Okay. In this tutorial, I'm going to show you how to make the marble in this picture:
To do this tutorial exactly, you'll need the
Zoom Blur Deluxe plugin, but it's not strictly necessary. You will also need
Shape-3D, which *is* necessary (it's what makes this tutorial fairly simple to repeat). All of the other steps can be accomplished usin the built-in tools and effects in Paint.Net version 3.08 or higher.
Start with a new image, preferably square. I used an 800x800px canvas for this tutorial.
Create a new layer, and add some texture for the interior of the marble. I used clouds, but you could use pretty much any texture you like:
This next step is optional, but it's nice to do if you want a little more realistic-looking marble. Use Zoom Blur Deluxe (or Sine Wave, or Dents...get creative here) to change the texture to suit your taste:
Now it's time for Shape-3D. Use the half-sphere map, and leave the rest at default (except for Anti-Aliasing...AA, as it's called...set that somewhere between 2 and 5):
We now have the beginning of our marble. Lighting is what makes things look glassy, so first, we're going to make what looks like an inner highlight.
Select the four transparent areas at the corners of the images and then invert the selection. That should leave you with just the marble selected:
Create a new layer above the marble texture, and get your colors set for a radial fill. Primary color should be white, and secondary color should be fully transparent (I usually use black, but it doesn't matter). Start your radial gradient in the center of the shadowed area of the marble texture, and end it on the opposite side of the marble a bit closer to the amrble's center:
We don't want the gradient to go all the way to the marble's edge, so use the "move selection" tool (and hold down the "shift" key) to drag the bottom-right selection nub up and to the left...basically shrinking the selection towards the upper-left corner of the canvas:
Invert the selection and press delete to get something like this:
Now, we need to soften this inner highlight a bit. Use the Gaussian Blur tool:
Next, we'll add a new layer above the inner highlight to create a shiny spot at the top-right portion of the marble (hint: if you use the right mouse button, you can rotate a selected area instead of resizing it by dragging the corner nubs):
Fill this area with solid white, then clear the selection ([CTRL]+[D]) and apply a gaussian blur and glow a couple of times to finish the shiny spot:
Now we need to add another highlight at the top of the marble on a new layer. This is going to be in an oval-shaped area centered on the marble's vertical axis and stretching from the top to about 2/3 of the way to the bottom. We are going to fill it with a vertical gradient (again, white fading to transparent) from bottom to top:
Feel free to use gaussian blur at a low setting (or feather) to soften the edges a bit.
This highlight may be a bit harsh, so adjust the layer's opacity settings until it's a fairly subdued highlight:
If your texture was fairly dark, you may not need this next step, but if you have a lighter-colored texture, you'll need to add a bit of shading to get the small highlight to show up and make the marble look good. Set your colors to black and white, and create a new layer above the texture layer (the blue and white layer in this tutorial).
Select the marble's circular texture area (you can go back to the layer with the texture, select the corners, invert the selection and come back to this new layer you just created above it).
Use the linear gradient tool and make your gradient go from the top-left edge to the bottom-right edge:
Change this gradient's mode to "Multiply", and adjust the opacity until it looks good:
After saving, flattening, resizing, adding a background and a shadow, you should be able to get something like this:
Hope you find this useful, and please share your creations with us all.
drakaan
I'll post mine later (I'm on my grandma's computer right now)
Wait... Problem solved 
