How to--photoshop crystal ball

tlee

Hello! I am looking for a tutorial on how to make a crystal ball with photoshop. I have found a tutorial for creating a sphere, and tried to modify it--see image below. However, it looks more like a bubble than a crystal ball. Any suggestions?

Rhuarc

Sorry I won't be any help, but I just wanted to say that is a cool looking shot!

tlee

Rhuarc wrote:

Sorry I won't be any help, but I just wanted to say that is a cool looking shot!

That's o.k. . I'll never deny anyone from giving me a compliment . Thanks!

jjbong

There are some tutorials on creating Christmas tree ornaments that might apply here:

http://www.dwphotoshop.com/photoshop/glassornaments.php
http://www.heathrowe.com/tuts/ornament.asp

I found one a few years ago when I was making a Christmas card (not
one of these - I lost the link), and it turned out nicely.

edgework

tlee wrote:

Hello! I am looking for a tutorial on how to make a crystal ball with photoshop. I have found a tutorial for creating a sphere, and tried to modify it--see image below. However, it looks more like a bubble than a crystal ball. Any suggestions?

Some things are missing from your sphere: transparency and refraction in particular. In addition, you have a combination of blurry and sharp reflections which create a confusing effect as to what kind of surface you have. A clear specular highlight in the upper left quadrant would help as well.

You might try running spherize filter, followed by the wave filter, on the petal behind the ball, then lay the interior flower on top. Group those two layers and mask witht the shape of the sphere. Then deal with the sphere itself, fixing the reflections and highlights. Once that's done, place it on top of the previous two layers and put it in overlay or hard light mode—I'm assuming you don't actually have a black background in the current sphere. If so, re work it so your background is transparent. That should help.

nikos

tlee wrote:

Hello! I am looking for a tutorial on how to make a crystal ball with photoshop. I have found a tutorial for creating a sphere, and tried to modify it--see image below. However, it looks more like a bubble than a crystal ball. Any suggestions?

To add to edgework's suggestion, another element is specular highlights. I simply used the dodge tool to blow the highlights at parts of the sphere.

tlee

jjbong wrote:

There are some tutorials on creating Christmas tree ornaments that might apply here:

http://www.dwphotoshop.com/photoshop/glassornaments.php
http://www.heathrowe.com/tuts/ornament.asp

I found one a few years ago when I was making a Christmas card (not
one of these - I lost the link), and it turned out nicely.

Thank you so much for those links.:D

tlee

edgework wrote:

Some things are missing from your sphere: transparency and refraction in particular. In addition, you have a combination of blurry and sharp reflections which create a confusing effect as to what kind of surface you have. A clear specular highlight in the upper left quadrant would help as well.

You might try running spherize filter, followed by the wave filter, on the petal behind the ball, then lay the interior flower on top. Group those two layers and mask witht the shape of the sphere. Then deal with the sphere itself, fixing the reflections and highlights. Once that's done, place it on top of the previous two layers and put it in overlay or hard light mode—I'm assuming you don't actually have a black background in the current sphere. If so, re work it so your background is transparent. That should help.

Thanks! This makes a lot of sense. I really appreciate it!:D

tlee

nikos wrote:

To add to edgework's suggestion, another element is specular highlights. I simply used the dodge tool to blow the highlights at parts of the sphere.

Thank You! I appreciate the example of the changes to my image. They really made a difference. I knew I was close to what I wanted to achieve, I just needed to be pointed in the right direction. Thanks a bunch!!:D