Magic lighting effect in photoshop

Since my last article on how to create smoke generated lots of traffic, I decided to write another one on some of the photoshop effects. Although I use Photoshop on a daily basis, I am by no means a photoshop expert.

Well what I want to show here is how to create a nice light and magic effect.

1 - Create a radial gradient, in this case from a purple to a really dark purple

2 - Here I added a really cool Icon of a magic hat from the Crystal Clear Collection by Everaldo

3 - Add some text, I used the source code of a site to get the text and apply the Distort >Wave filter


Create two stripes of text

4 - Rotate and place the text

5 - Add some light using glow : Use different values for each line of text, the secret here is the blending option COLOR DODGE..


Change the values of Spread, Size and Range

6 - Group the 2 lines of texts and with one apply a mask to make the stripes disappear at their ends.

7 - With the other group of text apply a gausian blur, after that delete some parts to show the non-blury text.


This will add a movement feel to the text, like they are really being magicaly created.

8 - Create a new layer below the text and with a regular big brush like 100px add a spot of light in white.


The layer must be below the text, otherwise the glow will not affect the white spot

9 - Make some smoke again, I used the eraser, I could've used the liquify as well

10 - Create a cloud: to do that make use a marquee with feather set to a value bigger than 20 and apply the render>clouds holding the command key(mac), ctrl key(win).


The same as the previous post, and the most important thing apply the COLOR DODGE blending options on it

11 - Sparks: For the sparks create a brush, play with the shape dynamics, scatering, and other dynamics. After that, apply a Outer Glow and Inner Glow to create the magic effect.

End - The result is really simple but at the same time it looks beautiful.

The whole process took me about 35 minutes, one thing I think is really cool is to apply the color dodge blending option to folder, and put blured elements inside of it. Using it you can create some really amazing light effects.

The PSD files can be downloaded.

Click here to Download the Photoshop file used for this tutorial

About the author

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My name is Fabio Sasso, I'm a graphic/web designer from Porto Alegre, Brazil and I'm the founder of Abduzeedo. I hope we can share lots of information, tips, and ideas through Abduzeedo. Also you can follow me on Twitter or my personal site at http://fabiosasso.com.

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222 Comments

I found this really hard to follow even though Ive been around the photoshops quite a bit. Its a really interesting effect which I'd like to know more about though

Amazing effect. I will definitely be trying this one out on my next project.

Thanks for this tutorial. Im creating a logo for my site and this lighting thing will make it look just right.

Amazing...........!!
simple steps leading to great output.
Good work.. keep it up.
Cheers...;-D

Thanks a ton! Great tutorial.

wow!!!! fabio is superb!!! really great!! i love this tutorial so much!!!

wow, this is what i've been looking for
thank you for sharing :D

Your work is super nice! I'm really impressed! I'll try to do it later because I don't think I'm experienced enough to do this yet.

You're Brazil's #1!

Isso é que é orgulho de ser brasileiro. É de gente assim que precisamos.
Parabéns Fabio!

so nice!,Fabio you are great !! I'm using this effect on my design homework x3 by the way, what coffee shall I buy???? :D I double liked it!! ^-^

Thank you very much and happy new year

Hey- this is awesome! I always wanted to know how to do these effects. Thanks and I'll definitely pass this on!

Fantástico o tutorial, vai pros favoritos.
oyun oyunlar

Wow... you are a photoshop god. How i wish i can be like you.
| | - | |

Sorry...the tutorial doesn't work for me and I dun think it will be handy for us amateurs...i really hope that you would explain more in depth. I know for some reasons those who are good in photoshop would rather teach the intermediate users instead of explaining one by one. I just hope that you would take the time to help amateurs by giving us a more detailed tutorial instead. If not, then it is okay then. Thanks again.

I have used this tutorial to design an e-greeting card
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremie-montessuis/3114855063/

Thanks for sharing, your website is awesome

Jeremie

Anyway we can find the hat icon for this? The original link seems to now be broken?

Sencillamente genial!!! Thanx

Thank you. Really helpfull.
I think mine is more beautifull. :P

Thank you so much!

haaaa is great!, good tutorial!

simple and cute..

nice work..

Awesome and easy-to-follow tutorial. I'm just now getting into Photoshop and am always on the lookout for basic tutorials to get me started. Thanks!

nice for the tutorial,keep going in front with these tutorials
very nice and helpful

You rock!!!!
This is a very nice tutorial.. and very helpful. I applied some of your hints into some demos for posters here at work!

Thanks very much for sharing!

Cesar
Greetings from Canada!

You have a terrific outlook on life.

How to apply wave filter to test.
I'm a PS newbie but with a little research on the web I've found out that text is a vector and you have to change it to a normal layer to apply the the wave filter you must first rasterise the text layer first. Also make sure that you are working in 8 bits/channel

1. goto layer > rasterize > type

This tutorial blows be more descriptive when you do something like this again because it just confused me

My girlfriend is an artist, she ran across this post and almot duplicated what you did in a short amount of time (about 4 hours) . I guess once an artist see's it done the first time, it is easy for them, like a real guitarist, once they see it, they can play it.

Great site, now I may get some great art for one of my sites, thanks.

Hi.. im Leo.. im a GRAPHIC DESIGNER wanna be...hehehe.. i appreciate that magic lighting effect.. it gives me idea and knowledge..i hope you can send me some of your tutorials.....thanks thanks thanks....

I agree with most commenters that this is an awful tutorial. Yes the effect is nice, but if your going to write a tutorial, you need to write it for a total noob. An experienced photoshop person can do this regardless and is no use to them, so leaving out the important stuff helps no one.
And please, get someone to proof read your writing, your english is HORRIBLE and far from understandable

Great effect. This is one tutorial that I must do.
I really like this one along with the coffee cup one. thank you very much

Very good:::: m2j

can u change the link for the hat?? plz

Wow. This is a cool effect. Thanks for the tips. We will try to add some photoshop-made effects on our real estate sites.

Great Tut!- although i little hard to understand but at the end it´s the results that matter, i´ll be using this for my new Blog te enferma

ok, very nice effects - but i cant understand english well, i need the psd file, can u upload this??

thanks, best regards
mr.zer0

amazing thing

Hey Fabio,
Great work buddy. Well a great graphic designer can create the magic with photoshop. Love to read your post. Thanks

Hey buddy great work of photoshop, its clear how a good graphic designer can rock a webpage..And really smoke effect was too good.Thanks for sharing all this.

Muito Bom mesmo esse tutorial efeito super interessante, mas infelizmente não estou conseguindo inserir o efeito distort->wave no texto será pq? meu aqruivo está no modo rgb.

Um grande abraço

Great effect, thanks

You are the man! excellent tutorial!

Thanks very interesting post!

thats really a great technique and outcome is really fantastic i tried many other colors and made some cool effect out of this great tutorial thanks.

thank you.

This is neat, but im having trouble with some of this. my version of Photoship is totally different from yours. I opened up Blending Options and it looks nothing like yours. I have Photoshop 7.0. So, its really difficult to get how you are doing this.

Wew... great tutorial... i like it ;)
i wish i have design sense like you... :)

Thanks for the link to the website with the hat. I've never seen it, nor yours. I'll look around at your other tut's now!

I tried your technique and it worked fantastic.

Thanks for this nice tutorial, learned a lot from it...
http://tropicalholidays.olympe-network.com

Great work, this is helpful!

thanks

Thanks a beautiful glow. I will try that from your tutorial. Thanks!

Thanks for this great post.

Very nice technique for a great effect!

spot of light in white...mate can you show me how to do this part. I have no idea how to. thanks

Thanks!!! this tutorials are really helping me, I certainly did all the steps!!

Digital Frame

It's a good site!

Poow, fico mto bom msm =)
Só eh um poko difícil, mas eh bem legal.
uahsuhas, eh util pra usar em objetos nas mãos, da pra brisar mto com essas coisas =D
BOOA GAROTO (Y)
Flw ;)

Fantastic tutorial. Thank you very much. It takes me forever to work through any projects the require Adobe. So for me any insight on how to do different things is grreat.

I realy like it,thanks
http://www.intronhk.com/flash.html

heh sweet tutorial, havent done it yet, but will do at some point ^^

This is from an earlier post ,

http://klops05.deviantart.com/art/making-magic-again-83737419

This cant be right unless abduzeedo has allowed klops05 to use it for print. Even so shouldn't abduzeedo get some credit for it instead of "by Strauss"

The only problem is that the tutorial is too difficult to understand. There is no explanation whatsoever in any steps so this makes it quite hard for people to follow

Great tutorial but how on earth do you get the icon thingies?

Very nice effexct. As is the image in the footer.

Excellent tutorial, and beautiful work.

Somebody is using this tutorial and selling as printed version.
Take a look at this. Is this legal --> Link

Good tutorial thx very much

great work. thank you

Very Cool stuff. thanks

A great effect even I can use as design is a second string somewhat for me. I find a great aspect of Photoshop is that there are often a couple of ways to achive the same result.

A good tut and bookmarked for future reference.

man I tried it, and it worked just fine...thanks for sharing

Great post, thanks for the link to the hat. Never seen that site, but it has good stuff.

hat link not working friend

Although I use Photoshop on a daily basis, I am by no means a photoshop expert.

http://www.seegeorgiarealestate.com

Really good tut, but i cant make it anyway. The "Wave-Filter" is different, i have CS3.

Please make a Vid, cause its really difficult without, for me, too.
I want to make that, too, but i dont get it.

A vid would be really helpful!!!
PLS!!!

Eu não consigo fazer o download do arquivo .PSD!!! Poderia arrumar isso pra mim!
Queria muito no formato .PSD!
abrrs

Hi~my name is Eric CYK, the only thing i can say is " I LOVE U ", your toturial is too beatiful

Really amazing its interesting how you made such a detailed art form from such simple techniques. I would though not mind a detailed step by step narration. But amazing and interactive any how.

Fahim

xcorrect, I'm speaking English bad, but try to download, by clicking right button mouse and "save as", or something look like this.
Good luck ;)

Really nice tutorial!!!! It worked to me, but i have to adjust it a little bit, need the psd file, can't access it. some codes are coming when i'm trying to downoad it.. Plz help!!

Nice tutorial, well done!
But I didn't get how to create the sparks. Could someone explain it to me, please? I'm a photoshop beginner ;)

Great post, thanks for the link to the hat. Never seen that site, but it has good stuff.

SWEEET!

Pretty cool tutorial--The only thing I noticed wrong with it is that the text doesn't look like it's coming right out of the hat, but this is a pretty amazing effect anyway--I'll be using this effect often.

Great post, thanks for the link to the hat. Never seen that site, but it has good stuff.

looks like great effect

I love this effects realy nice thx for the tut.

It's good, shows simple things can still be effective.... and i'm not a competant photoshop user.... but i have initiative and was able to figure out his steps...

For the guy moaning about text.... he clearly states

3 - Add some text, I used the source code of a site to get the text and apply the Distort >Wave filter

Create two stripes of text

4 - Rotate and place the text << have them flipped one over another. so they zig zag across each other....

WTF dudeyou stole this tutorialfrom another site, its a crappy tutorialanyways...

Wow. those are really great. Thanks a lot!

wowww, thanks for share brother, i love u

This is inspiring!!

cool site. i will love to visit your site time and again. regards.

Thanks a lot for sharing ur stuff, relly very gud! :)

I...couldn't follow this. How did you rotate the text? I was trying to figure it out through the transform tool and I couldn't get the same effect. Since I couldn't figure that out, I just left it as is and tried adding the glow, and that also came out to be unsuccessful. I'm not even that new to photoshop but still need some sort of guidance. This has potential to be a very useful and great tutorial yeah, I think writing for an audience that are new to photoshop, explaining thoroughly might give out better results with people trying to attempt it.

It's a shame I really wanted to apply this to a project but now I have no clue on how to go about it =/.

I agree with most commenters that this is an awful tutorial. Yes the effect is nice, but if your going to write a tutorial, you need to write it for a total noob. An experienced photoshop person can do this regardless and is no use to them, so leaving out the important stuff helps no one.

And please, get someone to proof read your writing, your english is HORRIBLE and far from understandable!

Great! thanks

hi
great work i like it go outside the world. thnxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.....

Marvellous!

great tutorial...!! thnks for sharing...

Very nice!

Very nice!
I'll give it a show with my logo! ;)

Great effect. Bookmarked.

wutever dont listen to those ppl. it was explained nice and it was easy to follow along....nice -tut.

Great tutorial. I tend to do a majority of my design work in Illustrator, but recently i have been combined the two more often. There is just so many cool things you can do in photoshop. thanks.

Very creative and fantastic affect. Thanks so much for the excellent tutorial.

Great tutorials! I will definitely be reading more of your stuff!

Edit of my comment below:

i downloaded 'care bear' icons off a site i found - the crystal clear ones are still confusing etc
i know HOW to change it to a jpeg or whatever - simply open it in paint. However, when i open it in paint its really really small!!
Anyone know why??

Thanks x x x

Great tutorial but how on earth do you get the icon thingies? the Crystal Clear Collection by Everaldo because ive found the site [your link didnt work but typed into google! ^_^]but when i download them they wont open in any of my programmes n all the folder things are really confusing!! ive found some other sites with these amazing icon things but theyre the wrong file type aswell! If you understand what i mean, can someone please explain to me how to change it or any other solutions!!! Thankyou!! x x x

Thank you!! you'd save my life with this tip today!! =)

Very beautiful effect! Can I translate this tutorial in italian language and insert it into a graphic forum, please? Bye. Helga

truly amazing tutorial..thnks. but where to get those icons. ur provided link is dead

Good job!!!!!!!

Very nice tutorial!

Nice effect, but the tutorial itself needs work as it is not thurough, and not as clear as it should be

[Quote}Nice effect, but I have to agree with those who wrote before me, there are some steps that are really hard to understand :( I'm stuck in the "group the two text lines" part :([/Quote]

Especially on the text wrapping.

started a while ago with photoshop, and I am impressed with your skills and imagination. looks a bit tough, but it gives a whole bunch of ideas. thanks for sharing,and don't stop, it's great !!

That looks really magic!
Unfortunately I haven't found Photoshop CS3 for purchase in my country yet.
But I want so much to learn those effects.

I really liked this, it was really cool.

give chance

great job :)

So awesomelicious.I am in mad love with that hat! The link for it doesn't work so I shall try and replicate it myself.You are wonderfully talented. Cudos!

thanx man
feed me more tuto ;D
--take this cope of coffee xD ---

i love this effect thanx! :D

Cool! Magic! Thanks

Hi,Fabio

Thanks so much for this guide, it is very useful and interesting. I'd definitely try this technique. Hope you would post some more though..^__^

Thanks
Saza

Great job! Love the effect!

amazing man !! this is really good stuff !! thanks :D

Thanks for this tutorial. It will help me on this small project I have going, and this lighting thing will make it look just right.

si alguien sabe como aplicar ese efecto a las letras que me explique porfavor, por que en mi photoshop no puedo aplicar distorsion a las letras gracias
**
*
if somebody knows like applying that effect to the letters that explains to me, so that in my photoshop I cannot apply distorsion to the letters thanks

Hi again! Just wanted to ask if you know how to achieve a colour dodge effect on GIMP???? I've been stuck on this for ages!!!

Thanks

(*)

thank you for sharing this info
it was very helpful

Awesome! Realy, very good tutorial!

Thank you so much...

A very good tutorial. You are so talented.

Complex but nevertheless excellent tutorial. Thanks.

thanks a lot!, very good tutorial!

Wow... you are a photoshop god. How i wish i can be like you.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2058/2279698036_ef5d2f287a.jpg?v=0

Thanks the tutorial was v. helpful =).I tried this using GIMP 2.4.2, but i'm pretty new to all of this so its not great. i couldn't use the dodge function very well so the text doesn't glow much.

(*)

cant follow this damn tutorial, thx for the frustrations, douche!

nice effect

but it isnt easily followed for me:[

yuck. glad no one can follow this tutorial. it will help stop proliferating bad design choices.

Great Tut XD It was a bit hard at first but it was worth it thx XD

Very creative and awesome affect. Thanks so much for sharing your techniques.

Great tutorial. I tend to do a majority of my design work in Illustrator, but recently i have been combined the two more often. There is just so many cool things you can do in photoshop. thanks.

This is just too awesome. Greatest psd stuff i ever saw!!

Great visuals. It's a lot more fun if you do it your way with the steps indicated as your guide. You don't need to follow the exact same steps and outcome. Create your own design and it would come out even better.

it's very difficult to follow, you should explain each steps and blending options' value...... especially step5, step9 and step 10....but thank you...

Great Toturial with this effects.
it is very easy to understand but about the mask on texts group how can i make it? on every layers inside the group or on the group? can you tell me .....

waw it's so cool but it's so hard.
but thanks a lot bro.
God Bless You.

I too was worried at first that the instructions seemed to skip a step or two, however, once i got going on it, i was able to figure it out and WOW, i made an amazing picture and just this little tutorial gives me so many good ideas.

thanks!

Such a cool effect, thanks for the tut.

For those wondering what he meant by the Mask layer and the tops "stripes" (really text) dissappearing, when you "group" the two text layers, you will add a mask to the ONE GROUPED LAYER and then with the gradient tool (you can use white and black, default colors) and work it as if you were about to create a gradient...because of the mask, it will "disappear", making it seem as if the text is slowly fading. If you do not want to do all of that, you can always erase it with a soft round brush and put the opacity around 50% or the like. Good luck!

wonderfull tutorial!!! and a great effect! some paces were difficult to understand! but at least made me think more than following blindly with mouse clicks!! again awesome effect! thank you for the tutorial!

I really enjoy the "idea" Effect is AWESOME, although I gotta also say that for a noob like me it's almost a " Mission not Acomplished".
Step by Step tutorials are need to inexperient users, I think that's what some people here try to say. Unfortunatelly they express it in insults and bad words.

NICE JOB but please take in mind that step by step procedures would be a lot more usefull :)

I would donate ... if it was a step by step one.
Greets.

thank you for this
it is soooooooooo good
but if you can help me in light effects in interior design
& Shadow i will by soooooo happy

Great!!!!!

Thanks so much!

Thanks for the tutorial. Just ignore the people complaining that you didn't give enough detail. They are probably the same people that need their cookbook to tell them how to turn on their stove. Sometimes, learning on your own can be fun (keep that in mind y'all)!

its a great effects but some of it is hard to understand.... hmmmm yah

Nice effect, but I have to agree with those who wrote before me, there are some steps that are really hard to understand :( I'm stuck in the "group the two text lines" part :(

What a beautiful effect. Thanks for the Photoshop tutorial - I will give that a go.

Hi,
Awesome!This is one of the best appearance of real light.I am not very good in photoshop but, somewhat i know.So i am going to try this right now.Thanks for this great tutorial.I am expecting like this more from you in future!

I am amazed! It's an outstanding outcome! You are added in my top 100 tutorials list, I will write a monthly article about the best tutorials on the web, so if you'd like I'll mail you when I write it, so you might link back (my blog is only at the begining). Grate job! Damm! I really can't believe it! :)

link for the magician hat isnt working can u post it again? or another source

Very, very impressive.

Hi!
I'm Roberto, administrator of Tutorialing (italian forum about photoshop's tutorials).
Compliments for this tutorial is awesome.
Well, Can I translate this tutorial in italian for my forum (link in nickname)?
Obviously the translation will contain link back to your site and your copyright!
It'll a simple translation only.
I hope to receive a positive response :)
Have a nice day!
Roberto

I found this is one of the best effect I have seen. Thanks for this tutorial. Hope found more in future like it.

HOLA :

Te comento que ya realice los pasos del tutorial.
Esta muy padre tu tutorial.

Me gustaria que me dijeras donde te puedo enviar mi diseño para que lo veas.

Atte: Vic Digital