Making an Object Transparent

Glass tutorial

by Simon Rudd

In this tutorial you will learn how to make a glass object from a photo

1. First find a photo with an interesting object in it. I got this from sxc.hu

2. Copy the object from the photo and place it on a new layer

3. Hide layer one by clicking the eye next to the layer. Name the new layer object and duplicate it by pressing Ctl (Cmd) + J

4. Hide the object layer, click object copy and rename it edges. 

Make a new layer and fill it with a gradient from gray (B0AAAA) to black (000000) fill it with noise set to 2

Drag the gradient layer below the object layer

5. Click the edges layer, go to Filter >>Stylize>>Find Edges

6. Invert the edges layer by pressing control + I, desaturate (image>>adjustment>>desaturate) and set blending mode to Screen

7. Make a new layer, control and click the edges layer to get the outline (marching ants) . On the new layer fill it with blue (00AEEF) set the fill to 5% (more if you need it) so it looks like this

8. Make another new layer and control and Click the edges layer (same as step 7). On the new layer fill it with black (000000). 

Name this layer Shadow

Control + T on the shadow layer, right click and select distort. Drag the black object down to create a shadow – set the opacity to 50%, Gaussian Blur 9 pixels

Drag the shadow layer below the object layer but above the gradient layer

9. Make a new layer

Press D, to choose default colours then X to switch the background and foreground colours.

Control click the edges layer – on the new layer trace a line of white down one edge on the object.

Add a large white spot further down from the line

Set opacity to 50% 

Gaussian Blur 9 pixels

10. Finally add a 1 pixel blur to the edges layer to remove any sharp unwanted parts

extra ideas…..

If you want you can place something behind the object to give it a bit of perspective 

smudge any large amounts of lines you feel doesn’t fit into the picture.

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial – please feel free to contact me at Mail@simonrudd.info if you have any questions or wish to show me what you’ve made

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Thank you Simon, another excellent tutorial!

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Tomorrow, restorationist Janine Smith will be back with us, we’ll see you then!

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