Locked lesson.
About this lesson
Transform text into a path and apply a brush present to a path.
Exercise files
There are no related exercise files for this lesson, or we cannot provide them due to copyright issues.
Quick reference
Topic: Fireworks Text
Create custom fireworks text.
When to use
Transform text into a path and apply a brush present to a path.
Instructions
Set up the text and transform it into a path
- Import background image.
- Use a thin, hand-drawn font. Size: 175 pts.
- Increase font tracking.
- In the layers panel right click on the text layer and select ‘Create Work Path’.
- Hide type layer.
Customize a brush
- Create new layer.
- Grab brush tool and select the Dune Glass brush (single blade).
- Menu/window/Brush or F5
Brush Tip Shape Section: Size: 40,
Shape Dynamics: Angle Jitter: 100%, Roundness Jitter: 100%, Minimum Roundness: 100%. Set Control to Pen Pressure,
Scattering: Scatter: 100%, Count: 4,
Color Dynamics: Turn Off.
Apply a brush stroke to the text path
- Grab the pen tool and right click on the visible text path.
- Choose the ‘Stoke Path’ option.
- In the dialogue box select brush and turn ‘Simulate Pressure’ on.
Duplicate the path and thicken the line
- Go back to the brush tool.
- Change the brush setting scatter value to 300%.
- Press enter.
Add a layer style
- Outer Glow: Blend mode: Linear Dodge, Opacity: 50%, Size: 250, color: ff6d6d, Range: 30%.
Customize a new brush
- Create new layer.
- Grab brush tool and select the 70 Pxl Star brush.
- Menu/window/Brush or F5.
Brush Tip Shape Section: Spave: 50%,
Shape Dynamics: Angle Jitter: 100%, Roundess Jitter: 100%, Minimum Roundness: 100%. Set Control to Pen Pressure
Scattering: Scatter: 100%, Count: 4. - Press enter to apply the brush.
- Apply a few more time, then increase Scattering and apply some more.
Add a layer style
- Outer Glow: Blend mode: Linear Dodge, Opacity: 75%, Size: 20, color: ff6c00.
- 00:04 Hey, everybody.
- 00:05 Howard Pinski here with my first tutorial of the new year.
- 00:09 If you're like me and didn't go out to enjoy the fireworks last night,
- 00:12 you may be looking for a way to create your own.
- 00:14 And what better way to create them in Photoshop.
- 00:17 We're gonna be using custom brushes and
- 00:19 layer styles to create this fireworks text effect.
- 00:22 Let's get to it.
- 00:24 As I didn't end up going out last night, I grabbed this image from shutterstock.com,
- 00:28 but if you're not as anti-social as I am and you did go out last night,
- 00:32 feel free to use an image of your own for this tutorial.
- 00:35 We first want to set up our text,
- 00:36 which is going to end up as the path that our brush will use.
- 00:40 For a design like this, a very thin hand-drawn font will work nicely.
- 00:44 I found this second lyrics font over at dafont.com.
- 00:48 And as this image is fairly large,
- 00:49 I'm gonna be using a font size of around 175 points.
- 00:52 You may have to resort to a larger or
- 00:55 smaller font depending on the size of your image.
- 00:58 I'm also gonna be increasing the tracking for this font just a touch.
- 01:01 If I open up my Character panel, which I can activate under the Window menu.
- 01:05 I can increase the spacing between the characters by
- 01:08 increasing the tracking value.
- 01:11 100 should do the trick.
- 01:13 Now that our text is typed out, we need to create a work path from this type layer.
- 01:17 This will allow us to paint along a path, once our brushes are set up.
- 01:22 In your Layers panel, right-click on the Type layer and
- 01:24 choose the Create Work Path option towards the top.
- 01:27 You should see the path become visible around the type.
- 01:30 If you don't, you can use a shortcut key to reveal it,
- 01:33 Cmd+Shift+H on the Mac or Ctrl+Shift+H on Windows.
- 01:37 That will hide or show that path.
- 01:39 You can actually go ahead and
- 01:40 hide the Type layer itself, as we're not gonna be using it for this design.
- 01:44 Now let's go ahead and start customizing some brushes.
- 01:47 Start off by creating a new layer in your Layers panel, and
- 01:50 then grab your brush tool from the Tools bar.
- 01:53 Both brushes that we are going to be starting with can be found in the default
- 01:56 brushes that come with Photoshop.
- 01:58 Opening up your brush picker,
- 01:59 the first brush that we're gonna start with will be the Dune Grass Brush.
- 02:03 Make sure to select the one that contains a single blade and not three.
- 02:07 Now we can start customizing it,
- 02:08 which can be done in the Brush panel, found again, under the Window menu.
- 02:13 Starting in the brush tip shape section, go ahead and
- 02:15 decrease the size of the brush until it's about the same thickness as the text.
- 02:19 Your value may be different than mine, but
- 02:21 around forty pixels will work for this example.
- 02:24 Now, in Shape Dynamics you're gonna want to max out the size, the angle and
- 02:28 the roundness jitters.
- 02:29 This will give us some nice variations to the brush as it's being applied.
- 02:33 Finally, set the control at the top to pen pressure.
- 02:37 Now even if you're not using a tablet,
- 02:39 this will allow the brush to fade out at the beginning and the end of the stroke.
- 02:43 Next in the scattering section,
- 02:45 we're gonna start with a scatter set to around 100% and the count set to four.
- 02:49 But once we apply the first stroke,
- 02:51 we're gonna be increasing the scatter to add some extra sparks around the text.
- 02:55 And, finally, to finish off our customization, go ahead and
- 02:58 turn off Color Dynamics on the left.
- 03:01 Now we can apply the first brushstroke to our path.
- 03:03 For the first stroke, you're gonna wanna grab your Pen Tool from the Tools Bar and
- 03:07 then right-click on the Visible Path and then choose the Stroke Path option.
- 03:12 When this window appears, make sure to select Brush from the drop-down and
- 03:16 turn Simulate Pressure on.
- 03:18 This will use the pen pressure control that we set a moment ago.
- 03:21 When you press OK, the first brush stroke will be made.
- 03:24 Now, once the first stroke has been made,
- 03:26 you don't need to follow these steps all over again.
- 03:29 All you have to do now is jump back into your brush tool,
- 03:31 shortcut key B, and then press the Return or Enter key on your keyboard.
- 03:36 Now we'll repeat the stroke path command with the settings that you just set.
- 03:40 Now, to add a few more sparks to the text,
- 03:42 I'm gonna increase the scatter value to around 300%.
- 03:44 And one more time, press Return or Enter on the keyboard.
- 03:48 Perfect.
- 03:49 To finish off this layer, let's go ahead and add a simple outer glow layer style.
- 03:53 For this layer, I'm gonna set the blend mode to linear dodge.
- 03:56 With a 50% Opacity, and a light red color FF6D6D.
- 04:01 Of course, you can use whichever color you like for your fireworks.
- 04:07 Now down below, I'm gonna crank up the size to 250 pixels.
- 04:11 And decrease the range to around 30%.
- 04:13 This glow will act as the glow that goes behind the fireworks.
- 04:17 Our next layer will be much stronger.
- 04:19 So now that this layer is complete, go ahead and create another new layer.
- 04:23 And open up your brush picker once again.
- 04:25 This time you're looking for
- 04:26 the 70 pixel star brush which conveniently is right beside our grass brush.
- 04:32 Now, in terms of customization, in the Brush Tip Shape section, increase
- 04:36 the spacing of this brush to around 50% so they're not all clumped up together.
- 04:41 Now in shape dynamics the settings that we last used
- 04:44 should automatically appear once you activate it.
- 04:46 But if they didn't, max out the jitter values and
- 04:49 make sure that the control is set to pen pressure.
- 04:52 Finally, turn on scattering, but leave the settings as they are for the moment.
- 04:56 One hundred percent for the scatter and four for the count.
- 04:59 And just like before we need to stroke the path.
- 05:01 Because we've already set the stroke options, we can simply press Return or
- 05:05 Enter to apply the brush.
- 05:07 I'm going to apply it about three or four times and then increase the scattering
- 05:10 a touch to add some additional sparkles around the text.
- 05:14 At this point you may not be able to see much of the new brush that we
- 05:16 just applied.
- 05:17 Let's go ahead and add an outer glow to this layer to make it more visible.
- 05:21 The blend mode for
- 05:21 this layer is also gonna be linear dodge, but the opacity's gonna be kept at 75%,
- 05:25 and the color's going to be slightly more orange than the last one.
- 05:30 FF6C00, the glow in this layer's gonna be much tighter than the last one, so
- 05:35 the size is only gonna be increased to around 20 pixels.
- 05:39 And that should leave you with a glowing, sparkling fireworks text effect.
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