Recreating “High Shine” effect with a texture. How?

Hi

I like the effect created when a prim-face is set to blank, black, high shine.

I’d like to create a texture which would overlay a prim-face with the text “My Logo”, but give the impression that the prim-face upon which the logo is on has been set to blank, black, high shine. “My Logo” would give the impression of being embossed, much like some of the bump options available for a prim.

My question is: How can I use Photoshop to make a texture that will simulate (or blend-in convincingly with) the effect generated by the “high shine” option for a prim?

If this can be done, it is then a simple matter of creating an embossed “My Logo” on a separate PS layer and importing into SL as a TGA.

The “My Logo” textured-face of the prim would then blend in nicely with the other prim-faces, giving the impression of a single blank, black, high shine prim but with one face having an embossed “My Logo”

Thx!

Debbie

From what you are asking, you can use "Styles" (depending on your version of Photoshop) from the window menu at the top and then select a style then right click your layer and then select blending options.

Depending on the effect you can most probably get it from the blending options but it will take time and knowledge of the effects available within the Blending Options menu.

In the blending options under "Bevel and Emboss" is where you can alter the choice of bevel from Inner Bevel, Outer Bevel, Emboss etc etc there is also the option of changing the direction of light which will give that high shiny effect you are looking for along with colour and Pattern overlay and for the added special effect there is gradient overlay as well.

Try putting your logo in black on a white texture, applying it to the object with color set to black, then setting shiny to high, and bump to darkness or lightness, whichever looks better.

I can think of several ways. One make the logo section a separate prim. This logo graphic can be an alpha to allow the background of the prim behind it to show through - you can emboss the logo whatever you like. Then when you go in world simply put it on a separate prim and position the logo prim over the secondary object. If you have any alpha goofiness just make the back side of this see through prim a solid texture. I find that helps a lot with alpha conflict.

Additionally you could take a snapshot in world of the shiny prim with its texture applied - then take that snapshot into photoshop and apply the logo to it directly. Then move it back in world. This way you can mimic the look of a shiny texture without having to actually apply shiny settings. Trompe L'Oeil. Hope that helps.

Dag

The easiest way to seamlessley integrate textures inworld I find is to literally build the object in SL. I have build many metallic objects to great detail, using hundreds of prims at a time in some instances, some shiny, etc. Then use a screen capture and inport the image into Photoshop, square it off and import it back into SL and no it doesn't have the same exact look as the original but it is now just a texture and only uses 1 prim. I have used this technique for lower prim kiosks and control panels a lot. I find when you set the remainding sides to shiny and integrate the flat texture you made in Pshop it is quite flawless, and saves a huge amount of prims in some instances. Just experiment with the sun settings when you are capturing your pics, some different daylights do give more convincing shiny effects.

This is what we affectionately call "poor man's surface transfer". Oh, if only SL had functionality to do this for real, rather than relying on screenshots, that would be fantastic.

Anyway, one tip I'd add if you're going to be using this a lot is to take advantage of the camera's focal length controls. If you press ctrl-0 a few times, the view will become more orthographic. Ctrl-8 will make it more fisheyed. Ctrl-9 will snap it back to normal.

For a snapshot intended for use as texture, it's not always desirable to have perspective in the image. You'll find that if you go with the max ctrl-0 setting (just keep hitting it until it won't go any further), and then zoom the camera way out, you can get some pretty decent orthographic shots. Just go easy on the alt-zoom controls, since at the zoom distance you're gonna need for this, a tiny mouse movement equals a fairly large degree of movement.

Thx guys, for this helpful advice & tips

Thanks to your help above, I produced the desired effect as follows:

1) New layer, painted black
2) 'Window | Styles'
3) Select 'Chromed Satin (Text)' from 'Styles' window and apply to layer
4) On the 'Layer' window, switch off the 'Bevel and Emboss' effect by clicking the adjacent eyeball icon
4) New layer, painted black and placed on top of the first layer
5) Blending left at default 'Normal'; set 'Opacity' to 81%; set 'Fill' to 95%
6) "My Logo" layer placed on top of these two
7) 'File | Save As' TGA
Upload into SL

BTW: at step 5) if the blending is set to 'Hue', it creates a really cool light-reflective silver chrome effect.