Create Awesome Abstract Text Effect with Brush Dynamics and Filters in Photoshop

Posted on December 21st, 2009 under Text Effects, it has 40 Comments and 41,610 Views so far.

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this really great-looking, abstract style text effect by using custom brushset (which we will be making one of our own) with dynamics, plus adding artistic effect with Photoshop filters. Have a try!

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:

1 grad

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:

2 top

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:

2 persp

Here is the effect so far:

2 effect

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):

3 type

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

Drop Shadow

3 drop sha

Bevel and Emboss

3 bevel

Gradient Overlay

3 grad

Stroke

3 stroke

Here is the effect so far:

3 effect

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:

3 effect 2

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:

4 poly

Polygon Tool Settings:

Draw the shape:

4 draw

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:

4 define

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:

4 brushset

Step 5

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

Shape dynamics

5 shape dyn

Scattering

5 sca

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)

5 paint

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:

6 cloud

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

6 screen cloud

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

Resize

6 resize cloud

Duplicate

6 duplicate cloud

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:

7 paint

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:

7 bw

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)

7 effect

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:

7 effect 2

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:

8 reduce noise

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

8 after redu

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

8 mo blur setting

You will have the following effect:

8 mo blur

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)

8 erase

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):

reticulation

You will see the following effect:

8 ret

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

8 ret change blending mode

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:

9 effect

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:

10 cloud soft light

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

10 col mid

10 col high

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!

Thomas Says:
Niiiice effect
taryarL Says:
awesome!!!!
love this one too
i like the way u adjust layer blending options
so cool :)
i will sent this pic to my friend and he will surely ask me
‘GOD ! how heck u done this’ ?
hee hee
thank admin !
u ROCK :)
Johnny Says:
I quite like this, it reminds me of the early days when I started designing, these are the kinds of effects I loved to try out.
ISMBUTT Says:
LOVE YOUR WORK .IT IS GREAT LIKE ALWAYS..THANKS AGAIN BUT CAN YOU JUST TELL ME HOW TO DO AFTER 8TH STEP..I MEAN HOW TO GET IN reticulation filter to it (Filter > Sketch > Reticulation):
BUT IN FILTER MY OPTION IS NOT HIGHLIGHT I MEAN I CANT USE THAT WHY IS THIS ?HOW CAN I DO THIS PLZ TELL ME ….I M GONA SAVE MY TEXT …THANKS AGIAN …
James Qu Says:
@ISMBUTT: did you select the duplicated layer first BEFORE you go to the filter gallery? If not do so first.

Hope this helps :)
James Qu Says:
@Johnny: yeah, it’s all about the experiments :)
me Says:
If i do that cloud thing, my whole screen is on cloud.

Any solution please?

Already thanks for the great tutorial!
Blogger Den Says:
You have a beautiful blog design here, I’ve never heard of the site before but you really do have some amazing posts! I’ll have to come back in the future to check out more of your content, and I look forward to it
Hulis Says:
Awesome tutorial! Nice effects.
Sioux falls cars Says:
Really cool! Always love the tips here. The “how did they do that” factor is high
Fredde Says:
really good effect and i really wanna make it, but i got a problem, when i did the cloud layer and render clouds, it cover the whole thing not just the text? :P
danica keighran Says:
hey loving this tutorial thnks ^_^ !
but haha (this probably is vry silly, and its probably somewhere obvious on the screen or in the menu)
but where is the brush preset settings found (step 5)?
would love the help.
thank you!
Mariette Says:
I got that same problem as Fredde, the cloud filter cover the whole thing not only the text

,sorry for bad englishi’m from holland
doesnt work Says:
Followed this step for step. And mine does not come out a thing like that. the basics are there but it ends up looking stupid and nowhere near presentable
James Qu Says:
@Fredde @Mariette: really sorry but I forgot to mention 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.

Hope this helps!
James Qu Says:
@danica keighra, the settings are under Edit > Define Brush Preset

Make sure you make the background layer transparent first before you define the brush preset

Hope this helps!
Michel Says:
wow it’s nice tut to learn good effect in photoshope .. really i love this tut.. thanks
ghawyy Says:
its really awesome man u r great
thanks in advance & happy new year
Dylan Says:
I get all the way to the part where you reticulated, and i can’t click on sketch, it’s grayed out.
What am i doing wrong?
phoenix Says:
Amm this probably sounds really stupid but i can’t draw the brush shape when i use the polygon tool with the same setting you have it makes a star…… and i can’t transform it into the shape you have.. i’m not very familiar with ps anyway is have ps cs4
JD Says:
soooooooooooooo……….niceeeeeeeeeee………..effectttttttttttttttt
V Says:
You know. it would have been a lot easier if you labeled specifically how to GET to the black and white adjustment layer, for those who are getting reacquainted with Photoshop.
Madras raj Says:
nice article thanks
gagamo Says:
Good, I like your dising, it’s awesome belive me bro your doing a great jod with photoshop, I’m going to do the same thing your did I hope it will be okay.. thank you
photoshoper Says:
where is that shape dynamics thingy ? sorry im just new in using photoshop :D hehe!
photoshoper Says:
and oh im using adobe photoshop cs4
rae Says:
where to get the black and white adjustment? is it available in CS2??
Dwarf Says:
from step 6 i was totaly fuck up. can you maby try to make a video where you do it all. Help I wanna make i nice but you say a lot of shit i never knew was i photoshop. plzz help me maby whit a better tutorial
Dumb Ass Says:
TANKS!!!
my result:
http://dumb-ass.vd-wal.com/images/ICE SPIKES DUMB ASS final.jpg
Dumb Ass Says:
sorry:

http://dumb-ass.vd-wal.com/images/ICE_SPIKES_DUMB_ASS_final.jpg
Zambu Says:
your tutorials are good, but you did not explain everything, some things were flying me, because, well I’m a rookie, but should explain a little more detail
Joey Says:
This is one of the greatest photoshop tutorials I’ve seen to date!
I’m okay with photoshop but this is stuff that I’m looking to learn and improve on.
Thank you so much for putting this up!