Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. I'm going to show you how to create an
authentic-looking, vintage film noir movie title from the 1930s and 40s from scratch.
I provided the movie studio's copyright information that will appear at the bottom of our title design.
In addition, I provided the 3 fonts that I'll be using in this video. Feel free to use other fonts
if you like. Just type in "Film Noir typefaces” in your Browser.
Before we begin, if you want to be notified as soon as I upload new Photoshop tutorials, hit that "Subscribe" button.
Let's name the copyright layer, "Copyright". Temporarily hide the layer. We'll make a new
layer below it by Ctrl or Cmd-clicking the New Layer icon. In this layer,
we'll create our textured background. First, we'll fill it with black but before we do,
check the foreground and background colors. If they aren't black and white respectively,
press "D" on your keyboard. Since black is our foreground color, press Alt or Option + Delete.
We'll convert the black layer into a Smart Object so we can modify it non-destructively. To do this,
click the icon at the upper, right and click "Convert to Smart Object".
Go to Window and "Patterns". Scroll to the "Legacy Patterns and More" folder and open it.
Open the "Legacy Patterns" folder and open the "Artists Brushes Canvas" folder.
Click "Yankee Canvas". Then, close the panel.
Double-click the pattern thumbnail to open the "Pattern Fill" window. The Angle is 0 degrees and make the Scale 70%.
Click the Adjustment Layer icon and click "Levels".
Make the Input black 100, the Input midtones point 25, and the Input white 160.
Make the Output white 160 as well. Shift-click the bottom layer to make these 3 layers active
and convert them into one Smart Object.
Go to Filter, Blur, and Gaussian Blur.
Blur it 1 pixel.
Name it "Background". Let's collapse the filter to save a little space in the Layers panel.
Open your Horizontal Type Tool and in the Type Picker, type in the name of a film noir-style font.
I'll make its size 640 points, but feel free to make it any size you want based on the font you're
using and the number of characters in your text. Make its aliasing Smooth and center alignment.
Click the color box and when the Color Picker opens, type in 80% in the brightness field.
Click on your document and type out your text. To adjust its size, highlight the text and place
your cursor over the text icon. When the cursor changes into a scrubby slider, click, and drag
it to the left or right. To adjust the space between two characters, known as "kerning", place
your cursor between them and press Alt or Option and right or left arrow key on your keyboard.
Open your Move Tool and convert your text into a Smart Object.
Next, we'll create a solid drop shadow. Open your Transform Tool by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + T.
In the Angle field, type in 45 and press Enter or Return. Make a copy of it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J.
We'll place the original into a folder by making it active and pressing Ctrl or Cmd + G.
Make the inside layer active. We'll make multiple copies of it that will move down
one pixel at a time. To do this, press and hold Alt or Option and the Down arrow until there's
approximately 80 or so copies. Then, close the folder. We'll change the color of all
the layers in this folder to black by clicking the Adjustment Layer icon and clicking "Solid Color".
Pick black. The reason why our entire background is black is because Adjustment Layers affect all
layers below them in the Layers Panel. If we want an adjustment layer to affect just the one layer
directly below it, we'll need make the adjustment layer into a clipping mask. To do this, hover your
cursor between the two layers and press and hold Alt or Option. When your cursor changes into a
clipping mask icon, click it. Now, the adjustment layer is affecting just the layers inside the
folder. If you want your solid drop shadow to be deeper, make the folder active and open it.
Make the top inside layer active and repeat the same keystrokes to add more layers.
Next, we'll make the angle of our entire text normal again. Close the folder.
Shift-click the text layer to make it and the adjustment layer active as well and open the Transform Tool.
For its angle, type in minus 45 which is the opposite degree of what we typed in before.
Press Enter or Return twice or click the checkmark at the top. Let's place the solid
drop shadow above and to the left of our text. Make the folder active and drag the shadow up
and over so that its bottom meets the bottom of the text. Shift-click the text layer to
make all three layers active and center it on your document. Convert it into a Smart Object.
Next, we'll skew the title at an angle. Open your Transform Tool and go to the anchor point on the
side of the Transform's bounding box. Press and hold Ctrl +Alt + Shift on Windows or Cmd + Option
+ Shift on a Mac as you drag it up. To resize it, go to a corner and press and hold Alt or Option
as you drag it in or out. Then, press Enter or Return or click the checkmark at the top.
Double-click an empty area of the layer to open its Layer Style window. Click "Drop Shadow".
The color is black, the blend mode is Multiply and the opacity is 30 or 35%. Make the Angle
minus 35 degrees and the Distance 80 pixels. The Spread is 0 and the Size is 10 pixels.
Go to Filter, Blur, and Gaussian Blur. Blur it 1 pixel.
Let's collapse the filters to save space in the Layers panel. Next, we'll type Paramount Pictures
Corporation at the top. Press "T" to open back your Type Tool. Pick another 1940s-style font.
I'll make it 100 points, but again, feel free to adjust its size. Type out the text
and press Enter or Return to add a line of text under it. Type "PRESENTS".
To adjust the space between the lines of text, known as "leading", highlight both lines of text.
Click the Character panel icon or go to Window and Character. Place your cursor over the
"Leading" icon and when your cursor changes into a scrubby slider, drag it to the right or left.
Let's change the typeface of the lower text. Highlight it and for its size, type in 50 points.
Pick another font. I'll choose American Captain. To move the second line up,
place your cursor over the baseline shift icon and drag your scrubby slider to the right.
I'd like to add space between all the characters in the second line. This is known as "tracking".
To do this, I'll place my cursor over the tracking icon and drag the scrubby slider to the right.
Let's close the character panel. Next, we'll center our top lines of text over the document.
Open your Move Tool and press Ctrl or Cmd + A to select your document. Click the "Align Vertical
Centers" icon and deselect it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + D. Convert the text into a Smart Object.
Double-click an empty area of the layer to open its Layer Style window. Click “Drop Shadow”.
The Blend Mode is Linear Burn, the color is black,
and the opacity is 100%. If "Use Global Light" is checked, uncheck it. The Angle is minus 45 degrees.
The Distance is 5 pixels, and the Spread and Size are both 0.
Go to Filter, Blur, and Gaussian Blur. Blur it 1 pixel.
Make the copyright layer visible an active.
Click the New Layer icon to make a new layer. In this layer, we'll create the
film grain texture. Press Shift and the F5 key at the top of your keyboard to open the
Fill window. Or you could go to Edit and Fill. Open the Contents list and click "50% Gray".
Convert the layer into a Smart Object so we can adjust the grain at any time if we want to.
Go to Filter, Noise, and Add Noise. Make the Amount 100%, Gaussian, and Monochromatic.
Go back to Filter, Blur, and Gaussian Blur. Blur it 1.5 pixels.
Change its Blend Mode to Overlay and reduce its opacity to 60%.
As I toggle between the before and after of the film grain, we can see the difference.
Make a new layer. In this layer, we'll create the look of film scratches. First, we'll fill the
empty layer with white and since our background color is white, press Ctrl or Cmd + Delete.
We'll make the foreground color black by pressing "D" on our keyboard.
This reverts the colors into black and white, respectively.
Open the "Single Column Marquee Tool".
Place your cursor anywhere on your document and click once which creates a vertical selection.
Go to Edit and Stroke. Make the Width 1 pixel, the color black, and tick "Center". Then, deselect it.
Go to Edit and "Define Brush Preset". Name it "Scratches". Press the F5 key at the top of
your keyboard to open the Brush Settings panel. Or you could go to Window and Brush Settings.
In the Brush Tip Shape window, make the Spacing 1000%. Click "Shape Dynamics". Make the Size
Jitter 10% and keep the other amounts at 0% and the Controls "Off". Click "Scattering".
Make the Scatter 1000%, the Count 1, and the Count Jitter 0. The Controls are "Off". Then, close the panel.
Drag the vertical line from one side to the other. Change its Blend Mode to Multiply
and its Opacity to 50%.
Go to Filter, Blur, and Gaussian Blur. Blur it 1 pixel.
Next, we'll add a dramatic spotlight.
Make the Background active and make a new layer above it. We'll fill it
with black and since our foreground color is black, press Alt or Option + Delete.
We want to make just the black layer visible and hide all the other layers.
To do this Alt or Option-click the eyeball icon next to the black layer.
Go to View, Guides, and New Guide Layout. If you don't see any guidelines, press Ctrl or Cmd + H.
Make the number of columns and rows 2 and all other fields should be empty.
Open the Elliptical Marquee Tool and go to the center of the guidelines. As you click your
pen or mouse onto the document, press and hold Alt or Option + Shift and drag out a circular
selection approximately this size. Fill it with your background color which is white
and deselect it. Go back to Filter, Blur, and Gaussian Blur. Blur it 80 pixels.
Convert it into a Smart Object. Hide the guidelines by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + H.
We're going to need more room around our document to distort our spotlight.
Press Ctrl or Cmd and the minus key on your keyboard a few times to zoom out.
Go to Edit, Transform, and Distort. Go to the top, left corner and drag it up and out to approximately here.
Continue to pull the corners until you like the shape and position of the spotlight.
Then, press Enter or Return. To zoom back in, press Ctrl or Cmd and the plus key a
few times or you can press Ctrl or Cmd + 0 to fill your canvas with the document.
Alt or Option-click the eyeball icon to make all the layers visible again. Change the Blend Mode of
the spotlight to Darken and reduce its opacity to 60%. I think I'd like to lighten the canvas
background texture a bit, so I'll make that layer active and reduce its opacity to 90%.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. Thanks for watching!