Using Light and Shade to Bring Text to Life
Nov 6th in Text Effects by Collis
The best book I've ever read on drawing is one called Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. After reading it, I'm still pretty bad at drawing, but I did learn a lot about light and shade. In this tutorial we are going to take some very basic principles of light and shade to make a rather impressive-looking text effect.
Light Sources
So before we start the tutorial, here is a little diagram about how light might hit an object. Here we have a square object in the middle with light coming from the top left. You can see that where the light hits the object, a shadow is cast on the other side. Note that the shadow is not a Photoshop drop shadow, which makes the object look like it's hovering above the canvas. Here we want the object to look like it's a three dimensional thing stuck on the canvas, extruding if you like. Now tell me what other Photoshop tutorial site gives you diagrams? It's like being back in school!
Step 1
We begin the tutorial by drawing a subtle Linear Gradient from dark grey to darker grey. Note that because we want our light to come from the top left, that's where the lighter part of the document is.
Step 2
Now we place some text. I've used a very cool font called Agency FB, which has a condensed, hard-edge feel to it. You should make the text a grey-ish blue color - #c2c8d4 to be precise.
Step 3
Next Ctrl-click the text layer and create a new layer above it. In the new layer, with that selection still held, draw a linear gradient of #495a79 to transparent from bottom right to left. So in other words you are darkening the bottom right as shown.
Step 4
Set your foreground color to Black (you can do this by pressing the letter 'D' on your keyboard which restores the defaults).
Now Ctrl-click the text layer again and create a new layer beneath the text layer. Now press the down arrow on your keyboard once and the right arrow on your keyboard once. Then press Alt+Backspace to fill it with black. Then press down and right again one time and fill with black. Each time you will be moving 1px right and 1px down. You should repeat this process about 30 times (which is why it's important to use Alt+Backspace instead of the Fill tool).
Note also that to move the selection but not the fills when you press your arrow keys, you have to have one of the Marquee tools on. If you switch to the Move Tool (V) when you press down and right you will actually move the black fill as well as the selection and will just be filling the same pixels over and over.
Step 5
Here's what you should now have. Now deselect and make sure you are on the shadow layer, then go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur and use values of -45 degrees and a distance of 30px.
Step 6
Set your shadow layer to Multiply and about 40% Opacity and then hold down Shift and press the down arrow and then the right arrow. This will move your object right and down 10px each (Shift tells Photoshop to go 10px at a time instead of 1). Now you may have some of the blurred parts of the shadow sticking out to the top and left of the object. If this is the case, grab a small soft eraser and gently erase away anything which shouldn't be shaded (remember the diagram at the beginning).
Step 7
Next duplicate the shadow layer, hold Shift and move it down and right again. Then run the Motion Blur filter again with a distance of 50px this time and set this layer to Multiply and 20% Opacity. This is just to give our shadows more of a trail off.
Step 8
Now create a new layer above all the other layers, hold down Ctrl and click the main text layer to select its pixels and back on your new layer fill the selection with White. Don't let go of the selection just yet though. Instead press down and right one time to move 1px away and then hit Delete.
Set this thin white line layer to about 80% Opacity.
Step 9
As you can see, the thin white line gives a sort of highlight effect where the light source is hitting the text and gives the impression that the text is more three dimensional.
Step 10
Next we want to create some streams of natural light. Create a new layer above all the others and draw four or five white rectangles approximately similar to those shown (i.e. getting fatter as they go down).
Step 11
Now press Ctrl+T to transform and rotate and enlarge the rectangles as shown. Now normally you'd press Enter when you're finished, but this time don't let go just yet. Instead, right-click and you will get a pop up menu showing you other types of transforms you can do. Choose Perspective. The reason it's important to do this in one step is so that you don't lose your bounding box. So take the top left two points and bring them closer together so that the light appears to be coming from one place and spreading out.
Step 12
Here we have our four strips of "light." Now set the layer to Overlay and 20% Opacity and then go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and give it a blur radius of 6px.
Step 13
You should now have something that looks like this.
Step 14
Now since those thin strips are meant to be light, it would make sense if our highlight layer only showed up where the light was hitting right? So Ctrl-click the light layer and then click on the highlight layer from earlier, then while the selection is still on, click on the Add Layer Mask button (it's the one at the bottom of the layer palette to the right of the 'f' icon). This will create a Mask that only shows the highlight layer where the light overlaps it.
Step 15
So you could stop here; it's already looking pretty good, but we'll finish this effect off by adding some warm lighting.
Step 16
So first of all create a new layer just above the background and fill it with a pinkish color - #9d506c.
Step 17
Now set the pink layer's blending mode to Colour and the opacity to 20%. This gives our background a nice reddish-warmth. Over the top of this we can now mix in some yellows. If we don't put in the reddish cast underneath, the result comes out looking overly yellow and not particularly real.
Step 18
Next we create a layer just above the pink. Fill it completely with white and then go to Filter > Render > Lighting Effects. I don't often use Lighting Effects, but it does have one very cool preset called the Two O'clock Spotlight, which you can select by going to Style at the top and looking through the options. You can pretty much use this as default, but for our purposes it helps to extend the ellipse to make it a little longer (i.e. the spotlight is a little further off).
Step 19
Now we set the lighting layer to Overlay and you have something like shown below. Now duplicate that layer, move it above all the other and set it to 40% Opacity. This makes sure that our warm lighting is also interacting with the text and not just the background.
Conclusion
Finally, we duplicate the top lighting layer one more time and set it to 65% Opacity, then click the Add Layer Mask button on the layers palette again and draw a linear white to black gradient from top left to bottom right. This makes the extra lighting layer fade off as it goes down right.
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Devon Lumsden November 6th
This is a real great tutorial I ‘ll have a try and show you what i come up with
( )PiticStyle November 6th
Beautiful! Thank you!
( )Jim November 6th
Pretty interesting, now if I could only find a practical design concept… Keep posting guys! These are really helpful!
( )Jimmy November 6th
Grt Tut.keep up the good work.good to see that you make us see the basics too.:)
( )Thanks
Colin November 6th
i love render lighting effects! very nice!
( )mygrads November 6th
wow, this is great!
( )Livingston Samuel November 6th
Wonderful work! Your site rocks.
( )rpleh November 6th
Wow! Amazing work as always!
( )Marko Novak November 6th
Now, that’s a nice tutorial. It’s helpful and can be used for many things. Keep up the good work.
( )OliMX November 6th
This is good stuff on Back to Basic
( )Jason Zhong November 6th
It’s great work! I’m very like it. Thank you so much . ^_^
( )Jeffrey November 6th
very nice
( )Mark November 6th
Yet again great tut Collis. Easy and simple to follow. Keep up the good work!
( )CAMBRIDGE WEB DESIGN November 6th
Very nice indeed - Thank you for sharing your technique!
( )James November 6th
Oooohh… pretty…
( )Zenor November 6th
Great one,as always.
( )Thanks.
chandan kumar November 6th
awesome again.
( )Dane -Touchdreams November 6th
Aw this’s great! Gives me some ideas a lots of new techniques I’ve never done before. I particularly like the way you’ve done the motion blur for the text’s shadow, very nifty trick that
( )Gregorio November 6th
Amazing! You’re tutorials are really cool, thank you
( )Dane -Touchdreams November 6th
A trick I love to use, esp in metal-looking text like this, is to make the text seem to be slightly higher at the middle than the top and bottom. To do this I set a gradient layer above the text layer and set it to overlay (must have a mask allowing it to only affect the text). I set the gradient’s top colour to just lighter than 50% gray and the bottom just darker than 50% gray. Works wonderfully with the text you’ve made in this tut!
( )Zeb November 7th
Very nice tuto ! very good job
( )Michael November 7th
Again, a very well thought out and constructed tutorial.
I’m wondering though how a comparison between some of the built-in features of Photoshop, with regard to shadows and embossing for edge highlights, and your exemplary work here would pan out. (i just might give that a try…
)
As always though, it’s your complimentary/finishing touches that make your ‘pieces’ so pristine.
thanks!
( )Ryan November 7th
Looks cool,
however I don’t think the shadow of the text works as its perfectly straight where as the light beams have been distorted with perspective.
Would look better if you distorted the text shadow as well (steps 5-7)
( )Marc November 7th
No way that just rocks. I didn’t know digital shading on text could look so nice. Thank you!
( )jizi November 7th
awesome tut!a big cup of coffee 4 you
( )Jeff November 7th
I friggin’ love this site. It’s the little things in these tutorials (like the 1-pixel white highlight trick) that I really love. Keep up the great work.
( )IhateDesign November 7th
Your tutorials are amazing! thanks for sharing your acknowledgments with us!
Cheers from CHile!
( )Alen November 7th
Nice as always.
( )bart November 7th
Best PSD site i have ever see! Go on
( )Rachelle November 7th
Would you recommend using this type of text treatment for print work?
( )Ross November 7th
I’ve learned a ton from your site and have started to brag about you to friends. Thank you.
( )Grace Smith November 7th
Collis can i just say you are an absolute photoshop genius!
( )Sandro November 7th
Great tut! I like you little nice touch with the layer mask..
( )handx November 7th
Collis, may i know what book you always u to get inspiration to do all this tuts??..tell us if u dont mind bro.
Hey, i always here since FSW open in April
( )handx November 7th
OPss..missing word —- Always used*
( )Joefrey Mahusay November 7th
Wow! Awesome tut. Great job again !
( )Yao November 7th
So fine.. thanks
( )Gregorio November 7th
AMAZING Tut, Thank you so much, I learn a lot from you, Cherss from Venezuela.
( )This is the one a made:
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/5708/domigc2.jpg
Kris November 7th
I think if you said what size/res your document was, or your font size, it would be helpful. Sometimes it doesn’t matter, but in this case different values get a very different effect.
Great one!
( )Andrew G. November 7th
You are amazing, thank you so much for all the knowledge you share. I, personally feel very grateful for everything you show us.
( )Ali Salem November 7th
I come here everyday to check for new stuff! Wonderful job…Keep it up!
( )Bakaburra November 7th
I tink this is one of the better tutorial´s blog i have visited. Very clear, organized…elegant….mmmm i love it!
( )CONTINUE WITH IT, PLEASE!
Vinit November 7th
Yeah its good tutorial ……..site rocks………
( )Harry November 7th
Hey after following lots of your tuts(GREAT by the way) i want to know why my gradients look so clearly steped, where yours are fluid and clear. Why?
( )Polo November 7th
Cool work, thanks !
( )Beawolf November 7th
Hi
Sorry to ask this in the responses (although I still think all your tutorials rock) but how do I get ahold of you. I need to ask you something about the compass tutorial you did awhile ago please.
B
( )Kluke November 7th
Great tutorial! Thank you so much!
( )I just used it right now at work, and it’s just save my life:)
clint November 8th
Great tutorial, thanks a lot!
( )Britney November 8th
Was this tutorial done on a Mac or a PC? Many of the commands such as alt click and hit the up arrow once and the right arrow once, did not work on my mac pro and I am using CS3 Design premium. Maybe I have different settings, I don’t know. I would love to learn how to do this effect without all the keyboard “shortcuts.” Very cool effect that I would really like to use!
( )Don November 8th
Awesome tutorial. Loving the site.
My outcome:
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q195/Divius/Divius.jpg
( )xcarpatti November 8th
wow esta exelente el tutorial, ya intente hacer y no me quedo muy bien pero ya lo ire mejorando, gracias!!!!
( )eduardo November 8th
Muito bom… =)
( )Mark November 8th
This is awesome…nice work psdtuts.com, great job very cool- its very clean tutorial and discuss step by step.
( )Thanks and great job again.
jerry November 8th
very nice tut!
There is what I got
Check it out , kinda modified, but still.. shade, huh ?
http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/8974/shadevy2.jpg
( )Hendrik November 9th
very nice effects again!
best ps tutorial site for sure
see my result here (hope the tags work):
( )[img]http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/7610/shadeqw2.jpg[/img]
Hauff November 9th
Very very nice tutorial! =)
Now that’s a real Psdtuts.com style!
Thanks!
( )Tom Goff November 9th
I do a lot of carved signs and would like to be able to show customers what their sign might look like on paper. Do you know of, or have a tutorial that could take lettering and make it appear to be carved?
( )Thanks,
Tom
Nature Wallpaper November 9th
beautiful and very easy tutorial, I think shading is crucial and adds depth to images and text even for simple documents or designing websites/ advertising material. Also that is a nice font. Thank you again!
( )psfan November 9th
Thank you, thank you!
( )Jacob November 9th
Very nice.. Do you know where I can get the font you use (agency fb) ???
( )Derrick November 9th
Awesome!
( )Yuji Tomita November 9th
Hey I absolutely love every single tutorial here.
Just though i’d mention that since every other bit of this tutorial is “spoonfed” you might want to add that you not only extend the 2 o clock shadow but rotate it to 10 o clock. Love your stuff.
I’m always excited for the next one..
( )Omar November 9th
Collin,
You’re great, man!
Really thanks for your great efforts, and for all your tutorials posted here! Very useful and inspiring!
Cheers
( )Omar November 9th
ps.: and sorry about mistyping your name in my post above
( )Wasted November 9th
Very Cool. I am a Web & Graphic Designer since 2000. But I learned shading againg. Thank you …
( )ndogh November 9th
woww, thanks for your support design world by guiding us with this
( )tutorial
blablah November 9th
Wow, great tutorial!
One of the few tutorials which i actually enjoyed doing
Thanks!
( )Polaris November 10th
It’s a great TUT! I want to ask you if I can use this tutorial for my forum if I credit you and your site!
( )moosa November 10th
Thank you
( )It’s very buteful
Malte Hansen November 10th
Seriously, the tutorials on this site really is beautiful!
Alot of tut sites makes tutorials just to make tutorials, but you make tuts because you want to show us how to make something that looks really cool…
Thx alot for THAT !
( )kaori November 10th
thank you for sharing this tutorial. I will definitely try it. I actually haven’t thought of applying this kind of shade to my designs (actually just I just mess around with drop shadow) again thank you and hope to see more of your tutorials!
( )YouON November 10th
nice simple things are not really simple to imagine, great tutorial!
( )zoe November 10th
i like this, great job
( )Sonny November 11th
ok , i tryd over and over again this … shit happens … could someone please add me and tell me wat im doing wrong … coz i really dont get wat im missing
(locaits8@msn.com)
( )Mac Dub November 11th
Nice one! You make it really easy for a beginner to make some great art. I agree with what Kris said about the canvas and font size tho. It really does make a difference in some of these tuts like the transparent glass effect. In the end it’s the way you get there though, right?
Cheers
( )eshark November 13th
Brilliant! amazing results.. great tutorial. Bravo!
( )cchana November 13th
An excellent article. some of the tips are very useful. I will be trying this one out!
( )Brendon November 14th
This is the greatest tut site of them all. I really like the fact that you give us tutorial-seekers the theory that can make our art great!
( )Khoa November 14th
well, It’s damn good.
( )Paz November 14th
No less than 3D, its lovely!! Keep it up.
( )Mei November 15th
Great tutorial!
It really shows that with some hard work, you can achieve effects far in advance of the default layer styles.
( )sideshow November 16th
WOW!!! What an awesome tut! Great work!!!
( )Tommy Day November 16th
Awesome tutorial! It reminds me of the King Kong titles in the remake a couple years ago!
( )IsmetM November 17th
Beautiful effect and I’ve got several uses for this. Many thanks
( )Marty November 17th
This is a fantastic tutorial. Much learned…much appreciated.
( )Free Icons November 18th
Fantastic.
( )Thanks for sharing!
deezul6 November 18th
I get to step 18 but cannot choose lightning effects as an option. It only gives me the option to choose lens flare and fiber. What am i doing wrong?
( )Krzycho_666 November 18th
Oh my Godness! The final effect rocks! I can’t find any words to describe how good it realy is!!!
( )Sangesh November 18th
The effects on are really awesome. Just outstanding.
( )Brandon - Call Center Consultant November 21st
Amazing! I sent your tutorial to my designer to use for our logo of the site redesign he’s doing.
( )featherstone November 21st
Thanks form Vietnam!
( )Vasudeesha November 21st
Good one…
( )zoel November 21st
amazing!
( )Muhammed shaheel November 21st
Marvellous ! Genius
( )swapnil November 24th
the best text tutorial ever
( )swapnil November 24th
keep posting such great things man.
( )ptamaro November 25th
Wow, the final result is fantastic — really nice work. Lots of really nice tricks and effects. Thanks!
( )f0vela November 25th
Really great tutorial, i follow every step and got an amazing result
( )Keep the great work
lizardboi November 27th
Nice one man. Basic knowledge on lighting is allways usefull, i really like how you put there drawing essencials, not just “push this button twice” tutorial. Keep up!
( )Lucas (wydblog) November 28th
Thank you very mach, this tutorial is great! spectacular! xD!
( )Arthur November 29th
Hey,
( )amazing tuts!!!!
its a great effect to give the writing something else!!!
congrats!!!
omodudu November 29th
Seriously you are make me look brilliant at work.
( )kgv November 30th
I’m kind of new to ps, I’ve been trying to this tutorial, but it seems this might be a little different using CS3?
( )Sabaj December 2nd
Great effect… I just wish Adobe PS could do this 3D shadow-effect filter the way you did!… I’ve been asking for years…
Thanks for a great tutorial!…
( )seán mongey December 2nd
Nice Easy to follow tutorial.
Thanks for sharing your expertise.
( )Dieg December 2nd
Amaaazing! Thanks!
( )MaxHeadshot December 3rd
From where I sit, this is one of the premiere Photoshop tutorial sites out there. Elegant interface, precise instructions, and high end product. I roll in on a regular basis and haven’t been disappointed yet. Keep up the exceptional work.
( )Filischi December 7th
I don’t like sushi, but i like this tutorial!
( )carlos December 9th
how do you select transparent for a color?
( )jar December 9th
amazing tutorial… great work!
( )shafiu December 9th
nicely done.
( )Luca December 11th
Cool!
( )bruice December 11th
FANTASTIC JOB…………….
( )Victor December 12th
Pure Beauty!
( )Buttoned-Up.com December 15th
Awesome tutorial. Thanks!
( )nolawi December 25th
thanks
( )nice
Rashed December 28th
awesome tut bro. thnx a lot for this. bro i have a lttle prob. i am trying for last 1 hour but am stuch at 1 point. i cant do this step ” Now create a new layer above all the other layers, hold down CTRL and click the main text layer to select its pixels and back on your new layer fill the selection with White. Don’t let go of the selection just yet though, instead press down and right one time to move 1px away and then hit Delete. “.. every time i hit del it deleted the whole white fill and no white small border remains. could you please explain this step a bit elaborately?? i will be really grateful
( )James January 2nd
awesome! heres my attempt
http://img232.imageshack.us/my.php?image=jamesshadowcopyhe2.jpg
( )Mikael January 8th
Looks great. However I’m stuck at step three. Just can’t seem to figure out how to do the
“CTRL-click the text layer and create a new layer above it. In the new layer, with that selection still held, draw a linear gradient of #495a79 to transparent from bottom right to left”
Anyone care to explain further? Thanks
( )wewt January 13th
schweeet
( )LnsazP January 16th
thanksss…
( )excellent show….
locke January 21st
It’s a simple tutorial but it’s veryyy COOLL
( )Ali Yilmaz February 8th
Greattttt. Thanks for sharing.
( )Madiator February 17th
Absolutely mindblowing!
( )Kev February 18th
maybe im just stupid but i always get lost half way through most tuts lol can anyone help plz!
( )Sun_Dragon March 18th
Thank you so much for the tutorials, for every person that work and help PSD, Im so glad to have found the site and I have made a lot of these tutorials, and thanks to that I understood a little more of the software. Thankyou and keep up the good work.
( )bvd March 23rd
ey thanks for your tut
( )it’s great man
kishoreblog April 2nd
PSDTUTS Rocks. Wonderful. Im visiting frequently for new new stuffs.
http://www.kishoreblog.com
( )ro April 3rd
Great tut BUT you have one major FLAW. WHen you write a tut you should explain what your doing instead of just listing steps. Many people, myself included, do not have the same hotkey functions as you do so you must explain the manual way or at the very least say what the hotkeys your using do.
( )jb April 17th
hi, i love your tutorial
but i have a pb at the step #8… “Don’t let go of the selection just yet though, instead press down and right one time to move 1px away and then hit Delete.”
i don’t understand what you mean.. iam french so i have poor english, and i need more explanations please…
( )You mean delete what? the selection? or the last Layer??
Btw, the shortcut “Ctrl-click” to get the selection don’t works for me… with photoshop cs 3.. i can do that with the menu>select>recover the selection or smthing like that…
thanks for the help and keep the good work..
jb April 17th
Okay, i finally found a solution for the STEP 8… it was because there is an error in the tutorial… :S
When he say move to the right and down… just move to up and left (with arrows) then fill the selection with white….and then set opacity to 80%.
Then, you have to move the last layer (#3) (the new one with the white) under the main layer (number 1)
( )Sry if you can’t understand me….
Good luck
Rybaxs April 26th
abi nako simple, dli diay.. grabeh… i’ve tut is was simple, but i realize is wasn’t
( )ferdach April 27th
How do u do step 11 (white stripes) I’m kinda new in PS, btw gj.
( )Martin April 30th
Use the marquee tool to make a rectangle selection and fill it with white
( )Oyen May 13th
Omg.it is easy to read but hard to apply but nice tutorial.Tnx
( )VINAY May 15th
wow… amazing very easy to understand the instruction even a begginer like me can come up with a design like that amazing thx a lot…
( )Akash Takyar May 19th
This is really amazing tutorial. It would be great if someone can post a link to the final PSD.
( )Danijel Lazic May 23rd
Really nice tutorial! Really wonderfull! Amazingly easy to follow and a great result!
( )Thanks alot!
R.R May 23rd
Cool.
I honestly would not have thought to do it this way….or at all really.
Thanks….simple is always the best.
( )Leo June 3rd
Did you see the Haze game site - their default video graphic looks a lot like the designer saw this tut!
( )Shin June 3rd
yeah.. nice on… oh soo savvy..
use to do it all in illustrator then imported to photoshop for the photographic effects.
i heart PSDTUTS
( )David June 10th
Good job.
I was able to follow along, but I don’t think I was able to get that 1 white pixel line. I did exactly as instructed, but if I turn off that layer I don’t see any difference.
Fyi: you forgot to mention to select the move key before doing step 6. I couldn’t do step 6 unless I selected the move tool first :oP
( )Terence June 11th
Like above, I couldn’t do step 6 either.
( )wil June 13th
really good thanks
( )it gave me something to do whilst i was bored
Tehri June 16th
Really Good Tutorial and nice use of shadows..
Thankx.
( )Ancient Wrath June 18th
Oh. My.
Everytime I watch a Tut on this site my jaw hits the ground. Really, REALLY awesome.
Thanks.
( )Sriteja June 18th
Ok., very nice and very cool story
( )Mariko July 16th
Thanks for this great tutorial!
I used the photoshop to make a logo for the first time in my life.
( )Even it’s explained in English i could finish my first work and it looks great ;);)
SERPENTEMX July 17th
WoWOw super awesome. here are my results:
http://img152.imageshack.us/my.php?image=shadedyx9.jpg
( )Oktay Oe. aka kty July 23rd
Beatiful Text Effect…
This is what I got :
http://img29.picoodle.com/img/img29/4/7/22/f_Desktopm_fe337b7.jpg
A cool looking Desktop…
( )btw.. that Docking Station on the top is calles “ObjectDock”
Brynn August 10th
I’m just a beginner and I takes me like a whole afternoon to follow a tutorial like this and come up with similar results, but I learn a lot from it, thanks a lot
I have checked other tuts as well and yours are by far the best and easiest to follow (at least for me).
( )Adrian August 29th
VERY useful tutorial, AWESOME job! Thanks for the tips
( )Daniel ( Sweden ) August 29th
Awesome man, keep up the amazing work!! The world Need people like you.
( )Manu September 11th
Hi all,
I’ve stumble upon this amazing text effect and decided to use it for a logo, but as I’m rather new to photoshop, it seems that there are some basics I do not have yet.
The problem I have is that on step 12 I can not set the layer to overlay because this mode is disabled in the combo box.
Any help for a novice like me will be much appreciated.
Anyway, thank you for this tutorial, the effect is awesome.
( )Dorthe September 12th
I get stuck on step 18. I can’t select the filter “Render/Lighting Effect”. Use CS3. What do I do wrong?
( )Ramazan September 16th
Beautiful! Thank you!
( )Chiefbobo September 19th
Same problem with step 3. When I control + click on the text layer I get the pop-up menu of choices for the layer (i.e. Duplicate layer, rasterize layer, etc.) Does he mean duplicate the layer?? Then he says “with that selection still held draw a linear gradient”, what selection?? At that point in the tut I don’t have anything selected. Does he mean a gradient overlay??
Nice tut but too many steps are what the author was thinking, and not what he wrote. (I think he’s on Windows so some of the keyboard shortcuts don’t match on a Mac. Maybe, I don’t know. I’m confused.) Too bad, I really wanted to learn this one.
( )Chiefbobo September 19th
Help for those stuck at step 3. If you are on a Mac use Apple + Click to click on the text layer (Win Control + Click). And make sure you click on the little box with the “T” in the Layers pallet, not just the whole layer. Otherwise you get the contextual menu and not a selection of the text.
( )geejayoh September 21st
Wow, great tutorial, got a great wallpaper idea out of this. Thanks.
Finished wallpaper http://www.flickr.com/photos/dasavatara/2875005680/sizes/o/
( )Siouxsly September 30th
This was an excellent tutorial. This is one of the very few that I was able to follow to the letter and have the same results. Thank you.
( )blackjak October 3rd
Great tutorial! I had some problems with the “shortcuts” especially with “ctrl+click on the layer”. You should have mentioned that people should click on the thumbnail of the layer and then click select pixels…
Anyway, here is what i’ve done. Used a different font, and changed the lighting a little….
http://nsa02.casimages.com/img/2008/10/03/081003035220620070.png
Thanks again!
( )r4ge October 7th
GREAT very nice tutorial. i love it thanks for the tut!
( )David October 23rd
Dorthe:
Step 18,
Make sure you’ve filled the new layer with White, otherwise the Lightning Effects won’t work. I made that mistake at first too :oP
I finished the tutorial and did fine, but step 3 still does puzzle me:
( )…bottom right to left…
Does he mean from the bottom of the layer or from the selection? and to the left—upper left, bottom left, or diagonally across?
Gaty November 7th
Excellent, really nice! Thanks
( )Just1s November 19th
when I go to step 17 I can’t use blending options, because I get a pop up that says: “Could not complete your request because there is not enough memory(RAM)”. What that means?
( )forpetmenot November 19th
Amazing, Thanks!
( )DemoGeek November 24th
This is just a great text effect…I really love the font and the shade.
( )Yappappeo December 5th
BRAVOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
( )amir December 21st
Absolutely nice…
( )Raoul December 23rd
awsomw tutorial. shame i will have to go over tons of pictures again to add the affect onto them now to improve them all
( )Sukhwinder January 4th
Rocking, It’s really great tutorial
( )MUHAMMAD SHAKEEL January 6th
good and thanks
( )chico January 15th
good
( )Josh Drake January 29th
Absolutely beautiful result! The end text looks really 3D and slick - thanks!
( )joyoge designers' bookmark January 29th
Wonderful work! thanks for tutorial
( )telefony na raty szczecin February 11th
i read it, i try it, i like it
( )lawrence77 February 14th
Collis a genius!
( )MirazTutorials February 15th
A nice effective tutorial i would use a slightly different colour scheme however but thats just my taste on this one.
( )angga February 19th
thanks!! its s very impresive!
( )struky February 20th
thank you!! excellent tutorial.
( )edu March 2nd
thank you, it great
( )I wish you luck
rediiss March 5th
gotta try this! i’m a total newbie, but this looks like i might be able to do it myself!
thanks!!
( )Jehzeel Laurente March 6th
Great! I need to digg this post! yay! The lighting and shadow effect was so realistic.
( )lunakizz March 10th
Awesome, Thanks!
( )Greg March 11th
looks like the script of the pc game “sins of a solar empire”!!! Thanks, looks nice and very awesome; keep on doing Collis, I love your tuts ^^
( )sriganesh March 14th
nice one
( )Jaysone March 16th
This is awesome
( )john March 25th
I love the end product you have made, not easy to follow the tut though so advanced photoshop users only
( )Armen April 11th
I Love it too
( )Blueice March 26th
new to this game.. but step 4 has got me stummped! This is where you Ctrl - click the layer, and move the selection 1px down and right.. however anyone know why i only get ‘Cannot nudge as you must Rasterize the layer first’ what am i doing wrong? PC version btw…
Many thanks to any brave souls that can ease my pain….
( )Freezman April 8th
I’ve got a little trouble, and when I look at others members attempt, I see the same thing.
http://freezman42.free.fr/Images/Vrac/screenshot15.png
See ? The shadow is not the same. Right near the letters, in this tutorial, the shadow appears stronger than it is in my (an other members) creation. By following the step 6 and 7, the result is not the same as in the tutorial. I think there should be 3 shadow layer instead of 2, because in the end of this tuts, we can see that there are 3 level of shadow while there are only 2 in mine…
Uh, and sorry for my english, I’m french.
( )Khaleel April 15th
Great tutorial!!
Thanx !!
( )Lillan April 21st
A really good tut!
( )Tnx
adri_ April 29th
another great tutorial ! thanks !
( )Duraozinho April 30th
This was an awesome tutorial! Really clear, concise, and straightforward. And super easy to follow along. Thanks!
( )Puffy May 3rd
Please help me >:O
@ step 18 - When i add a new layer (blank layer) and go to filt-rend-lighting effect it says that Selected area is empty … And dunno what to do.. fill it with a 0% alpha color or what……
( )Puffy May 3rd
Sry im n00b
Now i know - have to use a white color and the filter will do all the alpha grandients and stuff. Anyway - great tutorial ! Thanx ! (hint: at the small white layer under the original text layer - add some white glow -just a bit- and youll have a nice shader-like glow 
( )jian zhang May 8th
Cool ~
( )thanks for you !
Me May 8th
Very nice,
Awesome, Keep up the good work m8, This is very useful 
And Thx again
( )Sonya May 13th
hI, i’m new too all this, and i couldn’t understand how Step 3 was done. If anyone could explain a bit more, i would really appreciate it.
( )thnks,
The XnK May 15th
If u add in the top layer (that last one with the Layer Mask) a Fiber filter with yellow and black that creates a great effect too. Very very nice tut!
( )Free HD Wallpapers May 30th
Huh !.
( )I have searching for a tute like this for months.
finally found.
Thanks.
Pay Advance June 3rd
Love this tutorial. I am now applying to several of my websites and experimenting with different colors for the lighting. Thanks
( )evo_chic June 6th
Hi, this was a great tutorial, although mine looked brighter for some reason. Can’t figure out why. Anyways, I still learned something.. thanks!
( )Bobby D June 8th
it would be gd if you could actually explain how to do things. We’re not all photoshop nerds. I’m stuck on step 3! Are u supposed keep the Ctrl key held down? How do create a gradient with transparency??!!
( )Katy Simmons June 9th
nice tutorial. I’m a beginner and I’m stuck on step 6 - how do you set your shadow layer to Multiply? wot does this mean?
Any help?
( )IoooI June 13th
I can’t do for step result 4. Please help to show step by step. I’m Newbie.
( )Sameer June 30th
This is very good.
( )