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 November
22, 1998
Creating a CD Surface
This tip describes how to render the reflective surface of a CD. It uses a combination of tips previously posted here. In fact, it's necessary to read the Creating a Radial Brushed Metal Effect tip in the Tips Archive to get the first part of this tip done. Then you'll be using a variation on the Blending Gradient Fills tip in the Tips Archive.
Version: 4 and above
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1)
In a new document turn on the options Snap to Point and
Snap to Guides in the View menu then criss-cross two
guide lines anywhere on the page. Bring the Guide layer above
the Foreground layer. Then create a constrained circle by Option(Alt)+Shift+dragging
from the intersection point of the guides. Clone this circle and
scale it to be much smaller. Select both of the circles and Join
them together.
This creates a compound path that acts as a knockout area for the middle of the CD face. Now fill the path with a Basic 20% Black. |
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Before we go any further, you must
complete steps 2-4 of the tip Creating a Radial Brushed
Metal Effect in the Tips Archive. You should have the
shapes as shown above.
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2)
Now select the two triangle shapes and Clone them. While
the clones are still selected choose the Rotate tool and
Option(Alt)+Click at the middle intersecting guides. In
the Transform palette enter 90°. To make things a little
easier to see, you can hide these clones on a separate layer until
later.
You can also hide the Guide layer after this step. |
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3)
Now we are going to create the top reflection blend. First select
the larger triangle shape. Choose a Gradient fill in the
Fill tab of the Inspector palette. You need to make this
a multi-gradient fill containing the CD color (20% Black)
for all the steps. Above you can see that I used six instances
of the 20% Black color.
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4)
Next you need to make various colors. Usually a CD face reflects
rainbow colors so create the base primaries for this (Yellow,
Red, Orange, Blue and Purple). We won't actually be using
these colors as they are, instead we'll be using tints
of them, so make various tint values of the base colors. You can
use my example above as a guide.
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5)
Now select the smaller triangle shape. Using the same technique
described in step 3, give this shape a multi-gradient
fill by placing some of the tinted colors you created. They
can be in any order using any of the colors (in a logical manner
of course). Use my example above as a guide. You must give this
fill the same number of color steps as you did the bigger triangle
or it won't work.
Next Shift+select the top left point of each triangle. |
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6)
While the points are selected, Blend the shapes together.
About 20-30 steps should be enough depending on the final size
of the shape of course.
Reveal the Guide layer now. |
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7)
While the blend is still selected, Clone it. Choose the
Rotate tool and Option(Alt)+Click at the middle
intersecting guides. In the Transform palette enter 180°.
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8)
Now we will recolor the bottom reflection blend to be different
because CD reflections aren't quite this static. Option+Click
on the bottom smaller triangle shape to edit the Gradient fill.
To change the colors in the fill, just drag some of those tints you created over the old color swatches in the Gradient fill palette. The Blend will recolor itself as if by magic. |
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9)
Next select both of the reflection blends and Cut them.
Then paste them inside the circle.
We're not finished yet. Now reveal the Guide layer and the clone you made in step 1. |
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10)
Give the smaller triangle a Basic 5% Black fill and the
larger triangle a Basic 20% Black fill. Shift+Select the
top points of each triangle and Blend them together using
about 20-30 steps.
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11)
While the blend is still selected, Clone it. Choose the
Rotate tool and Option(Alt)+Click at the middle
intersecting guides. In the Transform palette enter 180°.
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12)
Select the two blends and Cut them. Select the circle and
Paste Inside the blends. Wow, that looks great!
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13)
Now add the remaining parts of the CD. This includes the outer
and inner edges made up of various circles.
Then you can add any decorations or stuff you might see on a CD face.  |
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