Tutorial 5: Glass Effect

Introduction

The Glass filter is found under Effects - 3D Effects and is one of those slightly daunting filters in PHOTO-PAINT. I played with it for a while, and did not get very far. The problem was that I expected it to work in a similar way to e.g. the emboss filter. I was about to give up when I found this exercise in the book by David Huss.

Hands-on Exercise

Create a new image, size 5 inches wide, 3.5 inches tall. With Edit - Fill select the Bitmap button and scroll down to a light coloured wood. Click OK to fill the image. Now, enter the word GLASS in TimesNewRoman, size 150 and center.

Next, select Mask - Create Mask From Object and open the docker window by selecting Windows - Dockers - Objects. Select the background (not the text!) by clicking on it, and apply the Glass Effect: Effects - 3D Effects - Glass with the preset Wet. This is what your screen will look like if you used a red paint colour like I did (note that the paint colour is not important).

Now, select the text, and you will see the marquee re-appearing as shown below.

Select Edit - Fill and pick the same woodeffect as used for the background.

One more action is needed to give the desired result: in the docker window you will notice a little drop-down menu at the top -- the word "normal" is visible. Click and scroll down to "exclusion." This allows the underlying image to shine through.

Finally, click on the background to be able to see the finished image.

This page was last reviewed in April 2006.