Lightning Text
May 29th, 2007
1. Create a new 165×165 pixel document and name it Lightning Text. Now press D fill the document (with Black). Now the next part is really up to you. You can just put down some basic text, any color as long as it’s not really bright (for now). I however just put down some text that I created with a tutorial of mine you can find here. So I’m starting out with text that looks like the image to the right. If you want to do it around your own text, just create a new layer, then, create a horizontal type mask, select a color you want (try to make it darker color for now) and fill the selection, then deselect.
2. Now load the selection from your layer with the text on it (probably layer 2). Now expand that selection with settings [Expand by: 2-3 pixels]. Now show channels. Then create a new channel. Press D to set white as the foreground color (if not already done), then fill the selection (with white) and deselect. Create a new channel, then add stained glass with settings [Cell Size: 14, Border Thickness: 2, Light Intensity: 0]. Now this stained glass effect will be your lightning. If your doing really big text or small text, you will want to make your Cell Size and Border Thickness larger or smaller respectively. But always leave your light intensity as 0. Your channels window should look something like this:
3. Now load the selection of your ‘alpha 2′ channel (the stained glass channel). Now with that selection active, hold Ctrl + Alt + Shift, and click on your ‘alpha 1′ channel. Now your stained glass selection should be only active over your text, so now we can show layers. Create a new layer, and fill the selection with any color (it won’t matter).
4. Now change the fill percentage opacity to 0%. We will be applying some layer styles for the lightning/electrical effect. First apply an outer glow with THESE SETTINGS. Then apply an inner glow with THESE SETTINGS. Then ripple the lightning, and ripple it once more (2x in total). Then apply a gaussion blur with settings [Radius: 0.4-0.8]. PLEASE NOTE** If you are doing lightning on really big text, or smaller text, you will have to adjust the outer glow and inner glow settings accordingly, as well as adjust the gaussion blur accordingly. Have fun with this tutorial.
(17 votes, average: 4.82 out of 5)
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This must be for PC users because step 3 is not working at all for me.
I guess the shortcut keys are different for MACs. To get the same result follow the first sentence (loading selection from the alpha 2 channel). Next in the menu bar go to Select > Load Selection… and a window should open. Then just change Channel to Alpha 1, and change the radio button to ‘Intersect with Selection’. Hopefully that works for you on a mac, please let me know if you have any other problems.
it’s complicated, im hardly understanding what am I supposed to do, ohh and java scripts don’t work at all. You need to put pics on this tutorial so people can understand it.
Sorry, for some reason every once in a while my website is defaulting back to the “default” theme. It’s really annoying, and I have searched google with the problem and people say its because a wp-mobile plugin they install. I haven’t installed this plugin so I don’t know why it’s doing that.
I love the tutorial but for some reason the last step never works for me. For me, you have to set a ripple setting and I am not sure what to set.
Do you mean the ripple isn’t applying the filter at all? Or you can’t find the ripple filter?
Working fine with me after trying some thimes.
I love the style good design.
thx, 5stars
hey marf.. what do u mean by change the fill percentage on the step 4? which layer should be changed? and also can this be applied to any drawn pic or just text alone? tnx
At the end of step 3 you created a new layer and filled the selection. So that layer is the one you wish to change the fill percentage on (the layer containing the lightning).
Really great tut, had no probs with it. Nice!
I’m lost. I got lost at the first step rofl. Does anyone know of a video tutorial to accomplish this same result, they are about the only ones I can follow. Idk why images and text won’t work for me wheras vids do.
awesome…i got this tutorial to work a long time ago…haven’t been able to since. I’m gonna try it again here shortly.
I loved this tutorial, I thought it was very easy to undertand. I had some problem with the Staind glass though, to make it look good at my text size, but I found one fitting pretty good.
I thought it was a very, VERY entertaining tutorial, so easy for sucha good effect. Thank you.
*5 Stars comes rushing from my pocket*
u rock
how do u use this thing?
Marf, If you could send me your email I will send you my attempt at this tutorial and you can tell me what I did wrong.
hey my lightning wont work. It doesnt light up even with the outer glow and inner glow
[…] logo in there lol at all costs I was thinking about some kind of white lightning text .:Infinite Designs:. Lightning Text 4th one down is nice? Thanks to anyone that can help out and you really do have some talent […]
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