Background Text Effect Tutorial
Got asked by @owenpatrickjoyners how I did the effect for this gif:
First of all, let me preface by saying that this actually took a whole lot of time and it still came out really choppy, so the first tip I can give you is if you’re gonna do this effect, you better have a shit ton of patience and choose a gif where the character doesn’t move alot because it will make things so much easier.
I’m using photoshop 2020.
This is an advanced tutorial that supposes that you already know how to create gifs and add text (i’ve explained how to add text layers here, if you want), so the first thing you wanna do is make the your gif, resize, sharpen, add adjustment layers and whatever else you want to add and then save the psd files (just as a precaution).
Once you’re satisfied with the gif, open your animation timeline bar to the frames animation mode.
This is what mine currently looks like (I’m just doing 8 frames for the tutorial):
Now we’re gonna add the text layer that’s later gonna become the background. I’m choosing The Bold Font as my font, set to Bold, size 29pt, line spacing set to 30pt.
You’re gonna fill the page with the text so it fills the whole space, then you’re gonna make sure the first frame in your animation bar is selected and you’re gonna set the text layer’s opacity to 60.
The first thing you’re gonna do is duplicate the text layer to match the number of frames you have. I have 8 frames, so I’m creating 8 text layers. Then you’re gonna hide them all by clicking on the small eye icon next to them:
Your text should now be hidden:
So, this is where it gets tricky, because to get a good result (which I didn’t really manage that well), you have to work the layers one by one.
Start with the first layer. Make sure the first frame is selected in the animation bar, and click on the small eye icon of the first text layer to make it appear.
For the first frame, if you make any change, it applies to the rest of the frames, so before we do anything else, we’re gonna make sure it doesn’t. To do that, just select all the other frames, and hide the text on those by clicking the eye icon:
Now, select the first frame again. Add a layer mask to the text layer by clicking on the mask icon at the bottom of the layer tray.
Your text layer should now have a small white rectangle next to it. Click on that rectangle, grab a hard round brush, make sure the selected color is black, opacity set to 100%, and use it to hide the text on Alex. You do that just by clicking and dragging the brush all over him. I’m starting with my brush sized to 37, but depending on what I need, I might change the size to make sure I get the edges.
If you don’t know much about layer masks and how to use them, I’ve explained it a little bit in this tutorial.
Basically, the black brush hides anything on the layer, and the white brush makes it reappear.
As you work and mask the text, you’ll notice the white rectangle start getting some black color in the shape you’re hiding. Once you’re done and satisfied, your frame should look something like this:
Now you’re gonna move on to the next layer. You’re gonna select the second frame on the animation bar (which should only show owen with no text). You’re gonna make the second layer of text appear by clicking on the eye, add a layer mask to it like we did before, and then start masking the text on owen the same way you did before.
Alternatively, you could just duplicate the original text layer and work on the existing mask, but you would have to go back and hide that layer from the first frame and all the other frames. It’s up to you.
And now you’re gonna repeat the process on each frame. Select a new text layer, add the mask, hide the text on owen. It takes a whole lot of time, energy and patience, and if you look closely at my og gif, I didn’t do much of a good job, lmao.
This is why I mentioned it might be better to use gif with minimal movement - if the characters are not moving, the edges stay aligned and you can use the same layer on multiple frames instead of having to do them one by one.
Anyway, once you’ve done all your frames and layers, your psd looks something like this:
And once I save (check this for more details on my save settings), my gif looks like this:
And that’s it!
If I skimmed over anything or you feel it’s not clear, just hmu and I’ll try to do a better job at explaining things :)
I hope this works for you! <3
