Electric Text

In this tutorial, you will learn how to encapse your text in electricity to give it a nice flowing look throughout the entire length and width of the word.

1. First, you need to pull up a new 72 dpi image in RGB mode. Make it as big as you would like, you can crop it down later on.

2. Fill the background layer with the color as #7C7C7C. This step is done for the purpose of being able to see things during the entire process. You may change it to any color later on.

3. Make your foreground color #212121.

4. Next, grab the Horizontal Type Tool (and the font you want [bold fonts go well with this effect]) and then click on your image, and enter your text.

5. Next, go to the layers pallette and click the "Add a layer style" button (looks like an f) and choose "Drop Shadow" from the flyout menu. Leave the settings here as default and go on to "Bevel And Emboss". The settings should look like this:

Go on to "Contour". Those settings should look like this:

Here is what your image should look like right now.

6. Next, go to the Layers Palette and Ctrl+Click on your text layer. This will being up it's selection. Now go to Select > Modify > Expand. Inset 2 as your value and click ok.

7. Switch over to the Channels Palette (Window > Channels)and click the "Save Selection As Channel" button (It is a grey square with a circle in it).

8. Deselect your text (Ctrl+D)and click the "Create A New Channel" button (It looks just like the create a new layer button). After you do this, reset your foreground and background colors by hitting D on your keyboard. Remember that the channels palette is an inverse of the layers palette, so white will be your foreground color and black will be your background color once you reset.

9. Next, go to Filter > Texture> Stained Glass. Set your "Cell Size" as 16, "Border Thickness" as 3, and "Light Intensity" as 0. Your image should now look like this:

10. Next, Ctrl+Click on your newly created Alpha 2 Channel, and then, while holding Ctrl+Alt+Shift, click on the Alpha 1 channel (The first alpha channel you created). What this does is make selection of your text where your electricity strands will be running.

11. Now, go back to your layers palette and create a new layer. Now grab your paintbucket tool and click on your image to fill the selection. It doesn't matter what color you will with. Now you go to the top of the layers palette and set "Fill" to 0%.

12. Deselect (Ctrl+D) and then on the layers palette, right click on the layer you just got done with and choose "Blending Options" from the flyout menu. Go to "Outer Glow" and use these settings:

Then go to "Inner Glow" and use these settings:

13. Click ok and deselect (Ctrl + D). Then go to Filter > Distort > Ripple. Use the default settings and then do the filter again with Filter > Ripple (Ctrl + F).

14. Lastly, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Set the "Radius" as .75 and click ok.

Here is what you can get with a little touching up: