refractive distortion question updated with pics

[oma]

how do we accomplish refractive distortion in paint.NET ? would I use sinwaves?

[Blooper]

Depends what a refractive distortion is. Please, get a little descriptive, I think it'd help people understand what you're asking for. Then, we can answer :wink:

[oma]

refractive = bending of light waves

distortion exactly that distored.

simple example.

its what you get when you look thru a glass object with water in it, the items behind the glass object look like they bend in towards you and are slightly magnified.

[david.atwell]

Have you tried playing with lens, tube, water reflection, etc.?

[oma]

yes I'm close but its still off either I'm not hitting the correct settings or I'm missing something completly. was just checking if anyone had a method they use.

thanks anyways I'll keep plugging along, perhaps I'll stumble on it.

[Ash]

You will need to post images of the object that refract and distort (Glass/water/Gem)

And post image of the object that is being refracted/distorted by that 1st item.

Every case is a bit different..

[Blooper]

So, like what was being asked in the waterdrop tutorial? I suppose it would be lens or sphere. although they give bad results when used at big amounts.

[oma]

yes very similar blooper and yes I've tried them with poor results. that's why I was asking what others were doing.

it will come to me at 3 am. my best work is done in the middle of the night when I'm half asleep.

[Blooper]

Horse tranquilizers perhaps?

[barkbark00]

Wiki gives a pretty good explanation of what Oma is talking about...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refraction

[oma]

Ok hint for you all I'm working on my first tut ever but I'm stuck at this refractive distortion stage.

have worked out how to turn the bottom opaque arrow of picture 1 into glass see the larger arrow

on same picture

now the refractive distortion is the graph under neath like in this illustration by Tom Stimpson.

help me out here I just can't figure out how to do this.

[someone2016]

what you could do (I am too lazy to do) is cut out what is going to be distorted, paste onto new layer, center, bulge/lens, place to original place, merge layers. If only bulge worked on the selection.

[oma]

I'll try that.

thanks perhaps I'm being too fussy trying to line up the lines. this example by the illustrator doesn't seem to do any alignment. he leaves that to the minds eye, it seems.

OMA

[Tag]

The lines won't line up perfectly in real life anyway. There is an edge around the glass that "hides" or blurs the line connections from the eyes. You brain fills in what it thinks is supposed to be there.

[verndewd]

thats not light refraction its image distortion due to thr refractive qualities of looking at glass ,accomplished with mild dents or sine waves or a combination of several distortive plug ins. and that bottle isnt true to life distortion either since it doesnt warp around the refractive glass areas.

[Blooper]

It does look like it's just done hoping for the best results. You can't really distort things like that easily, because it changes for every picture. What you'd need for this would be a plug-in that detects edges (transparent VS opaque), then lets you choose the altitude you want, and distorts according to that. I'm not sure I'm being clear