In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create a Mystical Text Effect with Smoke and Ocean Texture in Photoshop. This is an intermediate level tutorial so some steps can be a little tricky, but why not have a try!

Here is a preview of the final effect 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:

Font

Ocean image

Smoke Brush

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1200px * 770px, fill the background with black colour. Load the “ocean” stock image into Photoshop, cut out the top wave portion of it and paste it onto our document. Name this layer as “ocean”:

Use a big soft brush to erase the top portion of the ocean as shown below:

Step 2

I decided to make this ocean texture look surreal. So let’s add the following three adjustment layers to it:

Curves

Levels

Mask on the Levels adjustment layer:

Color balance

and here is the effect you will have so far:

Step 3

Grab the type tool, use the font we downloaded, type one letter per layer, as shown below:

Then use the free transform tool to rotate the text a bit for some variety:

Rotate each of the text as shown below:

Then create a new layer under all the text layers, render some cloud on it:

Use a big soft eraser to erase some portion of the cloud to create more depth for the image:

Step 4

Now we can merge the text layer so it’e easier to edit them all together. To do this, select all the text layers, then right-click and choose “rasterize type”:

then right-click on the layers and choose “Merge Layers”:

After merging the layers, load the selection of this merged layer by Ctrl + left-click on the thumbnail image on the layer palette:

Use the smoke brush you downloaded, paint inside the selection:

Use a soft eraser to erase the parts shown below on the texture, so the text blends into the surrounding environment:

Optional: to make the text darker a bit, you can duplicate the smoke texture layer once and change layer blending mode of the duplicated layer to “color burn”:

Step 5

Now we can add some bursting lights on the text. To do this, load the selection of the original merged text layer again, create a new layer on top of all previous layers, and fill the selection with white. Name this layer as “light on text”:

Deselect, then apply the following Gaussian Blur settings to this layer:

then apply the radial blur settings on the text. Hit Ctrl + F to apply it a few more times:

change the layer blending mode to “overlay”, duplicate this light on text layer twice, and here is the effect you will have on the text:

Step 6

Now let’s do some fine-tunings for this effect. Add the following 2 image adjustment layers on top of all previous layers:

Color balance

Mask on the colour balance adjustment layer:

Curves

Mask on the curves adjustment layer:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 7

Now let’s add some final details to the text effect. I created a new layer called “text highlight” and use a soft white brush to paint on the area shown below: (set the layer blending mode to “overlay” with 70 opacity)

Add some noise around the text to create some splashing effect. You can do so via the noise filter, or some splatter brushsets:

You can also duplicate the radial blur layer we created earlier for the text once, drag this layer to the top and flip it vertically, change the layer blending mode to “soft light”.

Here is the effect you will have:

I also added a black and white adjustment layer on top of all layers with the following settings:

Layer mask on the black and white adjustment layer:

Reduce the layer opacity of this black and white adjustment layer to around 50%, and here is the final effect: (click to enlarge)

(I also added some cloud texture onto it – you’re free to experiment with other texture, filter effect, and see what result they bring you.)

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it interesting and inspirational. Until next time, have a nice day!

In this post, I hand-picked 25 Fresh and Ultra Creative Text Effect Artworks to Spark Your Imagination. Those works are from the creattica.com community and are of high standards. I always go there to take a look at their showcases when I’m lack of inspiration :) So if you’re interested, head over and take a look!

Here goes the list, enjoy!

Note: You can click on the image to view its source on creattica.

That’s it for this post! Hope you enjoy those text effect artworks and find them inspirational!

Till next time, have a great day!

In the tutorial, I will show you the processes I used to Create an Awesome 3D Text Effect with Abstract Brush Decoration in Photoshop. This is an intermediate tutorial so some steps can be tricky, but why not have a try :)

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

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You will need the following stock to complete this tutorial:

Any Grunge Brushset

Font

OK let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 740px * 1050px, fill the background layer with black colour. Create a new layer called “texture” and paint some grunge texture onto it:

Duplicate this texture layer once, resize it as shown below:

Erase the corners of the duplicated layer with a big soft brush:

you will have the following effect:

Step 2

Now let’s add a big 3D text onto it. If you have illustrator, use it to render a 3D text. If not, you can download this PSD file and use it for this tutorial.

Place the text to the position shown below, name the layer as “big text”:

Apply the following layer blending option to it:

Color Overlay

Gradient Overlay

you will have the following effect:

Add the following mask to this big text layer:

you will have the following effect:

Also create a new clipping mask layer, grab a big soft white brush to add a highlight to the top-left corner of the big text:

Step 3

Create a layer called “cloud” under the big text layer, use either cloud brush or rendered cloud, to the positions shown below:

Also add a highlight layer with a big soft white brush from the top-left corner:

I also decided to add a bit of splashing effect to the text. So grab a 1px hard brush, apply the following brush dynamics to it:

Shape Dynamics

Scattering

Other Dynamics

Tick the “Airbrush”, “Smoothing” and “Protect Texture” options.

Use this brush and paint some dots to the positions shown below:

You can also add a ray of light on top of the big text to spice things up. To do this, use a soft white brush to do a single-click, then distort it as shown below:

Warp it after the distortion, try to bend the bottom to create a curvy shape:

Position this light on the top right corner of the big text:

Step 4

Now let’s add some variety to the text. Duplicate the big text layer once, cancel the color overlay blending option, resize and position it as shown below:

Add a dark light for the text, painted it with a black soft brush to the position shown below:

Carefully painting some shadow under the text, with a soft black brush:

Duplicate the big text layer once more, resize it and position the layer to the top-left, as shown below:

Add a highlight layer with a soft white brush (single-click to the position shown below):

Carefully paint some shadow under the text, same as the previous step:

Create a new layer called “big text shadow” on top of all previous layer, and grab a big soft brush with black colour, paint some shadow to the bottom of the text, as shown below”

you will have the following effect:

Step 5

Now let’s make another custom brushset. Create a new document sized 40px * 100px, add a new layer and fill it with black colour, hit Ctrl + A and select this new layer:

Go to Edit > Define Brush Preset and create a new brushset:

Then apply the following brush dynamics:

Shape Dynamics

Scattering

Other Dynamics

Tick the “Airbrush”, “Smoothing”, “Protect Texture” options.

Create a new layer just below the original text layer, and start painting. (try different brush size as you go, apply the following smart sharpen filter once you’re done painting)

you will have the following effect:

You can see we also have some see-through effect on the text, because of the layer mask on the big text layer we added earlier:

Step 6

OK we’re almost done. For some final touchups, I added two image adjustment layers on top:

Curves

Color Balance

Layer Mask of Color Balance adjustment layer:

and you will have the following effect:

For add some motions into the images, we can flatten the image, duplicate the background layer once and apply the following motion blur settings to it:

Change the layer blending mode of this blur layer to “Screen” and layer opacity to around 60%, then add the following layer mask on it:

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

That’s it for this Photoshop tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful. Until next time, have a great day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this Zebra Patterned Crimson Text Effect in Photoshop. This is an intermediate level tutorial and some steps can be tricky, but why not have a go :) ?

What I would like to show you in this tutorial in how you can combine the pattern clone stamp with work path to render special effects for your text, and how you can create realistic light and shadow for your environment.

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

Alternative Version (with more red colour + a bit of Motion Blur in it)

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

Font

Step 1

Creata a new document sized 1300px * 650px. Create a new layer called “floor” and select the lower portion of the canvas as shown below:

Right-click inside the selection and choose “Fill”:

Select the following tile pattern from the “Pattern” category:

Drop the layer opacity to around 40%:

Then perspective the layer as shown below:

add the following layer mask to this floor layer:

and you will have the following effect:

Step 2

Use the font we donwloaded, type some text onto the canvas as shown below:

Apply the following Drop Shadow blending option to this text layer:

Now in order to make a smooth transition from the text layer to the floor layer, as the following layer mask to the text layer: (with Gradient Fill tool)

Now let’s create the shadow for the text. Firstly load the selection of the text layer by Ctrl + Left-click the thumbnail image on the layer palette, then create a new layer called “shadow” under the text layer, maintain the selection and fill it with black colour, flip it vertically and use the free-transform tool to perspective as shown below:

Add the following layer mask to this shadow layer:

and you will have the following effect:

Step 3

Create a new layer on top of the text layer called “zebra texture”. Load the text layer selection and right-click on it, choose “make work path” option:

Grab the Pattern Stamp Tool from the toolbox:

Choose the Zebra texture from the dropdown window:

Set tolerance to 2.0 pixels:

Choose the Pen Tool, then right-click on the path and choose “Stroke Path”:

Stroke the path with Pattern Stamp we just chose:

and you will have the following effect:

Change the layer blending mode to be “overlay” for this zebra texture layer, you will have the following effect:

Step 4

Now create a new layer under the “shadow” layer called “back light”. Grab the Lasso Tool with a 50px feather setting to draw a selection, then render some cloud inside it:

Hit Ctrl + L to bring up the Levels adjustment tool and apply the following settings:

Use the free transform tool to reduce the size of the cloud, position it behind the text:

Duplicate this light layer a few more times, put them around the text as shown below: (reduce their layer opacity to around 20-30%)

Add the following two adjustment layers to the top of all previous layers:

Curves

Levels

and you will have the following effect:

Go back to the text layer, change the text colour to be black, and you will have the following effect:

Step 5

Now we’re almost done. Flatten the image and duplicate the background layer once, apply the following Reduce Noise filter settings to the duplicated layer: (we don’t want this text effect to be sharp)

I decided to add a line a smaller text in the far distant to make a transition effect for the main text. So I duplicate the background layer again, and apply the following Motion blur filter to the duplicated layer:

Then resize this layer to a smaller scale, then move it up to the position as shown below:

Add the following layer mask to this layer:  (use Gradient Tool)

Then reduce the layer opacity to around 30%, you will have the following effect:  (a barely visible, samll text in the far distance)

I added the following two image adjustment layers for final touchups:

Curves

Color Balance

Mask on Colour Balance layer: (for adding image depth)

and here is the final effect I have for this tutorial:

Alternative Version (with more red colour + a bit of Motion Blur in it)

That’s for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful. If you have any question, just drop me a comment below. Have a nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to Create Awesome Splashing Water Text Effect in Photoshop. Along the way, you will learn how you can incorporate water splash brushsets into your text and create great effect from that. Have a try!

Here is a preview of the final effect 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:

Water Splashing Brush (choose one from the list)

Lake

Font

Step 1

Create a new document sized 940px * 700px, fill the background layer with black. Load the Lake stock image into Photoshop, use the Lasso Tool with a 40px feather setting, draw a selection of the lake portion:

Copy and paste the selection on to our canvas, use a big soft brush to erase its edges, and reduce its layer opacity to around 60%. The effect is as shown below:

Duplicate the water layer twice, move the duplicated layer to the left and right of the original water layer, as shown below: (set the layer opacity to slightly lower than the original water layer to create depth)

Duplicate the original water layer once more, resize it to a smaller piece and position it to the center, then increase the layer opacity to 100%:

Add the following two adjustment layers on top of all layers created so far:

Curves

Levels

and you will have the following effect so far: (centre portion highlighted, and that will be the text will be placed)

Step 2

Now use any font you like, type a single letter on the canvas as shown below:

Apply the following layer blending options to this text layer:

Bevel and Emboss

Gradient Overlay:

Stroke

and here is the effect so far:

Step 3

Now let’s add some noise to the text and get ready for the water splashing effect later on. Create a new layer on top of the text called “noise”, load the selection of the text layer and fill the selection with black colour, go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and apply the following setting:

The effect after you apply the noise filter:

Change the blending mode of thie noise layer to “screen”, drop the layer opacity to around 35%, you will have the following effect:

Create a new layer on top of the noise layer, name it “light and shadow”, use a combination of black and white brush, paint it as shown below:

Change the blending mode of this light and shadow layer to “Overlay” – as you can see, this add some lighting contrast to the text:

Step 4

Now we can paint some water splashing effect around text. Create a new layer called “water splash” and load the water splash brushes into Photoshop, choose some brushes from the set and paint around the text, as shown below:

Make sure when you paint the water splashing effect, use a combination of big and small sized brushsets, also adjust the flow and opacity of the brush, DO NOT just use one setting for the whole thing:

Keep adding more water splashing around the text – to be more creative, paint some water streams dropping from the edges of the text:

For the water streams, I used a 6px, soft white brush to paint in addition to the water splashing brush, as shown below:

Use the same technique to paint the water stream on the left:

You can use a small, soft white brush to draw around the edge of the text to create some waterflow/highlight effect:

Highlight effect for the text edges:

here is the effect you will be aiming to achieve so far:

Step 5

Now we will make the water splash around the text sharpen a bit. To do this, duplicate the water splash layer you’re painting on once (if you have searval layers for the water splash, group them first, then right-click on the group and choose “merge group” option).

Apply the following Smart Sharpen filter setting to the duplicated layer:

and you can see the water splash sharpened and become more visible:

Now create a new layer called “shadow” under the original text layer, grab a black soft brush and paint some shadow on the water and under the text, as shown below:

Optionally, you can add more water splashing effect around the text:

To make the text effect more dramatic, you can add some misty effect by create a new layer named “mist” just above the background layer, use a Lasso Tool with 50px feather, draw a selection around the text as shown below:

Render some cloud inside the selection, drop the layer opacity of this mist layer to around 50%, and you will have the following misty effect:

Step 6

Now we’re into the final stage of this tutorial. I feel like adding some highlights around the text, so as to make the certain parts stand out. To do this, create a new light on top of all previus layers, use a small white soft brush to paint (single-click) to the points shown below:

Now you can also use the Distrot option (available when you press Ctrl + T, then right-click) to adjust the shape of the light, to fit the angel of the latter:

I added one Color Balance image adjustment layer just to add a bit more light blue colour into the image:

Layer Mask on the Color Balance adjustment layer:

and you will have the following final effect:

OK that’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful and inspirational. If you have any question, drop a comment below and I will try my best to help you out.

Cheers and have a nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this cool-looking, awsome glowing edge text effect in Photoshop. Have a try!

Along the way, we will practice the use of Pen tool, layer blending options, texture painting and some image adjustments in Photoshop.

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

alternative version with cloud and more lighting effect:

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No Stock image is required for this tutorial. This tutorial is best for Photoshop CS2 or +.

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1300px * 780px, fill the background with black and create a new layer called “texture”, grab some grungy brushsets from the sites such as qbrushes.net or brusheezy.com, paint some texture on it:

After you’ve done the painting, hit “Ctrl + T” and right-click on the texture, choose “perspective” and narrow the top border the texture:

After you perspective the texture, scale the texture down as shown below:

Use a big soft brush to erase the edges of the texture so it blends into the background:

Duplicate this texture layer, resize it to a smaller piece, rotate and position the duplicated layer as shown below:

Duplicate the grungy texture layer once more, this time position it to the right:

Step 2

Now type some texts on the canvas. You can use any text you like, the one I used for this tut can be downloaded here.

Apply the following layer blending options to this text layer:

Drop Shadow

Outer Glow

Bevel and Emboss

Contour

Stroke

and you will have the following effect so far:

Step 3

Now we’re onto creating the level effect for the text. We can do this by simple duplicated the original text layer twice, adjust the layer opacity of each text layer according to the settings below:

Move each layer a bit away from each other:

and this is the overall effect so far:

Now we will add the glowing edge effect for the text layer. To do this, load the selection of the text layer (any one of the three):

Click on the Rectangular Marquee tool (or press “M” key):

then right-click inside the selection, choose “make work path”:

set tolerance to “2.0″ pixels:

and you will have the following work path created around the text:

click the Pen tool symbol from the toolbox, right-click on the work path and choose “stroke path”:

Use the following 5px hard round brush:

and with “Simulate Pressure” setting enabled:

Stroke the work path. You will have the following effect:

Step 4

Now we can add some lights on the bottom of the text so it blends better with the texture. To do this, create a new layer on top of all previous layers called “light” and grab a big soft brush, do a single-click as shown below:

Compress this light layer and move it the bottom of the text:

Use Warp tool to adjust the light, in order to fit the curve of the texture:

Step 5

Now let’s add some shadow for the text. Create a new layer on top of all previous layer called “shadow”, load the selection of the one of the text layer, fill the selection with black colour:

Hit “Ctrl + T” and right-click, choose “Flip Vertical”:

Perspective this shadow layer as shown below:

Apply the following Gaussion Blur settings to it:

Move the shadow layer down and change its blending mode to “soft light”, you will have the following effect:

Step 6

Now create a new layer on top of all previous layer, name it “Abstract line” and grab the Pen Tool, draw a random path as shown below:

If you feel like some adjustments, you can hold “Ctrl” key and drag the anchor points to change the path:

Stroke the path using the same settings as previous step: (5px hard round brush, simulate pressure)

Now add a layer mask on this abstract line layer to hide some portion of the lines behind the text:

(Hint: to quickly add this mask, load the selection of the top-most text layer, then click on the layer mask, and go to Edit > Clear to clear out the text portion)

You can see by adding this layer mask we can hide the parts of the abstract line:

You can also duplicate this abstract line layer a few times for more effect (disable the layer mask for the duplicated layers, and resize those layers for depth)

Step 7

OK we’re nearly done. To finish up this effect, we can add a few adjustment layer to fine-tune the color and lighting contrast.

I added the following adjustment layers on top of all previous layers:

Color Balance

Curves

and here is the final effect for this tutorial:

I also made an alternative version with cloud and extra lights added to it: (click to enlarge)

OK that’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful and inspirational. If you have any question, drop a comment below and I will try my best to help you out.

Cheers and have a nice day!

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 techniques involved to create this rather cool, 3D typography with abvanced Texturing and Lighting Effect in Photoshop. Some steps can be a little tricky and you do need a lot of patience to complete this tut, but why not have a try?

The aim of this tut is to demonstrate how you can texture a 3D text (created in Illustrator) quickly and effectively, using the least amount of steps possible.

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

PSD File Download

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OK let’s get started!

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

Font

Ground Crack

Mountain (Soil) Texture

Grass

Bird

Step 1

Create a document sized 1500px * 680px (you can choose a smaller size to fit your screen, but make sure you maintain the proportion), fill the background with #161616 colour.

Load the “Ground Crack” texture into Photoshop, Press Ctrl + A to select the entire image, copy and paste it onto out document. Name the new layer as “crack”, resize, rotate and distort this layer until you achieve the following effect:

Erase the the edges of the crack texture so it transits into the background colour:

Duplicate this crack layer once and move the duplicated layer toward the lower right end of the canvas for more variety:

Please note that the erase part is totally optional, if you’re happy with just the distorted texture, you can just leave it as it is.

Step 2

Now we have a ground base we can work on, let’s get on with the text creation.

I used Illustrator to render this 3D effect (I won’t demonstrate the steps for rendering as it’s irrelevant to this tutorial) and you can download a copy by clicking the following image, then loaded into Photoshop:

On top of the text layer, add the following two adjustment layers (make sure to tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option)

Levels

Curves

Add a layer mask on the text layer, then use the erase tool with chalk bursh setting  (Assign 40% opacity and flow) , erase the portions as shown below to create a rough surface. Also use a soft round brush to erase the bottom part on the text:

Portions you need to erase:

Once you’re happy with the text, load the “Mountain (soil) texture” stock into Photoshop. Load the select of the text layer by Ctrl + left-clicking the thumbnail image on the layer pallette, drag the selection on the soil texture:

Hint: to drag the selection, you must select the rectangular marquee tool first, then move you mouse over the selection, and click-hold to drag it.

Maintain the selection around the text, copy and paste your chosen soil texture onto our canvas. Name this layer as “soil” and make it a clipping mask layer for the text layer:

Use a soft round brush to erase the portions texture as indicated below: (set the opacity and flow to around 20% – this way you can make sure you don’t erase too much of the texture, as well as creating depth for the image)

Add the following Levels adjustment layer on top of the soil layer (make sure to tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option):

Load the “Grass” image into the Photoshop, select a portion of the grass:

Copy and paste the selection onto our canvas and name it as “grass”, right click the layer and select “create clipping mask”, and you will have the following effect:

Add the following Curves adjustment layer on top of the grass layer (make sure to tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option):

Change the blending mode of the grass layer to “soft light” and here is the effect so far:

Optionally, you can add a layer mask and erase certain portion of the grass texture if you think they’re unnecessary.

Step 3

Duplicate the grass layer once and drag it to the top, release the clipping mask and delete the layer mask attached to it. Add a new layer mask and change the blending mode to “overlay”, then erase the following areas on this grass overlay layer:

Hint: Same as all previous texture erases, combine the use of the chalk brush and circle brush is important, also set the flow and opacity to a low level (20% for both).

Add the following Levels adjustment layer on top of the grass overlay layer (make sure to tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option):

and here is the effect so far:

Create a “Shadow” layer under the text layer, garb a soft round brush to paint under the texture, in the area shown as below:

When you paint the shadows, make sure you pay attention to areas around the text:

Change the blending mode of this shadow layer to “soft light”, and here is the effect so far:

Step 4

Load the “Bird” stock image into Photoshop, cut out the bird and paste it onto canvas, position it as shown below:

Create a new layer called “bird shadow” under the bird layer, use a small soft round brush with black colour (set opacity and flow to both around 30%), carefully paint a thin shadow under the bird:

Duplicate the bird and the bird shadow layer, flip them horizontally and position them the left side as shown below:

Step 5

Now we’re pretty much done the main aspects of the tutorial. And we can add some background touches for some more depths. Some mist/cloud here would add some extra effect here.

I won’t brag you again with the cloud rendering and warping (you can check out this post if you haven’t used it before). What I would like to address is that when render the clouds, put each of them onto seperate layers, and change their blending mode into either “overlay”, “soft light” or “screen”:

Here is a screenshot of what I did to the cloud layers – it shows the cloud position and blending mode: (click to enlarge)

You will notice by change their blending mode (and layer opacity), you can add lighting depth and extra effect to the text and ground texture,

Also you can use a soft eraser to erase the portion of cloud where it links to the ground texture for more depth:

Step 6

Now we’re petty done for this tutorial! For some final adjustments, I add the following 2 adjustment layers:

Vibrance

Curves

and here is the effect:

Optionally, you can add some colours and glowing effect to touch up the overall design. You can achieve this by adding a new colour balance adjustment layer, and use the Gaussian blur filter. I won’t show you the exact settings here and I will leave this to you to explore and experiment :)

Here is the version where the colours and glowing effect is applied: (click to enlarge)

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

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

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Ok let’s get started!

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

Font

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1200px * 800px, fill the background layer with black, use the font we downloaded and type some texts on the canvas:

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

Drop Shadow

Inner Shadow

Bevel and Emboss

Gradient Overlay

Stroke

and you will have the following effect:

Step 2

Now we’re into the interesting part of this tutorial. Create a new layer on top of the text layer and name it as “lines outside”, grab a 1px solid brush as shown below:

Use this brush to paint on the edge of every letter on the canvas:

Make sure you paint around the edges:

and this is the overall effect:

Step 3

Now we can add a bit lighting variations to the text. One quick way to do this is to load the selection of the “lines” layer with created in previous step, apply the following Refine Edge options:

Maintain the selection, create a new layer called “refined edge” on top of the “lines” layer, fill the selection with Black color on this new layer:

As you can, we added some dark color to the text. However because of the refined edge option used, the dark colour is not covering the whole text.

Optionally, you can change the blending mode of this refined edge layer to be “Color Burn” – this will reveal the edge lines better than the “Normal” blending mode.

We can also add some blurring effect to the text. To do this, duplicte the “lines” layer once and name the duplicated layer as “motion blur”, put this layer above the original text layer.

Apply the following Motion Blur filter settings to it:

Resize the motion blur layer to roughly the same size of the text layer, and you will have the following effect:

Step 4

Create a new layer on top of all previous layers called “cloud overlay”, and on this new layer,  use the Lasso Tool with a 40px feather to draw a selection around the text:

Render some cloud inside the selection (with white foreground colour and black background colour):

change the blending mode of this cloud layer to “Hard Light”, and you will have the following effect:

Step 5

Now let’s add some colours to the text. Create a new layer called “Colours”, load the selection of the text layer, and grab a soft brush with colours of your choice, paint some colours inside the selection:

Duplicate this colours layer twice, change the layer blending mode according to the below:

and you will have the following effect:

Add the following two adjustment layers on top of the colours layer:

Color Balance

Vibrance

and you will have the following effect:

Create a new layer called “abstract texture” just above the background layer, grab any abstract brushsets you like (you can find lots of them on qbrushes.net or brusheezy) and paint on it. You can adjust the colour of the brush as you paint for some colour variations:

Step 6

We’re almost done! There is one more trick I would like to show you – the Wave Filter. I personally like it very much and sometimes it generates some very unique style for your design.

So flatten the image, duplicate the background layer once and go to Filter > Distort > Wave:

Apply the following settings:

and you will have the following effect:

Now we want to reveal the text part of the image, so add the following layer mask on the wave layer to hide it:

and you will have the following effect:

Lastly, you can add some further colour adjustments, or sharpen the image a bit to get more details out.

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

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you find it useful and learn something new!

Till next time, have a nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this Hot and Sparkling, Firery Text Effect in Photoshop. Have a try!

The point I would like to emphasise in the totorial is how you can achive great result by simply mixing the layer blending options and apply various filter effects.

Here is a preview of the final image for this toturial: (click to enlarge)

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OK let’s get started!

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

Font

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1200px * 600px, fill the background layer with black colour and create a new layer on top of it, grab a soft round white brush and do a single click on the position as shown below:

Resize this new layer with the Ctrl + T free transform tool to the lower half of the canvas, as shown below:

Name this layer as “back light bottom” and reduce the opacity around 20%, duplicate this layer once and move the duplicated layer up a bit, increase the opacity of the duplicated layer to 40%, we’ll have the following layered effect:

Step 2

Use the font we downloaded, type some texts on top of the previous layers, a shown below:

Apply the following layer blending options to this layer:

Drop Shadow

Inner Shadow

Outer Glow

Inner Glow

Bevel and Emboss

Contour

Color Overlay

Stroke

And you will  have the following effect so far:

Step 3

Now we have the base text, let’s add some sparkles around the text. You may achieve this effect through filters but I prefer using a dynamic brush. Let’s grab a 3px soft brush, apply the following brush dynamics to it:

Shape Dynamics

Scattering

Save the brushset as we will be using it later on in the tutorial.

Now let’s create a new layer called “sparks” and use this brushset and paint  some dots around the text, as shown below:

Let’s spice up the effect by adding some motions into the text. Duplicate the “sparks” layer once, apply the following motion blur settings to it:

And you will have the following effect so far:

You can see so far we have just laying the fundation of the text effect. We will be adding more effect to it in the next few steps to touch things up.

Step 4

Create a new layer on top of all other layers called “cloud”, load the selection of the original text layer by Ctrl + left-clicking the thumbnail image on the layer palette of the text layer.

Render some cloud inside the selection on the new layer via the cloud filter:

Change the blending mode of the new cloud layer to “linear light” and drop the opacity to 80%, add the following layer mask to it:

And you will have the following effect so far:

Now here is an interesting trick: create a new layer called “cloud overlay”, firstly we render the whole layer with cloud, as shown below:

Then we use the free transform tool to resize this cloud overlay layer to around the same size as the text layer:

Change the blending mode of the cloud overlay light to “Pin Light” and drop the opacity to 50%, duplicate it once and you will have the following effect:

Step 5

Now we add a new color balance adjustment layer to give the text some colour boost, with the following settings:

And you will have the following effect so far:

You can see by simply adding a new adjustment layer, we give the text a great look (not yet finished, though).

Step 6

Now we can create a new layer on top of the two background bottom light layers, call the layer “dots” and use the custom brushset we made for the sparkles in Step 3, adjust the brush tip size to be a bigger one, keep the colour as White, paint some small dots around the text:

You can always paint some big dots (with a lower flow and opacity settings), as shown below:

You can see because of the colour balance adjustment layer we used, those dots will become red hot automatically.

Step 7

Now we can add some more splashing effect to the text. Remember we created a “Sparkle” layer below with tiny dots? We can duplicate that layer once, apply the following Radial Blur settings to the duplicated layer:

On the same layer, apply the following “Add noise” filter to it:

Resize the layer to a smaller size and position it to the centre:

Duplicate this layer a few more times, move the duplicated layer around, resize them to various shapes for variety, and you will have the following effect:

Step 8

We’re nearly there! We can flatten the image first (remember to save the layered one in a seperate file in case you want to go back), duplicate the background layer twice.

On the first duplicated layer, apply the following Smart Sharpen Filter to it:

On the second duplicate layer, apply the following

and the following mask to it:

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

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! Of course you can alter the colour and add more effect it. Experiment and practices make you better.

Till next time, have a great day!