How to Make a Melting Glitch Text Effect in Photoshop

Do you want to learn how to make melting effect in Photoshop? Today, I will show you how to create two melt glitch text effects using standard Photoshop tools, adjustment layers, and textures. Let's go!

What You Will Learn in This Melting Effect Photoshop Tutorial

• How to prepare a document for creating a liquid glitch text effect
• How to create melting letters with a glitch effect in Photoshop
• How to set up color correction for the melting font effect
• How to create a liquid melting text effect with the Smudge Tool
• How to create alternative color adjustments for a melting text effect

If you prefer to learn via video, watch how to make a melting effect in Photoshop on our Envato Tuts+ YouTube Channel:

Tutorial Assets

The following assets were used during the production of this liquid text tutorial:

• Highman Font
• Novus Sans Typeface Family
• Plastic Wrap Overlay Texture
• Free Dust Texture

1. How to Prepare a Document for Creating a Liquid Glitch Text Effect

Step 1

Let's start by setting up a new document with a Size of 3000 x 2000 px and the Background Contents set to Black.

Step 2

After that, go to File > Place, put the free dust texture above the background layer, and change its Opacity to about 45%.

Step 3

After that, create a text layer using any font you want to use and White color. I used the Highman Font, which I found on Envato Elements.

Step 4

Create a duplicate of the layer by hitting Control-J (or Right Click > Duplicate).

2. How to Create Melting Letters in Photoshop

Step 1

Select the second text layer and go to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical. Then Move the layer down, as you can see on the screen.

Step 2

Select both layers while holding Shift and move them to the center.

Step 3

Select the second text layer and press Control-T to activate the Free Transform Tool, and then drag the bottom and top lines of the Free Transform Tool, as shown below.

Step 4

Select the text layers while holding Shift and then Right Click > Rasterize Type. Then Right-Click one more time and select Merge.

Step 5

Now, we are ready to create our melting font effect! Hit Shift-Control-X to open the Liquify tool, and then select the Forward Warp Tool and set the Size to about 600 and the Pressure and Density to 100.

Step 6

Let's start dragging our brush around the top half of the text, to make it a bit "wavy".

Step 7

Now we can drag the bottom half of the text down, until it looks as if it's starting to melt. Don't hesitate to make these elements thinner or thicker—it really depends on your taste! Once you've finished, just hit OK.

Step 8

Create two duplicates of the layer by pressing Control-J (or Right Click > Duplicate). Rename these layers to Red, Green, and Blue.

Step 9

Double-Click on the Red layer and make the Blue and Green channels Invisible.

Step 10

Leave only the Green Channel visible on the Green layer and only the Blue Channel visible on the Blue layer.

Step 11

Move the green layer 25 px to the right and the blue layer 50 px to the right. It will create a glitch text effect.

Step 12

Select all the text layers and Right-Click > Convert to Smart Object. Then go to Filter > Noise > Median and set it to 22. 

This is how it should look now:

Step 13

Now we can add one more element to our melting letters—this step is optional! Go to Liquify (Shift-Control-X) and select the Twirl Clockwise Tool with the following settings:

• Size: 450
• Pressure: 60
• Density: 100
• Rate: 100

This is how our effect will look with the twirl effect applied to it:

Step 14

Create a Duplicate of the Smart Object and then go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur and set the Angle to 90 and the Distance to 700.

Step 15

Now let's move the second smart object down by 350 px. Change the Blend Mode of this layer to Color Dodge and the Opacity to 60%.

Step 16

Place the plastic wrap texture #9 above all the layers and change the Opacity to 25%.

3. How to Set Up Color Correction for the Melting Font Effect

Step 1

Go to Layer > New Adjustments Layer > Brightness/Contrast and use the following settings: Brightness: -37 and Contrast: 30.

Step 2

Create another adjustment layer, this time selecting Hue/Saturation and setting the Hue to -12 and Saturation to +69.

Step 3

And finally, go to Layer > Adjustments one more time and select Curves, using the settings shown below:

Here's our liquid melting text effect:

4. How to Create a Liquid Melting Text Effect With the Smudge Tool

Step 1

Now, let's try one more technique of creating melting letters. We need to create three rasterized text layers (I used the Novus Sans font, but you can use any other font you like) with channels separated to red, green, and blue, just as we did before.

Step 2

After that, select the Smudge Tool from the Tools panel and use the following settings:

• Size: 250
• Hardness: 25%
• Strength: 72%

Step 3

Select the red layer and start dragging your smudge brush around each letter until you get a slight glitch effect.

Step 4

Repeat the same process with other layers.

Step 5

After that, select the red layer and start dragging your brush down the letter to give it a melting look.

Step 6

Continue to smudge all the letters on the red layer the same way.

Step 7

And finally, just smudge other layers the same way!

Step 8

Group all the layers into one folder and then Double-Click on this new group and add a Color Overlay with the following settings:

• Blend Mode: Hard Light
• Opacity: 25%
• Color: Orange

Step 9

Right-Click on the Group and select Convert to a Smart Object, and then create a duplicate of this layer by pressing Control-J.

Step 10

Add a Gaussian Blur filter with the Radius of the duplicate set to 25, and add a Color Overlay with the same settings we used before.

Step 11

Change the Blend Mode of the Smart Object to Linear Dodge.

Step 12

Place the plastic texture, with the Opacity set to 35%.

Here's the result of our manipulations:

5. How to Create Alternative Color Adjustments for the Melting Text Effect

Step 1

Let's make our melting glitch text effect even more interesting with some color adjustment layers. Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves and use these settings:

Step 2

Change the Opacity of the curves layer to 60%.

Step 3

Create another Curves layer with the following settings:

Step 4

Change the Opacity to 75%.

Step 5

Create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and set the Hue to -66 and Saturation to 74.

Step 6

And for the last step, Group the last two adjustment layers and change the Opacity of this new group to 50%.

Awesome Work, You're Now Done!

Today you've learned how to make a melting effect in Photoshop! Using Photoshop tools like the Liquify Tool and the Smudge Tool, you can create some awesome effects, I hope you enjoyed the tutorial and you're now ready to create awesome artworks with the methods we've covered.

5 Top Melting Effect Photoshop Actions and Text Effects From Envato Elements

If you are looking for melting effect Photoshop templates and other text effects, take a look at this collection of Photoshop products available on Envato Elements:

Liquid Melting Text Effects V1 (PSD)

Want to create a liquid glitch text effect in seconds? Try this amazing set of liquid melting text effects in a PSD file format! You get three different designs with a trendy look, which you can apply to any font or shape. All the PSD files are created with smart objects, so all you need to do is place your design inside a special layer, and voila!

Liquid Melting Text Effects (PSD)

If you are looking for a more pronounced liquid melting text effect, check out this package of smart PSD files! This melting effect pack will be a great addition to your creative library. All the liquid text effects are fully customizable and can be used with any font or shape. Beautiful color combinations and background elements create an amazing look, and you can easily use these for your Instagram or blog!

Ultra Realistic Reflective Text Effect (PSD)

Another trendy effect here! This is not a melt glitch text effect, but it looks so cool and realistic! Convert your text into a beautiful-looking artwork with tons of details and great colors. All the elements of this effect are fully customizable, and you can change or remove any element.

80s Retro Text Effects Vol. 01 (PSD, ASL, PDF)

If you are a fan of 80s and retrowave design, we've got something for you! This package contains ten different PSD files with smart objects and fully editable designs. With these effects, you can create 80s text effects with no effort. Just select the one you like and change the text to yours!

Play: 80s Retro Text Effect (PSD, PDF)

Designing a game poster or need to freshen up your Twitch banner? Check out this cool Photoshop effect inspired by the text effects of the 80s and old 8-bit games. It boasts a clean and simple design with neat background elements in a well-organized PSD file. Just change the text and colors if needed, and your design is ready!

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