Topic awaiting preservation: Photoshop help needed for "plastic" effect

Hey there, I need a little help with an effect I'm trying out, but first a little background. I'm only 16 and I've been getting into a little bit of everything, web design, coding, photoshop, etc. At the moment, I'm pretty good with web design, but I'm horrid as far as photoshop goes. I decided to try something I saw when I saw looking through the sigs section. A few people had made condom sigs with their name on it, and I tried it myself. Here is mine



Here is the condom I'm basing mine off of, one that crip made, crip I hope it's ok I'm using yours as an example.



Now as you can see theres a few problems, one being my center square isn't shiny, almost plastic like his is. The only tutorial I could find was on guru's network that showed how to make a plastic tablet, but that wasn't really what I was looking for. Google didn't seem to have anything specifically for this type of job. Also his words look a like more real than mine, and I don't know how to do that effect. Thanks for any help, I know this is kind of beginner stuff and might be painful to answer


[edit] also apparently I forgot to make the background transparent, sorry, I'll fix it on the next go around[/edit]


"Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run. I like to make people stop and say, 'I've never seen anyone run like that before.' It's more than just a race, it's a style. It's doing something better than anyone else. It's being creative." -Steve Prefontaine

(Edited by xcFeRiNiZeDcc on 07-14-2004 19:17)

(Edited by xcFeRiNiZeDcc on 07-14-2004 19:22)

I can't wait for DL to come around and tell you to actually look at the objcets you're drawing ^^.

So, grab a mixed box of condoms and look how the reflect light et all.
(And don't tell me you can't get any... which of course is all right if you 'can't get any', but you'd better find a way now than later. And you have higher motives this time ;-)).

So long,

->Tyberius Prime

Hah, of course I can get some, and I will. So is lighting my main problem here? More than some kind of glossy effect? I did notice the really good lighting on the corners of crip's inner square, and like I said I'm not all that great with photoshop. Well I'll give you the whole story, it's not long. I used to have Windows ME, and I could never get adobe photoshop to work on it, so I was stuck using paintshoppro 7, and I fooled around with it but never got good at anything. Now today I decided, I have windows 2000, why not give it a go. So this is my first attempt at converting to photoshop, and I'm a little lost. Also TB thanks for the incredibly fast reply.

[edit] greally isn't a word >.< (typo)[\edit]

"Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run. I like to make people stop and say, 'I've never seen anyone run like that before.' It's more than just a race, it's a style. It's doing something better than anyone else. It's being creative." -Steve Prefontaine

(Edited by xcFeRiNiZeDcc on 07-14-2004 19:27)

Here is the latest. Like I said I'm brand new to photoshop, so I'm still working on the lighting, any other advice?

"Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run. I like to make people stop and say, 'I've never seen anyone run like that before.' It's more than just a race, it's a style. It's doing something better than anyone else. It's being creative." -Steve Prefontaine

I see one of the HUGE differences between yours and crips is the highlights. Look. His highlights are white (or pretty damn close.) Yours are...uh...darker than white. Almost pink, but really closer to a bright red.

When you see a plastic wrap like that, it reflects light VERY well. Shapes, not so well. But light, very well.

Also (this goes with the 'Shapes, not so well' part) the reflections are not regular. They do not come even close to accurately describing the environment. Chrome reflects shapes reasonably well...so when you see a reflection in chrome you can generally tell the environment. It is distorted, but not enough to completed obscure the surroundings.
Not so with plastic. Plastic highlights are distorted all to hell.

So, there you go. Take that knowledge, get yourself a box of condoms (or anything else wrapped in plastic) and get to painting.
Play with the paintbrush (small, hard brush) curves, and screen, color dodge, lighten, and the plastic wrap filter *gasp*.

who had the first condom sig? I rember it was yellow and just awesome. hugely realistic. I also think he posted a tut on it.

aside from what's already been said, make sure you check out filter > distort > glass. it's been a few years, but as i recall, you could use a nice donut-shaped bump mask to get the label to bend properly. also make sure you have highlights and shadows on the inside too, since condoms are more donut shaped than disc shaped.

actually i think i meant filter > distort > displace, as i said, it's been a few years without looking at photoshop.

mbridge!

mbridge!!

mbridge !!!




Might also try Filter>>artistic>>Plastic Wrap. If it`s too much, go immediately to Edit>>Fade.

mbridge !!!

mbridge!!!!

hello everyone, it's been a while hasn't it? how are all of you doing?


i just whipped up a condom to post, but i realized don't have any webspace anymore. someone point me toward some free and easy webspace and i'll post up the .psd as well. surprisingly, i found polar coordinates to be probably the most useful filter in making it look more realistic. i've always been a big fan of polar coordinates (as my tut over at gurusnetwork proves)...

Check out this thread mbridge Piccie Hosters and welcome back

didn't spend a whole lot of time on this, so obviously it's not perfect... but it's just there as a reference at least.


http://img6.exs.cx/img6/2691/condom.gif


.psd will come as soon as i figure out a host...none of those picture sites in the other thread will work...

mbridge!! Thanks for all the help

"Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run. I like to make people stop and say, 'I've never seen anyone run like that before.' It's more than just a race, it's a style. It's doing something better than anyone else. It's being creative." -Steve Prefontaine