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It’s been a while since I haven’t done any tutorial for Photoshop, but my Christmas spirit is telling me, I must do something to change that. Yes, I am totally deep in heap of snow and I am throwing one snowball to You too! Actually this is just my first attempt to create something like that, so don’t be harsh, but hey – maybe You can just smile and accompany me in this simple Christmas wallpaper tutorial?
We will learn how to use pen tool, use paths, smudge tool and yes – how to create 3D effect in Photoshop in joyful way!
This is what we are going to create this time, finished result:
Click on the wallpaper to view and download it full sized.
Step 1
Create a new document, I wanted this to use later as wallpaper, so I used 1920×1200 resolution, 72 dpi.
Activate radial gradient (G), use colors #3d51f7 and #1525a0 and fill background with it like in the picture below.
Step 2
Now let’s create some hills and falls.
Hit CTRL+SHIFT+N to create a new layer and press P to activate Your Pen tool. Do selection like picture below creating smooth lines and don’t forget to close whole selection.
Now bring up Your path panel – Window–>Path and press CTRL+CLICK on the work path to make selection.
Grab again gradient tool (G), but this time use linear gradient using colors – #a2acff and #4759e5.
Step 3
It’s time we add more snow feel to hills.
Go to Filter–>Add Noise and use settings like me. This action will give us snow effect.
This is important – with still Your hill selected, grab smudge tool and smudge our hill in the right direction, like on the picture below.
Pick Your own settings or choose mine, but be patient, this action takes much memory, so Your computer will sow down for a time while smudging.
Ok, I am checking with You – I got result like this :
Step 4
Now repeat step 3 multiple times using different colors to get more unique results, but I cheated and just duplicated this layer several times and I’ll go through those steps with You too:
I duplicated Layer 1 four times, You can do it with right click on the layer and clicking “Duplicate Layer” or just pressing CTRL+ALT+UP button.
Move every duplicate to create hills and falls – flip few layers horizontally, by pressing CTRL+T and right click on layer and “Flip Horizontal”.
Also if You got ugly corners press CTRL+T and right click –>Warp moving Your layer until it looks okay for You.
Looks already interesting? But let’s add more natural colors to add 3D look.
Step 5
Remember Your layer hills in the front must be lighter and hills at the back must be more in the shadow.
I won’t go in details with these steps, just use different colors in the inner glow, example of my back layer settings:
You should use a little different settings on each layer to get effect like me:
Step 6
Let’s add stars on our background now.
Organize Your hill layers, by selecting them all holding SHIFT and clicking on each of them and pressing CTRL+G then to group all hill layers.
Rename new group to “Hills”.
Now create new layer ( CTRL+SHIFT+N), right above the background, fill it with black ( choose black and ALT+DELETE to fill).
Go to Filter–>Add Noise and add settings like on picture below (amount 20-30):
Change Blending style to Color Dodge
To get lesser amount of white noise, go to Image–>Adjustments–>Brightness/Contrast:
Press CTRL+L or go Image–> Adjustments–> Levels, to get little more different effect, if You need:
And optionally grab soft brush, change opacity to 40-50% and erase something if You feel You have to much stars.
Step 7
Now create a new layer, grab soft white brush (17-20px) to create a snow or pick some cool Christmas brushes from my collection – 48 Snow, Ice, Snowflake and Christmas Brushes, but if You are interested I will guide You shortly through my final steps -
Change opacity and randomly put snow in the sky.
Now, I used Christmas Tree brushes, added outer glow, shadow on the bottom of the tree and got result like this:
Create new layer right above background,sky and hills;
Press CTRL+A to select all, choose elliptical marque tool and take selection like me:
Press ALT+DELETE to fill Your layer with foreground color ( You must have black color #000000), change opacity if it’s too dark.
I also added some more brushes, Christmas text and we’re finished! I didn’t go detailed on finish, so everybody of You can create unique wallpaper to share with friends, and again don’t forget about my brush collection – 48 Snow, Ice, Snowflake and Christmas Brushes.
Download Christmas Scene Wallpaper (1920x1200px)
Please share with Your results if You go through this tutorial and feel free to ask if You don’t understand something! Merry X-mas!
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Dainis Graveris is 23 years old blogger and designer, founder of 1stWebDesigner, now more silently managing everything behind the scenes. He usually hangs out in Twitter tweeting design related links and chatting with people. If you have any questions or feedback that's the best place to start! Cheers!
Friday, December 2nd, 2011 14:51
Really nice tutorial.
Which Font or Brush do you use for the “Merry Christmas” Slogan? Want to a a “we wish you” …
Thx
Matt
Wednesday, November 9th, 2011 11:02
Hi Dainis, very awesome work!
Can we use it to make a christmas postcard for our customers and friends?
We are a small gardering firm from Italy.
Wednesday, October 26th, 2011 22:53
Wow man, thanks very much. This is just what I needed. Great job!
Monday, September 12th, 2011 14:19
If you’re still on the fence: grab your favorite earphones, head down to a Best Buy and ask to plug them into a Zune then an iPod and see which one sounds better to you, and which interface makes you smile more. Then you’ll know which is right for you.
Monday, April 26th, 2010 00:47
hey there, love your tutorial :) could u tell me what was the font you used?
Thursday, March 11th, 2010 13:57
thank you so much ,i really gain a lot of new things from here. its very very easy way to learn……..
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 12:07
Great collection!. i cant stop myself to admire your creativity.
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Dee Langdon - BloggerNewbie
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 14:55
That is so cool. No creative talent here. Stumbled!
Dee Langdon – BloggerNewbies last blog post : 8 Writing Tips
Plukie
Friday, November 28th, 2008 17:44
I don’t know if you were doing the same as me, but I found it easier to draw the elipse, invert the selection and then fill. I think that’s what I did anyway. ;)
I just wanted to say, thank you very much for this tutorial, it was fantastic and opens up a whole new world for me on photoshop. Just one thing though, when I came to download your brushes, I wanted the snowflake ones, it said that they are not compatible with the version of Photoshop that I am using. I’m using CS3. Any ideas? Thanks once again.
Plukie
carolyn
Friday, November 28th, 2008 13:45
Hi,
I’m trying to do this tutorial and have got stuck right at the end! It’s going to be something obvious but anyway, here goes… I’m at step where I have to create a layer above the background, sky and hills layers. I select all and then when I try to remove the ellipse from the selection the dashed line of the selection doesn’t appear, it disappears as soon as I let go of the mouse button. Therefore when I fill with black it fills the entire image, not just the ellipse. Can anyone see where I am going wrong? Thanks.
Carolyn
MrzRagz
Saturday, November 29th, 2008 16:40
Thank you for the great tutorial. I made this last night and it came out beautiful.
Brandon
Monday, December 1st, 2008 20:38
Could you please fix the download .psd link? It just opens up this page in a new tab.
Thanks,
MALI
Thursday, December 4th, 2008 09:57
what a nice tutorial. Thank you!
Matthew Carpenter
Monday, December 1st, 2008 21:38
Where is the psd file for download? When you click it just goes back to the tutorial.
Thanks,
Matthew
Matthew Carpenters last blog post : Desktop Wallpaper Calendar for December