Another glassy/plastic orb...

Blinky2004 · 08-27-2002, 01:05 PM

[bustagut]

[righton]

markzebra · 08-29-2002, 03:52 PM

Nice one Mark! What is it thats so irresistable about glass orbs and objects anyway?

Thought I'd give it a try, its a good technique ? I tried out some some marbling effects too.

Blinky2004 · 08-29-2002, 07:27 PM

ooo ya nice job Mark.
I like that background.

Hey try adding a reflection of the room/environment that the sphere might be in. The reflection would cover the entire visible surface of the sphere, and be distorted to match the orb's surface shape.

That's the cool thing with this effect... because of it's simplicty, it's real easy to create/apply another effect "inside" the sphere.

I personally think this kind of effect is very popular because of the 3D quality achieved. Everyone likes to do 3D, it makes them feel like they're actually creating something that's "real" -- or realistic. And the orbs are one of the easiest things to do this with.

People should also try creating other 3D shapes though too - boxes, pyramids, octagons, etc... And make them look as realistic as they can. These shapes will also teach people a lot about being resourceful and creative with the tools Photoshop has. Each shape will present it's own set of problems, and therefore, each will give a person more knowledge than the one before.

It's a good "Path" to follow.

jpfitness · 08-29-2002, 11:35 PM

looks like everyone is having so much fun that I think I had better book this one in for Sunday as this is the first day that I have free [confused] he he he wonder what mischief I can get up to ha ha ha
sfm

shem · 08-30-2002, 02:52 AM

Here's my attempt...

Rich

Blinky2004 · 08-30-2002, 03:35 AM

Ooo NOW we're talkin'! hahaa [righton]

Very nice job Rich. Great floor texture, and nice job too on the distortion of the floor through the sphere, and the perspective aspects too.

Excellent!

[size=18px]Let's explore part of this effect shall we?...[/size]
I'd like to take this opportunity to bring up a good point about spherical distortions...

Does anyone own a clear glass orb/sphere? I do. It's about 2"x2". And as i look through it while it's sitting on a tiled texture (or even when holding it above my keybaord), i'm noticing that the very center of the distorted tile surface is VERY stretched out, for lack of a better word.
It's like when you apply the Spherize filter 5 or 6 times, until the center area gets REALLY big and stretched. Try it!

The only time that the underlying surface texture/tile does NOT get that stretched out looking/distorted, is when you lift the sphere off the surface. The further away the sphere gets from the surface, the clearer and less distorted the tile/texture becomes. But then there's one more VERY important thing to take note of... the image refracted/magnified through the glass is upside down! And so are the reflections seen on the sphere's surface!

So for instance, with Rich's example, showing the orb sitting right on the tiles floor like that... the tiles would not be distinguishable at all. All you'd see is a blurred out bunch of over-stretched lines. Almost not even worth putting in huh?

So... knowing this now... let's see some more examples shall we!? [righton]