XNA Image Reflector. Latest Best Picks

The XNAImageReflector article at TheCodeProject hast been included in the Last Best Picks list today. You can read the article here.

TheCodeProject Article. XNAImageReflector

Yesterday, my article about XNAImageReflector was accepted, edited and moved to another url in TheCodeProject.

I updated the link in the previous post, but anyway, paste it again here:

http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/XNA_Image_Reflector.asp

Cheers!

XNA Image Reflector. Easily create web2.0-like reflected images

XNA is for games, but not just for games! ;)


I finally posted the XNAImageReflector article to TheCodeProject. It includes full source code, screenshots, instructions and programming details.


About XNAImageReflector:


It´s an application that integrates XNA rendering and maths with Windows Forms. and that lets you create images like this one in 5 seconds:







Hope you like it!

XNA Image Reflector. Easily create web 2.0 reflected images

In the last months or years, every single power point I see, with a decent design and look, includes pictures that have been "reflected" vertically, as if they where in the top of a reflecting table or so... it´s the so-called "web 2.0 reflection". Just like this one:


This kind of effect can be easily done with Photoshop or whatever, just reflecting the image and aplying a distort and a gradient mask, but hey! those 5 minutes per image are priceless! So I decided to make a small app that allows you to create this kind of effect in 5 seconds.

Probably there´s already something similar out there (see below), but I do it just for fun and to practice some new things I´m explaining below. I will upload the source code here or at TheCodeProject, so you all can check how it´s done.

Specs:

• Automatic reflection using a reflection polygon to specify the shape of the form to reflect
• Automatic reflection distortion
• Automatic alpha gradient with different gradient modes
• Image resizing and re-locating
• Post-processing effects for reflection: Blur, Alpha Texture, ...
• Supports following formats: BMP, JPEG, TGA, PNG, DDS, DIB, HDR, PPM, PFM

Technical info:

• Developed in Visual C# Express
• All the maths and graphics done with XNA
• Shows integration between XNA and Windows Forms
  

An example:

1.- Take the original picture:

2.- Apply my XNAImageReflector: with blur post processing turned on

As you can see, the cool thing of all this stuff (appart from the post-proc effects) is that you can build a path that will define the shape of the reflection. Not just vertical or horizontal reflections, which are Ok for non-perspective objects, but that doesn´t work well on logos like this one.

3.- Save the final image:

Other examples created with XNAImageReflector:

This one shows the Alpha Texture post processing effect too:

Similar projects and tutorials I´ve found:

• A web based reflector.
• A tutorial on making reflections with WPF.
• A tutorial about making the same thing with Photoshop.
• Some tips about making it with ImageMagick
• Something similar in C#
• Another tutorial about doing it with Adobe Illustrator

Cheers!