How to Create Liquid Text in Photoshop CS

We will learn how to make special effect to type in this Photoshop tutorial.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Media computer with high resolution screen
• Good graphics card
• Large RAM capacity to open and work with multiple files
• Digital photos
• Adobe Photoshop CS1 ~ CS4
• Patience
• Time to practice

1. 
   Type option box

   Start with a new file. The desired text effect is to appear liquefied so a font that appears to have been made with a round brush will work fine.
   
   Choose the Type tool. From the Options bar, click the Character palette. Pick and use the font of your choice. Set the attributes for the characters to your needs. See screenshot for example.

2. 
   Rasterize

   Type a word or sentence across the face of the canvas. Rasterize the type layer. With your paintbrush, dab a few random dots around the text.

3. Click open the Channels palette and duplicate a channel. Then Image > Adjustments >Invert.
   
   Next, open the Filter options. From the drop down menu, choose Blur > Gaussian Blur. Blur the channel at any pixel radius you like, say 27 pixels. Repeat blurring the channel again, this time at a smaller radius then you use in the previous, for example, 14 pixels as oppose to 27.

4. Deactivate; turn off the Blue copy channel. Be careful not to delete it as you will need it in very soon.

5. From the tool bar, Filter > Render > Lighting Effects. Select the Blue copy channel as the Texture Channel.
   
   You should now see a basic image of text you just created. We will now enhance the image.

6. 
   Chrome reflections

   Duplicate the text layer, then Filter > Sketch > Chrome. Set up the reflections as seen in the screenshot.

7. 
   Adjusting color and brightness/shine

   Here, you can play with the Layer Styles. Open the Layer Styles box and click Bevel/Emboss. Enter settings of your choice.
   
   You can add brightness to the image. From the tool bar, Image > Histogram, then make settings to the Curves adjustment layer and Levels adjustment layer. If yo8ur text is against a black background, the reflective effect really shows.

8. 
   Merge all layers

   Turn off the background layer or layers and merge together all the layers. Layer > Merge Visible or Layer > Merge Layers.

9. 
   Reflective text

   To give the characters a liquid quality, Filter > Liquify. Use Bloat tool to warp or expand areas of the text. Click OK once you are satisfied with the distortions.
   
   At this stage, you can further experiment and play with the tools, even add new text layers on top of the existing image. I'll leave you here to have you decide the next level you wish to pursue with your just finished reflective liquid text.