[Hall of tricks]
[Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4]

Part 1

Rolled glass (called by some nubbily glass) is often seen in front doors and bathrooms.  Some light can pass through but you cannot see clearly through it.  Using a bump map, an almost transparent path and light, you can achieve impressively close result. Look carefully at the following image, a rolled glass frame surrounds the image. You will also see a beveled center piece with a refracted light effect distorting what is seen through it and a pale elliptical ring helps defining the beveled surface. Finally an optional carved flower completes the window.

Because of the many commands used to create this composition, the tutorial will be divided in four parts. This should increase the downloading speed and allow you to take a break between each step. Please also note that the original image was about twice the size of this one. I'm kindly warning you, there are many steps to do and my teaching background pushes me to explain each one.  A brief introduction precedes each step so you'll know what's coming up.

Note: I did this in PI 5.0 but there is very little difference with PI 4.2 commands. 

Open your image in PhotoImpact. If you can't find one quickly, the PhotoImpact Albums contain hundreds of interesting ones (on the CD). The one I used here is in the Nature album, image 27. In case you're not familiar with importing an image from an album in PI, here are the steps:

• Insert the PhotoImpact CD.
• Look at the very top right of PI's screen, you'll see a Switch command. Click it and choose PhotoImpact Album.
• On the left are all the albums, find the Nature album.  If you can't find it, choose File/Open, in the Look In drop-down list find the CD. On the CD, double-click the Samples\Albums folders. Select Nature.ab3 then click Open.
• Find an image with a well centered subject as well as a reasonable amount of space around it. For example images 33, 62 and 89 are good examples.
• If you upgraded to PI 5.0, right-click on the image and select Open. The image will open in PI. If you still use PI 4.2, right-click and choose Copy/Thumbnail then paste it in PI. 

If you want to resize the image, follow these steps:

• Click the Transform Tool.
• Hold Shift and drag the upper left handle inward. Notice the status bar, the W is saying the Width and the H the height of the image when you will release the mouse.
• Try to get a width divisible by 10, this will help a little later.

To help us in drawing a perfectly centered elliptical path inside the rectangle, let's setup a grid and enable the Snap To Grid feature:

• At the bottom right of PI screen, click the blue ruler icon (next to the blue mask), and choose Grid.
• Click again and choose Snap To Grid.
• From the File menu, choose Preferences. Click Guidelines & Grid.  In the Horizontal and Vertical spacing text boxes enter the value 10.  Finally, choose a pale color from the Color box.
• Click OK.
• Now it possible that the bottom right of the image size doesn't perfectly match the grid. Let's solve this by clicking the Transform Tool. Drag the bottom right handle over the nearest grid point. This will unnoticeably distort the image.

Now that we have our environment setup, let's create the rectangle and the ellipse inside:

• Click the Path Drawing Tool and choose white from the Color box.
• Make sure the Rectangle shape is selected. Click the upper left corner and drag down to the bottom right of the image.
• If the rectangular path is not perfectly touching the upper left corner of the image. Click the Pick Tool.
• Move the upper left corner of the shape on the grid. Click the Path Drawing Tool again.
• From the Mode drop-down list choose Continue Draw (Edit Existing Path in PI 4.2).
• Select the Ellipse shape.
• Click on the second grid point from the upper left (as shown by the red dot in the following image) and drag down to the corresponding grid point from the bottom right.

• From the Mode list, choose 3D Round.
• Drag the Border slider near the beginning and the Depth near the middle.

Now our ellipse is perfectly sitting on the grid as well as centered in the rectangle. Click the Pick Tool and zoom back to 100%. At this point you should have a nice opaque frame around your image. Now it's time for the feature presentation of this subject: Turning the frame into semi-transparent rolled glass, wow! Don't forget to save your work. Save it as a .UFO type.