Translucent Text Effect with Sky and Cloud

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January 4th, 2009

Filed under Text Effects

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!

User Comments:

By psaddict

Added to http://www.psaddict.com

By KalastroMakeinz

Thx a lot great tut m8 keep the good work!

By that guy art

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

By James

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.

By marion

Great tutorial, really comprehensive and easy to follow, thanks

By Eskimo

this could use some background ;)

greatrt tut anyway

By Ann

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.

By ronn

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

thanks for post

By James

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

By T-rav

hey

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

any thoughts? great tutorial btw!!

By Thomas | Brush King

Great Tutorial

By James

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

By James

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

By Escapade

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

By Escapade

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

By fenerlialex

10 number!

By TILMID

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

By Ty

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?

By James

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

By pablo

sos un capo

By Brad

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

By Matt

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

By Accident Claims

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

By Dima

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.

By admin

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 :)

By saurabh shah

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

By Chinmay

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

By admin

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

By saurabh shah

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

By Business Card Printing

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

By Türkçe Forum

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

By huwaw69

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

By ay-isigi

thanks. :)

By sanalkurdu

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

By selim

thanks for everything :)

By dj remixleri

bravo thanx

By Demet Sağıroğlu - Silkelen 2009 Full Orjinal Albüm

bravo thanx

By Vücut Bakımı

Thanks My Friend..

By Kaplang

really cool font, thanks for sharing :)

By Mr.Harbigenc

wery thanks friend.

By Fx

very very thankss

By atakan

thaks for blog

By bybisanthe

Great tutorial and easy to follow

By Süpercan

thanks for good article

By Süpercan

thanks for good

By Guest12121121

I can’t do the 7 step. Can u explain?

By Sevgi

Thanks for good article

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

By günlük film izle

Thanks for good information. günlük film izle , günlükfilm

By Yemek Tarifleri

thanks for information.

By msn

thanks for good article msn

By msn

Thanks for good article

By oguz

You did a great job!

By TheBeast

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