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Go to Bottom - Back to Photoshop tutorials - Back to all tutorials This tutorial was written by: HaLo2FrEeEk Have you ever wanted to set your name on fire? You've come to the right place. 
I'll teach you how to create this faux fire effect, that actually looks quite real, in a few simple steps, and with nothing more than Photoshop's built in filters. Ready to get started? Ok, lets get to it. You might want: SpaceAge font This is the one I'm using Start with a 700x200 pixel palette with a transparent background, you'll need it big to start with, you can trim any extra space if you want to later. Fill your space with black, and type your name in white letters, use any font you want, I'll be using my favorite, SpaceAge: 
Ok, as you can tell, this is far from centered, luckily for you there is an easy way around that. When you are sure that you have your text how you want it, right-click your text layer in your layers list and click Rasterize Type: 
This will change it to a normal layer, instead of a text layer, the text can no longer be edited. To center it, type ctrl+a to select all, then type ctrl+x to cut the selection, and ctrl+v to paste it, notice how its nicely centered now: 
Now we need to distort it a bit, click Filters > Distort > Polar Coordinates, select Polar to Rectangular and click ok, you should have this: 
Now we need to apply wind from all four directions: top, bottom, left, and right, unfortunately, our wind filter only works from left and right, no matter, we'll improvise. Click Filters > Stylize > Wind and go from the right, then do the exact same thing, but instead go from the left. Now to get it from the top and bottom, click Image > Rotate Canvas > 90o CW, click Filter > Wind (first option), then click Filter > Stylize > Wind and go back to From the right. Flip your canvas right again by clicking Image > Rotate Canvas > 90o CCW. You will have this: 
...EW, thats not what we want. Remember you applied the Polar to Rectangular algorithm, well, reverse it, click Filter > Distort > Polar Coordinates and do Rectangular to Polar: 
Thats better. Now that we have our text righted again, and properly messed up, we need to color it. There are multiple methods that you can use, but I will show you the one that I used, and the one the that I believe to give the most believable results. First, you need to cut your name in half, horizontally, with the free select tool, don't be afraid to wiggle your line a bit, it'll make it look better: 
Before you go cutting up your picture though, we need to blend it a little, type ctrl+alt+d and set the feather to 10, click ok, then type ctrl+x to cut, and ctrl+v to paste it back, you can see though, that the bottom half is a little off center, just drag it back into place, Photoshop's snap feature will help you line it up correctly: 
Ok, notice how I named the layers, leave them like that, thats how we want it. Right click your top half layer (the one I have named Top Half) and click Merge Down, you will end up with this: 
No visible change, but trust me, its what you wanted. Ok, now for the color, finally. Click the bottom layer, named Layer 1 in the picture above (it should already be selected) and click Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance > OK, you will get a colorize dialogue: 
This will apply to the top half of the picture, slide the bars around until you have a dark yellow for the top half, I found the ideal values to be: Shadows: +100 +75 +50 Midtones: +100 +75 +50 Highlights: +100 +50 0 Click OK, and you will get a color like this: 
Right click your layer called Color Balance and click Merge Down, then click the top layer and repeat the coloring process, but this time, do a red or deep orange, my ideal values were: Shadows: +100 -25 -25 Midtones: +100 -50 -50 Highlights: +100 -100 -100 You should be here: 
I know, its a little crowded, no matter, we'll take care of it. Right click the layer I have named Top Half layer and click Merge Down, then right click the Color Balance layer and click merge down (do this instead of Flatten Image, becuase this keeps the background transparent for the next step). Now everything is on the same layer. Use the freeform lasso tool to select the bottom part of your picture like so: 
Type ctrl+alt+d and set the Feather anywhere from 15-20, click OK, then hit the delete button on your keyboard twice: 
We'll fix it, don't fret. Create a new layer and drag it so it is on the bottom of the list, and fill it with black, then click Layer > Flatten Image. At this point, you can start with the animation add-on for this tut, you can find it here. Now click Image > Rotate Canvas > 90o CW and apply the wind filter (Filter > Stylize > Wind,) from the left. Rotate your canvas back normal (Image > Rotate Canvas > 90o CCW), you will have something like this: 
Its starting to look good, huh. Ok, now we want to make it wavy, this is where it really starts to look like fire. Click Filter > Distort > Ripple, set the amount anywhere from 100% to 150% and the size to Medium, then click ok: 
Looking good. Now re-add your name by choosing the text tool and typing at again, exactly as you typed it the first time, but this time make it black. Repeat the process of centering it by rasterizing it, then cutting and pasting it back and you're done. Thats it. You can fiddle with the color of the text a little bit, but I found black to look best. And there you have it, you very own flaming name: 
You can also fiddle witht he brightness if you want to, which is what I did for the first picture, I ended up with this by making the values +25 for both brightness and contrast:  Questions? Ask them here and one of our friendly members will be happy to help you. note: You will need to have an account on the forum to ask questions, but its free. Go to top - Back to Photoshop tutorials - Back to all tutorials
Xbox 360 Theme by Scott Stubblefield Modified for Infectionist Machinima by HaLo2FrEeEk Page generation time: 0.0534  
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