Looking through glass.

[spudsnruf]

Hello. I'm now trying to make my image such that the background can be seen through some glass (and fire!). I've tried adding a mask and then changing the opacity and using the brush tool. But doing that seems to allow me to 'see' through the glass (via the mask) to the green background, but then I loose the edges of the glass, so that it doesn't look right. The image i've attached is pre me trying the masking. Any suggestions how I can do this without loosing the effect of it being glass? Thank you

 

[dv8_fx]

There's no one way to it. It's all in what you created that makes the job unique.

It's see through, right? The green background will, or rather, is supposed to show a bit.

This is where a little planning and logic will come to play. I noticed it when you first posted that image.

Your fire is in the middle of the case. From your angle- your Point Of View, where should the fire reflection be? And would that not cause a little bit of reddish glow inside?

second.... Imagine theres a light source around the display... Where will the lights play? Glass reflects its surroundings, even light. Even if your glass was clear or near invisible, it's the light that will illuminate the glass surface giving the appearance of something solid.

The bluish green corner and edges on the glass are perfect. The left glass panel looks almost right. You only have to work on the other 3 and I thinnk you'll get it right. I'm looking at my aquarium now. That's what I see... except it has water and the reflections and refractions are different.

It's a matter of reflection and lighting and a bit of distortion that glass can cause. If you have a square glass, or even a round glass, light a candle inside and observe the reflections.

 

[Boomawoom]

I don't get it, you want it to be see through but you don't want to be able to see through it...

 

[spudsnruf]

I don't get it, you want it to be see through but you don't want to be able to see through it...

Not exactly. I want to be able to see through it without loosing the side edges of the glass. This means that I understand how to make it transparent by using a mask, but I'm not able to do that whilst also controlling how much of the edges of the glass can be seen. At the basic level I have, I'm only able to do it such that the whole glass area , including the edges/sides of the glass, also disappear during the masking process.