Di's Delights PSP8 Glass Bowl Tutorial

PSP8 Glass Bowl

This tutorial has been written for PSP8.

By doing this tutorial you agree to my terms of use.

Tools you will need here
Extract the jpg files to My Documents - My PSP8 Files - Bump Maps.
The PSP script files to My Documents - My PSP8 Files - Presets.

Any similarity to other tutorials on the net are purely coincidental. My aim is to encourage you to play, make your own bump maps and to experiment to see what you can come up with.

I have played for a few hours making my own bump maps to use in PSP8's Balls and Bubbles effect. My aim was to make cut glass. It was time consuming and a bit hit and miss but hopefully this tutorial will encourage you to play and to come up with your own glass bowl, rose bowl, let your imagination run wild. 1. Open a new image 300x300. Create a new layer named glass front. Get the selection tool , circle, replace, feather 0, antialias checked. Start at the center of your image and draw out a circular selection. Look to the bottom left of your screen at the X & Y co-ordinates, they need to be x:150, y:150. Effects - Artistic Effects - Bubbles and Balls, apply the di glass bowl preset. Ctrl+D. Duplicate the layer, rename to glass back. Image - Flip. Layer - Arrange - Move down.
2. With the selection tool, change to ellipse. Starting at the center of your image, x:150, y:150, draw out a narrow selection taking it to the edge of your glass ball. Selections - Promote to layer. Rename to rim.
3. Still with the selection, make it so that only the glass back layer is visible. Selections - Invert. Working on this layer, use the eraser , hardness, density, thickness and opacity 100, size and shape to suit you, carefully erase above the top of the ellipse.
4. Still with the selection. Make the glass front layer active and the only layer visible, carefully erase below the bottom of the ellipse. Selections - Invert, erase inside the ellipse.
5. Still with the selection. Make the rim layer active and visible. Selections - Modify - Contract by 4. Delete. Ctrl+D. Effects - 3D Effects - Inner Bevel, apply the di glass bowl preset. And there you have your glass bowl. If you wish to put something into the bowl, create a new layer above the glass back layer for your contents. You may need to duplicate the rim layer, make it so that it is above the glass back layer, go back to the top rim layer and erase what would be the back of the rim............................clear as mud????..................good :o) OK, now you know how to make the bowl lets experiment. I found with the bump maps for the Bubbles and Balls effect worked best on a black background. The best size image to play with was around 700x700 pixels. I used a long, narrow elliptical shape, locked the transparency of the layer, and applied a cutout to fade the edges. Copied and pasted and played with the angle. You could try some dingbat fonts, applying a cutout to fade the edges. Open my di crystal9 image to have a look. You will notice the top half of the image is not an exact flip. This is intentional. If you play with shapes at the bottom of your image, duplicate and flip when it comes to making your glass bowl there will be no difference between the front and the back of the glass once you have completed step 1. So the top and the bottom must be off from each other. Use the di crystal7 jpg include in the zip. Try using size 60 in the maps tab. It gives a pretty good effect. While you are in Bubbles and Balls, click on the surface tab, have a play with the colour and opacity of the material. On the maps tab, play with the size, depth and smoothness. Go on to have a play with the illumination, change the colour of the lights, even add some more. Don't forget, if you get a result you're happy with.................save it!!!!! Go on, have a play and have some fun :o)

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