The Mechanics of Reflections
wmmarc (34 pencils) | Fri, 2005-09-16 22:30
I like to challenge mayself occasionally, just to keep my photoshop skills quasi up-to-date. Anyways, I was looking at a logo, and thought to myself this would look cool this way, so I recreated the main part of the logo and then attempted to add realistic reflections to it. But for some reason they look really fake. I have done this with products before, and a couple of logos, but I have never been satisfied with the result. Does anyone know of a tutorial on the mechanics of reflections. I think I have the photoshop part of it down (please feel free to comment if I don't - constructive please), but not the actual angles. My only example would be dropshadows... you know when you put a dropshadow in and it doesn't match the rest of the picture you usually have your angles off.
Your input is much appreciated.
wms out.
Oh, here is what I was playing with 
Commenting on this Image is closed.
I think the main issue is that the angles are off. To make it real all you need to do is duplicate the logo and than flip it vertically. The left and right sides should be aligned. The reflection is always straight for the viewer. At the moment it is skewed, which would require light to make a turn on it's way to your eye. That's unnatural, that's why you feel it's fake.
I was actually copying another logo I saw... They did a dual reflection, and I was attempting to copy it.
Here is the straight on version.
I don't know how the dual reflection works, but I was thinking something like this:
The forward or first reflection is on target but you must also realign the later or 2nd reflection at the same angle. Otherwise it will look un natural again. (in this direction) BUT
To achieve the original concept before it was altered... Try imposing an angle on your gradient (backdrop) as well and I know you will have found your goal. For example start with the original and change the backdrop gradient to 12 degrees =/- . I will see if I can give an example.
- Bobby
I did throw together something but haven't been on the site long enough to know how to post it with my comment. I think you probably understand what I meant. Email me if you want to see my idea. Thanks - B
Reflections are literally mirrored. They don't project onto the surface, but rather appear to be on the other side of the surface. Ya know? What you were trying to do was more like shadows produced by more than one light source, but Ivan's explanation is more like the real thing.
The best advice I could give is to find a nice reflective surface... perhaps a few different kinds... a mirror, a sheet of glass, and a polished stone surface or something like that, and actually see how things reflect in it. Observation is the best way to figure out how things should look!
Is this more like what you're thinking?
Thank you both, I guess it sounded like I was trying to take a short cut, but really I have seen it done many times before in magazines, and of course, now that I have said that I have not been able to find any examples to show here. All I was attempting to do was a dual reflection. I imagine I 'played' with it a bit too much. I know there is a way to make this look good somehow, but today must not be the day I figure out how to do it. I had some friends recommend 3D Ray Tracing programs, but really I thought I could make it work in Photoshop.
Again, thanx.
wms out.
Korteenea,
Your image is probably closer to what I was thinking of... I guess next time I should keep examples of what I am attempting to emulate around when I am instead of trying to remember how it looked.
Thanx.
wms out.
Nice - Great Job this looks like it should. - To Korteenea
I took a stab at your suggestions...
and it's obvious I have much to learn.
What do you think?
wms out.
Definitely on the right track!
I find that the key to reflections and shadows is subtlety. Most reflections fade away and get blurry the further away they get from the object. Same with shadows.
Korteenea,
Your suggestions really helped. I played with it a little more and here is where I think I will leave it. Especially since this is the logo of my company's biggest competitor. Problem is, if you are anything like me, you are always looking at how you would change things if you could.
wms out.
Yes. That is perfect. Thanks!
Take the reflection in front and add some perspective to it... the further from the object, the larger it gets. A little bit will do.
This gives it the appearance that it is sitting on a table and you're looking right at it. The straight copy and flip method used in all these is nice, but without the perspective, it still looks fake. Real shadows and reflections get LARGER and LIGHTER the further they get away from the object.
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Actually, reflections should be treated as three-dimensional objects... meaning the reflection is *not* affected by the plane of the surface (in terms of changing its perspective,) and instead it should probably get a bit smaller as it is below the actual object itself and thus more distant. You are right about the shadows, however, as they are projected onto the surface and are therefore affected by the plane... I didn't really take that into consideration while mocking it up.
Consider the following diagram (perspective is exaggerated to clarify):
Perspective must be taken into account for the reflection as well as the shadow, however a reflection is not a projection onto a surface, like a shadow is. The reflection of the cube extends downward as if it were an extension of the cube itself, and though the light of the cube is reflected by the surface, it is not actually affected by the surface. The shadow however (indicated by the dotted line) is a projection onto a surface, and so it would be affected by the plane of the surface. Of course, I exaggerated the perspective in this piece... in most cases a perfect mirror will do nicely because there is far less perspective involved. (However, if you are supposed to see the underside of something in the reflection, a perfect mirror copy would not work.)
slight gaussian blur...experiment a little. It will help.