This Photoshop tutorial will show you how to create a glow text effect.

[table=526]Step 1.First of all make new Photoshop document, with a black background and then create some brown (7B4D2F) large (150 pt) thick text. I've used "BorisBlackBloxx" for this but any thick font, such as Arial Black, will do.

 

Step 2.Make a selection of the text, using the magic wand tool, and create a new layer below it. Expand (select > modify > expand) the selection by 2 pixels. Set the foreground color to orange (C65D29) and then use the paint bucket tool to fill the selection (image b).

a) b)

 

Step 3.Create another layer below the orange filled layer, set the foreground color to a dark brown (3E2B26). Expand the selection by a further 5 pixels and fill it on the new layer.

Step 4.Create another layer below the dark grown layer, expand the selection by 7 pixels and fill the new layer with a dark red color (783643)

Step 5.Contract (select > modify contract) the selection by 5 pixels, feather (select > feather) it by 3 and then delete the area that's selected.

Step 6. Make a selection of the original text, using the magic wand tool, and create a new layer above it. Contract the selection by 6 pixels and fill it with black.

Step 7. This is the 2nd part of the tutorial to create animated, glowing text. Next zoom in to 400%, set the foreground color to light grey (E1E1E1) and the background color to very dark grey (0C0C0C). Choose the gradient tool and set it to the radial gradient. Create a new layer and a cirucular selection, and drag the gradient tool from the center of the selection to the out edge.

a) b)

 

Step 8. Create a new layer set called 'glows' and place the gradient layer inside of it.

Step 9. Duplicate the gradient layers around the text, like in the image below

Step 10.Change the layer set's blending mode to 'color dodge'

Step 11. This is the 3rd part of the tutorial to create animated, glowing text. We are now going to create the lines, which will cover the black section of the text. Now select the line tool (U), make the foreground color grey (8B8B8B) and create a line in a layer set called 'lines'

Step 12. Duplicate the lines in, spreading them evenly, as shown below, and click on the 'lines' layer set, from the layers panel.

Step 13. Merge (layer > merge layer set) the 'lines' layer set into a single layer, and reduce the opacity of the resulting layer to 60%

Step 14. Now that the 'lines' are on a single layer, duplicate the layer, and rotate it by 90 degrees (edit > transform > rotate 90 CW. Place the duplicate as shown in image a). The duplicated lines won't be enough to cover the black part of the text horizontally, so we need to duplicate it again. Once you've done that, move it over to the right, so that all the black part of the text is covered with the lines.

a) b)

Step 15. You should now have 3 copies of the lines layer. Link the line layers together

Step 16. Merged the linked line layers into a single layer (layer > merged linked). Now make a selection, using the black part of the text. Right click on the lines layer, from the layers panel, and choose 'layer via cut'. This will use the selection to cut the lines layer into 2, one outside the selection and one inside.

Step 17.Delete the layer, containing the lines outside of the black area.

[table=544]Step 18. This is the final part of the tutorial to create animated, glowing text. Open the PSD file in Image Ready, and change the delay of the first frame to 0.1

Step 19. Create a 2nd frame, by click on the icon circled in green, and change the opacity of the glow layer set to 60%.

Step 20. Use the optimize panel to change the settings as shown below. This will make sure that when the file is saved, it'll have 64 colors, keeping the file size low, but the quality good. YOu can reduce the file size further, by reducing the colors.

Step 21.Save the file as a GIF (Save Optimized as)

And that brings us to the end of this tutorial! :) Download PSD

discuss this topic to forum