Design a Shattered, Scrappy Metal Text Effect in Photoshop
In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to Design a Shattered, Scrappy Metal Text Effect in Photoshop. You will learn how you utilise a range of selection and transformation techniques to manipulate textures in order to form certain effect. Have a try!
This is an intermediate to advance level Photoshop tutorial. If you’re having difficulty with the steps in this tutorial, I suggest you go to the basic section of PSD Vault and practice those tutorials first, then come back and do this one.
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:
Step 1
Create a new document with black background (size doesn’t really matter for this tutorial, I used 1200px * 700px). Create a new layer on top of the background layer and set the opacity to around 20%, render some cloud with the cloud filter on it:
Duplicate this cloud layer once, compress it down then rotate it as shown below with the free transform tool:
We will use this new cloud layer as a guide for our text base – so increase the opacity to around 30% for it. And you will have the following effect:
Step 2
Load the metal texture image into Photoshop, use the quick selection tool to select a random piece of the texture:
Copy and paste the selection into our document, rotate it a bit as shown below:
Grab a soft eraser with the opacity and flow set to both around 40%, gently erase the edges of the metal texture to give it a little more depth.
Note: The following 3 screenshots indicate the Top Left, Center, and Bottom Right area of the metal texture.
Top Left Portion:
Center Portion:
Bottom Right Corner:
You will have the following similar effect as a result:
Step 3
Now let’s make a particle brush with this metal stock image. If you have followed psdvault.com for a while, you will know that I love making those kind of brush for all sorts of effect :)
So let’s go to the metal image, use the quick selection tool to select a few random pieces from the image, as shown below:
Double click the background layer to unlock it:
Then go to Edit > Define Brush Preset to create a new brush preset:
Once you defined a new brush set, press F5 and bring up the brush windows, apply the following settings:
Shape Dynamics
Scattering
Make sure you tick the “Protect Texture” option on the brush window.
Use this brush as an eraser, reduce the tip size to a small scale, erase the following areas of the metal texture on our document:
Center
Bottom Right
Top Left
Then add the following two adjustment layers as clipping mask to the metal texture layer:
Levels
Black and White
Layer mask on the Black and White adjustment layer:
and you will have the following effect so far:
You can use this particle brush to paint around the following areas for the shatter effect:
Hint: make sure you reduce the brush tip size to a smaller scale, and set the brush flow and opacity to around 50%, DO NOT paint too much particles.
Step 4
Now let’s move to the text part. Type a letter onto the canvas as shown below: (Font choice doesn’t matter here, we only use this as a guide for our texture)
Again we select a piece of metal texture with the Quick Selection Tool:
Copy and paste the selection onto our document, resize and fit it to our letter:
Repeat the steps above and apply more metal texture to the letter:
When you’re happy with the shape, hide the original white text, and merge those layers and use a soft erase to remove the edges of the letter:
Make sure you erase the bottom of the letter as well, so it blends into the base:
Add the following 3 adjustment layers as clipping mask to the letter texture:
Levels
Black and White
Layer mask on Black and White adjustment layer:
Curves
Use the particle brush we created in previous step, paint some shattered pieces around the letter:
Here is the effect so far:
Step 5
We’re almost done! For some final retouches, I smart sharpen the image a bit after flattening the layers:
I also added some more particles around the base texture:
Plus a few more spot lights around the letter:
You can also adjust the contrast a bit with a brightness and contrast adjustment layer, and here is the final effect I have for this tutorial:(click to enlarge)
You can choose your own color scheme and experiment with the result – I used a dark red kind of effect.
That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy this tutorial and find it useful! Till next time, have a great day!
