• • • Graphical Tutorials -- Fire Text • • •



• Avoid graphics pixelation • Glowing neon effect • Fire Text •


This tutorial will show you how to create stylish blazing letters, with a reflection, which creates an illusion of letters "standing" on thick glass.This tutorial will not be easy for the beginners, however, patient PhotoShop pupils will succeed, I promise you.

• Create a new layer, approximately 400 px * 400 px.

• Press "D" (to select the black colour) and choose the Paint bucket tool. Fill the layer's background with black.

• Select the typing tool, and write the word you want to set on fire... Make sure you didn't choose a "thin" font, as the letters should be reasonably wide. For the example above I used the Book Antiqua font (should be present in all Windows).

• Select: Edit >> Transform >> Rotate 90 CCW to rotate the text.

• Select: Filter >> Stylize >> Wind. Apply it to the text 3-4 times. Don't pay attention to the text been almost fully distorted, as now we only make the fire effect, and the text will be replaced later.

• Rasterize the layer, if PhotoShop will ask you to. Select: Edit >> Transform >> Rotate 90 CW to rotate the text back, and then: Layer >> Flatten Image. Now, apply the Gaussian Blur filter with radius 3.0 (Filter >> Blur >> Gaussian Blur >> 3.0)

• Select: Image >> Adjustments >> Hue / Saturation, to colorize your image. First of all, check the "Colorize" box, then set the Hue to 34, Saturation to 80, and leave the Lightness on 0.

• Select: Filter >> Liquify. Choose the wrap tool. I suggest using using Brush Size 50 and Brush Pressure 30. However, it depends on personal preference and text size you used. If you will practice this tutorial, you will notice that it's impossible to create two absolutely identical images, mostly because of the liquify tool, that is used in a free hand. Anyway, with your "liquid" brush, distort the flames above the text, and turn the straight lines into wavy. Try not to over use this tool.

• Go to: Image >> Adjustments >> Levels. You will have 3 small arrows below: black, gray and white. Drag the black arrow a bit to the right, so that the input level will turn into 80 (but do not input the number manually, as it will distort the entire colours scheme and add high contrast which will ruin the image.

• Duplicate your background layer (Layer >> Duplicate Layer). Go to Image >> Adjustments >> Hue / Saturation and set the Hue to -30. Set this layer to "Colour Dodge", in the layers menu (instead of "Normal").

• Select the typing tool again, and type the same word as before, in same font and size, and place it exactly above the blurry blazing letters.

• Go to : Layer >> Layer Style and apply the default gradient overlay -- black and white. Also, select the "stroke" option, and choose a white, 2 px border.

• Theoretically, that is it. If you wish to add a reflection, just crop the text from a flattened image (you would need to flatten again) and rotate it vertically, and set the Opacity to about 30% or even a little less. In the image above I also added a gradient fade effect (black to transparent), but you might like it without the gradient too. Good luck, and hope you enjoyed it! Please don't hesitate to email me if you have any questions.


Back to the main category of our tutorials:

• Articles • HTML • Graphical Tutorials •