Come learn the art of 3D computer generated art and animation. This blog deals with the lessons learned and the art created by Robert G. Male using DazStudio from Daz3D.
Also covered are the ancillary software, tools, techniques, and processes needed both before and after rending in the 3D software.
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Today's little tutorial isn't original--I saw a video--but I've made it my own for use with older or less feature capable image editors. Not to mention I had to put my own creepy
touches on them in the examples. For reference I am using an old copy of PaintShop Pro, but I'm guessing I could get the same results using the freeware G.I.M.P. The hardest part will be for you to pick your colours and place the text in whatever other image you want to use it, which is an issue I avoided in my examples.
Take your text and make a copy of the bottom half of the text or more. I used the top of the middle bar of the R's to decide. Flip the copy horizontally so that it is upside down.Put this aside into a separate image. In this separate image take the eraser and remove part of the bottom of the text--what used to be the top of the letters--the part furthest from the mirror line. My removal was uneven but as smooth as I could make it. Now take this text--it will still be the colour of the original text at this point--and paste it into a new layer in the original image. Place the partial mirrored text up against the original text only overlapping where required to make all of it touch the original. Now there are different options for colouring.
The colour of the mirror image should be a flatter, duller version of the original text.The reason we put it in a layer is so that we can alter the opacity of the layer. That will change the colour of the text. I made mine 50% opaque. That was not really good enough, and I wanted the mirroring to fade out. Your image editing software may be able to do that, but mine does not. However the fix was easy using linear gradients. I made the gradient run from the half-opacity colour to the darkest colour the background would have.
I made the gradient run from the half-opacity colour to the darkest colour the background would have. That meant I chose the image's background gradient first. This makes the mirrored part fade into darkness somewhat faster than the background. I also used a gradient on the original text but that was a matter of personal taste.
touches on them in the examples. For reference I am using an old copy of PaintShop Pro, but I'm guessing I could get the same results using the freeware G.I.M.P. The hardest part will be for you to pick your colours and place the text in whatever other image you want to use it, which is an issue I avoided in my examples.
Put this aside into a separate image. In this separate image take the eraser and remove part of the bottom of the text--what used to be the top of the letters--the part furthest from the mirror line. My removal was uneven but as smooth as I could make it. Now take this text--it will still be the colour of the original text at this point--and paste it into a new layer in the original image. Place the partial mirrored text up against the original text only overlapping where required to make all of it touch the original. Now there are different options for colouring.
The reason we put it in a layer is so that we can alter the opacity of the layer. That will change the colour of the text. I made mine 50% opaque. That was not really good enough, and I wanted the mirroring to fade out. Your image editing software may be able to do that, but mine does not. However the fix was easy using linear gradients. I made the gradient run from the half-opacity colour to the darkest colour the background would have.
I made the gradient run from the half-opacity colour to the darkest colour the background would have. That meant I chose the image's background gradient first. This makes the mirrored part fade into darkness somewhat faster than the background. I also used a gradient on the original text but that was a matter of personal taste.
