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Dramatic Text on Fire Effect in Photoshop

Collis on May 31st 2008 with 408 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Program: Photoshop
  • Difficulty: Advanced
  • Completion Time: 1-2 hours
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Final Product What You'll Be Creating

Flames are particularly hard to render in Photoshop, but in this tutorial I’ll show you how to use a photograph of fire to set text to the match. We’ll render the look on a nice dark background with a gorgeous text effect to complete the image.

This is the second of our five-part series on Photoshop Typography. If you missed last week’s, go visit Create a Spectacular Grass Text Effect.

Part 1— The Background

So create a new document in Photoshop at 1920px wide x 1200px high, and with the Gradient Tool (G), draw in a radial gradient of browns (#5c3d09 to #1f1409) so you get something like what is shown below.

Notice that the gradient is not centered vertically but sits toward the top. In this image we want the top of the text to be on fire, so the top part of the image should be a bit more lit up.

Step 2

As in the grass text tutorial, once again we’re going to have a textured background. But rather than starting from scratch, I just copied the background from the previous tutorial, merged all the layers and desaturated to get what you see below.

If you need to make this from scratch, first visit Bittbox to get the original paper textures and then follow the previous tutorial’s steps.

Step 3

Now we set the layer to Overlay and to blend the texture into the background and voila!

Step 4

Just to add a bit more texture though, let’s run the Texturizer filter. To do this, create a new layer and fill it with a brown/beige color—#66500f. Then go to Filter > Texture > Texturizer and use the Canvas texture with 80% Scaling and Relief set to 4.

Step 5

Once you have your texturized layer, set that to Overlay. This adds some extra fine detail to our texture which is good because we’re working on such a big canvas.

Step 6

Next we’re going to apply a layer to slightly desaturate the bottom half of the image. This is so that the top looks like it has a warmer glow where the flames are, while the bottom looks a little colder.

So create a new layer and fill it with the color #4b4f3b. Then add a layer mask with a gradient to mask out the top and fade down (so you get the effect shown).

Now set the layer to Color and 45% Opacity.

Part 2—Text + Glow = Awesomeness

OK, we now have a nice background! So let’s add some text. I’ve used the font Trajan because it’s a really dramatic looking font. Here I’ve placed the text in the color #cb9328, then set it to Linear Dodge (Add) with an Opacity of 8%.

What we’re going to be doing with our text is making it look like the top half of the text is coming out of the background and is red hot with flames flickering off. This means we’re going to run a lot of effects and apply layer masks to them so that only the top half shows while the bottom half reverts to faded out text like we have currently.

Step 8

So first create a new layer group to put all the text layers in—because there will be a lot of them.

Then duplicate the text layer and set the color of the duplicate text to #5e3f1c.

Step 9

Now set the newest text layer to Overlay and 70% Opacity. It should look kind of reddish (as shown below).

Step 10

Now duplicate the text again and set the latest duplicate to a yellowish color—#cb9328. Then set this to Linear Dodge (Add) and Opacity 30%.

Next we add a layer mask and draw a gradient so the latest text layer fades out as shown below, and beneath you can see the reddish colored combination of the bottom two text layers.


Step 11

Next we duplicate the text layer yet again, but put this layer right on the bottom. Set the color to black—#000000. Then go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and it will ask you to rasterize the text, click yes to that, and then set the Radius to about 4px.

Then Ctrl-click any of the other text layers and go back to the black layer and hit delete so you are just left with a sort of shadow. Then duplicate this layer and merge it with the first so the effect is heavier. You should have something that looks like the screenshot below.

Step 12

Once again, add a layer mask so the shadow quickly fades out as shown. This makes it look like the text is coming out of the page.

Step 13

Now duplicate our black layer again and using the Smudge Tool (R) and a largish soft brush you want to just smudge the shadow around so it looks like burn marks.

Step 14

Here’s how our text is looking now. I actually created two sets of "burn" marks, and then four sets of the shadow layer each blurred a little more than the last and each faded back.

Step 15

Now it’s time to make the top part of our text glow. So first of all, duplicate the text layer again and place this layer at the very top and set it to a yellow color—#dc9a08.

Then run a Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur over it with Radius of 8px. Then grab a large soft eraser brush and just erase away parts at the bottom so it’s kind of uneven.

Step 16

Set our first glow layer to Soft Light. You might want to repeat the process, erasing even more so the top part is even glowier.

Step 17

Now duplicate the text layer yet again and place this at the very top. This one should be again the same yellow (#dc9a08).

Then go to Layer > Rasterize > Type and turn the text into a flat graphic. Then Ctrl-click the layer and go to Select > Modify > Contract and use a value of 1px. Then press Delete to delete everything except that 1px outline.

Step 18

Now set the 1px layer to Overlay, and you should have something like the image below.

Step 19

Now to our 1px glow add a layer mask to fade it out down the bottom as we’ve been doing with the other layers.

Then duplicate the layer, and run a Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur set to 1px. Then duplicate this layer again and blur it by 2px. Then duplicate the layer again and blur it by 4px.

Then Ctrl-click any of the text layers, press Ctrl+Shift+I to inverse the selection and go through each of the glow layers and press Delete to remove any of the blur that has strayed out of the boundary of the text.

The idea is that we want the edges of the text to look red-hot with it fading in to an overall hot glow on the text.

Step 20

Next we duplicate all four of the glow layers and merge them together. This should result in a layer on top which is the original bright yellow.

Grab the Smudge Tool and run over the text, smudging it up to look like heat waves coming off the text, as shown.

Step 21

Now set this latest layer to Overlay and you should have something looking like this!

Step 22

Now we’ve pretty much finished our text. I went through and duplicated some of the glow layers to make it look even more fiery. Feel free to experiment with getting a real red-hot glow look by doing so.

Step 23

Next, in keeping with the last wallpaper, I’ve gone and added a quote underneath my main text. This provides a nice embellishment to the page. Try to use colors that fit in with the background and text layer so it doesn’t stand out too much, because we really want this to be a secondary element to the main text. I’ve used Swiss Light Condensed as my font and laid it out just like in the previous Grass Text tutorial.

Part 3—The Flames

Finally, with all our preparation done, it’s time to add the actual flames! For this, we need some images of fire set against a plain black background. A good photo is hard to find, and try as I did, I couldn’t find a really great free photo. So in the end I used this photo from Fotolia which you can purchase using the link below. There was also an OK photo from Flickr which I’ve also linked to and which I ended up using later for the "E". So you might want to grab that too.

AcheroN—Fotolia.com
Peasap—Flickr.com

Now the technique for copying the flames over is actually really simple. I actually only learned this technique recently when reading one of Nik Ainley‘s tutorials for DigitalArts magazine called Create Amazing Photomontages where he did it with water.

What you need to do is:

  1. Open up the flame image in Photoshop
  2. Go to the Channels tab and find the channel with the highest contrast, which for images of fire should be the Red Channel, and click on it
  3. This will make your image appear black and white, and because we’re on the highest contrast layer, it will seem really bright white. Now Ctrl-click this channel and it will select all the pixels in that channel.
  4. Click back to the RGB channel and copy the selected pixels
  5. You can now paste the flames into your main canvas!

This is actually a really, really useful technique for copying something translucent like fire off a flat background. And as you’ll see by visiting Nik’s tutorial, it’s also great for copying water!

Step 25

OK, so here we’ve pasted the flames on to our main canvas. (For clarity I’ve also temporarily switched off the text layers). As you can see, we’ve got the fire without the black background and it’s partially transparent, which means it’ll look super on top of our text.

Step 26

Now the next thing to do is to cut up our one bit of fire into a few pieces. Just duplicate the layer and switch off one as a backup first. Then using the Pen Tool, cut up the fire so you work with the contours of the flame so it looks natural. Here you can see I’ve produced four pieces of flame from the one image. You can also try flipping bits around to make them seem more random.

Set the layers to Screen mode so that any remaining black parts are totally gone, and it’s even more transparent.

Step 27

Now because my text is just four letters, I need four separate pieces of fire. For the fourth one (on top of the E) I actually grabbed that Flickr photo and repeated the same process as earlier to create another flame. Also the fire on the letter I has been squashed a little as well to make it look more random.

Step 28

Applying the fire is really as easy as moving the flames over the text. You want to try to match the flames to the shape of the letter so it looks like they are dancing off the letters.

Step 29

OK here I’ve placed all four bits of flame over the top. It’s not bad, but you can see that the I and the R have the same flame and also all the flames aren’t very tall.

Step 30

So here I’ve gone through each flame and using the Transform Tool stretched them vertically. Also I used a bit of judicious erasing to make the flame on the I look a little more unique.

Step 31

Now to make them look even more lit up, duplicate each flame layer, run a Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur with a Radius of 3px and set the layer to 15% Opacity so it provides a bit of glow around the edges of the flames.

Step 32

So we’re pretty much there! This is how the composition looks.

Step 33

Finally we’ll add a last highlight. So create a new layer above all the others and draw in a white to black radial gradient as shown. Set this layer to Overlay and 40% Opacity.

Finished!

And there we have it, a text on fire effect! In the next tutorial in the series, we’ll be producing the Air image, however it’ll be in two weeks, not one—as I’m taking a few days off work!

If you’re interested in creating flames from scratch in Photoshop, you might also like to check out this classic tutorial that coincidentally uses the exact same typeface! It’s a Photoshop 6 tutorial, and I can still remember reading it like a half decade ago, but it’s still very relevant, even if the screenshots feature a super retro Mac interface.

 
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By Collis

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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.  

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Discussion 408 Comments

Comment Page 9 of 9 1 ... 7 8 9
  1. 06johansenad says:
    February 2, 2010 at 3:06 pm

    Can I have help with Step 10? Whenever I try to set the layer mask for the text, it doesn’t mask the text, it looks like Step 6. Help?!?

    Reply
  2. Melle says:
    February 4, 2010 at 10:53 pm

    Hi,

    Just came across your awesome tuts this week and am totally loving your designs and intructions – BUT these tuts have highlighted a problem I’m having with colour. Please help!

    When I enter your very specific colour codes, I get different colours to what is shown in the tuts (and I’m obviously viewing both on screen). I’ve tried changing colour settings (Pantone, TruColour, coated, uncoated etc), but this doesn’t help. In some cases the difference is dramatic – #66500f gives me a baby-poo green rather than a nice brown.

    I know very little about colour management (but would love a tut or something on this), and don’t know if my Mac needs to be calibrated or what the deal is. I’d really appreciate any help you can give me.

    Your new biggest fan, M :)

    Reply
  3. Paul says:
    February 11, 2010 at 4:25 am

    Awesome tut

    Just gave it a try with some flames off istock

    Reply
  4. Kasun Viraj says:
    February 13, 2010 at 9:25 am

    This Tutorial Is Very Important.

    Reply
  5. Kasun Viraj says:
    February 13, 2010 at 9:34 am

    This Tutorial Is Very Important.I like your effect.But This tutorial is Very easy.

    Reply
  6. Upasana says:
    February 17, 2010 at 7:02 am

    Awesome…great thnks wil surely try this!

    Reply
  7. Gaz C says:
    February 18, 2010 at 3:18 pm

    After the final composition, try accented edges on a bright scale on a seperate layer and mask it in. Adds a real nice melting type glow to the bottom of the text. I also worked an antique map in softly afterwards for my brother’s band logo. Looks pretty sweet. Thanks for the guide man, real good stuff!!!

    http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/4393/rtglowmeltsmoke.jpg

    Reply
  8. George C says:
    February 25, 2010 at 2:23 pm

    Great tutorial… but step 20, I blur the edges and don’t get the proper smudges, it’s extremely faint, nothing like in the picture :/

    Reply
  9. Meg says:
    February 28, 2010 at 2:22 pm

    I’m sorry but this tutorial in my opinion is not very well described. the effect is awesome, but it is frustrating to try to understand what you are saying in the tutorial. In several steps you say duplicate the text layer. Which layer are you refering to? There are many text layers that were created. Also in step 17, it says duplicate the text layer, i have no idea which layer you’re refering to and when I duplicate a layer and try to fill it with the color, it does’nt fill it in solid.

    Reply
    • Tess says:
      July 19, 2010 at 1:43 pm

      He’s talking about the original text layer, the one you haven’t done anything too. The very first text layer (unless otherwise stated) is the only one you should duplicate. That’s why in the tutorial it says to bring it all the way to the top, because when you duplicated it, it just right above the original layer.

      Reply
  10. vectors download says:
    March 5, 2010 at 11:16 pm

    PS Text Effects nice!

    Reply
  11. Sohum says:
    March 6, 2010 at 11:56 pm

    Hey, I’m stuck on step 11. When I duplicate the layer with the gradient, and put it to the bottom and turn it to black, it shows no change for the gaussian blur. What should I do?

    Reply
  12. Daniel Wiedemann - Pixmac says:
    March 7, 2010 at 10:53 pm

    Simply one of the best tutorials I’ve ever seen! Great work!

    Reply
  13. Miguel S says:
    March 9, 2010 at 12:52 pm

    Nice Tutorial. Great effect. My only feedback is you might want to work on your instructions. You skipped a few steps and instead of showing how you achieved an effect you just used a lot of terms. I understood it because I am well versed in photoshop, however to a beginner or intermediate user this would be a very vague and difficult tutorial. It helps to include the tools you use to do a process and how you use the tools. Great tut though.

    Reply
  14. Nick Francis says:
    March 10, 2010 at 6:52 pm

    Love the effect. Am planning on using it for a flier I am desiging.

    Just one quick question though – the whole design is quite dark, do you think there is a way of effectively doing this on a white/brighter background? I’ve had a go but cannot get the flames to appear realistic…

    any advice would be greatly appreciated!

    Thanks

    Nick

    Reply
  15. prathmesh says:
    March 19, 2010 at 3:11 pm

    thanx

    Reply
  16. Ben London says:
    March 25, 2010 at 6:44 am

    Awful tutorial, hard to follow and doesn’t explain the steps well enough.

    Please, don’t write another one as you can’t!

    Reply
  17. Theminatar says:
    March 28, 2010 at 9:24 pm

    I would love for someone to explain Step 11 for me, no matter what I do I don’t get the shadow. This is pissing me off..

    Reply
    • dylon says:
      June 15, 2010 at 3:10 pm

      SAME ive been trying to figure it out for 2hours!!!

      Reply
    • Tess says:
      July 19, 2010 at 1:53 pm

      Ok Step 11:
      You duplicate the first text layer (the original) and put the duplicate UNDER all of the other text layers, so it’s the LAST one. Then you blur it, and you ctrl+click the any other text layer and hit the delete button. That makes it the shadow. Then you duplicate that same layer (the blurred one) to make it appear heavier.

      Hope it helps!

      Reply
  18. timmy says:
    March 31, 2010 at 4:33 pm

    Im so sorry about that last post i just wanted to be funny but clearly im not!

    Reply
  19. Tommy says:
    April 5, 2010 at 10:34 pm

    i didn’t like this tutorial some parts didn’t make sense or where confusing

    Reply
  20. Neet Soni says:
    April 6, 2010 at 6:02 am

    very clever but not bad

    Reply
  21. Phox says:
    April 8, 2010 at 12:37 pm

    Hi ,

    It’s amazing pic but It’s not work with step 11, can you explain to me, please?
    i want to learn photoshop skill more….. :)

    Reply
    • Tess says:
      July 19, 2010 at 1:59 pm

      Ok Step 11:
      You duplicate the first text layer (the original) and put the duplicate UNDER all of the other text layers, so it’s the LAST one. Then you blur it, and you ctrl+click the any other text layer and hit the delete button. That makes it the shadow. Then you duplicate that same layer (the blurred one) to make it appear heavier.

      Hope it helps!

      Reply
  22. ColdFusion Developer says:
    April 19, 2010 at 10:31 pm

    Wicked awesome tutorial. :) I might just have to join this site.

    Reply
  23. Patty says:
    April 22, 2010 at 8:46 am

    great tutorial! it helped with the book cover I am designing.. however, there is way to many duplication of layers. is there an easier way? it is easy for someone to lose track of their progress… some of the steps are not very clear. having used photoshop previously before I am familiar with the interface etc, but for someone who is new to photoshop may not get the most out of your tutorial!

    Reply
  24. QuakeMazer says:
    April 29, 2010 at 8:37 pm

    Thanks for correcting the ambiguous steps that people have commented on, stating you are not clear in your explanation.

    o..

    Reply
  25. Jose Gonzalez says:
    May 8, 2010 at 3:13 pm

    It’s a great tutorial. However, it would be nice to show the order of the text within the layers. This will help to keep us on track. But nice effect at the end.

    Reply
  26. Dale says:
    May 14, 2010 at 1:26 am

    It Doesn’t Explain anything Properly, There’s no way a Beginner (like me) Can understand this, I tryed And i got the text to look nice, but the fire failed. – So I tryed again followed the intstructions and now, NOTHING looks like what it’s ment to look like, seriously the text is just a faded yellow colour, it’s shit. – And this tutorial fails.

    Reply
    • Timo says:
      May 26, 2010 at 6:01 pm

      I tried this tutorial (as a beginer). My picture nearly looks like this above. I had some problems with the flames. I think Collis bought the picture, so he got high quality. I didn´t want to spend money so I had to search a lot for the right flames.
      So at first try hardly, then you can complain.

      Reply
  27. activekita says:
    May 16, 2010 at 9:50 pm

    a very interesting idea, I need time to learn things like this.

    Reply
  28. Staci V says:
    May 17, 2010 at 12:43 am

    For those who are stuck on Step 11, I figured out that you’re suppose to select the text from one of the layers that you didn’t apply the blur to (I ended up rasterizing a text layer and using the magic wand to select all the letters since the Control+Click didn’t work for me) so that once the text is selected you go back to black layer that you blurred and click delete so that it leaves you with the blurred outside part of the text.

    -I saw other solutions were already given, but maybe this will help anyway if you missed those.

    Reply
    • Rudy Chon says:
      June 9, 2010 at 2:17 pm

      You control+Click on the box to the left. Not the text that says “Layer 1″ “Layer2″ or whatever it is named. Thats a big mistake people make. And you should try to learn it. It’s extremely helpful.

      Reply
      • Sarah says:
        August 25, 2010 at 9:05 pm

        Ahhh thank you Rudy Chon…that was what was messing me up. I was trying to click on the text, not the box.. thanks again for clarifying!

  29. Omamau says:
    May 26, 2010 at 12:53 pm

    Excellent tutorial !

    Even if i’m a beginner, i was able to succeed with this image due to this tutorial. It’s true that I had some little problems with it, especially with the eleventh step, but it’s a really good tutorial. thanks. by the way, the image it’s awsome!

    Reply
  30. maryrose710 says:
    June 1, 2010 at 1:16 pm

    i was also stuck up with step 11 but i discovered how it should be done.. with the help of some comments here.. the black text should not really be placed at the very bottom..it will only be placed at the bottom of all the text layers…layer should be set to Normal and opacity should be 100

    Reply
  31. Alex says:
    June 20, 2010 at 1:39 pm

    Well, I undersood all the steps.. After a couple of tries I got step 11, it’s really not that hard. Anyway, I wanted to show you all my attempt at this. Since I’m a lazy arse, I didn’t buy the flames, and made them myself using the rather basic tools of liquifying and rippling. http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/zz341/polosmartie/My4thBG.jpg?t=1277054948 Thoughts anyone?

    Reply
  32. yomama says:
    July 19, 2010 at 12:35 am

    this Tutorialo SUCKS big time
    as a beginer you can never go through step 1 I mean you say now you do that and that and volia :S I WTF are you talking about you dont even show were to klick on the meny or thinks like that man you SUCK………………..

    Reply
  33. Joris says:
    July 22, 2010 at 3:38 pm

    Incase anyone cares i made it move :D fumeFX in 3DS max and some after effects.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOkOKrda6E4

    Reply
  34. Luke says:
    July 24, 2010 at 6:17 am

    Wow, this tutorial is copping some serious dynamite.

    I think that, to get the most out of anything, its important to understand what it is you are doing. Collis clearly states ADVANCED as the difficulty level. If this tutorial was intended for beginners, I am sure it would explain in more depth how to use the functions. It is no wonder that beginners get stuck on any of the simple steps, let alone the hard ones.

    Cheers.

    Reply
  35. Joseph Nolan says:
    July 25, 2010 at 6:53 am

    Im thinking of becoming a premium member on this site. Can anyone tell me what would be the advantages of being able to use completed source files? Like would I be able to alter them like say for instance change whats written on the text but obviously keep everything else the same?

    I just find these tutorials very difficult so if source files are the way to go then I will buy a 3 months membership but I want some info first.

    Reply
  36. malachi says:
    August 2, 2010 at 5:49 am

    perfect! easy to follow! took me about 45 mins (i’m still new at this) but it came out looking EXACTLY like yours. thanx!

    Reply
  37. Jimmy says:
    August 2, 2010 at 2:20 pm

    I’m sorry, but this tutorial is the worst I’ve seen so far. I don’t have any experience with Photoshop and my English is really bad. Already from the first step it gets confusing, you say that the Gradient tool’s shortcut is “G”, but amateurs like myself can’t figure out how to use this damn thing when they now have a bucket. And if we did find the gradient tool, how would we suppose to use it? And it seem like 50% of the people who tried this didn’t even know which text layer to duplicate. The final result is cool, it’s just a shame that the tutorial doesn’t come out as expected.

    Reply
    • kate says:
      August 18, 2010 at 12:58 am

      Jimmy, as a beginner I understand your frustration, but this wasn’t a tutorial on how to use different functions. Check out tutorials on youtube.com about basic knowledge of photoshop, and try to follow up after VIDEO tutorials first that show everything step by step. I managed to get 90% right, but it took me about 2 hours to figure out all the steps.

      Reply
  38. kate says:
    August 18, 2010 at 12:51 am

    I did it.
    This was a great step by step tutorial. My knowledge of photoshop is very limited. I know it only from other tutorials about basic use, and some examples on manipulating and editing pictures, but this was the most complicated tutorial I ever followed and I managed to get 90% right which good for a beginner like me.
    Thank you.

    Reply
  39. Darksoldier says:
    August 18, 2010 at 9:33 am

    Hmm… please help me at step 17.
    i can’t click on rasterize -> !Type!
    what can i do?

    Reply
  40. Klion says:
    August 20, 2010 at 7:12 pm

    STEP 11:

    For everyone trying to follow this who couldn’t understand the “Then Ctrl-click any of the other text layers and go back to the black layer and hit delete so you are just left with a sort of shadow.” portion of this tutorial, here is an explanation of what he meant.

    While in the newly created layer (with black text) hold down control and click on the _thumbnail icon_ of another text layer. This should result in your text being outlined with selection dotted lines. Once you get this, press delete, and it will delete the inner portion of the black text leaving the dark shadowy outline.

    Cheers

    -Klion

    Figured out from http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/photoshoptroubleshooting/f/cs2layerselect.htm

    Reply
  41. Cássio Carvalho says:
    August 23, 2010 at 10:43 pm

    Great tutorial! Challenging and very learnful… thank you!

    Reply
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