ronmatt

Some time ago, someone posted a question about creating glass in PS. That's when I discovered that I wasn't too good at the effect, so I made my mind up to work on it. Here's an example of how far I've gotten. It still needs some improvement but I think I've got the tools now and I'm on the way to pulling it off.
This was done using the Reindeer 'Select Edges' plug-in ( free at Reindeer Graphics ) and by creating some gradient brushes. Once I get the technique I'll post a quick tutorial. I know that I still need more transparency. I am working on getting that without sacrificing
definition. I'll post the progress for critique later.

Lee

Boy, that's a great start, Ron. Nice work.

Silky

Here's a technique that I came up with. I used an hdr image and decreased the exposure to separate the light source(s) from the rest of the image and did a bit of distorting with warp transform. I've found that this is one of the best ways to achieve realistic looking reflections. I guess it's kinda cheating (not 100% PS) but it looks good.
For the sake of comparison, I whipped up an old tube and used an hdr map.
BTW, how exactly did you use that 'Select Edges' Plug-in and for what?

ronmatt

Patrick. How are you editing HDR or EXR in Photoshop? anyway, The way I use ( and the reason ) 'Select Edges' is for very subtle color enhancements , shading and hilighting.
Here's what I do; 1) move my image to a new window with trans bg. Duplicate the image, Turn off the top image, select the bottom one, use the 'select edges' plug-in' ( choose the effect you want ) Now.. The most important step, click on select > inverse and click 'delete'. You are left with a line image that defines the contrasts of the orig photo. You can increase the 'drawing' by duplicating the layer and merging, you can change the color, add a gradient, add any layer style, blur, Place it on top of the photo and let your right brain kick in.

here's some examples of how I use it. the top is the orig. illust. the center has a colored and blurred select edge effect over the top and the small one has the select edge line under the image then a gradient brush ( as eraser ) vignetting the image. These effects have little or no value for photos, but for illustration, the sky's the limit

docilebob

I did some glass stuff a while back, too.

Silky

That neat, Ron! Downloading the plug-in right now. Btw, that is a SWEET illustration. I'd like to see a larger version of that car/vehicle thing.
All I do to the HDR image is turn down the exposure and gamma to extract the actual 'light source' of the image, then convert it to 8-bit. If you try this with a normal 8-bit image, turning down the brightness will only cause all the highlights to turn to grey. This is similar to how an HDR image is used for 3D rendering. It uses the 32-bit data to extrapolate the light sources and reflection channels. Although a 3D program does this more accurately, the same principle works with Photoshop too.
And bob, that light bulb is cool. The apple is ok, but I like the bulb.

Gaussian

This a cool thread and interesting read and some great stuff Ronmatt and docilebob [righton]

How did you do the metal part docilebob? It would be interesting to know your approach (no need to go into great details though), because I'm always open for new ideas.

docilebob

Honestly, Gaussian, I had to go look in the PSD, it was a long time ago.
Seems that there are 3 paths, stroked, and about 13 Layers of mostly hand painted (with an Optical Trackball) highs and lows..
Says it`s a 1.02 MB file, if you`d like me to post it, just lemme know.

Gaussian

No, just wanted to know the basic approach you used docilebob, because I think you did a very good job on that part, well done. [righton]

docilebob

Ah. Thanks.
I`d like to hear any C&C on the glass part, if you have it....