Photoshop Tutorial - Shocking Text

This tutorial, I am going to show you how to create shocking text. Shocking text is a great way to display texts for your website or just for any other kind of publication you plan on doing.

If you follow along with these simple steps, you will be able to create the same effect that I have as you can see from the picture on the left. Feel free to modify or change any of the settings that I have listed. No matter what you do your end result should be similar.

Step 1:
The first thing you need to do is to create a new image. You do that by clicking file then new. This will open the new dialog image box. You can give it a name of whatever you want. For the preset sizes, you can just go ahead and select custom and then make your width 400 pixels and your height. 400 pixels. Set the resolution to 72 pixels/inch. Also make sure that your mode is set at CMYK color. In the contents section select the transparent option. Then click ok.

This will bring up your first a layer. To make this a little bit more organized, go ahead and change the name of layer 1 to "Background". You can do that by double clicking on the name "layer 1" in your layers window.

The next thing you will need to do is fill the background color with a color of your choosing. In this example I used black, but feel free to use any color you wish. Make sure that you have your background layer selected in your layers window. Also make sure that white and black or your default foreground and background colors. Then click edit, then fill. This will bring up the fill window options. On the contents field, make sure that you select the color that you are wanting to use. The use feild comes with several different options. You can choose foreground color, background color, pattern, history, black, 50% gray or white. If you are wanting to choose a different color than what I am using, make sure that you set either your foreground color or your background color to the color you are wanting to use. To change the foreground color or the background color, you will have to double-click on your foreground or background color on the tool panel. Double clicking on either the foreground or the background color will bring up another window in which you can select colors that you want.

Step 2:
On your tool panel, select the horizontal type tool and then click and drag anywhere on your layer. If you use the black foreground color, you will probably have to change the color of your text. If you need help doing that just use the pictures that I included with this tutorial for reference. You will also want to change the font type and the font size. This effect looks best when you use a font that is big. If you don't have any custom fonts that you are wanting to use I suggest using impact and setting it to bold. For the size of the font, anything above 60pt should be fine. Then you can begin typing your text.

Step 3:
Once again to keep things organized, we are going to rename the layer which is created. In your layers window go ahead and click on the name of the layer you just created. It should be named whatever text you just wrote in. Rename it to "Text 1".

Step 4:
Now we are going to rasterize the layer. In your layers window, make sure that you have "Text 1" layer selected. Then click on layer then rasterize and then type.

Step 5:
Now, you will need to duplicate the "Text 1" layer. You do that, by right clicking on in your layers window and select duplicate layer. This will bring up duplicate layer window. All you need to do here is to change the name of it. The text "Text 1 copy" should be highlighted. Go ahead and type in "Text 2" and then press okay. Next you will need to make the "Text 2" layer invisible. You do that by clicking the little eyeball next to the "Text 2" layer in your layers window. After the "Text 2" layer is invisible, select the "Text 1" layer. Then click layer and merge visible.

Step 6:
With the layer "Text 1" still selected go to edit. Transform, rotate 90° clockwise. If you have done it correctly it should turn your text at a 90° angle. Now click on filter, stylize then wind. This will bring up the wind options window. Make sure for the method that wind is selected. And for your direction make sure 'from the right"is selected. Click ok. Then hold control and press F one time. Apply the Filter again, but instead of choosing 'from the right' choose 'from the left'. And press control+F one more time.

Step 7:
With layer "Text 1" still selected, go to edit, transform, rotate 90° counterclockwise. This should rotate the text back to its original position. Apply the wind affect one more time but do not press control+f. Now we are going to add another filter effect. Select filter, distort, then ripple. Once the ripple options window opens up. click ok

Step 8:
The last step we are going to do is going to give this text effect its flare. Make sure that the "Text 2" layer is selected. Click on Select, Load Selection, then click OK. Now click Select, Modify then Contract. Contract by 2 pixels then click OK. The click Edit, Fill and choose any color you want. In this example I used white.

And your done!