Create Realistic Frozen Text Effect in Photoshop

In this tutorial, I will show the process I used to create this realistic frozen text effect in Photoshop. We will be using a number of ice textures and custom brush to achieve this effect. We will also be using adjustment layers and filters to perform the touch-ups.

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This is an beginner to immediate level tutorial and some steps can be a little tricky, have a try!

Here is a preview of the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

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To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Ice Texture 1

Ice Texture 2

Crack Brush

Note: If you have difficulty with Step 3 and 4 of this tutorial, please watch this video tutorial below:

Step 1

Let’s start by creating a new document sized 1400px * 900px with a dark blue background as shown below:

Load the “ice texture 1” image into Photoshop and select the entire image, copy and paste it over to our document, resize the new layer to fit the size of our document:

Change the blending mode of this layer to “Soft Light”:

Add the following Curves adjustment layer to the ice texture layer:

Add a highlight to the centre of the canvas with a big, soft white brush on a new layer (with “soft light” blending mode), and you will have the following effect so far:

Step 2

Use any font you like, type a few letters to on top of our document: (I used the “Trojan Pro” font which comes with Photoshop)

Apply the following layer blending options to this text layer:

Bevel and Emboss

Inner Glow

Satin

Pattern Overlay

Drop Shadow

Add a layer mask to this text layer, and use the crack brush you downloaded as an eraser, remove some parts of the text on the layer mask:

and this is the effect you will have after applying the cracked eraser:

Step 3

Load the “Ice texture 2” image into Photoshop and select a piece of ice texture as shown below:

Copy and paste the selection to our document and cover the text:

Right-click on this new ice texture layer and choose “create clipping mask” and set it as the clipping mask for the text layer below, and here is the effect:

Step 4

We will add some frost over the text.  Select a chalk brush from the brush panel:

Careful go over the edges of the text and paint with this brush, adjust its size accordingly:

We can also add some extra ice texture down the bottom of the canvas. Let’s select the tip of the ice with the quick selection tool as shown below:

Copy and paste the selection and place it down the bottom of the canvas:

Optionally, you can add some falling snow particles with a particle brush to add some extra effect:

Step 5

We’re almost done! For final touches, I flattened the image and duplicated the background layer, and apply the following Accented Edges filter to the duplicated layer:

Apply the following layer mask to this duplicated layer: (Highlighted areas)

and this is the final effect I have: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy going through it and find it useful. Drop me a comment below if you have any question.

Till next time, have a great day!