This glass material adds a strong tint and some diffuse lighting to create a fairly thin but interestingly coloured glass effect.

Load up the file 'ringmaskglass.psd'. This file contains the ring from which the selection set to create the material samples was generated. This version of the file contains a small image (the same one used to generate the preset) and a layer containing the ring mask itself.

If you loaded the ringmaskglass file, you can Ctrl/Cmd-Click the layer with the ring to select it. If you didn't, create a new selection for the bevel.

This time, make sure you make the Background layer active before you launch ShapeShifter. In order for the glass to refract anything, you need to be on a layer that has something in it. If you don't want to edit the background, duplicate that layer and select the duplicate. Either way, make sure there is an image on the layer you are editing.

When you launch ShapeShifter, you will be presented with either the default settings or the settings you had loaded last. The image on the layer you selected will appear in the preview. If it does not, leave the filter and make sure you have a layer with an image in it selected. If you wish, you can load in the 'Glass Candy' preset at this point to see the finished result.

Note: Depending on the selection you have when launching, you may need to adjust the Bevel Scale in the Main Shape panel to prevent it bevelling too far. Ideally, you want a bevel that looks like a rounded shape and does not 'meet' in the centre causing sharp ridges.

The Environment panel is the most important panel to look at when creating glass effects. It is in this panel that we set up the transparency of the material, set up tinting, and make sure it refracts properly.

Let's start by setting the tint up properly.

• Set the Mix Tinting Color slider to 65%. We want to apply colour to the material, but we don't want it applying so much that we don't see anything from underneath it.
• Using the Tint Color thumbnail, click and drag to select a rich, saturated Red.
• Set the surface type to Plastic. If the surface type button indicates Metal, click it to change it to Plastic.

We're using a Plastic surface here so that we get some white highlights on the surface of the material. The underlying colour is already tinted, so we don't need to use Metal to keep the richness of colour.

The next thing to do is set the refraction up. Technically speaking, the denser the glass the higher this slider should be. In this case, we set it fairly high to get a nice distorted effect.

• Set the Glass Refraction slider to 41%.

The glass is now basically set up, and all that remains is to add some lights to give it more interesting shading.

This glass uses diffuse lights to generate a smooth light over the entire surface, with a stronger highlight at the top left.

The first thing to do is delete all of the existing lights.

• Select a light and press the Delete key. This deletes the light.
• When the light is deleted, another one is selected, so keep pressing Delete until they are all gone.
• Make sure the Ambient Glow slider is set to 0%.

The object should now be completely black, and it's time to add some new lights in. First, we'll add a generic light that will apply some light to the entire object.

• Add a new light using the Add Light button.
• Set the Light Brightness to 56%, and the Highlight Sheen to 0%.
• Place this light over the centre of the lighting preview.

This light casts a general glow over the entire object, giving us a good basis for adding new lights to highlight areas. Next, let's add a couple of specific highlight lights.

• Add a new light using the Add Light button.
• Set the Light Brightness to 50%, the Highlight Sheen to 50%, and the Highlight Spread to 87%.
• Make sure that the Highlight Type is Diffuse by clicking on the Sharp/Diffuse button.
• Move this light to the top left of the lighting preview.
• With this light selected, add a new light using the Add Light button. The new light is a clone of the one that was selected.
• Set the Light Brightness to 56%, the Highlight Sheen to 85%, and the Highlight Spread to 58%.
• Move this light to the bottom right of the lighting preview.

This has given us a set of basic highlights, a smaller one at the bottom right and a larger one at the top left. The final two lights will be used to light up the bottom left and top right corners slightly to balance the overall brightness of the bevel.

• Add a new light using the Add Light button.
• Set the Light Brightness to 0%, the Highlight Sheen to 50%, and the Highlight Spread to 98%. This light has a large highlight but does not add any brightness outside its area.
• Make sure that the Highlight Type is Diffuse by clicking on the Sharp/Diffuse button.
• Move this light to the bottom left of the lighting preview, pulling it as far 'down' to the bottom left as you can. Then click the F/B button to send it to the back. Sending it to the back means that it illuminates a smaller section of the visible object, remaining subtle.
• With this light selected, add a new light using the Add Light button. The new light is a clone of the one that was selected.
• Move this light to the top right of the lighting preview, making sure that it is still 'behind' the bevel.

These lights give a smoother look that some of the other effects, avoiding too sharp a highlight and spreading out the light so that we get a constant shade over the surface.

Because we applied this to a layer that already had something in it, we might want to cut it out if it needs to be on its own layer. To do this, make sure that the Shadow panel's Shadow Icon is set to Off (an empty eye) so that the selection set we used does not have a black halo after apply.

Once this is done, Apply the filter and you are returned to Photoshop where you can simply cut (or copy), as the selection set is still active, and paste to a new layer.

Tinted glass with diffuse highlights can be used as the basis for a number of effects. The amount of refraction plays a big part in defining whether the result is glassy, or some other transparent material. The more refraction, the more dense the material. The lighting can be adjusted, and even tweaked with environment maps to create a different effect if required.