Hey everybody, my name is Nathaniel Dodson from tutvid.com
welcome right into this Photoshop tutorial,
where today, we're gonna look at creating this right here
Stranger Things text effect. This is for Stranger Things 3, which as of the recording of this,
hasn't come out. I don't even know if they're planning a Stranger Things 3.
I've got this little sketch that I've made here. Which is just, uh, it's all really just about the sizing and playing with stuff,
it's not at all what the text looks like, obviously, because we're trying to make this text look realistic.
Not something that looks like I just sketched it on a piece of paper.
Now, if you do enjoy this tutorial, make sure your subscribe to my channel - or, please, subscribe to my channel!
So you never miss any Photoshop tutorials in the past, present, or future.
With that out of the way, ladies and gentlemen, let's jump into Photoshop and check this thing out.
Alrighty, here we are in Photoshop, and I've got a creepy looking stock photo of a forest
that I've opened here and I've sized it at 2560 pixels wide; and I just let the height be
what it will.
Now, the first thing I'm going to do is add a curves adjustment layer
to darken this background a little bit.
I'm gonna drag my white point way down,
just to adjust the tone a little bit, kinda like I am here.
I'll also add a color balance adjustment layer
and I'm going adjust the midtones to -20, +5, and +10.
I'll also come in here and adjust the shadows at -15,
we'll leave this one at 0, and +10.
And then I'll tweak the highlights as well, to the tune of +20, +5, and -5.
This is going to infuse some darkness and color into this shot
and really create this background.
Next, I'll grab my type tool. And I've chosen the font Benguiat
this is that Stranger Things sort of retro-style font.
And I've set it to a size of 330 pixels, I set the tracking here to -80,
and the horizontal scale to 83%, and also I typed out the word "stranger"
in all caps here.
Now, the next step will be to select the letters on the end, one at a time.
So, I'll start with the letter 's.'
Now, I'm gonna boost the size by dividing the original text size by 3.75, this equals 88 in this case.
And then I will add this to that original 330 pixel text size.
So, this new size, which will be 418 pixels,
this is what the 's' and the 'r' will be sized at.
I'll also adjust the baseline shift here, to -60, just to
push both of those letters down, so they're aligned properly with the rest of our text.
And of course, you, as you're doing this, if you're working with a different size,
or anything like that, go ahead and just shift and adjust this, and resize this stuff
using a number that works with your particular background or image size.
So now, I'm going to select the text in the layers panel
I'm gonna right-click on it, and choose to convert it to a path
and then I'm going to hide the type layer, so it doesn't distract
me, I can just see the path.
Next, I'll use the direct selection tool, the white arrow right down here
and select the center, leftmost point on the 'g.'
Just that single point, and delete it.
After that, I'll use the pen tool and select one of the open ends
here on the backside of the 'g,' I'm gonna hold down my ALT/OPT key
and click one of the anchor points to retract the tangent handle.
Then I'll draw the rest of the path, just by clicking on the other open anchor point
while holding down the ALT/OPT key to close the path
and then I can use the direct selection tool to select the lower point there,
and just nudge it to right to straighten it out and make this a perfectly
vertical line.
Now, the next step is to use the path selection tool, the black arrow here.
And select the letters 'g,' 'e,' and 'r.'
And I'm gonna nudge them 10 pixels to the left, to push them closer to the other letters.
Also, I'm going to the use the path selection tool and just select the 'r,'
the letter 'r' all by itself, and I'll nudge that to an additional 10 pixels left
towards the rest of the letters as well.
The next step after that, will be to use the direct selection tool once again,
I'm going to select these extra points up here, the top corners of the letter 't.'
They're kind of like horns. I'm going to delete anything here that prevents me
from having straight corners at the top of the 't' here.
My goal is just to get rid of these little, horn-looking shapes
and flatten out the top of the 't' a little bit.
And again, I'm using the pen tool here, after deleting those points,
and playing with the paths as needed, to join them and smooth them out
and just make them look good.
And while I'm up here in the area, I'll also select the points
on the top right of the 's,' and I'm going to shift this 30 pixels,
just by nudging with my arrow keys, 30 pixels to the right.
This is going to angle it nicely, sort of against the 't' in a way that's going to
look reasonably decent.
Then I can use the direct selection tool, I can delete and adjust and tweak
any points that need to be adjusted here
just to make sure that this top of the letter 's' still looks nice and smooth.
Next, we're going to use the direct selection tool and select both the letters 'r' and 'a.'
And up in the top control bar, I'm going to select the Path Operations menu,
and choose to combine these two shapes together.
Then I'm going to select this combined 'r'/'a' letter, and the letter 'n'
and I'm also going to combine these shapes as well, using the same
Path Operations menu.
In addition, I can just zoom in and make sure the areas where the letters come
together are nice and smooth and look good. I'll use a combination
of the direct selection and the pen tool just to make sure all the transitions of these letters come together perfectly.
Now, the next step is to hit the hotkey CMD/CTRL+R to pop out your rulers
and drag in a guide that is exactly at the top of the majority of the flat-top
letters in the word "stranger."
Then drag out another guide, and place this one at the bottom of those letters.
And then drag out a third guide that is exactly aligned with the bottom of the letter 'r,'
the larger 'r,' that is.
Now, here's a very important step. Go to your paths panel, and double-click on this path
and give it the name "stranger" to save it. This will save it as a path.
Next, I'm going to create some more 330 pixel sized text
this time I'm going to type out the word "things," and I'm going
to set the tracking to -30, the horizontal scale here will be 90%, and
the vertical scale I'm going to boost to 103%.
Then, I'm just going to align the tops of the flat letters here to the lowest of those guides
that we dragged out.
And I'm going to make the 's' is pretty close to the lower serif on the 'r,' just kind of as I've done here.
But, we're going to be adjusting these letters a little bit as well,
so we're going to have to tweak this in a moment.
Now, I'm going to right-click on this text layer, like we did before,
and I'm going to convert this to a work path as well, right over there in the layers panel.
I'm going to hide this "things" text layer, by hitting the little eyeball icon.
And I'll also apply that same 'g' treatment to flatten the side of the 'g' and then nudge it 10 pixels closer to the 'n.'
The same one we did with our larger bit of text.
I'm also going to flatten the top of 't' here just like we did before, using the exact same
techniques as before.
Then I'm going to use my path selection tool, and copy this entire path
Just select that entire path, hit CMD/CTRL+C to copy it.
Then I'm going to select my "stranger" path layer, in my paths panel,
and I'm going to paste it into there, by hitting CMD/CRTL+V,
then I can just nudge it, move it around, make sure everything is aligned perfectly
if I need to.
Now once more, I'm going to use my rulers. This time
I'm going to drag out vertical rulers to the leftmost edge of the letter 's'
and then to the rightmost edge of the curved part of the letter 'r,'
the top part of the big 'r,' and then also to just the very absolute, leftmost
edge of the 'r,' as well. So there will be two guides on the right side of our word
one guide over there on the left side.
Then I'll go View, and make sure Snapping is turned on, by just hitting
View>Snap.
Then I'll grab my rectangle tool, I'm going to set it to draw a path
and I'm going to draw, or drag out a shape here that's 30 pixels high
and I want this to be just a nice, long, thin rectangle across- above the text.
And I'm going to make sure it's nudged about 60 pixels above the text,
so I can bring it all the way down to the top of the text, and just nudge it upward.
And then I'll also drag out a smaller, 30 pixel-high rectangle below the letter 's'
and then duplicate that over, and let it sit below the letter 'r'
or you can just drag out a brand new, 30 pixel-high rectangle below the letter 'r,' as well,
whatever works easier for you.
Now that I have all these paths all together like this,
I'm going to select all these paths with the path selection tool, that's the black arrow,
and I'm going to create a new Fill layer in my layers panel.
So, this essentially takes these paths and creates a vector shape layer that we can now edit.
So, we can use any color for the fill here. I'm going to hide my guides
at this point by hitting CMD/CTRL+;
and I'll also make my rulers go away by hitting CMD/CTRL+R.
I'm going to select this shape layer, and switch to my black arrow,
path selection tool.
And I'm going to look to that top control bar, I'm going to select the fill,
and I'll cancel out the fill, then select the stroke and choose to give the stroke a custom color,
in fact, I'm going to set the color to the hex code of e7201f and I'm
going to make that stroke weight 9 pixels.
Now, I'm also going to click here to change the stroke settings
and I want to make the stroke straddle the path, and I'm also going to give it
rounded corners.
Next, we're going to duplicate this shape layer with the stroke twice,
so hit CMD/CTRL+J twice, and I'm going to choose both of the lower versions
we just made, and reduce the fill opacity of both of them
to zero percent.
Then I'm going to choose the top of these two lower layers,
and I'm going to go Layer>Layer Style>Outer Glow,
I'm going to set this outer glow to normal, 100% opacity,
and a color of ad0000, and a 30 pixel size.
Then we'll also add an outer glow to the lowest of these shape layers,
set that to the normal blend mode. This time 50% opacity, the color is
going to c4002a.
This one's going to get a 10% spread, and a 35 pixel size.
Starting to look cool, but we're just getting these chestnuts toasted, so let's keep going!
Select the topmost of these shape layers, you know, the only
one without layer styles. And we're going to duplicate it
another three times. So hit CMD/CTRL+J three times.
I'm going to hide those top three layers for a quick second here
and select that fourth layer from the top. The one we just duplicated three times.
And we're going to give this an inner glow, by going
Layer>Layer Style>Inner Glow.
And I'm going to set this to a normal blend mode, 50% opacity
I'm going to use the color 800000 and give it a 4 pixel size.
Next, I'm going to turn on the layer just above this, and I'm going
to change the stroke to a 4 pixel stroke, and I'll change
the color to ff8480, then set this layer blend mode to color dodge.
I'll also add an outer glow layer style here, and I'm going to set this
to color dodge blend mode, 40% opacity, and I'm going to use the color fd1f1f,
and let's say 15 pixels in size.
Next, I'll select the shape layer just above that,
here I'm going to change the stroke to 2 pixels, and use the color f9f7e4,
and set this layer to the blend mode of overlay.
And then, finally, I'll select the layer above this and this one gets
a 1 pixel stroke, with the same color f9f7e4, and this one is going to
get set to the blend mode of color dodge.
So now, let's create some of that sort of low-fi, analogue blotchiness that the real show titles have.
We'll create a fresh, new layer, and I'm going to reset my
foreground and background colors by hitting the letter D.
Then I'm going to go Filter>Render>Clouds.
Then I'm going to CMD/CTRL+L to open up levels adjustment for this layer,
and I'm going to change the input level, the black point, to 165,
the midtone point will stay at 1.0, and the white input will be 175.
This will give us these random, white blotches, and all I need to do now is
add a blur to this. So we'll go Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur, and we'll blur this,
eh, 25 pixels. I think that looks perfect.
Next, go to your channels panel, and CMD/CTRL click on any channel
to load this kind of crazy selection.
Now, go back and drag the white, blotchy layer to the trashcan icon to
get rid of it - we're done with that.
And then select the second from the top shape layer, and
go Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal Selection.
Then I will ALT/OPT drag this mask to copy it up to the topmost layer,
now, if need be, and if this makes it look like we've just gotten rid of all of that
shininess we had in our sort of neon, glowy text,
we can ALT/OPT click either of these masks and open the levels adjustment again
by hitting CMD/CTRL+L here within the mask.
And we can adjust how much or how little white there is, or
even how harsh or soft the edges are to really mix this effect up a little bit.
In fact, it can be a good idea to do this just to make both of the masks a little bit different than each other.
This can just be whatever looks good to you. So I'll just adjust and tweak
mine a little bit, and then we'll move on.
Now, I'm going to create a layer above everything else and change my fill color
here, - over in the bottom of my tool panel, I can double click - change my
fill color to e7201f.
And then I'm going to grab a large, soft edged brush, and in my mini brush editor,
I'm going to drag the top and bottom of my brush tip together,
just a little bit, to give me this sort of flattened brush look.
Then I'm going to set the brush opacity to 30%, and I'm just going to begin
painting a few spots where the glowing extends outside of the text effect.
And then reduce the size of this brush a bit by right-clicking, and changing the
brush size and just building out the glow effect in these kind of
hazy, blurred, glowing areas a little bit more.
Next, I'll SHIFT+CLICK to select all the layers from this latest glow or dusting layer
all the way down to the first of our shape layers that's making up the text.
And I'm going to hit CMD/CTRL+G to group them all together.
And I'm going to name this group "text."
Then I'm going to add a gradient map adjustment layer above all this,
and hit CMD+OPT+G, that would be CTRL+ALT+G on the PC,
and this will clip the gradient map to this entire group. And I'm going
to set the map to a black-to-white gradient, and I'm going to drag the white color
stop until I see some good snap in the highlights in the text effect,
probably to about the 60% mark or so.
And next, I'll set this gradient map layer to the soft light blend mode.
Then I'm going to add a selective color adjustment layer here, and just darken
things up. Add some blues, magentas, and a kiss of either red or cyan, depending
on what the overall vibe seems to dictate to me.
You can have a little fun here. Just go a little crazy with some of the color,
and really see what you come up with.
Now, to really infuse a little more depth and add some pizzazz to this,
I'm going to create another blank layer, and I'm going to set it to the color dodge blend mode.
Then I'm going to change my foreground color to ffc298
and I'm going to use some flare brushes here that I have.
And I'm going to paint in some cool-looking bits that'll just make the
text effect jump even more than usual.
You can find free flare brushes all over the internet. So just look around,
download some for yourself, and you can go in and do something that you like
here on this step as well.
After I do all that, let's add the number 3 behind this, so this can be for
Stranger Things 3.
So I'll type out a giant letter three in the same typeface I've been using,
at the size of something around 1400 points,
and I'll drag it just above the background. And then I'll reduce
the opacity here to 50%, and also make sure the color of this text is a dark red,
like here, we'll go with c80212.
Now, I can throw a layer mask on this and use a large, soft edged brush
and just paint away bits of the number that I don't want,
and we'll kind of have this cool number three back there,
so this graphic can be all set when season number three is ready to come out.
Now, last but not least, I'm going to merge all layers to a new layer,
by hitting CMD+SHIFT+OPT+E, that would be CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+E on the PC,
then I'm going to desaturate this merged layer, by hitting CMD+SHIFT+U,
or CTRL+SHIFT+U on the PC.
Then I'll go Filter>Other>High Pass, and apply a 2.5 pixel high pass filter
to this layer, and then set this layer to the soft light blend mode to add a
slamming bit of midtone sharpening!
And that pretty much wraps this one up.
So, for that, thank you! Thank you so much for watching, and if you enjoyed this
tutorial and you thought it brought you some value - consider picking up my Photoshop
course. It's all about different graphic design and advanced and intermediate techniques
for graphic designers in Photoshop. You might like it!
And also, if you did create this piece of artwork, make sure you upload it to Instagram
and just tag me in the image. My Instagram handle is @tutvid, you can follow me as well, which would be cool.
But at the very least, tag me in it, I would love to see what you guys make,
and I'll make sure I show you some love - throw a like your way, give you a comment,
and all that good stuff over on Instagram!
So, for working with paths, and pen tools, and copy and pasting paths, and
anchor handles, and glows, and strokes, and everything else we did in this tutorial -
guys, for this one, that's it! Get it? Got it? Good.
Nathaniel Dodson, tutvid.com, I'll catch you in the next one.
(upbeat music) And before you go, make sure you subscribe to my channel
for more great tutorials every day. Also, buy my course!
It helps us do what we do, and this channel is supported by viewers just like you!
You can also just click the thumbnail and watch another video
from this channel. See you next times, guys.
(upbeat music)