Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. I'm going to show you how to quickly make
text or graphics look like they're underwater on the bottom surface of a swimming pool.
Notice how the text conforms to the contortions of the water and how the surface reflections
remain bright and intact.
I provided this image of a swimming pool , so you can follow along.
Its link is located in the video description or project files.
Make a copy of it by pressing
Ctrl + J on Windows or Cmd + J on a Mac. We're going to use this copy for our displacement
map, which will distort our text based on the tonal values of the water. Since displacement
effects look best when they're blurred, go to Filter, Blur and Gaussian Blur. Blur it
3 pixels and then, click OK or press Enter or Return.
Go to Layer and Duplicate Layer.
Open your Document list and click "New". Type in “Displacement” and click OK.
Go to File and "Save As".
Save it to your "Desktop" for easy access, as a Photoshop file
and then click "Save".
If you see this warning, click OK.
Click the small "x" on tab of the displacement file to close it.
Now that we made a displacement map from the blurred, background copy of the
water, we can trash the layer.
Open your Horizontal Type Tool and make sure black and white are
your respective, foreground and background colors. If they're not, click this icon or
press "D" on your keyboard.
Choose a relatively heavy font. I'm using "Bebas Neue Regular".
If you'd like to use it, I provided its link, as well. I'll choose a size of 150 points,
Smooth, Center alignment and the color is black.
Click on your document and type out your text.
If you have more than one line of text, to adjust the space between the lines,
highlight them and go to Window and Character.
The Character panel will open.
Drag the "Leading" icon to the right or left to increase or decrease the space between the lines.
To close the Character panel, click the double, arrowhead icon.
To center your text, click your Move Tool,
press Ctrl or Cmd + A to select it all and click the "Align Horizontal Centers" icon.
To deselect it, press Ctrl or Cmd + D. We need to move the text down on the document.
To do this, press the Down arrow on your keyboard. Position your text so its closer to the bottom.
The reason we're doing this is because once we angle our entire image later, our text
will look more centered. We also need to move the text 30 pixels to the left, since it'll
be displaced 30 pixels to the right. Press and hold Shift as you press the Left arrow
three times. Each time you pressed the left arrow, holding "Shift" moved it 10 pixels.
Go to Filter, Distort and Displace. You'll see this window if you're using version CC 2014.
If you’re using an earlier version, I’ll show you what to do in a second. Click
"Convert to Smart Object". This allows us to change or edit our text without having
to start from scratch. If you're using an earlier version of Photoshop, go to Layer,
"Smart Objects" and "Convert to Smart Object".
You know its a Smart Object when you see this
icon on the lower, right corner of the thumbnail. Go to Filter, Blur and Gaussian Blur.
Blur it 1 pixel. Then, click OK or press Enter or Return.
Go to Filter, Distort and Displace.
For the Horizontal and Vertical Scales, type in 30. Tick: "Stretch To Fit" and "Repeat
Edge Pixels". Then, click OK or press Enter or Return. document
Click the Displacement document
and click "Open".
Notice the text is now centered and the shapes of the individual characters
have beautifully conformed to the reflections and curves of the water. Next, we'll make
it look like its underwater.
Change the Blend Mode to "Overlay" and reduce its Opacity to 80%.
If you want to change the text, double-click on the Smart Object to open it.
Double-click the large "T" on the layer to highlight the text and type out your new words.
Click the checkmark
and the small "x" on the tab of the Smart Object.
Then, click "Yes" to save the changes.
Notice, the text instantly updated and retained all the filters and effects as
well as all the nuances of the water. I'll press Ctrl or Cmd + Z to undo the last step.
Let's, angle our image in perspective.
Make a composite snapshot by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E on Windows
or Cmd + Shift + Option + E on a Mac.
Zoom out of your document by pressing Ctrl or Cmd and the minus key on your keyboard.
Go to Edit, Transform and Perspective.
Go to a bottom corner and drag it out until you're happy with swimming pool's perspective.
Then, press Enter or Return.
To see your document at 100%, press Ctrl or Cmd + 1.
The last step is to brighten our overall image.
To do this, invoke Auto-Levels by pressing Ctrl + Alt
+ L on Windows or Cmd + Option + L on a Mac. Then, press Enter or Return.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!