From a design standpoint, the potential to radically alter the appearance of type is essential and should constitute a key feature in any designer’s tool kit. Naturally, Photoshop provides the tools and commands that can embellish and render text into virtually any form. 

 

Here I present a step-by-step process that will produce an amazing type effect, but, as the tag-line says: “Wait! There’s more!” If you read now, I will also show you how to save these steps as actions so that the same dazzling effects can be applied to any set of text characters. 

 

Hot Stuff

With a 30 step sequence of techniques we’ll create a blaze—text that appears to be on fire. As we create the effect, we’ll save each step as an Action so that fire can be applied to other text at any time. 

 

Figure 1: The New Actions dialog box can record a series of Actions. Figure 2: The New Document dialog box with the specifications for the new page.

Recording the Action

1) Open the Actions panel (Window > Actions).

From the Actions panel Options menu choose New Set. Name the set “Fire”.

 

2) Again from the Actions panel Options menu choose New Action. Name the Action “Fire Type” and then click the Record button (see Figure 1).

 

Creating a New Document

3) Go to the File menu at the top of the screen and choose New. In the New Document dialog box enter three inches for the Width, three inches for the Height, and 300 pixels/inch for the Resolution. Choose RGB, 8 bit; and for Background Contents choose White (see Figure 2). Then click OK. The new document will appear on screen, and the command will be recorded in the Actions panel. 

 

4) Press the D key to set the foreground color to black and then press Option + Delete (Mac) / Alt + Backspace (Win) to fill the new document with black.

 

Entering Type

5) Choose the Type tool. Choose a font and a size. For this exercise I chose Times New Roman Bold, 30 Point. 

 

Figure 3: The white text is entered on a black background.

6) Press the X key to switch the foreground color to white and enter the text, as in Figure 3. Click the check mark in the Options bar to commit the text. The new text layer will be named automatically.  

 

7) Choose the Move tool. In the Options bar click the Show Transform Controls box. Click and drag the corner handle of the bounding box that appears around the type until it is the desired size. Position the type by clicking and dragging inside the bounding box. Then commit the transformation by clicking the check mark in the Options bar. 

 

8) Now, choose Layer > Rasterize > Type to convert the text into pixels.

 

Applying Effects to the Type

11) In the Layers panel Options menu choose Duplicate Layer. The duplicate layer will appear above the original. Click on the Eye icon next to the copied layer to conceal it and then click on the original layer below to highlight it.

 

Figure 4: The document is rotated clockwise and the Wind filter is applied three times.

12) From the Menu items at the top of the screen choose Edit > Rotate Canvas 90˚CW. 

 

13) Choose Filter > Stylize > Wind. For Method click Wind, for Direction click From the Left. Click OK.

 

14) The effect isn’t quite strong enough, so press Cmnd/Cntrl + F twice to reapply the filter two more times. The text should look like Figure 4.

 

Figure 5: Applying a Gaussian Blur to the type softens the edges.

15) From the Menu items at the top of the screen choose Edit > Rotate Canvas 90˚CCW to rotate the canvas back so that the text is vertical again.

 

16) Choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Set the Radius to 1.20, as in Figure 5.

 

17) Click on the Background layer in the Layers panel to highlight it. Then use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac), to duplicate the Background layer. You’ll see a copy of the Background layer, named “Background copy”, appear above the original background in the Layers panel.

 

18) In the Layers panel Options menu choose Merge Down to merge the white text with the black Background copy layer. Rename the Layer “Flames”.

 

19) Choose Filter > Liquify. Choose the Forward Warp tool. In the Tool Options set the Brush size to 100, (the default). Drag over the white streaks to give them a wispy, look as in Figure 6.

 

Figure 6: In the Liquify dialog box, drag over the white streaks with the Forward Warp tool and a 100 pixel brush to give them a wispy look.

20) Set the Brush Size to 15. This time, click directly inside the letters and drag your mouse upward to create the shapes of little flames shooting out from them. You can drag straight up for some of the flames. For others, try to drag on more of an angle to add more variety.

 

Wiggle your mouse a little as you drag upward to help create a more flame-like effect. If you make a mistake, click the Reconstruct button as many times as necessary until the letters are restored. When you’re done with the tops of the letters, do the same thing with the bottom of the letters. When you are satisfied with the flames, click OK (see Figure 7).

 

Figure 7: A 15 pixel brush dragged over the characters creates more flames.

Coloring the Type

21) Click Hue/Saturation icon in the Adjustments panel . Click the Colorize box and drag the Hue slider to 40 and the Saturation slider to 100. In the Layers panel change the blend mode of the adjustment layer to Overlay. The text should look like Figure 8.

 

Figure 8: The flames are colorized with a Hue Saturation adjustment layer.

22) At this point, the flames are complete. We’ll complete the effect by adding a gradient to the text copy layer. Click on the text copy layer in the Layers panel to select it. Then click on the layer visibility icon (the empty square) on the far left of the layer to make the layer visible.

 

23) Click on the Layer Styles icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Gradient Overlay from the list that appears. Click on the gradient preview area in the center of the options to display the Gradient Editor. 

 

24) At the bottom half of the Gradient Editor, click the horizontal ramp that displays a preview of the current gradient colors with a house shaped color stop directly below the ramp on each end. Click on the color stop on the left to select it, then click on the color swatch at the bottom of the dialog box to display the Color Picker. Choose a dark orange/brown color for the bottom of the letters. Click OK to exit out of the Color Picker.

 

25) Click the right stop on the Horizontal ramp again. Choose a bright orange from the Color Picker. Click OK when you’re done to exit out of the Color Picker, then click OK to exit out of the Gradient Editor.

 

Figure 9: A gradient layer style is applied to the copied text layer.

26) The Layer Style dialog box is now displayed. The gradient preview ramp is now showing the new colors. Set the Style to Linear and check the Align with Layer option. Set the angle of the gradient to 90°, as in Figure 9. Click OK to exit the Layer styles dialog box.

 

Blending the Text and Flames

27) With the text layer still selected, click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. Set the foreground color to black by pressing the D key.

 

28) Click the stop button on the Actions panel.

 

29) Make sure the Layer mask is selected. Use a small, soft edge brush to paint away some of the sharp edges of the letters, especially along the tops but also in different areas along the bottom and in the middle so that those areas look like Figure 10.

 

Run the Action on Different Text

30) Before you run the action on a new document with different text, in the Actions panel you’ll click the ToggleOn /Off dialog box (the little square) next to the Make Text Layer action so that you can enter different text. Also click the Toggle On/Off icon on the Transform Current Layer action so that you can manually resize the new text. Click the Toggle On/Off icon next to Liquify action so that the dialog box will appear when you run the action enabling you to make flames appropriate to the specific text (see Figure 11). You’ll have to perform step 29 manually because brush-work is not recorded. You’ll find that when you run the action you may have to stop and perform few other steps manually too, but the vast majority of effects will be applied automatically saving you oodles of time. 

Figure 10: The edges of the text are softened by painting on a Layer Mask with a soft brush.

Figure 11: The Actions panel after having recorded the entire process. The commands that will be edited individually are circled in red. The Fire action set has been applied to the text on the left.