Car Illustration Reflections

[pmspt]

Hi,

Just wondering if Affinity Designer can handle reflections as in the adobe stock image below. I am okay with square on reflections but when the subject is angled I have been unable to create the effect

thanks for any assistance provided

[GarryP]

Welcome to the forums.
That image is tiny so it’s difficult to see it properly.
From what I can see of it I think it will be difficult to replicate as Designer can’t see what the underside of the car looks like, so it can’t show the reflection of something it doesn’t have.

[firstdefence]

I suspect these adobe images have been created in a 3D app and exported with lighting and a reflective floor. If it was a vector drawing, the reflection would have been drawn the same way the car was because trying to flip a 2D image doesn't work. Even with the perspective tool and mesh warping it doesn't look good.

[pmspt]

Hi Garry thanks for the reply. not too worried about the underside, its the front, wheels and side reflections I am interested in. When the car is side on you can just copy the image and flip it but that doesn't work with an angled car. I suppose what I am trying to do is to flip it along the angled axis as below:

[GarryP]

As firstdefence said above, the problem is that it’s a 2D image, with no 3D information, and Designer has no sense of depth anyway.

What you’re actually trying to do is – sort of – mirror the image along two axes at the same time – see attached image. The front wheels need to be on the yellow line but the back wheels need to be on the green line, at the same time.

To put it another way, you’re not trying to mirror left-to-right or up-to-down but out-to-in, which is how a mirror works. The back of the car is farther away than the front of the car but there’s no way for the software to know that.

I’ve a feeling that this might be possible in Photo – couldn’t say if it was possible in Designer or not, but I’m guessing not – but I think it would take a boat-load of experimentation/time/effort and the result might still be quite disappointing.

[firstdefence]

This is how it's done in a 3D app, this is a simple model with a shiny floor.

C4D

[firstdefence]

I found this tutorial for PS but I think everything can be done the same in Affinity Photo, looks a bit longwinded but the result doesn't look bad and it's a clever way of doing it. The only thing Affinity cannot do is the Puppet warp, that is a PS only feature so that part would require the mesh tool and some patience.

 

[firstdefence]

First attempt at the tutorial, harder than it looks and front end is the hardest part, but with a bit more care it's doable. Used the smudge tool on the front part to hide the bodge job 

[pmspt]

Thanks Garry and first defence, interesting comments and video, much more involved than I had at first thought but I can see why. I either need to give the shiny floor a miss or invest more time in creating a decent reflection!!

[pmspt]

24 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

First attempt at the tutorial, harder than it looks and front end is the hardest part, but with a bit more care it's doable. Used the smudge tool on the front part to hide the bodge job 

Exactly what I am trying to do, looks good to me, thanks for your time much appreciated!