Create Frozen 3D Text with Icicles in Photoshop

1. Create a new 165x165 pixel document with a resolution of 100 and name it Icicles.Now press D and fill the document (with Black). Then create a new layer. Next, create a horizontal type mask, press X and then fill (with white). Load the selection of the layer wit the text on it. Show channels and create a new channel. Press D and then X on keyboard to reset colors to white and black. Fill the selection with white. Show layers and select the text layer and merge the layers.

2. Show Channels, then load the selection from the 'alpha' layer you made earlier. Show layers then inverse the selection. Next apply a crystalize filter with settings [Cell Size: 10]. Keep the selection for next step.

3. Now inverse the selection again, and apply a noise filter with settings [Amount: 10-20%, Distribution: Uniform, and 'Monochromatic' checked]. You can change the amount of noise depending on how chunky you want your ice to look. Next, apply a gaussion blur with settings [Radius: 1].

4. Next you deselect, then adjust the curves and make it very similar to these settings:

Or download icicle.zip which contains a premade curves file.

5. Now rotate the canvas 90° CW (clock-wise). Then apply a wind filter with settings [Method: Wind, Direction: From the Right].

6. Finally rotate the canvas 90° CCW (counter clock-wise). You can add color to the image by, creating a new layer and filling it with a color of your choice. Then set that layers blending mode to 'Color'.

There you have it, a cool icicle text effect, which can be used on interfaces and graphics as well. For another neat effect, try putting the test on a tilt then adding the icicle, it gives cool effect. Here is something I made a long time ago, when I was a newbie with Adobe Photoshop.