Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. I'm going to show you how to to create a simple,
but effective text reflection.
Create a new document by pressing Ctrl + N on Windows or
Cmd + N on a Mac. Make the Width: 1550 pixels, the Height: 870 pixels and the Resolution:
150 pixels per inch.
If your foreground and background colors aren't black and white,
press "D" on your keyboard. Invert the colors by pressing "X". Fill the background with
the background color by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + Delete.
Open your Horizontal Type Tool
and pick a font. I'm using American Captain Regular. If you'd like to use it, I provided its link
in the video description. For this font, I'll choose a size of 160 points, Sharp, center
alignment and the color is white. Click on the center of your document and type out your text.
To reposition it, open your Move Tool and move it. Let's save it as a Smart Object,
so if we decide to change the text later, we won't have to redo most of the effects
that we'll be adding to it.
Click on the icon at the upper, right of the Layers panel
and click "Convert to Smart Object".
Click the "fx" icon
and click "Bevel and Emboss".
Check "Contour". The Style is "Inner Bevel" and the Technique is "Chisel Hard". The Depth
is 100%, the Direction is Up and the Size is 5 pixels.
Open the Gloss Contour presets
and click this icon. This contour is called "Ring".
Leave the other settings at their default positions.
Click "Gradient Overlay". Open your Gradient presets and click the "black
to white" thumbnail. The Angle is 90 degrees and reduce the Opacity to 60%. Then, click
OK. Next, we'll add a subtle, arced, reflection on the front surface. Click the New Layer
icon to make a new layer.
Go to View and make sure Rulers and Snap are checked. If the they
aren't, just click on them. Go to the left ruler and drag out a guide line to the center.
It'll snap in place because we have Snap checked. If you don't see the guide line, press Ctrl
or Cmd + H. Zoom out of your document by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + the minus sign on your keyboard.
Open your Elliptical Marquee Tool and place your cursor on the guide line approximately
halfway between the top of your document and your top of your text. Hold own Alt or Option
as you drag out an elliptical selection approximately this size and shape. Fill the selection with
white, which is the foreground color, by pressing Alt or Option + Delete. To deselect it, press
Ctrl or Cmd + D. To see your document at 100% again, press Ctrl or Cmd + 1.
Reduce its Opacity to 20%.
We want to contain the reflection just inside the face of the text. To do this,
Ctrl-click or Cmd-click on the thumbnail of the text layer to make a selection of the
text. Go to Select, Modify and Contract.
Contract the selection by 6 pixels.
This contracts it just the face of the text.
Click the Layer mask icon to make a layer mask of the contracted selection.
The next series of steps will be to add the spotlight. First, let's place these
two layers into a folder, since they comprise the elements of just the text. To do this,
Shift-click on your text layer to highlight it. Now the text and its face reflection are
both active. Press Ctrl or Cmd + G to place them into a folder. We're going to make a
new layer below the folder. Go to the New Layer icon and Ctrl-click or Cmd-click on
it to make a new layer below the active layer. Let's name it "Spotlight". We'll fill the
empty layer with white, which is the foreground color, by pressing Alt or Option + Delete.
Reduce its opacity to 40%.
Go to Edit, Transform and Perspective.
Go to the top corner of the
Transform and drag it across approximately this much. To accept it, click the checkmark
or press Enter or Return.
Go to Filter, Blur and Gaussian Blur.
Blur it 100 pixels and click OK.
Press Ctrl or Cmd + H to hide the guide line.
Next, we'll brush over the bottom of the spotlight.
Zoom out of your document again
and click the Layer Mask icon to make
a layer mask next to the spotlight.
Open your Brush Tool and make size approximately 800 pixels
with a Hardness of 0%. Make its Opacity 50%.
Press the F5 key at the top of your keyboard
to open the Brush presets. Make sure the only setting that's checked is "Smoothing". Press
F5 again to close the panel.
Now, brush over the bottom a few times to gradually fade the
spotlight in an arced shaped. Then, brush straight across the bottom to fade it even
more. To view it at 100%, press Ctrl or Cmd + 1.
Next, we'll add a shadow on the bottom of the text.
Click the new Layer icon to make a new layer.
Let's name it "Shadow".
Reduce the Brush size to 20 pixels and increase its opacity to 90%.
Place your cursor on a lower corner of your text
and hold down "Shift" as you drag the brush across to the opposite
corner. Holding down Shift keeps the brush in a straight line.
Click on your Text folder
to make it active and make a copy of it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J.
Name the top folder, "Top Text"
and the bottom folder, "Reflection text".
Go to Edit, Transform and "Flip Vertical".
Go to the flipped text and hold down Shift as you drag it straight down until it's flush
with the bottom of the other text.
Reduce its opacity to 20 - 30%.
Open the Reflection text folder
and double-click "Gradient Overlay"
to see it in the Layer Style window.
Check “Reverse”, which inverts the gradient overlay.
Now, the gradient is correct on the
flipped text. Then, click OK. Next, we'll fade out the bottom of the reflection.
Collapse the folder of the reflected text
and click the Layer mask icon to make a layer mask next to the folder.
Press "B" to open your Brush Tool
and increase the size to 800 pixels
and make its opacity: 100%.
Zoom out,
hold down Shift and brush straight across the bottom
of the reflection. Then, fit your document back on your screen.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!