Transparent bubble effect

Transparent today we want to achieve the effect is to make a transparent bubble. Look at the effect, it's pretty, isn't it? If you are satisfied, let's start now!

1. First of all, choose a picture you like, any content can be. After you do your backup work, use Photoshop to open it. The common bubbles are circular, so we need to use a square image as the background. Select the Trim tool, hold down the SHIFT key, and ensure that the trim marquee is square, and then trim the selected area in the image. (Figure 01)

Final effect Diagram

Figure 01

2. Because we choose a larger image, we need to shrink the image a little. But the background layer is locked, which requires changing the properties of the background. Double-click the background layer to change the background layer to layer, named original. Use the image size command to change the image to 600x600 pixel size. Copy the original to hide the original layer. Of course, you can also use a smaller image, but if you want to make a larger bubble, the small image is not appropriate.

3. Select the original copy layer, with the elliptical marquee tool to select a positive circle, slightly smaller than the image, the size of the selection is the size of the bubble, the selection moved to the center of the screen. After the selection, delete the image in the selection, and then reverse the selection. (Figure 02)

Figure 02

4. Copy layer, become original copy 2. Keep the selection, apply the warp > Spherical filter, set the quantity to 50%, and the mode is normal. Press Ctrl+t to reduce the image to 85% of the current size and deselect it. (Figure 03)

Figure 03

5. Select layer Original, copy, become original copy 3, hide all layers except original copy 3. Within the layer original copy 3, apply the warp > Polar coordinates filter, set the options to plane coordinates to polar coordinates, select the selection of the original copy, and in original Copy 3, deselect, and then remove the selection. Lock the transparent pixels within the layer, execute the Gaussian blur command with a radius of 1.0 pixels, and move the original 3 layer up one layer so that the position on the layers panel is above the original copy, original under copy 2. (Figure 04)

Figure 04

6. Select original copy 2, copy, become original copy 4, hide original copy 2, move the copy 4 down one layer, lock the transparent pixels in the layer, Gaussian blur, The radius is 1.0 pixels, select original copy 2, reduce layer opacity to 50%, original copy 4, copy 3 with the link, then select original Copy 3, merge the link layer, the original copy of the form 3 renamed to Color1. At this point, you should be left with original layer (hidden), original copy and Color1 in the Layers panel. (Figure 05)

Figure 05

7. Select the original copy, create a new layer on it, name it bubble, hide the color1 layer above, load the opaque selection of the original copy, and fill it with black in the bubble-level selection. Keep the selection, add the layer mask, select the layer thumbnail, return to the RGB channel, load the opaque area of the bubble layer, and use the transform selection command to narrow the selection to the current 75%; Select the Mask channel, open the Fill dialog box, fill the mask selection with gray, opacity to 100%, deselect, Return to the RGB channel. As shown in Figure 06, the layer panel is illustrated in figure 07.

Figure 06

Figure 07

8. Copy the bubble layer, discard the bubble copy of the layer mask, move the bubble copy down two levels, placed on the original layer (hidden) above. Back in the mask channel in the bubble layer, load the current channel range, shrink the selection by 5 pixels, Gaussian blur, radius 5 pixels, deselect, and return to the RGB channel. Move the bubble layer to the top level, and the image looks no different from the previous step.

9. Select layer bubble Copy, copy, move bubble copy 2 to top level, lock layer transparent pixel, ensure it is not moved. Hold down SHIFT and use the elliptical marquee tool to select a positive circle at the top right of the image, and then add a smaller circle by adding to the selection; Create a new layer, name highlights, set the foreground color to white, set the background color to black, and deselect after filling the selection with white. Copies the current layer, flips the copy layer horizontally and then flips vertically, moving to the lower left of the image. Select Bubble Copy 2, link highlights layer and highlights copy layer, and merge linked layers. (Figure 08)

Figure 08

10. Set bubble Copy 2 to lock layer transparent pixel, execute the radial fuzzy command, set the quantity to 10, the fuzzy method is rotation, the quality is the best (this will increase the time that the program processes the image), the center blur remains unchanged; Copy the current layer, change the blending mode of bubble copy 3 to the screen, Practice to blur, the number is 25, the other remains unchanged; Copy the current layer again, the third time the execution of the radial blur, the number is 50. Link Bubble copy 4 and copy 3 to replica 2 and flatten the link layer. The high light shape of the bubble is complete. (Figure 09)

Figure 09

11. Load the opaque selection of bubble Copy 2, create a new layer, named Falloff, set the foreground color to be a pale beige rgb (255,255,247), and use it to stroke the selection in the new layer, with a width of 3 pixels and a position inside. Apply Gaussian blur within the selection, with a radius of 5 pixels. Then select, Delete, and then reverse the election. Link the falloff layer with the Bubble Replica 2 layer, select the Bubble replica 2 layer, and merge the linked layers. Rename the bubble Replica 2 layer to highlights and the layer blending mode to the screen. Copy the highlights layer, change the blending mode of the replica layer to color Dodge, reduce opacity to 65%, open the Color1 layer, select the bubble layer, lock the layer transparent pixels, reduce the opacity of the current layer to 60%, and keep the selection. (Figure 10)

Figure 10

12. Create a new layer, named film, move it to the top and fill the selection with 100% opaque gray. Set the background color to black, the foreground color unchanged, and perform a layered cloud filter, because layered clouds are random, so you might want to experiment until you get a satisfactory result, where I used 6 layers of clouds (Figure 11).

Figure 11

Then use the painting in the art filter to set the brush size to 8, sharpen to 7 and sharpen the brush type, and then use the texture > particle filter to set the strength to 40, the contrast to 50, and the particle type to enlarge; add noise, The number is 12.5%, Gaussian distribution, Gaussian blur 1.3 pixel, with polar coordinates filter, the plane coordinates to polar coordinates; with the illuminated edges in the stylized filter, the edge width is 5, the brightness is 8, the smoothness is 5, the Gaussian blur is applied again, and the radius is still 1.3 pixels; next, add the noise command several times, all Gaussian distribution, the number is 4 .44%,1.25%,0.25%,0.25%. The effect is shown in Figure 12. This step of the filter is more intensive, some patience, and constantly test the effects of various values. (Figure 12)

Figure 12

13. Copy film layer, hide film copy layer, return to film layer, change its layer blending mode to screen, reduce opacity to 55% (Figure 13).

Figure 13

14. Select the film copy layer, set its layer blending mode to screen, and perform polar coordinates again, but this time choose from polar coordinates to plane coordinates, apply two layered clouds, perform radial blur, number 50, and other settings as before. (Figure 14)

Figure 14

15. Add a little noise to the bubbles below. Create a new layer at the top, named Noise, and fill the selection with black, and execute the Add noise command with a quantity of 5.6%, Gaussian distribution. You may not see the effect, the layer's blending mode set to the screen, you will find that the screen brightness somewhat improved, and slightly blurred. (Figure 15)

Figure 15

16. The internal structure of the bubble has been completed, the following to do is to add color for bubbles. Before that, however, there is a step to add some credibility to its appearance. We don't want that clear look, but we can't reduce the opacity of the layer, so we can use the fill layer to achieve the goal. Create a new fill layer on the film copy, fill selection gradient, in the pop-up Gradient Fill dialog box, set the gradient to the previous color to transparent linear gradient, angle 90 degrees, zoom 100%, select to align with the layer, and then reduce the opacity of the layer to 35%, and then rename the layer to bottom Lighting. The edges of the image will appear in a miscellaneous edge, and will appear in the next few steps, but don't worry, in the later steps we will have a way to eliminate it (Figure 16)

Figure 16

17. Select the selection (after the gradient fill layer has been established, the selection will automatically cancel), and then create a gradient fill layer on the bottom lighting layer, named color, to set the gradient to a radial gradient from transparent to custom color, We set the custom color to a blue, RGB (0,114,182), and select Align with the layer. Set the blending mode to color and the opacity to 20%. This layer is to determine the color of the bubble, you can use any color. (Figure 17)

Figure 17

18. Now let's take a look at the image. The particles in the bubble are bigger, disturbed the screen, so select the film layer, reduce its opacity to 15%, select the film copy layer, reduce its layer opacity to 55% (Figure 18), the highlight is too bright, you need to lower the brightness, select the highlights copy layer, lock the layer transparent area, Perform Gaussian blur, blur radius of 10 pixels, select highlights layer, lock layer transparent, perform Gaussian blur, and blur radius is 10 pixel. (Figure 19)

Figure 18

Figure 19

19. Next we are going to make the reflective light around the bubble. In the highlights layer, load the opaque area, shrink 15 pixels, feather the selection, radius of 10 pixels, reverse the selection, shrink the selection again, shrink to 7 pixels, fill the selection with white; Select the highlights copy layer, also fill the selection with white, and deselect. (Figure 20)

Figure 20

20. Now, before flattening the layer, keep a copy of your image. Then, select the bubble layer, which will include all layer links except the hidden original layer (including the bubble layer), there should be 11 layers, starting from the top, Noise,color,bottom lighting,film copy, film, Highlights copy, highlights,bubble,color1,original Copy, bubble copy, if your image does not match, please check the previous steps to flatten the link layer. At this point, the annoying edges of the edge of the image finally disappeared. Next, load the opacity selection of the layer, shrink by 10 pixels, and deselect after the deletion. In this way, the bubble is done! Perfect, isn't it? (Figure 21)

Figure 21

21. If you want to use it as a separate piece, you can finish it now. If you want to add it to a first image, open the background image, move the bubble over, and reduce the opacity of the layer to 95%. Our bubble is quite large, so that you can make various sizes of bubbles by different proportions (Fig bubble). This is a local image that can see the jagged edges, but there is no such problem after shrinking (Figure 22). At the same time, there may be some process in the process you will think the effect is not very obvious, unnecessary, especially after shrinking, then you can be in the image of the fineness and speed between the tradeoff, make the right choice for you.

Figure 22