One is Not Enough
Duplicate the "A1" layer and name it "A2". Get the Move Tool and move it 35 pixels up. Go to Layers Palette and double click the Gradient Overlay Layer Style and change these settings: Blend Mode => Normal, Opacity => 20%, Reverse => Checked, Angle => 180, Scale => 150%. Set Layer Blend Mode to Overlay.
Two is Not Enough Either
Duplicate the "A2" layer and name it "A3". Get the Move Tool and move it 15 pixels up. Go to Layers Palette and double click the Gradient Overlay Layer Style and change these settings: Opacity => 100%, Gradient => Blue, Red, Yellow, Reverse => Unchecked, Angle => 90, Scale => 100. Set Layer Blend Mode to Color Dodge and Layer Opacity at 20% .
Glossy Top
Drag the "Text" layer to the top of the layer stack and disable the Effects. Get the Move Tool and move the layer 50 pixels up. Set Blend Mode to Screen.
Reflection
Create a new layer on top and name it "Reflection". Get the Gradient Tool, pick Silver [it's in the Metals set, if you don't see it just click the little triangle button in the Gradient Picker] gradient and fill the layer like in the below image. Hit Command+M to bring up the Curves dialog and tweak the graph as shown below.
Reflection
Alt – click the line between "Reflection" and "Text" layers to mask the reflection. Set "Reflection" layer’s Opacity at 70%.
Shadow
Command-click the "Text" layer to load the selection. Create a new layer on top and name it "Near Shadow", now hit "D" on the keyboard to make the Foreground Color black !!even if it is set to Black already, otherwise the action will use the Foreground Color later and it may not be Black!! and fill the selection. Deselect by hitting Command+D. Get the Move Tool and place it like in the below image. Drag the layer above the "Shadow" layer in the Layers Palette and go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply with a Radius of 5 pixels.
Soft Shadow
Go back to the "Shadow" layer and make it visible. Set Text Color to Black [you should change the color from the Character Panel, you can bring it up by going to Window > Character if it's not visible. If you double click the text layer to change the text color, all attributes of the text layer will be recorded including the text, which means you will always get the "A" shadow] and apply a Stroke Layer Style using these settings: Size => 30px, Position => Outside, Opacity => 100% and Color => Black. Now we should merge the layer style with the layer. To do this create a new layer below the "Shadow" layer, select both "Shadow" layer and the new layer you’ve just created, hit Command+E to merge them. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply with a Radius of 12 pixels.
Soft Shadow
Hit Command + T and set Rotation to 30 degrees and apply. Then hit Command + T again, set Vertical Scale to 60% and apply. Place the shadow like in the below image.
Color Shadow
Now apply a Gradient Overlay Layer Style to the "Shadow" layer and use these settings: Blend Mode => Normal, Opacity => 10%, Gradient => Spectrum, Reverse => Checked, Angle => 0 and Scale => 150. This is the Layer Style that we have applied to the bottom part of the letter. Set Layer Opacity at 50%.
Duplicate for Glow
Now we’ll add some glow around the letter. Go to Layers Palette and select "A1", "A2", "A3", "Text" and "Reflection" layers and duplicate them. Hit Commad+E to merge the duplicated layers and name the merged layer "Glow". Alt – click on the line between "Glow" and "Reflection" layer to release the clipping mask.
fantastic！！
Brilliant!!!!!
I made it 100% and got it!.
Y eso que casi no é inglés.
Buen tutorial.
Please update the ACTION FILE to CS5. I messed up and cant continue with this AMAZING project because of it.
this was terrible directions,
i didnt under stand anything.
redo theese directions, wow
@Caitty
wow… if you truly didn’t understand ‘ANYTHING’, I suggest working on the basics of Photoshop first, then try tutorials such as these.
Of course, the original date of this is May 5 so maybe they have updated the steps…either way, 1. don’t ever publicly admit your ignorance because maybe you just had a bad day and didn’t get it, but now forum people won’t care… you’ve established your level and 2. lighten up the tone and be thankful other people put up stuff for others to learn.
Like :)
Kelly, you’re so gay for caring that much
i couldnt do it i tried like 20 times and i couldnt
Awesome…….
hi ya.. its really fantastic. can please tell me how to bring the metal effect for the gradient in the reflection part.?
awesome !! very nice tutorial on text effects.
Hi,I am kinda lost here.”Fill the Background Layer with 55% gray. Get the Type Tool and type “A”. Set font to a favorite of yours, i’m gonna use Bauhaus 93 font and gonna set font size to 200 pt. Set Text Color to 40% gray. Rename the layer as “Text”, this will be important later.”.
I filled the document with 55% gray.Then typed an A with 40% gray.But i don’t see the A like i see in
http://www.psawesome.com/tuts/plexi-text/psawesome-glassy-text-photoshop-tutorial-02.jpg
I can only see the A if i turn off the background layer.
The way he phrases “55% gray” is a little confusing, it would make a lot more sense to me if he said “45% Black” instead. That’s a much more usable number to place in a field.
That aside though, I think your problem may just be that the text layer is below the background layer. If it’s not, then make sure that you actually change the color of your text rather then just the foreground color or even just the color of the text to follow the letter you already have.
Make sure the text is highlighted (not just the text layer, but the actual text it’s self) and then change the color in the dialogue.
Hope that was helpful.
Dostum helalim var 10numara tutoriallar hazirliyorsun.
thanks for brillant tuts.
Very useful and the outcome is also great. Thanks
Wow terrific blog post! Awesome tutorial man. It�s nuts how many exceptional tutorials you guys publish. Love your work. Thanks!
Hola…!!!
Buenisimmmmmmmmo
Awesome
I didntn do step 5 page 3, I saw it is text A
Sorry because my language English is bad
So I worked through the tut and I just couldn’t get that extrude function to work.
Finally figured it out so I thought I’d post it here for anyone having trouble.
The key is simply this. take your source layer, duplicate it. take the source file (or dup, it don’t matter) and make sure it’s your bottom layer. Drag the object down to where you want your object base to start. Select the object and then hold ALT+UP ARROW.
seemed to make the extruding easier.
mantap.. *cool!
Nicely explained. Very simple and beautiful. You guys are “AWESOME”
only problem i have is getting the action to apply to the other letters. all kinds of warning pop up such as missing layer, no selection, etc. not sure where i went wrong. even downloaded the action file to make sure i didnt mess up any action.
never mind i figured it out. lol. great great tutorial. easy to follow and very nice outcome. i dont know why beginners feel the need to bash these more advanced tutorials because they cannot follow them. its advance level was set for a reason. go back to basics.
You Figured iy out, dont you.
But how plz tell
Please, give me thr PSD sourse for download.
i dont understand how they get the reflection effect. mine still looks like the gradient they have with the mask. i tried some layer modes. not sure. it sucks cause thats what really makes this effect cool.
Awesome tutorial, after a few tries I got it right. I had messed up the action file but I did it over again and got it the second time. Please put more up! I love learning skills from these great tutorials!
Hi,
I completed the project several times and had the exact same problem with all three scripts I made, the text doesn’t change to the letters accordingly. Each letter comes out to be the “A”.
I’m using CS5, any help would be appreciated. The end result looks amazing, I just wish the script would change the letters and not keep the “A” for every one.
Thanks for putting the tutorial up, I enjoyed it.
Thanks! the BEST tutorial I’ve done so far….it came out wonderfully
hi. thk u. the result is astounding…keep the good work of uploading more such tutorials :)
Awesome! Beautiful!
My only problem was that I think I got confused with parts of the shifting of the letter up and down. You know, the “press the down arrow 75 times” part. I can count! But maybe I am missing understanding – do you have to select the layer? or do that Ctrl-click thing on the thumbnail?
And then sometimes, my CS4 thought I wanted to repeat the previous action – not move something, even though the Move tool was selected. Weird.
And then, if I used the “Shift” with the “Alt” and arrow keys, you know, to move something 10 at a time ….. I would get a new letter ‘layer’ at every 10 moves, then filled in edges (apparently) with every single arrow key move. This screwed up my whole thing a bit and especially when it came time to move the “reflection” – the white letter – so I just used mouse drag to position it.
Otherwise: Beautiful. Thanks so much.
[...] used an awesome tutorial video (http://www.psawesome.com/tutorials/colorful-plexi-text-effect-using-photoshop) to get the effects I wanted and this is how it came [...]
Hi Everyone,
I love this tutorial so far, but I am have one problem that I cannot seem to address my self. In step 16 the author says to create a “Near Shadow” layer and hit D to make the foreground color black. In the example, the letter is literally filled with black. Is this only for example to represent the fill, or should the letter actually fill with black?
I have CS5 and this action does not work for me and I have tried everything to fill the layer with black.
Thank you for your input or help.
Simply wonderful and beautifully done. Thank you for sharing your expertise. Kudos.
Nice tutorial
I like it
Gracias por el aporte… estuvo fantástico el resultado
Hi, so I got the first letter right. I’m using a mac cs5 photoshop. I did the action on the next letter like your tutorial said but it said it couldn’t find the other layers. Help?
Action is not peforming on any other text other than “A” i tried “N”,”S”&”A” again,
but the action was applicable to “A” only….Any Suggestions
Great work Though
Okay so, i made the whole tutorial, and my created letter is fine. But, when I tried your script, it didn’t work because you didn’t rename yours layers copied on a commun name. So, my french version of Photoshop couldn’t find some files …
But great job, and thx for your tutorials.
great tutorial thanks! Love the affect
Excellent tut. Now i am applying this same effect to so many different shapes, I love this stuff…..
Hej,
great stuff loved it!
But had some problems, action didn’t work properly. all other letters changed into first letter, also several times window pop up saying: “…… effect is curently not awailable”. What is up with that?
Tnx
I’ve tried this at least 6 times and I’ve always failed, but now I finally succeeded!!