3D Text on Fire

We’re going to create some flaming hot 3D text in Photoshop, using a variety of filters and tools. This may get a big lengthy, so let’s dive right in!

Start off with a new document and set the background to black and the foreground to white. Now type your text. This works best with a pretty bold font in a large size. I’m suing 72pt Impact. Once you’ve entered your text, go ahead and right click on the text layer in the Layers palette and select “Rasterize type” to convert it to a bitmap. Name the new layer “FIRE.”
Adobe Photoshop Tutorial - 3D Text on Fire Fig. 1

Now hit Ctrl+J to duplocate the layer. We don’t need this layer just yet, so click on the visibility icon next to it in the Layers palette to make the new layer (”FIRE copy” invisible.
Now go back to the “FIRE” layer and go to Filter - Noise - Add Noise and enter the following settings: Amount = 200%, Distribution = Uniform, check Monochromatic. Hit enter, and this should now give you something like this.
Adobe Photoshop Tutorial - 3D Text on Fire Fig. 2

Now grab your smudge tool and a small, soft brus about 3-4px wide and start smudging this layer up, from the top of the text. If you want to make sure these smudge lines are straight, you can hold shift when you smudge the layer, but you’re going to be applying another effect soon that will distort the lines anyway, so as long as they’re close, you should be fine.

Adobe Photoshop Tutorial - 3D Text on Fire Fig. 3
Now go to Filter - Distort - Ripple and use the following settings: Amount = 225%, Size = medium.
Adobe Photoshop Tutorial - 3D Text on Fire Fig. 4

Now click on the invisibility icon beside “FIRE copy” to make it visible again, but keep the original “FIRE” layer selected. Go to Edit - Transform - Scale and drag the top middle handle up, making the flames taller by about 75%.

Adobe Photoshop Tutorial - 3D Text on Fire Fig. 5

Next, go to Filter - Blur - Motion Blur and enter the following: Angle = 90, Distance = 20.

Adobe Photoshop Tutorial - 3D Text on Fire Fig. 6

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Added Thursday, June 15th, 2006 at 8:43 pm under Text Effects.