Frostfall Tutorial

This tutorial was written by Amber Howard on November 29, 2014. Any resemblances to other tutorials are completely coincidental. Scripting and translating of this tutorial is forbidden. Do not copy and paste this tutorial anywhere else on the internet. Please link back to the main blog instead.

In this tutorial I used the artwork of Danny Lee.

You can purchase Danny’s artwork and a license through Scraps And Company.

Please do not use this or any other artwork without purchasing a proper license first.

Supplies needed:
PaintShopPro — I used X7 but any version will work.
Animation Shop
Tube and/or close up of choice
Font of choice — I used Allura Pro Regular
Scrap kit of choice — I used Cora’s new Frozen scrap kit, available at Pimp’d Designz.
Snow animation of choice.

Plugins needed:
Eye Candy 6 — Perspective Shadow
Eye Candy 4 — Gradient Glow
Lokas Artistic Effects — Ice
Xero — Porcelain
Xero — Mistifier

Ready? Set? Go!

Open a 400x400 canvas and flood fill white.

Open a rectangular frame of choice and resize to 350 pixels wide.

I used PD14-frame-01 from the Frozen kit, and did not resize.

Image – Rotate  – Rotate the frame 90 degrees to the left, all layers unchecked.

If the frame is already on its longest side, then you do not have to rotate the frame.

Open a paper of choice. I used PD14-pp-03.

Image – Resize by 50%, all layers checked.

Image – Resize by 80%, all layers checked.

Copy and paste the paper in a new layer beneath the frame.

Arrange the paper with the portion you want to keep inside of the frame.

Make the frame layer active once again.

Take the magic wand tool with the settings Mode: Add, Match: Color, Tolerance: 30%.

Click inside of the frame.

With the Frozen frame, make sure you select the small strip of shadow on the left side too.

Selections – Modify – Expand by 6 pixels.

Make the paper layer active once again.

Selections – Invert.

Hit delete on the keyboard once.

Selections – Select None.

Open up a tube of choice.

Copy and paste the tube as a new layer above the paper layer and resize as needed.

I did not resize my tube.

Arrange the tube on the left hand side of the frame.

Duplicate the tube layer and arrange the duplicate below the original tube.

Image – Mirror.

Change the settings of this tube layer to Burn or one that suits your kit.

Make the paper layer active again.

Selections – Select All – Float – Defloat.

Make the duplicate tube layer active.

Hit delete on your keyboard once.

Make the original tube layer active.

Hit delete on your keyboard once.

Selections – Select None.

Make the duplicate tube layer active and merge down into the paper layer.

Duplicate your original tube again.

On the original add a drop shadow of choice.

I used V&H: 2, Opacity: 50%, Blur: 15.00.

On the duplicate apply Xero – Porcelain with the default settings and the blue channel set to 0.

Apply Xero – Mistifier with default settings.

Change the settings of this layer to Soft Light.

Open up some elements of choice.

I used PD14-branch-berries, PD14-flower-04, PD14-leaf, PD14-ribbon-05, PD14-snowflake-06, and PD14-snowflake cluster.

Starting with the PD14-leaf element.

Image – Resize by 30%, all layers unchecked.

Image – Free Rotate – Rotate by 90 degrees to the right, all layers unchecked.

Make the frame layer active again.

Copy and paste the leaf as a new layer above the frame.

Arrange to the bottom right of the tag.

Add a drop shadow of choice.

I used V&H: 2, Opacity: 20%, Blur: 5.00.

Next, resize the PD14-flower-04 by 30%.

Copy and paste the flower as a new layer above the leaf layer.

Arrange towards the left and bottom edge of the leaves.

Add the same drop shadow that was added to the leaves.

Next, resize the PD14-snowflake-06 by 30%.

Copy and paste the snowflake as a new layer between the flower and leaf layers.

Arrange so that the edges of the snowflake are visible between the petals of the flower.

Add the same drop shadow that was added to the other two element layers.

Next, resize the PD14-ribbon-05 by 30%.

Resize again by 90%.

Copy and paste the ribbon layer below the snowflake layer.

Arrange at the top of your frame layer.

Add the same drop shadow that was added to the other element layers.

Next, resize the PD14-snowflake cluster by 30%.

Copy and paste the cluster layer above the ribbon layer but below the snowflake layer.

Arrange at the left edge of the frame.

Add the same drop shadow that was added to the other element layers.

Finally, resize the PD14-branch-berries by 30%.

Copy and paste the branch layer above the cluster layer and arrange over the top.

Add the same drop shadow that was added to the other element layers.

Hide the paper and the white background layers.

Merge visible.

Rename this new layer toppings.

Choose a pixel font of choice and add your credits and tagger’s mark.

Convert to raster layer.

Apply an optional gradient glow of choice.

Choose another font to add your name in a color that compliments your tag.

I used #90ccde in both the foreground and background. Stroke set to 2.00.

Once you are happy with your name layer, convert to raster.

Adjust – Add/Remove Noise – Add Noise with the settings Gaussian, 100%, Monochrome checked.

Apply Lokas Artistic Effects – Ice with the following settings:

Apply a drop shadow of choice.

I used Eye Candy 6 – Perspective Shadow with the Height 0 preset and the following additional settings:

If you are not animating, then delete the white background layer.

Crop the excess canvas.

Save as .png and you’re done!

If you are animating, then open your snow animation of choice in Animation Shop and check to see how many frames it has.

The one I am using has 10 frames.

Back in Paintshop, make the white background layer active.

Crop away the excess canvas.

Hide the toppings, name, and credits/tagger’s mark layers.

Edit – Copy Special – Copy Merged.

Over in Animation Shop, paste the background as a new animation.

Duplicate this layer so that it has the same number of frames that your animation has.

Switch to your animation.

Edit – Select All – Edit – Copy.

Switch back to the background layer and then go to

Edit – Select All – Edit – Paste – Paste Into Current Frame.

Arrange your animation to cover the paper/tube portion of your background and then click once to place.

Back in Paintshop, hide the white background and paper layers.

Make the toppings, name and credits/tagger’s mark layers visible again.

Edit – Copy Special – Copy Merged.

Switch back to Animation shop.

Make sure that Propagate Paste is selected in your drop down menu so that it copies to all frames.

Edit – Select All – Edit – Paste – Paste Into Current Frame.

Arrange to cover the snowflakes layer like it’s supposed to and then click once to place.

Run your animation to make sure it’s smooth and doesn’t have any of the animation showing outside of your frame.

Save as .gif and you’re done!

Thank you so much for trying my tutorial! I would love to see your results!