A_P_I133_2015_

CREATE ICE EFFECT TYPE TECHNIQUES

LEARN HOW TO GIVE YOUR TEXT

APHOTOREALISTICICEEFFECT

CREATE ICE

EFFECT TYPE

R

obert Frost once said the world will end in

either fire or ice; consumed by passion or

frozen by rationalism. I have a slightly

different variation on this; creating fire and

ice effects in Photoshop can sometimesfeellike the

end of the world.

Fire and ice are notoriously difficult to replicate

convincingly in Photoshop – the graveyard of

half-hearted attempts in the images section on

the internet is a testament to this. Perhaps it’s the

fact that they are both forces of nature and

therefore their unpredictability is difficult to

capture. Or perhaps it’s the fact that both

elements are non-consistently translucent,

PLATE TECTONICS

CREATE A BACKGROUND FOR YOUR TYPE

revealing and concealing at their own discretion

under a billowing diaphanous cloud of smoke and

condensation – an effect that is extremely hard to

replicate manually. Too much passion and the

effect is overwhelmingly unrealistic, too much

rationalism and the image ends up looking stiff

and unconvincing.

Always up for a challenge, I am going to up the

ante by combining both of these dastardly difficult

effects in one image. Using Photoshop’s powerful

adjustments layers and equal measures of passion

and rationalism, I am going to prove that creating

these effects convincingly doesn’t have to feel like

the end of the world.

01

FILL THE CANVAS

Fill the canvas in black using the Paint

Bucket (G). Drag a cracked earth texture into

the canvas. Extend the texture by drawing a

boundary using the Polygonal Lasso tool (L) in

the areas you need to fill. Select Content-Aware

under the Fill command, Edit>Fill, and

Photoshop will use the current image to fill in

the blank areas.

02

SELECT COLOR RANGE

To make the cracks in the earth glow red

with magma, select go to Select>Color Range and

use the Eyedropper tool to select the cracks. Copy

and paste the cracks onto a new layer and

double-click on the Layer in the Layers Panel. Select

Color Overlay and give it a searing hot red colour.

03

MAKE ADJUSTMENTS

Select the cracked earth texture and the

new magma layers in the Layers panel, right-click

on them and select Merge Layers. Play with the

Levels, go to Image>Adjustments>Levels, and

opacity so that it appears convincing. Use the

Eraser (E) on a Soft Round brush setting to lightly

delete the edges of the magma layer so that it

fades into the darkness.

COMBINE ICE AND

FIRE EFFECTS

WORK IN

PROGRESS

Progress 1: Set the scene

Progress 2: Create an ice effect

Progress 3: Add steam

and condensation

ANDY HAU

http://www.andyhau.com

@andykwhau

OUR EXPERT

Andy Hau is a London-based

architect, designer and the owner of

A.H.A Design. For him, design is an

escape from the futility of modern

life, not an endorsement of it.