How to Create a Cool Shattered Text Effect in Photoshop

Hey guys, this is the first of many great photoshop tutorials to come. We’re going to create a cool looking shattered text effect. It’s relatively simply and I’m sure you’ll pick up on something new,  so let’s get started.

Difficulty: Intermediate.
Software required: Adobe Photoshop 7 and up.

 

This is what the final result will look like:

Cool right? I know.

 

Step 1 

Create a photoshop document of 1500×2000 pixels. Find the Fill Tool (G) and fill everything with black (#000000).

 

Step 2

For the background, I used a broken glass texture. You can find some very high quality ones over on CG Textures (registration is required to download textures but it’s free). Type ‘broken glass’ into the search box on the left, then find and download one you like. Make sure it’s one with a black background, please.

With the texture downloaded, copy it into photoshop and make sure that it fills the entire document.

 

Step 3

For added effect, I used a ‘splatter’ photoshop brush which you can find on Obsidian Dawn (free for non commercial use).

Create a new layer and place it above the glass texture layer. Select a dark red colour (I used #5f0a01). Within the new layer use the splatter brush once over the broken glass texture area, then change it’s Blending Mode to Vivid Light. The result will look like this:

 

 

Step 4

Here’s where we finally add the the text. Select your text tool and choose a suitable font. I used Birch STD. Type your desired text across the broken glass texture area. Afterwards, right click on the text layer and go into Blending Options. Select the Drop Shadow property and adjust the options as indicated.

 

Then, select the Gradient Overlay property and adjust the options as follows:

 

Finally, select the Stroke property and adjust the options as follows:

 

The result will look like this:

 

Step 5

Time to slice and dice.

Duplicate the text layer (CTRL+J on Windows, CMD+J on Mac) and rasterize it. Hide the original layer. Now, grab the Polygonal Lasso Tool and on the duplicated text layer, we’re going to cut off a piece of each letter.

With the lasso tool, select a sizable portion of each letter. Something like this:

 

Now, with the selection box still active, press CTRL+SHIFT+J on your keyboard. You’ll realize that a new layer has been created with the piece of the text that was selected. This is what we want. Now, on this new layer that contains the cut off piece of text, go into the Blending Options, select the Bevel and Emboss property and adjust the options as follows:

 

Now repeat this process for all letters. Note: when doing the slicing, the base layer (that is, the duplicated and rasterized text layer) must always be selected. After all the letters are sliced, return to the base layer and lower its Opacity to 40% and we’ll have the result looking like this:

 

Step 6

Time for the final touches.

Create a new layer and ensure it’s on top of everything else. make sure the colour pickers are on black and white (press D to quickly do this). Now with this new layer selected, fetch the Rectangular Marquee Tool and create a selection box across the entire text, like so:

 

Now go to Filter > Render > Clouds.

Then change the layer’s blending mode to Overlay. Duplicate this layer (CTRL+J) about 3 times and voila, that’s it. This is the final result.

 

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Tags: photoshop, shattered text effect, tutorial