Preserved Topic: How to make a realistic snow and ice?

No, you did hear me correctly. I need to "fake" snow and ice. Specifically hard-crusted snow and small-to-medium sized icicles. Problem is, I haven't the faintest clue how to begin. Nothing I try turns out looking anything like real ice or snow. Does anybody have any suggestions, useful techniques, or (hoping against hope) even a tutorial on the subject ye could send my way. Thanks.

- Penguin King.

P.S. Nih!

Tell me if you like this snow and I can tell you how I did it. However if it's too fake for your needs. Sorry.

Do tell, F1, do tell.

One of the best sigs eva, IMHO.

well, for starters, play with filter->distort->wind
on a plain black line, see where that takes you for icicles....

Well the snow was the easiest part of this .sig. But it did use some creativity and some 'real world' paint knowledge.
The first thing I did was take a 4dia soft brush and using the brush tool, I make a soft contour, staying close to the edge of where the snow will lay, kinda wavy along the top, the sides I would go almost straight down, and make bigger 'waves' along the bottom. Now with a 2dia soft brush I redo the outline. I do this because the 4dia doesn't make it smooth enough IMHO. Now still working with the 2dia soft brush, I go along the bottom and make smooth 'drips' off some of the waves. Not too far down, because next I take a 1dia soft brush and finish the point of some of the 'drips'. Once I'm happy with the outline, that it's nice and smooth, with a few icicles hanging off the bottom, I fill the snow with a 4dia brush. You should now have a 'blank' shape that looks really flat. Make a new layer over the top of the snow, and call it highlights. This is tricky part number one. Pick a really light blue and a really light purple or lavender color (one for foreground one for background) Using a 2dia soft brush and the airbrush tool with the pressure set to somewhere between 5-10% slowly brush blue in areas the define 'bulges' in the snow. (I live in Northern Minnesota and I ca tell you snow isn't flat.) Use the light really light lavender under the blue. Don't fill the whole area with the blue / purple highlights. Maybe about 25-30% should be streaked, once you do this a few times, you get a 'feel' for the look. Next make a new layer and place it between the Snow and Highlights. Call this layer Shadow. Take a blue that is just a little darker than the one before, and do the same with the purple. Using the airbrush and the 2dia soft brush, add shadows along the bottom, and the 'dark side' of the bulges. Basically the same as you did with the Highlights. This time you'll be streaking between 10-20% of the snow. That's it. If it looks right you've done it. It'll take a few tries to make it look right, in all honesty think frosting more than snow, at least that helps me.
Now if you want to do a bigger area than what I have in my .sig, use many more variants of blue and purple on both the highlights and the shadows. Throw some blue grey into it. experiment. Also if working bigger, snow will have inconsistant texture. from pebbly, to canvas, to grain. Another thing to keep in mind is that snow is reflective, but from inch to inch a snow bank or drift will reflect differently. If you look at the 'E' in my .sig you will see that the red light is reflected in the snow when it's ON. However the pink light on the 'R' does not reflect. This helps add to the illusion that it is 'real'. Snow will also cast shadows on itself, so if your tring for a truly 3D look, you are really going to have to work at it. Get lots of Ski, Snowmobile, and Winter Travel magazines. This will let you see snow in a variety of areas.

I never explained what I was thinking of when I made this .sig but I was trying for a 'Poor White Trailer Trash' look to the .sig. You know the kind, lawn cluttered with reigndeer, plasitc santas waving and blinking, at least threre Nativity sets. About a gazzilion lights strewn all over the house. So when I was making this, I had to think, I want this to be some what readable, but cluttered. I started by making a very 'plastic' looking candy cane letters. A nice reapeating pattern like wraping paper. When it came to the lights, I decided to make the 'fat' cheap looking painted glass bulbs instead of the thin twinkling lights. With a definite very green cord. It further the cheapness of this, I made and 'over-the-top' glow with each light. And then gave it that annoying blink. (I wanted them to be chasing, but the file would have been huge) When it came to the snow, the first time I made it, it was too good. It looked to real, so I ripped it out and re-did it. Thinking more about plastic frosting than snow. That time, it worked. I think I achived what I set out to do. But the main point I never made, when asked about this, is that planning is everything. And take your time when putting any image together. I've no real idea how long this .sig took me. I worked on it in my spare time for about a month. So maybe 20-30 hours. But there was a lot of stop and start, and I had to figure out where I was when I had last worked. So don't be afraid to spend time. If it's not working take a break, and come back later. You'll be amazed at what you see.

Questions?

I'll be back in a couple days F1, and I'll be trying it. Thanks.

yea, alotta people give it a ten minute try, then et discouraged and stop

OK, I remembered that I took a stab at this a while back. Even thogh it's a little primative, it still gets the effect across. (Now lemme see if I remember how to post and image.)

If not, try [http://members.home.net/shard2000/shard-ice]
I learned this tech here... [http://www.iserv.net/~rtideas/photoshop_t2/Big_Freeze.html]

Alrighty... so I remembered how to post images but forgot how to post URLs... hehe!

Shard... ooh, that one is nice. Thanks for the link, I'll have to try that out.

(Sorry, F1_error, but that's not quite the effect I'm looking for. Thanks anyway, though; I've found that one of the guiding rules of graphic design is if you see any technique and don't bother to learn how it's done, you'll end up needing it within the next 48 hours. Suffice it to say, I'm certain that will come in handy at some point.)

- Penguin King.

P.S. Nih!

[This message has been edited by PenguinKing (edited 01-31-2001).]

if you remember my snowy sig all i did was paint some white with a slightly soft air brush then take a smaller slightly softer air brush in multiply mode and painted the shading in kinda sporadically...i did use a wacom though...



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