Preserved Topic: Glass reflection problem - I need some help PLZ (Page 1 of 1)

Hello boys

I'm working on this sphere thing...but I seem to be stuck. The problem is the natural glass reflection which I have a hard (impossible) time creating. I tried to create this reflection by adding different crescent shapes, handbrused glints, blur etc., but none of the mentioned ways seem to do the job.
The sphere was a product of the good doctors glass tutorial, but I wasn't able to entirely recreate his work...so here I am...I must admit I could need some help from a friendly PS soul.



The zipped PSD file ~250 K


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[88] PunisherOlsen
/Punishers Inc.

PSD is at http://www.mahjqa.com/stuff/emerald367854.gif

Thanx for the reply and your work. But I must admit it wasn't what I had in mind. I think it's too distorted...and there's something odd with the topleft (where the light shines in).

Could you give it a go again

It looks like something from a 3rd party filter...correct?

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[88] PunisherOlsen
/Punishers Inc.

whoops... wrong URL for the *.psd *kicks himself*
http://www.mahjqa.com/stuff/emeraldsml.psd (334 kb) (PS 6.x version)

Nope, no filter, all 2d work... airbrush all the way. I left the middle open since I still wanted to add something over there....And I must say, I'm no expert on this either... if you really wanna make shiny lights you should use the [color dodge] blending mode, it's a charm. Which version of PS do you use? if you have 6.0, make sure you fill your layer entirely with black until you work with the whites.... (If that ain't clear, tell me, I'll explain.)

(if you don't have the time to look into the *.psd, it works nicely if you first fill a layer with black, set it to [screen], then brush with a soft brush & low opacity the basic of where you want the glow to be. then duplicate the layer and set that layer to [color dodge].

Maybe like this ?



Or maybe like this ?



If this is more what you`re looking for let me know and I`ll tell ya how.

<edit>Stupid Fingers</edit>



[This message has been edited by docilebob (edited 10-23-2001).]

mahjga => Im working with 6.01.



I unchecked the dogde layers in your PSD file to get rid of the distortion. I think its really good now, but a shame that the bevel ring has lost its depth. I tried to solve this with curves, but it seem to damaged for good.

How did you generate that "snow" noise? -pretty wierd brush I guess?

docilebob=> Your 2nd try is by far the best. Guess its due to the enviromentmap you used. Did you just place a sunset in overlay mode?


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[88] PunisherOlsen
/Punishers Inc.

Zis kinda fing?



And amazingly enough, for the first time in ages I flattened the PSD by accident, blowing all the layers to hell ~sigh~ Bad week.
Nothing to it save for a few gradients in masks, and airbrushing highlights and flares in.

Remember glass is mostly recognizable due to its level of phongs, and the translucent distorting of its environment. So a background or reflection of some sort will increases the "glass" appearance.

Hope it helps.

Peter
(with an intermittent connection)

DarkG=> Well, I can see your point with the enviroment. Guess I'll just have to start up the airbrush and make som highlights.
I remember same time ago a 3rd party plugin that could generate glass from a click with the mouse, guess its KPT but not sure. Any of you know something about this?

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[88] PunisherOlsen
/Punishers Inc.

Punisher: You're probably referring to KPT's shapeshifter, or a glass extension to BladePro.

Shapeshifter is more for creating environment maps in a 2D environ, basically exploiting the displace filter idea in one-click.

There's a near constant debate here about thrid party plugins, but I'll say now as I alwyas have, learning to create without them will make you a better artist, and ensure that you can live without them and still create without a crutch. There's a lot of control lost when 3rd Party Plugins are used, and that loss of control ultimately limits the abilities of the PS user.

So, yeah Get your airbrush out, grab a marble, look at one, and create with the other. Shortcuts help, masking and blurs are excellent, as well as penned shapes. Get to it

Peter

*Go Go Forest!*

For country and taxes! Guess theres no return...take the plunge privat!

[...]but I'll say now as I alwyas have, learning to create without them will make you a better artist[..]

Well I agree with you. I also loves when I know how things are done; and can be done aswell. But taken my reflect problem into consideration...erh, forget it *kicks my ass* ;D



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[88] PunisherOlsen
/Punishers Inc.

You're more likely to make something that looks like glass with good *refraction* rather than *reflection*. For reflection, all you'll really want is a few highlights where bright light is reflected.

Hmm, have to disagree with you there, Slime-o. The "good refraction" when compared to reflection all has to do with the background of the glass, and its placement in the environment. If you have a dark bg behind the glass, then a great amount of reflection of the scene "in front" of the glass will take place. If the glass is thin, there's a higher chance of a clear reflection etc. etc.

clear glass will absolutely refract light, and in turn the image of the scenery behind it, but it will also reflect in the same amounts given the different surroundings.

Whoo Hoo..another glass sphere thread. Someone really should count how many of these we have in the archives.



Peter

Erhm, well me no englishman senor...

refraction? *translator* ... ahh I get it. Guess your right. I remember that refraction and.....damn, what was it called...ah, "raytrace" played a important role in 3DMax when you worked with spheres.

...but I haven't got the slightest idea how to create realistic refration in PS

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[88] PunisherOlsen
/Punishers Inc.

[qoute]Whoo Hoo..another glass sphere thread. Someone really should count how many of these we have in the archives.[/qoute]

Well DarkG, it's all about spheres ...and of course...laziness

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[88] PunisherOlsen
/Punishers Inc.

By the way Herrn Garden, how did you color your PS workspace like in your image? -and make it appear in the compressed image?

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[88] PunisherOlsen
/Punishers Inc.

I cheated, actually

16x16 image, two 8x8 squares, one in the top left, one in the bottom right, select all, define pattern. Then go and fill the pattern into a layer underneath all in the PSD.







ICQ:# 10237808

Well thats plain and simple. I automatically thought it was something fancy due to the resemblance between your bg and the PS transparency.

By the way bad girls go to hell

Your sig got me thinking....why the heck do we refer to satan/devil/the-evil-one as Lucifer which is synonymous with "morningstar"?

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[88] PunisherOlsen
/Punishers Inc.

Because the mythos refer to "Lucifer" as being the first of the seraphim, the first host of heaven. "Morningstar" "Lightbringer". It's the name that is associated with the character during the "war in heaven".

Now, stick to PS, or this thread goes to the Philo forum

Peter

Sure thing boss ....well it _was_ a little bit offtopic

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[88] PunisherOlsen
/Punishers Inc.

Sorry I took so long to get back to ya. ( no computer access during the day. )

The first one is the one with the environment map, and it`s the San Francisco Bay Bridge at sunset with ( on another layer) a lens flair on a black layer set to screen. Masked to fit the curve.

Hope that made sense.

Nothin but airbrush....



and with a bit o lense flair....



The reflection was just a square painted with low opassity and set to screen mode then sphereised and played with untill it looked kinda right. The rest of the colours wiere just painted in and sundged around until I was happy with it. Getting the colours and tones to fit in with your lightsource well help to add depth.

Whoa.

Erhm.....talk about impressive reflection *sigh*.

Da docility => Got it

Dracusis, when you paint something like that... you use digitizer/pen or what?


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[88] PunisherOlsen
/Punishers Inc.

Gorgeous work, Dracusis.

P.O. - this tutorial is pretty ancient now, but maybe it'll give you some ideas ....

The refraction thing is sorta moot when the background is a solid tone. Gotta do it mostly with external reflections. Imply a surrounding environment and light source(s).

Thanx for the link. Pretty learning...not as much as your displace tutorial though (which I found very learning)

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[88] PunisherOlsen
/Punishers Inc.

By the way Steve, the displace prob was as you said due to lack of merging the two layers. Tanks for the answer.

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[88] PunisherOlsen
/Punishers Inc.

I don't own a graphics tablet. Everything I do is done with my crusty old 2 button serial mouse. Just gotta love the feeling you get when you scrape the gunk outa da rollers every week or so... mmmm yummy! (guess what's on my x-mas list!)

There may be some threads in the archives about similar things. Me and rotren when off on a three thread journey around April/May about this very thing. That's when I did those pics. They might have been archived, I think they were called Glass Beads, Glass Beads II and well, Glass Beads III.

Happy hunting!

Mmmm...I think Phong has some stuff about mapping environments to spheres on his site, and applying highlights....just wish I could remember the address. Ahhh...here it is Phong

You forgot the address to the phong website? hehehe...

Wraping to a sphere? Easy, circular mask then distort -> sphereize.... Repeat if necessary. Just rember to use multipule layers and blend modes....

No Dracusis, not the website, the particular area. Anyway, Phong is worth a look, he's got some great tuts!

mahjda, your new site's looking sweet! When will it be up?

Asylum bound!

Later. Sorry, it's the best guess I can give you at the moment.... When it's done, it's done. If you wanna leave some comments on it, you can do it at http://www.ozoneasylum.com/Forum6/HTML/000684.html (site reviews) Well, my best guess would be in several days... depends on school work.

edit: and it's mahjQa. Please.




[This message has been edited by mahjqa (edited 10-26-2001).]