Cracked Glass Effect

O
Posted By
OldBob
Oct 15, 2008
Views
418
Replies
7
Status
Closed
I am looking for a way to make a convincing cracked glass effect in Photoshop (CS3). Not broken (fragmented) glass, just cracked. It would, ultimately, be a layer over another graphic (a round gauge).

I’ve googled many combinations of this and, while there are many tutorials that say they are for cracked glass, most are actually for broken glass, not cracked, and none of them, of either sort, are very convincing.

There are also any number of sites offering brushes; but again, the few that post examples aren’t very convincing, which leaves me leery of the rest.

I am open to suggestions, or if anyone knows of a tutorial site I may have missed . . .

BTW; I am much more of a technician than an actual artist, so my attempts at painting/drawing something have been, shall we say, less than adequate. But I’ll try anything if someone can give me some pointers.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

OldBob

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Phosphor
Oct 15, 2008
I know what I’d do:

I’d go to the hardware store and buy a dozen panes of glass and set up shop in the garage, cracking and photographing the glass on a dead-white background—say a bed sheet or a hunk of poster board. Can’t get any more authentic than that, and in a "time = money" equation it’d probably make more sense than spending hours & hours trying to fake it.

Lighting will be the key to capturing the diffraction along the edges of the cracks.

Remember to wear goggles and gloves!

🙂
JJ
John Joslin
Oct 15, 2008
Couldn’t you find an old, cracked window* somewhere, photograph it, and overlay it on the gauge?

* Disclaimer: I am not advocating the use of cracked Windows. 😉
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OldBob
Oct 15, 2008
Phos & John,

That is probably the best answer. I had thought of it, but was wondering if there was another way.

Couldn’t you find an old, cracked window

ROFL

I live near Detroit, so, yeah, probably!

Thanks again

OldBob
M
Mylenium
Oct 15, 2008
www.cgtextures.com

You are looking to apply a natural structure, right? Then why not go with nature itself? Search the site listed above and similar sites. why they may be primarily aimed at 3D artists, they provide enough interesting material to conventional 2D artists as well (like blue skies when you can’t shoot one yourself on a rainy day) 😉

Mylenium
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OldBob
Oct 15, 2008
Thank you. That’s a direction I had never considered. I’ll take a look.

OldBob

Edited to add: Wow! Great site. Thanks again!
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Phosphor
Oct 15, 2008
Heya, Bob…

Your ultimate solution showed up as a blurb on BoingBoing today:

< http://www.boingboing.net/2008/10/15/krazy-krax-1954-gag.htm l>

Forgot about suggesting that!

🙂
O
OldBob
Oct 16, 2008
LOL! Thanks!

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