18
Jun
written by: Andrew Houle // stored in: Tutorials
A couple days ago I looked all over the internet for a good tutorial on how to create a glass window texture with a realistic reflection in Photoshop, but came up empty handed. I did see a couple of things on making glass, but not for the look I was after. This tutorial will aim to fix that.
What You Will Learn
In the steps that follow we will create the office building window shown in the graphic to the left; using filters, masks, photos and adjustment layers.
Onwards, to the Tutorial
- Open up Photoshop and create a new document. Click File->New. Size it to 400px by 500px. Click OK
- Rename the background layer, call it ‘Glass’
- Right click (ctrl, click on a mac) on the ‘Glass Layer’ and choose convert to smart object from the list of options that appear. This will give us the ability to work with non-destructive filters so that we can tweak them later, if we need to do so.
- Hit ‘d’ on the keyboard to reset your foreground and background colors to black and white
- Click filter->render->clouds. To give us some contrasting color to work from. I know I use this filter a lot, but I can’t help it
- Click filter->sketch->chalk & charcoal. Change the sliders to: charcoal area: 3, chalk area: 1, stroke pressure: 3. Click OK. We are trying to get some interesting variances in color and the idea of reflection.
- Click filter->artistic->paint daubs. Change the settings to something like what I used in the image below.
- Now let’s add a motion blur to lengthen the reflections and make them flow with the direction of the sunlight more. Click filter->blur->motion blur. Use the settings shown in the reference below.
- Now we are going to add a couple of lens flares to simulate bright reflections of glare on the glass. Click filter->render->lens flare. Choose the settings below.
- Repeat the last step. Except change the settings to as follows:
- Click to add an adjustment layer, choose hue/saturation. This will place a non-destructive adjustment layer right above our ‘Glass Layer.’ We want to keep things as flexible as possible.
- Move the sliders to the color of the reflection you want. I used: hue 21, saturation 17, brightness 58.
- Find a nice picture of clouds, or you can use the image below.
- Open up the image of clouds you are using and grab the move tool (shortcut ‘v’ on the keyboard’). Click and drag the clouds onto your glass window document and let go. This will place the clouds on it’s own layer. Make sure this is now your top layer. Center the clouds over your image. Rename this new layer ‘Clouds Reflection’.
- Change the opacity of the ‘Clouds Refection’ layer to 25% and the fill to 80%. Also change the layer type to soft light.
- Add a new layer, call it ‘Frame Right’
- We are going to make a gradient of varying degrees of gray to fill our frame with. Click on the gradient tool, click on the linear gradient at the top when the gradient properties come up, then double click to edit the gradient.
- Now edit the gradient to look something like the one below. Click on the sliders to change the color and add stoppers by double clicking along the gradient. Then click new to add your gradient to the presets.
- Grab the rectangle marquee tool (shortcut ‘m’ on the keyboard) and make a selection like below.
- Now grab the gradient tool again, select the new gradient you created and fill the selection, by clicking and dragging at an angle with the direction of the sun.
- Right click on the ‘Frame Right’ layer and convert it to a smart object.
- Click filter->noise->add noise. Change the amount to 1.5, the distribution to gaussian and check monochromatic. Click OK.
- Let’s add a little more to this texture. Click filter->texture->texturizer. Use the settings shown below.
- Let’s even this out. Click filter->blur->motion blur. Choose -90 for the angle and 8px for the distance. Click OK.
- Double click to the right of the layer name to bring up the layer styles window. Add a bevel and emboss, a drop shadow and an outer glow. Play with the settings, I used what is referenced below.
- Copy the ‘Frame Right’ layer by clicking and dragging it to the create new layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette. Rename the layer and move it into place on the left side. Double click on the layer to get the layer styles box and adjust the styles appropriately.
- Repeat these steps for the middle, top and bottom bars. Use ‘ctrl, t’ to bring up the free transform tool to change the width of the bars and to rotate them into place. I also double clicked on the motion blur on the two horizontal bars and edited the angle to 0.
- Let’s add a shadow to the top of the window. Add a new layer, title it ‘Shadow’. Grab the rectangle marquee tool and make a box like below.
- Change the background color to black. Hit ‘ctrl, backspace’ to fill this selection with black.
- Right click and convert this layer to a smart object.
- Click filter->blur->gaussian blur. Change the radius to 3px.
- Change the opacity on this layer to 50%.
We are Going to Use a Bunch of Filters to Achieve Our Effect
OK, enough with the filters already! Let’s add some color!
Let’s add even more interest to our reflection
This glass needs a frame
We need more filters after all!
Here is what I have thus far, we’re getting there!
Rinse, lather, repeat
Finishing Touches
Here’s my finished product!
I also added a curves adjustment layer to the top to lighten things and redid the clouds filter. Note that every filter and layer style is editable, so if you want to change the look just double click one of the styles or filters to change it. A cool thing to try is to double click the clouds filter in the ‘Glass’ layer, this will render new clouds and change the whole look of the window. If you come up with an interesting variation or have some suggestions, drop me a comment below or send me an email.
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