Laurie McCanna's CorelDraw Tricks #4

Bringing Contrast Down - - Or Not Inducing Painful Migraines In Your

Readers

With the help of all of your Corel software, you've created the greatest background
ever. It completely captures the essence of your subject matter (the Importance of
the Grateful Dead, or the Timeless Philosophy of Being) but if you put text on top of
this most excellent background, you will cause physical damage to your readers.

What to do? You don't want to lose detail, so futzing with the contrast or color
balance won't help.

Filters to the Rescue

Open your file in Corel PhotoPaint. From the Effects menu, choose Mapping/Smoked
Glass, (in Corel 5), or Fancy/Glass( in Corel PhotoPaint 6 or 7).The Smoked Glass
filter uses the foreground color you have selected, and overlays your image with the
color in whatever percentage you select.
 For this example, I had white selected as the background. The result was the
background on this page.

As with all filters, your file needs to be in 24 bit mode in order to use the filter. To
save your file as a gif, you'll need to choose Image/Convert To/256 Colors, and then
the best method to reduce color for WWW work is Error Diffusion, and Optimized
Palette.

Create The World in 60 Seconds

1. Open a new file, 100 by 100 pixels, in RGB color. Fill with aqua (right mouse click on the
aqua color swatch on the palette). Apply Effects/2D/Whirlpool.

2. Apply Render/Lighting Effects. Select the Floodlight Style, and change the Brightness
value to -45%.
And there you have it!
- |1st|2nd|3rd|LE1|LE2|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th|9th|10th|11th|12th|13th|14th|
15th|Final| -

- Entire contents copyright ©1994-2000 by Dr. Thaddeus Ozone, all rights reserved. -
- Today's date & time: Friday, October 10, 2003 09:24AM GMT -
- Page last updated: Tuesday, January 14, 2003 -
 - | images loading | images loading | images loading | images loading | images
loading | -

- Entire contents copyright ©1994-2000 by Dr. Thaddeus Ozone, all rights reserved. -
- Today's date & time: Friday, October 10, 2003 09:24AM GMT -
- Page last updated: Tuesday, January 14, 2003 -

I'm going to assume you know some of the possibilities of the Lighting Effects
filter, I'll explain how I use it here, but only very briefly. Let's start with a three
layer document - a background of gray, a circle of slightly darker gray, and a
circle of black, with the layer set to "screen". (It's on the layer palette itself,
usually it just says "normal". Check it out!) The "screen" option makes the black
invisible, but that's... OK. :-)

:::::: handson :: :: next ::::::

The first thing we need to do is create a round ball. For this we will use the
Lighting Effects filter, but before we fire that up we will need a mask for the 3D
effects. I'll start with a circular channel, the same shape as the circle on the
layers, cool? Working on that channel, let's select the round shape and fire up the
"Blur/Gaussian Blur" filter.

OK! Blur that selection at 16 pixels, the first step. We follow this up with several
more blurs, next at 8 pixels, then 4 pixels. Now DESELECT the shape, and do two
more blurs, the first at 2 and the last at 1.

Better get used to this effect, I use this a LOT.

:::::: back :: :: next ::::::

There we go! We now have a nice smooth mask for running the Lighting Effects
filter on. The de-selected last two blurs? That was to eliminate any jagged edges
on our mask. Now, leave the channel, and select the GREY CIRCLE on the RGB
pallette.
Ready for Lighting Effects? Here we go, follow this link to check out the setting I
used to get a nice spherical ball. You'll notice I have TWO light sources, those
little specks, one yellow and one blue? The yellow one shows it's range, and this
link shows you the dark blue light source, SHINING UP FROM BELOW. Very
important detail here, this is how we get our interesting color variations.

:::::: back :: :: next ::::::

And this is the result from Lighting effects. Kind of bland, and a little bit bumpy,
hmm? That's OK, I expected this. The grayscale channel we used for the texture
mask was limited to only 256 levels of gray, and we raised the surface by 50
units, leaving no room for a smooth transition.

We're going to use this to our advantage, because I also want the edges of any
round object to get dark around the edges, even on the highlight area! This
simulates the fact that a round thing continues curving away, BEHIND the area we
can see! Toggle to the next screen to see the difference.

:::::: back :: :: next ::::::

Cool, huh? Here's how we do it. Working on the grey circle layer, select the round
shape. (Windows, hold the Control button and click the layer palette. Macintosh,
use the Command button.) Choose "Select/Inverse", and you will have the
background selected. Fill it with black. Choose "Select/Inverse" again, and blur
the circle using Gaussian blur at 2 pixels. The surface smooths out, and a little bit
of black leaks in! Now "Select/Inverse" once more, and delete that annoying
black.

Try, please try, not to let your finger slip during this process! It can be a bitch
when you realize you don't actually *have* that circular shape saved anywhere
else, whatta bummer. (Note: That might be why I created that layer of black
earlier on, hah!

:::::: back :: :: next ::::::

Time for a big bold Lens Flare, found under the "Render" subheading. One of the
things glass always seems to have is a powerful reflection, and if you have
slightly bad eyes, or if you've ever looked at bright reflecty things with a camera,
you get a flare. The same effect can be seen on foggy nights, go look at a
streetlight, it's all around us.

I use a big flare on this one, burned into the black layer. The black layer has been
set to "Screen" remember, so it's been invisible till now. Now when we put
something bright on it, we find what it does. "Screen" will make black invisible,
allowing everything else through, just like "Multiply" will eliminate white,
allowing all the dark stuff through. Learn to use this, it shows up all the time.

:::::: back :: :: next ::::::

And here's the results! Hmm, looks kinda ragged in this image, Lens Flare makes
for such busy color variations, it hardly ever works as a GIF image. Check the next
frame, where I've dropped it in as a JPEG and you'll start to see... Glass!

Really. Turn the page, it's there, waiting for you!

:::::: back :: :: next ::::::

Ta-dah! There it is, glass! This is pretty much a typical "TV-screen gray" glass
surface, you've probably seen it a lot. I added a minor 3D effect on the
background to highlight the edges just a bit to show things off. We could stop
here, many folks do, but you said you wanted GLOWING glass stuff, right? We're
not done yet.

NOTE: Hmm, suppose this shape wasn't round, but was instead square, with
rounded corners? This is that interface screen lots of you have asked me about,
right here. You might want to take a break right now and go create one yourself,
eh? :-)
OK, let's make this baby glow, all right? Working on the "gray disc" layer, let's
just invert the thing, making what's light dark, and vice-versa. It's simple, just
"control+i" for Windows, and "command+i" for Macintosh. Looks pretty weird,
eh? How's this supposed to work for us?

First thing we need to do is darken up those edges, the edges kind of just
vanished on us, but we can rescue them, and we need the dark at the top left, and
the bright at the bottom right.

Create a new layer, I called this one "edge definition". Fill it with black, covering
everything else. Now from the layer beneath it, select the circle shape, you know
how to do that now, don't you? Fill that shape with white, and you have
something that looks just like your first mask.

DON'T DESELECT! Working on the white bit, blur your middle by 2 pixels, and then
again by one pixel. Invert the selection and delete that black again. (Is any of this
sounding familiar? It should!)

OK, you start with an ugly white disk, with raggedy black edges. Set that new
layer to "multiply", and boom! Instant edge definition. I sometimes want more
than just one layer will give me, so I'll usually just duplicate. If that's too much,
set the opacity on the copy down just a bit, you have infinite room for tweaking
here. (OK, not infinite. 100x100=10,000 levels of tweaking. It's enough.)

We could stop here, assuming we wanted a pale blue marble, but I don't really
want *that*, not my favorite colors.
I placed a layer of bright orange over the layer named "grey disc", (which is now
pale blue!) and set it to "Multiply".

Say! Doesn't *that* look familiar! Yeppers, that's pretty much the same orange
marble I've used a thousand times, minus some of the inevitable hand tweaking I
end up doing.

What else can we make this thing into?

Set that same layer to "Color Burn" and we start to get some interesting effects.

Color Burn is one of those bizzare features, what the heck does it do anyway?
Usually everything it does do is too extreme, but I always give it a try anyway,
especially with candy-type effects like this one.

Let's try another...

OK, this time I'll set it to "hard light" and this is (mostly) the look I was after.
Still, now it looks kind of silly smushed into that background like that, doesn't it?
I think I'll change it in the next frame.

OK, a basic dropshadow effect, and this effect is mostly done, I can live with this
one. There's more we can do with this, (There's ALWAYS more! :-), but we're
approaching a good stopping point.

Next time we'll discuss the matching curved highlights and shadows, I used them
on the next and final image, it came out pretty cool IMHO. As always, feedback is
appreciated, drop me a note or leave a message in my forum, answers can be
found for you!
That looks like it! Want to play with the photoshop file I used for this example? It
includes some of the additional effects I hinted at last frame. You can download it
from here, enjoy!
This is a tip that is only for users of Photoshop3 or Photoshop4. The filter
"Lighting Effects" is a freebie that came with this program, and in my
opinion is practically worth the whole purchase price all by itself. You can
find it under the "Render" subheading. What it is is a primitive ray-tracing
algorithm. You can select different light sources, and combine them with
texture channels to warp your image. Before you can unleash the power of
this filter, you'll need to save some texture channels to play with. Just select
the image you want to make 3d and save it as a new channel. Depending on
how you use it, pure white is the highest point on the image, and black the
lowest. Here's a sample of the window you'll see when you fire it up.

OK, let's look at the window. On the left you're seeing a low-res thumbnail
of what your modifications are doing. You'll also notice the points at the
outside of the ellipse, as well as the white point in the center. You can click on
these and move them around to alter your light source. Widen it, and your
image will get brighter. Grab the white spot in the middle and you can move
the whole light around. Click on the white square at the upper right, and
you'll get a menu to alter the color of the light source, and that little dot will
change to match. If it's taking too long to wait between modifications, turn
off the "Preview" button and make your modifications first.
At the top under "Style", you'll find a handful of preset effects to use. You
can also save your own settings when you find one you like. This on is
"*bkg.bump#4", a custom setting of my own.
Next is "Light Type", in this case a spotlight. You can adjust the brightness
and spread here, or choose other types of lighting. There are dozens to
choose from, but you'll probably want to choose one and use it exclusively
throughout a site, so that everything will have a cohesive look. Make sure
you decide where your light source is coming from, I generally choose
top/left.
After this is "Properties". The first 2 options affect the material itself, NOT
the lighting. Shiny+Plastic will give you an effect like shiny metal (no, it's not
logical, but that's how it is). These are the 2 options you'll probably spend
the most time tweaking.
The next 2 refer to photographic aspects of how the image is processed. Use
these if your image is turning out too dark or light. You can "over" or
"under" expose the film (sic) or raise and lower the ambient lighting.
The last section is the most fun. "Texture Channel" allows us to specify an
image that will warp the surface of the image. Combined with our lighting
effects, we're going to get some interesting 3D effects! The default setting is
"none". You can specify one of the RGB channels, or a saved channel of your
own. If you choose a value for your "Height" that's *too* high, you'll get
some rather strange artifacts creeping into your edges. Generally you'll
never go over 50 units. Here's some examples, which I'll describe as I go
along...

Here's the most basic use of this filter.

I typed in some blue type on it's own
layer, and saved it to channel #4. Then
I fired up the LightFX filter, and
chose #4 as my texture filter, white as
high, with a Height of 12. The whole
thing floats over the brown BKG, and in this case I added some drop-shadow
effects for emphasis.
 Here's one of the ways to create those
3D buttons you've all been asking
about! Channel #4 is on the left, and
the finished piece on the right. This
started out as nothing but a blank sheet of brown. Here I specified a height
of 50. If you look at the channel closely, you'll see that it's nothing but a
straight gradient from black to white, 10 pixels wide.

Here all I did was take a blank, black

channel, and spray it with my
airbrush tool a little bit. I chose white
as high, and an offset of 20 units. I
could just as easily made them
deppressions by not choosing white as
"high".

Ever wonder how to get a stone

effect? Here's one way. Make your
channel a medium grey, and run the
"Cloud" filter or the "Difference
Clouds" filter on it. Once you've got a
nice mottled look to the channel, run
the LightFX filter on the main image. I chose an offset of 50 units here, to
compensate for the subtlety of the channel.
 Again I used a grey channel, ran the
"noise" filter to speckle it up a bit,
and then ran the "Wind" filter on it,
using the stagger setting. I then
blurred it a little bit to soften the
edges. Again I used an offset of 50
units.

The Bulkhead Project

Here's what we're going to create in this lesson.

Here's the five elements we'll use to make it.

"fire.jpeg" "bulkheadbkg.gif" 45% Grey 100% black The Mask

480x480, 49k. 180x180, 9k. RGB=115,115,115 RGB=0,0,0 332x96, 2k.

First, you need a 4 layer document in Photoshop. Make sure you're in

RGB mode.
 -Layer one has the flame image in it, use this one, it's the best picture of
fire I own, and I use it a *lot*. Keep this large size version of it, and then
shrink it down and paste it into other images. This version is 480x480 pixels,
a handy size.
 -Layer 2 is filled with black.
 -Layer 3 has the dark grey in it, RGB code 115,115,115.
 -Layer 4 has the grey background from my homepage in it. Open the
background, "select all", and go to "edit/define pattern". Now go back to
layer 4, and choose "edit/fill", and select "pattern" at 100%. It will tile that
background into the layer.

We'll also need a new channel for our mask. Click on the little triangle,
and select "New Channel". Select all, and paste the "mask" file into it. By
default it will name the channel "#4". You can also double-click on the
thumbnail image of the channel, and rename it, like I have here.

Here's what your main pallettes will look like if you've done everything
correctly. You can substitute a different image for the mask, or the
background, the technique is pretty much the same.

OK, we're ready to go. Working on the Channels pallette, drag the Mask
channel onto the dotted circle at the bottom. This loads that selection. Go
back to the Layers pallette again, and delete that shape from the top 3 layers,
(2,3, & 4). Now you can see the fire showing through the grey background.

Back to the Channels pallette, and drag "The Mask" onto the little
rectangle with the corner folded over. This duplicates the channel, naming it
"The Mask copy". We'll want this to be a black image on a white
background, so go to the menu and choose "image/adjust/invert", or
"command+I". Drag this image onto the dotted circle, so the white is
selected. Now we do 2 "gaussian blurs", first at 4 pixels, and then at 2 pixels.
De-select the white, and give it a final blur of only 1 pixel. This is the channel
we'll use for our texture channel in the "Lighting Effects" filter.

Here's how everything should appear now, with a detail of "The Mask
copy"...

Back to the layers pallette, and let's choose the top layer, #4. With nothing
selected, go to the filters menu and select "lighting effects". When that fires
up, (could take a few seconds), we're ready to go. I used 2 spotlights for this
image. In the "styles" menu, choose "crossing". Click on the small white
circle at the center of that ellipse, and move it to the side. This is one
spotlight. The straight line is pointing towards the source of the light. Click
on one of the outside dots, and turn the light so it's coming from your top
left. Click on the other white dot, and now that spotlight is activated. We
want to point this one from the bottom right, but we don't want it to shine
white light. Unlike the real world, we can also shine darkness out of these
spotlights. Cool, huh? Click on the white square in the "light type" window,
and a color pallette will pop up. Let's choose a very dark purple, almost
black. Say OK, and now we'll see how it looks. OK, let's make this thing 3D
now. Go to the bottom menu, "texture channel", and select your blurred
channel, it should be "channel 5". Select the check box, "white is high", and
choose a height of about 16. Don't go overboard, that thumbnail drawing of
what's going to happen is not super-accurate. If you have the height *too*
high, you'll get some bizzare effects at the edges. Play with the settings in the
"Properties" menu, the bottom two will control your brightness, "exposure"
by just making things lighter or darker, and "ambience" by shing an overall
light of the color in the square over the entire image. The top two settings,
"Gloss" and "Material", will affect the final result the most. You can choose
"shiny" and "plastic" at 100%, and your image will throw off a bright
reflection, just like hard plastic.

For this image, I selected "matte" and "metal" at 50% each, because I
didn't want any highlights mucking up the transition between the image and
the background. Here's the Lighting Effects window with the selections I
used. Note the White spotlight is shining down from the left. The black
spotlight is not selected, but it is shining *up* from the right.

All right! We're almost there! Looks pretty good, but no-way is it going to
merge with that background now. We want this image to melt into that grey
layer, that color "#737373" is the average of the background colors. Let's
load the original, un-blurred channel now. Working on the top layer, let's go
to the "select" menu, and choose "modify/expand". Expand the selection by
4 pixels. Now, in the same menu, select "feather" at a setting of 2 pixels.
Same menu again, and choose "Inverse". Now we've selected everything
outside are text. DELETE all this, and the grey layer underneath show
through.

This is almost it. All that's left is the shadow, layer #2. Click on the
"move" tool, the 2 crossed arrows. Don't bother selecting anything, just use
the arrow keys to move the black 3 pixels down, and 3 pixels to the right. Use
the filter "gaussian blur" at 3 pixels.

The optional last step is to load that un-blrred selection one more time,
inverse it, and paste more black in on top of the blurred black. De-select and
run a gaussian blur of only *.5* pixels, and the rough edges of our type get
even smoother. Done. Change the mode from RGB to Indexed Color, and
export it as a transparent GIF89a with that grey (115,115,115) selected as
transparent, and you can now paste it into a web page, it will seam flawlessly
with the "bulkheadbkg.gif" background.