SC4 Devotion Forum Archives

Hi! Since our good friend Joan (Jmouse) wrote :

Quote from: Jmouse on December 04, 2008, 02:50:33 PM
]I've often wondered how to make reflections in the water but never took the time to figure it out.

I decided to do a quick and easy tutorial about the specific subject in my MD.
After doing that Robin (rooker1) suggested that I add it to the tutorial section so I am doing that.

So without further ado, here it is:



As logic says, we first need to open Photoshop (btw. for this one I am using Adobe Photoshop 7.0) and a picture that we want to play with:


When that is done, we select Lasso Tool (the shortcut "L") :


You could also use the Magnetic Lasso Tool but sometimes , usualy when there are treetops covering a portion of water it is tricky to use that, I personaly prefer the regular laso.

With the Lasso Tool selected we then outline the portion of the picture that we want to manipulate all around so that it looks somewhat like this:


That was the trickiest and possible the hardest part. Now we go to Filter -> Disort and choose (a funny part) Glass:


A small window pops up, with a preview and sliders etc. meaning it is time to play :


The first thing to do in that window is changing the Texture from whatever is there to Frosted. Consider that a "must". After that you simply play with Distortion, Smoothness and Scaling sliders to achieve the look that you are searching for. Every time that you move one or another slider, the preview picture changes. After you are satisfied with the look you logicaly press OK and you are done:


If you wish, you can of-course go on and add some trees reflections to the water (or bridge, buildings etc...).

After using a Lasso Tool and selecting the area that you want to change you use the Eydroper tool and select the green color of the trees you want to reflect:


With that done, you switch to Brush Tool  (set the Opacity to around 36% (it is mostly the matter of taste) ) and paint some greens on the outlined surface:


The more precisely you do this better the effect. In this particular example I am not precise at all.

When you are satisfied with the coloring you simply go to Filter -> Disort and choose Glass and repeat the steps afterwards. The resoult should look somewhat like this:


I hope that you will find this easy enough and helpful.

Pretty easy man!Thanks!! :thumbsup:

Karin this is a wonderful Tut!!! I hope RL is taking good care of you and your family!!! See you back on soon....

damm i have a problem here...i can't do it with PS CS3...can u make on for it?

Luke, Karin is MIA atm due to some RL issues... Hopefuly someone who uses CS3 can stop in here and help out!!!