In this tutorial, I will touch on the Photoshop filter - Plastic Wrap. The Plastic Wrap filter is one of the most useful special effects tool Photoshop has to offer. Use it to make create beads of sweat on an athlete, to just about anything that dribbles. Oh, and if you really want to, you can use it to draw shiny dripping paint on the can. In this work through, we're going to use this technique to create a plastic wrap on a candy.
Step 1. Create the Candy
You may prepare a solid colour background or the one similar to the bottom.
Create a circle in any colour.
Right click > Layer Properties > Inner Shadow. Adjust to the settings below.
Add a Gradient Overlay, adjust to the settings like below.
Click OK, and you will have something similar to this.
Step 2. Create swirl in Illustrator
Open Illustrator, use the Pen tool and draw a rectangle like the one below. We will be using this shape as an Art Brush.
Now CLICK and DRAG the rectangle into the Brush Panel. You will be prompted by a pop up box. Choose New Art Brush and click OK. Choose the direction of the brush and click OK.
Now use the Spiral Tool, create a spiral.
Select the spiral, and click on the Art Brush which you have just created.
Step 3. Combining Swirl and Candy in Photoshop
Copy and paste the swirl as a smart object back in Photoshop. Add a mask, so that the swirl fits nicely on top of the candy.
Right click > Layer Properties. Add an Inner Glow and Gradient Overlay to achieve similar to the bottom.
Step 4. Adding Subtle Texture
Add in reflections. Draw 2 circles and 1 cresent. Bring down their opacity. You will get this.
We are now going to add in a subtle texture to the lolly. Add a new layer, Go to Filter > Render > Clouds. Then go to Noise > Add Noise and adjust to the settings below. Change the blending mode to Overlay.
Step 5. Adding the Candy stick and Plastic Wrap
Draw a thin rectangle and add a gradient overlay to it.
Give a slight warp to the candy so that it looks more natural.
Using the pen tool, draw the wrapper and fill it in grey.
Use the Dodge and Burn Tool and create highlights to the wrapper.
Go to Filter > Artistic > Plastic Wrap
Change the blend mode to Screen and bring down its opacity. Duplicate the layer and change blend mode to Overlay. Play around with the opacity levels to achieve the below.
Step 6. Final Touches and Details
Set the brush tool to a light brownish colour to paint the string. To add in more depth, use a darker brown and paint over the edges.
Add in a Drop shadow so that it looks more realistic.
Shadows were added around the edges of the plastic sheet, to make it more three dimensional. Finally, for some final touches, I added in some sparkles. Hope you enjoyed this tutorial!
Plastic Wrap Hot Tip:
Performing a filter such as Plastic Wrap will change the look of the base layer completely. Thus, always duplicate a copy of that layer before applying the filter to it, so that you can make changes if you need later.
quite a hard image to make... but really great tutorial...
thanks! you have some great stuff on your site as well.
could you please link me to the site address, please! And thank you heaps for sharing the tutorial! I love it!
Thank you! Provide such good mould case
I followed your tutorial easily until I got to the plastic wrap step. Photoshop won't let me access any of the artistic filters and I don't know why. PS' help doesn't offer any clues. I tried rasterizing the wrapper shape, which is a smart object, but it still doesn't work. I am using PS CS3.
Can you please help me?
Hi there,
very interesting tutorial... since I do design from 1992 I haven't use such thing.. well done Charlotte..
I am interested to getting to know you better, do you and have you attend HOW design conference ???
please feel free to email me, I'd like to keep in touch with you.
cheers
Mano
Hi Mano, thanks for the comment!
I've not attended the HOW conference before unfortunately. Would really love to attend. Have you?
heya. Im having a problem with the spiral and the paintbrush in illustrator.
I make the paintbrush just like it says, and the spiral, but when I select the spiral and click on the brush i made, it goes wrong!
instead of the colour with a wide base and narrowing down, and with the spiral "blue line" in the middle, mine has the black INSIDE the spiral, and after the first loop, the rest of the spiral is all black. At the base of the spiral is a small version of the triangle (from the brush) pointing out....
Please help???
Hey Rose, did you fully close the rectangle points when you create it?
i have no idea, i redid it, and the forth or fifth time it worked... but i dont know what i did!! >_< lol.
except now when i copy and paste it over its too big, i resize it, but masks dont work?? what kind of mask am i meant to make?
Thank you loads! :)
Also check that the direction of the brush is towards the right at the Art Brush Options window.
just to add on, i am using CS2, will that cause big differences?
great that it works! Yes it works on CS2 too ;)
I did not find this helpful at all.
There were a lot of steps missing.
There were not any missing steps. I was able to make it with no hitches. Thanks for the tutorial, this is a really cool effect. I showed my wife and she didn't believe me that I created. Thanks for the tut!
Thanks for sharing this cool effect!
Didn't know you could do this with photoshop. Thanks.
Wow that's exactly what I was looking for ...
Hi Charlotte, the Plastic Wrap filter you describe and used for this tutorial, is it the one from Auto FX DreamSuite 2? Or do Photoshop have its own plastic wrap filter? I do have CS2 but haven't installed it as I am actually using PaintShopPro Photo X2. I have a lot of filters stored on disks and used 1 of them in PSPX2 which also gives the effect of plastic but have no clue on which disk it's stored! All I remember it was part of a certain set. Do you know of any other plastic filters as Plastic Wrap? Your answer will be highly appreciated. Kind regards, Laura
I am an arts student & just a newbie with photoshop. This is just what i needed for my final project! thanks for saving me! :)
really nice effect Charlotte! your tut inspired me to create my own lollipop candy tutorial http://www.psd-dude.com/tutorials/photoshop.aspx?t=create-a-lollipop-candy-in-photoshop