Waterdrop

[Eraesr]

Hi all,

This is my first tutorial and I hope it's easy to understand, useful and not redundant.

The goal is to create a drop of water. I'm making mine on a leaf, but I guess you could do this on other objects as well (maybe fruits or vegetables to give them that fresh look).

The end result will be like this:

The first step is to find a picture of the object you want to do, here's mine:

Now, create a new layer and select it. I have named it "waterdrop". Use the ellipse select tool to make a circular or slightly ellipse shaped selection. Use the gradient tool to fill it with a black to white gradient.

Set the blending mode of the waterdrop layer to "overlay"

Create a new layer. I've named this layer "drop shadow". Select the waterdrop layer and use the magic wand (tolerance 0%) to select everything except for the gradient circle. Invert the selection. You now have selected the shape of the waterdrop. Select the drop shadow layer and fill your selection with black. Undo the selection and move the drop shadow layer a slight bit to the right and bottom. In the next picture you can sort of see how much I've moved it.

Again, select the waterdrop layer and use the magic wand to select the shape of the drop like before. Select the drop shadow layer and fill your selection with a fully transparant color (on the color palette, click more and move the "transparancy - alpha" slider all the way to the left. Then in the menu select edit > fill selection). Undo the selection again and apply a Gaussian Blur effect to the drop shadow layer (I used a setting of 10px). Move the drop shadow layer slightly back to it's original position (only a tiny bit, to imply the effect of seeing the edge of the drop's shadow through itself. Finally, move your drop shadow layer under your waterdrop layer in the layers panel.

As a final touch, create a new layer (named "highlight") and select it. Choose the Paintbrush tool (antialiasing enabled) and put a small white dot at the left top of the droplet to create the effect of a highlight.

The end result (as shown before):

Play around a bit with various settings and distances to get results to your tastes (slightly lowering the opacity of the waterdrop layer adds a touch of softness). Let me know what you think.

Enjoy!

[barkbark00]

Good job with the write-up.

This further cements the idea that nearly everything that can be done in PS can also be done with PDN.

You may want to consider adding a "Bulge" or "Sphere" step on the selection of leaf right below the water drop. It'll add to the realism by giving the leaf the appearance of being magnified by the droplet.

[Eraesr]

I think one can come a long way with the features Paint.NET offers, but it's a bit of a stretch to say Paint.NET offers the same level of versatility as Photoshop.

I do agree that many things you can do in Photoshop with the click of a button can be done in Paint.NET as well in a few additional steps. I'm looking around for Photoshoppey things that can be translated to Paint.NET by applying the tools it offers in creative ways.

[barkbark00]

...but it's a bit of a stretch to say Paint.NET offers the same level of versatility as Photoshop...

I didn't say that. What I meant was, nearly all desired outcome can be achieved with either program.

Also, it's funny how PS boasts "versatility" like it is synonymous with "user friendliness".

[back on topic]

Good job with this one! Keep the PS conversions coming...

[MadJik]

Nice tutorial! Thanks!

(eye picture from http://www.zero-zoo.com/peintre/aubaine.htm)

[UglyKidJoe]

Great tutorial!

I made the white dot slightly transparent just to make it look softer

[josh181830]

wow thats nice

[Rainshadow]

This should be stickied!

[usedHONDA]

Wow. I like this tut. I was able to take all of it in by just looking at the pictures (no offense, I hope).

[SVL]

Excellent tut.

But yes, the white dot needs to be transparent; then it'll look almost totally realistic at first glance.

The bulge idea sounded good too... I'd like to see that done.

I may try out this tut later; but it's late now.

[usedHONDA]

But yes, the white dot needs to be transparent; then it'll look almost totally realistic at first glance...

... and second glance, and third glance, and fourth glance....

[Ash]

Awsome!! Just what I needed to add some extra for a photo that I'm working on

[sp3ctum]

This is a very nice tutorial. The drop looks stunningly realistic, especially when you do a smaller water drop.

And like people said, experimenting with opacities brings good results.

[Rainshadow]

[sagedavis]

This is great,

I tried it out, mine didn't come out too good. I'll keep trying, but, I would add an aditional step.

You can give a sort of fake refraction (I think that's the word I am looking for), but, using the trick to select the area of the water drop again, and then move down to the background layer.

Click on "layers > Rotate and zoom".

Put your rotation angles to 0... cause all you want to do here is just zoom to about 1.06.

This is such a great tutorial.

Thanks for it.

Sage

[papillon95]

its a bit hard but when you have learned it then its ***n easy=)

[lildjrich]

Great! I love this Tutorial!! :wink:

Here's mine :-

[janelle.kelc]

I don't get it... how do you move your layer around???

[Bob]

http://www.getpaint.net/doc/3.05/en/LayersWindow.html

[FireFly]

Very well done. It looks so realistic it's unbelievable. And about comparing PDN with PSP, what is there to compare? Both are outstanding but PDN is $100 cheaper. I can think of some better things to do with $100

EDIT: Having a look at the PSP website, I can't see much, if anything, that Paint.NET can't do. It may be slightly easier with PSP but it is still possible with PDN

[Mr.F]

awsome tut dude =D

[sonic]

Man, Talk about a COOL effect.

Good Job! This would be great if this was a plugin

[sonic]

cool.Tut but one problem mine just turns out a big black dot.Explain where im going wrong??

[Bob]

Finally, move your drop shadow layer under your waterdrop layer in the layers panel.

I think you missed this.

For more information:

http://www.getpaint.net/doc/3.05/en/LayersWindow.html

[Down]

Very nice.