December Entry: The Grotto of the Wicked

[rlucci]

By the way how do you get that wave/ripple effect?

I'd also like to know your technique for the wave/ripples

I think I remember...

In Photoshop, I selected the water area and used Select -> Modify -> Contract by, oh 10 pixels or so. On a new layer, I filled the area with 50% gray and then used Layer -> Layer Style -> Bevel and Emboss on my gray blob.

I made the bevel very narrow and bright (high depth) and created a Gloss Contour map that was shaped like an inverted triangle with the bottom point being in the exact center of the map (see snapshot). This made the bevel highlight on both sides of my gray blob.

Let's see, at some point I did a Filter -> Distort -> Ripple (I think) on the blob, but I don't recall the specifics. Just played with it until it looked nice.

Last, I gave the layer a Blending Mode of Hard Light so only the highlights were visible.

I repeated this whole process two more times; each time I doubled the amount I contracted the selection and each time I reduced the brightness (depth) of the bevel.

It goes quicker if you copy and paste the layer style onto your subsequent blobs and the just tweak the specifics.