The candy cane of the Photoshop Gourmet series

Remember when a child read a fairy tale, the specific content almost all forgotten, vaguely only remember the siblings walked to the forest, met a witch's cabin, all cake and candy made, mouth-watering unceasingly! Today, we are going to make some delicious candy cane, but not with the witch's wand, but with our Photoshop.

1. Create a new document in Photoshop with a size of 600x300 pixels, a resolution of 72 pixels per inch, and a white background. Select the appropriate font and use black to write text on the background. Think of the candy cane look, you are not difficult to choose the font used: Corner sleek, coarse font, there is no very complicated shape. Here, I use the font is VAG rounded BT, size between 280 to 320pt. I put each letter in a separate layer to make it easier to adjust the deformation. If necessary, the text layer grid, distorted and perspective deformation processing. When you are satisfied, flatten the text layer and the background layer. (Figure 01)

Figure 01

2. Go to the channel panel, because now our image has no color information, so the red, green, blue channel should be exactly the same. Copy a channel at will, rename the copy channel to orig, and reverse-phase the channel. (Figure 02)

Figure 02

3. Return the RGB channel, reset the color board, fill the background layer with white. Create a new layer on the background, named Candy Cane, filled with white. Sets the foreground color to RGB (204,0,0), select Image > Rotate canvas, rotate document Clockwise 90 degrees, select sketch filter > Halftone pattern, size set to 9, contrast is maximum, pattern type selects straight line, then rotate Canvas command, rotate document counterclockwise 90 degrees, return to normal. Select the shear command in the warp filter, and in the Shear dialog box, set the line to the shape shown in Figure 03a to retrace the undefined area. (Figure 03b)

Figure 03a

Figure 03b

4. A constituency loaded into the channel orig, use the shrink command to shrink the selection by 2 pixels, and then blur the selection range with the feather command, with a radius of 6 pixels, and then the foreground color to a darker red, such as RGB (102,0,0), and two consecutive times to fill the selection with the foreground color and deselect. (Figure 04a,04b)

Figure 04a

Figure 04b

Here the red, is the color of candy cane, you can also be replaced by other their own color of love.

5. Create a new layer on top of the candy cane layer, named Highlights 1, and fill the layer with white. Loads the channel orig selection, shrinks the selection by 4 pixels, resets the Swatch, and then cancels the selection with a black fill selection. Execute the Gaussian blur command with a radius of 8 pixels; load any one of the RGB channels, reverse-phase selection, apply the displacement command, the horizontal and vertical values are set to-8, undefined area for retrace (note: This displacement command cannot be replaced by moving), deselect (Figure 05a). Using a Gaussian blur filter for a little blur, the radius of 2.0 pixels, with the style > Relief command to form a stereo effect, set the angle of 135, height of 4 pixels, the number of 150%, the use of further fuzzy command, the screen blurred, then use the curve command to adjust the screen, the curve set as shown in Figure 05b, The image is shown in Fig. 05C, the selection that is loaded into the channel orig, a slight narrowing of the selection, a contraction of 1 pixels, a feather selection, a radius of 2 pixels, and a deselect after the selection is removed. Then set the layer blending mode to screen, reduce layer opacity to 60%, finish the first high light effect, this layer of high light effect is to add stereo effect to the image. (Figure 05d,05e)

Figure 05a

Figure 05b

Figure 05c

Figure 05d

6. Merge the layer highlights 1 downward, load into the channel orig selection, feather the selection, radius of 8 pixels, after the inverse of the color adjustment, the gray scale value to 0.51, deselect. (Figure 06)

Figure 06

7. Copy channel orig, rename the copy channel to highlights, perform filters > Other > Displacement commands, set horizontal and vertical values to 2 pixels, and no region to retrace. Load the Channel orig selection, fill black after the selection, deselect, and then apply the displacement filter once, the horizontal and vertical values are-6 pixels, the area is not defined to retrace, load the channel orig selection, fill the selection as black, and then deselect; We then use the displacement filter to move the white pixel down and to the right 8 pixels, undefined area to retrace; load the channel orig selection, shrink 2 pixels, fill black after the inverse selection, and deselect. The white area in the channel highlights is fully included in the range of the channel orig white area. We need to further reduce the white area in the channel, mainly the corner part. First, the Gaussian blur processing channel with a radius of 2.0 pixels is used to adjust the input color order to 100,1.00,150. (Figure 07)

Figure 07

8. Set the current channel as a selection, return to the RGB channel, in the Layers panel, create a new layer on top of the candy cane layer highlights, and deselect after filling the selection with white. Reduce the layer opacity to 45%, and merge the layers down. In this way, the three-dimensional effect of candy cane has been further strengthened. (Figure 08a,08b)

Figure 08a

Figure 08b

9. Load the Channel orig selection, delete after the election, cancel the selection. Double-click the layer to enter the layer style: Select transparent style, set shadow color to RGB (102,0,0), opacity is 100%, angle is 135 degrees, use global light, distance of 9 pixels, expand to 0, size of 16 pixels, the rest according to the default settings; Select the outer glow style, set the blending mode to normal, Opacity is 50%, noise is 0, the glow color is RGB (153,0,0), the method is softer, expands to 0, the size is 5 pixels, the range is 100%. (Figure 09a,09b)

Figure 09a

Figure 09b

10. Now, we want to further process the drop shadow of the candy, but with the layer style, we need to separate the layer style so that it no longer attaches to the layer. Right click on the layer effect, in the pop-up menu select Create Layer command, at this time, you will see in the layers panel in addition to Candy cane layer and background layer, there are more than two layers, respectively named "Candy Cane" and "Candy Cane" projection. Select the "Candy Cane" projection layer, choose artistic effects > Plastic Packaging from the filter menu, set a high light intensity of 20, details 15, smoothness of 15, then use the fade command, opacity to 100%, the pattern is superimposed. Select the candy cane layer, link the candy Cane's projection layer and its outer emitting layer to the candy cane layer, and then flatten the linked layer. (Figure 10a,10b)

Figure 10a

Figure 10b

Now that the candy cane part has been finished, you can stop to have a rest. If you want to add some nice decorative effects to it, go ahead.

11. In the channel panel, copy the channel orig, name the copy channel as snow, use the displacement filter, set the horizontal displacement to 0, the vertical displacement to 8 pixels, the undefined area to retrace, load the channel orig selection, and deselect after the black fill. Using a Gaussian fuzzy fuzzy channel with a radius of 6.0 pixels, and then adjusting the color order, the input level is set to 58,1.00,76 to enlarge the white region in the channel. (Figure 11)

Figure 11

12. Back to the RGB channel, in the layers of the top layer of the panel, named Snow, set the foreground color to RGB (0,0,51), with this dark blue fill layer; The selection to load the channel snow, and then deselect the selection after filling the selection with white. Execution radius of 3.0 Gaussian blur, and then slightly add a bit of noise effect, the number is about 1.2%, select the Gaussian distribution and monochrome; load the channel snow selection again, and then delete it. (Figure 12a,12b)

Figure 12a

Figure 12b

13. The following adds a layer style to decorate the candy cane. Select the projection style first, set the shadow angle to 135 degrees, using global light, the distance is 3 pixels, the extension is 0, the size is 3 pixels, the rest is by default; The snow projection layer is separated by the method of creating layers, which is renamed as the projection 1 of "snow", the snow layer is selected, and then the projection style is made. This time, the distance is 9 pixels, and the expansion is 0, the size is 16 pixels, the layer is created again, the projection of "snow" is separated, the projection 2 is named "Snow", the selection is loaded into the channel orig, the selection is removed after the excess shadow is deleted, and the opacity of the current layer is reduced to 50%; Select Snow Projection 1, reduce layer opacity to 55%, and finally, combine all layers except the background layer to flatten the linked layer. (Figure 13)

Figure 13