Translucent Text Effect with Sky and Cloud

Posted on January 4th, 2009 under Text Effects, it has 56 Comments and 46,311 Views so far.

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!

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56 Comments

psaddict Says:
Added to http://www.psaddict.com
KalastroMakeinz Says:
Thx a lot great tut m8 keep the good work!
that guy art Says:
this is shyt u missed a hole bit to it thanks for wasting my time
James Says:
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.
marion Says:
Great tutorial, really comprehensive and easy to follow, thanks
Eskimo Says:
this could use some background ;)

greatrt tut anyway
Ann Says:
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.
ronn Says:
really good, but in the 5 step, put 220 in the curve settings, no 120.

thanks for post
James Says:
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
T-rav Says:
hey

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

any thoughts? great tutorial btw!!
Thomas | Brush King Says:
Great Tutorial
James Says:
To T-rav: the link should be back now. Download the one on the left. Thanks for pointing this out :)
James Says:
Thanks Thomas! mate your brush king site’s got some cool brush collections :)
Escapade Says:
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
Escapade Says:
Ah, just noticed the post about Ann having the same problem, thanks though.
fenerlialex Says:
10 number!
TILMID Says:
hi;
can you help me about this etaps?
http://www.hebergima.com/images/qmn1mriqeldo9ewvi899.jpg
i cant do this stap.
thanks.
Ty Says:
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?
James Says:
HI ty, did you set the background colour as black and foreground colour as white when you render the fiber?
pablo Says:
sos un capo
Brad Says:
Hi. Translucent Text Effect with Sky and Cloud was very well written.
Matt Says:
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
Accident Claims Says:
Well no one can beat you in writing posts. I really love your posts every time.
Dima Says:
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.
admin Says:
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 :)
saurabh shah Says:
Thumps up ! :) Cool tutorial … keep it up …
Chinmay Says:
Cool tutorial…cud nt find Black and White adjustments….
admin Says:
@Chinmay: black and white tool is only available to CS3 or higher. You can try use channel mixer instead.
saurabh shah Says:
nice effect mate .. i tried it .. i guess i need more practice :)
Business Card Printing Says:
Very, very cool! Looks pretty amazing. Thanks for posting this tutorial. Keep up the excellent work, you are helping a lot of people. Thanks!
Türkçe Forum Says:
Nice work.. To deal with Photoshop Fun. :)
huwaw69 Says:
nice job man! I’m gonna try this with different background, like a sea background hehehe…
ay-isigi Says:
thanks. :)
sanalkurdu Says:
HI ty, did you set the background colour as black and foreground colour as white when you render the fiber?
selim Says:
thanks for everything :)
dj remixleri Says:
bravo thanx
Demet Sağıroğlu - Silkelen 2009 Full Orjinal Albüm Says:
bravo thanx
Vücut Bakımı Says:
Thanks My Friend..
Kaplang Says:
really cool font, thanks for sharing :)
Mr.Harbigenc Says:
wery thanks friend.
Fx Says:
very very thankss
atakan Says:
thaks for blog
bybisanthe Says:
Great tutorial and easy to follow
Süpercan Says:
thanks for good article
Süpercan Says:
thanks for good