Advanced Reflection Maps

[Stroker]

Normally, I don't consider any of my Displace techniques as advanced. For this, I'm making an exception. The reason is two-fold. In Part I, you'll see one reason why.

Advanced Reflection Maps

So I recently got on a ramble about reflection maps and Displace. Yeah me. However, they are still kind of flat. What about doing reflection maps on more 3d-ish objects? Yes, I have set my sights on this subject. Been messing with it on/off for around a year or so. I did come up with something that I'm mostly happy with. It's a long journey and takes more than a modicum of knowledge. It's not always the greatest, but it does kinda work. I guess you could say this falls under the "A Much Better Way of Fakery" category.

I have gone through this whole thing several times with just PhotoShop. However, for alacrity of edification, I'm using a 3d program. Even though this is intended for PS only, I'm speeding up my end with a little cheating.

Part I: Base D-Map

Rough Draft

When I've gone through this with just PS, I've found it best to start with a rough draft. Just imagine where the parts of your subject will reflect from, grab an RGB value, and paint.



That is what one of my rough drafts looks like. I painted the brightest values in first, brought my brush down to 50%, painted some more, and painted some more, and painted some more.

Once I had the brightest values in, I used Alt to grab values right off of the rough draft. Look at the yellow on the right under-belly of the goblet. I painted that in with brush set to 100%. Then I brought the brush down to 50%. Then I painted a little more yellow, which is now more subdued, right in next to the bright yellow. Then I held Alt to get the temporary EyeDropper, sampled the subdued yellow, and painted that in for an even more subdued yellow. Pfft. I hope that makes sense.

All the rough draft does is serve as a guide. Helps tremendously for coming up with a plan of attack for making the real D-Map.

Now, for one of the reasons why I consider this advanced.

Just Do It

Pull out all the stops and make the base D-Map. Use every damn trick that you know. Use Selections, Layer Masks, Gradients, Ad-Layer Invert - whatever it takes. Dig deep into your soul for every last little trick to make it happen. Toss everything you have into it. Dig deep!



Well, there's mine. Like I said, I'm using a 3d prog for this (alacrity of edification). As you can see, my rough draft is pretty close to my final base D-Map.

That's about it for now.

----

Addendum

Long story short: old host gone and this whole thing explained in more detail in Tech-Slop.
See: http://tech-slop.serveit.org/reflections/index.shtml

[wbiss]

I have but one word for you, Stroker... [size=18px]GULP![/size]

But I'll try to get over it!

Great stuff!

[Stroker]

I've changed my mind about a few things. I'll be running through a much simplier version of this with some theory and what-not.

Hold on to your panties, but not too tight.

[wbiss]

"simpler" being the key word, Stroker!

I'm "holding onto my panties but not too tight"!