Close Menu
Text Effect

Create a Glowing Liquid Text with Water Splash Effect in Photoshop

By 3 Mins Read

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to Create a Glowing Liquid Text Effect in Photoshop. We will be practising the use of liquify filter, layer blending options, as well as some image adjustments.

This is a beginner level tutorial and the steps are easy to follow (well, the hardest part may be the liquify filter usage), have a try!

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

PSD File Download

You can download the PSD File for this tutorial via the VIP Members Area for only $6.95/Month (or less)! You will not only get this PSD File, but also 100+ other PSD Files + Extra Goodies + Exclusive Photoshop tutorials there. Signup now and get exclusive :) Find out more about the VIP Members Areas

OK Let’s get started!

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

Ground texture

Water pattern image

Water splash brush

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1280px * 800px with black background. Load the Ground Texture stock image into Photoshop, and select a piece of the ground as shown below:

Copy and paste the selection onto our document, use a soft eraser to remove the edges and some parts of the ground as shown below:

Add the following 3 adjustment layers on top of the ground texture layer:

Black and White

Levels

Curves

Create a new layer on top and add some cloud effect over the ground with either a cloud brush or the cloud filter – this adds some dramatic effect into it:

Step 2

We will now add some text onto the document – I used the “Freestyle Script” font (should come with Photoshop):

Apply the following layer blending options to this text layer:

Bevel and Emboss

Color Overlay

Outer Glow

Add a layer mask for the text layer, and use a soft eraser to remove the following parts of the text on this layer mask. And you will have the following effect:

Step 3

We add some water pattern over the text – download the water pattern pack and choose one of the images, select a portion of it with any selection tool:

Copy and paste the selection over the text and set it as a clipping mask to the text layer:

We will go back to the water images and select a piece again, then copy and paste the selection and put it below the text layer, use the liquify filter’s forward warping tool to make it into a pattern as shown below:

This step can be a bit and you will probably need to have a few tries before getting it right. The effect below is the one you’re aiming to achieve:

Step 4

Load the water splash brush into Photoshop and paint some splash around the text, use a soft eraser to fade the edges of the splash for depth:

We will fine tune the colour effect a bit with the following image adjustment layer on top:

Selective Color

Cyans

Whites

Neutrals

Layer mask on the selective colour adjustment layer:

Curves

Layer mask on this curves adjustment layer:

Color Balance

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

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

Share.

James is a seasoned Photoshop expert with over 25 years of experience based in Australia. As the driving force behind PSD Vault, he authors the majority of its in-depth tutorials and insightful articles.

Related Posts

34 Comments

  7. Pavlov on

    Could you maybe explain the “download the water pattern pack and choose one of the images, select a portion of it with any selection tool”-part a bit more? It really doesn’t work for me at all, with just a random square selection or so. Thank you!

  8. PSD Vault on

    Hi there, You can use the Lasso Tool or Rectangular Marquee tool to draw a selection, just make sure the selection is large enough to cover your text.

    Hope this helps!

  9. Cherry on

    Hi there… I really love the final result… but .. in step 2.. my text didn’t end up like yours… :( and also after i added water texture… My guess was that i might have missed something in Blending option… but when i check back… i did exactly same with tutorial…. Can you please explain more on that ? Thank you very much !!!

  10. A. Renee Lee on

    Hi, In step 1, what are the input/output for curves? I think I may have missed the exact numbers. Thanks, so much!!

  17. Alex on

    pretty awesome looking text. Too bad its horribly explained after step 2 especially since this should be a beginners tutorial. As I read the comments I see im not the only one with that problem.

  18. caramelle03 on

    Hi, i don’t have the same style text after the step 2 … My text is in color and hightly glowly
    Thanks for your answer ! ;)

  21. dbz on

    If somebody get this tutorial Please Make a Video for better understanding (new to Photoshop),

    Thanks

  22. Jen on

    Can you clarify the Text step and the Clipping mask step (Step 2 and first part of step 3). My text is blue and does not have the shadows yours does. Also the clipping mask does nothing to the text. I think there is a missing step.

  23. James Qu on

    Hi Jen, thanks for pointing this out. My apologies, yes you will need to add a layer mask for the text layer and use a soft eraser to remove the parts shown in the last screenshot of step 2.
    Hope this helps.

  24. patrick on

    Hmm not really well explained, stuggling abit.. eventho i am experienced with Photoshop..
    any way to get the PSD? im willing to buy it, no problem.

  26. Ella on

    In Step 3 after I create a clipping mask out of the water texture it doesn’t do anything could you clarify that part? Is there a layer effect? Also can we see a screenshot of you layers window? Thanks!

  27. clipping path on

    This is really my very first time here, great looking blog. I discovered so many interesting things inside your blog especially its discussion. Paper Writing Services

  29. Stephen Rudolph on

    Anyone stuck on the clipping mask in Step 3, go back and change the blending mode of the color overlay layer style from Step 2 to something other than Normal.