Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you how to create a gritty, weathered, outdoor poster on a grungy urban wall.
This is an update of a tutorial I did quite awhile ago on an earlier version of Photoshop.
This version is more powerful and flexible.
I provided this Photoshop file, so you can follow along.
Its link is in my video's description or project files below.
It includes this brick wall and a white, puckered, paper texture that we'll use for the base
of our poster, as well as for a displacement map.
The displacement map will wrap the text and any graphics of poster around the contours
of the paper texture, which will give it some dimension.
In addition, I provide a link to set of grunge brushes that we’ll use to reveal the brick
wall behind our poster.
Since you’ll need to restart Photoshop to see your new set of brushes, my advice is
to close Photoshop now, install the brushes in the Preset Brush folder and then re-open Photoshop.
Before we begin, I want to mention that I'll be moving a bit faster for more advanced users.
Click the icon at the upper right of the Layer panel and click "Duplicate Layer".
Click "New" and type in "Displacement".
We'll convert it into a Smart Object, so we can modify it non-destructively and adjust
the filters that we'll be applying to it at any time.
Click the icon at the upper, right and click "Convert to Smart Object".
We'll increase the contrast of the paper and slightly blur it.
This will give us a more effective displacement map.
Click the Adjustment Layer icon and click, "Levels".
In the Input Shadow field, type in: 63...for the Input Midtones, type in: point 75
and for the Input Highlights, type in: 223.
Make the paper base layer active and go to Filter, Blur and Gaussian Blur.
Blur it 4 pixels.
Go to File and "Save As".
Save it to your Desktop for easy access.
Save it as a Photoshop PSD file and click "Save".
If you see this message, just click OK.
Open back the Photoshop template I provided.
We're ready to add text to our poster.
Open your Horizontal Type Type and pick a font.
I'm picking, "Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk Bold".
I'll make its size: 156 points, the Anti-aliasing: "Crisp", "Right Alignment" and black for the color.
Click on your document and type out your text.
To adjust the space between your lines of text, highlight all of it
and click the Character/Paragraph icon or go to Window and Character.
Drag the "Leading" icon to the left or right.
To adjust the space between all your characters, drag the "Tracking" icon to the left or right.
To slide a line of text to the left or right, click to the left of the first character in
the line you want to slide over and press and hold Alt or Option as you press the left
or right arrow key on your keyboard.
Repeat these steps for each line you'd like to slide over.
To change the color of one of your lines, highlight that line and at the top, click the color box.
Pick a different color.
Since I already know the color I want, I'll type it into the hexadecimal field.
Then, click OK or press Enter or Return.
To reposition the body of text, open your Move Tool and move it.
To adjust its size and/or its angle, open your Transform Tool by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + T.
To angle it, go to a corner and when you see a curved, double-arrow, rotate it to an angle you like.
To reposition it, go inside the Transform's bounding box and drag it.
Then, press Enter or Return.
For this example, I'm positioning a bit of my text outside the boundaries of the paper base.
Later, I'll crop off those parts that extend past the paper.
Add add any other text and/or graphics to your poster using the same steps.
When you done, convert it all into one Smart Object.
To do this, Shift-click the bottom text or graphics layer to make all of the layers that
comprise your design, active.
Then, convert all of these into one Smart Object.
Change its Blend Mode to "Color Burn".
Double-click on an empty area of the layer to open its Layer Style window.
We'll bring out the texture of the paper by using the "Blend If" feature.
"Blend If" feature essentially clips one layer into the one under it based on the tones of the two layers.
Make sure the "Gray" channel is picked.
The Gray channel is the luminance channel.
Go to the triangle slider of the white Underlying Layer.
We'll create a smooth transition by splitting the triangle icon in two.
To do this, press and hold Alt or Option and you click on the middle of the icon.
This splits it in two.
Drag the left half of the slider to the left.
This pushes the light values through.
Feel free to experiment with both bars to get just the right amount of blending.
If you have text or graphics that extend past your poster,
Ctrl-click or Cmd-click the thumbnail of the poster base to make a selection of its shape.
Click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask of the selection next to the active layer.
Make the graphics layer active and go to Filter, Distort and "Displace".
Make the Horizontal and Vertical Scales: 3, "Stretch to Fit" and "Repeat Edge Pixels".
Click the Displacement file that you saved at the beginning and click Open.
Your graphics or text now has a subtle effect
that follows the contours of the puckered texture of the paper.
Keep in mind, you can increase this effect by increasing the amount in the Horizontal
& Vertical Scales of the Displace filter.
We'll convert our graphics and poster base into one Smart Object.
Let's close the Character panel, since we don't need it anymore.
To angle the entire poster, open back your Transform Tool and rotate it.
Click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask next to the poster.
Open your Brush Tool and Brush Picker.
Click the gear icon and click the brush set I provided that you installed earlier.
When you see this message, click OK to open it.
If its folder isn't already open, open the folder and click on any of the brushes to open it.
Press Enter or Return.
To make the brush bigger or smaller, press the right or left bracket key on your keyboard.
Make sure the CapsLock key is off, otherwise the brush size won't change.
Go to and edge of the poster and click once to reveal the brick wall through the layer mask.
Continue to click on areas you'd like the brick wall to show through.
Pick a different brush.
To angle it, rotate the arrow on this icon.
The arrow points to the direction your brush will be angled.
Then, press Enter or Return.
If you want to restore areas of the brick wall, press "x" to invert your foreground
and background colors.
Continue these steps until you're happy with its look.
Lastly, let's brighten the overall image.
Click the Adjustment Layer icon and click "Levels".
In the Input Highlight field, type in 232.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!