Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you how to create the look of LED text like you see on huge screens in sports arenas.
I created this small image of an RGB light that we'll use to make our LED pattern.
Its link is in my video's description or project files below.
To fit it onto your entire canvas, press Ctrl or Cmd + 0.
To create the pattern from it that we'll use later, go to Edit and "Define Pattern".
When you see this window, just click OK.
Go to File and New.
Make the Width: 1920 pixels...the Height: 1080 pixels...and the Resolution: 300 Pixels per inch.
The Color Mode is RGB and 8 bits per channel.
If the box isn't black, open the "Background Contents" list and click "Black"
or you can click the box and when the Color Picker opens, pick black.
Click "Create" or "Open".
Click the Adjustment layer icon and click "Pattern".
Make the Scale 30%.
Reduce its opacity to 10%.
Open your Horizontal Type Tool and pick a heavy, san-serif font.
I'm using "Franklin Gothic Heavy".
I'll make its size 68 points, but feel free to adjust the amount depending on the font
you use and the amount of characters in your text.
Click the "Center Alignment" icon and if the box isn't white, click it and pick white.
Click on your document and type out your text.
Make sure your line of text is approximately this wide or less.
To center it on your document, open your Move Tool and press Ctrl or Cmd + A to select your canvas.
Click the "Align Horizontal Centers" icon and the "Align Vertical Centers" icon.
Deselect it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + D. I'd like to point out that the LED light effect
also works with graphics that are pure white.
Just make sure that it doesn't have a background.
Double-click an empty area of the text layer to open its Layer Style window.
Click "Outer Glow".
The Blend Mode is Normal and the Opacity is 50%.
The color white.
The Technique is "Softer, the Spread is 0 and the Size is 50 pixels.
We'll convert the text into a Smart Object, so we can modify it non-destructively and
allow us to replace it with different text or with a white graphic without having to redo the effects.
Click the icon at the upper, right corner of the Layers panel and click "Convert to Smart Object".
Double-click an empty area again to open its Layer Style window.
This time, click "Pattern Overlay".
The Opacity is 100% and the Scale is the same as the background: 30%.
Go to Filter, Blur and "Gaussian Blur".
Blur it 2 pixels.
Go back to Filter, Blur and Motion Blur.
Make the Angle 90 degrees and the Distance 10 pixels.
Go back to Filter one last time and click "Pixelate" and "Mosaic".
Make the Cell Size: 5.
Next, we'll adjust the overall color.
Click the Adjustment Layer icon and click "Color Balance".
For the Midtones, make the Magenta/Green: 10...for the Shadows, make the Magenta/Green also: 10.
For the Highlights, make it: 30.
We'll brighten it by clicking the Adjustment layer icon and clicking "Levels".
Drag the Input Highlight Level to approximately 210.
We'll convert our visible image into a Smart Object, so we can place our LED lights into
a keystoned perspective.
Scroll to the bottom of the Layers panel and Shift-click the bottom layer to make all the layers active.
Then, convert them into one Smart Object.
Zoom out of your document by pressing Ctrl or Cmd and the minus key on your keyboard 4 or 5 times.
Open your Transform Tool by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + T. We want to drag each corner of
the Transform's bounding box to distort the shape of our LED lights.
Go to a corner and press and hold Ctrl or Cmd.
When you see a white arrow, drag out the corner to distort your image.
Go to another corner and repeat the steps.
To make it bigger in your document, go to a corner and when you see a diagonal, double-arrow,
press and hold Alt or Option + Shift as you drag it out.
Feel free to adjust each corner's position until the background fills the entire document.
Then, fit it back on your canvas.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!