Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. I'm going to show you how to create the look of
neon tube signs. You can apply this technique to text as well as to graphics. I provided a
Photoshop PSD file that includes two layers - a brick wall and a darkened version of that
wall. Its link is in my video's description or project files. When you first click the link,
you'll probably see only the dark brick wall, but have no fear. When you open the file in Photoshop,
you'll see both layers. I also provided links to the fonts I used in the intro, however,
feel free to use whatever font you like. Just make sure it's not too narrow or thin. The first
step is to set our text or graphic. If you're using a graphic, make sure it’s a high-contrast,
black and white image. Since the tubes of a neon sign all have the same thickness, make sure all
the lines of the graphic have the same thickness. If parts of your graphic have thick solid shapes,
I'll show you how to create shapes we can use for the neon tubes. In this tutorial,
we'll use text. Before we type out our text, let's check our foreground and background
colors. If they aren't black and white respectfully, press "D" on your keyboard.
We want white to be our foreground color. To reverse them, press "x". Open your Type Tool
and Type Picker. Pick a font you'd like to use for this project. We'll adjust its size in a moment.
Click on your document and type out your text. Hover your cursor over the Type icon and when
it changes into a scrubby slider, click and drag it to the left or right to decrease or increase
the size of your text. To reposition it, open your Move Tool and drag your text. Since this
font is too thick for neon tubes, I'll show you how to create usable shapes from it. Make
a copy of your text by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J. Hide the original text layer. Right-click or
secondary-click on the top text layer to open the fly-out list and click "Rasterize Type".
We'll convert the text layers into a Smart Object, so we can modify it non-destructively and allow
us to replace it with other text without having to re-do most of the effects. To do this, Shift-click
the original text layer to make it active as well and click the icon at the upper right and
click "Convert to Smart Object". Double-click the thumbnail of the Smart Object to open its source.
To see our text better, we'll place a black layer behind it. To do this, make the bottom layer
active and Ctrl or Cmd-click the New Layer icon to make a new layer below the active layer. To fill
it with black, press Ctrl or Cmd + Delete to fill it with our background color. Ctrl or Cmd-click
the rasterized text layer to select its shape. Go to Select, Modify, and Contract. Contract the
selection by 7 pixels. Then, click OK or press Enter or Return. Press the Delete key to delete
the areas inside the selection. Deselect it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + D. Hide the black layer and
close the Smart Object. When you see this message, click "Yes" to save the changes. Now we have text
that's usable for our neon. Double-click an empty area of the smart object to open its Layer Style
window. Click "Outer Glow". Click the color box and pick a color for the general color of your
neon sign. Near the end of this video, I'll show you how to change its color easily and
quickly. Earlier, I already picked the color I'm using. If you want to use the same color,
type into the hexadecimal field: E402FF. Then, click OK. The Blend Mode is Linear Dodge,
and the opacity is 50%. The Technique is "Softer", the Spread is 1%, and the Size is 125 pixels.
Click the arrow next to the Contour thumbnail to open the contour presets, click the gear icon,
and click Small or Large list. Click "Half Round". The "Range" is 50%. Make a copy of the text layer
by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J. Double-click "Outer Glow" to open it in the Layer Style window. Change
the Blend Mode to Soft Light and its opacity to 80%. The Spread is 0, the Size is 35 pixels,
and the Contour is Linear. Click "Drop Shadow". The Blend Mode is Linear Burn, the color is black,
and the opacity is 15%. The Angle is 40 degrees, the Distance is 15 pixels, the Spread is 10%,
and the Size is 10 pixels. The Contour is linear. Click "Color Overlay" and the color box. In the
hexadecimal field, I'll type in FF7EFF, which is a bit lighter than the outer glow. Once you pick
or type in your color, press Enter or Return. Click "Inner Glow". The Blend Mode is Normal,
the Opacity is 100%, and the color is white. The Technique is "Softer", the Source is "Center", the
Choke is 0" and the Size is 0 pixels. The Contour is linear. Go to Filter, Blur, and Gaussian Blur.
Blur it 3 pixels. Next, we'll illuminate the brick wall behind our neon. But, before we do,
let's save some space in the Layers panel by collapsing the filters. Shift-click the
first smart object layer to make it active as well and press Ctrl or Cmd + J to make a copy
of both layers. Convert them into one Smart Object. Ctrl or Cmd-click its thumbnail to
select its shape. Hide the layer and make the dark brick wall active. Alt or Option-click
the Layer Mask icon to make an inverted layer mask next to the dark brick layer. Now that we
have a layer mask of our neon's glowing shape, we can delete the top layer by making the top
layer active and pressing the Delete key on our keyboard. Lastly, I'll show you how to quickly
change the color of our neon sign. Shift-click the first Smart Object to make it active as well
and press Ctrl or Cmd + G to group them into a folder. Click the Adjustment Layer icon and click
"Hue/Saturation". We want the adjustment layer to affect just our neon sign and not the brick wall,
however, since adjustment layers affect all the layers below them in the layers panel,
we'll need to restrict it to the folder in which our neon sign resides. To do this,
click the Clipping Mask icon or you can go to Layer and "Create Clipping Mask". Drag the Hue
slider to the right or left. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. Thanks for watching!