Has anyone ever managed to script that 3D screenshot effect?

[sas]

You know, the one that commercial companies like to use to present their software products...

The original screenshot is always tilted by a small amount in 3D-space, and shows a smooth shadow and reflection.

Here's an example: http://www.softmaker.com/english/ofwtm_en.htm

Has anyone had any luck implementing that kind of effect with Image Magick? If so, please tell me... I'd really like to use this effect for various purposes...

(The closest thing I've seen so far is http://www.fmwconcepts.com/imagemagick/3Drotate - and my own Image Magick scripting skills are far to limited to add the shadow and reflection myself...)

[fmw42]

This has been done before and posted in IM. Search the archives. For example viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10830 and viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11726&hilit=box


Also see http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/distorts/#box3d

[sas]

This has been done before and posted in IM. Search the archives.

I tried, but can't seem to find anything (other than what you quoted)... Maybe I'm searching for the wrong keywords... Does this effect have an official name which I can use to search for it?

For example viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10830 and viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11726&hilit=box

Those obviously look good, but they don't quite do what I'm talking about...
With some effort, I could probably manage to get the 3D tilt and vertical reflection right by learning from those examples. However, regarding the soft 3D shadows and lighting, I wouldn't even know where to begin... (Also, I'm still hoping to find an existing solution so I won't have to reinvent the wheel...)
Here are two more examples of how it is supposed to look:

http://www.inloox.com/var/corporate_sit ... _large.png
http://www.softmaker.com/english/images/pmw10compo.gif

Can anyone help me?

[fmw42]

3D shadows see http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/distorts/#shadow3d

the soft lighting is done by blending a gradient with the image. one of the examples mentioned earlier does that as I recall.

perhaps contact the author of that topic for more details

[anthony]

You may also be interested in, Advanced Techniques, Reflections
http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/advanced/#reflections

This is similar in may ways to shadows, but without the having to deal with the actual colors in the image.
It go thur things such as
* physical rules of reflections
* attenuation: generate or gradient
* variable bluring

All three aspect of which is also involved with shadows!

[fmw42]

Sorry to be so long in getting around to this, but I had other commitments. I have now created a script called, 3Dreflection, to do something like the examples provided above. see my web site below for downloading.

[sas]

Sorry to be so long in getting around to this, but I had other commitments. I have now created a script called, 3Dreflection, to do something like the examples provided above. see my web site below for downloading.

Hey, thanks a lot!

[sas]

One more question:

If I wanted to add a soft bottom shadow, as for example in
http://mail.google.com/mail/buzz/img/in ... l_page.png
http://www.inloox.com/var/corporate_sit ... _large.png

a -draw "ellipse ..." with a -blur attached would be the way to go, right? And then add it in the "append reflection and gap to image" section, so that it is drawn behind the original but in front of the reflection...

[fmw42]

One more question:

If I wanted to add a soft bottom shadow, as for example in
http://mail.google.com/mail/buzz/img/in ... l_page.png
http://www.inloox.com/var/corporate_sit ... _large.png

a -draw "ellipse ..." with a -blur attached would be the way to go, right? And then add it in the "append reflection and gap to image" section, so that it is drawn behind the original but in front of the reflection...

I can only see the second example. I cannot access the first.

I am not quite sure what you mean by "bottom" shadow. I only see something off to the right which looks more rectangular.

I saw something like this in your original post examples, but I did not think it was that important or realistic, so kept with just the one main shadow behind the top. I don't know how physically you would have a bottom shadow. Why is that important?

I suspect something could be done, but I do not have the time right now to go further with what I developed. Perhaps later I can look into it.

Feel free to take my script an modify it to add the extra shadows.

Fred

[sas]

I can only see the second example. I cannot access the first.

You can see here, for example:
http://nexus404.com/Blog/2010/02/09/goo ... i-need-it/
(As you can see, this example actually *only* shows a bottom shadow)

I saw something like this in your original post examples, but I did not think it was that important or realistic, so kept with just the one main shadow behind the top. I don't know how physically you would have a bottom shadow. Why is that important?

The reason for adding it is that it makes it look like the transformed screenshot is actually standing on / hovering over a firm "surface" rather than just floating in space...
This makes it look more integrated with the surrounding content when using it on a website.

Feel free to take my script an modify it to add the extra shadows.

I might give it a try, but not right now either, as I have exams coming up.

[fmw42]

You can see here, for example:
http://nexus404.com/Blog/2010/02/09/goo ... i-need-it/
(As you can see, this example actually *only* shows a bottom shadow)

Yes, I see what you want here. That would be as you suggest adding a blurred ellipse below the mirrored image. On the surface it does not look too hard. When I get a chance, I will see about adding that for you. But I have some other commitments right now, so cannot say exactly when I will get back to it. Perhaps later this month or if I have some time in between and need a break.

Fred

P.S. I don't allow rotation the way presented in the above image. I only allow rotation about the left side so that the right side moves backwards. That is because I only scripted the shadow for the left side to correspond to that kind of rotation. All the other images you provided were all rotated the one way. So for simplicity with the shadow, I made my script conform to the one direction rotation. Changing the rotation is a much harder issue and would take more effort than I can spend on this in the near term.