A Festive Icon!
My first tutorial, hope it makes sense and is useful to some. Made in PSCS and ImageReady - requires basic PSCS skills, and knowing where various tools and options are.
How to go from A BLANK CANVAS to this:
Take a plain canvas. 500x500px is good. Fill with a pale blue colour. I used #A7D2DA. Next, create a new layer. Use the polygonal selection tool, and make a jaggedy line at the top. Then extend the line down to encompass the rest of the bottom of the layer.
Fill with a slightly darker blue. I used #71B6D9.
Repeat two more times on a new layer for each colour, further down and with darker blues each time. I used #388DB9 and then #1A72A0. It's starting to look like a background now! Because each colour is on a separate layer, you can reposition them a little if needed. Fill any gaps on the top layer.
Now to soften the edges and make them look a little more mountainous. Select a default brush from the eraser. I used the soft 27px brush.
Now, starting with layer one, brush off the tops of the hills, softening them.
Repeat for the other layers.
Now you can merge down these layers into one background if you want. (Click on the topmost layer -3- and then hit ctrl and E until you have just the background remaining.
Now you can start creating the snowman. Create a new layer. Take the elliptical marquee tool, and draw yourself a large circle towards the bottom of the canvas.
Using the gradient fill and the radial gradient, select a very, very pale blue, and a slightly darker grey/blue. I used #DBF3FF and #7B9EAF. Fill the sphere with this gradient so that it starts to look rounded.
OPTIONAL STEP: Leaving it selected, use filter, distort and spherize, to round out the shadow more.
Repeat the process on a new layer, creating a smaller circle for the snowman's head. Because it's on a separate layer, you can move it about to get the positioning you like.
Now to make the shadow of the head. Duplicate the head layer and desaturate it. Drag it so it sits under the head layer.
Then, Ctrl and T to transform the layer. Squish it down, rotate it a bit, and drag it to the side. It's still not quite right, so we have to change it a little.
Set the blending mode to multiply, the opacity to about 50, and give it a slight Gaussian blur. Around 1.5 pixels is good.
To neaten up above the shoulder, hold control and click on the image representing layer 1. This should select the object in that layer but keep you on the layer you're working with. Press Ctrl, shift and I to invert the selection, then press delete, to take away the overlapping part of the shadow.
Gaussian blur both snow circles by about 0.7 pixels, to soften them up.
The eyes and mouth are very easy. New layer, using polygonal selection tool, draw out little coal shapes and fill them with black. It helps to zoom in for this part.
Cute! Do as many as you like, but keep them all on the same layer.
Then, to make them look 3d and pushed in, a little easy trick. Use the layer styles 'bevel and emboss'. Select a pillow emboss, set the depth to appx 200%, and the size to around 9. Make sure the light angle matches everything else you have done so far. My snowman has the light coming from the top left. Apply the style.
Mmmm, he's looking cute so far!
For the twig arm, use the polygonal tool again on a new layer. I can't use the pen tool to save my life, so this is the easiest way and it works. Draw a twig shape.
Fill with brown. I used #6E560D
Now, take the burn tool, and add shading to make it look 3d
He's taking shape!
To make the stick look more 'realistic', we need shading on the snowman itself. Drop back to the body layer, and using the burn tool, shape the snow.
Highlight with the dodge tool
Now, to make the shadow, duplicate the twig layer, desaturate, and flip it vertically
Rotate and position your 'twig'
Set your layer to multiply, the opacity to around 40%, and gaussian blur it 1.5-2 pixels
Hold ctrl and click on the image for layer 4, the original stick. press delete to neaten any shadow that may be overlapping. Now, add a layer mask to the shadow layer so we can fade it out across the snowman's body.
Press D to get default black and white colours in your brush tools. Take the linear gradient, and starting at the base of the shadow, draw a line out to just past the edge of it.
This will create a mask that fades the shadow
Here I've put a mitten on the stick using the same process. I drew the shape, filled it, then added shading with the burn tool until it looked how I wanted it. In this case, I put it through the notepaper filter in the filter gallery, to add a soft, fluffy woolen effect. I made the shadow in the same way as the normal twig, and faded it with the layer mask.
So, using this process, build up the other parts of the snowman on separate layers. Put a hat on him, a scarf, another arm, coal on the stomach, whatever you like. I added a soft emboss to the mitten to bring it more 3d, and added a nose in a similar way to how I made the coal.
Now the snow! Make a new layer at the top. Hit D to make sure you have black as your brush colour. Fill the new layer with black. Then, go to filter > noise > add noise. Set the noise as below (appx 140%, gaussian, monochromatic)
Gaussian blur it around 5 Pixels. Then go to adjustment of brightness and contrast. Set contrast to 100 and mess with your brightness until you get something like this:
Then Filter > Blur > Motion blur. Set angle to appx -80, and distance between 15 and 20 pixels. Set the blending mode on the layer to lighten.
IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO ANIMATE, SKIP AHEAD TO THE FRAME. IF YOU DO WANT TO ANIMATE, FOLLOW THE FOLLOWING STEPS.
Duplicate the layer. Edit > Transform > Rotate 180. Then create another layer of snow as before, and duplicate and rotate again. You will now have 4 layers of snow. Alternate them so that the first layer you created is followed by the second, then by your first duplication, then by the second duplication. Now you have 4 layers. Now add the frame before you animate it.
The frame. Easy! On a new layer, use your polygonal selector again, and draw a zigzaggy line around the edge of the picture. CTRL, shift and I to invert it so it selects the edges, then fill with white.
Now, apply a gaussian blur to the frame. set it to around 7 or 8 pixels. Snowy!
If you want to animate, make sure you performed the additional steps, and then hit the 'edit in imageready' option now. Otherwise, save it as the size you want!
In Imageready, make sure you can see the layers palette, the animation bar, and the fullsize image. Resize the canvas to 100px. (Image > Image size)
Make sure only the first layer of snow is visible on the first frame. Then, duplicate the frame. Make the first layer of snow invisible, and the second visible.
Repeat for the remaining layers. If you made 4 layers, you will end up with 4 frames. Next, click the first frame. Hold shift and click the last frame. Right click where it says 0 sec under your image. Then select 0.2 sec from the menu. You can now preview your animation by pressing the play icon - It will animate in the main window.
Finally, optimize your image and save. The right hand side should be a toolbar with optimization options in. Click the dropdown menu and select one of the options. GIF 128 Dithered is the best quality, or you can create a custom option. If your main window is set to 2up, you can see the original beside the optimized version, with filesize and time to download at a certain speed. This is helpful for publishing online.
Finally, go File > Save optimised as and save it! Voila!
How to go from A BLANK CANVAS to this:
Take a plain canvas. 500x500px is good. Fill with a pale blue colour. I used #A7D2DA. Next, create a new layer. Use the polygonal selection tool, and make a jaggedy line at the top. Then extend the line down to encompass the rest of the bottom of the layer.
Fill with a slightly darker blue. I used #71B6D9.
Repeat two more times on a new layer for each colour, further down and with darker blues each time. I used #388DB9 and then #1A72A0. It's starting to look like a background now! Because each colour is on a separate layer, you can reposition them a little if needed. Fill any gaps on the top layer.
Now to soften the edges and make them look a little more mountainous. Select a default brush from the eraser. I used the soft 27px brush.
Now, starting with layer one, brush off the tops of the hills, softening them.
Repeat for the other layers.
Now you can merge down these layers into one background if you want. (Click on the topmost layer -3- and then hit ctrl and E until you have just the background remaining.
Now you can start creating the snowman. Create a new layer. Take the elliptical marquee tool, and draw yourself a large circle towards the bottom of the canvas.
Using the gradient fill and the radial gradient, select a very, very pale blue, and a slightly darker grey/blue. I used #DBF3FF and #7B9EAF. Fill the sphere with this gradient so that it starts to look rounded.
OPTIONAL STEP: Leaving it selected, use filter, distort and spherize, to round out the shadow more.
Repeat the process on a new layer, creating a smaller circle for the snowman's head. Because it's on a separate layer, you can move it about to get the positioning you like.
Now to make the shadow of the head. Duplicate the head layer and desaturate it. Drag it so it sits under the head layer.
Then, Ctrl and T to transform the layer. Squish it down, rotate it a bit, and drag it to the side. It's still not quite right, so we have to change it a little.
Set the blending mode to multiply, the opacity to about 50, and give it a slight Gaussian blur. Around 1.5 pixels is good.
To neaten up above the shoulder, hold control and click on the image representing layer 1. This should select the object in that layer but keep you on the layer you're working with. Press Ctrl, shift and I to invert the selection, then press delete, to take away the overlapping part of the shadow.
Gaussian blur both snow circles by about 0.7 pixels, to soften them up.
The eyes and mouth are very easy. New layer, using polygonal selection tool, draw out little coal shapes and fill them with black. It helps to zoom in for this part.
Cute! Do as many as you like, but keep them all on the same layer.
Then, to make them look 3d and pushed in, a little easy trick. Use the layer styles 'bevel and emboss'. Select a pillow emboss, set the depth to appx 200%, and the size to around 9. Make sure the light angle matches everything else you have done so far. My snowman has the light coming from the top left. Apply the style.
Mmmm, he's looking cute so far!
For the twig arm, use the polygonal tool again on a new layer. I can't use the pen tool to save my life, so this is the easiest way and it works. Draw a twig shape.
Fill with brown. I used #6E560D
Now, take the burn tool, and add shading to make it look 3d
He's taking shape!
To make the stick look more 'realistic', we need shading on the snowman itself. Drop back to the body layer, and using the burn tool, shape the snow.
Highlight with the dodge tool
Now, to make the shadow, duplicate the twig layer, desaturate, and flip it vertically
Rotate and position your 'twig'
Set your layer to multiply, the opacity to around 40%, and gaussian blur it 1.5-2 pixels
Hold ctrl and click on the image for layer 4, the original stick. press delete to neaten any shadow that may be overlapping. Now, add a layer mask to the shadow layer so we can fade it out across the snowman's body.
Press D to get default black and white colours in your brush tools. Take the linear gradient, and starting at the base of the shadow, draw a line out to just past the edge of it.
This will create a mask that fades the shadow
Here I've put a mitten on the stick using the same process. I drew the shape, filled it, then added shading with the burn tool until it looked how I wanted it. In this case, I put it through the notepaper filter in the filter gallery, to add a soft, fluffy woolen effect. I made the shadow in the same way as the normal twig, and faded it with the layer mask.
So, using this process, build up the other parts of the snowman on separate layers. Put a hat on him, a scarf, another arm, coal on the stomach, whatever you like. I added a soft emboss to the mitten to bring it more 3d, and added a nose in a similar way to how I made the coal.
Now the snow! Make a new layer at the top. Hit D to make sure you have black as your brush colour. Fill the new layer with black. Then, go to filter > noise > add noise. Set the noise as below (appx 140%, gaussian, monochromatic)
Gaussian blur it around 5 Pixels. Then go to adjustment of brightness and contrast. Set contrast to 100 and mess with your brightness until you get something like this:
Then Filter > Blur > Motion blur. Set angle to appx -80, and distance between 15 and 20 pixels. Set the blending mode on the layer to lighten.
IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO ANIMATE, SKIP AHEAD TO THE FRAME. IF YOU DO WANT TO ANIMATE, FOLLOW THE FOLLOWING STEPS.
Duplicate the layer. Edit > Transform > Rotate 180. Then create another layer of snow as before, and duplicate and rotate again. You will now have 4 layers of snow. Alternate them so that the first layer you created is followed by the second, then by your first duplication, then by the second duplication. Now you have 4 layers. Now add the frame before you animate it.
The frame. Easy! On a new layer, use your polygonal selector again, and draw a zigzaggy line around the edge of the picture. CTRL, shift and I to invert it so it selects the edges, then fill with white.
Now, apply a gaussian blur to the frame. set it to around 7 or 8 pixels. Snowy!
If you want to animate, make sure you performed the additional steps, and then hit the 'edit in imageready' option now. Otherwise, save it as the size you want!
In Imageready, make sure you can see the layers palette, the animation bar, and the fullsize image. Resize the canvas to 100px. (Image > Image size)
Make sure only the first layer of snow is visible on the first frame. Then, duplicate the frame. Make the first layer of snow invisible, and the second visible.
Repeat for the remaining layers. If you made 4 layers, you will end up with 4 frames. Next, click the first frame. Hold shift and click the last frame. Right click where it says 0 sec under your image. Then select 0.2 sec from the menu. You can now preview your animation by pressing the play icon - It will animate in the main window.
Finally, optimize your image and save. The right hand side should be a toolbar with optimization options in. Click the dropdown menu and select one of the options. GIF 128 Dithered is the best quality, or you can create a custom option. If your main window is set to 2up, you can see the original beside the optimized version, with filesize and time to download at a certain speed. This is helpful for publishing online.
Finally, go File > Save optimised as and save it! Voila!