Ever wanted ultra-realistic, transparent glass shard PNGs to overlay on your work? Me too! But when I couldn't find any good alternatives online, I went ahead and made my own… Now you can enjoy them too!
I have wanted to make this pack for years. Ever since my days as a designer for local hip hop artists and their mixtapes, I have wanted a collection of realistic png glass shards to drag not my posters, flyers and mixtape covers.
They're a really great way to add energy to a page, or make it appear as though the content has “smashed” through the canvas.
The problem I always faced, though, when trying to create this pack, was making shards which looked really real. After all, how does one make pieces of glass, something that is naturally transparent, stand out on the page? The trick, it turns out, is in the lighting (and painstakingly modelling each individual piece by hand)…
It took a lot of trial and error to get the lighting on these glass shards, but after weeks of back and forth, we've got it just right.
See also:
- PNG Confetti Overlays
- Animal Print Patterns for Photoshop
- Transparent PNG Feathers
- Frosted Winter Leaf PNGs
- Free Balloon PNGs
Each of these high-resolution glass shards features enough subtle light reflections and shadows to lift them of the page, without making them appear unrealistic.
Along with the glass shards, we've also included a selection of 10 smashed glass “frames”. These looks like smashed windows and will come in useful for dramatic smashed glass borders.
Example PSD Included
Along with all the individual PNG elements, I've also included an example PSD in the final download. The example PSD is the file I used to create the main cover image on this page (above). If you look closely, you'll see the lettering behind the glass is slightly blurred. This is not a feature of the glass shards themselves, and is in fact some subtle design tricks by yours truly.
I have also added some subtle gradients and highlights to further make the smashed glass shards pop off the page. You'll be able to see all the effects I used and how I setup the layers inside the example PSD 🙂 But also feel free to ask any questions in the comments!
Download:
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