Creating Snow Effect PNG in Photoshop

[Lin Evans]

The first of several Flash AV Tutorials on making and using the Snow Effect is up now. You need Flash 8 to run this - I suggest using the freeware Irfanview. This one deals with creating the PNG file. The following ones will deal with variously how to get different effects from the same PNG file and how to use PNG masking to see snow through windows, etc.

About 22 meg - link below to zipped SWF file.

http://www.lin-evans.net/pte/snoweffectflash.zip

Lin

[RayC]

Lin,

Thanks a lot for this really looking foreward to haveing a go at it now.

Hope the weather is picking up for you now.

Thanks again for the wonderful work you are doing for us its much appreciated.

Ray

[Hawk]

Hi Lin

Your snow Effect using Photoshop Elements 3

After many attempts following your .PDF tutorial the other day I gave up, as when I got to the section – “ Select Color Range “ Elements 3 does not have this function.

We downloaded your “ Flash “ tutorial and after viewing it, got my wheels turning again and thought we would give it another try. In the past I have somewhat found a work around for Elements following your Adobe Photoshop explanation.

Any user using Elements having the same problem may want to try the following.

( or set me straight if I have missed something )

Follow Lins explanation to the point of choosing “ Filter “ and choose “ Texture – “ Grain “ - " Sprinkles "

Using “ Levels “ – darken

Pick the “ Magic Wand “ and click inside the “ Black “ section.

Now hit “ Delete Key “

Once deleted, save what you see on screen as a .PNG

Once again Lin thank you very much for another nice tutorial and putting me on the right path, using Elements.

Results -

I think we are ready for lesson two !

[Ken Cox]

I have suggested to the Hawk we should use the snow job to hide shimmer and jaggies

ken

[Lin Evans]

Hi Lin

Your snow Effect using Photoshop Elements 3

After many attempts following your .PDF tutorial the other day I gave up, as when I got to the section – " Select Color Range " Elements 3 does not have this function.

We downloaded your " Flash " tutorial and after viewing it, got my wheels turning again and thought we would give it another try. In the past I have somewhat found a work around for Elements following your Adobe Photoshop explanation.

Any user using Elements having the same problem may want to try the following.

( or set me straight if I have missed something )

Follow Lins explanation to the point of choosing " Filter " and choose " Texture – " Grain " - " Sprinkles "

Using " Levels " – darken

Pick the " Magic Wand " and click inside the " Black " section.

Now hit " Delete Key "

Once deleted, save what you see on screen as a .PNG

Once again Lin thank you very much for another nice tutorial and putting me on the right path, using Elements.

Results -

I think we are ready for lesson two !

Yes, very nice effect by using a quite similar approach with Elements. There are a number of ways to actually create the PNG file including the sponge, noise, etc., Also sometimes it works very well to use a solid color such as dark blue or red before adding noise or the sponge or sprinkles, etc., The reverse the process and select the red or blue and erase. This will usually take several iterations to get rid of all color except white. You will usually have a number of black grain which you can select then paint over with white leaving areas formerly black now in white.

My second AVI tutorial will be ready tomorrow and will cover doing the above.

One thing you could do, and I will cover this in a future tutorial, is to create a PNG mask for the snow on the ground. The purpose of the mask is to soften the effect of the snow falling on the large white area. As you can see in your example, the snow falling on the rather intense white of the snow packed ground area draws a bit too much attention. You make the PNG mask by creating a transparency just as you did for the snow. Make it the same dimensions as your picture then paste the picture over the tranparency. Use the eraser to carefully erase all areas where you want the snow to be visible using 100% opacity. In the areas of the large snow pack on the ground, set the brush size large enough to cover the entire image and the eraser opacity to about 15% and click once on the entire image. This will make the area of the snow pack on the ground semi-opaque.

Then in PTE, place the original image on the bottom layer, the snow in the center and the mask on the top. The areas which are totally transparent will reveal both layers (image and snow) and the semi-opaque area will soften the snow effect on the ground region because it will only allow semi-transparency so the snow falling it that region will be greatly ameliorated.

The same PNG mask is used to obtain the effect of seeing snow falling outside from inside through a glass window. Make the glass area totally transparent but everything else opaque such as window sills or dividing wood areas. The snow will show then only in the transparent areas, the scene through the window will come from the base image and the rest will be seen from the top PNG mask image.

Best regards,

Lin

[denis]

Hi Lin,

I am very new to using the Beta 5 version of PTE and have been very interested in your excellent articles on 'snow' and have created a PNG file without any difficulty. I have also downloaded Infanview Flash player. I am however still at a loss on how you create the snow falling animation effect as in your 'Stormcoming' AV . When you can find the time it would be very much appreciated if you could explain how this is achieved in PTE presentations. I am no doubt missing something somewhere but a tip in the right direction would be helpful. Best regards DAB

[Lin Evans]

Hi Lin,

I am very new to using the Beta 5 version of PTE and have been very interested in your excellent articles on 'snow' and have created a PNG file without any difficulty. I have also downloaded Infanview Flash player. I am however still at a loss on how you create the snow falling animation effect as in your 'Stormcoming' AV . When you can find the time it would be very much appreciated if you could explain how this is achieved in PTE presentations. I am no doubt missing something somewhere but a tip in the right direction would be helpful. Best regards DAB

HI DAB,

Once you have the PNG file created - or several different PNG files, depending on the appearance of the snow you are looking for, you place the first at the begining of your slideshow in the Objects and Animations screen on its own layer above the slide you wish the effect to be seen on. Position the rectangle representing the snow PNG so that the bottom of the PNG rectangle just goes beyond the bottom of the image in the backgound (your slide image). Be sure you expand the size of the snow PNG with the zoom or pull the green handles so that it completely covers the area of the image it appears over. Select the snow PNG and place a keypoint at the end of the timeline then pull the rectangle representing the Snow PNG down. The further you pull the rectangle down, the faster the snow will appear to fall because you are moving the "snow" a greater distance in the same time frame referenced between the begining and ending keypoint. The larger (zoom) you make the Snow PNG rectangle, the larger and softer appearing the snow flakes.

Now to get a realistic effect, add the same (or a different) snow PNG again on its own layer just as you did the first one, but this time position it at an angle of perhaps 15 degrees or so. Create another keypoint at the end of the time line for this second PNG and drag down the rectangle at the 15 degree angle rather than straight down. Perhaps make the size of the second and first PNG rectangles different with the zoom, and make the second one travel a different distance than the first. You may yet place another copy of the PNG at yet another angle and make it's descent yet a different speed. By varying the angle, speed and intensity of the snow PNG's with the Opacity feature, You can achieve different effects which mirror what you might see in a real snow scenario. To get a blowing snow effect in sync with perhaps a wind sound as I did in the Storm Coming example, use a very fine snow PNG and move it horizontally across all or part of the image and to make it disappear as you would expect in a real scenario when the wind dies, move it all the way off the image. To make a horizontal snow PNG you will want to "feather" the edges of the PNG file. You do this when you are creating the PNG by using less opacity on the eraser tool on the edges than in the center.

I will try to show the differences in another Flash Tutorial, but probably will have to place and executable along with the Flash show to demonstrate the motion effects themselves. I'm still working out a way to demonstrate this effectively without too many complications.

Best regards,

Lin