Creating a crack effect in Photoshop is a simple matter of creating a custom brush. We show you how in our Adobe Photoshop training courses.
First source an image of lightning from the internet, and open it up in Photoshop. Go the the Channels panel and click on each channel to find out which one defines the lightening effect best with the background as dark as possible.  Now duplicate this by dragging the channel onto the Create New Channel icon. Next go the Levels adjustments (Ctrl+L) and click on the black eyedropper tool for Shadows. Click on a light grey area next to the lightening bolt. This will set the tonal black point in the image, forcing everything this shade of grey or darker to go black. See the histogram and adjust the sliders if necessary. Then invert the selection via Select > Inverse. Now go to the Edit menu, choose Define Brush Preset and hit OK.
Next choose the Brush tool and select the new brush which is at the bottom of the list. Open the Brush panel and go to the Brush Tip Shape to adjust the Spacing to 50, for example. Go to the Shape Dynamics panel and choose a Size Jitter of 90 with the Control button turned Off. Change the Angle Jitter also to 90 and Control Off. Tick the Flip X and Y Jitter at the bottom to add variation to the effect.
Next open a texture image and create a new layer. Click on the fx button at the bottom of the panel and choose Bevel&Emboss with an Inner Bevel of Smooth and Depth of 400. Change the Direction to Down and the Size to 3; Soften 0 and Angle 35. Change the Highlight mode to Screen with an Opacity of 75. Change the Shadow mode to Multiply with an Opacity of 80.
Then change the Foreground colour to black and paint on the layer. Ctrl+click on the text layer’s thumbnail to select the text, and choose Select and Inverse. Now create a new layer and name it Cracks. Select the Brush tool and paint around the text. Modify the text as you wish and add the Bevel & emboss layer effect.
Many more tips and techniques can be found at the Adobe website. And see many examples of our clients’ work on our Facebook page.
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