Adobe Photoshop Tutorial-The Making of Melting Metal Text Effect

While following the steps of this tutorial you are going to create glowing melting metal Text Effect using Stone Texture, layer styles and Eraser font which you can download from http://www.fontsquirrel.com/.

The Texture applied on the Background is my photo and unrestricted stock.

I created my Text Effect in Adobe Photoshop CS6 but all other versions are applicable.

This is the final result:

STEP 1

Open Adobe Photoshop, go to the Menu bar and select File, New to create a new .psd file. Name this new document Melting Metal Text. Set the Width to 1300px, Height to 700px and type 96 Pixels/Inch for Resolution, then select RGB for Color Mode and Transparent for Background Contents. If you decide to print the text, set the Resolution to 300 Pixels/Inch and select CMYK for Color Mode. Press OK button and you'll see transparent Layer 1 in your Layers panel.

Double click on Layer 1 name and write Radial Gradient in the white space to rename the layer. Press Ctrl+G (or go to Layer, Group Layers) to place the Radial Gradient layer in a Group and call this new Group 1 Background.

Create the Background with Stone Texture and Two Radial Gradients

STEP 2

Click once on Set Foreground Color swatch in the Tools bar. Insert #470215 for Foreground color in the Color Picker. Then click on Set Background Color swatch and change the Background Color to black- #000000.

Grab Gradient Tool from the Tools bar (or press G). Go to the Options bar, select Foreground to Background Gradient from the Gradient Picker, select also Radial Gradient type and drag by holding down left mouse key from the middle to any side of the image. You should have this result:

STEP 3

Click on the Stone Texture below to open it in high resolution in a new window then right click and select Save Image As to save it in your folder.

STEP 4

Create a New Layer placed above Radial Gradient layer in Background group. Name it Stone Texture.

Open in Adobe Photoshop the Stone Texture you downloaded in Step 3, press Ctrl+A to load selection then press Ctrl+C to copy it. Return to your Melting Metal Text .psd file, see if Stone Texture layer is selected and press Ctrl+V to paste the texture. As the texture is bigger than your canvas, select Edit, Free Transform and move the nodes so that to resize the texture to cover your canvas.

  

STEP 5

Now you should change Blend Mode of Sone Texture layer to Overlay and you'll get this result:

STEP 6

Create again a new layer placed on top of Background group and call it Yellow, Violet, Orange, Blue Gradient after the gradient we are going to use. The name of the layer is pretty long but it will help you to remember what you have done when you reopen your file after a long time.

Press G key to activate Gradient tool, find Yellow, Violet, Orange, Blue Gradient from the Gradient Picker in the Options bar, then select the Radial type of gradient icon and drag with the instrument from the middle to a chosen corner of your canvas.

STEP 7

Change Blend Mode Yellow, Violet, Orange, Blue Gradient layer to Overlay.

Type the Text and Apply Brass and Golden Gradients to Create Metallic Effect

STEP 8

Let us start to create the Text now.

Many thanks to www.fontsquirrel.com for the awesome text effects which they give us for free. Download the Eraser Font we need for the purpose of our tut from here: http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/Eraser?filter%5Bclassifications%5D%5B0%5D=grunge&filter%5Bclassifications%5D%5B1%5D=handdrawn&filter%5Bclassifications%5D%5B2%5D=monospaced&filter%5Bclassifications%5D%5B3%5D=retro.

Install the font then select Horizontal Type tool from the Tools bar (or press T). From the Font Family drop down menu choose the newly installed Eraser Font. Set the Font Size to 220pt. Choose #1b8e7c for Text Color then type Metal in Capital Letters as you see on the following screenshot.

Now highlight the Metal Text then click on Toggle the Character and Paragraph Panels icon in the Options bar and Set the Tracking for the Selected Characters to 75.

Press Ctrl+G to place the Text layer in a Group. Call the newly created Group Text and move it on top of Layers panel.

  

STEP 9

While Metal Text layer is selected press Ctrl+J to duplicate it then reduce Fill Opacity of Metal copy layer to 0%.

STEP 10

Reselect the original Metal Text layer, right click on it and choose Blending Options. Tick Drop Shadow Layer Style and change three of the settings:

Distance: 0px

Spread: 40%

Size: 35px.

Don't close the Layer Style dialog box because there are more Blending Options to be added.

  

STEP 11

Now tick Outer Glow Layer Style then change its Blend Mode to Hard Light and increase Size to 10px.

STEP 12

The next Layer Style we have to choose is Gradient Overlay. Choose Reflected from Style drop down menu and set the Angle to 90 degrees then click on the Gradient rectangle and when Gradient Editor box pops up on your screen set the color stops like this:

First Color Stop (Location 10%): #c5be64

Second Color Stop (Location 50%): #f4f196

Third Color Stop (Location 75%): #efea93

Fourth Color Stop (Location 95%): #ada026.

STEP 13

The fourth Layer Style we have to apply on Metal Text layer is Stroke. Set its Size to 2px, select Gradient from Fill Type drop down menu, check Reverse option, choose Reflected for Style and set the Angle to 90 degrees. Click on the Gradient swatch and find Gold 1 gradient. If it is not exclusive for your Photoshop version, the color stops are these:

First Color Stop (Location 0%): #030303

Second Color Stop (Location 2%): #462f1f

Third Color Stop (Location 25%): #5b3c21

Fourth Color Stop (Location 50%): #a88347

Fifth Color Stop (Location 75%): #d9b675

Sixth Color Stop (Location 98%): #fcf6d0

Seventh Color Stop (Location 100%): #ffffff.

STEP 14

Now we have to apply Bevel and Emboss. Change these settings:

Depth: 135%

Size: 8px

Color for Highlight: #f3f621

Color for Highlight Opacity: 100%

Color of Shadow: #5c500c

Color of Shadow Opacity: 70%.

  

STEP 15

The last Layer Style we have to apply on Metal layer is Contour. Check it in the dialog box and only slightly decrease its Range to 45%. Leave all the other settings as by default.

Step 15-1

This is the outcome you should get after applying all six layer styles on the original Text layer:

STEP 16

Now select Metal copy layer (the one with 0% Fill Opacity) and firstly apply on it Bevel and Emboss Layer Style. Change the following settings:

Depth: 1000%

Size: 13px

Color for Highlight: #f3f621

Color for Highlight Opacity: 100%

Color of Shadow: #5c500c

Color of Shadow Opacity: 70%.

STEP 17

Apply also the same Contour added on the previous layer- only reduce the Range to 45%.

STEP 18

If you have followed all my steps you'll get this result in your Layers panel:

1.    Background group which consists of these three layers: Radial Gradient, Stone Texture and Yellow, Violet, Orange, Blue Gradient layer and

2.    Text group which contains two Text layers: Metal and Metal copy.

STEP 19

Our Melting Metal Text Effect is ready. Below you can see my final result.

Thank you very much for reading. Good luck and have fun! :)