Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you how to create this dynamic shadow text effect.
I provided this background that we can use for our project. Its link is in my video's description or project files.
I also provided a link for the font I'm using, however, feel free to use any font you like.
Before we type out our text, let's check our foreground and background colors.
If they aren't black and white respectively, press "D" on your keyboard. If they're inverted, press "x".
Open your Horizontal Type Tool and Type Picker. Pick a font you want to use.
I'll make its size 255 points, however, feel free to adjust its size based on the font you pick and
the number of characters in your text. Make its aliasing: Smooth. Its alignment is irrelevant in this case.
Click on your document and type out your text.
Open the Move Tool and drag your text to approximately here. This gives us room
below and to the left for our shadow. Open your Rectangular Marquee Tool and drag it over the top
half of the background. Try to get it as close to the horizon line as you can. It doesn't have to
be precise for now. Click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask next to the text. The black half
of the layer mask is masking out that portion of our text. Always remember this simple fact:
in layer masks, white reveals and black conceals. If the text isn't lined up with the horizon line,
click the chain-link to unlink the layer and the layer mask. Doing this allows us to reposition and
resize either of them independently of the other. With the layer mask active, press the up or down
arrow key on your keyboard to move the layer mask up or down. Make a copy of the layer by pressing
Ctrl or Cmd + J. Click the "fx" icon and click "Bevel & Emboss".
The Style is "Outer bevel",
the Technique is Smooth, and the Depth is 100%. The Direction is Up, the Size is 7 pixels,
and the Soften is 0. The Angle is 63 degrees and the Altitude is 42 degrees. The Gloss Contour is linear.
The Highlight Mode is Linear Dodge, the color is white and the opacity is 32%.
The Shadow Mode is irrelevant since its opacity is 0%. Click OK or press Enter or Return.
Make the bottom layer mask active.
We'll invert it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + i. Right-click or secondary-click on an empty area of the layer
to open the fly-out list and click, "Rasterize Type". Ctrl or Cmd-click the bottom layer mask
to select its shape. Make your rasterized text layer active and press Ctrl or Cmd + J to cut
and copy that portion of the text inside the shape of the layer mask's selection. Now that
we have the bottom portion of our text on its own layer, we can delete the rasterized text by
making it active and pressing the "Delete" key on our keyboard. Make the bottom of our text
active. We'll convert it 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 Edit, Transform, and Distort.
Place your cursor on the bottom, middle anchor point and
drag it down and to the left to approximately here. Go to the bottom, right anchor point and drag it down
press and hold Ctrl or Cmd + Shift as you drag it over to approximately here. Pressing Shift kept
the bottom perfectly horizontal as we dragged it. Feel free to adjust it if you like. Then,
press Enter or Return. Next, we'll blur it and lastly, adjust its opacity.
Go to Filter, Blur Gallery, and Tilt Shift. If you're using CS6, the Tilt-Shift filter is under
Filter and Blur. I did an in-depth tutorial on Tilt-Shift, so if you'd like to watch it,
I provided its link as well. If you don't see the Tilt-Shift's on-screen controls, press Ctrl of
Cmd + H. I'll briefly explain what these lines mean. The area between the solid lines remains
sharp. They're protected from being blurred. The area between the solid line and dashed line is
the transition area. The blur grows progressively from the solid line toward the dashed one,
where it reaches its full strength. The area outside the dashed line is 100% blurred.
We can reposition all the controls together by going to the center point of the widget and dragging it.
We can determine where we want our shadow to start by dragging the bottom solid line up
or down. Conversely, we can determine how much of the shadow we want blurred by dragging the bottom
dashed line down or up. We can adjust the amount of blur by rotating the outer ring of the center
widget clockwise or counterclockwise. We can also adjust the blur amount by dragging the Blur slider
to the right or left. When we're happy with it,
click OK at the top.
Click the Layer Mask icon to make layer mask next to the shadow.
Open the Gradient Tool and open the list of gradient presets. Click the black to white
preset and make sure the linear gradient icon is selected. Place your cursor approximately
here and press and hold the Shift key as you drag the gradient tool up to the horizon line. Holding
Shift kept it perfectly vertical.
If you want to make the bottom of the shadow less transparent, double-click the layer mask
and drag the density to the left.
Press Ctrl or Cmd +H to hide the gradient line.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. Thanks for watching!