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>Li ghting 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!

Shining Neon Text Effect in Photoshop

Tags

photoshop tutorial

Since we released Abduzeedo's new design, we've received quite a few emails asking for a tutorial showing how to reproduce the our logo effect. Actually since the first time we used that effect, on the Sparkling Hot Girl in Photoshop tutorial, a lot of people have asked us how to do that effect. So in this very short tutorial we will show you how to do that in Photoshop. Step 1
Create a new document, use the size you want, it doesn't matter. Then fill the background with a very dark gray, #111111.

Step 2
Now place your logo in the document. Duplicate the layer and hide it, we will need it later on.

Step 3
Now with the visible layer, lets apply a Layer Style. Go to Layer>Layer Style>Gradient Overlay. Then use Normal for the Blend Mode, and 60% Opacity. For the color use a gradient with red, yellow, green, and blue.

Step 4
Now let's add some blur, go to Filter>Blur>Gaussiam Blur. Use 4.0 pixels for the Radius.

Step 5
Make the duplicated layer visible and go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use this time 1 pixel for the Radius.

Step 6
Go to Layer>Layer Style>Blending Options. Change the Fill Opacity to 0% on the Advanced Blending. Then go to Outer Glow. Use Color Dodge for the Blend Mode, 50% Opacity, White for the Color, and 18 pixels for the Size. After that, if your logo is not white, you can go to Color Overlay and use white for the color.

Step 7
Now group this single layer and rename the group to "Over" then change the blend mode to Color Dodge. After that you can group everything again and rename it to "Logo".

Conclusion
With this technique you will be able to create a nice neo effect to pretty much all kinds of backgrounds. The only thing you will have to do is change some opacities depending on the color of the background.