How to Create a Cartoon Text Effect in Adobe Photoshop

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...

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 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.

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.