Re: Candied Effects

At 12:32 PM 10/10/98, Keith Sellars wrote:
>I know this is probably an easy question.  I have been using Corel
>PhotoPaint but have just also gotten Paint Shop Pro 4.  I want to create
>some letters with a shiny glossy wet look.  How can I do this?  Thanks for
>any input.

Usually you can tell that something is glossy by the way it reflects
light... those highlights bouncing off something tell you how shiny it is.

Flat things rarely reflect light in interesting ways, and so most
glossy-style effects are applied to smoothly-curving surfaces. The flip
side of having a curved surface is that some parts will be facing away from
the light, and will be shaded darker.

So... once you figure the 3D surface of the object you're shading, use
darker tones on the shadowed sides, and whiter tones on the highlight side.
Back before computers this used to be done with an airbrush, using black
and white paint, or paint of complementary colors for the shadows. You can
do the same technique with computers, too -- just airbrush in highlight and
shadows. Tighter highlights usually indicate a finish with higher gloss.

There are tricks you can use in specific tools, too... the art of selection
is the key to using a traditional pixel-editor like Photoshop and variants.
Many tools offer a beveling effect which can help automate some of these.

No single answer, sorry, but I hope the above's useful in orienting among
the various approaches.

jd



John Dowdell, Macromedia Tech Support, San Francisco CA US

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