Topic awaiting preservation: iMac Plastic

I was wondering if anyone knew how to make an effect something like the iMac monitor legs you know that smooth transparent plastic type look. Here's what I mean Here's what I mean

that could be done with layerstyles only...make your shape and
play around with layerstyles also the contours

Even I that you can make it with layer styles. Could someone be more specifc.

Use the glass filter ... here's a 5 minute tut ...
(edit .. i put this up as a placeholder while I scribble out the tut ... watch this space)

Ok .. sorry 'bout that - got called away to do some work .. now .. where was I .. oh yes ..

1) new image, black background
2) use select to make a shape and fill with white ...

3) make a new layer, with the selection still selected, and fill that with white too - then turn it off (this will be a select mask for later)
4) on the original background layer, with selection still selected, gaussian blur (according to size the radius should be somewhere between 1px and 3px), and repeat the blur 3 or 4 times.
5) de-select and gaussian blur once at 1px


... Making the frame ... (or any perspex thingie) ...
6) delete the invisible layer and save the rest as a psd file.
7) undo the layer deletion !!! That's a useful mask ...
8) choose a nice picture to use as your background - office scenes fit really well. If you want to use the perspex thingie as part of a bigger picture, use a copy of the bigger picture for this stage.
7) filter-distort-glass-load texture ... use your shape file as the texture. Set distortion to a fairly high level, and smoothness to a very low level, leave the rest ... Remember also that you can drag the filter around in the preview window to place one repeat of the shape just where you want it.


... now choose one of them ...
8) go back to the shape picture, turn on the second layer and make it active, then drag it from that pikkie to the other one and drop it
9) ctrl-click on the newly created layer ... bingo ... a select mask
10) drag it over the shape you like most, and cut it
11) paste that into whatever image you want it for ...

and finally .. always ... make it big and shrink it down ... the distortions in the glass should get sharper as you shrink it, but if you need to - use the sharpen filter at the end, just to crisp it up.

But .. don't copy this mini-tut verbatim or your end result will look like crap .... Tweak, try out, do it until it becomes second-nature, and keep doing it 'till you work out the permutations od blur, smothness, background, etc.. erc... and then do it again and make sure it's repeatable ... then post the really good version you created as a result of your new-found experience and wisdom ...

Share and Enjoy ...


Bug-free software only exisits in two places
A programmer's mind and a salesman's lips

... and thanks for all the fish.

[This message has been edited by trib (edited 06-27-2003).]

http://robouk.mchost.com/tuts/tutorial.php?tutorial=plastictab2

Try doing a Google search for something like "apple plastic photoshop tutorials."

You'll have tons to pick from.

:::11oh1:::

Trib, nice mini tutorial.

Thanx Moth ... now I wonder if our "urgent need to discover the true nature of Photoshop" friend has the time to come back and say the same ...

Sometime I get to be such a cynical old bastard !! ... but in the real world, I'm afraid experience breeds cynics, not saints ... Gimme one glimpse of a Higgs Boson and I'll die a happy man.


[This message has been edited by trib (edited 06-28-2003).]

[This message has been edited by trib (edited 06-28-2003).]

Well done trib.

~golf clap~

*but in the real world, I'm afraid experience breeds cynics, not saints * < That ain`t no shit, brudder.

Yeah, I know what you mean. It's so easy to get cynical about things when people just seem to use you without even a thanks. However, I think I'd rather be known as a giver and not a user.

Now, let's give darknosis a chance and see what he comes up with...

Trib, you get some real cool effects if you use a pattern as the base texture of the glass filter. A fish scale pattern looks especially impressive. I would post an example but I'm at work...

that wasn't cynic. it was a serious reply of a serious
question :P

that wasn't cynic. it was a serious reply of a serious
question

Sure it was...

Hee hee hee!



[This message has been edited by Moth (edited 06-28-2003).]

Bleed ... what *are* you talking about ???

quote:

---

now I wonder if our "urgent need to discover the true nature of Photoshop" friend has the time to come back and say the same ...

---

^^^ that ^^^ was what *I* was talking about and, since English (the real thing, not one of it's deformed colonial derivatives) is my native language, I feel qualified to state that it was definitely cynical ...

On the other hand, what I have just written would be better described as sarcasm, somewhat disguised, but definitely present.


Bug-free software only exisits in two places
A programmer's mind and a salesman's lips


[This message has been edited by trib (edited 06-29-2003).]

thought you talked about my posting...

Ohhh - by the way all - I forgot to mention ... if you cut the shape and paste it onto a layer above a chromed shape (see a million tutorials for that one) ... and mess with the layer blending and opacity a bit, you get some very passable pseudo-ray-traced reflections in your chrome thingies ...

Examples ... OK ... real quick and dirty coz I have to take my wife out to dinner ...

First of all - the fastest chrome in the west ... take shape 1 from above and apply this bevel filter to the white on transparent layer ...



That gives you this

Viola ... passable chrome in one step.

Then cut one of the little shapes from your glass distort picture above, and paste it onto this picture ...
Next mess with blending, opacity, fill and a bit of hue and saturation, and you get things like this ...



The first was using difference at 100% opacity, the second was using hard light at 65-70% opacity ...

And there are a zillion more tricks you can play with just these few toys ... Ho-Boy I do LOVE Photoshop ...

Experiment, then share and enjoy ...


Bug-free software only exisits in two places
A programmer's mind and a salesman's lips

[This message has been edited by trib (edited 06-29-2003).]

[This message has been edited by trib (edited 06-29-2003).]

That's what my initial reaction on how to do this would have been (with some curves adjustment as well). However, I like the results from your glass filter tutorial better.

Regards.



[This message has been edited by Moth (edited 06-30-2003).]