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KPT5 Shapeshifter can do bevels, that much is obvious when you start it up, but with a bit of fiddling it can also be used to do different effects. This tutorial covers a simple method that opens up a range of new, less 'solid' effects to the filter. |
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These images all use a ring selection set, but any kind of selection will produce interesting effects. If you have a narrower band selection (like a ring, or text as opposed to a solid block) you'll get a less solid look to the result. Each of the effects in the image above was produced using the same basic method. The preset file for those effects is available below. Here's how you do it... |
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1. Setting up. Create a new image and produce a selection set such as the ring above. I tend to create the ring as a black object on a layer of its own so that I can select it repeatedly with a Ctrl-Click to its layer thumbnail. Invert the background so that it's black, this will help get rid of the edges of your ShapeShifter result. Select the ring and create a new layer to apply to, then open ShapeShifter. The Basic Effect. |
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The ring effect relies on getting rid of the edges of the selection. The easiest way to do this is to make sure that your lights are not highlighting the edges of the object. If there is no light around the edges, the edges will appear black and blend in to the background. Removing all of your lights and making sure Ambient Light is set to 0 is a good start. That way, the result will be completely black. When you're done with that, you can start adding lights again, but make sure that their brightness is set to 0, their Highlight Spread is quite high, they have a diffuse highlight (not the sharp one) and their Highlight Sheen is set high. This means your object is only being lit by highlights, and that means you can get some interesting effects from blowout. You should also set the bevel scale so that there is a nice rounded surface over the top, this can be found in the Main Shape panel. Bevel Height can also change the effect, make sure it's set to around 50%, but higher should also work. So, add 3 lights of a light blue tint with the settings as described above, pointing directly down at your object, and set the ring colour to a light blue. Make sure the surface is set to Metal (in the environment panel), this helps increase the colour range you can get before blowout. Blowout can be seen in the central part of the effect where the ring is lit up white. At the moment, if you've just got a basic set up as described above, you'll have something that looks like this... |
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The next thing to do is break down the effect and make it a bit less regular. Because the surface is being lit by highlights only, you can make it far less regular by introducing a bump map. Go to the noise panel and select the Perlin noise option. Take the Bump Height up about half way, depending on how strong you want the effect to be, and increase the Bump Scale. The larger the scale, the larger the 'blobs' within the ring. Perlin, Simple, and Swirl noises work well for this effect. Now you should have something like this... |
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Now it's just a case of tweaking your lights. Try them at different angles, add some more colours (always being sure to have on the Highlight Sheen on, no Brightness), and try altering the colour of the Tint. Taking the scale of the noise down can produce some rather broken up effects such as the purple dust ring above. When you've applied, you'll have a ring against a black background, and standard selection tools can be used to break it out if you want it on its own layer. Download a preset file containing the settings used in this tutorial here... |
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