How was this background effect created?

[CharlieS]

It looks like the shoe itself was photographed and then placed in the foreground. The background image was then created e.g. with a gradient, shading, compositing the product in and recoloring the bottom magenta. Then I'd guess it was put through a filter of some sort, but I can't really identify it. I've seen this done in many Adidas ads. The quality of the ripple/glass repeat look is lovely.

Anyone have any ideas on how this was achieved?

 

[IamSam]

Hello and welcome to PSG.

What causes you to think that this was an effect and not the shoe being photographed on a real background?

 

[CharlieS]

Well, this background appears in other ads with other shoes in front of it, and this same shoe (looks to be identical) appears on top of other backgrounds, so it seems that it's a composite. It also has some artifacting and the shoes don't have perfectly cut edges in the ads. Do you think it's some interesting backdrop that's been created with mirrors or screens or something?

Either way, I'm interested in achieving a similar affect. It's difficult to find the exact words to search for – I'm looking for glass, ripple, etc., and most things tend to lead me to water effects

Edit: Actually, after finding some other imagery from the campaign it looks they captured some photographs with that effect and then altered them for various ads and installations.

 

[IamSam]

I think that it's probably an effect. We had a thread on this effect, I will see if I can find it.

 

[IamSam]

Here's the thread I was looking for: How do I do this?? Ribbed Glass Effect.

Maybe it can help. I think the effect is similar.