15.8.  Cool Metal

Revision History
Revision $Revision: 2413 $ 2008-01-18 ude

At least some of the filter effects should be described briefly: how the filter creates the reflection and this nice shadow, or rather, how you can reproduce these effects manually. In fact, the only trick is to know which tool to use...

Making the reflection

Assuming that the alpha has been filled with a gradient, then:

  1. Create a new layer containing the area you want to mirror, for example Copy and Paste the area in a new layer.

  2. To make the reflection look more natural, scale down the layer (the filter resizes to 85% of the original height). You can do this e.g. using Scale Layer command or the Scale Tool.

  3. Then flip the layer vertically and move it down.

  4. Now add a layer mask, fill the layer mask with a gradient (for instance white or gray to black), and, of course, apply the layer mask.

Making the shadow

Fill the alpha with black, for instance via Duplicate Layer and Alpha to Selection, then

  1. shrink and slant the layer, e.g. using the Perspective tool,

  2. and apply a Gaussian Blur to the layer.