Chrome Text Photoshop Tutorial
So you want to know how to make Chrome text in Photoshop? It is easy and I will show you how. First of all make a new image 600X600 with a black background with some white text on it, once you have the text the way you want it rasterize the layer (right click the text layer in the layers palette and choose Rasterize Layer). Then duplicate the text layer so you have two layers with the letters on it.
Control click on one of the layers with the letters to bring up its selection. Then go to your channels menu and save the selection as a new channel. Working on the newly created channel (Alpha 1) with the selection still active do a series of Gaussian blurs starting at 16 then 8,4,2 and finally one.
Now go back to your layers palette, working on the top layer go to your lightening effects (filters/render/lighting effects) I used the settings that you see below.
After the lightening effects your image will look like this. As you can see lighting effects is a great tool in Photoshop, thanks Adobe.
You will notice that after the lightening effects the image looks a little rough. We can fix that, just do a Gaussian blur of 2 pixels over it to smooth it out. You may not notice a difference here but trust me you will when you do it.
Still working on the top layer, we are going to adjust the curves to start to give the image its chrome look. Set your curves to the settings shown below.
After you have adjusted your curves your image will look like the one below. Which looks pretty cool, but I like it better after the last step.
The last thing to do is add the plastic wrap. You can find the plastic wrap filter under filters/artistic/plastic wrap. Set all the levels to their maximum.That is all for this Photoshop tutorial folks. Any questions, comments or feedback fill out the form below.
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Filed Under Tutorials | 22 Questions/Comments |
Comments & Questions
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November 6, 2009 8:44 AM
The second to last looks more chrome like and better than the last.
November 6, 2009 9:37 AM
Then don’t do the last step.
January 7, 2010 12:06 PM
Posted by: Moe
November 6, 2009 9:37 AM
Then don’t do the last step.
Word! xD
January 7, 2010 12:30 PM
Hi, First of all very nice tutorial. But I have a few questions about it.
“series of Gaussian blurs starting at 16 then 8,4,2 and finally one.” Am I suppose to do it on the Alpha layer that’s created from the new channel, or the cyan,m y b layers?
and the other thing is that I tried to do this, but when I was choosing the lighting effect on the text layer, cs4 woulden’t le me use it. do you know what the problem is?
January 7, 2010 2:23 PM
You do the series of blurs on the newly created Alpha channel.
You probably have to rasterize the text layer in order to modify it. Just right click the text layer and choose Rasterize.
January 8, 2010 12:51 PM
I am struggling with this, I don’t understand why you duplicate the layer. Then you say “click on one of the layers” and then “working on the top layer” are we talking about the same layer?
And when I do the several Gaussian blurs that’s fine! but the second I go back to a layer it changes from the custom channel containing the blur to default channels, should I delete the default channels or is it supposed to switch back?
Basically after going through all the steps I end up with a fairly dull zebra type font that doesn’t look as shiny chrome as the above font!
January 8, 2010 1:24 PM
You duplicate the layer because the unaltered letter beneath the altered letter helps in the end result.
I don’t say “click on one of the layers” I say “Control click on one of the layers”, big difference. It doesn’t matter which one you click because the two layers will be identical at that point in time.
When you switch back to your layers palette it should hide the blurred channel. You use the blurred channel as texture channel when you use the Lighting effects filter.
I suggest you do the tutorial again making sure that you are following each step exactly.
January 9, 2010 12:35 PM
I understood the difference between control click and click, my problem was not knowing whether both layers needed editing but you answered that by saying one of them remains unaltered. Thanks!
My main problem was I was using a much bigger Impact font and the Gaussian blurring wasn’t deep enough! So I started at 64px and worked down to 1px, I think it worked out pretty good, you also need to mess around more with the curves but the preview lets you see when you are good!
I tried the same technique on 3D text aswell andI think I did ok for a beginner
Don’t know if I can post a link on here but here goes image
Thanks Moe!
January 19, 2010 8:55 PM
Hi,
I went through this tutorial three times after excitedly discovering someone had mastered the chrome finish.
still no luck. i am clearly doing basic something wrong because after the lighting effect, it looked nothing like the pic with no raised form at all. i have been playing around inner and outer glows, bevels etc and got a reasonable semblance, but not as goo as the text above. I am lost somewhere between the Gaussian blur and the lighting effect… any more detail would be greatly appreciated.
January 19, 2010 11:55 PM
If you aren’t getting the 3D look after the lighting effect I’d be willing to be that you aren’t setting the Texture Channel to Alpha 1 and/or “White is high” is not checked.
January 20, 2010 3:28 PM
Thanks for the tip. I went through the process again from the start an was vigilant about following the instructions. I am sure there is some fundamental thing i am not doing as it doesn’t look at all like your reference even after applying the lighting effects. Double checked all of the settings. Still no luck. I apologise for seeming unable to follow directions!! Does the image visibly change with the Gaussian blur? or is it only with the additional lighting changes?
January 20, 2010 3:37 PM
….also meant to ask whether the chrome effect is possible with no background? I was aiming to have a chrome logo that could exist on website over a background with different colours.
January 20, 2010 3:52 PM
Hi Rex,
Are you working on large text? If so you need to give the custom channel more gaussian blur! Try starting at 64px and keep repeating the gaussian blur with half as many px each time till you get to 1px!
Then make sure this new custom channel, with the gaussian blur, is used when you are doing the lighting effects part! And yes, you should see a visible difference when you switch to the custom channel from default! If this isn’t the case it is probably the custom channel that is at fault. For me, it was the amount of gaussian blur that I was doing wrong at first try giving it more pixels!
The background isn’t important in chroming, you can easily make it a transparent background.
January 20, 2010 4:20 PM
The image will visibly change after both steps. After you apply the Gaussian blur the image will be blurred (duh)
but you will only see this change on the channels palette, not in the layers palette and it will change when you apply the lighting giving it the 3D look.
Can you post the image that you are ending up with?
I believe you can change the background color with no issues, but I wouldn’t swear to it. You can always delete the black behind the letter when you are done with the tutorial.
January 20, 2010 4:21 PM
thanks Kris for the input. I am clearly a Photoshop luddite, still not doing the trick. started with blur on 64 and 128 and worked my way down.. also with black background and transparent. the text [in Broadway TL] does not seem to visibly alter throughout the blurring process, and then when i include the lighting effects, it simply turns the text from ‘flat’ white to black.
I am leaving something out that is obvious, except I am not sure what it is. are there any specific colour settings at the start that I should be aware of?
I appreciate the collective coaching. I feel there is an ‘ah-hah’ moment imminent……
January 20, 2010 4:32 PM
what’s the best way to post the output? I have seen some slight change to the text in the middle letter providing some slight amount of texture. perhaps i’ll try with one letter and see whether it provides and better result.
January 20, 2010 4:35 PM
After blurring the text in the channels palette it should look something like this.
This effect may not work with all fonts, try doing it with a font similar to the one I used in this tutorial, I believe it’s “Arabic”
Yes, you will have much better luck doing this one letter at a time.
January 21, 2010 7:43 PM
Hi Moe,
what’s the best way to post images back on your blog? i can show you what I have done so far just playing around with ‘Effects’ and the results from my attempt here.
January 21, 2010 11:26 PM
Just put the image somewhere on the net, there are tons of free image hosting places out there like imageshack, and then put a link to it here.
February 24, 2010 6:29 PM
could you clarify what you mean by control click to bring up its selection at the beginning, because i tried control clicking and saying select pixels but that didn’t end up working
February 24, 2010 6:45 PM
I mean holding down the control button on your keyboard (on a PC I think it’s command on a Mac) and while holding it down clicking the layer in your layers palette. Depending on the version of PS you are using you may have to click the Layers thumbnail in the layer palette.
February 25, 2010 8:10 PM
I had the same problem ‘Rex’ had. Flat letter with no bevel. Don’t know if you’ve already solved the problem but I found that when I went to the lighting effect, I had to choose ‘M copy Transparency’ as the texture channel instead of Alpha 1. Of course, ‘M copy’ was the name of my layer. Hope this helps. Once I found this out (after many attempts) I really liked this tutorial. Thanks for posting