1. First create a new document by pressing Ctrl+N. I set the dimensions 200 by 150 pixels, and the contents transparent for this tutorial, but make the document as big as possible in dimensions for best results.

2. Set the foreground color to dark blue. You can use the swatches palette (Window > Show Swatches) for quick color picking. Then press Shift+F5, and click OK to fill the workspace with the foreground color.

3. Change the foreground color to orange. Select the Type Tool by pressing T. Click on the workspace and type something, then select Layer > Type > Render to render this layer (if you are using Photoshop 6.0, use Layer > Rasterize > Type).

4. Duplicate the layer Gold by dragging it to the New Layer icon () in the layers palette (if you typed something else the layer's name will be different). First click on layer Gold (not copy) to select it and then Ctrl+Click on layer Gold to select its transparency.

   Set the foreground color to light yellow, and press Shift+F5 to fill the selection. Press Ctrl+D to deselect the selection, and apply Edit > Stroke with the following settings:

   Width: 3
   Location: Center
   Opacity: 100%
   Mode: Normal

   Press V to select the Move Tool, and move the layer a few pixels up-left with the cursor keys.

5. We will basically repeat the above step now. Duplicate layer Gold. Click layer Gold to select it, then Ctrl+Click to select its transparency, and fill it with redish-orange by pressing Shift+F5. Deselect the selection (Ctrl+D). Press V and move the layer a few pixels down-right. No stroking this time because the text is already stroked.

6. This is the most important step. If you can't do it right the first time, don't get discouraged. Use Undo (Ctrl+Z) if you make a mistake.

   Now what we have is three separate layers, and their functions are (from top to bottom): Gold copy is the text, Gold Copy 2 is the top bevel, and finally Gold is the bottom bevel.

   

   Click on each layer, and check the little Preserve Transparency box (in Photoshop 6.0, Lock Transparent Pixels) so that we will not airbrush the background.

   Press J to select the airbrush tool. Set the foreground color to light yellow and the background color to orange. Choose an appropriate brush from the Brushes palette, and paint a few horizontal lines on each layer (hold down the Shift key to paint straight lines). You can alternate between the foreground and background colors by pressing X.

   If you believe you are done, paint a straight white line on layer Gold copy to add a dramatic highlight.

7. The hard part is finished now. What we will do next is just spicing up the text a bit. Right-click on layer Gold, and select Effects from the context menu. Apply a drop shadow and outer glow. As you may know shiny objects like gold do not look sharp so we use the outer glow effect to simulate the reflected light.

8. In this final step we will add sparks and little shiny spots to our text. For sparks create a new layer on top of other layers, choose one of the spark-like brushes, and paint a few with the airbrush. Don't overdo it: a few subtle sparks are more than enough.

   Now, use a very small round brush, and paint small white spots on the edges of the letters. Once again don't overdo it.

   It should be finished now. Congratulations. If you think this effect is hard to make, think of traditional airbrush illustrators. They spend hours to cut masks and carefully airbrush each layer. Also don't forget if they make a mistake, they may spoil the whole thing (there is no Ctrl+Z ;-).

Rating: 4.3 (1 vote)  

For more original Photoshop and Illustrator tutorials for users of all experience levels please visit our Guides section. You can also post your questions about graphics software including Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, Paint Shop Pro and CorelDraw in our forums.

There are 124 web designs created with Adobe Photoshop in our database.