A great tutorial for Harry Potter fans (detailed version) :P

Exactly one month ago from now, I was a novice photoshop user. I was fairly new to photoshop and i didn't know even a single thing about photoshop. But as I got so many photoshop projects to do for homework from my school, I learned Photoshop step by step. Now I can say that I am perfect at Photoshop.


Here is what i have done on photoshop so far.











I recreated this tutorial from an existing, rather crude tutorial, which was not detailed or easy enough for novice Photoshop user to follow. Here’s a step-by-step, detailed version on how to create this simple glowing and warped text effects in Photoshop. You can apply this glow effect to any text, image, or shape, which is very dramatic against a dark background.

It may seem like there are a ton of steps but I created this so that novice Photoshop users could attempt this tutorial while experienced users should just fly through this.

Here is what we are going to be trying. Feel free to share yours. This tutorial should take about 20 minutes or so. This is how it will look like when it is done!



Step 1: Create a new image about 1280 pixels wide x 1024 pixels high; make sure the colour mode is set to RGB. Click OK.

Step 2: In the layers palette, double click “Background” and name the layer “gradient bg” and click OK. This will be our background (“bg”) layer which we will add a “Layer Style” to for the gradient.

Step 3: Add a “Gradient Overlay” by clicking on the icon “Add a layer style” at the bottom of the layer palette.



Step 4: Type in the settings shown below.



To edit the gradient colours, click on the gradient colour bar and double-click again on each gradient slider (the coloured squares below the gradient), to change the colours. I used hex code #234f46 for the green left slider, and hex code #030012 for the black right slider. (See below for where to find the hex code #). Click OK, and with the “Layer Style” window (see above image) still open, you can select the actual gradient on the art board and move it around. I placed mine off to the bottom left side. Click OK.



Step 5: Next, create a new layer named “hat” and add a magician’s hat icon or any other object you wish to use with this effect such as a trash can or coffee mug. (I used a hat downloaded from the Crystal Clear Everaldo Icons pack , and I edited out the magic wand using the Clone Stamp Tool).


Step 6: Create a new layer “text 1”, then click the Type Tool , and type some text in white. I used Courier font, size: 24 points. I didn’t use too many words for each line - 8 to 14 should be good.



Step 7: Click on Filter > Distort > Wave and enter the settings below. (Click OK to pop up box that says “This type layer must be rasterized…”.)



Step 8: Press Ctrl+T (Windows) or Cmd-T (Mac) and rotate the wavy text about 90 degrees counter clock-wise (double-click on selection when done rotation) and place it over the hat.



Step 9: Create a second line of text using steps #6 to #8 but name this layer “text 2”. Note: to avoid an identical wave which would make this look too symmetrical, in step 7 make slight adjusts to the settings in the Wave filter dialogue box, such as increasing the wavelength “min.” You may not get perfect results the first time so just undo a few steps by pressing Alt+Ctrl+Z (Windows) or Cmd-Opt-Z (Mac), and under the Wave filter dialog box keep trying slightly different values for wavelength, etc. (This is a really good way to learn how to use the Wave filter.) Also try moving the second wavy line of text down and erase the bottom part that overlaps the hat.



Step 10: Next we will add a glow effect to the text. Select layer “text 1”. As in Step 3, click on the “Add a layer style” icon and select “Outer Glow” and type in the settings below. (Click on the color square to change the color values/hex code #). Click OK when done. For the second line of text, use slightly different values for “Spread”, “Value”, and “Range” as shown below. For the 1st set of text, I used the settings below:


For the 2nd set of text, I used the settings below:



Step 11: Next we will fade the tails of the text but we need to create two groups that each contain the two layers of text. Select both layers “text 1” and “text 2” and drag them into the folder icon at the bottom of the layers palette to “Create a new group”. You should now have a folder called “Group 1”. We need a duplicate of this folder so click on the folder “Group 1” and drag it into the icon at the bottom into the “Create a new layer” icon (to the right of the folder icon). Name this folder “Group 2”.



Step 12: With “Group 2” folder selected, create a layer mask thumbnail by clicking on the icon at the bottom of the layer’s palette “Add a vector mask”. With the layer mask thumbnail selected (just click on it), select the Gradient Tool , and with the gradient set to “black, white”, create a gradient starting from the top of the page to about two thirds of the way down the wavy text. (If you turn off “Group 1” layer visibility, you’ll be able to see the results of the faded top of “Group 2”.)



Step 13: Next we need to give the text more dimension and add a smoky look. Turn off the visibility of “Group 2” for now, and click on the arrow to the left of the folder “Group 1” to open up the folder. In “Group 1”, turn off each of the 2 layers effects by clicking on the drop down arrow to the right and then click off the eye icon to the left of “Effects”.



Select both these layers, right click, and select “merge layers”. Name this layer “text blur”. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and change “radius” to 2.0 pixels. Click OK
Step 14: Apply a layer mask and with the mask selected, select the Eraser Tool , and select an eraser brush from the drop-down menu that has soft (“fuzzy”) edges, use a fairly big size about 47 pixels, and reduce the opacity to about 20% for a softer blended effect. Now erase some of the areas near the middle and a bit from the top. If you make a mistake or eraser too much, that’s OK, just make sure the layer mask thumbnail is selected then select the Brush Tool , and draw back in the areas you don’t want erased. Next, turn on the visibility of “Group 2”.



Step 15: Create a new folder underneath all the text layers (but above the “gradient bg” and “hat” layer), and name this folder “Lights”. In this folder, create a new layer “spot 1”, then click on the Brush Tool , select a soft brush about 21 pixels large (100% opacity), and create a white spot. Under the folder “Group 2”, click on the layer “text 2 copy” and right click, select “copy layer style”, then select the layer “spot 1”, right click and select “paste layer style”. Move the spot just inside the hat. Duplicate this layer by dragging the layer over the “Create a new layer” icon (next to the garbage can) and name this layer “spot 2”. This new spot will be in the exact same place as the first spot.



Step 16: Create a layer above the spots and name it “smoke”. With a soft brush about 115 pixels (opacity 100%), create a white spot and place this just above the hat. To create the wispy smoke trails, I used the eraser (again, use a soft brush about 30 pixels, opacity 100%) and erased a few sweeping lines from the white dot by sweeping through the middle, and then just inside either line of text. Shown below is an image of what the dot looks like after I have erased bits of it (it looks almost like a cactus or devil’s trident). Change the layer opacity to about 70%.



Step 17: Clouds: create a new layer above all the text layers and name it “cloud”. Press “D” on your keyboard to reset the colours. Select the Elliptical Marquee Tool , (right click on the rectangular to select the elliptical from drop-out menu), and with the feather set to about 50 pixels, draw a marquee around the hat area but have the bottom of the marquee touch the bottom of the hat – this will create a cloud as if it is rising from the hat (see image below). Select the Paint Tool , and fill the selected area with black. Select Filter > Render > Clouds. Set the layer to “Colour Dodge” with the opacity at about 60%. To deselect, press Ctrl+D (Windows) or Cmd-D (Mac).








Step 18: Sparks: create a new layer just below clouds called “sparks”. Select the Brush Tool , and open the brush dynamics palette by clicking on Window > Brushes. (Click on the arrow at the top of the palette to make sure “expanded view” is checked.) Play around with the shape dynamics, scatter, etc. (shown below are the settings I used) and make sure to save your new brush by clicking on the arrow at the top of the brush palette, select “new brush preset” and name the brush. With the colour set to white, draw a few sweeping lines with the new brush to simulate sparks flying from the hat.







Step 19: Apply a white “Outer glow” to the “sparks” layer by clicking on “Apply a layer style” at the bottom of the layers palette. Use the settings below.



Below is the final result with the addition of text.


The psd file would be up soon!

My Next tutorial would be on the smoke effect!

Thanks
Sanjana