Hold down Shift and draw a perfect square. Open a new document and select the rectangle shape tool. Next, we are going to create a glowing grid to show through the type, giving the type a wireframe-futuristic look that was typical decades ago. You may have to adjust the sizes of each glow, depending on the size of your type. Set the spread between 3 and 5px, and set the size somewhere between 7 and 10px. Set the glow to a medium-light blue (#00a2ff), and set the blend mode to “screen.” Set the opacity to 75%. Next, create an outer glow, such as the soft glow that neon light normally gives off.

Choke restrains the glow and makes it more rigid, reducing the fade of the inner glow. Set the color to a light blue (#24bfff) and set the blend mode to “screen.” Set the technique to “softer” and the source to “edge.” Set the choke to 45 and the size to 15. None of the first gradients will work, but the last one, shape burst, follows the contour of the text itself.

Between the white and medium blue, select an aqua (#00ffea) colored transition between the two. This will give the appearance of a rounded, dimensional stroke. Make sure that the center is white and that the edges fade to a medium blue (#0064fb). We need to create a custom gradient to get just the right look for our stroke. We need to set the fill type on the stroke to gradient. Select an inner stroke, and depending on the size of your type, make the stroke 8 to 10px in size. First, we will add a stroke to the text, which will add definition. Your type will be temporarily invisible until we start adding layer styles to our text.ĭouble-click the type layer to bring up the layer styles dialog box. To make the right visual impression, we need to reduce the fill of the type layer to 0. The font I chose is called Super Retro M54, by Mohammed Rahman. You can find free fonts all over the web, but a good source for free fonts of all different styles is. Select the text tool, and select a retro style font. In this tutorial, we will be creating a retro-futuristic text effect using a few different techniques.įirst, create a new document with a 1024px width and a 768px height. One useful skill for any designer is the ability to create great titles and text effects. And, being more marketable makes it much easier to find great work.

Being able to handle a wide range of projects also makes you more marketable. Knowing how to create a wide range of styles makes you a versatile designer that can handle a wide range of projects. This was just an example, now it's up to you.Creating looks that reflect certain styles is an important skill for any graphic artist. You can achieve totally different results by just changing the contour, it's a very powerful feature and a bit unknown for the majority. Also I suggest that you play with the Contour options like I did in the Step 4. Now you will be able to create really cool texts with light effects easily. This layer style will create a shadow and add more depth to the composition. Change the Blend Mode to Color Burn, use black for the color, 25% Opacity, 90º for the Angle, 20 pixels for the Distance and 10 pixels for the size. Select the blurry layer created in the Step 3 and then go to Layer>Layer Style>Drop Shadow. After that change the Blend Mode to Soft Light and the Opacity to 30%. Also make sure that you were using black and white for the colors. I love render clouds, it gives a nice touch to the design, more natural and less uniform. Use 100 pixels for the Radius.Īdd a new layer on top of the others and go to Filter>Render>Clouds. Now just go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian blur. Then merge the duplicated layers ( Layer>Merge Layers). Select all layers used to create the logo and duplicate them (Layer>Duplicate). The last thing on this stepe is to add some blur. Then use Color Dodge for the Blend Mode, 50% for the Opacity, 0% for the Noise, white for the color.

Now a very important part, change the Contour to the Cone-Inverted preset.Īfter that select Outer Glow. Change the Opacity to 75%, the Angle to -90º, Diastase to 1 pixel and Size to 2 pixels. Use black for the color and Multiply for the Blend Mode. Inside the folder select the logo layer and go to Layer>Layer Style>Inner Shadow. Change that folder's Blend Mode to Color Dodge. Now you will have the layer inside a folder. With the other logo layer, go to Layer>Group Layers. Select one logo and go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. We will use 2 layers to achieve the effect, one will be the glow and the other the neon light. Open Photoshop and create a new document. So I decided to simplify the process and show you how to create the this effect in very simple steps using basically Layer Styles and a few brushes. I have posted about how to create the neon effect in Photoshop a couple of times, however I still get emails from readers asking me how I did the light effect I use on the Abduzeedo logo.

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