Photoshop Tutorial: Alien Text Effect

This tutorial will teach you how to create an effect on your text or other objects that emulates that of the Aliens movie.

Step 1

Create a new image to work with. The example is 325x125, Resolution 72, and has a black background.

Step 2

Choose a bright green color such as #00EE00 as your foreground and black for your background color.

Step 3

Choose Edit » Fill » Background Color to fill the background layer with black.

Step 4

Select the Type tool and choose the the Type Mask tool from the Options bar at the top of your screen (in earlier versions, drag to the right on the Type Tool icon). Next click inside the document and type any text you want (choose any font or size you like). Click the Check mark in the Options bar to finalize the text layer (OK in older versions).

Step 5

Choose Edit » Fill » Foreground Color (the green).

Example 1

Step 6

Go to Select » Feather 2 pixels.

Step 7

Choose Filter » Blur » Radial Blur (100, Zoom, Best)

Step 8

Without deselecting, repeat step # 7. Repeat the last filter by pressing Cmd+F (PC: Ctrl+F).

Example 2

Step 9

Now, Select » Inverse and repeat step # 7 again… Filter » Blur » Radial Blur (100, Zoom, Best)

Example 3

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