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Home»Text Effect»Design a Super Sleek Text Effect with Water Drop Texture
Text Effect

Design a Super Sleek Text Effect with Water Drop Texture

By James QuMay 26, 20095 Mins Read
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In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create the Super Sleek, eye-catching text effect with Water Drop Texture. This effect is simple but effective, and would be suitable for any water/rainy/ocean themed designs you’re creating.

Along the way, we will be using Photoshop techniques such as make selections, layer blending effects, image adjustment tools and a bit of masking. This is a beginner level tutorial and the steps are really easy to follow, have a try!

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

water-drop-text-final-1

Alternative Version: (click to enlarge)

water-drop-text-final

Ok let’s get started!

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

Font

Water Drop Texture – By eRiQ

Step 1

Firstly we can prepare some nice background for us to work on. Create a new document sized 1920 * 1080px with white colour background. On the background layer, use the Gradient Tool (G) to fill it with the followings:

1-grad1

Duplicate this background layer once, hit Ctrl + T and resize the duplicated layer as shown below:

2-resize

In between the duplicated layer and the background layer, create a new layer call “Light bottom” and grab a big soft round brush with white colour (I chose 1600px, 0% hardness, 55% opacity), do a single-click on this newly-created layer on the position shown below:

3-light

Then on top of all previous layers, create a new layer called “light top” and use the same brushset for the “light bottom” layer, do a single-click to the following position as shown below:

1-light-2

You will have the following effect:

1-effect2

Step 2

Use the font we just downloaded, type some texts onto the document, resize (Ctrl + T) and position it in the centre of the canvas:

2-text-position

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

Drop Shadow

2-drop-sha

Outer Glow

2-out-glow

Gradient Overlay

2-grad-overlay

And you will have the following effect so far:

2-effect3

Step 3

Load the water drop texture into Photoshop. Go back to our text document and load the selection of the text layer by using the following method:

1. Move your mouse over the thumbnail image of the text layer in the layer pallette: (You will notice your mouse cursor change into a hand)

3-mouse-over

2. Hold down the Ctrl key (the cursor will change into a hand + rectangular marquee) and left-click the thumbnail image of the text layer. You will see now the text layer is selected:

3-select

Once the text layer is selected, grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M), move your mouse over the selection until you see the cursor changes into the following shape:

3-rect-tool

Left-click and hold, drag the selection over the water drop texture:

3-drag

Hit Ctrl + Alt + R and bring up the refine edge tool, apply the following settings:

3-refine-edge

Press Ctrl + C to copy the selected portion from the water drop texture, go back to our text document and Ctrl + V to paste the texture on top of the text layer:

(Important: please maintain this selection on the water drop image, we will use it again in the next step)

3-effect-12

Name this layer as “water drop texture 1” and change its blending mode to “Overlay”, you will have the following effect:

3-effect4

Step 4

To add a bit variety for the water drops, simply go back to the water drop texture image, move the selection to a different portion:

4-move

Again we copy and paste the selection back to our text document, name the newly-created layer as “water drop texture 2”, change the blending mode to “overlay”.

You will have the following effect:

4-effect-3

Optional: you can add more water drops to the text by repeating the above steps.

Here is what I have after adding another two layers of water drop textures:

4-effect-4

Step 5

To make the actual text stand out a bit more, simply duplicate the text layer once and drag the duplicated layer upon the top. Reduce the opacity of this duplicated text layer to around 70%.

You will have the following effect:

5-effect4

Add a new Levels adjustment layer by going to Layer > New adjustment Layer > Levels and apply the following settings:

5-curves1

Add the following mask to the Levels adjustment layer:

5-mask

And you will have the this final effect:

5-effect-24

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! You can of course add some of your own texture or filter effect and see what the end results are! Remember to always keep your own creativity!

Here is my final image for this tutorial: (I simply black and white the image and add some of my own colours) – Click to enlarge:

water-drop-text-final

Hope you enjoy this tutorial, drop me a comment if you have any question, I will try my best to help you out.

Cheers and have a nice day!

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beginner effect sleek text texture water
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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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37 Comments

  1. joyoge designers' bookmark on May 26, 2009 11:31 PM

    looks really nice, I like this text effect. thanks..

  2. Roger on May 27, 2009 3:13 AM

    Awesome! Abduzeedo has changed layout! Oh, wait….

  3. Giggss on May 27, 2009 12:07 PM

    OMG looks really good, but I didn’t like the gradient overlay ;)

  4. Devlin on May 27, 2009 4:41 PM

    Very cool effect. I like the trick in step one to make a slick web 2.0 background in a very simple way. Thanks!

  5. FreelancerCrowd on May 27, 2009 6:05 PM

    Looks cool, atrough a bit strange when it’s just around the text

  6. PB on May 27, 2009 7:10 PM

    looks really nice, I like this text effect. thanks..

  7. James on May 27, 2009 9:57 PM

    @FreelancerCrowd: yeah it’s a bit empty on the outside. My initial though is to make a beginner level tut without too many steps, so I just concentrate on the text surroundings.

  8. James on May 27, 2009 9:58 PM

    @Devlin: thank you! glad you find it useful!

  9. James on May 27, 2009 9:59 PM

    @Giggss: yeah I show the gradient overlay purely for tutorial purpose, you can of course skip this step :)

  10. Artiom on May 28, 2009 3:13 AM

    WoooW! amazing! thanks =D =D =D ill try do it right now

  11. DEAR on May 28, 2009 6:27 AM

    hey Guy! It’s wonderful and excellent tutorial. I really love it. Thank you so much. but I have some problem on step5. that I don’t know How can I go……. Add the following mask to the Levels adjustment layer.
    Thank you!!

  12. psaddict on May 28, 2009 7:50 PM

    look great.

    Added to http://www.psaddict.com

  13. Johnson Koh on May 28, 2009 8:01 PM

    Interesting effect. Great work!

  14. shravani on May 29, 2009 8:16 PM

    very good
    excellent
    thank u

  15. James on May 31, 2009 8:10 PM

    @DEAR: with step 5, I basically use a big soft brush (0% hardness) and did a single click on the centre of the layer mask.

    Hope this helps :)

  16. Kyle on June 4, 2009 5:00 AM

    hey, so I’m having trouble with like the last couple steps, i don’t understand the levels and then the layer mask and really don’t understand how you added colors to the water and made it white all the way around could you please help me

  17. amber on June 4, 2009 6:29 AM

    great tutorial i’m sure you’ve heard that a thousand times thank you for the detailed instructions. always love it when the colors used are specified

  18. kk4527 on June 29, 2009 11:02 PM

    good

  19. 3rbfilez.com on June 30, 2009 9:19 AM

    this is wonderful tutorial .. i read it 3 times and get a fantastic results and sure i put a
    copy of this lesson on my site here

    http//www.3rbfilez.com

  20. gamul on June 30, 2009 11:50 AM

    wuah. ..
    good tutorial you also, you would like to link tuker with me and become a partner comment?

  21. lucas on July 19, 2009 8:27 AM

    looks awesom!!

    how did u get that final effect with the white background and colors???? i tryed but i have no idea

  22. Dillon on August 4, 2009 4:18 PM

    I love the tutorial, but couldn’t figure out the last step you added with the colors. Could you help me out?

    – Dillon

  23. Helena on August 4, 2009 6:42 PM

    Very smart! Love it, thank you!

  24. Kaplang on August 11, 2009 2:14 AM

    really cool effects, I love the colourful one :)

  25. yarenay on August 15, 2009 8:11 AM

    I could not do. I need to work hard

  26. 2hands10fingers on August 20, 2009 12:30 PM

    Love this tutorial.

  27. Egypt Freelancer and web design in egypt on October 5, 2009 11:37 PM

    cool

  28. jailani on November 26, 2009 8:22 PM

    cool cool effect

  29. Carl on February 5, 2010 3:03 PM

    Very cool effect, nice work. How did you add the color?

  30. selvakumaran on March 19, 2010 4:32 PM

    fentastic .i like to design…………..

  31. WAJID ABBASI on March 26, 2010 6:47 PM

    step 3 is tooo Hard For beginar

  32. mar on April 26, 2010 4:15 PM

    hey there,

    how do you add the multi colors on the last part?

    thanks!

  33. Sam on September 28, 2010 10:21 PM

    Can this be downloaded somewhere? :)

  34. shabnam on April 24, 2011 3:48 PM

    Looks so real!!!!!

  35. Thingdfreck on May 18, 2012 10:11 PM

    BEAUTIFUL  TUTORIAL AND EASY TO UNDERSTAND not like all these other ones that claim to be easy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  36. blured on August 27, 2012 3:52 PM

    are you doing a tutorial for the colored sections?

  37. Brian Dean on July 16, 2014 4:30 PM

    Oh my!!! You are
    just too true to be good. How do you manage to write and research on such
    wonderful things? You have inspired me to work harder now. I shall try as
    much as possible to enjoy life to the fullest and be satiated with the
    wonderful things that are around me, which I have been unaware of until now.

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