Night Vision Text Effect

[Frontcannon]

This tutorial is available as a PDF. Click here to view or download it

Hello and good day, fellow readers! 

This is a tutorial on how to create a night vision-y text effect that looks similar to the MW2 or the Matrix title.

This is what it will actually look like:

 

 

PlugIns:

True Blur

HalfTone

Seismograph

(all are part of Ed Harvey's pack, get it here)

 

So, let's start! It may look long, but it's not too hard, believe me 

 

Step #1:

Fill the background with solid black. 

 

 

Step #2:

Make a new layer . Choose a font with the text tool and write the desired text in a dark green colour (the one I chose is called Good Times).

I should be a bold font, font size about 70.

 

Step #3:

Duplicate your text layer . Go to Adjustments -> Brightness / Contrast  and set both values to 100. The text should now be white. Toggle the Layer Visibility off.

 

Step #4:

Go back to your green text layer. Apply Effects -> Photo -> Glow  with Radius 20, Brightness 90 and Contrast 60.

 

 

Step #5:

Apply Effects -> Blurs -> True Blur with a Radius of 21.

 

 

Step #6:

Reapply Glow , this time with Contrast set to -100. A higher contrast will make it lose its green colour.

 

 

Step #7:

Duplicate the layer and apply Effects -> Stylize -> Seismograph with Line Spacing 4, Line Width ~ 2.35, Segment Size 6 and Deflection 3.

 

 

Step #8:

Toggle the visibility of the white text layer back on. Set the Blending Mode of the Seismograph layer to Multiply.

 

 

Step #9:

Apply Effects -> Distort -> Crystalize  on the white text layer, Cell Size 2, Quality 5 (always highest quality!). This gives the text a grainy look.

 

 

Step #10:

Use Effects -> Blurs -> Motion Blur  on it. 0 angle, centered and Distance 5. (I used the GPU version, it gives a better result)

 

 

Step #11:

Apply Effects -> Noise -> Add Noise  with Intensity 40, Color Saturation 0 and Coverage 100.

 

 

Step #12:

Set Layer Blending Mode to Reflect. Duplicate it and set the Blending Mode to Color Dodge.

 

 

Step #13:

Select the Seismograph layer and use Add Noise  with the same settings as in step #11, but increase the Intensity to 45.

 

 

Step #14:

Duplicate  the Glow layer (the one under Seismograph) and use Effects -> Distort -> Frosted Glass  with Maximum Scatter Radius set to 200, Minimum Scatter Radius set to 3 and Smoothness set to 8.

 

 

Step #15:

Use Effects -> Stylize -> Halftone with the Line Shape, Size 5, angle 0, Contrast -100, Brightness -25 and Quality, of course, 5.

 

 

Now merge the layers. First, merge down the layers Glow copy, Glow and Background, then Seismograph and Background. Finally, merge down the WhiteText copy, WhiteText, and Background layers.

 

Voilà, you're done!

 

I hope you like the outcome, criticism, be it positive or negative, is always welcome!

 

ADJUSTMENTS

You'll find out that the text isn't exactly usable if you want to work it in another image 

 

However, there is a surprisingly easy solution to this!

 

You will need this PlugIns:

Grim Color Reaper

Color Tint (already included in the pack of the great Ed Harvey)

 

First, open your flattened .png of the text:

 

 

Now apply the Grim Color Reaper to the image, be sure that your primary colour is the same as the background colour of your image (in my case black)

 

 

Background gone! You can now create a new layer  under the text and fill it with whatever colour or image you want. Use Ed Harvey's Color Tint on the text layer to adjust its colour if you don't want it green.

Will update this section with other ideas if someone has them 

 

Edited May 11, 2019 by toe_head2001
Restored image

[warfighter67]

Great tutorial! I'll have to use this sometime.

Edit: My result!

Edited June 1, 2010 by Weylin

[Frontcannon]

Nice outcome, it has good contrast..

Is that also the Good Times font?

I'm curious how it would work (especially the Motion Blur part) on thinner fonts.

[GCFuture]

Nice Tutorial, Nice Outcome

[Razah666]

heres my outcome i thought it came out well

[csm725]

Great tut.

BTW what's that thing you got pinned to your taskbar to the right of Skype?

[Frontcannon]

Nice to see this tutorial getting some attention

The Text Effects section needs it.

Looks rad, Razah!

@ csm725:

That's MAGIX Music Maker. I try to create some beats from time to time, but it's very limited

Gonna move to Rythm soon, I think.

[chrisco97]

I like this tutorial, I might use it in a future signature.

[Frontcannon]

Nice idea, though it could be difficult.

I think I should figure out how to isolate the text effect from the black background. If I remove it, the Multiply blending mode goes to hell..

If only there were something like a ctrl-shift-f for certain layers.

[Dynasty]

Great tut nice stuff man!

[Frontcannon]

Glad you like it

[chrisco97]

Really nice effect, FC!

[Frontcannon]

Do you suffer from amnesia, chrisco? Anyway, thanks again

I like this tutorial, I might use it in a future signature.

[chrisco97]

Hmmm...sorry, I am tired!

[n00ber]

This is my result. im a total n00b on paint.net so go easy.

thanks for the tut.

[Frontcannon]

Looks great!

That's a very small text now, but you don't have to use my font

So far everyone has done that

[conman]

Awesome. Helped out a lot

[TehKingSnipa]

Awesome. Helped out a lot

what effect is that with your signature? it looks awesome. mind telling me?

[KevinB]

[Frontcannon]

Well, that looks interesting, but nothing like my outcome. What did you do differently?

[KevinB]

Magic wand and then erase the black part

[KevinB]

[Frontcannon]

Better use Grim Color Reaper, it should give you a way cleaner result.

[mattz1996]

Nice tutorial (: this is my outcome. I followed the tutorial, then cropped it to its size, added Film (Grain 2, 0 Discoloration, 0 Distortion) and Sharpened (20) twice.

Edited July 10, 2010 by mattz1996

[D3T0N4T0R]

That's an awesome outcome.

Here's my result (I didn't change the brightness in the second step, I think. Anyway, The pic was for my band's first album, thought it looked quite cool...)