[How To] Ice Text

[WolfX2]

Open a new document with a black background. Make it large enough that you text will have ample space between it and the edges of the image on all sides. Set white as your foreground color and black as your background color by hitting D then X. Create a new layer by hitting Shift+Ctrl+Alt+N (Mac: Shift+Command+Option+N). Use the Text Tool to add your text in white. (In the example, I used 140 pt Eurostile Bold Oblique).

With the text layer still active, hold Ctrl (Command) and click the text layer in the Layers palette to make it a selection. Go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise. Click OK to the pop-up asking you if you want to rasterize. Choose 150% and Uniform. Hit Ctrl+D (Command+D) to deselect.

Go to Filter>Pixelate>Crystalize and choose Cell Size 3. Next, go to Filter>Stylize>Find Edges. Hit Ctrl+I (Command+I) to inverse the colors.

Go to Edit>Transform>Rotate 90 CW. Then, Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and choose 0.8 for the Radius. Go to Filter>Stylize>Wind and pick Wind and From the Right. If the icicles-to-be are getting close to the left side, move your text over to the right a bit. Run the same wind filter a second time and then go Edit>Fade Wind. Move the Opacity slider to suite your preference. With larger text, 100% might be ok, but with my example, I decreased the Opacity to 80%.

Flip your text back around by going Edit>Transform>Rotate 90 CCW. Create a new layer by hitting Shift+Ctrl+Alt+N (Shift+Command+Option+N). Select a light blue color you'd like to accent your ice with as you foreground color (I picked #1A9BFF). Fill the new layer with that color by hitting Alt+Backspace (Option+Delete). Hold Alt (Option) and click between the blue layer and the text layer in the Layers Palette. The cursor should turn to into a symbol with two circles when you have it in the right place. With the blue layer still selected, go to the left drop-down menu above and change its Blending Mode to Overlay. Then, decrease the Opacity slider to suite your taste. (I opted for 90% in the example).

Now for the moderately tricky part. Create another new layer by hitting Shift+Ctrl+Alt+N (Shift+Command+Option+N). Hold Ctrl (Command) and click the layer with your text to load it as a selection. Fill the layer selection with a dark blue (I used #000761). Hit Ctrl+D (Command+D) to deselect. Set white as your background color. Go to Filter>Artistic>Neon Glow. This part varies heavily with what the size and style of your text. Choose a middle blue color (I picked #002BD0). Move the Glow Size to roughly -8 and Glow Brightness to roughly 19.

Go to Filter>Plastic Wrap and change the settings to your preference (I used Highlight Strength 8, Detail 14, Smoothness 7). In the Layers Palette, change the Blending Mode to Pin Light. If you wish to make it more blue, you can do the same thing as in Step 5: make a new layer, fill it with a darker blue (I chose #001E91), hold Alt (Option) and click between the the layer and the one beneath it, change the Blending Mode to Overlay, and adjust the Opacity as you see fit. (I made it 18%).

To finish it off, set white as you foreground color and grab the Paint Brush tool. In the Brush selector at the top, find the sparkle brushes that look like the ones I used to the left. You may have to load the Assorted Brushes.abr file that has these brushes. It should be located in a folder similar to C:\Adobe\Photoshop 7\Presets\Brushes\. Create a new layer on top and apply the brushes to a few highlighted areas near the top of your text. Brr...that's it...I've got to put a coat on.

Mine lookes like this

[NIM]

Awesome tutorial Wolf! :worthy:

[ricktendo]