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This is a two part tutorial. First we’ll make some alien looking text in photoshop then in part 2 we’ll import it into After Effects and apply an expression to make it look similar to jello when it drops. If your not interested in making the text effect, just move on to part 2 (see the end of part 2 for the final).

Part one – the text effect:

Open a new document in photoshop with a size of 720×480 and make the background black.  Type in your text and make it white for now. Name the new text layer “alien text” in the layers palette, .

Click the layer styles button at the bottom of the layer palette and apply a bevel to the alien text layer with these settings.

Next, keep the layers style window open and apply the gradient overlay.

Click the gradient color bar and assign an eerie green to black gradient.

Next, add an outer glow with these settings.

For the reflection,  in the layers palette duplicate the alien text layer and go to edit>transform>flip vertical to flip the copy. Line up the alien text copy right beneath the original to set it up for the reflection.

Select the gradient tool. In the layers palette, on the alien text copy, click the layer mask thumbnail once then ctrl +click the text thumbnail next to it to create a selection.

Drag the gradient tool from the bottom to the top of the selection but only go about 3/4 of the way up. Then hit ctrl +d to deselect the selection. Lower the opacity of the alien text copy to about 80%.

Ok, before we move on to Part 2, go to the layers palette and drag the alien text copy below the original alien text layer then save the file as alien.psd .  Fire up After Effects and go to part 2…..