Create an Ancient Stone Text Effect Inspired by The Elder Scrolls V: SKYRIM Game in Photoshop

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OK Let’s get started!

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

Font

Stone Texture

Dirt Brush

Step 1

Create a new document (size doesn’t really matter) with a black background, create a new layer and use a soft white brush to do a single click on the top edge of the canvas as shown below:

Use the Free Transform tool (Ctrl + T) to compress this layer down as shown below:

Drop the layer opacity of this layer to around 50% – you will have the following effect as a result:

We can now render some cloud onto the canvas. Firstly set the foreground colour to be a light grey colour:

Then use the Lasso Tool with 40px feather to draw a selection, then use the cloud filter to render some cloud in it:

Hit Ctrl + L to bring up the Levels adjustment tool, apply the following settings and adjust the contrast of this cloud layer a bit:

Drop the layer opacity of this cloud layer to around 50%, you will have the following effect:

Step 2

Use the font we downloaded, type some texts onto the document as shown below:

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

Drop shadow

Bevel and Emboss: (make sure you set the technique to “Chisel Hard”)

Gradient Overlay

Stroke

and you will have the following effect so far:

Step 3

Now we can add some stone texture onto the image. Load the selection of the text layer via Ctrl + Left-click on the thumbnail image of the text layer on the layer palette:

If you have difficulty with this step, I have a video tutorial here on PSD Vault YouTube Channel to show you the step:

and you will have the selection like this below:

Select the Rectangular Marquee tool, then move your mouse over the text selection, click and drag the selection onto the stone texture image as shown below:

Copy and paste the selection onto our canvas, as shown below:

Set the layer blending mode of this new stone layer to “Multiply”, drop the layer opacity to around 60%:

Duplicate this stone texture layer once and set the blending mode of the duplicated layer to “overlay”:

As you can see by duplicating the layer, we will have more stone texture detail and a greater contrast between the lighter and darker part of the textL

Step 4

We can now add some dirt and light effect for the text. Use the dirt brush you downloaded, paint some dirt texture around the text:

Hint: Do not paint too much dirt, and use a soft eraser tool to remove unwanted bits as you paint.

We can add some ground highlight to image by creating a new layer, then grab a big soft white brush to paint one dot in the centre:

Then use the Free Transform tool (Ctrl + T) and compress it down as shown below:

You can also add some more cloud using the method described in step 1, in order to add more dramatic effect:

Step 5

Now we can do some final retouches for the image. I decide to sharpen the text and add some cold colour to it. So I flatten the image, duplicate the background layer and apply the following Reduce Noise filter settings (via Filter > Noise > Reduce Noise):

This is the before and after comparison for the Reduce Noise filter:

Before:

After: (there are more details on the texture)

Then I added a color balance adjustment layer on the top with the following settings to give the image a cold finish:

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

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