Design a “Texts Drop in Water” Typography Effect in Photoshop

In this Photoshop tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to Design a “Letter Drops into Water” Typographic Effect in Photoshop. This is intermediate level Photoshop tutorial, 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.

We will heavily use the liquify filter, custom brush and the free transform tool.

The inspiration of this tutorial comes from this wonderful text effect work done by ~BK1LL3R on DeviantART.

Here is a preview of the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

Note: If you have any difficulty with step 4 and 5, check out this video tutorial I have on psdvault.com Youtube Channel:

PSD Vault VIP Membership

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Water Texture

Water Brushes

Font

Step 1

Create a new document with black background, use the font we downloaded to type some letter on the canvas, rotate the text as shown below to form an angle:

Apply the following layer blending options on this text layer:

Bevel and Emboss

Gradient Overlay

and here is the effect so far:

Step 2

We will now create a simple water surface. Use a water brush and paint some drops on the canvas, then rotate it with the free transform as shown below:

Then use the liquify filter (forward warping tool) on these water drops and produce the following effect:

Use a soft eraser to erase some parts and the edges of the water to add depth:

and here is the overall effect:

Step 3

Now we will create some abstract lines around the text and on the water surface to give it a flowing effect. Pick a round brush as shown below:

Create a new layer and paint a dot on it, then use the liquify filter to manipulate this dot into a line shape:

Duplicate this abstract line layer a few times, and put those layers all below the text layer:

Duplicate more abstract lines and move them above the text layer:

Step 4

If you have any difficulty with this step and step 5, check out this video tutorial I have on psdvault.com. Youtube Channel:

Let’s add some water texture over the text. Load the water image into photoshop and select a portion of the water using the quick selection tool:

Copy and paste the selection over onto the text, adjust the shape with the free transform tool, and erase the following area with a soft eraser to reveal the text underneath:

Add the following 2 adjustment layers as clipping mask to this water texture layer:

Levels

Black and White

Then change the blending mode of this water stream layer to “Pin Light”:

Further erase the water texture with a small soft eraser from the areas indicated below:

Step 5

OK we’re almost done! For some final touches, I added some more water stream textures around the text, by duplicating the water stream layer done in the previous step:

Hint: Resize those duplicated layers with free transform tool to add variety.

We can also add some splashing water on top of the water using the water brush: (use free transform tool to adjust its shape and angle)

Use the cloud filter or a cloud brush to add some cloud/smoke around the text for extra effect:

I then further added some colour effect onto the image with selective colours and image adjustment layer, and here is the final effect I have: (click to enlarge)

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