HOW TO CREATE A WRITING IN THE SAND EFFECT IN PHOTOSHOP September 25, 2012 by Senior Editor in Learn Photoshop This

is tutorial will show you how to create a realistic writing in the sand effect in Photoshop.

01. Open a picture with a sand. It can be any color or type of sand just as long as its a sand or any type of grain.

02. Now go to the Channels view and select the blue channel only. Then right click on it and choose Duplicate layer.

03. Be sure the duplicate channel is selected and that you are still in the Channel view. Now go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and add a very small amount of blur. Press Ok.

04. Now go to File > Save As and save the duplicate channel as a psd file somewhere where you can locate it.

05. Now select all the channels again by clicking on the RGB channel. Then move back to the Layers window. Now take the Type Tool.

06. Write your word, either in black or in darker sand color. Be sure to place and size your text exactly as you would want to since next step will rasterize the layer and now further changes cannot be made to the written text. If all is good, go to Filter > Distort > Displace. Click Yes if asked if rasterize the layer.

07. Be sure all the options are as shown below. Then if you click OK, Photoshop wants you to locate a file. Locate the displace.psd that you saved earlier and open it.

08. Now the edges of your text should be all sandy. To give more depth to the text, go to Layer > Layer Style > Color Overlay and add bit darker shade of your sand and set a different blend mode to it. Then move to Inner Shadow tab and add a small inner shadow to your text. Press Ok.

09. And your writing in the sand is complete!

Tags: How to Create a Writing in The Sand Effect in Photoshop, How to Use Displace

This Photoshop tutorial will show you how to create text with a flower theme. Step 1. Start of by making a new photoshop document, with dimensions of 200x200 and a white background. Create some large, thick, light green (DBF5AD) text, preferably with rounded corners. I used Arial Black 200 pt for this, so I had to round off the the corners (image b). a) b)

Step 2. Make a selection using the text and then fill it with a darker green (2F8B48) on a new layer. Now feather (select > feather) and contract (select > modify > contract) the selection by 7 pixels, and then delete the area that's selected (image b). a) b)

Step 3. Create a layer below the first 2 and then make a selection using the text again. Expand the selection by 3 pixels and then fill it with a lighter green 3. (A8CFAF).

Step 3. This is the 2nd part of the Photoshop tutorial to create text with flowers. Next, zoom in to 200% and create a new layer and a path layer. Use the pen tool to create a curve (image a) and then drag the top segment of the directional line to the center (image b). Create a second curve, complete the path, make a selection using it, and then fill the layer with dark green (2B8E00). a) b) c) d)

Step 4. Feather the selection by 2, contract it by 1 and then fill it with a lighter green (B4FF92). So that's the first stalk create that we'll duplicate later, but first we're going to create some flowers. So, zoom in to 300%, create a new layer and then select the gradient tool. Set it to linear gradient, the foreground to orange (F0A400) and the background to yellow (FFEB42). Drag the gradient tool from the top of the selection to about 3/4 of the way down of it (image b). Duplicate the gradient layer, flip it vertically (edit > transorm > flip vertical) and then place them like in image c). Merge the 2 layers together and then duplicate them (image d).

a)

b)

c)

d)

Step 5. Rotate the duplicate by 90 degrees (image a), merge them together and then duplicate it once more (image b). Rotate the duplicate by 45 degrees and then merge them together (image c). On a new layer, create a peach (FFC8D4) circle in the center, and then contract the selection by 2 pixels. a) b) c) d)

Step 6. Set the foreground to dark orange (EA682F) and the the background to a lighter orange (FF965B). Fill the selection and then add noise (filter > noise > add noise), setting it to uniform and 17%. Then go to Flower Text Photoshop Tutorial Part 3

Step 6. This is the 3rd part of the Photoshop tutorial to create text with flowers. Next, make a new layer and then create a bright yellow cirlce underneath the peach circle. Nudge the selection to the right a bit and then delete the area selected. Duplicate the resulting shape and then rotate it by 180 degrees. a) b) c) d)

Step 7. Merge the 2 shapes together, duplicate it and then rotate it by 90 degrees (image a). Merge them together, and then duplicate it once more. Rotate it by 45 degrees, giving you something like in image b). Make a selection of the main flower part, create a new layer underneath it, and then fill it with a dark orange (E68D00). Zooming out, you should have something like in image c). Merge all the flower layers together, duplicate it and then resize it to 70% using the transform tool. a) b) c) d)

Step 8. Make a few more duplicates of the original one, and reduce them to 50% and 20%. To create the orange version, just adjust the hue (image > adjustments > hue/saturation) by -16. And that brings us to the end of this Photoshop tutorial!

Colorful Light Burst Text In Photoshop

Step 1: Open A New Photoshop Document Open a new document in Photoshop by going up to the File menu and choosing New, or by using the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl+N (Win) / Command+N (Mac). You can choose your own width and height for your document, but if you want to follow along, I chose the 640480 size from the list of available presets to keep things simple. Ive also left my Resolution value set to its default of 72 pixels/inch. Since Im creating this text effect for the web, it makes no difference what I set the resolution value to, so the default value is fine:

Create a new document in Photoshop. To follow along, use the 640480 preset size. Step 2: Add Your Text With your new blank document open, grab the Type tool from the Tools palette or by pressing T on your keyboard. Make sure black is selected as your foreground color. If it isnt, just press D on your keyboard to reset it to black. Choose your font in the Options Bar at the top of the screen. Thick, heavy fonts work best for this effect. Then, go ahead and enter your text. Im going to use Impact, and Ill type the words LIGHT BURST:

Choose a thick, heavy font, and with black as your foreground color, enter your text. Step 3: Resize Your Text With Free Transform With your text layer selected in the Layers palette, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+T (Win) / Command+T (Mac) to bring up the Free Transform box and handles around your text. Hold down Shift+Alt (Win) / Shift+Option (Mac) and drag out any of the corner handles to make your text larger and fill up more of the document area. Holding Shift constrains the text proportions, and holding Alt/Option resizes the text from the center:

Resize the text with Photoshops Free Transform command. Make sure to still leave plenty of room around the text for our light burst effect. Press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) when youre done to accept the transformation. Step 4: Rasterize Your Text Were going to be applying several filters to our text, but Photoshop doesnt allow us to do that without first rasterizing it, which simply means to convert it into pixels. So again with the text layer selected, go up to the Layer

menu at the top of the screen, choose Rasterize, and then choose Type. This will convert our text into pixels. It will still look the same in the document window, but in the Layers palette, the Type layer will now be a regular layer:

After rasterizing the text, the Type layer in the Layers palette becomes a normal layer. Step 5: Add A Selection Around Your Text And Save It Ctrl-click (Win) / Command-click (Mac) directly on the thumbnail preview area of the text layer in the Layers palette to quickly load a selection around your text:

Ctrl-click (Win) / Command-click (Mac) directly on the text thumbnail in the Layers palette. Your text will now have a selection around it:

The text is now selected. With the text selected, go up to the Select menu at the top of the screen and choose Save Selection. When theSave Selection dialog box appears, just click OK. Theres no need to name it or make any changes to the options. Once youve saved your selection, press Ctrl+D (Win) / Command+D (Mac) to deselect your text. Switch over to your Channels palette for a moment (its grouped in beside the Layers palette) and youll see your selection saved as a new channel named Alpha 1 at the very bottom. Well be coming back here a bit later to load our selection again:

The selection is now saved as a new channel, Alpha 1, in Photoshops Channels palette. Step 6: Use Fill To Fill Your Text Layer With White And Set The Blend Mode To Multiply Switch back to your Layers palette once again, and with the text layer selected, go up to the Edit menu at the top of the screen and choose Fill, or press Shift+F5 on your keyboard to quickly bring up Photoshops Fill dialog box. When the dialog box appears, set the Contents to White and change the Blending Mode to Multiply:

Photoshops Fill dialog box. Click OK when youre done. Nothing will seem to have happened in your document window, but if you look at your text layers thumbnail in the Layers palette, youll see that all of the empty space around the text has now been filled with white, while leaving the text black thanks to that "Multiply" mode. Step 7: Apply The Gaussian Blur Filter To The Text Go up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen, choose Blur, and then choose Gaussian Blur. When the Gaussian Blur dialog box appears, enter a Radius value of about 4 pixels and click OK to apply a slight blurring to the text:

Apply the Gaussian Blur filter to the text.

Heres the text after applying Gaussian Blur:

The text is now blurred slightly. Step 8: Apply The Solarize Filter To The Text With the text layer still selected, go back up to the Filter menu and this time choose Stylize, and then chooseSolarize. This will turn the document black, and your text will appear as a white stroke:

The image after applying the Solarize filter. Step 9: Lighten The Text With Levels The text is looking a little dark, so lets lighten it. Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+L (Win) / Command+L (Mac) to bring up Photoshops Levels command, and drag the white point slider on the right in towards the left until you reach the right edge of the histogram:

With the Levels dialog box open, grab the white point slider on the right and drag it to the right edge of the histogram to brighten the text. Click OK. The text will now appear much brighter:

The text is now much brighter after applying Levels. Step 10: Make A Copy Of The Text Layer We need to make a copy of the text layer at this point, so to do that, with the text layer selected, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac), which will add a copy of the layer above it in the Layers palette:

The Layers palette now showing both the text layer and the copy above it. Make sure the copy of the text layer is selected because all of these next steps are to be done on the copy. We wont be touching the original again until near the end. Step 11: Apply The Polar Coordinates Filter To The Text Go back up to the Filter menu, and this time choose Distort, and then Polar Coordinates. Were going to send our text to the North Pole. Alright, no were not. What we are going to do is make it look very strange. When the Polar Coordinates dialog box appears, select the Polar To Rectangular option at the very bottom and then click OK:

Photoshops Polar Coordinates dialog box. Your text will now look very strange indeed:

The text after applying the Polar Coordinates filter. Step 12: Rotate The Canvas 90 Degrees Clockwise Go up to the Image menu at the top of the screen, select Rotate Canvas, and then choose 90 CW to rotate the canvas 90 degrees clockwise:

Rotate the canvas 90 degrees clockwise. Step 13: Invert The Image Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+I (Win) / Command+I (Mac) to invert the image, so black becomes white and white becomes black:

Invert the image with Ctrl+I (Win) / Command+I (Mac). Step 14: Apply The Wind Filter Three Times Go back up to the Filter menu once again, choose Stylize, and then choose Wind. When the Wind filters dialog box appears, make sure Method is set to Wind and Direction is set to From the Right:

Photoshops Wind filter. Click OK to apply the Wind filter once. Then press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F (Win) / Command+F (Mac) twice to apply the same filter two more times. Step 15: Invert The Image Again Press Ctrl+I (Win) / Command+I (Mac) to invert the image once again:

Invert the image once again using Ctrl+I (Win) / Command+I (Mac). Step 16: Apply The Wind Filter Three More Times With the image inverted, press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F (Win) / Command+F (Mac) three more times to apply the filter to the image three more times:

Apply the Wind filter to the image three more times. Step 17: Brighten The Image Again With Levels We need to brighten the image again using Levels, but this time, well let Photoshop do the work for us by usingAuto Levels. To do that, press Shift+Ctrl+L (Win) / Shift+Command+L (Mac) to apply the Auto Levels command to the image, which will brighten it up:

Apply the Auto Levels command to brighten the image. Step 18: Rotate The Canvas 90 Degrees Counterclockwise Go back up to the Image menu at this point, choose Rotate Canvas once again, and this time choose 90 CCWto rotate the canvas back to the way it was originally:

Rotate the canvas 90 CCW. Step 19: Apply The "Polar Coordinates" Filter Again Go back up to the Filter menu again, choose Distort, and then choose Polar Coordinates. This time choose theRectangular to Polar option and click OK:

Apply Polar Coordinates again, this time choosing Rectangular to Polar. Your image should now look something like this:

The image after applying the Polar Coordinates filter a second time. Step 20: Set The Layer Blend Mode To "Screen" Go up to the blend mode options in the top left of the Layers palette and change the blend mode of the text copy layer from Normal to Screen by clicking on the down-pointing arrow and selecting "Screen" from the list:

Change the blend mode of the text copy layer to Screen.

This reveals the original text layer beneath it:

The original text layer is now visible as well. Step 21: Apply A Gradient Fill Layer To Add Color Click on the New Fill Or Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Click the New Fill Or Adjustment Layer icon. And select Gradient from the list:

Select a Gradient fill layer. When the Gradient Fill dialog box pops up, click inside the gradient preview area at the top:

Click inside the gradient preview area. This will bring up the Gradient Editor dialog box. Click on the gradient swatch in the top left, the black to whitegradient first, and this will make sure that both colors on either side of the gradient have their opacity set to 100%:

Select the black to white gradient swatch in the top left to make sure both colors are set to 100% opacity first. Then set your gradient colors to whatever you like. Ive set the color on the left to a reddish-orange, and the color on the right to a yellowish-orange:

Set your gradient colors. Exit out of the gradient dialog boxes once youve chosen your colors. Step 22: Change The Blend Mode Of The Gradient Fill Layer To Color With the Gradient fill layer selected, go back to the blend mode options in the top left of the Layers palette and change the layers blend mode to Color:

Change the blend mode of the Gradient fill layer to Color. The image is now colorized with the colors from the gradient:

The gradient colors are now applied to the image. Step 23: Apply A Radial Blur To The Original Text Layer Were done with the text copy layer at this point. Were going to finish off the last few steps by working on the original text layer, so click on it in the Layers palette to select it. Then go up to the Filter menu, choose Blur, and then choose Radial Blur:

Photoshops Radial Blur dialog box. Set the Amount to about 65 pixels, the Blur Method to Zoom, and the Quality to Best, as circled above, and then click OK to apply the filter to the original text:

The Radial Blur applied to the image. Step 24: Load The Saved Text Selection Only a couple of things left to do. First, switch over to your Channels palette again like we did earlier. Were going to reload that selection we saved. To do that, simply right-click (Win) / Control-click (Mac) anywhere on theAlpha 1 channel at the very bottom, which will load the selection back into the document window:

Right-click (Win) / Control-click (Mac) anywhere on the Alpha 1 channel to load the saved text selection. Switch back to the Layers palette when youre done. The selection is now loaded in the image:

The selection now loaded into the image. One thing left to do

Step 25: Fill The Selection With Black With the original text layer selected in the Layers palette and black still as your foreground color, pressAlt+Backspace (Win) / Option-Delete (Mac) to fill the selection with black and finish the effect. Press Ctrl+D (Win) / Command+D (Mac) to remove the selection, and youre done! After all that, heres the final light burst text effect:

The final Light Burst effect. And there we have it!

This Photoshop tutorial will show you how to create text with a furry texture.

Step 1. To begin with, make a new photoshop document, with dimensions of 200x200 and a white background. Create some large thick text, using a font such as Arial Black. Select the Dune Grass brush, setting the size to 36, and then set the foreground to 4E5500 and the background to E9EBCE. Make a new layer and then start to create some dune grass (image b). Drag the brush left and right until you have something like in image c). a) b)

Step 2. To begin with, make a new photoshop document, with dimensions of 200x200 and a white background. Create some large thick text, using a font such as Arial Black. Select the Dune Grass brush, setting the size to 36, and then set the foreground to 4E5500 and the background to E9EBCE. Make a new layer and then start to create

some dune grass (image b). Drag the brush left and right until you have something like in image c). a) b)

Step 3. Rotate the layer 90 degrees counter clockwise (edit > transform > rotate 90 CW), moving it over the text.

Step 3. This is the 2nd part of the Photoshop tutorial to create text witha furry texture. Next, duplicate the 1st layer (image a), flip it horizontally (edit > transform > flip horizontal), and move it so that it's slightly overlapping the first layer (image b). Use the eraser to delete the rough edge of the 2nd layer (image c). a) b) c)

Step 4. Make a another duplicate of the 1st layer and then roate it clockwise, moving it like in image a). Delete the excess, on the left of this layer (image b). Make another copy of the 1st layer and flip it horizontally (edit > transform > flip horizontal), as shown in image c). a) b) c)

Step 5. Next, rotate it counter clockwise and then place it on the top of the letter. Make a duplicate of this layer, rotate it by 180 degrees and place it like in image b). Use the eraser to delete the rough

part (image c). a) b) c)

Step 6. Finally, just delete the black text that we created at the start, and that's the end of this Photoshop tutorial!

Watercolor Text
Step 1 Watercolor is one of those mediums that can be difficult to replicate digitally, but with a little practice and experimentation I think youll find it can be rather fun. This tutorial will be based around creating a text effect, but this technique works just as well when creating paintings in Photoshop. Lets begin with a new document, mine is 540300 at 72ppi for those of you playing along at home. Since by default Photoshop locks the original Background layer in any new document, lets start by double clicking on the layer to bring up the New Layer dialog. Change the name in the dialog from Layer 0 to Background and click OK. This will effectively unlock the Background layer and make it a normal, workable layer.

Step 2 The reason we had to unlock the Background layer is because we need to add a Layer Style to it, which isnt possible if the layer is locked. This Background layer is going to be the watercolor paper which well be painting on later in the tutorial. To add the layer style, lets go ahead and double click to the right of the layers name in the layers palette to bring up the Layer Styles dialog window (you can also access this dialog by Command-Clicking (PC: Right-Clicking) on the layer and choosing Blending Options from the menu). Inside the Layer Styles dialog box choose the Pattern Overlay option from the list on the left. Be sure to click on the words and not just the checkbox. Just clicking the checkbox will apply default Pattern Overlay settings, but clicking on the text will open the Pattern Overlay options section of the Layer Styles window. Click on the pattern swatch to bring up the Pattern Picker. We want to load the Artists Surfaces pattern set, so click on the little circle with the arrow in the upper right hand corner of the Pattern Picker and choose Artists Surfaces from the drop down menu. The pattern well be using here is "Wax Crayon on Sketchpad (150150 pixels, grayscale mode)", if you place your mouse over each swatch, the tool tip will appear to tell you what the swatch is called. Use an Opacity setting of around 10% and a Scale of 50% then click OK to apply the layer style.

Step 3 The Background layer should now have a slight texture visible. Be careful not to overstate the effect here, watercolor paper has a very subtle texture.

Step 4 Now lets place some text on the stage. Press the D key to reset the foreground color to black and then press T to invoke the Type tool. Click on the stage and create your lettering. Choose a large bold font so youll have the most room to paint within. Using the text tool creates a new layer above the previous layer.

Step 5 For the moment were done with the text layer we just created so lets temporarily turn it off by clicking the little eye icon to the left of the layer thumbnail in the Layers palette. Next create a new layer by clicking the Create New Layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette. Double click on the new layers name and rename it Paint.

Step 6 Its now time to prepare our paint brush to create the watercolor effect. Start by pressing the B key to invoke the Brush tool. From the Brush Options bar at the top of Photoshop choose a brush that youd like to paint with. For this tutorial Im going to use a 35 pixel round soft edged brush which I chose from the default brushes in the Brush picker. Set the brushes Blend mode to Multiply, the Opacity to 10-20% and the Flow to 50%.

Step 7 We need to set some additional properties for our brush, so lets open the Brushes palette by choosing Window>Brushes from the main menu. In the Brush Tip area, set the Spacing to 1% (for this brush that seems to be the most cohesive setting, if youve chosen a different brush this may vary).

Step 8 Choose Texture from the list and use the same settings and texture that we used to create our Background layers texture.

Step 9 Choose Other Dynamics and set the Opacity Jitter to around 100%, again this one is brush dependant. Then check the Wet Edges option (this option has no additional settings). Now the brush is ready to use and you can close the Brushes palette if youd like.

Step 10 Since we really want to constrain the painting to the lettering we created on the text layer, lets load that layer as a selection by Command-Clicking (PC: Ctrl-Clicking) on the Text layers thumbnail in the layers palette. Notice that the Paint layer is still the selected working layer.

Step 11 Pick a nice dark color for your foreground color in the Tools palette and begin painting. Notice that the paint is constrained to the selection and if you release your mouse and begin painting again it will add dimension to the watercolor by showing overlapping brush strokes.

(*note: If the "marching ants" around the selection bother you, simply press Command-H (PC: Ctrl-H) to hide them. The selection will still be active and you can bring it back by pressing the same keyboard shortcut again.)

Step 12 Try switching colors and overlapping your brush strokes until youre happy with the result. When youre done, release the selection by pressing Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect.

Step 13 If youve ever looked at a watercolor painting up close, youve noticed that often the artist will have lightly sketched a basic line drawing directly onto the paper before they began to paint. This little line art makes for a neat effect and its the reason weve kept our original text layer. Lets click on that original text layer in the layers palette to make it our working layer and click on the little empty box where the eye icon used to be to turn the layer back on. Obviously we dont need the black color of the text, so lower the layers Fill opacity to 0%.

Step 14 Now lets open the Layer Styles dialog box for this layer (just like we did in Step 2) and this time were just going to add a 1 pixel Stroke (outline) to the text as shown below. Once youve applied the stroke, click OK to commit the Layer Style.

Step 15 Usually the artist wont have painted exactly within their pencil lines, so press V to invoke the Move tool and then using the arrow keys on your keyboard (or by dragging with your mouse), move the outline just a touch so that its just offset from the painting. If you feel that the outline isnt dark enough for your tastes, you can always go back and darken it by applying a darker gray in the Stroke layer style.

Step 16 And there you have it, a nice little text effect using watercolors. Like I said in the beginning, this is one of those techniques that requires a little practice to get good at, and by experimenting with different brushes and varied settings, you can get some really great results. When I got finished I decided that my colors needed a little more pop so I added a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to the top of the stack. If you download the .PSD file at the end of the lesson you can see exactly how that works.

Retro Text Photoshop Tutorial This tutorial will kind of be split into two parts, the second part starting at step 19.The first part will cover the creation of the text and then editing this text in Photoshop. The first part will require Adobe Illustrator as well as Photoshop. The second part covers adding the animation in through Photoshop, this will mean you have to have Photoshop CS3 extended version as we will be using video layers. However there is ways round this if you can find a program to convert movie files into animated gifs. Firstly a good idea when starting any project is to think up a color scheme or to find one on the internet, I tend to use this site to find color schemes so for this project I searched for retro. Part of the reason why I wrote this tutorial was because gomedia have released a couple of free sample motion packs which ought to be utilized and for people who dont know how to use them then this is what the tutorial covers. For this I will be using the Hooladanders pack which can be downloaded here.

Step 1 Start by opening Adobe Illustrator, there are two reasons why we want to use Illustrator here rather than Photoshop, firstly we can create vector files which gives us more flexibility when we export things to Photoshop and secondly there are a few nice things we can do in Illustrator which would take a while in Photoshop. Hit Ctrl+N to create a new document, I used a size of 800x600px but this doesnt matter as we are working with images that can be enlarged infinitely. Now hit Ctrl+ to show the grid. Now the default grid should have 8 subdivisions, if yours is different then go edit>preferences>guides & grid and change it. Next click on the view dropdown and make sure snap to grid is checked. Select the rectangle tool and draw a 22 rectangle, we will change the fill and stroke in the next step.

Step 2 With your rectangle still selected, go to the main toolbar and change the fill to one of the colors in your color scheme and set it to no stroke like in the image below. If you were wanting an outline round your text you would have to draw a line only at the left and right side of this rectangle for reasons that will become apparent later on.

Step 3 Create four more of these rectangles, each with a different fill and a 1 subdivision space between each.

Step 4 Hit V to use the selection tool then drag a box round all five rectangles then hit F5 to bring up the brushes panel. Inside this click the new brush button and select new art brush. Now change the settings to mimic the ones shown below. It should be fairly obvious why we changed it from a horizontal to a vertical direction.

Step 5 Next I worked out a rough typeface I was going to use, we are not using a real font here but rather, creating a path then stroking it with the brush we created. Below Ive shown the path I would make if I wanted to make a P, an F and a C; the red lines being the first path and the green; the second path. From this you should be able to work out roughly how to create any letters. At the moment dont actually do this in Illustrator but maybe sketch out the kind of letters you want. Ill show more details on how I created the letters in RETRO. The main points here were to make most letters 1 major gridline in width and half a major gridline between the letters. Note that on the F, it extends 1 minor gridline below, this is to acount for the extra width from the brush on letters like the C. If this doesnt make too much sense at the moment; dont worry Ill go through a full example in the following steps.

Step 6 First I made a new layer, the plan was to have two layers as I needed two paths for some of the letters. This meant that I could export it to Photoshop as two layers also. We will create all of the first layer (red) then afterwards create the second (green). Hit P to select the pen tool, the pen tool in Illustrator works in the same way as in Photoshop. We dont want any bezier curves so click once at each point and dont drag the mouse. Draw this shape in your document; starting from the lower left point. We have to start at the right end or else the colors wont match up when we add layer 2.

Step 7 Hit V then click on the path and a bounding box should appear. In the main toolbar make sure we have no stroke or fill then just click on our brush in the brushes panel and it should look like the image below. If for example our brush was the wrong size we could click the small button to the left of new brush and change the size but since we set it at 20% already we should be fine.

Step 8 Now for quick bit of maths; go edit>preferences>guides & grid and take note of the gridline every: number, now divide this number by 4, mine was at 72px so I got 18. This number is because we are going to round the corners and want the radius to be equal to two of the minor gridlines; the reason for this is obvious if you look at the examples of the letters I used but if you were to use different letters you could make it more or less rounded. Okay to round the corners, with the leter still selected, go effect>stylize (illustrator)>round corners and set it to the value you calculated.

Step 9 Do the same for the other letters, so all my paths looked like the image below. You can either do the letters one at a time or create all the paths then add the styles to all of them at the same time. The image below that shows the completed first layer of the letters.

Step 10 Now for the second layer, do exactly the same as for the first, In green is the paths I used for the second layer, I then added the same styling to achieve a result like the one below. Note that here you could always just copy the R to save creating it again. You should have three layers; one with the brush shape in it, another with the first layer of our text (red) which well call T1 and another with our second layer of text (green) which well call T2.

Step 11 Create a new document in Photoshop; since these are vectors you can make it any size but I used 900x300px as I envisioned it as a good idea for a website header. Now in Illustrator, hide T2 then drag a selection on over the text then copy and paste it into Photoshop as a smart object if possible, if not then paste it as pixels and ignore the next bit. Hit Ctrl+T then change the height and width to 150%. Now do exactly the same with T1, hiding the T1 in Illustrator, then alaign it with the other layer. Below Ive only shown one letter but thats only because Ill be demonstrating the techniques on this letter first.

Step 12 Ctrl+click on T1 to make a selection around it. There is a few steps that arent required for the text I used but you may need to do all steps If you are doing this to a different shape or size of text so Ill show you all the steps then you can work out the shortcuts if you want. Select the polygonal lasso tool then hold Shift to change it to add mode, this will add to the selection we already have. Now draw around the parts of T2 that you want to hide (purple line), one letter at a time. So here Ive made this selection which will keep the same curve at the right part of the R by staying within this line then drawing round everything else. The resulting selection is shown below that.

Read more at http://photoshoptutorials.ws/photoshop-tutorials/text-effects/retrotext/#4zl2r48xkp0H1oBO.99 Step 13 Next, with the either the polygonal lasso or the marquee, hold Alt+Shift to change it to intersect mode which will select only the parts included in both selections. Now draw round the part of T2 which you want removed, theres no need to be neat, just draw a box like the one shown in purple. This is so that when we remove it it will only apply to this one letter then we can go on and do the other letters after. Again Ive shown the resulting selection below.

Step 14 Now go select>modify>expand and choose 3px as the value. Select the T2 layer and hold Alt and click on the add layer mask button in the layers panel, this will create a layer mask then fill the selection in black, if we were to just click on the layer mask button we would get everything except the selection filled black. Below is what your letter should now look like.

Step 15 Do this for any other letters that have two layers so for mine I had to do it to E.T, Note that after youve refined the selection you dont want want to make another mask so instead select the mask then hit D to reset the foreground and background colors then hit Alt+Backspace to fill the selection black. Alt+Backspace is a shortcut for filling something with the foreground color and is quicker than going edit>fill or Shift+F5.

Step 16 Now you can move certain parts of your text to get the spacing right. Lastly select T2 and hit Ctrl+E to merge it with T1 then right click and convert to a smart object. Below Ive shown the finalized text.

Step 17 This next part shows how I created the background and is optional as Im sure you can think of much more creative thing to use for a background. Well firstly I pasted in an Image of cardboard then desaturated it.

Read more at http://photoshoptutorials.ws/photoshop-tutorials/text-effects/retrotext/#A2SDfCDooH0AgUB8.99 Step 18 Next I made a very dark radial gradient then set it to 75% multiply.

Step 19 Now go layer>video layer>new video layer from file and choose one of the videos you downloaded. Now go window>animation to bring up the animation panel. You will now have what looks like a histogram of the time, all except one of the layers should have an infinite time, the one that doesnt is your video layer and should be at the top. Move the time slider to the end of this layer, see the image below for reference. You will see that the animation will move, the reason we moved the slider to the end was because if you watch it you will see that the last 10 seconds include every part of the animation.

Step 20 Now hit Ctrl+T to enter free transform mode, a warning should pop up just press convert and it should change to a smart object. Next move, rotate and scle it then put it above part of your text, here I put it above the first R.

Step 21 Now we are going to mask it, I used similar techniques to what we used when masking the letters. Note that when you mask a video layer it does this in every frame. Ctrl+click on the text layer to make a selection then get the polygonal lasso tool out, hold Alt+Shift to go to intersect mode then draw roughly round the part you want to hide behind the letters like shown below; the purple line being the selection I made.

Step 22 Now mask the video layer in exactly the same way as in step 14 and 15. Do this for some other parts of the animation.

Step 23 Right click on the video layer then go blending options, thats right you can add layer styles to a video. Use the settings shown below. Make sure that Layer Mask Hides Effects is checked as this will make the shadow more accurate because the shadow wont follow the layer mask at all. For the color overlay, just select the color that the animation merges into with the eyedropper, so here mine merged into the green line.

Step 24 Do exactly the same with the other two movie files and just copy and paste the layer styles by right clicking on the layers then change the color overlay. They should vaguely resemble the image below.

Step 25 Try now playing your animation by clicking the rewind button then the play button in the animation panel.

Step 26 Theres a few things you can do with this file, you could save it as an animated gif, export it to flash or save it as a movie file. Here I saved it as a gif by going file>save for web & devices. Depending on what you want to do with the file you can choose your settings. I knew I was going to upload it to this site so wanted it quite low quality, I also found that by cranking the lossy value up you get a grainy effect and a smaller file, I liked this effect so kept the lossy at about 85% then set the colors to 64. Below Ive included my final layers panel and also the unanimated image. You may notice that the colors are different here this is because I added a hue/saturation adjustment layer at the top of the layer stack.

GRAFFITI WITH PHOTOSHOP Step 1 Find yourself a nice photo of a wall to put your logo on (i found this image on the internet with Google Images). Every image is suitable if there is a suitable structure (no smooth walls!).

Step 2 Place the logo you want to use in a new layer. The logo has to be a pixel-based image (no fonts, paths and shapes) because in the next step we will apply a "perspective transfer" which requires the layer to be pixel-based.

Step 3 Select "perspective transform" in the edit-menu en change the aspects of the logo that it fits the perspective of the wall. When you mak a "perspective transform" the selection you're transforming gets a bounbing box. You can use the lines of this bounding box to align the logo with the wall.

Step 4 The logo was just a bit to wide, but thats no problem. You can adjust this with the normal transform tool (CTRL+T). Make it a bit smaller so it will fit nicely in the wall. If the perspective of the logo doesn't look realistic, redo the previous steps, because the realism of this is the most important.

Step 5 After this, put the blending mode of the logo layer to "overlay":

The result:

Step 6 The logo still has sharp edges and looks more like a sticker than a graffiti drawing. To make this a bit more realistic we are going to blur the edges a bit. To blur only the edges, but not the logo, you'll have to make a copy of the layer and place it under te original logo.

Step 7 The, blur the copied layer with a "Gaussian Blur" with a value of 5,0 pixels. The gaussian blur is found in the filtermenu.

Step 8 At last, to improve the realism, use the eraser tool to erase the logo where the wall is worn down.

REFINE If you like the vague version of step 5 more, but with the blurred edges, you can select the blurred layer and click (while holding CTRL) on the thumbnail of the original logo layer. This way you'll select the outlines of the original layer. If you've done this, press DELETE to delete the selected part from the blurred layer. To make it all even more realistic, you can place another graffiti (a more worn down one) on the wall of erase more from the logo to make it look more worn down. Vanity License Plate In this Photoshop tutorial I'll show you how to create a custom vanity license plate using a few basic Photoshop tools a piece of reference material and some creative layer stylings.

Step 1 Open a new file (mine is 540300 at 72ppi). It is important to note that although the size of the document doesnt matter, you will need to adjust the layer styles we apply accordingly if you choose to play along at home. If youve read many of my other tutorials youll know that anytime I am trying to create a real object, I like to have a piece of reference to work from, so Ive inset my example in the Step 1 graphic. Im going to fill the background with a pretty radial gradient ( #788e9e to #263744) because well be first drawing in a light gray and I want to be able to see what Im doing. You can fill the background with any color you like except purple. (*note: If youre an 8 year old girl, you are of course the exception to the purple rule and you should use it to your little hearts content.)

Step 2 Create a new layer by pressing the Create New Layer button at the bottom of the Layers palette and rename itPlate. Press the U key to switch to the Custom Shape tool and choose Rounded Rectangle from the menu at the top of Photoshop, make sure that the Fill Pixels icon is checked and set the Radius to 20 pixels. (*note: If your layers palette isnt visible, activate it by choosing Window>Layers from the main menu.)

Step 3 Set your foreground and background colors to #e9e9e9 and #d2d2d2 respectively, then drag a nice rectangular shape onto the stage. I took my tape measure to the garage and figured out that the standard US license plate is a 2:1 aspect ratio, so my rectangle is 500250 pixels. (*note: If you want to see the size of your shape as you create it, open the Info window by choosing Window>Info from the main menu.)

Step 4 Since most license plates have a reflective quality that makes the surface shimmer, lets add that effect with a little noise. Select Filter>Noise>Add Noise from the main menu, set the Amount to 2% and make sure that Gaussian and Monochromatic are checked before hitting OK.

Step 5 Double click next to the layer name in the Layers palette to bring up the Layer Styles dialog then add the following Drop Shadow and Bevel And Emboss.

Step 6 Create a new layer and call it Bevel. This is where the embossed bevel around the edge of the license plate will live. Command-Click (PC: Ctrl-Click) on the Plate layers icon to load the plate as a selection (*note: the Bevel layer should still be selected as the working layer). Now from the main menu choose Select>Modify>Contract and set the amount to 5 pixels. Lets fill the area with black. Press the D key to reset the foreground color to black and then press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill the area with black.

Step 7 Lets now contract the selection again (Select>Modify>Contract) but this time lets go 10 pixels. Press Delete (PC: Backspace) to remove the area inside the selection and press Command-D to release the selection.

Step 8 Lower the Bevel layers Fill opacity (at the top of the Layers palette) to 0% making the black outline on the layer momentarily invisible, then add the following layer styles.

Step 9 Its time to lay down the custom license plate letters (or numbers if you prefer). For this little number I tracked down a cool font called License Plate created by Dave Hansen. You can download it HERE or you can download the tutorial file at the end of the lesson and get both fonts used in this exercise. Press the T key to call up the Text tool, set the text color to #404d5e and for my example the font size is 135pt.

Step 10 Create a new layer beneath the text layer we just created by holding down the Command (PC: Ctrl) key while clicking the Create New Layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette and rename it Text Bevel. With the Text Bevel layer now selected, Command-Click (PC: Ctrl-Click) on the text layer icon to load the text as a selection. Now expand the selection by 5 pixels by using the Select>Modify>Expand option in the main menu and fill the selection with any color (except purple of course). I used this very attractive turquoise color. Go ahead and Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) when youre done to release the selection.

Step 11 Just like we did with the Bevel layer in Step 8, drop the Text Bevels Fill opacity to 0% and the following Bevel And Emboss layer style.

Step 12 If youve switched tools for some crazy reason, press the T key to get the Type tool back. Set the text color to a nice shade of red like #c02922, switch to the font Mistral which you can download HERE or in the exercise files at the end of the tutorial. This is the font which the California logo on the license plate is based on. (*note: Those picky Californians took the liberty of changing things inside their text to make it cooler, but were not that fussy, so well leave the nice Mistral font alone.) It should really go without saying that you can now click on the stage and type the word California unless of course youre license plate is from a different state, and in that case, youre on your own. Lets also lower the Fill opacity of the California layer to around 80%. (*note: When youre done with the text, itd be a lovely idea to drag this layer to the top of the layers stack, just to keep our previous text and its associated bevel next to each other.)

Step 13 With the California lettering firmly in place, lets click back to the Plate layer and punch some holes in it. Choose the Elliptical Marquee tool, which is in the fly out menu for the Rectangular Marquee tool. If youre confused, press the M key to select it from the Tools palette, then click and hold on the tool until the fly out menu appears. Holding the shift key to constrain the selection to a perfect circle, click and drag a selection where your first hole lives. Now just press Delete to remove the selected area and repeat for the other 3 holes. Because Im completely anal, I actually resized my reference picture license plate to the same size as my document and cut the holes accordingly. Im sure this surprises you because of the whole California font speech in Step 12 but Im selectively picky, what can I say?

Step 14 We all know licence plates wouldnt be cool without all those expensive stickers we "get" to pay to add every year, so lets add a few of those. I figure if you can make Rectangular Marquee selections and know how to use the Type tool, I shouldnt have to walk you through this part and If you cant, then you havent been paying attention and you should go back to Step 1 and try to learn something this time. So this would be my finished product with the pretty stickers added.

Step 15 You could go crazy with some of the grunge brushes I handed out in the Hero Header II and Create An Old Envelope tutorials, and bend the edges a little like in the Sticker Edge Peel lesson to really age the plate.

Step 16 And if I actually owned this vanity plate and a Lotus Shazam!! Our final result.

3D Textured Text Effect Preview of Final Results

3D Textured Text Photoshop Tutorial

Step 1 Open up Illustrator, and with the Type Tool type a letter or text, I typed the letter C I used the font Adobe Caslon Pro,you can use any font that you like, just make sure that it is a bit thick font to yield better results. I set the font size to 400 pt & scaled it horizontally & vertically to 150% through the Character Palette, though dont worry about

the font size too much because well be pasting it as Smart Objects in Photoshop so we can adjust the size at any

given time. The color I used for the letter is #8CC63F.

Step 2 Now go to Effect>3D>Extrude & Bevel, make sure that Previewis on. Use the settings shown below, apart from specifying rotations for x, y & z axis, I chose Tall-Round from the Bevel drop down list. The settings will more or less depend on the font, so if you have used a different font play a bit, though I will advise to stay away from the fancier Bevel settings, mostly None setting works best. You can also make it more thick by increasing the Extrude

Depth.

Step 3 After youre happy with your 3D effect, it will be time to move on over to Photoshop. Open a new document in Photoshop. Now, copy your 3D text/letter from Illustrator & paste it as Smart Object in Photoshop, press Enter key or checkmark to commit. You can now resize your text to whatever size you want, in fact, bigger the better, but for the purposes of this tutorial, I will stick to a small canvas.

Power Tip: If for any reason, you want to edit the pasted 3D Smart Object, just double click on the Vector Smart Object thumbnail in the Layer Palette, press OK on the resulting window, the Smart Object will automatically open up in Illustrator, do the changes or editing you want, then go to File>Save & close the file & tadaa the changes will reflect in your Photoshop file. Read more at http://photoshoptutorials.ws/photoshop-tutorials/text-effects/3d-textured-texteffect/#bCqzpq3SWeKR1aUa.99 Step 4

Now, lets begin with the Photoshop magic, we will be adding various texture on the different layers & will spice them up with the variety of blending modes, the key is to experiment & choose the settings that will best suit your purpose. Open the texture image that you would like to use, for the first layer I used a texture, lets call it Texture 1 from a texture pack on deviantArt. Go to Select>All & then Edit>Copy to copy the entire texture image, Now we are going to paste this image into our letter, but you have to tell Photoshop where to paste it. So return to your 3D text document & pressing down Ctrl/Cmd Click on Vector Smart Object thumbnail, this will select the entire text/letter, in our case, the letter C, now go to Edit>Paste Into (Shift+Ctrl/Cmd+V) to paste the texture image on C. Change the blending mode of the texture layer to Overlay. Now, your image & layer palette should look like so:

Look at your layers palette now. You see your texture image there and a mask has been made that allows only the letter part of the image to show. If youre using different images, play around a bit with blending modes, mostly Overlay, Soft Light, Hard light, Multiply will give the desired results.

Step 5 Repeat the procedure prescribed in Step 4, but with a different texture. I used one of the texture from this pack.

In brief, open the texture image, Select All (Ctrl/Cmd+A), Copy it (Ctrl/Cmd+C) & return to your original document, pressing down Ctrl/Cmd Click on Vector Smart Object thumbnail to select the letter/text & go to Edit>Paste Into (Shift+Ctrl/Cmd+V) to paste the texture in the letter C. And, change the blending mode to Multiply.

Step 6 Now, its again time to do the same thing as mentioned in Step 4 & 5, but with the different texture image. This time I used a more colorful texture from a another texture pack over at deviantArt. And, this time I choose the blending mode to Soft Light.

This is how my image & Layer Palette looks like after step 6. Power Tip: If you need to edit the filler texture image or if you dont like how it looks within the letter, you can still change it! Just choose the Move Tool (V) & drag over with your texture layer selected. Also, if you need to resize the texture image select Edit>Transform to resize it.

Step 7 Now, select the Background layer & fill with a Gradient Tool (G). I used Linear Gradient & the colors for the two stops are as prescribed in the screenshot. Drag the gradient tool diagonally from bottom to top.

Read more at http://photoshoptutorials.ws/photoshop-tutorials/text-effects/3d-textured-texteffect/#I1yDWW2d593dxZeX.99 Step 8 Pressing down Shift key select all the layers in the Layer Palette except the background layer & Link all of them. Also make sure to link the Layer Mask thumbnails with their corresponding layer thumbnails by clicking once between them.

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Step 9 Now, we will do the reflection of our letter C. For that, select all the linked layers & duplicate them.

Step10 Merge all the duplicated layers & name it Reflection.

Step 11 On the Reflection layer, go to Edit>Transform>Flip Vertical & place it beneath the letter C. Adjust its perspective if the need be.

Step 12 The next step is to add a layer mask to the duplicate layer. To do this simply click on the add layer mask button in the layers palette.

Now pick the Gradient Tool (G) and draw a gradient (black to white) in the direction from bottom to mid top.

Finally just reduce the opacity of the duplicate layer and you are all done. I reduced the opacity to 20% , there is no golden rule about the opacity % , just play with the opacity setting & choose the one that suits your image.

Step 13 Finally, with the Type Tool, I wrote the words for creativity with the settings as shown in the Character Palette.

The font used is Larissa & can be downloaded from here. I also rotated the words a bit via Edit>Transform. Then I applied the layer style, as shown in the screenshots below.

Read more at http://photoshoptutorials.ws/photoshop-tutorials/text-effects/3d-textured-texteffect/#KQw7zXTef5e1iJ0G.99 Step 14 To add a bit of finishing touch, I added Outer Glow to the Vector Smart Object layer, as shown.

And, thats how my Layers palette in end & final image looks like.

Here, is a another example of image, I made with the same technique.

To take it further, play & experiment with various textures, the blending modes, also changing the various Adjustments options like Invert, Posterize, Hue/Saturations settings etc. gives the different results. You can also make the text look grungy or rusty using grunge textures, its just the matter of exploring the powers of Photoshop & tapping your creativity! Read more at http://photoshoptutorials.ws/photoshop-tutorials/text-effects/3d-textured-texteffect/#7HFfIAfEiP1xAQ19.99 Create a Spectacular Grass Text Effect in Photoshop Step 1 This tutorial is made up of three partsthe background, the text itself, and some final extra effects. So first of all were going to make a background. To do this we create a new document in Photoshop. I made mine 1920 x 1200 because I want this image to sit on my laptop background. We start by drawing a Radial Gradient with the Gradient Tool (G) going from a light yellow-green (#adbf41) to a mid-range green (#328a26). I wonder if Ive ever written a tutorial that doesnt start with a radial gradient. :-)

Step 2 Now for this image we want to create a really textured background, faintly resembling paper. So the first thing we need is a paper texture! Happily you can grab some really awesome grungy paper textures from Bittbox and they are nice and large too, which is good because this is a huge canvas. So I cant remember which texture I used first, but grab one, desaturate it (Ctrl+Shift+U) and stretch it over the top to fit the canvas.

Step 3 Now we set the layer to Overlay and 70% Opacity to blend the texture with our nice green background.

Step 4 Now to get a really distressed look, I then copied this layer, spun it around 180 and set it to 20%. Then I brought in a few more layers of paper texture (using different textures, mostly from Bittbox) and set them all to faint overlays, one on top of the other. This was partly for the extra distress, but also because I realised that the textures looked a bit grainy and not small and sharp. So by combining extra textures and then fading it all back, I can get a nicer, sharper overall look. Anyhow as you can see in the screenshot there are six layers here. Dont forget if you are a Plus member you can download the PSD file for this tutorial and take a look in there yourself!

Step 5 Now I duplicated the original background gradient, placed the duplicate layer above all the textures and set it to 40% Opacitythis tones back the texture so its not quite so grungy!

Step 6 Now we create a new layer over the top and using a large, soft, black brush, add some black to the edges. Its worth toning back the opacity to about 30% and Overlay. You can then duplicate the layer and run a heavy Gaussian Blur over it (set to about 32px). That way the edges really soften out.

Step 7 OK, we now have a nice background!

Step 8 OK, we are now ready to make some grass text. To do that, were going to need some nice pretty grass to cut. After a lot of searching, I finally found this lovely photo on Flickr of grass. So download the image at full-size and copy it on to your canvas.

Step 9 Next we need some type. So select a font you want to cut out with. I chose Swiss 924BT, which is fat and condensed type. I thought it looked nice and grand. And Ive written the text "EARTH". Thats because Im making five of these wallpapersearth, water, fire, air, spirit its like that cartoon I used to watch as a kid, Captain Planet! Anyways, so just set your text out in white and set it to Overlay and like 50% Opacity. This layer wont actually show in the end, its just a guide layer.

Step 10 OK, so heres the text on top of the grass we got earlier.

Now a bit of planning! To make text out of grass, its not going to be enough just to stencil out the grass. Rather we need it to look all rough, with bits of grass sticking out the edges. To do that, were going to use the letter shapes as a rough guide and then trace roughly around them and periodically jut out to trace around blades of grass. Ill warn you now, its very tiresome!

Step 11 OK, so here we are tracing. You should use the Pen Tool (P) and frankly, if youre not handy with it before you start, you will be by the end! Notice how in the parts where my path juts out, it sort of follows individual blades of grass. That way when you have the final cut-out they will look like pieces of grass sticking out.

Step 12 When youve finished your path, its best to save it in the Paths Palette. You can do this by switching to that palette and then clicking the little down arrow and choosing Save Path. That way if you need the path again later, you can grab it. Anyhow, double-click the path to get the selection and go back to your grass layer. Duplicate the grass layer so you still have more grass for the other letters, then invert your selection (Ctrl+Shift+I) and cut away the excess grass. In the screenshot Ive faded back the duplicate grass layer so you can see the cut out "E" part.

Step 13 OK, so here we have our "E" on the final bakcground. As you can see, it looks only slightly better than if wed just used the letter to stencil out the grass without bothering to trace. But thats OK, what it needs is a bit more depth. After all, if that letter was really sitting there, we should see some shadow and sides to it.

Step 14 First of all though, well add some layer styling to give it a bit more of a three dimensional look. The styles are shown below.

Heres the first set of layer styles

Step 15 Now duplicate that layer, then clear the layer style off the duplicate, so we can add some more styles. This time add the styles shown below

Heres the second set of layer styles (Note that its 51% Opacity so itll blend in with the previous layer)

Step 16 So this was all just experimental, and it kinda looks OK, but obviously has a long way to go. Now well add some shadow. For that well use a technique that I demonstrated in a previous tutorial, Using Light and Shade to Bring Text to Life The idea is to make a three dimensional look. So Ctrl-click the grass layer and then in a new layer below, fill it with black. Then press the down arrow once and the right arrow once and fill it again, then repeat over and over until you get an effect like that shown. I think that was about 15 steps of filling.

Step 17 Now we run a Filter > Blur > Motion Blur on our shadow with a 45 angle and a distance of about 30. Then set the text to a low opacity of about 50%. You should have something that looks like the screenshot below.

Step 18 Now move the shadow layer down and to the right and magic happens! All of a sudden it looks like the letter is casting a shadow. Pretty neat!

Step 19 Now I duplicated this layer three times. Each time I erased a bit of it away so that as the shadow is closer to the text it gets darker. I set these layers to Multiply.

Step 20 So this text is looking pretty cool, but for that extra bit of depth we should add some bits of grass in the background/shadow area. Rather than cutting out more grass, we can just use this current letter transformed about so that its not obvious that were hacking it together. So as you can see below I created a few pieces of grass. They are just cut up bits of our main letter.

Step 21 Now by moving those pieces into the shadow areas, we can make it look like there is grass sticking out and its a real 3D object made from grass! Because these new grass bits are in shadow, you might want to use the Burn Tool (O) to darken them appropriately.

Step 22 So yay, one letter down four to go! Good thing we didnt choose a long word like erm I dont know laborious!

Step 23 Using the exact same technique here is the A;

Step 24 and the R and T you get the picture.

Step 25 And finally, the whole word! The only extra thing I did here was to move the letters apart a little. Each letter is in its own Layer Group which makes moving it around much easier.

Step 26 Now nice as its looking, our text is a little lonely and monotonous. So in this last section well add a few more elements to the design. Note we dont want to overdo it, though, because I want this to be a desktop background, so space it is important (for all my icons!). So first up, lets add some extra text. Here Ive placed a nice quote about the earth and unity taken from the Bahai faith (thats my religion!). I love quotes, because it means we get three parts to decoratethe quote, the quotation marks and the source. The text is in a variation of Swiss which is thinner, but still condensed. Using multiple fonts from the same family (heavy, light, etc) is a good, safe bet for keeping your type looking coherent. So here Ive set the quote to Overlay and 50%, then duplicated the text and set it to Screen and 50%. Then Ive added quotation marks in the same Swiss font, but made them extra large and a bright shade of green. Finally, the source of the quote is in teeny letters and centered vertically. And, of course, the whole quote has been measured out so its exactly the length of the main "EARTH" text.

Step 27 Next well add a bit of a highlight to the scene. To do this, create a new layer above all the rest, and using the Gradient Tool (G), draw a gradient of white -> transparent towards the top left. Then set this layer to Soft Light and 50%. This will turn it into a nice subtle bit of lighting.

Step 28 Now well add two eye-catching elements to offset all the green. These will be a brilliant blue butterfly and a little red ladybug. I used the excellent everystockphoto Web site that searches a ton of free stock Web sites for you to find two awesome images to use: Ladybug | Butterfly

Step 29 Placing the images is pretty easy. First the butterfly. We just open up the image in Photoshop, use the Magic Wand Tool (W) to select all the white area, then go to Select > Modify > Expand and expand the selection by 1px to make sure weve got it all. Then press Ctrl+Shift+I to invert the selection and copy the butterfly over to our main canvas. The ladybug I selected needs to be cut out of its image. To do that I used the Pen Tool (P) and traced around the little guy and then just cut him out that way.

Step 30 So here are our two extras. As you can see, the lady bug looks a bit weird actually because I did a quickn'dirty job of cutting him out. But thats OK because hes going to be tiny so you wont be able to see the details anyway. So paste them in and then shrink them down and place them appropriately. Its best if they arent close together, because that way theyll balance each other. I added a drop shadow to each. With the ladybug its a very close shadow because hes small and walking on the grass. With the butterfly, I set the distance to about 10px because hes hovering in the air and therefore the shadow lands a little ways away.

Final Image

Reflective Liquid Type by Al Ward ActionFx.com: Home of 50,000+ Photoshop and Elements Presets Tutorials on creating metal type abound online, as do variations on simple liquid effects. Most are fairly short, offering a good foundation for the reader on how certain effects are achieved but fail to take that extra step (or few steps) to make the piece really shine. Once you have an idea of how different techniques fit together in a piece, it is fairly easy to combine, say, the process to create metal and the process to create liquid to create something that exists in both sides of the FX map.

1 Create a new image with the following attributes: Width: 11 inches Height: 11 inches Resolution: 300 ppi, 8bit Background Color: White Color Mode: RGB (Important or it won'r work)

2 Since the desired effect is to appear liquefied, a font that appears to have been made with a crayon or round brush will work perfectly. Select the Type tool and open the Character palette from the Options bar. The font Ive chosen is called WallowHmkBold if you do not have this installed on your system just use the font of your choice. The attributes for the characters are seen below:

Note that the color is gray in the #666666 range and NOT stark black. Type a word across the face of the image.

Rasterize the type layer, then paint a few additional gray dots around the type.

Open the Channels palette and duplicate a channel the Blue channel will work fine. Go to Image>Adjustments>Invert.

Open the Filter menu and select Blur>Gaussian Blur. First, blur the channel at a 25 pixel radius. Blur the channel again at a radius of 15 pixels.

Turn on all the other layers (Click the eye to the left of RGB)

Turn off the Blue copy channel, but dont delete it youll need it in a moment or two.

Click on the letters RGB to make sure that th RGB channel is active.

8 Go to Filter>Render>Lighting Effects. Set it up as outlined in the image below be sure to select the Blue copy channel as the Texture Channel.

Make sure you change the light angle and shape on the left by dragging the 4 dots

The result of all that is a pretty basic bevel, and yes, you could do pretty much the same thing with a layer style. Some habits die hard, however, and I like the end result better when channels come into play. What can I say? Ive been doing it this way since at least PS 6, and if it aint broke, dont fix it!

10

Duplicate the text layer and go to Filter>Sketch>Chrome. Set up the reflections as seen in the dialog box below:

11

Now you can play with Layer Styles a bit. Open the Layer Styles dialog box and select Bevel/Emboss. Enter the following settings note that the Shadow color is again gray in the #666666 range and not black. Make sure the Gloss Contour is changed to cone.Once done click OK.

12

Make a Curves adjustment layer and Levels adjustment layer with the settings seen here:

13

Against a black background the shine really comes out.

14

Turn off the background layer or layers (if you added the black separately) and merge all the others together.

15

To give the type an enhanced liquid quality, go to Filter>Liquify. Use the Bloat tool to expand or otherwise warp areas of the text as seen here. Once you are happy with the distortions, click OK.

16

You can now throw the text into any image you so choose. In the following example, Ive blurred a tech-style background, placed the type in that document, then placed a duplicate of the blurred layer above the text. The Blend mode of the top layer is changed to Soft Light to serve as reflections off the type, or making the type appear transparent allowing you to see the background through it. Ill let you decide what is actually happening.

Thats it for now. Until next time, Ill see you at ActionFx.com. Take care!

this tutorial you will learn how to create a love message on the sand using basic Photoshop filters, brushes and layer styles. Create a realistic writing on sand effect in Photoshop!

Tutorial Details Program: Adobe Photoshop Difficulty: Beginner Estimated Completion Time: 20 30 minutes Tutorial Assets The following assets were used during the production of this tutorial Sand photo

Step 1 Open your beach (sand) stock. Press Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+N to make a new layer. Hit P to active Pen Tool with setting belows:

Make a path like heart shape:

If youre not familiar with Pen Tool you can use heart shape from shape gallery.

Choose Paths from Layer Pallete, then double click Work Path, choose Save Paths then name it whatever you want. Its a good way to restore your path and you can active it anytime on any layers you want.

Step 2 Hit Cmd/Ctrl+Enter to make selection from this path then go to Edit-Stroke with color # 45382f:

Choose Filter-Noise-Add Noise:

Go to Filter-Texture-Texturizer, choose Sandtone:

Step 3 Right click this layer, choose Blending options:

Then change the mode to Multipy 50%.

Name this layer as heart shape. Step 4 Make a new layer, hold the Cmd/Ctrl while clicking the thumbnail of heart shape layer to load its selection:

Go to Select-Modify-Expand and set the value as 5:

Set the feather as 4 ( right click this selection, choose Feather):

Choose Edit-Fill with color #b79986:

Go to Filter-Add Noise then apply Texturizer filter again:

Step 5 Right click heart shape layer and load its selection again. Choose Select-Modify-Contract and set value as 3. Then set feather for it as 2.

Click the button at the bottom of Layer Pallete to add layer mask. We have result:

Still choose layer mask thumbnail, press Cmd/Ctrl+I to invert layer mask:

Name this layer as stroke 1. Step 6 Right click stroke 1 layer, choose Blending options:

Duplicate this layer and lower opacity to 50%. Right click it, choose Clear Layer Style:

Step 7 Make a new layer and place it on the top. Load selection of stroke 1 layer. Do the same techniques in step 4, but with feather for selection = 12. We have result after applying Noise and Texture filter:

Then choose Filter-Noise-Dust & Scratches:

Load selection of stroke 1 layer again then do the same technique in step 5 but with value of Contract as 2. This is result we get:

Step 8 Come back to heart shape layer. Were going to change layer style effect again to make it look more realistic. Right lick it, choose Blending options:

Lower opacity to Multipy 40%:

Step 9 Still on heart shape layer, hold Cmd/Ctrl+click its thumbnail to load its selection. Choose Contract value as 3:

Right click this selection, choose Layer via Copy:

We have a new layer above heart shape layer. Name it stroke inside. Change opacity a bit to Multipy 30% and add layer mask with soft black brush of medium opacity ( 30-40%) to blur some sharp parts as shown below:

Step 10 Were going to add some love texts for our picture. Make a new layer on the top. You can use handwriting font to do it but I recomend you to use your fingers with brush stroke. I use soft brush with color # 45382f ( like in step 2 when making heart shape) to draw letters I and U and position them as the screenshot below shows:

Apply Noise and Texturizer with same settings like in step 2:

Call this layer as letters. Step 11 Choose heart shape layer then right click it, choose Copy Layer Style:

Choose letters layer, right click it, choose Paste Layer Style:

Increase opacity to Multipy 60%:

Step 12 On letters layer, load its selection with contract = 2. Right click it, choose Layer via Copy, we have:

Add layer mask to blur some too visible stroke parts:

Step 13 Make a new layer and place it on the top. Load selection of letters again, apply Expand with value = 2 then stroke it with color #6c5c51:

We have result:

Step 14 In this step we make more stroke outside letters by creating two layers and doing the same techniques done in step 5, 6, 7 for heart shape, except dont duplicate stroke-in step 6). Here is my result:

Step 15 The picture looks too bright so I use a Levels layer to fix it. Choose Layer-New adjustment layerLevels:

Change the Shadow and Midtone value:

Step 16 Were almost done! Create a new layer, set to Overlay 100% and fill with 50% gray:

Hit O to active Burn Tool, I set value for this tool as Midtones Range and 20-30% Exposure. Use it to darken some parts of our message. You can see how I used it with Normal mode ( dark parts on screenshot):

Final Result

We hope you enjoyed this tutorial on creating a love message on sand in Photoshop. Do write in with your comments and feedback using the form below. We would love to hear from you!

Create a 3D Text Scene Using Photoshop May. 14, 2009 | 3D | 120 comments

In this tutorial well create a realistic 3D text scene using Photoshop with a little help from Illustrator for the 3D text. You need to have medium to advanced knowledge of Photoshop in order to complete this tutorial. To get started, go ahead and download all the images used from the Sxh.hu website. All images are free to download and here are the links: 1, 2, 3, 4 Lets get started and create a truly awesome 3D effect in just a few short steps. Try it out and feel free to post links to your own variations, wed love to see what you come up with. Heres a quick preview of the image that we will be creating:

Step 1 On a blank document type the text in Illustrator. Im using the Impact typeface and this foreground color: #CCCCCC. Then go to Effect > 3D > Extrude & Bevel, and set the values as shown below. Then copy (Ctrl or Command + C) the 3D text.

Step 2 Lets open Photoshop, create a new document (1280 x 1024 px) and put this image as a background. Then paste the 3D text (created on Step 1) as a Smart Object.

Step 3 Next, go to Filter > Render > Lighting Effects and set the values as shown below. This way the text will match the scene lightening.

Step 4 Select the Smart object layer, right click on the layer and select Duplicate Layer > Destination: New, and Name: Map. Then go to Layer > Rasterize > Smart object. Save the document as Map.psd somewhere in your Desktop.

Step 5 Now, lets save the previous document as Displace texture, delete the raster 3D text and paste this image on a new layer. This will be our first texture. Go To Filter > Distort > Displace, search for map.psd and set both the Horizontal and Vertical values to 50. Then, Select all (Ctrl + A or Command + A) and copy the selection.

Step 6 Paste the Rock Texture into a new layer above the 3D smart object. Change the Blending mode to Overlay. Ctrl (Command) + Click on Smart Object miniature to select the text shape, then Ctrl (Command) + Shift + I to invert the selection, then hit DEL to delete the extra texture (on the Rock Texture layer). Then use the Magic Wand tool to select the front face of the 3D text on the Smart Object layer and delete the selection on the Rock Texture layer.

Step 7 Using the Burn Tool, burn some shadows on the Rock Texture layer.

Step 8 Select the Sand dunes layer, select the Clone Stamp tool and holding the Option (Alt) key, click somewhere on the sand. Then create a new layer above Rock texture, name it More Sand and clone the sand on that layer.

Step 9 To improve the texture effect, delete some areas of the Rock Texture layer.

Step 10 Now were going to add some dirt. Open the Displace texture file one more time. Paste this image into a new layer. Go To Filter > Distort > Displace, search for map.psd and set both the horizontal and vertical values to 50. Then, select all (Ctrl + A or Command + A) and copy the selection.

Step 11 Paste the Dirt texture into a new layer. Ctrl (Command) + Click on the 3D text layer miniature to select the text shape, then Ctrl (Command) + Shift + I to invert the selection, then hit DEL to delete the extra texture (on the Dirt texture layer). Using a soft eraser, delete the bottom of the Dirt texture layer, then improve the result by using an irregular eraser.

Step 12 Change the Dirt texture blending mode to Multiply and add a small Drop Shadow.

Step 13 To add the grass, go to the Displace texture file and paste this image. Apply a Displacement map, just like the other textures and finally copy the grass.

Step 14 Paste the grass on the main document, delete the bottom part and using an irregular Eraser delete some areas on the borders.

Step 15 Burn some shadows on the Grass texture layer.

Step 16 Add a small drop shadow to the Grass texture layer. Using the Sponge tool, desaturate some of the areas of the grass.

Step 17 Paste the grass texture into a new layer on a plane on Vanishing Point filter window (go to Filter > Vanishing Point) to match the perspective of the landscape.

Step 18 Erase some random areas of the Grass layer, and using an irregular brush delete some random areas here and there.

Step 19 Select a part of the grass, feather the selection and adjust the hue value to -30.

Step 20 Finally add a soft drop shadow to the Grass layer.

Step 21 Lets add more details. Paste this image into a new layer and adjust the Hue/Saturation values to match the existing colors. You can call the new layer Hanging plant or something like that.

Step 22 Using an irregular eraser, delete everything with the exception of the hanging plant, and place them next to 3D texts corners.

Step 23 Duplicate the Hanging plant layer and go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal. Then distort the copy a little bit. Follow this with the use of the burn tool to make the copy darker according to the the scene lighting.

Step 24 Add as many details as you want. I added a few more hanging plants and a bush.

Step 25 Just to create a more dramatic effect apply these two adjustment layers to the entire design: a Photo Filter and a Gradient Map (Opacity 35%).

Final result Now youve got a nice 3D text inside a photograph. Click on the image for a larger preview. Try it on your own and come up with your own variations.

Written exclusively for WDD by Alvaro Guzman.

The EASIEST W AY TO MAKE RAYS OF LIGHT: A Photoshop tutorial for beginners

THE EASIEST WAYS TO MAKE RAYS OF LIGHT A Photoshop Tutorial for beginners I have used Photoshop CS4 but it will work in earlier versions. This tutorial is an adaptation of Creating An Underwater Scene by the truly wonderful Mark Monciardini As with anything in Photoshop, there are many ways to achieve the same end.Making rays of light is no exception. There are many ways to make these.This is the easiest and most effective way that I have found to do this. Essentially it is only four main steps to achieve this result

Steppleland Stock from Deviantart has kindly given permission to use the lovely start image. If you click on this LINK you can download the image. Make sure that you download the full size image and not just the thumbnail or the technique that you will be learning will not work properly. To do this click on the download button, and when the full size image shows, right click and use save image as. Please make sure that you tick the Add to Favourites button before you download, as a way of saying Thanks for the use of the stock. Step 1 Open the image and immediately create a new layer by clicking on the new layer icon at the bottom of your layers palate. Name this layer Light Rays" See below

Step 2 Set colour palate to the default White foreground, Black background Go to the menu bar and select Filter/Render /Clouds and hit Enter. Your layer should now look like this

Step 3 Go to your menu bar and select Image/Adjustment/Threshold and hit the OK button in the little box that comes up. Your layer will now look like this..

Step 4 Go to Filter/Blur/Radial Blur When the box pops up, set Amount = 84 Blur Method = Zoom Quality = Good The arrow here shows you where the zoom will radiate from.

You need to place the blur centre over your light source ie the sun or the moon, or where the strongest light is in the sky. In this image, we need to have the Blur Centre it in the top left hand corner. So, with your mouse, slide the zoom centre to the top left of the square box. The dialogue box should look like this

Hit the OK button. Your image will now look like this.

You are nearly there now! Step 5 Now set the blending mode of this layer to Soft Light (See image below) Reduce the opacity to 77% Reduce the Fill to 94% (The reduction in opacity and fill is a personal preference. Just adjust them until you are happy with the effect.)

Step 6 Now add a layer mask to this layer by clicking on the layer mask icon at the bottom of your layers palate. (See image below) Now set your foreground colour to Black. Set the background colour to White. Select a soft round brush 200px.

With the layer mask selected, paint over the areas you want to hide with the black brush. Here I have painted out the rays over the tree trunk, to give the impression that the light is falling behind it. I also painted out the front foreground to set the rays further back in the image. If you go too far, change the foreground colour to White and that will bring the rays back.

And thats it!! How simple was that? Special thanks go to my dear friends LorraineCreagh &Francis for their kindness and help in learning how to upload and post this tutorial. xx Add Rays Of Light To A Photo With Photoshop Heres the original photo Ill be starting with, which is available from the Fotolia image library:

The original image.

And heres how it will look after adding the rays of sunlight. Depending on your image, the effect can appear subtle (as it is here) or more pronounced. Well learn how to fine-tune the results at the end of the tutorial:

The final light rays effect. Lets get started! Step 1: Add A New Blank Layer With the photo newly opened in Photoshop, we can see in the Layers panel that our image is sitting all by itself on the Background layer, which is currently the only layer in our document. Were going to add our light rays on a separate layer above the image, so click on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel:

Click on the New Layer icon. Nothing will happen to the image in the document window just yet, but a new blank layer named Layer 1 appears above the Background layer. Notice that Layer 1 is highlighted in blue, which means its currently the active layer, and that means anything we do next will happen on this new layer, not to the image on the Background layer below it:

Photoshop adds a new layer named Layer 1 above the Background layer. Step 2: Reset The Foreground And Background Colors If Needed Press the letter D on your keyboard to quickly reset Photoshops Foreground and Background colors to their defaults if needed, which sets the Foreground color to black and the Background color to white. Were going to run a filter in a moment that uses the Foreground and Background colors, so its important that we make sure theyre set to black and white before running the filter. You can see what the colors are current set to by looking at the color swatches near the bottom of the Tools panel:

The Foreground (upper left) and Background (lower right) color swatches. Step 3: Apply The Clouds Filter Go up to the Filter menu in the Menu Bar along the top of the screen, choose Render, then choose Clouds:

Go to Filter > Render > Clouds. This will fill Layer 1 with a random black and white cloud pattern. The reason it appears in black and white is because the Clouds filter uses the current Foreground and Background colors, which is why we reset them to their defaults a moment ago:

The image after running the Clouds filter. Step 4: Change The Layer Blend Mode To Overlay At the moment, the cloud pattern is completely blocking the photo below it from view. We need a way to blend our two layers together, and we can do that using Photoshops blend modes. Youll find the Blend Mode option in the top left corner of the Layers panel. By default, its set to Normal. Click on the word Normal and change the blend mode to Overlay:

Change Layer 1s blend mode from Normal to Overlay. The cloud pattern now blends in with the photo below it:

The Overlay blend mode gives everything a higher contrast look. Step 5: Apply The Radial Blur Filter This next step is where we turn the cloud pattern into rays of light, and we do that by blurring the clouds using a "zoom" style blur. Go back up to the Filter menu and this time choose Blur, then choose Radial Blur:

Go to Filter > Blur > Radial Blur. This opens the Radial Blur dialog box. Set the Blur Method option on the left of the dialog box to Zoom, then increase the blur Amount to around 90. You may need to try different Amount settings to get the effect looking right with your specific image, but a value of 90 is usually a good place to start:

Set the Blur Method to Zoom and the Amount to around 90. In the lower right is the Blur Center option where we can set the location in the image where the blur effect will appear to be zooming out from. Simply click inside the box and, with your mouse button held down, drag the blur center to where you need it. In my case, I want my light rays to be coming from the setting sun, but the unfortunate problem with the Radial Blur filter is that it doesnt give us any way to preview the effect, which makes setting the blur center a bit of a guessing game. I know that the sun in my photo is towards the left and just above the horizontal center, so Ill click inside the box and drag the blur center into that general area:

Click inside the box and drag the blur center where you need it (or close to it, anyway). Finally, if youre working on a very large image or on a slow computer (or both), set the Quality option in the bottom left of the dialog box to either Draft or Good. The lower quality setting wont give you the nicest looking results but it will allow the filter to run faster so you can judge whether or not youve positioned the blur center correctly or if it needs to be moved. If youre using a faster computer, go ahead and set the Quality option to Best, which is what Ill do:

Set the Quality option to Draft or Good to preview the results on slower machines, otherwise set it to Best. Click OK to close out of the dialog box, at which point Photoshop runs the filter. As luck would have it, I seem to have positioned my blur center in the correct spot on the first try (which doesnt happen very often), and we can see the rays of light now streaming out from the sun:

The image after running the Radial Blur filter. Dont worry if you didnt get things right on the first try. Its easy to go back and try again. Simply undo the filter by going up to the Edit menu at the top of the screen and choosing Undo Radial Blur, or by pressing Ctrl+Z (Win) /Command+Z (Mac) on your keyboard:

Go to Edit > Undo Radial Blur, or press Ctrl+Z (Win) / Command+Z (Mac).

Then, to quickly re-open the Radial Blur dialog box so you can make whatever changes you need, hold down yourAlt (Win) / Option (Mac) key and, with the key still held down, go back up to the Filter menu. Youll see the Radial Blur filter listed at the very top since it was the last filter we used:

Hold down Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) and go to Filter > Radial Blur. This will re-open the Radial Blur dialog box. Drag the blur center to a new position or change the Amount value if needed, then click OK to have Photoshop run the filter again. You can undo the filter, make changes in the dialog box, then re-run it as many times as needed until youre happy with the results. Also, if you previously ran the filter with Quality set to Draft or Good and youre satisfied with your Blur Center and Amount settings, make sure to undo the filter and re-run it with Quality set to Best. Step 6: Lower The Opacity Or Change The Blend Mode To Soft Light If Needed If you find that your light rays look too intense in the image, one way to soften them is by lowering the layer opacity. Youll find the Opacity option directly across from the Blend Mode option at the top of the Layers panel. The lower the opacity, the more the original photo will show through. Ill lower mine down to 70%:

Lower the opacity of Layer 1 to reduce the intensity of the light rays. With the opacity lowered, the light rays in my image now appear more subtle:

The image after lowering the layer opacity. You can also try changing the blend mode from Overlay to Soft Light:

Changing the blend mode from Overlay to Soft Light.

Soft Light is basically a less intense, lower contrast version of the Overlay blend mode (see our Five Essential Blend Modes For Photo Editing tutorial for more details), making the light rays appear softer. Use whichever of the two blend modes works best with your particular image:

The same light rays effect, this time with the blend mode set to Soft Light. And there we have it!

Ray of Light This tutorial will guide you to create rays of light that passes through objects, such as light ray passing through clouds or an open door. Very easy to master yet very effective.. To start off, we need an image that has some gap or spaces where lights normally pass through, such as a window, clouds, or hallway. In my image to the left, I will create a ray that will pass through the hole in the cliffs. If you want to try this tutorial on this image, you can download it HERE

First off, we need to duplicate the original layer, one of the ways to do this is right click the layer in the layers pallete and select "Duplicate Layer"

We will now work with the duplicate layer, so select the duplicate layer as the working layer in the layers pallete, then go to Image Adjustments Threshold Set the Thresold level to about 100

Now go to Filter Blur Radial Blur Set amount to: 100, Method: Zoom, and Quality: Best Then move your cursor over to the "Blur Center", then click and drag its center point to the upper left corner. Note: Where you drag this will depend on your image and depend on where you want the source of light to come from.

Now set the layer's blending mode to "Lighten" or "Screen" and change the opacity to around "60%" Then use the eraser tool with the soft brush (size 150px soft brush) and erase out part of the layer where obviously light is not passing through. That's it!

Ray of Light by Denny Tang on August 12, 2006 HomePhotoshop TutorialsPhoto Manipulation Use Photoshop to create and add a dramatic ray of light to your photos. It's easy, accurate, and fun!

Finding and Identifying the Light Source Before we can create the ray of light, we need to separate the bright areas from the image.

Step 1 Open a photo you would like to edit. Or, you may use the photo used in this tutorial (from iStockPhoto).

Step 2 Before we start, we need to duplicate the layer (Layer> Duplicate or Ctrl+J).

Step 3 To find and separate the light source in the photo, well use the Levels tool (Image> Adjustment> Levels or Ctrl+L). Drag the middle input slider all the way to the left.

Forming the Ray of Light

Step 4 Now that we have the light source identified, we can distort it into a ray of light. For this process, well use the Radial Blur filter (Filter> Blur> Radial Blur) with these properties set: Amount: 100 Blur Method: Zoom Quality: Best After you have those properties set, click and drag the blur center to the area where you would like the ray of light to zoom out from.

Step 5 Youll notice that there are visible speckles on the ray of light. Dont worry about it, we can simply apply the filter two more times and most of it will be gone. Press Ctrl+F to redo the previous filter again. After the filter has been processed, press Ctrl+F again to redo the previous filter once more. In total, youll have pressed Ctrl+F twice.

{end}

Blending and Enhancing the Ray of Light

Step 6 Now that we have our ray of light created, we can blend it into the image by changing the blending mode of the current layer to Screen.

Step 7 The ray of light is blended into the photo but it doesnt seem very strong. To increase the visiblity of the ray of light, well use the Levels tool (Image> Adjustments> Levels or Ctrl+L). Drag the right input slide towards the left to increase visibility. You may also press the Auto button to have Photoshop automatically set it to an appropriate level.

Step 8 If you are working with a large image, you may notice that there are more speckles on the ray of light. To remove this, well use the Despeckle filter (Filter> Noise> Despeckle). Press Ctrl+F to repeat the filter until the speckles disappear. Use Despeckle filter sparingly because it will blur the ray of light.

Step 9 Now we need to erase the areas that the ray of light shouldnt visible at. To do this, well need to add a layer mask. Add a layer mask to the top layer (Layer> Layer Mask> Reveal All) and click on the thumbnail of the layer mask to ensure it has been selected.

advertise here

Step 10 With the layer mask selected, use the Eraser tool (E) to erase the areas where the light shouldnt appear.

Step 11 To emphasize the colors of the ray of light, use the Hue/Saturation tool (Image> Adjustments> Hue/Saturation or Ctrl+U) to increase the saturation. Before you can use the Hue/Saturation tool, you need to click on the thumbnail of the ray of light layer.

Final Results Rollover the images below to see the before and after effect.

Final Results

Final results after further editing.

Amazing Photoshop Light Effect In 10 Steps ABDUZEEDOTue, 01/08/2008 - 09:40 Last year I had written a tutorial showing how to create some lighting effects in Photoshop, it was called Magic Lighting Effects. A lot of people liked it, but some people still have some questions on how to achieve that effect. When I added a buy me a coffee featured on my blog I decided to use an image I had done when I was showing my cousin how to do the Magic effect. Instead of using a hat I used a coffee cup and the process is basically the same, however this time I will explain it in more details. Step 1 Create a new document, apply a Layer Style on the background layer. Add a Gradient Overlay and aPattern Overlay.

Step 2 Here I've used an icon I found on a cool site, but you can use whatever you want.

Step 3 Select the Ellipse Tool (U) and create a shape like I did. After that apply a Gaussian Blur (Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur) with radius of 30px.

Step 4 Create a new Folder name it Light Effects. Change its blend mode to Color Dodge, and move the ellipse you created to this folder.

Step 5 In order to create the sparks we will use the amazing brush engine. Add a new layer, inside the Light Effects layer, set white for the color and follow the images below.

Step 6 Using the Layer Styles add a Outer Glow to the sparks

Step 7 Lets add some smoke. Create a new Layer, call it Smoke. Change its blend mode to Color Dodge and select the Lasso Tool. Set 40px for Feather and create a selection like I did below. After that make sure that the foreground is white and the background is black and apply a Filter>Render>Clouds. Tip: Continue applying the filter until you get the best clouds.

Step 8 Add some text and using the Layer Styles again lets create a nice effect.

Step 9 Place your logo and you can even add more effects like I did on the Magic Lighting Effect, but then you will have to follow that tutorial ;).

Conclusion I have to say, if you know a bit of Layer Styles and the Brush engine in Photoshop you will be able to create amazing effects. It will depend exclusively on your imagination and playing with the tool. Sometimes just changing a some settings and you get a totally different effect.

The PSD file used in this tutorial can be downloaded HERE. About the author Abduzeedo is a blog about design. There are all sorts of articles for those who want to look for inspiration. Also you will find very useful tutorials for the most used applications out there, with a special selection of Photoshop Tutorials and Illustrator Tutorials. Of course there are other softwares conteplated like Pixelmator, Fireworks, and web design tutorials.

TheSoftSeaLight On 06.24.08, In Photo Effects, by sergio

This lesson is about how to create by three pictures only a tender collage of sea-piece. A peculiarity of this collage is that we will do the effect of soft light. For work I took pictures from the Internet, to the authors thank you. Resources: Planet: http://ezkexis.deviantart.com/ Sky: Background: Step 1. Background. For it [...] This lesson is about how to create by three pictures only a tender collage of sea-piece. A peculiarity of this collage is that we will do the effect of soft light. For work I took pictures from the Internet, to the authors thank you. Resources: Planet: http://ezkexis.deviantart.com/

Sky:

Background:

Step 1. Background. For it I picked out a picture with soft water and clear stones. We will place it in the bottom of our collage. There must be enough place for sky above.

Step 2. With Rectangular Marquee Tool we select the overhead part up to water, and stretch it on all area of linen.

Step 3. We use Blur > Gaussian Blur filter to spread the overhead part, because after stretching quality of picture suffered.

Step 4. It is time to make sky. I found the picture of light clouds and soft tender light. It it will combine very well with the washed out water. We will insert the picture on a separate layer.

Step 5. We will stretch sky up to horizon. We change Blending Mode of layer to Screen.

Step 6. Now a planet. It is an element which will complete our work. I picked out it for the style of our collage: there is mildness of luminescence in it, as in water and in rays of light, but there is and

hardness of stones. Its what we need. We insert it on a separate layer, and change to the necessary size.

Step 7. We change Blending Mode of layer with planet to Screen.

Step 8. Well, I dont like this color. Well correct it by means of pressing on the Ctrl+Shift+U (or through the menu of Image > Adjustments > Desaturate).

Step 9. We will change placing of planet that it looked like it is coming behind horizon. It will give an effect, like it is much bigger, then it seemed.

Step 10. We will spread superfluous part of the planet, and well do it like a reflection on water. Not to touch the area of planet higher than horizon, we will select necessary part by Rectangular Marquee Tool.

Step 11. We will take off the selection and we will spread a little the reflection.

Step 12. We will do fog on horizon. We create a new layer and draw with simple white brush a line, even line (pressing Ctrl).

Step 13. We will take the Smudge Tool and by vertical motions we will spread the line, as on the picture:

Step 14. We use the filter of Blur Gaussian Blur. Now it looks like fog.

Step 15. We will do a copy of layer with fog, but will decrease a width in two times.

Step 16. We use the filter of Gaussian Blur again. Fog is ready. Then we can do another copy of this layer and spread it more.

Step 17. It is time to bring in the main changes in the work. We do a duplicate of the layer with sky,Blending Mode: Luminosity. The mood of the collage changed. Sky became more, interesting more wonderful, more alive.

Step 18. By the Eraser Tool we will wipe up a superfluous area which leaked out in the layer with a planet.

Step 19. For next changes we will save our collage in the format of jpg, and we will open it already in Photoshop. In the menu of Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrasts we put tuning as on the picture:

Step 20. In the menu of Image > Adjustments > Shadow/Highlight we put tuning as on the pictures. It is the last touch; it will give a certain mystery to the landscape.

End. I hope that a lesson was useful for you, and the result pleased.

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How to Break Sunlight Through the Clouds

Kyle Pero on Mar 2nd 2008 with 76 Comments Download Source Files Source files for this tutorial are available to Premium members. Get a Premium Membership

In this tutorial I will show you how to turn an overcast day into a stunningly dramatic scene with sunlight breaking through the clouds. This technique can be used for other applications as well. I originally came up with it when I needed to create shafts of light coming through a canopy of trees. The best part of this technique is that the beams are created from the actual imagery so they look very realistic. Lets get started Before & After: Heres the photo were working with

And heres what were producing (Click the image for a larger version)

Step One: Duplicate the Background photo layer by dragging it to the New Layer Icon at the bottom of the layers palette. Name it Light Beam Base. With that layer selected hit CMD + M (or CTRL+M on PC) to apply a curve to it. Apply a harsh curve to it so that we have maximum contrast in the clouds with small areas that go completely white. I am focusing on the area on the top third of the frame slightly to the left. These white areas are going to be where our beams of light come out of the clouds.

Now apply a 2 pixel gaussian blur to that layer ( Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur ).

Step Two: Turn off the Light Beam Base layer and select the Background layer. Select the Polygonal Lasso tool (L). Set the Feather to 50 in the Properties bar at the top of the screen.

Draw a loose selection around the area of the sky where the beams will come from by clicking various points. Here is the selection I made as viewed in Quick Mask mode:

Make a new Curves Adjustment Layer just above he Background layer. Our selection is automatically applied as a layer mask. Apply a similar curve to the one we did before, but this time we want to limit it so the shadow areas are not affected. Name the layer Light Source.

Step Three: Turn on and select the Light Beam Base layer. In the toolbar select the Single Row Marquee tool. Zoom in on one of the white areas of the clouds and click once in the middle of it. This selects a single row of pixels across the image.

Zoom out so you can see the whole image. Select the regular Marquee tool. While holding alt/option drag from the left of the image right up to the left side of the white area to deselect those pixels. Do the same on the right side. You shoud end up with a selection of a single row of pixels just across the white area like so:

With the Light Beam Base layer selected hit CMD + J. This throws your selected pixels on a new layer. Name that layer Beam 1.

Step Four: Turn off the Light Beam Base layer. Select the Beam 1 layer. Hit CMD+T to Free Transform the layer. Grab the bottom center handle and stretch is all the way down to about where the boat sits. Now while holding CMD drag the same handle to the right so it sits just under the boat. Now while holding CMD+SHIFTdrag the bottom left and right handles outward until you get a shape that you like.

Note that the Free Transform preview might look a little whacked because Photoshop is dealing with a single row of pixels. This technique is called pixel stretching. When you apply the transform it will look right.

Step Five: Set the Beam 1 layers blending mode to Screen on the layer palette. Hit CMD+M to apply a curve to the layer. Darken the layer way down until the beams of light start to show up.

Add a layer mask by clicking on the Add Layer Mask button at the bottom of the layer palette. Select the mask by clicking on it in the layer palette then hit CMD+M to apply a curve to it. Bring the highlight point down to 50%. Hit OK.

Select the Polygonal Lasso tool (L) and set the Feather to 15 this time. Select the center of the beam all the way through. Here is what my selection looked like as a quickmask.

Select the Beam 1 mask and hit CMD+M to apply a curve. This time bring the shadow point up to 50%. This will make the center of the beam brighter than the edges.

Step Six: With the mask still selected, hit G for the Gradient tool. Click on the gradient preview in the top left of the screen and set it to the black to white gradient if it isnt already set. Set the gradient mode to Multiply on the Properties Bar. Drag from the top of the beam to the bottom. Before you click anything else go to Edit > Fade Gradient. Fade it down to about 50%. This creates a falloff on the beam but we use the Fade function so it doesnt completely disappear at the bottom.

Step Seven: Select the Background layer. Select the Eliptical Marquee tool. Click and drag directly on the boat, while holding down the mouse button hold ALT and make a narrow ellipse at the base of the beam. Hit Q to enter Quick Mask mode. Go Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and use 5 as the radius. Go Filter > Blur > Motion Blur and make the angle 0 and the distance 150. Hit Q to exit Quick Mask.

Make a curves adjustment layer just above the Background layer. Lighten up the water a bit until it looks like the beam is hitting the water.

Step Eight: I just want to add a little contrast to the image as a whole. To do that, put a curve at the top of the layers palette and just add some contrast.

Repeat steps 3 through 7 as many times as you would like using other white spots in the clouds but be sure to mind the angles at which the beams come down. They should look like they all come from the same light source. I did 3 different beams to create my image.

Update Colour Version You can see a colour version of this effect in the follow-up post More on Beams of Light, This Time in Colour. PSDs for both colour and black and white are available in the Psdtuts+ Plus download area.

How to Add Transparency in Photoshop Edited by Harri, Nicole Willson, Bibaco, Frostmaker84 and 1 other 0 Article EditDiscuss Photoshop allows users to create images with transparency (transparent backgrounds, layers or portions) using various transparency options through the opacity meter or the background options that appear when you create a new document. Furthermore, you can use the selection or eraser tools to make only some areas of your image transparent. People often add transparency in Photoshop when they are printing on paper with textured design or adding an image to a textured background on a website because the texture shows through in the transparent areas. EditSteps Creating a Transparent Background 1. 1

Go to File in the top menu and select "New." A new window will pop up where you can assign the properties of your new Photoshop document.

2.

Put a dot next to the radio button labeled "Transparent" under the Content subheading . The button appears at the very bottom of the new document pop-up window.

3. Press the OK button.

4. 4 Look at the Layers tab in your document properties bar (it should already be open by default) . The background layer should look like a checkered gray and white box indicating that it is transparent.

Making Layers Transparent 1. 1

Select the layer that you want to make transparent by clicking on it from the list of layers in the Layers tab .

2.

Click on the numeric box that appears next to Opacity at the top of the Layers tab . The default opacity is 100 percent.

3. 3 Drag the arrow on the opacity meter that appears to change the opacity of the layer . If you want the layer to be completely transparent you should change the opacity to 0 percent.

Creating Transparent Selections 1. 1

Select a layer that is not transparent, but make sure that the layers underneath it including the background layer are transparent.

2. Create your selection using 1 of the selection tools.

3. 3 Press the Delete button on your keyboard. The area inside the selection that you had made will become transparent.

Making Transparent Drawings 1. 1

Select a layer (must have more than 0 percent opacity, preferably should be 100 percent opaque) . All of the underlying layers must be transparent.

2. Pick the Eraser tool from the tool bar.

3.

Choose the size and shape of the eraser using the Options bar that appears when you have the Eraser tool selected.

4. 4 Draw using the eraser tool. Essentially, you will be deleting the areas that you "draw" in, exposing the transparent layers underneath.

How to Create Masks of Transparent Elements in Photoshop

Selections are an essential part of any photo editing workflow, but often, selections arent as straight-forward as they might seem. In this tutorial we will explain how to make a selection of a glass that includes transparent elements. Lets get started!

Tutorial Assets The following assets were used during the production of this tutorial. Glass of Water

Step 1 Selections are an essential part of the image editing process in Photoshop. The process of making a selection is easy but sometimes transparent areas can make the process a bit more complicated. For these types of project, the pen tool is not sufficient. To select areas with a variable level of transparency we need a tool or command which will let us manipulate the brightness information of the color channels of that image. Because we are not only interested in creating a simple cut-out, rather we are more interested in creating a mask, where we can store variable level of brightness information for defining that complex level of transparency. As a channel is just a grayscale image we can use that channel effectively to create a mask, because a mask also uses grayscale (pure white=100% opaque and pure black= 100% transparent) to store transparency information.

Step 2 One of the major advantages of having access to the separate channels in Photoshop is the ability to make selections. You can use individual channels to make different selections in the image. When you want to select a specific item in the image, use the color channels that provide the greatest contrast around the edges of that item. So lets start the initial planning phase.

Step 3 This is the original image. Though this is a CMYK image, same process will work in case of an RGB image. Only difference will be in the Channels panel. Instead of four color channels and one composite channel, there will be

three color channels and one composite channel in the RGB image. The objective of this tutorial is to remove the black portion but to keep the glass, water, bubbles and the reflection below the glass. So we can use it on any other background (Solid color or photo). For this tutorial we will use Apply Image command (Image > Apply Image).

Step 4 The Apply Image command lets you blend one images layer and channel with a layer and channel of the active image. But remember the pixel dimensions of the images must match for image names to appear in the Apply Image dialog box. But here we are not using two images. We are blending the black channel copy with the black channel copy itself. But the power of the Apply Image is hiding within the Target section. Here you can specify a blend mode or blending type which you want to use during the Apply Image blend.

Step 5 Open the file in Photoshop. Then in the Channels panel examine the channels for a channel with good contrast. Finding a channel with good contrast is essential for good selection.

Step 6 Here the black channel is showing good contrast between the glass and the background.

Step 7 Duplicate the black channel by dragging it over the create new channel icon below the Channels Panel. You can also right click on the black channel and select duplicate channel.

Step 8 Then select the black channel copy and Image > Apply Image.

Step 9 First blend one time with Multiply mode to increase black and in this process convert from the background any area to black which is gray. But reduce the opacity (within the Target section) amount to 50% to create a blend which is not too strong. Otherwise we might remove some white areas, as they are not pure white.

Step 10 The Multiply blend mode looks at the color information in each channel and multiplies the base color by the blend color. The resultant color is always a darker color. Multiplying any color with black produces black. By using the Multiply blend mode we are removing any grey portion from the background.

Step 11 Then blend two times with Overlay blend to increase white. Now we can easily select the white area. Our goal here is to create an effective, fast and acceptable mask with this process. This time use 100% Opacity in the blending area.

Step 12 The Overlay blend mode multiplies or screens the colors, depending on the base color. The base color is not replaced, but mixed with the blend color to reflect the lightness or darkness of the original color. White areas become brighter and black areas become darker. By using the Overlay blend mode we are increasing the strength of the white portion as we want to keep the white portion but mask out the black portion in the final image.

Step 13 You can still tweak the black channel copy by using a brush and paint with white or black color. Paint with white to keep image areas and paint with black to remove or mask out portion. White denotes opaqueness and black denotes transparency within a channel.

Step 14 Load the black channel copy as a selection by either Command/Ctrl-click on the channel or click the first button below the channels panel, which is load channel as a selection.

Step 15 Then go to the Layers panel and duplicate the background layer by dragging it over the create new layer button below the layers panel. You can also right click on the background layer and select Duplicate Layer.

Step 16 Then target the new layer (Background copy) by left clicking on it once. Selection still active, click on mask icon below the Layers panel to create a mask.

Step 17 Now create a new blank layer below and fill it with either red or blue. Now check the quality of the mask. You will find that within the mask there are few grey areas.

Step 18 There are two processes to remove this unwanted grey area. Although first process described below will give you the best output, but still lets explore both of them.

Step 19 Process 1: Change the blend mode of background copy layer to Lighten in order to remove grey area.

Step 20 Lighten blend mode looks at the color information in each channel and pixels darker than the blend colors are replaced, and pixels lighter than the blend color do not change. As a result dark grey pixels removed.

Step 21 Process 2: Command/Ctrl-click on the background copy mask thumbnail to load the mask as a selection. You can also load the selection from the black channel copy.

Step 22 Then click on the Adjustment layer icon below the Layers panel.

Step 23 This will create a new Levels Adjustment layer.

Step 24 Then in the levels dialogue box first drag the midtone input slider (middle one) and then the highlight input slider (right one) towards left to remove grey area or rather converts grey into white.

Step 25 After applying Lighten blend mode, if you check closely you will find that there are a few broken portions within the white area. You can use the Clone Stamp Tool to fix these areas.

Step 26 Thats it. You can use the same technique to select complex objects with variable level of transparency. Below is the before and after version.

Final Image This is the final version.