Create a colorful Print-and-Play puzzle for your kids with Photoshop

I’m quite sure that many of you had the chance to try those wonderful Triazzle™ puzzles that are being sold at toys stores all over the country. Triazzle™ puzzles were invented by Dan Gilbert, a Graphic Artist, Product Designer and founder of the Dan Gilbert Art Group, after a request from the National Aquarium in Baltimore to create something special for a new exhibit. That original puzzle was never released, but some years later the DaMert Company expressed their interest in that original brain teaser and shortly they began a collaborative work to produce one of the best selling products of its kind for many years.

Triazzle™ puzzles are not only a great game and brain teaser, but they are also wonderful and enticing works of art. Dan Gilbert has managed to create so beautifully designed illustrations and scenes that you can spend a lot of time watching the full collection in search for design ideas or simply for a visual enjoyment.

Although you can purchase these puzzles at many toy stores, you may want to create your own puzzles with your kids’ favorite characters or with your own creations. This tutorial will guide you through the steps needed to create your own Triazzle™-like puzzle. It also an excuse to learn some nice illustration tips.

The image above shows the final puzzle. If you don’t want to go over the instructions, you can download the finished puzzle (at the end of this article), print it, glue it to a cardboard, cut it and play with it. If not, then follow the instructions of this article.

Keep in mind that each effect could be a single tutorial itself, so I will assume that you have an intermediate to advanced Photoshop experience. If you are a beginner, you will also find useful information about special effects and in most cases I will point you to external resources that can teach you that effect in depth.

1 .: Choosing the theme and drawing the board

This puzzle will be all about bugs and flowers in the grass. Just for fun I decided to add a title to it and came up with this amazingly clever one: BUGZZLE.

We will work on a 1000×1000 pixels image. All the references will be according that size. You can choose a higher or lower resolution image and adjust settings accordingly.

 

Step 1:

Create a 1000×1000 image and fill it with a brown color #34210d.

Create a new layer and choose

- Foreground color: #236a16

- Background color: #1ec51b

and start painting the grass on a new layer using the the brush tip shown on the right image with a large Angle Jitter value. It is a good idea to experiment with different brushes settings and coverages to obtain a good looking texture.

For beginners: This technique is clearly outlined in the great tutorial creating a grass text effect from PhotoshopTutorial.net.

 

Step 2:

Create a new layer and name it GRASS BOTTOM.

Hide the GRASS layer.

We will paint more grass on the GRASS BOTTOM layer, but now it will be a vertical grass located at the bottom of the image.

Select similar foreground and background green colors as in the previous step.

Choose the brush shape shown in the image on the right and, using the default brush settings, start to paint the grass horizontally. The default settings of this brush include scattering, angle jitter and other transformation settings that will give a more realistic look to the grass. This grass will be used as a background support for the game title.

For beginners: Follow the instructions of this grass simulation tutorial Grass and Sky effect from HeathRowe.

When finished, add a Drop Shadow layer style using the settings in the image at the right. Remember that these settings are chosen for a 1000×1000 image. Anyway, no matter what settings you choose, the point is to add a drop shadow that separates the vertical grass from the background. You can tweak these settings later to achieve a better result.

Now show the GRASS layer and check if you are ok with the results. Perhaps you may want to modify the Drop Shadow layer style, or you may want to expose more earth in the grass background. But it is important that the texture of the background is applied evenly and doesn’t show recognizable areas that may help solve the puzzle. Remeber that this is a puzzle, and it is meant to be a challenge.

Again, as in the previous step, try different settings or colors to come up with different textures.

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