Fuzz/Furry Text Effect (Works great as Grass!)

In this tutorial, I will show you a how to create a fuzzy text effect using a simple technique and a custom brush. This tutorial is written for users who have a basic understanding of the tools and techniques in Photoshop.
The Final Image
This is what we will be creating:

Step 1: Setting Up the Document
Create a new document that is 1100 x 500px and fill with a brown color. For this image, I used a radial gradient to give the image a slight vignette.

Step 2: Typing the Text
Select the Type Tool (T) and use a bold font to type anything you want. I’m using Arial Black set to a dark green color (#232B1E).

Step 3: Rasterizing Type
To rasterize the font, right click on the text layer and select Rasterize Type

Step 4: Rounding Out the Text
To round out the sharp edges, apply the Median Filter (Filter>Noise>Median) with a setting of 14 px.

Step 5: Setting Up the Colors
Set your foreground/background color to the following (this will be necessary for our custom brush to work properly):

Step 6: Creating a Brush
Now, we want to add some fuzz to our text. To begin, we need to create a new brush. Open the Brushes Panel (F5) and use the following settings:

Here are samples of the brush strokes using a pen tablet. If you dont have a tablet, go back in to your brush settings and go to the Shape Dynamics tab and set the Size Jitter’s Control to “Fade” with a setting of 35 or so.

We’ve made grass!
As you see the brush we’ve created allows the base of the stroke to be darker than the tip. This is important as it will mimic natural lighting.
Step 7: Starting The Fuzz
Create a new layer called ‘Fuzz Outside’ and start to draw in to fuzz, always starting your stroke from the base and moving out. you want to stay on the edge of the text for the first round.

Finish each letter:

Make it quicker!
To make this go quicker, copy and paste similar letters (as I did with the letter ‘Z’)
Step 8: Adding More Fuzz
Create a new layer called ‘Fuzz Middle’ and change your background color to a lighter shade of green. Start to make shorter strokes more inside of each letter as shown. These strokes should overlap some of the initial strokes.

Pen Tablet vs. Mouse
If you aren’t using a pen tablet, you may have to adjust the bush’s Size Jitter in the Shape Dynamics tab and Background/Foreground Jitter in the Color Dynamics to get the right length of stroke with the right amount of color fade.
Finish each letter:

Step 9: Adding Even More Fuzz
Create a new layer called ‘Fuzz Inside’. This time, make a few short strokes completely inside each letter as filler. It is not necessary to make alot of strokes. We will use a simple technique to add filler to the gaps.

Finish each letter:

Step 10: Adding a Blur
Select your text layer and give it a Gaussian Blur of about 3 px.

Step 11: Finishing The Fuzz
To complete the fuzz, we need to Add Noise set to 38%, Give it a Gaussian Blur of 1.3 px, and adjust the Levels (Ctrl + L) slightly to increase the contrast of the noise.

Add a drop shadow to the Text layer:

Your image should resemble this:

Step 12: Starting the Highlights
If you want, you can add a highlight around the edge of the text to make it pop more. to do this, select all 3 of your ‘Fuzz…’ layers and merge them to a new layer.

Step 13: Drawing Highlights
Next, Create a new Layer called ‘Highlights’ and with the color set to white, draw where you want the highlight to go.

Step 14: Adjusting the Low Lights
Adjust the Blending Mode of the ‘Highlights’ layer to Overlay and make this layer a clipping layer to the newly merged Fuzz layer

Step 15: Adjusting the Low Lights
To Finish, just give the ‘Highlights’ layer a large Gaussian Blur. You’re Done!

61 Comments
thanks
Flag as inappropriateAMAZING!
Flag as inappropriateits exciting!!
Flag as inappropriategreat! i like it!
Flag as inappropriateawesome job – great tutorial very easy to follow. I did it in PaintShopPro instead of PS had no problem at all! thank you
Flag as inappropriateThank you for sharing this tutorial. It is short and simple to understand. No mumbo, jumbo. I do not know how to use Photoshop much, with the screenshot, it just opened up the world of PS to me. Thank you.
Flag as inappropriateWen i Get a good job all credit goes to u masterji. i vil never foget dis help in my life. We r grateful to u ji
Flag as inappropriateThank u Masterji ur really Great
Flag as inappropriatenice tut once again. thanks for sharing it with us.
Flag as inappropriatevery very cool!! thank you and easy to understand!!
Flag as inappropriatekeep writing nice tutorial
Flag as inappropriateBeautiful Z
Flag as inappropriatewow great tutorial
awesome……………..
Flag as inappropriatehttp://www.graphiczede.com super web site, tutorials videolar
Flag as inappropriateThank u aoratos
Flag as inappropriateIts AWESOME ………. a little different ………. Thnx .
Flag as inappropriategreat tuto i like it big thumbs up
Flag as inappropriateThank you very much, really cool, really useful.
Flag as inappropriateBeautiful Font
Flag as inappropriatevery funny project…
Flag as inappropriategreat steps…thanks for sharing…..
Flag as inappropriatefully crappy tips is this. I think something is missing in step 6. I can’t make the brush as u say
Flag as inappropriateI think it also. I can not make this brush :(
Flag as inappropriateTry setting the Size Jitter’s ‘Control’ to “Fade” under the Shape Dynamics tab. You should set this to 35 (or higher, depending on your preference)
Also, make sure all of your sliders match the image.
Hope that helped.
Flag as inappropriatevist for basic training of photoshop
Flag as inappropriatehttp://training4free.co.cc/Basic%20training/Basic%20training.html
WOW!!!! I have nothing but that to say. Oh and WOOOOW!!
Flag as inappropriateToo fun! This will be great for the spring when landscapers start advertising. They always want something fun to make them stand out.
Flag as inappropriatevery cool this one. made some other chnages and it looked perfect..
Flag as inappropriateNice tut!
Flag as inappropriateBut my result is not as nice as your result:(
Its great posting.useful… your are explained very clearly..thanks for sharing
Flag as inappropriatevery nice thought
Flag as inappropriateGreat tutorial, but in my opinion it would be better with some different background.
Flag as inappropriateWow, those are really nice techniques, way to go.
Flag as inappropriateI love it. My only question is…how do you get the brush to go in the right direction to go along the top, down the sides and across the bottom. It seems as though it would just be upright. Yes, I’m a new*be…thank you!
Flag as inappropriateHe is not using a stamp type brush where you just click with the mouse to make a shape. He is using the brush tool like a paint brush with brush dynamics set…. in this case, a simple round 3 px. (with a mouse you would have to click and keep it clicked while moving the mouse the direction you want the stroke to go)
With these type brushes, you draw with the brush same as you would draw with a RL paint brush or pencil, and that gives you the direction. The brush dynamics cause each stroke to taper to a point, and also have the graduated color.
Hope this helps :D.
Flag as inappropriatereally cool tutorial with some techniques. thanks
Flag as inappropriateyou completely lost me, i hate you
Flag as inappropriateAMAZING TECHNIQUE WITH GREAT RESULT :D
Flag as inappropriateThis is not spped way. I prefer to use ready fonts such as the collection Hand Made Font
Flag as inappropriatenice! very thanks.
Flag as inappropriateA really great outcome. Superb
Flag as inappropriateniccce…! another great tutorial :)
Flag as inappropriatenice tutorial but i am having difficulty in making the brush..
Flag as inappropriatewow what a buatifull work.i like it,,,,,,,continew your works,,,
Flag as inappropriateCool technique. I love it.
Flag as inappropriateSuper cool! I will definitely use it! :):)
Flag as inappropriateNice tutorial – I have seen similar text effects before but this one is quite simple and gives a similar effect, although it looks a little bit plastic I think it works really well, what would of really finished it off is adding a earthy/grunge brown background. I am looking forward to trying the tutorial out myself. Thanks for sharing.
Flag as inappropriateProfessional looks which i expected
Flag as inappropriateI do not Understand :
Flag as inappropriateHere are samples of the brush strokes using a pen tablet. If you dont have a tablet, go back in to your brush settings and go to the Shape Dynamics tab and set the Size Jitter’s Control to “Fade” with a setting of 35 or so.
HI,
Flag as inappropriatei just wanted to thank you for this wonderful tutorial! It really helped me!
Please contuine
Thank you so much for this tutorial, and for explaining the steps so clearly!
Flag as inappropriateI’m pretty tired of all of these “create a (insert random object/scene)” tuts that are appearing on websites like this and especially PSDTuts, and these tuts rarely contain techniques that can be taken away at the end.
But when something like this comes along it’s a breath of fresh air, a tutorial that actually tackles specific techniques, and though the final product may not be applicable to many other situations, the steps covered actually help broaden your thinking of certain tools, and compositing techniques. More tutorials like this are needed.
Flag as inappropriateupload this to download
Flag as inappropriatenice tut’s…
Flag as inappropriateVery nice text !!
Flag as inappropriateSimply a great (and funny) work! Thanks for share!
Flag as inappropriateI haven’t seen that before.. like a cartoonist fur effect.
Flag as inappropriateWell done!
Wow this is impressive.
I cant think of a use for it as of right now, but this sure does look good.
Flag as inappropriateGonna try it just for the fun of it. Thanks.
Great tutorial. Outcome was great!
Flag as inappropriate