Step 1: Introduction
In this tutorial I'll teach you a really basic and simple approach on how to add snow to any object(s). Bellow you can see what I started with and after performing the steps that I'll explain shortly, what I managed to create.
This is my final result:
Step 2: Creating the snow
So, off we go! Creating the snow is really, really easy. All you need is a feathered brush and a brush with lots of small dots. I used the feathered brushes from Basic Brushes and the 5th 39px brush from Wet Media Brushes. Bellow is a diagram of what we'll be doing. From left to right each new thing we draw will be on a new layer on top of the previous layer. This means that the first shape on the left will be the farthest to the bottom layer and the last shape to the right will be the first layer at the top.
The first blue(#2fa0ff) shape is drawn with a blue 35px Feathered Brush and then using the Eraser Tool (E) with the dotted brush, I erased a little bit on the sides. Next I duplicated the layer and made the shape white and a little bit smaller using Free Transform (Ctrl+T, or under Edit) so that the blue shape behind it looks like a glow. Just as before I erased a little bit off the white shape with the same Eraser Tool (E). Next using the Brush Tool (B) and the dotted brush, I placed some white dots around the sides of the white glow. Next I duplicated the layer and using the Smudge Tool (R) I smudged horizontally. Next using the dotted brush and the color blue(#2fa0ff) I placed some blue dots on top of everything and then used the Smudge Tool (R) on it again. At the very end, I merged all the layers together and sharpened my new shape to give it a crisper look.
Step 3: Adding the snow to your shapes
Next we'll work on adding the snow to your shape. In this case, I chose a simple sphere in order to explain the basic concept. The rest of this step will explain the following diagram:
First we'll add a little bit of glow to our object. I found that adding a little bit of glow behind the actual snow makes the whole transition smoother and more appealing to the eye. All you have to do is just add a nice smooth light blue(#2fa0ff) glow where the snow will be placed. Next we'll take the shape we previously designed and duplicate it. One of the shapes will go on top of the sphere and the other under, and behind it. Because my object is a smaller sphere I had to take one of the shapes and make it smaller using the transform tool and then, right before applying the scale effect, I moved the top two corners of the transform box (dragging with the mouse while holding CTRL down) closer to each other so the transform box changed into the bottom half of a triangle. This made the snow shape look more like it actually fits on top of the circle. Next, for a little extra, I added a broken glass texture on top and switched the layer's mode to Overlay. As my last step, I merged all the layers again and sharpened the image for that extra crisp look. Usually, I perform this sharpening step at the very end, when the image is completely done.
And that's it! By performing these last two steps several times, you can dress up a whole image in a snowy winter scene. My final image took roughly 15 minutes to complete, however if you'd like to invest more time, you can come up with some REALLY cool results.
In the next step I will simply do a short overview on how I obtained the extra details in my final image.
Step 4: Last few details
The snow coming down that you see in the image was created using the dotted brush and then adding an "Outer Glow" to the layer. The clouds and moon in the sky were simply added with a brush set. The two brush sets I used are called:
- JavierZhX Cloud Brushes for Photoshop
- Moon Brushes by Hawksmont Universe
You can easily find both by doing a search on Google.
Everything else is done just by performing the steps mentioned earlier. My final result is definitely not a very high quality one due to the short time spent on it and that's why I strongly feel that anyone else who has more time available to invest in this effect can get some really cool results.
There are also many cool places where you can use this tutorial such as: updating your website so it looks like its part of the season, updating your picture on your favorite instant messenger or social networking website or simply just to create a beautiful picture.
Hope you enjoyed!
I hope you guys enjoyed this short tutorial and if you have any questions just drop a comment and I'll be happy to help you out. Thank you for visiting our website and reading our tutorial and we hope you'll visit us again in the future! If you enjoyed our tutorial please drop us a comment and let us know! It really makes a difference!
