Friday, January 25, 2008

Reflection

This is a very cool effect which will give you this.

Basically, it allows your text or picture to have a reflection. In this tutorial, I have used the word 'chocolate'. =)

1. Open a new canvas. (Ctrl-N) The size, background settings, etc. doesn't really matter.

2. Write in whatever text you wish.


3. Duplicate that text layer. (Ctrl-J)


4. Right click the duplicated layer on the layer's palette and select 'Resaterize Type'


5. On the duplicated layer on the layer's palette and selected, go to Edit >> Transform >> Rotate 180. Then, Edit >> Transform >> Flip Horizontal. Move the layer until it is below the original text layer.


6. Of course, that doesn't look like much of a reflection. So, change the opacity of your reflection layer to 10% (or depending on your graphic).


7. Looks better, doesn't it? But we aren't quite done. Still on the reflection layer, go to Edit >> Transform >> Prespective.


8. Then, while holding the Ctrl key on your keyboard, drag the square of the bottom-right corner of the box that just formed around your text down a bit. As much
as you like. But not too much.


9. Next, click the eraser tool in the tools palette. A box will pop up asking "Apply Transformation?" or something along those lines. Select 'Apply'.

10. Choose a soft, round, large brush. Change the opacity of your eraser (at the top options bar) as you like. I like to start with 60% and go down to
20%.

11. Erase parts of the reflection so that it looks more like a reflection.

Voila! Your text has a reflection! Don't worry if it looks kind of funny the first time. But later, after you experiment a bit, you'll grasp it. Now, you can apply it to different graphics. So, good luck and have fun!



This is another example of this technique. I used this in a poster for justm3.

Clickie