Reflective Chrome - Page 11

NAPP member Mark Monciardini (http://www.designsbymark.com) came up with his own twist on this effect, which appeared in the Photoshop 5.0/ 5.5 WOW! Book (By Jack Davis/ Linnea Dayton. Published by PeachPit Press). My thanks to Mark for letting me share his excellent Down and Dirty trick!

Wrapping Textures Around Objects If you ve ever wanted to wrap a texture around an object and have it hug every twist and turn like it was painted on, then take a good look at the effect on this and the following two pages. It uses the Distort Glass filter with a Displacement Map. The technique used in this effect is the same type of effect used to map a texture to an object. Take a look at Step Eight on the next page. See how the type seems to push out from the photograph? Instead of type, that would be your object pushing out. You would then put your object on a layer beneath that photograph, go to the photo layer again, and change the mode to either Multiply or Overlay (depending on the photo). Then all you have to do is trim the excess photo away, leaving just your object. Take a good look at the step-by-step that follows; at some point, it'll hit you, and you ll go, Oh, I get it.

STEP ONE: Open a new document in RGB mode. Press the letter d to reset your foreground color to black. Select the Type tool and create some large type. Hold the Command key (PC: Control key) , and in the Layers palette, click once on your Type layer to put a selection around your type. Go under the Select menu and choose Save Selection. When the dialog box appears, click OK. Delete your Type layer by dragging it to the trash can at the bottom of the Layers palette. Now you can press Command-D (PC: Control-D) to deselect.

STEP TWO: Go to the Channels palette, double-click on Alpha 1, name this new channel Original, and click OK. Drag this channel to the New Channel icon to make a duplicate. Double- click on this duplicate channel, name it Blurred, and click OK. Now, go under the Filter menu, under Blur, and choose Gaussian Blur. Enter 3.6 pixels and click OK (use a higher setting with larger or high-res images).

STEP THREE: Make a duplicate of the Blurred channel by dragging it to the New Channel icon. Double-click on it, name it Trimmed, and click OK. On the Trimmed channel, hold down the Command key (PC: Control key) and click on the Original channel to select it. Go under the Select menu and choose Inverse. Press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill the selected area with black.

STEP FOUR: You ll need to save the Trimmed channel as a separate file on your hard drive. Click on the Trimmed channel, and from the Channel palette s pop-down menu, choose Duplicate Channel. When the dialog box appears, under Destination/ Document choose New, and click OK. This channel will appear as a new document. Go under the File menu, choose Save As, and name this file Map. Save this file in Photoshop (PSD) format. You can now close the Map document.

STEP FIVE: Back in your original document, in the Layers palette, click on the Background layer. Deselect by pressing Command-D (PC: Control-D). Now you'll need to find an image to use as a reflection map for the text. Pictures of sky and ocean or sky and land work best, so think landscapes. Try to choose an image with detail as well (like trees, beach, weeds or rocks). In this example, we're using a beach shot.

STEP SIX: Open your landscape photo, then go under the Filter menu, under Blur, and choose Gaussian Blur. Enter 2.5 pixels, and click OK (use 6 for high-res images). Press the letter v to switch to the Move tool, then click-and-drag your landscape image into your main document.

STEP SEVEN: The reflection map needs to cover the entire image. If it doesn't, press Command-T (PC: Control-T) to bring up Free Transform. Hold the Shift key, grab a corner, and drag till it fills the entire window. Press Command-A (PC: Control-A) to select all, then under the Image menu, choose Crop. Press Command-D (PC: Control-D) to deselect.

STEP EIGHT: Go under the Filter menu, under Distort, and choose Glass. Set the Distortion to 20 and the Smoothness to 9. Under the Texture pop-up menu, choose Load Texture. Browse to the Map file you saved earlier on your hard drive and open it. Click OK to apply the Glass filter.

STEP NINE: Go under the Select menu and choose Load Selection. From the Channel pop-up menu, choose Original, and click OK. Inverse the selection by pressing Shift- Command-I (PC: Shift-Control-I). Press Delete on the keyboard (PC: Backspace) to remove the background surrounding your text. Deselect by pressing Command-D (PC: Control-D). Make a copy of your reflection map layer by dragging it to the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.

STEP TEN: Next, change the layer blend mode from Normal to Color Dodge from the pop-down menu. Lower the Opacity of this layer to about 30%. This gives it a bright shine. Lastly, click on the original reflection map layer, go under the Layer menu, under Layer Style, and choose Drop Shadow. Click OK to add a drop shadow and to complete the effect.

Doug's 5.5 Photoshop User Cover - Con't - Page 10
Photoshop 6 Down and Dirty Tricks
Airbrushed Chrome Gradient - Page 12