TUTORIAL: How to create a reflection of any layer... or a real shadow...

THIS IS VERY EASY... for beginners mostly...

I will do it with text and you can figure it out how to do it with other objects...

TEXT

1. Open your document and select the text you wish to create a reflection of...

[I have a random background in place]

2. Click Layer > Duplicate Layer... and call it reflection

[You should not see any noticeable differences]

3. Click Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical

4. Move it so that it's beneath the original text

[You can leave a big space between them, a small space, or no space. It make no difference]

5. Then click Add Layer Mask in the Layers Window...

[Your foreground and background colors will automatically become black and white]

6. Click the Gradient tool and drag it like this:

[Tip: holding the "Shift" key keeps it straight]

7. Viola!

(optional) 8. Now if you'd like to augment the reflection you can decrease the opacity... around 80% looks great..

Now that you have read this you can create a reflection with anything. You can also create shadows to objects by simply overlaying it with black, moving it where you want, blurring it slightly (depending if you want that effect) and then skewing it in the transform menu.

I hope you enjoyed and found useful my first tutorial!  

lholmes  

nice tutorial lholmes, really usefull....

Superb

This is an excellent tutorial that is going to help many acheive this desirable effect

Good work

Thanks.. I wanted to do this for years and searched and searched for a tutorial and then I discovered how to and made one...

nice avatar Draginol!

Nice work lholmes

Nice tutorial lholmes. I wonder how you managed to discover how to do this

Ah! Just forgot to add something

You can also use 'Quick Mask' mode with the gradient to reflect any image in any sort of background

But what you present is easier lholmes

Thanks a ton! I have been wondering how to get that effect for a while

Thanks, but I just noticed that my avatar and signature is not there   I don't know why

Sorry I forgot.... Credit goes to k_Millio for leading me down the path to reflections....!!!!!

Draginol: Your avatar is gone (but I still saw it) but your sig is still there....

Neil: I'll try that Quick Mask thing...... I like the BG for your image....

Yeah, I think it might be the people hosting my stuff because my websites banner is also down

Anyway best get back to topic

yes... back to praising my tutorial...

Its back btw...

I was searching for this, thanks!

very nice tutorial, i tried to make reflection in the past and untill now i never succeed

thanks for this one... i finally found the last touch i needed for my signature! with a slight transform to this technique i've got it done.  

Thoughts? feedback?

awesome tut, and awesome sig

Nice Tutorial.  

This is a Old,but a good trick  

Great tutorial man!!

And... checkout my result...

Hows it  

nice... but i think it'll be better to spherize the the text, so the text follows the earth shape

<bad english huh?!! >

Nice one.  And bad english? Sounds just about perfect to me

Yes, a spherical text will probably look good. Nice result as well amri. I just don't like the shadow of the text. Your English is alright if you ask me. Welcome to CrystalXP.

Thanks for the suggestion man I am working on it!!

Good tutorial!

 Nice, but the text reflection should be a little more transparent at the bottom. brush or erase tool maybe?