Photoshop_User_-_February_2016

DOWN AND DIRTY TRICKS ››

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photoshop user

› february 2016

026

Step Twenty: With the text layer active, click on the Add a Layer

Style icon (ƒx) at the bottom of the Layers panel, and choose Gra-

dient Overlay. Use the settings shown here to add a light effect

to the text. Be sure to click on the Gradient preview thumbnail,

choose the Foreground to Background preset, click OK to close

the Gradient Editor, and then check on the Reverse box. Click-

and-drag inside the document to position the center of the Gra-

dient Overlay where the subject’s arm meets the origin of the

cracks in the glass texture on the letter E. Click OK.

Step Twenty-One: We want to make the lettering look like

there are shards of glass breaking off, so we’ll need to make a

custom brush to create the glass shard particle effect. Create a

new document (File>New) that’s 500x500 pixels with a white

background. Grab the Lasso tool (L) in the Toolbox and draw a

selection that looks like a glass shard similar to the one we have

here. Press D to set your Foreground color to black, and then

press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill the selection with

black. Then, go to Edit>Define Brush Preset. Name the brush

when prompted and click OK.

Step Twenty-Two: Switch back to your working document,

and select the Brush tool (B). The new brush you just created

should be selected, but if it’s not, go to the Brush Presets panel

(Window>Brush Presets) and select it from the bottom of the list.

Open the Brush panel (Window>Brush) and click on Brush Tip

Shape. Set the Spacing to around 229%.

Step Twenty-Three: Next, activate Shape Dynamics. Set both

the Size Jitter and Angle Jitter to 100%. Also, check on Flip X Jit-

ter and Flip Y Jitter. Then, activate Scattering and check on Both

Axes. Lastly, push the Scatter amount to around 382%.

Step Twenty-Four: If you’re using the practice files, you’ll want

to set the size of the brush to around 50 px in the Options Bar

(use a larger brush for higher resolution files). Add a Layer mask

to the text layer, and make sure

the Foreground color is set to

black. Starting at the arm of

the subject, paint around that

area so it looks like pieces of

broken glass are missing from

the lettering. Here’s a view of

the mask. You can Option-click

(PC: Alt-click) on the layer mask

thumbnail in the Layers panel

to see it in the main window.

Option-click (PC: Alt-click) again

to bring back the image.

Step Twenty

Step Twenty-One

Step Twenty-Two

Step Twenty-Three

Step Twenty-Four