A Slick Supernatural Text Effect

In this tutorial we'll be creating a smoky night effect on text to give it an eerie supernatural sort of feel. It's a good exercise in using the Wave distortion filter...

Author: Collis

Hello! I started Psdtuts+ because years ago reading Photoshop tutorials was how I got into design. You can find me on Twitter or on my blog theNetsetter.

Step 1

The first thing we need for our image is a background. We're going to use a quick star-sky background. There are lots of tutorials around for this effect, and it's actually a simple two-step process: clouds + noise.

So on a new blank canvas, start by choosing a dark blue color - #18323a - and black and then go to Filter > Render > Clouds.

Step 2

Now create a new layer, fill it with black, and go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and use values roughly as shown below.

Step 3

Now that is way too much noise, so go to Image > Adjustment > Levels (or Ctrl+L) and bring those sliders together until you see most of the 'stars' vanish as shown.

Step 4

Now set the stars layer's blending mode to Screen so that the black vanishes and just the stars remain. It's still a bit too even though, so add a Layer Mask to the layer, and with a large fat brush just mask out blobs so that it seems a little less even. See the screenshot below to see the layer mask I added...

Step 5

In this step, I added a radial gradient layer going from the white in the center to black at the edges and set the layer to Overlay and 45% Opacity. The effect is just to darken the edges and it's not an essential step. In any case you should have something like this image shown below.

Step 6

Now we add our text. I've used a font called Cuez_Ver6 which looks suitably strange. If you go to a free font site and look under sci-fi or the like, you'll doubtless find something similar. Actually it's quite unreadable really (especially the r), but who cares, it looks cool!

Step 7

Next we're going to add some layer styles. You can get a sample PSD file at the end of this tutorial, but because we're switching to a pay system for the samples, I'll go through the settings in case you don't want to buy the file.

First I've given the text a Color Overlay of straight black (#000000). Then because the basis of this text effect is a creepy light, I added inner glows. First an Inner Glow as shown below, and then an Inner Shadow with color #54a4ff, blend mode Screen, distance 1, size 2, angle -90', and everything else default.

Step 8

Next we use a textured Bevel and Emboss to give the style some unevenness. You can see the Bevel settings below. The Texture I added is just one of the standard ones that comes with Photoshop that looks like bubbles. And I set the Depth to -79.

As you can see below, this makes the inner glow look a lot more uneven.

Step 9

Finally I added a Drop Shadow and Outer Glow, both set using Screen and the color #008ac5. I used both so that I could make one of them a small glow and one a really spread out glow, so the distances were 10px and 100px.

Step 10

Ok, so here's our text with the Layer Style applied. It's off to a good start, but you can only do so much with Layer Styles, so now we do some good ol' manual effects.

Step 11

First of all, duplicate the text, right-click the layer, and remove the layer styles. Then change the color of the text to a fluorescent blue (#5cdbff). Then press the up arrow once to move it one pixel up. This will give a sort of glow effect as shown below.

Step 12

Ok, this next step is the key step in this tutorial.

Duplicate the text layer with the fluoro blue color. Then go to Filter > Distort > Wave. You can use mostly the default settings, except where it has Scale. I've set this to just 10% and 10%. This will distort the text, but only a little bit. If you leave it at 100% the effect is pretty full-on!

(Note: In the image below, I moved the text down so that it would be clear that I was applying the wave filter to it.)

Step 13

After you have distorted text, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and use a value of 4px. Then set the Opacity to 20%.

In the screenshot below, I've switched off the main text so that you can see the distorted text.

Step 14

Now hold down Ctrl and click on that text layer to select it's pixels and then go to Select > Modify > Contract and use a value of 5px. Then press Shift+Ctrl+I to invert the selection and hit Delete. This should leave a thin wispy looking remnant of your text.

Now switch on the main text layer, and it should look like a tiny bit of smoke coming off the letters.

Step 15

Now duplicate that layer and go to Filter > Distort > Wave and distort this copy even more.

Now repeat this step a couple of times and vary what you do with the wave. So you might want to press Randomize sometimes, or sometimes distort the copy a few times. Also I used a mix of blending modes on the different copies of the smoke. Two of them I had no blending mode set, two of them I used Overlay, and for another two I used Hard Light.

Also it's a good idea to mix up whether they are behind or in front of the text. Remember you want the effect to look like wisps of smoke coming off the letters.

Step 16

Now that we have our small smoke sorted out, it's time to add some bigger wisps.

So again duplicate the fluoro blue text layer.

Step 17

We now apply another Wave distortion, but this time where it has Scale, set the horizontal to 5% and the vertical to 100%. This will make the shapes become very elongated as shown. Once you've applied the wave, just repeatedly hit Ctrl+F to keep doing it over and over again until the text has been completely distorted into long wispy shapes.

Step 18

Once you have a good smoky-looking effect, set the layer blending mode to Hard Light and you should have something similar to the image shown below.

Step 19

Now duplicate that last layer and run a Gaussian Blur by going to Filter > Render > Gaussian Blur with a value of 4px. This will make our layer look a little softer.

After that, get a large soft eraser brush and just brush away some of the bits at the bottom and top so that it fades off as it approaches the edges.

You may also want to repeat these last couple of steps to add more wisps.

Step 20

Here I've removed the bottom of those wisps and added a few more subtle copies. Also I added some extra type above the main text just to make it look a bit cooler.

Step 21

Next I moved one or two of the wispy layers in front of the text so that it looks like the smoke is trailing over the letters. In particular look at the E in super to see what I mean.

Step 22

Finally, to give it a more eerie feel I added a layer above all the others and with a large brush painted some green on top, then set the layer blending mode to Color to make it so that the image is a blue-green coloring. And we're done! One slick, smoky effect!

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User Comments

( ADD YOURS )

Elliott Cost November 23rd

Interesting design. I’ll have to read this more in depth, when I have some free time.
( Reply )
1. Roger Moore November 24th
  
  You will never have free time. Just admit it.
  ( Reply )
2. Piotr January 15th
  
  The thing is the description and process is incorrect, I’ve been sitting here for about two hours trying to get the same out look as the screenshots. Copping everything to its last detail and nothing is coming out the same. This is an incorrect sample/example. There are many small adjustments another person has to do to create the same out look.
  Good idea, just it would be nice seeing every step, and not skipping a step or assuming everyone has the same setting as the original creator.
  ( Reply )
Collis November 23rd

Hooray! First new tutorial since the redesign. And the first one with the new paid system, which I hope works well
Meanwhiles if anyone is a Digger, and enjoyed the tutorial, don’t forget to Digg it: http://digg.com/design/A_Slick_Supernatural_Text_Effect_in_Photoshop
( Reply )
Brian Purkiss November 23rd

That’s incredible!
totally awesome!
thanks!
( Reply )
Jeii November 23rd

wahooooooo…..
GREAT!
( Reply )
Jeffrey November 23rd

preetty cool man, i like the background. The type ewww
( Reply )
Zee November 23rd

That’s really cool….
( Reply )
salman November 23rd

i loved the way u made the sky….
should have used a better font…
( Reply )
Defectiv November 23rd

Another great tut. I’ve only recently discovered this site but what I’ve seen so far looks great!
Nice way to make stars, I can use that for sure
( Reply )
Umberto - Italy November 23rd

diggi’n it!!
Agree with the font choice. Could be better….
Loving the style of the following image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kailoon/2052149762/in/pool-psdtuts/ any ideas for a TUT?
Ciao
( Reply )
Joefrey Mahusay November 23rd

I really love this designed…I’m gonna try this…
Joefrey:)
( Reply )
srinoo November 23rd

WOW what a great tut…..
( Reply )
Tom Sieron November 23rd

Lovely very nice. Keep ‘em coming!
( Reply )
Victor November 23rd

Hi! Really cool tut… This site really has the greatest tuts for PS around the web… and, Umberto… That image is really simple to make… just make a new layer, fill it with a 3-4 colour gradient and change it’s blending mode to soft light or color or whatever looks good… play around with the opacity too …
Keep up the good work!
( Reply )
BogDinamita November 23rd

yeah I agree could’ve chosen a better font. other than that, the way you explain all ‘o them tuts is awesome. thanks for all!!
( Reply )
Thom November 23rd

I’m not at all keen on this tutorial, it just lacks the class and professional feel most other tutorials on this site seem to have.
I like the colours, but otherwise it’s a bit Trekky for me.
( Reply )
handx November 23rd

please make video tutorials..i’m willing to pay $8 per month.
( Reply )
Michael Castilla November 23rd

Pretty sweet tutorial! Has some interesting techniques
@Collis: Ever looked into that Digg Button plugin for WordPress?
( Reply )
Umberto - Italy November 23rd

I’ve been trying it but encountered the following problems:
1. if you work with a large image, the clouds are always too small making it unreal (maybe I’m missing something)
2. adding noise on a big image and then increasing contrast to get rid of some “stars” still leaves you with too many (size of the noise should vary)
again, maybe it’s my fault!
( Reply )
danielMitD November 23rd

I tried to make this tut and it worked very well.
nice work
( Reply )
b00m November 23rd

Nice, but bad font choice
( Reply )
xp1 November 23rd

Hi Coliss,
This is my first comment on your site and content. I would like to say how impressive the content and quality of the tutorials are (no wonder membership is growing fast). This tutorial covers a number of subjects if readers really look into it. The obvious extra being the starfield.
I have only given the tutorial the once over so far but I know I will learn something new. I just had to place a comment somewhere on your site as I think it has the potential to be head and shoulders ahead of the rest that are out there.
Good luck and thanks.
XP1
( Reply )
Jared November 24th

Cool text effect – I like the font, with the exception of the “r”.
Also, a suggestion – I’ve subscribed to the “User+ Community Feed links” via RSS, but I noticed this morning that the feeds don’t have the link in them. So, to get to a user-submitted link, I have to click on “original article” in my reader, come to PSDTuts, then click on the link that I want to see. Is it possible to make the text linked in the rss feed?
( Reply )
trendsettr November 24th

That’s an awesome effect. Thanks!
( Reply )
Zeb November 24th

I digg it ! never mind bad font, people chosen the font who love ! humpf
( Reply )
Dale November 24th

Hi guys great design but i have got stuck a stage 1 lol. I cannot get my clouds to look like the one here mine is very compact in CS3 any ideas guys please??
( Reply )
Lee November 24th

I’ll try and do this on a video tutorial over the weekend ( using iShowU on the Mac ) , but can’t promise anything. I’m nothing to do with PSDTuts except a user and a fan. Will try to give something back
( Reply )
IÃ±igo Beitia November 24th

Good tutorial!
But strangely looks like http://www.artofadambetts.com/weblog/?p=212 ….
um…
( Reply )
Kika November 24th

I love this tutorial. Could you please put a “print” botton so I can follow it off-line?
Thank you!
( Reply )
Pieter-Jan November 24th

OOh my god, a great tutorial again. You rock man!
( Reply )
JK November 24th

Hi, i have a problem, when i’m gonna aply the wave efect in the text, when i select filter, the distor option is lock, what i need to do.
( Reply )
Ollie November 24th

Using the “Add Noise” and then “Levels” does not reduce the noise to anything that looks like stars – in fact it seems to have very little effect even when on the exact same setings as those you are using. Likewise, the clouds are way too small, much smaller and more numerous than yours.
( Reply )
Chip November 24th

Indeed, great tutorial. Great looking space backdrop, also the font is weird, in a nice way. You’re already featured on my blog, http://blog.butterflymedia.ro/, keep up the greatest tutorials on the web.
I really like your Photoshop drawing and FX styles, like smoke, glows, light, gradients, and everything. No detail is left out.
( Reply )
Collis November 24th

Hey All! Thanks for all the comments…
@Kika: There is actually a “print this post” button at the bottom, it’s nestled in with the digg/delicious etc. But I’ll redesign this section soon to make it a bit clearer
@Umberto: If you are working large, try running the cloud filter once and then press CTRL-ALT-F which gives a slightly different version of the cloud effect and should work slightly better. Other than that, you might need to paint some of the cloud sections with a large, soft brush. With the stars, you should follow the same steps but get rid of more of the noise, then duplicate the layer and press the down arrow once so that the ’stars’ are a little bigger (i.e. 2px instead of 1px). You could try duplicating again and running a Gaussian Blur of 1px as well. Anyhow something along those lines will probably help.
@Ollie: I think the reason the noise isn’t changing is to do with the settings when you apply it. Actually I’m not sure, but I know the problem you’re talking about because it happened to me once too, it was like when I adjusted levels either everything disappeared or nothing disappeared. Hmm, i’ll have a think!
And for everyone who hates the font, you’re probably right, it is a bit of a weird font, my wife walked past when I was making the tutorial and said the same thing, but I still think its kinda cool
( Reply )
Michael November 24th

again.
you’ve done it yet again.
you’re ability to ‘create an environment where learning can occur’ gets better with every tut.
( Reply )
eL November 24th

I had the same problem as Umberto – Italy with a 1920×1200 background
( Reply )
Collis November 24th

Meanwhiles I’m glad the site is coming up again, for a while the digg load was unbearable. I guess I’m going to have upgrade the server … again
( Reply )
angry mango November 24th

$2.50 is too much in my opinion. Make it a buck, just like an iTunes song and I’d buy it in an instant.
( Reply )
kemic November 24th

you guys are missing the point about the font choice. who cares. its a tutorial. a very nice one at that. thanks!
( Reply )
PixlNinja November 24th

Nice one I really like that fog/smoke like effect in the text’s background.
Thanks psdTuts
( Reply )
Jason November 24th

I actually like the font. But I can’t seem to find it anywhere I go. I would like to use it on a project that I’m working on.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
( Reply )
Pristine November 24th

Collis, this is completely OT, but I’m wondering what plugin you use for internat site searching. Cheers!
( Reply )
Siddhartha November 24th

I simply love your site. Its absolutely amazing because u guys really maintain the level of all tutorials unlike most other tutorial websites. Great going !!!
( Reply )
Zach November 24th

Methinks readers do not car for your font. I guess that haven’t heard that we have the ability to change fonts with a few clicks of the button. Oh well. Another great tutorial.
( Reply )
Zach November 24th

Jason,
Try http://www.dafont.com They have a lot of really great fonts.
( Reply )
j-man November 24th

I gotta say I don’t care for the pay for source thing. I think there are probably other good ways you could offer up the content cheaply (bittorrent perhaps) at least at first until traffic begins to die down.
As for the tutorial itself, I found the star field part to be much more useful than the text itself.
( Reply )
Garrett Leyenaar November 24th

Another great tutorial…Dude, PSDTuts is the best I’ve ever seen around.
( Reply )
Jason November 24th

Thanks Zach. For some reason I forgot about dafont. I found a great alternative for my project.
( Reply )
Stefan Poulos November 24th

Nice tutorial. This was one of those happy mistakes where I was just turning layers/masking on and off. Instead of the flourescent blue text, I had white text with a gradient mask. Here’s what happened when I simply turned off the entire black text layer (with all the layer effects)….
http://poulosdesign.com/transit/supertheo.jpg
( Reply )
robert November 25th

Hey great tutorial, have to say I really liked the darker design, this one is cool but the other one was amazing
( Reply )
Adi November 25th

Hi,
Please looking on image in this tutorial:
http://www.computerarts.co.uk/tutorials/2d__and__photoshop/make_the_most_of_opentype
Please writing tutorial: 3d logo create only photoshop and this logo perspective.
( Reply )
D McMehan November 25th

I feel like an absolute idiot, but I can’t get the first step to work. The clouds come out whitish.
Help would be great.
-nOOb
( Reply )
D McMehan November 25th

Nevermind.
: D
( Reply )
sturdy November 25th

Fantastic effect! Very simple and beautiful! Congratz!
( Reply )
Dennis Plucinik November 25th

Collis you’re a genius.
( Reply )
bLuefRogX November 25th

If you’re looking for integrating a premium section, I could probably help you implement that. Just drop me an email sometime
( Reply )
Erin November 25th

I got all the way through, but couldn’t get my wave-distorted words to smokify properly. I guess practice will make perfect! I’ve been using photoshop for about 4 years by the way and never thought to do some of the things you’ve done in this tutorial with setting layers to ’screen’. Nice!
Thanks!
( Reply )
Nawabz November 25th

Hay are you guys kidding, the font falls in when you see the image as a whole. tried it. i liked it and the end result.
( Reply )
Gery November 25th

Very very great tutorial!
cool
lg>Gery
( Reply )
Tama November 26th

Awesome tut, thank you! might be helpful!
( Reply )
mohamed November 26th

Fantastic man
( Reply )
mohamed November 26th

cooooooooooooool
( Reply )
Umberto - Italy November 26th

@Collis!
Thanks man!! I’ve been experimenting a bit and for far more realistic clouds I used some brushes insted of the cloud effect, then, for the stars usually I choose a round soft brush changing constantly size according to the pen pressure, then add a glow (usually light gray) and the stars ROCK! Also great to create SNOW!!! Try it!
Thanks again.
( Reply )
JK November 26th

Hi, i have a problem, when iâ€™m gonna aply the wave efect in the text, when i select filter, the distor option is lock, what i need to do.
( Reply )
mr_semsim November 26th

Very cool effect
( Reply )
Sajay November 27th

Hi this one is really awesome and pretty easy too,, great work…
( Reply )
Holiday Rentals November 27th

Very nice effect, Can use this for sure. I have dugg it as cannot afford 2.50
( Reply )
Muphin Man November 28th

This is very hard to follow due to the fact that the pictures do not show all the Layer Styles that he applied to the text, but other than that I have to say it was a very good tutorial.
( Reply )
krazy3 November 28th

Awesome effect. As usual, mine don’t turn out as nice as yours, but it still looks good
There’s also a really good tutorial on starfields here: http://gallery.artofgregmartin.com/tuts_arts/making_a_star_field.html
–Not sure if I can post this, but feel free to edit if I can’t
( Reply )
Mark Abucayon November 28th

Wow two thumbs up for this tutorial- great work done.
Thanks for this.
( Reply )
JN November 28th

Great tutorial, thanks again!
( Reply )
Matthew November 29th

Brillian Tutorial! Thanks for all the work you put into this!
( Reply )
mauricio November 30th

Great tut !!! i did it yesterday and i really liked it, here is the link to mine, i didnt put the last text, and i used a different font.
http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/9406/texteffectgu4.jpg
( Reply )
Jenny November 30th

That is an awesome tutorial. When I get my new photoshop I’m gonna try it with a layout idea I have.
( Reply )
SirJuish November 30th

Excellent tutorial, but i’m not so sure of the font choice.
Thanks for the tut. it’s appreciated!
( Reply )
Nate Spees November 30th

great! loved it
( Reply )
Kevin H November 30th

I love this site, and I think the tutorials are top-knotch, but I have one suggestion.
Could you maybe include the pixel size of the document or at the least the point size on the type. The noise filter at 26% looks a bit different on a letter sized document at 300 ppi that it does at 72 dpi. An inner shadow with a distance of 1 pt. on 36 pt. type isn’t the same as it is on 150 pt. type, or 12 pt. type.
( Reply )
Gabriel December 1st

Hi Collis,
Thanks for this awesome tutorial.
I could make it better but I’m still 13 years old and a Newbie in PS.
When I increase my skill I will try it again.
( Reply )
Sheryl December 1st

Just like everyone else, I love this tutorial and the site in general! I couldn’t get the text to “smokify” either, at first. However, if I did Step 14, and then Steps 12 and 13, I was fine. I believe it went like this:
Duplicate the text layer with the fluoro blue colour.
Change the color back to white (I had created the blue color via the Color Overlay option, so I right clicked on this latest layer to bring up the context menu and then clicked on Clear Layer Style.)
Click on the shift key and with the magic wand tool select each letter (you’ll get marching ants around each one).
Go to Select > Modify > Contract and use a value of 5px. (I think it’s here that you’re told you have to rasterize. Do so – go to the main menu and click Layer>Rasterize. If you’re not told to do it right here, do it when the message box comes up.)
On the menu bar, click on Layer>Inverse to invert the selection, and hit DELETE.
Then change the color back to the neon blue. (Double click on the layer – being sure you’re not clicking on the name of the layer – to bring up the Layer Style dialog box, go to Color Overlay, and put the color in again.) Click Ok.
On the main menu bar, click on Filter > Distort > Wave. Set the scale settings to 10% and 10%, per the tutorial.
Go through Step 13.
Go on to Step 15 and continue on from there.
By the way, I’m working in Photoshop CS2.
( Reply )
Diego December 1st

Great Job!! In spanish and with other font: http://www.diegomattei.com.ar/2007/11/26/efecto-de-texto-supernatural/
( Reply )
Zach December 2nd

Sweet. I added some lens flares to make it look even better as per the artogregmartin tutorial. It looks really awesome:
supernatural
( Reply )
Matt Mills December 2nd

Works perfect, love it! followed it straight through in order, worked a charm, nice one, keep them coming.
( Reply )
Shystie December 3rd

Very nice tut, thanks. Any chance of posting a download link to the Cuez_Ver6 font, I can’t find it anywhere.
( Reply )
capsz December 3rd

Nice Tutorial!
I combined this tutorials with the one of the meteor.
This is what i came with.
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/6244/meteorcopyih6.jpg
( Reply )
god056 December 4th

Looks like there’s another Greg fan in here
Actually, I stumbled on this site just yesterday and I’m loving every moment I’m in here. This tut gave me a fresh idea on making spiffy smokes in a jiffy I’m loving each and every tuts here.
Only thing is, I’m only using PS7 :p So I do most of the ps’ing manually
( Reply )
Elo December 5th

I went to the dafont site can’t find the curez font, any ideas?
( Reply )
Mary Ann December 5th

I love your tutorials! But.. I agree that you should make them $1 instead of $2.50. I think more people would be interested that way.
( Reply )
Shana December 7th

Where can we get this font? It isn’t even showing up on Google or Yahoo searches.. and no .. it isn’t on dafont!
( Reply )
Someon December 8th

hi,
that is an amazing design, would you please give me a link for the font please.
Thank you
( Reply )
AJ December 8th

I just found out about this site, this tutorial and the one with the shield helped me a lot. I really would like to know how can I help support the site.
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!!!!
( Reply )
Therseus December 10th

Great tutorials… better then most tutorial sites i’ve seen so far.
Keep em coming!!!
( Reply )
Uremine December 11th

it’s very fantasy. I do not understand most of steps, but the image has been shown it all.
-PSBeginner-
( Reply )
Marc December 11th

Great Job! Your Tutorial Inspired Me To Do So Much!
( Reply )
za December 11th

That’s great….
i wanna try this tutorial
thx ^_^
( Reply )
Bobby Sal December 15th

These tutorials are so so so money. Thanks again for conveying the knowledge
( Reply )
naa December 17th

Hmm not all the style settings are shown. sad
( Reply )
Salech December 18th

Great tutorial!
I downloaded the tutorial as it was free and now i can’t find it any more – Damn!
Can you please explain Step 9 with more screenshots or more data.
Thanks
( Reply )
ReCoiL December 19th

Very nice!
Good instructions.
( Reply )
Risk December 21st

Everytime i even attempt to make the coulds, it will not go that colour, even though i enter that coulor before i do the clouds, and if i make the clouds (any crappy colour) the ’stars’ are always there, and theres too many of em.
( Reply )
Jon December 21st

good stuff
( Reply )
Bouwer December 22nd

Wow! Absolut awesome! Nice colors!
( Reply )
Agus Latu December 25th

Awesome trick, Well Done…….
( Reply )
Web 97 December 31st

Wow, that a cool effect.
Its the first time I’ve been to your site. It looks cool
Will be scouting around
Thx
( Reply )
Mendybing Art January 3rd

Hey interesting Turtorial it actually rocks! But i will say no one should stick with the exact rules of some ot the smoke effects. I found it easier to use the paint brush to make sploches than use the unpredictable wave tool…seems eaiser to control. Overall it was my first experience with a tutorial from this site and it taought me some very great info! you can view my take on this at myspace.com/mendybing as well as other pieces ive done. Thanks again These tutorials are taking me into the realm of realizm and away from the enclosed box of photoshop effects.
( Reply )
Fiona January 5th

Fantastic! I’ve just made this into a birthday ecard for a friend.
Your tutorials are a step above anything else out there.
( Reply )
telas January 5th

i liked the smoke effect alot, well done! ill give it a try when i have time
( Reply )
Jan Polzer January 6th

Incredible tutorial, thanks.
( Reply )
CreeWay January 7th

Great !
( Reply )
TheOther January 7th

I just have to say thank you for this wonderfull tutorial!!!
It was insane looking, and i combined it with a phoenix hair tut i found…
So my girlfriend now have phoenix hair, dreamy looking eyes with sparkles, a dreamy environment (supplied by you) and her name written with cool cloudy steamy gassy looking effect!!!
She went crazy!! and all thanks to you
*bows down*
Many thanks from TheOther and his girlfriend =)
( Reply )
oliver January 10th

i tried it effect is really great …..why don u give us some tuts on how to improve an architectural elevation done in max or maya
( Reply )
bunsann kim January 15th

Fantastic deign.
( Reply )
bunsann kim January 15th

It is hilarious. Thanks
( Reply )
smain January 16th

Astonishing… Thanks a lot…
( Reply )
Yamaniac January 18th

Thats the best effect and it was so easy to do…. You rock dude!! Lookin forward for more from you
( Reply )
Anthony January 20th

Every time I get to step 17 it keeps asking me to rasterize and then after I rasterize it tells me the area is empty, what am I doing wrong? =/
( Reply )
ame January 20th

ermm im stuck on step 14 canany 1 help ?
( Reply )
guarrand January 23rd

VERY kewl indeed!
I am not a wizz with PS, but i made a freakishly good logo for my site with this!
Well, its only text without a background (site background is white..) but its far better then my usual “blur, smooth stroke” logo’s
Check it out if you want.. http://glcoti.com and select the Simple Red theme/skin at the bottom.
Thanks again!
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Patrice January 23rd

Nice tutorial man… A bit hard to follow to go trought cause the screenshots weren’t the same as the thing you were explaining. But I got a nice result soo thx !
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photoshop February 4th

very nice tutorial
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et_brazil February 6th

Useful!
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nate February 13th

I liked the font!! this was awesome and used a lot of different processes that could apply to other things. thanks so much for sharing!!
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Fokus February 13th

Here comes mine:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fokuspace/2104779800/
Great art and skills, thank you for sharing it with us.
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Sara February 13th

Very very cool! I enjoyed it a lot!
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raginhart February 13th

great!, i like it
can you please add the link of where can we get Cuez_Ver6
i cant find it anywhere either
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Sarah February 20th

I don’t understand why but when I go to distort the duplicated layer, it says that it has to be rasterized, and once it’s rasterized, I can’t click CTRL to select the text. -sad-
I feel like a noob.
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karan February 21st

Learnt alottttt from these tutorials
they helped me alot!!!!!
Thank you soo muchhhhh!!!!
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web design cheltenham March 10th

especially great for all those star treckers out there lol. nice effect
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Igor Formiga March 13th

Hey!
Congratulations, you’ve just got a new loyal reader!
First time ever I see a tutorials website, with real effects.
I work with Photoshop since 2002, and I’m very impressed!
I’ll sign up here right now
See ya, friend! Igor from Brazil.
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helva March 18th

wonderfull .. very different
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ersin March 18th

thank you .. good.
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GÃ¼venlik March 21st

thank you very good job.
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Ruben March 25th

Hola soy ruben y ese diseÃ±o esta muyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy bieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen soy editor,diseÃ±ador y animador para cualquier videosclips,comerciales,pelicula llamar al 809-599-6551
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sitiseo March 27th

Congratulations to the tutorial and the effect created
Where can I buy font Cuez_Ver6 ?
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akÃ§aoÄŸlu April 1st

thank you for this tutorial.
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proje April 1st

thanks for tips.
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Cow April 5th

between steps 17 and 18, there has to be something extra, I followed step by step, and could never get it to go from fluoro blue, strait to that whispy stuff you have in 18.
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virgel lulab April 7th

wohhhhhhhhoooooo!.. i love this effect!very much thanks.
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harika cocuklar April 14th

woww.. very impressive.. wonderfull thanx.
congratulations!.
.
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ankraj April 17th

congratulations!.
very good tips.
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Rybaxs April 26th

co0l!
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pxlchic May 2nd

Thanks for this….totally using this wispy smoke the way you did it now..quick n dirty!!!
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tribuneral 117 May 5th

fantastic tutorial, ive followed it right through but im having trouble. basically my smoke wisps look garbage, and ive come to the conclusion that its the font that, once distorted, gives the wisps that shape. i cant prove this becuase i dont have that font and cant find it ANYWHERE, not on dafont, not on 1001fonts, no other link on google, or what any other link anyones posted so if u could post it or email it to me that would be great=]
thats pretty much only trouble with this, everything else was a bit of a journey but i still came through to the end, and i cant wait to finish it
i hope u can post some more tutorials mate this and ur advanced glow ones were great although im having trouble with the pen tool on that one :S
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Danny May 9th

Not too fond of the font on this one, but really great effect
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Paulszukerman May 24th

Great site. I’ve enjoyed looking around.
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Jamie Eacott June 3rd

WOW! This Is Absolutely Amazing Work Here…
I Have Tried And Tried Doing This Myself And Not Succeeding In Anyway…
I Need One For My Group Called ‘Violationz’
If Anyone Out There Would Be So kind To Make One For Me….
Please It Would Be A Great Help…
My Email Is JamieE1991@googlemail.com
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jorge June 12th

hi, this design is wonderfull, i did it in 3 hours, thanks for shareing it
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j3333 June 29th

wtf??
Ok – What are you all getting that is keeping me from getting beyond the first part??
Everytime I try to make the original “clouds” with that blue/black combination, I get a black background with white clouds on it.
Please be extremely specific in the tutorials as I simply don’t get what you mean by the initial step of choosing a blue/black and then going to filter-render-clouds.
I’ve spent 1/2 an hour trying to figure out this one step and I’m not a total noob to PS. Frankly, I’m hoping to find work with using it.
Sorry if I seem edgy, but I keep running into these probs with the tutorials. They should never assume that someone just “gets” a step.
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daebat July 9th

Pretty good tutorial. j3333, you have to choose the blue and black BEFORE you render the clouds dummy. There are a couple of areas in the tutorial that just assume you know what you’re doing and if I didn’t have the photoshop background I have, I probably wouldn’t have been able to finish this. Overall I’d say this is rather advanced for a simple text image but I still give it a 9/10. Good job buddy. I rather enjoyed the final.
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edu torres July 9th

saludos esta full todos los tutoriales
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Faiz Parkar July 13th

HI, im new to photoshop. I am trying to get the distort > wave to work. i typed a text, i pressed rasterize on the text layer, and still cant use it. any ideas what im doing wrong?
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Herrry July 14th

Nice work…
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Vero July 20th

hello pretty tutorial Ã±_Ã±
I can make a question what is the name of the typography that you use?
Saludos =)
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Mansoor July 24th

Thanks for Posting.
Excellent Tut.
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mhammed August 3rd

Just like a dream
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shaheen August 10th

sweet,im making one of it.pretty cool
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Lesh0 August 25th

ok frow were can i download the psd ???
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jon August 28th

what font do you use for the smaller text, i realy like that
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Senap August 31st

Jon
It looks like Trojan Pro
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Josue September 4th

I want the font “cuez_ver6″…
I want to download this font..
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rails September 5th

Hey it was gud until step 7
it was fine but after that all went hey-wire
please can u again explain it properly,,,,,
my id
lovingsaten@gmail.com
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GeaH September 8th

Thx for the tutorial, I tried it and it came out awesome.
It’s a lot of people having problems with the cloud effect in large images.
One trick is to mark the cloud layer and choose free transform and link the width and hight and enlarge it to 150-200%
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Bill September 30th

Found another way to make these stars… add noise about 10-20% on a black background, and go image>adjustments>threshold, and drag it just to the beginning of the histogram, and apply gaussian blur (<1 px) and you’ve got some decent looking stars. This was found on: http://www.photoshopatoms.com/tutorials/creating-a-starry-night-sky/
and it worked for me!
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juliano November 4th

Muito bom gostei mesmo!
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fawzan November 20th

awesome …… im gonna try this…good job
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pussen November 25th

I can’t get the “stars” to work, when I put same levels as you it just dissapears and I can’t make em come out as good as you did..
Don’t know what I’m doin wrong since I’m followin the tut step by step, should work imo..
Guess I’ll try Bill’s tip with the stars..
Well, your result was awesome anyway, good job I guess
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Emily December 8th

I can’t get the stars to work either, the levels aways disappear. If anyone can figure this out, please let me know. Nice tut though.
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rtguest December 22nd

What you have to realise is this tutorial was created at 72dpi and so by default the stars and clouds appear as they do in the tutorial but it seems to me everyone is following this tut and creating the image at 300dpi so of course the pixels are much smaller. Therefore for the cloud effect you need to select the clouds background and scale it up and then crop to the page area and the stars are best created with the brush tool and then Alt/Shift and drag to duplicate.
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Buckmajor January 14th

Really awesome bro!
CHEERS
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XanoX January 29th

Thanks for this tutorial, it’s easy to follow, and my result are similar to yours ! Even if i’m a noob with photoshop.
Your the best
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himani January 30th

oh that is vry cool stuff for… how to using the effect in photoshop….
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Widodo February 3rd

Wow… very.. very cool. I like it..
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lalala February 19th

thanks for the tutorial it was easy to follow most of the time however it would have been better if the instructions were a little more clearly
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waqas February 20th

a1 cool
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sachin March 17th

nice man…………….
incredible tutorial
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volc March 25th

useful ,thanks man, great job
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kolitha March 31st

i want atutorial of A Slick Supernatural Text Effect…plZZZ send me
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Jen April 1st

to j333
the blue/black he’s talking about is you change the colors on your main foreground/background to blue and black instead of the normal black/white.
has anyone been able to find this Cuez_Ver6 anywhere?
Collis (author of tutorial) should tell us where he got this font.
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wenkz April 19th

he is not really giving the exact values and instructions so all i can say is that it’s a bit confusing and not really helpful specially to the beginners… When i took a glance to the layer values they are a bit different than to what was being explained in the tutorial.. a bit discouraged since it was not really meant for others to follow such design. I was there and I would say that this work is really great but it would be nice if u would give the true instruction.
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pol May 17th

thank you for this working
sorry my lung. is limited
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tump May 21st

wow keren thanks
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Lea May 27th

That is soooo cool. Thanks heaps for that. It will really help me with some of my stuff.
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xphunt3r May 29th

great collis you are always great
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X52desinuh42 June 6th

ok one the step where it says to “hold down control and click the text layer” for some reason i cant get that to work….probably just me. im using CS4 on a mac. help would be amazing
awesome design by the way
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000 June 8th

i really dont understand ,
Step 9
Finally I added a Drop Shadow and Outer Glow, both set using Screen and the color #008ac5. I used both so that I could make one of them a small glow and one a really spread out glow, so the distances were 10px and 100px.
at this point mine bearly looks any 3D at all and that step dosent make sense cause theres no distance on outerglow were it says to make it 100px
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PWNED July 16th

can i find psd file from this tut ?
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Jason Saba July 22nd

where can i go to buy the psd. And if i do, can i edit the text to make it what i like? and would i need to have the font installed on my computer if i wanted the exact same one as his?
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zei Lee July 31st

its really hard but i really love it! thanks!
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Nick August 13th

actually how Now set the stars layer’s blending mode to Screen so that the black vanishes and just the stars remain at Step 4…i am freshman touch PS
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randiralicorn August 20th

This is great… thanks a lot!
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1. sandy bob October 20th
  
  yeeee , noo probleeemm .
  what diid u think of the courseee ???
  ( Reply )
fraz ali September 20th

it is nice but i dont understand what Step 4. cos im deaf make it clear, add me, email dr.hitman@hotmail.co.uk if you wish to explain to me. thanks
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Urban Legend September 24th

hi
1st thanks for the tutorial its awesome
we i looked everywhere for this font but i couldnt find it
is it the only name this font is called
thanks
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Nokkels September 25th

My first exctual design.
You helpt me alot man.!
Check out my url with the pic.!
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Fatimah-chan September 25th

Very awesome tut >>>> thanx pal
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1. sandy bob October 20th
  
  hahah ,, nooo probleeem im just heree to help mahh peeeps lool =)
  ( Reply )
Mahcus October 2nd

Nice stuff man. Keep up the good work. It was a bit hard to follow but, i got it down. Thanks!
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JITHIN October 12th

THANKS ITS SO NICE AND WE R EXPECTING MORE
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1. sandy bob October 20th
  
  yeeeeeeee indeeeed we arre !!!
  i looooove phootoshoooppp !! =)
  ( Reply )
Eric October 14th

I have done with tutorial,
but there are steps missing.
not only do the images in this tutorial mislead the designer, but they are not correct. i did exactly what this said and still got something different. please correctly add the neccessary steps. for example, Inner Shadow.
dont get me wrong, i loved this tutorial, i just wanted it to look exactly like it.
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1. sandy bob October 20th
  
  thats excately waht happened to me .
  ( Reply )
Carl October 26th

I can’t get the stars to work. As soon as I hit okay after messign with the levels everything disappears and goes back to what it looked like it did before the levels.
Has anyone figured out the problem? I even tried the other tutorial that someone posted and it does the same damn thing.
( Reply )
1. Wade Hudson November 5th
  
  Ye I noticed that too I think its your image size i think anywhere over 1200 X 800 pixels it wont work try lowering the pixels or the resolution.
  ( Reply )
Flying Potato November 26th

if you can’t create the stars, try this:
1. create a new document at the default photoshop size.
2. do steps 2 and 3.
3. then select all and paste it in the supernatural psd as a new layer.
4. transform the layer to make it the size of the supernatural psd.
5. the stars will be blur, so turn the stars layer into a smart object.
6. go to Filters>Sharpen>Smart Sharpen.
7. done!
Hope that helped.
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Shady December 5th

Hey…
Can you please upload the PSD file for this tutorial. Tried about 7-8 times but can’t get the exact results. And yeah I don’t know nothing about Photoshop. Still in the learning stage. Will appreciate your effort.
Cheers
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SmsVar, Sms Gönder, Toplu Sms December 7th

this is thank you..
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Amit.k December 8th

THANKS ITS SO NICE
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yo December 15th

Supep natural?
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Rahidy2k December 25th

VOW……..!
I wondered about this spiritual Work….
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MohtasaUnique January 3rd

I hate your font choice.. It looks like “Supep natopal”, however, the effects are great. Thanks for the share!
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adoule January 11th

nice tut, i love that style. good design.
i try same you
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Abdurrahman January 15th

So pretty good tutorial, thank you
incredible
( Reply )
Keiran January 19th

absolutely fricking brilliant!!!
Thank you so much!
I will not be replicating this, but I will use the idea of the warp filter to create text ghosts/smoke effects on text. Always good to have more tricks up the sleeve when generating text effects.
-k
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Gurrr January 24th

OK Im know im a noob and all, but i get lost in step 7. I dont think its explained very well. “First I’ve given the text a Color Overlay of straight black (#000000).” thats the part that looses me, please 4give me for being such a noob but i need a better explaination on how this sentence explains. I tried to continue on but it looks very different. PLEASE HELP?!
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Rulien January 27th

The font used in this is impossible to find, but there is one site called “space fonts”… there you can find some very similar fonts
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josh January 27th

were can i get the font
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