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Realistic Glass/Plastic Business Card??


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fourteen

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I have seen and tried the Realistic Glass/Plastic Pill Tutorial which is awsome btw. But ive actually been looking for a way to do something similar in a Rectangle about business card size. I modified the Pill technique as i went to see if i could use that, and it wasnt too bad. But I know you guys out there could do better as im only a novice. Any pointers of info would be much appeciated. :D
 
Welcome to the community fourteen, hope you enjoy your stay. [excited]

The answer to your question is relative to what exact type of "material" you're after. Glass, plastic, metal, glossy paper? etc... they all have a unique look. And the "look" of the effect is somewhat dependant on what type of environment the card will be put into as well.

But no matter which material use decide on, a couple of things will be consistent in each type -- reflections and highlights.

Use any type of photo for the reflection. Put it on a layer above your card shape. Size it to match your card, or mask out the unwanted areas. Then Blur it 2-3 pixels and either lower the opacity or set the blend mode to screen or hardlight. Try other modes too because if you're using colour, that'll effect how the blend modes work to create the look of the reflection.
You can also apply a linear gradient (on a new layer) to help with highlights.
I used a thin white outline here set to Exclusion blend mode. Just to add a bit of a border edge.

One thing is certain though... for this kind of effect, you can NOT be afraid of losing some of the detail on the card. You don't have to wash it out as much as i have here, but if your type is super bright and clean looking, it'll ruin the effect. Mine here is put above all other layers and set to Overlay.

You may also notice i've used a pixelated effect to to add a bit of texture. (FILTER>Pixelate>Mosaic)

And also very important is the fact that i did NOT use a "beveled" edge effect for depth. That wouldn't be realistic if you were viewing a card from a straight-on perspective. Only if the perspective was tilted in some way. With a straight-on view, a drop shadow is enough to create the illusion of a depth/thickness to the card.

This is just one example of what a metal or plastic card might look like. This type of effect can have an unlimited amount of 'looks' to it.
 
Welcome to the forum fourteen! :)

Hey Mark, great explanation and example! B7 :righton:

fourteen, Mark is the 'expert' around here on all things shiny! :D
 
Welcome aboard fourteen.

Please post your version of the card. We will be glad to help you "refine it".

We're all just try'n to learn.
 
Here's my cards...

I have two different cards... One has a brushed metal edge which i used a tutorial from an old site and the other is a variant of the glass pill from this site... which isnt too crash hot when printed.

The empty section at the bottom normally has my phone number and business email took it off so no silly people bother me... Not including you guys. ;)

And the Pointer graphic probably wont be used as its to retro/old for the rest of the design.

And thank you all for your welcomes... ;\
 
I'd keep the hand. It gives a nice contrast to old and new. Not conforming everything to a particular style/genre/decade etc., etc, sometimes conveys a nice message. In your case it might work for you because you have computer expertise that goes back so far, and the knowledge to make it work in the present day. Just my take

:righton: Good Luck [excited]
 
And as far as printing it, a lot of the reflections in the card 1 are totally out of gamut. Card 2 looks fine to print, but i'd print it on glossy paper. Same with card one, except i'd put an adjustment curve on it to make the brights brighter. One tip: if you plan to print these out, do it, if you can from start to finish in CMYK. It will give a more accurate representation than an RGB image. However, if you can't, then you should always have view-->proof colors checked.
 
Welcome fourteen

Good looking cards guys. :righton:
And Mark the backgraund looks awsome.I like it a lot. :)
 
Ya thx guys.

Fourteen... ok so this is an ACTUAL card then you're making. That's turns things around a fair bit then. I was assuming it was only for a 'screen' image. The effect on your top sample looks good to me. Perhaps just try to address the out-of-gamut issue.

One thing is... i wouldn't worry so much about creating a "fake" shiny reflective effect on the card... if it's printed on a glossy paper then it'll have those "naturally". And it'll look much better than faking it.

And if you're NOT using high gloss paper, then using a fake shiny/reflective effect will not look that good. A matte paper will simply 'soak up' most of the effect.

In that case though, it does leave you with the option to create a hightech styled bg for the card. Perhaps something blurred, like a photo, with a faint scanline llok to it...?

So what type of paper will you be using Fourteen?
 
I was getting them printed as gloss business cards. Up till then my trials are being printed on HP premium photo paper which is pretty much the same. Sorry to be stupid but what is "out of Gamut"?
 
By default youre working in RGB, that is, each color you see is a blend of red green and blue. For printing, it is impossible to use red green and blue inks because rgb is an additive color model which means that if you add all of the colors together, you get white. You can't do this with inks, obviously. Lets say for instance you wanted to get yellow. You can not use green, red, or blue, or any combinations of these colors to get yellow. But if you take yellow and add it to cyan you can get green, and so on. CMYK, which is what 99% of all home printers use, has a more limited amount of colors that it can express. The amount of color a colorspace can express is called GAMUT. Any color in your RGB image that falls out of the CMYK(printing) range is called OUT OF GAMUT. To see out of gamut colors in your image in photoshop, hit ctrl+shift+Y. To see how these colors will be expressed in CMYK, press ctrl+y.
 
These are both great designs, fourteen! :righton:

I do prefer, the first design, knowing that it will be printed for actual business card purposes. I might suggest (think about it) moving the "pointer hand graphic" (which I rather like and think is an appropriate addition, based on your business) over a bit more to the right so it's not so "dead centre". Might balance the whole look off a bit more. MHO... [innocent]
 
Welcome to the board fourteen
I am with Wendy, it is clearer and easier to ready and easy on the eye's meaning that there is nothing distracting me over anything else.

one trick with a business card......... make the other side blank...... why?
because people write on the other side (for lack of paper on hand) and that makes them keep it forever! This is why you will see recipes etc on the back of advertising flyers.......... now who would throw away a recipe [stuned]
sfm
 
Thankyou tranquil222 for the help there... gamut twas a new word for me, i just proves you learn something new everyday!

Thanks for the feed back everyone else too. Ill keep playing with it and will post it later to see what you all think...

Also.. good idea with the off center hand and keeping the back of the card free... Was going to for price but now because of sneakyness ;)
 
Hi all again.... I have just made the card from scratch and it looks much better now... and the gamut prob is gone as it is in CMYK. ;)

I said in my previous post that id place it here so you all could see it and if the mood takes you... pick it to pieces. anyway here tis.
 
:righton: Looks *perfect* fourteen! :}
 
Looks awesome man, i really like it. The only thing I would suggest trying is removing the metalic border and replacing it with plastic or acrylic border (spelling) anything that looks more like a computer monitor. It may even look better without the border all together. I know that when i design something it sometimes looks best when I take a dominant feature away from it.

The only other concern i have is what res your printable product is in? Are you set up for 300 dpi? Standard for laser printing.

And thanks for the question about out of Gamut. I have heard it thrown around alot but never really asked as to wth it is lol.

Good post.
 
Looks good fourteen ;)

Personally I think that the highlight is too wide though.

It's hard to explain, but maybe my attachment will make things more clear.

Your highlight looks like B when it should have looked more like A in the case of a business card.
 
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