Tutorial | Comic Book Explosion for Digital Scrapbookers

Boom! Pow! Ouch. I *heart* comic book explosions! Is there a better way to make your mouth an action word? Nope. No other way.

Would you like to know how to build a comic book explosion title for your digital scrapbook page like the one seen here? Of course you do – BAM! Check out the steps below for both Adobe Photoshop & Photoshop Element’s Users. Click on the images to increase their size.

 Step One | Type Word. Use a Suitable Font.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of high-quality, comic-book fonts. For my example, I’m using display font Zoinks. Enlarge the size of the text to fill a good amount of space in your layout. Take a peek at my character settings below. The “TT” seen in the screenshot means my words are typed in ALL CAPS.

 Step Two | Add a Black Stoke

You know how to do that, right? Open the Layer’s Style menu, or the Effects panel, and apply a stroke. Make it black. I used a size of 18 pixels. Also note the “position” of my stroke. It’s “inside” the text. Set yours to the same IF you’re using Adobe Photoshop.

 Step Three | Add a Strong Drop Shadow

Not all drop shadows are the same. Digital scrapbooker usually build shadows with a fair amount of distance AND size to imply a tapered shadow. But for our explosive text, we’ll keep to the comic book tradition. So here’s what you need to do:

1. First, choose black as the shadow color.
2. Change the blend mode to Normal. In my example, I used Multiply but Normal will generate a much stronger shadow.
3. Increase the Distance. My own is set to 32 pixels.
4. Reduce the Size. My own is set to 0 pixels. Click OK to apply.

Boom! Now you’ve created the perfect comic book explosion title.

More | Ways to Improve Your Explosion

• Add a Gradient Overlay Layer Style.
• Rasterize, or Simplfy the layer, and apply Filter > Pixelate > Color Halftone.

About this Tutorial

In celebration of the crash landing of the heroic Comic Book templates for digital scrapbookers; I’ll share cool “comic book” related posts all week. You can read more about the comic book templates here.

About Tiffany

Tiffany Tillman is the Owner of Simply Tiffany Studios, an online resource with tutorials and page-design interviews for digital scrapbookers. She's also a Designer for Pixels & Company and professionally trains digital crafters developing e-learning content.

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