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Home»Text Effect»Create a Grungy Style Text Effect Inspired by “Infamous 2” Game in Photoshop
Text Effect

Create a Grungy Style Text Effect Inspired by “Infamous 2” Game in Photoshop

By James QuJune 12, 20114 Mins Read
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In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to Create a Grungy Style Text Effect Inspired by “Infamous 2” Game in Photoshop.  This is a beginner level tutorial and steps are quite easy to follow, have a try!

The PSD file of this tutorial is available to buy on PSD Vault Shop, or via the PSD Vault VIP members area.

The primary focus on this tutorial is the application of flow/opacity for both the Brush and Eraser tool, as well as the use of clipping mask to create the urban city overlay effect for the text. I have also included some steps about image adjustments and layer blending.

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

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Ok Let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stock: (registration required for those images)

Grunge Brushset

City

Model

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1280px * 700px with black background. Use a bold font (I used the “Impact” font here) and type some text onto the centre the canvas:

Create a new layer on top of the text layer, use a soft white brush to do a single click on the edge of the canvas as shown below:

Compress this layer down as shown below:

Reduce the opacity of the layer to around 30%, and you will now have the following effect under the text:

Use the grunge brush you download, paint some grunge patterns around the text:

As you paint, use a soft eraser tool to remove parts of the pattern to create fade-in effect: (set eraser flow and opacity to around 50%)

Step 2

Add a layer mask onto the text layer, then grab the Eraser tool with one of the grunge brush selected, erase parts of the text as shown below:

Make sure you adjust the flow and opacity of the eraser for some texture variety, and it will later reflect on the text:

As you can see, I use 100%, 50%, and 30% flow and opacity for different areas of the text:

and here is the effect after applying the layer mask on the text:

Step 3

Load the city stock image into Photoshop, select a portion of the image with quick selection tool as shown below:

Copy and paste the selection onto our document, re-size and position it as shown below:

Go back to the city image and select a different portion, and paste it onto our document. Repeat this process until you have a variety of the buildings covering the text as shown below:

Merge all those building layers into one layer, right-click on the layer and choose “Create clipping mask” (or press Ctrl + Alt + G):

Reduce the layer opacity of this city layer to around 85%, and you will have the following effect:

Apply the following black and white adjustments to this city building layer:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 4

Load the Model image into Photoshop, cut out the model and paste it onto our document, re-size and position it as shown below:

Load the selection of this model layer and fill it with black colour:

Reduce the layer opacity of this model layer to around 80%, you will have the following effect:

Step 5

OK we’re almost done! For some final fine-tunings, I added some blue/red colour onto the text by creating a new layer on top of all previous layer, set its blending mode to “Color Dodge”, and use a soft brush with relevant colour to paint over it:

Hint: Adjust the brush flow/opacity as you paint, and use the Eraser Tool to remove parts that you don’t have colour on.

I also added some random lines around the text with a bit of tablet pen drawing (1px hard brush):

I also used a bit of the Sharpen Tool to sharpen some parts of the text, and here is the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to large)

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful! Till next time, have a great day!

grungy text photoshop infamous game text infamous text effect
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James Qu
  • Website

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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25 Comments

  1. Mark Armstrong on June 13, 2011 10:43 PM

    Very cool effect! I thought adding the color at the end was a particularly nice touch. Many thanks for sharing and explaining everything so clearly.

  2. Kyle on June 15, 2011 5:48 AM

    Hey, so I’m trying to figure out a couple things here with your tutorial. First, what specific brush are you using for the grunge set? Also, what do you mean by compressing the layer down after the soft light? Thank you for posting this btw, awesome effect, I cant wait to perfect it. Also, where can I check out more of your tutorials?

  3. Kyle on June 15, 2011 8:57 AM

    Ok, NVM, figured out compressing the layer. Had a brain fart. But I’m still curious to know which of the brushes you used from the grunge set. =)

  4. demian on June 19, 2011 7:33 PM

    This is awesome. Thank you

  5. rajasegar on June 20, 2011 3:41 PM

    Great tutorial and techniques well explained!
    Thanks for sharing…
    Bookmarked & Featured in Tutorials of the Week!!

  6. strony oswiecim on June 21, 2011 5:11 PM

    wow, that’s exactly what I was looking for! Thanks mate.

  7. jose on June 26, 2011 9:44 PM

    amazing tut mate, love it!

  8. shiry on August 3, 2011 1:58 PM

    thank you! so so great!

  9. USAMA on October 24, 2011 8:10 PM

    sorry but the link of the model is not found !!
    thank you for great tutorials !!
    keep it up man !!

  10. annonymous on November 20, 2011 10:42 PM

    how could i compress the layer???

  11. Clipping Path Service on December 3, 2011 3:16 PM

    wow! amazing Photoshop tutorial! I’ll try soon :)

  12. Sincan Qwerty on December 18, 2011 9:45 AM

    Can you make it for me but with the name niko

  13. SixSexSox on June 1, 2012 6:09 PM

    wow cool !!!!!!!!!!!

  14. insane on September 5, 2012 6:42 AM

    где Psd бля

  15. Ralf on October 1, 2012 2:48 AM

    Hi Can i translate thy tutorial into Polish?

  16. Ralf on October 1, 2012 3:40 AM

    i can if u want ;)

  17. Ebee on March 6, 2013 2:02 AM

    To compress the layer I had the layer highlighted and went to Image – Free transform – Scale, then you can move it how you like as they picture shows :)

  18. duck on August 11, 2013 4:33 AM

    i cant make….hixx..can you help me with the name “Serious Youth”
    into my mail superduck349@gmail.com

  19. baby hazel funtime on January 15, 2014 3:03 AM

    amazing Photo shop tutorial

  20. learn to fly 2 on February 18, 2014 6:36 AM

    i have one question about how coan I compress the layer?

  21. baby hazel flower girl on April 13, 2014 5:26 AM

    really very amazing Photo shop tutorial

  22. cyrus on April 20, 2014 5:59 AM

    link of the model….
    thank you for great tutorials ))

  23. run on May 5, 2014 7:33 AM

    great tips and instructions. ammazing tutorial. thank you very much!!!!!!!!!!!!

  24. Clipping Path on July 3, 2014 7:56 PM

    really amazing,tnx for the tutorial :)

  25. Ocelot on July 16, 2017 7:52 AM

    awesome

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