How to Create Glass Transparency in a Cute Photo Manipulation
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In this tutorial you’ll learn how to incorporate glass into your work. We’ll learn a good technique for incorporating glass transparency into photo manipulations, while placing a cute, pirate hamster on the high seas. Let’s start!
Tutorial Details
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- Program: Photoshop CS3
- Difficulty: Beginner
- Estimated Completion Time: 1 hour
Take a look at the image we’ll be creating.
Organizing the Stock Images
The final photo manipulation in the tutorial was created using the following stock-images:
- Ocean Sunset, by flordelys-stock
- Sky by causticstock
- Hamster in Bowl by linepotter-stock
- Shark by krayker
- Flag by dollieflesh-stock
- Pirate Hat by Mizzd-Stock
Step 1
I won’t insist on the easy parts because this is pretty obvious. First, open the two pictures that are going to form our next background and flip them horizontally (Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontally) and just place them like I did in the image. It’s not necessary to mask anything because the pictures fit just perfect one to the other.
Step 2
Now let’s give this background a dynamic sensation with the Warp Tool (Edit > Transform > Warp).
Step 3
Since the warp tool gives the image a flat look, we need to do some waves so go to Liquify (Filter > Liquify). Use the picture below as a reference for how the waves should look after manipulation with Liquify.
Step 4
Cut out the funny hamster with the Pen Tool and place them in the middle of the ocean.
Step 5
Go to Edit/Color Range and click on the lightest color in the image (the highlight on the glass). Arrange the fuzziness value like in the image below.
Step 6
Click OK on the Color Range dialog box and you will see the selection active. Then make sure you are on the glass layer and click Command + J to create a copy of the highlights from the glass. If you hide the glass layer your selection should look something as in the image below.
Step 7
Hit Command + D to make sure there is nothing selected, and then go on the glass layer and make a duplicate (Command + J) and lower the opacity of the copy layer to around 60% like in the image below. You will see the highlights are now sharp and white like on real glass not transparent and gray.
Step 8
Now we must bring the mouse back. You could use the Pen Tool and cut him out, but there is a faster way and the result is just as good. Bring the original glass layer in front of the highlights layer and glass copy layer. Make a mask and paint with black, leaving the mouse with white. Make sure you don’t go near the mouse with a soft edge brush.
Step 9
Select the three layers (“original glass,” “glass copy,” and “glass highlights”) and hit Command + E to merge the three layers. Then create a mask and mask the lower part of the glass so it looks like it’s underwater. If you are not very satisfied with the result, you can use a low opacity brush and mask some areas on the glass that you think should be more transparent.
Step 10
Add the flag. You will have to change the highlights on the flag pole. Select them like in the image below, hit Command + J and move the highlights to the left of the pole and then paint with a brown color (use the eyedropper on the pole) on the original highlights.
Step 11
Using the brush with a black color, make a shadow like in the image below and lower the opacity to 45%.
Step 12
Cut the pirate hat and arrange the size to fit on the head of the hamster (1). Then on a new layer just under the hat layer, paint some shadow on the head of the hamster using a soft edge and low opacity black brush (2). Then on a new layer in front of the hat layer paint some shadow on the hat, again using a low opacity and soft edge brush (3).
Step 13
In this step we will add the shark to make this image more funny. Cut out the shark’s fin and place it under the “hamster” layer. Cover it on the mask and paint a shadow with black on another layer. Set its opacity to 30-40%.
Step 14
Next cut out the sea behind the ball and place it like I did in the image. This is how the water is seen through a round glass like the ball
Step 15
Now let’s give this image a cool look with some filters and adjustment layers. First go to Adjustment Layers > Curves (Input 91 Output 41), then Erase the middle of the mask.
Apply an Adjustment Layers > Photo filter (orange at 30%).
Apply an Adjustment Layers > Gradient Map (Opacity at 60%).
Apply an Adjustment Layers > Hue/Saturation (Saturation at +57).
Apply an Adjustment Layers > Color Balance (Levels at -19, -16, and -34).
Step 16
Grab the Smudge Tool (strength at 90% and brush size 2-4 px), and start smudging the hamster’s fur like I did below.
Step 17
Go to Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur (6 px) and change the blending mode to Soft Light. Use the image below as a reference for how the layer mask should look for this step.
Step 18
Go to Filters > Blur > Radial Blur and use the settings in the image below. Click OK, lower the Opacity of the zoom layer to 50 and mask it in the center. This will give the image some light dynamics.
Conclusion
The final image is below.
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why…. are the tutorials on this website falling in quality… It’s depressing now.
At least its better than the “print ready flyer” thing. But yh i know what you mean.
maybe quality of website doesn’t falling down but quality of your graphics skills just rising up a little :)
agree
People need fast cash so they make an average tutorial. But I can’t say bad things on this one because I like the final product.
i agree but there are good tuts and they fade away after a week.
Taking a photo of something that is glass and making it transparent and work on a new background is something that a LOT of people don’t know how to do. Props to Alexandro for making it look easy.
Yeah I agree, the final outcome might not be the best but the tutorial shows some nice techniques!
indeed the quality of tutorials is falling but i agree with mike too .
Yeah, the quality does vary a lot. This tut isn’t THAT great, but it’s still okay. You gotta rememeber some people want to learn this sort of thing, where as others don’t. Therefore, some tutorials appeal to some people more than others.
That is true. But they aren’t really creating any advanced tutorials like a magazine does… and im paying more monthly for this website then i could for advanced photoshop. So I would like to see some skills that do take you to another level. Right now the tutorials they are making are good for some but really who would want to make that as a graphics project or something… I’m sure the skills involved in learning how to do it will allow people to do greater things but… i dont know i just think psdtuts is starting to materialise on anything.
I like the final, but the tut was very brief. that’s okay though, because it doesn’t have to be long to tell you what you need to do.
Me too
i would add some water drops on the glass… this looks “statically” in the storm around…
i agree
well its different at least lol much better than the print ready , and i would do something with the flag its too sharp tho, but well its for beginners so i think its ok , gj dreamer
i really like that!!
thanks
Seems like you forgot to mask out his right leg…
” # Difficulty: Beginner
# Estimated Completion Time: 1 hour ”
-> BAWW Its too easy and too short…
Get your head out your ass – the tutorial does what it promises in the title:
“How to Create Glass Transparency”
And if a ‘begginer’ showed me this level of imagination/skill in PS then I’d be impressed (Not implying the author’s a begginer, but thats what the tut was aimed at.)
A good fun tutorial, more like this pleash.
Have a [+]
I totally agree.
Its free! Thx for it!
the bowl wouldn’t float in the top of the water
but pirate hamsters do sail the open seas. . . right?
yeah i know
It’s not the fact that hamsters go pirating (or don’t!), it’s that you should at least try to make it look as real as possible, physically, so paying attention to aspects, physics etc is so important. You’re trying to make people “believe” the picture.
I like the end result..the tut is also well done in my oppinion. Nice technique on the transparant glass thing.
One thing: Step 14.. why don’t you do the same on the shark? Or is it too for that? just a thought….
Thanks! That helped me alot.. i just set the opacity down then used the dodge tool for the highlights.. always looked like crap at the end lol.
I still don’t understand why people are complaining about the quality of the tutorials. I don’t know how many times it’s been said that the tutorials are to show a certain technique and NOT make a wow-fantastic-nice-award-winning-picture.
The tutorials a made so that you can use the technique in your OWN pieces and not make a copy. Whats the fun about that?
Stop crying, this is a good tut. There are some good, useful techniques that not everybody knows but could always come handy, like this glass thing.
People come here to learn, not everyone is a pro ..
On the other side, techniques should be explained not only for their application in the tutorial, but as techniques in general. Like values in adjustements are not appliable everytime. I’d like to see tuts where they actually explain why they chose those numbers.
I still managed to learn something, thanks !
I did’t get all the bluring part.. Could you explain what effect they where intended to produce ?
Nice tut, but the result would look much more realistic if the hamster bowl was actually IN the water, not floating right above it…
just my opinion anyway ;)
Yeah, I thought that too. The point of the tut is kind of cool, but the bowl is just… floating there…
it’s true! ;)
the bowl is too straight and too afloat!
perhaps even the light of the bowl match with the rest!
This is a good tut but the flag is an angle that looks like its floating in the bowl nothing is holding it and its leaning on nothing and its straight up make it look more realistic next time but thanks i learned something new
Very good tut. I don’t wish to be picky but is it a Hamster or mouse!!!!!
I agree about the Print-Ready Flier. But what’s wrong with this tutorial? The final result looks fine. At least to me. Great tutorial, the glass technique is very useful. D:
I definetly needed this one.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW
That is SOOO cute! haha wesome tut
Well it is true that tutorial is consisted out of mentioned and some pretty usefull tehniques.
On the other side, amoung some logical irreugularities mentioned above, i consider hampster selection method totaly inapropriate since edges are consisted of fur. Also since liquify filter is used author could explain at least wich tools he used to achieve that after look…
i haven’t read it. But it’s so cute……
this is for begginer and a good one. Some simple techniques that’s practicall. Nice work dreamer.
This is so amateurish it’s embarrassing. Talk about the blind leading the blind. The tutorials have been getting worse and worse, but this is just bad advice and bad art. I’m actually moved to comment, this is so disastrous, and wow, I’m cancelling my subscription.
…But seriously, what the hell?
1. Like people have said, fur selection, like hair selection, is best done using a channels mask.
2. Comping 101: objects must INTERACT with their environment– the bowl is sitting on the water like it’s a table, the flag pole has no visible effect on the glass and the bowl does not reflect in the water.
3. …Comping 101 restated: objects must make physical SENSE — the flagpole has no means of support. As with all fictions, to maintain the suspension of disbelief you must maintain an internal logic – we can buy a hamster wearing a pirate hat if physical laws like, uh, gravity, are present.
Man, this is the worst piece of crap I have seen for a long time. Newbies! Avert your eyes!
why don’t you do something like this and show us how it is done expert!!
…
..?!
No, you’re right, I’m probably just jealous. I’m green with envy. I couldn’t do any better. No human could. With what madness could I be afflicted to think otherwise? I see the light, geir b nystad, and thine eloquence shewed me to it.
God bless your cotton socks.
Finally something for begginers! :) Cool tutorial, thank you very much ^^
great technique
good work It’s very good
The quality of the tutorials is the same as always, but the creativity of the tutorials is failing.
I think the point was to show off the technique, not the outcome. That’s what I got from it.
Good for you! Someone who actually understands the point of a tutorial. Hurrah! :D
Well, this is a surrealistic image. The bowl is floating like that because the water is not water; it’s jelly. ¿OK? And there’s not gravity, that’s why the flag is in that angle :) Good tutorial.
it looks like some people feel some butthurt every time they comment.
“ZOMG tis gai got 150bucks fowr that shizzle?”
“Imaz can do sow much bettah”
if you have so much hate, there are more then enough ways to release that, I’d suggest you become an hero and save us all.
now onto some constructive commenting:
I like the tut, has some great techniques that I can use. keep the tuts comming!
Very cool.
I made this Tut with my dog. Look.
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/4411/imglascopy.png
That really is adorable… A great way to add a little more realism is to add some water droplets. Perhaps I should write a tut on how to do that.
Looks so lovely^^
i think this is a great tut, was wondering on how to do this with the glass, very nice.
Very nice, thanks!
“Subscribe to the Psdtuts+ RSS Feed for the best Photoshop tuts and articles on the web.”
photoshop.kingtutz.com is my new favorite. They don’t publish every single day but quality over quantity.
that place sucks
Great tut! I love how the color of the hamster was matched well with the background images. Furry cute animals are always a bonus too.
I like the final result. very cute, dynamic and creative.
It’s interesting to learn the techniques people use to solve problems. I’m not a beginner – but always learn something! Thanks for posting – and please – ignore the negative comments.
If you’re a photographer this might be an interesting technique to use.
Ha interesting concept. Very cute!
what you need to learn is the technique not the final result, well done mate
I like it very much! Thanks
I still don’t get what’s all the fuss about “this is poor tut” and things like that. I read about 90% of these tutorials and learned alot of things and when i tried i had different outcomes, lesser or better than the original image in the tut. The main idea is to learn something from it, not throw rocks at it.
So I say to you, Mr. Know-Everything-About-Nothing, what is the problem if the tutorial is good and explains in detail every step?
very good, I have shared this tutorial through my blog and on twitter :) thanks
yo this is mad hard
Nice Tutorial,It’s super