Step Eleven/Final.

Vampire Blood
Photoshop 5x

Step Eleven
The blood letters look best on a dark background. I created mine by filling the background layer with gray (RGB values 128,128,128). I then added Noise, Filter>Noise>Add Noise (Amount:15; Distribution: Guassian; Monochromatic) and finished it off with some Lighting Effects, Filter>Render>Lighting Effects (Light Type: Omni; Gloss: -100/Matte; Material: -100/Plastic; Exposure: 0; Ambience: 8; Texture Channel: None). The Lighting Effects Dialog settings are shown top right.

Final
Finally, you are going to use Layer Effects to really bring your image to life. Layer Effects are one of the latest editions to PhotoShop 5.x. One of the biggest advantages of Layer Effects is the real time preview you get as you adjust the settings.

You will start with a drop shadow. With the 'blood' layer selected choose Layer>Effects>Drop Shadow to open the Effects Dialog box (shown middle right). Click on the color box to open the Color Picker Dialog. Change the RGB values to 100,0,0 and click OK. Since the blood is a liquid, we want the shadow to have a tinge of red to it. The rest of the settings are (Mode: Multiply; Opacity: 100%; Angle: 135; Distance: 5; Blur: 10; Intensity: 50). Without closing the Effects Dialog, select Outer Glow from the effects drop down box, click apply and use the following settings (Mode: Multiply; Color: RGB 100,0,0; Opacity: 75%; Blur: 5; Intensity: 50). Again, without closing the Effects, choose Inner Glow from the effects drop down box, click apply and use the following settings (Mode: Multiply; Color: RGB 100,0,0; Opacity: 50; Blur: 10; Intensity: 50; Type: Edge).

The final effect is something even Dracula would have to appreciate. I used levels to darken the background and the blood a bit. I also painted a few highlights here and there with the Paintbrush Tool and one of the Assorted Brushes.

Give it a try in green, it also makes great slime.

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Slime Tip
To create slime with the same technique, just move the higher RGB color value to the green spectrum rather than the red. Instead of 128,0,0 use 0,128,0. Instead of 192,0,0 use 0,192,0. Instead of 100,0,0 use 0,100,0. Also, don't fade the second Plastic Wrap Filter application quite as much. I faded it to about 50% one the image above.