Along the way, you will learn the method used to create lighting effect, bokeh, image adjustments, plus an rather interesting way of creating those little flying/falling light particles :)

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

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Ok let’s get started!

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

A Bold Font (You can choose any one from the list)

Abstract Brush

Step 1

Create a new document sized 550px *600px, grab the Gradient Tool from the toolbox and fill the background as shown below:

As you can see this gradient color is different from the final effect color – this is because initially I thought it would be better to use a dark gradient fill in the beginning, just for experimental purpose. I can always change the colour later on with image adjustments.

Grab the type tool and type a big text (using a font you downloaded from the list) on the centre of the canvas, name this text layer as “mother text”, reduce its opacity to 40%:

Apply the following layer blending options to it:

Drop Shadow

Outer Glow

Gradient Overlay

and you will have the following effect:

Step 2

Type another smaller size letter on the canvas, name this type layer as “child text”, drop its opacity to around 30%, use the free transform tool to rotate it a bit so it looks like falling from the top:

Apply the following layer blending options to it:

Drop shadow

Gradient Overlay

Then duplicate this child text layer a few times, rotate each duplicated layer and scatter them around the mother text:

Step 3

Now let’s add some fancy lighting effect for the text. Create a new layer named “light strip bottom” below the mother text layer, use a soft white brush to do a single click on the top of the canvas:

Compress this layer to a very thin strip with the free trasform tool (scale):

Move this strip to this bottom of the text, and change the blending mode to “soft light”:

Now let’s add some highlights for the text. To do this, create a new layer on top of the “light strip bottom” layer, name it “highlight” and use a soft round white brush to do a single click as shown below:

Compress it to a thin size:

Move it over the bottom light strip and change the blending mode to “overlay”:

You will have the following effect: (you can duplicate this highlight layer a few more times for deeper effect)

Use the same method as the highlight layer creation (apart from the compression), add a few more lighting source around the text:

Step 4

Now let’s add some bokeh to the text. Thanks to the dynamic brush function in Photoshop, it’s really simple to make the bokeh effect.

So grab a round white brush with 80% hardness, apply the following dynamic brush settings to it:

Shape dynamics

Scattering

Other Dynamics

and tick the “Airbrush”, “Smoothing” and “Protect Texture” option.

Use this brush we just made to paint some bokeh around the text, make sure you adjust the brush size along the way:

As you can see, I used smaller bokeh on the top for more depth:

Step 5

Now let’s add some flying/falling light particles to the text. Create a new layer on top of all previous layers, name it as “particles”, grab a small round white brush, do a single click anywhere on the canvas:

Use the Warp Tool to warp this dot as shown below:

You may have to warp it twice for a more curvy shape:

Once you finish the warping, simply duplicate this particle layer and scatter them around the text: (experiment with blending mode as you duplicate them, try “soft light”, “overlay”, and “normal” mixing together. Also adjust the layer opacity for each layer so that they look different and as a result the image can have more depth)

Optional: for add some elegance to the text, you can duplicate the “light strip bottom” layer and resize and rotate it, and place the smaller strip on the bottom of the text:

Step 6

Now we can add some abstract texture onto the texture. Create a new layer called “texture” above the background layer, use the abstract brushset we downloaded and paint to the positions as shown below:

OK, we’re pretty much done. For some fine-tuning, I added two adjustment layers on top of all previous layer:

Color Balance

Curves

Optionally, you can also flatten the image, duplicate the background layer once and add the following “accented edge” (Filter > Brush strokes > Accented edge) filter effect to it:

This will create some blurry and melting effec to the text:

Add the following layer mask to the duplicated layer so it doesn’t look blurry for the whole canvas:

Smart sharpen the flattened background layer a bit, and here the final effect: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and learn something new :)

Until next time, have a great day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the method I use to create a stylish, clean and shining button for your website in Photoshop. This method is extremely simple with no more than five steps, yet it’s very effective since you can use the button for a wide range of occasions.

Along the way, the tools we will be using include the shape tool, layer blending options, brush and eraser tool. This tutorial is suitable for beginners as the steps are quite easy to follow in my opinion. As for advance Photoshoppers, I would love to hear you the methods you use to achieve such effect, just drop me a comment below.

Have a try, let me know if you have any problem, I will try my best to help you out :)

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

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Let’s create a new document sized 640 x 480px and fill the background layer with Black.

The reason I chose not to create a document with the size same as the button we’re creating, is because ultimately we will be placing this button somewhere on a web page. Therefore, I think it would be better if we start on a bigger canvas so we will have a better overview of the button design.

Now add a new layer on top of the background layer and name it “background lighting”, grab a big, soft and round brush with a dark grey colour, do a single-click in the position shown below:

Step 2

Grab the Round Rectangular Tool (U) and apply the settings to it:

Draw a rectangular shape in the centre of the canvas, as shown below: (Don’t worry too much about the dimension, just a rectangular shape will do)

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

Drop Shadow

Inner Shadow

Gradient Overlay

and you will have the following effect:

Step 3

Now let’s load the selection of the shape layer by holding down the Ctrl key and left-click the thumbnail image of the shape layer on the layer palette.

Create a new layer called “Lighting”, on this layer, grab a soft round brush with white colour, do a single click in the position as shown below:

and you will have the following effect:

On this “lighting” layer, apply the following layer blending options:

Drop Shadow

Bevel and Emboss

Gradient Overlay

and you will have the following effect:

Optionally, you can duplicate this “lighting” layer once for more depth. You will notice on the top we created a shining edge line, which add a bit of extra flavour to the button design.

Step 4

Duplicate the “lighting” layer one more time and put this layer on top of all other layers. On this duplicated layer, go to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical and flip this layer vertically once.

You will now see on the bottom we now have a shining edge line as well, this makes the button more stylish.

In order to reveal the top shining edge line created in the previous step, we can simple grab an eraser tool with a soft round brush, and do a single click on the position shown below:

and you will now have this effect:

Step 5

Now we can simply type some text onto the button. Font choice is quite important here because we want to the button to be as eye-catching as possible. Personally I think those Bold, Clean Font always work wonders. There is a pretty nice article here containing a list of bold fonts free for download, simply grab one of those and type some text onto it:

And on this text layer, apply the following layer blending options:

Drop Shadow

Bevel and Emboss

Gradient Overlay

And you will have the following effect:

To make the text stronger, simply duplicate the text layer once and you have made a very stylish, clean and shining button:

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, we will be using the Polygon Tool to draw the star, and use some simple layer blending effect to add the shining, glossy effect to it. I will also use the Pen Tool and dynamic brush settings for the final effect. The effect is easy to achieve and very practical. Have a try!

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

Alternative coloured version:

OK let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document size 800 * 800 px and use the gradient tool to fill the background layer as shown below:

Select the Polygon Tool by left-click the Shape Tool symbol from the toolbox and hold, as shown below:

You will notice a series of shape tool options appearing across the top, apply the following settings:

Sides: 5

Radius: 10px

Indent Sides By: 50%

Make sure to tick “Smooth Corners” and “Star” option.

Draw a star on top of the background layer as shown below: (You can press Ctrl + T to free-tranform it if you like)

Rename this layer as “Star”.

Step 2

On the “Star” layer, apply the following layer blending options:

Drop Shadow

Inner Shadow

Outer Glow

Inner Glow

Bevel and Emboss

Contour

And you will have the followin effect on the star layer:

Step 3

Now we can add some decoration on the star so it doesn’t look too boring. To do this, we can simply create a new layer below the “Star” layer, use the Pen Tool to draw a working path like this:

Hint: Try holding down “Shift” key while dragging the anchor points.

Then grab a 18px, 0% hardness brush, select the Pen Tool and right-click on the path and choose “storke path”:

Apply the following settings:

And you will see the following effect:

Duplicate this working path layer a few times, rotate, scale and distort the duplicated layer using the Free Transform tool (Ctrl + T). Here is my effect so far:

Once you’re happy with the result, you can merge those duplicated abstract line layers together, then duplicate some more layers based on the merged layers, result as shown below: (rotate, resize if necessary)

And we can add some dots around the star for the final touch-ups. To do this, grab a 9px, soft round brush and press “F5″ or go to Window > Brushes to bring up the brush window, apply the following dynamic settings:

Shape Dynamics

Scattering

Other Dynamics

Make sure to check “Airbrush” and “Smoothing” options, too.

Once the brush is made, create a new layer under the “star” layer and paint those dots in random areas as below:

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:

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!

In this tutorial, I will show you the process I used to create this super delicious, shining and glossy text effect in Photoshop. In fact, I once again accidentally discovered this interesting effect while playing with Photoshop filters this afternoon and thought I could share it with you guys :)

Along the way, we will be using techniques such as layer blending options, filter effects, adjustment layers and a few photoshop tools. It’s a very simple tutorial, have a try!

Meanwhile, I have received a few enquiries about how to add colour effects onto a plain image from my past tutorial – and I decided to include the method I use to achieve the colour effect along with this tutorial. So read on if you’re interested!

Here a preview of my final result for this tutorial: (Click to enlarge)

Alternative versions:

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1200px * 800px and fill the background layer with Black. Duplicate the background layer once (Always a good habit) and grab the Gradient Tool (G) fill the duplicated layer as shown below:

After applying the gradient effect, duplicated this layer once and on the second duplicated layer, go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal and change the layer blending mode to “screen”.

You will have the following effect:

Step 2

We can make the background a bit brighter and fresher. So go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance and apply the following settings:

Shadows

Midtones

Higtlights

And you will have the following effect:

OK that’s for our background! We can now add our text effect onto it.

Step 3

Download this font and type some text onto it, resize and position it as shown below:

I typed Susan Boyle because I was so touched and inspired by her performance on Britains Got Talent show :) Wish her all the best!

Apply the following layer blending effect to the text layer:

Drop Shadow

Inner Shadow

Outer Glow

Inner Glow

Bevel and Emboss

Contour

Gradient Overlay

And you will have the following effect:

Step 4

Load the selection of the text layer (ctrl + left-click the thumbnail image of the text effect on the layer palette):

Then create a new layer called “fibre” (make sure you maintain the selection) and fill it with White colour:

Then go to Filter > Render > Fibers and apply the following settings:

Then go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply the following settings:

Change the layer blending mode of this “fiber” layer to “lighten” and you will have the following effect:

To add some lighting variation onto it, we duplicate the “Fiber” layer once more and change the blending mode of the duplicated layer to “overlay”:

Step 5

Now we can add some colour onto our text! To do this, load the selection of the text layer using the method described previously, create a new layer called “colour” on top of all layers:

Maintain the selection of the text layer, grab a soft brush with colour of your choice and simply paint over the layer. You will see because we have a selection of the text, you will paint only within the selection not any other area:

Change the layer blending mode of this layer to “color” and you will have the following effect:

To add a bit more shining effect to finish off the text, duplicate the “colour” layer once and change the blending mode of the duplicated layer to “overlay”.

Here is the final 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!

I added some textures on the background just to decorate it a bit: (click to enlarge)

Alternatve Colour

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!