow layer to “Normal” and opacity to 40%, you will have the following effect:

Duplicate the Cloud layer once and put it above all previous layer, rotate it to around 60 degree and apply the following motion blur setting to the duplicated layer:

Name this layer as “Light”.

Change the blending mode of  this light layer to be “overlay”, duplicate it a few times and drag them around the text, and you will have the following effect:

Step 5

OK now we can do some fine tuning to the text by adding a Curves adjustment layer to it:

and add some colour over the text by adding another layer on top of the curves adjustment layer with the “overlay” blending mode. Here is my final effect for this tutorial:

Alternative darker version: (I adjust the brightness and contrast of the final effect, and some abstract texture to it)

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! Hopefully I gave you some ideas about the cloud filter and how you can use it for creating light, shadows and adding more depth to text effect.

Till next time, have a great day!

For those who haven’t yet came across the idea of “Call-to-Action” button – basically they’re buttons that you would want all your users to click on when they land on your page. Usually they’ll be a link to a download, signup or sale. By making those buttons easy to easy and click on, you increase the likelyhood that user will notice the button, then follow up with relevant actions.

As for embossing text, they’re everywhere now on the web, and I personally quite like this particular effect :)

Here is a preview of the final effect for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

PSD File for this Tutorial

You can have this PSD File for only $2.00 via Paypal! Click the link below and you will be taken to the Paypal checkout page, after payment you will be redirect to the download page automatically.

OK let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document size 750px * 400px (size doesn’t really matter here) and fill this background layer with White. Create a new layer on top of the background layer called “gradient”, grab the Gradient Tool from the toolbox and fill it as shown below:

I decide to use this light gradient because it’s easier to demonstrate several important points in the next few steps. You can of course try out darker ones.

Step 2

Let’s type some text on the canvas. I used this font because I personally feel it’s a very clean and bold font, which you can use for a wide range of headings, or descriptive text.

So type some sample text on the canvas as shown below: (use a slightly darker colour for font colour)

Appy the following layer blending option to the text layer:

Inner Shadow

Stroke

And you will have the following effect to the text layer:

See, that’s our embossing text effect done. Very simple, yet effective.

Step 3

Ok let’s get on with creating the call-to-action button. Use the Rounded Rectangular Tool with a 7px radius, draw a button on the canvas as shown below: (Make shape you select “shape layers” on top option bar)

Apply the following layer blending effect to this button:

Bevel and Emboss

Gradient Overlay

With the Gradient Colour, apply the following settings:

Location 0% – Color: #0083be

Location 99% – Color: #31c8fa

Location 100% – Color: #FFFFFF

Stroke

And you will have the following effect:

Step 4

Now we have a button background, let’s add some symbol onto it so it provides some kinds of graphical meaning. In this case, I decided to make this button a download button. So naturally I thought of a down arrow would mean something to the user.

So grab the Custom shape tool from the toolbox:

and choose the bold arrow from the library as shown below:

Draw an arrow on the position as shown below, rotate it clockwise 90 degree when you done the drawing:

Apply the following layer blending options to the arrow layer:

Drop Shadow

Gradient Overlay

Location 0% – Color: #09c228

Location 100% – Color: #b4ff97

Stroke

You will have the following effect so far:

Step 5

Now we can type some text onto the button:

Apply the following layer blending options to the text layer:

Inner Glow

Gradient Overlay

Stroke

and you will have the following effect:

Step 6

Ok we’re almost done. To spice up the final effect, we can add some light and shadow to the button and text to increase their depth. To do this, create a new layer underneath the button background layer, grab a big soft brush with a dark colour, do a single click on the centre of the canvas:

Use free transform tool to resize it and position it as shown below:

To create a light divider between the text and the button, simply create a new layer on top of the shadow layer, use a big soft brush with white colour, do a single click to the position as shown below:

Again we resize it and fit it to the postion under the text:

and here is the final effect for this tutorial:

Final Thoughts

There are several things I think we need to pay attention to when it comes to making call-to-action buttons:

1. Always try to use fresh, vibrant colour as button background, and make sure the color differs significantly from the rest.
2. Apply gradient to the background creating more depth and make the button stand out
3. Use graphic element and symbol on the button to make it more meaningful to visitors
4. Use Light and shadows to draw user attentions.

Further Readings

1. Web Design Trends: Call To Action Buttons

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it!

Along the way, I would like to show you my use of brushsets and the way I use them to draw background textures, then mixing the background texture with real-world object.

Some steps of this tutorial require the use of features available on CS4, but I guess there is always alternative way you can use, although the end effect may differ slightly.

Have a try :)

Here is a preview of the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

PSD File for this Tutorial

You can have this PSD File for only $2.00 via Paypal! Click the link below and you will be taken to the Paypal checkout page, after payment you will be redirect to the download page automatically.

Ok let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Grass Texture

Cloud Brushset

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1000 * 600px, leave the background colour as White and create a new layer on top of it named “background texture”. Now let’s paint some background on it.

I decided instead of getting some ground/soil texture, using pure the default Photoshop brushsets can be fun and good for practicing some painting skills.

So grab those brushes as shown below:

The painting secret here is to try set the flow and opacity of the brush to a reletively low level, and try to mix all three brushsetss together and adjust the size of the brush when necessary, for maximum effect.

Here is what I have after the painting (You can see

You can see I gave the centre of the image – where the grass and the text will sit, a dark colour then the rest of the image.

Step 2

This step is optional if you’re happy with result from previous step. Otherwise, we can do some lighting and colour adjustment for the background texture layer. Add the following two adjustment layers to the image:

Curves

Colour Balance

And we can add a new layer called “light top right” and grab this brushset below with white colour and paint some light rays from the top right: (remember also to set brush flow and opacity to low level)

And here is the effect I have after the painting:

If you find it difficult to paint the background, you can download a copy of the background image here. Then import it into Photoshop. However I would suggest you have a try at least, it doesn’t matter if it didn’t turn as good.

Step 3

Load the “Grass Texture” image into Photoshop, use the Lasso Tool with 20px feather to select a portion as shown below, copy and paste a patch of the grass texture onto our document, resize and distort it if necessary:

Use the Eraser Tool with soft brush to erase the edge of the grass texture, as shown below:

Apply the Smart Sharpen Filter on the grass texture layer:

Add the following three adjustment layers to the grass texture layer (tick the “use previous layer to create layer mask” option)

Levels

Vibrance

Curves

And here is the effect so far:

Step 4

Now let’s type some text onto it. I used the “Myriad Pro” font but you can pretty much choose any bold font you like, type one letter on the canvas, on top of all previous layers:

Apply the following blending optiono to this text layer:

General Blending

Drop Shadow

Inner Glow

Bevel and Emboss

And here is the effect after apply those blending options:

Duplicate this text layer and re-type each layer with a new letter, rotate and position them as shown below:

Optional: duplicate each text layer to make the text bolder:

Step 5

Now we’re pretty much done with the text, let’s add some lighting effect.

Firstly create a new layer called “text highlight” with “Overlay” blendng mode just under the first text layer, and grab a round soft brush with white colour, set the flow and opacity to both around 50%, and paint to the area as shown below:

Add another layer on top of the “text highlight” layer, and use the same brush as we used for the highlight layer, but with a dark colour, gently paint on the areas as shown below: (may have to adjust the brush size accordingly)

Add another layer just under the grass texture layer, and paint some shadow under it:

Add two more adjustment layer on top of all previous layers:

Vibrance

Curves

And here is the effect so far:

Step 6

Finally, we add the cloud on the top of the image by create a new layer on top of the new layer, and paint with the cloud brush set we downloaded:

And we add some shining dots around the text, by using a soft, round white brush:

OK that’s it for this tutorial! You can of course further enhance it by adding some more effect.

Here is my final result for this tutorial (Added some cracked texture under the grass, and some abstract lines)

Hope you enjoy this tutorial and find it useful. Have a great day!

Therefore, I made a few mini Photoshop tutorials and compiled them into one, big tutorial with some tricks I learnt and discovered in the past.

In this post, I will show you 5 Useful Little Photoshop Tricks to Bring Out That bit of Extra Elegance for Your Design. I think those techniques would be quite useful for a Photoshop beginner, as they give you a good starting and/or finishing point for whatever things you design. Once you learn those skills, you can apply them to a wide range of occasions. Have a try!

The topics I will be focusing on in the post include:

1. Give Your Text A Bit More Depth
2. The Light From the Top (Highlight Specific Area)
3. Clever Use of Motion Blur
4. The Cloud and Warp Tool
5. Distort Your Way into 3D

Give Your Text A Bit More Depth

Here is the problem – You typed some text onto the canvas, but somehow it looks just boring, like this text below:

(Font: Myriad Pro)

Here is how you can easily add some more depth and lighting contrast to the text itself – on the text layer, apply the following layer blending options:

Drop Shadow

Inner Shadow

Bevel and Emboss

Contour

Gradient Overlay

And here is the effect after those blending options applied:

You can see just by adding those very simple layer blending options, you can make you text looks more attractive and contains more lighting depths.

The Light From the Top (Highlight Specific Area)

If you want to bring out some more extra elegance for the text above, you can add some light from the top.

To do this, simply create a new layer on top of the text layer, keep the blending mode as “Normal”, grab a big soft round brush with White colour, do a single click on the position as shown below:

And you will have the following effect: (can reduce the layer opacity to around 80% if you think the light is too bright)

This method can be used widely in lots of different occasions, for anything you want to highlight.

Clever Use of Motion Blur

Sometimes you see a display like this:

and you wonder how this nice shadow is created. Well, simple!

Basically you grab a soft round brush with a dark colour, do a single-click on a spot:

Go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur and apply the following settings:

Hit Ctrl + F several times to re-apply motion blur several times, then use the free transform tool (Ctrl + T) to reduce the height if necessary. You will have the following effect:

That’s it! If you want to make a dark shadow, just use a darker brush in the beginning.

The Cloud and Warp Tool

Have you ever thought of combining the cloud rendering filter and the Warp Tool together? If not, have a try with those two now, you will be surprised what effect that brings you.

The steps are quite simple: create a new document with black background, use the Lasso Tool with a 50px feather and draw a circle, render some cloud inside it by going to it Filter > Render > Cloud: (with White as Foreground colour, Black as Background colour)

Then Hit Ctrl + T and bring up the Free Transform Tool, right-click on the cloud and choose “Warp”:

Then expriement! Use the warp tool to tweak the cloud into whatever shape you like:

Here is my effect after the warping:

Try out different angles, you will get lots of different effect as a result.

Distort Your Way into 3D

This is a really quick way of making a 3D look with the Distort option available in the Free Transform Tool.

So create a new document with White background and make some rectangular shape filled with different colour on it: (The size of the rectangular shapes are roughly half of the height the canvas)

Duplicate this shape layer, drag the duplicated shapes beneath the original shapes, resize it to fit the canvas:

On the duplicated layer, right-click and choose “Distort”:

Hold down the “Shift” key, click and drag both bottom corner of the shape until you reach the following effect:

For Lighting Contrast, simply add a new layer with blending mode set to “Color Burn”, grab a soft round brush with a dark colour and paint over the desired area:

That’s all for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find those little tricks useful and inspirational! Cheers and have a great day!

Along the way, I will also give you some tricks that you can use for creating awesome lighting and smoky effect to spice up your design.

The techniques involved in creating this typo include layer blending, filter effects, image adjustments and custom brushsets. Hope you enjoy it!

Here is a preview of the final effect: (click to enlarge)

PSD File for this Tutorial

You can have this PSD File for only $2.00 via Paypal! Click the link below and you will be taken to the Paypal checkout page, after payment you will be redirect to the download page automatically.

OK let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Font

Brushset

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1200 * 1700px, fill the background layer with black colour. Create a new layer on top of it and grab the brushset we just downloaded and paint some grungy texture as shown below:

The trick here is to set your brush flow and opacity to a reletively low level, both around 30% – 40%, and vary the brushset size when you paint. Also don’t stick with one brushset, try mixing different ones together and see what result that brings you.

If you want to skip this step, you can simply download a copy of this background texture here.

Now we want to make a space for our text and create some depth for the image. To do so, on the texture layer, add the following layer mask to it:

To adjust the lighting contrast a bit, we can add a Curves adjustment layer on top of all previous layers:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 2

Use the font we download before, type and position the text as shown below: (Use a dark gray colour as font colour)

Tips: type the texts on seperate layers, use the free transform tool (Ctrl + T) to rotate and fit them together.

Once you’re happy with the position, rasterise and merge those text layers and apply the following layer blending option to the merged layer:

Drop Shadow

Bevel and Emboss

Gradient Overlay

and you will have the following effect:

Now we’re in the fun part of this tutorial – Duplicate this merged text layer five times, and set each layer’s opacity as shown below:

Use your up and right arrow key on your keyboard, repeatly type them until each layer seperates from each other and form this effect as shown below:

Step 3

Load the selection of the last text layer (hold ctrl + left-click the thumbnail image of that text layer on the layer pallette), and apply the following refine edge settings:

Maintain the selection, create a new layer called “cloud” and render some cloud in it: (Black and White colour)

Duplicate this cloud layer three times, and drag the last text layer on top of the duplicated cloud layer, you will have the following effect:

Duplicate the cloud layer twice, and drag the two layers on top of text layer, change their blending mode to “overlay” and you will have the following effect:

Step 4

Now we can add some colours onto the image to spice it up a bit. To do this, I simply create a new layer called “colour 1″ on top of all previous layers, and grab a big soft round brush and select some colour I like to paint over it:

Change the blending mode of this layer to “overlay”.

I also want to highlight the edge of the grungy background, so I add another layer called “colour 2″ and grab a brown colour brush to paint around the edges:

Set the blending mode of this layer to “colour dodge”.

You can also highlight some part of the text, simply create another layer called “highlight” and grab a white soft round, big size brush and paint over desired area:

Change thie blending mode of this layer to “soft light”.

For final refinement, I added two adjustment layers on top of all previous layers:

Curves

Colour balance

Apply the following mask to the colour balance adjustment layer:

Overall, you will have the following effect:

Ok that’s pretty much it for this tutorial! Of course this doesn’t stop you from enhancing it and put it some your own creativity to it.

I further added some lines and apply some of this brushset around the edge of the text.

Here is my final effect for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this tut! Hope you enjoy this tutorial and find it useful and inspirational! Cheers and have a great day!

Along the way, we will be practicing a lot of layer blending technques, applying texture, selection technique, and an interesting method to create snowy/foggy effect.  Have a try!

Here is a preview of the final effect for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

Alternative version: (click to enlarge)

PSD File for this Tutorial

You can have this PSD File for only $2.00 via Paypal! Click the link below and you will be taken to the Paypal checkout page, after payment you will be redirect to the download page automatically.

Ok let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need to following stocks:

Ice Grunge Brushset

Font

Ice Package

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1000px * 600px, leave the background colour as white, and let’s firstly make a background to work on.

Grab the Ice Grunge Brushset we just downloaded, paint around the edges of the background layer as shown below: (tip: set the opacity and flow of the brush to around 50%, and try to use a variety of brushes in the set so we can have a mixture of patterns)

Optionally, you can apply the Star Brushset for extra effect.

We can now add some cooling effect to the background. To do so, I added two adjustment layers to it:

Colour Balance

Brightness and Contrast

and here is the effect so far:

Step 2

Use the font we just downloaded and type some texts onto the document:

Apply the following layer blending option to this text layer:

Drop Shadow

Inner Shadow

Outer Glow

Inner Glow

Bevel and Emboss

Color Overlay

Gradient Overlay

Pattern Overlay

Stroke

and you will have the following effect:

Step 3

Load any one image from the Ice Package into Photoshop (I chose the ice6_0174 image), select a distinct portion of the image use the Rectangluar Marquee Tool, copy and paste the selection onto our document, rotate it slightly as shown below:

Rename this layer as “Icy Texture right” and change its blending mode to “Screen”, use the ice brushset we download to erase the edge of this layer so only the centre part of the image remains:

Duplicate this “Icy Texture right” layer once and drag the duplicated layer to the left, rename the layer as “”Icy Texture Left”, keep the blending mode as “Screen”, and you will have the following effect:

Step 4

Now let’s create some shattered ice around the text.

Load a different image from the ice package into Photoshop (I chose ice6_0176.jpg file) and use the same method as described above, select a portion of the image, copy and paste it onto our document, and put it just beneath text layer:

Use the ice grunge brushset to erase the edge and leave just the bits in the centre. (Tip: repeatly left-click the centre of this image for the shattering effect)

Rename this layer as “Background Ice Texture Right”, Add the following adjustment layers to this layer (make sure to tick “use previous layer as clipping mask” option)

Black and White

Colour Balance

and you will have the following effect:

Duplicate the above three layers, and drag them to the left, you will have the following effect:

And we can add some extra effect under the text. To do this, grab the Ellipitical Marquee Tool with 20px feather, create a new layer just below the text layer, draw a selection as shown below:

Maintain the selection, again grab the ice brushset we downloaded, paint inside the selection. You will have the following effect:

Step 5

Now we can fine-tune the image a bit. Firstly, we flatten the image (don’t forget to save a copy of the original before flatten it) and duplicate the background layer once, apply the following motion blur settings to the duplicate layer:

Now we come to the interesting part: change the blending mode of this duplicated layer to “Pin Light”, keep the opacity of this layer to 100%, and hit Ctrl + T and resize the duplicate layer as shown below:

Erase the edges of the duplicated layer.

You can see by doing so, we created a nice snowy/foggy to our icy text.

Now we can finalise the image by adding the following adjustment layers:

Curves

Hue/Saturation

Colour Balance

and here is the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this tutorial! Of course you can further enhance the image effect by mixing lighting effect, change hue/saturation settings, etc.

Here is an alternative version I have after I change a few things (Decided to give it a darker/groovy theme): (click to enlarge)

Hope you enjoy it! Drop me a comment if you have any question, I will try my best to help you out.

Till next time, have a great day!

Along the way, we will using the technqiues such as layer blending options, selection tools, applying layer masks and more. This is an intermediate level tutorial so some steps can be a bit tricky, but why not have a try :)

Here is a preview of the final effect for this tutorial:

Alternative version which different colour scheme:

Please click here to view this tutorial on webappers.com. Thank you and have a nice day!

Along the way, we will be using a lot of layer blending options, image adjustments, selection techniques, custom brushsets painting and filter effects. This is an intermediate level tutorial and beginners may find it a bit tricky to complete, but why not have a try :)

Here is  a preview of the final effect for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

Let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Font

Dirty Spray Brushset

Stroke and Splatter

PSD File for this Tutorial

You can have this PSD File for only $2.00 via Paypal! Click the link below and you will be taken to the Paypal checkout page, after payment you will be redirect to the download page automatically.

OK let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1200 * 800 px (in fact size doesn’t really matter here, choose one you feel comfortable with), use White as background colour.

In order to maxmise the effect, the choice of font is quite important here. For me I tend to use a Bold, Clean Font from at the start, simply because they are easy to manipulate and stylise. So go head and use the font we have just downloaded and type some text onto the canvas: (Hint: you can use Ctrl + T free transform tool to adjust the size of the text)

Step 2

On this text layer, apply the following layer blending options:

General Blending

Drop Shadow

Inner Shadow

Bevel and Emboss

Contour

Gradient Overlay

Stroke

and you will have the following effect:

Step 3

Load the selection of the text layer by holding down the Ctrl key and left click the thumbnail image of the text layer on the layer palette:

Hit Ctrl + Alt + R and bring up the Refine Edge Tool, apply the following settings:

and your selection will become like this:

Step 4

Maintaining the selection, create a new layer on top of the text layer and name it “Dirt Spray”, load the Dirt Spray brushset into Photoshop, and use the different brushes in this set, paint on the new layer.

You will see because we have the selection enable, the dirt appears within the selection:

and here is the effect I have after a bit painting with the dirt brush:

Step 5

Now we can add some background textures to make the effect a bit richer. Load the “Stroke and Splatter” brushset into Photoshop, create a new layer called “texture” just above the background layer, select the brushes from this set to paint over the new layer: (I chose the red colour)

Also you can use the splatter brushset for additional effect.

Now we can add some more decorations onto the text. I decided to add some curvy lines . To do this, create a new layer called “lines” and grab the Pen Tool, create the following working path on this “lines” layer:

And right0-click and choose the “Stroke Path” option, as shown below:

Then select the option “Brush” and tick the “Simulate Pressure” option (Make sure set the brush size to 16px, with 100% hardness). Use the Free Transform Tool (Ctrl + T) and free transform it as shown below:

Duplicate this “lines” layer a few times, on each duplicated layer, free tranform it to different sizes. Here is what I have after the duplication and free transformation:

Optional: You can further enhance this effect by duplicating some more layers of the “lines” layer, and drag them on top of the text layer. Here is what I have after moving them above the text layer:

Step 6

To create some uneven light effect, we can add a new layer on top of all previous layer, grab a soft round brush (I chose 150px) and select the White colour, do some single-clicks on the spot you would like to highlight:

Change the layer blending mode to “Overlay” and you will have the following effect:

I further added some more background textures by using the splatter brushsets and here is what I have after the paintings:

Step 7

For some final adjustments, I decided to flatten the image (make sure before you do so, save a copy of the non-flattened one first), and duplicate the background layer once and desaturate the duplicated layer, go to filter > sharpen > smart sharpen and apply the following settings:

And add a new layer on top of the duplicated layer, grab a big soft brush and paint some colour onto it:

Change the layer blending mode to “Color” and you will have the following effect

Add the following two adjustment layers on top of all previous layers by going into “Layer > Adjustment Layer >…”:

Curves

Colour Balance

and you will have the following final effect: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it drop me a comment if you have any question, I will try my best to help you out.

Cheers and have a nice day!

Along the way, I would like to show you the use of custom brushsets in Photoshop and how to use them to create eye-catching effect for your design work. There are also techinques such as layer blending mode, masking and image adjustments. Have a go!

Here is a preview of the final text effect for this tutorial:

Alternative version:

Let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need to the following stocks:

Grunge Brushset

Font

Crack Brushset

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1200px * 800px, fill the background layer with Black colour. Create a new layer called “background texture” on top of the background layer, and we’re going to do some painting with the Grunge Brushset we have just downloaded.

Firstly we want to load the brushset into Photoshop. To do this, press the “B” key to select the Brush Tool, and following the steps as shown in the following screenshot:

1. Click the down arrow next to the Brush shape/size

2. Click the right arrow on the top right corner of the brush palette

3. Click the “Load Brushes” option on the menu

After this, you will see a window pop-up and simply select the Grunge Brush set you just downloaded/extracted, and you will see those brushes appear in the palette as shown below:

(The yellow highlighted part indicates the brushset we have just loaded)

So now we have a set of grunge textures we can use to create our background texture. On the “background texture” layer, use those brushsets we just loaded and paint some irregular, grungy patterns on it:

(Hint: don’t just stick with one brush, try out a combination of them and adjust the flow and opacity for each different brushset, experiment and see what result that bring you)

Here is what I have after a bit of painting with the grunge brushset:

Step 2

Now we have a grungy style background texture. Let’s type some text onto it by using the font we downloaded at the start of this tutorial:

On this text layer, apply the following layer blending options:

Drop Shadow

Inner Shadow

Bevel and Emboss

Gradient Overlay (Hint: you can adjust the position of the gradient by left-click and drag on the text)

And you will have the following effect:

Duplicate this text layer once and make the text look bolder and thicker:

Step 3

Load the selection of the text layer (if you’re not sure how to do so, please take a look at Step 3 of my previous post) and create a new layer called “crack texture”. While maintaining the selection,  load the “Crack brushset” into Photoshop and on the “crack texture” layer, use this brushset to paint  over it.

You will see because we keep the selection active, the crack texture appears only within the selection:

Duplicate the “crack texture” layer once and change the blending mode of the duplcated layer to “Multiply”, you will have the following effect (the crack texture darkened) :

To create some more variation to the crack, we can add some more layers and on each added layer, apply a different crack texture from the brushset, and set the layer blending mode to “overlay”.

You can add as many layer as you wish, here is what I have after adding two more layers of crack texture:

Step 4

Now we can some colour on the text. To do this, load the selection of the text layer again, create a new layer on top of all other layers called “colour overlay”.

Here is the tricky bit: What I would like to achieve is some colour variation, so I use the Lasso Tool with a 10px feather, substract the upper portion of the selection off by holding down the Alt Key while making the selection:

While maintaining the selection, pick a colour and a soft round brush, and paint inside the selection:

Load the text layer again, create a new layer above the previous colour overlay layer, this time choose a lighter colour and soft brush, paint it on the upper portion of the text:

Step 5

Now we can add some adjustment layers to bring out some colour contrast and lightness for the overall effect. I added the following two adjustment layers (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > …)

Levels

Curves

And here is the final effect for this text effect: (Click to enlarge)

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! You can of course add some of your own texture or filter effect and see what the end results are! Remember to always keep your own creativity!

Here is an alternative version I have: (click to enlarge)

Hope you enjoy this tutorial, drop me a comment if you have any question, I will try my best to help you out.

Cheers and have a nice day!

Along the way, we will be using Photoshop techniques such as make selections, layer blending effects, image adjustment tools and a bit of masking. This is a beginner level tutorial and the steps are really easy to follow, have a try!

Here is a preview of the final effect: (click to enlarge)

Alternative Version: (click to enlarge)

Ok let’s get started!

To Complete this tutorial, you will need the following stock:

Font

Water Drop Texture – By eRiQ

Step 1

Firstly we can prepare some nice background for us to work on. Create a new document sized 1920 * 1080px with white colour background. On the background layer, use the Gradient Tool (G) to fill it with the followings:

Duplicate this background layer once, hit Ctrl + T and resize the duplicated layer as shown below:

In between the duplicated layer and the background layer, create a new layer call “Light bottom” and grab a big soft round brush with white colour (I chose 1600px, 0% hardness, 55% opacity), do a single-click on this newly-created layer on the position shown below:

Then on top of all previous layers, create a new layer called “light top” and use the same brushset for the “light bottom” layer, do a single-click to the following position as shown below:

You will have the following effect:

Step 2

Use the font we just downloaded, type some texts onto the document, resize (Ctrl + T) and position it in the centre of the canvas:

On the text layer, apply the following layer blending options:

Drop Shadow

Outer Glow

Gradient Overlay

And you will have the following effect so far:

Step 3

Load the water drop texture into Photoshop. Go back to our text document and load the selection of the text layer by using the following method:

1. Move your mouse over the thumbnail image of the text layer in the layer pallette: (You will notice your mouse cursor change into a hand)

2. Hold down the Ctrl key (the cursor will change into a hand + rectangular marquee) and left-click the thumbnail image of the text layer. You will see now the text layer is selected:

Once the text layer is selected, grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M), move your mouse over the selection until you see the cursor changes into the following shape:

Left-click and hold, drag the selection over the water drop texture:

Hit Ctrl + Alt + R and bring up the refine edge tool, apply the following settings:

Press Ctrl + C to copy the selected portion from the water drop texture, go back to our text document and Ctrl + V to paste the texture on top of the text layer:

(Important: please maintain this selection on the water drop image, we will use it again in the next step)

Name this layer as “water drop texture 1″ and change its blending mode to “Overlay”, you will have the following effect:

Step 4

To add a bit variety for the water drops, simply go back to the water drop texture image, move the selection to a different portion:

Again we copy and paste the selection back to our text document, name the newly-created layer as “water drop texture 2″, change the blending mode to “overlay”.

You will have the following effect:

Optional: you can add more water drops to the text by repeating the above steps.

Here is what I have after adding another two layers of water drop textures:

Step 5

To make the actual text stand out a bit more, simply duplicate the text layer once and drag the duplicated layer upon the top. Reduce the opacity of this duplicated text layer to around 70%.

You will have the following effect:

Add a new Levels adjustment layer by going to Layer > New adjustment Layer > Levels and apply the following settings:

Add the following mask to the Levels adjustment layer:

And you will have the this final effect:

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! You can of course add some of your own texture or filter effect and see what the end results are! Remember to always keep your own creativity!

Here is my final image for this tutorial: (I simply black and white the image and add some of my own colours) – Click to enlarge:

Hope you enjoy this tutorial, drop me a comment if you have any question, I will try my best to help you out.

Cheers and have a nice day!

Along the way, we will be using  a lot of layer blending technqiues, musking, image adjustment tools and adjustment layers, plus the gradient tool and blur tool. This is an intermediate tutorial so beginners may find it a bit tricky. Well, never hurt to have a try!

Here is preview of the final effect: (click to enlarge)

Let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Font

Dry Soil

Floral Brushes

Cloud Brushes

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1000 * 800 px with white background. Create a new layer called “radial gradient” and grab the Gradient Tool (G) and select the radial gradient fill option, fill this layer as shown below:

Step 2

On top of the “Radial Gradient” layer, use the font we have just downloaded, type some text onto it. ( I only typed a letter “A” however you may type whatever text you want)

Apply the following layer blending option to this layer:

Drop Shadow

Inner Glow

Bevel and Emboss

Color Overlay

Gradient Overlay

And you will have the following effect:

Step 3

Load the selection of the text layer by holding down the Ctrl key and left-click the layer thumbnail image on the layer palette:

Hit Ctrl + Alt + R and bring up the Refine Edge Tool, apply the following settings:

Load the “Dry Soil” texture into Photoshop and drag the selection of the text layer (To do this, select the Rectangular Marquee Tool, move your mouse over the selection, left-click and hold to drag):

Copy and paste the selection back to our document, you will have the following effect:

Name this newly-created layer as “dry soil texture” and change its blending mode to “Hard Light” and you will have the following effect:

Step 4

On top of the “dry soil texture” layer, add the following adjustment layers with the respective settings (make sure you tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option for all adjustment layers)

Curves

Levels

Color Balance

Bright and Contrast

Black and white

And you will have the following effect:

Step 5

Now I would like to show you an interesting method to add  light stripes to the text. Create a new layer on top of all previous layers, grab the rectangular marquee tool to draw a selection as below:

Then grab a big soft brush with white colour (I used 800px) and do a few clicks in the following postition, while maintaining the selection:

Then resize, rotate the selection until it reaches the effect as shown below:

Name this layer as “light strips” and duplicate it  a couple of times, move the duplicated layers as shown below:

Merge the duplicated layers and again make several duplication of the merged layer, move them around to the desired position:

When you’re happy with the position, merge all those light strips layers and use the Eraser Tool with a soft round brush to erase the bit where covers the text:

Step 6

To add some more decoration to the text, we can use the two brushsets we downloaded and simply do some painting :)

Create a new layer just above the “Radial Light” layer, use the Cloud Brushes to paint some clouds on the bottom part of the canvas:

Create another layer on top of the cloud layer, use the Floral Brushes to add some nice floral swirls around the text:

Step 7

To add some final touches, add two more adjustment layers on top of all other layers: (Don’t tick “use previous layer as clipping mask” this time)

Curves

Use the following vector musk on Curves Adjusment layer:

Levels

Use the following vector musk on Levels Adjusment layer:

Colour Balance

Use the following vector musk on Color Balance Adjusment layer:

And you will have the following final effect:

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! Of course you can further enhance this image by adding some more effect, textures and filters.

Here is my final version for this tutorial: (Added some radial blur, adjusted contrast) – click to enlarge:

Hope you enjoy this tutorial, drop me a comment if you have any question, I will try my best to help you out.

Cheers and have a nice day!