Create a Flaming Text Effect in Photoshop

Here is a tutorial built in Adobe Photoshop CS5+ that you can use to give your text a scorching reality.  This can also be applied to other shapes.  We thought it might be a cool idea to even apply this effect to a picture of a sprinter, we might do this in a tutorial down the road but for now we’ll stick to text. We will be using mixing flaming fire images with filters and other Photoshop layer blending methods to come up with something slick! So Lets start!

Create a document with dimensions of 1280 x 720 with a black background. Using the Type tool (T), select the font “Impact or Billboard” and type whatever you want to type for your fire text.  We wanted to make sure that we knew how our type would look finished so we just typed and arranged the entire thing.  As you can see below.  After this, flatten the text layers by clicking them both in the layers palette (we have the “king” on one layer and “tutz” on another) and pushing Command + E(for MAC) CTRL + E(for PC). This will flatten them. This is what this step looks like:

Now we’ll use the marquee tool (M) to cut up the flattened text layer so we can apply different flame effects to each letter of the text.  Simply select the marquee tool (M), drag a box around the letter “K”, right click, and select layer via cut.  Do this for each of the letter so they are now all on their own layers.

We’ll start making the “K” look like it’s on fire.  Right-click on the flattened K type layer in the layers optins, choose Blending Options. Check on Drop Shadow and change in the following settings:

Check on Color Overlay and key in the following settings.

Check on Satin and key in the following settings.

Check on Inner Glow and type in the following settings… choose a yellow that best suites you… here we used #e3bd29

We’re now going to rasterize/flatten the type layers but before we do so we’re going to right click on the flattened “K” layer in the layers palette and select Copy Layer Style. Then we’re going to right click on each of the other letter layers and select Paste Layer Style. This will allow us to transfer all of the settings to each letter.  After this is done make a copy of each layer and hide it (this way we have a backup).  After each backup has been made, flatten each individual type layer.

Using the Eraser tool with varying sizes and opacity fade off the top portion of each letter.

After erasing, We have to Liquify the text, so it looks like real fire. Go to Filter > Liquify. Select the Forward Warp Tool and key in the following settings. Using the Forward Warp tool, create some waves on the border of the type.

Now we’re going to add the awesome flames. You can get the flame image from here: Download. In Photoshop, open the flame file you just downloaded.  Now, go to Channels tab and select the Green layer (if you can’t find the channels tab go to Window > Channels. Ctrl + left click on the Green layer thumbnail to load selection of the highlight areas.

Go back to Your Text Layers tab and use the Move Tool to drag any part of the selected area into the document with the “K” you did earlier. Place the fire above the type.

Using the Eraser tool with 15px, erase all the excessive fire, leaving only those parts that is waving around the type.

Duplicate the fire layer. Set the Opacity of the original fire to 30%. Set the Blend Mode of duplicated fire to Overlay. Your results would be something like this.

Repeat the processes to cover the type with more flames. And there you got your first flaming type!

Create more flaming letters according to your own preferences.

Find a dark background to use. Resize and place the image into the document as shown below.

Create a layer above the Premade Background and fill it with #000000. Set the Opacity of this layer to 83%. Use the Eraser tool to reveal the top right of the image.

Create a new layer and name it “Glow“. Set its Blend Mode to Screen. Paint 3 huge red dot with the Brush tool (Soft Rounded) as shown in the screenshot below.

Set the Blend Mode of this layer to Color Dodge and Opacity to 16% and that’s it! Hope you enjoyed this tutorial!

Here's your Final Results.

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Written by Unknown

Unknown is one of the Team Member of Programmer vs Hacker. He has written many articles on this website and is a patner of this website.