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As many of you know I live in Montana. Though we
suffer through several months of snow on average, summertime
still affects us mountain dwellers. I know that our heat
situation is not nearly as dire as those living a bit closer to
the equator, but when you are used to temperatures hovering
below freezing for the better part of the year, even a trip into
the high 80's can be (and is) like sitting too close to the
barbeque in a wool sweater.
My beautiful bride surprised me last week with a
gift I'd never even considered. Bless her heart, she bought me
an air conditioner! Now my office, definitely the warmest room
in the house with temperatures averaging 20 degrees above
scalding, maintains a steady 65 degrees during the heat of the
day. If only there were a bathroom and a coffee pot in here...
I'd never leave the room.
As I considered the woes of summertime heat, it
occurred to me that some of you might not be aware of the ease
with which we can make ice and snow using only Photoshop. There
are a few tutorials regarding this topic online, but we are
going a different direction than those, actually combining some
of the effects of other tutorials with some things we already
know about Photoshop 6.
To begin, enter some type in a new image and
duplicate the type layer. Here are my settings:
New Image
Width= 9in
Height= 5 in
72 dpi
RGB
Background Color= Black
Create a type layer, using a large font size.
I'm using a font called Creampuff set to 120 points. Color isn't
really a factor, but I'll use white. Duplicate this layer.
Select the duplicate layer. Hit Shift +
Command/Control + X to bring up the Liquify options. Using a
small brush (mine is set to about 20), distort select areas of
the type by clicking on a section with the brush and pulling
down. Do this several times around the type.
Once you are satisfied with your distortions,
click OK and check out your image.
Okee Dokee, now let's start making it stand out
a bit. Go to your layer styles and apply a bevel.
Also apply an inner shadow of a light blue/green
(my number is #06A090) with the opacity set to 50%.
Duplicate this layer, and create a new layer
beneath the top duplicate. Hit Command/Control + E to merge down
the top layer with the empty layer. This collapses the layer
styles so we may alter the entire package, bevel and all.
Add noise to this layer.
Go to Filter>Pixelate>Crystalize, and set your
cell size to 3.
ommand/Control+Click the layer name in the
palette to create a selection, and apply a light gaussian blur.
Somewhere around 1 should do it.
Go back to the original snow layer. Again,create
a layer beneath it, select the snow layer and merge down. Rotate
the canvas 90 degrees clockwise. Go to Filter>Stylize>Wind, and
Blast from the right. Again, go to filter>Stylize?Wind, and this
time apply Wind from the right. Do this to taste, then rotate
your canvas CCW.
Now you can just play with the layers, applying
different shadings, bevels and the like until you start feeling
'Cool'.
Here's my final product:
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