Preserved Topic: Plastic Tubes

Anyone got some ideas on how to make some plausable looking plastic tubes? I want them to bend around a bit, so I can't exactly use a gradient. I tried gaussian blur + lighting effects, but the end result wasn't very circular looking :P I also had a hard time making it look semi-trasparent, so I could have it look like liquid is going through it. Could somone enlighten me here on how else I might do this?

[This message has been edited by The Fragmaster (edited 06-09-2001).]

Try gaussian blur then stylize->emboss

Then you could turn down the opacity to make it semi-transparent

Just curious, wouldn't it be possible to make straight plastic tubes and then just use the Polar Co-ordinates filter (Rectangular to Polar)?

Although, this WOULD create the illusion of a ring shaped light source, larger than and outside of, the image...

Just a thought...

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...and life goes on

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You want curved things? Try using the pen tool, then just stroke it. After that you can use Blur's, embosses, layer styles, lighting effects, doge/burn, hell, almost anything really!

Yea, use the pen tool to get the outline. Then airbrush it. I know a saw a tutorial a while ago that dealt completely with selections and looked pretty decent. I'll see if I can find it.

Well, I couldn't find that tut, so I decided to make my own.

Here's a 30-second image I whipped up.



It's a little rough because of the quickness, but I think this is about what you are trying to accomplish. Am I right?

Anyway, here's the .psd: http://uoeinstein.hypermart.net/tube.psd

The basic idea for this is just to stroke curved paths with the airbrush. If you would like an in depth tut, ask, and I'll write it out.

Oh, also, this could be made semi-transparent by merging all the layers, and knocking the opacity down to about 75%.

[This message has been edited by mbridge (edited 06-09-2001).]

[This message has been edited by mbridge (edited 06-09-2001).]

-created a path using corner anchor points
-converted corner anchor points to curved anchor points and added radii
-stroked path with paintbrush
-created a high lite/low lite layer (reduced opacities)
-created a median high lite layer by stroking the same path with a smaller paintbush (again lowered opacity)
-merged the layers
-added a render diff cloud bg layer (for fun)
-duped the one tube twice and moved (for fun)


~Vp~

mbridge: good tube


[This message has been edited by vogonpoet (edited 06-10-2001).]

I would use phong's e/g plastic tutorial, then lower the opacity a tad to show your liquid. I tried it out and it looked pretty good to me!
http://www.phong.com/tutorials/eplastic/

Hmmm, I applied the Phong tutorial and came up with this:



Not exactly what I was looking for, but a cool look none the less


[This message has been edited by The Fragmaster (edited 06-09-2001).]

Play with the curves a little more and that should fix it up. It's under image->adjust->curves

I need to learn how too do that.. sheesh.. I must be missing the point?.. thats freaking fantastic fragmaster..can you do a tutorial?.. please.. its so smooth..........
(specially intrigued how you got that black bg... share the secrets)
~Vp~
fart fingers of course {edit}


[This message has been edited by vogonpoet (edited 06-10-2001).]

Fragmaster...if that was a neon tube, you wouldn't get so much of a highlight on the edges. This being becuase it shines it's own light out, it cancels out any light of equal or lesser intensity coming at it.

aaaaaaahhhh...physics.

[edit]damn fingers...gonna have to teach them how to hit one key at a time some time soon.[/edit]


In the beginning, there was the word...and the word was 'God', although by the time it reached the other end of the phone line... the word was 'Gznd'

[This message has been edited by Skaarjj (edited 06-10-2001).]

*MEGA BUMP*

Sorry, been on vacation...

Anyways, I just followed the phong tutorial and tweaked it slightly, nothing too special...

vogon: Am I missing something or was that sarcasm? :P