How to Create a Winter Text Effect in Illustrator

This content originally appeared on Envato Tuts+ Tutorials and was authored by Andrei Marius

What You'll Be Creating

In the following tutorial, you will learn how to create a winter text effect in Adobe Illustrator. We'll start with the 3D ice text effect, and then we'll create a snow style effect.

If you don't have the time to learn how to create an ice text effect or snow style effects, you can always try Envato Elements, where you can find plenty of resources to create 3D ice, cool freeze effects, snow effect styles, and different types of winter text effects. This vector winter text effect is just one of the many examples.

Get this cool winter text effect for illustrator from Envato Elements.

Do you want to learn how to create winter and ice text effects in Illustrator by watching a video? Then we've got this cool video tutorial from the Envato Tuts+ YouTube channel waiting for you:

What You'll Learn in This Winter Text Tutorial

How to create a 3D ice text effect
How to create a snow text effect
How to create snow style effects

What You Will Need

You will need the following resources in order to complete this winter text effect:

Knicknack font
Christmas illustration

1. How to Create the Background

Step 1

Start by pressing Control-N to create a new document. Select Pixels from the drop-down menu, set the Width to 850 and the Height to 400, and then click that More Settings button.

Select RGB for the Color Mode, set the Raster Effects to High (300 ppi), and then click the Create button to create your document.

Step 2

Pick the Rectangle Tool (M) and focus on your toolbar. Remove the color from the stroke, and then select the fill and set its color to R=37 G=154 B=223. Click on your artboard to open the Rectangle window, and simply create an 870 x 620 px shape.

Keep this shape selected, switch to the Selection Tool (V), and focus on the control panel to easily center your selection. Make sure that the Alignment is set to Artboard, and then just click the Horizontal Align Center and Vertical Align Center buttons.

Step 3

Keep your rectangle selected, move to the Appearance panel (Window > Appearance), and click the Add New Fill button to add a second fill.

Select it and then click the Radial Gradient button from the Gradient panel (Window > Gradient). This will apply a radial gradient to your selected fill. Focus on the gradient sliders and start by selecting the left one. Lower its Opacity to 0% and then double-click it to replace the existing color with R=37 G=154 B=223. Move to the other gradient slider, double click it, and set the color to R=2 G=98 B=185.

Once you're done, select the Gradient Tool (G) from your toolbar and use it to stretch your radial gradient roughly as shown in the following image.

Step 4

Make sure that your rectangle is still selected, keep focusing on the Appearance panel, and add a third fill using that same Add New Fill button.

Select the fill and set the color to black (R=0 G=0 B=0). Lower its Opacity to 30%, change the Blending Mode to Soft Light, and then go to Effect > Artistic > Film Grain. Move those sliders to 20, 0, and 10, and then click OK to apply the effect. Now that your background is set up, let's start the work on the ice text effect.