How Do I Make "Gravitational" Lensing Around Shapes

[C.L.]

I'm wanting to make a realistic invisibility cloak effect. Instead of it being a transparent silhouette, I want to make it so that there's a gravitational lensing effect that actually looks like light is being bent around an object, but I don't know how to do it around a shape other than a circle. I need to do it around a person. Will someone tell me how, show me a plugin that does, or make a plugin for it?

Edited December 11, 2018 by C.L.

[toe_head2001]

1 hour ago, C.L. said:

I want to make a realistic invisibility cloak effect.

 

A realistic invisibility cloak? What do they look like? I didn't even know they're real! Do you have an example photo?

^^ what a wisenheimer I am

 

On the other hand, I've seen some artistic renderings of what an invisibility cloak might look like. For example, in those Halo games:

 

Is that similar to what you want to achieve?

[Ego Eram Reputo]

[Maximilian]

It's possible to achieve something like the predator invisibility mode with TR's Displacement Map 3D. If the results below look acceptable to you, I can tell you how I did it if you can't figure out how to use TR's plugin (there are instructional videos throughout the plugin's thread).

 

   

[C.L.]

18 hours ago, toe_head2001 said:

 

A realistic invisibility cloak? What do they look like? I didn't even know they're real! Do you have an example photo?

^^ what a wisenheimer I am

 

On the other hand, I've seen some artistic renderings of what an invisibility cloak might look like. For example, in those Halo games:

 

Is that similar to what you want to achieve?

 

10 hours ago, Maximilian said:

It's possible to achieve something like the predator invisibility mode with TR's Displacement Map 3D. If the results below look acceptable to you, I can tell you how I did it if you can't figure out how to use TR's plugin (there are instructional videos throughout the plugin's thread).

 

   

 

The pictures that both of you showed are what I call transparent silhouettes. What I mean by "gravitational" lensing is that the light bends around it in the same fashion it does around a black hole. An example of this "realistic" cloak effect would be where a ball starts showing gravitational lensing and appears to shrink as light is bending around it.

 

Here's a picture of gravitational lensing around a black hole:

 

19 hours ago, C.L. said:

Instead of it being a transparent silhouette, I want to make it so that there's a gravitational lensing effect that actually looks like light is being bent around an object

 

I would believe a "realistic" cloaking effect would look like it's shrinking in a distorted way with gravtiational lensing around it.

Edited December 11, 2018 by C.L.

[Maximilian]

Hmm, I see. I haven't tried this before, so I'll have a look at it. Something might come up (I won't promise anything though, just in case)

[C.L.]

1 hour ago, welshblue said:

If you're talking just around circles then you can play with the Polar Inversion plugin .  It can do interesting things with spheres.

 

 

Using Radial Blur after Polar Inversion

 

 

Gravitational lensing actually warps the light of stars around a black hole, unlike the picture you made.

If you read the original post, I want to do this around a different shape (the shape of a person). I am making a meme and I will show it off here when this is solved.

Edited December 11, 2018 by C.L.

[C.L.]

The closest thing I could find is SquirkleWarp, which is limited to circles, diamonds, and squares. What I want is a plugin that allows you to select any shape and make a warping effect around it and be able to set the effect radius and refraction level. I should post a plugin request. Where do I do that?

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Try:

 

[Ego Eram Reputo]

 

The woman in gray is showing the distortion on the right hand side of her head.

 

This effect is reasonably subtle in a static image.

 

 

Source layers look like this...

 

[C.L.]

On 12/12/2018 at 5:57 PM, Ego Eram Reputo said:

 

The woman in gray is showing the distortion on the right hand side of her head.

 

This effect is reasonably subtle in a static image.

 

 

Source layers look like this...

 

 

How do you make a source layer? Or can it automatically make one from a highlighted selection? Sorry, I haven't been active on using paint.net recently. If it doesn't make a source layer for ClipWarp from a selected shape, then that would be my suggestion for your plugin.

Edited December 14, 2018 by C.L.

[Ego Eram Reputo]

I used an outline (silhouette) of the object.  Outline the object with black then apply a couple of gray drop shadows (one external one internal). Blur the combined result before running ClipWarp.