FINAL COMPLETE WITH TUTORIAL

...week #5 project is finally done.  Before creating my final design I found some high res ice cream scoops and paper texture art to use within the project.  The first techniques I used were to create the translucent text in the scoop of strawberry ice cream.  The first thing you do to create this technique is type whatever text you want to use in Illustrator, taking care to select a fairly bold typeface style.  Once you type the text, select it and go to Type>Create Outline.  Then select grayscale on the color swatch palate and choose 50% grayscale.  Choose Effect>Warp>then whichever effect you like best to 'warp' the text to the desired shape or style.  Choose Object>Expand Appearance.  To give the text more dimension choose Effect>3D>Extrude and Bevel and from this menu choose several options such as Classic Bevel, Plastic Shading, Preserve Spot Colors, set the Ambient Light at approximately 17% and rotate the Custom Rotation as desired.  You may have to play around with these features and the highlights in this effects area to get the look and feel you need before the next few steps.

Once you've set the text as you like, copy and paste it into a new document in photoshop.  In this case I wanted to use the text as a transparent 'icy' layer on top of the strawberry ice cream scoop, so I first created at least 3 layers of my ice cream scoop to work with.  Next, I selected the text layer and chose the Filter menu>Artistic>Plastic Wrap style, then from the Plastic Wrap menu I chose a high Highlight Strength and Smoothness effect and low Detail effect.  I then made 3 layers of my text using different blend tools.  I found the most effective blend tools to be Overlay, Screen and Color Burn.  These three blends combined made for a very nice translucent effect.  

Once I completed these blends I turned off each layer except for the first layer with no blend effects but plastic wrap filter effect.  I used this layer to create each of my three beveled mask layers.  First I selected with the magic wand tool the top or flat 'high light' area layer of my text, taking special care to include only the highlighted areas of the text.  Then I selected one of the layers of the ice cream scoop and clicked on the mask tool to create the top translucent area of the text image.  Once turning on this new layer and deselecting the first text layer you can now see the translucent effect just created.  I repeated this technique with the two other ice cream scoop layers selecting, one at a time, the side beveled areas of the text and then lastly the shadowed or back areas of the text.  I turned off the first text layer and turned on each of the ice cream layers to see the effects created by this technique.  I grouped each ice cream layer into one folder before turning on the blend effect layers:  Overlay, Screen and Color Burn.  Once each layer was turned on, the translucent effect appears and I then made sure all layers were on top of the first ice cream scoop to appear as if it were actually part of the ice cream itself.

The next steps were to create any vector art necessary for the piece in Illustrator.  I created the circle shapes, triangle shapes, ice cream drips, box areas, half-circle and mouth image all as basic vector images and coloring each.  All the images were left flat except for the ice cream drips which I took individually into photoshop, rotating them as necessary and using a Plastic Wrap Filter effect on them as well.

Once I had created each piece in Illustrator I took them individually into Photoshop and arranged them as desired on top of a high resolution paper texture background image that I first changed the color to.

To change the color of my background texture image I selected Image>Adjustment>Hue & Saturation to select the desired background color; I chose a soft pinkish red tone to match the images I had created in Illustrator.  Once this layer was complete I created two more layers of the exact same image to use later.  But first with the background image I selected Edit>Free Transform to enlarge the image to bleed off of the page.  Then I selected the second background paper texture image layer and followed the same procedure only to enlarge the size enough to reach the outer parameters of the overall images.  Finally I selected the final background paper texture background image, followed the same enlargement procedures and enlarged it only within 1/4" of the second layer background.  Using this background layer I moved it to the top of all the images except for the ice cream scoops and the ice cream drips.  This technique gave it a slightly 'dirty' or grunge effect, adding depth and warmth to the piece.  I added each ice cream scoop to the top of each ice cream cone and then brought in each ice cream drip, plastic wrap filter texture already in place, into the the piece and positioned where I wanted them.

Once this was completed I also brought in another ice cream drip layer that I had created in Illustrator adding not only the Plastic Wrap Filter effect but also a warped text of the words 'Real Cream.'  I experimented with several background colors and effects with this project but in the end felt the reddish-pink background was the strongest and most appealing to the look and feel of the 'Eat Ice Cream' Ad.  Other effective alternatives would be either the 'chocolate' or 'vanilla' backgrounds. Anything to say 'icy cold and refreshing ice cream.'  I've learned a lot of very useful and effective techniques in this class and would enjoy taking it again sometime.  Each technique I've experimented with and used in my projects will be very useful in the future and I look forward to experimenting with ones I did not have to time to play with as well.  I've enjoyed this class a lot and have found it to be most useful!  And absolutely loved, loved, loved taking this class online, too!  Thank you.