This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you how to create this powerful metal text effect with explosive sparks.
I provided a Photoshop template that you can download, so you can follow along.
Its link is in the video's description below the video or in my project files.
It includes this photo of sparks, brushed metal texture,
dark metal texture and an aged, metal image for the background.
I also provided a link to the font I'll be using, called, "Aldo The Apache", however,
feel free to use any font you'd like.
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Hide all the layers but the bottom aged metal background.
Make that layer active.
Our text will be placed above it.
Open your Horizontal Type Tool.
If your foreground and background colors aren't black and white respectively, press "D" on your keyboard.
Open your Type Picker and pick a font.
This effect looks best in a large point size.
I'm choosing "None" for the ant-aliasing, but frankly, it doesn't really matter that much in this case.
I'll make the alignment centered.
Click on your document and type out your text.
To reposition it, place your cursor to the right of your text and drag it.
We want our text to have wide spacing between all the characters.
You can do this two ways.
After highlighting your line of text, you can press Alt or Option and the right or left
bracket key to open or close the space between the characters or you can click the "Character/Paragraph"
icon to open the Character panel or go to Window and Character.
Drag the "Tracking" scrubby slider to the left or right.
We can close the panels now.
Open your Move Tool and drag your text to the center.
Right-click or secondary-click on the text layer to open the fly-out menu.
Click "Convert to Shape".
Our text is now a vector shape.
Open your "Path Selection Tool" and at the top, click the "Fill" box.
Click the "Null" icon.
This removes all color from the inside of the text.
Click the "Stroke" box and click any color, which places that color on the left of "Recently Used Colors".
At this point, the color is irrelevant.
Open the "Stroke Options" panel and make sure the solid stroke option is active.
Open the "Align" options.
Click the bottom icon, which places our stroke outside the path.
In this example, I'll make the stroke 75 pixels, but feel free to adjust this amount.
To hide the paths, press Ctrl or Cmd + H.
Double-click an empty area of your text layer to open the Layer Style window.
Click "Color Overlay" and the Color Picker box.
In the hexadecimal field, type in A6 three times to give us a 65% gray tone.
The Blend Mode is Normal and the opacity is 100%.
Click "Bevel & Emboss".
The Style is "Inner Bevel" and the Technique is "Chisel Soft".
The Depth is 100% and the Direction is Up.
I'll make the Size 30 pixels, however, feel free to adjust this amount based on the size of your text.
The Soften is 0.
Check "Global Light".
Global Light ensures that highlights come from the same place and that shadows are cast
in the same direction, even across multiple objects and multiple layers.
The Angle is 120 degrees and the Altitude is 30 degrees.
Open "Gloss Contour" and click the gear icon.
Check "Small List" and click "Ring".
The Highlight Mode is "Vivid Light, the color is white and the opacity is 75%.
The Shadow Mode is "Multiply", the color is black and the opacity is also 75%.
Click "Contour".
The Contour is Linear and the Range is 50%.
The "Range" controls how much of the contour curve will be applied to the bevel effect.
We'll convert our visible text into a Smart Object, so when apply texture to it later,
it won't add it to the drop shadow that we'll be adding momentarily.
To convert it into a Smart Object, click the icon at the upper, right of the Layers panel
and click "Convert to Smart Object".
Click the "fx" icon and click "Drop Shadow".
The Blend Mode is Multiply, the color is black and the Opacity is 60%.
I'll uncheck "Use Global Light" because I want to make the Angle: 135 degrees.
I'll make the Distance 60 pixels, but again, you may want to adjust this amount.
The Spread is 0 and I'll make the size 40 pixels.
The Contour is Linear.
To make our text look more energized, let's skew it.
To do this, go to Edit, Transform and Skew.
Go to the top middle anchor point and press and hold Alt or Option + Shift as you drag it to the right.
Pressing these hot keys skews the bottom, as well.
To accept it, press Enter or Return.
Let's re-center it over the background by pressing "v" to open your Move Tool and dragging it.
Make the "Dark Metal Texture" visible and active.
To fill the stroked shape of our text with this texture, we need to clip it to the text.
To do this, press Alt + Ctrl + G on Windows or Option + Cmd + G on a Mac.
You could also go to Layer and "Create Clipping Mask".
Change the Blend Mode to "Overlay".
Make the "Brushed Metal texture visible and active and make it into a clipping mask.
Change its Blend Mode to Overlay, as well.
Make the Aged Metal background active and click the Adjustment Layer icon.
Click, "Levels".
For the Input black Level, type in 45 and for the Output white level, type in 105.
Next, we'll add the sparks.
Make the Sparks layer visible and active and change its Blend Mode to "Screen".
Make two copies of it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J, twice.
Hide the copies and male the original active.
Drag it over a bevel.
Make the next sparks layer visible and active.
We'll adjust its position and size by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + T to open your Transform Tool.
To reposition it, go inside the bounding box and drag it over another bevel.
To adjust its size, go to a corner.
If you're using a version earlier than Photoshop CC 2019, press and hold Alt or Option + Shift
as you drag it in or out.
If you're using CC 2019 or later, just press Alt as you drag it.
When you're happy with its size and position, press Enter or Return.
Make the top sparks layer visible and active and open your Transform tool.
Drag it to another bevel.
Then, reduce its size.
If you want to rotate it sparks, go to a corner and when you see a curved, double-arrow, rotate it.
Then, press Enter or Return.
Lastly, we'll illuminate the background behind the sparks.
First, we'll group all the sparks into a folder by clicking the top sparks to make it active
and Shift-clicking the bottom sparks to make all the sparks active.
Then, press Ctrl or Cmd + G. Let's name the folder "Sparks".
Scroll to the bottom and make the layer mask next to the Levels adjustment layer active.
We're going to brush black over the areas behind the sparks, which will reveal back
the original brightness of the aged metal background.
Open your Brush Tool and Brush Picker.
Pick a soft round brush.
We'll adjust its size in a moment.
Make the Hardness 0% and press Enter or Return.
Make its Opacity and Flow both approximately 50%.
The difference between opacity and flow is that opacity controls the opaqueness or transparency
of the paint, while Flow controls the speed at which paint is laid down (much like painting
with a spray paint can).
Flow gives you the ability to gradually build up to your darkest or lightest color by doing
multiple passes in the same area.
To adjust the size of your brush, make sure the CapsLock key is off
and press the right or left bracket key on your keyboard.
Brush over a spark to gradually reveal more and more of the original background as you
feather out the edges.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!