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Home»Text Effect»Translucent Text Effect with Sky and Cloud
Text Effect

Translucent Text Effect with Sky and Cloud

By James QuJanuary 4, 20093 Mins Read
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In this tutorial, I will show the processes involved in making this shining and refreshing transparent text effect with sky and cloud textures.  We had some really interesting clouds on the sky yesterday and that’s where I’ve got the inspiration from :)

The techniques included in this tutorial are layer styles, gradient fills, clone stamp tools, blur filters and various image adjustment and transformation tools. It’s a simple tutorial so have a go!

Here is a preview of the final result:

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 800px * 800px. On the background layer, use the Gradient Fill tool to create some irregular lighting as shown below:

Step 2

On the background layer, type some texts onto it (Make sure you choose a bold font as we need to make room for transparency, I used this font from fontspace.com).

Position the text as shown below:

Step 3

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

Drop Shadow

Inner Shadow

Inner Glow

Bevel and Emboss

Contour

Gradient Overlay

Stroke

The effect so far will look like this:

Step 4

Now we’re onto apply some nice cloudy texture onto the text. Download a copy of this image (The one on the left) from CG Texture and select a nice portion of it as shown below:

Copy and paste the selected portion onto our text and name this layer as “cloud”.

Use the Eraser Tool (with a big, soft and round brush, set opacity and flow to 60%) to gently erase the outside of the cloud:

Step 5

Still on the “Cloud” layer, use the Clone Stamp Tool (again with a big, soft and round brush setting) and clone the cloud so it covers all of our texts:

Then hit Ctrl + M and apply the following Curve settings:

Change the blending mode of this layer to “Overlay” and you will have the following effect:

Step 6

Duplicate the “Cloud” layer once, then apply the following Black and White adjustments:

This create some colour depth for the image and you will have the following effect:

Optionally, you can duplicate the “Cloud” layer again and this will add some more colour to the image:

Step 7

Rasterize the text layer and do a multi-select for all the layers created, distort the image until you reach the effect shown below:

Then we can add some light over the text. To do this, create a new layer called “light” and select a rectangle portion just above the text, fill the selection with White colour and render some fiber:

Then de-select the selection, apply the following motion blur settings:

Then hit Ctrl + L and apply the following Levels adjustment settings:

To make the light a bit soft, apply the following gaussian blur settings:

After that, use the Eraser Tool to get rid of the unnecessary bits of the light, and free-transform (or distort, rotate, perspective) it until reaching desired effect:

Ok that’s it for this tutorial, the rest is left your own creativity. You can duplicate the cloud layer a few times, or add some extra lighting to the text. Totally up to you.

Here is my final image for this tutorial:

Hope you enjoy it and find it useful and inspirational! If you have any question, just drop me a comment.

Have a nice day!

effect intermediate layer lighting text
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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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98 Comments

  1. psaddict on January 5, 2009 8:56 PM

    Added to http://www.psaddict.com

  2. KalastroMakeinz on January 6, 2009 8:05 AM

    Thx a lot great tut m8 keep the good work!

  3. that guy art on January 6, 2009 8:55 PM

    this is shyt u missed a hole bit to it thanks for wasting my time

  4. James on January 6, 2009 9:33 PM

    Hi that guy art, sorry mate about wasting your time, but if you could point out what “a hole bit” refers to, perhaps I could patch that hole up for you.

  5. marion on January 6, 2009 11:23 PM

    Great tutorial, really comprehensive and easy to follow, thanks

  6. Eskimo on January 6, 2009 11:52 PM

    this could use some background ;)

    greatrt tut anyway

  7. Ann on January 7, 2009 9:52 PM

    You did a great job!
    I have been trying out any options available but I can’t seem do that effect for step no. 7. Please tell me in details how to do it.Can’t wait for your answer.Thanks a great deal.

  8. ronn on January 8, 2009 12:01 AM

    really good, but in the 5 step, put 220 in the curve settings, no 120.

    thanks for post

  9. James on January 8, 2009 1:36 AM

    Hi Ann, you need to use the free transformation tool (ctrl + T) and distort the text layer. It’s a bit tricky cos you need to think about 3D shape.

    And to all people asking the same question, I will upload a video to show how to transform the text very soon. Hopefully that will help

  10. T-rav on January 8, 2009 3:54 AM

    hey

    i’m getting a nice “Forbidden” message when I try to dl the cloud image.

    any thoughts? great tutorial btw!!

  11. Thomas | Brush King on January 8, 2009 8:41 PM

    Great Tutorial

  12. James on January 8, 2009 9:01 PM

    To T-rav: the link should be back now. Download the one on the left. Thanks for pointing this out :)

  13. James on January 8, 2009 9:02 PM

    Thanks Thomas! mate your brush king site’s got some cool brush collections :)

  14. Escapade on January 9, 2009 6:14 AM

    Heya dude, awesome tutorial.. I’m a but stuck though. (I’m pretty new, but I know the basics I guess.) On step 7, you write: Rasterize the text layer and do a multi-select for all the layers created, distort the image until you reach the effect shown below:

    – I’m stuck at “Do a multi-select for all the layers created, distorth the image until you reach the effect shown below.” – How?

    Regards
    Escapade

  15. Escapade on January 9, 2009 6:21 AM

    Ah, just noticed the post about Ann having the same problem, thanks though.

  16. fenerlialex on January 17, 2009 11:42 PM

    10 number!

  17. TILMID on January 20, 2009 3:17 AM

    hi;
    can you help me about this etaps?
    http://www.hebergima.com/images/qmn1mriqeldo9ewvi899.jpg
    i cant do this stap.
    thanks.

  18. Ty on January 21, 2009 9:13 PM

    Nice tutorial, but I can’t get the step 7 too work. I made the white rectangle above the text, but when I try too render fibers, all i get is the same white square. What am I doing wrong?

  19. James on January 21, 2009 11:30 PM

    HI ty, did you set the background colour as black and foreground colour as white when you render the fiber?

  20. pablo on January 30, 2009 1:14 PM

    sos un capo

  21. Brad on February 9, 2009 12:17 PM

    Hi. Translucent Text Effect with Sky and Cloud was very well written.

  22. Matt on February 9, 2009 12:56 PM

    Hey, I was having problems with the 7th step as well, but I looked around and found a good sight that taught what to do.

    http://www.webdesign.org/web/photoshop/3d-effects/3d-letter-text-photoshop.2776.html

    I hope this helps

  23. Accident Claims on February 17, 2009 1:49 PM

    Well no one can beat you in writing posts. I really love your posts every time.

  24. Dima on February 28, 2009 4:40 PM

    great tut, got up to step 5 and stuck on 6th, cant find the Black and White adjustments in the adjustments selections. Where would i find it. Im using CS 2 would i even have this option on there?
    please and thanks.

  25. admin on March 1, 2009 11:25 AM

    Hi Dima, yeah cs2 doesn’t have black and white tool, but i think you can try channel mixer instead? make sure to tick “monochrome” option
    hope this helps :)

  26. saurabh shah on March 17, 2009 4:06 AM

    Thumps up ! :) Cool tutorial … keep it up …

  27. Chinmay on March 18, 2009 5:06 PM

    Cool tutorial…cud nt find Black and White adjustments….

  28. admin on March 18, 2009 6:33 PM

    @Chinmay: black and white tool is only available to CS3 or higher. You can try use channel mixer instead.

  29. saurabh shah on March 19, 2009 4:54 AM

    nice effect mate .. i tried it .. i guess i need more practice :)

  30. Business Card Printing on April 4, 2009 10:00 AM

    Very, very cool! Looks pretty amazing. Thanks for posting this tutorial. Keep up the excellent work, you are helping a lot of people. Thanks!

  31. Türkçe Forum on April 29, 2009 10:32 AM

    Nice work.. To deal with Photoshop Fun. :)

  32. huwaw69 on May 13, 2009 11:35 PM

    nice job man! I’m gonna try this with different background, like a sea background hehehe…

  33. ay-isigi on May 30, 2009 8:42 PM

    thanks. :)

  34. sanalkurdu on June 5, 2009 8:12 PM

    HI ty, did you set the background colour as black and foreground colour as white when you render the fiber?

  35. selim on June 16, 2009 10:37 AM

    thanks for everything :)

  36. dj remixleri on June 22, 2009 7:20 AM

    bravo thanx

  37. Demet Sağıroğlu - Silkelen 2009 Full Orjinal Albüm on July 8, 2009 2:48 AM

    bravo thanx

  38. Vücut Bakımı on July 9, 2009 1:55 PM

    Thanks My Friend..

  39. Kaplang on August 12, 2009 10:37 PM

    really cool font, thanks for sharing :)

  40. Mr.Harbigenc on October 31, 2009 7:17 AM

    wery thanks friend.

  41. Fx on December 22, 2009 12:22 PM

    very very thankss

  42. atakan on January 4, 2010 4:06 PM

    thaks for blog

  43. bybisanthe on February 2, 2010 9:05 AM

    Great tutorial and easy to follow

  44. Süpercan on February 9, 2010 1:27 AM

    thanks for good article

  45. Süpercan on February 9, 2010 1:28 AM

    thanks for good

  46. Guest12121121 on February 15, 2010 4:32 AM

    I can’t do the 7 step. Can u explain?

  47. Sevgi on February 26, 2010 11:22 PM

    Thanks for good article

    Sevgi,Sevgi Sözleri,Sevgi AŞk,Aşk,Aşk Sözleri,Sevgi Şiirleri Sevgi mesajları

  48. günlük film izle on March 1, 2010 6:00 PM

    Thanks for good information. günlük film izle , günlükfilm

  49. Yemek Tarifleri on April 8, 2010 4:26 PM

    thanks for information.

  50. msn on April 25, 2010 6:53 AM

    thanks for good article msn

  51. msn on April 28, 2010 5:56 AM

    Thanks for good article

  52. oguz on May 3, 2010 8:35 AM

    You did a great job!

  53. TheBeast on May 5, 2010 12:15 PM

    hey can you go more indepth on how you got the background to look like that i used the gradiant fill tool but cant figure out how you got the background to look like that

  54. murat on June 2, 2010 2:39 AM

    Thanks for good article

    thnks….

  55. Emin on June 4, 2010 12:31 AM

    Really good job. I will try.

  56. Aslan Max on June 14, 2010 10:51 PM

    Really good job. I will try.

    THNKS.. VERY VERY NİCE POST..

  57. Alessio on June 24, 2010 7:35 AM

    great tutorial
    maybe too difficult for me

  58. curtis on July 5, 2010 3:49 PM

    my version… http://twitpic.com/22lfjc

  59. sanalalemci on July 15, 2010 2:40 PM

    thanks a lot..

  60. Fbml Kodları on July 24, 2010 2:19 AM

    Really good job. I will try.

  61. Photo Tuts on July 28, 2010 12:54 PM

    Really nice job, thanks for the share!

  62. oyun oyna on July 30, 2010 1:25 AM

    thanks a lot..

  63. haber on July 30, 2010 1:25 AM

    Really good job. I will try.

  64. Uzman Web Tr on August 4, 2010 9:30 PM

    thnks good job

    wer wery nice

    trabnslate is turkish not languge is engilish :(

  65. Şarkı Sözü on August 20, 2010 12:37 AM

    thanks a lot..

  66. 3d oyunlar on August 22, 2010 2:22 AM

    thank you admin very post!

  67. metin2 on August 29, 2010 8:10 PM

    thank you admin for this post ;)

  68. harika on August 29, 2010 10:29 PM

    thank you. it is ver good article:))

  69. serhan on August 31, 2010 10:25 AM

    tenk you

  70. curcuna on September 9, 2010 8:57 AM

    great a post. thanks ..

  71. Rebilax on October 3, 2010 2:57 AM

    What the. I got Rick Roll’d from opening the stock image here!
    http://www.cgtextures.com/texview2.php?id=26602&PHPSESSID=372800d64453be336f83b7d27ab84bf1&time=1231361338

  72. Rebilax on October 3, 2010 2:57 AM

    What the. I got Rick Roll’d from opening the stock image here!

  73. penis büyütücü on October 3, 2010 11:33 AM

    perfect tenk you

  74. Cepmaster on October 8, 2010 5:39 PM

    Thank You Admin Very Nice

  75. Nakliyat on October 29, 2010 12:57 AM

    I looked at had some pretty good article thanks to a useful

  76. full oyunlar on November 7, 2010 8:26 AM

    Thanks very nice good..

  77. oto anahtar on November 7, 2010 9:16 AM

    thank you nice sharing admin

  78. seremi on November 7, 2010 9:19 AM

    an archive of beautiful thank you

  79. bwin fr on December 14, 2010 2:45 AM

    Excellent post, thanks for information.

  80. iş ilanları on December 29, 2010 5:24 AM

    thanks for this post. i like it ! Excellent !

  81. m on December 30, 2010 6:37 AM

    perfect tenk you

  82. realistik manken on February 15, 2011 8:42 AM

    Great tutorial, really comprehensive and easy to follow, thanks

  83. sajoo on March 1, 2011 11:07 AM

    Hey, I was having problems with the 7th step as well, but I looked around and found a good sight that taught what to do.

  84. Comparaison cotes on March 1, 2011 11:09 AM

    Very, very cool! Looks pretty amazing. Thanks for posting this tutorial. Keep up the excellent work, you are helping a lot of people. Thanks!

  85. Anne on March 2, 2011 12:18 PM

    Hi, me again. I am trying to get the link to the clouds, and it is directing me to the same music video on You Tube. If you could provide the correct link, that would be wonderful. Thanks!

  86. James Qu on March 5, 2011 8:48 PM

    @Anne: link updated.

  87. Alabora on March 20, 2011 6:58 PM

    Thanks Admin Very Nice…

  88. serhan on May 22, 2011 9:05 AM

    Excellent post, thanks for information.

  89. Seokolik on May 29, 2011 6:16 PM

    Thanks Admın Very Nıce…

  90. Seokolik on May 29, 2011 10:49 PM

    Thanks Admın Very Nice Psdd

  91. emjhay on August 15, 2011 2:00 PM

    all are so awsome men!

  92. Kol452 on November 9, 2011 3:03 AM

    how can i distort it ?

  93. Anthony Anik Dessa on November 28, 2011 6:03 PM

    Nice work

  94. Razorslash43 on May 24, 2012 5:59 AM

    link is broken

  95. lalala on March 15, 2013 9:56 PM

    stuck at step 4
    im new
    how do you make the clouds
    looks life invisible?
    *A*

  96. The Viettutstv on July 15, 2013 5:57 PM

    Thank you Creative verry Cool

    Thanks for Share

    http://viettutstv.com

  97. Kollein Vĩnh on October 11, 2013 8:28 PM

    wonderful! i love it! :D thanks so much

  98. Gracious on October 15, 2013 4:03 AM

    great tutorial , thanx dude

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