In this challenge you can use photos for reference, but none can be used for the actual image. You must create the image from scratch. Be sure to include your steps, as this will be a great way to pick up some new techniques.

Challenge:
Create a photorealistic glass. It can be a drinking glass, a wine glass, a vase and so on. If you need some tips there are some great tutorials out on the web.

When you've got your entry, just reply to this thread. Attach your file to your post (no URLs, please). Don't forget to include an excellent description on how you did it.

As always, this Challenge doesn't expire, ever.

This one is a simple try at making a frosted glass. I found plenty of tutorials for making glass, some for making glass transparent. In fact, one for making glass transparent comes with PhotoshopCS. But I wanted something different.

Created the glass shape by using the rectangular tool, and the elipse tool. Stroked both with a 1 pixel stroke.

Transformed the tumbler to a more tumbler like shape.
Merged layers.
Selected shape
Applied (and this was the easy part :) ) one of the clear button styles that comes bundled with Photoshop. Adjusted the settings and color of said style.
Adjusted layer opacity. Deselected tumbler.
Added a layer below the tumbler.
Added a fill color to the layer, Added a gradient to the layer for effect. Still wasn't satisfied, so I added a pattern fill. Adjusted the opacity of this layer.
Added vignette.

cool :hat: it seems to me like it lacks bottom, but the top half is very nicely done :nod:

Nicely done Janet and excellent description! Also extra points for being the first to post an entry! :)

I like the frosted look, but agree with JustChecking that you are missing the bottom of the glass. Just duplicate the oval that you did for the top and transform and adjust opacity and perhaps hue accordingly. Great work! :D

P.S. I really like the pattern background...lovely wallpaper or faux painted look.


~T

Where did the bottom go? That is the question. LOL the phone rang just as I was going to post; by the time I got back I was just distracted enough that I forgot to look and see if all the layers I needed were open. I must have accidentally flattened (and saved :( darn it) the tumbler without that layer. It was there in the original. I promise.

Why don't I get a life? Giggle.

Janet

I think the frosted glass is a really good idea, and I agree that the bottom looks "funny" somehow. Ah well,this isn't easy.

Take for example this offering that took me the last three hours. I did it with the GIMP. Sorry. :pleased:

1. Create the bowl, stem, base and backside of glass in seperate layers and paths. Fill with white.

2. Copy and combine all the layers except the backside of the glass rim.

3. Duplicate the glass image. Select it and fill it with a nice golden-brown color (I used hex #b88432). Turn this layer's visibility off for now.

4. Make the white object active and Gausian blur (RLE) about 5 px.

5. Turn on the brown object's visibility and bump map it against the white object. Give it a depth of about 30.

6. Select the brown object and shrink the selection 3 px. Feather that selection 2 px.

7. In the Curves adjustment, choose the Alpha channel and move the anchor in the upper-right corner down to about 25%. This will make the brown object transparent while leaving a dark rim around the shape to define the edge. DO NOT CANCEL THE SELECTION! We're not done with it yet.

8. Duplicate the brown object and delete the contents of the selection to clear out the middle of the image. We are done with the selection now, so cancel it.

9. Activate the layer containing the last copy we made of the brown image. Invert the color to produce a transparent blue figure. The shade of brown you chose will determine the shade of blue that you get, but we can change that in a minute.

10. Repeat the process on the layer containing the backside of the rim. We will need to finesse it a bit with some handwork to account for perspective (this piece is farther from our eye) and transparency.

11. There is some handwork involved in patching some small spots where the stem meets the bowl and the base and painting highlights. Use an airbrush and go lightly at the ends of the stem until it looks right. Highlights need to be fairly hard, crisp and dense. (If you look really close at my example, you can see a drop of good Merlot in the bottom of the glass.)

12. Paint in a drop shadow. Clear the inside with a large, soft eraser. Reduce the visibility until it looks right.

13. Change the hue and saturation to taste.

14. create a background and populate with whatever looks natural. And don't forget a little lens effect on the background behind the glass. You may also add a reflection by mapping an image to a sphere and pasting it over the glass with a very low opacity.

I agree the bottom looks funny. I really did forget to include the layer I needed. So...I went back and recreated the glass bottom again. Hope this one is a bit more realistic.

Ditto for instructions above in first post.

I'm humbled. My "easy" frosted glass tumbler just waiting for a nice cold soft drink at the end of the day and your WOW decanter with all those steps. If there were an icon with the little smiley taking his hat off to you, I'd use it; but this one will do. :bow: :bow:

Aw shucks Janet, t'wernt nothin'. The glass was pretty easy, but that cork -- THERE'S a work of art! :-)

Now, your glass looks much better, but there's this optical illusion going on so that my mind wants to see the glass from the top and from the bottom at the same time.

Would it be possible to go back and blur or "frost" or somehow seperate the backside of the glass bottom that you just added?

Do you understand what I'm trying to say (with the Dallas v. Minnesota game on in the background)?

Keep up the good work.

Mark,

I’m so glad that you tried this challenge. I hope that you tackle some of the other Studio challenges as well.

First off, you created a beautiful scene and extra points for such a descriptive explanation of your steps! The wine glass is very well done complete with sparkle and shadow. I love the marble tabletop and the cork truly is a piece of art. My one complaint is that the cork must have come from one heck of a bottle as it looks rather large when compared to the wine glass…although I have seen those MEGA bottles at restaurants (grin). Perhaps if you made the wine glass just a tad taller and wider the proportions would even out. Just a thought. Excellent entry!

I've attached a quick example of what I mean...


~T

Janet,

Kudos for resubmitting! I agree with Mark that the glass is still playing tricks with your eye perspective-wise. Try lightening and blurring the back portion of the black oval on the bottom of the glass and perhaps add just a hint of highlight on the front oval on bottom as well as the entire oval on the top. Perspective is always a challenge!


I've attached a quick example of what I mean.

~T

Thanks for looking TPaul. I vote for a smaller cork.

As for Janet's glass, your edit looks better. I think it looks much better and my head doesn't swim as much when I look at it.

Mark

Hopefully no offense at the edits...just suggestions and an easier way to show what I mean. I am learning just like everyone else.

~T

Mark,

Did you use noise to create the cork's texture? Love the extra detail of the wet side and the dry side.

Mark,

Did you use noise to create the cork's texture? Love the extra detail of the wet side and the dry side.

The cork was a rectangle filled with a "corkboard" pattern, but by the time I scaled it (too large!), put the text on it, capped the end with a foreshortened disk of "corkboard", warped a little bulge on the dry end, applied a gradient to make it look 3D and stained the wet end, I had no cork grain left. It was just a light brown cylinder with a funky taper.

So yes, noise and motion blur.

BTW, I never find the edits offensive. Half the fun of this stuff is taking existing images and playing with them. Did you ever play Photoshop ping-pong?

Did you ever play Photoshop ping-pong?

No, sounds interesting. I wonder if it is like Art Tag (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2855). PM me the basic rules. Perhaps it is something I can set up here.

Too funny about the optical illusion. That was on purpose folks. Notice how the glass seems to be floating? It isn't standing on anything. There is no reference point behind it to give one the idea that it might be against a wall or whatever. The glass is just floating around.

Yes, I could have given it different lighting or put ice cubes in it or...but I didn't. Tis just my idea of weird for the day.

Janet

Yup, Tag Art is like Photoshop ping-pong for teams. I'll have to get in on one of those Art Tag thingies.

Thanks.

Mark

Too funny about the optical illusion. That was on purpose folks. Notice how the glass seems to be floating? It isn't standing on anything. There is no reference point behind it to give one the idea that it might be against a wall or whatever. The glass is just floating around.

Yes, I could have given it different lighting or put ice cubes in it or...but I didn't. Tis just my idea of weird for the day.

Janet

Well good on yah! Weirdness is welcomed, and you got to love a floating glass..harder to knock over and spill ;)
~T

Yup, Tag Art is like Photoshop ping-pong for teams. I'll have to get in on one of those Art Tag thingies.

Thanks.

Mark

Love to have you play a round of Art Tag. Always looking for new players! Subsribe to the Next Round of Art Tag (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6352) thread to keep current on upcoming rounds. Next round is 16 Sep. PM me if you'd like to play!

If the glass floats and doesn't tip over, does that mean I can call it a sippy cup?

Oops no. Then I'd have to create one of those little sippy things. Duh!
:)

Janet, you've worked hard and you deserve a nice cold glass of root beer. Here, put some frost on this.

Too funny Mark. That's some extra fizzy root beer!

~T

Nobody likes flat root beer. :-)

True, very true! What's the half-life on that brand? I don't think the fizz will give out any time soon. ;)

You should have seen it before I toned it down. It did look radioactive! :lmao:

I'm so glad I "popped" in here one last time tonight. Mark, you gave me the best laugh of the day. That glass looks like it belongs in the Halloween challenge next to the witch's cauldron. :lol: :lol: Remind me to add it when I finish the great makeup job I'm giving myself for that challenge.

Bottoms up...but not THAT rootbeer,

Janet

P.S. The plastic ice cubes are a great touch!!!

Hey Janet, can I put "our" glass of whatever this concoction is in the gallery on my website? I'll give you credit.

Mark

Okay, so why didn't anybody pick up on the fact that there is no reflection of the cork in my image?

Hmmm?

And what about the shape of that reflection? I'm pretty much stumped on it.

Mark

Double Double Boil and Trouble...

Continuing the saga of our frosty glass. Enjoy

Smoke courtesty of a warped imagination. Water drops courtesy of warped realism.

Have fun folks.

Remind me not to drink anything at either one of you guys' parties ;)

Okay here is mine. This was completely drawn by hand in Corel Draw 8. I was following a tutorial from the Corel Draw Studio Techniques book by David Huss and Gary Priester.

Basically it is a lot of ellipses, circles and rectangles with different fills.

Bowl:
Took a large circle and broke it into parts. Then used ellipses to create the rim, top of wine and top of glass.

Stem:
Basically just a rectangle that was then distorted. Made several duplicated and transformed the shapes slightly to create the different fills.

Base:
Again several ellipses and a lot of different fills.

Once done, brought into PhotoShop and added and few sparkles and drop shadow.

Not thrilled with the jaggies on the curves....tried blurring and sharpening but didn't like the results. Make sure you view the largest version as their are lots of jaggies in the smaller view.

Mmmm, more drops. Make it sweat!

TPaul, very nice. The proportion is great and the use of gradients is very realistic. I notice the glass tends toward the green end of the spectrum. Was that a choice or just a default that showed up in PS?

Either way it's very, very realistic, and just good looking.

Thanks Mark! How about this?

As for the green...just following the tutorial.

T.Paul, your photorealism manipulations are amazing. The glass and contents look remarkably realistic. I even like the little starry sparkle you put on the rim. I noticed you did that on the corrected version of the frosted glass.

Now how about telling us how many hours it took you to do it? I noticed it was posted near 1:00 a.m. :) I was snoozin' away and only dreamin' about photo manipulations when you were actually working hard to learn and implement more.

GREAT JOB as usual.

Janet

Thanks Janet...actually it didn't take too much time. That 1am post has since been redone. I was still up researching and read Mark's request for some water drops so I quickly added them. When I looked at it this morning I thought the bowl's rim was a bit wide so I redid it and played around with the water drops again while I was at it.

As for the original post, the bowl was just a few circles and ellipses so in a few clicks it was done. The stem was a bit more time consuming with all the shapes but not too bad. I did the bowl quickly one night and concentrated developing the rest the next night. I haven't played with photorealism before so I am having fun learning!

As for the little sparkles...I got the brushes from the Adobe Exchange (http://share.studio.adobe.com/Default.asp).

~T

T... Good work

An observation. Your glass is quite good. Looking at glass filled with liquid I notice that the bottom of the bowl is often thicker than the walls gradually thickening as they rise. Perhaps you could adjust the fill layer so the glass would show clear at the bottom giving it a little thickness. I believe that would would give it a more photorealistic look.

... my .20 cents worth [adjusted for inflation] ... Kent

Nice observation Kent. I knew something about the bowl was bothering me. I'll give it a try.

~T

I still think it looks quite good. As Kent points out there is an issue with the bottom of the bowl. The problem I see is that there is no transition from the stem to the bowl. There should be thickness in the transition between stem and bowl because this object is made by extruding glass form one structure to the other. As is, it appers the stem is simply butted up against the bottom of the bowl and glued there somehow. There should be a gob of glass that represents the material for the stem becoming the material for the bowl. Look at how the bottom of the stem transitions into the base. You nailed that part.

I think the green color looks perfectly natural and goes well with the red liquid. I just tend to think more bluish for thin glass -- the green stuff is typically thick and cheap. :happy:

Sorry I have't been around. I've got some personal business to tend to and my Halloween mask project for the Challenge forum is sucking in water and going down rapidly.

Gotta' run. Back tomorrow. :happy:

Resubmittal...turned the glass a bit to the blue scale and added a bit of glass to connect the stem to the bowl.

Okay, so why didn't anybody pick up on the fact that there is no reflection of the cork in my image?

Hmmm?

And what about the shape of that reflection? I'm pretty much stumped on it.

Mark

Well Mark for good measure I set up a wine glass a cork, and guess what...I didn't see any reflections of the cork in the wine glass. Well there was a very small speck, but basically nothing. Now objects at bowl level or higher did show more of a reflection than those below it.

I played around quickly with the photo and came up with this….but it still doesn't seem right.

Well Mark for good measure I set up a wine glass a cork, and guess what...I didn't see any reflections of the cork in the wine glass. Well there was a very small speck, but basically nothing. Now objects at bowl level or higher did show more of a reflection than those below it.

I played around quickly with the photo and came up with this….but it still doesn't seem right.

I could be easily convinced that a cork casts no such reflection.

I've done a little work on the highlights and shadows and I'm calling this one "done". Here is a final repost.

Thanks for all the help folks. Now I don't know aobut you, but I'm ready to move on. :-)

Not on a par with the other images here but I thought I'd post it anyway.

Started with an outline of the glass shape, used motion blur to soften the outline then smudged in the shading. Duplicated and did different layer blends to get the final result.

Christine

Not on a par with the other images here but I thought I'd post it anyway.
Christine

Not on par huh....Christine this is not a competition or comparision so please never hesitate to submit something. This site is about learning and sharing techniques so all levels are welcomed.

While your image might not be a true photorealistic image, it has a nice arty quailty. I especially like the smudging of the shadows and highlights. Very nice results! When you say you worked from an outline, did you take a photo and use it as a tracing source or did you create the outline by hand?

Kudos on your entry and I hope to see more. :)


~T

I just drew the outline using a glass for reference.

Christine

Very nicely done! I need to use things as a reference as well. I'm not as strong drawing images from my head...need to see something to really create an accurate drawing. You should give some of the other challenges a try, hint, hint. :)

~T

I agree this is a well drawn figure. You've got the outline and shape looking very good. I think that in the interest of "photorealism" it might be improved a bit.

The glass that makes up the object looks really thick. The line that defines the rim of the glass looks very heavy. Also, the highlights and shadows appear to be roughly the right shape and in the right locations. As drawn figures they are fine, but would they look more natural if they were actually produced with gradients and burning/dodging over a 50% gray layer?

Again, I think this is a fine looking figure. You've done a truly wonderful job of rendering the shape and roughing in the highlights and shadows that seem to be the key to making these transparent things. It would thrill me to see you get it looking like a transparent 3D object. How about reposting it with a much lighter line defining the rim?

Just curious.

Mark

Christine,

Mark has some good suggestions. The dark band around the top of the glass doesn't bother me however, as it could be coloring added to the glass. I have a parfait glass that looks exactly like this except that the band is gold. I do agree that the rim as well as the base could be a little thinner in thickness.

I’d love you to try Mark's suggestions as your image is almost there. You just need to soften up the rough edges and work on adding a bit more transparency.

Keep up the good work!


~T

Good point T. Making that black line a cleverly highlighted/shadowed gold gradient would look spiffy. It might also improve realism in this case. I'd love to see it.

Mark

I didn't use PS for this challenge. I recently purchased illustrator and have been trying to learn to use the gradient mesh. Almost everything was built with this tool.

Kent

I didn't use PS for this challenge. I recently purchased illustrator and have been trying to learn to use the gradient mesh. Almost everything was built with this tool.

Kent
Absolutely perfect! please tell more about this gradient mesh.

Absolutely perfect! please tell more about this gradient mesh.
Nancy...

I will try. There are two types of mesh tools in AI, the "warp mesh" and the "gradient mesh" which are the same but different. The gradient mesh tool has been around since AI 8 as far as I can discern. It lends itself to very subtle and natural shading. It is made up of "mesh points" which can be of any color. Further each point has direction arrows which control how far the colors bleed into each other. You can add as many mesh points as you need with the results being simple to very complicated. You can move the mesh points to any position you want.

For the water glass image I used the mesh tool in layers [many many layers in AI]. The bubbles are all done with the mesh tool and turned into "symbols" and added as a "symbol set".

I have seen some artwork on the web where they showed the outlines of the artwork but I have yet to figure out how to do it. I have added another image which shows a simple example of the mesh only on the base of the lightbulb.

Here is a very simple tutorial on the gradient mesh. http://www.magicalbutterfly.com/tutorials/meshtutorial/meshtutmain.htm If you google 'gradient mesh tutorial' you will find a lot of them.

There are quite a few others on the web from simple to using meshes to do portraiture which I am trying to get down. If you promise not to laugh I will show you a work in progress. The face is made up of several meshes and I am having trouble getting them to seam together without a line.

Kent

Punch,

Love the glass! Excellent work!!

~T

No a glass exactly but glasses. I took things one step further and not only does it have no photos but no photo references either.

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=25696

I hope this counts.

I didn't use PS for this challenge. I recently purchased illustrator and have been trying to learn to use the gradient mesh. Almost everything was built with this tool.

Kent

Great Job Kent. The Gradient Mesh can be a real bear to use. I played around with it for a while but lost interest pretty quickly. This is the best I could do with it. The only advantage I can really see is the editablitly and scalability but I don't know if it's worth the amount of points and tweaks necessary.

Kudos on the glass though. Excellent job.

This is my glass that was made with no 3D programs. I used pen tool, more and more times, I adjusted curvatures, adding layers style> shadows, bevel and emboss, color gradient on the body of glass, adding brushes to simulate mineral water, textures to background... Regards.

No a glass exactly but glasses. I took things one step further and not only does it have no photos but no photo references either.

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=25696

I hope this counts.


Counts... good work.

Kent

Punch - I have used Illustrator on and off for years I never would have thought to do this glass challenge with it so I have to say hat s off excellent job. Very nice tutorial link as well. I also use 3D render/animation tools so I guess I jump straight to them when doing this kind of thing, sometimes we have to challenge ourselves to use other tools to achieve different results. Excellent work. I think if that was then taken to photoshop and a background added you would get some high levels of realism.

Goose what did you use to do the glasses? Great image.

Goose what did you use to do the glasses? Great image.

Thanks Creeduk. I just used Photoshop. Sometimes I'll start off in Illustrator though if I remember correctly this one is just Photoshop and my head.

Hi Oltenius....Just looking through the forum and came across your beautiful glass....its lovely...well done...

Patricia.... :pleased:

Hi Oltenius....Just looking through the forum and came across your beautiful glass....its lovely...well done...

Patricia.... :pleased:

Patricia, Thank you! But where is Johnny Walker? :wavey:

Dan

Oltenius...Think Johnnie Walker is in the distillery????? Where else?

Patricia... :normal:

Oltenius...Think Johnnie Walker is in the distillery????? Where else?

Patricia... :normal:

Hm! I think you must to do a relation between my glass and Johnnie! :classic: Johnnie is a friend of mine but with... measure :dizzy:

Dan

Nice one Oltenius.....so you like a measure of the hard stuff???

Patricia.... :lol:

Well, ...think I'm a normal man! :oldman:
- Dan - :lol:

Otenius...Like a little topped up with dry ginger...

Patricia... :)

Thanks Creeduk. I just used Photoshop. Sometimes I'll start off in Illustrator though if I remember correctly this one is just Photoshop and my head.


That is pretty damn cool then, very nice.

Here (http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=17485179)'s the post for more details. :)