Create Magic Tales Poster in Photoshop

Are you interested to know how to play with textures and blend modes to create Poster with awesome Background and super cool glowing Text Effect?

In the course of my short twenty five steps tutorial we are going to use three beautiful textures which will help us to make really amazing Background with nice relief and colors. After that we are going to create arch warped Text and by means of Water Texture, Blending Options and Layer Mask we'll give our text enchanting glowing effects.

I created this poster in Adobe Photoshop CS6. Lower versions are applicable too.

In Step 9 I have applied Subtract Blend Mode. If you don't have such Blend Mode Option, you can achieve the same effect with brushes and Blend Mode change.

All four textures used in this tutorial are my own photos and unrestricted stock. If you like them, you can use them not only for the purpose of this tutorial but also in your own projects.

This is what we are going to create together:

Firstly create a new .psd file with vertical orientation- open your Photoshop program, go to File, New then insert 800 Pixels for Width and 1200 Pixels for Height. Name the document Magic Tales Poster then type 300 Pixels/Inch for Resolution as we are going to create poster and it is supposed to be printed. Set the Color Mode to RGB Color, after you are ready with your work, you can migrate to CMYK Color Mode.

From the Background Contents drop down menu select Transparent in order to get transparent Layer 1 in your Layers panel.

Now double click on Layer 1 and type a new name for it- Tree Bark Texture, then after renaming the layer press Ctrl+G (Layer, Group Layers) or just click on the Folder icon at the bottom of Layers pane to put the layer in a group. Call the new group Background.

In the next two steps of this Tutorial you are going to create the first layer in Background group for the Magic Tales Poster. You have to download Tree Bark, Texture, then Paste or Move it into your Magic Tales Poster .psd document and Resize it using Edit, Free Transform option. The original Normal Blend Mode of the layer will not be changed.

Click on this Tree Bark Texture and when it opens in high res in a new window, right click on it and select Save As. Place it where your Magic Tales Poster file is kept.

Open in Photoshop the Tree Bark Texture you downloaded in the second step, press Ctrl+A to Load Selection on it, then press Ctrl+C to copy it, go back to the Magic Tales Poster file, select the Tree Bark Texture layer and press Ctrl+V to paste there your texture.

Now go to Edit, Free Transform and move any chosen node in inner direction to adjust the size of the texture to the size of your canvas. Press Enter to apply the Transformation when you are ready.

In the coming three steps your task is to Paste Cracked Paint Texture in a new layer on top of Background group. After you have resized it, you should change its Blend Mode to make it transparent and combine it with the previous Tree Bark Texture.

Now download this Cracked Paint Texture the same way you downloaded the texture in Step 2.

Create a New Layer on top of Background Group and name it Cracked Paint Texture. Copy the Cracked Paint Texture (see Step 3) and Paste it in this new layer. Then apply Edit, Free Transform to make this second texture cover your canvas too.

Change Blend Mode of Cracked Paint Texture to Hard Light:

In Steps 7-9 you will complete your work on the dark grunge style Background.

You have to blend the previous two layers with a new Rust Texture which you should Paste in the Background group. After you Resize it with Free Transform, you should change its Blend Mode to Subtract to achieve the dark mystic effect.

It is time to download the third texture for our Background. Save the Rust Texture shown below in your folder.

Create a New Layer on top of Background Group and call it Rust Texture. Copy and Paste there the texture downloaded in the previous step then resize it using Edit, Free Transform.

Change the Blend Mode of Rust Texture layer to Subtract.

If you don't have this Blend Mode in your Photoshot version, you can create a similar effect as follows: change the Blend Mode of Rust Texture Layer to Overlay, then in a new layer above start making dark blue, green and brown dabs with any chosen brush. Then change the Blend Mode of the brush dabs layer to Color Burn and reduce Opacity to 75-80%.

In the next two steps your work will include typing the Text with default Impact Font. then you are going to apply Arch Warp transformation to give our Text the unusual look we are after.

Our Background looks pretty cool now. Let us add awesome text to it. For the purpose press the hot key T or take Horizontal Type tool. Navigate to the Options bar and find Impact Font from Font Family drop down menu. Set the Font Size to 180pt, click on Center Text symbol and set the Text Color to #fff10f. Firstly type Magic using capital letters then press Enter key and type Tales below. Try to place the Text on your canvas as you see on my screenshot. Later its position will be changed automatically after applying the Arch Warp.

After the text is ready, highlight it then click on Toggle the Character and Paragraph Panels icon in the Options Bar and change the Tracking to 70.

Place Magic Tales text layer on top of Layers panel then press Ctrl+G to group it and rename the new group to Magic Tales too.

Now click on Create Warped Text symbol in the Options bar and when Warp Text dialog box appears on your screen, select Arch from Style drop down menu, then set Bend option to +32%. Don't change Horizontal and Vertical Distortion. You should get this outcome:

In Steps 12-19 your task is firstly to make the text glossy and embossed. For the purpose you have to apply Shadow, dark Inner Glow, vivid colored Gradient, Bevel and Emboss and Contour Blending Options.

After you have applied the layer styles, you should paint Shadow below the Text using default Texture Brush.

Right click on the Magic Tales text layer and select Blending Options (Layer, Layer Style, Blending Options). The first Layer Style to be added to our text layer is Drop Shadow. Check it in Layer Style dialog box, change its Angle to 65 degrees, set Distance to 11px, Spread to 50%, Size to 20px and select Cove-Deep from the Contour Picker. Still don't close Layer Style box as we have to add another five Blending Options in the coming steps.

The second Layer style to be added to our Magic Tales text layer is Inner Glow. Change its settings like this:

Blend Mode: Normal

Opacity: 100%

Noise: 0%

Color of Glow: #450413

Technique: Softer

Source: Edge

Choke: 0%

Size: 35px

Contour: Half Round

Anti-aliased: unchecked

Range: 50%.

Jitter: 0%.

Now we are going to apply this brown Inner Shadow:

Blend Mode: Multiply

Color of Shadow: #9c4505

Opacity: 100%

Angle: 65 degrees

Use Global Light: checked

Distance: 0px

Choke: 70%

Size: 13px

Contour: Log

Anti-aliased: unchecked

Noise: 0%.

Let us add colorful Gradient type of Stroke so check Stroke Layer Style and insert the following settings:

Size: 2px

Position: Outside

Blend Mode: Normal

Opacity: 100%

Fill Type: Gradient

Select Yellow, Magenta, Teal Gradient

from the Gradient Picker

Reverse: unchecked

Style: Reflected type of gradient

Align with Layer: checked

Angle: 90 degrees

Dither: not checked

Scale: 77%.

Now we are going to add some 3D effect to our warped Magic Tales text. Tick Bevel and Emboss Layer Style and modify its settings as follows:

Style: Inner Bevel

Technique: Smooth

Depth: 245%

Direction: Up

Size: 16px

Soften: 0px

Angle: 65 degrees

Use Global Light: checked

Altitude: 30 degrees

Gloss Contour: Linear

Anti-aliased: not checked

Highlight Mode: Screen

Color for Highlight: #fcde15

Opacity: 100%

Shadow Mode: Multiply

Color of Shadow: #68670f

Opacity: 85%.

The last Layer Style to be added to our text layer is this Contour:

Contour: Cone-Asymmetrical

Anti-aliased: not checked

Range: 50%.

This is how the Magic Tales text effect will look after applying all previuosly described Blending Options:

In this step we are going to create additional shadow for our text.

Create a New Layer below Magic Tales text layer and name it Texture 2 Brush. I have even used a longer name- Texture 2 Brush 65px in order not to forget the size I have chosen but you are not necessary to do the same.

Press D key to set Foreground/Background color to Black/White then grab Brush Tool and from the Brush Preset Picker find Texture 2 Brush. Increase its Size to 65px and draw two arched lines below the text as you see on the following screenshot. I have switched off the Text layer for better visibility.

This is how your poster will look after adding the new shadow to the Text.

Change Blend Mode of Texture 2 Brush layer to Overlay and lower its Opacity to 75%.

In Steps 20-24 you have to add awesome Water Texture to the warped Text. You should Paste the Texture above the Text layer then Resize it. After that you have to Load Selection on the Text and add Layer Mask to the Water Texture layer so that the water gets only within the borders of the Text.

Now download this glowing Water Texture:

Create a New Layer on top of Magic Tales group and name it Water Texture. Copy the last downloaded Texture there and resize it with Free Transform to cover your warped text.

Now hold down Ctrl key and click on Magic Tales text layer's thumbnail to Load Selection. Keep Water Texture layer highlighted.

Navigate to the Menu bar and select Layer, Layer Mask, Reveal Selection.

This is the result you'll get after applying the Layer Mask:

Change Blend Mode of Water Texture layer to Vivid Light and with this your work on the Magic Tales Poster is completed.

In Layers pane you should have these two groups with the respective layers in them:

1. Background group which includes three layers: Tree Bark Texture, Cracked Paint Texture and Rust Texture and

2. Magic Tales Group also with three layers in it: Texture 2 Brush, Magic Tales and Water Texture layer.

This is my outcome saved in .jpg format. Hope you find thid tutorial useful and enjoyed it. If you have any questions, just leave a comment and I'll do my best to reply not later than 24 hours.

Thanks a lot for reading. Good luck and have fun! :)