I recently saw a magazine ad for a hair product in which words were “written” on the model’s hair in “liquid text.” Text effects like this have been around for as long as Photoshop has existed. There’s liquid, fire, glass, metal, and so many others. Often, these effects are cheesy. They often appear devoid of context: metal simply because it looks masculine, for example, and they’re usually created in one of two ways: the long way that involves channels and displacement maps, or the short way using ugly default layer styles. What I liked about the liquid text I saw in the magazine was that it seemed totally appropriate given the message, and the design was custom enough to look good. I wanted to find a simple way to reproduce it.

I started with a photo of my own hair, but you can use any interesting background, such as wood, tile, skin, or concrete.

Try to use an even texture because if your background is really wavy, you’ll have to do this the long way, with displacement maps.

Begin by duplicating the layer. This new layer is the one we’ll use to create our liquid text area. But before we do that, I want to bulge and warp the layer a bit, since the liquid would magnify the surface below it. Start with the Wave filter (Filter > Distort > Wave) and create a very large, soft wave. Then add a bulge using the Spherize filter (Filter > Distort > Spherize).

A little distortion makes a big difference. The text we cut from this layer will be magnified and will look a little distorted.

Now, we can cut the text from this layer. Use the Type Mask tool. If you have trouble deciding on a font or character settings when using the Type Mask tool, use the regular Type tool to set the letters. Then delete the type layer and use the Type Mask tool. The settings will remain the same when you switch from the Type tool to the Type Mask tool.

The Type Mask tool will select the letters you input. Once the text is selected, move into Quick Mask mode and with a hard, white paintbrush, add some extra droplets of water to the selection. Go back to Standard mode when you’re done.

I used a rounded font and added some blobby little droplets to the selection as well. Some of these overlap with the text so the edges aren’t perfect. Save your selection just in case.

Now for the cut-out. Select the inverse of your text/droplet section (Select > Invert) and hit Delete.

The result will be choppy and probably illegible until we do some more work.

At this point, you could go ahead and apply the custom layer styles that make the text look like liquid. However, the edges of the text are still very crisp. If we rough up the edges a bit, the text will look more like it was formed from water droplets, once the effects are added. I suggest you put your text and your droplets on separate layers because the droplets don’t need to be roughed up. Lasso the droplets and use Layer > Layer Via Cut to put them on their own layer. Then, select your text layer and continue.

There are many ways to break up those edges. You can smudge them by hand or use a Wave or Crystalize filter. When choosing a method, consider the font you’re using and think about how much work you want to do. The font I’ve chosen is pretty thin, so I can break it up quickly and easily using the Pucker tool inside the Liquify filter dialog box (Filter > Liquify).

Pinch your text randomly with the Liquify filter’s Pucker tool, so the letters appear to be formed from separate blobs. Don’t overdo it. The text must remain legible.

Now it’s time to apply layer styles. Start with Bevel and Emboss on your text layer (Layer > Layer Style > Bevel and Emboss). This is where your liquid text will really come alive… or die a painful death. Never, ever use the default settings for this or any other layer style; automation, at stage of the process, never produces good results.

Make sure the angle of the lighting matches that of your image.

I played with the settings until I settled on the ones you see above. Pay special attention to the colors in the highlights and shadows. I also made the effect deep but fairly small, pixel-wise. As you can see, we still need to do a little more work before we can achieve a really liquid look. The liquid would both cast a shadow and have some shadows inside of it. A Drop Shadow effect, plus an Inner Shadow that adds depth, should get us where we need to be.

The settings you choose here will depend on the thickness of your text and the sort of liquid look you hope to achieve. But no matter what, you’ll want to choose shadow colors that match those in your image, not the default black. You’ll also need to be sure the lighting angle matches that of your Bevel and Emboss. Keep the “Use Global Light” option checked to save some time.

When you’ve got a liquid effect you’re happy with, click OK. Then copy the layer style and paste it in your separate droplets layer (Layer > Layer Style > Copy Layer Style, then Paste Layer Style).

For added effect, use the Dodge tool to add some extra, randomized highlights.

The finished liquid text effect.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 14th, 2008 at 2:07 pm and is filed under Graphic Design, Illustration, Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.