Glass and Liquid glass
Paraplex has two kinds of glass. Glass is a real 3D material: light passes through it, and its edges bend the scene behind. Liquid glass is a lens laid over the frame, the look of Apple's interface: its rim bends, magnifies and splits what's under it, and its middle frosts and tints. Both can move.
Where to find it: the Appearance section's Glass group, with a shape or text selected. The settings are in Panel Material (glass) and Compositing (Liquid glass).
Pick a glass
The quickest start is an appearance. Select a shape and click one in the Appearance section's Glass group:
| Appearance | What it is |
|---|---|
| Glass | Clear 3D glass. What's behind it bends at the bevelled edge. |
| Frosted | 3D glass that blurs what shows through. |
| Crystal | Very clear 3D glass that bends light more, its colors parting at the edges. |
| Liquid glass | The Liquid glass lens at its default settings. |
| Dark glass | A smoky Liquid glass pane that frosts and bends what's behind it, with a glinting edge. The starter templates' panels use it. |
Glass shows what's behind it. With nothing behind, it looks dark, so put a picture, text or a background behind the pane.
3D glass
Glass in the material sense is set in the Panel Material section:
- Transmission lets light through. At
1the surface is fully glass. - Backdrop blur frosts what you see through it.
- Roughness blurs the glass's own reflections.
For more, open Advanced glass at the bottom of the section.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Liquid Glass, Crystal, Oil Slick, Frosted Thick, Ice, Smoked | Presets for the settings below |
| IOR | How strongly the glass bends light, from 1 (not at all) to about 2.3. Window glass is about 1.5. |
| Dispersion | How far the colors split apart, like a prism. |
| Volume thickness and Attenuation distance | How thick the glass seems, and how quickly its color deepens with thickness. |
| Iridescence, Iridescence IOR, Iridescence thickness | A rainbow film over the surface, like a soap bubble or oil on water. |
| Anisotropy | Stretches the reflections one way, like brushed metal. |
| Sheen | A soft velvety glow at the edges. |
3D glass works best on shapes, 3D text and the edges of a card. Over a screenshot or a product picture, it hides what it covers.
Liquid glass
- Select a shape or a text layer.
- In the Compositing section, set Blend mode to Liquid glass. The Lens dials appear under it.
The appearance of the same name does both steps, and sets a white matte surface for the pane.
| Dial | What it does |
|---|---|
| Refraction | How hard the rim bends what's under it. Below 0, it bends outward, pulling in what lies just beside the pane. |
| Fold | Folds what's beside the pane back into the rim, mirrored and stretched. |
| Dispersion | How far the colors split at the rim. |
| Magnify | Enlarges everything behind the pane, up to 4. |
| Frost | Blurs the view through the middle. |
| Tint | How much of the pane's fill color washes over the view. |
| Sheen | A soft highlight and a dark line at the edge. |
| Rim width | How wide the bending rim is, as a share of the pane's shorter side. |
| Rim light | How brightly the rim catches the light. |
| Glint | Thin bright lines on the rounded edge that move round it as the pane turns. |
Every dial has a ◆, so the glass can change over time: frost it in, or swell its magnification on a beat. See Animation basics. The pane's shape sets the lens's shape, so round its corners for the classic pill or card. See Shapes and frames.
On text, Liquid glass gives the letters the tint and frost. On a group, a 3D model or a particle cloud, the mode draws as Normal.
Tip
Liquid glass bends what's already in the frame behind it. Move the pane, or animate what's behind it, and the bending follows on its own.