Mirror And Glass Effects Using Fireworks

Fireworks has all the tools necessary to create mirror and glass reflection effects. Follow along as we create these effects quickly using the commands panels, a gradient fill and the pen tool.

Mirror Effect

Fireworks has a built in command called Fade Image that we’ll use to create the mirrored effect. We can use it on bitmaps and vectors and is as simple as selecting your primary graphic and running the command.

Step 1. Select your bitmap image or vector in the document window.

select graphic

Step 2. Clone your graphic by going to Edit> Clone ( Shift-Apple-D )

our cloned graphic in the Layers Panel

Step 3. With your cloned graphic selected we need to rotate it to fit below the original as in a mirror. Go to Modify>Transform>Flip Vertical

Flip Vertically

Step 4. Move your cloned graphic below your original and set the distance between them between 1 and 10 pixels. Obviously, this distance will vary according to the size of your graphic. We want a small space or distance between them to add realism like the object is sitting on a solid foundation.

moving clone ( the bottom image) into place

Step 5 With your cloned object selected, go to Commands>Fade Image and select the fade that goes from 100% to 0% from top to bottom ( the 4th item).

fade image command

Step 6. Now use the gradient position handle to control the gradient to your flipped text.

position handle of gradient

And our final image. Beautiful!

final of mirrored tutorial

Glass Effect

Now we’ll create our glass effect using our pen tool, cloning again and a linear gradient. Let’s get started.

Step 1. You have your main graphic in the document window. Clone it by going to Edit>Clone ( Shift-Apple-D ). Make sure the clone is at the top in the layers panel.

Starting graphic

Clone layer on top in Layers Panel

Step2. With the clone selected go to the gradient dialog box and choose a Linear Gradient of Black to white with the white at the bottom. Depending on your choice of graphic, this gradient will change to white and transparent or another color combination that goes with your image.

linear gradient of black and white applied

Linear Gradient applied to cloned graphic

Step 3. If your text isn’t converted to paths already do that now by selecting the clone and going to Text>Convert To Paths. While we’re at it, we need to go and ungroup our clone text ( Modify>Ungroup ). This will leave our text as vector paths perfect for the effect. Your text should look like the below image after you’re done with this step.

convert to path and ungroup text step

Step 4. Using the Pen tool, draw a wavy line across your letters then down underneath to create a box like the image below. This is a critical step so you may have to do it more than once to get the right curvature on the text.

Pen tool shape to draw

Step 5. Now select both the shape you just drew with all the letters of your text and go to Modify>Combine Paths>Punch. Make sure you leave the original text graphic unselected as shown.

layers Panel with text and path selected

Afterwards your text should look like the image below.

glass text

Although we’re through with the final glass text, why not add the mirror effect to this text. Let’s do that now.

Glass text with Mirrored Effect

Step 1. Select all the text, the original and the path versions in the payers panel.

Layers Panel with all of the layers selected

Step 2. With all the cloned layers selected, go and clone them all. ( Edit>Clone )

cloned text selected

Your text will still look the same as before.

Glass text after cloning … no change visibly

Step 3. With your cloned layers selected go to Modify>Transform>Flip Vertical. Lower your transformed text below the original text as before.

text after vertical transformation

Step 4. If your transformed text isn’t grouped, do that now by going to Modify>Group ( Apple-G ). Now with your group text selected, go to the next command, Command>Fade Image. You’ll see a single control handle for the gradient. Position it to taste and we’re done.

single control handle for gradient

And our finished glass and mirror effect.

Our final glass and mirrored text

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