Graffiti Text Effect

Quick reference

• 00:04 Hey everyone Howard Pinksy here with a very vandalizing Photoshop tutorial.
• 00:08 In this tutorial, we're gonna be creating graffiti in Photoshop.
• 00:11 Now I'm not gonna be focusing to much on creating the text of
• 00:14 the graffiti because honestly,
• 00:16 you can go to a font website, download some graffiti fonts and there you have it.
• 00:21 I will focus a little bit on the layer styles that are involved to
• 00:24 create the different outlines.
• 00:26 But mostly, I'm gonna be focusing on the blending options that
• 00:29 are available to you.
• 00:30 And I think you might find it interesting how it's being blended with the background
• 00:34 and it might give you some ideas on how you can use it in your other projects.
• 00:38 So this is the image that I'm gonna be starting with which I found over at
• 00:40 ShutterStock.com.
• 00:41 Now before I start with the text,
• 00:44 I'm gonna first be creating a displacement map.
• 00:47 Now why am I creating a displacement map?
• 00:49 Well, in short, it's gonna help later on when I want to add some texture and
• 00:53 form the text to the background that we're gonna be using.
• 00:57 And in order to create a displacement map, we need to create a black and
• 01:00 white, high contrast image.
• 01:02 So the first thing that you want to do is convert this image to black and white.
• 01:05 And it doesn't have to be anything special.
• 01:07 So with your Cmd or Ctrl+Shift and press the U key on your keyboard.
• 01:11 That'll completely desaturate your image,
• 01:13 leaving you with a pretty boring black and white image.
• 01:16 And now we need to really boost the contrast of this image.
• 01:19 Of course there are a lot of ways you can boost the contrast of your image.
• 01:23 But I found that using levels to boost the shadows and
• 01:25 the highlights will do the trick.
• 01:27 Once you're in your Levels dialogue box,
• 01:29 which you can find either under the Image Adjustments menu,
• 01:31 you can press Cmd or Ctrl+L, or add it as an adjustment layer.
• 01:36 What you wanna do is drag the shadow slider to the right and then
• 01:39 the highlights slider to the left, that'll really boost the contrast of this image,
• 01:43 which is gonna work great as a displacement map.
• 01:46 So at this point, we need to save this image.
• 01:48 Now you don't wanna save it as a JPEG, you don't don't wanna save it as a PNG file,
• 01:52 you actually need to save it as a PSD file, which is a standard Photoshop file.
• 01:57 It's very important that you save it as a PSD file or
• 02:00 else you won't be able to select it when you go to select a displacement map.
• 02:04 So just like you would save any other file, head up to the File menu,
• 02:07 down to Save and then save it somewhere you're gonna remember, and
• 02:10 make sure it's a PSD file or as it says on the bottom, Photoshop.
• 02:15 Perfect, so now that our displacement map is saved we're gonna move on to the text.
• 02:19 But to make sure that we don't ruin the displacement map,
• 02:21 we're actually gonna close the file that we just saved and
• 02:24 we're gonna open up the original image that we started with.
• 02:27 Now, as for the font, you can use any font that you wish.
• 02:29 It doesn't have to be fancy.
• 02:31 It can be graffiti style, it can be a regular Helvetica.
• 02:34 I don't care.
• 02:35 But to get that graffiti feel to your design,
• 02:38 it is recommended that you use a graffiti style font.
• 02:41 Now over at dafont.com that's D-A-F-O-N-T.com, there's
• 02:45 a great font called Zit Graffiti and if you go to my website iceflowstudios.com,
• 02:50 I will include a link to that font in the written article.
• 02:54 Now the neat thing about this font is that when you type in lower case letters,
• 02:58 the letters are filled in,
• 02:59 and when you type in upper case letters, you get just an outline.
• 03:03 But for this example, I think I want my text all filled in.
• 03:05 So I'm gonna go ahead and type my name all in lower case letters.
• 03:09 And now comes the layer styles.
• 03:10 Graffiti isn't only one color.
• 03:12 It contains gradients, shadows and borders.
• 03:15 So, hopping into the Layer Style's dialogue box, let's go ahead and
• 03:18 first add a Gradient Overlay.
• 03:20 This is gonna be a very simple gradient.
• 03:22 It's gonna be a two-color gradient.
• 03:23 And if I click on my Gradient bar right here to bring up the Gradient Editor,
• 03:26 I can start editing my gradient.
• 03:28 The color on the left is gonna be a very simple,
• 03:30 dark blue, and then the color on the right is gonna be a nice lighter blue.
• 03:35 Now the next thing that we're gonna add will be a white outline around our text,
• 03:39 and to do that we're gonna add a stroke.
• 03:41 It's gonna be super simple, I'm gonna set the size to around nine pixels, and
• 03:45 then I am gonna set the color to white.
• 03:48 Of course if you're using a larger or smaller font, you may want to increase or
• 03:52 decrease the size of your stroke.
• 03:54 Good. The next layer style we're gonna add will
• 03:56 be an inner shadow which is gonna go on the inside of the text.
• 04:00 I'm gonna change the Blend Mode to Normal and then increase the Opacity to 100%,
• 04:04 so there's no blending going on.
• 04:06 We'll deal with that later.
• 04:07 Then I'm gonna set the color to probably a dark blue.
• 04:11 I'm gonna turn off Global Light and set the angle at 90 degrees.
• 04:14 I'm gonna set the Distance at 30, and them make sure that the Choke and
• 04:18 the Size are at 0.
• 04:19 We're gonna keep this nice and sharp for now.
• 04:21 Of course, if you want something a little bit more blurry,
• 04:24 you can increase the size to your liking.
• 04:26 And finally, the last layer style we're gonna be adding will be an Outer Glow.
• 04:30 Once again I'm gonna change the Blend Mode to Normal with the Opacity at 100%.
• 04:34 Now for the color on this one,
• 04:35 I'm gonna choose a nice neon green, somewhere around here.
• 04:39 Now down below, I am gonna set the Technique to Precise,
• 04:42 this will give me a nice sharp edge to my outer glow, and
• 04:45 I'm gonna make sure to increase the Spread to 100%.
• 04:49 This will also help giving me nice sharp edges.
• 04:51 So I don't have these soft edges that look kind of unnatural.
• 04:54 And last, I'm gonna increase the size until I can see it around my
• 04:57 other layer styles.
• 04:59 Perfect. And that will do it for the layer styles.
• 05:01 Now one more reminder.
• 05:02 If you are using a larger or smaller font, you may have to adjust the layer styles so
• 05:07 you're able to see all the different strokes and outlines.
• 05:09 Now that the text is in place and the colors are set,
• 05:13 it's time to make good at that displacement map that we created earlier.
• 05:17 We're going to be using the Displace filter,
• 05:18 which can be found under the Filter > Distort menu.
• 05:21 But before you go ahead and
• 05:22 add any filters, it's always a good idea to convert your layer into a Smart Object.
• 05:27 This will allow you to edit your text and layer styles later on if you need to.
• 05:31 To convert a layer into a Smart Object, you can either right-click on it in
• 05:35 the Layers panel and choose Convert to Smart Objects or,
• 05:38 under the Filter menu you can use the Convert for Smart Filters option.
• 05:41 So, now that the layer has been converted to a Smart Object,
• 05:44 back under the Filter > Distort menu, you're gonna find the Displace option.
• 05:48 When this window appears, the Horizontal and
• 05:51 Vertical Scale Value will control how effective the displacement is.
• 05:55 The higher the value, the more distortion will be applied to your layer.
• 05:59 Now we're not looking for anything too drastic, so I'm gonna go
• 06:02 with around four for the values in both the horizontal and vertical scale.
• 06:06 Now once I press OK, we're gonna have to locate that PSD file that you
• 06:10 saved earlier, so make sure it's in a location that you remember where it is.
• 06:15 So I am gonna select that file and press Open and
• 06:17 it is gonna apply that displacement to my layer and
• 06:19 it's gonna give the impression that it's part of the wall.
• 06:22 You can hopefully see in the video that it has distorted the text to
• 06:25 kind of fit in between the grooves of the wall, but
• 06:28 without any blending, it really doesn't do it justice, so let's move on to
• 06:32 the blending part of this tutorial, which is really gonna bring this effect home.
• 06:35 There's a few ways this can be done,
• 06:37 including experimenting with the different blend modes.
• 06:39 But what I'm gonna show you is a slightly different way of blending.
• 06:42 Let's go ahead and hop into your Layer Styles dialogue box which you can
• 06:45 either get to by double-clicking on the layer in the Layers panel, or
• 06:49 under the Layer > Layer Style Blending Options section.
• 06:52 Now, like I mentioned there's a few ways to blend a layer with a layer behind it.
• 06:56 Most people would go right for the Blend Modes.
• 06:59 You can use Blend Modes such as Multiply or Overlay, Soft Light,
• 07:04 Linear Light, so on and so forth and they'll all give you very nice results.
• 07:08 But the problem that I have with Blend Modes in this situation is that I
• 07:11 chose my colors very specifically, and I don't want those colors to be lost.
• 07:15 When you're using blend modes,
• 07:16 the colors are usually altered to blend with the layer behind it.
• 07:20 I don't want that.
• 07:21 So, down below there's a Blend If section.
• 07:23 A lot of people don't know exactly what Blend If does and how it works.
• 07:28 Basically, Blend If contains two bars.
• 07:30 One for the current layer, which in this case is the Text Layer, and one for
• 07:34 the layer underneath it which is our Background Layer.
• 07:37 Both contain a Shadows and a Highlights slider which allows you to blend
• 07:40 the shadows and the highlights from the current layer and or the layer underneath.
• 07:45 In this case, we wanna blend the shadows and
• 07:47 the highlights from the brick wall, which is the underlying layer with the text.
• 07:52 So on the Underlying Layer bar, pulling the Shadow slider to the right and
• 07:57 the Highlight slider to the left, we'll blend the current layer with
• 08:00 the layer underneath, in this case the brick wall.
• 08:04 Now simply pulling on the sliders will typically give you very harsh results.
• 08:08 Of course, if this is what you are looking for, then great.
• 08:11 However, if you are looking for more of a blend the sliders can actually be split.
• 08:16 Holding down your Option key on the Mac, Alt key on Windows will allow you to
• 08:20 split each slider resulting in a much cleaner blend.
• 08:24 So hopefully you can see now the advantage of using Blend If versus the Blend Modes.
• 08:29 Our colors end up more true to what we started with, whereas changing
• 08:33 the Blend Modes tends to alter the color of the layer in order to blend them in.
• 08:37 Of course, experiment around and see which method you prefer.
• 08:40 And that'll do it for this effect.
• 08:41 Of course, now that you know how to blend the layer with the background layer,
• 08:45 the sky is the limit.
• 08:47 You can stick with text, grab your logos or
• 08:49 make some wacky designs to digitally vandalize your photos in Photoshop.

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