In this tutorial, I will teach you how to make text seemed to be using multiple layers, even if the document that you wanted to use has just 2 layers. The way we will achieve this effect is by using a background layer and then a text layer with a layer mask on it.
Step 1. Open up a 300px by 400px transparent document.
Step 2. Press D to reset your colors. Filter>Render>Clouds then Filter>Render>Difference Clouds and finally Filter>Artistic>Plastic Wrap and use the default settings you should have something similar below...
You may have taken other ripple effect tutorials and not been satisfied with the unrealistic results. This tutorial will guide you through the steps of designing a different style of ripples.