The Liquid Metal dynamic plugin creates either liquid metal or translucent, refractive liquid. To access the plugin, click the Dynamic Plugins button on the Layers palette, and choose Liquid Metal.

The Liquid Metal dialog box gives you access to all the settings and tools you need to paint with this medium. The Liquid Metal sliders let you control the amount of paint, the smoothness, the spacing, and other settings to achieve the effect you want. The Liquid Metal tools offer more possibilities. The Circle tool lets you create circles of metal, and the Brush tool lets you create strokes of metal.

You can apply droplets of water that distort the underlying image through refraction, or create globs of shiny metal that flow together and move like mercury. The Refraction slider determines the difference between water and metal, which lets you achieve intermediate effects.

A combination of Chrome 1 (selected from the Map drop-down list), an Amount setting between 0.5 and 2.0, and a high Refraction setting creates a semi-transparent reflective surface. A negative Amount setting (between -5.0 and -2.0) and a Refraction setting between 50% and 70% can be used with the Circle tool to create a glass-like sphere. An Amount setting of -0.4 or -0.5 and a high Refraction setting (100%) simulate a water effect.

You can also use negative metal to create holes in metal. Hold down Option (Mac® OS) or Alt (Windows®), and drag with the Circle tool or Brush tool over an existing metal surface. As you drag through positive pools, the negative metal will divide and separate the existing metal.

Negative metal with a high Refraction setting to add transparency.

Experiment with the settings to achieve interesting liquid metal effects. You can change the parameters of the effect even after applying it by moving the sliders. When you're satisfied with the result, click OK. To remove the last metal applied, press Delete (Mac OS) or Backspace (Windows). To remove all metal, click the Clear button.