Adobe Tutorial

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:
Ground texture
Water pattern image
Water splash brush

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1280px * 800px with black background. Load the Ground Texture stock image into Photoshop, and select a piece of the ground as shown below
:

Copy and paste the selection onto our document, use a soft eraser to remove the edges and some parts of the ground as shown below:

Add the following 3 adjustm
ent layers on top of the ground texture layer:
Black and White

Levels

Curves

Create a new layer on top and add some cloud effect over the ground with either a cloud brush or the cloud filter – this adds some dramatic effect into it:

Step 2

We will now add some text onto the document – I used the “Freestyle Script” font (should come with Photoshop):

Apply the following layer blending options to this text layer:
Bevel and Emboss

Color Overlay

Outer Glow

and you will have the following effect:

Step 3

We add some water pattern over the text – download the water pattern pack and choose one of the images, select a portion of it with any selection tool:

Copy and paste the selection over the text and set it as a clipping mask to the text layer:

We will go back to the water images and select a piece again, then copy and paste the selection and put it below the text layer, use the liquify filter’s forward warping tool to make it into a pattern as shown below:

This step can be a bit and you will probably need to have a few tries before getting it right. The effect below is the one you’re aiming to achieve:

Step 4

Load the water splash brush into Photoshop and paint some splash around the text, use a soft eraser to fade the edges of the splash for depth:

We will fine tune the colour effect a bit with the following image adjustment layer on top:
Selective Color
Cyans

Whites

Neutrals

Layer mask on the selective colour adjustment layer:

Curves

Layer mask on this curves adjustment layer:

Color Balance


and you will have the following final image: (click to enlarge)

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

Tutorial Assets

The following assets were used during the production of this tutorial.

• Rothenburg Decorative Free Font
• Subtle Grunge Brushes

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Step 1

Before opening Photoshop, install the font Rothenburg Decorative and these grunge brushes.
Open Photoshop and Create a New Document, 1800 x 1300 pixels in RGB mode, 72 DPI and finally then Fill the background with this dark grey color #1f1f1f.

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Step 2

Create a New Layer, name it ‘texture’ and using these Grunge Brushes click a couple of times in the center of the document using a white color. Use different brushes, try to cover the center of the document, varying the textures.

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Step 3

Double-click on the thumbnail of the Layer ‘texture’ to open the Layer Style panel. Into the ‘Blending Options’
Reduce the ‘Fill’ to 0, then apply a ‘Drop Shadow’ and an ‘Inner Shadow’ using these settings. This will give the texture a realistic embossed look.

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Step 4

Click on the ‘Add Layer Mask’ icon, then click Command/Ctrl + (I) to invert it.
Pick a big soft Brush (hardness: 0% – size: 950px) and click in the center of the document. This way the ‘texture’ Layer will be shown only in the center, fading on the edges of the document.

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Step 5

Using the ‘Type Tool’ (T) and these settings, type the word ‘Othello’ or whatever you want. If you can’t see the ‘Character Window" go to Window > Character.

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Step 6

Open the ‘Layer Style’ of the ‘Othello’ Text Layer and apply these settings. Below each step you can find a preview for the effect just added.

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Step 7

Once you’ve modified the Style, click Ok. Now select the word ‘Othello’, using the Type Tool (T). Select everything beside the first capital letter and reduce the kerning to -5 as in the image below. You can find the Character Window under Window > Character.

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Step 8

Duplicate this Layer with Command/Ctrl + (J), right-click on the Layer’s thumbnail and choose ‘Clear Layer Style’. This way the text below matches exactly the one above, and now we can add more effects. My favorite way to work with 2 Layer Styles, is to create a solid base as we did to the first Text Layer, and then add lightings and reflections on the second Layer above. This way you can blend easier the lights and colors with the textures of the Layer below.

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Step 9

Let’s go on, adding a Layer Style to this second ‘Othello’ Text Layer. Double click on its thumbnail to open the Layer Style panel. Set fill opacity to 0 in blending options.

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Step 10

The effect is pretty much done, but we need to make it look crisp and realistic, in this final step. Take a look at the trick with the ‘Stroke’: dropping down it’s Opacity to ’0′ it works almost as a layer mask, hiding the Layer on its edges. A Stroke of 3px ‘Inside’, for example, will hide the Text for 3 px along the edges, revealing what’s below in that 3px range. Once you’ve finished with these settings, click Ok to apply the effect.

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Conclusion

Remember that when you Save the final effect, as a jpg image for example, it may look different, sharper, and more defined overall.