Jump to content

Liquefying stuff 101 (Sort of hard...?)


Celestrial

Recommended Posts

Been away for a long time, though most people don't know me so that doesn't matter anyways.

Anyways I'm here to show you guys how to do 2 things:

1: Create rough liquid ( The basic idea of it, someone can do better than me I'm 100% sure)

2: Put any textures into it, pictures, patterns, anything you can save in a picture format. (Again, see someone can do it better than me, I'm just providing basic ideas.)

We're doing this (Results vary for each user, but should be the same idea): (Picture got deleted cause I was stupid. Please scroll down to the end to see. Will provide other examples as soon as possible. EDIT: Some examples are at bottom of post, but here, I'll post it right here.)

if5y.png

Plugins needed:

Smudge Tool : http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/10634-smudge/ By pyrochild. He's awesome.

(Mentioned) Shape3D: http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/18968-shape3d-2007-08-24/ By MKT. He's awesome too.

Other required items:

A surface picture to place your liquid on. (Can be anyhere, splatter on blank canvas, or stairs like I'm doing, basic idea.) The stock picture I'm using is here: http://themaisonette.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/By-nimmrichter-cda-architects-interior-wood-stairs-design.jpg

A texture for your liquid. (Can be anything, I'll even cover how to make clear water of sorts. Patterns, pictures. Will be very distorted.)

Lots and lots of patience.

WARNING: THIS TUTORIAL IS GOING TO BE LONG. VERY. LONG.

Part 1: Creating basic liquid:

1.1: Make a blank canvas, put your base image onto it, like so:

3u52.png

1.2: Decide where your liquid will start.

qk2.png

1.3: To begin creating your liquid, you have to know what basic liquid puddles look like.

The most important part to remember is the edges of the liquid, it can be any shape you like, but the edges are the main aspects. Look at these examples:

http://www.wakingwalt.com/images/puddle.jpg <- This one has a good idea of how puddles should look like, so if you're doing a stair like me that's what's doing to be on the steps.

http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/melted-chocolate-dripping-18929561.jpg <- This is for the very edge of your liquid, if you're making it drip. Your liquid can flow down stairs like I'm doing in solid wide spread, but when it comes to the ending of your liquid this is how it's going to drip.

1.4: To begin, on a new layer, make the starting point for your liquid. It can be a complete puddle if you'd like but that's not important at the moment. You can accomplish this by using a combination of the Line Tool (more specificly, the wavy aspect), the Circle Tool, and the smudge tool to an extent.

9qfk.png

1.5: We can now begin to place the liquid. First, we must fill the shape we just made so we can accomplish two things:

Get rid of lines (Eww ugly)

Have an idea of how it's going to look and save us a ton of work on filling later where it can take more work.

To do this, draw a line to make a complete puddle (Not required if you've made a complete puddle, only for people that did it like me above.)

8n6.png

1.6: Fill it in by Inverse Magic Wand (Select outside your "puddle" and then CTRL + I), and then paint bucket it a color of your choice ( If you're just doing a straight color, then you should fill it with the color you want your liquid to be. This also means you won't need to do textures, like a good part of Part 2 is about.) If you are doing a puddle or a splatter that is viewed top-down, you can skip to step (2) from here.

g61r.png

1.7: Now deselct and use the Layer >> Rotate/Zoom Tool to add depth and place it at your desired starting point, like below. Anyone who's doing a puddle like this can stop now and skip to step (2), this part is for those making it flow.

qwym.png

1.8: Now, starting from your "base puddle" or something, draw lines that are how much you want the liquid to flow. It MUST conform to the "surface" picture you are using, for example as I am using a stair, I will make it fall and turn left and repeat. If you're doing slopes or curves, draw slopes or curves. It's all fine as long as it conforms to the "surface" picture. Like so:

4wrb.png

1.9: So now that we have the "flow" we can draw a line across and fill it using the same method in step 1.6, Inverse Magic Wand and paint bucket.

ja72.png

1.95A: Almost forgot the drips. Remember earlier in 1.3 I showed you a lot of pictures? We're going to use that now to make the dripping. Like making the base, you can do this through a combination of the Circle Tool, the Line Tool, and the Smudge plugin. Like so:

im35.png

1.95B: Use the Layer >> Rotate/Zoom tool to rotate and then the select and move tool to resize and place it just like we did with the "base puddle". This should leave you finished with the step 1 instructions. Your result is something like this:

Make sure to merge layer down so you have a complete liquid on one layer!

9kq4.png

Alright, that concludes the basics of making a liquid. Now we move on to the actual texturing and fine tuning.

Part 2:

(2): Now duplicate the layer that contains your liquid, you should have 2 of those. Save one for later. At this point, you should not move your liquid, as any more work we're doing is going to be based on that liquid's position:

3bfy.png

2.1: Now on a new layer, get your picture you are going to liquefy and put it there:

(If you're doing only a color, skip to 2.7)

8weu.png

2.2: Now comes on of the hardest parts to explain. Those of you who are doing only a puddle can skip these few steps and go on to (2.4A) from here. With the liquid flow, you have to cut your picture into multiple parts to mimic the flow of liquid you've created. Since my stairs has six steps on it that my liquid is oozing over, I have to cut my picture into six pieces and put them ALL on seperate layers:

2gtw.png

2.3: The reason for a new layer per piece is that we're going to use the Layer >> Rotate/Zoom to match the flow of the liquid. If you're doing liquid flow down a ramp/slants you should have an easy time with this, for those doing curves (Such as flowing down the side of a vase), you can use plugins to get the curve on the pictures, one such example I can think of is Shape3D which can make a cylinder/sphere using your image that you can crop to your liquid's flow. So here's my way of forcing my image to match the flow of the liquid:

gbh3.png

2.4A: Shrink our pieces down (If you have any. For puddles, just shrink your image) to about the size of your liquid:

yvko.png

2.4B: You can now merge all pieces down to a single layer (Ignore if you're just making a puddle). After doing so, switch to your liquid layer (Any of the 2 will be fine) and select the outside with Magic Wand tool. Then select the layer with your pieces again, and press delete. It should leave you with a clean image of your (almost) metled liquid, like so:

fcts.png

2.5: Dayum, dat look fine... Errr anyways, moving on. Now select your liquid by doing Inverse Magic Wand again:

9s9u.png

2.6: You can now use a multitude of plugins of your choice to distort the picture how much and as much as you like to give it the "liquid" feel. Here, I'm using the smudge plugin to connect the pieces of the "liquid" in the above picture. But no matter what you do, do not deselect the liquid. This is my result:

6xgq.png

2.7: Now merge the layer down onto the liquid layer. You have another one, and wer're going to do something with it. Select your remaining liquid layer with Inverse Magic Wand and then use Selection >> Outline Selection. Set color to white and set thickness of outline to 1:

Make sure your outline is on another layer too! :D

nx1n.png

2.8: This should be your result:

jtup.png

2.9: Select your remaining liquid layer (The one you duplicated ealier at the start of part 2 and used in 2.7) and use Blurs >> Gaussian Blur...

And set blur to a value of 3:

This should give your liquid a very slight "shadow".

cix.png

Part 3: Fine tuning, adding shine and bevel.

3: Select the outline you made in 2.8 and Gaussian Blur it with this setting:

Afterwards, duplicate the layer and merge the two outlines. It gives a slight "bevel" to the liquid.

9ad6.png

3.1: You can now just add more shine to it however you like. In the below picture, I'm using white blurred lines to add depth to the 90 degree bends in the liquid. I also added some splotches of blurred white to give that shine some liquids have on them.

qpmo.png

Aww man, while editing this post for consistency I accidentally deleted the picture I was working on in the tutorial... I'm sorry guys...

I'll provide other examples :(. Anyways, In the above picture, that's what your finished product should look like a bit. You guys can improve upon my methods to make better results. Since I derped and deleted the picture, that bottom right corner above is what mine looked like finished. I'll edit this post tomorow to add examples of what could be done with this method (In the top part of this post I mentioned clear water and patterns. I haven't forgotten those. The examples will cover them too.)

Please comment, criticize, and discuss! :D

EDIT: I have examples now, this one is clear water:

o0gb.png

To make that, just make 2 layers of liquids, one black and one white. Set both transperancy to however you prefer, dark liquid, milk, ETC. Gaussian Blur both layers to make it blend into the surface. Now do steps 2.7 to 3 but instead of making a white outline, make a black outline. At this point you can add detals like ripples by drawing them with white lines and blurring them.

Other examples (Ask if you need help):

Toxic sludge:

if5y.png

Vase Of Human:

804s.png

To do the above I just smudged the hell out of the melted picture to give the liquid feel.

Happy liquifying stuff! :D Again, please comment, question, criticize.

Edited by Celestrial

8el4.png


Don't go gentle in to that good night, rage on against the dying light.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember you!  How can I forget that avatar?  Sadly it doesn't seem to be animated any more :(

 

You've made quite a nice job of this tutorial.  Thanks for posting it!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks EER!
I've updated the post to include pictures of examples. If anyone has a question I'd be happy to help.

8el4.png


Don't go gentle in to that good night, rage on against the dying light.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...