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Home»Text Effect»Create Gloomy Text Effect by Utilising the Amazing Cloud Filter in Photoshop
Text Effect

Create Gloomy Text Effect by Utilising the Amazing Cloud Filter in Photoshop

By James QuNovember 23, 20095 Mins Read
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In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this gloomy-looking text effect by using the amazing cloud filter in Photoshop. Have a try :)

The purpose of this tutorial is to show you the use of the cloud filter to create various effect, such as light and shadow, as a result bringing more depth to your text effect.

I personally love the cloud filter and I think it’s so versatile and you can use it to generate amazing effect and spice up your design. The trick is how you apply it and what other options do you use to combine it with (such as selection tools, other filter effects, or layer blending mode).

Here is a preview of the final effect:

5 final

Alternative darker version: (I adjust the brightness and contrast of the final effect, and some abstract texture to it)

gloomy-text-flatten

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Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1400px * 600px (in fact size doesn’t really matter much in this tutorial), fill the background with the following gradients:

1 grad

Personally I like to start with a gradient background with light grey, as it helps setting the mood for the text effect later on we will be created.

On the canvas, type a letter on the centre with a big bold font (I chose this font) as shown below:

1 type

On the text layer, apply the following blending options:

Inner Shadow

1 inner sha

Gradient Overlay

1 grad ove

Pattern Overlay

1 patt

and you will have the following effect so far:

1 effect

Step 2

Duplicate the text layer three times, disable the layer effects for those duplicated layers and put them below the original text layer. Alter the font color a bit and adjust the position of the text to the left and right of the original text layer a bit.

Your result should be looking similar to the following screenshot:

2 type

Then on each duplicated layer, add a layer mask respectively and erase a portion of the text with a soft brush on the spots as shown below:

2 erase

The ulimiate goal of this step is to blend the edge of the text with the surrounding, so we can get ready for the next step.

To further increase the depth of the text, we can make a copy of any one of the duplicated text layer, replace the font color with a dark one, apply the following Gaussian Blur to the text layer: (Make sure this layer is beneath the original text layer)

2 gau blur

You will have followin effect:

2 shadow 2

Step 3

Create a new layer on top of all previous layers called “cloud” and grab the Lasso Tool and draw a selection with 25px feather around the text, as shown below:

3 lasso

Go to Filter > Render > Cloud and render some cloud inside it (with white as foreground colour and dark grey as background colour)

Hint: try experimenting with different feather settings for the Lasso Tool, you will see by changing the feather, the cloud with become either thinner or thicker.

Once you finish with the rendering, resize the cloud and position it as shown below:

3 resize

Duplcate the cloud layer once and position it to the lower position as shown below:

3 lower cloud

Change the blending mode of both cloud layer to “Hard Light”, you will have the following effect:

3 effect

Step 4

Duplicate the cloud once more and name the duplicated layer as “shadow”, put it just above the background layer,  hit Ctrl + I to invert the colour and position it on the bottom of the text.

Change the blending mode of the shadow layer to “Normal” and opacity to 40%, you will have the following effect:

4 invert cloud

Duplicate the Cloud layer once and put it above all previous layer, rotate it to around 60 degree and apply the following motion blur setting to the duplicated layer:

4 motion blur

Name this layer as “Light”.

Change the blending mode of  this light layer to be “overlay”, duplicate it a few times and drag them around the text, and you will have the following effect:

4 effect

Step 5

OK now we can do some fine tuning to the text by adding a Curves adjustment layer to it:

5 curves

and add some colour over the text by adding another layer on top of the curves adjustment layer with the “overlay” blending mode. Here is my final effect for this tutorial:

5 final

Alternative darker version: (I adjust the brightness and contrast of the final effect, and some abstract texture to it)

gloomy-text-flatten

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! Hopefully I gave you some ideas about the cloud filter and how you can use it for creating light, shadows and adding more depth to text effect.

Till next time, have a great day!

blending cloud effect filter layer photoshop text tutorial
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James Qu
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James is a seasoned Photoshop expert with over 25 years of experience, mastering the software since its 5.0 version. As the driving force behind PSD Vault, he authors the majority of its in-depth tutorials and insightful articles.

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36 Comments

  1. seven on November 24, 2009 1:47 AM

    impressive

  2. BEASTfrmEAST on November 24, 2009 2:04 AM

    Excellent job, but how did u jump to step 5?

    Im new

    Peace

  3. Vince on November 24, 2009 2:58 AM

    Nice tutorial! Really easy.

  4. Best Texture World on November 24, 2009 4:43 AM

    Good tut, thanks.

  5. Luis Lopez G. on November 28, 2009 5:57 AM

    Wow, thats amazing and colorful, grat tutorial my manner.

  6. fanky on November 28, 2009 12:07 PM

    i need help!! with step 2, where you use the soft brush and the layer mask…how do you use these and where are they?

    i canda new at this sortov stuff!

  7. Bryan G. C. on November 29, 2009 5:39 AM

    Good tutorial, thank you!
    Inspired to this: http://bryan-kun.deviantart.com/art/B-in-Clouds-145063352

    @BEASTfrmEAST: go to Image>Adjustments>Curves of press Ctrl/CMD+M.

  8. photo masking on December 1, 2009 2:58 PM

    Excellent nad useful tutorial.
    Thanks.

  9. Andrea on December 1, 2009 4:08 PM

    Mine didnt look like this… hmm. i just cant seem to get the hang of photoshop…

  10. irpan on December 2, 2009 7:32 PM

    i like to design

  11. Design Dazzling on December 3, 2009 5:31 PM

    Excellent tutorial

  12. Michelle on December 21, 2009 1:56 AM

    this is amazing :) thanks

  13. Fredd on January 2, 2010 7:41 AM

    I cant do the step 2!
    I just do what you say but…doesn’t work :(
    Anyone can help me?

  14. Yves Luxembourg on January 16, 2010 9:32 AM

    beautiful tutorial ! But can u explain please how to do the very last step. I can’t add some colour on the last layer who’s over the curves layer, thank you very much!

  15. kadir on February 9, 2010 10:41 PM

    awful tutorial as usual,not understanding.all of the tutorial that belongs to that man are not un-der-stand-ing…

  16. Scrax on March 12, 2010 8:38 AM

    You need to explain your tutorials MUCH BETTER. Some parts are just “?????”.

    Quote: “Duplicate the text layer three times, disable the layer effects for those duplicated layers and put them below the original text layer. Alter the font color a bit and adjust the position of the text to the left and right of the original text layer a bit.”

    What did you do here? Explain?
    Just saying.

  17. jane on April 25, 2010 4:19 AM

    hm im new user of adobe pls help me to design this one.. thanks.. C:

  18. Dushyantha on May 20, 2010 10:07 PM

    Need more info….

  19. JB on May 21, 2010 8:29 AM

    Interesting tutorial. Just wondering how you added the color. Brush? Gradient? I tried them both but I just couldn’t get them to look like the ones here….

  20. James Qu on May 21, 2010 9:37 AM

    @JB: I add a new color layer on top of all layers, set blending mode to “overlay” (or “color”) and use a soft round brush to paint around the text.

  21. ySomic on May 22, 2010 3:29 AM

    Uuuh, i can’t understand parts of this tutorial :s

  22. diabolic on June 3, 2010 3:10 AM

    HI, awesome tut but the psd file is not available in the vip section. any chance you can upload it?

  23. arms on October 14, 2010 1:21 AM

    im having a hard time to add colors on the text please help me. please explain it further

  24. parsleybrain on November 9, 2010 6:05 AM

    I really liked the look of this text effect and wanted to give it a shot, but, alas the tut is written in a way that most of it is written so vague I can’t follow. If I try to come up with an own resolution for the step I couldn’t follow my result looks so different. So, please, why bother to write a tut at all when it’s written so poor most people can’t follow?

  25. James Qu on November 9, 2010 8:44 PM

    @parsleybrain: could you be specific about which part of the tut you can’t follow?

  26. criss guzman on November 28, 2010 1:37 AM

    Hi nice tutorial but pliz peudes xplicarlo best video or would be better in step 2 I do not understand market New I put a layer or color overlay and nothing happens I put the mask layer but when I go with the brush I painted gray or color lso that takes 2 squares of color where the black and white and there porfa respond faster ago

  27. criss guzman on November 28, 2010 1:46 AM

    hello look at the 2 step and nose can continue as is that of multiplying layers of granting them leave me ami white color and not peudo raterizo paint only if the layers from the 2 step nose can follow the tutorial

  28. marco on January 6, 2011 5:40 AM

    how i puts colors on a text?? You can explain steps between the 4 and the 5?

    thk

  29. majalah on February 17, 2011 10:49 AM

    Nice effect and easy to follow tutorial for newbie like me ^^

  30. Gabby on June 20, 2011 10:56 AM

    I found this abit confusing, Im quite good with photoshop and the end result was seriously ugly. I know we are supposed to make it our own but more details would have helped.

  31. HackerSofi on September 15, 2011 11:23 PM

    Psd Dowloand Link Pls ?

  32. Julio Cesar on March 4, 2012 1:41 AM

    faz uma video aula e melhor vc não mostra tudo

  33. johnthomas on March 19, 2013 10:51 PM

    lol,just lol at this tut !!!!

  34. fgh on March 21, 2013 9:59 AM

    Ok… what?! every step is just… urghh

  35. Jessica Wijaya on December 12, 2013 4:22 PM

    can you give us a video ?

  36. Ash on February 26, 2014 8:40 AM

    I’m stuck on getting the color. Help please :(

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