Solitaire Text Effect

step 1

Welcome to PimpMyCom's Photoshop tutorials. In this tutorial you will learn how to take regular text in Photoshop and apply a set of cool effect to end up with a Solitaire Text Effect.

step 2

Ok lets get this tutorial going, open up a new document with a transparent background. any size will do I will be working with a 400x200. Make a new layer and fill in the background with any color that’s close to white I will be using FAFAFA which is basically white, the effect will work fine on white it just spices it up to use different colors.

step 3

ok now lets put some text on the document any font and any color I will be using the PimpMyCom font with black.

step 4

Ok now we have our text time to apply the effects. Right click on your TEXT layer and click on Blending Options. Now we are going to click on 3 styles in here. Drop Shadow/Gradient Overlay/Stroke Now in each style we need to apply different options, please follow the images below for each style. Now click Gradient and choose a preset The effect can be done with any preset i will be using this one. When your done applying all the styles click on OK and your document should look like this.

step 5

Ok now its time to duplicate the layer.. go over the layer in the layer window and click CTRL + J, this will automatically duplicate the layer. Now once you have duplicated the layer once select the move tool and hold SHIFT and drag the layer down just a bit....repeat this step 5-10 times and you will have a end effect like this. this is how it would look with a different background

Adobe Photoshop Tutorials

Lightning Surge

1. Create a new image with a Transparent background and a resolution of 72. Rename this layer "BG". Size doesn't particularly matter, however big you want the image to be is fine, but I suggest it to be 300x300 or bigger.

2. Press CTRL+D to reset the colors. Fill the layer "BG" with black.

3. Create a new (blank) layer above the layer "BG". Name it "GRADIENT".

4. It's gradient time! Select the gradient tool. Now Change your foreground color (black) to Red: FF0000. Now go into the gradient Proporties and select "Foreground To Transparent".



5. Now make two small gradient lines. They should look like this:



6. Now select your Foreground Color (it should be red). Now go to "H" (Hue), and type in: 30. Your color should look orange.



7. Repeat Step 5 with this new color.



8. Select your Foreground Color again, and type in 60 for the hue. Your color should look yellow. Now repeat step 5.



9. Now go to hue and type in 120. Repeat step 5.

10. Next go to hue and type in 180. Repeat step 5.

11. Next go to hue and type in 240. Repeat step 5.

12. Now go to hue and type in 300. Repeat step 5. Your image should look something like this:



13. You can stop here, merge your layers and add graphics and text or whatnot, but I suggest you read on, you might get a better result. 14. Merge your layers (Shift + CTRL + E). Now duplicate the layer. Name this layer "WAVE". 15. Next, go to Filter > Distort > Wave. Now click the Randomize button until you get a desired result.


(click the image to make it bigger)

16. Go to Blending Options. You can use whatever looks best for your image, but I suggest using Pin Light.



17. Merge your layers (Shift + CTRL + E). Now Duplicate the layer. Name this layer "TWIRL". Go to Filter > Distort > Twirl with the following proporties: Angle=256.

18. Now Go to Blending options, and use whatever looks best for your image. I suggest Lighten.

19. Now Merge your layers (Shift + CTRL + E). Now Duplicate the layer. Name this layer "BLUR". Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur with the following proporties: Radius=2.5-4 (whatever looks best for your image).


(click the image to make it bigger)

20. You're done! You can add graphics and text and make your image look very nice. Your final product should look something like this:

Glossy Navigation Bar

In this very easy Photoshop tutorial we’ll be learning how to design a nice, sleek navigation bar that you can use on your website design. This is a beginner tutorial, so if you’re an intermediate or professional Photoshop user, I’m not sure you’ll be learning from this

1. Create a New Document

First, start by making a new document in which you can make this sleek navigation bar! (I used a regular template size of (800×1000, but you might want to use a much smaller size for this tutorial.)

2. Create the Bar

Start by creating a new layer. Now make a selection inside of your document, fill your selection with #52A1C4.

Now please apply the following Gradient Overlay in the blending options/layer styles:

3. Add a Glossy Shine

Create a new layer and select the main bar layer (CTRL + Click layer thumbnail) now contract the selection down 1 pixel by going to Select > Modify > Contract in the menu.

After contracting the selection, find and get out the Gradient Tool () and set the gradient to Foreground to Transparent gradient

From the top of the selection make a gradient into the middle area like so:

Now a much smaller gradient at the bottom:

Change the layer mode for your gradient layer to Overlay, and lower the opacity if necesary.

4. Adding some Text

For the text I used: Tahoma, 11 pt, Bold, White with a 100% Drop Shadow as shown in the below image:

My finished product:

Thanks very much for reading everyone! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, even if only a little bit.

Fire Text Effect

In this photoshop tutorial we are going to create a Fire Text Effect.

Step 1: Let's start.

Step 2: Fill the background with black. Select the type tool and create a white text.

Step 3: Go to Filter> Blur> Gaussian Blur and apply these following setting:

Step 4: Now create the flames, select the smudge tool and choose 17px soft brush. For strength, select about 80%. Check the "Sample All Layers" checkbox.
Open the Brush pannel and use these following setting:



Now create a new layer, then smudge the top of the letters and other areas to create a flame effect.

Step 5: Click on the Adjustment Layer button at the bottom of the layers pallete and select Color Balance.



Set the Midtones, Shadows and Highlights Settings:

Midtones Setting:



Shadows Setting:



Highlights Setting:

Step 6: Now, create a new text layer on top of that fire layer using exact same font and size as you did in the first step, but this time, use black for the color. Place this text layer on top of the fire.

Step 7: In the final setup set the new text layer's blending mode to 'Overlay'.

Here's is the Final Result!:

Water Drops Effect

One of the effects that has always grabbed my attention in photoshop is water. I am going to show you a cool an quick water effect.

Step 1:First we need to create the water drops. Open up our usual 500 x 500 pixel canvas. Go to the channels palette and create a new alpha channel. Then apply Filter => Noise to the channel. Below are my settings.

Step 2:Now, We are going to blur that layer. So go to Filter => Blur => Gaussian Blur and use a radius of 3 - 4.

Step 3:Then go to Image => Adjustments => Threshold. Move the slider so you have an even distribution of white and black in the image. See my image below for a guide. Keep in mind that the white areas will be your water drops so adjust this according to how many drops you want.

This is my setting:

After Threshold setting your images looks like below.

Step 4:In this setup we are going to hit the image with another Gaussian Blur. This time use a setting around 6.5 - 7.5. Then apply the threshold adjustment to it again. You will see the water droplets starting to appear (the white parts) so adjust your threshold until you are happy with the amout and size of droplets. Then apply the Gaussian Blur filter one last time with a low setting of around 1.5. You should have something like this so far.

Step 5:Now since we have some jagged edges we are going to apply a levels adjustment. Go to Image => Adjustments => Levels or Press Ctrl + L to bring up the levels adjustment box. Drag both the left and right sliders in toward the center slider. Do this until you feel the jaggies are gone.

Step 6: OK, now we have our drops so the fun part starts. If you ever wanted a cow pattern then this would be the place to stop. First go back to your layers palette and create some text. A large thick font will work best here. Then duplicate the text layer and hide one of them (just in case we need to come back to it later). Select the duplicate and go to Layer => Rasterize => Type. We do this because we are going to need to distort the text soon and it needs to be rasterized first. Also, while you are in the layers palette, create a background so we can see the water droplets on it. Used a blue to purple gradient.

Step 7:Create a new layer above your text layer. Go back to your channels palette and Ctrl + click on the water drop alpha channel. This puts a selection around everything that is white. Then go back to your layers palette and fill the selection with white (Make sure your new layer above the text layer is active). Your image should look pretty close to mine so far..

Step 8: Now, drop the fill opacity of the water drops layer down to around 30%. This is located in the top right of the layers palette (It says "Fill: 100%") if you have PS 7. If you're using version 6 it is tucked in the main screen of the layer styles dialog box. Also, change the blending mode of this layer to 'Soft Light'. Then, double click the water drops layer and add a Bevel and a contour layer style. Use the settings in the screenshots below.

Step 9: Almost done. Now we just need to make it a little more lifelike. In real life, if the water drops where on top of something it would distort the view of what is below them. The text here is no exception. So make the text layer active and Ctrl+click on the water drops layer to bring up its selection. Again, make sure the text layer is active though - we only want to affect the areas of text that the water drops are on top of. Then go to Filter => Liquify (this is why we rasterized the text layer earlier). Selected the Warp tool which is the default, 64 for brush size, and 50 for Brush Pressure. Then just barely click on each area under the droplet and pushed it to the right quickly. We are just looking for a little distortion here so don't go crazy. This took me a few times to get it right so if you apply it and don't like it just undo and go back.

Step 10 (Final): Thats pretty much it. Added a hard edged drop shadow layer style to the white text and here is what we came up with.