Text Effect 3
I've been asked about this technique
a lot. The whole "reflection" look seems to be pretty popular with everyone. It includes a few more steps, but if you're patient and pay close attention to detail you'll end up with some great looking text. First, write something using your text tool:
Once you've typed something, we need to add a little bit of shading to the text. Right click the text you just made in your layers window and select "Blending Options":
This will open up a window with many many options. For this technique, we're just going to use the "Gradient Overlay" effect. Select it and you'll automatically see a difference:
That's way too drastic though. Look to the right and you'll see some gradient options. Look for the "Opacity" slider and bring it down to about "10":
Great, that looks a lot better right? It's just a slight shadow, not a huge one. Once you've done that, we can move on to actually creating the reflection. From your layers window, right click your text again. This time, select "Duplicate layer":
This will create two versions of the same text. (Version 1: Your original text, Version 2: Your text's copy.) Now, select the second version and using your keyboard press the buttons: "Ctrl" and "T". This will allow you to "transform" this layer. You should now see a small box form around your text. Great! Now, right click that box and select "Flip Vertical" from that drop-down window:
Once you've done that, select your "Move" tool (or just press "V" on your keyboard):
Then drag your recently flipped text down so that it's underneath your original text like this:
It's already starting to look like a reflection, huh? Alright, now for the details. Select your flipped text in your layers window and lower the opacity down to about "30":
Now, select your eraser tool. You'll need an airbrush to get the right look though. From your brush selector, select the "Basic Brushes" and choose one of the airbrushes there. I'll use the 45px one:
Once you've picked your brush, click on your flipped text. A window will pop up asking you to "rasterize" your text. Click "ok."
Now use your eraser tool and carefully erase away the bottom part of your text. Make it look kinda faded:
Your text should now look something like this:
Congrats! It looks like your text is on a shiny surface with a reflection now. Pretty cool, pretty cool.
