Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. I'm going to show you how to make an outdoor,
neon sign and then, show you how to easily change its colors. This is an update to neon
tutorials that I've done on earlier versions of Photoshop.
Open the photo I provided, so you can follow along.
Its link is located in the video description or project files.
Open your Horizontal Type Tool
and choose a relatively thick font for your main neon
sign. I'm using "Astrud Regular". If you like to use it, I provided that link, as well.
For this font, I'll choose a size of 110 points, Smooth and Center Alignment.
Click the color box and pick white.
Click on your document and type out your text.
If you want to move some characters closer together,
click between them, hold down Alt or Option and press the Left arrow key
on your keyboard. To reposition your line of text,
open your Move Tool and move it.
Go to Layer, Rasterize and Type.
Ctrl-click or Cmd-click on the thumbnail of
your text layer to make a selection of the text's shape.
Go to Select, Modify and Contract.
Contract it by 3 pixels.
Notice the selection has contracted around each character.
Press the "Delete" key on your keyboard to delete inside those areas. To deselect it, press
Ctrl or Cmd + D. We're left with an outline of each character, which we'll make into tubes of neon.
Double-click the thumbnail of your text to open its Layer Style window. Click
"Outer Glow" and the color box.
Pick a color for your main neon sign. I've already picked
a color I like. It's alpha-numeric number is 08b6ff.
To save your color onto your clipboard,
highlight the number and press Ctrl or Cmd + C to copy it . Then, click OK.
Change the Blend Mode to "Normal", increase the Opacity to 100% and make the Size: 9 pixels.
Click "Inner Glow", the color box and press Ctrl or Cmd + V to paste the color's alpha-numeric
number into the field. Then, click OK.
Change the Blend Mode to Normal,
make the opacity: 100% and make the Size: 2 pixels. Then, click OK.
Next, we'll increase the glow and add
a subtle drop shadow behind the sign to add dimension. First, click the icon at the upper,
right corner of the Layers panel and click "Convert to Smart Object". Now, we can click
the "fx" icon and add another "Outer Glow" to the same layer. When the Layer Style window
opens, click the color box and press Ctrl or Cmd + V to paste the number of your color
into the field. Then, click OK. Change the Blend Mode to "Normal", make the Opacity:
60% and the Size: 50 pixels. Click "Drop Shadow".
Increase the Opacity to 100% and change
the Angle to minus 15 degrees. Make the Distance: 11 pixels and keep the Size: 5 pixels.
Then, click OK.
To enhance the glow effect, we'll blur the neon slightly.
Go to Filter, Blur
and Gaussian Blur. Blur it 0.3 pixels.
Next, we'll arch the sign.
Press Ctrl or Cmd + T
to open your Transform Tool and if you see this warning, click OK. It just tells us that
the Smart Filters will be temporarily turned off.
Click the Warp Mode icon and open the
Custom warp presets. For this example, I'll choose "Arch", but feel free to experiment
with the other presets. To decrease the bend, type in a lower percentage. I'll type in 25%.
Then, click the checkmark or press Enter or Return.
To brighten the sign, make a copy
of it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J. Let's place these 2 layers into its own folder. To do
this, Shift-click on the thumbnail of the original sign to highlight both layers. Then,
press Ctrl or Cmd + G. Name it whatever your sign says. neon
Next, we'll add the secondary neon sign.
Open your Type Tool and choose another font. I'm using "Air Conditioner Regular".
If you'd like to use it, I provided its link. For this font, I'll choose a size of 26 points.
Click on your document and type out your text.
If you want to center it under your other
sign, open your Move Tool, Shift-click on the folder to highlight both layers and then,
click the "Align Horizontal Centers" icon.
Click the large "T" next to your main neon
text to make it active. Click the "fx" icon
and choose "Outer Glow".
Click the color box
and pick a color for your secondary neon sign. I'm picking a bright green. 00FF90. As before,
save it onto your clipboard by highlighting it and pressing Ctrl or Cmd + C. Then, click OK.
Change the Blend Mode to Normal, make the Opacity: 100% and because the font size
is small, I'll make the Outer Glow size: 7 pixels.
Click "Inner Glow" and the color box.
Press Ctrl or Cmd + V to paste the number of your color into the field. Then, click
OK. Change the Blend Mode to "Normal", the Opacity: 100% and the Size: 3 pixels.
Then, click OK.
Next, we'll make the secondary neon sign brighter.
Convert the layer into a Smart
Object and open the folder of your main neon sign. Place your cursor on the Effects and hold
down Alt or Option as you drag a copy of the effects to the secondary neon layer. Close
the folder and double-click on "Outer Glow" to see it in the Layer Style window. Click
the color box and press Ctrl or Cmd + V to paste the color of your secondary neon sign
into the field. Then, click OK on both windows.
In the next few steps, we'll place our entire
sign in perspective on the exterior wall.
To save space, let's collapse the effects.
Click off the eyeball of the background to temporarily hide the layer.
Make a composite snapshot of your neon sign by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E on Windows
or Cmd + Shift+ Option + E on a Mac.
Hide these two layers by clicking off their eyeballs.
The next few steps will be to prepare the
neon sign for the Vanishing Point filter, which will place the sign into perspective.
Press Ctrl or Cmd + A to select your sign and Ctrl or Cmd + C to copy it.
Deselect it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + D.
Hide the sign
and make the background visible
and active.
To place your sign correctly onto the wall, we need to brighten the photo. To do this,
make a copy of it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J
and open the Levels window by pressing
Ctrl or Cmd + L.
Drag the Input White to the left until the wall that the sign will go
onto is bright enough to see. Then, click OK.
Click the New Layer icon to make a new layer.
Go to Filter and Vanishing Point.
The Vanishing Point window will open.
It defaults to the "Create Plane Tool".
Click on a corner of the grid that shows the wall's perspective.
Release your cursor and click on another corner. Continue until you've clicked on 4 corners
that show the perspective of the wall. When you see a blue grid appear, you can extend
each side be going to the middle of the side and when you see a straight, double-arrow,
pull it out.
The grid follows its perspective.
Continue to extend each side of the grid.
Then, press Ctrl or Cmd + V to paste the sign into the window. As soon as you drag it into
the Vanishing Point grid, it snaps into the perspective of the grid. Position it on the
wall and then click OK. Next, I'll show you how to quickly change the colors of your neon
sign. First, hide the bright, background copy.
Click the Adjustment layer icon and click
"Hue/Saturation".
Click the "Clip-to-layer" icon. This restricts the Adjustment layer
to effect just the one layer beneath it. If we don't click it, the entire image would
change colors.
Now, slide the Hue to the left or right.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!