just effects...

[m1thr0s]

I have a few sort of mindless hobbies...not too many...but one of them is just playing around with photo effects. Sometimes these just yield cheesewhiz but sometimes I manage to capture something. I don't just work around beautiful models or anything but beauty does intrigue and motivate me.

Anyway...it occurs to me it might be fun just to have a thread on effects and maybe we can learn a little from each other as well...

Here's a recent project on one of my favorite models...this girl is a solid knockout from Czechoslovakia but what I really wanted to zero in on in this shot was her eyes, and the hypnotic quality she brings to the camera...So this is not intended as pornography, though it could be thought of this way...not my problem really...

776

One of the major challenges I'm usually up against is hair in these kinds of shots. Invariably it seems as though the best shots seem to come out almost by accident and not uncommonly in some sleezebag hotel room or against some gawdawful background. This effect was reasonably effective at replacing the background while preserving the hair, though I have yet to find any program or technique that really excels at this on a regular basis. I'd be interested if anybody has found something that deals with the hair issue...


m1thr0s

[Naomi]

The best technique is to take out the background and repaint the hair however you like...just on the edges that are damage and stuff. Mostly you would use the smudge brush on both hard and soft pressure, then occasionally 1px paintbrush on 50-100% opacity for individual strands

i hand paint all of my models so everything meshes together, though I know some artists who use a combination of photo textures

Here is a photo manipulation that shows this technique:

http://liiga.gfxartist.com/artworks/132192

[m1thr0s]

yeah...that probably works if you've got the pad & stylus and all of that, although really fine hairs can be way smaller than pixels where you're really into very subtle stuff. I usually work more with layering with a combination of surgerizing and recombining of things in different ways... the advantage (only when it works) is that you are still using the original image...

that example really made me laugh out loud btw...great technique on the art end but the subject is one of the least fairy-like women you could imagine so you get this subliminal of a bull in a tutu going on...very funny...

m1

[Naomi]

Some of Antifan's work:
"RAEVONA"

http://antifan.gfxartist.com/artworks/109344

"NIMBUS"

http://antifan.gfxartist.com/artworks/25969

HAVONA

http://antifan.gfxartist.com/artworks/16702

[fr.novumorganum]

wow, thanks for turning me on to ANTIFAN. amazing enviro, like you said..

this one blew me away...

http://antifan.gfxartist.com/artworks/50755

[Anibis]

Antifan kindof reminds me of an artist whose name sounds like 'Hanz Wurner Sohm'. I don't have any clue how to spell it, so no luck with a Google search, but does anyone know who I'm talking about? He does fantasy landscapes filled with floating palaces and giant bubbles...
-Anibis

[m1thr0s]

Hans-Werner Sahm?

http://www.eurofineart.com/webstore/poster_gallery_01.htm

if that's not him...it sure matches your description...

m1

[Anibis]

That's the guy. I love his landscapes...
-A-

[m1thr0s]

so...I do want to keep this sort of limited to the discussion of effects...there's about a million artists out there I can't begin to compete with and it's cool to see their stuff etc...

on the flip side...they probably don't know shit about Mutational Alchemy so I don't feel too badly. Visual Art is really just a pastime for me anyway...

Anyway..."just effects" please...or specific discussions of effects in other pieces is ok too...

m1

[Naomi]

Well there's no reason to feel bad at all, these are the top artists in the world as far as digital effects go,basically they have their own problems and shortcomings so no of course there's no reason to feel bad. ..especially since you're the premier alchemical artist in the world , technically perfect incorporating science and math into exquisite artisanship.

My view is that you take a look at what the best are doing in the chosen arena and emulate what they do...there's a certain technique they all use and one can really pick up a lot just analyzing others. They spent years of boring study perfecting this little techniques and we can usually understand certain tricks in only a few short week's time comparitively.

I learned alot of photoshopping from studying Enayla's work for instance, how she layers textures over textures and so on, ok so after throwing those out there, we can ask

"how did they do it"


I don't have a solution for your hair problem and I thought it looked good anyways...ie if it was mine I wouldn't try to fix it and I'm not really sure what you're after anyways.

I have been trying to create a horror section for my portfolio so I might give a try at zombieesssssss

Here's one easy one easy effect I know with some random chick photo off the net

http://la.gg/upl/nude7.jpg

go to filters>noise > add noise @ around 15%

then go to image>adjustments>hue/saturation

check the "colorize" box

adjust the hue to the right one (I've chosen an ecrue)

play with the saturation (I've lowered it)

and voila, instant stippling

http://la.gg/upl/nude8.jpg

[Kuroyagi]

http://image.blog.livedoor.jp/umu/imgs/a/3/a3c90107.gif

[Naomi]

Original Photo:

http://la.gg/upl/avatartutorial1.jpg

Choose Images from the file menu, Adjustments then Brightness/Contrast

http://la.gg/upl/avatartutorial2.jpg

http://la.gg/upl/avatartutorial3.jpg

Drop the lightness down to negative 100%

http://la.gg/upl/avatartutorial4.jpg

Go to brightness and contrast

http://la.gg/upl/avatartutorial5.jpg

I look like a huge nerd now so i have to do something about those teeth.

use the eyedropper tool to choose the primary hue and paint away any rough edges you don't like (for instance my goofy looking teeth)

http://la.gg/upl/avatartutorial6.jpg

This looks incomplete so I am going to take the original photo, cut out the lips and paste them on! (hahahaha!)

http://la.gg/upl/avatartutorial7.jpg

Make that layer you pasted in full contrast no brightness under the images--->adjustments menu

http://la.gg/upl/avatartutorial8.jpg

Because this makes my lips look huger and weirder than they actually are, I scrape the sides with the eraser brush and give it a dot of red to look like a sexy reflection

http://la.gg/upl/avatartutorial9.jpg

http://la.gg/upl/avatartutorial10.jpg


to be continued (when i figure out what I want to do with this)

How to Make a Realistic Star Field (http://www.gfxartist.com/features/tutorials/24372)

[Naomi]

Ok I sharpened it, cropped it and cut up an islamic clipart image to use as an occultish design and i'm done

http://la.gg/upl/avatartutorial11.jpg

[MythMath]

Very nice... :yes:

Do another series like this so
I can nick more good ideas... :laugh:

[fr.novumorganum]

that was helpful...adding the textbox instructions just what a noob like me needs

[Naomi]

This guy does photo manipulations I used to talk to him on GFX years back - his technique is very good but he has a lot of experience in movies.


http://www.dbonneywell.com/

This one isn't derived from a photo but it's one of my favorite paintings of all time:

http://www.dbonneywell.com/teefer%202.html

[Naomi]

I found a real cool design template website - I don't want to fork out the measly $30-100 dollars they're asking since I'm pretty sure I can do it myself and boy I need the practice, it took me a week just to remember how to register and host a site...

Anyways I just love LOVE LOVE this template, it's so far out and spacy! I love orange and blue and white and stars, mmm delicious.

http://www.herotemplates.com/preview/300110048

I've already got a neat track a friend mixed for me and some ancient dusty flash skills sitting in some abandoned corner of my brain so im going to start painting up a background that will rape this one in comparison....

I have actually no idea how to go about coding this thing or building it in flash, if anyone knows maybe they should post here. :\ the art is no problem. I will post updates here as I go.

[Naomi]

Oh so I was studying CSS because I'm ignorant about it and I found this cool "css Zen Garden" site with different art in the same CSS:

http://www.dazimua.com/images/pandora-shot.jpg

Check out the last one with the theatre, that one is very clever...

[m1thr0s]

Water Dakini

http://abrahadabra.com/images/water.dakini.jpg

caustics mainly, with a little help from a great new tracing plug-in (requires adobe after effects)...

m1