That cool new Paint.NET logo (with the glass table effect)

[Neil]

I like that new "Glass Table" effect on the kinda new, but not really, new logo. Is that gonna be a new feature to make "Glass Table" effects on the fly in a new version of Paint.NET?

If not please shift this topic to a feature request...

[Rick Brewster]

Hmm well I don't know about adding it as a feature at this point (we're not really doing "Task Oriented" stuff in Paint.NET), but it was pretty easy. Here's a mini-tutorial that assumes you've opened our original logo image:

1. Using Image->Canvas Size, make the image twice as tall and make sure the Anchor is set to the top-middle point.

2. Duplicate the Background layer, then rename it to something like "Reflection"

3. Flip this new layer vertically (Layer -> Flip -> Vertical)

4. Select and then delete the reflected Paint.net (i.e. we only want to keep the icon). This is optional I guess -- our 'new' logo only does reflection for the icon part.

5. Select the bottom half of the reflection layer (Rectangle Select), then switch to the Move Selected Pixels tool.

6. Move the reflection so the bottom tip of the paintbrush lines up on both.

7. Vertically shrink the reflection (drag the bottom middle nub upwards) to achieve the desired reflection 'angle'

8. Make a new layer

9. In this new layer, fill the bottom half with a white rectangle. Essentially you want to draw over just the reflection.

10. Set this layer's Blend mode to Multiply.

11. Using Effects->Blur, blur this layer with a value of maybe 25 or 30.

12. Select the top half of this layer and delete it (Edit -> Clear selection): you don't want it to affect the base part of the image (the original part of the logo)

13. Adjust this layer's opacity until you get the desired look.

To be honest it took me about 3 minutes to do this 'new' logo, from scratch and having never done it before