What You'll Be Creating In this tutorial, I will show you how to create an easy cartoon text effect, using a pattern and a layer styl...

In this tutorial, I will show you how to create an easy cartoon text effect, using a pattern and a layer style.
This cartoon text effect we will be creating is a part of Cartoon and Comic Book Styles from my Cartoon and Comic Book Collection.
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Cartoon and Comic Book Styles |
Tutorial Assets
The following assets were used during this tutorial:
- Brady Bunch Remastered font
- Red Dots pattern
- Stars background
Before you start creating the cartoon text effect, download and install the font and the pattern into your Photoshop, and also download the background.
1. How to Load a Document Background
We will use the Stars background from the Tutorial Assets as our document background. It is an 850 x 600 px JPG file. Go to File > Open and open star-background.jpg.

2. How to Create and Warp Text
This text effect is made of one layer, so you can save it as a new style in your Styles palette when you are done.
Step 1
Pick the Type Tool and select the Brady Bunch Remastered font. Set the Font Size around 212 pt. Write "SMASH!" with capital letters and with any color.

Step 2
Now we need to stretch the letter spaces. Select the text layer, and then go to the Character panel and change the Tracking to -20. If you can't see the character panel icon, go to Type > Panels > Character Panel.

Step 3
The last step before we start applying the layer style is to warp our text. Right-click with your mouse on the text layer and select Warp Text from the menu. Set the Style to Arc, select Horizontal, and set the Bend to 30% and Horizontal Distortion to -30%. Now hit OK to apply the changes.

3. How to Create a Cartoon Text Effect
Step 1
Select the layer SMASH! and Double-click the layer to apply the following layer style:
Add a Stroke with these settings:
- Size: 10 px
- Position: Outside
- Blend Mode: Normal
- Opacity: 100%
- Fill Type: Gradient
- Style: Shape Burst
- Angle: 0°
- Check the Dither box
- Set the Gradient with these 2 color stops:
- First gradient stop Color
#f80000
and Location at 45% - Second gradient stop Color
#000000
and Location at 59%

Step 2
Add an Inner Shadow with these settings:
- Blend Mode: Normal with the Color
#fff000
- Opacity: 100%
- Uncheck the Use Global Light before setting Angle: 180°
- Distance: 3 px
- Choke: 100%
- Size: 0 px
- Check the Anti-aliased box

Step 3
Add a Satin effect with these settings:
- Blend Mode: Normal with the Color
#fff000
- Opacity: 100%
- Angle: 90°
- Distance: 2 px
- Size: 0 px
- Check the Anti-aliased box
- Uncheck the Invert box, if checked

Step 4
Add a Color Overlay with these settings:
- Blend Mode: Multiply
- Click on the Color box and choose the color
#fff000
- Opacity: 100%

Step 5
Add a Pattern Overlay with these settings:
- Click on the Pattern box and choose the Red Dots pattern
- Opacity: 100%
- Scale: 100%
Now you can change the pattern position: just Left-click and Drag your mouse over the text in the document to move the pattern up or down.

Step 6
Add an Outer Glow with these settings:
- Blend Mode: Normal
- Opacity: 100%
- Set Color of glow
#fff000
- Technique: Softer
- Spread: 94%
- Size: 11 px
- Check the Anti-aliased box

Step 7
As a final step, add a Drop Shadow with these settings:
- Blend Mode: Multiply and pick the Color
#000000
- Opacity: 100%
- Uncheck the Use Global Light before setting Angle: 120°
- Distance: 8 px
- Spread: 100%
- Size: 20 px
- Check the Anti-aliased box
Hit OK to apply the layer style.

Congratulations! You're Done!
In this tutorial, you learned how to create a cartoon text effect in Adobe Photoshop.
We started out by creating and warping our text, and then we added multiple different effects in order to create our final text effect.

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial, and if you like the final effect, don't forget to save this style to your Layer Styles palette for future projects.
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