This tutorial will show you how to create an Ugly Duckling inspired, fluffy, feathery text effect, using simple textures, modified brush tips, and adjustment layers. Let’s get started!
This text effect was inspired by the many Layer Styles available on Envato Market.
Tutorial Assets
The following assets were used during the production of this tutorial:
- Berkshire Swash font
- Black Smoke by FollowinTheBlackBird
- feathers by warpig-stock
- Feathers Brushes Set 1 by Falln-Stock
- Glitter texture 4 by ellemacstock
- Chic Sparkles by ElvenSword
- Texture 351 by Sirius-sdz
1. Create the Background
Step 1
Create a new 1000 x 750px document, place the Black Smoke texture image on top of the Background layer, resize it as needed, and rename its layer to BG Texture.
Step 2
Click the Create new fill or adjustment layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Gradient.
Step 3
Create the gradient fill using the colors #716c52 to the left and #00002e to the right. Then change the Style to Radial, the Scale to 150, and check the Dither box.
Step 4
Clip the Gradient adjustment layer to the BG Texture layer, and then change its Blend Mode to Color and its Opacity to 50%.
2. Create the Text
Step 1
Create the text using the font Berkshire Swash. Set the Size to 300 pt and the Tracking value to 150.
Step 2
Place the feathers texture on top of the text layer and resize it to cover the text, and then rename its layer to Text Fill.
3. Mask the Text Fill
Step 1
Command-click the text layer’s thumbnail to create a selection, and make the text layer invisible.
Step 2
Select the Text Fill layer, and then click the Add layer mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel to mask the selection.
Step 3
Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and clip it to the Text Fill layer. Change the Hue to -43 and the Saturation to -85.
4. Modify the Feather Brush
Pick the Brush Tool and open the Brush panel (Window > Brush).
Choose the Falln-Brushes Feathers2 tip from the Feathers Brushes Set 1 pack, and modify its settings as shown below:
Brush Tip Shape
Shape Dynamics
Color Dynamics
5. Stroke the Text
Step 1
Right-click the text layer and choose Create Work Path.
Step 2
Set the Foreground Color to #e1e0e0 and the Background Color to #c4c3c2, and then create a new layer on top of all layers and name it Feather Stroke.
Step 3
Hit the Return key three times to stroke the path.
Pick the Direct Selection Tool (A) and hit the Return key one more time to get rid of the work path.
Step 4
You can then add a mask to the Feather Stroke layer, set the Foreground Color to Black, and use the Brush Tool with the same modified feather brush tip to erase any unwanted parts of the stroke.
Here, that was used to erase a part of the letter g‘s stroke to separate the top and bottom parts.
6. Fill the Text With the Feather Brush
Step 1
Create a new layer on top of all layers, and paint over the center of the text to fill it with the feathers brush.
You can add multiple layers for that if you like. This will help add a bit more depth to the fill.
Step 2
Place all the feather layers in a group and call it Feather Fill.
Step 3
Add a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer and clip it to the Feather Fill group. Then change the Brightness to -10 to darken the feathers a little bit.
7. Add More Feathers
Step 1
Create a new layer on top of all layers and call it Edge Feathers.
Use the same feather brush tip to click and drag quite near some of the edges to add some more feathers.
Step 2
Create another new layer on top of all layers and call it Floating Feathers.
Increase the brush size a bit, and then click to add some floating feathers around the text.
When you’re done, right-click the Floating Feathers layer, choose Convert to Smart Object, and change the Opacity to 55%.
Step 3
Go to Filter > Blur > Radial Blur, and change the Amount to 2.
8. Merge and Duplicate the Text Layers
Step 1
Group all the layers above the original invisible text layer, and call the group Text.
Step 2
Duplicate the Text group, and then go to Layer > Merge Group. Duplicate the merged group layer, and place the copy below the Text group.
Rename the layer at the top to High Pass, and the one at the bottom to Shadow.
9. Style the Shadow Layer
Step 1
Change the Shadow layer’s Fill value to 0.
Step 2
Double-click the Shadow layer to apply a Drop Shadow effect with these settings:
- Color:
#656565 - Opacity: 30%
- Uncheck the Use Global Light box
- Angle: 113
- Distance: 50
- Size: 50
This will add a subtle shadow to the text.
10. Apply the High Pass Filter
Step 1
Select the High Pass layer, and then go to Filter > Other > High Pass, and change the Radius to 2.
Step 2
Change the High Pass layer’s Blend Mode to Hard Light and its Opacity to 70%.
11. Add the Glitter
Step 1
Place the Glitter texture 4 on top of all layers, resize it as needed, rename its layer to Glitter, and convert it to a Smart Object.
Clip the Glitter layer to the High Pass layer, and change its Blend Mode to Lighten.
Step 2
Go to Image > Adjustments > Levels, and then change the Input’s Shadows value to 30, the Gamma value to 0.50, and the Highlights value to 226.
You can also change the Output’s Highlights value to 215.
We’re trying to darken the texture to get a more subtle glitter overlay, so feel free to play around with the values until you get a result you like.
If you can’t apply the Levels directly to the Smart Object, then you can use an adjustment layer instead.
12. Modify the Sparkles Brush
Pick the Brush Tool and open the Brush panel again.
Choose any tip you like from the Chic Sparkles set, and modify its settings depending on how you like your sparkles to look.
Here are the values used here:
Brush Tip Shape
Shape Dynamics
Scattering
13. Add the Sparkles
Step 1
Create a new layer on top of all layers, call it Sparkles, and then change its Blend Mode to Vivid Light.
Make sure that the Foreground Color is still set to #e1e0e0, and then start clicking and dragging slightly to add some sparkles around the text.
Step 2
Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and clip it to the Sparkles layer. Check the Colorize box, and modify the other settings to get a color you like.
We’ll get back to this at the end of the tutorial, but for now, the Hue is set to 235, the Saturation to 25, and the Lightness to 15.
14. Add Some Adjustment Layers
Step 1
Add a Gradient Map adjustment layer, and check the Dither box.
Create the gradient fill using the colors #3b326a to the left, #4c5073 in the center, and #a99c88 to the right.
Then, change the adjustment layer’s Blend Mode to Hue and its Opacity to 25%.
Step 2
Add a Gradient adjustment layer, and use a Transparent to Fill Color gradient fill using the colors #cdcdcd to the left and #d2d2d2 to the right.
Change the Style to Reflected, the Scale to 275, and check the Dither box.
Step 3
Change the Gradient layer’s Blend Mode to Color Burn.
15. Add the Texture and Modify the Sparkles’ Color
Step 1
Place the Texture 351 image on top of all layers, resize it as needed, and then change its layer’s Blend Mode to Soft Light and its Opacity to 50%.
Step 2
Now you can go back to the Sparkles layer’s Hue/Saturation layer, and modify the values again if you like. Here, we just changed the Hue value to 55.
Congratulations, You’re Done!
In this tutorial, we used a texture and a gradient to create the background.
Then, we created the text, applied a feather texture to it, modified a feather brush, and used it to stroke and fill the text. After that, we added a glitter texture and modified a sparkles brush to add to the text.
Finally, we added some adjustment layers and a texture overlay to finish off the effect.
Please feel free to leave your comments, suggestions, and outcomes below.
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