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Magic Glowing Text

In this tutorial you learn how you can convert your normal text into magic glowing sparkles. Using stroke path and layer style it isn't so hard to get this texteffect

Get started, type the text and prepare it to release the sparkles.

Create a new document 400 x 300px and fill it will black.
Type the text in "Edwardian Script ITC", font-size 160 pt. Set the anti-aliasing method to Smooth, color doesn't matter as long as it is not the same as the background color.

Ctrl-click (mac: Cmd-click) in the layers palette on the layer miniature of the textlayer to make a selection of the text.
Go to the path palette and press the Make workpath from selection button.

Prepare the brush to make sparkles.

Now the text is a path it is posible to stroke it with the brush. But before that you need to change the brush options.
Activate the brush tool en press F5 to open the brushes palette.
Click on Brush tip size:

Shape Dynamics:

Scattering:

Now the brush is ready to stroke the text.
Go to the layer palette and delete de textlayer or make it invisable. Make a new layer.
Set white as the forground color.
Go to the path palette and rightclick om the Work Path and choose Stroke path.
In the window that now appears choose for Brush and make sure Simulate pressure is not checked.
The stroke is a litte to hard to make this better:
Change in the brushes palette the following options:
Brush Tip Size: Diameter to 4px and Spacing to 130%.
Scattering: Scatter 600%
Stroke the path again but this time with the option Simulate pressure checked.
Click in the palette path on an emty spot. That way the path becomes inactive.

Make the sparkles glow.

Go to the layer palette and dubbelckick on the layer miniature of the sparkles layer to open the layer style window.
Go to Drop Shadow and change the values as shown below:
(don't forget to change the Blend Mode to Lighter.)


Go to Outer Glow and change the values as shown below:
(don't forget to change the Blend Mode to Lighter.)

The background.

To work easier it is best to turn of the sparkles layer.
Activate the backgroundlayer.
Change the forground color to #d5b19b and the background color to #3b0f05.
Activate the gradient tool, go to the option (above in the photoshop window) and set it so the gradient goes from forground color to background color , type Reflected Gradient.
Draw the gradient as shown below.

Create a new layer, change the gradienttype to Radial Gradient and draw the gradient as shown below.

Change the blend mode of this layer to Overlay and make the sparkles layer visable again.

the finishing touch

Make sure the sparkles layer is active.
Create a new layer and fill it with black. Because the sparkles layer was active the new black layers stands above the sprankles.
Go to Filter > Render > Lens flare. Move the sun so it stands on the first letter and change Lenstype to 105mm.

Change the blend mode of this layer to Soft Light.

Duplicate the sparkles layers and place it above the sunlayer.

Light Effect On A Model

Light is a cool subject to talk about। After reading some articles about light effect, I decided to write a tutorial showing how to create a very spectacular light effect around a model. Before that, I will show you a quick technique to retouch portrait and bring new look on it, step by step

Step 1: Open a new document, I used 800x600 pixels and look for a model photo on the internet, this is the one I used:

After downloading, place it on your document. Now we will start to retouch it!

Step 2: As you can see, it is a bit dark so we should make it brighter first. Duplicate your photo by pressing Ctrl-J and change its blending mode to Screen. Simple, right?

It is now better. Merge down this layer donw by pressing Ctrl-E. After that, duplicate it again and go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and use a value of 4.5 pixels

Step 3: Change the blending mode to Overlay and merge it down. The model now looks wonderful!

Step 4: Next we will add some light on her. Use the Pen tool and make some point around the dark areas of the model, don't need to be so exact

Step 5: Convert this path into a selected area, you can save this area for later use by going to Select>Save Selection

Step 6: Create a new layer and go to Filter>Render>Clouds and Filter>Artistic>Plastic Wrap, just use the default values

Now change its blending mode to Color Dodge. Your photo may look a bit different:

Step 7: In the next steps, we will add light effect on the model. Use the Pen tool to draw some curves on her

Step 8: Reset your colors by pressing D and invert them by pressing X. Choose the Brush tool and go to Window>Brushes to open the Brushes panel. Pick a small brush (about 5 pixels) with 0% hardness and tick on Shape Dynamics. Create a new layer, choose the Pen tool again, right click and choose Stroke Path. Make sure you tick on the Simulate Pressure before pressing OK

A small curve, thinner at two ends appear like this:

Step 9: Repeat step 8 again but this time we also tick on the Scattering checkbox (make sure you make it on a new layer)

After choosing Stroke Path, we get

Now we can delete the path by pressing Enter. Double click on your two new created layers to open Layer Style dialog box. Use Outer Glow as following:

Use the Eraser tool to delete some light areas, the glowing light seems to surround her. After this step, we get:

Step 10: Make our light effect stronger by duplicate the "glowing dots" layer. Press Ctrl-I to invert its colors

Change the blending mode to Overlay. And this is the result:

This technique can be used in various ways but the principle is still the same. Hope you enjoy this tutorial.

Create A Glowing Extreme Wallpaper

Step 1

Create a new Photoshop document RGB, 1400 x 900 px. Fill the background with black. Then create a new layer, name it “BG” or something like that and fill it with a Radial Gradient (#55015F – #000000). From the center to one of the sides, as it shows in the images below.

Step 2

Select “BG” layer, then go to Filter > Distort > Twirl and set the twirl value to 250º. Hit OK and see how it looks.

Step 3

Now paste the main image, you can use any picture. This time I’ll paste this image of a roller guy jumping. As I’m very creative the layer’s name will be “Roller guy”.

Step 4

Now extract the guy’s shape, go to Channels, hide everything except the Blue channel then using the magic wand select the white background. Click on RGB layer on the Channels palette, then go to the Layers view again. Feather (and expand) your selection a few pixels and delete it.

Step 5

Now rotate and move the guy just a little bit to the left. Then go to Images > Adjustments > Curves and set the values below to decrease the output levels. See the image below.

Step 6

Next, duplicate the “Roller guy” layer, place the copy above the original on the Layers palette. Apply to the copy a Color Overlay (#9D0DAD) and set the Blending Mode value to Hue.

Step 7

Merge the “Roller guy copy” layer with a new blank layer. Then go to Layer > Layer mask > Reveal all and using a soft black brush, paint on the layer mask to hide the face, hands and pants. You should have something that looks like the bottom of the image below.

Step 8

Merge the “Roller guy” and “Roller guy copy” layers and name it just “Guy” (I’m putting those layers in a folder, duplicate and merge the folder). Now Dodge and Burn some areas of the “Guy” layer.

Step 9

Duplicate the “Guy” layer, convert “Guy copy” into a Smart Object. Next select the Smart Object, go to Filter > Blur > Radial blur, set Zoom as blur method and Best Quality and apply the same filter three times (Hit Command – Control + F to re-apply the filter once again). Finally, change “Guy copy” Blending mode to Linear Dodge (Add).

Step 10

Duplicate the “Guy” layer one more time, convert the copy into a Smart Object and apply the Radial Blur filter, but this time, move the Blur center a little bit to the left. Re-apply the filter a few times, move the “Guy copy 2″ layer above everything else on layers palette, then change its blending mode to Linear Dodge (Add).

Step 11

Now download this brush set. And paint one single shape into a new layer called “Brush1″. Use this color (#E700FF).

Step 12

Add to the “Brush1″ layer a gradient overlay using the colors shown below. Then put the “Brush 1″ layer above the “BG” layer on layers palette. Finally add an Outer Glow filter.

Step 13

Now add a new light above the guy, use the brush shown below and use this color (#E700FF). Also add an Outer glow and change layer’s Blending Mode to Screen.

Step 14

Add two more lightening brushes with the same layer effect of previous step.

Step 15

Following select “Guy”, “Guy copy” and “Guy copy 2″ and put them into a folder named “Flying Guy”, merge the folder, duplicate the layer and put it behind the original. Select Flying Guy copy and go to Edit > Free Transform, then reduce and rotate the guy just a little bit. Repeat that step as many times as you want.

Step 16

Now hide for a while all the guys layers, show the smaller one and apply a Layer Mask and fill it with a Radial Gradient Black – White. Repeat this with every single copy of the flying guy.

Step 17

Now we’re going to add a complex diffuse glow to make our design brighter. Change the Blending Mode to Dissolve on each Flying guy’s copy. Then down the Opacity of the copies to 75%, 70%, 65%, 60% respectively. Finally merge all the copies into one layer named “Flying guy copy” and put it above the “Flying Guy” layer or folder.

Step 18

Next, apply to the “Flying Guy copy” layer a Layer mask > Reveal all, then using a soft black brush, paint on a layer mask to hide some areas of the diffused glow.

Step 19

Hide the Diffuse layer for the moment. Now as a quick fix, to improve the lighting sensation, adjust the Hue / Saturation of the background “Brush 1″ layer. Also add a white light behind the Flying guy using one of these brushes.

Step 20

To finish the diffuse glow effect, show the “Flying Guy copy” layer, add an Outer Glow (use the values shown below). Then goto Filter > Blur > Gausian Blur, set 7,2 as blur radius and hit OK.

Step 21

Now type some text somewhere on your design, I’m using Kozuka Gothic Pro typeface (#F3B1FB), then add an Outer Glow effect to the text layer.

Step 22

Finally use this brush set to add some white sparkles.

Final result

And that’s it! a simple and quick way to create a glowing conceptual wallpaper!.