Preserved Topic: Advanced Reflection Maps

Normally, I don't consider any of my Displace techniques as advanced. For this, I'm making an exception. The reason is two-fold. In Part I, you'll see one reason why.

Advanced Reflection Maps

So I recently got on a ramble about reflection maps and Displace. Yeah me. However, they are still kind of flat. What about doing reflection maps on more 3d-ish objects? Yes, I have set my sights on this subject. Been messing with it on/off for around a year or so. I did come up with something that I'm mostly happy with. It's along journey and takes more than a modicum of knowledge. It's not always the greatest, but it does kinda work. I guess you could say this falls under the "A Much Better Way of Fakery" category.

I have gone through this whole thing several times with just PhotoShop. However, for alacrity of edification, I'm using a 3d program. Even though this is intended for PS only, I'm speeding up my end with a little cheating.

Part I: Base D-Map

Rough Draft

When I've gone through this with just PS, I've found it best to start with a rough draft. Just imagine where the parts of your subject will reflect from, grab an RGB value, and paint.



That is what one of my rough drafts looks like. I painted the brightest values in first, brought my brush down to 50%, painted some more, and painted some more, and painted some more.

Once I had the brightest values in, I used Alt to grab values right off of the rough draft. Look at the yellow on the right under-belly of the goblet. I painted that in with brush set to 100%. Then I brought the brush down to 50%. Then I painted a little more yellow, which is now more subdued, right in next to the bright yellow. Then I held Alt to get the temporary EyeDropper, sampled the subdued yellow, and painted that in for an even more subdued yellow. Pfft. I hope that makes sense.

All the rough draft does is serve as a guide. Helps tremendously for coming up with a plan of attack for making the real D-Map.

Now, for one of the reasons why I consider this advanced.

Just Do It

Pull out all the stops and make the base D-Map. Use every damn trick that you know. Use Selections, Layer Masks, Gradients, Ad-Layer Invert - whatever it takes. Dig deep into your soul for every last little trick to make it happen. Toss everything you have into it. Dig deep!



Well, there's mine. Like I said, I'm using a 3d prog for this (alacrity of edification). As you can see, my rough draft is pretty close to my final base D-Map.

That's about it for now.

So, you just paint the D-map, right ?

so what are u asking people to do??? what's a D-Map? why paint it when we can load 3dsmax and render ur cup

oh... and what are those arrows ???




[This message has been edited by asptamer (edited 05-21-2003).]

though foolishly... apst has a made a point... while its great you learn how to do the technique of creating 3d objects (besides the norm) on Photoshop, a renderer would produce a much cleaner and realistic creation. .... still very badass what you've done though

Well, for those of us that don't download our software, and can't afford even a student version of a 3d app, this is pretty fucking cool. The fact that you can bend photoshop this far with the right amount of math & knowledge of how the program works is simply breathtaking.

Keep up the good work, WJ. Pardon me while I go get a towel to clean off my keyboard now.



[This message has been edited by Raptor (edited 05-21-2003).]

Those arrows show where I grabbed values from to paint.

D-Map = Displacement Map. This is the PSD file you pick when using Displace. Just ask Kai.

Raptor, give trueSpace 3.2 a try. Damn fine 3d app for being free.

Why do this with PS's Displace?
I get a kick out of blowing the limits out of the water.
Just pushing harder and farther is all.
If people want to join my on my journey, I welcome the company.

edit:
Though about it some more. The bottom-line reason why I do all of this is because I enjoy creating techniques that no one has seen before. I can come up with a bunch of superficial reasons, but creating is the bare bones of it.


[This message has been edited by warjournal (edited 05-21-2003).]

ok you win. Any tuts available on how to use the D-Map?

^ No better tutorial than this...at least that I'm aware of... http://www.gurusnetwork.com/tutorials/photoshop/displace1.html

I never really thought about approaching D-Maps that way before. Thanks for sharing. =)

Whenever I have time to scratch myself again you can bet the first icon I dive for will be Photoshop. It's been too long.....

~whistles softly in appreciation~

whew - reeee-markable

So I was taking a walk with the little one. You know, fresh air and sunshine. 'Course, got to thinking about this.

I'm not sure, but I think I jumped into the deep end a little too quick for you folks. Sometimes I have a hard time slowing down for those not up to my speed.

When I get the chance, I'm going to take it back a few notches and start over with the donut. The donut is an excellant example and illustrates several things very well. Not only that, but it's a chance to play with Polar Coords again.

Steve, just wait until you see how I use Curves to finish it off.

Not too quick for me there 'lightyear dude'.

I love what you've discovered can be done with a D-Map.
And... i highly recommend ALL your tutes on this stuff too, to anyone interested in actually LEARNING Photoshop... and not just playing fluffy little games with it.

You've opened the box... now don't so afraid to remove the contents and play with it people!

Good stuff wj, good stuff.

Good stuff warjournal. Lots of stuff to chew on and play with. There appears to be some similarities between this and your emboss based techique.

Waves at theGuest.