~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Difficulty: Advanced
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Notoriously known as the hardest step of the whole tutorial: Create a new image (transparent or white - it doesn't matter) to work with. Any size will do, so long as the petz of your choice can fit in it with some wiggle room later. I'm going to use a 254 x 255 image.
2. Now, when I am working with this type of effect, it usually is meant to enhance the likes of a picture, or potential scene. Since we are creating that scene from scratch, the most logical place to start is with the background.
In this case, we'll keep it fairly simple for now -- just blue, for the water and the sky. To do this, use a fading gradient (with the darker blue at the top) and the fill tool. Done correctly, this should take one click of the mouse.
3. The next order of buisness is to make the water. Since the blue part of it is already there, all that is left to add is the glare from the sunlight.
Click on the paint brush  and make sure the following presets are in order:
Shape: Round (About size 5)
Opacity: Around 50%
Colour: White
When you're done, create a new raster layer and call it "Glare" or some such.
4. Alright, here's the fun part! On the bottom half of the image, draw a series of the ugliest, tackiest lines you've ever seen! Don't get TOO crazy with them, though ;) Try overlapping a few and see what happens.
Very water-like isn't it =P
5. Next we need to soften the lines a bit. Take the smudge brush  with a preset like the "Fuzz Soft" brush head to glaze over them. Mess around with the opacity levels and use deliberate, but delicate strokes. Be careful not to smear the lines, this step is only to give a slight blur to the picture.
6. With the same tool, change the preset to something a little bit more blunt. I find that the simple "Round" works best (at about a size 25 or so). Use it to push the lines around, up and down, right and left. Throughout this process, play around with opacity -- it helps a lot! Think of it like finger paint =D
7. By this time, you have probably made an assorted bundle of misty-looking fog. Don't worry, that is completely normal! All you need to do is add highlights with the paint brush and repeat steps 5 and 6.
You might need to do this step more than once
depending on the look you are after.
8. Here is where the water aspect comes into play. Let's make waves! Click on the smudge brush (if you're not there already), and set the preset to Square (size 5, opacity between 50-100% depending on whether you want hard or softer looking waves). It works best if the shape is sharp (some squares come with a softer edge -- DON'T pick them)!
9. Now make strokes right and left to shift the "glare/mist" back and forth. This will displace it and make it look a little more "liquid-like."
How to do This Stroke (in 3 Easy Steps!):
1) Place the brush in the upper right hand part of the image.
2) Click and drag it in a strait line to the left, AND DON'T LET GO.
3) Keeping the mouse held down, move down one row & make another strait line to the right, & double back again.
It will feel like you are making a tight zig-zagging pattern (without any gaps).
10. Okay! Time to add your favorite petz to the image. Open up the picture you want to work with and transfer it to the water image on a new raster layer.
11. Use the move tool  to drag the petz to just the right spot ;)
12. OPTIONAL: At this point, you may (or may not) want to add some special effects, such as soft fur, etc. For this pup, I'm going to add eye sparkles, but nothing more. Here's what I have so far:
13. Of course, right now you're beloved petz is really standing ON the water, not IN it. So let's fix that. Take the eraser and set the preset to "Fuzz Soft" at an opacity around 30%.
14. Begin to erase the petz' feet and up his/her legs until you reach the water level that you like. In this case, I think we should make ankle-deep water. Notice how I don't erase the ENTIRE foot, but leave it somewhat transparent. The water IS clear, after all!
15. Congrats! Your petz is now technically standing in water! However, because this is a "scene" of sorts, there are things like light / shadows / *cough*reflections*cough* that need to be considered to make it look a tad more realistic. To achieve this effect is easy: Simply take the original petz picture (before it was transfered) and FLIP it upside down (Ctrl + I).
16. Transfer this image to a new raster layer UNDER the "Glare" layer in the left-hand menu.
17. Use the move tool to drag the upside down petz right beneath his/her counterpart. Depending on how big the paws are, you may need to erase them (opacity 100%). Such was done with my example:
18. Take the smudge tool and distort the upside down pup in the same mannor as was done in Step 8 & 9.
19. At this point, it is time to start messing with the opacity of the reflection, itself. You can toggle with it by adjusting the bar next to the visibility (eye) feature.
These are few samples of different opacity levels. Choose the one that is right for your picture.
I find that the lighting really plays into my decisions a lot. For example, a nice sunny spring day may yield 100%, whereas an overcast day (where there is more cloud cover and less light) may have a lesser seen reflection. Be creative ;)
20. Now, there's only one thing missing: The top half of the background. You can make this on your own. Remember, though, that it tends to look best on a layer that is behind everything except for the original blue background (second from the bottom on the menu).
21. When you're finished, merge all the layers together, and save/export as a .gif or .jpg ----> Fini!
| 
