Create an Electrified Text Effect in Photoshop

In this tutorial, I will show you the process I used to this electrified text effect in Photoshop. We will use a circuitry stock image as our background, and add a couple of electric current image for our final effect. We will be using lots of image adjustments and brush painting in the process. Have a try!

This is an intermediate level tutorial so some steps can be challenging.

Note: The Photoshop tutorial is done in Photoshop CC – therefore some screenshot may have slighting different layout as in the earlier version. Some brushes are exclusive to Photoshop CS6.

Here is a preview of the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

OK Let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Font

Metal Texture

Circuitry Stock Image

Electricity Stock Image

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1400px * 780px with black background. Create a new layer and set its layer opacity to around 8%, use a grunge brush and paint some pattern on this new layer. We will use this as our background:

Use the font downloaded, type some black texts over our canvas, it should be barely visible as shown below:

Step 2

We will add the metal texture over our text. Select the text layer as shown below:

Load the metal texture into Photoshop, move the text selection onto this texture and select the following area:

Copy and paste the metal texture selected onto our text, cover the black text as shown below:

Apply the following Bevel and Emboss layer blending option on the metal texture layer:

Use a small, hard eraser, remove some of the metal texture around the edge off:

Step 3

Apply the following image adjustment layer as clipping masks for the metal texture layer:

Black and White

Levels

Curves

and here is the effect so far:

Step 4

We will add electricity to our text in this step. Load the electricity stock image into Photoshop and select a piece of it with the Lasso Tool (set feather to 40px):

Copy and paste the selection to our document, reduce its size and place it into the edge of the texts, where we just removed the metal texture off:

Repeat this process and add more electricity flows onto our text:

You can apply the “Unsharp Mask” filter to sharpen the electricity textures a bit:

Create a new layer below the text layer and paint some particles around the text with a splatter/particle brush:

Step 5

We will add some the circuitry image into our design. Load the circuitry image into Photoshop and select a portion of it:

Copy and paste the selection over to our document, set its layer blending mode to “Hard Light”:

and use a soft eraser to remove the edges of this new layer, place it to the right side of the text:

Repeat the above process and add more similar texture to our design:

Step 6

In this final step, we can add some lighting effect to our text. We will go back to the electricity stock image and use the Lasso Tool to select another piece, copy and paste the selection to cover our text as shown below: (Reduce its layer opacity to reveal the letters)

Experiment with different layer blending modes such as “Hard Light”, “Soft Light”, “Screen” and apply some extra lighting effects as shown below:

Add the following 2 adjustment layers on top of all layers to fine-tune the colour and contrast of the image:

Levels

Vibrance

and here is my final effect: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy going through it and find it useful. Drop me a comment below if you have any question.

Till next time, have a great day!