Create a Glass Text effect in Photoshop and Shatter it
There are some great effects you can achieve using Ph0toshop and there are so many tutorials on the web to show us how. The most under-appreciated text affect that has long been forgotten is the glass text effect. In this tutorial, we will be creating an amazing looking glass text effect and better yet, we will use the power of the lasso tool and shatter the text into pieces.
We will be learning a lot in this tutorial with respect to the Blending modes and Layer styles. Infact, to achieve the glass text effect, we will experiment with a lot of layer styles which are very much required to get the realistic effect. We will also use a few star brushes created by Brusheezy (I just love their brushes) and give a lens flare effect as well. The background colour combinations have been adopted from PSDTuts, which was the best I could find.
Step 1:
Open Photoshop and create a new file with dimensions 1280 x 800 px. We need to give a nice background gradient, so grab the gradient tool(G) and apply a radial gradient centered around bottom right of the document. The color combinations I used are #2e5b15 —- #103533 —- #090e13.
Step 2:
Now, using the TEXT TOOL (T), type any word of your choice. I typed RICHWORKS using the font ‘Trajan Pro’ . This infact, is one of my favorite font and adapts well to a lot of text effects. I used a bold font style with the text color set to #41a993. Don’t forget to change the Fill opacity in the layers palette to 50%, this is done to get the initial transparency to the text. Also, changing the Fill opacity does not affect the appearance of the Layer styles.
Step 3:
Rasterize the Text layer in the Layers palette and double click on the text layer to open the layer styles window. Now, it is all about experimenting. After doing some meddling with the values, I finally decided to stick to the following settings. Apply the layer styles as shown below.
INNER SHADOW — color #aee8dc
INNER GLOW — color #9ed3c9
BEVEL & EMBOSS :
CONTOUR :
SATIN :
STROKE — #65a49b
Step 4:
Now, the glass effect is ready. Try experimenting with the transparency of each layer style individually to get the desired effect u need. The final image should look something like the one below:
Step 5:
Now comes the shattering of the Glass. This is the most interesting and awesome part of this tutorial. We get to do a lot of stuff depending on our imagination here. OK, First select the LASSO TOOL (L) and make sure the selection type is ‘ADD TO SELECTION’. Follow the image for reference.
Now, start selecting parts of the first letter. This can be achieved by pressing the mouse button at one end of the letter and scratching a few times to the other end(just like you do using a pencil). Use the image below for reference.
Step 6:
Now do this for all the other letters as well. Make sure the scratches are very near to each other and not far away because this will shatter huge chunks of the text which is not desirable. If anything goes wrong, just press CTRL + D to remove the selection and you can start afresh. Finally, you should be getting something like the image below:
Step 7:
Now, pressing CTRL (or Command in MAC) hover across any selection until the a SCISSOR appears on the cursor. This will cut the selected parts of the image and you can move it around. So, Using CTRL, move the selected image slightly up so that the final image ends up something like the one below:
Step 8:
Now, we are half way through. Let us add a bit more realism to the above text. Using the MAGIC WAND TOOL(W) click on any broken piece of the first letter so that a selection appears across it as shown below:
Press CTRL + T to enable the transform tool to be able to manipulate the size and direction of the selected image.
Step 9:
Now, rotate it a little bit holding CTRL (for smoother rotation) and you can also shift the position. Now do this for more of such pieces. The more you do, the better it looks. Here is what I did :
Step 10:
Now head over to Brusheezy and grab their STAR BRUSHES. Now import them into Photoshop. Create a new layer above the text layer and with White as foreground color and using one of those star brushes, click on the edges of certain pieces. use the following image for reference. Try different brushes at different places.
Step 11:
Thats all folks. Today, we learnt how to create a glass text effect and shattered it. I added a cloud layer above the background gradient to give it a hazy look. Click on the image below for a larger view.
Hope you guys enjoyed the tutorial. If you did, Please subscribe to my RSS Feed or Email subscription and Follow me on twitter, I shall follow you too… lol . Good luck and have fun
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I really enjoy your tutorials a lot!
I see a bright future for your blog.
thank you so much for the motivation. I really needed it :)
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thnkx
Hi,
I like this a lot and so I decided to follow this tut.
But I’m stuck at step 7 where you tell to press CTRL and wait for scissors to appear. They don’t appear to me… Do you still have to use the lasso tool here? Because I followed all the steps and this one doesn’t go…
Thx for answering
After you’ve made the selection from Step 6, do not press any key. Let the ‘Lasso Selection’ be active. Now, Holding the CTRL key, just hover the mouse button over the selection. This will make the ‘scissor’ visible. Now, Click and move it around to break it.
Hope that helped. If you have any more doubts, pls feel free to ask.
im sry but the scissor doesnt show for me :S i follow the steps carefully but they still dont show… it just shows a point cursor and a small crss by it.
i rly like this text effect and i would like to make it so please help
sry for the mistake- cross*
Here is a video I made on how to shatter it. This must clear your doubt.
It is a .swf file so make sure your browser has the Adobe Flash Plugin.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4051299/shatter2.swf
im new to photoshop so sorry for so many questions but i got 2 more.
1. about the lasso part: do u scratch one way and then relese the mouse and repeat or just hold the mouse and just scratch through the whole text?
2.i realy like the cloudy finish to the picture and can u please explain how to do that.
Ty for youre answers.
Hehe. No problem. You can shoot me with whatever questions you want.
Ok. Let me answer you questions:
1) Click on Lasso Tool. Set the mode to ‘Add to selection’ and scratch some part of the first letter (a few strokes) without leaving the mouse button.
After a few strokes, you may release the mouse button. Next go for another part of the same letter and do the scratching again.
This is to make sure even if you get a bad selection(which is, if you scratch too far, the selection will be huge), you can undo only that part by clicking CTRL + Z.
2) Create another layer above the background (we made first) and fill it with black. Set the foreground color to Black and background color to white in the toolbox(on the left). You can do this by pressing ‘D’ on you keyboard.
Now, go to Filter>Render>Clouds. Set the blending mode of this layer to ‘Screen’ or ‘Multiply’.
Hope that was helpful. I am creating a video on how to cut the text (for your earlier doubt) and will upload the link. So, please stay tuned.
Thanks
thank you very much for youre help. everything is working now.
the tutorials is great btw and the effect is awsome.
sorry for the mistake i was happy to earlybut it still isnt working. it only shows the scissors when i switch to background layer and when i move it i move the backbround with it so its white at where the text used to be. any ideas what im doing wrong?
oh never mind… now its working for real. :) i watched the video a few times carefully and saw u click “resterize layer”. then it worked. thanks again, great guide
You are welcome. Check out my other tutorials on Creating some really cool Text effects. You’ll love them :)
Nice tutorial, will be helpful to a lot of people.
i realy like it
where do i find this part First select the LASSO TOOL (L) and make sure the selection type is ‘ADD TO SELECTION’. Follow the image for reference.
Once you click on the Lasso Tool, you can find the options on the ‘Toolbar’ above (which is right below the Menu Bar)
The final result is really nice! Compliments Richie
.-= Sebastiano Guerriero´s last blog ..How to create a distinguishable textured web layout in Photoshop =-.
nice tut Rich , simple and effective – keep em coming : )
.-= Ben´s last blog ..Sven Sauer’s Stunning Art Which Deserves Your Attention =-.
This tutorial is almost exactly the same as the one on the Photoshop Top Secret DVD (dvd 2 to be exact)…
I had to look into the Top Secret DVD and you are completely wrong on that one.
It no way resembles my tutorial. Maybe your power of observation is weak. Please take another look at it.
Here is a link to that DVD tutorial : http://www.photoshoptopsecret.com/
Great tut. I haven’t much experience with this type of work woon photoshop. But I think its time to start learning these kind of tools.
.-= element321´s last blog ..52 Beautiful Examples of HDR Photography =-.
Great tut!
.-= Mihai O.´s last blog ..Inspired By AREA 1 Flickr Group #1 =-.
mihai you r f/m plz tel me
We simply stumbled upon your own blog and wanted to state which possess really appreciated reading your blogs.In Ill end up subscribing to your own feed and I really a person post again soon
I just found this on the right time
I need to make some types exactly like those
THANKS for sharing
cheers
AYRTON
AYRTON360´s last [type] ..Foto360 graus Igreja São Judas Tadeu 2009
It is so beautiful!!
I am going to practice it right now.!!
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