Using Light and Shade to Bring Text to Life

Nov 6th in Text Effects by Collis
The best book I've ever read on drawing is one called Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. After reading it, I'm still pretty bad at drawing, but I did learn a lot about light and shade. In this tutorial we are going to take some very basic principles of light and shade to make a rather impressive-looking text effect.

Author: Collis

Hello! I started PSDTUTS because years ago reading Photoshop tutorials was how I got into design. I hope the site helps and inspires others! You can find me on Twitter!

Light Sources

So before we start the tutorial, here is a little diagram about how light might hit an object. Here we have a square object in the middle with light coming from the top left. You can see that where the light hits the object, a shadow is cast on the other side. Note that the shadow is not a Photoshop drop shadow, which makes the object look like it's hovering above the canvas. Here we want the object to look like it's a three dimensional thing stuck on the canvas, extruding if you like. Now tell me what other Photoshop tutorial site gives you diagrams? It's like being back in school!

Step 1

We begin the tutorial by drawing a subtle Linear Gradient from dark grey to darker grey. Note that because we want our light to come from the top left, that's where the lighter part of the document is.

Step 2

Now we place some text. I've used a very cool font called Agency FB, which has a condensed, hard-edge feel to it. You should make the text a grey-ish blue color - #c2c8d4 to be precise.

Step 3

Next Ctrl-click the text layer and create a new layer above it. In the new layer, with that selection still held, draw a linear gradient of #495a79 to transparent from bottom right to left. So in other words you are darkening the bottom right as shown.

Step 4

Set your foreground color to Black (you can do this by pressing the letter 'D' on your keyboard which restores the defaults).

Now Ctrl-click the text layer again and create a new layer beneath the text layer. Now press the down arrow on your keyboard once and the right arrow on your keyboard once. Then press Alt+Backspace to fill it with black. Then press down and right again one time and fill with black. Each time you will be moving 1px right and 1px down. You should repeat this process about 30 times (which is why it's important to use Alt+Backspace instead of the Fill tool).

Note also that to move the selection but not the fills when you press your arrow keys, you have to have one of the Marquee tools on. If you switch to the Move Tool (V) when you press down and right you will actually move the black fill as well as the selection and will just be filling the same pixels over and over.

Step 5

Here's what you should now have. Now deselect and make sure you are on the shadow layer, then go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur and use values of -45 degrees and a distance of 30px.

Step 6

Set your shadow layer to Multiply and about 40% Opacity and then hold down Shift and press the down arrow and then the right arrow. This will move your object right and down 10px each (Shift tells Photoshop to go 10px at a time instead of 1). Now you may have some of the blurred parts of the shadow sticking out to the top and left of the object. If this is the case, grab a small soft eraser and gently erase away anything which shouldn't be shaded (remember the diagram at the beginning).

Step 7

Next duplicate the shadow layer, hold Shift and move it down and right again. Then run the Motion Blur filter again with a distance of 50px this time and set this layer to Multiply and 20% Opacity. This is just to give our shadows more of a trail off.

Step 8

Now create a new layer above all the other layers, hold down Ctrl and click the main text layer to select its pixels and back on your new layer fill the selection with White. Don't let go of the selection just yet though. Instead press down and right one time to move 1px away and then hit Delete.

Set this thin white line layer to about 80% Opacity.

Step 9

As you can see, the thin white line gives a sort of highlight effect where the light source is hitting the text and gives the impression that the text is more three dimensional.

Step 10

Next we want to create some streams of natural light. Create a new layer above all the others and draw four or five white rectangles approximately similar to those shown (i.e. getting fatter as they go down).

Step 11

Now press Ctrl+T to transform and rotate and enlarge the rectangles as shown. Now normally you'd press Enter when you're finished, but this time don't let go just yet. Instead, right-click and you will get a pop up menu showing you other types of transforms you can do. Choose Perspective. The reason it's important to do this in one step is so that you don't lose your bounding box. So take the top left two points and bring them closer together so that the light appears to be coming from one place and spreading out.

Step 12

Here we have our four strips of "light." Now set the layer to Overlay and 20% Opacity and then go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and give it a blur radius of 6px.

Step 13

You should now have something that looks like this.

Step 14

Now since those thin strips are meant to be light, it would make sense if our highlight layer only showed up where the light was hitting right? So Ctrl-click the light layer and then click on the highlight layer from earlier, then while the selection is still on, click on the Add Layer Mask button (it's the one at the bottom of the layer palette to the right of the 'f' icon). This will create a Mask that only shows the highlight layer where the light overlaps it.

Step 15

So you could stop here; it's already looking pretty good, but we'll finish this effect off by adding some warm lighting.

Step 16

So first of all create a new layer just above the background and fill it with a pinkish color - #9d506c.

Step 17

Now set the pink layer's blending mode to Colour and the opacity to 20%. This gives our background a nice reddish-warmth. Over the top of this we can now mix in some yellows. If we don't put in the reddish cast underneath, the result comes out looking overly yellow and not particularly real.

Step 18

Next we create a layer just above the pink. Fill it completely with white and then go to Filter > Render > Lighting Effects. I don't often use Lighting Effects, but it does have one very cool preset called the Two O'clock Spotlight, which you can select by going to Style at the top and looking through the options. You can pretty much use this as default, but for our purposes it helps to extend the ellipse to make it a little longer (i.e. the spotlight is a little further off).

Step 19

Now we set the lighting layer to Overlay and you have something like shown below. Now duplicate that layer, move it above all the other and set it to 40% Opacity. This makes sure that our warm lighting is also interacting with the text and not just the background.

Conclusion

Finally, we duplicate the top lighting layer one more time and set it to 65% Opacity, then click the Add Layer Mask button on the layers palette again and draw a linear white to black gradient from top left to bottom right. This makes the extra lighting layer fade off as it goes down right.


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User Comments

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  1. Devon Lumsden November 6th

    This is a real great tutorial I ‘ll have a try and show you what i come up with


  2. PiticStyle November 6th

    Beautiful! Thank you!


  3. Jim November 6th

    Pretty interesting, now if I could only find a practical design concept… Keep posting guys! These are really helpful!


  4. Jimmy November 6th

    Grt Tut.keep up the good work.good to see that you make us see the basics too.:)
    Thanks


  5. Colin November 6th

    i love render lighting effects! very nice!


  6. mygrads November 6th

    wow, this is great!


  7. Livingston Samuel November 6th

    Wonderful work! Your site rocks. :)


  8. rpleh November 6th

    Wow! Amazing work as always!


  9. Marko Novak November 6th

    Now, that’s a nice tutorial. It’s helpful and can be used for many things. Keep up the good work.


  10. OliMX November 6th

    This is good stuff on Back to Basic :)


  11. Jason Zhong November 6th

    It’s great work! I’m very like it. Thank you so much . ^_^


  12. Jeffrey November 6th

    very nice


  13. Mark November 6th

    Yet again great tut Collis. Easy and simple to follow. Keep up the good work!


  14. CAMBRIDGE WEB DESIGN November 6th

    Very nice indeed - Thank you for sharing your technique!


  15. James November 6th

    Oooohh… pretty…


  16. Zenor November 6th

    Great one,as always.
    Thanks.


  17. chandan kumar November 6th

    awesome again.


  18. Dane -Touchdreams November 6th

    Aw this’s great! Gives me some ideas a lots of new techniques I’ve never done before. I particularly like the way you’ve done the motion blur for the text’s shadow, very nifty trick that ;)


  19. Gregorio November 6th

    Amazing! You’re tutorials are really cool, thank you :)


  20. Dane -Touchdreams November 6th

    A trick I love to use, esp in metal-looking text like this, is to make the text seem to be slightly higher at the middle than the top and bottom. To do this I set a gradient layer above the text layer and set it to overlay (must have a mask allowing it to only affect the text). I set the gradient’s top colour to just lighter than 50% gray and the bottom just darker than 50% gray. Works wonderfully with the text you’ve made in this tut!


  21. Zeb November 7th

    Very nice tuto ! very good job ;)


  22. Michael November 7th

    Again, a very well thought out and constructed tutorial.

    I’m wondering though how a comparison between some of the built-in features of Photoshop, with regard to shadows and embossing for edge highlights, and your exemplary work here would pan out. (i just might give that a try… ;) )

    As always though, it’s your complimentary/finishing touches that make your ‘pieces’ so pristine.

    thanks!


  23. Ryan November 7th

    Looks cool,

    however I don’t think the shadow of the text works as its perfectly straight where as the light beams have been distorted with perspective.

    Would look better if you distorted the text shadow as well (steps 5-7)


  24. Marc November 7th

    No way that just rocks. I didn’t know digital shading on text could look so nice. Thank you!


  25. jizi November 7th

    awesome tut!a big cup of coffee 4 you


  26. Jeff November 7th

    I friggin’ love this site. It’s the little things in these tutorials (like the 1-pixel white highlight trick) that I really love. Keep up the great work.


  27. IhateDesign November 7th

    Your tutorials are amazing! thanks for sharing your acknowledgments with us!

    Cheers from CHile!


  28. Alen November 7th

    Nice as always.


  29. bart November 7th

    Best PSD site i have ever see! Go on


  30. Rachelle November 7th

    Would you recommend using this type of text treatment for print work?


  31. Ross November 7th

    I’ve learned a ton from your site and have started to brag about you to friends. Thank you.


  32. Grace Smith November 7th

    Collis can i just say you are an absolute photoshop genius!


  33. Sandro November 7th

    Great tut! I like you little nice touch with the layer mask..


  34. handx November 7th

    Collis, may i know what book you always u to get inspiration to do all this tuts??..tell us if u dont mind bro.

    Hey, i always here since FSW open in April :)


  35. handx November 7th

    OPss..missing word —- Always used*


  36. Joefrey Mahusay November 7th

    Wow! Awesome tut. Great job again !


  37. Yao November 7th

    So fine.. thanks


  38. Gregorio November 7th

    AMAZING Tut, Thank you so much, I learn a lot from you, Cherss from Venezuela. :)
    This is the one a made:
    http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/5708/domigc2.jpg


  39. Kris November 7th

    I think if you said what size/res your document was, or your font size, it would be helpful. Sometimes it doesn’t matter, but in this case different values get a very different effect.

    Great one!


  40. Andrew G. November 7th

    You are amazing, thank you so much for all the knowledge you share. I, personally feel very grateful for everything you show us.


  41. Ali Salem November 7th

    I come here everyday to check for new stuff! Wonderful job…Keep it up!


  42. Bakaburra November 7th

    I tink this is one of the better tutorial´s blog i have visited. Very clear, organized…elegant….mmmm i love it!
    CONTINUE WITH IT, PLEASE!


  43. Vinit November 7th

    Yeah its good tutorial ……..site rocks………


  44. Harry November 7th

    Hey after following lots of your tuts(GREAT by the way) i want to know why my gradients look so clearly steped, where yours are fluid and clear. Why?


  45. Polo November 7th

    Cool work, thanks !


  46. Beawolf November 7th

    Hi

    Sorry to ask this in the responses (although I still think all your tutorials rock) but how do I get ahold of you. I need to ask you something about the compass tutorial you did awhile ago please.

    B


  47. Kluke November 7th

    Great tutorial! Thank you so much!
    I just used it right now at work, and it’s just save my life:)


  48. clint November 8th

    Great tutorial, thanks a lot!


  49. Britney November 8th

    Was this tutorial done on a Mac or a PC? Many of the commands such as alt click and hit the up arrow once and the right arrow once, did not work on my mac pro and I am using CS3 Design premium. Maybe I have different settings, I don’t know. I would love to learn how to do this effect without all the keyboard “shortcuts.” Very cool effect that I would really like to use!


  50. Don November 8th

    Awesome tutorial. Loving the site.

    My outcome:

    http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q195/Divius/Divius.jpg


  51. xcarpatti November 8th

    wow esta exelente el tutorial, ya intente hacer y no me quedo muy bien pero ya lo ire mejorando, gracias!!!!


  52. eduardo November 8th

    Muito bom… =)


  53. Mark November 8th

    This is awesome…nice work psdtuts.com, great job very cool- its very clean tutorial and discuss step by step.
    Thanks and great job again.


  54. jerry November 8th

    very nice tut!

    There is what I got :)

    Check it out , kinda modified, but still.. shade, huh ? :)

    http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/8974/shadevy2.jpg


  55. Hendrik November 9th

    very nice effects again!
    best ps tutorial site for sure

    see my result here (hope the tags work):
    [img]http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/7610/shadeqw2.jpg[/img]


  56. Hauff November 9th

    Very very nice tutorial! =)
    Now that’s a real Psdtuts.com style!

    Thanks!


  57. Tom Goff November 9th

    I do a lot of carved signs and would like to be able to show customers what their sign might look like on paper. Do you know of, or have a tutorial that could take lettering and make it appear to be carved?
    Thanks,
    Tom


  58. Nature Wallpaper November 9th

    beautiful and very easy tutorial, I think shading is crucial and adds depth to images and text even for simple documents or designing websites/ advertising material. Also that is a nice font. Thank you again!


  59. psfan November 9th

    Thank you, thank you!


  60. Jacob November 9th

    Very nice.. Do you know where I can get the font you use (agency fb) ???


  61. Derrick November 9th

    Awesome!


  62. Yuji Tomita November 9th

    Hey I absolutely love every single tutorial here.

    Just though i’d mention that since every other bit of this tutorial is “spoonfed” you might want to add that you not only extend the 2 o clock shadow but rotate it to 10 o clock. Love your stuff.

    I’m always excited for the next one..


  63. Omar November 9th

    Collin,

    You’re great, man!
    Really thanks for your great efforts, and for all your tutorials posted here! Very useful and inspiring!

    Cheers


  64. Omar November 9th

    ps.: and sorry about mistyping your name in my post above :-)


  65. Wasted November 9th

    Very Cool. I am a Web & Graphic Designer since 2000. But I learned shading againg. Thank you …


  66. ndogh November 9th

    woww, thanks for your support design world by guiding us with this
    tutorial


  67. blablah November 9th

    Wow, great tutorial! :D

    One of the few tutorials which i actually enjoyed doing :)

    Thanks!


  68. Polaris November 10th

    It’s a great TUT! I want to ask you if I can use this tutorial for my forum if I credit you and your site!


  69. moosa November 10th

    Thank you
    It’s very buteful


  70. Malte Hansen November 10th

    Seriously, the tutorials on this site really is beautiful!
    Alot of tut sites makes tutorials just to make tutorials, but you make tuts because you want to show us how to make something that looks really cool…

    Thx alot for THAT ! ;)


  71. kaori November 10th

    thank you for sharing this tutorial. I will definitely try it. I actually haven’t thought of applying this kind of shade to my designs (actually just I just mess around with drop shadow) again thank you and hope to see more of your tutorials!


  72. YouON November 10th

    nice simple things are not really simple to imagine, great tutorial!


  73. zoe November 10th

    i like this, great job


  74. Sonny November 11th

    ok , i tryd over and over again this … shit happens … could someone please add me and tell me wat im doing wrong … coz i really dont get wat im missing :( (locaits8@msn.com)


  75. Mac Dub November 11th

    Nice one! You make it really easy for a beginner to make some great art. I agree with what Kris said about the canvas and font size tho. It really does make a difference in some of these tuts like the transparent glass effect. In the end it’s the way you get there though, right?

    Cheers


  76. eshark November 13th

    Brilliant! amazing results.. great tutorial. Bravo!


  77. cchana November 13th

    An excellent article. some of the tips are very useful. I will be trying this one out! :)


  78. Brendon November 14th

    This is the greatest tut site of them all. I really like the fact that you give us tutorial-seekers the theory that can make our art great!


  79. Khoa November 14th

    well, It’s damn good.


  80. Paz November 14th

    No less than 3D, its lovely!! Keep it up.


  81. Mei November 15th

    Great tutorial!

    It really shows that with some hard work, you can achieve effects far in advance of the default layer styles.


  82. sideshow November 16th

    WOW!!! What an awesome tut! Great work!!!


  83. Tommy Day November 16th

    Awesome tutorial! It reminds me of the King Kong titles in the remake a couple years ago!


  84. IsmetM November 17th

    Beautiful effect and I’ve got several uses for this. Many thanks


  85. Marty November 17th

    This is a fantastic tutorial. Much learned…much appreciated.


  86. Free Icons November 18th

    Fantastic.
    Thanks for sharing!


  87. deezul6 November 18th

    I get to step 18 but cannot choose lightning effects as an option. It only gives me the option to choose lens flare and fiber. What am i doing wrong?


  88. Krzycho_666 November 18th

    Oh my Godness! The final effect rocks! I can’t find any words to describe how good it realy is!!!


  89. Sangesh November 18th

    The effects on are really awesome. Just outstanding.


  90. Brandon - Call Center Consultant November 21st

    Amazing! I sent your tutorial to my designer to use for our logo of the site redesign he’s doing.


  91. featherstone November 21st

    Thanks form Vietnam!


  92. Vasudeesha November 21st

    Good one…


  93. zoel November 21st

    amazing!


  94. Muhammed shaheel November 21st

    Marvellous ! Genius


  95. swapnil November 24th

    the best text tutorial ever


  96. swapnil November 24th

    keep posting such great things man.


  97. ptamaro November 25th

    Wow, the final result is fantastic — really nice work. Lots of really nice tricks and effects. Thanks!


  98. f0vela November 25th

    Really great tutorial, i follow every step and got an amazing result :D
    Keep the great work :)


  99. lizardboi November 27th

    Nice one man. Basic knowledge on lighting is allways usefull, i really like how you put there drawing essencials, not just “push this button twice” tutorial. Keep up!


  100. Lucas (wydblog) November 28th

    Thank you very mach, this tutorial is great! spectacular! xD!


  101. Arthur November 29th

    Hey,
    amazing tuts!!!!
    its a great effect to give the writing something else!!!
    congrats!!!


  102. omodudu November 29th

    Seriously you are make me look brilliant at work.


  103. kgv November 30th

    I’m kind of new to ps, I’ve been trying to this tutorial, but it seems this might be a little different using CS3?


  104. Sabaj December 2nd

    Great effect… I just wish Adobe PS could do this 3D shadow-effect filter the way you did!… I’ve been asking for years…

    Thanks for a great tutorial!…


  105. seán mongey December 2nd

    Nice Easy to follow tutorial.

    Thanks for sharing your expertise.


  106. Dieg December 2nd

    Amaaazing! Thanks!


  107. MaxHeadshot December 3rd

    From where I sit, this is one of the premiere Photoshop tutorial sites out there. Elegant interface, precise instructions, and high end product. I roll in on a regular basis and haven’t been disappointed yet. Keep up the exceptional work.


  108. Filischi December 7th

    I don’t like sushi, but i like this tutorial!


  109. carlos December 9th

    how do you select transparent for a color?


  110. jar December 9th

    amazing tutorial… great work!


  111. shafiu December 9th

    nicely done.


  112. Luca December 11th

    Cool!


  113. bruice December 11th

    FANTASTIC JOB…………….


  114. Victor December 12th

    Pure Beauty!


  115. Buttoned-Up.com December 15th

    Awesome tutorial. Thanks!


  116. nolawi December 25th

    thanks
    nice


  117. Rashed December 28th

    awesome tut bro. thnx a lot for this. bro i have a lttle prob. i am trying for last 1 hour but am stuch at 1 point. i cant do this step ” Now create a new layer above all the other layers, hold down CTRL and click the main text layer to select its pixels and back on your new layer fill the selection with White. Don’t let go of the selection just yet though, instead press down and right one time to move 1px away and then hit Delete. “.. every time i hit del it deleted the whole white fill and no white small border remains. could you please explain this step a bit elaborately?? i will be really grateful


  118. James January 2nd

    awesome! heres my attempt :D http://img232.imageshack.us/my.php?image=jamesshadowcopyhe2.jpg


  119. Mikael January 8th

    Looks great. However I’m stuck at step three. Just can’t seem to figure out how to do the

    “CTRL-click the text layer and create a new layer above it. In the new layer, with that selection still held, draw a linear gradient of #495a79 to transparent from bottom right to left”

    Anyone care to explain further? Thanks ;)


  120. wewt January 13th

    schweeet


  121. LnsazP January 16th

    thanksss…
    excellent show….


  122. locke January 21st

    It’s a simple tutorial but it’s veryyy COOLL


  123. Ali Yilmaz February 8th

    Greattttt. Thanks for sharing.